1000hrs 05 Dec 2005 UTC 44’44”S 126’22”E Ref 623
DB: dmg 120, gps 124 dtg 893, margin 539, day 107, 22 to start, 13 to TI – looks a little better every day. Getting very short of essentials – good solar day today and made water – will now try to make as much water as we can by solar and during engine runs in case we have to run for Sydney without diesel resupply in Tasmania. We will need about 3 litres /day to be comfortable so say 18 days = 54 litres and that’s as long as we keep up the average speed. We’ve got about 26 litres. We will need the sun!
Interesting to compare Customs and Port of Entry requirements in Oz and the UK. The UK PoE reqts for visiting yachts are no longer being enforced and the Customs operation in most of the original Ports of Entry have closed down. You can fill in a form and leave it in a box if you know about it and can find the form and the box. I wrote about this from Falmouth. It was only because I’d done my homework before leaving Oz and downloaded the UK Customs requirements that I had a phone number that worked. I spoke to Neil Spearey in Avonmouth and he took our details over the phone, acknowledged Pete’s Oz passport, and checked us out again when we left. We have no clearance papers into or out of the UK. Neil also took my VAT receipts by post for processing – if you want a real nightmare, try getting VAT refunds as a visiting yachtie in the UK. Still don’t know whether I got any refunds – it’s all very much retrospective and only if you get the forms exactly right. By the time I had worked out the system, I had already missed out on quite a barrow-load of cash – for instance, I got no refund on the liferaft which would have been substantial.
Customs here are a bit different!
Had a big day fixing little things. One job I’ve been looking at for years got done as well as lots of trivial stuff that mounts up and you try to avoid when the days are wet and dismal and the nights often worse. We’re under the edge of the low now and it is getting back to the usual gloom and drizzle but we are moving east quite fast. Soon be time to wave to us, Kevin. I’ll hand steer so Kevvo can wave back.
El – tried to email @alphalink but bounced. Have I missed a new one?
Kris – good to hear – will write when I get a chance. All the best.
Happy 1st anniversary to Heidi & Jude.
The logs ramblings can be cryptic, so we have added: