Poste restante

I have been reminded of the makeshift custom of the days of long voyages where the ships left letters for home in some sheltered spot at a point where outward and return tracks crossed and ships stopped for water. There were stones at Cape Town before the Dutch built a permanent settlement there under which letters were 'posted' by outgoing ships to be picked up and taken back to Europe by those going home. Likewise on Juan Fernandez, temporary home of Alexander Selkirk, Robinson Crusoe to his fans. No doubt there were many others possibly even in Tasmania. Haphazard - I wonder whether there are still letters out there in some isolated spot, waiting to be collected. Perhaps there's a small research article there somewhere for a history project. Anyway, seems to me we are repeating history. The good ship Berrimilla has left letters under a figurative stone - Renaud's mailbox on Kerguelen - waiting for a passing ship to deliver them to all y'all around the world. I'd have loved to have landed at Baie de L'Oiseau and left a message in a bottle there too but, alas, it was not possible. We had one ready.

On which thought, if we were to release one here, it would probably end up in Chile if it didn't get snagged by MacQuarie or the Campbells. Might be fun to do.

2 birds in the emptiness. Very hard to identify - under grey overcast, upper wing markings merge into uniform grey. Jizz combined with location does not match anything I can find in the book - nearest might be Barau's petrel.

The weather systems seem to have turned right side up at last - we are now happily chugging along in the top of a low, poled out in a nice 20 kt westerly which looks good for a day or so. Yeeebloodyhaaaa! Less than a quarter of the globe to go to complete the second circ. Technically, this would happen at the Iron Pot at the mouth of the Derwent or a bit further north in the Derwent if we take the D'Entrecasteaux Channel and would include our roll off Gabo Island in 2007, but the more elegant version would end at South Head if we get to enter Sydney Harbour.

If we do manage either of these, there is an interesting list of achievements to go with them - none of any consequence but each with its own integrity and all by accident really. None were intended anyway. I'll post the list if we look like getting there.

The Consultation not Taken

Please excuse a small diversion from the voyage story: Alex has said it's OK to upload this.

Last year he gave me a plastic token he kept after visiting Cambridge Bay (Ikaluktutiak) while sailing the North West Passage in 2008. It's a token allowing the limited purchase of alcohol at a Club, or Lodge called ELKS. Let's leave aside the almost unimaginable concept that this "One Drink" was not claimed.

I am a long-time Friend of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, and felt that this unusual - if humble - object might be of interest to the Museum, and so I wrote to them about it. The Joint Head of Collections replied that they would be delighted to accept the token as an addition to their collection of "coinage substitutes." The PRM, I should explain, is a world-class Museum and part of the University of Oxford. Objects are displayed by type rather than culture. It has long been an inspiration to writers and artists as well as to historians, explorers, anthropologists and archaeologists, both for the objects it displays as well as their often intriguing provenances.

Relevant links to this update:

Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford

http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/

Relevant pages on the old NWP blog

http://awberrimilla.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html

NB: this is the Berrisite that has been heavily spammed in its most recent pages. When you get to the page in my link you need to scroll down to the dates around 8th August. You'll see a title: Cambridge Bay, wherever google earth thinks it is. The update below that title is the nearest I can find to link the token to the NWP story.

Why alcohol abuse is a problem in Cambridge Bay:

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/915_cambridge_bay_struggles_with_its_challenges/

Posted by Isabella, Alex's sister in the UK

Steinbeck

Hard grey sea, gently spiky, Berri tramping along - uniform, slightly ribbed overcast, cloudbase about 1000ft, emptiness all the way to the horizon - no birds, no sea monsters, no swimming polar bears or silly old farts with tridents. Unusual and starkly lonely - a reminder of just how isolated we really are. ISS crew definitely closest humans out here at about 340km.

Half way through Steinbeck's 'Grapes of Wrath' which we picked up in the flea market in Cape Town. What a book! I was given 'Cannery Row' as a kid and found it heavy going and never came back to Steinbeck. Wonderful to find something so vivid, so densely packed with immediate images, lyrically beautiful descriptions and passages that are mesmerisingly similar to things I have tried to write about here with presumptuous ineptitude. Al 'feeling' the old car, the way he describes Ma, the Preacher's uncertainty - searing clarity, impossible to avoid being there with them. I'm hooked and cross eyed with the power of it.

He uses a word - at least twice - that I don't think I have ever seen before: anlage. The context might give it a meaning such as equipment, infrastructure, the toolkit? Or possibly more like competence or ability.

Bill W - thanks! - address in original request.
MJC - is Adventure Bay the same place as Recherche Bay? I have a feeling Baudin might have named it.

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Thank yous

Position 0630 6th 4448 08612, trip 124, DMG 127. Noice! And about time! The odometer from Falmouth now reads 11699 miles sailed.

Some serious thank yous due. First, my Iridium banker, (my sister Isabella in the UK) says that she has banked about 500 pounds in the Iridium tin so far - Massive thanks to all of you who contributed - I don't have any idea what the eventual bill will be but that will certainly make a dent in it. For the curious, I have to pay the account in sterling with a direct debit to a sterling credit card because I set it up with Cable and Wireless in Port Stanley in 2005 and that was one of the conditions under which they were prepared to let me out of their sight clutching new phone and SIM card.

Second - to Kiwi Feather Props in NZ. The new prop has arrived in Hobart, specified for the new engine. I mentioned that Kiwi had 'subsidised' the new one in an earlier blog but in fact they have donated it in return for the old, much travelled one which is to be examined and then become a museum piece in the factory. Great people, responsive, competent and know their product. And it's an elegant, relatively simple and inexpensive bit of gear that has performed faultlessly over almost 2 circumnavigations and a whole lot more. Thanks guys.

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Fous de la Mer

I have just found an interesting blog / website having conducted a regular Berrimilla internet trawl.

http://renaudauxtaaf.blogspot.com/2010/02/passage-du-berrimilla-ii.html

There are some images, and some text - in French. It must belong to the Kerguelen Renaud that Alex refers to. If you go to Renaud's 2009 archive there are many images which add to some of Alex's updates from the islands.

Renaud, if you are reading this - bonjour et merci. I very much like the description "fous de la mer." I think the English equivalent translates to something like "sea-lunatics" but I think the French has more style.

Posted by Iz in the UK

doesn't seem that far....

5,000k to go... 2,700 nm ...

Glooping along

rather slowly! Position 0630 5th 4416 08331, trip 92, DMG 60.

Nowt else to report - pale excuse for the sun a slightly brighter patch in the overcast - soft breeze, no apparent relationship with our current grib but we are for the first time for ages, pointing at Hobart. I think Kaharoa is due in today if anyone there is interested.

No birds, internal ferals in a frenzy - I've started eliminating some of their ecosystems and they are all migrating from boat to boot, so to speak.

And we soldier on.

Contact!

Or the end of the beginning. My last blog was sent by radio via the Australian sailmail station at Firefly, NSW. Eureka! There's a small but growing propagation window on the lower frequencies around 1400 UTC. Maybe this one too...SJ, top right hand corner, Sent via HF-VZX is Firefly, Telnet is Iridium.

The photo I would have loved to have been able to take - Berrimilla at anchor in Baie de L'Oiseau. I wonder whether our visit coincided with a google earth satellite overpass - or anybody else's - it was a cloudless day. Anyone know how to find out?

Glooopout! It's grey dark - the moon is a pale ghost almost over the masthead, nav lights reflecting like plasma - but the milky gloop is so dense that the visibility is only a few metres. Berri's rolled headsail is a dim, damp silhouette disappearing ahead of us. Windless, cold, oily calm like some foggy days in the English Channel. We are burning a bit of diesel to trickle along and charge the battery. Take yer breath away lovely, there is phosphorescence again, a subdued radiance. We are moving forward inside a gently glowing spearhead with sharp greenish edges, a coiling shaft astern and no other frame of reference beyond the boat. Weirdly eerily beautiful here, absolutely terrifying in the English Channel!

Desperately slow progress - I left all Doug's Kerguelen papers with Renaud in Port aux Francais and I don't remember how long it took Cook to reach Tasmania in similar fog. He, of course, had no option but to sail. For me, 31k perhaps in a marathon - the end of a Sunday run but still way short of mental half way in the real thing. You can just sense that there may be a finish line out there somewhere but you daren't think about it and the body is starting to get stroppy and ask rude questions of the mind. I wonder if I will ever be able to finish another one - the atrophy has really set in these last five relatively inactive years. Something to rebuild.

Glooopy calligraphy

There we were, in our crystal glass of gloopy fog - complete milkout, vis about 100 metres, swells emerging as new horizons, close enough when they became visible to look sinister and menacing and solid. Tiny shadows - fleeting impressions - fast, fluid, sometimes jerky and gone in an instant. Prions! Their beautifully marked grey topsides appearing as soft Chinese brush strokes trailing through the gloop as they banked towards us, their brilliantly white undersides dissolving instantly into the gloop as they banked away. Wonderful. The occasional black shape, probably a white chin - a firmer brush stroke, cursive as it banked and soared.

And then the fog cleared this morning - bright sunshine for a while and not a bird in sight. Long flat swell, the emptiest horizon since we left Falmouth. A short visit later from a Black Browed albatross. Now back in the gloop and not even a Prion.
But we are pointing at Hobart.

The boot ferals - excited voices all over the place - procreation, hybridisation, cross dressing everywhere - mixing it in errant socks from way back, soggy boots, wonderful new environment inside the neoprene dry suit and they've been getting together with the mouldies in little colonies all over the uninsulated surfaces and the green cheesies in the icebox. Having seen the science they are doing in Kerguelen on isolated populations, I think we missed a chance here! No control groups, no baseline.

We are looking at a slowish trip from here - 28 days minimum. If all goes well and we feel up to it, we will pay our respects to Cook, Baudin, Flinders and all the others with a visit and small Con in Recherche Bay. We seem to have followed them everywhere else - except Cook's 71 South. I think it was Midshipman Vancouver who ran out to the end of Resolution's bowsprit at they turned north and became the man who started the Guinness Book of Records.

On the beach at Recherche Bay - now that WOULD be an interesting OB for Macca!

Bill W - thanks mate. Looking fwd to Con!

There's a Black Brow out there...

Longer one later

Position 0630 4th 4451 08150, trip 77, DMG 55 - very soft westerly, twin poled all night - snailing it.

Pink Predictor - thanks - if you could hazard a guess at a waypoint to jump on the back of the distant low...my guess around 43S 095E ?

Dave J - likewise thanks - confirms our data.

Heggie, G'day!

(no subject)

Position 0630 3rd 4509 08009, trip 97, DMG 46, which includes making up the 37 we lost yesterday so an ok result.

What a difference a day makes, to coin a cliche. Whoever did the upended colander Incantation for us got it right. We have the assymetric kite up, hooning, heading a bit too far north but we'll drop it when we get up to 45N and pole out the heady and point at Hobart. From aaaarrrggghhhh to Aaaaaahhhh! It's just like sailing across the bottom of a glass of milk - one of those crystal glasses with a pattern cut into the base - grey crinkled fluid glass, liquid fog, no horizon and the diffused glow of a silver sun just hanging up there in the milky firmament. Noice, except for the runny drips off everything. This must be the fog Cook wrote about, that he sailed 900 leagues through. Convergence zone classic.

Ferals later - I think we need a new grib so I'll try to send this. Firefly starting to go green at 70+% on the propagation screen for sailmail (green means there's a chance to connect for that hour of the day and the % gives a rough guide as to how lucky you might be) so things are beginning to close in. About 30k in the marathon - way back from half way - the turning point for confidence. Or the hook for Damocles.

ABC radio

Last Sunday morning, 31st Jan, the boys had a chat via satphone to ABC Radio's Macca on his show Australia All Over. The call went for about 14 minutes, and the mp3 version is here:

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/local/australiaallover/201002/r506924_2715410.mp3

It is big - about 8mb, and Berri is from 1:00 to 14:30. A very good chat about Kerguelen, both sounding as chipper as ever.

Peanuts

It's been a Charlie Brown day. The sort of day when Lucy took the ball away just as he finished his mighty run up to kick it and he whirled over flat on his back. Stood up, threw his head back and yelled AAAAaarrrrrghh!

One of those days. when little things conspire to make life even more difficult, when we are wrapped first in too much wind from the wrong direction, going backwards, now in too little, in almost liquid fog that runs off everything. And the pasta was all starch - a gooey glutinous awful gluggy mess - almost uncookable in the boat - never seen it like that before. And...and...the list goes on. AAAArrrrrggghhh!

Half an hour later - I tried to connect to Iridium to send this and see whether we have any mail and there's no dial tone. The computer has, once again, removed the iridium modem and substituted it's own internal version so another dreary system restore. Why does it do this??

aaarrrrggghhhh!

Goonery

Position 0620 2nd 4556 07840, trip 60, DMG -37. Discouraging but could be worse. We're walking backwards to Christmas. Bleeah! It's a bummer out there.

Still no sign of a let up except that the wind has dropped marginally. No real conjunction between what we have here and the grib, but I've just been outside in the snake oil suit to put up the trisail and at least now we are going just a teensy bit to windward - north west instead of WSW.

Otherwise, just the tedium of sitting it out. Just like a square rigger! But does anyone know whether this is an unusual series of systems - they seem to be upside down (the highs to the south) and the lows way further north than we expected? Looks as if we will have to work our way north in the gaps up to 40S at least.

Anyway, I think I've got to visit the Surgeon Consultant - I feel the need for some basic medication. Somebody please make the appropriate incantation - go howl at the moon with an upturned colander on your head or whatever is necessary - and get us the westerlies we need.

MJC, thanks for info and I'm in email contact with Kaharoa. They due into Hobart for a day this w/e.
SJ - Foretrex

Iridium still intermittent - often takes several tries to connect. A bit nailbiting.

We'll see whether this one goes

Bleah! We are hove to, drifting SW at 2 kts and sitting it out - can't headbang into it and the old heave sends us downwind (away from Australia) rather slower than bare poling. Uncomfortable as we're beam on to the rising sea and rolling a lot and the occasional big one comes in from left field and crashes against the boat. Wind also rising and it's raining so we're all closed down and hoping to stay that way. At least another 12 hours before the thing dissipates if we can believe the grib. And there's another one behind this one. Looks like a headbang up to about 40S to get us out of here - tedious!

My Iridium fix hasn't worked, unfortunately. The connection fails intermittently at the first attempt to open the port, which, I think, means that the computer is not reaching the phone. The problem is probably still somewhere in the data kit, which was never designed for these conditions. I think the phone itself will work so if the iridium connection to sailmail fails completely, I'll phone in a daily report until we are in HF radio range of Firefly in NSW.

where in the world is...

The penultimate leg... Kurguelen through to Hobart. They are a long way south!

... but perhaps not that far south. This one shows the Rhumb Line, or Great Circle route, from Cape Town to Hobart. As you can see, the shortest way is not always the best. They are staying well north, both to catch the more favourable weather, and to stay a trifle warmer. Cape Town middle left, Hobart lower right, Antarctica that big white bit at the bottom.

too early to say but...

I may have found the Iridium problem. To use the phone to talk to sailmail, you need to buy what is called the data kit - a fitting that clips on to the end of the phone and has a PCB inside it and an RS232 to USB cable to connect it to the computer. Intermittent problems are often just loose connections so - sure enough - the RS232 connector on the cable was loose and I applied some gentle screwdriver and held my breath for a test connection and it connected...If this one goes too I think I'm winning.

Grib shows low to NW tossing 35 knots from the NW at us tonight and dissipating and moving south tomoz. With a bit of luck we'll be far enough up its ugly face to pass through it before the sea has time to rise to the vicious. Cross 'em please

And talking of ugly faces - the massive igneous extrusion on the south side of Baie de L'Oiseau had the Mt Rushmore face in it - I described it as lizardlike, I seem to remember. Nah! It's Slarty, leaving us his self portrait for posterity and poncing it up like he's the Greatest. Which, of course, he is! On second thoughts, it may be one of his pupils with a sense of humour.

Hey Carla! G'day!

Ok - let's see whether this works...

Iridium

V. quickie - might not go through - I'm losing Iridium - intermittent com port problem - port disconnects during initial handshake - getting worse, don't know why. So if no comms for a week, don't stress - Firefly should be in range soon. Will try with backup computer and phone if this one really karks.

SPBF

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.

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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.