Nov 17, 2005 - 0750hrs UTC

0750hrs 17 Nov 2005 UTC 45’02”S 067’49”E Ref 563

we are in sunshine – perhaps for 10 minutes – the old farts are loving it and the feralsInteresting biological colonies that grow and fester in seaboots. There are left foot ferals and right foot ferals and occasionally they get to cross breed and create fierce hybrids. have gone into hiding. feels as if the air t is about 5, same as water which is 5.4 so probably not in current. vmgVelocity made good – loosely, speed in the right direction. over 6, o doing k anyway – poled out #1 and full main – haven’t seen that for a while either. small break for the persistent, perhaps. lots of seaweed clumps – not long kelpTypes of brown algae, which hold on to the rocky sea bottom with root-like structures. Floats in huge mats close to land and potentially capable of fouling a propeller or a rudder. More here (Wikipedia) like near falklands but shorter, with ‘bubble’ fronds. also a lot of short spiky pieces, about 25cm, floating vertically with just the tip of the spike above the surface. seeds perhaps? sunshine gone again.

hi l, j + h – kevvoStainless steel self steering device, built by Kevin Fleming, used on Berrimilla and countless others sends his best wishes and says he’s glad all those albatrosses have gone off to kerguelen for a rest – his arms were getting quite tired from all that tweaking.

we’re making water with the solar panel carrying most of the load – now drawing 2.2 apms with watermaker, satcom and pc running – normally at least 7.

From Paul D.

While you are sitting in the Southern Ocean sitting out being becalmed, think about repairing the Ampair Gen. Does not appear hard to dismantle, looking at the parts drawing on the web site, just be careful of the permanent magnet rotor being out of the magnetic shunt for too long (1hr max). It appears the front bearing is the same as the rear. I will check with Quirks at Botany tomorrow about field repairs.

Spoke to some Amateur Radio buffs about 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. propagationIn the logs, this refers to the radiation of signal energy and is customarily qualified by the words abysmal, ratshit or lousy and they recon its bad for another 6 months, rated at “”0″”. Could still have a aerial or feeder problem. What does the SWR meter indicate?

We are still tossing up the cause of the USB port problem with the Laptop at the ABC. Suspect excessive power drain on the USB while driving the modem, or the RF energy is getting back into the Laptop logic circuits swamping the data.

Try rotating the laptop 90deg to aerial or some shielding around it.

We discuss your problems at the pub after ringing and you do have some armchair critics out there. Web hits are about 500 per day.

Check for new log entries morning noon and night. Can now follow the weather charts on the web site.

The large brownish birds could be immature albos or Great Southern Skewers. These are nasty birds that chase other birds and pull at their tail feathers to make them disgorge food. Nasty types built like a flying brick or large gull.

paul – tks for advice – ampair definitely too hard – appears the face plater screwed in, needs jig, heat etc, anyway, don’t have spare bearings. bearings front and rear are the same – we are in touch with ampair engineer. re laptop – above about 10 megs, the usb multi-serial port device closes down immediately i try to transmit. if i then get recovery in wrong order, blue srreen of death follows but i now know how to avoid this – trial and error works. i have checked the earth connection and have rolled about a foot of roofing lead tightly around the usb cable – no go. have asked for some clip-on ferrites when we get to tassie but think it may need more than that – perhaps earth plate polish under boat?