New Year's eve reflections

As we calmly sail towards Ascension on this last day of 2008, over a
beautiful , gentle, blue sea,it is impossible not to reflect back on
the past year, and all the decisions,the unbundling,the changes and
adjustments we have gone through, to reach this moment! It has'nt
been easy,and is a giant leap into the unknown, but conditions today
are idylic, and it brings the "Dream" a little closer to our grasp. We
are both very aware that it will take at least a year of adjustment,
and that there will be many highs and lows before we can realistically
evaluate our new lifestyle! Perhaps it will be better than we had
hoped in our wildest dreams, perhaps it will prove too much of a grind
? Who knows? 2009 will be that year for us, so it will be a BIG year!
But, it is going to be a BIG year for a heck of a lot of other people
too, some of whom also have their dreams and plans, but for the
majority, as John Lennon said, "life is what happens to you, while
youre still busy making plans",or words to that effect!. It should'nt
be! I just hope that there are enough sensible people left in RSA to
stop Zuma's ANC crowd from doing with RSA's Democracy what they
plan!!!
Talking about wishful thinking, I asked Mary what she wanted
for dinner /lunch on New years Eve. Seared Tuna steaks she replied. An
hour later we landed our first fish, a smallish Big Eye Tuna! Enough
left for a few meals yet!
By noon today we had done 535nm, and have 229 to go. With the gentle
winds now dropping, we decided that Saturday morning makes more sense
than burning R600 diesel to get there before dark on Friday...Whats
the rush...we're Cruisers! Besides, its more fun, and more comfortable
sailing broad reaches at 5-6 knots in 10-15knotwinds, than rolling
downwind at 3.5knots! So our 229nm is now about 310nms! Our pos at
16.00 utc is 9.49S,11,10W, and we are doing 5.1 in 13kn true.
Happy hour snacks include smoked angel fish with horseraddish
sauce, yachtmade fat free cottage cheese, flavoured with Nomu pesto,
and sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, olives, and gherkins, and a
special bottle of Alan Harringtons family red wines " Graceland
Cabernet Sav 2000"
We will be thinking of all of our friends and family, as we sit down
to this last Happy Hour of 2008. Wishing you ALL, everything of the
best for 2009!!

One better day

Today was GOOOOOD!! Have not touched the sails for 30hrs...Both
managed to catch a few hours sleep, and feel much better for
it....Crossed the halfway mark to Ascension, having done 410nm by
noon, leaving 353 to go...a day where the distance sailed equalled the
Distance made Good (135nm, 5.5kn)..the stars came out to play last
night for the first time after weeks of ink black nights....the sun
shone for 4 whole hours this afternoon, and Mary was able to resume
her naked sun worshipping, to wipe out the last remaining bits of
Psoriasis....the engine (Lord Perkins Sir) performed perfectly during
tests, after yesterdays repair efforts...AND Ive just received an SMS
from Lyn reporting our series win vs Australia!! This blogs title
inspired by first title on Fiona and Justins Sheer Tenacity sailing
Toons album, which we play whenever we need a lift, or celebration!
Our pos at 16.30 utc is 10.47S,09.39W , but the wind, 9 - 15kn, is
disappearing ,with Gribs telling the same story, so we expect progress
to be even more sedate and gentlemanly! Nevertheless, we would like to
reach Ascension before dark on Friday 2nd, even if we have to ask for
Lord Perkins assistance!
Old Years eve on the High Seas! Different!At least we will both be
awake to see the New Year in, which will be a first for many years, as
our watch changes at midnight ! Perhaps we should see the new year in
with a....no never mind!
Till later!

First real sundowner

Today started off in an interesting way! Orion had made his first
appearance for about three weeks! In fact we saw a few stars fighting
their way through the perpetual cloud canopy, for the first night in
weeks! Mary had just taken over at midnight and was enjoying this
novelty, when she saw a new bright star appear on the horizon. But it
kept dissappearing! When she found it again with the bino's, she saw
it was a whole constellation rising! Not possible! Rushes to AIS,
which confirms ship at 11nm, but of more concern, it's course
indicates it to be heading straight for us! When it gets to 8nm, Mary
woke me to confirm the situation. AS it hits the 8nm line, the alarm
screams, and its cog of 158 will pass right over us, in our current
position! We were doing 6kn, compared to its 14.9, so it would
probably pass slightly astern. Why not check with him on vhf?
"Vessel CLIO, CLIO,CLIO, This is etc etc, are you aware of our
presence 6.9nm directly in front of you?" Silence. Five times I repeat
the message, with no response. Sixth time, message changed to "Vessel
Clio (x 5) IS anybody keeping watch on vessel Clio, Repeat is anybody
AWAKE on vessel CLIO?" At last, a sleepy reply, "station calling
Clio". Thank you Clio, Are you aware that you are heading directly for
a sailing vessel 6.5 nm ahead of you?. "I will look out for you". He
did in fact pass a couple of miles astern. Again , I say, dont cross
oceans without AIS!
The night was disturbed, the winds fickle,and battery power
low. Time to run engine for an hour to charge batteries.Genset takes
too long at night, but more on that later!Engine makes alarming
screeching noise.
Rest of morning spent dismantling engine compartment to trace
and remedy problem with stuffing box packing. Will do it more
thoroughly when not in middle of Atlantic!
Just when we thaught we had sorted out the wind shift
patterns, it proceeded to prove us wrong again, and we had a very
frustrating day trying to follow the rapidly dwindling breeze. We
managed another 138nm noon to noon day, but only 107dmg. As
at18.30hrs we are at pos 12.22.8S,08 26.7W, and 430nm from Ascension .
WE got so fed up with trying to read the wind shifts for gybing ,that
we reverted to our wing on wing poled out genoa downwind rig. Less
rolly than before, due to sea state,but at least each mile counts, and
then proceeded to have the first real sundowner/Happy hour, with
smoked salmon, pickled garlic, salami, sundried tomato relish.... and
a proper sunset! At least we are rolling in the right direction, and
Fred, who is still a champ, has a whole lot less work to do!

Fred still the man

Still trucking along very nicely, with Fred still on best behaviour!
By 12.00 today we had sailed exactly 140nm, at avr 5.8, and made good
120, taking into account the gybes, which this time worked out well!
We enjoyed about a 10deg lift during the night on the stb tack, and
when it started veering back at 6.00hr, we gybed with it. About an
hour later , it veered a further 20Degs to give us a much better
course. Sadly, this only lasted until 14.00hrs. WE intend to stay on
port tack until we cross our Rhumb line at happy hour (18.00hr), after
which we will go back onto stb and hope for a repeat picture.
Last evening the wind picked up to 19-24knots, and it was going to
be a very dark black night.. No moon, no stars..could'nt see the
horizon meeting the sea! The only patch of white was from wave crests
picked up by the tricolour. WE put 2 reefs in the main, and decided to
play with the genoa if the wind died down. It dropped a bit, but we
are still sailing with the same sail set up in winds between 14 and
27knots. Right now we have 24, and are doing 6.5 to 7.5, with a 9.8
surf a moment ago! Our last two nights on St Helena, the anchorage
was as rolly as can be, and we felt like boerewors at a braaing
competition!We are are therefor sticking to our conservative nighttime
plans of trying never to disturb the other during our precious 3 hour
break. We have settled in to our watch routines well, with myself
doing the 9-12, and 3-6, and Mary the 6-9, and 12-3.Day watches are
less rigid, but we have our main meal at lunch, and a light snack with
happy hour. This allows us to be all washed up and squared away for
the night watches.
Our present pos at 16.15utc is 14.18S,07,26W, and sea is an impossibly
beautiful blue. Cheers all!

On the road again

We checked out with customs this morning , upped anchor at 11.20, and
set off for Ascension. We had conducted all the tests we could think
of around the anchorage, and Fred passed them all. The only one we
could not try was endurance! So we decided to do our sea trial in the
direction of Ascension, and set cut off time of 15.00hrs. If Fred
behaved until then, we would switch from "trial" to "Passage"! Its now
15.45hrs, and Fred is fine on his TELUS T37 ! We have now done 25 of
the 691 nm to our Ascension approach point, and have chosen to make
life a little more comfortable with a series of broad reaches, rather
than straight downwind. Our stb tack is more productive, as we can
hold 355deg ( with 331 being the Rhumb line). We also hope that as we
get nearer to Ascension, the wind will back to a more easterly
direction.
Roy had asked me about our sat coms equipment, so this is primarily
for him, but others might also be interested. The Phone is a Motorola
9505, with a data connection serial plug to the computer. This
connection cable costs +/- R1100 before vat at Radio Holland, but
Chris Sutton has a contact in Johannesburg through whom I bought it
for +/- R580. The Time package was the standard $750 for 500 minutes,
which I foolishly bought from GSM, thinking that they could also help
me sort out my SSB problems. I should have used Chris' contact Tom
Naude, as he is incredibly helpful. GSM did refer me to AMOS Connect
for the Emailing softwear, and that is what I am using. We had a few
initial hiccoughs, but Chris was fantastic in helping to sort it out.
We send off our Grib file email requests to saildocs, which generates
an Email data file to be sent to us, which we open off line on Ugribs.
On the subject of SSB, I found a fault in the one RCF plug, where the
shield wire was not making contact with the plug casing. The centre
wire was continuous from tranceiver to tuner, but not the shield wire.
I traced the problem to the one plug. I have now fixed that, and hope
that it could be the reason for my poor reception and transmission. As
I sign off at 16.15, Fred is still going strong, and we are doing
7.4knots!

Xmas at Annes place

What an amazing family !We, along with all the other visiting
yachties, were invited to a Xmas luncheon at Annes Place. The only
request was to bring whatever we wished to drink, and even that was
laid on! There were 5 yachts at anchor, and all except the French
single hander accepted the invitation. A dean 440 en route to French
Polynesia, (took 13 days), a steel Roberts , Sea Jade, (Nick & Wendy ,
serious adrenalin junkies, 7 months to St H from CT ,stopped at every
island and bay right up to Southern Angola, sky diving, kyaking,
diving, mountain climbing), A German couple, and ourselves. Annes
philosophy is that she and her family made a go of things thanks to
the yachties, and Xmas is her chance to say thank you! She believes
nobody should be alone at Xmas. She had also invited a couple of "
simple people, who stay in a shelter" to join her family.
WE had the opportunity to meet the whole extended family, and put
names and faces together. Richard and his wife Jane now run the place,
with the assistance of their 4 kids, a St Helena school teacher and
another couple. Pat and Sally, Annes two daughters, their husbands,
and kids all made for a very festive occassion. The kids are expected
to work hard, and do so as well. They also have a very different way
of communicating with their elders ! Example. Annes puts on her Xmas
hat, and askes Richards son Mike "how do I look?" " F......G Ugly!! "
he replies! So you like it eh, Anne chortles!
They laid on an absolute feast, Lamb, Roast duck, Turkey, Smoked
Gammon and curry dish, mountains of vegetables , roast potatoes etc,
followed by a whole assortment of desserts. We hardly made a dent in
it all!
The place is now "closed" until new year, but we were told that if we
needed to use the wifi internet , just come on in! In the internet
room, they also keep a cupboard full of blankets and mattrasses, for
any yachties who cant get back to their yachts, for any reason:Landing
jetty too rough, Missed ferry hours etc.
And what a pleasure it is to feel TOTALLY safe at all times, never
having to watch your back, or worry about theft.
Today we are preparing the boat for our departure tomorrow for
Ascension. The customs people will come down to the warf to clear us
out at 9.30, and we will be sad to leave this interesting island, and
its friendly people. Tom & Johness stayed 6 weeks, but thats nothing
compared to our Sea Jade "AJ's", who will be staying their full 90
days! They even want to circumnavigate the island in their rubber
duck! Cheers for now!

The anchoring dance

A couple of years back, Tom & Johness(Springtime), gave us a musical
cd composed , written and sung by an obviously cynical and experienced
cruiser! One of the memorable songs is titled "The Anchoring Dance" !
Well, in our brief stay in St H, we have seen every dance, from waltz
to Tango ! Anyone who has anchored here knows that it is common to
swing 270dgs every day, and unless your anchor is well dug in, and on
at least 50-60mts chain, one can be in a spot of bother, or off on an
unscheduled trip to Ascension ! Ferry man Craig says "yawll swing
together", but thats not always true here: just depends what dance is
playing in your area of the anchorage! Yesterday we watched with
amusement( everyone watches other people anchoring!!), as Ze French
skipper of a cat tried to anchor in front of everybody, too close to
the landing jetty. He started out calling politely to his little
french wife, who could not hear with the engines running, and they
clearly had no hand signals either, and ended up yelling fit to wake
the Island! They had to haul up, and re anchor four times ! We were
also nearly rammed by a 53ft cat with inadequate ground tackle, left
in the hands of two youngsters who spent hours motoring around on
their dragging anchor, trying to avoid hitting the other boats! When
his stern was 3ft from my bowsprit, I suggested that they B.. off and
anchor properly, in a suitable place , with enough rode! When Skipper
returned, he listened to their stories, he then moved the boat, much
to everyones relief!
The RMS St Helena came in yesterday morning , loaded and unloaded
containers and passengers, , including the Muira "Didakoi", which is
doing the Governers cup, which starts on the day the ship arrives in
Cape Town ! Didakoi is now a Sts boat, and this will be the first race
in which a Sts boat ,fully crewed by sts, is taking part.
As mentioned earlier, we have been invited to Annes for Xmas
lunch. We have made up a gift bag of assorted Pugs t shirts, and other
mystery items for the family to share. The Visitors book, now runs to
about 12 volumes, and contains the names of so many yachts and sailors
whose names are part of SA's yachting history. Anne opened 30 years
ago, with one table, and 6 chairs! The first visitors book starts in
1979 , and we will be pleased to add our entry before we leave! Roy
McBride and his mates Notty and Simone, passed this way in Ocean Cloud
in 1987, and it was quite something to page through the books of that
era, and find their entry.
The very professional musically accompanied video produce by
Notty, covering both this trip, and his own on Jacana, are part of our
cruising library, both as a source of reference, and fun! Thanks to
Roy & Notty ! More after Xmas!
In the meantime, this blog and the photo of Xmas on Sheer
Tenacity, come with all our best wishes, and grateful thanks for all
the help and encouragement!

Cautiously optimistic

Today Mary and I had a slightly different excursion around St Helena,
in search of the Hydrolic oil for Fred. It had been suggested that the
PWD garage at Donkey Plains would stock the Hydrolic oil in question.
So we set off by bus from "the Grande Parade", via "Near Three
Tanks",'Whitegate', White Wall Junction,Rosemary Plain to New Ground
Point, from where we had a 15 min walk to Donkey Plain. Why its called
Donkey Plain we will never know; its more like the North Face of
Everest than a plain, and the only living animal there was a Goat!
En route we did our best to understand some of the broader country
Sts dialect used by fellow commuters. Funniest of all was all the chat
about going to the "City" today to do their Xmas shopping!
WE found the PWD garage, and were given a 5 litre bottle of Shell
TELUS T37 Hydrolic Oil, which is what they use for every single
Hydrolic Oil using vehicle. To the point that they drained the oil out
of their new warfside cranes, and replaced it with TELUS T37. They
sometimes used the thinner T26, but have now standardised on the T37,
which is still "nice and thin"!
Back at the boat, after Wahoo Steak and chips at Annes Place, I set
about draining the unit, flushing out the old oil (which measured
about 60ml), and replacing it with the new( which only took about
120ml).
I then went through the Drive unit checks again- Pwer to the motor,
then include the clutch, and reverse polarity etc to check ram
operation, before connecting back to the brains. I then went to 'Power
Drive " mode to check the 1deg and 10deg course change elements. The
first attempt failed, but after losening the bleed nipple, checking
the fluid levels again, we tried again. Turned everything off, and
started over. Success!! The Power steer mode works perfectly, and
returns to midship when auto pressed. We let it auto steer us around
the anchorage for a while and it seems ok. Next we will head out for a
proper sea trial, probably on Boxing Day, and report back. Our thanks
to everyone who has shared ideas, input, and best wishes. We really
appreciate the help, and at his stage , are "cautiously optimistic"!
Love and best wishes to all!
Rod & Mary

St Helena

This has really got to be the freindliest bunch of islanders one
could ever hope to meet! Its all very quaint, and old worldish, with
shops and markets looking as one would have imagined them 60 years
ago. The only difference, is that when you look at the goods on offer,
they are limited in choice, but all current brands, at 4 times the
usual prices! Eg a windhoek lager is 1 Pound on the supermarket shelf,
and a loaf of bread between 80p and 1.20 pounds!
We are doing a trip around the Island tomorrow, with our own guided
taxi.We will obviously be seeing the two houses in which Bonaparte
lived until he died here , his grave( which is now empty, cos the
frogs took him back to France). We will also see the plain and
gravesights of about 6000 Boer soldiers who were shipped here as POWs
during the Boer war, most of whom died of a typhoid epidemic just
after peace was declared!
We have delivered the package of goodies that Tom ,Alex<Dom ,
Johness, put together for Anne, (of Annes Place) and her family. We
have also been invited to Xmas lunch at Annes place, which seems to be
an annual tradition extended to all visiting Yachties who are here for
Christmas. The entire restuarant ceiling is decorated with
international flags, yacht pennants, messages etc, we think should be
good fun.We will have to row Tinker back to the boat afterwards, so
enjoy with caution will, will be the rule, as the landing jetty has a
big surge, and embarking /disembarking ones dinghy can be a challenge,
even before one has a drink!

Please let the Saints come rolling in...

Well, it had to happen again! Just when we were relaxing over happy
hour last evening, celebrating breaking the 100 to go mark, Fred died
again! I cut off the suspect terminals ,and replaced them, but to no
avail. Back to hand steering, across the awkward crass.swells on the
port tack. We decided once again to carry on until midnight , by which
time we would be in daylight motoring distance for today, and then
heave to for another 4 hour sleep. Just as we wer about to hove to,
the AIS starts screaming , alerting us to the presence of the first
boat we have seen for 10 days, the Amnity Ace, passing within 5 miles.
Mary decided to try Fred again, and he decided to play ball. So I took
the next two hours, Mary the next two, and then I took the 3 until
6.am, when we planned to make our last Gybe for the island.
We are now less than 10nm from the Island, and less than 20 to
the James Town mooring position. Pulled out the Q flag, the ST H
courtesy flag, etc, and put Jimmy Cornells suggested anchoring
position ( from his noonsite web), into the GPS. I guess we should be
pretty secure there... its right in the middle of the island according
to the Garmen Blue charts!(15.55.975S, 5.43.174W)
Check it out yourselves!!
Its taken a while for the penny to drop, but on the run
between Valdivia and the Island, there is a wind shift every night
where the wind backs from SE by 15-20 degs. One should plan to be on
the stb tack, on the right of the Rhumb line to capitalise, and then
shift the port tack by day. One could effectively cut down on ones
Gybing angle from +/- 70/80 to 55/65. Needless to say we screwd
thisup, and managed to widen our to +/- 90/100 between gybes. Tom
Morgan makes reference to these shifts, but does not suggest. Guys
flying bags could do even better by recognising these shifts. Old
cruising bums like ourselves took to long to wake up, and will have
ended up sailing a lot of unneccessary miles!
Nevertheless, this Shearwater is an unbelievable boat! No wonder
Petr Musik won the Governers Cruiser div . When you give her the
scope, she flies!
Being old cruising type bums, we played it very conservatively, with 3
reefs, when 2 would have sufficed, and staysail instead of genoa, and
heaving to for a sleep! We ended up sailing over 2000 miles to do the
1791 ...and 13 days, which is what we had predicted to friends and
family anyway.
All we have to do now , is sort out Freds problems! Sometimes, if
we turn off the instruments and the autopilot, leave it a few minutes,
it will work ok...for a few hours. It has just died again with the
fault indicating 'Rudder drv". I will have to read the manual, and
Email Steve Searle for advice. Does it for example have brushes which
can wear out, etc. Failing an easy solution, I might have to ask
someone to source a replacement unit and send it with Governers cup
boys. Will chat later.

Fred and the wind go on strike!

Trucking along very nicely now, at 5 to 6 knots in lovely gentle
conditions, about 120 miles from St H. We had a good day yesterday,
until 23.45 hrs , that is!! First Fred went on strike, and refused to
work , and then while I was trying to get the boat back on course,
the wind died ! Mom was about to come up on watch, so we had a quick
chat about our choices, and decided to motor directly for the island,
taking it in turns to hand steer. While mom steered , I tried
unsuccessfully to rig up the trim tab steering, and to start trouble
shooting Freds problem. I took over from Mom at 3.am, andvery quickly,
decided two things: We were both very tired, and I could see no point
in motoring for 24 hours just to make the Island at 3.0am ! Time to
"hove to", and both get some sleep!
If we needed to hand steer for twenty four hours, we would need at
least two four hour, hove to, sleep breaks. That would allow us to
arrive in daylight hours on Tuesday, and not be completely exhausted.
So we slept until 7.30am, and while Mary cooked up a mean breakfast
of sausage ,eggs, tomato on rye, I pulled out the electrical tester
and started checking things. I was relieved to establish that the
"brains" of the autopilot were fine, so the problem had to be with the
drive unit. To do the tests, I had to disconnect all the wires, and
sure enough, it transpired that the problem must have been poor
contact in one cable connector. Fred was back from the dead!
After breakfast there was still no wind, so we started motoring, until
9.30 when the wind picked up enough to sail again! As I said
yesterday, it is daft to make too many plans at sea!

On the move again..slowly!

Well we eventually nurdled 97 miles closer to St H yesterday, but
sailed 131miles using every sail in the boat to do so! Picked up a
little more wind this morning, now in the 12-17kn range. Have gybed to
our least productive port tack, where we only make good 4 out of every
6.5miles. We will stay on this leg for about another six hour before
gybing onto stb tack, which should be a bit more productive! We have
just enjoyed a rump steak, pepper sauce , and brilliant fresh green
salad, for lunch. The sun remains illusive, but otherwise lts a lovely
day! We are in pos 17.53S,2.44W, on a course 275, with the island
exactly 202nm away on a bearing of 330 degs. Who knows when we will
get there? All depends on the winds. Talking of which, I had always
imagined the trades to be relatively consistant. Far from it! The
direction is constantly changing, together with the wind strenghths.
This makes balancing the sails to suit Fred quite a challenge! For
example the wind might be 22kn on a stb broad reach. It will then drop
to 9 kn , and back 20deg to come from the stern, putting Fred ,sails
etc into a tailspin!Five minute later, it buids up to 20 again and
veers back again.Its been like this for the last 5 days , so we are
beginning to think its normal!
We are certainly learning what Sheer Tenacity likes, and does
not like! Like most boats I suppose, she HATEs running dead downwind.
Rocks and rolls like a metronome! We have promised her no more
running! Might have something to do with our need to sleep? Looking
forward to making landfallnow, but am avoiding making any serious
plans or predictions! If we have a choice ,it will be to arrive in the
morning , so am keeping fingers crossed that the wind will play ball,
and allow us a dignified arrival on Tuesday!If needs be , we will
stand off rather than arrive at night. Although its still nearly full
moon, the cloud cover makes it all pretty dark! More later!

So much for plans!

Last night the wind just died! It had been dropping steadily during
the day, and we had been forced to sail off the wind using just the
headsail, and creeping along at 4/5 knots. This morning the swells
made the sails slat and flog ;bad for the soul! Since then we have
tried every single combination of sails we have got ,to try and
achieve some reasonably comfortable forward momentum!Had some fun with
the genaker ! Wind was blowing about 10/12 knots, and the only way we
could get it to fly was when we wound up the wick and really went off
the wind. Problemm was that we were ending up 50deg off course, and
Fred could'nt handle it! I had some fun hand steering for a while, but
7 knots in the totally wrong direction is not a win!We poled out sails
and used every trick in the book! The only one still not tried is the
iron spinnaker! AT present we are drifting down to Sts, at 3 to 4
knots in beautiful blue water,with wind in the 9/10kn range, under the
same 7/8 overcaste skies that we have had for the last 8 days.
Occassionally the sun pops through for a few minutes, and then
dissappears again. Its really messing up our own power struggle! We
are currently 19.04S,01 30W, exactly 300nm from Sts. At this rate it
will take 100 hrs to get there! So much for carefully trying to plan
an early morning arrival! On the bright side, all I can say is that we
have lots of books to read, and strip off every time the sun pops out,
so we could arrive quite relaxed , with a far better suntan than we
imagined! If we had been racing we would be going loco! Lets hope
tomorrow brings some wind! Fussy guys ,are'nt we? Either too bloody
much, or not enough!!cheers!

East meets west

Not referring to the delicious red Thai chicken curry we cooked for
lunch,( but more on that theme later), but rather to our
inconsequencial passing of the meridian (ZULU,GMT, UTC whatever!) WE
had planned a nonsense video shot of Mary pointing out the line in the
ocean as we passed, with quick freeze to GPS showing 00 00 00, but we
missed the blooming moment! So back to mealtimes! On my previous three
Atlantic crossings, for reasons probably best explained by the word
"sucker" tattoed on my forehead, I have been very involved with
provision planning, meal planning , and actual cooking. I am also an
advocate of the "HappyHour" ritual, whether the boat be dry, or a one
drink permitted version. I think it is important for crew to get
together at least once per day for a social chit chat. This tends to
take place at 5.30, followed by dinner, and a watch change! All very
crowded, and not lekker for the cook! Then there is the hassle of
washing up, and going to bed on a full stomach. Less than ideal.
This has obviously come about by crews taking land based
habits and applying them at sea regardless. Mary & I have adopted
different one which works for us. We have coffee and biscuit with
6.00am watch change, and the choose our own breakfst options at about
9.00. ( If a boat is lucky enough to have a baker in the 3 to 6 watch,
then Breakfast is over red rover, before you can say peanut butter and
honey!) We then plan our main meal of the day, for lunch. As both of
us are normally up and about, the cooking is done by one, and the
washing up by the other. At Happy hour, we then have a cooking free
light snack /meal with our tipple. The off watch person can then
retire to bed .
Tonights Happy Hour is courtesy of John Gowlett(Pato), who gave
us a special bottle of Ladybird , with which to mark an occassion. So
cheers John, we will be enjoyng smoked salmon on Rye, Tsetsiki, and
smoked mussels, with a glass of your wine to celebrate missing the
Meridian!
Our position is 20.46S, 00,26W. We did 147nm today, and have
400 to go. All going well,we plan to arrive at about 9.00am Sts time,
{11.00RSA time} on Monday, by which time we can see , and the Island
will be awake!
Cheers for now

Wild night last night

Just when we began to think we finally reached the blue water dream
conditions, we were sent a reminder to respect nature at all times!
Running downwind in 15/20knts with poled out genoa and 2 reefs at 5/6
kn,at 22.30hrs the wind climbed to 25/35 knots and changed
direction,30 deg either way, and bombed us with big swells. Spent most
of the night trying to tame the beast, and run dead downwind to avoid
sails backwinding, gybing, broaching etc while we reduced sail. At
times we were surfing down waves at 9/11kn, and poor Fred was having a
hell of a job trying to keep up! Could we have expected this? Did the
gribs predict it? Dont know because we have not had a grib reply for
4/5ays. Just got some gibberish from Amos about "tcp/bind problem
TCP/IP status 10046". Dont know what the hell it means, and who is
supposed to fix it! Have asked Chris to look into it and SMS grib
summary for next 3 days.
Best wishes to Yvonne and Jeremy for their departure !
Will share a beer in Salvador?
Meanwhile , we are now 22.16S,1.56E at 14.00hrs RSA, some
572 nm from Sts, doing 5/6 kn, and beginning to look forward to making
landfall in about 4 to 5 days.cheers for now, and please ask Nic not
to "predict that we will be in a nice place " for the next few
!days!

Route 331

Having wasted quite a lot of time and miles detouring around Valdivia
Banks, we have now hit the Hout Bay -St Helena Rhumb line, and done 30
deg left turn. We are now running with the windat 160over our stb
quarter. We have 2 reefs in the main, a matching poled out genoa to
windward, with the staysail in between as a balancing sail to reduce
the rolling. IT is all very comfortable , and we are rolling along at
between 5.5 and 6.5 knots as the wind has dropped down to 15knots.
occassional gusts of 25 come through which gets everything thrumming!
The tactic of gybin either side put poor Fred under too much pressure
in the gusts, and off the back of cross swells, and he became
electrically demanding !
He is now enjoying a well earned respite, as are we!
This morning saw us complete our first 1000miles of the
trip, 1041.5 actually, after exactly 7 days sailing, with an average
of 6.2knots. Our DMG, (distance made Good) was only 950 miles, which
reduces the VMG to 5.65. We had 741 miles to go. AS it took us quite a
while to rig up this sail set up,we are unlikely to change it much
until we drop sails at Butt Pt. Unless of course we are forced to!!
Specialthanks to Nic van Zylen for his tip about spinnaker pole
lengths when being used for poling out headsails. Normally the pole
length is determined by the J measurement, which in our case would
have been +/- 5.1mtr.
When making up the pole out of the six mtr length, he persuaded me to
use the full 6 metres, and to use a snatch block to control the jib
sheet position for different size sails. Works like a charm! Thanks
Nic!

Fred & the power struggle

You folk back in RSA are thinking of only one Power Struggle ; that
between Dr Mashiniwami Lovepants, Jellytot Bigbrain Malema and their
SACP and Cosatu followers, and those who claim to uphold democracy in
RSA : Cope, Democratic Party plus most of the smaller parties. The
reason for the early election call is to ensure that ANC members arent
given enough time to think for themselves!I wonder what Clever Trevor
will do?
Out here we have a MUCH more serious power struggle, that between
Fred, ( our B& G Autopilot, and the solar and wind generators. (Fred
is so named because of the similarity between his whinging and moaning
all day long, so reminiscent of our beloved German Shepherd now
whispering sweet nothings in Alans ears! We sold Fred to Alan for a
fortune, and gave him our house for free late last year! He even got a
new brother Inja thrown in with the deal!
The last three days have been overcaste, and suddenly we needed to use
the genset to charge up the batteries, which until then had not needed
one. We run a freezer, a fridge, plus Fred, who can get quite hungry
when the seas are up. They take up about 180-200amp hours per dayout
of our +/- 230 per day. Today the sun came out again to show us how
pleasant it can be in the trades, and we discovered that the
solar panels were not charging ! Corrosion in the exernal connection
plug! Now back on stream. These demands are fully covered by the
210watts solar panels plus the AirX wind generator. Having water
papered the blades , and coated them with Roys magic Fluid Film, it
makes LESS noise than the quieter new generation AirBreeze which
failed the day before we left.
We have now crossed the halfway mark, which took 6 days 2hr 30
min, at an avr of 6.1knots. We are still running with a triple reefed
main and genoa,which is more conservative than necessary,and doing
about 6.5 to 7.5. The wind has dropped down to 20 to 25, and we are
quite content to take it easy,and recharge our own batteries! Pos
26.05S,4.50E. More later.

Arriving Valdivia banks

As we head down to the Valdivia Banks, where our course takes us right
over one of the three peaks which rise up from the 5ooomtr depths to
115mts, we are having second thoughts! (The other two are 23mts and
165mts) The fishing is legendary, as are the tales of fortunes made
via the red gold that live thereon!
So too are the stories told of voices that can be heard talking, and
opera's being sung, to those who dare sail over them ! Our reasons
are more prosaic, however! Common sense tells me that where there is
such a seamount interupting a perpetual anti-cyclonic current, there
must be reason to suspect bigger
seas! Mary says we dont need to look for bigger seas,they found us as
soon as we left Hout Bay! Our position is 26.53S,6.47E at 15.00, and
we have done 757nm since leaving , and have 934nm to St Helena. We are
tired of all the sail changes , trying to achieve the most comfortable
balance between the SE winds and the steep and short SW swells.We have
now opted for a couple of quiet days under headsail alone, gybing
either side of the rhumb line. Its slower, longer, but a bit more
comfortable! The joys of being a cruiser instead of a racer!

Into the blue with SSB

I know SSB is old school technology, but I am still P..d off that
no-one could make it work! Thank goodness , however for new age
-satphone , computers, GPS chartplotters, and AIS! Based as it is on
vhf, AIS is not strictly new.. rather newly available to cruisers! And
what a blessing ! Having passed all the heavy traffic around Cape
Colombine, we were used to the blank screen shining all day long.
Yesterday at dusk, the alarm went off to reveal a tanker bearing down
on us at 14.5 knots, 7.5 miles off.I up the tanker "BW Utah" and asked
if he was aware of our existance! No problem he says, I see you on
radar, and will pass astern of you. Many thanks! He did pass about 2
miles astern, but it was still great to know that we could make him
aware of our presence. A couple of other observations however. At
least three ships were transmitting false positional info. Two were
indicating positions behind us when we could see them ahead, and one
to port when he was to stb. About half are not declaring their names.
Could this be an anti piracy ploy? All the same , I will never sail
without one!
Have just had to reduce the headsail, (which is the only sail up at
present),as we were regularly going over 9-10knots ! Even with half
out we are still doing between 5.5 and 8.0. The predictions of 15 to
20knots in the trades is nonsense the way we see it!! More like 25 to
35 where we are! We will have done over 600nm from HB by the time you
read this. Our position at noon today was 28.30S,8.54E.More later.

--
Kate Turner-Smith
Healthcare Analyst
Vunani Securities

To yibe or to run

Day three saw us notch up the 450nm mark, even though yesterdays run
was only 137nm made good. Midnight saw the wind veering from sw to s,
with southerly gusts of 35 causing unhappy protesting flogging from
the headsails. Continueing to run off the wind would take us further
off course, but make for pleasamt sailing. (Cape to Rio guys make this
call every year, and often regret it!)I decided to drop the genoa. and
sail with preventer and main only until dawn, when we would rig the 6m
spinnaker pole to windward with the genoa , and run staight for St
Helena. Big mistake; we had the most rocky,rolly, and generally
uncomfortable time, going nowhwere fast either! We lasted until
lunchtime before deciding to gybe our way down the rhumb line from now
on, so as
to enjoy a faster and more comfortable passage.Currently at
29.15s,10.19e on a course 30deg.m doing between 6.8 and 7.5kn. .Will
hold this course for a while and then gybe back past the Valdevia
banks to try for a fish! By then the wind might have veered to full SE
which suit us fine.
We're both a bit sleep deprived, and muscle weary and
bruised, so we are determind to do everything slowly and carefully-
even the one drink sundowners! Rest and sleep are taking priority now
that we well up into the trades. Talk again soon!

Into the trades on day 3

Having clocked up over 310 miles in the first 48hrs, we were well
placed to reach the Trade wind zones within our four day window. In
fact, as I write this we are in pos 31.16S, and 12.25E,at 15.00hrs,
and theoretically still short of the official Trades zone which
commences at 30S, but the water is a beautiful azure blue ,25.7degs,
the wind steady between 16 to 25knots, and we are skipping along . We
have averaged 6.5knots since we left, and are sailing conservatively,
with three reefs in the main, the small staysail,and some genoa. The
solar panels and Air X windgen are coping very well with the
autopilot, freezer etc at this stage, and we only had to use the
genset for an hour because of all the cloud cover yesterday. Having
read the log of "Ithaka", and Petr Musiks "Shoestring", we are
thrilled to realise that our Shearwater is right up there when it
comes to passagemaking ; fast,dry, steady,and as comfortable as one
could ever be in a 40ft yacht in Cape seas;and that despite all the
extra weight packed in for a cruising life! When we left Gerfried
Nebe, who knows a thing or two about Shearwaters, he said he wished us
18knots all the way! Its taken a day or two, but now that we've got
that, we see why! Thanks Gerfried!
Lost my first fish on day one! Just as well, as the
freezer is still full, and we were doing 9knots at the time, and in no
position to slow down! Will try again as we pass Valdiva banks. More
later!

Day 1 at Sea

We left Hout Bay at approx 9.30 on 3Dec. Conditions were way more
boisterous than we had expected - wind 20-30kt, sea very confused,
lumpy and big. We eventually were down to 3 reefs and a storm jib
after clocking over 11kts. To me it looked more like the southern
ocean than the CT/Brazil "milk run"! We clocked up 157 nmiles in 24
hours and are going along well again today with a bit of genoa, storm
jib and 3 reefs in the main. We are both very tired, conditions too
rough to sleep properly but I'm sure that nature will eventually take
its course. We are thrilled with the yacht - it might sound corny but
she is a "sheer joy" to sail - we're having to slow her down in these
conditions. Roll on the trade winds! Thank you all for your
encouragement, support and good wishes. It means a lot to us.

Tomorrow's the day!

After our sail on Sunday, we discovered to our horror that our newly
installed wind generator had ceased to function! A replacement was
delivered to the boat by 12 noon yesterday and after 4 hours of
standing 3 metres above the water on top of the solar panels, Rod had
the new one up and running! This yachting thing is very character
building - there is no such thing as "smooth sailing". We then rushed
off to Fruit and Veg City to do that last shop. Comment from a fellow
cruiser on seeing us ferrying loads of fresh produce to the boat - "I
thought you weren't taking crew"! We had a farewell dinner at Mariners
Wharf with family. So now we have the day to sort ourselves and the
boat out and plan to leave tomorrow morning to catch what we hope will
be a good weather window.