FROM 1-8. Horn to Falkland Islands

Mar 8, 2005 - 1830hrs UTC

1830hrs 08 Mar 2005 UTC 55’14”S 077’53”W Map Ref 107

Here we go. The grib says we should be getting 30-35, we’re in sustained NW 45- 50 gusting to 65. Big – no, huge waves, often breaking around and over us. Sustained howl in the rig. We started with twin poles in 25, now we’ve just got the storm jib and we’re more or less running with the wind on the port quarter, 5 – 7knots on 115M so still broadly the right direction – horn bears 082. Berri taking it well so far but clearly not liking it. And this is just the start. Grib says 45 knots on thursday. Mostly don’t have an ETE on the GPS any more – told you always to ignore it! Just saw 70 kt gust.

From Bill K.
Hats off to you both, from Bill and the crew of Delta Wing. If we can help in any way contact me please! In Berri your efforts are right up there with the hotshots.

From Kees
I just caught up reading your fascinating story. I was away in Auckland for
almost two weeks, doing a bit of SAP training. Had no internet access in the
motel, so I fell behind, but I now caught up again. Last night I spoke with
Hilary who invited us for the Berrimilla bash. Regretfully we can not make
it. This Saturday I am off to China again, two weeks work in Chengdu. Diny
is coming a bit later and after I have finished work, we are going on
another trip. This time we first go to a world heritage area north west of
Chengdu and then to Xian and Beijing. We both are looking forward to it, but
unfortunately it clashes with the bash. But Hilary mentioned that next year
there will be a big party. I have already pencilled this one in.

When I am in Auckland I always go to Border’s bookshop and buy something.
Discovered there the latest book written by Jared Diamond. I read two books
written by him, “”Guns, Germs and Steel”” (short story of everybody during the
last 13,000 years) and “”The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee”” (us). His
latest book is called “”Collapse”” (How societies choose to fail or survive””).
Fascinating reading. The first chapter is about the US state of Montana and
describes the current situation and how it got into that situation. It is
sometimes unbelievable to see what sort of decisions people unknowingly make
and what consequences that has on the environment. I just started the second
chapter which describes the collapse of the Polynesian society on Easter
Island. According to Jared Diamond, the Polynesians were very good at
navigation and were able anticipate an island long before land became
visible from the flock of nesting seabirds that fly out over a radius of a
hundred miles. This meant that the effective diameter of Easter Island was
200 miles rather than 9. Something maybe to think about when all electronics
fail and it is too cloudy to shoot stars.

I will probably fall behind again when I am in China, but will catch up and
send you an email about our Chinese adventures. For sure very different than
yours.

hi Bill and the Delta Wings. Enjoy this from afar guys. And you, Kees.

Will see if we are still in contact. If so, will try to do series of short updates over next 48 hours.

Keep talking to us – shorties please.[ed: that means a couple of lines, thanks]

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