This, that and the Examiner

0200/15th 2810 01821

Cloudless, moonless night sky, light haze, so the universe and all its marvel and mystery shining through lightly frosted glass. Wonderful! Two light trails on the water - Jupiter, setting to the west, and Sirius, just risen to the east. Mintaka, our zenith star for the equator in a couple of weeks at about 20 degrees to the south east. The haze just smothering the glow of the nebulae. The lights of Valverde on the horizon 25 miles to the south east. Wouldn't be in London for quids.

Silence except for Berri's passage, like sitting on the banks of a gentle stream. The occasional grunt from the autopilot. Twin poled, perfectly balanced, slipping along at a bit over 4 knots in 5 apparent - not enough to turn the blades of the whizzer or to give Kevvo the inspiration to do any work - lazy old fart. And the creaking of the kite halyard cranked up tight to support the little red yankee and its roller system. Bliss - it's been a doddle from Lisbon. We dodged the early southerlies by staying east of Madeira and we're just inside the band of wafting northerlies along the African coast.

My 2 day old GRIB shows a low pressure system forming to the west, confirmed by the loom of lightning flashes over the horizon. We need to stay over here for a lot longer. The Examiner reminding us that there is more to come! Last time we were here, a bit further west, we went through the back of what became hurricane Katrina. I hope this little system is benign.

Wildlife, apart from the feral zoo inside the boat. Only two birds since Madeira, clearly a pair but too far away to distinguish features. Big, gliders, grey with long wings. Two tiny moths (or perhaps the same one twice) triangular when perched, about 1 cm each side and beige. Didn't realise what it was till it took off - and it might have found another perch and reappeared a couple of days later or perhaps sent its sister along. And a big buzzy insect about 4 or 5 cm long, could have been a huge bumble bee but it didn't hang around. Some tiny fish being chased by something needing breakfast. No Dino flashes in the wake tonight.

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Latest Position

Posted by I & G in the UK

Morsels from the wheelie bin

0700/14th 2923 01810 trip 1566=80/24 30 miles NW of Santa Cruz de la Palma.

Last night:
It's a dark rather hazy night. No horizon although the sky is clear above. Instrument lights turned down till they are only just visible. There's a faint line of luminescence forming in Berri's wake, only just aglow tonight. There are occasional very bright flashes in and beside it. They vary in intensity - some seem to be about soccer ball sized and sort of fuzzy, others more cricket ball and more intense. Some of them appear to flash more than once, but this may be an illusion. They are much bigger than the sparkles of normal phosphorescence. I've seen them often before, sometimes much more frequent and brighter and sometimes lasting longer than tonight's instant version so there's a long trail of bright balloons in the water.

For David C in Falmouth - the red sail and roller arrangement works really well, with some limitations. First, the wind must be abaft the beam or very light for the thing to roll up properly and to roll it takes practice - just enough tension on the sheet and no more. And it's either in or out - no way it will work half rolled although it might have been ok with the much stiffer luff line you showed me. It's cut very high and might have been more manageable a couple of feet lower on the leech because the clew is out of reach when it is rolled. But a great addition to the bag of fruit and it's small enough to carry twin poled up to perhaps 20 apparent. We'll have to try! After that, and for the southern ocean we'll rig the wire outer forestay and hank on the storm jib.

Time earlier this evening for some serious reflection on the nature of dependence on technology - the ipod died and I wondered how I would survive the next three months without the hundreds of hours of talking books and music. I'm a bear of very little brain indeed and my memory doesn't hold all that stuff. I am always amazed at the capacity of others - Wavell wrote Other Men's Flowers - big book of his favourite poetry - from memory in a couple of weeks between campaigns in WW2. Barenboim can play all the Beethoven sonatas and lots more from memory. And to carry the point, just before I left for the UK, I read a fascinating book called something like 'Books I did not write' by an amazing man whose name I can't remember. In it he talks about a woman imprisoned in solitary and tortured who kept herself sane by translating in her head something massive - again, don't remember what it was - from the Hebrew perhaps into Polish perhaps. And then published it after she was released and it's now the standard translation. The author's point was that with the capacity for such things there's no way that one can ever be defeated by any kind of adversity. Such as the trivial loss of an ipod.

I have to invent things and then I forget them, but the invention bit helps with the adversity. Sort of. Anyway, I recovered the ipod so I can temper invention with a bit of data input. Panic over for the mo.

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For some people it's spiders

For me, it's lightning that sends me cringing into the cupboard under the stairs sucking my thumb. We're due to go through the ITCZ and the doldrums in a couple of weeks and that almost certainly means monster cu-nims and savage squalls with purple lightning zapping into the sea all around. Quiver.

So, as part of my odd job routine, I've made a list of things we can't afford to have zapped if we do get struck - satphone, a couple of hand held GPS', a VHF, mobile, all the SIM cards, at least 2 laptops and so on. I looked at www.marinelightning.com before the first voyage where the suggestion is first to put a proper harness with multiple earth points into the boat and failing that, to put all that important stuff into the microwave. Microwave?? So we will use our stainless steel iceboxes as the best available substitute, with the gadgetry deep inside and surrounded by Murphy cans. The really really important stuff - satphone, SIMs and a gps perhaps inside the big stainless cooking pot as well.

And we will use the spare shroud to create an underwater loop under the boat clamped to and linking the shrouds on either side as well as connecting the foot of the mast to the earth plate outside the hull put there for the purpose.

Any of you physicists got any better ideas? And is this going to work anyway? Or just feel good fantasy?

All rather slow at the mo. 2.5 knots in about 5 and hot. Water temp 29 deg. Falmouth is 1327 miles away, so we've knocked off 10% of the journey in about 11.5 sailing days - very close to the last time where the Falmouth - Hobart leg took 114 days. Loong way to go yet though.

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7020/13th

Position 3034 01730. Trip 1485 = 99/24hr

Twin poling at about 4 knots - little red sail and about half the furling genoa. So much better than using the main, which was banging and slatting and shaking the whole rig and the boat. I don't like doing that to any boat, let alone this one.

If anyone out there (Carla, perhaps, as you might already be on the site occasionally?) has the time and patience to look up the ISS overpasses for us and send us the most likely ones we'd be grateful. Twilights are often nicely clear. If you do, just the UTC rise, az. and angle and for a day far enough ahead for us to get the message, so after the next Monday or Friday. We are averaging about 5 knots and should be able to hold a more or less straight line to the Cape Verdes. Thanks and medicinal compound shall flow when next we meet...

Small (read despairing!) moment of doubt yesterday when I thought I heard the damper plate self destruct noise from the engine. Common sense says that it cannot be so if we got the problem right and fixed it properly. There's certainly a noise that I don't recall hearing before but then engines are strange beasts. I ran it for an hour last night without the death rattle noise that is the real signal when the engine is stopped. But I'm not finally convinced and won't be for a few more days. We could still use the engine to charge the batteries if we take the gearbox and damper plate off but that ain't the smell of roses.

Happy double four tomorrow to Sue up in the Lake District from Z and the mob. We'll consult at 1700 in your honour.

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A disproportionate sense of elation

1500/12th 3124 01549

I've felt almost all the time since arriving in Falmouth back in May that we've been coming from behind - first with the Russian applicaion,then the gearbox, the damper plate (my fault entirely, that one), the spammed website (me again) the AirX, the damper plate again and all the other trivia that have made things difficult. But the gate seems to have opened a crack. And I've just managed something essentially trivial but with serious potential to go wrong - I have set up the satphone to work with sailmail and tested it - sent the last message then pulled in a GRIB - and it WORKS. To those of you geeks who can't see why this is the high country of elation - lucky you! Nothing with this stuff ever seems to work without a struggle for me so I'm a happy little veggie. High praise too for Jim's instructions on the sailmail website.

More on routine: we've been sailing dead downwind since leaving Lisbon, mostly in less that 15 knots and often about 10. This means that the Airbreeze doesn't have enough apparent wind to keep the batteries charged - we're doing 5 over the ground so the apparents are 10 max. So we must run the engine for an hour every morning and evening and have to monitor fuel use. I'm just about to check its vitals before cranking it up again. While it's running, we also run the water maker which, in this warm water, easily makes 4.5 litres/hr.

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What did I say?

Never tempt the Examiner. Major crash of SoB or the laptop - there's some sort of incompatibility between these Toughbooks and the version of XP that they use and something in SoB or the USB driver that is triggered occasionally by - I know not what.

Anyway, eventual close down by using the 'off' switch and it rebooted correctly and all seems cool and froody again. Until next time!

Thanks to Bill W (no probs mate - thanks) and Ron Cuskelly whose message took me back 40+ years to Alice Springs (although I thought it was in Darwin, Ron - we were the Giles crew and I think we flew up there, not to the Alice)and to Steve for forwarding. Steve will forward B2 Gmails to us every Monday and Friday unless there's something urgent so if anything needs a quick answer, say so in your text or contact Steve on B2@gmail.

Routine: we have limited supplies of medicinal compounds, most notably Dr Murphy's throat salve and loosening elixir. We left Crosshaven with 150 doses, preserved carefully through the weeks till we left Falmouth and in Lisbon. On the last voyage's timing, we have about 114 days sailing whether or not we stop anywhere else. Einstein says that's too many days for one does per person per day. Accordingly, we now have a proper Consultative Berri breakfast on odd numbered days (why odd numbered, you may ask?) and make do with lesser quality lubricant on even days. Thanks to Carol, we are ahead on our other essential compound so there will continue to be a daily 1700 Con with our specialist Dr Ridyng from Cork.

No decision yet on stopping anywhere else. So much has already gone wrong since I arrived in Falmouth in May that we are reluctant to plan more than a few days ahead - the next GRIB, in fact. I do think that South Georgia is looking very unlikely given the delays so far. Maybe Cape Town, maybe we'll just keep going and perhaps try to swoop down to the Kerguelens on the way past. Almost got there last time.

I'm going to try to send this via Iridium to test the system and our backup.

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Latest Position

Posted by I & G in the UK

0700 Oct 12

Position 3154 01625, trip 1387 so 120/24hr

We passed the Madeira Islands during the night - only saw the loom of Funchal about 40 miles away. Now heading towards the Canaries trying to stay in the little band of northerly wind that extends about 200 miles off the African coast. The books say this is a cold current and it flows south - the water temp is 28 deg and we seem to have a knot against us. Hmmm.

Dare I say it? Wood firmly grasped - we seem to be out of the door - perhaps 4 k in a marathon and just finding a rhythm. This is day 5 out of Lisbon and the stress of the last few weeks is beginning to wash away - long may it last. About 2100 miles to the Equator and the ITCZ. And I think it's time to thank all those people who have helped us get this far - no lists cos they would be way too long - you know who you are. Come join us for a meal at the Restaurant in the middle of the Universe - beautiful waterside location, supported by probability waves and decorated with super strings, all colour coded. Like all restaurants, it has a 6 cat rating on Fatboy Gruntgurgler's Schrodinger scale in the Guide. To discover its real rating you'll have to open some boxes. Or just try the food..

Mars up there with the Moon, Venus and Saturn just above the coming sunrise. Loverly.

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Explanation

I have received a few messages asking about the previous post so this
is a brief explanation. Andrew Short and Sally Gordon were highly
experienced Australian sailors who died tragically in a yacht race
over the weekend. There are many articles about them online. Here is
one.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/sailing/article6869863.ece

Isabella in the UK

Shockwave

What awful news. Sally and Andrew were good friends. Our thoughts and feelings are with their families and loved ones.

When the dolphins break the bow wave, when an albatross glides past the stern, we will remember them.

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1850/10th 3411 01405

Berri is rolling and flopping around and I'm wedged in with everything except the fingertips helping to keep me there. Not a comfy way to go sailing. In any but the softest conditions Berri is not a comfortable boat when she's so packed full of stuff - there's nowhere to sit relaxed, even in the cockpit.

Later - 0100/11th
Jumbled thoughts - I've got several books going - Obama reading himself on the gadget, Brian Greene and the Cosmos, Wrath of God by Edward Paice, about the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and fire (Thanks John - and for your article. What a grim tale - I think the irony works but that's perhaps because I grew up in England. There are people who would see it much more literally and be offended) and The Barefoot Navigator by Jack Lagan. Bit of a luxury really.

Art forms of our ancestors - sailing to windward and tacking a square rigger, using a sextant, finding ones way home across an ocean for the first time. First, perhaps, the Polynesians, then the Vikings then the Portugese...easy to see how the C15 Portugese found Madeira - just leave the Tagus at this time of year in a square rigger and six days later, bobsyer! But the question is why would the first man to do it actually want to do it? In those days they hugged the coast down to Africa. And Bartholomeu Dias setting off for the Cape of Good Hope via (almost) the coast of Brazil? Mistake, force of circumstance or deliberate? And by 1755 they had lost all that fire and vision. Dissolute, profligate and obsessively religious on the profits of slavery and the overseas territories

Back in this blog, there's a photo of the replica caravel on the Tagus. It is lateen rigged - 2 masts, triangular sails on huge yards - effective to windward but very difficult to tack because it's not easy to get the yard around to the other side of the mast. I couldn't get close enough to see whether there was some arrangement. The alternative, much less efficient, is to wear or gybe - a 300 degree turn instead of 100. The Portugese probably developed this rig by copying the Arabs whose dhows would have used it for at least hundreds of years.

The moon is up, black patchy cloud, glimpses of Kochab, Polaris, Mizer, what I think is Deneb - moonlight on steel black water...glorious night. We've just sailed across the Seine seamount - 4000 metres up to a hundred or so - almost another island in the Madeira Archipelago.

Now it's 0700 - at 15 W we are an hour earlier in local time than Greenwich.
Position 3321 01456 Trip 1269 (134/24) and we should pass Madeira this evening AGW

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Goss's Thousand?

Posted by I&G in the UK

Pete Goss' bottle

0700 position Oct 10 3452 01305 GPS trip 1135 so 120 miles/24 hrs. Actual distance to Falmouth 974 miles.

Gloomy overcast night - two other boats, probably sailing, in the distance and the mystery of the disappearing ship. Biggish ship about 3 miles away going north. I went below for 2 minutes - no ship in sight when I came up again. Big southerly swell, but it wasn't hiding the ship before I went below. Odd. AIS isn't coming through to Sob - to do with early crash and I don't know hoe to get it back, so no help there.

Almost at Sydney's latitude but a hemisphere away. Sigh! Roughly a year ago, Pete Goss gave me a bottle of Talisker when I went to see him and wish him luck on Spirit of Mystery in Falmouth. It's with us, unopened, carefully wrapped and stowed and I think cracking the real first thousand miles might be an excuse for a taste. I doubt whether Pete is reading this but somebody out there might thank him for us.

Now for a GRIB to see how we're doing versus the front.

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For those of us who travel the world at walking pace

Francis Joyon and the Volvo boats go so fast that they can chase weather patterns and use the tops and bottoms of circular systems to slingshot themselves further and faster. Ain't necessarily so for us Farty Old Plodders in what many real sailors see as stone age dinosaurs of boats. We have to look ahead and try to use the advance knowledge to improve our positions relative to nasty pearshaped stuff and the good stuff by heading - slowly - towards the good sides of these systems. As now. I've just pulled in the GRIB for the next three days and it shows nice northerlies like we have until a 25 - 35 knot southerly front arrives from the west at the leading edge of a low pressure system (for the meteorologically challenged, these things may be 500 miles across and they always rotate anti-clockwise in the northern hemisphere so the leading edge will always blow from the south). So - The Plan - head east of the Madeira archipelago and try to get as far south as possible in the hope that the low will ride north on what remains of the current high. That should get us south of the worst of the front and we can tack out into the Atlantic if we do cop the blow. But I hope we can dodge it!

Should have said 'listening to Barack Obama reading his book'

For those in the know, Pete has progressed from Aubergine through Peach to Apricot and now something more like Kiwi or even Lychee or Longon. And the tooth socket is behaving - I can now chew on both sides again.

Proper Berri breakfast just accomplished and fabulous day out here. Charging the battery with the engine - not enough apparent wind for the whizzer to do its stuff. First 1000 of 13000 behind us. Wooohooo.

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Further still

Last night we could see the light at Cabo Espichel all night. And ships - cruise ships like blocks of flats, bulk carriers, container ships - the works. Busy all night - rain squalls making things uncomfortable early on - then they cleared and the moon and our bit of the universe was there just for us.

Tonight - fluffy clouds that look black and sinister but aren't, not a ship to be seen, bits of the constellations between the clouds and the occasional aircraft winking its way high above. Dark horizon, moon still to rise. Lumpy rolly seas with the wind just aft of the beam so very messy.

So the second night of about 110 if we use the last one as a guide - some of these watches seem very long, some go in a whiff - tonight very hard on the bum and the back in the cockpit as Berri moving so violently.

Big feed of mussels - yum! Approaching two huge seamounts, Ormonde and Gorringe, rather like the two on the race from Sydney to Lord Howe - volcanic peaks that rise steeply from 3000+ metres to about 30 metres below the surface if my chart is correct. Spectacular profiles if only one could see them underwater. I wonder what they will do to the seastate- a lot of water moving out here and has to get around them

0700/09 position 3629 01151 trip 1015 24 hr run 119nm

A shoal of fish - perhaps 30, each about a foot long - dazzling silver in the low sunlight of the early morning - lovely piercing curves as they leap from wave to wave - luminously there and then gone in seconds. And I'm reading Barack Obama - piercing commentary on being black in America. And Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos - piercing intellect that can tell the stories of General Relativity and Entanglement as the astonishing insights that they were, but within even my less that piercing grasp.

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Happy 50th Gordie

We're having a talk with Dr Murphy the better to celebrate in good health. Onya mate - go talk to your gargoyle about looking your age! Our little Coolgardie fridge has worked its magic overnight and Dr Murphy is satisfactorily cool.

And we've knocked over our first 100 miles since Lisbon. I wonder how the early Portugese sailors felt around about here - I'm playing with images of little, heavily loaded caravels and naus wallowing around in the sun and trying to catch enough breeze to send them south. Pennants, decorated sails, at least one priest per ship and religious statues and probably black hulls. And the three Trafalgar fleets must all have been close to here in the months before the battle.

Poor Berri is so heavy that she was doing her wave piercing act in the big rollers - no graceful climb over the top. They have subsided now - brilliant blue sky, a ship just passing astern pointing towards New York - about 10 knots of breeze and we're flopping along.

We're aiming for Madeira - more or less as the wind allows.

Position at noon 3721 01015 920 miles from Falmmouth but that includes up and down the Tagus.

Now 1630 - 24 hour run 128 miles.

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A bit further out

0700 position today 3738N 00953W - we're now about 10 miles SW of that. All systems seem to be working - except this laptop which is still crashing regularly - refusing to talk properly to the USB device. Very frustrating.

We get about half an amp from the Airbreeze at about 9 knots apparent. Better than nowt but we need nearly 2 to break even.

Ships everywhere - will do a better blog later AGW

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Hopefully, not Counting Chickens

Update position images are meticulously prepared by a handpicked team
of round-the-clock observers in the UK, in this case with the sincere
hope that the addition of the "leaving Lisbon" image won't ensure
another round of snaggles and a return to the Doca. I&G

3823N 00930W

Tentatively - we're on our way. Dipped our lids to Henry with an ample dose of medical compound from Carol's magic bottle and on down the Tagus into a dark and rainy sunset and a horrible boat stopping sea - big Atlantic rollers with wind waves all over the place on top. Rain and a dying wind, lightning behind us.

And the wind dropped right out so we're pottering along - read rolling all over the place - at about 2.5 knots with the engine. Not much fun but at least we're out.

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