Arse, class or just a black art - the snotter's lament

Right, topsail up! It's going to be tight - you've gotta get it right first time! Cruncher overhauled? Ok. Downfucker off? Ok. Alex, on the timmenoggy, Keep 'er snug. Mel on the sheet - keep 'er snug. Sam on the halyard, Leila tailing? - Right - go! Get er up! Bloody get 'er up Go! Go! Ok - cruncher on get 'er in! Go on - sweat it - get 'er in!. Take a turn on the timmenoggy and sweat the bugger. Right, make fast Sheet in hard. Get the downfucker on!  Right - bear away and we're sailing! Barber hauler on! Trim!

OK - get this bit of rotting vegetation to the finishing line as fast as it will go! Bloody concentrate you buggers! Eyes in the boat....

Another Fastnet.

Here's Berri looking sexier than she has for years and years.

Workboat intergalactic photos here. Pete was on Moon - grey hull, sail no 58, purplish topsail with half moon and star. The boat was launched the night before the start and they came 5th - a remarkable performance. Victory is yellow with blue and yellow chevrons on the topsail and sail no 7
http://www.tonyhopewell.com/project.php?ID=FALWKBTCHMP09
A burst on topsail terminology to follow.

As for the North East Passage - sadly, not this year. The Russians have been more or less positive - the FSB have sent us a message saying that Dikson and Pevek are closed to visitors but if we are prepared to go non stop from Murmansk to Providenie (east of the Bering Strait and not a problem if it's ice free) and  alter our application to reflect this change, they will consider it favourably and get back to us as soon as they can. But we must carry a Pilot (and, I think, pay the pilotage charges) which would mean that we have no  room for Pat Hahn and we really need to be on the way now to be sure of being at 105E (Cape Chelyuskin) by the end of August. The minimum time in which I can see us getting the papers translated and together and, permit in hand, approaching the Russian Embassy to get visas and all the other necessary papers is about three weeks if everything goes smoothly and we actually get a permit at the end of the process. So it's really a month too late to do it this year with a reasonable expectation of a safe passage around Cape Chelyuskin. Sad though, but now at least I know more about how the process works. Huge thanks to Vladimir in St Petersburg for being our guide through the maze and for relaying messages.

So, fallback option #1: Berri is transformed and we think we will sail to south west Ireland - Baltimore perhaps -  for a beer next week to give her a bit of a thrash to make sure everything works and then back to Falmouth to take everything off the boat except sails and work our way up to the Solent for the Fastnet start on August 9th. And back here again after that and perhaps South Georgia and Capetown. Plus ca change...

Another possible option might be to leave Berri here until next year, apply once again for NE passage permit but earlier and leave in June if we get one. To hard a decision at the mo.but probably too expensive for both of us.

Thanks to everyone who has sent us messages via the gust book. Nice to know you're out there.

Falmouth Workboat Intergalactics

Boats entered from the outer reaches of the Universe - star clusters way beyond the visible - Squornshellus Zeta, the Frogstar, Kakrafoon - boats from everywhere, due to arrive in warp drive freighters riding the background radiation. Sadly, they all ran into the Vogon fleet and they had to listen to 3 days of poetry as penance and missed the start.

So there were 15. Photos of some of them, parked for lunch between races on Friday. I was in Victory, the yellow one in the middle, Pete in Moon, away practising. Some racing images perhaps later.

Now Saturday eve and I think Victory has a very good chance - we have to do something very silly (like, perhaps, starting the last race tomorrow...) to lose it.

Freaky windy calm windy day on Sunday and the mighty Victory emerged as intergalactic champion - perhaps thanks to Prostetnic Jeltz, but nevertheless, the champ. Last couple of pics with the loot on the ferry going home. David Carne (swigging from the can) very kindly gave me the glass trophy as the novice in the crew so Berri has a proper G & T glass...

Sarah's Photos

Some more makeover pics - thanks Sarah and also for huge paint job.

A bit more research about Russian ice and the bureaucracy is not encouraging. A difficult decision, even if we do get a permit.

A little bit of everything

The photos - Berri's evolving new persona - grey blue and white decks with some of the old multi layered gunge still visible on the side decks, yet to be stripped and wire brushed off. Woodwork all sanded and oiled. New gearbox installed after a couple of days of pain and contortion. The old one has gone to Southampton to be rebuilt and we'll carry it as a spare. And Pete brought a shiny new Oz red ensign to replace the one that sailed to Melbourne with Pete Goss in Spirit of Mystery so Berri is now appropriately - if not exactly properly - dressed with ensign and courtesy Red Duster given to us in the Falklands by John M-B so it too has just completed a circumnavigation via the NW Passage.

Sea trials at 0530 this morning on a sparkling calm Falmouth morning - cast off the mooring lines shaped to the bollards after about 6 weeks of attachment and shunted her around inside the marina pontoons so we would not lose our ace spot. She goes backwards and forwards and her extra 6 horses certainly seem to make a difference. And back alongside. Sarah T has driven down from London for a couple of days and is in charge of painting the white bits of deck. Two coats by tonight except the cockpit which we'll do tomorrow just before we all depart for Hatherleigh and then the Katadyn man in Weston Super Mare.

Nothing yet from the Russians. We have decided that if we have not heard by the end of this month, we will pull the plug on the NE Passage and look at other options for getting home. The latest that I think we could safely leave for Murmansk is July 20th and that is cutting things very fine indeed. If we get permit with acceptable conditions by June 30 it gives us 3 weeks to get organised and we still do not have visas - no point until the permit arrives - and I don't want to set off unless we are sure that all the boxes are ticked.

So watch this space...

The mighty Tit

The photo is David Carne and the mighty Tom Tit - 105 years old and rigged like the boat in the background but only 16ft long. Rig almost as tall as Berri's. Lovely boat - we were racing and Dave very generously let me steer while he did all the hard work and tactics and told me what to do. And we were first across the line by a respectable margin but probably did not save our handicap on the others. Dave is a legendary sailor - was out in Sydney in Blizzard for the 1979 Sydney - Hobart (and, I'm happy to say, was a small boats race that year and we beat them in Miko...) and he sailed with Ted Heath on various Morning Clouds after that. Was a steep learning curve yesterday though for this old fart.

The replacement gearbox should arrive from Sydney - once again, huge thanks to Witchard Marine and John W. - and the penance begins. I have also been given an original Hurth gearbox, perhaps 30 years old, but supposedly in working order and probably containing all the original plates and springs - the parts that seem to fail regularly in the newer versions. Very tempted to fit it and see whether it goes...We intend to make some changes to the exhaust system too while the engine is out of the way.

Pete arrives Wednesday and I'm doing the second mega presentation (both voyages) at Flushing SC that evening.

No news yet from Russia.

The taste and the smell...

Smell - to me the most evocative of the senses, able to lift me from the mundane here and now to the ghostly thrill of experience long past and - at the time - unrecognisably  formative. Parked alongside Berri on the pontoons for a couple of days has been a big (big!) three masted lugger from St. Malo with a crew of 8 or so pipe smoking French speaking men and women - the women without pipes but doing yer ordinary Gauloise or whatever passes as such in 2009. They ate on deck - wine,  onions, snags and other much more sophisticated fare but the smell! I was instantly beamed back in time to 1961 and the St Malo race from Plymouth in Leopard - we'd sailed across the Minquiers at high tide into St Malo and there I was yesterday, an old geezer in Falmouth in 2009 teleported into the nearly 50 years younger kid just soaking in delight in my first French port. And  my olfactory bits replayed Ambre Solaire - it was really hot and still and we went down to the beach under the fortress walls and all the truly gorgeous French girls were greasing themselves with the stuff - a primitive version of SP150 - and the air was honeyed with the perfume and about as viscous. A  naive and inexperienced repressed just out of school 19 year old in heaven.

Ambre Solaire still use the same perfume and it inevitably wafts me back to those days of delightful sand in the toes expectation.

The photos just for fun. Sorry none of the lugger - would have been intrusive.  Berri just visible on the right of the Chain Locker.

And - glooom - the gearbox we put in with so much sweat and contortion in Dutch Harbour has died.  Girding the loins to go through it all again.

Glitch correction

Here's the proper poster.

second, Falmouth webcam link with the 'l' on the end should work better. http://www.falmouthphotos.com/towercam2.html

2 jetties in the foreground, cold wet and windy. The visitors' pontoons are in the middle distance behind the end of the furthest of the two jetties. Berri just about visible in the middle behind and to the right of the dark bulk of the pilot boat on the pontoons. Chain Locker white building directly to the left of the pontoons. No punters outside today!

More talk sessions?

If anyone is following this and can't make the Shipwrights talk on Thursday 11th, I will be doing at least one more  session at Flushing SC at 1930 on Monday 15th and possibly a second same time Wednesday 17th. If you want to to come to either of these, please contact me on 0781 600 4379

Thanks

My Blunnies died...

Just before Pete and I set off from Hobart for Cape Horn in 2005, I bought a pair of Blundstone sandals - Blundstones have been making shoes and boots in Hobart since 1870 and were a legend unto themselves - my sandals lived up to the legend but finally karked a few days ago - on the 4th anniversary of their first arrival in Falmouth. Seemed an auspicious day to say goodbye. And, sadly, Blundstones are no more in Hobart - they've gone to China.

Here's a link to one of Paul's Falmouth webcams   http://www.falmouthphotos.com/towercam2.htm  This one is on top of the Maritime Museum Tower and you can see the Chain Locker, the white building  middle distance on the left, and close to it the visitors' pontoons, more or less directly behind the end of the furthest jetty in the foreground with the two big blue superyachts on it. Berri is on the inside of the pontoons behind the orange pilot boat (when it is alongside). Right now the pilot boat is out and we are directly in line with the mast of the left hand superyacht.

The Great Berri Refurbish proceeds. Still working on the deck and don't want to lose my place on the pontoon as it's nicely sheltered so haven't yet been sailing. Some mildly positive but indirect news from Moscow. Things move very slowly.

Wrong poster

Sorry - don't know how that one got in instead of the finished one. It has typos and wrong venue. Proper one says 1930 June 11th in the Shipwrights Bar at the Chain Locker.

Butterflies don't cut it and other trivia

Nothing yet from Moscow and the horrors are getting to me - I'm sure people reading this will recognise that rather corrosive feeling of not quite dread but much more than mere butterflies that scours the innards while one waits for a storm or anything that has the makings of gaping way out beyond the comfort zone. Definitely good for the character.

Meantime, Berri is emerging slowly from the winter grime. Still a couple of weeks more stripping the decks before I can feel comfortable with a paint brush. And I have to spend at least a couple of days wrestling with powerpoint cobbling together a new presentation - see the attached poster and, for the Falmouth wise, note the venue. Huge, massive thanks to Paul (www.falmouthphotos.com - have a look!) for doing the poster and staying up most of last night converting all my video clips to work in the new tweaked version of ppoint.

And Patrick gave me back the sails yesterday so at last I can go somewhere - wasn't game to go far with untried engine and no other way of getting home. Early start tomorrow because the big boat inside Berri is leaving at 0500 for the Scillies and then round Britain.

The other picture is Martlet, one of the original Morgan Giles RN College Dartmouth yachts. She has an aluminium mast but otherwise much the same.  I sailed my first Fastnet in 1961 in her sister Leopard - also still around, I think on the Hamble.

Banging around on the visitors' pontoons in Falmouth...

I've been horsewhipped for being recalcitrant, so here's a bit of a blast from the recent past. More very soon.

Pete Goss http://www.petegoss.com/blog.php?m=82766 very generously gave Berri a spot on his blog. I went down to Williamstown to hear his talk and at the end he gave me back the ensign - by then probably the only ensign in this version of the universe that has circumnavigated the world via the North West Passage and the Cape of Good Hope and certainly the only one in two such magnificent boats. Pete was raising money for the Victorian Bushfire Appeal, so we signed the ensign and auctioned it. Numbers are perhaps not important, but Carmen won it for a sgnificant bid and here are the photos.

Thanks Carmen and thanks Pete.

Launch!

Not quite STS 125 but it has its own significance. Only snag so far seems to be a boken throttle cable - improvised for the trip down to the visitors' jetty with string.

Thanks ti Is'n'G for the photos. I'll try to post some video later.

Progress report

We launch next Thursday. Pics show Gordon and John hard at work while the old fart shirks with the camera. Also featuring the mighty Nijinsky.

Inside is still just as messy as ever - I have just started lifting some of the heaps to see how bad it really is and it's mostly superficial. What is interesting is that 6 months or so of sitting on her keel has flexed Berri's hull slightly - some drawers don't slide properly and there are little stress marks where some of the woodwork has been glassed on to the hull. And that's on a boat with half an inch of laid glass and resin in the hull - doesn't bear thinking about what happens to some of the other boats around the place.

Just a post..

Tha papers have gone - more on this later - and we launch probably next Thursday. Rather a lot to do in the meantime! Here's a peek at the ecosystem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNnteen0Rgc

Alone and palely loitering...

Falmouth dawn breaking and I'm having a Keats attack...comparisons are invidious and I'm no knight-at-arms, tho perhaps a wretched wight. Just that the palely loitering image fits the mood. Final tweak to the papers today and they will be off into the wilderness with DHL. And I shall loiter while the sedge withers and no birds sing and the might of the Russian bureaucracy (Tourism, Defence, FSB and Northern Sea Route Administration in Murmansk) decides whether all that work was worth the effort. Don't think I've ever felt quite so small and puny. The paperwork is just the first tiny step.

Berri's insides are an interesting collection of spores, moulds, green hairy things, fibreglass dust and piles of heaven knows what. I think about two weeks work inside and another week, perhaps in parallel on the decks then we can launch and see whether the engine will start - the sexy new blue one with green bits from the old and faithful original. Nice to know that other bits of the original were salvaged and are probably by now in use on a Falmouth workboat. Then there's the electrics.

Given the world financial crisis, I'm is serious conservation mode too - no car, but I have a tiny folding bike that gets me from elfin grot to green and hairy ecosystem rather faster than just walking but.. but... as someone normally used to riding real bikes, this one's a bit on the derisory side. 16" wheels, 6 gears, flimsy chainwheel that flexes and drops the chain in 6th - but effective if properly humoured. Needs a name - Nijinsky perhaps, in the present context and with appropriate irony.Fine dining with Tesco half price end-of-the-day specials to keep wolves away and small doses of the Doctor's potion from his surgery in the Chain Locker are the order of the day.

One of my mates is getting his legs organised to run the Edinburgh marathon in a couple of weeks - so perhaps there will be company to run with for a few days. Severely tempted to go run it with him but I think I have learned my lesson on that one - we'll see. He promised me it's almost flat...

Photos this evening. I will try to post some video too if I can work out how to do it.

Of shoes and ships and Apostilles, of ribbons green and seals...

Monday morning at the Notary - when someone says to you 'We've been here for 40 years and we know what we are doing' but very clearly doesn't, there is the making of early disaster .Sergei, my friendly translator, who knew exactly what was required, was polite, precise and ultimately abused by the front office staff and we left - not without dudgeon - never even getting to speak to the Notary. An astonishing experience.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), on the other hand, our next stop, were competent, efficient, friendly and helpful despite there being only one official dealing with a big queue and complex issues - and several languages. The necessary Apostille was applied and ready by special request at 0830 on Tuesday.

Later on Tuesday morning getting the documents stamped by the Russians became another interesting lesson in perseverance, patience, politeness and persistence. A huge misunderstanding nearly clobbered the whole venture without even the tiniest box ticked - the difference between 'certification' (impossible without paying $40 per page for translating 60 odd pages of what is already translated...) and 'legalisation' - a simple matter of running down the street to the bank to get not insignificant cash to pay the fee and then waiting while the DFAT Apostille was 'legalised' with appropriate stamps and green ribbons. And a delighted and happy smile - which made my day - from the official who first misunderstood but listened and it became possible.

I watched a couple of other Australians - young and arrogantly assertive - pass through the same room and leave, abusive, in anger and frustration because they had not done their homework and expected the officials to do it for them.

The photos show the application - supporting letter in Russian and English, the full English texts and the Russian translations with 5 copies of each - one for me and the rest for Moscow - and some of the seals, the DFAT Apostille and Russian legalising stamps. About 2 month's work and lots of thanks to RORC and everyone else who helped, especially Sergei, who translated with meticulous attention to the precise meaning of the technical bits and Ian here in Okehampton who did the copying this morning with enormous care.

That seems to be the first box ticked. Now to get it all to Moscow and wait. And wait some more. A courageous bet might be even money from here.

Meanwhile, there is Berrimilla's internal ecosystem to be harvested and removed and the rest of the list to be sorted before we can launch.

I'll keep y'all posted.

Alex

The clear call of the curve of high canvas...

Thanks Cyril!

And a tangled mass of bureaucratic hoops to follow...

I'm off to England on Thursday 30th to start on The List of things to do before we can launch Berri. Then we have to run the new engine and start on The List mark 2. Today is a day of, first, visiting the Notary Public to certify Russian translations of my application for a Northern Sea Route permit, then to the Department of Foreign Affairs to have that certification certified. If all that works, then tomorrow to the Russian Consulate to have the first two certifications certified. If I'm lucky, I will get it all back by lunchtime on Thursday just in time to leap into a taxi to the airport. Then more signatures in London and the whole lot (4 copies of 4 documents in English and Russian, all certified) to the courier to Moscow. Then a 2 month wait, if we are lucky. Pete will be over in June and - if the Russians play ball - Pat Hahn too.

What is the collective noun for a lot of Doctors - Dr Gordon, Dr Cooper, the one from Dublin, even Dr Grumpy? This time there will be one from the Western Isles too - a certain Dr Talisker, with thanks to Pete Goss. A Bar, perhaps? A Saloon? A Barrel? A Vat?

For the time being, if anyone wants to contact us, try my Facebook page and send me a message. There will be a new contact adress on the website soon.

All the best, all y'all

A funeral, an anniversary and other stuff

David's funeral was the funniest and closest to the man of any that I have ever been to. Hilarious stories, tears, tributes to his wit and sparkling intellect, his shaky courage in the front line against terrorism, his scorn for the pompous and his erratic humanity. I loved him dearly and I wish he'd lived to write the book. Vale, Speedy.

Tomorrow, April 10th Oz time, is an anniversary of some minor significance.

"Hey, see that boat down there? Yeah, that one with the sail, not the power boat. Well, they're on their way to Alaska."

"Blimey".

And the second picture is the basis of the plan to get Berrimilla home later this year. I am trying to get an application together for a permit to sail the Russian Northern Sea Route from Falmouth to the Bering Strait. I think the chances are about even, but the fallback will be down the Atlantic to South Georgia. I understand we need a permit to go there too. More, probably sporadically, as we get closer.

Farewell Speedy

David Speed - my wonderful, brilliant, frustrating, always there, unconditional friend - Speedy died a few days ago of a heart attack. He was a man of astonishing depth and complexity and I don't have the words to express my sadness. Leave the Speed Six with Marvin in the car park at Milliways and we'll see you there, David.

The Funeral will take place on Wednesday March 4th at 3.15 at
The Chiltern Crematorium, Whielden Lane, Amersham Bucks HP7 0ND
www.chilternscrem@chiltern.gov.uk

Family flowers only with donations to the R.N.L.I. (Royal
National Lifeboat Institution) via the undertakers:
Arnold Funeral Services
38 Oak End Way,
Gerrards Cross,
Bucks SL9 8BR
Tel: 01753 891892

The Family would like you to join them for a drink afterwards at The White
Hart
Chalfont St Giles to celebrate his life.
The White Hart Inn
Three Households
Chalfont St. Giles
Buckinghamshire
HP8 4LP
www.whitehartstgiles.co.uk
Tel: 01494 872441

T shirts and other stuff

Berri Northwest Passage 2008 T shirts are now available under 'New Releases' here

http://www.dementedferret.com

They have the Berrimilla kingfisher on the front and Pascal's map on the back.

Thanks Nigel.

I'm in New York for a few days more or less on the way home, to go to the Explorers Club annual dinner with Leroy. I have to pretend I'm Karen - interesting and I wonder what people will think. Then a few more days in Falmouth to try to get the new engine into the boat and back to Sydney. Will be good to be home.

Lots of thank you letters to write and there will be an article in Yachting Monthly (UK) in the January or February issue.

In the car park

Berri is out of the water and in the park and ride carpark in Falmouth. Big relief to have it all finally sorted. Now I have to disconnect the engine once again so that we can lift it out in the next few days and start tranferring the marinising parts from the old engine to what is now a basic tractor engine sitting on a pallet outside Dave Carne's workshop in Penrhyn. Then, with a bit of luck, off to New York to meet Leroy and clap while he gets a big award from the Explorer's Club and then, if I can pin him down, Pascal to get the chart properly signed off with a DCO and an HMP stamp.

There will be T shirts - Nigel, if youre still on air, could you please put a link on the website or email it to me?

And to all of you who came looking for us over the last few days, I'm really sorry I missed you - I'm here for perhaps another week and my mobile number is (0)7186004379.

The Plan mark 27

I think I have an arrangement for Berrimilla for the winter in Falmouth. There are some generous people around! I will spend the next couple of days disconnecting the engine and unbolting what I can to transfer to the new one and then leave the boat and Dave and Gordo will work on it as a time filler when things are a bit slack over the next few months. Thanks guys.

I am at my sister's for the weekend and my old friend Don Burfitt, who gave me my first (and one of my most difficult!) Sydney-Hobart ride  is here too. Don is the convener of the Global Warming Alliance www.globalwarmingalliance.com and he gave us a superb award 'for services to the planet' - the crystal ball sits in a depression in the base and is so finely made that it floats on the trapped air and can be tilted and rotated. Lovely, but very difficult to photograph! Thanks Don.

For those in withdrawal

If any of you want something to keep the addiction going, perhaps I could recommend this
http://www.petegoss.com/mystery/

Pete will be carrying Berrimilla's rather battered Australian ensign to use as a courtesy flag when they get to Oz - and he's collecting for a charity. Not sure how to donate but I'm sure it's not too hard. Over to all y'all.

There will be more form me in the next few days as well, as things get sorted.

What now?

A rather dark sequence that just missed an iceerg calving in Pond Inlet - magic morning, all by myself in the cockpit with Berri hove to. If you look carefully, you can see Slarty's signature on the rock in the distance.

As the anti-climax takes hold, I'm wondering what might be next. The immediate plan is to get Berri sorted for the winter in Falmouth and then go back to Oz for a few months, via the USA where there are some interesting invitations on the table including a formal sign-off of Pascal's chart with an HMP rubber stamp, appropriately in a bar somewhere in California. What should we do with the original? I'll put a jpg of the final version on the website in case anyone would like one - seems to me that it would make a reasonable souvenir. I will also put it on a T shirt and post a link for people to order one. That's about a month away and I think that by the time the link is available, the immediacy of all this will have passed for all y'all. If anyone would like to buy one, perhaps you should let us know now and we can advise when the link is up. Nigel - if I send you a jpg of the signed off Pascal chart and of Berri's kingfisher (if I can find it), could you do the T shirting and put a link to your website on the Berri site?

I have about a thousand photos to sort and a presentation to put together around them. I will put a selection of photos on the website as soon as I can. McQ, Kimbra and I will need to pool all our photos eventually and make a proper record.

There will be an article in - I think - Yachting Monthly sometime soon, and I will try to get my act together to write a book. And perhaps a Sydney - Hobart in a different boa this year. That will be strange! Don Burfitt, the owner of Miko, my very first Hobart ride in 1977, is coming to Isabella's for a beer this weekend - should be fun, as we haven't seen eachother for aout 20 years.

Next year, Berri and I will do our last Fastnet together and then I will take her back to Oz - not sure how yet, but for an elegant finale, it ought to be via the Med and the Red Sea to complete a different circumnavigation. I'm told that pirates might make this too dangerous these days, so it will probably be via the Panama if we can dodge the hurricanes.

Meantime, I have to write thank you letters to rather a lot of people. Was it Newton who said that he was able to achieve only by standing on the shoulders of others? A statement that falls clearly into the list of things that I wish I'd said first!

Falmouth - can't be! We just left...

Just been interviewed by Deborah Cameron from the ABC in Oz - dreadful interview - I think she was in a hurry to get to someone else and I was too slow to make my points. Difficult when you're woken at midnight!

Still haven't quite assimilated the fact that Berri is back in Falmouth. Last time we were both here was Aug 20 2005 and we were leaving for Australia. That whole stay for me was shadowed by the fact that we had first a Fastnet to get ready for then the Atlantic and the Southern Ocean again, so there was a niggling tension all the time. This time is different - just have to get the old barge bedded down for the winter and then fly out. We've decided that the engine is past repair so I've ordered a new base engine from the Kubota agent and we'll unbolt all John Witchard's marinising goodies from the old one and bolt them on the new one and bobsyer. I had not realised until we got here that Speedy was collecting donations - thanks everyone! and they will go towards the new donk - I think they will cover about half of it, which is a nice relief.

One of my heroes, Pete Goss, is in town and I finally got to shake his hand yesterday on his lovely new boat Spirit of the Mystery - his website is www.petegoss.com   I'm slightly jealous - his new gig looks like a great blast. I have tangible (and noicely drinkable) proof that he's sponsored by Talisker. Thanks Pete!

The power is off in my hotel room - no coffee and, more to the point, this laptop will die soon so I'll post this and do some more later.

More pics and a news link

Autopsy 'surprise' pudding

Passer by wants to enter the Tombola

Corrie & Kimbra

Passer by wins the Tombola

Kimbra finds the lost the tin opener

Alex - Kimbra - Corrie

Should have gone to SpecSavers (note can of crew beater)

Dead reckoning

Safety briefing - use of the fire extinguisher

Put out more flags

The Nav Station

The Cone of Silence


News link
News Link 2

Some pics

I will try to do a sort of wrap up blog in the next couple of days - McQ and K leave for other parts today and I've got a boat to fix and apply TLC to - then we'll lift her out and put her away for the winter.  Almost caught up with sleep - and the relief of actually being here is beginning to take hold. Yay!

Thanks everyone for your messages - wonderful that you're all out there.

Celebration at the Chainlocker -Isabella W

"Consultation? any chance of a second opinion?"

Falmouth - more pics

Alongside in Falmouth - Isabella Whitworth

Falmouth + Fizz

Just arrived from David W.

Oops

Sorry - forgot to note position. Wonderful (ugly) Dave Carne and his mates came out and towed us in the last couple of windless miles. Love ya dave! So we're here. I'm knackered - more tomoz - love yez all.

4951 00511 The Examiner strikes again.

We seem to be stuck here off the Lizard. The tide is expected to start flowing from the west any time now but there's no sign yet and we're still being pushed back towards Canada. Not having fun and the wind is going to build from the east tomorrow. Poo. But it doesn't look like tonight for Falmouth right now. Sorry and we'll try to keep you posted.

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McQ: (Not) the Barn door...

.. still trying to get round the Lizard...
tacked out cause of land now have vmg of -4.0 knots.
No tide with us yet- surely thats been days with tide against us now, certainloy more than 6 hours
Not funny.
Want a glass of red wine today, not tomorrow.
my revised eta... tomorrow, would be nice.

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4952 00514 Barn door part 2

We've just tacked towards the Manacles from west of the Lizard. AGW, about 4 hours to them, then perhaps another 2 to the harbour. Approximate ETA on that basis around 2130 UTC - so 2230 .local, I think.

Barn door is 5 miles ahead. Can't even begin to tell you what that means.

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4955 00536 The Barn Door

That same imaginary line from The Lizard to Ushant - We can almost see it. About 2 hours, if the wind holds, and we'll be able to tack for The Lizard and Falmouth. Guesstimate still afround 1800 or later. We have to sail all the way and then into the harbour and alongside.

I'm just in mobile range - probably not for long and then back again in a couple of hours.

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McQ: Tuna Pasta

As EVERYONE knows, any self respecting voyage is not complete until the LAST evening meal of the journey- tuna pasta- is finished. DARN tuna pasta. I cooked tuna pasta TWO nights ago. It was SUPPOSED to be the last meal on board!!! But here we are two nights later... it turned out I was a bit pre-emptive with the tuna pasta and those VICIOUS Atlantic wind gods had a good chuckle to themselves as they brought us to a standstill and dashed my optimistic hopes for a late Friday Falmouth arrival!! So here we are still fighting our way home, and I am now going for a late Sunday afternoon arrival and fish and chips in Falmouth for dinner tomorrow night now instead. Tonight WILL be the last meal I cook on board this voyage!!! It WILL!!! The only thing is there is no tuna left, so pasta pesto it is!!! Though maybe a contingency dinner would be more wise given how heeled over we are!!! Beans, with, er, beans, anyone???

I can't wait for a small, celebratory, glass of something tomorrow night!!! (It had better be tomorrow night!!!!)

I'm really hoping someone has/could communicate to my dad that we will be in Falmouth soon and I think tomorrow evening now but also sorry if he got my eta of yesterday and is dithering around Falmouth waiting for us!!! I will try and call when in phone range assuming my phone still works.

My Dave, you are THE BEST EVER. I love you!!! Believe me, going as fast as we can!! xxx

Ali, no worries, I'll be up to see you very very soon, I can't imagine you'll want to go even to South West London after my welcome home party tonight, let alone traipse all the way to South West England tomorrow, and, we WON'T still be out here monday!!!! Lots of love and CAN"T WAIT to see you, have fun tonight, sorry I'm not in attendance and please apologise but thank my other party organisers (Sally and TP) on my behalf too ;)!!! xxx

Lots of love
McQ
xxx

ps: Simon and Gail, as you know today is a very, very, very, important day- it is only 6 months exactly until my birthday!!! Oh and yes, I think someone's wedding too- ALL my congratulations to you both- sorry I missed it- believe me I would currently far rather be there than tacking round the Scillies, against current!!! Am even close enough to know you picked a nice day for it (would, of course, expect nothing less since G organised!!!) See you for celebratory champers very soon though. Lots of love to the whole family (N & M too!!!) Bol xxx

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And another thing

We sailed Pascal's dotted line and it works. Good one, Pascal and thanks for the inspiration! Still have your beer, but it's under threat. Gotta cross that line sooon!

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4950 00703 A line in the imagination

There's a line between The Lizard and Ushant, familiar to sailors down the ages. Nelson used it - can't remember the exact words, but to the effect that, once past Ushant, every sailor considers himself single, Nelson himself included, it seems. Poor Cloudesley Shovell and several hundreds of his sailors didn't quite get back there, which itself is an interesting story about notions of discipline and knowledge. World records start and end there, famous circumnavigations and Atlantic crossings too. And it marks the entrance to the English Channel. I've crossed it a few times - less that 10 times each way - but it still has enormous significance as a symbolic marker.

For us, when we cross it, as we definitely will, sometime real soon now, it marks the end of a biggish undertaking. Berri and I will have completed perhaps only the second ever circumnavigation of the world via the North West Passage, after David Cowper. We have also completed a circumnavigation via Cape Horn and Berri may be the very first boat ever to get close to claiming the two, although the claim is dubious because the two circs stared from opposite ends and share the Falmouth - Sydney leg. However, each is complete in itself. Sydney, Cape Horn, Falmouth, Sydney in 2005 and Falmouth, Sydney, NWP, Falmouth Aug 20 2005 to tomorrow? And Kimbra and McQ have a nice new line of a different sort for their CVs.

I think that I can safely say the following: Berri is, we think, the 77th boat to have completed a transit of the North West Passage, the third smallest and one of only about 25 sailing yachts. Only about half of these yachts have done it in one season. All the other vessels have been icebreakers or ice-strengthened ships. Some of these have made multiple trips - 14 is the record so far, I think - so our transit was the 114th since Amundsen in 1903-5. We are probably the only vessel ever to have sailed from Sydney to the UK via the NWP (Fine Tolerance may have beaten us to it) and we are the first Australian boat to have done it in one season and without icebreaker assistance. Again, Fine Tolerance beat us through but they took a couple of years and I think were assisted by an icebreaker after they had abandoned the boat. I've said before how astoundingly lucky we have been - could'a easily been us.

But we still have to cross that line!

Sending this today because tomoz might get busy and a bit vortexy. Izz, there will definitely be an orange sail, but not sure which, or whether the angle will allow you to see it at the Manacles from Pendennis. And all y'all, come join us at the Harbourmaster's jetty for a bit of a celebration. My guess - very dodgy still - would be tomorrow evening, 1800 UTCish.

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4946 00718 The sitch as it seems from here

We're heading more or less for the Scillies from 34 miles west of Bishop Rock. Might just make it past them to the South on this tack or by putting in a short one when we get close in, which would get us reasonably close to the Lizard by middayish tomoz. IFF the wind holds, that is. If we can do that then we should have a flood tide from 1500 to take us the last 20 miles to Falmouth into a 20 knot ENE erly. Won't be pleasant, but wow! will it feel good to be doing it. But it all depends on the next 24 hours. If the wind knocks us about too much, then we're in the poo as far as the tide tomorrow is concerned. Cross 'em please and hold that pose!

H - and anyone else who needs it, my UK mobile will be +447816004379. We should be in range from the Lizard.

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K: Schooshling

KP - what do you mean you couldn't find any other references for "schooshling"?? The Concise Oxford told me they'd accepted my recommendation to include it. You sure you spelt it right??...Oh well...

Anyway, we're at it again - schooshling that is. My earlier optimistic view that we'd manage to stay ahead of the high pressure system was obviously overly optimistic and we had a nice park-up after all. Very frustrating when the end is almost within cooee. Now beating into a short choppy Celtic Sea, and looks like we're going to be head-bashing the rest of the way from here too. Huey's definitely making us work for it, right to the end!

We've now started to feel the effects of the tides around the south coast of the UK. This is also quite frustrating. Whenever I think we're making progress from the boatspeed and course shown on the compass/instruments on deck, half the time the GPS down below shows that we've been barely moving at all. Or worse - going backwards. But we are now definitely closer to England than Ireland.

The smog has been very thick on the horizon at sunrise the last few mornings, with the sun a sinister orangey-brown colour when it rises. And we've started to see ships again too - not as many as I would have expected given how close we are to the traffic separation schemes off the SW corner of the UK. Anyway, all signs of progress of a sort. I'm hopeful we might see some lights from some off the lighthouses tonight too.

Keep that bubbly cold, and don't drink it all before we get there. On our way - honest!!

K.

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4950 0731 For Katherine

Happys - wish I was there to administer birthday hug! Will try to call if we ever get to Falmouth. Lots of love.xx

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4957 00739 Moving again

15 knots on the nose but much much better than nowt! Heading as close to Falmouth as the wind allows, vmg currently 3+kts, 120 miles to go in a straight line.

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4937 00826 Oh the frustration!

140 to Falmouth - closing with a vmg of a nanominipooptillionth of a smidgin of a knot. No guesstimates, but sometime next century.

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Satphone relay 4932 00837 (09.30z) 19/09/08

There is very little or no wind at all. Wind is expected this afternoon. E/SE most unhelpful direction. They have a small petrol generator on board, with enough gas to give the batteries one last charge. Alex thinks that would give them 3 days power. Mind you, even wind from the wrong direction might get Lizzie spinning. He is going to contact the engineers on St Mary's to see if they have any ideas. Mcq on the other hand is predicting an eta of Saturday night/Sunday morning.
More as it arrives. Best Speedy.

Update via satphone / Isabella in Devon

Just took satphone call from Alex / Berri. Frustration palpable. Alex
asked me to post this info direct to website:

Currently parked 93 miles West Bishop Rock. No change expected 12 - 24
hours. Then expecting some easterly wind which will hit them on the
nose.
No concrete news re putting in to Scilly, or eventual ETA Falmouth.

Gonzales

Please top up both. 07816004379 is Orange, 07770776274 Vfone. Tks.

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4932 00909

Still moving but only just. All bets off! Back to satphone for updates unless things change.

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