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Log Updates
Sitrep: 0655hrs 15 Mar 2005 UTC
51’41”S 057’49”W Map Ref 123
Sitrep: 1400hrs 14 Mar 2005 UTC
52’38”S 059’17”W Map Ref 122 6671nm
Sitrep: 2000hrs 13 Mar 2005 UTC
53’49”S 061’12”W Map Ref 121 6572nm
Sitrep: 1500hrs 13 Mar 2005 UTC
54’01”S 061’48”W Map Ref 120 6548nm
Sitrep: 0900hrs 13 Mar 2005 UTC
54’28”S 062’33”W Map Ref 119 6510nm
Sitrep: 1825hrs 12 Mar 2005 UTC
55’08”S 063’39”W Map Ref 118 6455nm
Sitrep: 0803hrs 12 Mar 2005 UTC
55’41”S 065’24”W Map Ref 117 6387nm
Sitrep: 2309hrs 11 Mar 2005 UTC
55’54”S 066’43”W Map Ref 116 6341nm
Sitrep: 2042hrs 11 Mar 2005 UTC
56’00”S 067’15”W Map Ref 115 6322nm
Sitrep: 0715hrs 11 Mar 2005 UTC
56’08”S 069’45”W Map Ref 114 6238nm*
Sitrep: 1315hrs 10 Mar 2005 UTC
55’49”S 072’30”W Map Ref 113 6144nm
Sitrep: 0730hrs 10 Mar 2005 UTC
55’54”S 072’56”W Map Ref 112 6128nm
Sitrep: 2115hrs 09 Mar 2005 UTC
55’47”S 074’06”W Map Ref 111 6088nm
Sitrep: 1330hrs 09 Mar 2005 UTC
55’35”S 075’17”W Map Ref 110 6046nm
Sitrep: 0815hrs 09 Mar 2005 UTC
55’26”S 075’59”W Map Ref 109 6021nm
Sitrep: 1945hrs 08 Mar 2005 UTC
55’18”S 077’43”W Map Ref 108 5961nm
Sitrep: 1830hrs 08 Mar 2005 UTC
55’14”S 077’53”W Map Ref 107 5954nm
Sitrep: 1245hrs 08 Mar 2005 UTC
54’58”S 078’43”W Map Ref 106 5922nm
*The Horn entry
The GPS has a facility (ETE)
that calculates estimated time en route to a waypoint, but ours only calculates
up to 100 hours. It recalculates every few seconds so the estimate changes
drastically sometimes over those seconds, depending on which part of a wave the
boat is on and similar factors. Consequently,it's not a good thing to watch or
even become conscious of. For the last month or so, we've had
No longer.
ETE now hovers around 60 -
90 hours so ETA Horn probably sometime on Friday, UTC. Wishful thinking but a
definite milestone. For all of you out there, the next three or four days are -
I suppose - the tedious fabric of a normal working week. Kim, no doubt, will
stare at the side fence, beer in hand, volatilising a lot and wishing it was
Saturday so he could have a beer and stop staring at the fence and life will go
on as normal. For us, though, it will be a nailbiter as we watch the grib, the
actual weather, the horizon, Berrimilla's little needs and comforts and the
beer supply as the ETE counts down, desperately slowly and we look out for the
first snowy mountain top. The forecast is promising - but no chickens anywhere
in sight yet. We have just crossed 54 51 S so we are now further south that we
have ever been. Also past 80 W and in a couple of hours should be under 400 to
go. 3 reasons for mild celebration. Just shared the last three snakes, but we
found a bag with TimTams, Shapes AND McVities - only one packet of each but
wooohooo!
The scale of things down
here is surprising. I have never really though about how big Tierra del Fuego
might be, or the Straits of Magellan, but the two together, with all the
amazingly rugged islands around the edges seem to be about half as big as the
state of
Kris -
Ann, it's a well known fact
that The Right Stuff doesn't volatilise, so space shuttles must be
atmospherically pristine. All the submariners I've known are very much The
Wrong Stuff and they fart as well. You and Kim should swap sporulating Actinomyce
stories by the fence over that beer.
Here we go. The grib says we
should be getting 30-35, we're in sustained
NW 45- 50 gusting to 65. Big - no, huge waves, often breaking around and
over us. Sustained howl in the rig. We started with twin poles in 25, now we've
just got the storm jib and we're more or less running with the wind on the port
quarter, 5 - 7knots on 115M so still broadly the right direction - horn bears 082. Berri taking it well so far
but clearly not liking it. And this is just the start. Grib says 45 knots on
thursday. Mostly don't have an ETE on the GPS any more - told you always to
ignore it! Just saw 70 kt gust.
hi Bill and the Delta Wings.
Enjoy this from afar guys. And you, Kees.
Will see if we are still in
contact. If so, will try to do series of short updates over next 48 hours.
Keep talking to us -
shorties please.[ed: that means a couple
of lines, thanks]
Well the last one seems to
be on it's way to all you Cats out there so I'll try to bring yez up to date in
a bit more detail. Just made a pot of coffee - deelishus - with my regulation 2
discs of Mr McVitie's finest. So first,you need to know that we are keeping up
the standards down here in what seems to be a BOG standard
Ritual Biscuit Dunking:
On being handed ones mug of
coffee, or, where staff shortages require one to make or collect it oneself, on
attaining suitable braced position, gently test biscuit diameter across
diameter of mug. The Very Best Biscuits will not fit into the mug. If the
biscuit just reaches the surface of the coffee, allow it to soak for a few moments
to attain preferred consistency under the local sludge factor which should be
applied using the Mercator Spherical Projection Method. (If biscuit does nor
reach surface, chew off short chord from edge and proceed as follows). On
removing biscuit. gently chew off small dunked chord, leaving a short straight
edge. Savour flavour and reapply sludge factor if necessary. Rotate biscuit so
that straight edge is parallel with side of mug and dunk to a level of 3 - 4
millimetres for required time and remove. Chew off newly dunked segment,
leaving two straight edges at right right angles. Savour for several seconds.
Rotate biscuit so that shortest edge is presented to surface and dunk. Chew off
small dunked segment and continue procedure until remaining segment is no
longer large enough to dunk without wetting fingers. One is then faced with The
Dunker's Dilemma: should one eat the remaining segment or drop it in the mug to
be slurped later? The very best
authorities say that either course is acceptable but the latter is recommended.
Dunk on, BOG's 'n Cats.
So, end of nonsense. Here we
are, sometimes roaring along at 8+ knots off the tops of waves with white water
everywhere and sometimes wallowing in the troughs with the generator turbine
not even turning. Occasional big breaker crashes in from the port beam -
somewhat scary. Continuous noise of wind
and rushing water. I won't pretend it's fun but I think it is survivable. Next
move, if it gets worse, will be to drop the storm jib and bare pole it. I think
we are better off running with the sail for the mo. Steady 50+ most of the
time, driving rain, quite cold, barometer falling but not too rapidly for
comfort. Still have VMG's for the Horn - around 4 kts and 360 to go. This
course will take us a fair way south of the Horn if the wind is sustained for
the duration, so we should have plenty of sea room as it backs to the west and
increases by Thursday.
39 k for the runners -
cramping, brain mushy, out of focus - you know the drill. But you can feel the
line approaching.
Six Footers take note -
you've got a mere 4 - 8 hours of it so go for it - and good luck.
I think it is easing and
abating. The wind has backed as expected, although to the SW instead of W and
is now steady at about 40 kt. No more gusts of 60-70 thankfully. I am doing my
midnight to three UTC penance and I've just been outside to gybe the boat back
towards the Horn after waiting to be sure the wind change is fully established.
You are probably all a bit full of descriptions of the difficulties of
transition from troglodyte to water nymph (me?) but at the risk once again of
being tedious, the jibe took maybe two minutes plus a bit of acclimatisation
beforehand and some checking and monitoring and tweaking afterwards. Getting
into full party gear - beanie, headlight,neck warmer, sock liners, waterproof
sox, WWG pants(still dripping wet from last time), WWG jacket (ditto, and
clammy wet inside too - yerk), harness, tether, inner and outer gloves - takes
about 15 minutes of severe physical exertion as Berri cavorts around. Then
another 15 minutes on return. No wonder the tendency is to procrastinate. But
well worth the doing - Berri now heading direct for the Horn again and ETE's on
the GPS.
And we've just been hit by
another 60 kt gust followed by 10 kt surge off a wave. Poo. Glad I'm back
inside. Back to constant 50 - 65 knots. All happened very quickly. Pete still
sleeping the sleep of the innocent.
Memorable meals - in the
midst of the earlier fuss, Pete mixed a couple of cans of meat and vegies with
left over pasta from yesterday and heated it all up and dogbowled it and it was
hot and lumpy and better than almost anything else I could have asked for. At
times like these...
Back up to 70 again...really
glad I gybed when I did. Might not be possible right now.
About 4 hours later - Pete
gave me an extra hour - nice - and the barometer has risen from 989 to 994.
Encouraging, but wind still peaking around 50. Seems fairly gentle! 300 miles
to the Horn and the nearest bit of
Here we still are, daylight,
steady 40 - 50 going up to 70 under some of the blackest and nastiest rain
squalls I've ever seen. Just tried to film one. Still just the storm jib and no
real question of more - we thought about twin storm jibs but abandoned the
idea.
Some feedback please - We
have been asked by a well known sailing world website to allow them to publish
what I assume would be edited excerpts from these logs on a daily basis, the
incentive being that instead of the paltry 8000 hits we've had in the six or so
weeks we've been out here, we'd get that many in the first hour of the first
morning. I told them, politely, via Steve, to go away - we are not interested
in hits as such. This website was set up to talk with you, our families and our
friends and anyone else who wants to come along for the ride. My recent lament
was about the shallowness of the marketing and sponsorship spectaculars and I
refuse to be drawn into the soundbite game for other people's commercial ends.
Nor am I happy to give up control of my own words to an editor who is not out
here with us. These updates are part of a unique stream of collective
consciousness and each one is linked to incidents and emotions and your
comments and responses and I don't want that integrity tampered with. I invited
the website to put up a link to this one on theirs and publicise it if they
feel that there is genuine interest for what we are doing amongst their world
wide breakfast hitters. Interesting to see what they do.
But what do all y'all think?
Is this simply another dinosaur refusing to become extinct or am I right? I
concede that there might be clear benefits from publicity but I don't like the
downside.
More on waves - these ones
have a wavelength of about 150 - 200 metres and they are probably about 15
metres trough to crest. The waves themselves stretch for ever, but thankfully
aren't breaking along their full length. Quite steep, but Berri just rides up
over them as they come in from the starboard quarter. If one happens to be
breaking or breaks as a result of Berri's presence, we get surrounded by about
an acre of furious white water rushing away to the sides and ahead and the
foamy wind streaks tail away and up over the front of the next one in line.
Spectacular and exhilarating to sit in the cockpit amongst it all. Occasional
bursts of sunlight add sparkle and deep colour to the water.
Tim,
we feel really enormously encouraged by your helpful observation. Couldn't
possibly cope with being warm, as you say.
Clench time Malcolm. Pretty much as predicted by the grib modified
by the Berrimilla fudge factor - we're now in constant W 50 going on 60 gusting
70 and I saw a 75. Howl becoming a scream. BIG waves - at least mast height,
some breaking. Bare poling directly downwind at about 5 knots and apparently
reasonably comfortable. All gone very dark as rain squall dumps horizontal rain
and an extra gust for good measure. We had two storm jibs twin poled in a lull
that we thought was a change but clearly wasn't. Lasted about half an hour.
Managed a bit of film of that but not as exciting as now. Still heading towards
the Horn, which is nice. And we just have to be patient and sit it out and hope
it starts to abate. Shades of
For the runners, probably about
40k. Some of you will know that around here it either gets very much worse as
you realise there's still two and a bit k to go or the proximity of the finish
unlocks a reserve supply of energy and spirit and you can actually speed up.
Some interesting research out there on that one, to do with fooling the body's
self preservation mechanism into thinking it isn't so hard after all. We're
very much in uplift mode but that could change very easily.
So, all yez all, be patient
and sit it out with us and well try to keep you posted. May be a bit low on
power because speed rather slow for generator.
Pete
has been doing some calculations and he says that a double brew of 60 bottles
of Coopers seems to last at least three times as long when his daughters cant get
their hands on it. Suits me!
Would all y'all join us both
in wishing Ben and
Still pretty violent down
here but it does seem as if the wind has backed a little and is easing.
Berrimilla is being thrown off the sides
of waves and rolls quite ferociously every now and again and it's quite hard to
brace oneself. Banging in these keystrokes takes some serious concentration and
exercises all sorts of odd muscles. Essential to keep the forearms locked to
the edge of the nav table while everything else moves 40 - 50 feet sideways and
around the barrel. Teamaking now especially hazardous. We'll wait until
daylight and then put some sail up again - it does seem that the sustained 60
-70 knot gusts have diminished and the sea is subsiding. It is the sea, not so
much the strong wind, that makes it dangerous to keep the boat moving at much
more than steerage way because even bare poled on top of one of these crests in
a 70 knot gust, Berri takes off sometimes at more than 10 knots in streamers of
bluish white foam. Add boat speed to that and there's a potentially sticky
sideways arrival in breaking water at the bottom of the heap. So we're doing it
very slowly and rounding now looks like Saturday rather than tomoz. Maybe close
to wedding time - we'll have a rum in their honour when we get to open the
bottle.
In an earlier update from
mid Pacific, I waffled on about our being pretty isolated and the crew of the
International Space Station being the nearest humans to us several times a day.
Malcolm emailed NASA and they are going to try to talk to us if they can manage
it technically. And they wished us luck. Thanks NASA - something rather special
for an old workhorse.
And thanks everyone for your
feedback on whether we should hand over this nonsense to a commercial website.
Seems you are all emphatically on my side and I'm pleased. If we're that interesting,
it seems to me, then any website that purports to inform should do just that
and provide the link.
Keeping these short cos
we're down on power. Onya Ben and
Daylight, sailing again, 7.5
knots directly towards the Horn. fingers, toes, ears, eyelashes and bootferals
all firmly crossed. Pete has a long update, so I'll jump - see yez. Nearest bit
of
Pete: Hello
out there
I'm sitting tightly
harnessed to the galley bench having a cup of tea its about 3am local time. We
are sailing downwind under bare poles - we have had no sail up for about the
last 15 hours. Yesterday we spent most of the night and morning under storm
jib. Later with a drop in the wind and an easing of the rain squalls we decided
to square away and head for the Horn. We set 2 storm jibs poled out as twin
sails. Excellent, good speed with perfect direction.
Went below, settled down for
about half an hour then a squall hit and we were sliding down the face of a
wave very fast. Up on deck again, get rid of one storm jib and the boat was
travelling ok again. Whilst tidying up the deck, putting poles away etc we were
hit again by a squall. We both looked at eachother and in seconds the other
storm jib was down and we have been under bare poles since.
With no sail we are safe but
uncomfortable. No sail means no lateral stability so when we get hit by a wave,
the boat rolls violently from side to side. If hit by another and the roll is
in phase with this then the roll increases in amplitude, if the roll is out of
phase then the boat and the wavy collide with a crash arresting the roll but
hurling untethered bodies into the side of the boat.
This is getting a bit
technical but i need to explain why I'm sitting here with a full cup of hot tea
trying to keep the level of the tea in phase with the roll of the boat and
hoping not to be hit by an out of phase wave which will immediately cover me in
hot tea. If requested, I'll include an appendix on simple harmonic motion.
A word about food. We have
managed to have a hot evening meal together every evening since leaving
Early in the trip variety
was easy with all the fresh vegies etc from
Alex has made bread when
conditions have allowed and it's been great.
I'm now at the end of the
second bag. Tins that were'nt used in ther first are still with us, such as
sardines in rich tomato sauce, sliced cling peaches in syrup, creamed corn,
spinach etc. Perhaps sardines a la peche it sauerkraut.
Some tins should be avoided
though. On a recent morning I woke and noticed my sleeping bag had assumed thge
form of a scale model Hindenberg. Not thinking, i unzipped the seal around my neck.
I was immediately assaulted by a gale force blast of the nocturnal pneumatics.
Fortunately the early morning air was very cold and instantly condensed this
vile volatile vapour (alliteration?). I escaped with only severe stinging of
the eyes. Bugger. I must remember never to add a can of chilli beans to the
pasta sauce ever again.
It's now about 8 am local -
we have set the #4 and the main with 1 reef. A little overpowered at the moment
as we reach for thew Horn at about 7.5 kts. with less that 180 to go so if this
keeps up we will be there tomorrow morning. The wind, though,is expected to
drop.
To all those mates out there
sending us news and encouragement, many thanks and keep up the flow. Too hard
to list you all but we're glad you're there. Brian and Jen, Bert and Sandra and
Kevin from
To Bob and Eugenie, I'll ave
a large drink to your health as we pass the Horn. Noel, good luck with the new
hip -you must feel like the Tin Man now. To Steve, many thanks for all your
work and G9d speed along the "Six Foot Track tomorrow.
Cheers for now Pete.
86 miles to go and - touch
wood - the stage seems to be set. Cold, slightly hazy night, gerzillions of
stars up there but just a bit fuzzy, series of little rain squalls chasing us
as always but without the ferocity of a couple of days ago. Poled out #4 and
full main, heading straight for Cabo de Hornos. Islas Diego Ramirez about 50
miles on the starboard bow. Wind west at 15 - 20 kts.
Just been overtaken by what
looked like very large ship to the North. Bearings changed rapidly from 330
through north to 030 so safe - tried calling on Ch 16 and heard something some
minutes later but indistinct. White flares and big torches and hand held VHF in
the cockpit and I stick my head up every 10 minutes to have a look around.
First sign of other humans since Sarau passed us before the
Heard again from NASA - the
crew of the Intl. Space Station would like to talk to us. Something of an
honour although would have been more
interesting mid-ocean when they were the closest humans to us. We will probably
be in the
Must stick head up...ship
has disappeared ahead, horizon clear. Have to spend a few minutes up there each
time, to let eyes adjust and to make sure that we have been on top of enough of
these big swells to see anything that may be distant and hidden behind one of
them.
Here's hoping the wind holds
Abeam
Pete and Alex.
Ok - that was the formal one
- took the first couple of doses of RANSA elixir to compose. Left hand down a
bit has now occurred and we are now torpid and dozy. The storms are over there
- somewhere else.
Now we're headed direct for
the Falklands, leaving Staten Island to port - sad, but we got some local
advice and decided that Le Maire Strait is too tricky for a couple of first
timers. Various things to say - huge relief in actually getting round before
the next set of nasties, the water is now grey, the wind has eased as we are
now behind some biggish rocks and if it all holds together, we should be in
Stanley in 4 days. We spoke to the Chilean Navy at
I'm told there are too many
in-jokes in this stuff. Not really - if anyone wants to follow them up, there's
plenty of information for Googling. There are some personal ones, directly
addressed, to bludgers like Fenwick, but you wouldn't want to know about those anyway.
Sensational clouds looking
back to the Horn. Black rain squalls now in the way with sunlight spearing down
in mist and radiating light but no detail.
Silhouette of the
Simon, really sorry to hear the
news from Hilary. We had a contemplative consultation.
As for the rest of you, go
have a drink of something and celebrate for us.
Should we come back? For me,
only if i could do it with Hilary. There are other things to do.
Soooo nice to be going North
- and in almost flat calm water, dead downwind, 5 knots and the water is going
around the hull so quietly that all you can hear is the occasional bubble
forming around the skeg. Bliss - and from here it gets warmer.
We are heading directly
towards Sea Lion Islands off the southern corner of
Took lots of photos and film
as we passed. We took Gerry's advice and went by at about a mile offshore to
enjoy the view. Just another craggy headland except for the myth and legend -
but an emotional and moving hour or so. One little bit of unfinished business
cleared up as well. Surrounded by rain squalls but glances of sunlight
reflecting off the Horn itself and the rock faces and scrubby bits of the
islands to the North. Almost perfectly timed as it turned out. And all the
tension has evaporated - it's done, we got moderately bashed, Berri's fine and
the crew is beginning to notice that they smell. Unclench, Malcolm! I'll do
some stats for the trip for the next update.
And Malcolm, how did you go?
Ditto Steve - we're busting to get the news.
We're hard on the wind -
unusual and probably for the first time since the
Some stats to the Horn. We
left
Possible average of three
sail changes per day. About 50 ltrs diesel used including long motor out of
I have - I hope - saved all
the track data from the Software on Board application so we should be able to
recreate some of the good, the bad and the ugly bits on a cd or paper chart.
Not as many photos as we would have liked and relatively little video because
the conditions most of the time were way outside the dry and cosy.
We're rooting around in the
various storage compartments to get stuff out and dry and the compartment
itself dried out as much as possible. Everything was at least damp and some
parts were very wet. By a superhuman devotion and rigid conformity to sock
changing routine and sandal wearing and boot storage, I managed to keep my feet
dry until about the beginning of the storm on the other side of the Horn, when
one of my boots ended up flat on the floor and full of bilge water. The ferals
had a picnic. Just getting it dried out today in the sun.
The feet themselves have
survived well - no nasty bits between the toes, no blisters, but all the hard
lumpy skin around the toes and balls of the feet from wearing running shoes has
softened and worn off, so I've got some work to do there.
We've got about a normal
sized bin full of plastic and non-bio garbage all taped up in plastic bags in
the lazarette and elsewhere.
And dirty washing - I really
don't want to be around when I open that particular bag. 40 day old sox and
other unmentionables have been quietly festering together in a big swelling
plastic pack liner - no opportunity to do any washing since
And now I'm going to make
some bread to get us to the end of the road - I hope. Score so far, 10 loaves,
no fishes. A real treat, but it takes about 4 hours and needs lots of room
which, in the difficult bits, was not always practicable.
Damage minimal except for
the knockdown and some very minor fittings. We lost a complete set of spare
mainsail battens from inside the boom during an early storm.
And Kevvo, our Fleming self
steering unit, has functioned perfectly for the whole distance, through calms,
storms and the knockdown. We will take it off in
Finisterre fleeces too - Tom
Kay, take a bow and we'll talk to you in the
Gill OC IJ Ocean Racer wet
weather gear has kept us dry and is fantastic to use - mostly. I would prefer
to have fewer features that I find gimmicky and impractical in favour of some
unfashionable but vitally useful velcro-closed patch pockets on the thighs.
That's enough - bread is
rising.
G'say all y'all from a dark
and gently breezy
On reflection, having now
seen Cape Horn in brilliant close up, I still think that the 10 mile stretch of
coast between Tasman Island and Cape Raoul (in the south east corner of Tasmania)is
the most spectacularly splendid bit of scenery I have ever seen, the more so if
associated with Port Arthur, the colonial prison which is reached from the sea
about half way along. For the convicts, brooding, desolate gleaming wet black
rocky cliffs and the Isle of the Dead to greet them as they turned the final
bend into
Oddment for today: we pulled
in the generator turbine to check it for chafe (stopped the boat this time...!)
and found that one of the two blades had broken off about half way along its
length. It seems to be a clean break and there's no obvious impact damage
although the other blade seems to have been grazed by something hard and rough.
The turbine trails behind the boat about half a metre below the surface and
unless there's an uncharted rock just below the surface somewhere near the
Horn, we haven't been in less than 100 metres of water since we last checked it
about a week ago. Very mysterious. The standard yachties' insurance claim
excuse of 'submerged shipping container done it' doesn't compute (the boat
would have hit any floating object first, and with enough force for us to have
felt it) and I just can't see what could
have caused it. We will try and get it fixed or another one made in
Having difficulty contacting
Sailmail
Some acknowledgements and
thanks for good wishes: Rowley and Louise, wish your son all the best from
Berri, Louise; David W in
We are well on the way
across to
More on stats - this laptop
has been on continuously since
Errata & corrigenda -I
don't remember the legal term but it's to do with descriptive words or lists in
statutes - if a statute includes a set of words or a list to describe
something, anything not so described or included in the list is considered to
be excluded. So I made a list of acknowledgements in my last update and left
out Roger and the crew in the Sailing Office at CYC. Dreadful mistake by the
parliamentary draftsperson and much mea culpa-ing. Sorry everyone and truly
chuffing to know that you're watching and you should'a been listed. I'll stop
making lists - too easy to get it wrong.
I've just had a troll
through the medium waveband on the radio and picked up the BBC World Service
which could only be coming from the
Whichever of the weather
gods have their hands on the mixing levers seem not to want to let us get there
the easy way though. We're back down to the #5, no main, in a really lumpy sea
and 30-40 knots with about a knot and a half of adverse current. No problem
except for the waves but there's no sense in crashing on just to get in a few
hours early. Racing we ain't. But I think it might all be easing and I might
venture out and think about putting the main back up with the 2 reefs that are
already in it.
Later - woke Pete up and we
put the third reef in and put it back up, More stable and riding the slop quite
well and 7 knots in the right direction instead of 3. Important for 2 reasons -
we get some battery charge from the coarse turbine at 7, and it gets us along
the track to a hot shower. Perhaps 36 hours to go.
Later:
Moderate quantity of egg on
face of RYA Instructor. With only two people on board, it's difficult to keep a
permanent watch on deck, but the drill is that whoever is on watch sticks his
head up every 20 minutes or so had have a squiz around the horizon and we keep
the VHF on channel 16 (for the nautically challenged, 16 is for distress calls
and for making initial contact with other stations before moving to another
channel). It's a wet, rough and windy night and not at all pleasant out there
so the tendency is to limit visits to the cockpit, but I stuck my head up half
an hour ago, got drenched and saw another vessel's lights about a mile away
heading towards us. Ducked back in and discovered that I had forgotten to turn
the VHF back on after pulling in the Chilean wxfax on the HF an hour earlier. First splash of egg. Called up vessel at xx S
xx w and received instant answer from the Falklands Island Fisheries Protection
Vessel Sigma, who had been trying to call us to establish our identity. Second
splash of egg. Apart from Malcolm and Hamish in Sarau, the wonderful people on
the Patagonian Cruise Net and the Chilean Navy at Cape Horn, they are the first
people we have spoken to on the radio since leaving
Nice to talk to you, Sigma,
in case you get to read this, and thanks for your help.
Passed
Thanks by the bucketful to
everyone who has written since we rounded - it's been a sustaining joy
throughout the voyage to get your messages and encouragement. Must have been
really lonely in the early days of this stuff.
Not sure how many more of
these there will be before we get close and I have to do some real work but at
least one. It's been a bellyful of laughs, a wonderful gig, and thanks all
y'all for coming along for the ride. Hope you've had as much fun reading this
nonsense as we have putting it together. We will keep it going while in
Tony - thanks for info - we
were talking to all those boats on the way through on the Patagonian Cruise
Net. I think Pelagic skipper is Steve Wilkins who I know - wish I'd known all
those heavies were on board.
Richard at Fastnet, thanks -
looking forward to a cold ale with you.
Judy - we'll check out the
pub and report back.
Malcolm R and Chris Palmer,
seems you might have been in the same boat inshore skippering over the w/e and
not known of the connection. Is that a coincidence or isn't it??
We're surrounded by dolphins
- lots of them, spearing out of the short steep waves around us.
[Brolga Update from Pete]
To all the Brolga owners out there.
What perception you had, what a superb choice of sailing vessel you
aspired to. What volumes of yachting knowledge both practical and theoretical
led you to this exquisite boat or did you - like most of us - just get lucky?
Alex, I know, chose carefully, with this trip somewhere in his mind even in
1993 when he bought Berrimilla.
With less that 50 miles to go to
Berri kept us cocooned and safe through the worst seas I have ever experienced.
The boat did everything right. She is extremely well balanced and well
mannered. As long as we could get the sail off her in time when hit by strong
rain squalls, Berri sailed beautifully in heavy weather with not much pressure
on the Fleming self steering gear. Brolgas are
how can I describe it? - slippery. They slide through the water easily
and need very little sail to do this. At times the boat is moving so well you
cannot ear the water passing the hull while down below.
Brolgas are well ballasted with a deep keel and low centre of gravity.
Unlike most other boats, then look as good out of the water as in - there's a
photo in the 'Preparations' doc on the website. The first time I stepped on
board one, the deck didnj't move with my weight. With most 33ft boats, the
gunwsale drops a few inches on boarding. When we sailed it, the tiller could be
dropped to leave hands free to adjust sheets etc without the boat diverging
from its course.
I was suitably impressed.
I've been sailing Brolgas for about 12 years now and a couple of years
ago bought one for myself. My love of these boats has never changed in all
these years.
A Brolga is a boat for life. There is no need to change. It can take you
comfortably anywhere you reasonably want to go.
After last year's
A few people have asked us about the Brolga's cockpit and how it coped
with the conditions. For all those non Brolgaphiles, some background. The
Brolga does not have a b ridge deck from cockpit to cabin entry. Most boats
have a cockpit well - i.e. the cockpit floor is enclosed on all sides by seats
etc. modern boats sometimes have no rear side to the cockpit so that any wave
that enters simply washes over the back. The downside of this is thsat you are
terribly exposed in following seas when waves can simply wash in. The Brolga
has a keyhole shaped cabin entry with the bottomof the entry only a few inches
above the cockpit floor.' leaving a well enclosed on three sides but open on
the forward side to the interior of the boat. Not a good look to have if a wave
fills the cockpit. We always have the bottom washboard in which seals the
cockpit to about an inch above the cockpit seats. After a long talk with Gerry
Fitzgerald who sailed Spirit of Sydney from
A lot of people would like a bridge across the cockpit entry with a
sliding hatch. This is easy to get in and out of but I have no idea how you can
completely seal a sliding hatch. Only when you have been in an inverted boat
can you appreciate fully how all openings need to be fully sealed.
The wave that got us was a freak very hollow and right behind a large
wave in front. Wrong place, wrong time. Berri lifted herself beautifully to the
millions of other waves that passed under her.
We have had a huge response from people congratulating us on our efforts
- many thanks for that but want to
congratulate the boat. Berri has put in a huge effort - she's nearly thirty.
I'm 59 and alex is 62 and we need a boat that can look after us and not demand
attention. Berri is all of that. The boat does all the hard work she accepts
most of the wind and waves punishment we pull the strings and point her in the
right direction. To Peter Joubert, thank you for designing an immensely strong
seaworthy boat, to Geoff Baker and all who worked on building Brolgas with and
after him, thanks for the extra effort thats required to build a top boat.
To anyone out there thinking of doing a trip like this, as well as an
excellent boat you must have prudence and patience. The southern ocean is very unforgiving
and you can only do what it allows you to do, not what you want to do. Its
ability to dominate a small boat lets you know quickly who runs the business
out there.
Finally, to everyone who took the trouble to write, your encouragement
and humour revived our spirits and eased us through the bad patches Cheers and
best wishes Pete.
[later]
Its 0200 local and we're
just sailing into Port William, the outer harbour for
K, Alphonse says Hi and he
wants to get off El, adversity choc survived the Horn storms but not the long
days run up to here. Nice - thanks.
0635 entered Narrows,
0655 anchored,
Steve and Malcolm, take a
bow and thanks for your truly wonderful backup. We're going to consult, then
grab a couple of hours sleep. Customs etc at 0800 local, 1100UTC. We'll be in
touch as soon as we know what's happening.
Doesn't seem to be a mobile phone network - will investigate tomorrow.
A & P
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