1530hrs 24 Mar 2005 UTC Stanley, FI Map Ref 123
We are taking it in turns to babysit the boat – I’m now sitting at the nav table with the laptop, just like old times with the wind howling in the rig and bouncing up and down, but this time we are very much alongside. It seems survivable although extremely uncomfortable, and the gel coat on the starboard side, plus most of Berri’s nice teak toe-rail, will never be the same. Luckily, we have been able to borrow some ship-sized fenders and we have them up against the three big tractor tyres that hang from the jetty. Because of the swell, they tend to work their way up and out from between boat and tyre and we have to push the boat out and jam them back in. Not easy, in constant 40 knots. Our own fenders are far too puny for the job and are just about useless. We have two huge aft springs holding the boat, and a skinny 6mm spectra halyard line going 50 metres across to another jetty to hod the bows out. The boat is lying to those 3 lines, most of the time. Dead low water, and not sure how things will work as the tide rises. We are stuck here until it abates, probably late tonight, and we will have to sleep on the boat to make sure she stays safe.
So I am not sure exactly when we will get away. We must co-ordinate departure with Customs and I am about to call them to ask whether we can clear and then leave when the wind drops.
Penguin news is on the streets, with the Marathon report.[ed: Penguin News is by subscription – front page here. We are negotiating for an extract]
Article in the Times of Malta: www.timesofmalta.com/core/article.php?id=180930&hilite=Whitworth [broken link]
With thanks to Natalino Fenech, a journo friend of Berri inMalta.
The logs ramblings can be cryptic, so we have added: