Location is everything

Position 0630 1st Feb, 4642 07909, trip 109, DMG 41 - just trying to get north but it all helps - a little game of chess with the Examiner. I'll get another grib when I send this and we'll see perhaps what's in the bucket.

Middle watch, 0200UTC As always, it's the waiting that gets to corrode the gut, this time subtly assisted by the cold, clammy, misty dim grey daylight outside as we wallow along in the last dregs of the previous system. For those who know, just like a claggy winter's day in England's industrial midlands but without the smoky smell. There's a front approaching slowly from the west with a tight little low forming to the north west. The low looks as if it could intensify into something way out past the 10 on the McQ Viciousness scale, but there isn't enough detail on our gribs yet to know much more than that it's out there. Meantime, the anticipation born of experience brews acid where honey would be noicer. So we wait. The plan is, as before, to get as far north as possible in these dreggy fillips of breeze, perhaps burn a bit of diesel if it really drops out and hope that we can get across the face of the low into the northerly stream and out of the 30+ knot easterly which is due down here. We shall overcome.

0630 - unusual sea - calm surface except for small ripples, almost no wind so the swell is obvious. Silver grey sky, reflecting from the surface so very difficult to judge swell height because it all looks flat - but it isn't. Probably about 5 metres, coming in from the west.

We cracked the 11000 mile mark on the GPS odometer a couple of days ago, so there's a Talisker due but we have decided to postpone it until we have got past aforesaid Examinatorial discombobulation. Now at 11226, with 2828 to Maatsuuyker.

Phil W again - the ICOM AIS box has its own separate VHF aerial - works much better than a splitter. Disadvantage is that the aerial is on the pushpit, so range is limited to about 25 miles. Usually enough - in the English Channel, it clogged the screen every couple of minutes.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Senility strikes

I have just re-sent a block of five blogs which I had mistakenly sent to the old blog address and I think they may have arrived in reverse order - they should make more sense if read as follows
1.Comfort in adversity
2.Examinatorial Uglies
3.Delayed Con
4.This 'n that
5.Trying to outguess the examiner

I will try to keep my mind on the job in future. Now where did I put my woolly hat with the pompom? And my coffee? On my head you say? The coffee?

Phil W - AIS box is ICOM MXA 5000 receiver only, feeding into Software on Board (www.digiboat.com.au) in the laptop. We are changing the much travelled Kiwiprop for a new and slightly bigger one to go with new engine (Kiwi want the old one for analysis and display and they have generously subsidised the new one).

Lorraine - good to hear from you - glad you are enjoying this bit of fluffery.

Fenwick, not sure whether it's alcoholic stupor or senility in your case. 12 bottles of scotch?

Sue, sorry no pic of Pinkakerg in Kerg - all too busy avoiding kelp and P had face to the wall anyway - doesn't like the killer whales the troops saw in the bay as we were leaving.

MJC - don't know about the rats but I expect they all jumped off various ships - I can find out if you really want to know.

Tryig to outguess the Examiner

Sent the last 4 to wrong blog address - tks steve - resending with this one

Position 0630 31s,t 4811 07741, trip 116, DMG 97. I seem to remember that we had it much easier last time. Poo!

Still a bit busy out here - both into full TPS dry suit party gear to gybe the pole and optimise our course along the leading edge of the next front to try to ride it as far north as possible before the wind goes east. Just hoping the low doesn't intensify until we get into the front of it rather than the bottom.

more later

This 'n that

The lull between the uglies. I've just got into full party gear - after sponging the grot from the bilges - and poled out the headsail (no main in this drop of the turbs). There's a 30 kt easterly - at 48 south, an easterly! what's the world coming to? - due tomorrow but it looks like a fairly narrow band on the grib so we are trying to use the remains of the last nasty to get us as far north as possible, way into the easterly band and if possible through it. We will have to see what happens but that's the plan. Will be very interesting to compare the gribs with our track iff we get to Hoibart. bHeadbanging into 30 kts in these seas is not good karma, so we might just heave to and let it blow through. 24 hours lost, in that case.

Macca seemed to go better this time. Now that we have sorted how the programme works, it's easier to prepare. Hope it was worth the early rise.

There seems to be a bit of anxiety as to who is getting a Kergy envelope. If you asked for one, you will get one - but it's not instant gratification as I've said before, they will leave Kerguelen on RV Marion Dufresne at the end of March and reach Reunion in April. After that, it's regular snailmail. To all of you who have contributed to the iridium tin, many thanks.

On Iridium, we are in the only bit of the world that I know of that is out of range of a Sailmail station. We are roughly mid way between Maputo in Africa and Firefly in New South Wales and I haven't been able to connect to either since before Kerguelen. Firefly is just showing on the propagation screen and will slowly come into range but it's been exclusively iridium for quite a long time.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Delayed Con

Position 0630 30th Day 2 from Kerguelen. 4847 07504 trip 103 DMG 70 - slowed us down a bit, that little nasty. Temperature inside 9 deg, outside a lot colder.

Less that 48 hours out - great start followed by inquisatorial bashing with what looks like another to follow. I hope the seas have timer to subside a bit - it's still blowing ephelaunts off chains but the barometer is rising fast. Big waves - it's always when things seem to be dying down that it's dangerous. Heading NE or where the wind takes us but basically north seems the go for an easy life.

Consultative process seriously discombobulated by excess business with the Examiner. I have just managed lunch - imagine, old fart in red and blue neoprene dry suit, strapped into wildly gyrating galley, wild waves cderashinjg against the windoew (as you can see, also with gloves on)inches from face, marrying a tin of smoked oysters, a slice3 of french loaF AND some mayo and getting the lot into the interior tubing - ever4y6t5hing moves with the boat, but in opposite directions tricky.

Now I'll see whether I can get iridium connected to send this. Then I shall Consult.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Examinatorial uglies

This one's a real doozy. Not especially severe, 40-50 kts, but very nasty sea and sleet driving horizontally across the boat. The wind lifting the breaking crests and mixing them with the sleet. Wonderful colours if you can find the chutzpah to appreciate them - glassy green sea, glorious translucent iridescent green under the breaking crests where the light from the sky gets through (yep, we're looking up at most of them!), the crests themselves densely frothy with a greenish tint surging towards us and leaving acres of white feathery water behind them. Crashing blast of white beating thudding water as one occasionally breaks over the boat. Trickling flushing gurgle as it drains down every little gully above us. The usual wind streaks on the surface whenever it is smooth enough to see them. No fun out in the cockpit, where I've just been with the video cam. Small signs that it's dissipating - a bit of light through the soggy grey felt overcast, occasional lulls in the howl. The Examiner is clearly punishing us for our temerity in coming this far south and visiting Kerguelen - she's got another one of these lined up behind this one, again to the north of us so we get the adverse and nasty bit at the bottom. Le bum of ze cochon - we are supposed to be in westerlies here.

It's been so busy and beastly that I haven't yet written personal thank yous to the Kergulen mob. It will happen.

Possible Macca session this evening our time - we'll do out best to describe it all but it's hard sustaining that sort of rather one sided conversation. Love yez all - enjoy your lattes in Sydney and your bacon and eggs in Blighty. Margaritas in Texas and scotch in Lake Placid. Coopers in Nome. We might just have a taste of the Talisker if this little troll ever rolls away. Could be soon - the barometer just clicked up two hectothingys and there's a hint of blue in the overcast. But still blowing 44 knots.

Yickapooo! Sunlight - through a glass starkly but it's there! Big wave just broke over us but it's still there, even reflecting off the stanchion I can see through the window.

SJ, do you still you have the software to download tracks from the old Foretrex 201? Little green dinosaur.

Nereida Jeanne - great news! Good to hear.

Comfort in adversity

You awake Alex?...Yep! Bloody don't want to be but I am. I'm warm - to the ends of my toes warm in my toasty minus 20 arctic bag which I keep unzipped from the knees up so that I don't get stuck in it if we roll. I can hear the howl of the wind, the slat of the rain on the coachroof, feel the motion, a nasty corkscrew and I know beyond any denial, any rationalisation that I really really don't want to get up. So I fumble for my clogs to keep my socks dry and contort myself to reach up for the handrail at fingertip height above my head and swing my legs over the bar holding the leecloth. Lurch and stagger as Berri cops a wave. Pete tells me the story of his watch as I hang on with one hand and put all the warm stuff away and shiver into the cold damp fleecy overall and thermal tops that go with wet weather gear and into the pants and then the jacket. For convenience and warmth, I'm using my Canadian flote coat - the jacket is almost runny wet inside - it leaks and, I suspect, was never meant for this stuff. Yeeark - my hands shrivel as they slide down the slimy tubes of the sleeves but it all warms up quite quickly - just damply uncomfortable. And balaclava, headlamp and out into the howling roar that is the cockpit. Cold, driving rain, wind chill savage, quick assessment and ease the sheet till the heady just starts to flog and haul in with all my strength on the furling line to get the thing to about half its already small size. Make it all fast again, the rain by now running down my face and into my collar. Back inside, jacket off, kettle on, hot sweet cuppa with Kerguelen bread and honey and go through it all again to tack (actually wear) the boat to get the wind on the other side as it goes from east to south to south west. Grey, not black out there, the moonlight just getting through. It's only 35 knots but it's an awful sea and you have to be here to appreciate the beauty of it all.

We are just sitting it out, as comfortably as possible. No need to try to go anywhere, just keep the boat as unstressed as we can and wait. Remember Abe Lincoln - "And all this shall pass away..." I hope in about six hours.

3 hours later and definitely not yet - barometer 985 wind steady 35 gusting 40, almost freezing rain, sea building. Bleah!

Happys for H

Position 0630 29th 4911 07310 trip 130 (22.5 hrs) DMG 103 Odd feeling having only open ocean between us and Tasmania. So beginneth act the umpteenth.

Into the last of the baguettes, now about 24 hours old, with marmelade and a dose from Herself from Windhoek to wash it all down. Luxury unbounded - we were eking out the bikkies a bit before Kergs. Desolation Island - that's what it would have been called if Cook had got there before Kerguelen. The early explorers tended to compare the lands they visited with the gardens and fields they were used to at home and missed the delicate diversity and the bleak beauty of places like Baie de L'Oiseau. The early settlers in Australia yearned for their rose gardens and lush grass and tried to plant them in the desert, completely ignoring the wonderful natural flowers and the astonishing adaptation of the vegetation and the animals. But desolate Kerguelen ain't - after all, it does have its own cabbage.

Time for a coffee - filtered courtesy of the chef - and to attack the block of choc with a pickaxe. Yeehaaa! I'm wearing my Kerguelen hat - I went for a walk around the little bay at Port aux Francais amongst the seals, penguins and rotting kelp screaming gulls and cormorants and took hundreds of photos. On the way I found two un-matched sneakers which i left there and a tea cosy fleece hat with ear flaps. Grotty, sandy smelling of aforesaid rot and bird poo. Took it home, rinsed it multi times till the water ran more or less clear and dried it on the radiator, to find it impregnated with the tiny sharp seeds that come from one of the (I think introduced) plants that grows everywhere. A bit prickly. The french call the seeds pics or perhaps piques as in piquant. So to work with the tweezers and I'm truly the old fart about the boonies now.

Hey Dale - good to hear from you! The Bunger Hills sound interesting but I suspect it's a good deal colder at 75+ south than it was at 75 north - we'd need a heater. Glad we gave you an excuse for a scotch - our ears are burning - we have a drop of the Talisker and we're due for a small dose so keep your ear flaps tight and we'll cuss at you too. All the best for Axel Heiberg.

Ships that pass...

Pete had a ship on AIS during the night - he says it stayed with us, about 12 miles south, for a while and then disappeared. Odd. Sea Shepherd and its Japanese shadow are down here somewhere so perhaps one of them.

Cape Petrels, prions, dark petrels that look bigger that the white chins, the occasional Storm Petrel and several albatrosses - a few black browed and at least 2 very big ones. The water is 10 deg and definitely green. I've been sitting in the cockpit in my dry suit in the sunshine - it's cold out there! I hope, pace the Examiner, that we are now heading gradually north directly towards Maatsuuyker. Our furthest south, just off the Baie, was 4934 - we are now at 4915. Time will tell.

A bit more on Kerguelen - we were able to contribute a tiny speck to the place - one of the young researchers had spent quite a lot of money on a camera to record his stay on the island. On his first field trip, he found himself unexpectedly up to his armpits in water and his camera was drowned. I offered him my spare one that I seldom use and he's a happier boy. And my albatross photos found a home there too.

Not sure whether my French was up to the detail but there are a lot of rabbits - I think I heard 18 million - fewer cats and a lot of rats and there's a queasy balance between them all to the detriment of the original inhabitants and the natural vegetation. One species of introduced brown trout is gradually taking over all the rivers from all the other introduced fish. There are invasive insects (aphids?) which are also vectors for viruses. There are sheep and a species of what I think are caribou. We have some good contacts who, I suspect, would like a chance to visit Australia and collaborate, so if there's anyone out there working on similar ecological or biological projects (SW - UoW?) or perhaps schools who would like to be put in touch, let me know.

Merci!

Massive thank you to all our friends in Port aux Francais - for tolerating our awful French, for your much better English, for telling us about all the fascinating science that's going on there, for the trip of a lifetime around the Baie in L'Aventure in wonderful company and for generally enriching the lives of a couple of dozy old farts who blew in for a shower and a glass of milk to drop their false teeth into. Special thanks to Nathalie Deschamps for being such a cool Chef du District and to Renaud Huez who took us in hand and looked after us so well, and to Frank for the trip around the Baie. And to the cuisiniers, for all the goodies - we have bread, cheese, fruit, cold chook, coffee, sugar and an industrial chunk of chocolate It's about a foot square and three inches deep with nuts - yay! - and we only got half the bar. When I was a kid at boarding school, we used to get chocolate in lumps that had been hacked off a huge block too - takes yer back a bit!

I discovered why the scientists at least have better English than our French. One of our friends was studying for an exam next week and he had Feynman's lectures open on his desk - in English. It seems most academic textbooks that are written in English are too expensive to translate.

Could not have dreamed of a better start. Apart from a little contretemps with a big patch of kelp which took a fancy to Kevvo, no problem getting out. I borrowed an idea from Cook, who climbed Endeavour Hill in Cooktown to try to see a way through the Barrier Reef after they had careened and repaired Endeavour. I climbed the hill at Port aux Francais and found a gap in the kelp that gave us a shorter sail out of the bay and lined up a transit and off we went. And it worked.

Lovely night, poled out, 2 reefs, hooning under a three quarter moon, 20 kts from the west - rolling a bit - some signs of Examinatorial perturbation to the north west but the grib says - well, it does - that all should be reasonably cool and froody for the next couple of days. I shall only believe that in hindsight...and there is a nasty low forming in the NW in that couple of days. We'll see.

Poitrel Jack, if you are reading this, you need at least a 2 inch drain in each corner of the cockpit. Heavy duty flex hose to through-hull valves with venturis on the the outside to stop water flowing into the cockpit. Much more efficient than bungs. Happy to talk when we get back. Good luck!

Kerguelen glimpses part 3 or whatever...

First, you need to know that in Kerguelen, and probably all over France, they drink their breakfast coffee out of pudding bowls - half litre size. Second, conventional table manners are for the conventional. It's fair go to mix whatever you like in your coffee - cornflakes, cream, honey, sugar, the works. Scene at breakfast this morning - my lean, hook nosed hollow cheeked scrubby bearded friend who, with a bandanna would be perfectly cast in "Pirates 4" or whichever mixes a devils mix of black coffee, honey, milk, sugar and cream in his bowl - looks like baby poo by the time he has finished. Then he cuts a foot long length of bread from a french stick, slices it in two lengthwise, smears in in butter until every last square millimetre is covered. Then he spreads Nutella (for the uninitiated, a sort of soft chocolatey spread based on hazel nuts) all over it with the same concentrated care. Then, with enormous relish, he dips one end of a slice into his poo coloured coffee bowl just long enough to soak it but before it goes completely mushy and loses its structural integrity - and bites off the end, wipes the dribbles off his chin with great delicacy and repeats until all gone. Wonderful - I must try it when we get home.

And the eerie. I went for a walk this morning while we were waiting to be ferried out to Berri and visited the chapel. It's rigged inside just like a catholic one, but it is accepted simply as a place where people can go to commune in their own private way. Poignant memorials inside, some very personal. Outside, about 50 yards away, there is a lovely statue of Our Lady of the Winds. Under the pillars that form the arch of the porch there's an old blackened bronze bell with a short braided rope attached to the clapper. The bell swings in the wind and the clapper grates on the ring it hangs from inside the bell. I was looking from the arch to the statue and the bell started to grate and resonate - perfect movie SFX for the spirits of the dead - the ghost of the Ancient Mariner at my elbow.

Seals - they are everywhere, lying around in gross floppy heaps, some moulting, which makes then really ugly - they bark and the elephant seals snort. And they get around by undulating their bodies from front to back and pushing with their tails. But only 10 metres or so at a time and then they expire with a massive exhalation into a flaccid heap and rest for a couple of minutes. The King penguins are just finishing their moult - some are still scraggly but the rest are sleek and beautiful.

Prions, Cape Petrels, a couple of Skuas and a big albatross, Kerguelen a hard crenellated edge 10 miles away in the haze and advancing cloud around the setting sun.

And we're pointing at Australia.

More later.

On the way

Departed Port aux Francais 0800 UTC january 28th 3123 miles to Maatsuuyker. I will use this for DMG until we get there...

Hooning in 25 kt westerly - just leaving the Baie du Morbihan.

More later

from Gerant postal Kerguelen

Tomorrow...

The admiralty chart has notations all over it for magnetic anomalies. I'm not surprised - even the grit here is magnetic. I go outside with laptop and satphone to send these posts, shivering in the cold breeze and I have the satphone aerial extension fitted to the thing. The antenna on the end of the cable has a magnet underneath it (for attaching to the roof of yer ruggedized 4WD as you barge down the highway from Chatswood to do the weekend shopping...) and I sit on a rock outside the demountable and put the antenna on the black, gritty ground and when I have finished, there is a little crown of tiny black pebbles attached to the circular magnet. Good fun. Apparently there are places where even the GPS gets the habdabs although I don't see how it can happen.

We hope leave tomorrow, restocked with assorted goodies and, with luck, 25 - 30 days to Hobart. The plan is to stop in Hobart for a few days, slip Berri, change the prop and fix any glitches and put on some antifoul and a bit of polish and varnish - should be back in Sydney, DV etc, end Feb, early March. For the initiated, I hope to reinstate the Bash this year, date TBF, and if we make it in one piece, there will be a homecoming party in the park. However, predictions are dangerous and serve only to provoke the Examiner, so this is just the first wash on the canvas.

Today, I will spend the morning repacking the disaster that is Berri's interior and then we will start putting all the gear we have ashore back on board.

More later. Berri seems in good nick. Forecast for tomorrow is ok but for Friday, distinctly pearshaped. We'll leave and head north to give ourselves some room and to get as close to the top of the low as possible. Big high to the east if we can get across to it.

Envelopes part 2

Doing envelopes most of today.
For those who asked for one on the blog and for my family, this is what they will look like - suggest you print this because they won't arrive until the end of April. I hope we beat them back to Oz!
FRONT: Photo of Berrimilla with bow of L'Aventure in the background. Photo and envelopes courtesy M. Renaud Huez, interesting man of many parts, now the Postmaster here for a year, who set all this up for us.
Personal rubber stamp of Renaud Huez,
Two postage stamps - one of de Rochegude (as an Admiral) who first landed, with great difficulty, at Baie de L'Oiseau. The other of Charles Rouillon - much later but very eminent explorer - google him - just to keep a historical perspective. Stamps cancelled with special postmark.
Pete's and my signatures.
BACK: Official (rubber) stamps for L'Aventure, CNES - the Centre National des Explorations Spatiales and Meteo France, the French Bureau of Meteorology. CNES and MF provide most of the funding for this District. The CNES stamp was badly worn and the image is a bit indistinct.

Pete's envelopes are for his family and friends. They may be different. The choice of postage and rubber stamps is bewildering!

Sue, you got in by special dispensation. Too difficult to take pic of El Pinkathingykerg - huge wind and just too busy surviving to set it up. Will try tomoz when wind abates.

64 knots last night - elephant seals crashing earthwards all over the place, rather like the HGTTG whale, poor thing.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Envelopes

0300 UTC and I've finished addressing my quota of envelopes - sorry if you did not get in in time! For those who did, they should arrive some time in April, DV & WP.

Berri still attached to her mooring, with elephant seals flashing by in the wind. On my way out in the RIB to inspect and tidy her up a it.

More later.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Correction to my last

Muggins aka Dozy Old Fart got it wrong - my French is way far from perfect. The next ship arrives here in March, (mars, not mardi...) so the envelopes will not leave until then and you won't get them until April. Also, I do not want to impose on the generosity of Son Eminence le Maitre de Poste so no more addresses after today please. I have two more envelopes above the list already received so first come...

Wonderful day today shuttling researchers in and out of the remote outpost stations around the hundred or so islands in the Baie du Morbihan. We called at Haute, St.Malo, Mayes, Guillou and Verte and on the way back to Port aux Francais, passed the wreck of a previous ship, which is actually marked on my chart. At Guillou, we were about 15 miles from Mt Ross, the highest point on the island. Lots of photos. Stark volcanic landscape, eroded by water freezing in the cracks and breaking off the outer layers, exposing the strata and blurring the crystalline rock forms down the millions of years. Also huge runoffs after the rain and occasional snow. Penguins, seals and dolphins (type to follow - I will ask later, but blunt nosed with white sides). My Gold Collared albatross was probably an immature Snowy and I am extremely doubtful that my 'Amsterdam' was indeed such - more likely a juvenile Snowy, NZ or Tristan. There are people here who really know about these things. Projects today - the effect of introduced species, rabbits, cats, rats and sheep; Blue Petrels and their environment and reproductive cycles; invasive species - aphids and other insects, which are all vectors for viruses; the effects of atmospheric pollution - several others but that's the sort of thing. They stay out in the field for three to ten days in insulated cabins, but they are all rigged and equipped to walk and to survive for longer if the weather changes. L'Adventure is an 80 ton barge about the size of one a half tennis courts with two big diesels and hydraulic propellors on stocks that can be turned so no need for rudders, and they can be raised out of the water. The barge just drives up to a beach or a rocky headland. parks its square flat nose against the solid earth and Frank, the skipper, holds it there with his engines as the teams transfer their equipment and themselves. No fuss, all done with cool competence and flair. The people - carefully selected volunteers - all with personality, verve, knowledge and dedication. Some students doing field projects - what an opportunity!

Wind gradually rising all day - averaging 45 kt on the way back. Now seems to be abating. The wind and the defined static lenticular clouds and the flying cascades of spray added to the stark landscape but I will never be able to see these islands as the desolate spot the early explorers and pioneers described - it has life, bleak beauty, rapid change from glorious to menacing in minutes. A character of its very own. A real privilege to be here and to see it all and to take part.

When we arrived back in Port aux Francais, we were greeted by Mme Deschamps, the Chef du District. She came down to the quay in the wind and rain specially to meet us and then took us to her house for coffee. Tomorrow she will stamp our passports.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Last chance

Amazing day today. Now blowing elephant seals off the rocks - poor Berri straining at her mooring, everything slatting.

Will do full blog later but if you want a commemorative envelope, this is your last chance. I think I can guarantee one for everyone who has replied so far - just a bit overwhelmed by the response - but from early AM tuesday UTC (so 1100 ish in Sydney, no guarantee but I'll do my best. Many of you have asked how you might contribute - a small donation to the iridium fund via my sister Isabella would be appreciated - if you email her at isabella.msw at homecall.co.uk (remove the spaces and substitute the @ where necessary...)she will tell you how to send it and she has access to my iridium account. If no can do, no problem!

H,K & E, have you on the list, also Fiona (massive thanks!)

SW, thanks also for forwarding.

Apologies Izz - hope it's ok! Tks for addresses yesterday.

Super quickie

Have we ever been lucky - so far - we got in at just the right time - glorious weather for three days including Baie de L'Oiseau and tomorrow it blows - 60 knots forecast. Poor Berri tied by long, heavy plaited lint to mooring buoy with the line looped round both foredeck cleats and on to itself, bridle strops back to main winches, eerything tied down, 2 lashings on the furled headsail and we cross the fingere it will be ok. Not a lot we can do if not, so we're going off around the Baie for the trip of a lifetime from 0600, returning about 11 hours later when the wind is forecast to come in.

A seal wobbled past my window today - 300 metres up the hill from the water. I have video to prove it. Smashing day all round.

Amazing place - I wish I could spend a year here with a laptop and a couple of cameras.

Doug, I've given all your papers and the Dagelet article to Renaud Huez - long story - who will understand them and make them available here. He will contact you but please send me your email address asap if you read this.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Glimpse part 2

There's an easy discipline to this place which I recognise and love - I grew up with it in a different world. It's based on acceptance of a set of basic and common assumptions, a shared and universal trust in the competence and professionalism of others and an (always somewhat tentative) confidence in one's own ability to take part. It is easy to see these people as the same people who sailed with Diaz, with Kerguelen, DuFresne, de Rosnevet, Cook, Ross, Crozier and all the others. Kings Regulations and Admiralty Instructions or the Inquisition were always menacingly in the background - surfacing occasionally to create fear and consternation (Voltaire's acid remark that the English found it necessary on occasion to shoot an Admiral 'pour encourager les autres')- but mostly intrepid and courageous men, usually but not always volunteers, who were out here because it gave them a living. No more than that. There were, of course, the others, the leaders like Kerguelen perhaps, whose ambition drove them to excess. And the obsessives - Amundsen perhaps.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com