Latest Position

A distant barn door - perhaps

For the non-sailors and the meteorologically challenged: the weather in the central South Atlantic tends to be dominated at this time of year by a high pressure system that is centred broadly south of St. Helena. It stretches across from the S. American coast almost to Africa and sometimes down to about 35 south at its biggest. We won't go into why it's there and definitely not into coriolis force but a high in the southern hemisphere is a system in which air descends from the upper atmosphere and radiates outward from the centre in an anti-clockwise direction. There is always a soft windless patch in the centre. That means that the wind on the western side of it blows down the S American coast from the north or north east and on the other side, up the African coast from the south. Along the southern edge, it blows from the west, roughly along latitudes 25-30 south.

It follows that to get from the NE corner of Brazil(where we were a week or so ago) across to Cape Town, it is much easier to head south or SSE down the western edge of the high and turn left or east as you get towards the southern edge, taking advantage of favourable winds all the way. If you try to take the straight line you are likely to be heading into the southerly wind on the eastern side - and also the Benguela current which flows north up the African coast. We are now trying to smooch the best course from here to the Cape by cutting the corner around the south western edge of the high but not losing the wind by getting too close to the centre. This big arc is also closer to the great circle or shortest distance across.

Sailing to Australia by this route has its inherent penance. A bit like an out and back marathon, where the entire first half is sheer brain and tissue damage just getting you to the turn around point, you set out from Falmouth for Australia by going south west to get around West Africa and the effective turning point as you pass west of the Cape Verdes at about 27 W. And then you have to go a long way east to get the best angle to cross the convergence zone and the SE trades - a zig and a zag so far, plus another zig to get across and down to the base of the S Atlantic high which is what we are doing now. But - big but - yesterday morning I now think it safe to say, grabbing the nearest bit of wood, we made the final turn for home and we are heading SE towards Tristan da Cunha and the base of the high. Yeeebloodyhaaa! And so far, nothing difficult - just 'orrible in the CZ and uncomfortable for the arse bone down here. We may still have to trek a bit west on the way, to adjust our course around the high but I think we're looking towards a very distant barn door south of Hobart.

Appendages please, everyone!

A risky post.

0700/09 position 1318 02524 trip 133/24 so a good run and still east of yesterday's position.

Falmouth is 3970 miles away but that is now pretty meaningless. We have sailed 4528 miles to get here and we have 2690 miles to Cape Town in a straight line. In 30 miles, we will have a Pete Goss moment with the Talisker to celebrate 4000 miles in a straight line and then I will start looking the other way and measuring progress towards rather than away.

I've been thinking about the nature of risk since Macca asked my opinion about the Jessica phenomenon. I'm sure there is a raging debate in Australia about whether she should have been 'allowed' to go or even 'encouraged'. I don't want to buy into that one and anyway it will all have been said by someone else. Instead, I think we could play with a new word - jessication (n) to jessicate (v) - meaning the taking of potentially lethal risk for the thrill of it, or to prove one's heroism, or to break a record that perhaps does not merit the breaking. And a jessicateur might be one who encourages such endeavours. Pete and I are probably at one end of the scale - we are experienced, have been there before and can handle most of what Murphy and the Examiner toss at us. At the other end - I understand that statistically, for instance, attempts at the deepest under water dive on a single lungful of air are at about even money and the record is held by someone who died in a subsequent attempt. Not sure about base jumping but it must out there somewhere too.

Purely scientific risk in the same broad context but where the benefits are to humanity, not just to the risk taker don't count. For example, injecting oneself with a new vaccine to test its effect or the man who believed in his new invention sufficiently to jump from a balloon with it so giving us the parachute.

From Pete

Hi, Its Pete here this time. I've tried to write a few times this trip but for whatever reason it hasn't happened. My last attempt was about 6 hours ago when after about 5 lines of text the blue screen of death appeared.
We had an email a few days ago from an old mate Allan Fenwick who sails an S&S 34 called Morning Tide. Over the last 5 or more years he and my eldest daughter Sarah sail to Lord Howe Island about 2 weeks after the finish of the Sydney to Lord Howe Island yacht race. Sometimes they make it there sometimes they don't. Anyone who has done the LHI race will tell that this is one of the most spectacular places to finish a race and because of this there are a lot of ex racers who love the place but don't want the hassle of racing there. The solution The Lord Howe Island Cruise. A date is set for all to meet at Ned's Beach on the North side of the island for a barbeque. A lot of the old racing boats make the trip, the crew are a generous lot and money is raised for the local primary school.
A few days ago Morning Tide left Lake Macquarie about 40 miles north of Sydney heading for the island, on board were Allan Sarah and a friend of hers Jonathan. They were about 15 miles offshore when Allan saw an orange smoke flare set off from a large ship about a mile away. They altered course dropped the sails and motored towards the ship. After while they located a crewman in the water. Allan had attended one of Alex's Safety and Sea Survival courses years ago and he said that's when the information learned there kicked in. He had a MOB rescue sling on the back of the boat, it has about 50 mts. of floating line with a buoyant sling at the end. This was thrown off the stern and Allan motored in circles around the crewman till he could grab the line and get the sling under his arms. Sarah and Jon pulled the line in and heaved the man on board.
They got him below wrapped him in a Sea Rug, gave him some warm tea with sugar and Sarah talked to him to make sure he stayed conscious. Allan contacted the water police and then headed for Newcastle. Off the harbour entrance the water police met them and put a paramedic on board. Morning Tide continued up the river to a jetty where an ambulance was waiting for them.
The crewman had chest and back injuries from his 20 metre fall to the water and was suffering from shock and hypothermia.
Well, what can I say hats off to the three of you bloody well done. You have probably saved the man's life its something not many people get to do and for that reason you are now special.
Al I'm not sure but I guess the cruise is off for this year, maybe next year we can get Zoe, Berri and the S&S over there.
Best wishes Pete.

The Numbers

We are still creeping infinitesimally eastwards. The numbers are going down, more or less steadily and we are now about 10 miles east of my alteration this morning - a mininanopooptillionth of a pinprick in universal and even terrestrial distances. Way too early yet to know but just possible we have turned the corner for home. The flea trekking amongst the crevasses and gunk on the elephant's rump now gets the occasional glimpse of the ground.

And now into the bleak middle watch and it's the most glorious of nights - no cloud, stars right down to the horizon to the south and tonight we even have little prickles of phosphorescence to mirror the sky. Magic. Achernar to starboard and Canopus to port ahead, Jupiter low in the west. Orion and Sirius magnificent to port. Jupiter so bright it has its own light trail on the water. There is a whitish cloud to the west of Canopus - gas or dust? - same altitude. We're heading about 175M and it's dead ahead.

The numbers are still good, still creeping east. Plenty of swell and wind waves - enough to send the occasional blast of spray across the boat and I've just copped a faceful - eyes stinging from the salt.

Norm, you mentioned the boy on the burning deck - did you know he is supposed to be based on the son of one of the senior officers of the French flagship L'Orient in Aboukir Bay at the battle of the Nile? Apparently he'd been told to stand by the mast by his father who was subsequently killed and the boy kept standing there, unable to disobey an order. L'Orient vanished in a huge explosion taking the boy with it. The wreckage has been identified recently - probably googlable.

Groupama 3 is away - thanks Sue - they should overtake us in about a week, but probably a bit to the east and then south - more wind - but would be awesome to see them storm past - 35 knots to our 5. If anyone is following them, please let us know where they are as they get closer. Steve has our satphone number if necessary. I have their email address and can send them our position if it looks as if they will pass close.

Val and Jill - g'day from the vast Atlantic - or the old bus shelter - take your pick!

Fenwick - forgot to ask how you hoisted the survivor on board. Useful to pass on.

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Crashes

Doug M - could you please send me Henry's co-ords again? His waypoint not in backup laptop and too hard to find in archive.

One for the geeks. There's clearly a problem between the Panasonic CF18 Toughbook and its version of XP and the driver for the USB to Serial device and Software on Board and possibly also Airmail. Once the usb gadget is connected it seems to obliterate all other com ports so unable to connect iridium. Sob operates sporadically and I think it may be the continuous data feed from the GPS and the instruments that the computer can't handle but something must have triggered the instability. Now crashing every 24 hours or so. Not the serial ballpoint mouse - that was disabled tho it might be back.

How do I find the missing com ports? How do I troubleshoot the thing? I now have this laptop (CF18) disconnected from the USB gadget and will try to keep it talking to Airmail and iridium. Sob on one of the backups (Aspire one netbook but also have another ancient toughbook as further backup) - has already crashed once so I'm not too sanguine. Same com port problem on that one - just doesn't show available ports in the set-up wizard for the dial up modem. Seems something is interfering with the set-up program or not releasing com ports once assigned if that makes sense.

The anguish of the ignorant plodder. Would matter less if the HF would work consistently.

Another laptop crash

Seems to happen every 24 hours or so. I've saved the bare error report by printing the screen and after I've sent these I will close the thing and try with a back-up laptop. That might not work with Iridium. Us'll see.

Frustrating just doesn't cut it.

Crabs and other ferals

Another blue in perspective - hey Norm, welcome in from the maroon hots. One for you, (for everyone else, this probably only works in 1960's Australia when I first heard it so if you don't get it, don't stress) - same flight deck, this time female first officer to make it Qantas, the usual 24+ round dials on the console, levers everywhere, not too many buttons. Daggy Captain, obviously ex Fleet Air Arm, scratching his scrofular regions: 'Hey Shirl - what's good for crabs then?' First Officer, wishing the old bastard would smarten up: 'Um - Captain - I've heard that methylated spirits does the job' 'Nah! Silly bugger! That kills 'em!'

Fenwick - dozy old fart in chief - kind words again but so much for the one operational grey cell - you forgot the first principle in the lesson. I'll quote you in full just to make the point:

Alex as you well know that at our age, we all walk around in a fog. but in
an emergency somthing from the past kicks in, in this case the lessons
learnt in yours and Jerry's course kicks in, so it's not a wast of time as
many think, and I have been putting that retrieval float on the boat now for
the last 22 years and that was the the first time it had been out of its
bag.
Pete you should be very proud of Sarah she was great in the emergency, I was
very proud of her.
Alex, remember you paid for my course I do and was much appreciated
Regards Allan.

Sarah is Pete's daughter. If you have a MOB retrieval sling on the back of your boat, it's a good idea to get it out of the bag every year just to make sure the ferals haven't eaten it and to get the kinks out. Your survivor was lucky. Pete will have something to say on this too - but actually, congratulations from this DOF to the three of you. Bloody well done. Did it make the papers?

Thanks to everyone who wrote about our Macca gig, especially some of you who found the website as a result. Really glad it worked - not easy from out here. We'll try to get on again every few weeks if his producer will have us. Keep writing - makes our day out here. SJ - perhaps invite her to call any time she has an empty slot.

This morning at 25.44.680 W (dd.mm.decimal mm) the wind had freed a bit and I tweaked Kevvo a smidge to the east to try to stop our drift westwards and perhaps take the first step towards cutting the corner between here and Tristan. We are now at 25.43.614 so SFSG. Watch this space.

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Gelid and viscous.

0645/8th position 1109 02544 trip 121/24
Sailing day 38 from Falmouth.
Things you learn - Macca really doesn't know who is on the other end when he says 'G'day, this is Macca!' Wonderfully typical ABC low budget production that succeeds through the appeal of the guy at the mike and the power of the tradition that the program has generated. Very Australian and no bullshit. SJ - thanks for setting it up. Hope we didn't fluff the lines!

The middle watch again, but on a night for the little box of special memories one tends to take along somewhere in the gelid vault between the ears. Almost cloudless, no moon yet. Haze, so the tiny stars that fill the gaps are there by suspicion only in the background glow. The constellations - Orion, Cassiopeia, Sagittarius, then Sirius, Canopus, Jupiter, Formalhaut - all intense and piercing and lovely. The Southern Cross yet to rise. Sadly there must be generations of people in the industrialised areas of the world who have never seen the night sky - have no idea of the beauty of a star or the luminous depth of the Universe. Perhaps not just recent generations either - there is early Roman lead in the icecaps of the world.

Some of you may remember the VoA, my whimsical indicator of first voyage latitude. 0.1 at the equator, 0.9 and you're frozen in the Arctic ice with 3 months to wait. Here it's about 0.3 and the water temp is down to 32 degrees. Manageable but the fact that it is back in the list of daily observations is an indicator in itself of the potential discomfort of Berri's passage through the moguls. I was astonished last time when I invented it at how many people jumped in and said 'wow! I'm so glad I'm not alone (would that you were!)- how bad are yours?' And so on. The freedom of knowing you can at last talk about something that is socially off limits. For the newbies, VoA stands for the Viscosity of Anusol. Not available to Da Gama, but he seems to have worked out his latitude by other means. I wonder what he used for his piles - oil of newt? Roquefort? Bacon fat? Necromancers' unguents? Doesn't bear thinking about. Hope you enjoy your breakfasts!

Pauline, your cake has fulfilled its noble purpose - thanks! The Cake is dead! Long live The Cake! Maureen, we will unpack the quarter berth to find yours in the next day or so.

0236/8th and we've passed Cape York, half a world away.

International Radio Stars

10 minutes of great audio with Alex and Pete, and Macca from Australia's national broadcaster, the ABC. The interview is the podcast from 8th Nov, about 4:55 into it for about 10 minutes. Go here to download and hear it:

http://www.abc.net.au/australiaallover/podcast.htm

The best bit? Macca talked to Pete, proof that he is really aboard!

Blues - in perspective

1800/7th position 1006 02540, trip 4330 by GPS

This laptop has now crashed twice, inexplicably, in the last 2 days, both times destroying the iridium settings, losing com ports and who knows what else. It has recovered itself each time but not to its previous status. Restoring it to Nov 4th has so far done the trick but I now write these wondering whether I will be able to send them. Profoundly frustrating - If I were Marvin I'd even be depressed. And the HF radio died again a couple of hours ago too. Massive glooom. It would be wondrous to have a stable system or at least to know what the problem might be.

The ocean is that deep azure so intense that it is almost purple. Turns steel grey when the sun goes behind a cloud. Continuous series of little squalls - 25 knots max - some with splash of rain. Big swell, whitecaps 20 feet long. Grinding it out, metre by metre. About 15 k in the marathon to Cape Town. Drink stop with Dr Ingyrd at 1700, Macca if he gets around to us at 2030. I reckon about another 28 days to CT so around Dec 5th.

First day we could do any washing for at least a week - put 1 litre of freshly squeezed Atlantic into bucket with a bit of green liquid soap. Drop T shirt into liquid, wring the soapy water through it, repeat with next shirt and lastly shorts. Water becomes instantly salty and a dirty yellow colour - all the little scrofules having a party - discard water and by now breeding scrofules. Refill bucket with 1 litre freshly squeezed ocean but no soap and repeat. Hang clothes on lifelines or wherever they are out of the salt spray. Basic process, minimal use of water, gets the sweat and most of the salt out but doesn't clean - my Ts are not pretty! But you get used to it.

We have just passed 10 deg south and will overtake the sun probably tomorrow. This means that Berri's cockpit will become uninhabitable without some sort of shade. A beach umbrella would work - but we've got various bits of canvas and we'll rig something as we go.

Not a cloud in the sky is usually a rather loose statement - but here, apart from some tiny flecks low on the horizon, it's true. Amazing how open it looks - not used to the feeling of space - light silvery blue on the eastern horizon, deepening to hazy smokey lapis above and then down to blazing gold in the west as the sun drops out of the sky.

Macca - ABC Broadcast

For Brits, Macca is usually Paul McCartney and I must admit I have
been puzzled as to why a former Beatle might want to speak to Alex and
Pete. Clarification came direct from the high seas this afternoon. I
now understand that for Australians, Macca is Ian Macnamara. You need
Windows Media or Real Player and the link for Ian's programme
"Australia All Over" is here:

http://www.abc.net.au/australiaallover/

You can listen live, or to previous programmes. I will add a link if
and when it happens.

Iz in the UK

Selkirk Settler

Re the gigantic waves Alex was just talking about, here is a link to
some astonishing images.

http://www.nzshipmarine.com/news/detail.aspx?id=79

Posted by I in the UK

More of the same

0700/8th position 0912 02535 trip 130/24
We're eating the miles, port tack 2 reefs, about a third of the heady and a nasty steep 3 metreish swell that poor old Berri has to thud through occasionally.

To continue the theme of the early navigators - once they had the knowledge that to get to the Cape, all they really had to do was follow the prevailing winds from Lisbon to the doldrums, struggle through and back on the wind again, following it around in the big arc across the S Atlantic passing north of Tristan (and as the name suggests, a Portugese sailor doing just that but perhaps a bit further south than intended actually discovered the island). And Tristan to the Cape and past the tail of the Agulhas Bank is the place where the storms are. Like us, they must have anticipated that bit of ocean with some serious trepidation. And these days, with satellite measurements, scientists are logging the 'freak' waves caused by current, long fetch swell, wind and amplification from the meeting of two wave sets. Just like the SE corner of Australia, where we got rolled ourselves. 3 big ones every 1000 sticks in the jelly of my memory and one huge one every 10,000. Googls selkirk settler for some photos.

Huge ship in the night - Pete didn't think he'd seen us so gerzillion candlepower light into the sails and he altered.

Shave and a clean T shirt if I can find one for Macca this evening.

Nearest - and furthest - humans

A ship - first for days. No aircraft - we are a bit far to the east of of the major routes from Europe to S America. I don't know about routes from Africa.

I think the first organised humans to come this way would have been the Portugese. Chabral was the first to reach Brazil and Bartholomeu Dias followed him across and around to the Cape of Storms. Vasco Da Gama followed them and sailed on past the Cape to India. Dias himself died off the Cape in a storm some time later. Da Gama crossed the S Atlantic further north than we do today and arrived somewhere off what is now southern Namibia whence he had to tack into the prevailing winds and the Benguela current to get around the corner into the Indian Ocean. Interesting - people say that those sailors must have been fearless - not so - I think that if you are fearless you are either bone ignorant or brain dead. Fear is the catalyst for courage and I dips me lid to the lot of them. I've been thinking too about how they found their way out here and I think Orion is the secret, with the Southern Cross later. The lower stars are not often visible in the constant murk.

Later, of course, the Portugese Tourism and Colonisation Marketing Board gave the Cape of Storms to their Nomenclature Committee with directions to fashion the dream -- sex up the Chart - to deceive the punters who were to be persuaded to follow the pioneers and colonise the new territories on behalf of the King. The Nomenclature Committee came up with the grossly misrepresentative but highly dreamy Cape of Good Hope and so it came to pass.

Pink sunset reflecting off a biggish swell and the cascading spray of our progress through it - still very uncomfortable.

Feral glitches and a couple of dozy old farts

Fenwick - you're a dopey old fart too - see below - thanks for the kind words but you and Sarah picked up the guy and saved his life - nowt to do with me. Hope your boat not too damaged. Congratulations at least for having one operable grey cell at your age. Keep spreading the word - and passing the open windows.

Iridium panic over for the mo, I think. The laptop was misbehaving yesterday - seemed that it had crashed and restored itself surreptitiously. Tried iridium this morning and would not connect - that awful here-we-go-again feeling I'd almost forgotten -so I went through all the set up procedures for the dial up modem - score 1, the crash had deleted the 19200 modem completely. But the set up wizard was not seeing com-ports except the 4 from the USB to serial gizmo - fiendish and unstable unless you kill a ball point mouse with a steam hammer - anyway, about 3 hours later, rather sweaty and grumpy, I had been back through everything I could think of and decided that Dr Murphy was required at the double with restorative compounds. Restorative ? Restorative - you dopey old fart - where the hell do I find system restore in this thing? Certainly not through windows help (!) but there it was perched at the wispy end of a branch line in Accessories and I took the beast back 2 days and yeeeeehaaa! there was my 19200 modem back on com port 12 where it used to be. And it worked. Meantime I had also cranked up one of the backups and sent a test to Steve which also worked. So we should still be in business. As a non geek who is utterly brainwashed by previous failure into expecting the worst with these things, I feel just a bit chuffed.

There's a chance the Australian Broadcasting Commission program 'Australia all over' will call us this Sunday, 0730 their time, 2030 tomorrow Saturday 7th UTC. The ABC does a live internet stream - I think - if anyone is interested.

Ann - I'm sure I heard cackles of laughter out there in the gloom last night. Poseidon may have a fan for his nursery jokes.

And Norm K out there in the old Queensland boonies - the Cuskelly tells me he has poisoned your mind with this guff - Vogon poetry even - and you are out there compounding the felony. G'day and glad you're there. Write to us - send us a poem perhaps.

Carla - I think you might be right and our visitor is a young noddy - not in the book but your description fits. Almost got a photo in full flight last night. Lerizhan g'day! Re break up entry - yep - I thought the trajectory was wrong for a deliberate destruct or any normal launch. Was a goody though - white light, when they are more often yellowish. Pete is wearing his LSU Event Staff T - the pit ferals chattering but happy.

Things you learn - for cordon bleu cup-a-soup, add a teaspoonful of dried mashed potato. Spud is thicker than water. Erk - did I really say that?

no-footer.

MESSAGE FROM ALEX

Friday 6th November, 0930 GMT (don't know UTC), 0721S 02516W.

Alex rang to say that his Iridium internet connection has stopped
working and that Berri is at the extreme edge of possible Sailmail
contact.

The message is, then, not to worry if new blogs don't appear. He'll
obviously be trying to make everything work again, but breath should
not be held. Appendage crossing would be very welcome, however.

This message relayed by Isabella in UK.

More on wildlife

0700/6th position 0705 02513 trip 123/24. Day 35 and the GPS says we've sailed 4144 miles. Rhumb line to Falmouth is 3613 but with due deference to the cursor.

Seems our little bijou res. in a plastic tube has a stalker. The bird that has been visiting us has been back foe three nights at least - too dark once again to get colours but has the wings and silhouette of a small Petrel but not the head and beak. It turns up in the dark and is gone by daylight. We have sailed nearly 400 miles since it first arrived so it must be keeping us more or less in sight during the day. I have occasionally thought that I spotted it way out in the peripheries - little brown moving speck merged into the murky dapple.

Things you learn - a week or so on the port tack is very hard work. Bijou res. this little boat may be but it's awful short of comfy places to sit and if the cockpit is continually getting doused by crashing spray the only place, and not for long, is the cabin sole which gets pretty hard, unforgiving and cornery.

'Nuff whingeing - we're moving south. Rainsqualls, drenching spray and 25 knot gusts in an 'orrible short steep jerky sea. Not a lot of opportunity for washing and powdering the self so the pit and crutch feral collection is thriving. The boot variety is just festering in the heat up in the forepeak so there will be an interesting reunion out there in the future.

Time to make a cuppa and then do the 0700 position.

I've lost my iridium connection from the laptop. It's a com port problem - the computer crashes every now and again and loses its dial up connection settings for the 19200 modem but the set-up wizard then loses/doesn't see the original com port and for some reason although the wizard says it's connected through another port, Telnet cannot see it. Drives me absolutely raging insane but I cant fix it. Any ideas? Work around may be to use backup laptop for sailmail. Absolute PITA.

Feral bottlebrush

Trade wind sailing - apart from all the tropical aspects without which I can earnestly do - is great if you are off the breeze and can ride the very lumpy sea at the optimum angle. When you are trying to keep the wind just ahead of the beam, it's a different ballgame. Lumpy, thumpy, wet, noisy and uncomfortable. And hot! But we're on the move.

We have been towing 40 metres of light floating line as a possible safety line if someone falls overboard. As Pete discovered last time, the generator impeller line we had trailing out the back was a powerful incentive to use his considerable swimming skill to get across and grab it. Yesterday, I looked at the bright yellow line and it seemed oddly different - I tried to pull it in and the drag was surprising but it had thousands and thousands of little barnacles growing on it - from a couple of millimetres to about 4cm long and so densely packed that it looked like a 40 metre bottlebrush. We spent the morning cleaning them off. They looked like baby versions of the big goose barnacles we sailed into Hobart with last time. My doddery eyes told me that each one had a tiny blue patch on it. How do they exist out here and how do they grab the ride?

More wild life - a couple of Trinidade Petrels. Big fishing boat a couple of days ago but no other humans air, space or waterborne. Except perhaps a laughing Aunt out here with us?

It appears from the latest GRIB that the S Atlantic High is at about 25 degrees directly south. I hope it moves east so that we can cut the corner a bit. Sagittarius and the galactic centre - or where the galactic centre isn't - clearly visible last night before the moon rose. And Mintaka satisfactorily astern.

We've just done some practice noon sights to get back into practice, using the Winastro package on the computer to do the sums. Considering the conditions, not bad results. Tomorrow, the Merlin.

Latest Position

Posted by I & G in the UK.