Oct 09, 2005 – 1750hrs UTC

1750hrs 09 Oct 2005 UTC 34’33”S 013’36”W Ref 425

Time for a stocktake. Two old farts at the bottom end of the South Atlantic in their battered old boat with 60 days yet to go or, if my memory and mental arithmetic can cope, with 60 days out of a likely 236 odd sailing days and the end far from in sight and how are we doing? This is starting to look like a list and I doubt you want lists with the coffee and croissants – we’re not going to run out of food or water – we make about 4 ltrs/day – and we seem to be healthy, altho I’m wasting away – muscles like larded string – and given the capacity of my decrepit metabolism to regenerate them, it’s going to be as interesting as watching stalactites grow when I get home and start running again. Tedious.

If we eventually finish the job, it will have been an unusually long circumnavigation because of the leg from St Paul Rocks to the 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. and back to the equator – say an extra 7000 miles. Had we turned for home at St Paul, we would have been there by now.

So here we are, abeam WollongongThe town which moves. There is a Berri-joke about having a beer off Wollongong on the return trip from Hobart - and how Wollongong seems to move further south each year. and as riotous as our medicine chest would allow, with Cape AgulhasThe southernmost point of Africa, where the Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean. The real corner, south east of the Cape of Good Hope. only 24 miles to the south but still nearly 1700 miles away. I have always believed that the Cape of Good Hope was the southern tip of Africa. It isn’t – have a look if you thought so too. And this is where the real work starts – a quarter of the journey to go and the need to gather the resources and dole them out to cover the rest of the enterprise. I’m certainly feeling the strain – it’s been a long bash and I can’t wait, at one level, for it to be over. At another, it will be a bit devastating. This is 30k in a marathon, which isn’t really even close to half way in effort and stain.

Wendy P, we opened the tin of chocolates today – wow! And thanks. We got the timing right – there’s one each per day to Tasmania. And your supply of The DoctorGuinness is sustaining us too.

To the Starlings and all the BoggersBrolga Owners – We should have a BoggersBrolga Owners BashCelebratory gathering of BrolgaBerrimilla is a Brolga 33 designed by Peter JoubertJoubert, Peter: mechnical engineer, specialising in fluid mechanics, now retired. Highly respected sailor and designer of the Brolga and other yachts; many mentions but see 115; Pete’s meeting with him, 122. For specs, see here Owners in the new year, perhaps at my house in Sydney, and you can bring along copies of all the records you have of your boats and we will see whether we can get a book together. Jenny, perhaps you could circulate the idea? I don’t have the list any more, or most of the addresses.

And, on the subject of Books – if Pete and I ever get around to the book of this enterprise, it won’t be the same without some quotations from your emails. It might save us a lot of hassle if those of you who have written to us would be kind enough to write to Stephen at berri@berrimilla.com saying whether you would be happy to allow us to use your emails and Gust bookThe Guest Book on the Berri site, so named to prevent spammers finding it to offer, or request unusual services and medications. The Gust book is here. entries (or preventing us from doing so)in a book, together with any instructions about acknowledging your copyright or maintaining your anonymity. We will chase anyone who we want to quote if we don’t hear from you.