Date/time: Jan 6, 2006 12:00 local 14:00 z Position at noon: 34°10.721' S & 022°09' E noon to noon 0 nm Avg. speed: 0 kts Course bearing: ---°T Sea state & wx: ?? sounds a bit rough Crew: Ben, Brad, & Kevin Days: 0 days from Mossel Bay Goal: to East London to refuel To go: about 170 nm Remarks: To leave in minutes but met some nice people and glad for such a nice stay here. This town is in the Guinness World Book as one of the most temperate climates in the world which seems in contrast to the ocean. We had some rain here at the end of a drought which was nice. Brad, Ben, & Kevin ------------------------------------------------- Hey Doug: I am sending your reply to everyone on my daily list at 9:50z, 11:50 local. All well on board and we had a nice break including a very nice supper with Michael Rodan-Smith and his family. He is a diamond miner planning on converting a fishing boat to sail with two masts and do some international sailing. We are in Mossel Bay just getting ready to leave. Having a hard time deciding on the weather, looks like we will go ahead and have a rough trip to East London where we will fill up with fuel and may have to wait a day before heading for Australia. I am cooking bangers for now and a later meal as it may be more difficult at sea. Kevin is doing some cleaning and Dad is getting a few things organized. The motor mount didn't seem to affect performance but we kept going slow to be careful with it, the weather was good which helped. Not exactly sure how it broke, if something precipitated towards it or simply the hammering somewhere along the line. Both front mounts have been reinforced now. Gee JB weld, we may have some on board but I was trying to think how McGyver would use the electrical system in such a way that he could weld the piece using a clothes hanger as a stinger and reweld it. One thing that those Volvo guys do that is different than us is the speed, they are the same weight as us but are slamming through the waves at incredible speeds by my knowledge, I think they take a lot of water over the top. There is a good chance that they will break another world record on the way to Australia. The Brazil 1 and the Sony Eriksson boat both had problems, and yesterday we saw the Sony Erickson boat in this harbour and was gone in the evening, hopefully repaired. It would be interesting to see an ice berg in the northern and southern continent in one trip but I doubt we will go that far south. As a note, the furthest south that an ice berg was seen in the North Atlantic was near Azores in the 1930s around 38 degrees North latitude. The old traditional shipping lane is 35 degrees latitude. When we were talking to the ABN AMRO 1 guys at first we planned to go north to Madagascar and then across but decided next to head straight south from Cape Town then angle SE to 38 degrees South and continue east, as we didn't mind hitting some rougher water. The most calm area is about 35 degrees with the winds going west above and east below that line. The high pressure systems continue to move across from west to east but they cannot penetrate the high temperature areas of Africa and Australia. If we see a high pressure system we were told to stick with it if we can and follow it. If we want more tail wind head south if it is too rough head north and keep an eye out for lows. We do not plan to hit any of the islands partly because they don't have any fuel. There are fishing boats that work out there but they cherish thier fuel because it determines how long they can stay out there fishing. I would just guess that our ETA would be February 15 + or - 10 or 20 days. I love that biltong and wish we would have bought 35 lbs like I wanted. It is similar to jerky. Brad >Hi Guys, >I'm wondering where you are right now and how things are going. >Did the broken motor mount affect your performance much? No JB weld on >board? >I listened to the voice clip from the skipper of the AB boat. Sounds >like you guys will have your hands full in the Southern Ocean. Last >summers adventures might be a walk in the park compared to this. >What sort of plan do you have for direction? Are you planning on heading >to PEI's, Crozet islands and Kerguelen islands? >What is your ETA in Fremantle? >I hope all is well on board and that there is still some biltong left. >Doug ------------------------------------------------- -- Idlewild Custom Buehler 55 Home port: Dunvegan, Alberta http://www.idlewildexpedition.ca/ http://dieselducks.com/Idelwild.html http://www.trawlersandtrawlering.com/