Feb 23, 2005 – 2315hrs UTC

Sitrep: 2315hrs 23 Feb 2005 UTC 49’57”S 115’07”W Map Ref 77 4525nm

We’re hooningAs far as I can gather, if Berri were a horse, she’d have the bit between her teeth to be hooning along 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. at 7-8 knots towards our own little Rubicon, which flows along 50s.  3 miles to go. As far as I can tell without faxes etc and just using 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. coverage of rather limited area, the immediate next few days look OK.  Looks as if we have got below the low that was forming ahead of us and the one behind us is moving SE and we will be in the top and therefore favourable sector of it. I am going to risk some battery and try to pull in the Chilean wxShort for ‘weather’ fax later today as a backup.  We are now about 300 miles north of the Horn and 1700 miles west and entering the area where all the horror stories seem to originate. We are at the end of the favourable season for roundingCape Hornand we may get caught by an early change. Judging by the last VMC weather fax I was able to get, about 3 days ago, the lows are taking over from the south pacific high and the window is starting to close to the south east.

Wildlife report – in the absence of bread, we’re into the diet of worms.  Put peanut butter, honey, vegemite, whatever nice and thick between two Vita-Wheat biscuits and squeeze them together and see what you get. Very tasty, and to be eaten raw with wasabi.

Exercise – I’m used to running up to 100 k per week and down here, even with the extreme rolling and pitching, most of the work is done by the shoulders and hands and a sense of balance and it just doesn’t compute.  The heartbeat rarely gets above rest except when trepidating and very occasionally when working a recalcitrant halyard. Fat and flaccid, I am, if that isn’t some sort of a tautology.  Cloughy, if you’re listening, get fit boyo and you’ve got a chance, unless you think taking on a fat old man is beneath you. Choose your course and we’ll see whether that outstanding pint of the DoctorGuinness changes hands.Cowesto the Tennyson monument?

Compliment time: we would like to thank Stephen Jackson, who gives up a lot of his day to run this website for us as well as taking on all the extra hassle involved and my sister IsabellaAlex's sister, Catherine Hew, George Durrant at Ampair and all the other people who have helped us over the last few days. Through your generosity, ingenuity and hard work, I think we now have a replacement generator organised.  Very much appreciated.