2013 & 2014 Logs


Logs ( 13 )

2013 & 2014 Logs

New Zealand

Customs booked for 1100 tomorrow, Friday Feb 8th. All being well, we will set off as soon as the paperwork is done. ETA North Cape NZ about 9 days if the weather is kind. We hope to clear into NZ at Opua in the Bay of Islands and then sail down to Waiheke Island in Hauraki Gulf a few miles from Auckland. We have a Consultation booked for the weekend of Feb 22nd but we won’t be headbanging deadlines. This time there isn’t a Fastnet starting gun or a total eclipse out there somewhere and we can relax a bit. This log should be live the whole way over and back as long as I can keep the technology alive. We intend to use the sextant to check that the GPS is working properly on the way. Y’all can send emails to berrimilla2@gmail.com but we won’t be able to pick them up from the boat. Please send them anyway. This time there is no Steve or Speedy to act as filter and forwarding agent but I’ll try to answer when we are back on line. So here goes…

2013 & 2014 Logs

Another another test from the boat

Customs booked for 1100 tomorrow. AIS box is seasick – we shall see but there’s a workaround. Hi from Eleanor who owes the website a bio and Ryan the carrier of the sextant. In jokes – sorry but just needed something to write.

2013 & 2014 Logs

The first real one

Customs have been. We have medicinal compounds. Pete has gone back to the shop for a couple of batteries thathe paid for but weren’t in the bags. Then we’ll go, Current position at CYC 33.52.258 S 151.13.976 E. Log reading 27,850 miles and trip 0. Looks a bit messy outside – the winh has been blowing at 25 kts from the north for several days so there will be a huge swell and it will be on the beam, Big cruise ship delayed yesterday. We shall see – might be back again by this evening. The Examiner getting her whip ready.

2013 & 2014 Logs

Quickie

Left CYC 1217 aedt 0013 UTC. Now a couple of mniles outside the heads, kevvo steering which he hasn’t done for nearly 3 years. About 15 kts NE reasonable but short steep sea. About 4 knots over the ground. SFSG.

2013 & 2014 Logs

Not having fun

Hard on the wind, 3 reefs and small headsail half furled. About 20 kts NE. Nasty short breaking sea. Poo. Way too hot and airless to sleep. So you get one of these. Heading for Cook Strait. Small plus – the birds were back – mutton birds – but they have all gone again. Someone hogging sailmail frequency earlier. Hope theyve gone.

2013 & 2014 Logs

Returning to Sydney

Alex has called this morning at around 7.25 to say that Berrimilla is returning to Sydney. Last night the tripod of the wind generator broke and there is also a problem with the furling line.

2013 & 2014 Logs

(no subject)

Writing this to send later. I dont think I should try to trasmit with out rather sad and now faceless wind generator lashed to the backstay on what’s left of its tripod. The backstay is also the HF radio aerial. I’ll try to send this by Iridium to see whether that works Lots of lessons for old geezers who think they know it all. I’ll try to list them but it’s still nasty outside and I will have to keep sticking my head up. List in a later email, if we ever finish this little slog, The Australian East Coast current is running at about 3 knots here and that’s about half out speed through the water. Engine going, 3 reefs, tiny bit of jib and about 3 kts towards the coast. We’ll meet it at Port Hacking, about 20 miles south of Sydney and tack north and there will be a loooong slog up the coast. The instruments say the water temp is a mind blowing 35 deg c. Must be a calibration problem but it does feel warm. We are 30 miles out, climbing the shelf which rises from 4000 m to about 200. I hope the current will slow in about 12 miles or 3 hours…

2013 & 2014 Logs

Home again. Examiner 1, old farts 0

Knackered – can’t believe we only left about a day and a half ago. Memories of some packed hours – Stars – the universe – the Southern Cross and its pointers and the coal sack and the dolphin slash of ther Milky Way. And all the nastiness beneath. Berri falling off waves, leaking chainplates, wondering what might break. Pete yelling “Just come up, Alex and bring some rope” Lunging for the grabrail in my thermals,torch, trying to maintain some equanimity as i scrabbled to undo a coil of spectra and out into the party. Pete hanging on to the tripod which had fallen back over the pushpit, generator still whizzing round. Kevvo underneath overwhelmed by the bodies hanging on and trying to secure the feral tripod. Which we managed. I took over, soaked, and hand steered for a bit whilt Pete tried to sleep – and the furling line broke so the jib unrolled and we had all of it out there flogging – fun. And so it went. Lessons, lessons. I’ll try to do them justice in another email. Berri was great. Sausage sandwich in a house that I’m convinced is moving…

2013 & 2014 Logs

Some photos

Home from the sea, bedraggled. Mostly self explanatory photos. The generator blades partly fragmented as they hit the backstay and then, as the wind came from behind it after we tacked for home, the remaining bits of blade turned the hub in reverse – and unscrewed the spinner hub locknut so we lost the hub as well. The bucket is full of creamy brown bilge water – smelly but not emulsified diesel. I’ve kept it to see whether the gunk precipitates out. I think it is the very fine dust from the inside de-scunge and repaint. I shall report. Are there any diehards out there still reading this? Berrimilla2@gmail.com is the contact address…

2013 & 2014 Logs

Video: Berrimilla's inside

Some of the mess that happens when you are on a small boat at sea and things start

to go pearshaped. For real devastation, see the photos after the near inversion on the

SE corner of NZ (link to follow)

2013 & 2014 Logs

How not to go to NZ

The northern track from the Heads is our outbound track. The effect of the East Australian current is obvious – and it’s even more interesting with the wind tails added. To get to Cape Reinga, we needed to hold 077 magnetic or 090 true and we weren’t even close even though the wind was more or less northerly. A lesson for the impetuous. Berri can only sail to about 60 deg off the wind in any sort of nasty sea. And – memo to self – don’t forget the current. I set off assuming that in a northerly wind we should be able to sail east relatively easily, although uncomfortably. I was wrong. Starting on the fixes. Did anyone notice the cat supervising the drying rugs in the last photo of the previous post? And then the thunderstorm arrived – i just got the rugs in but the cat got wet…

2013 & 2014 Logs

One of the fixes – well, maybe two…

The standing rigging (all the wires that hold the mast up) is getting close to its use-by date so this morning I took the boat around to White Bay and we lifted the mast. The photos are self explanatory except for the flags on the bridge – on the left is the Aboriginal flag, flying with the Australian flag. Today, Australia’s Indigenous Peoples were officially recognised as Australia’s first inhabitants by an Act of Parliament. This paves the way for a referendum to include similar recognition in the Constitution. The tricky bit will be the wording for the Constitution. But it’s a great start. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-13/politicians-unite-on-indigenous-recognition-vote/4516238?WT.svl=news0 At last!

2013 & 2014 Logs

Just a test

Berrimilla now has a Class B AIS. When it is switched on, you can track us on www.marinetraffic.com Search for BERRIMILLA2