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Log Updates
Sitrep: 2135hrs 07 Mar 2005 UTC
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Sitrep: 2330hrs 28 Feb 2005 UTC 53’59”S 101’51”W Map Ref 89
5090nm
Pete: Hello
to all out there not residing in washing machines.
Yesterday we were sitting
between two lows without much wind. Outside, it was raining and bloody cold.
Ales was hand steering to keep the boat moving, using the tiller extension to
stay under the dodger and keep out of the rain. He was cold, wet but somehow
strangely happy - I think in a past life he must have been one of those
medieval flagellants. Unfortunately, the church for some unknown reason has
banned flagellation but its benefit can still be sourced in the annual
I was off watch with two
hours to go, i didn't want to read as I was up to the last chapter of a Le
Carre thriller and wanted to save that
for a later watch. I busied myself restocking the ready access area with
biscuits, coffee etc and, in storage I found a box of muffin mix. Thinking
muffins would cheer the lad outside, I made up the mix and produced a
mega-muffin (the muffin making cups are a bit hard to reach). Using alexs
method of large pot with lid on open stove as oven, I set about baking - the
packet said bake at 220 for 20 minutes - I consulted the on-board baker about
the conversion rate and he said he'd probably give it an hour.
Bugger - that stuffs up the
little kip i had in mind for a pre wet watch treat.
I sat there watching the
mist rise from the top of the pot - aaaah, that's nice as the fingers
gravitated to the warm area. The fingers thawed, the toes still frozen and I
think the other extremity had gone into hibernation. The feet, you fool -
there's heat here, get it to your toes. I fund a damp crusty pair of wool sox
and set them on top of the pot and watched the steam rise as they absorbed the
calories. I left them there for 5 minutes then changed them with the pair i was
wearing - what bliss - every 5 minutes a warm pair of sox. all i needed was
access to Gillies' cognac, a large glass and life would be almost perfect.
The hour passed quickly as
they sometimes do when you are comfortable. The pot produced a perfect texas
mega-muffin and i passed some out to alex in a dogbowl. He then did a pre
humanoid version of eating a superbly baked muffin from a dogbowl with a wet
mitten. I assumed some of it reached his stomach as i was complimented on how
good it was.
Now its late at night,the
boat is going well, the weather seems stable. I got emails from Heggie and Woc
today, both good friends from my youth and a message from Tim. Sitting in the
dark with no distractions I think back to those early days. I wondered what
happened to the "Swim in the Bull" club - I know when I left,things
were in the capable hands of Mr Big. He had negotiated a long term lease of
Marr pool Sundays 3-4 summer only. I fondly remember the club's annual trophy
relay race, 3am, first sunday in lent, venue the
To all my friends from
Shanneys, Cronulla surf club, UNSW, UNSWAFL, those I worked with at channel 2,
NSWIT, various NSW high schools, those I've worked with in the building industry,
friends from the time spent in England and Greece, john and Rosalie on Merlin,
Jack and Joslyn on Victoria, to our friends at RANSa and CYC, our new friends
from Otago yacht club, friends and neighbours at Paddington and Jamberoo and,
of course, the family You're all there late at night.
Cheers and still maintaining
a quiet form of rage – Pete
Some questions answered:
Malcom, if we ever get to the Horn, we'll be as close in as possible and will
probably go between Staten Is and TdF afterwards. The rats at Fox are tastier
than those in the southern ocean! Yes to your first question, long story, and
regret the decision but can't elucidate here.
Tim - thanks for your
background work on our behalf - again, if we ever get there, we plan to be in
the
Colin - full marks to your
daughter - I like The Bog Paper - just catches the mood perfectly. And it could
go out in broadsheet (elephant's dunny paper or kitchen roll) or tabloid format
too...
Mike - Guinness would be
fine thanks - plus anything else you think might offer appropriate medical
properties.
Simon, thanks for use-by
date info - hope I can find all that. Do you want the track info - can burn
cd and send from
Hi Mairi - you wouldn't
believe it but I've evolved into a life form that can resist chocolate unless
someone gives me some. Not sure about snooker - used to be smoke-filled room
stuff when exams loomed.
We are once again hand
steering in almost no wind. We haven't had a good 100+ mile day for ages now
and the Horn seems to be getting further away. I reckon this is beginning to
feel like the 36K mark - half way mentally and most of the work still to do.
Today in
Simon - have forestalled the
Hand of Time and pre-elevated myself to Heaven. Thanks. Seems to work ok. Will
do the other laptop when I resurrect it - different code presumably?.
John C - thanks for
contacting Mike in
Mike H - further to my last
- some info about facilities in
Hilary
- have just had a bit of cake #2 for breakfast. Naice! Cold sunshine, water @
7.5 deg. still v. little wind. If you can manage it, could you please ring
Telstra Mobile Satellite and ask them if there's any reason why our phone wont
talk to anywhere except OZ.
Is
- will try to ring us from
Cold, early morning - just
come in from cockpit. Doing this with ski gloves - fuzzxy. SAnd too hard so
back to cold fingers. Today has/is been/being a day of celebration in local,
Australian, GMT and
Now the other end of the
day, spent mostly hand steering at less than 3 kts. Lots of toasts in various
timezones and we crossed 100w. Not much achieved in distance though, only about
80 miles for the 24 hours. One of the consequences of our early dive south is that
now we are down here, we are below a series of very small lows that seem to be
forming like eddies just along our track and moving north east, so giving us
NE/SE winds and bugger all at that. Some
chance of a steady westerly flow at 35+ some time tomorrow if we are lucky. We
will start with a reasonably flat sea surface over the swells, which are still
quite big and it will build as the wind starts to pile up the waves. Anyway,
some wind - any wind - would be really nice. We have closed the boat down - no
point in headbanging all night for possibly only a couple of miles in the bag
and we're going to sleep. Rolling a bit, in a series of phases but not constant
and not violent. I will turn on the satphone at 0930 gmt for birthday
greetings.
Pete is on deck identifying
some stars. Has
Both of us have swelling
hands, particularly around the nails. Pete has a small split in the cuticle of
one thumb which we are treating with Betadine and fresh air and trying to keep
dry and uninfected. I've seen these before and they have to be taken seriously.
I'm being a bit religious about lanolin and latex gloves and my hands, while
rough, dry and sore, seem to be under control so far. Otherwise, apparently in
good health apart from headbanging all day. We almost certainly smell, but it's
not noticeable most of the time - mainly as the foot slides into boot amongst
the ferals and a gust of the warm foetids wreathes past the nostrils. Same with
the pits when putting on the party gear and, of course, sliding into the
sleeping bag. I think that's probably enough of that, kiddies.
Sadly, it seems my satellite
phone only talks to
So - by cyberspace and stone
age HF radio, a very special Happy 90th Birthday to my Mother Ethel in Malta,
with lots of love from her rather smelly son and his equally smelly mate down
here in the southern ocean. We'll come and see you in a few months time when we
get to
Otherwise, not much to
report. Still very soft and we're running the engine to charge the battery.
Drifted
Kris - correct re the bick -
abandoned, sadly, at last stop. Would have worked and legs and battery really
need it at the mo but too bulky. Loved the wedding story.
George - We know about
Contessas. Bloody things rate better than us too.
Malcom, thanks for Spiky
doggerel and bigglesmania. Seaplane huh?
Michael G - that's Steve
(webmaster) in the white hat on the foredeck but there's no need to frighten
the troops with the fine print! Nice to know we're on display and interesting
to see whether the hit rate goes up.
Allan
- not that sort of headbanger, unlike some of your ex mates.
There have been two huge
albatrosses flying round us in formation for a couple of hours. One quite a bit
bigger than the other. Both brilliant white underneath in the low early morning
sunlight, flecked grey on top, creamy beaks. They don't usually come close but
these two have been within metres of our stern. Breathtaking.
Still no wind worth
mentioning. Called the Patagonian yachties Sked on 8164mhz this morning just to
let them know we're out here. Sadly, they cant send us a breeze but they wished
us well.
Just lLike a cold winter's
day off Sydney Heads, apart from the swell. Trying to work out the swell
pattern now that it is calm enough to actually see one. There is a very big SW
swell, with a wavelength of about 4 - 500 metres, and a series of smaller
swells, more or less from the same direction over the top. They don't have a
regular pattern, or if they do, I cant see it. Sometimes we sit on the top of
one of the really big ones and can look across to the next one half a k away
across a big deep valley and we get a feel for the power and energy of it all.
No appreciable current yet.
Have just opened a coldie
from Dr Cooper to celebrate The Birthday in the
Doug - thanks for the aurora
watch - would absolutely fit to bust love to see one, so really appreciate it.
Jim and Jenny - the Bog
seems to be a worthwhile idea. I think the person who contacted us earlier
might have been the owner of Django, though why I should have remembered it as
gaelic I dunno. Berrimilla was Leven and Jessie was Turua and Firebird was
Diamond Cutter.
Ann G. - wouldn't swap
Berrimilla for anything else. I'm a bit of a dinosaur perhaps but I'm not out
to push the edges of the envelope. Some people build boats to win just one race
and don't care if they fall to pieces at the end so they flog them often beyond
breaking point - not my bag even if I could afford it. Berri is a magnificently
seaworthy boat that will take us anywhere, if a bit slowly sometimes, and
she'll be around still in another 25 years if looked after, unlike a lot of
very expensive modern production line boats that pander to the dreamers and
tend to fall apart rather too easily. And as for noises in the night, all boats
make noises, just like cars, and every noise tells you something if you can
interpret it. Some are quite specific to a particular boat (like the way
Berri's wooden engine box creaks as the hull flexes) and others, like flapping
halyards or leech flutter, can happen on any boat. You have to know when you
are pushing the boat and what its limits are and the noises help you to assess
this. Same as riding a bicycle, you can't pretend to be proficient until you
have fallen off a few times and you have discovered the indicators of where
catastrophe will occur. All of us have taken boats past their limits at times,
intentionally or not, and the more you are aware of your own and your boat's
limits, the more you trepidate as you approach them and the more likely you are
to back off before it gets dangerous. One of life's little ironies - I am a
sailing instructor and I would like to use Berrimilla to take students out to sea. The authorities
in
Woc, good luck to
Gerry, any comments? As this
matters a lot, I'll post a public correction if this bit of sticking my neck
out is wrong, so watch this space...
We're putting theory into
practice. For three years or so, I have been delivering the Safety and Sea
Survival course for Yachting Australia. Most of it I can talk about from
experience so can get by amongst the more experienced yachties on my street
creds, but one of the topics is about avoiding tropical revolving storms (TRS)
- cyclones in the vernacular. As a wise old sailor who never goes north of Lord
Howe Island (except to play with Mike Job on Moreton Bay and that doesn't
count), I've never been near one in a boat and I've always wondered whether the
standard technique for avoidance is a) easy to apply in practice and b) actually works. So here we are deep in
the southern ocean, not a real cyclone in sight but a tight little depression
of unknown nastiness behind and catching us somewhere and to be avoided or at
least mitigated. No real difference in the actual problem, although possibly a big ferocity is factor missing down here. So,
if you are out in front of the TRS, the wind will be somewhere from the north
to the south east depending on exactly where you are relative to the path of
the TRS and the technique for avoiding TRS in the southern hemisphere goes like
this:
1. Establish where you are
relative to the path of the TRS by applying Buys Ballot's law (all the 'L's) L
ook into wind. The L ow will be about 90 degrees on your L eft (actually just a bit more but
inconsequential) 2. Monitor the wind direction over time. If it is backing,
(its direction changing anticlockwise, or from say north east to north) you are
in the dangerous NE quadrant. If it is veering, you are in the less dangerous
but still very iffy SE quadrant (remember my diatribe about lows and plugholes
a week or so ago?). This is a hard concept to visualise in the classroom but is
pretty obvious out here, as I've discovered. If the wind is neither backing nor
veering, you are right in the path of the TRS. The barometer will be falling
also, and this may indicate just how far away the nasty bit is.
3. If backing, steer to put
the wind fine on the port bow and sail to keep it there. If veering, put the
wind on your port quarter and keep it there. If neither, put it on your port
beam, ditto. Each of these will take you on a broad semi-circle away from the
centre of the TRS, the first to the north and west, the other two the south and
west.
So:
There we were in a strong
northerly wind earlier today knowing from the grib file that there's a
tight little low to the south west. Buys Ballot says that the low is directly
south west of us and the wind was very slowly backing, confirming that we were
just north of the path of the low. Easy so far. Solution - put the wind fine on
the port bow. This we have done and we were heading north east with Kevvo
steering to the apparent wind, so keeping it in the same relative position. We
have watched the first lines of cloud pass overhead and we can see the cloud
building up bigtime behind and to the south west of us. As the system has
approached us, our heading has gradually changed towards the north as the wind
has backed further and Kevvo maintains a constant apparent wind angle and we
would now expect it to go further towards the west as we move to the north and
above the centre of the low.
So it seems to work. As it's
not a TRS, we'll probably keep going vaguely north east till we can test the
wind strength and direction closer to the centre and then we will decide what
to do - probably a westerly wind around 35 knots so twin pole set to the east,
but which sails to set will depend on the wind strength and the wave height and
characteristics. Big wind, building waves, possibly breaking - small sails and
v-v. Hope it is reasonably soft and lasts for a few days.
I've just done something so
astonishingly stupid that you'd better hear about it before I have time to
pretend it didn't happen. A few minutes after nightfall, 25 - 30 kts, boat
crashing along at about 7 off the wind, sill reasonably dry in the cockpit.
Middle of a niggling watch with lots of trivial things needing sorting so
several trips to very cold cockpit or upper deck, all quick sorties, no party
gear and back inside again, so I was a bit grumpy and aggressive. Realised we
had not streamed the generator turbine after stowing the solar panel - genny is
back in operation although a bit down in
output and we need all we can get - so grabbed waterproof mitts and back into
windy, cold and by now slightly damp cockpit as spray arriving intermittently.
Turbine line lashed neatly coiled, no kinks ready to go - easy - done it often
before. Those of you who can guess what's coming can stop reading here. Braced
myself in the pushpit, untied the lashing, turbine over the side and whoosh -
the water grabs it, spins it up and off it goes astern on the end of the
rapidly twisting line running out through my hand. All ok so far. Then the line
catches on the edge of the board I'm standing on and it is coiled over and
instantly I've got a handful of writhing malevolent monster and no escape. Huge
writhing coils of knotted line, boat still doing 7, spray now all around, Pete
asleep below. At times like this, apart from a mintie, a scream or two of rage,
fear and frustration seem to help and duly occurred. No way to stop it
twisting, almost impossible to hold. Managed to tie it off to the puspit where
the trailing part continued to twist up to the point where the torque actually
stopped the turbine.
Situation so far - a by now
angry, scared old geezer down the back with 30 metres of quivering 12mm spectra
tied off to pushpit threatening at any time to go completely out of control,
loop of twisted, knotted line between pushpit knot and generator hanging over
the stern and thrashing in the water, boat still crashing along at 7+ knots.
Proper solution - yell for Pete, do what I should have done before starting the
whole manoeuvre and throw the main and jib sheets and stop the boat and sort it
out. So what did I actually do? Around about here, shame takes over and I'm
reluctant to admit that I did none of those things - I took my mitts off and
immediately got one twisted in the line and lost overboard, another scream of
rage and I started to undo the knot attaching the line to the generator shaft,
intending to stream the looped part of
the line and let the knots untwist themselves. Knot taped up with duct tape to
stop bitter end flailing and so it gets worse - I eventually get it untaped and
untwisted, undo it from the pushpit, stream the whole disaster and discover
that there's another knot in it out along the line somewhere and the entire
line is flailing...anyway, Pete, by this time awake and alarmed arrives and
does what I should have done and stops the boat, grumps at me for being a
stupid twit and goes back to bed and leaves me to sort out the mess and get the
boat going again.
Do I need to list all the
mistakes? Starting with no party gear...?
Took about 20 very cold minutes to sort and serious apology to Pete who
by then was due to take over the watch. Mea culpa - listen and learn, kiddies
or history will repeat itself. Shut your
face Fenwick, I know - even S&S people aren't that silly, just forgetful.
Here endeth my confession.
And to cap off a happy
evening, there's a brand new leak over my bunk - probably actually a recurrence
of an old one around the window now covered by the foam insulation. But by the
time I've finished this note and pulled in a VMC wxfax we'll be down under 1000
to go to the Horn. Just a bit more than
For
lease: Hydroponic garden allotment, excellent greenhouse climate for
diversification into bacteriology etc;
two bed mobile dwelling att. w. all fac., fantastic water views, adj,
wildlife park; currently cropping cress, alfalfa, fenugreek and mung beans.
Latest irrigation, douche and pumping equip., well stocked cellar; absolutely
no work required, pleasant odour of cooking socks.
Our applied TRS avoidance
strategy seems to have worked. We moved up and to the north of the low and we
think we are now in the westerly flow behind it. Poled out storm jib and #4,
chosen for flexibility - we don't know what the wind and waves will do to us
over the next couple of days and we are getting 6 knots with the option of
changing easily up or down.
Same pair of albatrosses
still with us - absorbing to watch and delightful to have them for company.
They sometimes fly out in front and settle on the water together just out to
one side, quite round and tubby on the water. like Tenniel's pictures of the
Dodo and sort of contemplate us and eachother, or they soar and glide and do
slow dives and floating passes at water level, huge wings curved down to stroke
the surface, massive shoulders bunched behind their heads, tapering to a thin
flat tail only a few inches behind the trailing edges of their wings. The
bigger one looks as if it would easily span the boat's beam with a big wingtip
beyond each side. They are white underneath with flecked grey tops radiating
out from the wing roots. Not sure but their beaks may be darker on top. Have
tried to film them but almost impossible - camera not waterproof and self focus
can't cope with amount of movement over indistinct background. Also almost
impossible to keep them in the viewfinder in the present version of the
corkscrew - same problem as Pete has keeping the sun in the sextant telescope
except that these guys are moving deceptively fast as well.
We have been told that there
are some big racing catamarans behind us somewhere going very fast in something
called the Oryx cup. I hope someone has told them we are out here too. We have
channel 16 on all the time, just in case, and masthead lights at night. Dayglo
orange storm jib up too which adds a touch of visibility.
To those of you who have
very kindly sent URL internet addresses in answer to questions, thank you but
we can't access the internet from the boat except in the most limited way. This
is a very primitive set up here, relying on an interminably slow High Frequency
radio link to a computer in Chile, which sends messages either way but can only
cope with plain text so no pictures, web pages (unless plain text and within
size limit) attachments, data or HTML. It strips all that sexy stuff from each
message and we get what's left, at a speed that anyone under 30 wouldn't
believe. It is Steve in
Doug, given present
conditions, I doubt we'll see Rosetta fly past and we certainly don't have the
gizmology or an adequate camera to photograph it. Nice idea though, and thanks.
Hope to hear from you about next expected aurora.
Mick
C, we'll be in
Short one this time - we
think there may be a problem with sailmail.
At this morning's reading of the tea leaves, it seems we may be in this
very sexy westerly for a day or two. We have touched wood, figuratively
sacrifced ritual beasties from the feral menagerie and will shortly offer a
(smallish) libation to placate S/he Who Must Be Placated and let's keep hoping.
We are sitting on the 990hp isobar, which is running east-west and we expect
the pressure to rise as we fall out of the back of the low and the isobars
start to go north south and increase, so we are watching the barometer.
Meanwhile, bread is
happening and socks are once again cooking gently.
Small Apology to Telstra.
Having spoken to them, I now know that the reason my satphone won't talk to
anyone outside Oz is because the Kyocera handset is obsolete and no longer
supported by Iridium. It worked fine in
I don't know whether you
will ever read this as it seems there may be a problem with the sailmail
system. Not sure yet. We haven't received anything for nearly 2 days including
grib weather, so can't reply to anything you might have sent us.
We are still in the westerly
wind at about 25 kts on the 992 isobar and averaging about 6 knots. Good
feeling to be getting the miles in the bag again and we are about to celebrate
knocking over -800. The GPS is reading 792 to the Horn and the
First minor failure with the
bread - it's a bit cold in the cabin and it didn't rise all that well so is a
bit solid but will be great toasted for breakfast. We tried the second rise in
Pete's warm sleeping bag and it worked but never really recovered from the
first one.
At about here, casual
decisions in the supermarket months ago when buying the supplies come home and
smite one. I remember a tired evening in Woollies with Hilary and two trollies
crammed with stuff - can't remember, but I think it was our third trip and the
credit card was looking desperately motheaten and I looked at the biscuit
shelves and tossed in four packets of McVities digestives - the real thing,
almost entirely butter, but very expensive and topped up the trolley with a
load of lesser imitations. The imitations are long gone in past early morning
dunking frenzies and we're down to 2 McVities biscuits per day each - we might
just make it to
With a whole skyline
uncluttered by skyscrapers or smog I'm much more conscious of cloud formations
and they are spectacular here and beautifully sharp and coloured. Pete is out
taking a photo as I write.
Almost to start guessing the
time we first sight the tops of the
There's something wrong with
our sailmail connection. We seem to be able to connect to chile but there is no
traffic and no grib files. I spoke to Steve on the satphone and he confirmed
that there is mail in the queue for us. We haven't had a warning about station
time so assume it is not a time problem. And the satcomC is not getting sufficient signal to send messages either.
Seems we are now within the
I have just been on the
Patagonian yachties' sked - really good value and very friendly and
co-operative and on the ball, as they have to be - and learned that our
sailmail problem is not uncommon and, for that reason most of the sailors who
are down here permanently now use satellite phones and data links instead of
sailmail and HF radio. Anyway, comforting to know that the breakdown is ashore
and not out here. I'll just keep churning these out and saving them in case we
get back on line again.
I have a small lament which
I will try to put into words. It's personal and a bit self serving but worth
having a go. Exploration and technical
advance in any field enlightens us and undermines myth and superstition but it
also helps to turn the uncommon or outstanding into the commonplace. The edges
are pushed outwards and in the process the work of getting there is devalued.
This idea has been thrust at me in the last month or so, but has been dormant
inside my head for at least as long as I've been sailing to
First, though, a little
grump from Marvin -
Having safely traversed the
slough of despond with help from Marvin and the Doctor,a happy surprise. Seems
we're back on line. The Chilean station lost its phone connection to the
internet for 3 days. Just to tally any missed messages, I sent 6 in the down
time - I think - 03/1216;1835;2348, 04/1815; 05/0105; 1430. Have saved them
all. I also tried to send at least one of these via satcom but was advised by
the system that delivery had failed - not always accurate, so you may have got
it.
We have received from you
Davids "Gizmos" and the mailcall of 05/0915 with the long mail from
Ann G.
Latest grib says we are due
for 50+ from the sw in about 3 days, which is a bit of a blot on any
anticipatory feelings. Thinking of you toiling the track up there. Ambivalent!
Later
06/0005 -687 we've now got 40kt from the sw and big building beam sea. #5, no
main, about 6kt vmg. Really only getting about 100 miles a day in this stuff -
could go faster but bloody scary and uncomfortable to do so - Malcolm's
clenched cheeks would be in order. On the back of the same low we were avoiding
a few days ago, and there's another right behind it. Very cold on the hands
when doing stuff on deck. Lanolin still the go. Dinner time - tvp with cans of "breakfast
mix" or some such. See yez.
Nightfall and we've just
changed down from the #5 to the storm jib in 50+. Big beam sea with wind waves
blowing off the tops so a lot of white water and starting to get noisy - going
from a mere howl to a bit of a scream on a rising pitch in the gusts.
Interesting. Still some biggish ones breaking
over the starboard side but much more comfortable. Just hope the self steering
keeps on going - nasty out there if we have to hand steer. Pity i couldn't film
the change - spreader lights on surging white water, breaking waves all around
looming in the glow, bow wave surfing back when we come off the top, violent
motion and the dayglo storm jib now up and running. Cold - very cold, from the
south. Ice only 600 or so miles away - hope there aren't any lumpy bits around
here. And still we creep closer. Averaging a sail change every watch change at
the mo - quite tiring. I have this watch - midnight to 0300 UTC and it takes
for ever - the night ones always do. We do three hours each so you can work out
who's supposed to be awake. Now have
crashing rainstorm and 60+ gusts outside. Very confused sea. Bleah!
Hi Simon - good to hear from
you. You'd love this!
Kim, thanks for snowfire -
probably a rather more expensive version of the industrial lanolin pot I bought
from the chandlers, but I'll investigate.
David, got yours and thanks
for delivery. Line up for a beer in
We're crashing around so
much I'm having to retypy just about every other word. Time to go.
4 hours later - what a
bloody awful night. Things banging around a bit on deck ? boom and solar panel perhaps?
- hard to lash anything securely against this sort of violence but I think it
will be ok till daylight. Wind seems to
be abating slightly or at least the lulls seem to last longer. Still 60+ in the
gusts. VMG only about 4 kts but heaps better than it might be. We're moving in
the right direction, somewhat painfully.
Special moment no. 42: all
noise and bash and violence and water crashing across the deck and I got up
from nice warm bunk into damp cabin and lashed myself to the galley rather
wishing that I was somewhere else and started the teamaking fiasco. During one
specially vicious roll, my face ended up very close to the fogged up window and
I saw through the fog a dim glow. Wiped off some condensation and there in
quiet splendour was a bright quarter moon bouncing around in the outer
darkness. Anyone familiar with Leunig cartoons will get the idea - good
feeling. But the tea still jumped out of the mug and I'm sitting in slightly
damp shirt tails. Bother.
Pete: Greetings
from the frozen south
Alex has been without the
computer for 3 days, during which time the wind has been light so a certain
member of the team unable to vent his spleen on the keyboard has been pacing,
scratching,k eating too many mars bars, minties etc.
The only answer to this
early morning problem is a shared draught of Dr Coopers remedial elixir. I
unscrewed the cap of one and sensed this
lovely smell of malt, hops and barley. It was really strong - I don't know
whether when opening some atomised beer hit my nose or that my nose is
sensitive to the different smell. This led me to a few thoughts on the olfactory
system which you, gentle reader, may be able to answer.
It's now about 40 days since
we last showered, we both obviously smell pretty bad yety my nose tells me it's
not so bad. Does cold inhibit the sense of smell? I dont know how cold it is
inside the boat but it must be seriously cold.
the wind is now back with
us, the breeze is southerly, 40-50kts straight off the antarctic, now not that
far away.The last sail change took us down to storm jib only. Piston hank,
standing rigging, pulpit, mast,boom, winches feel like ice to bare fingers.
As I sit here, I breathe in
through my nose and try to smell the air. Nothing. the only sensation is that
the cold air has now frozen the tip of my nose. As you spend extended periods
of time with a particular smell, does the olfactory system desensitise that
smell to make life a bit more comfortable? Kim and others, vI need answers. 40
days in the tropics awaits us and I suspect showering arrangements will become
a priority. Cheers and best wishes to all Pete.
Alex:
A little bit trepidatory out
here. Looks as if we will get a bit of a lull as a ridge goes through over the
next day or so and then it's on. The previous grib indicated 45 kt from the NW
(in our experience, that means 70+ for a lot of the time) for several days. Not
a pleasant prospect, given the likely size of the seas. The latest file says
35kt from the west - again for several days. This is a big improvement but
still very nasty. Things change so fast we are not counting any chickens yet.
In any case, we're not going to get it easy for a bit. The hardest part is
sitting here without any real control over what we can do except cope with what
arrives, and waiting for it to arrive.
Still getting 50+. Now very big seas, occasionally breaking over the
boat. Can't point towards the Horn any more - tracking about 040m, Horn bears
082m. But now less than a
Small change later - we've
got the main up again with 3 reefs and we're back on track. Seas abating slowly
and ok for a day or so.
Eleanor, I have the bar of
Adversity Chocolate at the ready - I think we may need it!
Ann G thanks for AICH stuff
- interesting and we'll have to check it out.
Kris - if you want to do
these things as personal adventures, you can't avoid the fact that - out here
anyway - there is an international legal requirement to go to the aid of
someone in distress and therefore, if you get into trouble, others may have to
put their lives at risk to save yours. So, a big responsibility a) not to get
in to trouble and b)if you do, then you must minimise the risk to others.
In both instances, whatever
works - just try to get it right and especially, don't take rescue services for
granted. Their people all have mortgages and kids too. The only way to avoid
the responsibility you have to those others is the purists dream - don't tell
anyone you are going, don't tell anyone you are in trouble and be prepared to
die alone if you cant sort it out for yourself. There have been a few of these
and there is a book by someone - a Frenchman, I think. Emergency Position
Indicator Radio Beacon is what the letters stand for.
Beales - there's a weather
map on the website, probably the SPAC MSLP anal. from www.bom.gov.au.
Try any Chilean met website too - we get a fax every day at about 2300UTC.
Heggie, thanks - yes, we're
getting you.
Sitrep: 1245hrs 07 Mar 2005
UTC 54’16”S 082’24”W Map Ref 104
It's a month for big
birthdays. Hilary's Dad Frank in Frome in
It's a very dark night,
overcast, no moon, no stars, just the faintest residual glow in the sky. I've
just spent half an hour in the cockpit tweaking us around to point as closely
as possible to the Horn while we have the breeze and sea state to allow.
Eerie up there. Full
stormboards in so completely isolated, Pete fast asleep below. Cold wind
especially around your face where the party gear doesn't quite keep it out. You
sit in a little bubble of gentle light from the masthead and the instruments
and no other frame of reference, so you feel the boat's movement but can't see
it and you hear the waves breaking around you. The sensation is very like night
flying. The light reflects off the white water going past and particularly off
the breaking wave crests, the more so when they are above the cockpit before
the boat rises up the wave. The crests reflect brilliant masthead white from up
there as they seem to roll down towards you (actually, as the boat climbs up
the wave towards them) and you hear the hiss as they approach. Thankfully only
relatively small - about 5 metres at a guess, over the top of the long
circumpolar swells - but with no visual reference it's hard to judge. The big
circumpolars are with us all the time now as a background presence that you
only really see when it all coincides and you can see across two of their
crests. Biig! Occasionally there's a much bigger local wave which breaks over
the boat or into the cockpit - I missed all of those while I was up there, but
we copped a biggie just as I got the stormboard locked back in on the way down.
Win some...! I think these ones come from the remains of an earlier wave
pattern where there was the regular big SW circumpolar flow and superimposed on
this there was a smaller tighter pattern almost at right angles from the NW so
these waves were flowing along the crests and troughs of the circumpolars and
making things very confused indeed. The left over big ones are caused by the
confluence of two crests, one from each pattern, which amplify and make a much
bigger pointy breaking wave that only lasts for a few moments but if you happen
to be amongst it, you know it's there.
Just tried to pull in the
VMC wxfax and was able to find the signal but not good enough to provide a
picture, so that's another link with Oz gone. The Chilean version is very good
but it only shows the pattern from 120 W across to the
If this last bit was a
Sitrep: 2135hrs 07 Mar 2005 UTC 54’21”S 080’59”W Map Ref 105
Less than 500 to go. About
37.5 k for the runners. Brain closing down, pain out to the ends of every
eyelash, anticipation and still the fear that something will fail, anything
that breaks the rhythm potentially devastating - every painted line on the road
a little mountain to climb. Apparently, there's a shoulder somewhere on one
route very close to the top of Chomolongma that hides the summit until you are
almost there...and some people never get past it.
We're in the predicted soft
bit and still don't know what to expect - the models disagree, but there will
be wind for a couple of days at least with a potential header from the SE as we
get close. Now setting #4 and 2 reefs,
recent wind waves abating, permanent swells more discernible. Lots of seabirds
- cold, occasional glimpses of the sun, fluffy seven eighths cumulus at about
2000 ft, all very gentle. Probably time to go and shake a reef or two but will
procrastinate for a few minutes as the gusts when they come are still quite
strong. Later - changed to cutdown #1
and 2 reefs and still going strong.
Jim & Jenny - Gizmos by
nature are small. Problem is keeping them warm and dry. Tuner and transmitter
are on inside of cockpit wall above port qberth - not properly insulated in the
time we had, so some potential condensation problems. Regulators etc same
place, other side, but close to engine control lever, so potential condensation
plus leak problems. Otherwise, driest parts of boat. The rest face me on the
bulkhead over the nav table. This bulkhead has been duplicated (by me) about 200mm
further aft over nav table to create space for wiring, backs of black boxes
etc. Switch panel on fwd side of original bulkhead over port bunk. Berri is not
teak fitted internally, so may be quite different from Virgo. Was launched as
Nea in April 1977 for George Comanos, who apparently had various boating
relatives which may account for anomalies. Builder's cert issued by Formit, but
in 1984, almost certainly for Brian Cunneen. Don't know any other history, but
a rumour that Nea started by Geoff Baker and completed after he died by Formit.
Perhaps Doug Brooker would know. Laptop lives permanently on nav table, tied
down (so,of course, no room for charts) . Also smaller than most and supposed
to be waterproof - Panasonic CF 18 - see www.tough.com.au?
in website 'preparations' doc. and I haven't looked at a paper chart since we
left although we have them all carefully rolled up in case of electrical
failure. Software on Board nav package coupled with Cmap has got us this far.
Details in same doc. - www.digiboat.com...Simon,
who wrote the package, lives up your way.
And keeping it all together
for us, wonderful Sailmail, using Pactor 11Pro modem linked to ICOM M802 HF and
to laptop via USB. The USB link is the one potential single point of failure,
as you might have read earlier.
Kim and Ann - thanks for
olfactory expertise - is it ok to post your answers on website? will have to instruct bootferals not to
vaporise their bodily fluids and to stop farting. And there's no question of
sissy bubbles at
Kris, thanks for the serial.
Pete says you think too much - nah, says I, just the metaboles circulating and
fizzing a bit. Mostly agree with you, may react later after ponder.
Hi Martin M. I think I'd
rather be here than in your office too - most of the time. When did you 2 hand
to NZ and in what?
WJR
- was thinking of you and J and the last ks of one of those
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