Aug 26, 2005 - 0415hrs UTC

0415hrs 26 Aug 2005 UTC 39’58”N 012’29”W Ref 312

More idle musings: I’ve been thinking about arcs and great circles and the moment, all those months ago (February?) when we passed just south of The Antipodes Islands, on the dateline SE of NZ. HilaryAlex’s partner and Katherine’s mother and Malcom sent us emails saying that they were so named because they are directly opposite Greenwich on the earth’s surface. So the shortest distance between the two would lie along either arc of an infinite number of great circles – except that I doubt whether they are exactly opposite so back to one only, and the earth’s oblatitude would favour one arc or the other. And I remember vividly a few weeks ago standing on the Greenwich meridianAn imaginary great circle on the surface of the Earth, passing through North and South geographic poles. All points on the same meridian have the same longitude. Meridian can also be used to describe either half of such a circle from pole to pole outside Flamsteed’s house at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, looking down through the earth at those rather bleak little islands and thinking that I’m possibly the only person this century and one of very few ever to have been in both places in the same year. LeroyLeroy ChiaoLeroy Chiao: International Space Station Commander, Expedition 10, at time Berrimilla first made contact. Bio here.: International Space Station Commander, Expedition 10, at time Berrimilla first made contact. Bio here. and the Orbiters, world famous skiffle group, would perhaps qualify if we allow for vertical distance. Even Groucho might have had difficulty boycotting a club of which he was the only qualified member – but then, why bother anyway.

Silly blather. We’re trickling along, I think about to lose our little distance cushion over our schedule – to keep it, we must sail 39 miles in the next 5 hours and that just ain’t going to happen at 3.4 knots. Poo!

And Malcolm perhaps thinking of Wildfire (nice name). Do the S2HSydney-Hobart Race: often described as the most gruelling ocean race in the world, this annual race starts on 26th December from Sydney Harbour and ends in Hobart. The course is 628 nautical miles., Mal, and get Dave to come and meet us so you can take photos…

0500 – We’re motoring at 5 knots – almost no wind. The equation – we’ve got about 230 litres of diesel left, the tractorThe engine - as in “running the tractor”. The Kubota engine by WitchardWitchard, John: Berri has one of his 22hp engines, much praised for its reliability. See also Tractor. Marine was described by Alex as being “made of tractor parts, not expensive marine parts”. burns about a litre an hour and we must maximise the number of miles we get from every litre. No good starting it when we are doing 3 knots just to get the speed up to 5 – that’s only worth 2 miles/litre and so on. The finesses – use the wind to complement the tractorThe engine - as in “running the tractor”. The Kubota engine by WitchardWitchard, John: Berri has one of his 22hp engines, much praised for its reliability. See also Tractor. Marine was described by Alex as being “made of tractor parts, not expensive marine parts”. so minimising revs and diesel burn, keep the tractorThe engine - as in “running the tractor”. The Kubota engine by WitchardWitchard, John: Berri has one of his 22hp engines, much praised for its reliability. See also Tractor. Marine was described by Alex as being “made of tractor parts, not expensive marine parts”. in gear when we make water, just save the diesel for the doldrumsInter Tropical Convergence ZoneInter Tropical Convergence Zone, also known as The Doldrums, also known as The Doldrums – but that assumes that we’ll need it down there – is this a valid assumption?

From Ann G.

Subject: Solar storms

NOAA ISSUES SPACE WEATHER WARNING

Aug 24, 2005 – Forecasters at the NOAA Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo., observed an extreme-G5 on the NOAA space weather scales-geomagnetic storm, that began on August 24 at 2:12 a.m. EDT. Solar flares on August 22 produced minor to moderate radio blackouts (R1 and R2) and a moderate radiation storm (S2). Also, two large Earth-directed coronal mass ejections occurred on August 22, which resulted in today’s extreme geomagnetic storming. The most intense period of geomagnetic storming occurred between 4:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. EDT on Wednesday. The storm is currently subsiding. However, additional but less intense geomagnetic storming is expected through Thursday.

Ann G, welcome back and thanks for NOAA geomagnetic storm warnings – I had noticed that propagationIn the logs, this refers to the radiation of signal energy and is customarily qualified by the words abysmal, ratshit or lousy is not the best and it’s nice to know there’s an external reason.