Archive of Leg 2
Created | Updated Jan 15, 2004
Below you'll find all previous log entries from Leg 2 of the Save The Albatross voyage sent in from the crew of the English Rose V1. Leg 2 is called 'The Yellow-nosed', and covers the journey from Tenerife to Cape Town.
We've also archived all the log entries from Leg 1 - from Ardmore in Scotland to Tenerife - which charts the start of the crew's epic journey.
And here you'll find the most recent Daily Log Updates from the boat as they come in.
Leg 2 - 'The Yellow-nosed'
Date: 24 October 2003
Day: 91 (Day 20 in Cape Town)
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk!
Course: n/a
Speed: 0 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October
Distance to next port:
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed:
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes:
Notes: A terrific rush. Always the same at the start. Aldo Berutti, Head of Birdlife South Africa, phoned to say our stay in Cape Town had created more publicity for the Albatross than any project they had ever had.
In the afternoon, Igor and I, went with Quentin and Anton to film a pirate fishing boat which had been arrested by the French.
Registered in the Dutch Antilles we could see the previous names she'd had during her chequered career. How many Albatrosses had she killed?
While modern technology can ensure each boat reports its position automatically, every half hour, this is a pointless exercise if that position is only reported in its 'Flag of Convenience' country. Every fishing boat could easily report to a neutral 'Umpire' international body.
We gave a presentation to 60 under-priviledged black school children from Hout Bay, a nearby fishing community. Many of them could become fishermen. All we need to save the albatross is a willing skipper one every fishing boat. Marie Christine and I sang a song for the children and they responded wuth a dance about a wounded bird. I thanked them,"You may not understand what a Petition is, but I know you understand what we are trying to do for the Albatross." I've always been one who cried in the movies. Soppy really.
Into the mist... John
Date: 23 October 2003
Day: 90 (Day 19 in Cape Town)
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk!
Course: n/a
Speed: 0 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October
Distance to next port:
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed:
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes: At 0800 I met Quentin off the London flight. The day rushed by, with people all around and jobs suddenly accelearating. Even so the Riggers were still at it, long after dark.
In theory we are now all set for sea trials tomorrow. This gives us time to make alterations after the trials.
Provisions are aboard and stowed!
We are getting such support from the scientific community here in Cape Town. It is most heart warming. Nothing seems too much trouble for them.
The lights are very much red and amber now, any minute they'll go green.
Into the mist... John Ridgway
Date: 22 October 2003
Day: 89 (Day 18 in Cape Town)
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk!
Course: n/a
Speed: 0 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October Distance to next port:
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed:
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes: At the airport by 0700 to meet Trevor Fishlock. My fourth visit. Just about got it workled out now. Still not been to a Filling Station though, will I get beaten up? Igor tells of the recent 10 day Conference in Durban, for World Parks where 2000 attended and 600 were assaulted. Christina Barlow, defending at home, interjects, and tells me I will survive in Cape Town.
We have poured into the hire car, the last of the petrol we brought from Scotland at 85p per litre. We want to use the petrol jerry cans for diesel on this Leg.
My old chum Skip Novak appeared in his new giant aluminium sloop 'Pelagic Australis'. At some 70 feet long and 20 feet wide she is an upsacale version of a 45 foot boat he specified for me in 1999. Special lifting keel to slip into small bays to avoid drifting icebergs in Antarctica. All those years of Skip's trips down there, out of Ushuia, will have awakened support for the Albatross in so many people.
Good steady progress on all fronts with the boat for Saturday's departure.
Into the mist... John Ridgway
Date: 21 October 2003
Day: 88 (Day 17 in Cape Town)
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk!
Course: n/a
Speed: 0 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October
Distance to next port:
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed:
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes: Hello Marje and John, and Everyone
Work resumed today and people were everywhere. It looks as if we'll be ready.
Marie Christine addressed the nation on South Africa's version of Woman's Hour and a ripple of applause rocked the boat from Nick, Igor and Christina, so I joined in so as not to be a gooseberry. But this is a tough place with plenty of problems of its own, never mind the invisible Albatross. But we are building a core of people who will keep working to help the old boat until we return next April of May.
Into the mist... John Ridgway
Date: 20 October 2003
Day: 87 (Day 16 in Cape Town)
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk!
Course: n/a
Speed: 0 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October Distance to next port:
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed:
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes: Hello Marje and John, and Everyone
Yesterday was a day away from the jobs Marie Christine and I went to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and walked up Cecil Rhodes' ox-track still lined with his camphor trees. Sitting peacefully on one of many memorial seats, with a green flank of Table Mountain rearing up before us. I thought of my own three brief visits to Cape Town: 1956, 1977, 2003. This is a taut place, what will I see if I return in another 25 years? I will be 90 by then.
Beyond the side of Table Mountain lay the deep blue sea. Will I see Albatrosses out there 25 years from now? The gardens have a display of Cycads, the very same plant on which the dinosaurs grazed millions of years ago. Why must we kill all the Albatrosses?
Stewart, a small and freckle-faced boy, son of the people we had lunch with, had left a bit of his prep on the hall table:
The land breaks up in the time of the degradation and we lose our topsoil, then crops won't grow. Don't break, heal the land, take pride in your country.
Maybe it will all work out happily. I do wish I believed that.
Into the mist... John Ridgway
Date: 19 October 2003
Day: 87 (Day 15 in Cape Town)
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk!
Course: n/a
Speed: 0 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October Distance to next port:
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed:
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes:
Good Morning Marje, John and Everyone.
South Africa stopped for the World Cup Rugby match versus England which was played in Australia today. We watched the match on a big screen in a long room in the Yacht Club. Keeping quiet. It was the Opening Day of the Season at the Royal Cape Yacht CLub. The band played. England won and we crept away. South Africans are awfully big.
Amidst all this, we must try to balance the reality of our position beyond the harbour wall, a week from today, with the need to unwind and get a reserve of sleep in the bank. In fact, we gave a supper party for the two visiting Zimbabweans, Rob and Pat, and got to bed at midnight.
"We've got to focus on what's in store for us and we've got to protect ourselves" said Marie Christine wearily. I had a nightmare: I was being
followed by assassins, every footfall might be them. A loose interpretation might bave been my concern for the moorings on another wild and windy night and my worrying if Igor would return safely to the boat - and how effective he might be in the morning. Nothing new.
Everyone we meet is keen to save the Albatross. "What can we do?" They all ask. We urge them to sign the Petition. Others suggest the world will have to stop fishing for twenty years - if not the story of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland will be repeated on a global scale as sure as night follows day. Others feel that this time world fishing can be regulated effectively but I am a pessimistic realist.
Save the Albatross and you will save so much else besides.
Into the mist... John Ridgway
Date: 18 October 2003
Day: 85 (Day 14 in Cape Town)
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk!
Course: n/a
Speed: 0 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October Distance to next port:
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed: 35 knots (!)
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes: Hello Marje and John, and Everyone
The crew for the voyage to Melbourne are beginning to arrive. This involves meeting individuals at the airport and the consequent struggle to convince Immigration that they do have a valid exit from South Africa. That and meeting Rob Duncan and Pat Callasse off the plane from Zimbabwe took all day. Such are controls on movement today, I believe it would be the case anywhere in the world. It was really cheering to meet our old chum Igor Asheshov from Peru.
Marie Christine has completed the purchase and stowage of rations. All that remains is fresh fruit and veg. which will be bought at the last minute. Planning our route to Australia, my faint pencil lines on the chart of the Southern Ocean show that we will be sailing 25 years to the day, from our start from here on the second leg of the 1977/8 Whitbread Round World Yacht Race. Hopefully, a good omen!
We are well on course with preparations on the boat now. Raymarine Electronics and Whitlock Steering seems complete. The Hood rigging needs only a sea trial.
There is very much bustle in ultra-modern Cape Town. Sadly, the Albatross is out of sight, over the horizon and low on priorities. We are so encouraged by news of the petition.
Into the mist... John.
Date: 17 October 2003
Day: 85 (Day 14 in Cape Town)
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk!
Course: n/a
Speed: 0 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October Distance to next port:
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed: 35 knots (!)
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes: Good morning Marge and John,
Christina Barlow, Marie Christine and Nick at full tick.
I have been feeling pretty ropy for a year or more. Yesterday I felt very much better. Is there anyway it could be a result of the Root Canal treatment?
Or is it the very good news from Euan Dunn at RSPB in UK, about the 'Save the Albatross Petition'? He says 'As we all know (As Quentin [Hanich of Greenpeace] said, the nice thing abouit this Petition is that no-one 'owns' it, since John's initiative is independent and not sponsored, so everyone should hopefully feel able to support it and try to post it on their own Websites".
This description captures the essence of what Nick, Marie Christine and I are trying to achieve. The whole ridiculous struggle to avoid financial support from anywhere, not BBC, nor any newspaper, not any company, nor any individiual, not any charity. This enable the Petition to work freely through the big international organisations like Birdlife, WWF, British Antarctic Survey, GreenPeace etc. I'm sorry I can't explain better what I'm trying to do.
Euan goes on to say 'I can tell you that the online petition is going down a storm here, has really captured everyone's imagination. Carol just emailed to say that 2 days ago there were 150 signatures but today there are over 750. In the last 24 hrs, people have emailed me from all over - Norway, Canada etc to pledge their support, including wanting to add the petition to their own websites. A couple emailed to ask what they could do beyond the petition - they want to set up a stand in Coventry city centre to raise awareness and money - I've sent them brochures and posters straight away.
Did you hear about the new (IUCN) red-listings of the albatrosses? A significant deterioration in their status, just in the last couple of years. There are 21 species, of which 19 are now globally threatened (including one
- that wasn't even thought of as being in trouble before) and the other 2 are 'near-threatened'. It's desperately sad but makes your initiative utterly timely and significant. All strength to your collective elbows."
This is the power of the people - as Nick dreamt it with the Internet.
Save the Albatross and you'll save so much else besides.
The Petition is at http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/petition/index.asp
Into the mist...
Date: 16 October 2003
Day: 83 (Day 12 in Cape Town)
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk!
Course: n/a
Speed: 0 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October Distance to next port:
...
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed: 0 knots (!)
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes: Hello Marje and John,
Yesterday was dominated by the two hours 0f root canal treatment on my left lower jaw out at Seapoint Dental Practice. Dr Benjamine Laurie turned out to be a genius. I practiced the yoga breathing and managed to be half asleep most of the time. Anyway, thank goodness it's done.
Christina Barwin is a tower of strength with transport and local knowledge.
While I'm groggy with the tooth, Nick battles on with the computer, grey with concern at managing barely 10% of output on a fast link.
Tremendous news from Euan Dunn at RSPB and Carol Knutson in New Zealand. They are rolling out the petition across the world. We must focus on getting the boat round the world.
Another day is just coming up from the east. So far we have managed a fair bit of publicity for the Albatross in South Africa: A piece on SABC TV News, a half hour radio programme on SA FM and some pieces in newspapers and magazines. But we should now focus on getting the boat safely to Melbourne.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 15 October 2003
Day: 82 (Day 11 in Cape Town)
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk!
Course: n/a
Speed: 0 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October Distance to next port:
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed: 0 knots
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes:
Good Morning Marje and John,
I phoned Dr. Marek Lipinski in the morning and he arranged for me to see himself and three other Scientists later in the day. It was very good of them to interrupt their own schedule at such short notice.
They showed me the draft "South African Plan of Action for Reducing the Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries".
South Africa has three kinds of Longline Fishery: Patagonian Toothfish on the seabed, Hake on the seabed and Tuna on the surface. The Albatross will benefit greatly from this plan of action.
It seems to me, that countries which have historical interests in islands in the Southern Ocean are empowered to enforce a 200 mile economic exclusion zone around those islands as well as around their own homelands.
Other nations from the Northern Hemisphere, with these EEZ's in the Southern Ocean suddenly find there are very few places left for them to fish. Of course they would prefer 25 miles limits. A case in point is the ajoining French EEZ around Kerguelen and the Australian EEZ around Heard Island.
I shuffled back to the boat, crossing the same dusty railway lines I crossed 47 years ago. Have I really changed anything? Cape Town can seem bleak to the visitor.
On Thursday we'll be seeing Dr. Patrick Garratt about the possible involvement of Aquaria in the "Save the Albatross Petition".
Now I must summon up the blood and cut away to the dentist for the 2hr root canal treatment. Very jolly.
Into the mist......John
Date: 14 October 2003
Day: 81 (Day 10 in Cape Town)
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date
25 October 2003
...
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina,
about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk!
Course: n/a
Speed: 0 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October
Distance to next port:
...
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed: 0 knots
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes:
Hello Marje (pronounced "Margie")
You were sitting with your husband John in the front row at our first
public engagement last night. It was in the impressive modern Two
Oceans Aquarium, on the Cape Town Waterfront.
Understandably, I was nervous. You looked to me like a bright,
intelligent, professional, modern couple. Perhaps you are bombarded
with requests, from good causes, which make you feel guilty, just like
Marie Christine and me.
That's all I know about you.
I'd better try and engage your interest in the old Albatross, which is
flying around out there just over the horizon. So from now on, each
day, I will imagine I am talking to you both when I am writing this log.
Well, the talk went alright. When I was standing in front of the
mirror, shaving, yesterday, I invented this wise saying "Remember - when
someone says to you 'that was fantastic!' Fantastic is derived from the
word Fantasy"
Things are going very badly wrong for the Albatross. The John Ridgway
Save the Albatross Voyage needs to do something pretty effective, pretty
quickly. Here goes:
From the list of names at the talk last night, Samantha Petersen, Head
of Seabirds for Birdlife International in South Africa, will expedite
signing of the "Save the Albatross Petition".
Dr. Marek Lipinski, Senior Specialist Scientist in the South African
Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism suggested I ring him and
he will help me create "Willing Fishing Boat Captains" in the truly huge
Southern Ocean Fishing Port of Cape Town. I will phone him today.
Dr. Patrick Garratt M.D. of the Two Oceans Aquarium, suggested we
mobilise the World's Aquariums to Save the Albatross. Very
encouragingly he mentioned a sea change in Japan's interest in
Conservation since his visit to Japanese Aquariums in 1996 (there are
100 Aquariums in Japan). I will phone Patrick Garratt today.
Save the Albatross and you will save so much else besides!
Well, Marje and John I'm boring you. I'll shut up and do something.
I'll write more tomorrow.
Please sign the Petition.
Into the mist......John
Date: 13 October 2003
Day: 80 (Day 9 in Cape Town)
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25
October 2003
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about
200 yards from shore via the boardwalk!
Course: n/a
Speed: 0 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October
Distance to next port:
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed: 35 knots (!)
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes:
Everything closed here today, so we three were able to get on with work we have to do on the boat. Doing it yourself is more fun than worrying and organising others, but sadly, less effective.
John Boyce, President of Hood Yachtspars flew home to UK today. The physical presence of someone who can make things happen is most reassuring.
Tomorrow we are giving a "Save the Albatross" talk at Two Oceans Aquarium. I think our best plan is to follow the format we used in the Tenerife talk: all three of us outline our various tasks but this time we will ask the scientific audience for their own ideas for the most effective means of "Saving the
Albatross".
The communications are not easy from here. Nick longs for his own computer inhis own home, in Melbourne.
We keep looking across at the Japanese boat opposite us, he has been beaten back here twice. I look hopefully at our own past tracks on the chart.
.
Into the mist......John
Date: 12 October 2003
Day: 79 (Day 7 in Cape Town)
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk!
Course: n/a
Speed: 0 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October
Distance to next port:
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed: 35 knots (!)
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes:
An attempt at relaxation. Not something I'm very good at and not something developed by 35 years of self-employment. Relaxation is falling asleep.
Hood Yachtspar's President John Boyce is similar. He flew the small plane he has built himself, from Burnham-on-Crouch to Denham and caught the BA flight to Cape Town from Heathrow. We spent the morning on the rigging. Living on the NW corner of Scotland, we see perhaps ten sailing boats a year at Ardmore, which is accessible only by boat or on foot. Working on the basis that "there is always a better way", I approached John with a view to learning some better way to handle our own boat. I was not disappointed. I made copious notes.
We decided to take half a day off. We had scarcely been out of the marina in daylight, except to Immigration, Customs and the Dentist.
My knowledge of present day Cape Town is limited to J. M. Coetzee's novel "Disgrace". We drove to Stellenbosch and then on, via Somerset West, to make a circuit of a section of the forbidding, wreck strewn, coastline. By the time we returned to the boat, in early evening, I was thinking sombre thoughts. There are no flip solutions to such intractable problems as you see here.
You might think, what chance has the lonely Albatross, out there, over the far horizon? But the majestic bird is a symbol, and that is it's fighting chance. Save the Albatross and you might save so much else.
Into the mist......John
Date: 11 October 2003
Day: 78 (Day 7 in Cape Town)
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003
...
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk!
Course: n/a
Speed: 0 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October
Distance to next port:
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed: 35 knots (!)
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes:
They say that Napoleon, when considering the promotion of one of his generals, would listen to all the recommendations and then say "very good, very good - all of that - but is he lucky?"
I've always been lucky.
Today we saw another side of Cape Town, one that's not represented in the beautiful postcards. A cruel wind has blown for 36 hours now. The relentless fine black dust I remember from 25 years ago, is back. All the masts and wind generators howl like banshees. The boat bucks and rears on ten mooring ropes. Footsteps make black puddles on the deck We're at the front door of the Southern Ocean.
I've always been lucky. This would have been no time to approach Cape Town with five of the nineteen strands broken on one cap shroud. But even being lucky can be tiring.
This is our seventh day in Cape Town. We have achieved much. The one bleak area is the Autopilot: Raymarine have been outstanding but the Whitlock Autopilot may bring them down, for they are linked. This is the area the salesman calls "After Service". It is a proving test at which Hood Yacht Spars Ltd.has made a real effort. John Boyce, their President, has flown out and looks like sending us into the Southern Ocean with top-line rigging. I was always lucky.
Samantha Petersen has brought further news of the "Save the Albatross" Petition. Nick is toiling at the computer but is shocked at just how slow the link can be. We have asked Tireless Sam Semple at BBC Bush House in London if he can put the Petition at the head of every page of our website. Nick doubts if Sam will believe how slowly his Cape Town computer can compute.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 11 October 2003
Day: 77 (Day 6 in Cape Town)
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date
25 October 2003
...
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina,
about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk!
Course: n/a
Speed: 0 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October
Distance to next port:
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed: 35 knots (!)
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes: Toes wriggling quite nicely. Much better day in the fighting
with cotton wool in a foreign land. Repairs looking good - things never
as good or as bad as first reported. But it's now a race to see if
Whitlock and Raymarine can really cut the mustard.
A Uruguayan pirate fishing boat caused a stir out here, a few weeks back
It seems the Australians found the pirate, fishing for Patagonian
Toothfish (whitegold) , in Australian territorial waters. Evading
arrest the pirate fled. The Australians gave chase and called on the
South Africans, who diverted a supply ship. The pirate was faster and
tried to disappear into the pack ice. South Africa sent reinforcements:
the largest ocean-going tug in the world, laden with paratroopers. The
pirate surrendered and was brought to justice.
The publicity from this event helps the poor Albatross. While we are
doing Radio, TV and Newspapers here, I still feel that a great lever
"to prevent the needless slaughter of the Albatross" really lies is the
Education of Fishermen. I must do something about this.
The other great piece of news is Carol Knutson's "Save the Albatross
Global Petition" is up and running on the web at:
Nick is now bending his back to link it round the world. Much more on
this to follow.
Into the mist .......John
Date: 9 October 2003
Day: 76
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003
...
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk!
Course: n/a
Speed: 0 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October
Distance to next port:
...
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed:
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes: A certain amount of sand was kicked in my face yesterday. And why not? After the euphoria of landing after 10 weeks at sea there has to be the odd shock when the undercarriage hits the tarmac.
Firstly; the excellent Raymarine gear and the Fischer Panda generator are more work than we had hoped.
Secondly, when the cheerful young dentist looked at the x-rays of my lower left jaw, he sucked on his gums for a moment and said "This is a bigger job than I'd hoped".
The upshot is that I'm to have root canal treatment on the abscess and it will take at least one two hour session, next week.
Something to look forward to.
On the plus side, we managed to make a half hour programme with SAFM Radio about the plight of the Albatross. Also, Nick resolved his problem with the computer power supply.
Today will be better. It's getting light.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 8 October 2003
Day: 75
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003
...
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land:
Course:
Speed:
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia
Distance to next port:
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed:
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes: 0500 in the Doghouse, waiting for the light to come. After
yesterday's gales all is quiet. It's real. Walking the line. No safety
net. No insurance. Nothing to fall back on. Cold but pure, reality.
This giant harbour, with its many arms, crammed with ranks of fishing
boats in one of the strategic fishing capitals of the Southern
Hemisphere.
All 21 species of Southern hemisphere Albatross are endangered - so are
the fish.
30 metres away, across the dusty wharf, lies a big squid boat, on its
stern is written; No 57 Dae Wong - Pusan, Korea. Uniformly
whitish-rusty, water pulsing out of its side to show it's alive.
Bristling with antenna, lumpy with satellite domes, like the boats we
passed north of the Equator. They're from another harbour, world.
We spent a lot of time in the Eastern Bloc-style Immigration Building,
checking in, checking 'Rie' out, maximum bleak. Body searches going in
and going out. What could we steal in an empty corridor, while looking
hopefully through the grill at heavy Afrikaaner officials?
We see them everywhere in there: crocodiles of young fellows, from I
guess the Far East. We don't smile at each other. There's a huge gulf
between us - I don't know how to communicate with them. Are they
thinking about preventing the needless slaughter of the Albatross. Why
not? It doesn't take much time. Where they're going (and where were
going), the water's cold and the nights are long.
If I weren't so weeak and ineffectual, I'd find a way to speak to them.
All we need is a willing Captain - on every fishing boat, everywhere.
How could I do it, I wonder? Need to pull some levers. Maybe I'd cut
more ice when we return, next April, after we've sailed round the world.
I'll try and set it up, now. I've seen films about the education of
fisherman I'll find out where it is happening here.
Switch off the headtorch. It's light again- spared for another day. The
thinnest white cloth on Table Mountain. Self reliane, positive thinking,
and leaving things better than you find them. I'll go for a shower, then
clean my lavatory, pick up old soap packets, razor blades. Leave the
place better than I find it. Sanctimonius old git! Hope no-one kicks
sand in my face.
No-one else stirring yet. We lost the mobile phone last night, a spanner
in the works, for today. Can't ring Carol Knutson in New Zealand.
Yesterday was good. Cape Town has the infra-structure to get things done
on board to our specification. The major groupings have been to the
boat: Raymarine electronics, Fischer Panda generators, Mercedes diesel,
Hood mast and rigging. I think they'll do the business.
It's like the front line here in the harbour: massive lumps of steel
preparing to hurl themselves into war. Beyond the habour wall: the
Southern Ocean war.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 7 October 2003
Day: 74
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land:
Course:
Speed:
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 0 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to: Melbourne, Australia
Distance to next port:
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed:
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes: Feeling a little more clear headed. Nick, Marie christine and I are pretty clear from the lists what we each have to achieve in Cape Town between now and our departure for the Southern Ocean route to Melbourne on 25 October.
On a venture of this length it is important that we three pace ourselves. Being a busy fool is not being effective. I yearn for the phhysical fitness of earlier yeaars, the wonderful state of tirelessness. Accordingly, there is no booze or faags on the boat and we three continue to live on the boat rather than accept hospitaality ashore.
i'm writing this at 0530, as the light of a new clear day sseps into the sky. Table Mountain is dark and there is no table cloth. I love the spare existence. Minimalism.
Ever after rowing across the north Atlantic with Chay Blyth in 1966, where we surived and the two fellows in the other boat were drowned, Ihave tried to tap my foot on the ground to reassure myself I'm still alive, 43 years later. Every day is a bonus. I'll make this one count for the Albatross.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 6 October 2003
Day: 73
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
Leg Number and name: In Cape Town
Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean
...
Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town
Position relative to nearest land:
Course:
Speed:
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 37 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm
Headed to:
Distance to next port:
...
Barometric pressure:
Wind direction:
Wind Speed:
Cloud cover:
Air temperature:
Surface sea temperature:
Sea conditions:
Bird sightings:
Notes: here we are. Cape Town. Blimey!
Can one man make a difference? It looks daunting. What larks, Pip!
We slept well after steak and chops in a shopping mall. Here I am again, ten weeks on the sea, then back in the shadow of the shopping mall: everything I have spent my life struggling against.
'Rie' is leaving us here and flying home. She saved our bacon on the trip down from Tenerife to Cape Town. Nick, Marie Christine and I would be exhausted now if she hadn't been steadfastly on Watch, alone, for 8 hours each and every day. But the Southern Ocean is another thing. Nick, Marie Christine and I are like 'Greyhounds in the slips', absolutely at the top of our game. This is the time of our lives.
We have seven pages of jobs to be done. Every page has up to 25 jobs. There's always something to worry about.
I gave a short talk about Saving the Albatross in the Yacht Club. Am I up to this. Samantha Peterson was a great help in getting us on the right road here but we do feel a bit groggy on land just yet.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 5 October 2003
Day: 72
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
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: 33.55'S, 017.57'E Position relative to nearest land: 19 nm west of Capetown.
Course: 81T
Speed: 081 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 140 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,843 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 7,963 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 19 miles
Barometric pressure: 1031
Wind direction: NW
Wind Speed: 11-16 knots (Force 4)
Cloud cover: 0%
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 16.6 C
Sea conditions: Big swell left over from very fresh overnight blow from the NW
Bird sightings: See below
Notes: Our old chum, Rob Duncan, called on the Satphone at lunchtime
yesterday. He had flown down from Zimbabwe to meet us.This had a great
effect on morale. There's nothing like the thought of having someone to
meet you, on arrival in a foreign land.
We were 150 miles west of Capetown when Rob called. He mentioned that we
might expect strong NW winds and he was right. Soon we were rushing along
under a bit of Yankee and a scrap of Staysail. The sacrificial tube on the
vane steering broke (the third tube) and later the stopper knot on one of
the steering lines pulled through.
We had gusts to 50 knots in the night. No time for overconfidence. we can
still lose the mast!
But they're all here to meet us.
This morning: Blue skies, bright sun, big white crested waves. There are a
couple of Yellow nosed and one Black-browed Albatrosses. Various Petrels
and Shearwaters, and Pintados. What with Mother Carey's Chickens, flights
of Golden headed -
Gannets, a Tern or two, Black-backed gulls and even a grizzley old Great
Skua, it's almost like home was, 72 days ago.
Marie christine and I last sailed in here, 25 years ago, almost to the day.
We were skippering this good old boat in the second Whitbread Round the
World Yacht Race 1977/78. there were 150 brave souls in 15 boats. I wonder
if any others will show up for the 25th anniversary this week.
Table Mountain wore a table cloth but 8,000 miles and ten weeks from home,
Capetown and Africa look full of surprises.We finally tied up at the Royal
Cape yacht Club at 1630 and Bob and his wife Leslie were there to meet us.
We were thrilled.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 4 October 2003
Day: 71
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
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: 34.22'S, 015.18'E
Position relative to nearest land: 154 nm west of Capetown.
Course: 72T
Speed: 4.5 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 140 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,703 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 7,823 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 154 miles
Barometric pressure: 1025
Wind direction: NNW
Wind Speed: 11-16 knots (Force 4)
Cloud cover: 50%
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 17.4 C
Sea conditions: Lumpy, following passage of weather front and 90 degree
shift in the wind direction. Just starting to sail again under full No 2
Yankee and Staysail.
Bird sightings: Solitary Yellow-nosed and Black browed Albatrosses, Petrels
Notes: The first absolute silence for ten weeks! People whispered. Silent
sea, all sails rolled away.
We had six hours of flat calm. In my bunk, coming off Watch at 10.00,
there was no chuckle of water passing my ear, no rattle of blocks or squeel
of winches, no banging of sails. Eerie!
I awoke at noon, all the sounds were back. Nick was setting sails and
tuning his baby - the wonderful Monitor wind vane steering system. We were
hard on the wind.
While it was still smooth we rushed into unpacking the centre cockpit: 4 x
5 gal cans of diesel, 2 x 5gal cans of water, 2 x 8 man Life Rafts, 2 x
5gal cans engine oil, 5 x 2 1/2gal cans petrol, 1 x can hydraulic fluid, 1
x can anti-freeze, 4 x flare containers full of survival grab bag stuff, 1
x Avon speed boat, etc.
Quick macaroni lunch, then the delicate business of pouring the 4 x 5gal
Jerrycans of diesel into the main tank, through the filler in the floor of
the now-empty centre cockpit. Plus the other three cans we keep beneath
the saloon deck by the galley.
Plenty relief to have a conservative 30 gals in the fuel tank now, as we
close Africa. Oh, how exciting. Do I smell the flesh pots already?
The wind filled in during the afternoon and the Albatrosses and Petrels
took interest in us again. What joy it has been to see a Yellow-nosed
Albatross skim barely a couple of inches above the low silver banks of
swell in the calm. Perfection.
How could anything gauge the distance so nicely? I do so want to be an
Albatross.
Rations are low, corned beef has many disguises. Nick and I had our Chilli
Con Carne supper together in the Doghouse. Nick the Whippet was detailing
the process by which he had lost so much weight between his visit to
Ardmore in January and his stripping off for the Durness Highland Games
Hill Race on Friday 26 July.
"PSSHHTTT!"
"What's that noise?" I interrupted, ever eager to draw a veil over my own
inadequate performance in the Race.
Out of the corner of my right eye I saw the vapour from the Blow, followed
by a long shiny black back, rolling up, followed much later , by a small
curved dorsal fin.
"Could be bigger than us" murmured Nick.
"Whale! Whale!" I called down the hatch. Nick and I jumped out of the
Doghouse door. Marie Christine came hopping up he ladder, Con Carne in hand.
"Longer than us, would be over 60ft Nick!" I said.
"Rie" stayed firmly below. She doesn't like the squid that land on the
deck. And she certainly doesn't want to see a 60ft fish.
I hope he's just coming along for company. Maybe we look like a 60ft whale
from under the water. Very chummy. He easily cruised along at our 7.5 knots.
I'm not looking for any mating games, where he sees us as a rival. One butt
from him and we start the two-mile glide to the sea bed.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 3 October 2003
Day: 70
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
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: 34.42'S, 012.43'E
Position relative to nearest land: 282 nm west of Capetown.
Course: 164T
Speed: 1.4 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 110 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,563 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 7,683 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 282 miles
Barometric pressure: 1030
Wind direction: ENE
Wind Speed: 7-10 knots (Force 3)
Cloud cover: 100%
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 17.6 C
Sea conditions: Just starting to sail again over very smooth sea with light
variable breeze coming from E-N . Full No 2 Yankee, near full Staysail,
full Mainsail, no Mizen.
Bird sightings: Solitary Yellow-nosed and Black browed Albatrosses, Petrels
Notes: We have been becalmed for the past 32 hours and motored for 24 of
them. But we are now out of fuel, so we'll just roll about on the glassy
swell - and whistle up the wind.
The main job for the day will be to unpack the Liferafts and Emergency
stores from the centre cockpit and then pour our reserve 7 x 5 gallon
containers of diesel into the main tank.
But we do need to keep that fuel for emergency use when we close Capetown,
only 282 tantalising miles to our east. And tantalising these are, on Day
70, ten weeks out from our home, faraway now on the NW coast of Scotland.
It will be autumn there now, the first touch of frost will turn the bracken
red. Sandy will have to gather the sheep on his own. Down here we have the
first promise of spring.
Motoring in flat calm and pitch dark last night, we left a broad track of
white fire behind us. Luminous squid surfacing to feed in the
phosphorescent soup of life which is all around us. They say that in some
places the plankton is so dense it colours the sea and causes rain.
Trouble is, no one country owns the ocean, so we have that old bogey:
shared responsibility. And yet it is the hub of life on the planet. I doubt
if the crew of 'Thor Pilot' notice they had only one bird following them,
as they bustle along Bangkok to Brazil with their cargo of rice. Perhaps if
they never saw even one, they would not mind.
We have seen only two immature Wandering Albatrosses in our 70 days. They
may well be nesting at this time but not all of them.
Doom and gloom is easy. Positive steps are needed. The Petition lies just
over the eastern horizon.
The calm's getting to me!
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 2 October 2003
Day: 69
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
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: 34.42'S, 010.19'E
Position relative to nearest land: 401 nm west of Capetown.
Course: 088T
Speed: 5.7 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 120 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,453 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 7,573 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 401 miles
Barometric pressure: 1031
Wind direction: WSW
Wind Speed: 4-6 knots (Force 2)
Cloud cover: 10%
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 16.6 C
Sea conditions: Motoring over smooth sea with moderate underlying swell
from the West
Bird sightings: Solitary Yellow-nosed and Black browed Albatrosses, Petrels
Notes: Just seen our 2nd Wandering Albatross, also immature. But it was
really following a west-bound bulk carrier 'Thor Pilot'. Registered in
Bangkok, she was carrying rice to Brazil. The huge bird just gave us a
quick looking over and chased after the 'Thor Pilot' which we passed only
some 200 metres apart.
The wind has failed. It's hot and sunny. We are motoring to charge our
batteries as the Fischer Panda generator has gone on the blink. We hope to
meet the Fischer Panda agent in Capetown. The little generator has worked
faultlessly for eight weeks but the automatic start and cutout have just
failed. I think there is very little wrong and we could probably run on
manual but I feel it's best to wait until Capetown.
The sea appears carpeted with tiny bubbles, on closer inspection they turn
out to be baby Portuguese Man'o'war jellyfish.
There are few birds today. Yellow-nosed and Black-browed Albatrosses come
occasionally. The odd Pintado now and then. The black Petrels must be busy
elsewhere. Four Terns passed, in a team, heading south, for the Antarctic
summer?
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 1 October 2003
Day: 68
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
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: 34.46'S, 07.55'E
Position relative to nearest land: 528 nm west of Capetown.
Course: 088T
Speed: 5.7 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 125 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,333 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 7,453 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 656 miles
Barometric pressure: 1029
Wind direction: W
Wind Speed: 11-16 knots (Force 4)
Cloud cover: 75%
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 16.0 C
Sea conditions: Still running with wind on the starboard quarter, under
full No 2 Yankee and Staysail with 2 rolls in it. No Mainsail or Mizen. A
gentle easy sea running with us causing only erratic rolling.
Bird sightings: Solitary Yellow-nosed and Black-browed Albatrosses,
Petrels, see below.
Notes: Early yesterday morning we narrowly missed being run down by a
west-bound fully laden container ship. She was out of Hong Kong and Burma,
had come round Cape of Good Hope and hoped to be in Buenos Aires next week.
We need to keep a better look-out. You go for a month seeing nothing then
you nearly hit one - not many lives left in this cat! We'll Brasso the
Doghouse windows.
Closing Capetown, nursing the rig. We mustn't lose the mast aafter 5,000
miles of limping along. Softly, softly catchee monkey.
Marie Christine's vegetable store is looking spacious: 18 shrivelled
potatoes, 20 onions, 5 sweet potatoes, 7 lemons, plenty garlic, a few
sprouting ginger. Maybe five days to go! "Ready, Steady, Cook!" It was Toad
in the Hole last night. Corned beef, Batter, Fried Onion and generous
gravy. Finger-licking good. Pasta and rice coming up on the outside - fast!
Frankly, Headmistress, I've had enough Pesto sauce. Olive oil's OK but
Basil reminds me of your cousin Marjorie and that hotel off Sloane Street.
Steady retinue of Black Petrels (two types), a few Piebald Pintados, the
odd Shearwater and Storm Petrel. Yellow nosed Albatrosses usually around
and occasional Black-browed albatrosses. We pass the odd fishing buoy,
usually ballasted with a comunity of Goosenecked barnacles. Same as those
on the hull!
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 30 September 2003
Day: 67
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
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: 35.00'S, 05.20'E
Position relative to nearest land: 656 nm west of Capetown.
Course: 093T
Speed: 5.5 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 125 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,208 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 7,328 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 656 miles
Barometric pressure: 1026
Wind direction: WSW
Wind Speed: 17-21 knots (Force 5)
Cloud cover: 25%
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 16.0 C
Sea conditions: Running with wind on the starboard quarter, under full No 2
Yankee and Staysail with 2 rolls in it. No Mainsail or Mizen. A gentle easy
sea running with us causing only erratic rolling. A pleasant change after
yesterday's gale.
Bird sightings: Solitary Yellow-nosed and Black-browed Albatrosses, Petrels.
Notes: A good taste of what is to come. Northerly gale all day. We're
heading east, so we were plodding across a big sea with waves breaking over
the boat.
Rolling heavily, everything shifting from side to side, particularly
humans. Misjudgment of balance leads to a heavy fall. I am particularly
aware of not wanting to crunch my face with something.
Nick and I have run up a long list of minor jobs to do in Capetown. Each
easy enough when the boat is still but tricky on a switchback.
I dropped the cap of the water can. It exploded into life and bounced all
over the place, shouting "I can see a place even deeper and harder to
reach!". Breaking all gymnastic records it reached the very bottom of the
bilge, beneath the gearbox of the engine.
Marie Christine and I looked at long thin Nick, Nick's fined down after 8
weeks - a human pipe cleaner. We grasped an ankle each and lowered our 9ft
Dyna-rod towards bottom dead centre. For a while the Gollum-like fingers
writhed around in the darkness, then "Got it!" and we heaved him back plus
white plastic cap. The old veins in his forehead were going like Hitler. A
beautifully-built boy.
At 1800 a purple rain squall heralded a 90 degree wind shift North to West.
Suddenly we emerged into blue skies. Bright sinking sun and an easing wind.
Immaculate Albatrosses and Petrels swung about us in glee, celebrating our
surviving a storm in a teacup, and we watched the great bank of cloud
shrink to the far horizon.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 29 September 2003
Day: 66
Local time: 1200 GMT+2
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: 34.41'S, 02.53'E
Position relative to nearest land: 776 nm west of Capetown.
Course: 084T
Speed: 7.2 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 140 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5,083 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 7,193 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 776 miles
Barometric pressure: 1023
Wind direction: NNW
Wind Speed: 33-48 knots (Force 7-9)
Cloud cover: 100%
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 15.3 C
Sea conditions: Sailing across rough sea with gale force wind on the beam
under No 2 Yankee with eleven rolls in it and Staysail with four rolls. No
Mainsail or Mizen sail. Occasional waves bursting across the boat.
Bird sightings: Few birds seen today in these fresh conditions. Occasional
Albatross, Petrel and Shearwater only.
Notes: 36 hrs more Penicillin V. Jaw still swollen but no problem.
The wind has steadily increased to a NNW gale. Lumpy sea. We struggle to
keep on a line due west of Capetown.
Nothing much to say or do except concentrate on a safe entry into Capetown.
After +7,000 miles this is the very moment to concentrate harder than at
any time since leaving NW Scotland on Sunday 27 July.
The odd Albatross and Petrel but not many birds today.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 28 September 2003
Day: 65
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: 34.30'S, 00.05'E
Position relative to nearest land: 916 nm west of Capetown.
Course: 094T
Speed: 6.9 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 130 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 4,943 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 7,053 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 916 miles
Barometric pressure: 1032
Wind direction: WNW
Wind Speed: 22-33 knots (Force 6-7)
Cloud cover: 20%
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 16.4 C
Sea conditions: Sailing across quite rough sea with strong to near gale
force wind on the beam under No 2 Yankee with nine rolls in it and Staysail
with five rolls. No Mainsail or Mizen sail. Life aboard? er... bumpy.
Bird sightings: In these fresh conditions today birds have been
surprisingly scarce. We have seen occasional solitary albatrosses, Storm
Petrel, and Shearwaters today.
Notes: Feeling much better. We had a grand day of sun and calm until lunch,
then a good northerly breeze carried us onward in the afternoon.
After eight weeks with only the four of us on the boat, things progress at
a happy pace, plenty of space, no conflict. The days rush by, a sure sign
of contentment. An awareness that "This is the time of our lives".
There are four yellow-nosed Albatrosses on our stern right now, glorious,
beautiful things. How lucky we are, to be doing something which may help
their survival.
Of course the excitement of Capetown fewer than a thousand miles ahead
lifts the spirits.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 27 September 2003
Day: 64
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: 34.14'S, 02.25'W
Position relative to nearest land: 1,040 nm west of Capetown.
Course: 126 T
Speed: 0.5 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 98 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 4,813 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 6,923 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 1,040 miles
Barometric pressure: 1033
Wind direction: NE
Wind Speed: 1-5 knots
Cloud cover: 20%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 15.7 C
Sea conditions: Very light with long swell from South.
Bird sightings: Wandering Albatross, Yellow nosed Albatross, Black browed Albatross, big black Petrels, Shearwaters, Storm Petrels, Pintado
Notes: Luckily the memory is short. Much better after 36hrs of Penicillin V though the left side of the face has taken on a rather aldermanic look. I'll try and do without the codeine now but must finish the five day course of Penicillin.
Enough of that. Look forward. I was able to put the boat about and set us heading SE in a near flat calm. Waiting for the next Low to come through.
Alone at the wheel this morning, Marie Christine was freezing cold.
Suddenly, a huge black whale came up on her Port side. Close enough to
touch, it let out a vast wheeze. Looking it straight in the eye, she
stopped feeling cold and yelled for us to come and see it but we were all asleep. She stopped herself from ringing the alarm hand bell, fearing it might alarm the whale, with unknown consequences.
It's sunny but calm, surely I'm better. The prospect of the grizzly dental tools being used 'to relieve the pressure' is retreating, surely. Groggy.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 26 September 2003
Day: 63
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: 34.40'S, 04.16'W
Position relative to nearest land: 1,130 nm west of Capetown.
Course: 083 T
Speed: 4.8 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 120 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 4,715 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 6,825 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 1,130 miles
Barometric pressure: 1025
Wind direction: Southerly
Wind Speed: 16-25 knots
Cloud cover: 50%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 16.6 C
Sea conditions: Tight reach across moderate to rough sea, lots of white
caps and a big swell on the beam. Great sailing.
Bird sightings: Wandering Albatross, Yellow nosed Albatross, Black browed Albatross, big black Petrels, Shearwaters, Storm Petrels, Pintado
Notes: Not so cracky. A lump is rowing on my left lower jaw. We red and
re-read 3 sets of instructions from dental boxes dating back to the '70's.
Bumpy night. Inky black. 2130. I called across the 20" aisle to Marie
Christine, "That's it, I'm in for a bad night. I've avoided pills all my
life: \now's the time to take my bonus. I'll start the 5 day course of
Penicillin right now."
"Are you sure?"
"Well this lump is growing. Why wait? Why wait? I replied.
It was a bad night - I couldn't sleep - spent some time drumming my foot
against the bulkhead at the end of the bunk.
Joanna Trollope didn't help, I felt I had more problems than her 'Southern Girl'.
10 long, long days and nights to Capetown with an abscess.
Marie Christine kindly did the midnight to 0200 watch on her own, but I did pad round to see how she was getting on. 'Rie' is stalwart as ever and somehow we must ensure Nick get's his sleep.
Dentist Bill Bennie in Morayshire answered the 0730 Satphone call to his
home from Marie Christine. He endorsed the Penicillin V course and said to add the Metronidazole if there's no improvement in 48 hours. Beyond that lie the grisly tools 'to relieve the pressure'.
Maybe that immature Wandering Albatross which has come at dusk on the past two evenings, is me. I was always trying to be immature. At least I'll know to steer clear of fishing boats.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 25 September 2003
Day: 62
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: 34.52'S, 06.41'W
Position relative to nearest land: 1,248 nm west of Capetown.
Course: 094 T
Speed: 5.3 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 100 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 4,595 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 6,705 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 1,248 miles (Great Circle route from present location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)
Barometric pressure: 1019
Wind direction: SSW
Wind Speed: 16 knots
Cloud cover: 50%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 15.7 C
Sea conditions: Reaching across moderate to rough sea with occasional rain squalls
Bird sightings: Wandering Albatross, Yellow nosed Albatross, Black browed Albatross, big black Petrels, Shearwaters, Storm Petrels, Pintado
Notes: Bumbling along under the two headsails, both out to port. Making 5 knots in cold SSSW breeze. Bright day for third day of trouble with the gnashers: Lower left jaw, last one but one, Bill Bennie in Elgin, if you're reading this! Oil of cloves makes your eyes water, and your mouth too! I'm using stuff from your Dad's dental box, Bill, keeping your stuff from this century until it gets worse. I'll get through to you on email or the blower if there is a nose-dive. Meanwhile Macarthur can keep using his extra long tees with his Driver and make sure everyone at Royal Dornoch signs the 'Save The Albatross" Petition!
The average set of birds with us nowadays is: Half a dozen Black Petrels
(of two different types), a Shearwater, A Storm Petrel, and quite often now an Albatross. Good thing they can't see Nick in his Japanese Yukata of a morning, as he emerges from his bunk, dressing for a nosebag of Muesli. They'd soon push off.
Meanwhile 'Rie' is feverishly Marmiting three oatcakes for her own meagre breakfast. It's 0955 and any minute she'll haul herself up the ladder and into the Doghouse. Rodney Stewart's Atlantic' Crossing will be stifled. Then she'll move on out to take the wheel. Knees now tinged with blue, she'll adjust her round black specs, brace herself and head on towards Capetown 1,250 miles ahead.
It's a good day. I'll take the oil of cloves down with me
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 somuch 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
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 10 September 2003
Day: 47
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: 18.20'S, 27.19''W
Position relative to nearest land: 160 nm NE of Ilhas Martin Vas by Ilhas Die Trinidade (South Atlantic)
Course: 148 T
Speed: 5.2 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 100 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 3,006 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 5,122 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 2,593 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: 20 knots
Cloud cover: 25%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 25.0 C
Sea conditions: Sailing close hauled into light swell, some white caps, blue sea.
Bird sightings: No birds sighted today.
Notes: Yesterday I hauled in the 2ft long heavy black turbine, during a lull in the wind. It hasn't been spinning as forcefully as we expected. It wasn't twisting the 90ft line linked to the white generator hanging off the back of the boat. There was not sufficient vigour to make the needle jump on the ammeter dial above Nick's Communications Centre down in the Saloon.
Even at four knots of boat speed the twisting rope burnt my hands as I hauled it in. Marie Christine piled the line into the aft cockpit to avoid any chance of it snagging the rudder.
There didn't appear to be any kinks in the line and I took this to be both because we were going to windward and because we were streaming a heavier line (10mm rope in fact) than on previous trips. But as I lifted the big spinner over the stern I saw a heavy spiral of deeply scored shiny silver metal gouged out of the shaft. It looked to me as if something very big had taken a snap at the passing turbine. Whatever it was had let go pretty sharply, probably with a few broken teeth. No place to fall overboard.
At last the wind has gone round from SE to E (I think that will be veered in the Southern hemisphere). This has allowed us to head SSE toward Tristan da Cunha some 1380 miles ahead. There are plenty of albatrosses there and the people were very kind to us in 1995, when we came in to photograph a sheep dog sent out from a village near Ardmore the pevious year.
We'd really like to see them again.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 9 September 2003
Day: 46
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: 16.30'S, 27.06''W
Position relative to nearest land: 2,400 nm west of St Helena
Course: 191 T
Speed: 4.9 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 135 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 2,906 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 5,022 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 2663 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: ESE
Wind Speed: 20 knots
Cloud cover: 15%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 25.8 C
Sea conditions: Still on tight reach across big Trade Wind swell, many
white caps, with occasional vigorous rain/wind
squalls.Sailing under 2/3 rolled up No 2 Yankee, Staysail with 2 rolls in,
Mainsail rolled into mast so head is down by 2nd
spreaders, no mizen. Sailing under Monitor windvane except during frequent
squalls. Max gust last night 34 knots.
Bird sightings: Occasional Shearwater.
Notes: How I hate getting up in the middle of the night to go on watch! I
always hated it. Now in later years, I hate it even
more. It reminds me of all the bumps and bruises I've ever had. The torn
shoulders, the disc taken from my back 25 years ago
and its accompanying numb left leg, the long shot knees, the over stretched
Achilles, the ears that won't hear and the eyes
that won't see, and now a stye over the right one.
At the start of this voyage of rueful self discovery, it looked as if the
doddery Chieftain of the Durness Highland Gathering
would be unable to rise from his bed - I just couldn't reach across the
aisle to grasp the rail beneath the window into the
centre-cockpit. I suppose I was grinning as I belly-flopped onto the deck
and hauled myself into a sitting position to dress
the sorry sea-sick frame.
Last night there were three grim 'wake-ups'. the first at 2300 was
organised by my wife of 40 years. Having battled with the
levers and knobs necessary to crank up the Heads to have a pee, then haul
on the waterproof kit necessary for steering
through the squalls, I negotiated the rails of the Generator on my way to
the rocky rolly Galley, thinking black thoughts.
Then up ahead, as bloody always, a familiar female voice from up in the
Doghouse called down. "I'm awfully sorry, I've called
us an hour early!".
Mutter, mutter. Of course it's impossible to go back to sleep for 50
minutes. But it wasn't. Waking up at midnight was a
perfect duplicate of the earlier dress rehearsal. It was blowing 32 knots
and we shortened the mainsail. And 0600 was no better.
But it was a perfect night. Crystal sky,diamond stars, full moon. How could
anyone lie-abed?
17 degrees south and soon we'll see an albatross. Soon. It's eleven years
since I last saw one from the boat. But we did
visit the Royal Albatross Colony in Dunedin in NZ four years ago.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 8 September 2003
Day: 45
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: 14.22'S, 26.49''W
Position relative to nearest land: 700 nm East of Salvador, Brazil.
Course: 185 T
Speed: 6.2 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 120 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 2,771 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 4,897 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 2,718 miles (Great Circle route from present
location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)
Barometric pressure: 1033
Wind direction: ESE
Wind Speed: 25-58 knots
Cloud cover: 90%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 25.8 C (cooling down now)
Sea conditions: Now on tight reach across big Trade Wind swell, many white
caps, with frequent vigorous rain/wind squalls. Sailing under 2/3 rolled up No 2 Yankee, Staysail with 2 rolls in, Mainsail rolled into mast so head is down by 2nd spreaders, no mizen. Sailing under Monitor windvane except during frequent squalls. Max gust last night 58.9 knots.
Bird sightings: Occasional Shearwater.
Notes: The battle has begun. A little sooner than we hoped. Luckily the
massive bracing with a 3-fold purchase of 16mm Yankee sheet makes the mast
at least look very solid.
We're sailing 100 degrees off an Easterly wind so we are heading almost
South, sometimes a little to the East. The squalls
have merged into rather a lot of strong wind. The wind speed recorder
showed 59.98 knots of true wind as the biggest gust
last night. 'Rie' is finding it something of a little test alone at the
wheel at night but she has got into the hang of
ringing the brass handbell when her nerves begin to fray. Whether she
thinks it's better than the booze industry only time
will tell. She is now hand steering for two hour periods in the dark each
night so there is time to think about things.
Marie Christine has started to bake bread as the weather gets cooler.
When he's not on watch Nick battles away at the communication systems. He
spends hours trying to get through on Sailmail, (Data over HF radio), through Belgium, but he's not been able to send a message this month so far and we know we have
messages waiting to be delivered, some waiting for days. Pity we didn't have time to do more trials with it before we left. I think when (hopefully) we reach Capetown, the local ICOM man will find a
fault somewhere in the set up, otherwise it's been a waste of £4,000.
So we send this email Log to the BBC each night via Iridium, but this costs
£1 a minute and the £4000 spent on the ICOM would have bought us 4,000
minutes on Iridium.
As old Rockefeller muttered when the US government ruled he had to break up
his Standard Oil, "Ain't life a damm!"
Looking through our logs for the 203 day non-stop round the world trip with
Andy Briggs in 1983, (in this same boat), I see we saw our first Albatross soon after 20 degrees South, that could be in just four days or so. At the moment it is just the
occasional Shearwater and it's a very 'sidey' life, as Isso would say, if she were sitting here with us. It's like a switchback but we are getting there. Down here of course it's like early
March would be in the northern hemisphere.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 7 September 2003
Day: 44
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: 12.27'S, 26.19''W
Position relative to nearest land: 720 nm East of Salvador, Brazil.
Course: 175 T
Speed: 5.7 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 140 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 2,651 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 4,777 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 2,760 miles (Great Circle route from present location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)
Barometric pressure: 1032
Wind direction: SSE F6
Wind Speed: 25 knots
Cloud cover: 20%,
Surface sea temperature: 26.7 C
Sea conditions: Still beating SSW across big Trade Wind swell, many white caps, a bumpy ride under half rolled up No 2 Yankee, Staysail with 2 rolls in, Mainsail rolled into mast so head is down by 2nd spreaders, no mizen. Sailing under Monitor windvane except during frequent squalls at night. Max gust last night 47 knots.
Bird sightings: Occasional Shearwater.
Notes: The 44th day, its Sunday and as always, Nick is saying. "How's the Log coming along?". Well, it isn't. It's very bumpy, thewind has been SE 25 knots for days now and at nights it goes up to more than 40 knots in the rain squalls.
It's Sunday and we're being thrown all over the place, it's a day of rest and it's hopeless trying to write.
Marie Christine made corn fritters for lunch and we had coffee for the first time in 44 days. MC made proper coffee and we both had it strong and black with much sugar, to remind us of our dear daughter Isso, who we found in the jungles of Peru 17 years ago where they drink enamel mugs of home grown coffee in this way.
The effect of the coffee and the number of Broken Biscuits I ate enabled me to tackle the sorting and packing of my kit. It's been in a complete jumble ever since we left home. It had to be done, it's getting cooler and warmer stuff is needed for night watches.
The draft of the Save the Albatross Petition has arrived for our approval. I think it's going to be run on the Internet around
the world. Hopefully, if we can get enough signatures, I will fly from the boat in the Azores in June next year, to present the Petition to the United Nations in Rome. I'll come up with the details so please get all your friends to sign it. It would be truly wonderful if after all, together we really did manage 'To Prevent the Needless Slaughter of the Albatross'.
"Nick - I've finished the Log, I'll do the rest of your watch while you type it and send it by Iridium (at £1 a minute – it would be much better if you could send it by SailMail, which is free, but doubtless you won't be able to get through)".
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 6 September 2003
Day: 43
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: 10.13'S, 25.43''W
Position relative to nearest land: 540 nm east-south-east of Recife, NW Brazil
Course: 197 M
Speed: 6.2 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 135 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 2,511 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 4,637 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 2,809 miles (Great Circle route from present location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)
Barometric pressure: 1032
Wind direction: SSE F6
Wind Speed: 25 knots
Cloud cover: 2%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 27.1C
Sea conditions: Beating SSW across big Trade Wind swell, many white caps, a bumpy ride under half rolled up No 2 Yankee, Staysail with 2 rolls in, Mainsail rolled into mast so head is down to 2nd spreaders, no mizen sail. Sailing under Monitor windvane except during frequent squalls at night.
Bird sightings: Shearwaters plus one Blue-nosed Booby.
Notes: Now we are 10 degrees South of the Equator we feel the Yellow-Nosed Albatross is somewhere up ahead, maybe 1,200 miles, but still we are now in the same Ocean. It was planned for Pierre Pistorious to fly from Capetown to Tenerife to join us, as our resident albatross expert, for this Leg from the Canaries to Capetown. Sadly he was unable to to make the trip and by then it was too late to find a replacement.
Never mind, the trip is really Capetown-Capetown we told ourselves, "Only a minor setback". And a minor setback it is – for us. But maybe not for the Albatross - time is running out for the poor old bird.
We have now passed two Asian trawlers. No sign of any 'mitigating' gear to prevent the by-catch of sea birds on either. But who's checking anything out here?
We have many books on the subject of the Albatross aboard, but the best summary of the mortal danger it faces is contained in a 14-page booklet, easily read in half an hour. It's called 'Conservation through Co-operation' and is published by the NZ Dept of Conservation. To get a copy email Janice Molloy, [email protected], or write to her at Dept. of Conservation, PO Box 10-420, Wellington, NZ. Tell her you are following the John Ridgway Save the Albatross Voyage and that we should be into Wellington for Christmas and we look forward to meeting her then. We feel sure that international co-operation is the best way to ensure the survival of the mighty bird which has graced the oceans almost forever.
Why should our generation exterminate it?
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 5 September 2003
Day: 42
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: 08.20'S, 24.32'W
Position relative to nearest land: 600 nm east of Recife, NW Brazil
Course: 235 M
Speed: 5.3 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 120 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 2,376 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 4,502 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 2,825 miles (Great Circle route from present location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)
Barometric pressure: 1032
Wind direction: SSE F5
Wind Speed: 20 knots
Cloud cover: 2%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 27.1C
Sea conditions: Beating SSW across full Trade Wind swell, many white caps.
Bird sightings: Shearwaters, Stormy Petrels, Terns.
Notes: A rather more trying night for Nick. Hugely experienced, (read his background on H2G2), he was on watch alone at 0530 when he found himself becalmed between two black clouds. He pulled on a rain jacket, fearing something unusual, uncoupled the wheel from the trusty Monitor windvane self-steering system and braced himself, steering by hand in the darkness. He was just in time. A wall of rain hit him and the wind shrieked up to what the electronic trip recorded as 43 knots. Nick was able to run off downwind. Three more squalls followed in quick succession.
When Marie Christine and I came on watch at 0600 we helped him reduce sail and set the boat up to sail on the new wind which is pushing us a little more out to westward.
We'd had a lucky escape. If this situation had happened earlier in the night, when 'Rie' was alone on watch between two and four in the morning, things might not have turned out so happily as she would not have had time to call Nick, who was next on watch.
I fished out the old brass bell on its length of plaited line. All she has to do now is to ring it vigorously. It should wake someone!
At 0715, with things in order once more, John Boyce of Hood Yacht Spars called on the Sat phone as arranged by email through Richard Creasey. it was quite an event as it was only our second call in 42 days, and it was reassuring to hear from John who told us he had been in touch with David Cooper of Holman Pye, who had designed the boat. They are both in agreement that we have the correct rigging, It is just that the swages have failed on the wire ends, below the lower spreaders on the mast.
We have done all the bracing we can. While 4 of 19 strands broken is not good, it looks as if we have stabilised the situation and we are sailing at well under full power.
I reflect on how heavily strengthened the boat is and where it has taken us in the past. This whole rig including the mast was fitted new in 2000, specifically to sail round the world. There are always set backs. Be of good heart...etc. Meanwhile the old ship ploughs on SSW and we try a little dogged persistence.
A new bird arrived today. I was hoping for a Scarlet Tailed Tropic Bird but it turned out to be a large white Tern with a
short forked tail, black head and black wing tips. It didn't stay long. Shearwaters still persist around us and the occasional Storm Petrel. But
how I long to see the first albatross steer across
our horizon.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 4 September 2003
Day: 41
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: 06.32'S, 23.42'W
Position relative to nearest land: 660 nm east of Recife, NW Brazil
Course: 195 M
Speed: 6.2 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 140 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 2,256 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 4,382 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 2,860 miles (Great Circle route from present
location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)
Barometric pressure: 1032
Wind direction: SE F5
Wind Speed: 20 knots
Cloud cover: 5%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 27.5C
Sea conditions: Beating south into moderate sea and fair swell from SE.
Bird sightings: Shearwaters are still flying with us.
Notes: A trying night. Inky black, 10/10 cloud cover and wind gusting to 30
knots. In all the 27 years with this boat we have never been constrained for
speed, usually we weren't going fast enough! Now we have to throttle back
and it doesn't suit.
We are presently making 2 degrees south each day, while conditions are good
for making three. We are 41 days out from Ardmore and if the mast holds I can see another 26 before we see Capetown.
I feel assailed. A good man would relish the challenge. Anyway...
Now, what about the Albatross? He's not showing his shiny beak up this way.
But we did have over 100 Shearwaters around us and one or two Storm Petrels
at 0930 this morning, just after a white Asian fishing vessel crossed our
stern NW-SE at about 1 nm. It was smothered in aerials and domes but did
not respond to our call on Channel 16. The name was 3 words, perhaps the
central one was Chang, the funnel blue.
Three quarters of an hour later we passed a red buoy with an aerial.
Perhaps they were fishing for tuna. No sign of mitigating measures to
prevent seabird by-catch, and plenty of birds all around.
We are on the high seas, fishermen can pretty much do as they please. Whenever I have been down here, over the past six decades, there have been these white Asian fishing vessels, though less sophisticated than nowadays.
At home, when the lobster men come in to lay their fleets of creels, they
say 'I know there are very few left, but if I don't
take them, somebody else will. So it might as well be me!'.
The disasters of the Newfoundland Grand Banks, the Barents Sea and the
North Sea are soon forgotten.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 3 September 2003
Day: 40
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: 04.06'S, 23.05'W
Course: 197 M
Speed: 5.1 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 150 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 2,116 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 4,242 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 2,925 miles (Great Circle route from present location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)
Barometric pressure: 1030
Wind direction: SE F5
Wind Speed: 18 knots
Cloud cover: 5%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 27.5C
Sea conditions: Beating South into moderate sea annd growing swell from SE
Bird sightings: The 8 Shearwaters are still flying with and still often
landing near the boat to feed.
Notes: Well, as I said, "John Boyce, Managing Director of Hood Spars, will come up with something". Richard Creasey, our Comms Director at the BBC has been in contact with John, who has most generously offered to be in Capetown in person with replacement standing rigging when we finally reach port. Few manufacturers can supply that kind of support. After discussion with his team it seems the Cap Shrouds are failing at the swages and John suggests we brace the mast with the port spinnaker halyard in way of the port cap shroud chain plates.
Meanwhile, we have come out into the broad corridor of the boisterous SE Trade Winds and we must find a way to 'ferry glide across them, with failing wires supporting the mast. Accordingly, Long Nick and I spent the morning tuning a new rig, in 20 knots of wind and a rising sea:
1. We rolled up the No 2 Yankee which leave us with an empty fore triangle and no strain on the mast head.
2. We set the full Stay sail which has its own Forestay, tacked way back on the foredeck and rooted 3/4 of the way up the mast. The loading of the Staysail on the mast is directly offset by the port running backstay which is rooted at the same height on the mast as the staysail forestay and led aft to compensate.
3. We have furled the mainsail to the point where its head reaches only
just above the height of the Staysail forestay.
4. We have set the full mizen sail on its entirely separate mast.
Nick is a huge help in all this.
We are down to about 4.5 knots, plus a bit of surface current and sailing well off the wind. The boat is becoming a bit of steam bath, threatening the return of the prickly heat. Although we shall now take a week or more longer to reach Capetown, one of the advantages of reaching the senility of 65 years is that I am a little numbed to the pricks of humiliation to my puffed up pride. It was not always so!
The aim is "To prevent the needless slaughter of the albatross".
Keep on truckin'.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 2 September 2003
Day: 39
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: 01.47'S, 22.45'W
Position relative to nearest land: 620 nm NW of Ascension Island
Course: 197 M
Speed: 4.8 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 98 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 1,966 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 4,092 nm
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 3,005 miles (Great Circle route from present
location, we'll sail further to make the most of Trade Winds and Westerlies)
Barometric pressure: 1031
Wind direction: SE F4
Wind Speed: 15 knots
Cloud cover: 5%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 27.5C
Sea conditions: Beating South into light sea from South-East
Bird sightings: 8 Shearwaters constantly flying with us and often landing
near the boat to feed.
Notes:
Hello Molly and Hughie
Now, what about the 'Mystery Ship? There we were, Granny and me on night watch, 660 miles NW of Ascension island, in the middle of the ocean. I was standing in the aft cockpit, arms resting on the blue padding around the edge of the Doghouse,looking out to see if there might be a ship coming. But we aren't really expecting to see another boat before we
arrive in Capetown, in three or four weeks time.
Fishing boats there might be, but I've been along this way three times
before. The others don't know how huge and deserted it really is. It would
be foolish for me to go on about it too much. I've got plenty to worry
about in the damaged cap shrouds, without causing alarm. Nursing the team
to Capetown with the damaged boat is what I must do.
Anyway, I'm thinking about this when I imagine I see the 'loom' of a light
on our port beam, a little aft of 15 degrees
maybe. "You're imagining things", I thought. But there it was whenever we
rode up on the crest of a wave. A faint glowing
dome of light.
"Come up and see the 'loom'" I called to Granny. It was 0030 and she was in the galley pouring hot water from a flask onto slices of lemon in our mugs.
"Ooh!" She squeaked excitedly,"Just coming". Marie Christine's hands came
up from the darkness, grasping her red plastic mug in her right hand and my
shiny silver one in her left. She placed them on the down wind side of the
floor, safe against the face of the seat. Then she rattled up the six metal
rungs of the ladder, practising her leg gymnastics and propelled herself
through the tiny hatch and straight on across shiny wooden floor and
through the open door of the Doghouse; twisting round to look out to Port
as she came. Granny is pretty as well as bendy.
As usual there was no sign of the 'loom'.
"Yes. I've got it!" She said, just as I was persuading myself it wasn't there.
We both agreed it was. I'd already turned on the radar but there was no
mark on the shiny screen. We hauled ourselves back inside the tiny door and
gawped half interestedly at the screen.
"There it is!" I muttered. A thin block of yellow appeared well forward of
our port beam on the six mile ring of the bright screen.
Five minutes later it was nearer the four mile ring. "Which is it Johnny?
The line nearest us or the outer one - they must be a 1/4 mile apart?".
"I think we must take it as the nearer one of the two, to be on the safe
side", I replied.
Then it was gone. Not a sign, Not on the screen nor on the horizon outside.
Was it a submarine on the surface,which had now dived? I'd seen just that
off the Butt of Lewis once.
Was it a UFO 'An unidentified flying object' from Mars or somewhere up
among all those millions of stars in the blue velvet sky above.
Was it two ancient Grandparents imagining things?
The whole thing started at 0030 and was done by log time at 0100. We were
on watch for another hour, 'Rie' took over at 2am.
We did see the odd blue mark on the radar screen but they never lasted long.
We went below at 0200 for four hours more sleep before we took over from
Nick in the dark at 0600, through dawn, until 1000 in the morning.
Marie Christine, sleeping on the floor in our cabin, had very odd dreams,
about a ladder up from the flooded River Ness and into the upstairs of 8,
Douglas Row. In spite of the floods she was so happy to be home.
I slept more or less ok. The cool wind from the south is cooling my
prickly heat but pricking my memory with thoughts of the
desperate times to come, down there.
At 0615 I was looking at the dawning horizon again, out on the Port beam,
and there was the 'loom'. Marie Christine came up from making more hot
lemon. She saw it too. But there was no sign on the radar. 15 minutes
later it was nearly light.
Sunrise and sunset come quickly in the tropics.
Then at two o'clock in the afternoon we saw a white Asian trawler crossing
our bows only three miles off. No sign of by-catch mitigation measures.
In the UK, fishing vessels have to report their position every hour.
Technology is running far ahead of international regulation of fishing
stocks. Every fishing vessel and fish processing vessel in the world should
report its position every hour and every landing should be inspected.
I'm writing this for you now, because by the time you have grown up, if the
lines on the graphs run as they are now pointing, there will probably be
12,000,000,000 people in the world instead of the 6,000,000,000 there are
now and all the fish will have been caught and all the albatrosses will be
dead.
You see the sea covers 3/4 of the world and the people need fish to eat.
It is we, your parents and grandparents who are allowing this to happen.
The albatross is a symbol. If it prospers and increases, so will the fish
and the people. If not, it will be 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. And
that's why Granny and
Granddad are out here in the middle of every night.
Grandpa
(John Ridgway)
Date: 1 September 2003
Day: 38
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: 00.08'S, 22.08'W
Position relative to nearest land: 660 nm NW of Ascension Island, South
Atlantic.
Course: 232 M
Speed: 3.4 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 96 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 1,772 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 3,994 nm
Headed to: Cape Town, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 3,048 miles (Great Circle route from present location, we'll sail further to make the most of
Trade Winds and Westerlies)
Barometric pressure: 1030
Wind direction: SE F3
Wind Speed: 10 knots
Cloud cover: 5%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 27.1C
Sea conditions: Beating wsw into light sea from S
Bird sightings: Still have three Shearwaters with us.
Notes: Crossing the Equator i mid-Atlantic at 21 W
This is to certify that on this day, 1 September 2003, Marie Louise Rogers, of Biggleswade, aboard the yacht English Rose V1, whilst floating in her lilac sheeted pipe-cot, unwittingly did cross the Equator, 12,000 ft above a carpet of oceanic mud and ooze at 21 degrees West, witnessed by; John Ridgway, Chieftain of the Durness Highland Gathering, Marie Christine Ridgway, Batman to Chieftain Robin, and Nick Grainger, Mogul from Melbourne.
And so it came to pass!
An extravagant certificate containing the above was presented at a luncheon of Fried Peanuts and Almonds, Egg Mayonnaise Salad, and Nick's sister Diana's Delicious Derby cake, Nick having now completely recovered from his superhuman feat (with photos) of setting up the three part purchase on the deck to the lower spreader span of the port cap-shroud.
The wind is steadily going round to the South and we hope to be heading a little West of South before too long. Already the Great Circle course to Capetown is slowly diminishing.
We are sccanning our books for any information on the Yellow-Nosed Albaross but its still Shearwaters around here with luminous flashing sub-sea life at night.
Into the mist...,
John Ridgway
Date: 31 August 2003
Day: 37
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: 00.58'N, 21.21'W
Position relative to nearest land: 1000 miles from anywhere
Course: 245M
Speed: 4.6 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 102 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 1,772 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 3,898 nm
Headed to: Cape Town, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 3,065 miles (Great Circle route from present
location, we'll sail further to make the most of
Trade Winds and Westerlies
Barometric pressure: 1030
Wind direction: S F3
Wind Speed: 12 knots
Cloud cover: 10%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 27.5C
Sea conditions: Beating wsw into light sea from S
Bird sightings: Yes our friends the Shearwaters and Storm Petrels are
still with us.
Notes: A thousand miles from anywhere and three thousand from Capetown, in
fact this number is steadily growing as we have been sailing west.
I believe several people would be a bit anxious, if, a thousand miles from
anywhere, their un-insured 70ft mast looked like
falling into the sea.
Today, we feel a bit shamefaced about it. Even to the extent of rubbing out
the the pencilled word 'major' in front of 'concern about stranding of the
cap shrouds' hastily written in the log by Marie Christine yesterday
afternoon.
Nick's three-fold purchase of 16mm rope looks sound, Its sunny (again) and
everything 'Looks alright'. Isn't it grand how
that calms you down, 'Looking alright'.
At 0615 this morning we heard a bang on the front of the Doghouse. On
watch, Marie Christine and I ducked our heads and
looked at each other. "Probably a bird!" she muttered, trying to play down
any sign of 'Major concern',and thinking of the
dead Storm Petrel Nick had found in among the Life-rafts and Emergency
jerry cans of water, in the centre cockpit a few days ago.
Later, she threw 25 dead flying fish from the decks into the sea. 'Rie'
found a dead one in the forward Heads but didn't like
to touch it.
Bec's email from home tells us our own computer, in our home on the other
side of the wood, is calming down. "its mostly just Viagra adverts in the
Mailbox now". Funny old life, far away.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 30 August 2003
Day: 36
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: 001.57'N, 19.47'W
Position relative to nearest land: 112 nm north of the Equator, 1000 nm ENE
of Brazil
Course: 254M
Speed: 4.6 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 115 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 1,670 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 3,796 nm
Headed to: Cape Town, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 3,552 miles
Barometric pressure: 1028
Wind direction: SSW F5
Wind Speed: 18 knots
Cloud cover: 10%
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 28.3C
Sea conditions: Beating W into light sea from SSW
Bird sightings: Our friends the Shearwaters and Storm Petrels are still
with us.
Notes: An exciting day.
We have found four broken wire strands at the top of the lowest section the
Port Cap shroud,just below the lowest of the three spreaders on the port
side of the mainmast. And one broken strand at the corresponding place on
the starboard side.
The job was to fit a 3-fold purchase to support the lowest section of the
Port Cap shroud.
Putting it rather baldly, if the Cap Shroud breaks, the 70 ft mast breaks
and falls into the sea with a bit of a splash.
We're trying to keep calm and compose an email to John Boyce at Hood Spars
at Burnham on Crouch. He'll come up with something, hopefully the name and
the address of the fellow who made up the cap shrouds!
And now to get to Cape Town. It's still some 3,500 miles, mostly to
windward and early spring in the South Atlantic.
How do I keep getting into these situations? Sometimes I wish I was doing
knitting and gardening.
Here we are. It's pitch dark (now 9.20pm) and were 1000 milles from anywhere.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 29 August 2003
Day: 35
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: 002.42'N, 18.04'W
Position relative to nearest land: 430 nm SW of Sierra Leone
Course: 259M
Speed: 5.5 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 100 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 1,655 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 3,681 miles
Headed to: Cape Town, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 3,667 miles
Barometric pressure: 1028
Wind direction: S F5
Wind Speed: 22 knots
Cloud cover: 90%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 28.7C
Sea conditions: Beating W into moderate sea from SSW
Bird sightings: > The Shearwaters are still with us often flying very
close to the boat and sometimes landing on the water, now joined by three
Storm Petrels.
Notes: Nearing the Equator, some way out from Africa,heading toward Brazil.
Imagine you have been doing the same thing for the past 35 days. Not all of
it comfortable.
Last night, moonless and bumpy, we crossed the line where two great ocean
currents grind up against each other. The Guinea current heading East, at
up to 1 knot, and the Tropical Current heading West,at up to three knots.
Massive forces caused by the earth spinning.
We saw 4 fishing boats, way our there in the blackness.
Now we are pointing towards NE Brazil and so far off Africa we are a third
of the way to South America already.
When will we see the first Yellow-Nosed Albatross?
Bumpy and baked beans for lunch. Settling down to the new motion.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 28 August 2003
Day: 34
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: 04.13'N, 18.51'W Position relative to nearest land: 180 nm north of the Equator
Course: 187M
Speed: 6.2 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 145 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 1,555 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 3,581 miles
Headed to: Cape Town, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 3,767 miles
Barometric pressure: 1029
Wind direction: SSW F3
Wind Speed: 10 knots
Cloud cover: 75%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 29.5C
Sea conditions: Motoring south into growing sea from the S
Bird sightings: 8 Shearwaters (together on the water), one Stormy Petrel
Notes: 35 years ago I was in almost this exact spot on the boundary between the Guinea Currentand the Equatorial Current and it was my 30th birthday. I was alone and Marie Christine asked the BBC World Service to play Matt Munro singing Born Free, or rather, they were playing it anyway and she persuaded them to include birthday wishes.
Anyway we're here together today, Derby and Joan. Can we save the Albatross?
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 27 August 2003
Day: 33
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: 06.42'N, 18.52'W
Position relative to nearest land: 480 nm west of Monrovia
Course: 193M
Speed: 5.6 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 155 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 1,410 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 3,591 miles
Headed to: Cape Town, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 3,912 miles
Barometric pressure: 1030
Wind direction: S F3
Wind Speed: 8 knots
Cloud cover: 75%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 29.1C
Sea conditions: Motoring south into light swell from the S
Bird sightings: > 15 Shearwaters
Notes: Since leaving the Gannets and Fulmars of home, we could be forgiven
for thinking that only Shearwaters and Stormy
Petrels inhabit the ocean waters down to the Equator, and precious few of
them too. This afternoon Nick had 15 Shearwaters
round the boat, with most landing nearby, though I can see only one,
curving across the swell, as I write this in the aft
cockpit just before six o'clock suppper.
We've been thinking a lot about Charles Taylor and his long, firm rule of
Liberia and the Americans who have helped him move
his things to his new home. He'll have a lot of time on his hands now,
maybe he'll take up bird watching.
After our grand sail of yesterday, the wind did at dawn and Marie Christine
and I put away the four sails.
A couple of days motoring due South at six knots should set us across the
SE flowing Guinea current and into the NW flowing
south Equatorial current. Then we can sail west towards Brazil on the
expected SE Trade Wind.
Its a bit of a gamble with our small reserve of diesel
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 26 August 2003
Day: 31
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: 08.26'N, 20.39'W
Position relative to nearest land: 450 nm west of Freetown, Sierra Leone
Course: 151 M
Speed: 6.7 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 150 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 1,255 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 3,436 miles
Headed to: Cape Town, South Africa
Distance to next port: approox 4,067 miles
Barometric pressure: 1028
Wind direction: SW F3
Wind Speed: 12 knots
Cloud cover: 15%,
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 28.7 C
Sea conditions: Sailing into light sea from the SW
Bird sightings: Flying Fish, occasional Stormy Petel and Shearwater.
Notes:
No birds save the occasional Shearwater or Stormy Petrel.
The water temperature has climbed daily, since 10C on leaving Ardmore to 30.6C! at noon yesterday. Today it fell for the first
time. The fresh wind is from the SSW. Have we crossed the Doldrums?
We are sailing under four sails and we would look a bonny sight at 7.5 knots. A cloud of white sliding across a blue, blue
sea.
Just before dark last night we saw a ship, way out on the port quarter. Bows up and empty, with black smoke puffing from her
funnel she was a scruffy sight.
Ten minutes later her bearing from us had not altered.
"If the bearing does not appreciably change, risk of collison may be deemed to exist" I chortled to Nick, Rie and Marie
Christine, as we munched our vegetable curry in the stern. They looked dis-believing, surely this further memory from my
Merchant Navy days of 1956 would be a boast too far.
Half an hour later I spoke with the Officer on watch on the radio. the Greek ship was jogging along at 10 knots,on the way
from Naukshott on the Sahara coast to Brazil with a Ukrainian crew. He was the 'Giving way vessel'.
"We'll be passing rather close" I suggested.
"Yes" came the reply in a thick accent. Clearly he thought us so small that we should surely get out of his way.
We both held our course and he crossed our bow with 250 yards to spare. The welder never looked up from the rust bucket.
We were glad this hadn't happened in the dark.
Marie Christine said she thought they were carrying slave children to South America. I was thinking that if they had run us
down they might have just kept going, it's a rough old world, down Liberia way. Not much health and not much safety
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 25 August 2003
Day: 30
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: 10.55'N, 20.54'W
Position relative to nearest land: 300 nautical miles west of Bissau, West
Africa
Course: 198 M
Speed: 6.7 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 103 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 1105 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 3,286 miles
Headed to: Cape Town, South Africa
Distance to next port: approox 4,215 miles
Barometric pressure: 1028
Wind direction: SW F2
Wind Speed: 8 knots
Cloud cover: 100%, Grey
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 30.3 C
Sea conditions: Very confused swell with wavelets in all directions
Bird sightings: Flying Fish, occasional Stormy Petrel and Shearwater.
Notes: The winds become lighter and more variable in direction, governed by
huge black thunderheads which have lightening and thunder in vicious squalls.
When we came on watch, at 0600, after a night of just dribbling along,
Marie Christine and I switched on the engine and headed due south. Straight
into the heart of a dark cloud.
At 11 degrees N I still felt anxious that we were too far north to be into
the Doldrums. I had set aside three days fuel for motoring through calms on
this six wee leg of the circumnavigation. Was I wasting precious fuel?
It grew dark in the cloud, stair rods of rain flattened the sea. Marie
Christine and I stripped down into our altogether and soon had shampoo in
our eyes. That was the signal for the rain to stop.
But the cloud wasn't watching for signals, the wind shrieked up to 45 knots
and the boat lay right over onto its side. The surface of the sea was raw
white with rivulets of foam and the two innocent bathers cut a sorry sight.
But at least the shampoo washed off.
Nick's face grinned up from the galley, "Sardine sandwiches?" he called.
The wind died and our world became shades of grey. A shearwater appeared,
as if nothing had happened.
We motored on, in search of a steady cool south wind frm the southern
hemisphere.. This will allow us to tck and head for Brazil, away from
Sierra Leone, Liberia, Charles Taylor ad all that. I don't suppose he cares
for the albatross either.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 24 August 2003
Day: 29
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: 12.29'N, 21.13'W
Position relative to nearest land: 250 nm west of Kazabane, Guinea, West Africa.
Course: 136M
Speed: 5.5 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 55 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 1,002 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 3,183 miles
Headed to: Cape Town, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 4,320 miles
Barometric pressure: 1030
Wind direction: S F3
Wind Speed: 12 knots
Cloud cover: 10%, Trade wind sky...
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 29.9 C
Sea conditions: Light
Bird sightings: Flying Fish - no birds
Notes: Crinkly sea, swell coming from all directions. Hot + prickly heat. Going 30 days and nights now. The light wind goes right round the compass in 24hrs. With never any birds in sight it is sometimes difficult to focus on the reason we are out here, "To prevent the needless slaughter of the albatross". But there is much going on behind the scenes: The Global Petition
, organised by Forest and Bird far away in NZ; the Sat phone interviews for the media; The UN Conference in Rome next June.
When will we see our first albatross? The last one that Marie Christine and I saw was from this boat leaving the South Atlantic in 1995. I wondered then if I'd ever have the chance to see this great bird again.
Well, I do have that chance.
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
ps What interesting things have you done in the last 30 days?
Date: 23 August 2003
Day: 28
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: 13.23'N, 21.22'W
Position relative to nearest land: 280 nm west of Gambia
Course: 182M
Speed: 5.2 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 88 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 947 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 3,128 miles
Headed to: Cape Town, South Africa
Distance to next port: approox 4,375 miles
Barometric pressure: 1027
Wind direction: ESE F4
Wind Speed: 15 knots
Cloud cover: 30%, patches of blue in between squalls
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 29.9 C
Sea conditions: Light
Bird sightings: Flying Fish - no birds
Notes: Bumping along, wind on port bow. Monitor wind vane steering system broken and we can't extract broken pipe.
Really no birds to be seen.
Backlog on SailMail now cleared at last. Persons wishing to contact us should do through Rebecca Ridgway or Richard Creasey.
We have been unable to transmit, only receive on our 10 minute daily SailMail allowance.
John Ridgway
Date: 22 August 2003
Day: 27
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: 14.33'N, 20.34'W
Position relative to nearest land: 180 miles west of Dakar, N Africa
Course: 192M
Speed: 5.2 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 92 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 859 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 3,040 miles
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approox 4,443 miles
Barometric pressure: 1028
Wind direction: E F3
Wind Speed: 10 knots
Cloud cover: 100% grey and humid -imminent squalls
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 29.9 C
Sea conditions: Light
Bird sightings: Flying Fish and Pilot whales
Notes: Scarcely any wind in channel between Dakar (West-most point of
Africa) and Cape Verde Islands. V.hot+prickly heat.
Fruit and veg rotting. 900 nautical miles to Equator. Apart from that - GREAT!
John Ridgway
Date: 21 August 2003
Day: 26
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: 16.00'N, 20.23''W
Position relative to nearest land: Between Dakar (W.Africa) and the Cape
Verde Islands
Course: 187M
Speed: 4.7 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 75 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 767 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 2,948 miles
Headed to: Cape Town, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 4,555 miles
Barometric pressure: 1029
Wind direction: NNE F3
Wind Speed: 12 knots
Cloud cover: 100% but bright
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 29.1C
Sea conditions: Light
Bird sightings: Flying Fish
Notes: Frustrating day of light wind. High pressure blocks the normal power
of the Trade Wind. Poles down. Wind vane steering
with four sails. Shooting stars. SeaMail working again.
John Ridgway
Date: 20 August 2003
Day: 25
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: 17.06'N, 21.09'W
Position relative to nearest land: 100 miles east-north-east of the Cape
Verde Islands
Course: SSW
Speed: 4.4 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 100 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 767 nm
Total distance from Ardmore: 2872 miles
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 4631 miles
Barometric pressure: 1029
Wind direction: ENE F3
Wind Speed: 8 knots
Cloud cover: 10% bright sun
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 30.7C
Sea conditions: Smooth
Bird sightings: Flying Fish
Notes: At last the wind has gone too far to the East for us to sail with
the twin poles. They have brought us all the way from Portugal.
Now we are making 5.5 knots under 4 sails: No 2 yankee, staysail, main and
mizen sail. The boat is steady on the port tack and the rolling has stopped.
John Ridgway
Date: 19 August 2003
Day: 24
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: 18.27'N, 20.07'W
Position relative to nearest land: 200 miles north-east of the Cape Verde
Islands
Course: 198 M
Speed: 7.7 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 170 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 590 miles
Total distance from Ardmore: 2,772 miles
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approox 4,731miles
Barometric pressure: 1029
Wind direction: NNE F5
Wind Speed: 18 knots
Cloud cover: 80% hazy
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 27.9C
Sea conditions: Calm/modate
Bird sightings: Occasional Storm Petrel, Flying Fish
Notes: Flying fish in the galley via Doghouse. Foot high sharks fin 60 ft
on starboard quarter. Splendid wind. Andrea Bocelli
sings to inspire us for the Albatross. That's the good part.
Worryingly:
1. Barred from SailMail, we have not been in touch with London for a week.
We can't afford Iridium data at one £ a minute.
2. There are two broken strands in the 1x19 port lower cap shroud,
Hood's
wire holding up the mast. How I rue that time in
Burnham in Crouch July 2000.
John Ridgway
Date: 18 August 2003
Day: 23
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: 21.16'N, 19.33'W
Position relative to nearest land: 145 nm west of Nouadhibou on the Sahara coast
Course: 205M
Speed: 6.6 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 145 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 429
Total distance from Ardmore: 2610 miles
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approox 4,893 miles
Barometric pressure: 1030
Wind direction: NNE F5
Wind Speed: 18 knots
Cloud cover: 0% slightly hazy
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 26.2 C
Sea conditions: Moderate following trade-wind sea
Bird sightings: Storm Petrels, Flying Fish
Notes: Off Sahara Desert coast. NE wind has improved. Rolling south.
Hot. Albatrosses still far away. Settling in. Finding coolest spot on boat.
Tropics are 2,500mmiles wide!
John Ridgway
Date: 17 August 2003
Day: 22
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: 23.31'N, 18.17'W
Position relative to nearest land: 130 nm off Sahara coast
Course: 228M
Speed: 6.7 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 66.9 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 275.9
Total distance from Ardmore: 2,456.9 miles
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approox 5046 miles
Barometric pressure: 1030
Wind direction: NNE F4
Wind Speed: 12 knots
Cloud cover: 20% hazy
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 24.6C
Sea conditions: Calm
Bird sightings: Occasional Shearwater, Flying Fish
Notes: Very light winds close toSahara Desert. Barred by Seamail for
overuse is a blow for the Albatross Campaign. Must think...
John Ridgway
Date: 16 August 2003
Day: 21
Local time: 1200
Leg Number and name: Leg 2, 'The Yellow-nosed'
Focus of leg: The education of fishermen - the role of Projecto Albatroz
(Brazil)
Position - Latitude, Longitude: 24.39'N, 17.45'W
Position relative to nearest land: 150 miles off Spanish Sahara
Course: 206M
Speed: 4.3 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 103 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 208
Total distance from Ardmore: 2,389 miles
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: approx 5,114 miles
Barometric pressure: 1029
Wind direction: NNE
Wind Speed: F2 7 knots
Cloud cover: 50% very hazy
Air temperature: Hot
Surface sea temperature: 26C
Sea conditions: Flat with gentle low swell
Bird sightings: Very Occasional Shearwater
Notes: 150 miles off Spanish Sahara (1967 chart). Jogging south in light
winds. Settling into 6 week haul to Capetown. Time
to think - about the albatross: "Wonders never cease. Do they?"
John Ridgway
Date: 15 August 2003
Day: 20
Local time: 1200
Leg Number and name: Leg 1, 'The Yellow-nosed'
Focus of leg: The long-line fishing industry - its global
impact on the albatross population
Position - Latitude, Longitude: 26.33'N, 17.04'
Position relative to nearest land: 35 miles SW of Gran Canaria
Course: 218M
Speed: 5.5 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 100 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 105
Total distance from Ardmore: 2286 miles
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Distance to next port: tbc miles
Barometric pressure: 1031
Wind direction: NNE F4
Wind Speed: 12 knots
Cloud cover: 0% but hazy
Air temperature: n/a
Surface sea temperature: 26C
Sea conditions: light sea with some whitecaps
Bird sightings: Occasional Shearwater, Sighted first Flying Fish
Notes:
Into the mist...
John Ridgway
Date: 14 August 2003
Day: 19
Local time: 1630
Leg Number and name: Leg 1, 'The Yellow-nosed'
Focus of leg: The long-line fishing industry - its global
impact on the albatross population
Position: 28.12'N, 15.50'W
Position relative to nearest land: 5 miles south of Los Gigantes, NW Tenerife
Course: 190M
Speed: 6 knots
Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 5 miles
Distance traveled since last port: 5 miles
Total distance from Ardmore: 2186 miles
Headed to: Capetown, South Africa
Barometric pressure: 1033
Wind direction: SSE F3
Wind Speed: 9 knots
Cloud cover: 0%
Air temperature: 26 C
Surface sea temperature: 26 C
Sea conditions: very light
Bird sightings:
Notes: After 2 baking days in Los Gigantes, Tenerife, we finally sailed at 1630 today. Motoring 25 miles south down the channel between Tenerife and Gomera and hoping to pick up the NE Trades again at the southern tip of Tenerife. Everybody was so helpful and kind. We gave a Save the Albatross talk to the Lions last night which was a very valuable evening for us, anyway!
John Ridgway
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