Oct 07, 2005 – 1730hrs UTC

1730hrs 07 Oct 2005 UTC 31’32”S 016’43”W Ref 421

Abeam Port Macquarie and Lord Howe Island. I think, on my earlier guess that the round trip would be around 31k miles, we are three quarters of the way around. A Celebratory ConsultationA regular engagement with alcohol. One might say this whole epic is a Consultation with a bit of a sail round it. See also Conservation Mode; Linear and Parallel Methods of Consultation is occurring – this note is being pecked out one fingered as the other hand clutches G&TGin and Tonic and tries to keep the rest of the body in equilibrium as the world gyrates around itself. But wooohoooa primitive, exultant, gibbon-like call given out by an old geezerDictionaries define a geezer as an old person, generally an eccentric old man. Its origin likely in the word masquerader (colloquially, guiser) from Middle English gysar. Go figure, as the Americans say.; many variations as listed, in order of emphasis: Woohoo Woooohooo WOOOHOOO WOOOHOOO! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOa primitive, exultant, gibbon-like call given out by an old geezerDictionaries define a geezer as an old person, generally an eccentric old man. Its origin likely in the word masquerader (colloquially, guiser) from Middle English gysar. Go figure, as the Americans say.; many variations as listed, in order of emphasis: Woohoo Woooohooo WOOOHOOO WOOOHOOO! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!! in lower case – progress of a sort. We have 1850 miles to go to the barn doorMetaphor for whatever we were aiming at. Derived from the saying “Couldn’t hit a barn door at five paces” used to describe anyone who can’t shoot straight. and then about 6000 to Tasmania.

Pete has been reading out some of his journal entries from some of the hairier times on the way out. Great stuff! Wait till you read the bit about the Montevideo storm when we lost the liferaft. I think that The Book that everyone is banging on about may  become an edited version of these logs interspersed with Pete’s journal and some of your emails. Possibly even in three columns. Seems to me that would work and would be radically different from the usual cruise narrative. We could add photos, plus a cd of movies etc and the GPS log of the track, which would show every sailchange as a blip and some of the hairy stuff in all its snaky detail. Could even print the track as column 4? Would you buy it? Would you give it to your kids to read? Better still, would you set it as an HSC text?? I think the difficulty for us is to decide what we want it to be and who we want it to speak to. We could, for instance, easily extract the technical stuff for the sailors but what’s then the point? I think the whole thing together has an integrity of its own.

Brian and Jen – racking the congealed remains of the brain to remember what bits you might have – some bent stanchions, perhaps? The congealed remains boggle.

now 07/2130 and another brilliant night. We still have last night’s rig – #4 and 2 reefs but but the 4 is now poled out, the moon and Venus glorious on our starboard quarter and the Cross on our starboard beam. Both where they ought to be, at last – we are pointing almost for home. Yeeehaaa. Just for variety – we’ve had a little wooohoooa primitive, exultant, gibbon-like call given out by an old geezerDictionaries define a geezer as an old person, generally an eccentric old man. Its origin likely in the word masquerader (colloquially, guiser) from Middle English gysar. Go figure, as the Americans say.; many variations as listed, in order of emphasis: Woohoo Woooohooo WOOOHOOO WOOOHOOO! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOa primitive, exultant, gibbon-like call given out by an old geezerDictionaries define a geezer as an old person, generally an eccentric old man. Its origin likely in the word masquerader (colloquially, guiser) from Middle English gysar. Go figure, as the Americans say.; many variations as listed, in order of emphasis: Woohoo Woooohooo WOOOHOOO WOOOHOOO! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!! already. And we are starting to tick off the longitudes faster than the latitudes – another good sign. This getting down the Atlantic bit is like qualifying to run the Boston marathon – huge amount of work around the traps, then once qualified, the real work starts. But heartbreak hill is a doddle compared to this one.