Feb 10, 2005 - 0509hrs UTC │Washing, according to Pete

0509hrs 10 Feb 2005 UTC 46’19”S 148’17”W Map Ref 56 2909nm

Pete

Hello to all – the sun is out today so it’s time to get the old clothes off and put some sweet smelling items on. when I changed last, I washed the old ones in saltwater and rinsed them in desalinated water. It didnt work too well – I checked them a few days later and they felt clammy and damp – the salt was still in the fabric and had absorbed the humidity. Everything is damp down here.

More about clothes and such. If you sail in cold latitudes for long periods you will wear thermal underwear. If your vessel has no showering facilities, then i have a few hints to pass on which may avoid the dreaded itchy scratchy gunwale bumLesions, looking like pimples on the bum, caused by pressure, chafing, heat, damp etc; sometimes known as spotty botty, skipper’s seat or barnacle butt. . Unbelievably painful and irritating. rash etc. Wear loose fitting thermal pants – avoid the sleek ski instructor look and go for the saggy airy look. Wool seems to be the best for long term wear. I borrowed some of my thermals from a good friend just back from the antarctic. Fortunately for me, he’s a bit of a bon vivant with a rather expansive waistline so his thermals are a delight to wear.

A daily saltwater douche to the nether regions has proved most beneficial. none of the usual rash that appears on long trips has happened – a word of warning though – I half fill the toilet bowl and hover above it for the douche – a dangerous position to be in when the boat is leaping off waves and corkscrewing around. On a recent occasion there was a half second period when i was flung forward then crashed back on to the seat – an interval just long enough for my left nut to place itself between the top of my thigh and the seat. Nothing further needs to be said. The dangly bits are useful at times – this wasn’t one of them.

Thanks for the emails great to hear how things are progressing back there. Ian and the pendle hill crew, Alan and Cheryl, Siobhan – see you in england, Thommo good to hear from you, congratulations Cam, Woc, please dont turn into one of those adoring parents; Mr Big surely you don’t need to train to walk up and down a track, Graeme floating again, Dianne, i always knew Richard had salt in his veins – I’ve noticed him at several functions standing upright while the room appears to be moving – lots of love to Jeanne and the family, cheers to all, Pete.

Alex

One of life’s little mysteries. We are towing a turbineAcquair turbine, consisting of a generator which hangs from the pushpit, 40 metres of line, and a towed 1-metre long metal impeller. to drive the aux. power generator that hangs off the pushpitThe railing around the deck at the stern of a yacht. rail. The turbineAcquair turbine, consisting of a generator which hangs from the pushpit, 40 metres of line, and a towed 1-metre long metal impeller. is a 1 metre steel shaft with a steel hub and two opposed impeller blades about 15cm long at the after end, probably a single casting – weighs about 2 kilos and has what looks like some sort of two-pot epoxy black paint finish over fairly thick primer. Chafes badly through the towrope – there must be a better way and we are playing with variations – and we are pulling it in every couple of days to re-tie it and cut off the chafed bit of towrope. About an hour’s work and a real pain cos we have to stop the boat to pull it in else the towrope comes in as a twisted Gordian knot-- Speed: definition of speed at sea. One knot is one nautical mile per hour. The nautical mile is about 1.15 % longer than the "statute" mile used on land. A knot is about half a metre per second. -- A knot is also the result of winding a rope around itself or another rope to make a join or a loop . with malevolent intent. Anyway, yesterday, the two blades had serrations on their leading edges, as if someone had hacked at them with a knife blade. More on one than the other. Hard to tell but appeared to have gone right through the paint job into the metal casting. Really odd – there’s nothing for it to hit, no angry merpersons in the complaints department brandishing summons’ for trespass and I don’t think any marine beastie could be involved. Any suggestions – could it be that the blades flex? They are very solid. Or that the paint job had been cracked somehow in storage? We have two turbines – this one is the coarse pitch one, which is intended for use at >7kt and rotates more slowly than the fine. Next time we bring it in, we will swap them – in these seas the boat speed fluctuates between about 4 and 8.5 knots and the coarse turbineAcquair turbine, consisting of a generator which hangs from the pushpit, 40 metres of line, and a towed 1-metre long metal impeller. can’t hack it – ?? did I say that

We are running along the top of the low pressure system to the south of us – more or less dead downwind all the time but the wind is surprisingly variable across about 60 degrees. To keep tracking east, we would need to do a major sailchange every four hours or so – not easy and so we tend to wander up and down between 48 and 46S. Inefficient, but gives us some rest. So to something that works but can be improved. Before leaving Sydney, I fitted Berrimilla with a light outer forestay to allow us to twin pole a couple of headsails. Works really well, but we need two sails the same size, somewhere in between the cut-down #1 and the #4 with short luff and long high cut foot so that we don’t have to keep swapping sides every time we gybeGybe - A sailing term for turning the boat so that the stern passes through the wind. Potentially dangerous if not controlled because the wind can fill an uncontrolled mainsail from the wrong side and crash it across the boat, possibly causing damage to the rig and anyone getting in the way.. I had to guess before we left and got it a bit wrong. The cut-down #1 is just a touch too big and powerful for these conditions here and the #3 wont work on a pole. Rather complicated to explain inside our sailmailSailmail is the system that Berrimilla uses for email communication. It is a non-profit association of yacht owners operating a network of private coast stations in the maritime Mobile Radio Service. limit so I won’t try, but basically we need to optimise and equalise the force acting on each side of the boat and balance it for KevvoStainless steel self steering device, built by Kevin Fleming, used on Berrimilla and countless others steering down at the back so he doesn’t have to work too hard and the boat is not overpowered either. May be fine as is for the Atlantic no doubt we’ll find out.

The sun is out for the first time in several days – water back to deep blue with dazzling whitecaps. No birds around and very few anyway now. Mostly smaller ones – little petrels that flap along the surface and do spectacular aerobatics inches off the surface.