0900hrs 21 Oct 2005 UTC 39’30”S 012’26”E Ref 468
DMG 97 – day’s run 108, gps 115.
Steve I’ve turned off the satcom to conserve but will use it as necessary. Will stop messing about with numbers in the DB – in future, now that I can do a reasonable estimate, I will just give you DMG to SE Cape and the other 2 numbers to show how efficient or otherwise we have been. [62 / 48]
Lizzie, Joe and Harvey ellooo! Do you want to know why Berrimilla wanders all over the ocean instead of going in a straight line? It’s that Kevvo again, playing games with the Albatrosses which keep trying to bomb him with poo - and an Albatross is a BIG bird so it’s got buckets of the stuff but it is a very clever eater so it doesn’t need to poo very often – maybe once a month – and when Kevvo sees one coming he gives one of the tiller lines a little tweak and Berrimilla gives a little wiggle, old Alby glides past and there we are – wiggling along. Albatrosses sleep while they are flying. If they didn’t, they would get very tired because they fly for days and days. If there was a very tired Alby and it wanted to lie flat on its back with its wings spread out for a snooze (which it wouldn’t, but it’s a nice idea!) then it would need a bed about twice as long as yours for each wing and another one in the middle for its body – they are very big. And talking of Alby poo – which we were, they don’t poo in browm lumps like people but in long white squirts. Penguins do the same, and because at times penguins stand around a lot you can easily tell where one has been standing because there is a big fan of long white squirts on the ground, usually all around a muddy patch where its feet were. Good fun. If that’s all too scatological, Jez, holler and I’ll tone it down.
And if anyone else want’s to know why we can’t sail in a straight line, it’s cos I had to invent a bedtime story. So there!
Can’t believe it but the wind seems to be dropping out. Definitely not in the guide book. We’re poled out with the cutdown and the 5 expecting 30+ and its sunny, gently wafting breeze, clear blue sky. Probably not for long, as we’ve learned.
Local time Trafalgar day rum about to happen. We called RANSA on the batphone to wish them a good party and to say thanks for their generosity – sorry guys, I don’t know who I spoke to because it was an awful connection but it was nice to be able to say G’day to youse all. Also Don P, but you were out.
From Liz F. Yachtmaster
I ‘m not in the habit of communicating with guys I’ve never met but as you rightly stated you need to know if you’re efforts are hitting the right spot. Well I’m impressed, Yachting Monthly ran an interesting article on you, how they kept you still long enough to get a story I don’t know. I’ve only been in sailing a few years but I get a thrill from reading about real life experiences, the more hairy the better. So far my worst nightmare has been trying to pee in a force 7 off Harwich Harbour East coast UK, when the seat broke off and my head bounced against the door I remember thinking what a struggle it must be to survive a passage in the Southern Ocean, at least I get to come home and have a hot bath.
Thank you for your web site I shall keep an eye on it.
Liz – flying loo seats are indeed a health hazard. I’ve often wondered how it might be possible to make life easier for women in boats and I thought that the women who fly in the Space Shuttle probably have special seat gadgetry attached, of course to some sort of suction – but the basic gadgetry might be adaptable to a marine toilet. Drum roll for some dreadful puns about certain boat fittings with very male specific names…. Anyway, I’ll ask the question, if the answer isn’t already on the NASA website. Mal??
The logs ramblings can be cryptic, so we have added: