Berrimilla Down Under Mars Status Report 12 May 2008
MONDAY, 12 MAY 2008
McQ: Starboard tack, Jumblies and Cormorants
We have been on starboard tack for as long as I can remember, heading north, E/NE trades, beam reach, close reach, some combination thereof but starboard tack. We are going to carry on like this for a good few more days, then the wind is going to ease and gently veer and we are going to gybe as it goes behind us and then it is going to fill in from the W/SW adn then we will screeching reach up to the finish, (Aleutien waypoint!!!) in a matter of 22 days…
This is of course, given the predictable nature of the sea and the weather gods, EXACTLY how its going to happen!!!
But certainly my starboard eye is looking forward to being on port tack, as is my starboard leg (it feels like its shrinking, or maybe the port leg is stretching!!!) and the starboard eye gets the brunt of the waves so is a wee bit bloodshot and gunking up worthy of Papi after two days on a coconut. Anyway, trying to keep the salt out of it, a thankless task, but am trying nonetheless!!
Anyone who sails will know how intensely irritating a waterproof jacket hood is… for a start anything that obscures you beoing able to feel what the wind is doing on your face, is pretty unhelpful. If you are going up wind, it just keeps blowing ooff unless its tied up so tight that you can’t hear or see anything. extremely frustrating and at the moment the staroard side of my hood keeps irritating the starboard side of my irritated eye… all very frustrating!!!!
Right, offski to deck, to salinate.
Lots of love and hugs
McQueen
xxx
ps the Three Chimneys is the my favourite, favourite restaurant in the world and the best in Scotland, so I expect and hope, Philippe that it was expensive for you but that it was worth every penny? and hope you tried the marmalade pud… for everyone else, its hard enough to get a table so I urge you not to go!!!! It might be my fave but its hardly worth bothering with that long, off the beaten track hike to get there… and the marmalade pud is definitely not worth the effort!! (but try it if you do go, and go once and once only and make sure its before I get back!!)
pps Rach A: can you believe its a whole year since it was May last??? Anyway thinking of you and how great you are. love you. cor x
ppps: Mum, any chance of a copy of ancient mariner to Dutch, inscribed by Web of course- if you think that could be there by 12th June when we leave?? I left mine at home and the copy on board is only extracts and it is a whole book of poetry and I keep getting distracted by Lear and Anon (Jumblies and Cormorants) xxx
PpppS Andarks by appointment as supplier of all relevant accessories to McQueen too…They are probably glad I am away at sea as I can’t harrass their fabulous selves for discounts from here!!!
POSTED BY BERRIMILLA DOWNUNDERMARS AT 21:22
Hi Funsters!
Hey Funsters – right on about bottles. The only ones we have on board are the tiny ones with Tabasco sauce. I like your idea of a diagram of our communications. The sailmail website is www.sailmail.com and that will give you lots of info. Jim and Sue Corenman and Stan Honey wrote the software and you might be able to contact them through the website. Stan is a very famous sailor and a really nice guy – google him. You might also like to check out the Aleutian Islands, and volcanoes along the edges of tectonic plates….Goood luck with the test!
POSTED BY BERRIMILLA DOWNUNDERMARS AT 16:25
noon 2016.45 16640.49
dtd 2396 dmg 123
Prob best day’s run so far. Still headbutting – really clobbers the vmg.
About to have Daily Con – today with the Apothecary, the excellent Dr. Jasper. Not much else to report and too hot anyway, though does seem at last to be getting a bit cooler. Sea temp has been 33.4 – 33.6 since Solomons if not before.
On shaky ground here, but ponder this, if you will. Seems to me that we are working our way across an immense body of water that appears to be moving westwards. What perhaps is closer to what is really happening is that the body of water is trying to stand still while the earth rotates underneath it, leaving the water lagging behind and giving the impression to a little boat on its surface that the water is moving to the west. So tiny Berri is trying to keep up with mother earth, while tangled in mother earth’s skirts all flowing backwards because inertia and low viscosity ‘unstick’ them from the base rotation. And that has to be the silliest attempt to explain coriolis that I’ve ever read.
Just passed a lobster pot float – in 5000 metres of water – so probably not attached to the bottom. Had lots of growth on it and the only place it could realistically have come from is one of the Hawaiian Islands 2000 odd miles up current and up wind. It might make it to the Phillipines or Taiwan or South China any time in the next few years, or get diverted up the Japanese coast and around to where we are going – in a few more years.
Two seabirds – one twin tailed, delicate and beautiful, the other, which I was able to photograph, basic grey brown petrel or gannet or ..Otherwise, nothing obvious, tho the dinos are still around and glorious at night.
POSTED BY BERRIMILLA DOWNUNDERMARS AT 08:21
1952.07 16636.11 Things distant…
Things distant yet near – Wake Island, the GW crossword (got soaked seconds after I had unwrapped it – such is life in the old bus shelter). Things near yet distant – Speedy, Kimbra, H, K & E. Things at the very very edge of the universe of contemplation – an eclipse from HMP.
So the dim glow of Wake is way behind us and the open ocean to Amukta ahead, 2207 miles or 22 days @ 4kts. Not a prediction, a fact! Will be a very long 22 days but every boat length gets us closer. We’re still going well, in the trades, further west than planned, but that’s not necessarily bad given the prevailing winds further north. Another 3 degrees north and we’ll be out of the tropics. Tiddly pom! I wonder how intense the stream of depressions up there are at this time of year.
Note for Marty A if you’re reading this – the sexy masthead LED nav lights right next to the vhf aerial completely clobber the vhf – interference on all channels. Can’t use vhf at night unless using aux or no nav lights. Interesting and certainly worth knowing! H, perhaps you could give him a call – might save someone else some grief?
Just about to cross 20N
POSTED BY BERRIMILLA DOWNUNDERMARS AT 08:19
