Nov 07, 2005 - 2330hrs UTC

[ed: in response to some questions about vague and/or cryptic references elsewhere in the logs…]

Mobile Maritime Station Identification #, Closest Point of Approach Archer’s Tool – Strongbow cider – JW Smoothies come in a green can with a widget so have lovely creamy head. First tasted in theFalklands, Dr CooperCoopersCoopers Sparkling Ale: - according to Alex: “brewed in the bottle, so a bit of sludge comes with it - best beer on the planet - beats a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster hands down”. Also a home brew from a Cooper’s Kit, perfected by onboard master-brewer Pete. See Pete’s interesting equation Sparkling Ale: - according to Alex: “brewed in the bottle, so a bit of sludge comes with it - best beer on the planet - beats a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster hands down”. Also a home brew from a Cooper’s Kit, perfected by onboard master-brewer Pete. See Pete’s interesting equation CoopersCoopers Sparkling Ale: - according to Alex: “brewed in the bottle, so a bit of sludge comes with it - best beer on the planet - beats a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster hands down”. Also a home brew from a Cooper’s Kit, perfected by onboard master-brewer Pete. See Pete’s interesting equation Sparkling Ale: - according to Alex: “brewed in the bottle, so a bit of sludge comes with it - best beer on the planet - beats a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster hands down”. Also a home brew from a CooperCoopersCoopers Sparkling Ale: - according to Alex: “brewed in the bottle, so a bit of sludge comes with it - best beer on the planet - beats a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster hands down”. Also a home brew from a Cooper’s Kit, perfected by onboard master-brewer Pete. See Pete’s interesting equation Sparkling Ale: - according to Alex: “brewed in the bottle, so a bit of sludge comes with it - best beer on the planet - beats a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster hands down”. Also a home brew from a Cooper’s Kit, perfected by onboard master-brewer Pete. See Pete’s interesting equation ’s Kit, perfected by onboard master-brewer Pete. See Pete’s interesting equation – CooperCoopersCoopers Sparkling Ale: - according to Alex: “brewed in the bottle, so a bit of sludge comes with it - best beer on the planet - beats a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster hands down”. Also a home brew from a Cooper’s Kit, perfected by onboard master-brewer Pete. See Pete’s interesting equation Sparkling Ale: - according to Alex: “brewed in the bottle, so a bit of sludge comes with it - best beer on the planet - beats a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster hands down”. Also a home brew from a Cooper’s Kit, perfected by onboard master-brewer Pete. See Pete’s interesting equation ’s Sparkling Ale – brewed in the bottle, so a bit of sludge comes with it – best beer on the planet – beats a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster hands down. Also Pete’s home brew, brewed from a CoopersCoopers Sparkling Ale: - according to Alex: “brewed in the bottle, so a bit of sludge comes with it - best beer on the planet - beats a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster hands down”. Also a home brew from a Cooper’s Kit, perfected by onboard master-brewer Pete. See Pete’s interesting equation kit. 5Capesok, dodgerAn awning that covers a small part of the forward part of the cockpit (about 30cm). It makes a small sheltered place that the person who's on watch can cower under as waves go over. – small hood extending aft from coachroof over front of cockpit – v. small in Berri, just big enough to duck under and dodge the flying spray from greenie – wave breaking over boat, with some solid water. Check Peter J. citation with Thorry Gunnarson who knows him well and could even run it past him. 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. – ok, and available via 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., so extremely useful –  gives detailed wind and  baro. pressure over selected area by email. Arrives as active diagrammatic representation with wind arrows and isobars – v. clever, to us non nerds.

Went out to put in the second reef-- As a verb – to shorten sail, to use reefing lines or other techniques to make the working part of a sail smaller and so reduce its power as the wind rises. --- As a noun, (1) the part of the sail that has been shortened, folded or rolled. May be referred to as a slab or a slab reef which is a particular way of forming a reef. -- As a noun (2) – a bank of coral, rocks or other obstruction usually close to a shoreline and potentially dangerous to sailors. as we hooned towards the penguins at sunset – sky like looking into a furnace with deep, bottomless golden red glow and grey black clouds silhouetted in front – and an albatross too, at full 90 degree bank, razor wings

vertical with tips just curving upward with the g force. Magnificent. We can’t hold the great circleSee here (Wikipedia) course at the mo – carving a line along the rhumb. Not worth worrying about – we’re doing 6+. Berri thundering along, 2 reefs and 2, 30 – 35 kts from SW,

huge stern wave rolling up behind – some sparkles of phosphorescence and long smoky snaky trail in the water. Crashing a bit in the gustsShort increases in wind speed – or people who signed the Gust Book. with heavy water over the top and into the cockpit. Solid overcast, no moonglow, no stars. Barometer rising minimally so still on the front of a high, it seems.

 From John McC

You are in the thick of it down there and regularly comment on Berri as a strong seaworthy boat. In your opinion, is the S&S 34 as well found a boat.

John – I can’t compare Berri with an S&S 34 – never sailed in one – can tell you that the 34 is faster in light winds but we dork them in the heavy stuff. Brolgas have more interior space because engine aft under cockpit, not in saloon.

Malcom – tks for ship data. And squid. I expect the next ploy will be taking them for scientific research…

From Graham S

Cheer up my lads, its to glory you steer
To add something to your wonderful year
You were not pressed, so as to enslave
We that are so free, us sons of the waves.

By my MerlinMerlin calculator 11 and checked by my Endeavour Nav system, between 0700 hrs on 5th and 0900 hrs on the 6th you had 138.2 nm, by GPS positions, which is 5.3 Kts for 26hrs.

Sydney via S.E.Cape is 5407 nm, just 57nm more than via Bass Straight which has just the same weather as Agulas Plateau and its near vicinity which you have just experienced, and that plateau south of  NZ.

5407 nm at 5.3 kts puts you in Sydney on the 19th Dec.

Now I think you could do better than 5.3kts, especially via S.E.Cape. Bass Straight could end being a lot longer.

Graham – thanks for numbers and advice – problem with measuring between coordinates of day’s run is that the result is almost never the same as DMGDistance Made Good; More here . I think thatBass Straitis risky, as you suggest, but the better half of the compromise if we are cutting it

very fine. If we can catch up a bit, we’ll do theCape, no worries, mate. We’ll need a good southerly up the Taswegian coast to bring us home – and a boatful of diesel for the east coast current.