and more

Those of you who know the Derwent will see the Iron Pot in the background in one of the lfare pics.

arrival pics

Courtesy Dave Davey and Chris Palmer in Wayfarer 2. - afraid they are not in chronological order but you'll get the idea.
Sorry for the delay - it's been a bit full on getting things sorted and photos downsized and all that. Berri now on the slip - she was about a foot lower in the water than normal. Lots of weight on board. Now blasted and the cockpit drain venturis replaced and getting the new prop organised to replace tomorrow.

just a few photos

Lots more to come - takes for ever to edit and convert...arrival and flares from Wayfarer 2 when I get the cd tomoz.

where to from here?

1st March, in Hobart. Next stop, top right, Sydney.

Radio Interview 28 Feb

Macca has a radio show on Sunday mornings across Australia, not surprisingly called "Australia All Over". He has called Berri a few times, and here is the latest link to the sat phone interview with Macca on ABC Radio. Alex & Peter are from 4:20 to 13:05.

And so it was...

In the Derwent 4 miles to go. Permission was granted for the flares and pics will be posted - but we forgot to release the checkstay - duuuh - so Berri will look awful. Pink thingy in the rig with the flags and lots of photos. Chris arrived at Southport to scort us up the channel to the Derwent and Malcolm has just arrived in Wildfire - super tweaky Farr30 to get us the last few miles. Malcom steered Berri to the finish of a couple - at least - Hobarts - cos he's good and he lives here.

And so it came to pass. Quarantine bods due as we arrive at RYCT, Customs have asked us to sit tight for them because they are out at the airport. Lots more to come but I'm just a bit busy.

And not a little weary. I'll try to get some photos up tomorrow.

Love yez all and thanks for being out there - special thanks to all those who have been following silently as it were but have written in to say how sad they will be when it ends.

So will we, but that's a few weeks away yet.

Hooooley dooooley we seem to be in the channel.

We surfed past Whale Head, just east of SE Cape on some of the biggest waves I've ever seen - and very short wavelength. We are on the 90 metre depth line and the big SW Southern Ocean swells are climbing the shelf and amplifying, just like surf on a beach. Yeeehaaa - exciting. Tiny heady poled out and the engine running in case it gets really pearshaped. We must avoid the Deepwater Banks just to our north, where these monsters break.
SE Cape, Whale Head and Cape Bruny must be pretty much as Tasman, Cook and all the rest saw them more than 200 years ago. I have a mental image of a bit of Australia that Cook might have carried as well.
Long Consultation with Himself the Doctor from Dublin and we've exhausted our supplies of his medications. Dr. Cooper is in the offing - in loco parentis.
And we are being entertained by gannets pretending to be albatrosses, reigning over all they survey. Except that they run out of lift just when an albatross gets into gear and they have to flap. Exit stage left, gannet, egg on face.
Gordy in Falmouth and Alan in Crosshaven - I've heard that the errant T shirts turned up back in Australia. Do I still owe either of you or did we sort it before we left? Anyone else over there not got one that I promised? txt +61418243600.
Past Cape Bruny and I think I can see or escort - Yay Chris!
Gotta go - watch this space.

Landfall

Moon in and out of black looming clouds. Maatsuyker light loud and clear on the port bow - W fl(3)30sec16ml - and I've spoken to Hobart Coast Radio on the VHF - there's a repeater on Maatsuyker. SW Cape in the moonlight to the north and I can see Maatsuyker Island but not the Mewstone to the south of it. We'll thread the needle and I think that's the Barn Door. So we're here, sort of.

Still about 100 to go to get to the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, so perhaps 20 hours before we get an official handshake with Dr Cooper. I know at least one hardy soul has braved the weather and is waiting in Southport to escort us into town. A Brolga owner too but sort of ex - he needed a bigger boat...no accounting for taste!

We will ask permission to let off a couple of white flares when we cross our outward track in the Derwent and so complete the NWP circumnavigation and all that other stuff. Just like last time! Then Customs and the paperwork and perhaps a real bed tonight.

John, thanks for message and Landcruiser. Don't need anything thanks - I'll call you when we're in mobile range.

Still a horrible sea - really big waves but they have stopped breaking and the wind is back to 20. Now for SE Cape and the D'Entrecasteaux Channel - we'll wave to Recherche as we pass - and to Adventure on the other side across the sandspit. The forecast for tomorrow is lousy and we need to keep moving. Pity - I'd have liked to anchor once again in Cook's track.

Thanks to everyone who has sent us nice messages - even you Fenwick - have you washed since we last saw you?

There will be photos and the bloggery will continue while we are in Hobart - don't all go away! Longish to-do list but nothing huge unless we find anything when we go up on the slip.

Gordy, if you are reading this, what was that antifoul again? Text my Oz mobile +61418243600 please.

Maybe a light in a few hours.

Position 0740 UTC 28th 4342 14527.
About 35 miles west of Maatsuuyker Island, huge following sea, still breaking with attitude but signs that it's easing a bit - but only due to go down to 25 kts so not much respite. Just had a big one break over us. We are trying to lay Maatsuuyker - I think just ok - else we'll have to claw our way out to sea in extreme discomfort.
ETA Maatsuuyker about 1530 UTC, 0230 local. Should see the light about 2 hours earlier and there should be moonlight too. There's a nasty great rock called the Mewstone 5 miles south and we hope to pass between them and then head for SE Cape.
Tense and interesting - the sea in all its power and indifference.

Predictions! Pshaww!

Last night at sea out of sight of land, I said. Nope. This little doozy is nasty - 35 - 45 knot SW gusts over 10+ metre swells and they are breaking with attitude. We have slowed right down, tiny bit of furler on the pole and we are just trying to ride it out. A couple of near knockdowns and I had to eat my lunch (last 2 slices of bacon fried in olive oil with a can of baby corn cobs - ok if that's all you've got, though the can was a bit chewy!) standing strapped into the galley. Way too hairy anywhere else.

The system is taking us ENE and as we really don't want to be driven into Taswegia's lee shore, missing the barn door completely we will just wait it out where we have sea room. It's supposed to ease any time now but there's no sign of it yet. Tedious in the extreme. Once it does ease we'll be reasonably set to prod the door open once we can reach it.

Macca this morning left me feeling dull and slow witted - what do you think about out there? Duh! Shoulda' said life, the universe, everything, what's the question? why 42?. Anyway...
Watch this space!

The Cooper's coming down...

Well known Australian bush ballad, played this morning by Macca, no doubt because the Cooper really is coming down after the rains in central Australia. One of the lines is 'I'll go dancing with the Brolgas when the Cooper's coming down'.
Not inappropriate under the circumstances - this old Brolga is dancing and wouldn't it be loverly if we were to find an abandoned dinghy somewhere near Recherche with some come-down Dr. Cooper's abandoned with it. There was one down here last time - some medical person must have lost his kitbag. Noice.
Rainsqualls, 30 - 40 kts here in the almost not any more boonies, big following sea, bleeah! Only moderate hoonery - seas too big for the serious stuff.
We heard about the tsunami - won't notice it in this - just a half metre blip in amongst all the rest.
120 to go - ETA SE Cape around 0400 local tomorrow, 1700 UTC Sunday 28th.

An unintended Consultation

What a night! Possibly our last one out of sight of land - three quarter moon, big rolling swells with broken reflections constantly changing, Berri's bow wave surging past making a harder line angling away into the moonshine and flicking reflections off the spray. Wispy clouds, high ice crystals in layers to the south, the Southern Cross piercing the frosty haze above the masthead. Only a few first mag. stars visible. No Milky Way - just glowing haze. Hooooning.

Later - And so enter the Examiner - there I was prodding this thing doing the lyrical wax and suddenly the world goes awry. Berri sideways, water surging past my left ear on the other side of the window. Big wind - roll in headsail, slow everything down. Except that the heady won't roll (and if it won't, never ever try to winch it - find out what's wrong first) - so we've got this huge sail poled out in 30 knots and rooster tails blasting past the cockpit as I go forward to try to work out what's wrong - but I think I already know - and so it is - the top of the furler has fouled the outer forestay and sorting that will be tricky. Wake Pete and with a bit of give and take, twiddle and muddle we get it free and gybe and - hooooning again, barn door in the frame.
Quick inventory and there's enough of the good Dublin Doctor's Compound for a quick Con to celebrate less that 150 miles to go. Yeeehaaa!.

It's all gone green.

Position 0630 27th 4346 14238, trip 116, DMG 112, SE Cape 183 miles then about 60 into Hobart. Given the forecast, we won't hang about around Recherche or Adventure but will head up the D'Entrecasteaux Channel.
The sea has turned green - we are getting close to the continental shelf. Huge swells, but not breaking. Yet! Looking a bit pearshaped for tomorrow with 35 knots over them, but we shall overcome. If all goes well, we should be at SE Cape around midnight on Monday, UTC, 1100 ish local. A couple of long nights to go. I've got a little notebook that I use as a log. I rule it up four days to an opening and I prepared it in Capetown out to March 3rd. Today's entry was the last on the previous page and I have now turned to the final - I hope - ruled opening for this bit of the voyage. Not a bad prediction.
MJC, thanks.
Margy, thanks. Nice thoughts. I doubt we've got that many readers - we're just a couple of old geezers in a tired old workhorse of a boat, no sex appeal, no high tech gear, no publicity machine and no sponsors so it's all word of mouth and the interest that we can generate in the blog. Very few people will notice what we have done because it isn't pushed in their faces and they've got kids to feed and jobs to go to and the full catastrophe. We're a bit like the Vogons - lousy poets, body odour and a big negative in the glamour stakes. We like it that way!

strange boat approaching Australia from the SW

sneaking on the back door

An interesting perspective, Cape Town to Kerguelen to Tassie

And all this shall pass away

Even the Examiner's almost last little roll of the die for this bit of the journey anyway. The nearest point of Tassie is 170 miles away and I'm beginning to feel that we just might make it. Wow! And then the quiet satisfaction of knowing we've done something a bit unusual and unique. That satisfaction, that gentle pleasure will last, but the exhilaration, the euphoria that perhaps you who are reading this might expect will be flattened by the knowledge that it's almost over and the buzz will not last. And then the tidy up - the papers, the photos, articles and the rest that will keep it alive for a bit longer. And back to work, if anyone will have me on the premises.

So what's unique?
The Sydney-Hobart - Fastnet - Sydney-Hobart circumnavigation via Cape Horn and the Great Capes was a first and I doubt whether anyone will be silly enough to do it again.
For the second circumnavigation:
First ever Australia to England voyage via the North West Passage with Corrie McQueen and Kimbra Lindus.
First ever circumnavigation under sail via the NWP - we think, and if we're right then:
First boat to circumnavigate via both Cape Horn and the North West Passage - opposite ends of the Americas.
And some trivia -
First Australian boat through the NWP unassisted and in a single season (Fine Tolerance was the first through, but over two seasons and with icebreaker assistance)
Only boat ever to sail from Australia to England for a Fastnet race and sail back again. Twice. That's true headbanging.
And I know of only Syd Fischer from Australia who has done better than 11th overall (out of 300) in a Fastnet but there are probably a couple more Admiral's Cuppers. They didn't do it double handed though, nor did they sail from Oz to the start line.
On the way, we were awarded the Royal Ocean Racing Club Seamanship Trophy, the Royal Cruising Club Seamanship Medal and I understand also the Ocean Cruising Club Barton Cup. Kind of humbling to read the list of other recipients.
And we were Sailing Anarchy's sailors of the year after the first circ. Blimey! That's peer recognition in cyberspace!

End of self indulgent boast for the day. We're not there yet and it hasn't happened but once we're in, this won't get written.

Atrophy

It must have been early, near the start of this last leg from Cape Town to Hobart. I remember I was sitting on the leeward cockpit seat with my feet on the edge of the opposite seat to brace myself against the roll of the boat. I was probably reading one of the numerous "whodunits" we have on board, the sun was out, I had my shorts on. At the end of a reading pause, for that read, "vacant nap", I returned to the real world. With chin resting on chest, the first thing I noticed was this wrinkled skin hanging beneath what used to be a calf muscle. Lazily gazing at this it reminded me of a deflated party balloon you might notice hanging in a corner of the room a month or so after the function. I leaned down and pinched it, there was no meat there. The muscle had shrunk remarkably, alarmed,I tried the other leg, same thing you could get a 2 inch pinch of loose skin.
Now, was this just part of the fact that the legs havn't been used much for some months or is it a general atrophy of the body as you age, I'm hoping for the former. There has not been as much work to do on this trip. With the new headsail furler we don't even have to go forward to change sails, nor forward to get a new sail, nor forward again to put the old one back in the bin. Lugging heavy wet sails around, bracing the knees against the pulpit in the bow while using two hands to haul a flogging sail down after 20 minutes sleep in your off watch, then somehow managing to get the thing bagged while waves are crashing over the deck and getting safely back to the cockpit must have used up a fair slice of energy.
All of this sweaty nonsense has been removed by the sail furling gear. The procedure now is; "Bugger, the wind's up I'd better get some sail off"; move to the upright position (2 cals); release sheet (1 cal); pull on furler string (3 cals); readjust the headsail sheet (2 cals). Total 8 calories, I would think this would be a total gain of about 250 calories for the average sail change so now multiply this by the number of sail changes on the Falmouth-Hobart leg of the last trip say 400, I think this would equate to a positive gain of about 100,000 calories for this trip. If you don't exercise as much, you eat less and I think we must have a large excess in the food stores now.
About a week ago now, there was a ciick, the latch on the barn door was released. A creak from the rusty hinge, a thin shaft of sunlight splashed on the floor. A sniff of fresh hay and a smell of oats, flushed through the small opening and I could sense that the Berri had a new spring in her step, she knew something. With a steady breeze of10-15 kts on the quarter and her nose pointing directly at South East Cape she could smell her southern home and was romping along at 4-6 kts. Its been a long campaign and the old war horse, hasn't let us down at any stage. I'll quote a saying used by an old Kiwi friend of mine, "any old horse can fart on the way to work, its a good one that can fart on the way home", Berrimilla is one.
I had a lean over the port quarter this morning and with my head touching the odd wave, I could see under the transom, all looked good, no sign of barnacles and just a small amount of weed on the aft end of the rudder. It was a good move hauling the boat out, leaving it in the slings while we scraped the barnacles off. That was in Cape Town just before Christmas, it looks like nothing has jumped on for a ride since then.
So far nothing has broken, a small sheet bag is all that has been lost overboard and that only when a big wave broke over the stern during a storm. On the first trip the liferaft was lost overboard during a very bad storm in the South Atlantic, just off Montivideo(the winds at the time peaked at 86 kts). We also broke our port lower shroud on the mast and the spreader bases were later found to be fractured. Now, Alex has just reminded me, on the North West Passage and Atlantic section of this voyage, he trashed an engine and a couple of gearboxes, that's a good effort for such a young chap.
The beer has been rationed but the G&T supplies are holding up well, not long to go now. Cheers Pete.

Oz and the Examiner has another roll

We snuck through the rabbit proof fence - chain mail, red strobes, KEEP OUT notices in Rabbit, Macca wrappers blowin in the wind against the fence, but we're in - Australian territorial waters. Yeeehhhhwooo! Sort of thing. 260 to go to SE Cape so Monday morning subject to the Examiner's next whipcrack - a 30-40 knot SWesterly on Sunday arve and evening as we get to Maatsuuyker which puts us on a nasty lee shore all along the south coast of Tasmania in what could be an ugly sea. Coo! Here we go again!

Right now, Turner reigns - big moon behind straggly cloud scudding across the sky - wispy cloud, black with silver edges, rolling sparkling reflection off a short spiky sea over the top of the usual big SW swell that just keeps rolling along.
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A Wedgie on the barn

Position 0630 26th 4336 14004, trip 119, DMG 115.
In about 35 miles. we'll be in Australian territorial waters. We're already in the East Australian Standard Time zone though, see below, adjustment takes neuronal bandwidth. But I can hear the patter of little cockroach feet and the squeak of the Wedgies. Wonderful birds.
Chris P and anyone else - apologies - my ETA was in UTC so more likely Monday morning but if this wind and grib predictions hold, then we could get lucky.
MJC Tks.
Pete is working on a big one so I'll just send this.
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Telescopic catch-ups

When you've only got three neurons to bang together they tend to concatenate stuff - viz. the Baez Juniper fiasco. When I wrote about the flag hoist for Sydney a few blogs ago, Inuvut should have read Nunavut. My apologies - all three synapses in a twist.
Lies. damned lies and statistics - I was idly doing the numbers for a History of the World by Dogbowl,(by coincidence probably at the same time as Malcom who, unlike Disraeli, can make statistics work) and I think I have sailed Berri about 89,000 miles since November 1993. A few more miles in the old barge and I'll have some idea how to sail her. The trip up the coast will be my 16th going north and 31st between the two ends. I remember the first one each way but the rest are a blur of memories - happy, terrifying and all the in-betweens. And lots of great people. Same with marathons, but for terrifying read agonising. At 4 knots in Berri, 2.6 years, before and abaft the mast. Pre dotage marathons were a bit faster - nearly 9 knots for the best ones, (about 3.8 days on the road averaged at 3.5 hours per gig) but, quoth the Raven: Nevermore! Could probably still manage one at Berri pace, once this indolence induced muscular flaccidity is sorted and an application of Dr. Cooper's medicinal compound, efficacious in every case, is performed.

And I'll have to find that poem, Margy.

Andrew - not half as much as I'm going to miss it! But the fat lady isn't on stage quite yet - there are the small matters of the Examiner, 380 miles to SE Cape and then another 650 or so up the coast against the current to Sydney. Bloggery will happen for a bit longer yet.
Carol G - sorry, haven't got around to proper reply - been trying to keep this laptop in order and I get distracted from the important stuff. The thing keeps dropping my iridium modem and I have to system-restore it almost every day now and it takes longer every time. Tedious. But almost weaned from Iridium - sailmail goes through like the best snake oil at this range.

Corey - great to hear from you - I'll send you an inflatable globe with Berri's voyages on it for the kids. I'd forgotten the microwaved potato! Wish you hadn't reminded me actually - right now I'd love a baked spud with cheese and bacon and black pepper and a pinch of salt but it will have to wait at least 4 days. And a Hobart scallop pie would be grouse too.

Sue - ElPinko likes the ferals - keeps muttering about symbiosis but I reckon they just tickle the erogenous bits.

Chris P - we'll be ok for diesel. If you or anyone else is planning to come out to meet us, SE Cape lateish on Sunday looks the go from here - sorry if it's inconvenient.

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Position 0630 25th 4323 13725, trip 108, DMG 106, 416 to SE Cape - about 4 days or Monday March 1st ish. We cracked 14000 miles from Falmouth too - final total will be about 14xxx. Anyone care to guess exactly?
The sun is out, we're twin poled for the mo but about to change, I think. Lots of small birds around and one big albatross earlier - too far off to try to identify. Upwind of Tassie, else we'd be able to smell the farmyard.
Metre by metre...
Love yez all - plese get em crossed again.

Carla, have a great ride, say g'day to Lerizhan from his successor, Elpinkbokkerkergybat and us lot. Keep us posted!