Berrimilla Down Under Mars Status Report 17 June 2008
TUESDAY, 17 JUNE 2008
Limited comms to/from Berri
Had a call from Alex, to say that there is no Sailmail signal available at present. Comms from the boat will be via Iridium and limited by cost and bandwidth. So if we experience a lack of blogs and/or messages there is no need to be concerned. All other systems aboard are working normally. More when news arrives. Speedy.
POSTED BY BERRIMILLA DOWNUNDERMARS AT 22:18
McQ: I secretly want to be a King Crab Fishergirl!!!
Hello everybody!!!
I have been a bit distracted by, well, land really, so there is lots to tell and probably too much for one blog!!!
Where to start?? I think I have recovered from my bump on the head- thanks for everyone’s messages, I feel no more or less normal so I think I should be ok!!!
Dutch Harbour has been brilliant- the most crazy place. It is like how you would imagine a proper frontier town to be like!!! And its the start of the pollock fishing season so the bar is full of people working in the fishing industry here and its quite mad. We have learn so many facts that are difficult to contemplate, like, this is the BIGGEST fishing processing town in the world. It really is just crazy!!!
Yes, indeed it was me who was too hungover to make it to the tour of the plant but judging by the stories it wasn’t the place for anyone with a sniff of a hangover to be!! The dinner we had the night before at Sue and Dans house (2 brilliant people who seem to bring waifs and strays like us into their home often!!!) was just fantastic. Lots of very exciting and interesting people, I made up for it yesterday though, Kimbra and I were unloading some fresh fruit and veggies on to the boat and the guys parked behind us were going out to check their crab pots so we went out too…It was incredible!!!!! They are humungous and it was an awesome afternoon. One of the crabs we caught was almost as big as one of the guys on the boat!!! A really amazing thing to watch, and I got stuck in and helped pull the pots in and haul them back into the water and bait them too- it was only when I got given a king crab to hold that I went into full girly-giggling mode- hilarious!!!
Everyone here has been fabulous- super friendly and helpful and this is a great place.
Gonzales did a wonderful job, thank you Big G!!! Arrived with a fully laden packhorse and left with one too!!!! He even hired a burro so that made the food shopping so much more manageable!!!! Kimbra kept calling him Speedy, though, as in Speedy Gonzales, which is more confusing than calling them both Dave!!!
Incidentally, everyone here seems to be Dave, or Dan or Darren!!! Must be a pre-requisite of living here!!!
We have AIS!!!! arrived this arvo and all fitted so a bit or stacking and stowing and stashing and squishing of other stuff onto wee B and then we should be off to Nome early tomorrow morning (our time!!!)
So, quiet night tonight, a Norwegian boat has just arrived from Nome, having sailed the North West Passage last year and wintered in Nome, so we shall try and find them in the bar and pick their brains about the trip- shame not to have longer to talk to them, but it will be good to get going again. It should start off a pretty nice run with S or SW winds- woo hoo!!!!
Thats about it for now,
Thanks to everyone and their kindness, hospitality and generosity here in Dutch, most of all Dave B!!!!
Lots of love
(It’s been so long since I wrote I nearly forgot my name there) McQ xxx
ps no sign of your parcel C- boo-hoo!
POSTED BY BERRIMILLA DOWNUNDERMARS AT 09:28
The birthplace of the wind
Otherwise known as Adak – so we have been told. Lovely idea and pretty accurate. AIS box installed and we hope to leave around 0700 tomoz. Berri a disaster area, but I’ll be sleeping aboard tonight and will do some tidying up.
Dutch has been wonderful – even though it’s raining again. Hope to be in Nome in about a week – wx looks reasonable. We’ll officially enter the US there – local DHS is in Anchorage and has sent out papers ahead.
Daylight early departure a good idea – gets us through a very busy shipping channel just north of here, west of Akutan pass and mayte even through the fishing fleet, although they are having a hard time and have moved north.
Next one from the boat, AGW.
POSTED BY BERRIMILLA DOWNUNDERMARS AT 06:11
