Dodgy Euro?
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Thu 18 Nov 2010 10:28
|
Thursday 18th November 1243 Local 0243
UTC
10:51.27S 134:14.06E
We have now worked our way 984 miles along the
track on the 1240 mile passage from Cairns to Darwin. We have almost not a
breath of wind. For the past 48 hours the sea was literally like glass. Finally
this morning we got "some" breeze! Six knots close to being on the nose! Grrrr.
That lasted for four or five hours then it was back to 2 -3 knots variable. With
the heat and humidity and little wind every night we ahave been at sea since the
east coast of cape york we have been treated to spectacular lightning displays
all around the landward horizon.
We have had to run our engine revs lower than
normal to try to conserve fuel. I have by detailed calculation slowly upped the
engine revs until the boat speed over the ground increases proportionally less
than the increase in engine revs. That of course is not quite the full story as
fuel consumption will not be linear in tems of it's proportionality to engine
revs.
We have also been motor sailing when possible. Not
motoring with the sails up, which is different but sailing and trimming the
sails to the conditions to give a quantifiable increase in boat speed. In
some case we have managed as little as an 0.2 knot gain at other times we have
managed 1.1 knot gain. It all helps as our fuel calculation shows us having
barely enough fuel to reach Darwin and the forcast is showing no wind.
I was also concerned about water fuel in the
starboard fuel tank but I ran it to empty on the guage and then another few
hours and there was no evidence of water. That still leaves the mystery as to
how the fuel cap was opened on the side deck in Cairns after filling the water
tank....
Looking forward to Darwin I see from the charts
that at High Water Springs that tides can reach 21.6 feet above chart
datum. There are also strong tidal streams on the approaches so we really need
to get a favourable tide to help us along.
From Darwin we hope to visit Alice Springs and
Uluru (Ayres Rock). If we manage this I will report at a later
date.
To pass the time I have been acting as on board HF
radio operator. I have a directory of all published radio and tv
frequencies in the world. The technique is to look up whichever country in
the geographical region (upto a few thousand miles away and see which ones
broadcast in English. Then establisg which transmitters they are broadcasting
from and at which frequencies which will give an indication of whether you may
receive their signal. Then cross reference the broadcast times quoted in UTC and
translate to local time. Then tune in on the HF radio to the frequency and fine
tune if a signal is received. Yesterday my first success was a Chinese
Christian station, but they were broadcasting in Mandarin, perhaps illegally?
Anyway it was a delight to hear "What a friend we have in Jesus" in sung in
Chinese!
Later I was able to tune into the BBC world service
broadcast from Singapore only to discover that Ireland is sliding deeper
into its liquidity crisis. When the Euro was introduced I gave it 25 years -
max. I always thought the real split would come when Euro wide monetary policy
would not suit France or Germany. Though Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain are
seen as extremely weak at the moment. I really have to wonder how France's
economy can keep going as it has. Could there be something really weak at the
core? There is no focus on it now and they MAY scrape by without serious
attention being paid to their economics, but what would happen if they stopped
receiving the £16billion in agricultural subsidy that the rest of Europe timidly
stumps up each year for them? Will they stick with the grand
macro-socialist plan if they are no longer disproportionally advantaged. I for
one, will be surprised.
Oh! to lighten things up a bit we I can report that
we caught another tuna today. The Timor and Arafura seas seem full of them. They
are delicious.
|