Position 0630 8th. 4451 09135, trip 117, DMG 109 – dragging the chain a bit! ‘This is the time when is tempting to keep looking sat the GPS to get an ETA – a temptation that should be resisted always, because the ETA changes every few seconds and may vary by a week from one minute to the next, depending where we are on a wave.
Astronomically, we are now closer to Australian Summer time than to UTC – signs of progress everywhere. Still not fully in range of Firefly sailmail and the connections are often too flaky, so still using Iridium for most posts.
After all that bother last night, the red sail was only up for about 4 hours and the wind changed. But worth perhaps 4 miles in that time. I’ve run the old fat halyard back up the mast instead of its skinny mate, so with a bit of luck we’ve muddled through. I will replace the other one when we get a nice warm day. Now in flop and wallow mode – tedious – but moving in the right direction. My guess for Hobart March 1 if we get lucky.
One thing I noticed from the masthead was that you can see the markings on the upper wings of the birds much better. Yesterday’s at masthead time were Prions. We have what might be a Sooty albatross with us now and another, probably juvenile and for me unidentifiable, but an albatross.
Doug, thanks for Adventure Bay note – as I was reading it, we were within about 50 miles of K1‘s run down position. Hard to believe that Arthur Phillip really couldn’t get to it to wind it – sounds like a cover up to me! Dawes’ correction is astonishing – presumably he had to work back from DR, the estimated time the timekeeper stopped, his sights – I wouldn’t know where to begin but then I’m mathematically challenged. We are seeing the sun for the first time for about a week as I write. Glimpses through the fogbanks and overcast. I wonder whether our northern horizon would have the First Fleet spread along it if we could see all the ships that had ever passed this way. What a sight!
There was a pamphlet published when all the Ks were in Sdney in 1988 for the BiCentenary. called The Travels of the Timekeepers with the details of their journeys – it was the 4th visit to Sydney for one of them, probably K1. I think the pamphlet was published by the NSW Historical Society or some such body and I have a copy if you have not seen it.
Barry, thanks for definition of anlage – I was at least in the ballpark!
The logs ramblings can be cryptic, so we have added: