Feb 07, 2005 - 2341hrs UTC │Bread, Sealed bacon, Mung beans

2341hrs 07 Feb 2005 UTC 47’05”S 155’08”W Map Ref 51 2618nm

Specially lumpy night – 25-30kt all night and we are now getting a SW swell of about 8 – 10 metres with something like a 200 m wavelength so it’s not too vicious when they come singly. Standing at the mast and looking down from the top of one of the bigger ones is a bit like looking down into one of those open cut mines in Qld. Sometimes there are groups of 2 or 3 very close together and the first one seems to suck the centre out of the next one so it’s much steeper and potentially more dangerous. Thats what knocked us down, we think. There’s a cross sea over the swell, seems to be from the NW so the boat is rolling and pitching in huge corkscrews.

Nowhere to sit or put anything down – try making bread when the kitchen lurches away from you from one corner and curls round and swipes you from the other. Kneading on the top of the engine box so there might be a stray bootferal in the mix somewhere to add piquancy. All has to be done one handed while holding on with the other and all ten toes. But it worked – about 4 hours for two 350gm loaves (one of them Chinese, KatherineAlex’s daughter) and bliss this morning with LackersteensMarmalade that went round Cape Horn. IzzoIsabellaAlex's sister, Alex’s sister has the empty tin! marmelade and a coffee. Planning this mornings libation for the gods to celebrate after pulling in Qld VMC wxfaxThe Australian Bureau of Meteorology HFHigh Frequency – usually refers to HF radio which is long range digital radio that Berrimilla used to send all but a few of the logs on both circumnavigations. The radio was connected via a Pactor 3 digital modem to Alex’s laptop and used the Sailmail software application called Airmail to send emails and pull in emails, weather and GRIB files. Airmail also supports Iridium satellite telephone messaging and Alex used this as backup when the HF radio died approaching England. Marine Radio Weather by Fax service. VMC is the callsign of the Charleville Base Station in Queensland. VMW is the callsign of Wiluna in WA. Charleville and Wiluna are the two Maritime Communications Stations in Australia. Berrimilla received weather faxes from VMC close to Cape Horn and from VMW clost to the Cape of Good Hope – both at a range of more than 6000 miles. in half an hour. Will probably save until we put up a bit more sail when the swell abates….Later – libation under way. Gods obviously not sufficiently mollified because they are dropping the wind on us again. Perhaps we should double libatory offerings. SarauYacht with which Berri had a rendezvous at sea say they had 60 kt overnight, but they are now nearly 500 miles ahead.

And we’ve had our first very slender contact with The Other Side – last night I was able to listen in to the Patagonian cruise ship skedShort for schedule. A pre-arranged (scheduled) time and frequency for radio contact often co-ordinated by a shore station, such as Penta Comstat, which is monitoring location and safety of boats in their area. Failure to respond to one or more sked can be a sign of trouble on 8164mhz – Gerry, great to talk to you on the satphone, and I’ll send you an email direct with authorisation to use relevant matl from the website. Your return call came straight back – seems to be working fine. Ta and mtfbwy. May well be sending these u/ds via Chile in the next few days. Am in contact but tx speed too slow for the mo. Will try with this one later when propagationIn the logs, this refers to the radiation of signal energy and is customarily qualified by the words abysmal, ratshit or lousy may be better – check the header. Another little milestone – perhaps the first kilmetre mark in a marathon or getting the first assignment back in term 2 with a tick on it somewhere.

Another couple of things that have really worked for us: the butcher in Kingston Tas sealed our 4 kilo bacon supply into individual plastic packs containing 4 slices each – brilliant – so we don’t have to eat it all at once (Alex, if you’re out there, please thank him for his trouble) and Tony and his Crew at Majestic Foods in Sydney packed their dried food into single serve packs too, each one with a recipe, contents etc. Thanks Tony – hope you’re getting this – special effort and much appreciated – please thank your staff for us. Haven’t started on the Chefsway dried curries yet Nathan, but they are also packed and sealed in tough plastic so they survive in places that might get wet and we are keeping them as backup.

The mungBeans sprouted on board if it’s warm enough beansBeans sprouted on board if it’s warm enough have sprouted in a small plastic bucket with a stocking over the top so fresh vegies are possible and we will have them for lunch. Perhaps we need a couple of goats and a pig up in the forepeak,- instant fertiliser, maybe a natural gas plant and fresh meat. And company that treats us as equals.

I’ve often wondered what makes someone put a webcam in their bathroom and beam it to the world – the presumption that anyone could possibly be interested is breathtaking for starters – yet, in a slightly less graphic medium, that’s what we’re doing with this website. I do hope it’s not too full of trite and brain damaging slush – hard to tell from the inside and always happy to get any kind of feedback. I guess I’m presuming someone’s actually reading it.

Thanks to you all for last crop of messages – really didn’t think anyone would pick me up on Petrie, Dianne and thanks Doug for coronal event notification – please keep that stuff coming and we’ll keep hoping for an aurora. Were you ever 21, Allan? We’ll think of you when we get there. Where’s yer earring and do you put your foot on the table when god saves ER2?