Back on the air

Hello all Berrimilla-o-philes. We apologise for this site being off the air for so long. Our dearly loved blogmaster, David "Speedy" Speed, sadly and suddenly passed away last year. In typical "in control" Speedy fashion, he took the passwords with him.

At the same time, the email via blog gate was left slightly ajar, as as you have seen, this site was flooded with rubbish. With the help of blog-spot helpers, we have regained control of the blog and are now in the process of cleaning it up.

Berrimilla's latest voyage is blogged at the Berrimilla2 blog .

Thanks for your support and patience,

regards

Berrimilla and crew.

Tryig to outguess the Examiner

Position 0630 31s,t 4811 07741, trip 116, DMG 97. I seem to remember that we had it much easier last time. Poo!

Still a bit busy out here - both into full TPS dry suit party gear to gybe the pole and optimise our course along the leading edge of the next front to try to ride it as far north as possible before the wind goes east. Just hoping the low doesn't intensify until we get into the front of it rather than the bottom.

more later

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This 'n that

The lull between the uglies. I've just got into full party gear - after sponging the grot from the bilges - and poled out the headsail (no main in this drop of the turbs). There's a 30 kt easterly - at 48 south, an easterly! what's the world coming to? - due tomorrow but it looks like a fairly narrow band on the grib so we are trying to use the remains of the last nasty to get us as far north as possible, way into the easterly band and if possible through it. We will have to see what happens but that's the plan. Will be very interesting to compare the gribs with our track iff we get to Hoibart. bHeadbanging into 30 kts in these seas is not good karma, so we might just heave to and let it blow through. 24 hours lost, in that case.

Macca seemed to go better this time. Now that we have sorted how the programme works, it's easier to prepare. Hope it was worth the early rise.

There seems to be a bit of anxiety as to who is getting a Kergy envelope. If you asked for one, you will get one - but it's not instant gratification as I've said before, they will leave Kerguelen on RV Marion Dufresne at the end of March and reach Reunion in April. After that, it's regular snailmail. To all of you who have contributed to the iridium tin, many thanks.

On Iridium, we are in the only bit of the world that I know of that is out of range of a Sailmail station. We are roughly mid way between Maputo in Africa and Firefly in New South Wales and I haven't been able to connect to either since before Kerguelen. Firefly is just showing on the propagation screen and will slowly come into range but it's been exclusively iridium for quite a long time.

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Delayed Con

Position 0630 30th Day 2 from Kerguelen. 4847 07504 trip 103 DMG 70 - slowed us down a bit, that little nasty. Temperature inside 9 deg, outside a lot colder.

Less that 48 hours out - great start followed by inquisatorial bashing with what looks like another to follow. I hope the seas have timer to subside a bit - it's still blowing ephelaunts off chains but the barometer is rising fast. Big waves - it's always when things seem to be dying down that it's dangerous. Heading NE or where the wind takes us but basically north seems the go for an easy life.

Consultative process seriously discombobulated by excess business with the Examiner. I have just managed lunch - imagine, old fart in red and blue neoprene dry suit, strapped into wildly gyrating galley, wild waves cderashinjg against the windoew (as you can see, also with gloves on)inches from face, marrying a tin of smoked oysters, a slice3 of french loaF AND some mayo and getting the lot into the interior tubing - ever4y6t5hing moves with the boat, but in opposite directions tricky.

Now I'll see whether I can get iridium connected to send this. Then I shall Consult.

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Examinatorial uglies

This one's a real doozy. Not especially severe, 40-50 kts, but very nasty sea and sleet driving horizontally across the boat. The wind lifting the breaking crests and mixing them with the sleet. Wonderful colours if you can find the chutzpah to appreciate them - glassy green sea, glorious translucent iridescent green under the breaking crests where the light from the sky gets through (yep, we're looking up at most of them!), the crests themselves densely frothy with a greenish tint surging towards us and leaving acres of white feathery water behind them. Crashing blast of white beating thudding water as one occasionally breaks over the boat. Trickling flushing gurgle as it drains down every little gully above us. The usual wind streaks on the surface whenever it is smooth enough to see them. No fun out in the cockpit, where I've just been with the video cam. Small signs that it's dissipating - a bit of light through the soggy grey felt overcast, occasional lulls in the howl. The Examiner is clearly punishing us for our temerity in coming this far south and visiting Kerguelen - she's got another one of these lined up behind this one, again to the north of us so we get the adverse and nasty bit at the bottom. Le bum of ze cochon - we are supposed to be in westerlies here.

It's been so busy and beastly that I haven't yet written personal thank yous to the Kergulen mob. It will happen.

Possible Macca session this evening our time - we'll do out best to describe it all but it's hard sustaining that sort of rather one sided conversation. Love yez all - enjoy your lattes in Sydney and your bacon and eggs in Blighty. Margaritas in Texas and scotch in Lake Placid. Coopers in Nome. We might just have a taste of the Talisker if this little troll ever rolls away. Could be soon - the barometer just clicked up two hectothingys and there's a hint of blue in the overcast. But still blowing 44 knots.

Yickapooo! Sunlight - through a glass starkly but it's there! Big wave just broke over us but it's still there, even reflecting off the stanchion I can see through the window.

SJ, do you still you have the software to download tracks from the old Foretrex 201? Little green dinosaur.

Nereida Jeanne - great news! Good to hear.

Comfort in adversity

You awake Alex?...Yep! Bloody don't want to be but I am. I'm warm - to the ends of my toes warm in my toasty minus 20 arctic bag which I keep unzipped from the knees up so that I don't get stuck in it if we roll. I can hear the howl of the wind, the slat of the rain on the coachroof, feel the motion, a nasty corkscrew and I know beyond any denial, any rationalisation that I really really don't want to get up. So I fumble for my clogs to keep my socks dry and contort myself to reach up for the handrail at fingertip height above my head and swing my legs over the bar holding the leecloth. Lurch and stagger as Berri cops a wave. Pete tells me the story of his watch as I hang on with one hand and put all the warm stuff away and shiver into the cold damp fleecy overall and thermal tops that go with wet weather gear and into the pants and then the jacket. For convenience and warmth, I'm using my Canadian flote coat - the jacket is almost runny wet inside - it leaks and, I suspect, was never meant for this stuff. Yeeark - my hands shrivel as they slide down the slimy tubes of the sleeves but it all warms up quite quickly - just damply uncomfortable. And balaclava, headlamp and out into the howling roar that is the cockpit. Cold, driving rain, wind chill savage, quick assessment and ease the sheet till the heady just starts to flog and haul in with all my strength on the furling line to get the thing to about half its already small size. Make it all fast again, the rain by now running down my face and into my collar. Back inside, jacket off, kettle on, hot sweet cuppa with Kerguelen bread and honey and go through it all again to tack (actually wear) the boat to get the wind on the other side as it goes from east to south to south west. Grey, not black out there, the moonlight just getting through. It's only 35 knots but it's an awful sea and you have to be here to appreciate the beauty of it all.

We are just sitting it out, as comfortably as possible. No need to try to go anywhere, just keep the boat as unstressed as we can and wait. Remember Abe Lincoln - "And all this shall pass away..." I hope in about six hours.

3 hours later and definitely not yet - barometer 985 wind steady 35 gusting 40, almost freezing rain, sea building. Bleah!

trying to get back on track....

a message to determine ways and means....

Yamba says it all and another Seagull

A message from someone who understands how it feels over here sometimes!

Alex

Just been for a drive from Brisbane down to Coffs over a few days.

You may be interested to know that the local paper in Yamba is called "The Daily Examiner"

Tough task master on a regular basis?

Nev

Thanks Nev.

The engine parts should be delivered today so now to the painful bit - getting it all disconnected and lifted out. Appendages everywhere in the crossed position please, and Consultations at the ready, vibes teleported and all that jazz. We'll keep ya posted.

The Seagull in the photo gets an honourable mention - I spotted it from the battlements of the Castelo San Jorge about half a mile away and the full length of the Nik's telephoto just brought it in. I went looking for the statue afterwards but the Seagull had done its work and moved elsewhere so no close up. The statue is of Dom Joao 1, King of Portugal, fully armour plated and heroically poised to do battle.

Roight - to the business of the day...

Missing ship

On matters gnasherous, the oxycodone ibuprofen recipe sorted the pain in one dose - remarkable - so I now have a very swollen face and a dull ache but am  reasonably confident that it will all work - Wednesday will be the cruncher, so to speak.

We hope to get the wind generator re-installed to day and the first box ticked. But not looking frward to the engine job - I know just what a pita it is.

Sue - got all your stuff - erk! - will reply shortly. Z ok.

A few pics from Pete

 In order from the top

The mighty Victory - Intergalactic workboat champion.
Wave
One of many ships that passed very close
Jellyblobber for the moon
A Lymington Scow exactly like the one I learned to sail in, probably built in Christchurch - this one was in the Institutiao Navale at Belem and had been used by the Portugese Navy for sail training. I'd love to take her sailing...
Farewell deputation - l-r - Pauline & Paul Harry, Gordon Howells, David Carne, Isabella W, Huw Fernie and Graham Barrett.

The hard stuff made easy

Once upon a time in what seems like another life altogether, I was delivering a Safety and Sea Survival course with Gerry Fitz. One of the students was a medical Doctor who was working in the casualty department of one of Sydney's busiest inner city hospitals. I asked her if she would review the standard list of contents for a first aid kit in the light of new drugs and develping techniques. She agreed - bravely, I thought, given the liability issues involved and the increasingly litigious bent of the yachting mob. She gave us a table of suggested contents based on the absolute requirements of the IRC regulations for Category 0 and 1 yacht races plus her own suggested additions and a table of the sorts of problem your average yacht crew might meet while doing what they do. She and Donna then worked it so that the table is set out with a column for the problem - say Severe Pain - another for the appropriate treatment, then the brand names of a list of drugs to administer - Oxycodone, Endone etc , followed by likely side effects and any other useful information. It's all set out so that it can be laminated and put in the first aid kit or kept in the boat's information file. All very sensible and really easy to use under pressure.

My little burst of prescience about the pain getting really really bad in yesterday's blog came true with knobs on - I won't bore you with descriptions but the rhinocerous pills (paracetamol, 1g) coupled with Pete's special Aubergine painkillers (ditto but with codeine dihydrate, I think) didn't even begin to dent it. So in the depths of the night, I dug out the boat's box of goodies looking for a magic bullet. Oxycodone seemed the thing but I was also full of paracetamol and codeine and was not sure whether I could drop oxycodone on top of all that. So to the table and there it says, loud and clear for oxycodone - administer with paracetamol and/or ibrupofen - yay! exactly what I needed to know.

My profound thanks, Dr. G (the human version) and Donna for an elegant and effective reference kit. The recipe is working and now I will start cutting back on the dose...

Eeyore again

The spares have arrived at Lisbon airport but - isn't there alway a but? - Customs are on strike till Monday and then they start on the backlog.

That's just what WOULD happen, said Eeyore.

Progress

I have found a kind man in an engineering shop on the waterfront who will lend us his (huge!) chainhoist so now we wait for the parts to arrive, then unpack Berri's interior to make room for the engine, disconnect the engine from fuel, water, shaft, battery and controls (job for jockey sized contortionist...), attach chainhoist to the boom and lift - not easy as the hoist must negotiate the back of the coachroof so not a direct lift - then turn the engine around in the cabin, remove the gearbox and bellhousing and follow John's instructions. A relatively simple job in ideal conditions but a touch on the tricky side here.

And I think I need a dentist - one of those times when local knowledge is useful. We have been offered local help by a generous relative of one of our long time followers and I think this might be the time to invoke it.

Our friend the jellyblobber has even greater ambitions - he's now trying to reach the moon but, I fear, his stage 1 lacks the thrust of a Saturn rocket and he's just able to get his blunt end to break the surface. A different version, perhaps, of the more athletic Cowi in the nursery rhyme.

Meantime, I'm going on a seagull hunt - the place is full of statues of the great and the gormless...

ll

Lisbon

Just passing Ponta da Lage at the mouth of the Tejo - lovely day - berth arranged at the Doca d'Alcantera. More when we know.

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Lisbon it is

We're 39 miles north west of the entrance and we'll enter the Tagus at about 0800 UTC tomorrow. More when we know more - but I've always wanted to go to Lisbon so there's serendipity out here somewhere. If they will let us in, of course. We're pretty scruffy.

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Update

Looks as if Lisbon might be a better option than Gib as there is an AirX generator agent there but not in Gib. We are now about 14 hours away from Lisbon if we can make contact via I & G and iridium. We'll keep you posted. Will hang around until daylight if we decide to go in.

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Finger trouble

Or clammy mushy brain - averaging nearly 140 miles/day...

Huge container ship passing us at half a mile.

First attempt at video of waves a disaster - need more practice. Matt, all cameras and this laptop on UTC

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4025N 01002W 674 miles

What a night! gusty 30 - 35 kts and big following sea. About 15 ships overtook us, some very close indeed. Big waves seem to come in groups of about 5 or 6 very closely spaced very steep faced 5ish metre waves with the first one breaking and the next about to break. Because we are going much more slowly than the waves, Berri rides up them, in effect, backwards and they tower above her stern and then she slides over the top, more or less straight and meets the second. If the second one breaks, it's the one that usually makes things difficult and slews the stern around and confuses poor old Kevvo with a false apparent wind. There's a long express train roar and the cockpit is obliterated by rushing crashing water - and so it goes for the rest of the wave train. But at night, with phosphorescence it's magnificent - and scary - it's like surfing down the face of a giant living boiling neon tube. Sometimes with an incandescent rooster tail from the bow to the cockpit. All under a lovely clear sky with the waning crescent moon and Venus at about 15 deg on the E horizon, Orion high above Sirius to the S and the Great Bear and the Pole to the N. For the first time I can remember, I watched the Great Bear turn its half circle and end up upside down...

We're averaging nearly 170 miles a day - huge for Berri but when you consider that the 24 hr record is now about 900 miles, rather ordinary by world standards! Wind due to ease a bit today so perhaps 2 days to C. St Vincent and 2 more to Gib

Impossible to keep the inside dry in these conditions - we have the storm boards in, but at every watch change we bring in litres of water on our gear and B is so small there's nowhere to isolate this from the rest of the boat. So everything is clammy. Erk!

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The Examiner getting back into practice

4133N 01009W

Hoofing it down the coast, ships everywhere and the waves are so big you often don't see the ships until they are only a mile or so away, by which time we fervently hope they have seen us on radar - I bought the best reflector I could afford...

Steady 25+ knots. Waves building for 36 hours - mostly ok but every 100th or so wave we get a train of four or five massive steepies very closely together. Heady rolled in to half storm jib size and still surfing at 6+ with several of the biggies breaking into the cockpit and half filling it. Trying to keep everything dry below.

Due for at least another 18 hours of this. Prob 5 or 6 days to Gib all going well.

Pete on watch in the cockpit - has to be someone there all the time for the ships - I've just done double egg and bacon and tomato sandos with a pre prandial Discussion with Mr Gydrin. Noice.

Time for a couple of hours ensac.

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The plan - such as it is

We're at 4602N 00944W with 325 miles behind us. 30 knots forecast for tomorrow and the next 2 days to the south of us. We will try to run south along a line just west of 10 W to about 36 N and then turn East for Gibraltar. In the meantime, I hope we will find out whether we can get the generator fixed in Gib - or, as an extreme option, one of us could fly to the UK with it. If all goes well we should be in Gib in about a week to ten days. Anne H in Falmouth - if you'd be so kind as to email the OCC Port Officer in Gib, we'd be very grateful.

Not having it working is not s true showstopper but it does make things much more difficult and this early in the trip and so close to potential help, I think it is sensible to try for the fix.

There seem to be echoes of that first voyage all through this - the unplanned stop in NZ and generator problems later.

Anyway - POO!

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