Sep 02, 2005 - 1515hrs UTC

1515hrs 02 Sep 2005 UTC 27’53”N 021’22”W Ref 327

I thought we had hooked into the TradesBands of NW and SW winds either side of the equator that blow with more or less constant speed and direction all year. but the ExaminerShe who asks awkward questions of the crew and tests them with difficult tasks. came flouncing in this morning in pink hotpants and leathers with SM kit at the high port to tell us differently. Pottering along in about 10 knots from the east – heavy sky, haze, maybe dust, cloud, heat. Sea almost indigo. Not enough wind to fill either kiteSailors’ slang for a spinnaker and, for all the required effort to get one up, probably futile to try, so we’re sitting back waiting for the sun to dip below the spreaders in the murky sky and signal the necessity for refreshment. It is difficult for an old stick-at-home like me to come to terms with the proximity of Africa – about 400 miles to the coast of Western Sahara, Cape Blanc in Mauretania way out there on the port bow. It’s Friday, RANSARoyal Australian Navy Sailing Association; a sailing club located in Sydney, Australia. twilights (Hi everyone – have a good one) and I’m used to thinking of Berri in the pond at CYCCruising Yacht Club of Australia – or chatting up Frank to get a berth on the pontoons somewhere for the weekend and this Africa stuff is not reality – yet nor is it a dream. Just not plausible somehow. What are we doing here? How did we come to be here?

We are on a well travelled bit of ocean – direct route for all the early sailors going south then either east or west about from Europe and now the milk run for yachts from Europe and the Med heading for the Cape verdes and the departure point for the transatlantic passage to the West Indies. We are about a month ahead of the big rush, although given the hurricane nastiness, there may be a lot fewer this year.

Yachting MonthlyMagazine published in the UK and Yachting WorldMagazine published in the UK come out in the UK next week, so they should be in the Australian shops by the end of the month if they fly them out, or in about 6 – 8 weeks if shipped. Hugh Marriott, who wrote the YMMagazine published in the UK article, has kindly allowed us to put his pre-edited original on the website once YMMagazine published in the UK hits the streets -Thanks Hugh – I think it’s much better that the edited version, which tends to emphasise the sensational and misses Hugh’s message. All y’all can judge for yourselves. Hugh has also written a terrific book called ‘The Selfish Pig’s Guide to Caring’ which I hope will make him rich and famous.

I haven’t seen Jo Cackett’s article for Yachting WorldMagazine published in the UK – a pleasure for the future, Jo. Any chance of a soft copy to Stephen  at berri@berrimilla.com? Well done in your 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. – 3rd in class is huge. I think the honours are about even on that one and I’m looking forward to exchanging a pot or two next time. What next for you?

Stephen and Mal, could you please crank up your South Atlantic weather sites and start watching the S.A. high – we will probably have to go to the west of it, but the more tightly we can cut the corner, the better, so it would be useful to get some idea as we close in on it about the wind towards its centre and west. But a long way to go yet.

Thanks, Dorothy, for the photos – we remember that send off rather well!

From James J.

 still here and reading.  Fantastic result for 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. race. I haven’t caught up with all the reading but it must have been edifying to sail all that way AND get a good result! 

 I just read a webpage account of an American sailor/academic who sailed his 35′ steel around the word in 1985 without any instruments including compass. He intellectualised everything including altitudes of different stars for longitude, wave patterns, species of birds and insects etc etc.. very interesting.

 I just got back from sailing the Sydney Southport race and Hamilton Island Race week on `Calibre’. Syd- S/P we finished 2nd in the Syd 38 Div. The 38 fleet has very close racing and the highlight was still racing boat for boat with 3 other Syd 38s reaching at 9 knts fully hiked inside 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. islet on a moonless night with .5m under the keel and me navigating. . At Hamilton Island race week we finished third with a crew of Michael Dunstan and his 2 match racing crew . I navigated and trimmed and we had an absolute ball. These 3 twenty something year old boys have grown up with exotics and know nothing about dacron, wire halyardsLines to hoist the sails, twin pole gybing and IOR rating certificates. The word `blooper’ and `tallboy’ had them rolling in the aisles and lessons from the IOR days became a theme. The regatta was in mostly 20-30knots of breeze so the sailmakers and shipwrights were kept busy. Quite a few boats found reefs during the racing. We also found  mud trying to rock hop ourselves off the start in Dent passage in adverse tide. We finally got off with a lovely view of the fleet some 2 or 3 miles down the track in the long race. Such is passage racing that we did a `Buffalos’ and passed half our competitors at night time in shifty breezes and adverse current. Alpha Romeo, Neville Chrichton’s new 100 ft Maxi spent the week hurtling around the fleet at never less than double figure boatspeeds. It will be very interesting to see all the giant canters sorted and racing one another at the maxi worlds.

 Hope all is well aboard the good ship `Berrimilla’ and that supplies are adequate for the necessary consultationsA 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.

 PS I’m noticing a trend amongst my girlfriend’s high flying banking associates to use the expression  `babel fish’….ie `Geeze Bruce we’re not f..ing paying that much for his company, its just his BB is hearing things differently.”” : )

And James, good to hear your news. Along the same lines, I’ve been offered the loan of a Figaro for the 2 handed Round Britain race – me, in a Beneteau??- which is tempting, but rather too distant for anything more than an expression of interest at the mo. David and Is, Ta, Woc, g’day.