Feb 11, 2005 - 1256hrs UTC

1256hrs 11 Feb 2005 UTC 45’27”S 144’44”W Map Ref 58 3066nm

Pete: Hello out there – we have been away from hobart for a month now – perhaps time to reflect. All is going well, progress is a little slow as we sawtooth our way across the longitudes moving between 45 & 50S to avoid the heavy winds to the south and soft spots to the north along the path where the highs and the lows meet, getting info from the 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. and weatherfax.

The three hour watch system works well we both seem to get enough sleep and we also eat well with a good variety of foods. Our fresh food is just about finished, only spuds,onions, carrots & garlic left and not a great deal of that. Quarantine removed all our fresh food in Dunedin and we took much smaller quantities when we left to give us more space. I cookBritish explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. He made 3 voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. More on wikipedia. the main meal each night which works well as Alex spends much of his time working the radio and computer. When we had a lot of fresh vegies, we had stir fries with pasta, various curries, egg and bacon omelette with veg folded in, pastawith various sauces, sometimes just a soup and now we are eating the dried meals Jeanne and Alex Sutherland prepared in Hobart. Tonight will be a kind of spanish omelette with spuds, onion, garlic and bacon.

I have already spoken of our small but adequate supply of booze. Alex is the baker and the bread he produces is great. Water in the main tank seems to be going quickly but we have backup in various containers. tomorrow, alex intends to fit a new membrane to the desalinator which should make its product more suitable for drinking – at the moment we just use it for cooking. We have hardly used the engine since motoring out of Dunedin so still have about 80 ltrs of fuel.

I have been getting sun sights when the weather clears and the results using the nautical almanac and sight reduction tables are good considering the conditions. If all the electronics crash, I feel we could continue on using celestial nav. Thats about it for the moment, might continue tomorrow. The best thing is that after a month at sea we still get on together – no arguments and we agree on the important things like whether it should be a coopersCoopers Sparkling Ale: - according to Alex: “brewed in the bottle, so a bit of sludge comes with it - best beer on the planet - beats a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster hands down”. Also a home brew from a Cooper’s Kit, perfected by onboard master-brewer Pete. See Pete’s interesting equation or a guinness today and the dry sense of humour is still with us both. We both have plenty of good books and cds to get us through the quiet times and plenty to do when its not so quiet. Cheers Pete.