May 13, 2005 - 1500hrs UTC

1500hrs 13 May 2005 UTC 18’00”N 035’21”W Map Ref 216 4960nm (2414nm to Falmouth)

Breakfast – Friday 13 May – the usual cardboard muesli activated by our composted dried fruit but this time washed down – no, washed has too much attitude  – stroked down perhaps? by a snort of The GlenfiddichMalt whisky: a well known Scots Consultant. Too dreadful for words and, indeed, they fail me. So it seemed appropriate to break into my tiny stash of squashed Mars bars and nibble on the flat toffee-sticky end of one saved from some trauma a few weeks ago. We only have about 10 mars bars altogether – far too expensive in the Falklands, and they all got squashed around the time the liferaft departed. Pete is off chocolate – good lad, so the remains belong me.

I wonder if anyone found and reported the liferaft. Probably somewhere in or off southern Brazil. It is identifiable, so AMSAAustralian Maritime Safety Authority might know.

It’s been an alcoholic day – today is also the 50th day out of Stanley, so we allowed ourselves an extra 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 and we may just need another to appease whoever is in charge of Fridays with a 13.

Malcom – what would be the notation for infinite improbability? infinity to the power infinity to the minus one? Thanks for Milky Way stuff (Mal – could you post pse? Ta)- I was a bit off with my diameter. Hope my ETAEstimated Time of Arrival is a bit closer.

KevinFleming, Kevin: manufacturer of stainless steel self steering device, aka KevvoStainless steel self steering device, built by Kevin Fleming, used on Berrimilla and countless others, used on Berrimilla and countless others; (Kevin Fleming, you're an absolute bloody gem! ) F – could you please get the spares on the road to my sister if they aren’t already. We’ll be needing them in less than a month. Thanks.

Back to the Pole Star and Ghosts – it’s surprising how, in an otherwise empty – vastly stretchily empty – space, all our forerunners have a real presence, yet who, standing at the corner of Times Square would even think of Columbus or Vespucci or Eric the Red, Cortez or even 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. and Vancouver. Or the Mayflower. And I wonder if there is any tiny space in the Atlantic that Berrimilla could claim to be the first and only boat to cross? Probably less likely than on the other side of the Wall in the Pacific. The whalers in particular would have been everywhere, both sides.