All material on this site is © Copyright 2005
[Editors note]
Alex & Pete apologise that they cannot reply to everyone (actually anyone)
directly. Constraints of 50 knot winds,
narrow beam satellites, and being in a washing machine … and all material on
this site is © Copyright 2005
Logs Updates
Sitrep: 1256hrs 11 Feb 2005 UTC 45’27”S 144’44”W Map Ref 58
3066nm
Sitrep: 0434hrs 11 Feb 2005 UTC 45’39”S 145’35”W Map Ref 57
3028nm
Sitrep: 0509hrs 10 Feb 2005 UTC 46’19”S 148’17”W Map Ref 56
2909nm
Sitrep: 1831hrs 09 Feb 2005 UTC 46’25”S 149’45”W Map Ref 55
2849nm
Sitrep: 1220hrs 09 Feb 2005 UTC 46’47”S 150’23”W Map Ref 54
2813nm
Sitrep: 0711hrs 09 Feb 2005 UTC 46’53”S 151’07”W Map Ref 53
2783nm
Sitrep: 2131hrs 08 Feb 2005 UTC 47’00”S 152’27”W Map Ref 52
2728nm
Sitrep: 2341hrs 07 Feb 2005 UTC 47’05”S 155’08”W Map Ref 51
2618nm
Sitrep: 0453hrs 07 Feb 2005 UTC 47’45”S 157’28”W Map Ref 50
2515nm
Sitrep: 1942hrs 06 Feb 2005 UTC 47’50”S 158’42”W Map Ref 49
2465nm
Sitrep: 0408hrs 06 Feb 2005 UTC 48’31”S 160’20”W Map Ref 48
2388nm
Sitrep: 1803hrs 05 Feb 2005 UTC 48’24”S 161’50”W Map Ref 47
2328nm
Sitrep: 1715hrs 04 Feb 2005 UTC 47’56”S 164’20”W Map Ref 46
2224nm
Sitrep: 0537hrs 04 Feb 2005 UTC 48’06”S 165’53”W Map Ref 45
2161nm
Sitrep: 0704hrs 03 Feb 2005 UTC 49’07”S 169’14”W Map Ref 44
2015nm
Sitrep: 0353hrs 02 Feb 2005 UTC 49’52”S 173’54”W Map Ref 43
1828nm
Sitrep: 0854hrs 01 Feb 2005 UTC 49’40”S 176’12”W Map Ref 42
1738nm
Sitrep: 0300hrs 1
Feb 2005 UTC 49’36”S 176’48”W Map Ref 41 1714nm
Sitrep: 2046hrs 31 Jan 2005 UTC 49’33”S 177’16”W Map Ref 40
1696nm
More than half way to Alpha,
1680 miles direct from
Hi Tori, I remember; Hi
Vivien, glad you're out there; Hi Necola, Hi Sandi, Hi Michelle. Shockers, you still on supine? And it's not
anarchy, just democracy with attitude.
Right now, we are about 60
miles too far north for a decent breeze and we are trying to go south to pick
it up. The water temperature has gone up
to over 12 deg and we have an adverse current of about 1.2 knots - about 25% of
our speed thro the water, so speed over ground is about 3.2 - 3.5 knots. Same old equation - cant burn diesel this
early in the voyage so just have to cop it on the nose. To turn south west
would be a real gamble - we'd lose most
of our speed by going directly downwind and in the end may gain nothing and
lose a couple of days. SPBF. We've been
in the current for about 24 hours and it's been building. Confirmed by Sarau who were here
yesterday. Malcom C or Don P, - Hilary
has both your phone numbers - perhaps you could pass on to CSIRO in case they
are interested and we'll keep sending the data. Meanwhile a consolation coldie from the good
Dr C.
Still trying to work our way
further south. We are out of the fog
with a bit more wind and heading for somewhere below 50S. Still butting into current. Almost no seabirds today - perhaps too far
from land for most of them, only the occasional black petrel around. Pete has started taking sights with the
sextant and I'll have to get on to it too - last used in anger in 1981 so out
of practice and some work for me to do.
Otherwise, routine day. I'm
going to do a series on 'Things that have worked' and '..that haven't' in this
and future episodes. See my earlier
damage report after the knockdown for the list of big ones - take them as read.
Today's 'thing that has
worked' is this application. Sailmail
is great - nothing spectacular but robust and as you can all see, it delivers
exactly what it says it will. There's a
link on the website. You need
reasonably expensive gear to get the best out of it but worth it for anyone
wanting basic effective email and weather information when far from land. Well managed and the system operators are
accessible if needed. Dont know hoe well it will work when we get out of range
of PentaComstat which runs it from
and '...that hasn't' is my
beard. I had been conscious of vague
subliminal irritation especially when trying to sleep and when decked out in my
party gear and finally traced it to the need to scratch the whiskers regularly. So - about three weeks worth came off a
couple of days ago and the relief was immediate and satisfying. Had to take it off almost whisker by whisker
with one of those el cheapo double bladed plastic razors that clogged with
every millimetre of stroke. Tedious and
took about an hour. There will be a
ritual cleansing of the face every sunday henceforth. Pete still looking wild and grizzled.
Stunning night, low moon to
start, with Venus - I think - alongside and the usual giga of stars. Then clouds and light mist. Damp, slightly
misty completely cloudless and quite breathtaking silvery rather than gold sunrise
with a lone albatross gliding around us.
Heard from the ABC 1000 yrs in a day cd as I watched the albatross and
set up the solar panel to catch as much sun as possible that Hildegard von
Bingen called herself a feather on the breath of god and I remembered my little
feather tumbling across this huge ocean surface for those few serene moments a
couple of days ago.
Regarding things that have
worked, i think it might be more useful if i just put together a list so that
it's all in one place and anyone who wants detail can email us for more. The list of really big ones was in my
earlier report on knockdown damage from
A few hours short of a week
out of
"Why is it so"
question for today: The sea is flat greyish blue and it looks diamond clear and
there don't seem to be any little organisms visible - and no phosphorescence at
night. What are the necessary
conditions for phosphorescence? From my
experience, there seem to be at least 2 types - one caused by algal blooms on
the surface and one by submerged organisms which spectacularly light up all
sorts of odd places like the toilet bowl. Is it as simple as no organisms, no
phosphorescence?
A respectful (but, sadly,
these days only virtual) forelock tug to the Women's
Kim, lovely to have you back
on line but please keep it short - we have only 10 minutes' connect time each
day and your last took 6 of these to come through - propagation down here is
abysmal.
First attempt at breadmaking
- dough doing its thing in warm bowl.
Lower storm board as kneading board.
Needs a lot of space and spare flour for dusting which i didn't allow
for. Next time...
Unless
propagation improves, it's likely that there will be only one update per day
from here on, in the evening our time.
Will write it over time during the day, like this one, so may have the
occasional non seq. particuarly relative to time in header which will be send
time when possible.
Cold damp dawn with misty
rain - but good breeze. Some birds
around yesterday but none today. Breadmaking
yesterday spectacularly successful - using breadmaking kit from woollies with
4x250 gm packs and yeast sachets for each.
One pack just fills two 6" shallow cake tins - a lot of work for
two small loaves but worth it. Used the
We are back up to reasonable
speed again, with Berri and Kevvo in harmony and basically nothing to do except
look after things like chafe and the vegie garden, now thriving in its dogbowl
on the shelf in the head (loo for the nautically challenged). Will start some mung beans today. The sand grains of daily life. You will know how busy we are or how bad the
weather is from the length and triviality of these updates. Strategically, we're still under the bottom
of the high and we're doing our best to hang with it for as long as
possible. Nasty looking low forming on
the Australian east coast - still 2000 miles away but worth watching. Hope it gets forced down to the south east and
under us by our high. Sarau is now
about i50 miles ahead and a bit south - they've been motoring to stay in the
wind.
Must go and do the rounds on
deck - 15 minutes getting into full party gear including harness, tether,
epirb, strobe, knife, balaclava, even in this more or less calm water - and an
hour or so up in the damp. Wind
dropping a bit and backing - may have to gybe later to stay south in the
breeze. Later - quite pleasant up there
once you get over the first reluctance to venture out of nice warm cabin. Made some small adjustments to sheets,
halyards and steering lines to limit chafe.
Then out of party gear, now quite damp, into sandals to avoid cabin
floor - always salt-sticky and clammy - and back onto this gizmo.
Reminded as I unrigged
myself of something that doesn't work - velcro neck closures for anything you
wear next to or one layer up from the skin -aaargh. Must have some sort of collar underneath or
impossible. And something else - I
asked Brian Shilland to shorten the braces on my wet weather pants with his big
sailmaker's sewing machine. And now I
have to get half the party gear off in order to pee. How could I not have thought of that one? But Brian just folded them over, sensible
bloke that he is so I can unpick and revert to draggy pants and easier relief.
Hi Sue and all the
Windmills, Hi Brian and Jen - Raewi must be looking good. And G'day to the KAZ mob - yes, it's cold
but not unpleasantly so and the bivvy bags and insulation have kept us warm and
dry - so far. And the Doctor looks
after us too. Shokko, it was the email
address (steve strips off all that stuff and pastes emails into one download
for us) altho I like the other option - was going to waffle offline but dont
have spare connect time at the mo. Just remember, you have an unlimited supply
of the stuff, we will run out sometime in march if we behave. Ello smead - likewise re caffeine.
Could you please tell Tony
at Majestic Foods that we've started on the Majestic dried stuff he prepared
for us and it's great. Soup packs
perfect size. Good outfit.
Cold damp dawn sailchange
after only half an hour in seductively warm bunk -nasty shock after two days
without a change -but we were a bit overpowered with full #1 and main in 30
kt. Productive tho - we knocked off
about 165 miles in 24 hours and still getting 6-7s with cutdown and a
reef. Getting a bit north and will have
to run down later today if the forecast wind change arrives. Still watching the nasties in the
Tasman. If anyone is interested in
looking at the same weather charts as we get by fax, go to www.bom.gov.au
and select weather charts, then South Pacific Ocean MSLP Anal valid 0000 or
1200 UTC under (I think, from decrepit memory) South Pacific on the left of the
screen. MSLP=mean sea level pressure analysis.
NZ has a less comprehensive version covering just NZ waters on its
Metservice website. Couldn't pull in
the Oz fax this morning so may be getting out of range or generally awful radio
propagation down here means best chance is late evening.
Thanks Jude for chapter and
verse on dinoflagellates and phosphorescence.
Is it ok for Steve to post it on the website? I must admit that in the dark last night with the boat rolling a
bit when it arrived I read one clause as 'leads to a chemical erection in an
orgasm' and wondered a bit about the dinos and even flagellation and who
prescribes the stuff for them. Some
dreadful puns in there somewhere. Probably just wishful thinking, but anyway,
it's nice to get something sensible from at least one member of the family
Quinn. And lots of other g'days; Juddy,
Ron, Jop, Rob, Girdles, David, the Croo, and Fenwick - just knew you'd have a
go sometime Fenwick when you stop drinking for a few minutes and yes, we know
all this stuff is dead fartless boring and we need to spice it up a bit - we're
working on it and we'll take medical advice and sustenance shortly to lubricate
the cerebration. Anything you'd like us
to tell you about? Sailing, perhaps? Antifoul in the garage, i think - Ring
H. Hi Gordo - happy new house.
And Jellyfish? Nah - you and nice has never been a concept
that gels. Yuk. To Craig on Sailing
Anarchy, whoever you may be, we were sent your posting - Thanks. We will try and do it justice.
A day in the formal life of
the radio operator - times in UTC/approx local - A sked is a scheduled radio
broadcast, usually initiated by a land station (but, as in our case with Sarau
and Taupo, not always), in this context specifically intended to allow vessels
to report their positions as part of the global maritime safety network.
1600/0600 NZ Metservice
weather fax. Wxfaxes take about 10
minutes to come in to the laptop and we can get out the printer and print them
if necessary. Dodgy down here in the
damp and clag. Faxes really slow by land standards but allow time to make the
first coffee boost and think about breakfast.
Pete will have just gone to bed after his three hours on watch, so it's
just me for the next 3 hours at least, unless we need to change sails etc. Have a look at the fax when it gets in,
compare it with earlier ones to get a feel for how the systems have moved and
assess our relative position and speed and think about where we need to be in
the next couple of days to keep the breeze and avoid any nasties as far as we
can. Plan any course and sail changes
so that we can do them at watch changes whenever possible.
2000/1000 Australian wxfax -
compare with Kiwi one - the australian fax is sent from Charleville in Qld and
covers the entire southern pacific on a polar projection with the south pole in
the centre at the bottom and a sort of isobaric spaghetti putanesca in a
semicircle from australia on the left to Chile and the antarctic peninsula on
the right. Detail sometimes hard to see
because transmission quality not always 100%
The most useful info of the day if we can get it.
2100/1100 listen in to the
Australian Penta Comstat long range sked and report our position if we can get
through. Radio propagation down here is
not good and we dont get through very often.
Great service though and every NSW cruising yachtie should join. We also talk to Taupo Maritime Radio in NZ
as part of the informal day - see future episode.
2200/noon call Malcolm and
Hamish in Sarau, now about two days ahead of us and compare notes, local
conditions and our opinions about developing weather and the quality of the
local beer. We pass on any relevant ice
reports as they dont have SatComC (looks as if the ice that was around has gone
- disappointing - i was hoping we'd get to see some).
2215/1215 Kiwi wxfax. I usually stay up from 1600 until this one
arrives (it's easier than the alternative of getting in and out of clothes,
sleeping bag etc) and make breakfast, do a deck check and any other daily
chores like the bilge and dipping the water tank, write bits of this update,
tend the vegies and generally try to be a useful member of the local
community. Anthropological study of
ritual and ceremony one day soon perhaps.
Pete wakes up around 1900 and gets himself breakfast and we talk about
the plan for the next few days. If the
sun is out, he takes a sextant sight and plots it and does his share of the
daily rounds. We may change ends/roles for variety as we get further into the
voyage and we can write about the daily watch routine and boat maintenance some
other time.
0400/1800 kiwi wxfax. 0600/2000 Penta Comstat L.R. sked 0830/2230 Australian wxfax
1200/1400 listen in for the
Patagonian cruise ships sked - haven't got them yet but nice to join the sked
when we are in range. And back to the
top of the page again. That's the
formal day, tied to scheduled broadcasts and skeds and I try to maintain this
schedule because it's our lifeline.
The
informal radio day depends on radio propagation and weather conditions and how
busy/wet/tired we are. I will write
about it in another episode. Today's
breakfast was purely medicinal - a guinness, bacon sandwich and a spoonful of
tabasco to help the medicine go down...medicine go down...
Hello to everyone - its
almost midnight local time. The boat's doing
1-2 kts in a lumpy sea and the self steering has trouble in these conditions so
we have to get out and hand steer, find a little more breeze and try to get the
windvane working again. I missed it
about an hour ago and we ended up hove to with the sails backed and boat dead
in the water. it takes a while to get
back on course when this happens.
Frustrating because the wind will fill in for a few minutes then die
off. We need to be further south where
there is some wind but have no wind to get there.
Enough of this frustration
crap and on to other matters: it seems a
few folk out there have inferred that this is some sort of boozy south pacific
cruise. Not so. It's hell down here (well not at the moment)
with very little booze. We estimated 50
- 70 days to the Falklands and we left Hobart with: 60 plastic 750ml bottles of
Dr Coopers home brew (thanks Pete); 48 cans of 440ml Guinness (thanks David and
the Pippins); 2 bottles of gin (thanks Gordo) 3x3 litres of Sir James plonk and
7 nips of alcohol of indeterminate provenance labelled 'goats milk' (thanks
Ross).
On a normal day, we would
share a coopers early - fortunately we keep both local and UTC time so the sun
is always over the yardarm somewhere.
This amounts to 1.5 coffee cups each.
At sundown we either share a guinness 2/3 cup each or a G&T or a
red. The drink, tho mentioned a lot in
the correspondence, ('better finish now, Pete's pouring a guinness) doesn't
amount to much. We deserve more. So we celebrate occasional little milestones
too.
Many
thanks for the emails. Cheers, Pete.
We seem to be dropping out
of the high and getting some of the breeze from all the isobaric spaghetti to
the south of us. Twin poling and
tracking just north of east (T) at 4834S.
Looks a bit windy below 49 so we wont go there. The seabirds are back - we've only seen the
occasional albatross or black petrel for the last three days or so - not as
many today as before but several different species, some in pairs. Do they travel round the oceans in flocks or
is it just coincidence? All interested
in the potential feed from our turbine.
We have just pulled the turbine in to check the knot at the end of the
line for chafe and it was lucky we did.
I will keep the chafed end for Gerry's safety and sea survival
courses.
On which topic, wearing my
instructor's hat, I've been thinking about what we can learn from our knockdown
and all the other interesting things that happen down here. I think the lessons from the knockdown are
obvious - stormboards really work, poor stowage can leave you in deep trouble
(lucky, for instance, that we were both on deck), never ever assume that it's
not necessary to clip on, lashing sails to the forward rail is an absolute
no-no in those conditions even though they were well above the deck so water
could flow underneath - and a seaworthy boat is a good investment. And all the things we got right too, listed
earlier.
I was quite badly hurt -
still cant sleep on that side or sneeze without a nasty twinge - and I think we
were very lucky that only one of us was hurt.
Once we'd sorted the cockpit and repacked the spare diesel tanks,
untangled most of the mess and I'd got myself below, I managed to do some
essential cleaning up, sorted the laptop and sent the one-liner, made a couple
of radio calls, found the autopilot and sent it up to Pete, logged our
position, and fed Pete with goats milk tea and other delicacies and then fell
in a heap on the floor and tried to stay warm and braced so that it didn't
hurt. The wet weather gear seals had
kept most of the water out so I was partially dry. Once the initial effort was over and I could
actually feel the injury and shock was kicking in, I was no use to anyone
(resist the temptation please Mr Fenwick).
And I didn't want to stick possible broken bones through other
potentially useful bits of tissue - at the time I thought I could actually feel
them grating. If Pete had been in the
same state, we'd have had to do our best to drop the storm jib and just park
for however long was necessary. Perhaps
till the guinness ran out, although I can't think of a better way to recover.
And I dont think we could
have avoided some kind of knockdown from that wave. We might have fared a bit better if we could
have run diagonally down it, which Pete was trying to do but without time to
get the steering lines off and the tiller over. Pete is an old surfie and he
can recognise a dumper when he sees one, and his main concern was to avoid
getting his head banged on a winch, so he sort of dived under the tiller and
wrapped himself around it. All in hundredths of a second by instinct. We copped
it almost squarely on the beam. As I
think I said, you can't win em all and we were only partially prepared and very
lucky. We hope there won't be any more
that bad, but we also hope that we've learned enough to be in much better nick
if there are. In retrospect, I think
the basic and most potentially dangerous stuff-up was forgetting to screw down
the bunkboards. We got a reasonable
pass on most of the rest.
And the mung beans are
sprouting, after I thought I'd drowned the poor little things.
As we get close to half way
in distance between
And there's the daily cycle
of mood swings to be dealt with. Often
depends on the sort of day we wake up to - glorious, sunny start or, as mostly
down here, grey, damp, claggy and depressing - just like summer in
John W - the amazing and
fantastic WM Diesel engine survived its knockdown half barrel roll and started
first kick - tricky to prime with bent ribs but. What do you reckon it burns at idle
revs? Seems to be about 2ltr/hr at
6kts. We have to conserve diesel till
the
Making bread, harvested the
cress for cheese biscuits and The Doctor for breakfast. Nice it was and some more in the garden.
Just had a hurricane warning
about TC Meena, 1200 miles to the north, 100 kt winds near the centre. Glad we're down here.
We are just at the top of
the low pressure system to the south.
Front has just passed us and we
are creeping north again to avoid the windier bits. Must go and do some kneading - see yez all
tomoz.
Specially lumpy night -
25-30kt all night and we are now getting a SW swell of about 8 - 10 metres with
something like a 200 m wavelength so it's not too vicious when they come
singly. Standing at the mast and looking
down from the top of one of the bigger ones is a bit like looking down into one
of those open cut mines in Qld.
Sometimes there are groups of 2 or 3 very close together and the first
one seems to suck the centre out of the next one so it's much steeper and
potentially more dangerous. Thats what knocked us down, we think. There's a cross sea over the swell, seems to
be from the NW so the boat is rolling and pitching in huge corkscrews. Nowhere to sit or put anything down - try
making bread when the kitchen lurches away from you from one corner and curls
round and swipes you from the other.
Kneading on the top of the engine box so there might be a stray
bootferal in the mix somewhere to add piquancy. All has to be done one handed while holding
on with the other and all ten toes. But it worked - about 4 hours for two 350gm
loaves (one of them Chinese, Katherine) and bliss this morning with
Lackersteens marmelade and a coffee.
Planning this mornings libation for the gods to celebrate after pulling
in Qld VMC wxfax in half an hour. Will
probably save until we put up a bit more sail when the swell abates....Later -
libation under way. Gods obviously not
sufficiently mollified because they are dropping the wind on us again. Perhaps we should double libatory
offerings. Sarau say they had 60 kt
overnight, but they are now nearly 500 miles ahead.
And we've had our first very
slender contact with The Other Side - last night I was able to listen in to the
Patagonian cruise ship sked on 8164mhz - Gerry, great to talk to you on the
satphone, and I'll send you an email direct with authorisation to use relevant
matl from the website. Your return call
came straight back - seems to be working fine. Ta and mtfbwy. May well be sending these u/ds via
Another couple of things
that have really worked for us: the butcher in Kingston Tas sealed our 4 kilo
bacon supply into individual plastic packs containing 4 slices each - brilliant
- so we don't have to eat it all at once (Alex, if you're out there, please
thank him for his trouble) and Tony and his Crew at Majestic Foods in Sydney
packed their dried food into single serve packs too, each one with a recipe,
contents etc. Thanks Tony - hope you're
getting this - special effort and much appreciated - please thank your staff
for us. Haven't started on the Chefsway
dried curries yet Nathan, but they are also packed and sealed in tough plastic
so they survive in places that might get wet and we are keeping them as backup.
The mung beans have sprouted
in a small plastic bucket with a stocking over the top so fresh vegies are
possible and we will have them for lunch.
Perhaps we need a couple of goats and a pig up in the forepeak,- instant
fertiliser, maybe a natural gas plant and fresh meat. And company that treats us as equals.
I've often wondered what
makes someone put a webcam in their bathroom and beam it to the world - the
presumption that anyone could possibly be interested is breathtaking for
starters - yet, in a slightly less graphic medium, that's what we're doing with
this website. I do hope it's not too
full of trite and brain damaging slush - hard to tell from the inside and
always happy to get any kind of feedback.
I guess I'm presuming someone's actually reading it.
Thanks to you all for last
crop of messages - really didn't think anyone would pick me up on Petrie,
Dianne and thanks Doug for coronal event notification - please keep that stuff
coming and we'll keep hoping for an aurora.
Were you ever 21, Allan? We'll
think of you when we get there. Where's
yer earring and do you put your foot on the table when god saves ER2?
Frustrating day again
yesterday - the wind died to somewhere close to zephyr status but left the
swell for us to corkscrew around in.
Sails slatting and banging all day - not good for them or the rig and
shaking the whole boat. Impossible to
sleep or get much else dome and constantly worried about some kind of
damage. Wind returned overnight and we
are now going East again at 6.5 with about 25 - 40 kt behind us and the #s 4
& 5 twin poled. Bludgers way of
sailing but very comfortable and effective.
Thanks for the Ellen
McArthur stuff Steve. Good on her -
bloody remarkable effort - interesting to compare the technology and progress
achieved. She used a 70+ ft cat capable
of about 30 kt - don't know sail plan
for those boats but perhaps with an aerofoil mast, twin furlers and full
hydraulics to manage the sails and rig and almost completely empty inside apart
from her living space. There would be a
couple of huge reaching gennakers and probably not a lot else. She would have to tend to the rig and the
boat almost without a break to keep it at max speed, stop it breaking apart and
generally conserve it as much as possible without compromising speed and would
get very little time to sleep. Down
south of where we are around 60 - the thing would be jumping from one wave
crest to the next and the noise would be unrelenting and deafening - the rig
howling and the almost empty hulls hulls pounding and drumming and flexing and
maybe all the blocks creaking as well, although she'd have hi tech ones with
big bearings. Constantly on the edge,
extreme tension, hard and dangerous to move around on deck. And all the time she probably had to look
after her sponsors and the media with chatty emails. We dips our me lids to a very brave sailor
and I hope the Queen gives her a great big gong. Makes our little effort look woosie and self
indulgent.
Meanwhile, we plod on in our
old workhorse at about a third of her speed at best and it will certainly take
us three times as long. We've probably
got about the same space to live in but that's where it stops. We don't have the speed or the waterline
length to ride the big wave crests further south and we have to take anything
more than 30 knots very seriously because, as we move so slowly even downwind,
the apparent wind is much greater than on a planing hull and exerts relatively
much more force on our rig but the boat only accelerates very slowly in
response and the force builds up. If we
then hit the back of a wave and the hull wants to stop and the rig wants to
keep going we've got a big problem. So
we go slow. With the benefit of inexperience, I had not expected that we
would have to do as many sail changes as we have - haven't been counting but we
have averaged at least three per day. Necessary to keep the power down (or up)
at a level the boat can accept. Time to
go and get some of it off right now - sea building up and we're starting to
surf. 40+ kt Later - done - just the #5
poled out on a long tack strop so if we roll a bit on a big one, the end of the
pole wont go in the water. feels much
safer, still have 6-7 kt. instead of 8 -9.
Reasonable compromise.
Thanks, Malcolm and Tricia
for the Intl Space Station orbit times. Too cloudy last night and will be for
the next few days, I think but nice to know they are passing by just up the
street. Be really interesting to talk
to them - anyone know anyone at NASA? We have a satellite phone, vhf and hf
radio...
just
had first warning from sailmail re usage.
very long slow download today.
have emailed them to ask for 20 min allocation till we get to the horn
but will only do downloads from you tomorrow on sailmail. unless i hear from
them. v. short updates on satcom. just done fifth sailchange of the day. orange @ 47s 30 e doing 700 miles/day. shiiit.
we're now just inside the
top of the engine that drives the southern ocean weather - the ring of lows
around 50s. cold, windy, big messy seas
and very uncomfortable. will have to
cut back a bit on updates for a day.or so as have just been warned by sailmail
that we are overusing our station time.
this one is going out via satcomc which is fiendishly expensive. thanks for all your messages - makes the day
when mailcall arrives but please keep them short to help us stay inside
sailmail limit. hi roger and the
sailing office - wish you were here.
got your test but will wait till
we have hf prop again and see whethere there is anything from sailmail re my
request for more time. prob about 4 hrs
to wait.
Pete: Hello to all - the sun
is out today so it's time to get the old clothes off and put some sweet
smelling items on. when I changed last,
I washed the old ones in saltwater and rinsed them in desalinated water. It didnt work too well - I checked them a few
days later and they felt clammy and damp - the salt was still in the fabric and
had absorbed the humidity. Everything
is damp down here.
More about clothes and
such. If you sail in cold latitudes for
long periods you will wear thermal underwear.
If your vessel has no showering facilities, then i have a few hints to
pass on which may avoid the dreaded itchy scratchy gunwale bum rash etc. Wear loose fitting thermal pants - avoid the
sleek ski instructor look and go for the saggy airy look. Wool seems to be the best for long term
wear. I borrowed some of my thermals
from a good friend just back from the antarctic. Fortunately for me, he's a bit of a bon
vivant with a rather expansive waistline so his thermals are a delight to wear.
A daily saltwater douche to
the nether regions has proved most beneficial.
none of the usual rash that appears on long trips has happened - a word
of warning though - I half fill the toilet bowl and hover above it for the
douche - a dangerous position to be in when the boat is leaping off waves and
corkscrewing around. On a recent
occasion there was a half second period when i was flung forward then crashed
back on to the seat - an interval just long enough for my left nut to place itself
between the top of my thigh and the seat.
Nothing further needs to be said.
The dangly bits are useful at times - this wasn't one of them.
Thanks
for the emails great to hear how things are progressing back there. Ian and the pendle hill crew, Alan and
Cheryl, Siobhan - see you in england, Thommo good to hear from you,
congratulations Cam, Woc, please dont turn into one of those adoring
parents; Mr Big surely you don't need to
train to walk up and down a track, Graeme floating again, Dianne, i always knew
Richard had salt in his veins - I've noticed him at several functions standing
upright while the room appears to be moving - lots of love to Jeanne and the family, cheers to all, Pete.
Alex: One of life's little
mysteries. We are towing a turbine to
drive the aux. power generator that hangs off the pushpit rail. The turbine is a 1 metre steel shaft with a
steel hub and two opposed impeller blades about 15cm long at the after end,
probably a single casting - weighs about 2 kilos and has what looks like some
sort of two-pot epoxy black paint finish over fairly thick primer. Chafes badly through the towrope - there
must be a better way and we are playing with variations - and we are pulling it
in every couple of days to re-tie it and cut off the chafed bit of
towrope. About an hour's work and a
real pain cos we have to stop the boat to pull it in else the towrope comes in
as a twisted Gordian knot with malevolent intent. Anyway, yesterday, the two blades had
serrations on their leading edges, as if someone had hacked at them with a
knife blade. More on one than the
other. Hard to tell but appeared to have
gone right through the paint job into the metal casting. Really odd - there's nothing for it to hit,
no angry merpersons in the complaints department brandishing summons' for
trespass and I don't think any marine beastie could be involved. Any suggestions - could it be that the
blades flex? They are very solid. Or that the paint job had been cracked
somehow in storage? We have two turbines - this one is the coarse pitch one,
which is intended for use at >7kt and rotates more slowly than the fine.
Next time we bring it in, we will swap them - in these seas the boat speed
fluctuates between about 4 and 8.5 knots and the coarse turbine can't hack it -
?? did I say that
We are running along the top
of the low pressure system to the south of us - more or less dead downwind all
the time but the wind is surprisingly variable across about 60 degrees. To keep tracking east, we would need to do a
major sailchange every four hours or so - not easy and so we tend to wander up
and down between 48 and 46S.
Inefficient, but gives us some rest.
So to something that works but can be improved. Before leaving
The
sun is out for the first time in several days - water back to deep blue with
dazzling whitecaps. No birds around and
very few anyway now. Mostly smaller
ones - little petrels that flap along the surface and do spectacular aerobatics
inches off the surface.
Alex: Our latest Grib
weather download indicates it's going to be a bit iffy down around 50S in a
couple of days with a 40-50kt front coming thro. so we are deliberately
allowing Berri to ride the prevailing SW wind up to about 45S else we'll end up
a bit like Pete's left nut. We will try
and run along 45 until it seems appropriate once again to descend. Unglam and cautious and pathetic, youse may
say, but then youse didn't see the nut.
It means we'll log a few extra miles. so we'll have to ration medical
supplies, Shokko - happy new boat.
A day in the life of the informal
radio operation: difficult to write about because it has no structure. It does, however revolve around mail call
from Steve with all your messages - the
Today we are one calendar
month out from
I have just changed the
turbine - now using the fine pitch one - and, with lots of fondling of the
nearest wood, I think we may have a solution to the chafe problem. Good old duct tape to the rescue once again
- at the last check pullout, I wrapped a couple of layers around the contact
area of the tow line and tied the knot (and we always tape the bitter end of
the line at each end-knot back to the line itself around the knot, which stops
it flailing) and the line came in more or less unmarked after a couple of
days. Next check should confirm. Also have a new method for pulling it in and
getting rid of the Gordian gigatwist problem.
First, put gloves on. No
compromise, put them on. Then stop the
generator shaft rotating with one hand while other hand or other person undoes
towline from gen. shaft. Pull in the
turbine using both hands while allowing the free end of the line to trail
behind the boat and the twists from the still turbine powered end to unwind
through your glove and down the trailing part.
Trick is not to let go... Best to pass the line through a loop of some
sort attached to the pushpit before starting the exercise. First time seemed quick and easy but using
the coarse (so slow rotating) turbine. Fast
one may be harder - watch this space.
More on yesterday's little mystery later.
Hi
Judy - glad you like it. Sonia too? Please convey G'day to the UoW team and the
VC members - ta and mtfbwy..
Sitrep: 1256hrs 11 Feb 2005 UTC 45’27”S 144’44”W Map Ref 58 3066nm
Pete: Hello out there - we
have been away from
The three hour watch system
works well we both seem to get enough sleep and we also eat well with a good
variety of foods. Our fresh food is just
about finished, only spuds,onions, carrots & garlic left and not a great
deal of that. Quarantine removed all
our fresh food in
I have already spoken of our
small but adequate supply of booze.
Alex is the baker and the bread he produces is great. Water in the main tank seems to be going
quickly but we have backup in various containers. tomorrow, alex intends to fit a new membrane
to the desalinator which should make its product more suitable for drinking -
at the moment we just use it for cooking.
We have hardly used the engine since motoring out of
I
have been getting sun sights when the weather clears and the results using the
nautical almanac and sight reduction tables are good considering the
conditions. If all the electronics
crash, I feel we could continue on using celestial nav. Thats about it for the moment, might
continue tomorrow. The best thing is
that after a month at sea we still get on together - no arguments and we agree
on the important things like whether it should be a coopers or a guinness today
and the dry sense of humour is still with us both. We both have plenty of good books and cds to
get us through the quiet times and plenty to do when its not so quiet. Cheers Pete.
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