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Wooohooo - we have another taker for the London Marathon 07.
Brave Dave, sailor, but, it seems not a runner, is going to give it a go. Onya Dave!
Four of us so far - and one possible - I can't believe that that's all! We will
organise a team email address list after we get back to
As we are travelling now, we will round
The Examiner still lurks out there and we are not home yet! The satphone is on +881 621 440078 and about $15/minute - we'll try to answer it but don't leave messages - just try again immediately - if it still goes into messagebank, we're doing a sail change. I have dongled SoB so we have the high detail very large scale charts on screen and we will keep it running from here. We have just enough diesel to run the engine morning and evening.
Bill K, thanks for suggestion don't know whether you got my satphone message - really can't do much from here - if you could contact Richard Bennett and arrange, that would be huge. Doubt we'll get to Tas in daylight but possible late tomorrow evening. The best shot might be the two white flares at the Iron Pot as we close the loop. I think there will be a few boats around with us too. That could be anytime on Monday but probably around midday. Thanks - do you know whether Richard has VHF in his aircraft - we did, but it's unusual. If he does, tell him we'll listen on 16 and go to 72 or whatever works for him.
[ed: positional and admin
rubbish only and a long reply to the press office for the Sydney to Hobart
which will be published shortly, so I better not steal their thunder promise
to publish here as soon as it goes out from the Rolex press office]
DB dmg 145, GPS 144 (?) dtg 206 margin 685+25=710. I think we're home. Day 112, 17 to start, 7 to TI.
Watch this space. Berri is coming in.
We are now south of
We have been advised that the media will be waiting for us in
If we ever get there! We are now becalmed and motoring at 3 knots - We will burn down to our last 5 litres of diesel and if no wind by then we wallow. The Examiner having another throw. All previous ETA's is woff! Bigtime. If we've been clever enough with our conservation, we just may make it to SEC - 87 miles to go - Tas cloud covered mountains just over the horizon, Doug - and yes - I've been thinking about those Dutchmen in 1642 all day. What amazes me is that they got here in the first place - and then found their way back again. In, I think, the same year as Cromwell shortened Charles 1 by a head and changed the English democratic system irrevocably and probably for the good of the English - if not the rest of the world, who copped the result. Have you ever stood by the window Charles walked out of onto the scaffold? I have and it's eerie. You have got to be out here to appreciate fully what Tasman achieved.
We are 48 miles from the nearest point in
With exquisite delicacy and timing, the Examiner has dropped a
25 knot easterly on us - I have no idea where she found it - it's blowing
directly from SE Cape to us - could not be more on the nose than it is in every
sense. We are now heading north east in the hope that it will back to the NE
and give us a reasonable angle for the
It will add at least a day to our arrival at RYCT and that's if we get lucky. A strong NEasterly around the corner would add even more so we are keeping the fingers crossed. Malcolm is on his way down to wave us in - we have arranged to get a message to him in the morning.
So the start line recedes again, just when it was looking good. PPPP and we'll Prevail.
I missed the fix today because we were doing all the necessary to get sorted to take this on. We made the numbers, but that's all I know. Now 77 miles to go, vmg 3.5 kt so at least 20 hours, I suspect, unless the wind changes.
Nik - suggest you send me your mobile number - just in case.
The Examiner closes doors abruptly and with rude abandon, but she opens windows - it's a glorious clear moonlit night - the major stars, Venus has just set, mars up near the moon - the biggest silvery trail of reflections from the wavelets and the big swell alike. And warm enough to sit in the cockpit and absorb it all. And the spray!
Another taker for the
Three hours later and 60 miles to go - the wind has backed and eased and we are
heading for SE Cape once again, motor sailing with the brightest phosphorescence
I think I have ever seen surrounding us with ghostly radiance and trailing
astern behind the propeller. ETA at SEC if this holds and we don't run out of
diesel will be at about 1500 today local time, 0400 utc. We will pass very
close to
There will be at least two boats meeting us for a wave when we
eventually get around the corner - they will be the first boats we have seen
since the ship south of Africa and the first humans since
Dawn - silvery blue and pink and orange and the silhouette of
A bit later than we'd have liked and the wrong Cape but
What a dawn! Tasmania's ragged dragon's tooth peaks grey in the mist with brilliant pinky orange sky and streaky clouds with little commas and fronds like flames, Maatsuyker light flashing its welcome and the Mewstone ominously poking up out to sea.
Wind still as on the nose as it could possibly be and not
enough of it. Big swell over the shelf and into shallower water and we are
motor-sailing in towards
For anyone interested, I think there is a photo of Berri sailing out past the Pot on January 10 on the website. [ed: this one I think ] It's a light on a little stone tower on a rock on the north side of the entrance to the Derwent - Not sure about the origin of the name but I think Malcolm will know. He is - we think - waiting around the corner at SE Cape to wave us in in Wildfire and the local BOGgers Chris and Colin in their two Brolgas Poitrel and Caelidh (Sorry, Colin, that's the best I can do without extensive research) might be there too - maybe the mighty Quetzalcoatl with his face aflame as well. Pippin won't be as David is duty radio bod today at Tascoast radio, but we will talk to him in a couple of hours.
Hoooley doooley. We're not there yet - the Examiner struts the course with flail at the ready and we're waiting for the Vogon poets to start their assault on the bus shelter - scant protection, we fear and no sustaining alcohol.
The old bus shelter corners like a brick. We are 10 miles west
of Maatsuyker with 40 to go to
When we eventually put the Cape in the bag, we will go up the
d'Entrecasteaux Channel between
Nik - tried your mobile - it told me to go away and try again
later - satphone probably couldn't reach it. No way we'll be in
Just inadvertently spoken to Steve, then a sail change will now
try to pull the mail in. I thinkwe have an antenna or tuner problem with the HF
now that we can get feedback from real people. Will try to sort tomoz on
[ed: times now reporting
both UTC and Eastern Daylight Savings Time (EDT) which is local time for
Sydney, Hobart, and now Berri] Please pass our position to Coast Radio - we
can't talk to anyone at the mo - 45 - 50 knots true very nasty steep 4-5 metre
seas breaking SEC directly upwind. Bummer. Examiner 1, Berris 0. SEC in about 6
hours if lucky. Will try satphone to Mal's mobile. Nik, someone called, couldnt
hear sorry.
Special thanks to Bill Koppe of www.BlowUpImaging.com.au and
Richard Bennet of www.RichardBennett.com.au
for this hot off the presses photo of
Berri south of Tassy this morning!!!!!
About 35 to RYCT, 27 to the end of the loop
We have just passed Cape Bruny. My glasses are fogged up. It's cold. It's pissing with rain and as dank and miserable a night for drinking the last Dr Wendy in the boat as you could imagine. However SE Cape is in the bag - we passed it just after midnight and we're looking to close the loop in the Derwent just north of the Iron Pot in about 9 hours. Cause for celebration. Yesterday was one of the most varied and difficult days any Examiner has ever tossed at me. Lovely dawn, Tasmania's jagged SE corner silhouetted against the dawn and receding into the pink greying mist to the north. Things started to deteriorate from there.
Nice gentle NE breeze turned into a snorter of 25 knots - Richard Bennett came out in his Cessna to take our picture ( photo of Berri ) off Maatsuyker which was special [ed: see references in lat log entry] - we were in T shirts and shorts nut almost as soon as he'd gone it was on. 25 knots rapidly became 40 and some urgent sail changing - out past the Mewstone ready to tack back towards the Cape and 40 became 50 true, about 55 -58 apparent with rapidly rising sea to at least 5 metres and some of them were much higher. Not perhaps my worst afternoon in a boat but definitely in the 'not having fun' category and it got worse.
And then a bit better, but the wind has been constantly on the nose or too little to be of any use then all over the place and now anywhere from on the nose to abeam. Not enough hands...we must have done at least 10 sailchanges - big ones - full main and 1 to 3 reefs and five - during the afternoon.
We are now in the d'Entrecasteaux Channel heading towards Hobart inside Bruny Island. We hope to meet a couple of friendly boats further up who have been waiting since yesterday and they will escort us in. Wooohooo!
Seems I have been misreported by The Australian newspaper, which I'm told said I was annoyed by Customs - far from it - they have been doing their utmost to help but within their rules which I fully understand and respect and all would have been well - the great bureaucratic principle of deniability would have been maintained and followed except that a huge fuss seems to have been made in Sydney about the decision not to allow us to resupply at Adventure Bay unless in an emergency. We weren't and wouldn't have been in an emergency so we just got ourselves ready by making more water and conserving diesel like crazy. No real problem - just another question from the Examiner.
Anyway - I would like to apologise to the Customs Department in Hobart for any grief our arrival may be causing them. It was not our doing and I very much regret any adverse publicity it may have generated. We have always been happy to go into Hobart as long as we have time in hand and that is what we are on the way to doing as I write. So - my apologies to you all -I think you do a really difficult job rather well and I have no argument whatsoever with your decision to stick to your rules.
And the diesel we conserved as a result is now getting us into Hobart against the wind in truly awful conditions so some good has come of it too.
[ed:have taken some
calls, bottom line is that the loop has been closed in the Derwent at 10:30am
local time. Accompanied by Wildfire and
some media the flares were let off and much merriment made but within the
confines of still having to clear Customs in
[ed:Landfall
Can't believe we're back - it's as if it never happened yet I can sit and read some of the logs and cringe a lot because it really did and bits of it were definitely in the 'I don't want to be here' category.
We crept up the d'Entrecasteaux channel through the night in the cold cold rain and murk and the sun eventually came up and the rain cleared and the Examiner went home for a well deserved rest. Malcolm - Hobart end of this website - Onya Mal - appeared in the distance in his new boat Wildfire all tweaky and tender and blisteringly fast and we found a dinghy floating around with Consultative lubricants and other goodies in it and even a SIM card that I had the correct PIN number for - astonishing co-incidence!
We motored north in convoy and Poitrel - a Hobart Brolga and BOGger appeared looking much sleeker than the old bus shelter and the convoy grew - and as we entered the Derwent at the top of the Channel, there was Pippin another old S2H friend and rival. Lovely to see them all again, We found more floating goodies including a Rolex battle flag so we hoisted our Fastnet flag and the S2H flag on the forestay and the first little boast was there for all to see. We spoke to Hobart Port control on the radio and told them we'd like to let off a couple of white flares and they cleared it with the police and we duly did so - at , I think 10.35.36 local - I'll confirm that from the boat later and the loop was closed. 5 Capes and about 34000 miles, some 700 sailchanges, 300 Consultations etc..; Arrived at RYCT to awaiting Media and we haven't stopped. Interviews, phone calls. live radio - the works. Amazing interest and we're told Sydney will be bigger. Boggle.
Customs were wonderful - Sarah, who cleared us out on Jan 10 came down and cleared us back in - thanks Sarah - lovely gesture and closed the loop properly. Followed by media interviews, greetings, old and new friends - feeling guilty because Scott's Dad arrived with a slab of Cascade for us and I was so involved that I said a quick thank you and when I looked for him again he'd gone - so big thanks, Scott and Scott's Dad!
Berri slipped - antifoul unmarked but green aralditey slime all over the topsides and a huge colony of 4 inch barnacles lall around the stern above the waterline - and on the prop shaft - must have slowed us down a bit! Dasvid Taylor had organised people to blast and scrub - HUGE thanks David and the team - and back in the water a couple of hours later. I was so tired I could hardly stand - up to the Sutherlands, washing - even the putrids and they really were! - managed to ease the ferals onto the compost heap to breed some more and give the peacocks something to think about.
More live interviews and fell into a real bed. Wooohooo!
Early meeting with the radio tech and big unload reload today and we're off again. next one from the boat.
We hope to be away around midday - fingers crossed. Someone chain the Examiner in the cellar for the next three weeks - better still, sool her on to the rest of the fleet!
Hope to be up north by the 20th.
Sitrep: 1800hrs 14 Dec 2005 EDT 4317S 14750E Ref 650
We are heading north east towards a full moon - our new track is the moon's reflected light - it's calm and almost windless and the trusty Donk is pushing us along at 5 knots with the main sheeted amidships. A layer of broken cumulus at about 3000 feet is crossing the face of the moon and alternating light and silvery dark. At Cape Raoul, earlier, there were dolphins - big ones, and lots of them - racing around the boat and two of them did two huge jumps in formation, vertically out of the water close together almost as if they were wrapped around eachother - a dolphin double helix - astonishing, wonderful to see and I had just put the video camera away. As if they were celebrating with us.
On which -I just can't begin to describe the growing sense of uplift and relief after weeks of multi-faceted tension. We have Gabo Island in the GPS at 330 miles, diesel in the tank, beer in the fridge and 4 days in hand to make Sydney. I can see the silhouette of Maria Island ahead to port and we are abeam Eaglehawk Neck. There are lights on the horizon to starboard - probably fishing boats. We are on the way home, no longer isolated, with time to spare. It will happen, we've almost done it - but not quite - so only a teeny wooohooo. Next time we are here - who knows - we'll be racing and Tasman Island or its light will be the target.
We turned Berri around in Hobart in 24 hours - massive thanks and appreciation to David and Graham especially for toiling away at the barnacles, the Bosun and his team at RYCT, Anne for the food, RYCT for their help, untold numbers of people for other help and encouragement and - as ever - John and Alex and Jane Sutherland for their hospitality and generosity. Thank you all - we could not have done it without you and if we achieve, you will all have a part in it.
Thanks too to all y'all out there for hundreds of messages of congratulations, personal feelings, encouragement and good wishes - we seem to have the entire retired population of the USA on board with us for the ride - welcome yez all and enjoy the ride - it gets better from here, no matter what the Examiner has in store. And we have a race to win.
The dawn of Act 6 - cold. clear soft silver blue sky - phosphorescence luminous as a floodlit fountain - we're motor sailing up the Tasmanian coast, past all the wild and beautiful places whose Aboriginal names are, sadly, long since lost and forgotten and now retaining the names given by the French explorers - in this case, I think probably Baudin. Capes Forestier, Tourville, Sonnerat, Maurouard; Ile des Phoques, Freycinet, Bougainville, Les Hippolytes. They have been part of my life now since 1977 - usually, though, they have been more significant going the other way during the race.
For the first time in ages, I got into a dry sleeping bag last night. Bliss in spades. Joy by the wheelbarrow. Each part of this venture takes on its own dimension. Seems almost as far to Sydney now as it seemed to SE Cape from the bottom of Africa. Nice to be back on all the familiar waypoints stored for years now in my stone age GPS - and yet not real - there is no substance to the achievement - can't pigeon hole it or file it - I have a feeling we have just sailed around the world and done ok in a Fastnet but when was that?? Odd. Even odder to be going north down here before the race.
We had the HF radio diagnosed - the tuning box is misbehaving and is almost certainly the cause of most of our problems on the return trip. I should probably have replaced it in Lymington with the transceiver but was in cost saving mode. Mistake. Will do it in Sydney - it's a simple replacement job. We are in good nick otherwise - some minor fixes, nothing hard, and some new stuff on the Category 1 safety checklist we'll have to buy when we get there and we should be able to degunk the feral fecals and have Christmas lunch at home.
I've told the ABC in Hobart they can cut my hair on camera when we finish. I think we have a deal. Scissors, please, Rachel! It has been slowly doing its Medusa act since Arlette worked her magic on it in the Falklands and it's gotta go soon.
Josh - tragedy - I've lost your coin - must be in the boat somewhere but I can't find it. Panic! Was so tired yesterday I can't even remember what I was wearing.
Another taker for the London Marathon - onya Graham - and Neil will be there to, as a spectator, nursing some scars and, we hope - a cold beer. Onya Neil and here's to a speedy recovery. We'll be in touch after the hubbub subsides.
We are just north of
To all those nice people who have offered us real money to do
articles - thanks - interested, but need to talk to you all first to clarify
terms etc. and won't happen until we have finished the gig in
Caro - finally got to see your photos - see what you mean about the brawny frame - kinda noice tho!
Much later - it has packed in and we're headbutting out to sea - not pleasant but should be able to sail free by tomorrow.
Still headbutting out to sea south east of St Helen's. Tedious but we expect a SW change sometime soon which - if it arrives - will push us up the track nicely from here. Dec 19 possible, 20th more likely the later we get the change. Hope to bypass Eden but will refuel if necessary.
Paul - Kiwiprop it is and fantastic bit of kit. Sensitive to pitch as you seem to have worked out. I don't bother about the moving parts - just daub it with self ablating soft Devoe. The s/s reverse rollers will always be exposed - nothing you can do about them - but the rest of it seems to cope. You could try spray on lanoline (Lanocote?) mixed with chili powder - supposed to work - Kevvo's paddle had lanoline on it and stayed free of barnacles except in a couple of places where it must have been rubbed off. They say it goes on best if you wait until the object has been heated by the sun.
Happy birthday Kris - and thanks for beaut note - The Grand Theory of Gradual Incrementalism! just about sums it up for me. Will write when things subside and I can think and do it justice.
Thanks Sarah.
Hi Madeleine - I remember it well!
David - best photo is in 'preparations' doc on website.
And thanks as always to everyone else who has written to congratulate us, send us poems and generally pass on their good wishes. We loves yez all!
This wasn't in the brochure. We're down to the 4 and 3 reefs out off the Eddystone at the top right end of Tasmania and it's 35 -40 in a horrible sea and its wet and cold and uncomfortable. We're heading generally north - slowly and no sign of any change yet - and not having fun. Drizzly grey dawn, waves breaking off the bows and spray flying back in sheets. Reefs packed and knitted on the boom, folds full of water and sloshing out of the ends of the folds right down the only chink in the party gear, around the chin. So I'm also soaked once again. All the way down, so to speak. Bleah!
I'm still pretty weary after the few hectic days before and after we arrived in Hobart and going to windward seem to me to be a breach of contract - a bloke goes on a cruise to get some sleep, not to be damp, in full party gear, sitting on the floor again as poor old Berri gets another bashing. But we have a fridge full if medical supplies and soon there will be Breakfast. A bacon sando and a Consultation will restore the humours.
It had better, I suppose - we've got a live radio interview over the satphone in a couple of hours with 2BL Breakfast in Sydney and all over NSW. Glad my bit of fame will last only the regulation 15 minutes.
Almost in
To-do list is manageable - along these lines:
- Backup laptop, download trip records, photos, GS tracks, fax files etc for analysis and website and book (Alex/Steve)
- maybe reconfigure SoB (Alex/Simon)
- Download new version of Easymail and Norton updates Complete RS2H paperwork including Cat 1 safety check. Should be a formality but first need to collect new gear required this year - List of Lights, drugs etc (Alex/Sarah/Roger/Andy)
- Install new AT 130 tuning box for HF and do radio check - a couple of hours, perhaps (Marty)
- Take everything - not most stuff, but everything moveable off the boat and give Berri thorough clean out and the exit mould treatment - about a day's work including ferrying stuff to various homes etc. (All of us...)
- Check the rig (Pete/Alex, perhaps rigger)
- New or reinforced lee cloths (Brian B) and replace wooden poles (Alex)
- Fix leaky cockpit drain - relatively easy (Pete)
- Engine service if time allows (John W)
- Dismantle Kevvo and take him home (Alex, Pete)
- Fix outer f'stay jammer (Pete)
- Minor sail repairs (Brian?)
- Collect Merlin from reprogramming if not already done
- Service the winches if time allows (Andy)
- Buy shackles and other things to replace broken and lost gear.(Alex)
- Put the racing gear back on - rugs, charts, spares, sails, diesel, water, tools, safety stuff and food (crew)
- redo stowage diagram if necessary (Alex)
- Stop the kites, grease all headsail hanks, pack the trisail and storm jibs (crew)
- Safety briefing for the crew (Alex + crew)
- RS2H briefing (Alex, Pete + 2 crew)
And away...
We've been knocked over by the messages coming in - some of them breathtakingly eloquent - thanks to you all. I'm sorry but there are so many that I just can't manage a personal response to all of you any more but please don't think we haven't received them or are indifferent - we have and we're amazed, grateful, astonished and uplifted.
Impossible too to get it all in perspective but no doubt it will come. We have at last got the fair winds the brochure promised and we're in Bass Strait and nearly half way back to Sydney. Earliest possible ETA early afternoon Monday, but this a bit optimistic, I think. More likely early Tuesday morning but we'll make sure it's in daylight even if it means having an external Consultation or two outside the Heads as we wait for the dawn.
Clear night, fill moon, stars, the full panoply of goodies and phosphorescence too. Berri slipping silently through an almost calm sea - most unusual. A fridge full of medicinal fluids and Anne's strog - as well as groggy fruit cake - thanks Anne. Life has its moments.
To the guys in The Dungeon - come and have a beer and I'm sure we will be able to find a job for youse all. Thanks. Where's David P these days?
70 miles SE of Gabo - Bass Strait like the pond at CYC - not an angel's fluff anywhere - oily calm, we've been motoring @ 4 kts for 24 hours at least and burning lots of diesel. We will almost certainly need a pit stop somewhere - probably Eden - to get some more. Damn. Tuesday morning now looking like the earliest we can make it.
Happy Birthday El - will try satphone lateer
[ed: nice little piece in
the Sydney Morning Herald in Peter
FitzSimons FitzFiles column ].
Wind at last - and from the SW! All we need is for it to hold for 36 hours and we'll be right up there. We are heading in towards Merimbula and we will hug the shore all the way up from there - current seems to be negligible until Bateman's Bay so not too much lost on the way. If it holds, we won't need a pit stop - we have about 90 litres left in the diesel tanks.
Mixed emotions - soon we will see mainland Oz for the first time since the S2H last year and then Sydney in a couple of days. Whooosh and it's all gone and soon after, the old faithful bus shelter in the studio will be gone too. Sad, but a real sense of pride as well. Heads down, bums up as we turn Berri around - will be a hectic few days and then, I hope, a little island of calm on christmas day before we do it all over. Hope it's a really slow race, but I don't like our chances.
I've been asked 'What's all this stuff about a bus shelter?' Well, everyone knows that NASA never really got to the moon - the whole thing was cobbled together in Warner Bros studios on some Hollywood film lot. The bus shelter started as an analogy for Berrimilla's cockpit when I was explaining something or other and from there it sort of slipped out that we're not really out in the oggin getting soaked and bashed up by the Examiner at all - we're just a couple of old farts - deros really - drinking Guinness in an old bus shelter on the Fox studio lot on the old Sydney Showground - we have a stone age computer and we've been cobbling together these stories as the pile of cans mounts and the local dogs come and use our little abode as a pissoir. I hope that explains it satisfactorily. We're due for eviction on Jan 10 to make way for a fast food outlet. I guess the Council will send the Vogons to do the demolition and read us some poetry. Can't wait.
So - the next cobbled episode - back, at last, in super hoon mode belting in towards Green Cape and Merimbula in 25- 30 kt westerly with the 3 and a reef. Woohoo! Next time we get to green cape, it will be in anger, as it were - for those not familiar with the Rolex Sydney Hobart race rules, it is mandatory for each boat to assess its seaworthiness and ability to continue into Bass Strait when it reaches 'the vicinity of Green Cape'. It is required to report to the radio relay vessel that it has done so and the Skipper and crew have elected to continue to race. Failure to make this report is ground for immediate disqualification. Green Cape light has a range of 17 miles and we are 46 miles SE at 6 knots so we should sight it in about 5 hours. Then we hug the shore all the way to Sydney to avoid as much of the East Australian Current as possible.
Duncan - thanks for kind words - the problem, as I see it, revolves around your three words 'a little editing' - which half of the library do we toss out? I don't have any feel, from the bus shelter, for just how big it will be when all the bits are assembled.
Bill - thanks - I remember meeting you that night at RANSA.
For all those asking where we will be when we get into Sydney - we will be at CYC, probably with the little boats on C Marina. We'll be the one with a blue Fastnet battle flag between two green RS2H numbers.
Lovely moonlit night - birthday moon for you, Kris - Southern Cross bright behind us. the moon's path ahead a swirl of cascading light in a typically confused and nasty sea - two lots of swell, one down the coast, the other from Bass Strait, with big wind waves on top - it's blowing dogs off chains again and we're down to the 5 and 2 reefs and crashing a bit. Have to keep a lookout for fishing boats out of Eden, usually lit up like Piccadilly Circus and easy to see but can't risk it.
Back in familiar territory, almost exactly on the S2H rhumb line as it passes the corner and heads off into Bass Strait. I think this is my 24th time at this corner going north or south, and it will be the first time going north that we have not stopped in Eden. Lots of memories - more, I hope, to come. We are just beyond the range of the Green Cape light and will not see it this time. We will close the coast up near Tathra, almost in sight of Mount Dromedary, named by Cook and uncannily like a sitting camel. We will be looking at it from one side or the other for about 24 hours.
We're certainly back in OZ. The first fly arrived when we were about ten miles out - too groggy to evade my mailed fist but now we are fully flied just south of Montagu Island - Berrimilla has been past here about 30 times since 1983. Onya Berri!
And onya the Examiner for never giving up. She's unrolled the beginnings of a classic north easter around us. We're motoring again, waiting to see what settles in. All ETA bets are off again - could be anytime but most likely Tuesday morning.
Much later - now pestered by flies - how do they find us? We've headed in towards the southern end of Bateman's bay to avoid as much of the current as we can - another boat coming up from the south - sydney 38 type boat but a long way away - prob coming up for the S2H - has gone way out to sea to do the same thing and clear Point Perpendicular. Interesting to see whether we get there first.
We will enter the Harbour between 0700 and 0900 on tuesday barring accidents and massive wx changes - hope to see all y'all who live here out there.
Once again, the Examiner is asking the questions. We are off Bateman's bay, about a mile offshore, still in two knots of adverse current and the wind from the north - basically motoring to nowhere.
Now 2245 local and I've just put the #1 up again - heading for Point Perpendicular but only making 3.5 knots so it will be a long ride home - 123 miles to go and even Tuesday morning is looking iffy unless we get a lift. I'm a weary old fart and I'd like to be going a bit faster but them's the breaks.
Nik, we have a media interview tomorrow morning - 0500 ish - ABC breakfast Radio 702 I think - was going to be by satphone but give them my mobile if you get this in time - think I have the producer's number so will try myself as well.
Huge yellow moon has just risen in front of us - golden filligree reflected on calm water.
Less than 100 miles to go and I can see Point Perpendicular light - the last big one before the Macquarie Light on South Head.
Sydney in about 14 hours - just too late for the 6pm news so I've promised the Rolex Media team that we will enter harbour between 0700 and 0900 tomorrow morning, to coincide with a special broadcast slot they have arranged. Unless it really does go pear-shaped from here - the dreaded container ship scenario, perhaps, or an early visit by the Vogon Constructor Fleet to demolish the world, we'll be there. We have a satellite phone radio interview for breakfast radio in an hour or so and I'm about to shave so that I look really good for the listeners.
Once we're in and finished with the press, it's the Big Unload - everything that moves comes off the boat and we will clean off all the mould and the slimy bits and any remaining ferals will have a few minutes to jump ship. And all the other stuff that we have to do to get to the start line will start to line up.
There's a big thunderstorm out on the eastern horizon - lots of lightning and the loom of big clouds around the flashes - I do hope it stays out there. I think my worst couple of hours of the whole gig so far was sitting out in the cockpit that night off Montevideo watching for a ship we knew was there somewhere during the massive, green storm with purple lightning zapping into the sea all around - the whole world contained in every flash as it lit up the hanging fronds and sheeting rain from the overcast that swallowed the mast, it seemed so low. I remember thinking that Leroy Chiao was up over the top of it for a while in the International Space Station - we had been due to r/v with him that evening - and wishing that I was up there too. He told us later that it was one of the biggest he'd seen as well. That's real fear - long drawn out gut wrenching expectation that the worst will happen and being completely unable to do anything about it including not thinking about it. I still don't like thinking about it!
We must be careful here - Point Perpendicular is a chunky little artefact and, as always just here, there's a big swell so Kevvo is wandering around a bit and the wind is quite gusty too. There's a fishing boat in Wreck Bay to port and away to the west are the lights of Ulladulla. The moon's path is a wide spangly triangle and I can see the silhouettes of St George's Head and Point Perp behind it. Always drama negotiating this corner - I'm looking forward to the dawn so that we get the spectacular sight of the rocky ends of two peninsulas that enclose Jervis Bay
[ed: an hour later
]
With deference to Mr.Durrell and G&S
The final salute: to our families and other animals - to Ethel, Hilary, Jeanne, Eleanor, Luke, Sarah, Eve, Tessa, Katherine, Isabella's mob, David's mob, Lilian, Chris, Anne, Joan, Siobhan, Kim & Carol and all our uncles and our cousins whom we reckon up by dozens and our aaaunts, and John, Alex and Jane Sutherland who have become family since we started trekking down to Hobart every year - and to Kevvo and Berrimilla - thank you all, for your support, mostly amused tolerance and general willingness to let us get on with it with no hassles and the fort held with competence and aplomb until we eventually clock in again after demolition day, groggy with a surfeit of Vogon poetry. Whatever we have achieved, you all have a piece of the achievement and we couldn't have done it without you. We dips our lids with gratitude and affection.
Dawn of what will be the last full day two handed - long line of thunder clouds to the east and the pink light about to hit the tops of the stern line of rocky cliffs at Point Perpendicular - bright moon and silver path over the water towards us - a lovely moment and one for all y'all out there to share with us.
[ed: some hours later
still
.]
Hi, Pete here, as I write this we are heading up the coast about 50 miles from Sydney. So, how does it feel? Well, there is a certain sense of pride in the completion of what we set out to do. The Fastnet result and the RORC Seamanship award were a wonderful bonus. Along with this sense of achievement there is the regret that all this is about to end. The thing that keeps you on the edge in a voyage like this is that every day is different, nothing is routine, every day I had an awareness that I was really alive. In the oceans that we sailed nothing remained the same for very long, seas which had previously battered the boat would subside, we would relax and be comforted by a softer more gentle ocean, until the next storm.
The one thing I will miss is the amount of time you have to just sit and think. In my mind I have solved all the problems associated with finishing the renovations to our house. The brain has worked and reworked various plans for refitting and cruising in our Brolga. The strangest thing was the finding of a protective system I did not know existed in my brain.
During the long lonely night watches of the two bad storms off South America I would close the eyes and think. One would imagine that under the circumstances various disaster scenarios would flash up. Not so, I started to recall wonderful and pleasant memories from the past. What I recalled were vivid memories, some going back 40 to 50 years, all in Technicolour and Cinemascope. I remembered names and recalled faces I thought I had forgotten. I had vivid images of places, I even remembered things which had been said from my distant past. The most pleasant and calming recollections were of early times spent with Jeanne and our four young children. All these things helped me to stay calm during the tough times, I assume these memories are all still filed in some remote part of the brain ready to be accessed when the need next arises.
This will be my last email for the voyage, its a time to say thanks to a whole range of people. I will not be specific but its for the family, friends, neighbours, fellow sailors, people who helped to repair the boat in NZ and England, those who helped to prepare the boat before we left, people who we have come to know through the Berri emails and a very special thanks to Steve and Malcolm who ran the web site. Another special thanks to those people who bought Berri shirts and jackets also those who sent donations to help pay for the replacement of the liferaft we lost, the rigging repairs, radio repairs and the communication expenses.
So we come to the end of a great adventure. How do I feel? Well, I feel strong both physically and mentally, I feel young and alive, perhaps ready for some other adventure but not till I've crossed most things off the job list I have made for myself. I have lost an amount of weight not sure how much but there are hollows and bones to the body that I don't think have appeared since I lost the schoolboy figure. To all those people who wrote encouraging us in our task saying that we were doing something which they wished they could do, well, you can do it. There is nothing exceptional about either of us.
We came up with a voyage which we both knew would test us but we did it one day at a time. You may not want to take on Cape Horn but set your your own bar and raise it a little each time.
Finally, I want to thank Alex for promoting this voyage, it took a lot of courage to risk yourself and your boat in this sort of venture. Not everyone thought this little trip was a good idea, I felt that we had a great boat for the job and I knew if we both looked after each other we would make it. It has all come to an end rather suddenly and all I can say is ....."what an experience".....To Jeanne and all the loved ones I left behind...."Open your hearts I coming home"....
Till perhaps the next time....cheers Pete.
From Alex
I think Pete said it all. 42190 metres down, 5 to go. Eyes glazing, uplift from the crowd and the sight of the finishing clock and we're almost there. The gig is nearly played out. We will enter harbour tomorrow morning at 0800 and see all y'all at CYC a bit later for a small celebration before the real work starts.
There will be updates as we go - probably from a shore based computer until we cross the start line and then we'll do our best to keep them going during the race and the trip home.
WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO! We done it - well almost!
[Ed: off the Heads in
Sydney heading out to meet them]
Ed: well, trying to get
some written words out of Pete and Alex has proved difficult. Berri entered the heads at 8am today, and
crossed the imaginary start/finish line at Bradleys Head in Sydney Harbour at
8:17:35 on 20/12/05. About two dozen
boats greeted Berri along with media helicopters and a typical Sydney summers
day clear, blue, calm, and warm. Here
are the first group of pictures more to follow along with a small video when
I work out how to put it up. The boys
stepped ashore to meet the Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club, the hosts of
the Sydney to Hobart along with many reptiles of the press, and their lovely
other halves, Jeanne (for Pete) and Hilary (for Alex). Berri looked a little out of place amongst
the gleaming white Sydney to Hobart Fleet, but was certainly the centre of
attention. Interesting, a crewman of
Alfa Romeo, one of the favourites for line honours on the Sydney to Hobart, was
asked if he would go around the world in his 30m boat? His reply?
Not in Alfa, but certainly in Berri.
Grins all around.
[Ed: sorry, no more words
yet, but another article:
[ed: amazingly we are
having comms problems in the dock!!!
Alex dictated this to Hilary (his wonderful better half) who sent it via
her PC at home. Hope to sort out the comms today]
At last - sorry it's taken so long ...
Yesterday was one of those special days. We hung around outside the Heads from about 6.00 on a superb day - sparkling lovely day and Diomedea came out and then everyone else including Steve in the CYC rubber duck and Jeanne and assorted Croziers in the RANSA boat and we sailed up the harbour with a huge escort and hooting and breaking the peace generally and got into CYC where there was an even bigger scrum and - wonderful - Hilary and Jeanne and families and the Commodore gave us the RORC seasmanship award and our Fastnet medals and assorted bottles of medicine. And now it's tomorrow and we've turned the boat around - amazing effort from lots of people yesterday and today - huge thanks - and the paperwork is done except for the Cat 1 inspection which should be a formality. Radio fixed - thanks Marty - more on this later for Justice in Maputo and Sue and Jim at Sailmail. Engine serviced too.
Thanks, John. Then we load the rest of the racing gear and we're ready to roll. Photos to follow. Watch this space and hang on for the ride while we finish the job.
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