Little dramas to pass the time

Why we love 2 handing there I was, middle of the Celtic Sea, middle of the night, all alone in the cockpit. Dismal night - low indeterminate cloudbase, mizzly rain, Iguacu to leeward, no noticeable vmg towards the Fastnet. Conditions a bit like the Bering Sea but without the ethereal and utterly exhilarating glimpses of snow covered volcanoes through the murk.

Time to get rid of the reef. Attach autopilot. Unroll self from cockpit seat, dodge the torrent, hook on to the jackline and start undoing the strop and the knitting. Rain down neck. Headsail backs - autopiloy beeps madly - race back to cockpit - what the hell is going on. Roll in headsail, finish the reef and try to work out what has happened. Wind down to nothing, Then a smidge - unroll heady and try to sail. Sails drenched and shapeless - no want to work. Small small movement through the water, steerage way - to the north. Even worse than before but - but - a tack would point us directly at the Fastnet. One armed paperhanger act with sheets, tweakers, recalcitrant autopilot everything dripping wet, velcro in cuffs undone by winching, water up sleeves - and Berri eventually, slowly, turns through the tack. More mayhem and trimming and - magic - we're pointing at the bottom left corner of Ireland instead of Birmingham.

Time to wake Pete...

You can probably see where it all happened on the tracker. And you may want to ask why, unlike the rest of the fleet, I expect, I did not know the change was coming and anticipate it. Good question, long story but basically relying on 3 day old weather info and then misinterpreting it...Geriatricity and technology and no excuse.

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The Falls of Iguacu and other stuff

Offshore sailors may recognise The Iguacu Effect - the best place to steer the boat from on the wind is usually the leeward cockpit seat from where you can see the whole headsail and react to telltale talk almost by instinct. However, when it's raining or when there's lots of blowing spray - now, like..., the mainsail becomes a catchment area the size of Brazil and the end of the boom, just above your head, is the source of the Iguacu torrent. Usually down inside the WWG collar and there's nowt to do but squirm away. We have a couple of very sexy helmets with visors which may cure the symptoms but in the interest of weight saving, I left them behind in Hamble. Stooopid!

The ghosts of cuppas and McQ's North West Passage coffee: we have 2 huge conical mugs bought in Falmouth first time around but, being plastic, the remnant of the contents tends to stick to the inside and the next cuppa tastes of old soup, toothpaste, general grot and nasties. I've just scoured off the brownwash - wow, you should have seen the colour and consistency of the resulting mixture. Just add tabasco?

we're not likely to get anywhere close to the Fastnet trophy cookie jar this time I'm afraid - about 10 hours anchored or going backwards and sideways in the tide at Land's end avoiding the Runnel Stone and the separation zone have fixed that. And now the wind is dead ahead...back to Crosshaven, perhaps.

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"with a spoonful of tabasco..."

Doesn't scan like the original but it's amazing what a guinness and bacon sando brekky with lashings of tabasco does for the morale. Plus having been lifted so we are pointing directly at the Lizard. May the Examiner be praised and the devil take the vogons.

Almost time to wake Pete. Kettle stations and fire up the frying pan for more bacon. Don't suppose he'll want a guiness but you never know.

Yeeehaaa!

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A pastiche

Have had trouble with propagation and transmission

Now just south of Dartmouth heqadbanging again - awful lumpy SW swell. Soup from freshly squeezed english cbannel earlier,

Now daily con with Pete & dr Gordon. Noice. Here are earlier blogs not sent - first last night, second some days ag0.

Reasonable start amongst the usual mayhem and purple and gold kite down to big hole off Yarmouth. Out almost over the Shingles, con with Dr G at 1700 and then falling breeze not enough to carry us over the incoming tide. Anchored in 125 ft of water, about 3kts of tide. Pete on anchor watch and I'm going to try to get some sleep. We drifter back 250 metres before we decided to anchor.

Maybe this will be the first from the boat. We left Falmouth at 1700 on Wednesday and now (0930 Thursday) we are about 5 miles west of the light at Portland Bill, planning to go in close and pass north of the Shambles. Will give us a look at the geography for the Fastnet...

Not enough battery power to work the HF so no send...

Now it's Saturday and we had a massive hoon to Hamble - 25 and a quarter hours jetty to jetty and we fluked the tides too. 25 knots into theNeedles Channel and 2 knots of tide under us. Lovely sailing.

Let's see whether this one goes...

Steve - getting yours - tks Hi Sue ZBD onto Dr G too. Flapjacks great tks

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A word from the publisher

At the briefing we were asked to emphasise to both of our fans that, should Berri disappear from the tracking site during the race, it is not the end of the world, nor is it likely to be the end of Berri. Please don't ring RORC or the Coastguard or President Obama - just hang in there and we will get to the finish eventually, carrying a dud tracker. I will try to keep the blogs going but it does get a bit intense and I might just flunk occasionally.

Looks like a softish race but with some wind most of the way around. I think it will be a beat from the start to the Fastnet and a soft reach back to Plymouth. If we can finish by Friday, we are doing well.

Our start is at 1220 british summer time or 1120 UTC. We go off second, after the IMOCA 60's and in front of all the others. There's an entry list on the fastnet website with handicaps etc.

Hope we can keep it moving...

Trapped by a phalanx or two

I have just poked my nose into the RORC office to make sure we have nothing else to do bfore the start and the media were there in phalanxes. I did three interviews one after the other - tricky trying to be original, but the interviewers were good and I hope it was ok

One interview will be available on the Fastnet website and another on the Rolex Regatta News site (I think) and the third was live to Cowes Radio. And I met Carlo Borlenghi, ace photographer and Giles, ace journo, on the way out - just like old times! Google Carlo - his website is awesome.

Entertainment

Tonight is the last night of Cowes Week and it's all happening. There was a real Sea Vixen doing gentle aerobatics earlier and the Red Arrows have just finished. Fireworks to come.

Briefing tomoz and we're going to dinner afterwards with the Winsome mob who we met in Sydney at Christmas. Then it's into business suits and The Project. For those who don't know where to look, play around with the links here http://fastnet.rorc.org/ Looks like a big boat race this year with good winds for the first few days then going light after the big boat have finished.

Please read this! There will be Exam Questions later.

To all three of our fans out there - when Speedy joined W.O.B. in heaven, he took the passwords to this blog and the website with him and we haven't been able to crack it so we have no control over my mistakes and other peoples' hacks. We need both, so there will be a new blog address without a website this time and a public email address  instead of the gustbook for Fenwick to send us abuse and the rest of you to send nicer messages. The old website and the gustbook will still work and messages on the gustbook will get to us, but perhaps less frequently than before. I will post blogs to both blog spots until we leave for Oz and after that, just to the new one.

The new blog is here:http://www.berrimilla2.blogspot.com/   and the email address to send us messages will be berrimilla2@gmail.com

Steve Withnall will look after the blog and the email addres from Sydney - THANKS Steve! We will post directly to the blog from the boat and Steve will monitor the email address and the old gustbook and edit any messages and send them to us via sailmail.com.

We can't make our sailmail address public because if we get spammed, the whole thing falls over.

Meantime, we're in Cowes! YAY! Massive relief - the wonderful mob at Golden Arrow found us a damper plate and Mark came over to Hamble in the pouring rain  at about 1800 yesterday after a long day in Poole fixing someone else's donk and worked until late getting Berri back together again. Thanks Mark, thanks Ken both from Golden Arrow for having the right stuff and doing the job.They are at Shamrock Quay in Southampton if any of you need fixes.

My phone charger has died so no photos until I can download from Pete's camera.

Reverse assembly - again

Church packed for the memorial service. Moving occasion - coulda' been us.

Followed by an interesting cultural experience. Definitely needed my blue towel and The Guide..I think we drafted a whole new chapter.

And now we're back with the gearbox off - I've been concerned for some time about the noises coming from the back of the engine and I asked the wonderful people at Golden Arrow Marine in Swampton whether they could spare the time to come and have a listen. As I rather suspected, serious problem and disassemblement required once again - not exactly sure how it occurred but the torsional impact damper plate on the flywheel was completely stuffed. And I don't mean just a bit stuffed - bits of the rubber shock absorbent material everywhere and the two metal plates about to self destruct. So a new one ordered and might arrive today. Or might not, but it means that we can't go over to Cowes until it is fitted. Golden Arrow terriffic.

And Paul Peggs, our good mate and significant rival in the 2 Handed division arrives today so there will be serious consultation. Paul lent us his boat, Audacious, for the last Fastnet while he sailed Voador to an overall 2 handed division win. Big co-incidence - Paul sold Audacious last year and Bruno who sailed the Hobart with us a couple of years ago, is half her crew for this Fastnet.

Just an update

The countdown begins - Berri is looking good, with a new pinky mascot from Sue and surrounded by swans and cygnets and huge greasy mullet. She's never been so light and it just could be a light wind race - see www.passageweather.com - last minute electrical glitches needed sorting today and seem to be under control .Engineer coming tomoz to listen to engine and gearbox and advise. Safety stuff being checked - and over to Cowes by RIB tomorrow courtesy of a generous friend for the 1979 memorial service and the RORC party http://www.rorc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=267:1979-fastnet-race-30th-anniverary-memorial-service-a-cowes-cocktail-party&catid=36:club-news

We will take Berri across to E. Cowes Marina late Thursday or early Friday all going well. Stickers yet to go on and briefing on Saturday.

Dinner tonight with friends at the Dodgy Eater aka La Dolce Vita. Noice.

I'll try to do pics tomorrow. Berri so light that I don't even have a camera - just the phone. And we are only taking a foot of dental floss to share and recycle - that should sort any hygeine problems.  And military rations of loo paper. Berri rocks!

Heading East

Maybe this will be the first from the boat. We left Falmouth at 1700 on Wednesday and now (0930 Thursday) we are about 5 miles west of the light at Portland Bill, planning to go in close and pass north of the Shambles. Will give us a look at the geography for the Fastnet...

Not enough battery power to work the HF so no send...

Now it's Saturday and we had a massive hoon to Hamble - 25 and a quarter hours jetty to jetty and we fluked the tides too. 25 knots into theNeedles Channel and 2 knots of tide under us. Lovely sailing.

Let's see whether this one goes...

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Con trail effects

And Berri early on a soft Crosshaven morning beside the Lifeboat Station

Odds...

1. Dressed for the evening Con in dirty weather - a Guy Cotten TPS dry suit - great gear for the pearshaped.
2. Burgee swap - Mike MacCarthy, Admiral of the Royal Cork YC.  We raised about 450 euros for the RNLI - thanks everyone.
3. Alan Barton rendezvous in Mounts Bay, just south of Tater Du. He still had 140 miles to go to Cork, into the gale warning

Gale warning Sea Areas Lundy, Sole, Fastnet

Gale force winds expected soon. Looking west from Sea Area Plymouth - the leading edge of the system - already blowing in Fastnet

This is what I sent from the boat earlier today

...to the wrong address. To be fixed

Hooning again
This will be the first one from the boat if I've got the address right. We left Crosshaven at 1115 this morning after loading sufficient medication to get us most of the way back to Oz and now we're at 51 28N 007 45W in a 20 kt S Wester and hooning along at about 7 knots towards Land's End. Crosshaven pictures from Falmouth tomorrow.

So nice to have Berri alive again after she's been a rather sad and sorry inanimate object alongside the pontoon. The trip over was a really good workout, even though it was pretty unpleasant from about half way. Now we're in a steepish quartering sea and rolling a lot but it will soon be time for the daily Con - this time with an obscure medical practitioner we found in a run down surgery in the back blocks of Falmouth. And Crosshaven was lovely. Thanks everyone for looking after us so well.

Longships
We're at the Longships Lighthouse at Land's End - about 140 miles in 23 hours. Nice little hoon. Should be in Falmouth late afternoon, AGW. Thousands of little dolphins frothing around and leaping earlier - light brown with whiteish undersides - I'll look them up when I can find the book. Jet con trails all over the sky - different people, different lives...

And here we are alongside in Falmouth - a day of amazing cloud formations ahead of some wind tonight. We even managecd a rendezvous with Alan from Crosshaven at Lands End - he was delivering a big powerboat to Cork from Southampton - we'd said goodbye to him in Crosshaven less than 24 hours earlier.

Photos when I have a better link.

Faraday part 2

LED interference with VHF radios is apparently a common problem, not foreseen by the manufacturers. Some, such as OGM, have fixed it: see http://www.ogmtechnical.blogspot.com/

 

Berri's nav light is an Aquasignal S32 and I have written to Aquasignal to see whether they too have a fix. Watch this space.

Faraday...

It has been suggested that a faraday cage over the nav lights at the masthead might fix the interference with the VHF. I've just been up the mast on the climber to wrap the nav light fitting completely in two layers of alfoil as a test run and it doesn't make any difference. Damn! And now I have to go up again to take it off but I'll take the silicone spray up with me and squirt the mainsail track on the way down.

 

I have also been told that LED's are on/off devices and the resulting frequency might be the problem. On to Google when I get down from the mast but if anyone has any suggestions, please toss them this way via the gust book. It must have been fixed somewhere sometime before today...

Publlicity mugshots

http://crosshavenlifeboat.blogspot.com/2009/07/round-world-yachtsman-to-give-lecture.html

 

http://www.royalcork.com/

 

Thanks to John Roche - Crosshaven photographer extraordinaire - for the photos. The younger and more handsome of the old geezers in the photo is Alan Barton, Lifeboat Operations Manager of the Crosshaven Lifeboat. He has enough fascinating stories to be doing a gig of his own.

 

The gimlet eyed observers amongst you will notice that certain rules developed for the Port of Cork have been relaxed in Berrimilla's honour at the discretion of the Harbourmaster. We are most grateful for the indulgence. Those familiar with earlier episodes in this and the original blog www.berrimilla.com will also notice that we have changed medical practitioners. Henceforth the good Doctor from Cork, Barber Surgeon Murphy,  will be responsible for the health of Berrimilla's crew, in consultation with Emeritus Professor Dr. Gordon. I have ordered sufficient quantities of their several potions to ensure that, Vogons and Krikkit robots permitting, we are medically protected all the way back to Australia. How we get there is yet to be decided.

 

 

Crosshaven Lifeboat visits...

And Ian, Con and Ritchie in the Crosshaven lifeboat. Good to have them around.

An Irish Heron visits an Australian Brolga

Taken half an hour ago. Berri in full Irish kit.