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1-4. Date Line to Mid Pacific
Track
Logs ( 19 )
By Alex on January 31, 2005, at 2046 UTC
2046hrs 31 Jan 2005 UTC timeCo-ordinated Univeral Time, formerly Greenwich Mean Time. UTC (sometimes known as Zulu time) uses precise atomic clocks, shortwave time signals and satellites to ensure it remains a totally reliable and accurate standard for scientific and navigational purposes. 49’33”S 177’16”W Map Ref 40 1696nm 9C
More than half way to Alpha, 1680 miles direct from Sydney and about 3600 to the Horn, so some noticeable progress. HilaryAlex’s partner and Katherine’s mother says Antipodes Islands so named because they are diametrically opposite Greenwich so we’ve got a smidgin less than half the world to go to get to half way. That’s a lot of water. 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 propagationIn the logs, this refers to the radiation of signal energy and is customarily qualified by the words abysmal, ratshit or lousy out here is dismal at the mo so this may not get sent for some time. Back in thick fog with the wind dropping. Everything damp and the sails dripping water. Glad we don’t yet have to collect it and make tea with it, although we are doing just that as I write to see what the water tastes like (worse than desalinated…). We might describe the process later. Part of the weekly routine is to dip the water tank – we only use tank water to make tea and coffee and cordial and so far we have used about a quarter of the tank, with a further 30+ litres in reserve in a container and bottles. The desalinator is working but the membrane must be a bit tired – the water is just noticeably salty, but not as bad as some Australian bore water and better than the water that is available for much of the world. We use it for cooking, washing up, teeth cleaning, the final rinse of clothes washed in salt water (yes, we do…) and anything else where salt water won’t work. Everything else gets salt water. Today will be a day for catch-up jobs like restocking ready use bins, moving the desalinated water container so it doesnt drip on Pete’s face, washing sox and other smellies. The bootferals just hate clean sox but I cant threaten them with sunlight today. And the vegie garden is sprouting.
Hi Tori, I remember; Hi Vivien, glad you’re out there; Hi Necola, Hi Sandi, Hi Michelle. Shockers, you still on supine? And it’s not anarchy, just democracy with attitude.
By Alex on February 1, 2005, at 0300 UTC
0300hrs 1 Feb 2005 UTC 49’36”S 176’48”W Map Ref 41 1714nm 12C
Right now, we are about 60 miles too far north for a decent breeze and we are trying to go south to pick it up. The water temperature has gone up to over 12 deg and we have an adverse current of about 1.2 knots – about 25% of our speed thro the water, so speed over ground is about 3.2 – 3.5 knots. Same old equation – cant burn diesel this early in the voyage so just have to cop it on the nose. To turn south west would be a real gamble – we’d lose most of our speed by going directly downwind and in the end may gain nothing and lose a couple of days. SPBF. We’ve been in the current for about 24 hours and it’s been building. Confirmed by SarauYacht with which Berri had a rendezvous at sea who were here yesterday. Malcom C or Don P, – HilaryAlex’s partner and Katherine’s mother has both your phone numbers – perhaps you could pass on to CSIROCommonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in case they are interested and we’ll keep sending the data. Meanwhile a consolation coldie from the good Dr C.
By Alex on February 1, 2005, at 0854 UTC
Topic(s): Beards, Things that worked 0854hrs 01 Feb 2005 UTC 49’40”S 176’12”W Map Ref 42 1738nm
Still trying to work our way further south. We are out of the fog with a bit more wind and heading for somewhere below 50S. Still butting into current. Almost no seabirds today – perhaps too far from land for most of them, only the occasional black petrel around. Pete has started taking sights with the sextant and I’ll have to get on to it too – last used in anger in 1981 so out of practice and some work for me to do. Otherwise, routine day. I’m going to do a series on ‘Things that have worked’ and ‘..that haven’t’ in this and future episodes. See my earlier damage report after the knockdownWhen the boat is severely rolled or knocked over sideways, normally when beam on to big rolling breakers. for the list of big ones – take them as read.
Today’s ‘thing that has worked’ is this application. 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. is great – nothing spectacular but robust and as you can all see, it delivers exactly what it says it will. There’s a link on the website. You need reasonably expensive gear to get the best out of it but worth it for anyone wanting basic effective email and weather information when far from land. Well managed and the system operators are accessible if needed. Dont know hoe well it will work when we get out of range of PentaComstat which runs it from Australia. The next base is Honolulu or Chile and their facilities are more limited.
and ‘…that hasn’t’ is my beard. I had been conscious of vague subliminal irritation especially when trying to sleep and when decked out in my party gearFull wet weather gear and finally traced it to the need to scratch the whiskers regularly. So – about three weeks worth came off a couple of days ago and the relief was immediate and satisfying. Had to take it off almost whisker by whisker with one of those el cheapo double bladed plastic razors that clogged with every millimetre of stroke. Tedious and took about an hour. There will be a ritual cleansing of the face every sunday henceforth. Pete still looking wild and grizzled.
By Alex on February 2, 2005, at 0353 UTC
Topic(s): Phosphorescence, Things that worked Sitrep: 0353hrs 02 Feb 2005 UTC 49’52”S 173’54”W Map Ref 43 1828nm 12.0C 1.5ktsE
Stunning night, low moon to start, with Venus – I think – alongside and the usual giga of stars. Then clouds and light mist. Damp, slightly misty completely cloudless and quite breathtaking silvery rather than gold sunrise with a lone albatross gliding around us. Heard from the ABC 1000 yrs in a day cd as I watched the albatross and set up the solar panel to catch as much sun as possible that Hildegard von Bingen called herself a feather on the breath of god and I remembered my little feather tumbling across this huge ocean surface for those few serene moments a couple of days ago.
Regarding things that have worked, i think it might be more useful if i just put together a list so that it’s all in one place and anyone who wants detail can email us for more. The list of really big ones was in my earlier report on knockdownWhen the boat is severely rolled or knocked over sideways, normally when beam on to big rolling breakers. damage from Dunedin. So, so here’s a second list, in no particular order – there are links to some of them in the preparations doc on the website:
- wool (i’m using a lot of second hand army woolly vests and longjohns and Norwegian knitted ski socks bought from a disposal store in George st in 1981 before the Rio race and never since taken from the plastic bags HilaryAlex’s partner and Katherine’s mother and I sellotaped them into in the confusion before we left);
- the Software on Board navigation package from Digiboat.com together with CMap;
- LED mast and interior lighting; interior insulation of Berri’s main living compartment – it’s hardly a saloon;
- cake;
- the Ampair ‘Aquair 100′ generator;
- Xantrexxantrex battery monitor battery monitor;
- Gill OC racer wet weather gear (if there’s anyone out there from Gill, send me a note – I’ve got a couple of suggestions to make it even better; polyprop glove and sock liners (can be worn on their own just to de-clammy-nate the hands and feet inside the boat in the very high humidity we are experiencing);
- Sealskinz waterproof socks;
- the BP solar panel;
- the cut down #1 genoa Brian ShillandShilland, Brian: much-lauded sailmaker for Berri doctored for us as a running sail for single or twin polingAn explanation from Malcolm: It is quite normal for a yacht to 'pole out' its jib (the foresail) on the opposite side of the boat to the mainsail when running downwind - this is called goosewinging'. A spinnaker pole is attached to the mast at one end and the back corner (clew) of the jib at the other. That holds the jib at the right angle so that it catches the wind. On Berri they've found that they can often get good performance and a comfortable ride by taking the mainsail right down and setting a second jib poled out on the opposite side to the first.;
- Finisterrs fleece jackets – second plug for these; snaplock plastic bags (NOT the ziplock ones with a slide which invariably fail – not designed for this sort of use);
- waterproof bivvy bags to keep sleeping gear and some clothes in – thanks Gerry!;
- Dr CoopersCoopers Sparkling Ale: - according to Alex: “brewed in the bottle, so a bit of sludge comes with it - best beer on the planet - beats a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster hands down”. Also a home brew from a Cooper’s Kit, perfected by onboard master-brewer Pete. See Pete’s interesting equation home brew kits (plastic bottles supplied with them…) and the man from Dublin’s grobby looking potion;
- 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.- cant plug this enough – really good outfit so far; 90 litre yellow plastic packliners from Kathmandu.
There will be more, as we get to use more things.
A few hours short of a week out of Dunedin and 756 miles on the GPS – rather slow, averaging about 4.4 but real progress. And we have almost no wind but about 1.3 knots of easterly current – YAY!
“Why is it so” question for today: The sea is flat greyish blue and it looks diamond clear and there don’t seem to be any little organisms visible – and no phosphorescence at night. What are the necessary conditions for phosphorescence? From my experience, there seem to be at least 2 types – one caused by algal blooms on the surface and one by submerged organisms which spectacularly light up all sorts of odd places like the toilet bowl. Is it as simple as no organisms, no phosphorescence?
A respectful (but, sadly, these days only virtual) forelock tug to the Women’s Institute of Hatherleigh in Devon – g’day youse all and nice to know you’re there.
Kim, lovely to have you back on line but please keep it short – we have only 10 minutes’ connect time each day and your last took 6 of these to come through – propagationIn the logs, this refers to the radiation of signal energy and is customarily qualified by the words abysmal, ratshit or lousy down here is abysmal.
First attempt at breadmaking – dough doing its thing in warm bowl. Lower storm board as kneading board. Needs a lot of space and spare flour for dusting which i didn’t allow for. Next time…
Unless propagationIn the logs, this refers to the radiation of signal energy and is customarily qualified by the words abysmal, ratshit or lousy improves, it’s likely that there will be only one update per day from here on, in the evening our time. Will write it over time during the day, like this one, so may have the occasional non seq. particuarly relative to time in header which will be send time when possible.
By Alex on February 3, 2005, at 0704 UTC
Topic(s): Bread making, Clothing, Cooking, Party gear 0704hrs 03 Feb 2005 UTC 49’07”S 169’14”W Map Ref 44 2015nm
Cold damp dawn with misty rain – but good breeze. Some birds around yesterday but none today. Breadmaking yesterday spectacularly successful – using breadmaking kit from woollies with 4×250 gm packs and yeast sachets for each. One pack just fills two 6″ shallow cake tins – a lot of work for two small loaves but worth it. Used the Kunming pressure cooker, KatherineAlex’s daughter, with seal removed and big teflon coated cookpot as dry ovens and egg rings under the aluminium cake tins. took a lot longer than expected to cookBritish explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. He made 3 voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. More on wikipedia. – about 2 hours – but i probably didn’t preheat enough and could also cookBritish explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. He made 3 voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. More on wikipedia. at higher heat. Forgot to dip the metho tank first so dont know how much we used.
We are back up to reasonable speed again, with Berri and KevvoStainless steel self steering device, built by Kevin Fleming, used on Berrimilla and countless others in harmony and basically nothing to do except look after things like chafe and the vegie garden, now thriving in its dogbowl on the shelf in the head (loo for the nautically challenged). Will start some mungBeans sprouted on board if it’s warm enough beansBeans sprouted on board if it’s warm enough today. The sand grains of daily life. You will know how busy we are or how bad the weather is from the length and triviality of these updates. Strategically, we’re still under the bottom of the high and we’re doing our best to hang with it for as long as possible. Nasty looking low forming on the Australian east coast – still 2000 miles away but worth watching. Hope it gets forced down to the south east and under us by our high. SarauYacht with which Berri had a rendezvous at sea is now about i50 miles ahead and a bit south – they’ve been motoring to stay in the wind.
Must go and do the rounds on deck – 15 minutes getting into full party gearFull wet weather gear including harness, tether, epirbEmergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, strobe, knife, balaclava, even in this more or less calm water – and an hour or so up in the damp. Wind dropping a bit and backing – may have to 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. later to stay south in the breeze. Later – quite pleasant up there once you get over the first reluctance to venture out of nice warm cabin. Made some small adjustments to sheets, halyardsLines to hoist the sails and steering lines to limit chafe. Then out of party gearFull wet weather gear, now quite damp, into sandals to avoid cabin floor – always salt-sticky and clammy – and back onto this gizmoSome kind of gadget or other, normally infuriating.
Reminded as I unrigged myself of something that doesn’t work – velcro neck closures for anything you wear next to or one layer up from the skin -aaargh. Must have some sort of collar underneath or impossible. And something else – I asked Brian ShillandShilland, Brian: much-lauded sailmaker for Berri to shorten the braces on my wet weather pants with his big sailmaker’s sewing machine. And now I have to get half the party gearFull wet weather gear off in order to pee. How could I not have thought of that one? But Brian just folded them over, sensible bloke that he is so I can unpick and revert to draggy pants and easier relief.
Hi Sue and all the Windmills, Hi Brian and Jen – Raewi must be looking good. And G’day to the KAZ mob – yes, it’s cold but not unpleasantly so and the bivvy bags and insulation have kept us warm and dry – so far. And the DoctorGuinness looks after us too. Shokko, it was the email address (steve strips off all that stuff and pastes emails into one download for us) altho I like the other option – was going to waffle offline but dont have spare connect time at the mo. Just remember, you have an unlimited supply of the stuff, we will run out sometime in march if we behave. Ello smead – likewise re caffeine.
By Alex on February 4, 2005, at 0537 UTC
0537hrs 04 Feb 2005 UTC 48’06”S 165’53”W Map Ref 45 2161nm
Could you please tell Tony at Majestic Foods that we’ve started on the Majestic dried stuff he prepared for us and it’s great. Soup packs perfect size. Good outfit.
Cold damp dawn sailchange after only half an hour in seductively warm bunk -nasty shock after two days without a change -but we were a bit overpowered with full #1 and main in 30 kt. Productive tho – we knocked off about 165 miles in 24 hours and still getting 6-7s with cutdown and a reef-- As a verb – to shorten sail, to use reefing lines or other techniques to make the working part of a sail smaller and so reduce its power as the wind rises. --- As a noun, (1) the part of the sail that has been shortened, folded or rolled. May be referred to as a slab or a slab reef which is a particular way of forming a reef.
-- As a noun (2) – a bank of coral, rocks or other obstruction usually close to a shoreline and potentially dangerous to sailors.. Getting a bit north and will have to run down later today if the forecast wind change arrives. Still watching the nasties in the Tasman. If anyone is interested in looking at the same weather charts as we get by fax, go to www.bom.gov.au and select weather charts, then South Pacific Ocean MSLP Anal valid 0000 or 1200 UTC under (I think, from decrepit memory) South Pacific on the left of the screen. MSLP=mean sea levelMean Sea Level; the height of the sea after averaging out changes of wind, waves and tide pressure analysis. NZ has a less comprehensive version covering just NZ waters on its Metservice website. Couldn’t pull in the Oz fax this morning so may be getting out of range or generally awful radio propagationIn the logs, this refers to the radiation of signal energy and is customarily qualified by the words abysmal, ratshit or lousy down here means best chance is late evening.
Thanks Jude for chapter and verse on dinoflagellates and phosphorescence. Is it ok for Steve to post it on the website? I must admit that in the dark last night with the boat rolling a bit when it arrived I read one clause as ‘leads to a chemical erection in an orgasm’ and wondered a bit about the dinosDinoflagellates - Microscopic, (usually) unicellular, flagellated, often photosynthetic protists, commonly regarded as "algae". More here. and even flagellation and who prescribes the stuff for them. Some dreadful puns in there somewhere. Probably just wishful thinking, but anyway, it’s nice to get something sensible from at least one member of the family Quinn. And lots of other g’days; Juddy, Ron, Jop, Rob, Girdles, David, the Croo, and FenwickA friend and clearly a colourful character – just knew you’d have a go sometime FenwickA friend and clearly a colourful character when you stop drinking for a few minutes and yes, we know all this stuff is dead fartless boring and we need to spice it up a bit – we’re working on it and we’ll take medical advice and sustenance shortly to lubricate the cerebration. Anything you’d like us to tell you about? Sailing, perhaps? Antifoul in the garage, i think – Ring H. Hi Gordo – happy new house.
And Jellyfish? Nah – you and nice has never been a concept that gels. Yuk. To Craig on Sailing Anarchy, whoever you may be, we were sent your posting – Thanks. We will try and do it justice.
By Alex on February 4, 2005, at 1715 UTC
Topic(s): Communications, Weather 1715hrs 04 Feb 2005 UTC 47’56”S 164’20”W Map Ref 46 2224nm
A day in the formal life of the radio operator – times in UTC/approx local – A skedShort for schedule. A pre-arranged (scheduled) time and frequency for radio contact often co-ordinated by a shore station, such as Penta Comstat, which is monitoring location and safety of boats in their area. Failure to respond to one or more sked can be a sign of trouble is a scheduled radio broadcast, usually initiated by a land station (but, as in our case with SarauYacht with which Berri had a rendezvous at sea and TaupoA region in New Zealand but here referring to Taupo Radio, a NZ radio station for sailors with long range capability., not always), in this context specifically intended to allow vessels to report their positions as part of the global maritime safety network.
1600/0600 NZ Metservice weather fax. Wxfaxes take about 10 minutes to come in to the laptop and we can get out the printer and print them if necessary. Dodgy down here in the damp and clag. Faxes really slow by land standards but allow time to make the first coffee boost and think about breakfast. Pete will have just gone to bed after his three hours on watch, so it’s just me for the next 3 hours at least, unless we need to change sails etc. Have a look at the fax when it gets in, compare it with earlier ones to get a feel for how the systems have moved and assess our relative position and speed and think about where we need to be in the next couple of days to keep the breeze and avoid any nasties as far as we can. Plan any course and sail changes so that we can do them at watch changes whenever possible.
2000/1000 Australian wxfax – compare with Kiwi one – the australian fax is sent from Charleville in Qld and covers the entire southern pacific on a polar projection with the south pole in the centre at the bottom and a sort of isobaric spaghetti putanesca in a semicircle from australia on the left to Chile and the antarctic peninsula on the right. Detail sometimes hard to see because transmission quality not always 100% The most useful info of the day if we can get it.
2100/1100 listen in to the Australian Penta ComstatA private radio communication service for yachts and pleasure craft, now sadly no longer available. long range skedShort for schedule. A pre-arranged (scheduled) time and frequency for radio contact often co-ordinated by a shore station, such as Penta Comstat, which is monitoring location and safety of boats in their area. Failure to respond to one or more sked can be a sign of trouble and report our position if we can get through. Radio propagationIn the logs, this refers to the radiation of signal energy and is customarily qualified by the words abysmal, ratshit or lousy down here is not good and we dont get through very often. Great service though and every NSWNew South Wales. State in the East of Australia. New South Wales' capital city is Sydney. cruising yachtie should join. We also talk to TaupoA region in New Zealand but here referring to Taupo Radio, a NZ radio station for sailors with long range capability. Maritime Radio in NZ as part of the informal day – see future episode.
2200/noon call Malcolm and Hamish in SarauYacht with which Berri had a rendezvous at sea, now about two days ahead of us and compare notes, local conditions and our opinions about developing weather and the quality of the local beer. We pass on any relevant ice reports as they dont have SatComC (looks as if the ice that was around has gone – disappointing – i was hoping we’d get to see some).
2215/1215 Kiwi wxfax. I usually stay up from 1600 until this one arrives (it’s easier than the alternative of getting in and out of clothes, sleeping bag etc) and make breakfast, do a deck check and any other daily chores like the bilge and dipping the water tank, write bits of this update, tend the vegies and generally try to be a useful member of the local community. Anthropological study of ritual and ceremony one day soon perhaps. Pete wakes up around 1900 and gets himself breakfast and we talk about the plan for the next few days. If the sun is out, he takes a sextant sight and plots it and does his share of the daily rounds. We may change ends/roles for variety as we get further into the voyage and we can write about the daily watch routine and boat maintenance some other time.
0400/1800 kiwi wxfax. 0600/2000 Penta ComstatA private radio communication service for yachts and pleasure craft, now sadly no longer available. L.R. skedShort for schedule. A pre-arranged (scheduled) time and frequency for radio contact often co-ordinated by a shore station, such as Penta Comstat, which is monitoring location and safety of boats in their area. Failure to respond to one or more sked can be a sign of trouble 0830/2230 Australian wxfax
1200/1400 listen in for the Patagonian cruise ships skedShort for schedule. A pre-arranged (scheduled) time and frequency for radio contact often co-ordinated by a shore station, such as Penta Comstat, which is monitoring location and safety of boats in their area. Failure to respond to one or more sked can be a sign of trouble – haven’t got them yet but nice to join the skedShort for schedule. A pre-arranged (scheduled) time and frequency for radio contact often co-ordinated by a shore station, such as Penta Comstat, which is monitoring location and safety of boats in their area. Failure to respond to one or more sked can be a sign of trouble when we are in range. And back to the top of the page again. That’s the formal day, tied to scheduled broadcasts and skeds and I try to maintain this schedule because it’s our lifeline.
The informal radio day depends on radio propagationIn the logs, this refers to the radiation of signal energy and is customarily qualified by the words abysmal, ratshit or lousy and weather conditions and how busy/wet/tired we are. I will write about it in another episode. Today’s breakfast was purely medicinal – a guinness, bacon sandwich and a spoonful of tabasco to help the medicine go down…medicine go down…
By Peter on February 5, 2005, at 1803 UTC
Topic(s): Supplies & Storage 1803hrs 05 Feb 2005 UTC 48’24”S 161’50”W Map Ref 47 2328nm
Hello to everyone – its almost midnight local time. The boat’s doing 1-2 kts in a lumpy sea and the self steering has trouble in these conditions so we have to get out and hand steer, find a little more breeze and try to get the windvaneStainless steel self steering device, built by Kevin Fleming, used on Berrimilla and countless others working again. I missed it about an hour ago and we ended up hove to with the sails backed and boat dead in the water. it takes a while to get back on course when this happens. Frustrating because the wind will fill in for a few minutes then die off. We need to be further south where there is some wind but have no wind to get there.
Enough of this frustration crap and on to other matters: it seems a few folk out there have inferred that this is some sort of boozy south pacific cruise. Not so. It’s hell down here (well not at the moment) with very little booze. We estimated 50 – 70 days to the Falklands and we left Hobart with: 60 plastic 750ml bottles of Dr CoopersCoopers Sparkling Ale: - according to Alex: “brewed in the bottle, so a bit of sludge comes with it - best beer on the planet - beats a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster hands down”. Also a home brew from a Cooper’s Kit, perfected by onboard master-brewer Pete. See Pete’s interesting equation home brew (thanks Pete); 48 cans of 440ml Guinness (thanks David and the Pippins); 2 bottles of gin (thanks Gordo) 3×3 litres of Sir James plonk and 7 nips of alcohol of indeterminate provenance labelled ‘goats milk’ (thanks Ross).
On a normal day, we would share a coopersCoopers Sparkling Ale: - according to Alex: “brewed in the bottle, so a bit of sludge comes with it - best beer on the planet - beats a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster hands down”. Also a home brew from a Cooper’s Kit, perfected by onboard master-brewer Pete. See Pete’s interesting equation early – fortunately we keep both local and UTC timeCo-ordinated Univeral Time, formerly Greenwich Mean Time. UTC (sometimes known as Zulu time) uses precise atomic clocks, shortwave time signals and satellites to ensure it remains a totally reliable and accurate standard for scientific and navigational purposes. so the sun is always over the yardarm somewhere. This amounts to 1.5 coffee cups each. At sundown we either share a guinness 2/3 cup each or a G&T or a red. The drink, tho mentioned a lot in the correspondence, (‘better finish now, Pete’s pouring a guinness) doesn’t amount to much. We deserve more. So we celebrate occasional little milestones too.
Many thanks for the emails. Cheers, Pete.
By Alex on February 6, 2005, at 0408 UTC
Topic(s): Birds, Health & Injuries, Knockdown, Turbine 0408hrs 06 Feb 2005 UTC 48’31”S 160’20”W Map Ref 48 2388nm
We seem to be dropping out of the high and getting some of the breeze from all the isobaric spaghetti to the south of us. Twin polingAn explanation from Malcolm: It is quite normal for a yacht to 'pole out' its jib (the foresail) on the opposite side of the boat to the mainsail when running downwind - this is called goosewinging'. A spinnaker pole is attached to the mast at one end and the back corner (clew) of the jib at the other. That holds the jib at the right angle so that it catches the wind. On Berri they've found that they can often get good performance and a comfortable ride by taking the mainsail right down and setting a second jib poled out on the opposite side to the first. and tracking just north of east (T) at 4834S. Looks a bit windy below 49 so we wont go there. The seabirds are back – we’ve only seen the occasional albatross or black petrel for the last three days or so – not as many today as before but several different species, some in pairs. Do they travel round the oceans in flocks or is it just coincidence? All interested in the potential feed from our turbineAcquair turbine, consisting of a generator which hangs from the pushpit, 40 metres of line, and a towed 1-metre long metal impeller.. We have just pulled the turbineAcquair turbine, consisting of a generator which hangs from the pushpit, 40 metres of line, and a towed 1-metre long metal impeller. in to check the 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 .
at the end of the line for chafe and it was lucky we did. I will keep the chafed end for Gerry’s safety and sea survival courses.
On which topic, wearing my instructor’s hat, I’ve been thinking about what we can learn from our knockdownWhen the boat is severely rolled or knocked over sideways, normally when beam on to big rolling breakers. and all the other interesting things that happen down here. I think the lessons from the knockdownWhen the boat is severely rolled or knocked over sideways, normally when beam on to big rolling breakers. are obvious – stormboardsIn this context, the two sturdy wooden half ‘doors’ that close the companionway entrance when things get pearshaped and we need to keep the greeniesWhen waves come over the boat as solid water rather than spray they can exert massive force. Usually the water runs down the sides of the boat and out through the scuppers. Your more determined greenie (not to be confused with a conservationist) will send a flooding wall of water across the cabin top, over the dodger and into the cockpit and it may smash anything it meets on the way; see also Dodger, Scuppers (qv) out of the cabin. Made specially by Pete. really work, poor stowage can leave you in deep trouble (lucky, for instance, that we were both on deck), never ever assume that it’s not necessary to clip on, lashing sails to the forward rail is an absolute no-no in those conditions even though they were well above the deck so water could flow underneath – and a seaworthy boat is a good investment. And all the things we got right too, listed earlier.
I was quite badly hurt – still cant sleep on that side or sneeze without a nasty twinge – and I think we were very lucky that only one of us was hurt. Once we’d sorted the cockpit and repacked the spare diesel tanks, untangled most of the mess and I’d got myself below, I managed to do some essential cleaning up, sorted the laptop and sent the one-liner, made a couple of radio calls, found the autopilot and sent it up to Pete, logged our position, and fed Pete with goats milk tea and other delicacies and then fell in a heap on the floor and tried to stay warm and braced so that it didn’t hurt. The wet weather gear seals had kept most of the water out so I was partially dry. Once the initial effort was over and I could actually feel the injury and shock was kicking in, I was no use to anyone (resist the temptation please Mr FenwickA friend and clearly a colourful character). And I didn’t want to stick possible broken bones through other potentially useful bits of tissue – at the time I thought I could actually feel them grating. If Pete had been in the same state, we’d have had to do our best to drop the storm jibA very small jib, usually made from bright orange material, used in storm conditions. and just park for however long was necessary. Perhaps till the guinness ran out, although I can’t think of a better way to recover.
And I dont think we could have avoided some kind of knockdownWhen the boat is severely rolled or knocked over sideways, normally when beam on to big rolling breakers. from that wave. We might have fared a bit better if we could have run diagonally down it, which Pete was trying to do but without time to get the steering lines off and the tiller over. Pete is an old surfie and he can recognise a dumperSurfing term for a breaking wave that ‘dumps’ the surfer. when he sees one, and his main concern was to avoid getting his head banged on a winch, so he sort of dived under the tiller and wrapped himself around it. All in hundredths of a second by instinct. We copped it almost squarely on the beam. As I think I said, you can’t win em all and we were only partially prepared and very lucky. We hope there won’t be any more that bad, but we also hope that we’ve learned enough to be in much better nick if there are. In retrospect, I think the basic and most potentially dangerous stuff-up was forgetting to screw down the bunkboards. We got a reasonable pass on most of the rest.
And the mungBeans sprouted on board if it’s warm enough beansBeans sprouted on board if it’s warm enough are sprouting, after I thought I’d drowned the poor little things.
By Alex on February 6, 2005, at 1942 UTC
Topic(s): Space station (ISS) 1942hrs 06 Feb 2005 UTC 47’50”S 158’42”W Map Ref 49 2465nm
As we get close to half way in distance between Sydney via Hobart to the Horn not counting the diversion to Dunedin, this exercise begins to develop its own perspective. We are in second term of first year at Uni – early excitement of getting started, meeting friends again and being generally chatted up by everyone who needs a vote or a new member for their team, new subjects and ideas; all now mostly a vague memory as we deal with weekly assignments, often boring lectures, seemingly endless future of headbang before the next break. (Second term of second year probably somewhere in the Atlantic – that’s the real downer). Or at about 12k in a marathon when I at least start to wonder what the hell I’m doing wasting a perfectly good sunday hurting myself and trying not to think of the next 30.182k. The trick there is reductio ad absurdam – every metre is one less to run, every k is a bit over 2% of the distance – and then focus on each mini fraction and get it right. Adding in little tasks like catching the guy (usually girl these days) in front makes the whole thing bearable.
I wonder what it’s like up in the space station. Those guys have a very tight regime which is sometimes not helpful as far as endurance goes. Pity we cant get internet access out here – would be nice to know whether their orbit goes this far south and if so when they are passing over – the nearest humans to us at that moment, probably – and we could prepare a small libatory offering in their honour. Any bloody excuse, Whitworth. Pete didn’t mention the need for ritual and celebration in his stunningly accurate moan about deserving more booze but it adds to the opportunities.
Had actually intended to try and construct a socio-anthropological spoof along the lines of the Nacirema but gave up – I’m too rusty on the terminology and the intellect wilted at the consequences of getting it wrong. Where are you when I need you, JR? Descend from the steel cupola at the top of your concrete tower and talk to one of your fans. And anyway, what tribe would ever think of calling themselves the Allimirreb – on second thoughts, it comes straight from Petrie or Stobart or one of those industrious imperial writers and diggers chasing the ancient Assyrians – might work after all.
And there’s the daily cycle of mood swings to be dealt with. Often depends on the sort of day we wake up to – glorious, sunny start or, as mostly down here, grey, damp, claggy and depressing – just like summer in England. Today is g,d,c&d so it’s going to be a day of achieving little things a metre at a time. I’ve run the engine for its weekly warm up and made 4.5 litres of desalinated water. Probably need to change from the coarse pitch turbineAcquair turbine, consisting of a generator which hangs from the pushpit, 40 metres of line, and a towed 1-metre long metal impeller. to the fine – at the 5 -6 kts we are getting, the coarse one just doesnt get the revs to stay ahead of the battery drain. Must at least pull it in and check for chafe. Wash the little mungiesBeans sprouted on board if it’s warm enough and maybe harvest the cress for a cheese sandwich later. Perhaps make some bread. Scrape the whiskers off the jowls again. All that stuff. Plus all the formal radio skeds and the informal 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. and gribWeather files.
Graphics in Binary file: GRIB files associate a specific weather datum (eg wind velocity or atmospheric pressure) with a geographic position. Because the resulting file is a collection of these points they are extremely small and so ideal over slow links such as sailmail. activity. Makes for a good thirst. Yesterday we sent Derek Barnard at Penta ComstatA private radio communication service for yachts and pleasure craft, now sadly no longer available. our sign-off email – we can hear him but he can’t hear us any more. No more of his dulcet tone until December – a really big hole in daily life – onya Derek – huge thanks and keep up the good work till we get back.
John W – the amazing and fantastic WMWitchardWitchard, John: Berri has one of his 22hp engines, much praised for its reliability. See also Tractor. Marine, Berrimilla's engine maker owned and run by John WitchardWitchard, John: Berri has one of his 22hp engines, much praised for its reliability. See also Tractor., a friend who sailed in Berri in a Hobart race. Diesel engine survived its knockdownWhen the boat is severely rolled or knocked over sideways, normally when beam on to big rolling breakers. half barrel roll and started first kick – tricky to prime with bent ribs but. What do you reckon it burns at idle revs? Seems to be about 2ltr/hr at 6kts. We have to conserve diesel till the Falklands so we have to sail out of the somewhat unexpected number of holes we have found. Doug, thanks for the internet site – Steve is going to check it and send me any useful data to plug into 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.’s propagationIn the logs, this refers to the radiation of signal energy and is customarily qualified by the words abysmal, ratshit or lousy prediction app. which is based on ICEPAC and generally very accurate. And thanks to the starlings for Waltzing Mailda – never heard of Davenport but seems to be someone we could have had a beer with. End of first lecture for the day.
By Alex on February 7, 2005, at 0453 UTC
0453hrs 07 Feb 2005 UTC 47’45”S 157’28”W Map Ref 50 2515nm
Making bread, harvested the cress for cheese biscuits and The DoctorGuinness for breakfast. Nice it was and some more in the garden.
Just had a hurricane warning about TC Meena, 1200 miles to the north, 100 kt winds near the centre. Glad we’re down here.
We are just at the top of the low pressure system to the south. Front has just passed us and we are creeping north again to avoid the windier bits. Must go and do some kneading – see yez all tomoz.
By Alex on February 7, 2005, at 2341 UTC
Topic(s): Bread making, Cooking, Food, Things that worked, Vegie garden 2341hrs 07 Feb 2005 UTC 47’05”S 155’08”W Map Ref 51 2618nm
Specially lumpy night – 25-30kt all night and we are now getting a SW swell of about 8 – 10 metres with something like a 200 m wavelength so it’s not too vicious when they come singly. Standing at the mast and looking down from the top of one of the bigger ones is a bit like looking down into one of those open cut mines in Qld. Sometimes there are groups of 2 or 3 very close together and the first one seems to suck the centre out of the next one so it’s much steeper and potentially more dangerous. Thats what knocked us down, we think. There’s a cross sea over the swell, seems to be from the NW so the boat is rolling and pitching in huge corkscrews.
Nowhere to sit or put anything down – try making bread when the kitchen lurches away from you from one corner and curls round and swipes you from the other. Kneading on the top of the engine box so there might be a stray bootferal in the mix somewhere to add piquancy. All has to be done one handed while holding on with the other and all ten toes. But it worked – about 4 hours for two 350gm loaves (one of them Chinese, KatherineAlex’s daughter) and bliss this morning with LackersteensMarmalade that went round Cape Horn. IzzoIsabellaAlex's sister, Alex’s sister has the empty tin! marmelade and a coffee. Planning this mornings libation for the gods to celebrate after pulling in Qld VMC wxfaxThe Australian Bureau of Meteorology 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. Marine Radio Weather by Fax service. VMC is the callsign of the Charleville Base Station in Queensland. VMW is the callsign of Wiluna in WA. Charleville and Wiluna are the two Maritime Communications Stations in Australia. Berrimilla received weather faxes from VMC close to Cape Horn and from VMW clost to the Cape of Good Hope – both at a range of more than 6000 miles. in half an hour. Will probably save until we put up a bit more sail when the swell abates….Later – libation under way. Gods obviously not sufficiently mollified because they are dropping the wind on us again. Perhaps we should double libatory offerings. SarauYacht with which Berri had a rendezvous at sea say they had 60 kt overnight, but they are now nearly 500 miles ahead.
And we’ve had our first very slender contact with The Other Side – last night I was able to listen in to the Patagonian cruise ship skedShort for schedule. A pre-arranged (scheduled) time and frequency for radio contact often co-ordinated by a shore station, such as Penta Comstat, which is monitoring location and safety of boats in their area. Failure to respond to one or more sked can be a sign of trouble on 8164mhz – Gerry, great to talk to you on the satphone, and I’ll send you an email direct with authorisation to use relevant matl from the website. Your return call came straight back – seems to be working fine. Ta and mtfbwy. May well be sending these u/ds via Chile in the next few days. Am in contact but tx speed too slow for the mo. Will try with this one later when propagationIn the logs, this refers to the radiation of signal energy and is customarily qualified by the words abysmal, ratshit or lousy may be better – check the header. Another little milestone – perhaps the first kilmetre mark in a marathon or getting the first assignment back in term 2 with a tick on it somewhere.
Another couple of things that have really worked for us: the butcher in Kingston Tas sealed our 4 kilo bacon supply into individual plastic packs containing 4 slices each – brilliant – so we don’t have to eat it all at once (Alex, if you’re out there, please thank him for his trouble) and Tony and his Crew at Majestic Foods in Sydney packed their dried food into single serve packs too, each one with a recipe, contents etc. Thanks Tony – hope you’re getting this – special effort and much appreciated – please thank your staff for us. Haven’t started on the Chefsway dried curries yet Nathan, but they are also packed and sealed in tough plastic so they survive in places that might get wet and we are keeping them as backup.
The mungBeans sprouted on board if it’s warm enough beansBeans sprouted on board if it’s warm enough have sprouted in a small plastic bucket with a stocking over the top so fresh vegies are possible and we will have them for lunch. Perhaps we need a couple of goats and a pig up in the forepeak,- instant fertiliser, maybe a natural gas plant and fresh meat. And company that treats us as equals.
I’ve often wondered what makes someone put a webcam in their bathroom and beam it to the world – the presumption that anyone could possibly be interested is breathtaking for starters – yet, in a slightly less graphic medium, that’s what we’re doing with this website. I do hope it’s not too full of trite and brain damaging slush – hard to tell from the inside and always happy to get any kind of feedback. I guess I’m presuming someone’s actually reading it.
Thanks to you all for last crop of messages – really didn’t think anyone would pick me up on Petrie, Dianne and thanks Doug for coronal event notification – please keep that stuff coming and we’ll keep hoping for an aurora. Were you ever 21, Allan? We’ll think of you when we get there. Where’s yer earring and do you put your foot on the table when god saves ER2?
By Alex on February 8, 2005, at 2131 UTC
Topic(s): Ellen MacArthur, Space station (ISS) 2131hrs 08 Feb 2005 UTC 47’00”S 152’27”W Map Ref 52 2728nm
Frustrating day again yesterday – the wind died to somewhere close to zephyr status but left the swell for us to corkscrew around in. Sails slatting and banging all day – not good for them or the rig and shaking the whole boat. Impossible to sleep or get much else dome and constantly worried about some kind of damage. Wind returned overnight and we are now going East again at 6.5 with about 25 – 40 kt behind us and the #s 4 & 5 twin poledAn explanation from Malcolm: It is quite normal for a yacht to 'pole out' its jib (the foresail) on the opposite side of the boat to the mainsail when running downwind - this is called goosewinging'. A spinnaker pole is attached to the mast at one end and the back corner (clew) of the jib at the other. That holds the jib at the right angle so that it catches the wind. On Berri they've found that they can often get good performance and a comfortable ride by taking the mainsail right down and setting a second jib poled out on the opposite side to the first.. Bludgers way of sailing but very comfortable and effective.
Thanks for the Ellen McArthur stuff Steve. Good on her – bloody remarkable effort – interesting to compare the technology and progress achieved. She used a 70+ ft cat capable of about 30 kt – don’t know sail plan for those boats but perhaps with an aerofoil mast, twin furlers and full hydraulics to manage the sails and rig and almost completely empty inside apart from her living space. There would be a couple of huge reaching gennakers and probably not a lot else. She would have to tend to the rig and the boat almost without a break to keep it at max speed, stop it breaking apart and generally conserve it as much as possible without compromising speed and would get very little time to sleep. Down south of where we are around 60 – the thing would be jumping from one wave crest to the next and the noise would be unrelenting and deafening – the rig howling and the almost empty hulls hulls pounding and drumming and flexing and maybe all the blocks creaking as well, although she’d have hi tech ones with big bearings. Constantly on the edge, extreme tension, hard and dangerous to move around on deck. And all the time she probably had to look after her sponsors and the media with chatty emails. We dips our me lids to a very brave sailor and I hope the Queen gives her a great big gong. Makes our little effort look woosie and self indulgent.
Meanwhile, we plod on in our old workhorse at about a third of her speed at best and it will certainly take us three times as long. We’ve probably got about the same space to live in but that’s where it stops. We don’t have the speed or the waterline length to ride the big wave crests further south and we have to take anything more than 30 knots very seriously because, as we move so slowly even downwind, the apparent wind is much greater than on a planing hull and exerts relatively much more force on our rig but the boat only accelerates very slowly in response and the force builds up. If we then hit the back of a wave and the hull wants to stop and the rig wants to keep going we’ve got a big problem. So we go slow. With the benefit of inexperience, I had not expected that we would have to do as many sail changes as we have – haven’t been counting but we have averaged at least three per day. Necessary to keep the power down (or up) at a level the boat can accept. Time to go and get some of it off right now – sea building up and we’re starting to surf. 40+ kt Later – done – just the #5 poled out on a long tack strop so if we roll a bit on a big one, the end of the pole wont go in the water. feels much safer, still have 6-7 kt. instead of 8 -9. Reasonable compromise.
Thanks, Malcolm and Tricia for the Intl Space Station orbit times. Too cloudy last night and will be for the next few days, I think but nice to know they are passing by just up the street. Be really interesting to talk to them – anyone know anyone at NASA? We have a satellite phone, vhfVery High Frequency radio. Short range radio equipment for voice and other applications such as AISAutomatic Identification System. An automatic tracking system used on ships and by vessel traffic services (VTS) for identifying and locating vessels.. and 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…
By Alex on February 9, 2005, at 0711 UTC
0711hrs 09 Feb 2005 UTC 46’53”S 151’07”W Map Ref 53 2783nm
just had first warning from 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. re usage. very long slow download today. have emailed them to ask for 20 min allocation till we get to the horn but will only do downloads from you tomorrow on 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.. unless i hear from them. v. short updates on satcom. just done fifth sailchange of the day. orange @ 47s 30 e doing 700 miles/day. shiiitExtended shit....
By Alex on February 9, 2005, at 1220 UTC
1220hrs 09 Feb 2005 UTC 46’47”S 150’23”W Map Ref 54 2813nm
we’re now just inside the top of the engine that drives the southern ocean weather – the ring of lows around 50s. cold, windy, big messy seas and very uncomfortable. will have to cut back a bit on updates for a day.or so as have just been warned by 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. that we are overusing our station time. this one is going out via satcomc which is fiendishly expensive. thanks for all your messages – makes the day when mailcall arrives but please keep them short to help us stay inside 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. hi roger and the sailing office – wish you were here.
By Alex on February 9, 2005, at 1831 UTC
1831hrs 09 Feb 2005 UTC 46’25”S 149’45”W Map Ref 55 2849nm
got your test but will wait till we have 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. prop again and see whethere there is anything from 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. re my request for more time. prob about 4 hrs to wait.
By Alex and Peter on February 10, 2005, at 0509 UTC
Topic(s): Sails, Turbine, Washing & Toilet 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.
By Alex on February 11, 2005, at 0434 UTC
Topic(s): Communications, Turbine, Weather 0434hrs 11 Feb 2005 UTC 45’39”S 145’35”W Map Ref 57 3028nm
Alex: Our latest GribWeather files.
Graphics in Binary file: GRIB files associate a specific weather datum (eg wind velocity or atmospheric pressure) with a geographic position. Because the resulting file is a collection of these points they are extremely small and so ideal over slow links such as sailmail. weather download indicates it’s going to be a bit iffy down around 50S in a couple of days with a 40-50kt front coming thro. so we are deliberately allowing Berri to ride the prevailing SW wind up to about 45S else we’ll end up a bit like Pete’s left nut. We will try and run along 45 until it seems appropriate once again to descend. Unglam and cautious and pathetic, youse may say, but then youse didn’t see the nut. It means we’ll log a few extra miles. so we’ll have to ration medical supplies, Shokko – happy new boat.
A day in the life of the informal radio operation: difficult to write about because it has no structure. It does, however revolve around mail call from Steve with all your messages – the high point of the day. At the moment, this occurs around midnight our local time which is now about 5 hours ahead of Oz and a day behind. The informal radio day consists of writing dollops of this nonsense during the intervals between skeds, sleep, sail changes, turbineAcquair turbine, consisting of a generator which hangs from the pushpit, 40 metres of line, and a towed 1-metre long metal impeller. checks and weeding the garden and monitoring the radio propagationIn the logs, this refers to the radiation of signal energy and is customarily qualified by the words abysmal, ratshit or lousy application that comes with 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. to pick times when we have a reasonable chance of sending out stuff to Steve in the shortest possible transmission interval. Very tricky at the moment – extreme range and poor propagationIn the logs, this refers to the radiation of signal energy and is customarily qualified by the words abysmal, ratshit or lousy anyway mean that transmission speeds are truly snail like and we are always close to 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. We also get our gribWeather files.
Graphics in Binary file: GRIB files associate a specific weather datum (eg wind velocity or atmospheric pressure) with a geographic position. Because the resulting file is a collection of these points they are extremely small and so ideal over slow links such as sailmail. weather via 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. and so we have to fit a gribWeather files.
Graphics in Binary file: GRIB files associate a specific weather datum (eg wind velocity or atmospheric pressure) with a geographic position. Because the resulting file is a collection of these points they are extremely small and so ideal over slow links such as sailmail. request and the gribWeather files.
Graphics in Binary file: GRIB files associate a specific weather datum (eg wind velocity or atmospheric pressure) with a geographic position. Because the resulting file is a collection of these points they are extremely small and so ideal over slow links such as sailmail. file download into our 10 minutes as well. If you are interested in things gribby, go to www.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..com and look it up – there’s a good search function. Very useful facility and works via satphone too if you have the data capable handset. 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. also comes with a weatherfax program and we try to get two S Pacific MSLP analysis faxes a day from VMC at Charleville and two from NZ Metservice. These are broadcast at scheduled times and are really part of the formal day. Weatherfax doesn’t require a connection to 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., so it doesn’t count as part of our daily 10 minutes. The whole operation, formal and informal, is controlled by by the laptop and its single USB connection to the 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 and GPS and the Software on Board navigation application. I have a backup laptop but if the USB multiport device fails, we’re back to voice. We take very good care of it, but it’s damp and often quite wet very close to all the sensitive gizmology so fingers crossed. The conePlastic roll-down curtain to protect nav table /instruments from water of silencePlastic roll-down curtain to protect nav table /instruments from water (a heavy plastic curtain that drops across the nav table and its goodies) is looking better and better as we get further out.
Today we are one calendar month out from Hobart. There will be a ‘tiny milestone’ level celebration when we are both awake.
I have just changed the turbineAcquair turbine, consisting of a generator which hangs from the pushpit, 40 metres of line, and a towed 1-metre long metal impeller. – now using the fine pitch one – and, with lots of fondling of the nearest wood, I think we may have a solution to the chafe problem. Good old duct tape to the rescue once again – at the last check pullout, I wrapped a couple of layers around the contact area of the tow line and tied the 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 .
(and we always tape the bitter end of the line at each end-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 .
back to the line itself around the 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 .
, which stops it flailing) and the line came in more or less unmarked after a couple of days. Next check should confirm. Also have a new method for pulling it in and getting rid of the Gordian gigatwist problem. First, put gloves on. No compromise, put them on. Then stop the generator shaft rotating with one hand while other hand or other person undoes towline from gen. shaft. Pull in the turbineAcquair turbine, consisting of a generator which hangs from the pushpit, 40 metres of line, and a towed 1-metre long metal impeller. using both hands while allowing the free end of the line to trail behind the boat and the twists from the still turbineAcquair turbine, consisting of a generator which hangs from the pushpit, 40 metres of line, and a towed 1-metre long metal impeller. powered end to unwind through your glove and down the trailing part. Trick is not to let go… Best to pass the line through a loop of some sort attached to the pushpitThe railing around the deck at the stern of a yacht. before starting the exercise. First time seemed quick and easy but using the coarse (so slow rotating) turbineAcquair turbine, consisting of a generator which hangs from the pushpit, 40 metres of line, and a towed 1-metre long metal impeller.. Fast one may be harder – watch this space. More on yesterday’s little mystery later.
Hi Judy – glad you like it. Sonia too? Please convey G’day to the UoW team and the VC members – ta and mtfbwy..
By Peter on February 11, 2005, at 1256 UTC
Topic(s): Meals 1256hrs 11 Feb 2005 UTC 45’27”S 144’44”W Map Ref 58 3066nm
Pete: Hello out there – we have been away from hobart for a month now – perhaps time to reflect. All is going well, progress is a little slow as we sawtooth our way across the longitudes moving between 45 & 50S to avoid the heavy winds to the south and soft spots to the north along the path where the highs and the lows meet, getting info from the 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. and weatherfax.
The three hour watch system works well we both seem to get enough sleep and we also eat well with a good variety of foods. Our fresh food is just about finished, only spuds,onions, carrots & garlic left and not a great deal of that. Quarantine removed all our fresh food in Dunedin and we took much smaller quantities when we left to give us more space. I cookBritish explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. He made 3 voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. More on wikipedia. the main meal each night which works well as Alex spends much of his time working the radio and computer. When we had a lot of fresh vegies, we had stir fries with pasta, various curries, egg and bacon omelette with veg folded in, pastawith various sauces, sometimes just a soup and now we are eating the dried meals Jeanne and Alex Sutherland prepared in Hobart. Tonight will be a kind of spanish omelette with spuds, onion, garlic and bacon.
I have already spoken of our small but adequate supply of booze. Alex is the baker and the bread he produces is great. Water in the main tank seems to be going quickly but we have backup in various containers. tomorrow, alex intends to fit a new membrane to the desalinator which should make its product more suitable for drinking – at the moment we just use it for cooking. We have hardly used the engine since motoring out of Dunedin so still have about 80 ltrs of fuel.
I have been getting sun sights when the weather clears and the results using the nautical almanac and sight reduction tables are good considering the conditions. If all the electronics crash, I feel we could continue on using celestial nav. Thats about it for the moment, might continue tomorrow. The best thing is that after a month at sea we still get on together – no arguments and we agree on the important things like whether it should be a coopersCoopers Sparkling Ale: - according to Alex: “brewed in the bottle, so a bit of sludge comes with it - best beer on the planet - beats a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster hands down”. Also a home brew from a Cooper’s Kit, perfected by onboard master-brewer Pete. See Pete’s interesting equation or a guinness today and the dry sense of humour is still with us both. We both have plenty of good books and cds to get us through the quiet times and plenty to do when its not so quiet. Cheers Pete.
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The logs ramblings can be cryptic, so we have added: