Jul 05, 2005 - 0800hrs UTC │Falmouth

0800hrs 05 Jul 2005 UTC Falmouth

G’day from a wet and cold and miserable Falmouth. Looks as if the rollercoaster might be on its way again – the plan is to leave about midday tomorrow for the SolentStrait separating the Isle of Wight from the mainland of England., hoping to get to Portland Bill at low tide so we get the benefit of the flood all the way to Lymington from there. But the best laid plans…

I’d forgotten how difficult it is to be completely dependent on the tide (about a 4+ metre range here) – and how easy it is in Sydney where there are floating pontoons and available power- we cant go alongside a pontoon anywhere here without paying a wheelbarrow load of money to whoever the operating authority is and we can’t dry out beside a wall because Berri’s keel shape wont allow her to sit vertically.

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 still isn’t working properly and the laptop is misbehaving again with unstable links to the USB devices it needs to talk to – desperately frustrating because anyone who understands these things could probably fix most of the problems in 10 minutes. I have a step-through instruction set from Simon at Digiboat – thanks Simon – which may get us through the USB stuff but the radio will now have to wait for the ICOM expert in Lymington. I think it is major – a new tuner, perhaps, but we can’t isolate the problem here – no-one seems to know enough about the radio. It just isn’t transmitting or receiving although it makes all the right noises and the right lights flash.

And there is a crack in a spreader bracket that the riggers found yesterday – definitely not a showstopper (I think it has been there for a long time) but should be

fixed before we leave for Oz – means we have to lift the mast for a 10 minute welding job – I rather wish they had picked it up 3 weeks ago. Lifting the mast requires a bit of co-ordination – theres a one hour window at high tide when we can get across the sill into the lifting berth, lift the mast and get out over the sill again – no opportunity for getting it wrong and we can’t afford to get stuck in the berth when it dries out – and we have to book in, arrange the crane driver and the riggers have to get the bracket off and get it to the welder and all to arrive at the right time and be ready to fix overnight…And then come back the next day and repeat the process in reverse. Now due to happen when we get back after the FastnetFastnet Race: 608 mile biennial race from Cowes, UK, Isle of Wight, to the Fastnet Rock off Southern Ireland, finishing in Plymouth. Berrimilla took part in 2005 and 2009.. Everyone has been very helpful but we have run out of time to do it before we go to Lymington.

Might be easier to do there.

The rest of the rig has been fixed – we settled for replacing all the lower swages with sta-locks which are re-usable and self fixable if we need to do it ourselves – just need a length of wire. About $2kAUD instead of 10k or so for a complete rerig.

Sorry no photos – just can’t get this caff pc to accept and send – will try from Lymington.

Now off to stock up with medicinal compounds for the trip up the channel – may be an update tomorrow but probably not till about Friday.