All material on this site is © Copyright 2005
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In the churn
Have you ever tried to sort through about 2 tons of mouldy feral grotted slimy bags, boxes, ropes' ends, tool boxes, food bins, smelly clothes - all mixed in with Kevvo in severe dismantle mode, engine spares, charts, media interviews, a laptop that for some reason won't talk to the internet or anyone else and the deadline fast hooning up over the horizon. My house is knee deep in stuff - far worse than the photos of before loading the van a year ago - but there is some order now in the heaps - Pete must be the same. Hilary has cooked and frozen the main meals, we have to go shopping for the complementary stuff and sufficient medicinal compound to get us down there and the margin ain't so rosy but we'll make the start with everything in place and working. Hope to do the Cat 1 safety check today - should be routine but if fixes needed we've -just- got time.
Massive thanks to all y'all for wonderful emails and encouragement and support - the offers of help have been constant and moving - there will be a Lucky Gust prize, as promised as soon as I can get organised to arrange - and various other prizes and if anyone wants their Berri shirts signed - or anything else - just turn up with the appropriate pen - we'll apply greasy hand to the job...Berri is beside the clubhouse at CYC for those that live here.
Sorry - no time for more - wx looks a bit quirky for the start - will be interesting.
[ed: later
.]
Forgot - thanks to everyone who came out to the heads to escort us in - and went to north Head and Bradleys and CYC - wonderful. heart stirring knee trembler of a welcome - Gobsmacked we were!. And have just had a quick look at the Anarchists on sailinganarchy - blimey - did we really inspire all that purple prose?? Thanks everyone - nice te be able to read it. Gotta go - safety check to organise.
The churn has subsided - a bit. We did the Cat 1 safety check yesterday and no blips. so all ok as far as paperwork and administration goes and we're ready to go. Briefing at CYC today and four of us are required to attend. It's always a bit of a shambles getting in because of the need for everyone to sign the lists. We will get a forecast - looks promising at this stage but we'll only really know when we cross the finishing line at Battery Point. And the Gig will be over...We just have to remember that this time, it's a U turn to get home, not just a leftie.
[ed: The Syd2Hob web site is
excellent with a great boat tracker feature. ]
We will keep the website and the alert list going during the race and after and will keep you advised about Berri news and the progress of The Book.
For the sailing anarchists [ed: thread here ] - sorry - forgot to acknowledge the Albatross - aka Diomedea - greeting us at the Heads. Thanks Phil and David. Nice touch! All the best for the race, yez all.
[Ed: more photos, this
time at the CYC]
[Ed: for those that have Google Earth loaded, this is Berris complete track in Google Earth format]
Almost done - in several senses. Berri really does ring like achurch bell, but we still have to load some frozen food and replenish the medicine chest.I'm a very tired cookie, but it's done. The weather forecast indicates a fast race, maybe a record, with just a tiny opening for the little boats if the big ones stall for a few hours way down south. We littlies will probably meet a weakish front at the top of Bass Strait. Otherwise, looks like the kite for most of the way, with 25 knots for some of it. Kite start, gentle S/SW around the Heads coming back to the north later and back on the sleigh.
Yet another media interview tomorrow - and then probably a couple before the start and on the way down the harbour afterwards. For once, I can't complain about lack of coverage for the little boats and - for the same reason - I cant refuse to do them. Quite bizarre - most of the ones I have done for the ABC here have been run simultaneously in England over the internet and have been recorded for us over there because we don't get to hear them.
We'll be having a quiet christmas - with a few local friends and blow-ins from the fleet all of whom are a long way from home and then we're off. Boxing Day is always shambolic, exciting, tense and lovely once we're past the sea mark. Have a good one! We'll be in touch once we get out of the spectators' wash and down the coast a bit.
[ed: A Merry Christmas
to all the Berriphiles out there, and safe and highly enjoyable New Year. We at Berrimilla.com have thoroughly enjoyed
your electronic company over the year.
Take care, and have a go at what ever you want too you only live
once! Now, back to normal transmissions
;-)]
Pre start at the CYC Marina:
I think I lost the update from home this morning - sorry - pre start nerves and decrepitude. We're ready to go - the usual shambles on the marina but great buzz - probably why we do it I suppose. Just had a final nervous Consultation - Dr Cooper efficacious as ever and when Pete gets back from the baker, we'll go. Should be a quick one - front on Wednesday @ 35 - 40 and we just have to get south of 39 30 S to miss the worst of it and we'll be able to lay Tasman Island the whole way. Fingers crossed.
There will be a big hole - as usual - at South Head and the spectator wash stopping us on the way to the seamark which is frustrating but once out, we're on the way.
Satphone will be on - usual rules apply.
[ed: position only- off
Sydney Heads].
Nice start, dreadful sloppy spectator wash at South Head - lost about half an hour almost stalled but we're out and away. Lots of mates waving and hollering - thanks everyone. Now we have to go south all over again. Pete and I finished the theoretical gig on the start line - finished the 2004 Hobart Jan 1st 2005, Fastnet in August and we're racing in the 2005 Hobart. Wooohooo - small drama before we left the dock - the alternator wouldn't excite - panic - eventually traced to a loose socket on the fast charge regulator, but we were all ready and resigned to start and retire when the battery died (so no radio skeds especially at Green Cape) We'd still have sailed to Hobart, reporting by satphone, but outside the rules. Would have been a long way to go to retire...
Now just cracked off heading for Tasman Island down the rhumb line - no appreciable current, 35-40 kt front due Wednesday sometime. The further south we can get before we hit it, the better as there will be more west in it the further south we are Sorry no photos from the start - cant get the phone configured properly..
More later.
Wind still SE - just on the edge of the Assy [ed: asymmetrical spinnaker] but with a 2 knot set taking us west. Having missed about a thousand lobster pots off the English coast during the Fastnet, we collected the floatline for a biggie just off Maroubra [ed: southern end of Sydney] - 3 floats all wrapped around the skeg and we dragged it along for a bit and stopped. Pete flashed the Parts and jumped in with a knife to cut it away - he seems to like going overboard! We had to free the sheets to get the pressure off the pot line and make sure we stayed in touch with Pete - and we lost about 10 minutes. Gillawa [ed: smallest boat in the race about a metre shorter than Berri] was just astern and they checked that we were ok as they sailed past. I think we may have caught them again. Wind has eased a bit. Fenwick [ed: he of the Berri shirt factory] and Sarah [ed: Petes daughter] on watch, first sked at 2005 this evening, then at 0705 and 1705 each day.
Berri going well - but we're right out at the back now after the stall at South Head and the lobster pot. Some work to do. 2UE want to talk to us later, around 2100.
Sailmail misbehaving -not seeing outgoing messages - damn - and satcom down - antenna failure - double damn.
Wind now S will have to tack out to avoid Point Perp.
The bus shelter is becalmed near Point Perp. Ok as long as everyone else is - just about to do the 0705 sked and we'll find out.
After the sked,it seems the others must be going fairly slowly too - we can actually see three boats but don't know who they are. Just waiting again for the promises NE to set in. No sign of it yet - I've just been round in a couple of circles - one in each direction, just for fun. Not.
Bacon sando was noice - only one Consultation per day in this new, lightweight boat so will conserve it till later.
Peter F- thanks for 17 syllables - will find you later. Neil - glad your prescription was filled! Susannah - I have your CD - Coombsy - remind me when we get back, please, hi everyoone else and thanks for emailsd signs of breeze - gotta go - fingers crossed.
Some good coverage and photos on the Sydney Morning Herald site and the SMH photo gallery
Point Perpendicular Parking lot
A real glass-out. Oily, humid, hot, windless - a bit of current taking us west and that's it. Parked - flopping, slatting, sweating and watching for every tiny ripple and change in the distant reflections off the water that may signal a zephyr. New year's eve looking very shaky unless the forecast NEsterly sets in. We hope everyone is in the same hole but the fleet is now so spread that it's unlikely.
Old friends day too - we've just had a satphone call from Andy Rice at the Rolex Media centre - Hi Andy - we last spoke to him as we finished the Fastnet in August but never met because he had to go off to some other fleshpot - Hang around in Hobart, Andy, and buy us a beer - I think we're going to need it.
Wind at last - ENE 15 - and we've got the assy up and dragging us along at 7.5+ knots smack down the rhumb line in a nice flat sea with a long, low swell. I expect the guys further south are getting a bit more, but it doesn't really matter - we are going flat out and any more breeze would affect the sea state and slow us down.
Steady stream of big ships going south - I've tried sending selective DSC calls to test our new AIS gear but no go - either they are not listening or I've got it wrong somehow. The call appears to be transmitted but no acknowledgement or contact via the designated frequency. Will check when we get in - if we can get it working properly, it's a great safety asset.
Passed a big sunfish half an hour ago while I was talking to Nik at Rolex Media - about 2 metres from the boat - a lucky sunfish, I think - in our overpopulated bus shelter, we are a rather solid lump to have bump into you.
CG - little bowl snug beside the nav table.
Chicken balti for dinner tonight - not sure yet how we will manage a sitting of six - it's all a bit different. Pete and I are about to have a little Consultation to consider the matter.
Some start pictures here thanks Les & Karen Newling
The best day's sailing for a longtime - almost low flying. We've had 20-25 knots since lunchtime and we're now well south of Montagu, estimating Green Cape around 0500 and Bass Strait a couple of hours later. Sea rising and we're rolling a bit - complacency wake up call - have just flooded the cockpit and dropped several buckets into the saloon so, too late, we've put the storm board in. Starboard quarterberth a bit wet but ok otherwise. I'm about to be on watch - gotta go.
Just entering Bass Strait - message from Steve to say that Wild Oats has finished and broken the record. Last time the record went, we were exactly half way, so 70 odd miles further south, and that year it took us another week to finish and I busted my face. Hope it's a bit better this time.
Huge run last night but sadly, we wrapped the assy around the forestay and destroyed it getting it unwrapped. Juddy swinging around at the masthead in a nasty sea with the remains of the sail flogging. Now sitting at what we think is the beginning of the front - low grey overcast, drizzle, soft, variable wind - waiting to see what happens. Will be tricky without the assy if the forecast for tomorrow holds. New Year's Eve still possible.
[ed: current ETA 7am 1st
Jan]
Well done Wild Oats - onya fellas!.[ed: Wild Oats wins line honours in a race record of 1 day 18 hours 40 mins 10 secs, 1hr 7 mins under Nokias 1999 record and that was without a mainsail for the last 30 miles or so!] If you can wait around long enough we'll say it in person. More likely, we'll meet you coming back... Wild Oats Article & Berri Article
Kite wraps - How not to do it - first, don't get a wrap. Second, don't ever leave a headsail halyard tied off on the pulpit when the kite is up. Third, if you do get a nasty tight double ended wrap like we did, with the headsail halyard knitted into it, remember that the first thing to try is to release the headsail halyard and let it run - it just may slide down the forestay inside the wrap and allow you to pull the whole thing down. We got 1 & 2 wrong (me for 2 - I saw and failed to ask for a change)and we forgot 3 - yet all of us have done it at least once. Instead, we went the hard way and sent JJ up the mast and he almost succeeded - the kite tore where it was pinched by the halyard right at the top. It is repairable, but not out here, so we're down to one kite. Tired and silly - but we got it sorted without any other damage and we're now trying to negotiate the southerly change - all very soft and uncertain for the moment and hasn't settled. I do hope we get some real wind behind it - there's a long way to go.
All's well in the bus shelter, though rather crowded. No dogs out here, but lots of flies and lots of big sunfish - we've seen at least three very big ones.
JC thanks for phosphorescent pome - too tired to read and appreciate - will savour later.
Hard on the wind, mid Bass St. at roughly half way. Just woken from first real sleep since we started, snug and warm under new Sea rug - One of the things that really work. Full main and #1 and lumpy sea. there are some boats out here I wouldn't like to be on in this - sitting on the rail all the way and wet and uncomfortable. Iff this holds, we will get to Tasman Island late tomorrow with a real possibility of a New Year's eve party in Hobart. Fingers crossed.
Time to make a cuppa and dunk a gaggle of McVities, then full party gear and on watch for 2 hours. We work a staggered system so that we do the first hour with one person and the second with another. Makes for variety and the time goes more quickly.
70 miles east of Flinders and past 40 S - we've driven Berri as fast as she will go but very difficult to catch up all the time we must have lost in the first night parking lot. We have about a knot and a half of adverse current here so our speed on the tracker won't look as impressive as it does on the log in the boat. We will continue to point as Tasman Island, ETA about 2000 tomorrow if the wind holds. Not a brilliant time of the day to get there - hope there's enough gradient wind to keep Storm Bay and the Derwent open for us. If so, then about 0900 on New Year's eve on the line.
Troops all OK, bus shelter not too damp, ferals coming out of their hidey holes at the prospect of varietal sock and underdag fodder. Great fruitcake and meals, Hilary - thanks. The less squeamish amongst us had a standard Berri breakfast in the sun this morning - fat bacon sando soaked in tabasco lubricated by a Guinness followed by very alcoholic fruit cake. Yummy.
I'm told I sounded grumpy on ABC radio this morning - they rang during the sked and I was trying to listen to the weather at the same time. Tricky. Have just spoken to Nik at Rolex MegaMedia and it seems 2UE will be after us later as well. Roll up, roll up - the tail enders will be the only story soon, when everyone else is down at the pub.
That was the night that was! We've been reaching with full main and #1 in three to four metre beam seas with wind gusting to 40+, mostly 30-35, and getting sustained bursts of 9+ knots, often 11 in short bursts and never below 8. Knocked off a few miles but I expect every one else has too. Quite hairy sailing and difficult sometimes but exhilarating. To steer the boat, you have to be braced across the bus shelter bit and working really hard occasionally, although relatively easy to stay in control. The sun has just risen, we're 30 miles out from Freycinet and 80 from Tasman Island. Too early to predict but should be around this afternoon lateish. Will then depend on conditions around the corner. I hope we can hear the weather forecast this time.
Much too early for a wooohooo but a bacon sando and a Consultation with 'imself the Doctor from Dublin after the 0705 sked will be in order, I think. Keep your fingers, toes, eyebrows, knees and everything else crossed that we can keep it all together and the wind holds for the next 36 hours or so to get us home. We're working on the problem!
[Ed: the Yacht Tracker
has Berri getting into Hobart at about 11:30pm 30/12 thats tonight!]
It's a fickle race course. All our speed last night wasted- we're thudding into a short nasty sea and a SE sea breeze @ 25 knots just able to lay TI because we're way out to sea. I think the boats inshore - Polaris and Isabella and Tilting - will have a bit more trouble. We won't round tonight unless we get really lucky - The sea breeze will die with the sun and we'll be parked until morning. We've already lost everything we gained on the boats now around the corner so that's the end of any chance of a place - we're just trying to stay up with the boats around us.
I think we can just see TI 32 miles away.
We'll just grind it out, as usual. A third park will be frustrating - hope we manage to avoid it. Still possible we won't even get in tomorrow if the predicted light and variables arrive.
Time to get set up for the sked.
[Ed: actually two eds
this time. Stephen and Malcolm are both
in Hobart to welcome Berri back again (talk about dιjΰ vu all over
again!). We are heading out in Mals
Wildfire to meet Berri in the morning (subject to The Examiner being kind, so
no updates until; we get back in later in the day
. Sorry bout that
.]
3 miles to Tasman Island, poled out 1 in tiny breeze from NE - if it holds we'll round at 0100. Then it's anyone's guess - the wind around the corner is always different and often radically different. We have to sail about 8 miles west to get around Cape Raoul and then NE to the Iron Pot about 25 miles further on. Then 11 miles up the Derwent to the finish. Eyebrows crossed please - I'm not superstitious but I'm sure it helps!
[ed: finished the Rolex
2005 Sydney to Hobart! A long slow
tedious struggle up the Derwent with The Examiner opting for light to no breeze
as the test today. The finish time
slipped and slipped and slipped, but we got there. Web Slaves Stephen and Malcolm were joined by
4 other Berriphiles on Mals lovely boat, Wildfire, as we spent 10 hours
cruising down the Derwent and escorting Berri up to the finish at 3:54pm on
News Years Eve. A huge welcome at
Constitution Dock, media all over the place, and much consultation and
congratulations all around. I (web Slave
Stephen) am now back in Sydney and will publish photos and stuff soon
promise. Thanks for your support. Alex will be back online soon.]
Using Google Earth? This is the
track of Wildfire heading down the Derwent and returning to the finish with
Berri.
Rolex Web Site article here
Some photos of the arrival and finish
For those with bandwidth and a decent connection, this is a 6mb video of the finish only about 10 secs!
[ed: from Alex later ]
We needed all 15 or so P's - patience, persistence, prudence, perseverance and the rest to get here. We rounded Tasman Island in the dark last night and trickled slowly into Storm Bay which was anything but stormy and then around the Pot into the Derwent with our two faithful, hardworking magnificent web slaves, Malcolm Robinson and Steve Jackson tagging along in Malcolm's very much faster boat Wildfire. And Colin arrived in Ceilidh (got it right that time!) And then we stopped. Almost. We just managed to creeeeep up the river with no speed registered on the log but a smidgin faster than the outgoing current. Finally, near the Garrow, a little breeze from behind and we set the big purple and gold kite and finished slowly but in style.
And what a welcome - Hobart always turns it on for the backmarkers but this was different and very special - it seemed that there were thousands of people on the dock and the other boats, all hooting and yelling and Geoff Lavis, the Commodore was there with a bottle of Bundy - thanks Geoff - and someone else with the traditional slab of Boags and Andy Rice from Rolex Media who we last spoke to in Plymouth and friends and relations and the media and hundreds of people some of whom had flown in from all over the place - a couple from Western Australia and Hilary and Rosie and Eve from sydney and old uncle Tom Cobbley and all...truly wonderful welcome and thanks to you all for being there.
And CYC/RYCT have asked us to attend the prizegiving tomorrow too. Interesting.
And then we have to think about sailing back and writing the book and doing some work and getting the running shoes on again for me with London Marathon 2007 in the distance. We will be in touch with all the potential starters soon. And I have to get my hair cut.
WOOOOHOOOOOOOOO - Huge relief - Happy New Year everyone - for once we made it in in time for the fireworks and John's real birthday and we'll be thinking of you all out there having your own celebrations. Thanks for your enthusiasm, encouragement, support, personal messages, poems, stories and lovely emails - it has been an astonishing year and we will keep it all going for at least as long as it takes to get back to Sydney. Please don't go away yet....
Special thanks to the teams at RORC and CYC for giving it purpose and looking after us so well, and to Rolex for the media coverage - really nice for a little boat at the bac k of the fleet to get a bit of attention - keep it up!
I must now get to the fireworks and then sleep for about a week - actually, probably about 4 hours, but more in one go than for a long time.
[[ed: says it all really
Happy New Year! Great fireworks in
Hobart nice to see them from within Hobart rather than looking at them way off
in the distance from Storm Bay as in previous years! Lets see what we can get
up to in 2006. Thanks again to all the supporters every email and gust entry
gets read and cogitated upon. Take call
all from the Berri motley crew!
The day after the day before
Fenwick - lovely bloke - went back to the boat to sleep last night after a big meal up here at the Sutherland's and it was lucky he did. Some idiot - and I don't say that lightly and we think we know who it was - had left Constitution Dock and taken our stern anchor line with them - uprooting the anchor and dumping it close to the little channel under the bridge at the entrance. Berri was left with Polaris attached to her starboard side bumping against the dock in a bit of a blow - Allan started the engine and managed to get the anchor out a but further but not enough to hold both boats off the dock so he sat there with a nice Kiwi who failed dismally to see the charm that oozes from the Fenwick persona but she did latch on to the bottle of Bundy that was on offer and she sat there with him all night holding both boats off the wharf until Polaris' skipper arrived at about 0900 and helped them to reset the anchor and sort out the mess.
And then another idiot - and we think we also know who this one was - departed from up the line of boats without properly re-attaching the boats that were tied to his own back to the wharf. One of these has a varnished wooden hull. Inexcusable incompetence. Result - several more boats adrift against the wharf and in danger of severe damage.
End of diatribe. There's a front due through tomorrow morning with a few days of westerlies behind it, so we're hoping to get away tomorrow evening and out into them for a quick trip to Eden. Unfortunately, it means we'll miss a visit to Port Arthur on the way but you don't get easy miles down here and you grab them when you can. We will fill up with mussels in Eden and perhaps get a lazy cruise up the NSW coast from there. With a beer as we pass Wollongong at 37 S.
We have a lot of gear to squeeze into the boat - we left lots here before we left for the Falklands last year and a lot more when we got in from Falmouth - was it only a couple of weeks ago? With five on board, it will be tight.
Duncan - thanks for great feedback - I've googled the highwayman's hitch and will practise all the way to Sydney.
Nige - tha Bag Lady is no more - I look like a scrofulous cat from the neck up now. Jane did a great job and I'm back to normal.
And Bill - I like the idea of line honours, record, first on handicap and inaugural winner of the Hobart to Hobart race. Thanks. Any takers for the future will not have much to beat in real terms but they'll need all the P's.
Peter, Hugh and many others, thanks for your kind words, I will try to reply to everyone, but it may become too much - we'll see.
[ed: report from Malcolm
in Hobart:
They got away
from the RYCT at 14:27 into a southwesterly of 50kts gusting to 70.
All racing on the river was cancelled today but Alex's comment was "we've
got to make the most of this while it lasts"!]
[ed: some good pictures
here
]
[ed: later updated from
alex:]
We left Constitution Dock at 1145, after sweaty 15 minutes keeping Berri circling in the middle while we waited for the bridge then down to RYCT to refuel - they had already called off today's racing - and sad farewell to all our friends and away - after a rather unorthodox and unseamanlike departure - wasn't intended to be as risky as it became but we got out without damaging anyone or ourselves. Arse, though, not class. I think we were the only boat moving except for a couple coming in - good feeling. Worth a bit of a headbang at the start to get the easy miles later. And we
forgot to put the mainsail in the track so we would have had a big scramble to get it in and run the reefing lines if we had needed it. Silly omission.
Abeam Cape Raoul 03/2030 and about 3 miles south heading out past Tasman Island which we will also leave well to the north. Steady 45 -55 knots down the Derwent and until half an hour - now down to 35 - 45, big southern ocean waves coming in - looking upwind to the SW and into the sun in Storm Bay, the sea appeared to be a deep bilious frothy green - the ferals would have loved it - and slate grey down sun. Motion now reasonable easy - long rolling slide forward with the seas on the stbd quarter.
Has the makings of being a lovely sunset, reflecting off Tasman Island and the cliffs around the entrance to Port Arthur - one of my favourite bits of scenery. Don't often see it in such wild conditions but it adds a smoky storm haze to the atmosphere that softens the detail but seems to enhance the grandeur.
Now 4226 14825 04/0630 after a busy night and we're just coming up to Cape Sonnerat at the south eastern end of Schouten Island and the Freycinet Peninsula. Ile des Phoques inshore in the bay. Good progress mostly just under the #5 but we have now set the cutdown. Wind has abated to a gentle 20 - 25 knots. Noice. Demolition in six days. Passed a brightly lit fishing boat quite close last night - so brightly lit that I could not distinguish navigation lights or signal lights. I think he was trawling and I should perhaps have given way.
Thanks to everyone who wrote while we were in Hobart - I don't have copies of your notes on this computer so I wont even try to reply.
Hi L, J and H - hope I remembered correctly. Kevvo would have waved but now he's in about 5 pieces outside my garage at home.
And now at 4159 14836, 04/1120 approaching Bicheno and I'll try to send it again. No go - don't know why. Paul - we've still got a couple of Dr Bodds and I have just opened one in your honour - to help the bacon sando down.
Duncan - since the tea update, we have acquired two one-pint plastic insulated mugs with broad bases and rubber non-skid pads and lids - brilliant and they also hold a full can of Guinness but they are impossible to stow and end up sculling around anywhere they can be stuffed into a space.
[ed: phone report from Alex]
Motor sailing along in a gentle NE off St Helens. About 2 days to Eden and perhaps a 38 yacht to salvage (Savcor, a Sydney 38 leased by Swedes for this years S2H was rolled in 6m seas off Eden yesterday as it returned to Sydney from Hobart. The crew rescued by the Police launch and the boat was left adrift Article Here).
[ed: a later email in from Alex:]
I haven't been able to connect to Sailmail since we left Hobart and don't know why so will continue to churn these out in case it is just a propagation glitch.
South east of St Helen's. Motoring, light north easter, forecast to last all day tomorrow too - not good and we will try to get as far north as possible. We've heard that the Sydney 38 Savcor is abandoned and adrift somewhere SE of Eden - worth a look when we get up there although I would be very surprised if the Eden fishermen haven't already salvaged it.
Sad story - there was a dead albatross in the water a few miles back with another - presumably its mate - circling around. Almost a personal bereavement.
[ed: request from Hilary
and no doubt seconded by Alex]
Stephen/Malcolm,
Could you post a message for Australian readers [ed: International readers can listen
online] of the log to tell them that The HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy
is being broadcast on ABC RADIO National at 5.30 on week nights. [ed: Details
here and you can listen online here
just remember, it is Sydney time which is GMT + 11 currently]
The first episode was broadcast today, in which Arthur Dent was saved by Ford Prefect when Earth was demolished, Arthur is introduced to the Hitch Hikers' Guide, with it's cover which says "Don't Panic" (Arthur is a contributor to the guide), and Ford and Arthur, having hitched aboard a Vogon Constructor Fleet vessel, are discovered by the Vogon commander, who reads them Vogon poetry. For those Ozzies who want to know what Alex's references to HHGTTG are all about, this is an opportunity to find out.
Thank you,
Hilary
now 4053 14855 05/0030 abeam Eddystone Point - misty, starry night, no wind, oily calm, bright phosphorescent trail in the water. A bit of a contrast to yesterday.
Hot, cloudless, glassy calm with a long rolling swell from the south - must be something happening down there but it ain't doing it here - and we're motoring. 36 hours to Eden - minimum unless we get some helpful wind. Last night had the dolphin slash across the sky again - haven't seen the Milky Way that bright for ages.
Neil CA - your examiner seems to be as ornery as ours. Stick with the 4 P's and we'll see you at the next start line - for the London Marathon 2007. I actually met one of the runners in Hobart - onya Graham. Andy R - have you bought the shoes yet??
Hi Trudi - glad you enjoyed the gig - we'll try and get the book written by mid year-ish so in time for christmas and we'll put you on the list. The website will stay until at least April 2007 and the London Marathon.
Katherine I., thanks and we'll be in touch - a bit harried right now - hope your knee is ok and the shoes are back on. Mine aren't - feeling the need desperately but must wait till we get back to sydney in a week or so.
Paul - thanks - that sort of feedback was what kept us going - don't stop! Visited any nice mud holes recently? With or without Dr Bod and and the relevant small writing and photocopy? Long live the Vogon poets - noice baseline for awful comparisons.
Caro - how was the frigid dog? And frozen chocolate? I expect to be in London end Feb-ish and may do a talk at RORC.
Amanda - if you are still on the air - please give me some dates end feb early march and I'll be in touch. Ta. HNY to all y'all at RORC.
CG - have run the idea past the sailing club and they like it - will think it through some more and write to you. Happy New Year. I have the cup still beside me - will mount it later.
Just north of Flinders Island. Tiny NE breeze, still motoring under flat blue sky, the sea deep iridescent blue and when you look down into it there are slivery spokes of light radiating from your shadow and tiny luminous wildlife reflecting the sunlight. All enhanced with a noice cold drop of Dr Boags.
So what's next? We've had lots of requests to keep the website going and to keep people advised as to the progress of the book and we can certainly do that - and keep the Marathon runners newsletter going too- but is there anything anyone else out there would like us to include? There's the new BOG - the Brolga Owners Group as well but that has limited appeal to most of you. Personally, I would love to follow up on the things that all y'all have said you are going to do, either as a result of reading the log or because you were going to do it anyway and we've added some information or encouragement or impetus, so please keep on reporting progress - we can post anything you may want us to or that would be useful for other people.
Or we can just accept the Council's decision and go along with the eviction order from the bus shelter and watch the bulldozers sweep it away.
Any suggestions - in anonymous brown paper envelopes if you like - gratefully accepted.
And it isn't over yet - the Examiner still stalks the boardwalk and it's a long way to South Head, however much experience we may think we have. We should reach Eden around 1800 tomoz. Will report as we go.
Another woolly black night but this time it isn't raining. The darkness is soft and tactile and we're undulating into a short sea with 2 reefs and the 4 which Pete and I set an hour or so ago. Berri perfectly balanced - on the step, for the aviators - at 7 and a half knots with the occasional wave thumping into the weather bow and throwing a couple of bathfuls of water over the cockpit. Nice sailing, as long as you get the timing right and duck at the exact moments. The woolly black is touched by the loom of the Bass Strait oil rigs just hardening the horizon to the west - there are at least 16 of them about 50 miles away. And we're approaching the bottom right hand corner of [the] Oz [mainland, leaving gods own south eastern Australia, a.k.a. Tasmania, behind ;-0(with apologies to all Taswegians. Especially Colin) ] - for my 26th time, 13 each way - and there will be ships in the offing so we have to part the wool and peer through it. We are 86 miles south of Eden and should get in this evening for a quick stop and refuel - and Fenwick needs a shower. I think I can see Wollongong just beyond Eden. Can't get much further south than that without falling into the og.
Tony J - I remember our conversation - thanks for your note and we'll have a beer again soon if Fenwick ever invites me up there again after all the awful things I've said about him. He's not a bad sailor - will have to ask him out to play again.
Bill H - I was in Leopard - cant remember the Division. Jerry H is out there too - Jerry - I've tried to email you direct but it keeps bouncing.
Duncan - thanks again. Don, sorry we missed you - will chase you for a run soon.
And a big G'day to all the new Gusts - thanks for signing on and for your kind words -I'll try to reply when we get home.
Then it was a black woolly night with bonus added rain - slow, persistent drizzle that runs down the sails, trickles along the boom and finds every tiny opening around the neck of the party jacket. Windless, motoring, visibility about half a mile, occasional glimpses of the lights of Eden through the murk. Bleah!
And a short sleep later, the rain has cleared, there's a hazy curtain across the stars, Venus is pushing through and just trailing a sliver of light across the water and the coastal lights strung along the port side from Goalen Head to the north to Eden way behind us - still visible because of the bright lights of the woodchip mill.
Every time we come here, I'm amazed by the jellyfish - huge pink and brown and cream blobs of jelly with slimy almost fibrous cores and ectoplasm-ish sometimes almost invisible filmy 'jelly' around the outside. And huge - some nearly a metre across and by the million, just like currants in a fruit cake wherever you look. Occasionally the propeller chops one up with a great clatter but mostly they glide by in their massed anarchic disorder - all colours and sizes. One year we anchored in Twofold Bay and there were so many of them clogging the water it was almost possible to walk over them to the fishermans' wharf across the bay.
We were surrounded by other yachts approaching Eden, but most of them peeled off into the harbour and we have one solitary cvompanion way out to sea - we can just see his port nav light on the horizon. For the first time ever, we have not stopped in Eden - it's an odd feeling - but it seemed more sensible to take advantage of a period of relatively neutral conditions - no wind - and get as far north as possible before the forecast north easter sets in and bashes us. We are now 18 miles south of Bermagui - a possible stop, but I think we will keep going at least to Ulladulla 80 miles north or even all the way to Sydney. Sydney is just under two days away at our present tortoise like progress at 4 knots against a knot or so of East Australian Current. I think we have just enough diesel to get there if we get a little help from the wind somewhere along the way - but more likely that we will stop somewhere to refuel.
John S - we use a very small storm jib and trisail - I think they are cut as the designer intended from the sail plan. There is almost certainly a sail plan for the Cav 32 and it will have storm gear in it - go with that or talk to your sailmaker who should know where to find the sail plan. It's important to remember that storm gear is emergency equipment rather than an extension of your racing sail plan and the trisail is not a fourth reef. I think there is a formula for the recommended sizes for both sails in the Yachting Australia Blue book - but I don't know where you live and that may not be available. I'm sure there's something in the RYA literature as well. Write to me again if you cant't find the information.
Mark L - interesting Idea re the website (or, at least, for your future entertainment!) and I've passed it on to the Petit Bateau mob - Nick C too - thanks to you both and we'll think about it.
G'day Dr Wendy - look forward to seeing you again.
Malcolm - the video is already dvd - it's a dvd handycam - but I don't know how to put all the 8cm discs onto a big CD - I think the cam came with a package - will investigate.
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