Jun 22, 2005 – 1015hrs UTC │Falmouth

1015hrs 22 Jun 2005 UTC Falmouth

[ed: I have included an observer update from Alex’s sister, Isabella, who has been a huge help in the UK – don’t know how she puts up with him!]

IsabellaAlex's sister writes: They are due inMalta Friday / Saturday. Mum is worrying what to give the lads for breakfast. I didn’t mention a consultationA regular engagement with alcohol. One might say this whole epic is a Consultation with a bit of a sail round it. See also Conservation Mode; Linear and Parallel Methods of Consultation with aTabasco bacon roll, or she’d have tried to organise it.

Just spoke to Alex who is going ape over internet comms being so bad inFalmouth. Internet caff connection has gone down, there’s a queue at the library and the yacht Club turfed him off after 10 minutes.

He can’t wait for the boat to be back in the water so he can use the radio – he says they think they found the prob today with a waterlogged circuit breaker but have to wait until Berri’s afloat again to test it properly.

[ed: now, back to Alex]

Launch day is now crack of dawn on Friday, before we set off for Heathrow [ed: going toMaltato visit Alex’s mum]. The to-do list is looking much more friendly – sails done, liferaft ordered, rudder fixed – Pete did a great job there – had to lift the main suspension plate in the cockpit by a few mm so that it takes the weight off the bottom pin. New cockpit drain seacocks and tubes, desalinator plumbed in properly, tiller being fixed, kevvoStainless steel self steering device, built by Kevin Fleming, used on Berrimilla and countless others due back from the welder today.

Bill, I’ll try to ring you about the liferaft in the next few days.

And the radio is working again WOOOHOOOa primitive, exultant, gibbon-like call given out by an old geezerDictionaries define a geezer as an old person, generally an eccentric old man. Its origin likely in the word masquerader (colloquially, guiser) from Middle English gysar. Go figure, as the Americans say.; many variations as listed, in order of emphasis: Woohoo Woooohooo WOOOHOOO WOOOHOOO! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOa primitive, exultant, gibbon-like call given out by an old geezerDictionaries define a geezer as an old person, generally an eccentric old man. Its origin likely in the word masquerader (colloquially, guiser) from Middle English gysar. Go figure, as the Americans say.; many variations as listed, in order of emphasis: Woohoo Woooohooo WOOOHOOO WOOOHOOO! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!! The problem was a faulty circuit breaker – we had tried to isolate it at sea but didn’t really know how it was all set up. The acid test will be when it goes back in the water and I connect the laptop and try to contact 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 get some 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. 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. files…

But the usual problems that you will all recognise – as soon as we start on one fix we find another just underneath it so it’s slow going.