Leg 2: Tenerife, Canary Islands to Cape Town, South Africa (cont)

Date: 11 September 2003

Day: 48

Local time: 1200

Leg Number and name: Leg 2, 'The Yellow-nosed'

Focus of leg: The long-line fishing industry - its global impact on the albatross population

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 20.17'S, 26.12''W

Position relative to nearest land: 160 nm east of Ilha ea Trinidade

Course: 150 T

Speed: 5.9 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 130 miles

Distance traveled since last port: 3,136 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 5,252 nm

Headed to: Capetown, South Africa

Distance to next port: approx 2,483 miles (Great Circle route from present location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)

Barometric pressure: 1036

Wind direction: E

Wind Speed: 18 knots

Cloud cover: 50%,

Air temperature: n/a

Surface sea temperature: 24.6 C

Sea conditions: Gently reaching across light sea with moderate swell, a few whitecaps, a few rain showers around us, wind easing.

Bird sightings: No birds sighted today.

Notes: I was just dozing on the bunk, MC and I were soon to be on watch. It's a lovely day here, somewhere in the South Atlantic. We haven't seen a bird for days. Tristan da cunha is only 1,250 miles ahead and we are 48 days out from Ardmore.

In the very early days when we were still feeling seasick in the Minch, an email from a less than charitable soul in Canada told us were were 'sailing into obscurity'. It does feel like it. Right now, pinned down on a rescue voyage with wonky rigging and 3000 limping miles of empty South Atlantic between us and the safety of Cape Town and new wires, I wonder is it surprising that the stye on my right eye is throbbing?

MC was counting the onions this morning to see if they'd run out with the extra couple of weeks or so this Leg of the trip is going to take.

This is the super rig which was going to transform everything. Right now I would not turn down a steak from the rump of the person that did it. I've always been doubtful about swages and now I've got plenty of time to think about it.

The phone rang just now but there was no one there. It would have been our third call in seven weeks. If you're bored give us a call on 00 881 631 532 789. Make it short, it'll cost you the price of cup of coffee, £1 a minute.

Grrrrr


Into the mist...


John Ridgway

Date: 12 September 2003

Day: 49

Local time: 1200

Leg Number and name: Leg 2, 'The Yellow-nosed'

Focus of leg: The long-line fishing industry - its global
impact on the albatross population

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 21.34S, 25.26'W
Position relative to nearest land: 980 nautical miles ENE of Rio de Janeiro

Course: 161 T

Speed: 3.5 knots

Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 90 miles

Distance traveled since last port: 3,226 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 5,342 nm

Headed to: Capetown, South Africa

Distance to next port: approx 2,416 miles (Great Circle route from present
location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)

Barometric pressure: 1034

Wind direction: E

Wind Speed: 2 - 8 knots

Cloud cover: 5%,

Air temperature: n/a

Surface sea temperature: 24.6 C

Sea conditions: Almost becalmed, long gentle swell is throwing wind out of
sails (Full No2 yankee, full staysail, full mainsail, no mizen), sails
noisily slatting, hand steering.

Bird sightings: One Storm Petrel sighted early in the day, otherwise no
sign of life.

Notes: Written while lying under a teabag (for the sty)... Alone at the
wheel not long after sunrise. Mc down polishing the faithful paraffin
cooker with its three rings and an oven.

Coaxing three knots out of the boat in the lightest of breezes. I've been down here in the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and now the naughties. I
remembe the old Clan Kennedy, a welded Liberty ship, steaming through just
this light weather in 1956. An old rust bucket; with my fellow Clan Line
cadet, we chipped the rust all the way out to Capetown and primed her with
red lead all the way home to Avonmouth. My most vivid memories are of
plouhing along, flat out at 8 knots, right through the middle of vast
patches of fish, all jumping like crazy to escape the marauding tuna.

Nothing like that now. We are 22 degrees South, Haven't seen a bird for
days. Nothing. Who wrote 'Silent Spring'? Rachel somebody? (Carson?). Is
this how it's going to be?

We should have seen the Yellow-nose Albatross anywhere since 15 degrees
South. On the diagonal that's nearly 500 miles astern now.

Our old chum, Euan Dunn has sent us the latest situation report on the
Yellow-nose we have yet to sight.

"The Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross (Thalassarche chlororhynchos) breeds
(Sep - May, probably annually) only on Gough and Tristan da Cunha where it
currently numbers around 35,000 pairs. Outside the breeding season it
disperses throughout the South Atlantic, mainly between 45°S and 15°S.

The species has just been upgraded from Near Threatened in 2000 to
Endangered in 2003 after research at colonies indicated a 58% reduction
over three generations. If this threat does not abate, population models
suggest that the species may need to be classified as Critically
Endangered, the final category before becoming Extinct. The threat is
chiefly from longlines, including around 900 birds killed annually off SE
Brazil where it is one of the commonest followers of boats. Many are also
killed off Uruguay and by Japanese and Taiwanese tuna longliners off
southern Africa (where it also attends trawlers). Proportionately more
females are killed than males which is worse for the population's ability
to breed and grow than if both sexes suffered equally.


Dr Euan Dunn, Senior Marine Policy Officer, RSPB"

Euan's Grandad skippered a North Sea Steam Trawler, out of Aberdeen and he knows about the fishing boat problem. It's not that fishermen want to drown the birds with their baited sinking hooks, they don't, of course they'd much rather the bait was taken by a valuable fish.

All that's needed is a willing skipper on each fishing boat.

No fish means no fishing. Look at the situation at home: De-commissioned
boats are scrapped and burnt. Surely, if we can get to that big silvery
moon up there, we can sort this out.

Try contacting Euan at the RSPB, he'll tell you how you can help.

Tomorrow, I'll come up with a list of things you can do. There are simple measures which will regulate the fisheries and prevent the needless
slaughter of the as yet un-seen albatross. And there are things you can do
to help.

Into the mist...


John Ridgway

Date: 13 September 2003
Day: 50

Local time: 1200

Leg Number and name: Leg 2, 'The Yellow-nosed'

Focus of leg: The long-line fishing industry - its global
impact on the albatross population

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 22.45'S, 24.40'W

Position relative to nearest land: 1083 nm NW of Tristan da Cunha

Course: 131 T

Speed: 2.8 knots

Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 73 miles

Distance traveled since last port: 3,299 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 5,415 nm

Headed to: Capetown, South Africa

Distance to next port: approx 2,354 miles (Great Circle route from present
location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)

Barometric pressure: 1035

Wind direction: E

Wind Speed: 2 - 6 knots
Cloud cover: 20%,

Air temperature: n/a

Surface sea temperature: 24.0 C

Sea conditions: Very calm, long gentle swell from SE, brief periods of wind
up to about 8 knots give short lived burst of speed over the very smooth
blue sea. The gentle swell throws the wind out of the sails (Full No 2
Yankee, full staysail, full mainsail, full mizen). Too little wind for the
Monitor wind vane self steering. Steering mainly by hand.

Bird sightings: Nil

Notes: Scrabbling for 3 knots whenever we catch a passing breeze. Plenty of time to beef up the bracing for the mast. It's easy to curse our luck with the faulty wires but we shouldn't forget the miracle of the Hood Inmast furling system. What a blessing this is on dark and stormy nights. The mainsail comes and goes with just the flick of a switch.

Still no birds. If it wasn't for the full moon playing on the slumbering
silver sea at night this would seem a god-forsaken place.

The heavy albatross likes strong winds and hates the calms. Maybe he'll
come with the wind. I'd love to see an adult Wandering Albatross the same
age as me. Of course he'd be much more traveled than me, he'll have been
about as far as the moon and back by now. But will he be alive still? How
many pieces of squid has he scooped without being dragged down by the
sinking hook? And what are the odds against a young fella repeating that
trick for 65 years, today, I wonder?

For thousands of years man only lived for 25-35 years while the albatross managed anything up to 100. Now it looks as if it may have to go, simply because of man's laziness.

It only need a willing skipper on every fishing boat and the albatross will survive.

Marie Christine and I have come on this year-long voyage to see if it is
possible for two old fogies to actually make a difference in this fast
moving trivial world. Time will tell. Capetown is the start line of our
voyage to follow the circum-polar flight track all the way round the world
and back to Capetown.

I know it's easy to cough up a few bob to salve the conscience. But we want to try and actually do something ourselves. Particularly we want to avoid other people from putting up money to help us personally. I hope you can understand this, I'm not very good at expressing myself.

If you feel you want to help the battle to save the albatross and you are unable to do anything yourself, then perhaps you could make a financial
contribution to Birdlife International's 'Save the Albatross' campaign.
You should contact Euan Dunn at the RSPB or your national organisation
affiliated to Birdlife International.

But hopefully you will find it more fulfilling to actually do something
yourself. But what? Well, first of all you could stand by to get as many
people as you possibly can to sign the global petition which is being
organisd by B.Weeber of the NZ Forest and Bird orgnisation. We hope to
launch the Petition in October and fly from the boat on our way home in
June next year to present it to the United Nations in Rome. We will need
all the help we can get with this, and we welcome any ideas through the BBC
H2G2 website to the boat out here in the South Atlantic.

Well, that's a start. Tomorrow, I'll come up with other practical ideas on how you can make a difference to help save the albatross.

Into the mist...


John Ridgway

Date: 14 September 2003

Day: 51

Local time: 1200 GMT

Leg Number and name: Leg 2, 'The Yellow-nosed'

Focus of leg: The long-line fishing industry - its global
impact on the albatross population


Position - Latitude, Longitude: 23.30'S, 23.27'W

Position relative to nearest land: 2000 nm ENE of Buenos Aires and Igor

Course: 138 T

Speed: 5.3 knots

Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 95 miles

Distance traveled since last port: 3,394 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 5,510 nm

Headed to: Capetown, South Africa

Distance to next port: approx 2,254 miles (Great Circle route from present
location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)


Barometric pressure: 1035

Wind direction: ENE

Wind Speed: 12 knots

Cloud cover: 20%,

Air temperature: n/a

Surface sea temperature: 23.4 C

Sea conditions: Light sea with big long swell rolling up from the SW. Wind
has now filled in to a steady 12 knots. Sails

comprise Full No2 yankee, full staysail, full mainsail, full mizen. Sailing
under Monitor wind vane self steering.
Bird sightings: Nil. Did see Flying fish today, maybe our last until we
pass this way again heading north, all being well.

Notes: "It doesn't get much better than this" agreed Marie Christine,
watching the whales as we ate our curry supper on a lovely evening.
"Except on the land of course", I reminded her. We've had another quiet
day, pulling clear of the tropics. The highlight has been the handful of whales, blowing continuously on the surface half a mile away on our port side as we slipped gently past at 4 knots.

I've seen Mares' Tails in the upper sky and there's a long long swell
rocking up from the south-west, the first for a
very long time. We dodge along snatching a breeze from scattered black
clouds, each hanging its grey skirt of rain. Patience
is a virtue but sometimes in my case it seems suspiciously like laziness,
Nick of course, works tirelessly, as ever - we must
get the dinghy out of the big locker on the back of the boat. It's jammed
in, but we must get it out, under it lies the big
loose luffed furling drifter sail which would be handy in these light airs.

Still no sign of the Yellow-nosed albatross - if the total population is
35,000 pairs and 900 are being killed by
long-liners off SE Brazil alone each year, never mind elsewhere, it looks
as if time is rapidly running out for them.
One of the ways you can help stop this entirely needless slaughter, is to
put your shoulder to the wheel to close the legal
loopholes which allow pirate fishing vessels to operate under a 'flag of
convenience'.

More than one billion hooks are laid each year by long-line fishing boats
using lines up to 130 km long. we've seen them way
out in both the Atlantic and Pacific.

Please do write to your national Fisheries Minister, MP, Representative,
Euro-MP or Senator, and ask what is being done
about seabird by-catch, and what steps the government is taking to close
'Flag of convenience' loopholes for pirate fishermen.

And please do send a copy of your letter to Birdlife International,
Wellbrook court, Girton, Cambridge, CB3 ONA, UK.

A 'Flag of Convenience', allows a fishing boat to be owned in one country
and registered in another. Thus these pirate boats
avoid international fisheries regulations and operate with total dis-regard
for the terrible number of seabirds they kill.
Many of these pirate boats operate in the Southern Ocean, right along the
line of the Albatross's flight track, targeting
'White Gold' the Patagonian Tooth fish which is sold as 'Sea Bass',
Antarctic Blue Hake and Mero.

Halting these fleets of 'Flags of Convenience' pirate boats is essential to
prevent the albatross becoming extinct. Key
states providing 'Flags of Convenience' to pirate fishing boats include
Panama, Belize, Cambodia and Honduras,with the
majority of boats owned by companies back in Taiwan, Spain, Belize, Panama,
Honduras, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and
China.

As you can see it is a huge and hidden problem. So great that registered
vessels carry observers to ensure seabirds are not
caught.

If you are able to help with our Petition for the United Nations in any way
please contact Carol Knutson at the NZ Forest and
Bird organisation (see link to their website in our pages on H2G2). Carol
has been a tower of strength in organising the
Petition and she will be sailing with us from Melbourne to Wellington in
December.

Into the mist...


John Ridgway

Date: 15 September 2003

Day: 52

Local time: 1200 GMT

Leg Number and name: Leg 2, 'The Yellow-nosed'

Focus of leg: The long-line fishing industry - its global
impact on the albatross population


Position - Latitude, Longitude: 24.54'S, 22.05'W

Position relative to nearest land: 880 nm NW of Tristan da Cunha

Course: 125 T

Speed: 3.5 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 115 miles

Distance traveled since last port: 3,509 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 5,625 nm

Headed to: Capetown, South Africa

Distance to next port: approx 2,160 miles (Great Circle route from present
location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)

Barometric pressure: 1037

Wind direction: NE

Wind Speed: 3-9 knots

Cloud cover: 5%,

Air temperature: n/a

Surface sea temperature: 22.2 C

Sea conditions: Becoming very calm, light wind now from almost astern
making for very difficult sailing conditions. hand steering (too light and
variable for Monitor wind vane steering system)
Bird sightings: Three unidentified white birds sighted in the
distance(thought to be Shearwaters) flying across our path ahead.

Notes: Light airs remain. But we are making way to the south and the great
Southern Cross is big in the velvet night sky.

Lone Storm Petrelss and Shearwaters occasionally call in but they are too
busy to stay. Gotta press on! Can't they just spare a few moments?

Pierre Pistorius, the bird expert would be pretty bored by now if he'd come
with us. Perhaps he knew there would be no birds?

So what else could you do personally, to prevent the needless slaughter of
the albatross, as it dives towards extinction, far away from you?

Well clearly its a question of the fuss people are prepared to make.
Fishermen are decent people, they simply don't realize the damage they are doing. It's simply a question of of education - parents are often inadvertently educated by their children. If schools took the symbolic albatross to their hearts - children would tell their fisherfolk parents.

In South Georgia, the British Antarctic Survey offered to help us film the
'instrumentation' of albatrosses for satellite tracking. We hope to film school classes watching these 'instrumented' birds fly thousands of kilometers in a day. Strangely we have run into trouble with this idea. Children are no longer allowed to be filmed without parental approval as the film may be viewed by paedophiles - unsure how we may get around this - perhaps we just film the teacher and the backs of the children's heads? It would be good if we could film a school in a fishing community. Perhaps you could have an effect on the school where your children go? The albatross symbolises, stands for, the health of the ocean itself which covers 3/4 of the globe. The ocean which no country owns and the health of which no country feels responsible.

Into the mist...


John Ridgway

Date: 16 September 2003

Day: 53

Local time: 1200 GMT

Leg Number and name: Leg 2, 'The Yellow-nosed'

Focus of leg: The long-line fishing industry - its global
impact on the albatross population

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 25.34'S, 21.22'W
Position relative to nearest land: 826 nm NW of Tristan da Cunha

Course: 89 T

Speed: 0.9 knots

Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 55 miles

Distance traveled since last port: 3,564 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 5,680 nm

Headed to: Capetown, South Africa

Distance to next port: approx 2,124 miles (Great Circle route from present location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)

Barometric pressure: 1037

Wind direction: SSE

Wind Speed: 0 - 5 knots

Cloud cover: 30%,

Air temperature: n/a

Surface sea temperature: 23.8 C

Sea conditions: Flat calm, big long swell from SW, each swell pushing a
narrow wave of wind ahead of it which reverses as the crest passes beneath
the boat.

Bird sightings: One bird in the distance thought to be a Shearwater

Notes: wriggling lke a worm on the hook of the South Atlantic High Pressure
Zone. We twist and turn our course every which way but the sea has that look and feel of oily calm.

Still no birds. It's too calm for them. Just one Shearwater flapping its
spikey wings almost batlike. Black head, pure white underneath, grey brown above.

Sails slat, and slat and slat as we battle for half a knot south, the only
way out.

Of course it's lovely weather for anything except going south. At home we
long for the mention of a High coming in from the Atlantic, it means a break from the rain and wind so prevalent in the Highlands.

What about a bit of patience?

We've run into a bit of trouble with our communications. Nick is spending
two and three hours each night trying to get through on Sailmail (a free data over HF radio system). All too often he establishes a link but such a slow link that he loses it half way through the incoming messages, let alone sending the daily log.

In the end he has to send the log by Iridium (data over satellite phone) at £1 a minute without even receiving the incoming mail. This gives the impression that we only reply very slowly, when nothing could be further from the truth.

We think there is something wrong in the set up of our Sailmail equipment.
Hopefully we can solve this riddle in Capetown.

Into the mist...


John Ridgway

Date: 17 September 2003

Day: 54

Local time: 1200GMT

Leg Number and name: Leg 2, 'The Yellow-nosed'

Focus of leg: The long-line fishing industry - its global
impact on the albatross population

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 26.28'S, 21.00'W

Position relative to nearest land: 770 nm NW of Tristan da Cunha

Course: 172 T

Speed: 5.9 knots

Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 58 miles

Distance traveled since last port: 3,622 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 5,738 nm

Headed to: Capetown, South Africa

Distance to next port: approx 2,080 miles (Great Circle route from present location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)

Barometric pressure: 1038

Wind direction: ESE

Wind Speed: 16 knots

Cloud cover: 60%,

Air temperature: n/a

Surface sea temperature: 21.8 C

Sea conditions: Fairly smooth with some white caps on a long swell from the SW. Making good speed to windward with full No 2 Yankee, 7/8 Staysail, 75% Mainsail,no Mizen.

Bird sightings: 4 medium large dark Petrels.

Notes: Rejoice, the night of Black Cloud brought first, four hours sailing North East (Glum!); then we tacked due South at last on a good ESE wind.

Just after dawn we were paid a visit by an all black bird which might have been a large Petrel.

We're hoping this wind will allow us to sail south for a few days without interruption so we can then commence the easterly run in to Capetown, riding on a westerly air stream (surrounded by albatrosses!). The reality is seldom like that.

I'm afraid the return to a bumpy, on the wind, motion has me rather queasy.

Into the mist...


John Ridgway

Date: 18 September 2003

Day: 55

Local time: 1200 GMT

Leg Number and name: Leg 2, 'The Yellow-nosed'

Focus of leg: The long-line fishing industry - its global
impact on the albatross population

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 28.30'S, 19.50'W

Position relative to nearest land: 634 nm NW of Tristan da Cunha

Course: 140 T

Speed: 6.8 knots

Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 140 miles

Distance traveled since last port: 3,762 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 5,878 nm

Headed to: Capetown, South Africa

Distance to next port: approx 1,980 miles (Great Circle route from present location, we'll sail further to make the most of
Trade Winds and Westerlies)

Barometric pressure: 1035

Wind direction: NE

Wind Speed: 18 knots

Cloud cover: 100%,

Air temperature: n/a

Surface sea temperature: 19.3 C

Sea conditions: Moderate very grey sea from the NE, some white caps, constant drizzle, low visibility. Good speed sailing on broad reach with full No 2 Yankee, 7/8 Staysail, 75% Mainsail,no mizen. Becoming cool. Now wearing full wet weather gear on deck.

Bird sightings: Yellow nosed Albatross. Pintado, Black Petrel

Notes: At 0915 in position 28 degrees 18'S, 20 degrees 03'W, on Day 55, I saw the first albatross. Though it stayed for hardly 5 minutes, arcing its brilliant white underside across our wake and coming right over our stern before shooting off to the West like a narrow plank, balanced in the centre, whose ends curve down under their own weight. We peered after it, into the grew drizzle, through the open hatchway at the back of the doghouse.

"I'm sure it's because I've just washed the cooker smoke off the Galley ceiling and walls!" laughed Marie Christine.

I was thinking how thoroughly worthwhile this is. All the time and savings. I was thrilled.

If we could prevent this miracle of flight from becoming needlessly extinct. If there is such a thing as reincarnation, this is what I would like to be - a Wandering Albatross, ranging the globe at will.

Into the mist...


John Ridgway

Date: 19 September 2003

Day: 56

Local time: 1200 GMT

Leg Number and name: Leg 2, 'The Yellow-nosed'

Focus of leg: The long-line fishing industry - its global
impact on the albatross population

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 30.29'S, 19.50'W

Position relative to nearest land: 482 nm NW of Tristan da Cunha

Course: 120 T

Speed: 6.2 knots

Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 153 miles

Distance traveled since last port: 3,915 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 6,031 nm

Headed to: Capetown, South Africa

Distance to next port: approx 1,864 miles (Great Circle route from present location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)

Barometric pressure: 1029

Wind direction: NNW

Wind Speed: 22 knots

Cloud cover: 100%,

Air temperature: n/a

Surface sea temperature: 17.8 C

Sea conditions: Moderate very grey sea from the N, some white caps,
occasional rain squalls bringing poor visibility. Good speed sailing on
run with full No 2 Yankee, 7/8 Staysail, 75% Mainsail,no mizen. Sail
reduced at 6am with freshening wind.


Bird sightings: Yellow nosed Albatross, Black Petrels, Pintados

Notes: Bumpy night - broke wind vane steering oar. Hand steering, lumpy sea, feel sick.

Saw our 3rd Albatross this morning. A raggedy old fellow with frazzled wing tips who had to keep flapping his wings to keep airborne in a Fore 6 wind, while Pintados and Petrels were gliding effortlessly.

Early on in my thousand trips round Handa Island at home in NW Scotland, I noticed there were only fit birds there - the weak were just lunch for the strong. Poor old albatross.

Tough all over - gawd I feel weak.

Good news about the Save the Albatross Petition, with phone calls from Australia and the USA today. It seems there is a call for it to be on paper as well as online.

Into the mist...


John Ridgway

Date: 20 September 2003

Day: 57

Local time: 1200 GMT

Leg Number and name: Leg 2, 'The Yellow-nosed'

Focus of leg: The long-line fishing industry - its global
impact on the albatross population


Position - Latitude, Longitude: 31.29'S, 17.01'W

Position relative to nearest land: 1,800 nm west of Capetown

Course: 148 T

Speed: 6.4 knots

Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 85 miles

Distance traveled since last port: 4,000 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 6,116 nm

Headed to: Capetown, South Africa

Distance to next port: approx 1,800 miles (Great Circle route from present location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)

Barometric pressure: 1027

Wind direction: NE

Wind Speed: 24 knots

Cloud cover: 100%,

Air temperature: n/a

Surface sea temperature: 17.8 C

Sea conditions: Rough

Bird sightings: Yellow nosed Albatross, Black browed Albatross, Black Petrels, Pintados

Notes: Having reached, long since, that point or time in life where
everything appears to go just numb, it was surprising this morning to be
alone on deck and to bump into someone I used to know.

All night we had been shadowed by a thunderstorm. Frightening lightening flickered around the rim of our moonless night. Nick, the giant workhorse, was plainly exasperated at having to gybe the boat for a second time just before dawn. With all the strings and tweaks, this can take up to an hour in the dark.

Springtime can be bumpy in the South Atlantic. For Marie Christine and me, the morning began plainly enough. We sipped our flask hot lemon and water from insulated mugs. I gulped down the Allbran, sultanas, milk powder and cold water. ( My wife gives this a miss) then we moved onto the next course: Stocktans Oatcakes from Orkney. The Pinhead oatmeal crisped up in the oven. there are two Marmite and four home-mad blackcurrant jam for me.

Marie-Christine makes do with only two of these thin triangular delights. But then she is very much a small pocket battleship.

Breakfast over, MC went below to bake bread. The wind freshened sharply and I left the shelter of the Doghouse for the wheel. Safety strop 'clunking' comfortingly onto the angular point.
Disengaging the wind vane steering from the hub of the steering wheel I
gently turned it off the wind. The purple thunder cloud was upon us. With the wind came 'The thresh of the deep sea rain'. The true wind read 46 knots on the dial and the lazy old boat picked up her skirts.

Guessing the squall would pass I didn't want to call for extra hands to reef the sails. The 30-ton boat danced and I felt myself coming alive. After the rain I was joined by an immaculate pair of Black browed Albatrosses.

Nearly 40 years ago, Chay Blyth and I rowed across the North Atlantic. When times were especially exciting we used to joke,"Well at least we're going through the front door". Who'd have thought I could still feel like that!After an hour or so, alone with my former self, things settled down a bit and I reefed the main sail with the wonderful Hood Inmast furling. Then took in a good bit on the No2 Yankee and the Staysail.

With the boat back on the windvane steering once more and the speed down to a sensible 'still 20,000 miles to go or so' 7 knots, 'Rie' didn't need to touch the steering for the four hours of her watch.

But Nick had 60 knots later.

Meanwhile, we push on for Capetown.

Into the mist...


John Ridgway

Date: 21 September 2003

Day: 58

Local time: 1200 GMT

Leg Number and name: Leg 2, 'The Yellow-nosed'

Focus of leg: The long-line fishing industry - its global
impact on the albatross population

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 32.05'S, 14.55'W

Position relative to nearest land: 1,675 nm west of Capetown

Course: 101 T

Speed: 5.4 knots

Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 120 miles

Distance traveled since last port: 4,120 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 6,230 nm

Headed to: Capetown, South Africa

Distance to next port: approx 1,675 miles (Great Circle route from present location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)


Barometric pressure: 1024

Wind direction: SW

Wind Speed: 22 knots

Cloud cover: 10%,

Air temperature: n/a

Surface sea temperature: 17.0 C

Sea conditions: Still rough

Bird sightings: Yellow nosed Albatross, Black browed Albatross, Black Petrels, Pintados, Storm Petrels

Notes: The first day of a true South-West wind. The top of a Depression marching across the Southern Ocean faraway. Up till now it has been East wind of one kind or another, all the way down from the Equator.

I'm writing this in the 'Dome', watching an immature Yellow-Nosed Albatross who's been with us all day. The dome is a clear plastic blister set on top of the main hatch, at the after end of the Saloon. My bum is sat on a special board slotted in above the top step, and my back is shielded from the elements by the heavy perspex dropboards which serve as the Boat's front door, leading down into the Saloon. My feet are braced against two convenient vertical posts below. It's my notion of what it would be like as a top centre gunner in the fuselage of a Wellington bomber. And it's where I hope our resident bird expert will target their albatrosses for their observer programme as we follow these magical birds on their circumpolar track, right round the world, Capetown eastabout to Capetown.

The sliding Perspex hatch cover draws toward my chest and makes a
convenient shelf to write on. At the forward inside edge of the dome, a
merely a dozen inches from my nose, a repeater Raymarine AutoPilot gives me our course and allows me press button steering of the boat. This will be handy in cold thick weather, though in reality the boat is controlled by the person on Watch some dozen feet aft in the Doghouse. Down beyond my left knee a repeater radar blinks from Nick's Communication Centre.

It's a fine bright summer day. The water temperature at 17C is a long way down on the 31C at the Equator. We have a steady 20+ knots of wind with plenty of white breakers all around. In fact there was a writing-cowering pause just then, as a wave broke over the dome. I flinched and instinctively looked to see if my clean-on-today shirt had got wet.(It's only my third shrt in 5 1/2 weeks so it's freshness is precious). Hooray! it's dry as a bone!

I love this old boat. I really do. We've been in some scrapes in the past 27 years. It'll have to come up the slipway and become a relic like English Rose 111 and IV when we get home; Marie Christine says I can live on it and clean the brass each day, she's been sick of it for 27 years.

Every dog has it's day.

Into the mist...


John Ridgway

Date: 22 September 2003

Day: 59

Local time: 1200 GMT+1

Leg Number and name: Leg 2, 'The Yellow-nosed'

Focus of leg: The long-line fishing industry - its global
impact on the albatross population


Position - Latitude, Longitude: 33.00'S, 12.34'W

Position relative to nearest land: 1,555 nm west of Capetown

Course: 124 T

Speed: 4.2 knots

Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 130 miles

Distance traveled since last port: 4,250 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 6,360 nm

Headed to: Capetown, South Africa

Distance to next port: approx 1,555 miles (Great Circle route from present location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)


Barometric pressure: 1025

Wind direction: WNW

Wind Speed: 12 knots

Cloud cover: 10%,

Air temperature: n/a

Surface sea temperature: 16.9.0 C

Sea conditions: Running with moderate jubbly sea, periodic sets of large
swells from SW and rain/wind squalls. A bright sunny day of lovely sailing, but cool.


Bird sightings: Yellow nosed Albatross, Black browed Albatross, big black Petrels, Shearwaters, Pintados, Storm Petrels

Notes: Working on my guiding principle that 'Whatever you are doing - there is a better way of doing it', We have had a fresh
look, with an open mind, at the sets of three winches and four jammers
situated on either side of the steering wheel at the
back door of the Doghouse. By re-leading a few ropes and switching the
usage of four winches we have taken a leap forward in
the ease of handling the boat by one person alone on deck.

Can the same principle be applied to the saving of the albatross? Is there a better way of saving the albatross? If the present way was successful, there would be no need for us to make this voyage. Because the albatross population would be on the increase.

While we are seeing the occasional Albatross there is by no means an
infestation in the South Atlantic.

Over the past couple of years awareness of the threat to the Albatross has undoubtedly grown in the UK.

We must succeed with the aim of the Petition. To do this the Petition
itself must be a success. - and this depends on everyone concerned getting masses of signatures. Can you help please?

Into the mist...


John Ridgway

Date: 23 September 2003

Day: 60

Local time: 1200 GMT+1

Leg Number and name: Leg 2, 'The Yellow-nosed'
Focus of leg: The long-line fishing industry - its global
impact on the albatross population


Position - Latitude, Longitude: 34.18'S, 111.05'W

Position relative to nearest land: 170 nm north of Tristan da Cunha

Course: 104 T

Speed: 6.0 knots

Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 110 miles

Distance traveled since last port: 4,360 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 6,470 nm

Headed to: Capetown, South Africa

Distance to next port: approx 1,469 miles (Great Circle route from present location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)


Barometric pressure: 1020

Wind direction: WNW

Wind Speed: 25 knots

Cloud cover: 15%,

Air temperature: n/a

Surface sea temperature: 17.1 C

Sea conditions: Reaching across a rough sea, many whitecaps and a big
swell, sailing under 2/3 No 2 Yankee and 7/8 Staysail
only. No main or Mizen. Rolling a fair bit. Sailing under Monitor windvane steering system.


Bird sightings: Yellow nosed Albatross, Black browed Albatross, big black Petrels, Shearwaters.

Notes: 1500 nm to Capetown. I gybed the boat this morning, just before we were caught by a black squall which caused the barometer to drop a couple of points. Plenty of boiling purple clouds. Luckily the edge only just clipped us and the glass went up again.

I was sweating a little by the time I got back to the Doghouse after a gymnastic session swinging on the uncontrollable boom.

At least my arms felt longer.

And there was a passenger! A little swallow, swift or House Martin had
taken shelter by the perspex dropper/door. Marie Christine opened the
doorway and he settled on her knee. His eyelids were drooping so she put
him in a straw basket from the Perlas Islands, covering it with a bit of
duvet to make him think it was night. There are some sesame seeds and water for his continental breakfast when he wakes. We are halfway between Buenos Aires and Capetown, it's 1500 miles to the beach.

Unless of course he's heading for Tristan da Cunha, 170 miles due south. 1,500 miles beyond that and he'll need his thermals, in Antarctica.

We had hoped to call in at Tristan, but we must hasten to Capetownn to repair our rigging. We are slowed somewhat by being unable to set our twin headsail rig as all the winches are taken up with the bracing ropes for the broken cap shroud wires. We've been delayed a couple of weeks.

Tristan is a 7,000' volcano poking out of sea 2 miles deep. It is the most distant community and has the least chemical polllution in the world. Home to great numbers of albatrosses, it's strange we see only one at a time.

We called in there, on our way back from South Georgia in 1995, hoping to take a picture of a sheep dog which had been shipped out from a village near us in Scotland. There are 300 people but only eight families, all living in the little village of Edinburgh, by a solidified river of black lava which flowed down from the crater high above. They speak an old fashioned type of English and many prefer the potato as currency to money.

Evelyn Hagan ones the dog. Short and dark haired in a yellow blouse she
looks cheery and capable. Her sturdy white cottage with its wind break of flax looked very comfortable to Marie Christine. Over tea and biscuits we got talking about the river of lava.

"Hoh yes, I was 18 then. Hof course we didn't know what it was. The
rumbling began in June but we never imagined it would come to anything".
Her eyes brightened at the memory of it.

"It must have been terrifying", said Marie Christine.

"No,not really, Heverythin' that age is excitin! Then one mornin' in
Hoctober, we looked across the green field at the back there", she nodded at the window, " and it just split open. An' we saw the sheep fallin' in,an' smoke come pourin'' out. We were told to go to the potato patches down the coast. So we just hup and left. Leavin' heverythin'. We didn't come back to the house for two years! Warship picked up off the shore an' took to H'England!"

On the way back to English Rose, anchored to the 120' stems of kelp, Joe the Boatman, told me they can only get to sea on 60 or 70 days in the year. All boats have to be craned out at 5.30 each evening.

"Do you get many yachts, calling in?", I asked Joe.

"Hohh, yes! Sometimes we get three, h'even five some years!"

Let's hope we call in on the way back from South Georgia next year. By that time we should have followed the circumpolar track of the albatross right round the world. It would be good to 'tie the knot' just about there.

It's Day 60. If anyone is reading these ramblings,you should know that both Rebecca (our daughter in Ardmore,) and Richard Creasey will be away through October. Your only contact with us (other than Sat phone to the boat), will be Sam Semple who will be in BBC, Bush House, the Strand, London, except weekends. All that fuss. It looks if October will quiet after all.

Into the mist...

John Ridgway

Date: 24 September 2003

Day: 61

Local time: 1200 GMT+1

Leg Number and name: Leg 2, 'The Yellow-nosed'

Focus of leg: The long-line fishing industry - its global
impact on the albatross population

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 34.38'S, 08.30'W

Position relative to nearest land: 1336 west of Capetown.

Course: 110 T

Speed: 3.4 knots

Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 135 miles

Distance traveled since last port: 4,495 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 6,605 nm

Headed to: Capetown, South Africa

Distance to next port: approx 1,336 miles (Great Circle route from present location, we'll sail further to make the most of
Trade Winds and Westerlies)

Barometric pressure: 1022

Wind direction: WNW

Wind Speed: 4 - 10 knots

Cloud cover: 100%, Raining

Air temperature: n/a

Surface sea temperature: 16.6 C

Sea conditions: Raining and (according to Marie Christine in the galley,) a very lumpy sea.

Bird sightings: Wandering Albatross, Yellow nosed Albatross, Black browed Albatross, big black Petrels, Shearwaters, Storm Petrels



Notes: We'd look an odd sight, limping along with our two scraps of
headsail on the port tack and no Main or Mizen set. We are a forest of
stout blue and white ropes holding the mast up on either side. And how
we've come to love this Hood In-mast furling sail. It enables us to sail
the boat like a dinghy, tuning the rig by night and day at a moments's
notice. Nick loves it.



Our team thinks we're almost in Capetown. But it's almost as far as Ireland to Newfoundland, still to go.



A succession of wintry squalls rushing up behind us. The Monitor wind vane (steering) battles nobly, Nick strokes it and croons "My baby", grinning like a madman. But the truth is it doesn't really like what we're asking it to do, which is to pursuade the 60ft hull to slide across the huge swell. Every now and then a big sea catches the back of the boat and pushes it along before it. Of course the wave hasn't yet caught up with the front of the boat and so the bow gets left behind. Next thing we have swung right round and we are left lying broadside to the waves. In other words - we have broached.



It's just a little taste of the Southern Ocean where the waves are so much larger. On the bigger scale the boat sheers round before a 'widow-maker', which rolls on, right over the boat, filling the two cockpits like swimming pools. Beyond that (and very fortunately I've managed to avoid this so far down here), the boat rolls right over. Let's draw a veil over that part!



Anyway, the splendid huge Wandering Albatross swings to and fro over our
stern, as he has done for countless thousands of years.



Are we a packed lunch?



Into the mist...


John Ridgway

Now go on to the next two weeks 25 September to 5 October 2003 as we sail into Cape Town

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