03 Apr 2005 - 0340hrs UTC │Somewhere mid Atlantic

[from Stephen:] As I hadn’t heard anything from the intrepid hirsute duo for over 48 hours I have been attempting to contact them via satellite phone for the last few hours. I finally made contact, waking Alex from a deep sleep, and am glad to report that all three (Alex, Pete, and Berri) are alive and well, bobbing around like a cork in the lower mid Atlantic with bugger all wind. There is the hint of a nasty storm to their north, but it seems to be bypassing them. In Alex’s words, “if we sit here quietly it may not see us”.

The respite from nasty weather is doing them all a great favour, but the usually 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. radio email contact is currently out of order and/or range – a call to the TelstraThe Telstra Corporation is an Australian Telecommunications Company dominant in the area of land lines, mobile phones and Broadband, amongst other services technician has been made, but they object to making house calls outside their area. We are trying Satcom-C communications but that seems to be just as persnickety as 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. mail at the moment. Therefore I will call Berri at regular intervals over the next few days until normal communications are restored. Anyway, Malcolm will be back in the Mission Control seat at that time, so he can fret as I go off and climb Himalayan mountains…

[ed: some back dated updates retrieved from cyber black holes…]