Berrimilla Down Under Mars Status Report 28 June 2008
SATURDAY, 28 JUNE 2008
Contact stuff
Gearbox and picture cd’s and small dvd in the mail, boat more or less loaded – McQ and K off somewhere having lunch – seems we’re about ready to set off again. It’s been an interesting and instructive stay – I now know why diesel engineers never turn up and – if they do – they charge dockyard job money.
Huge thanks, once again, to Dave Boisseau for going way beyond the reasonable to help us out – enjoy your 4th of July, Dave, and come sailing in Oz. And to Steve and Sue and all those people who have offered to help, lend us stuff, drive us around, feed us – it’s been special. Now I hope we can make it stick and do what we came up here to do.
Pascal in Resolute – the cavalry is coming. Maybe! From here on, contact via the website Gustbook or the contact page. Our iridium phone will be the international prefix plus 881631653278. Ignore any messages if it rings out – do not leave a voice message, just redial and keep doing so until someone answers. We will not receive voice messages but you can send sms messages to the phone from www.iridium.com.
I will try to keep this phone for voice and the other one for data but this may change. I have a third SIM for emergencies as well.
I hope the next one from me is a sailmail message. Appendages once again please!
POSTED BY BERRIMILLA DOWNUNDERMARS AT 23:27
Notoriety strikes…and a link to the future in the past
http://blogs.discovery.com/next_generation/2008/06/sailing-through.html For anyone that’s interested, there’s a link in it to the archive of the LSU symposium with Pete’s and my presentation that led to this silliness. We were the final act on the Thursday, I think. It’s a bit tedious getting started, unless it’s been edited since I last looked at it before we left, and you even get to see Leroy wearing a suit that wasn’t made in Russia! The other presentations are even more worth a look and you also get to see Pascal, whose mapping skills got us here.
POSTED BY BERRIMILLA DOWNUNDERMARS AT 18:42
A tinge of sadness…
Usually, I start one of these full of ideas. Not this morning – no idea what will be in it. Arrived on the bike at the GA very early this morning before breakfast to find the evidence of what must have been a biggish night even by DH standards – pools and splashes and trails of technicolour yawn everywhere outside the front door and along the footpaths. A coupled of hours later, after going back to Berri and packing and repackinbg the spare laptops and electrical gear behind the nav station and Eric and the troops have had the fire hoses out and hosed it all away.
As Steve says in the gustbook, we had a wonderful evening at his house – mountains of crab, lots of wine and laughter – Whitters completely knackered after sorting the gearbox as you can see in Steve’s pics, here: http://senseofplace63.blogspot.com
And I’m honoured, Steve, to have my own little spot in your blog. Maybe I saw the eagle, but it was my nice piece of glass (as Speedy calls the nik lens) that focussed it and a very clever camera.that recorded it. I will today post another cd of mostly Ballyhoo pics to Speeds plus a somewhat used gearbox to John in Sydney.
And Steve gave us his magic silver dollar – which he carried all around the USA on his motor bike – it’s now on Berri’s magic wall – He said we are to buy ourselves a beer when we get to England, but not before. Thanks Steve. Lovely gift!
Other nice things keep happening – I woke yesterday to find a little packet of smoked salmon and some dig bosketty things in the cockpit – no note – but I later found a note floating next to the boat – Thanks Sue! Dig boskets to be eaten with jam and a cold chisel – chuck the boskets, jam on the chisel and eat that instead!
Meeting Dave at the boat soon to give him back all the gear he lent us – I’ll keep the bike until this evening if possible for all the inevitable last minute errands – and we will move Berri to the outside of the jetty so that we don’t get caught by the very low tide tomorrow morning and can leave at first light. The weather looks good for a few days but that’s now! It changes almost hourly and any forecast more than a couple of days ahead is largely conjecture.
I’ll send this because gmail in basic html (all this link will manage) tends to drop drafts – there may be another one later.
POSTED BY BERRIMILLA DOWNUNDERMARS AT 18:16
