Honky Tonkin St Helena
We arrived at St Helena last Sunday and everything was closed except
one of the pubs. Before hitting the pub we took a tour of Jamestown and
it appeared abandoned. Occasionally we'd hear the sweet twang of really
old country music coming out of a window. When we returned to the pub
they were playing the local radio station and it was all Hank, Merle,
Willie, Waylon, Conway Twitty, George Jones, you name. My kind of
country, real country, with songs about trains, trucks, prison, mama and
getting drunk. Matt and Jeff didn't share my enthusiasm for the
situation. Unfortunately the station's programming changed back to top
40 stuff the next day. I had not, in fact, discovered the Nashville of
the South Atlantic. St Helena was on the top of my list for places I
wanted to visit on this trip, mostly just because it's so remote. I'm
really glad that we got to visit for a couple days. While the food left
something to be desired, the beer was cold and the people were hands
down the friendliest we've met anywhere. Everyone on the island would
greet you with a smile and a wave. It was remarkable. We're currently
just over halfway to Ascension Island which should be another cool
experience. There's supposed to be a live webcam pointing into the
anchorage there so you might get a glimpse of the beautiful Sohcahtoa
and maybe even the crew. I think you can find it at
www.ascension-island.gov.ac. We should be there sometime Monday.
Remember, we're on GMT time out here so those of you not in England may
have to get up early or stay up late to catch us in the daylight.
St. Helena
When we arrived on the island, it looked like a ghost town. There was
barely a soul on the street and nothing was open. Our usual post-
passage plan is to find someplace to have a big meal involving lots of
beef, and then cold beers. Since it was a Sunday, there was NO place
open for food, but we did find the only open bar and we had some cold
beers and bags of Lays potato chips. We were back on the boat by 4pm,
cooked dinner, watched a movie, and crashed early. On Monday, we headed
into town with the goal of climbing the infamous Jacob's Ladder, which
are 699 stairs rising 600 feet up to a fort on the cliff. I'm not saying
that we were in very good shape when we left Cape Town, but two weeks on
a boat, eating candy bars, and hardly moving around can make you pretty
soft. . . kind of like veal. So, about 150 stairs into this thing, I am
panting like I just sprinted a mile. At 300 stairs, my mouth is watering
and I feel like I'm back in football conditioning camp, at 450 stairs my
lungs feel like I was running on a really cold day and my stomach is
giving me the signs that breakfast might make a return appearance. The
remaining 150 stairs get even steeper and I want to kill the guy that is
just sitting on the top step looking down at us. I used the railings
quite a bit to haul my out-of-shape-ass the remaining bit and give the
guy at the top a grunt before finding someplace in the shade to drain my
water bottle and apologize to my body for sneaking up on it. We took a
little break before heading back down, which I didn't find to be nearly
as bad as I expected. From the bottom of the steps, we made a bee-line
for Anne's Place, which is the cruiser hangout and has decent lunch. We
were so impressed with ourselves that we spent the rest of the afternoon
there in the bar with the crew from about 4 different boats. Tuesday saw
us taking the super tour of the island with Robert, the cruiser tour
guide. We saw all sorts of Napoleon related history including where his
body was buried for a while before heading back to France. Also, we saw
Longwood, the house where Napoleon stayed during his exile. Lucky for
us, the power was off for that part of the island, so we couldn't go and
see inside the house, but the gardens were beautiful. Despite the rugged
moonscape of the island's exterior, the interior is incredibly lush and
quite beautiful. . .i was really surprised. After our tour, we went out
Scuba diving on the wreck of a boat that was sunk after the local
customs found lots of heroin on it. The boat was sunk in about 60 feet
of water. Since there is very little dirt on the island and no beaches,
the water is very clear and it is no problem to see anywhere from
100-120 feet. There were lots and lots of fish on the wreck and even
some big lobster. It was nice to dive, since we hadn't been since Tonga.
That is pretty much our stay on St. Helena. We left Wednesday afternoon
after getting some food and cleaning the bottom of the boat. We traded a
movie for some Learn-To-Speak-Portuguese CDs, so maybe we won't be
totally retarded when we get to Brazil. Right now we are 420 miles from
Ascension and should be there in less than 4 days. My legs are still a
bit sore.
Another day in the tropics.
Greetings from the South Atlantic. All is well. We got out of St
Helena just fine. Ascension Island is supposed to have a webcam on the
island that points out into the harbor. I'm going to try and figure out
more and also when a good time to look will be. St Helena was a great
place to stop. No other way to get there except by boat until they put
an airport in in like 8 years. Prices weren't great and the food wasn't
very good, but what can you expect from an ex british colony that is
only supplied by boats. The stairs were much harder than I thought they
would be. Might be the months of sitting on a boat but by the time we'd
gotten up and down, I was jello. From talking to the locals, it's not
something they do often. The view is pretty good of the town, but there
is a road that goes to the same place. Still a must do. We left a few
hours behind a boat called Tigim that had a guy on who sailed a
mini-transat boat from Cape Town to here via the west coast of africa.
It's always strange to see people again that you never thought you
would. He left right after we flew back to Seattle so was at least a
month ahead of us. Anyways if you follow that sort of thing keep an eye
out for Pierce on #598. He was taking a ride on Tigim to get to
Ascension and then fly out to Britain. Eventually to come back and haul
his boat there to remove the keel and align it, as currently its a few
degrees off which makes sailing on one tack no good. Sounds like a lot
of work to do in a place as remote as St Helena. We'll we should see him
again in Ascension before we take off for Brasil. Still no fish. Made
some potato soup with the potatoes that were getting pretty soft.
Probably wont kill us. Would be nice for some fresh fish. It's been a
while.
Slight change of plans.
We have decided to head first to Ascension Island before heading to
Fortaleza, Brazil. Ascension is home to a British Airforce base, an
American Airforce base, some observation stations for NASA, and some
radio repeater towers. We were originally heading to Brazil straight
from St. Helena, but we all agreed that the chances of any of us making
it to Ascension Island in the future would be slim to none. So, vioia,
the plans changed and we are heading almost due NW right now and have
520 miles left to go before we make landfall. It will also give us a
nice little break before finishing the remaining 1400 miles to Brazil.
We had a great time in St. Helena, and I'll post some more details of
our stay there later.
Anchored at St. Helena
The hook is set (hopefully) and we are getting the boat cleaned up
and will be heading into town in a few hours. This was one of the nicest
passages to date and we really really hope that the second leg will be
as nice. For those of you with Google Earth, our coordinates are S15 55
and W5 43. Our friends on Active Light (Neil and Nancy) just left and we
were able to chat a bit on the radio as they sailed Northwest on their
ridiculously long passage to Curacao, something like 4000 nautical miles
away. So, Mom, you can stop worrying for about 3 days while we are here
and we explore the island. The island itself is quite impressive, with
cliffs leaping out of the ocean to hundreds of feet and absolutely NO
beaches. There is a little ferry (would be called a Panga in Mexico)
that will come and get you and take you to the concrete pier that has
ropes hanging from a big arch that you have to grab and swing across
onto land. It has been known to cause a bit of trouble on the return
trip for those sailors that choose to explore the local pubs . . .we
will let you know.
Mini-party
We just finished off a bottle of Champagne for no apparent reason. It
was a beautiful evening, the sun was going down and we had this bottle
of Champagne that some crazy guy in Richard's Bay bought for us when we
were sitting on the pier waiting for customs. Seemed like the right
thing to do at the time. I think it also had something to do with
getting close to land and almost being done with a 13 day passage. The
winds are light right now and the GPS says we have 13 hours to the
corner of the island, which will put us there about 10am. .which is
perfect. We will hopefully be able to check our normal emails, so if you
want to get in touch with us, use the emails under the Boat->Contact
menu on the website.
Almost
Almost to to St Helena. Should be there around noon their time. It
will be Sunday so hopefully they let us ashore to take care of
formalities, get some fresh food, and stretch our legs. Still no other
ships. Casey caught a little dorado but sent it back. The bottom is
supposed to be rocky in the anchorage and many people lose anchors. Lets
hope we're not one of them. Might use our lighter hook with the rope
rode so in case we do we'll still have the primary anchor. There are
rumor that there are moorings and also that the moorings are all gone.
It would be nice if there are still there and we can get on one. So
tomorrow, land. A tiny speck of land in the middle of an ocean, but
land.
wind is back
I think by the time we get to Brasil its only a 5 hour time
difference. South Africa was 10. Nothing much going on out here. Read
all the boat design books. Now it's a non-fiction book a day. I think 3
days to St Helena now if the wind holds. It's very frustrating to know
that at your current pace you could get to land in the afternoon, but
just a little slower and it'll be dark and you'll have to wait an
additional night. It's all relative.
Getting Hot Out Hur
We crossed over into our own hemisphere yesterday, practically feels
like home. The wind has picked up a bit but we're not setting any speed
records yet. It's a bit slow but the seas are really mild so the sailing
itself is quite pleasant. The best news of late is that it's finally
started warming up. We're back in the tropics so I guess that stands to
reason. Last night was the first night that I didn't wear any of my foul
weather gear. Pretty soon it'll be t-shirt and shorts through the night
and hiding from the sun during the day. Woohoo!
Down to Zero
About an hour ago we crossed over the Meridian of Greenwich, which is
the point on the planet where the longitude is 0 degrees(I believe it is
also known as the Prime Meridian). Ever since Tonga, our GPS has been
slowly counting down from 180 degrees East and now, for the first time
in a long long time, our GPS is reading a longitude of West. . . 0
degrees, 14 minutes West to be exact. To get home, we still have 122
degrees of longitude to travel, plus about 60 degrees of latitude
(something like 7600 nautical miles as the seagull flies). The winds
have gotten pretty light recently and we have been making around 3-4
knots. At this speed we are 4 and a half days out of St. Helena(450
miles). In other news, we ran the water-maker yesterday to fill up the
tanks and we all took showers for the first time since leaving Cape
Town. . .also changing clothes for the first time since we left Cape
Town as well. It really cuts down on the amount of laundry that you have
to do. That is all for now. Still no fish.
6 in the morning
Everyone else is asleep. The sun isn't up for 2 more hours. So I just
sit and listen to music in the dark since there isn't even a moon right
now. I'd read a book but I've been reading most of my awake hours since
we left South Africa and I need a break. Running straight downwind with
just the jib poled out. Without the main up and nothing to dampen the
rolling motion the boat rocks heavily sometimes. It kind of gets into
this little harmonic and builds, then 30 seconds later it will sail flat
for a bit. It's been like this for days. Probably my least favorite
point of sail. It would help if we had enough wind to go more than 5
knots too. Also yesterday I woke up with a huge blood blister on my big
toe and I have no idea where it came from. Maybe I kicked something in
me sleep, who knows. I think I'll live though. Alright time to go look
for other ships again. See if I can't scare up some wind while I'm up
there as well.
Provisioning Made Easy
Okay, the connection goes something like this, Clint Cole was an
influential instructor/mentor to Jeff and I as WSU. Clint's wife Fiona
is from Johannesburg. Before arriving in Cape Town, Fiona told us to get
a hold of her childhood friend there David Shand. The Thursday before we
left we went out for dinner and drinks with Dave and his wife Leslie.
After dinner Dave offered to help us provision for our current passage,
giving us a ride to the grocery store and back. On Saturday Dave took us
to a Makro, similar to Costco in the US. This was our 3rd major
pre-ocean crossing provisioning we've done and it's funny to think of
the evolution in our buying habits. We still get our rice, pasta and
canned goods but the idea of buying a bunch of core ingredients so we
can make wholesome foods from scratch has given way to an unbridled junk
food buying frenzy. By the time we get back we'll just give a credit
card to a gang of 10 year olds and tell them to fill a cart with their
favorite foods for us. Dave invited us to a braai after shopping so we
loaded our groceries, picked up some meat and beer and headed to Dave's
place. Relaxing to a few beers, a delicious braai and a rugby game on TV
was such a wonderful change from our usual scramble to get a taxi, pack
it with all our provisions and head right back to the boat. I can't
thank the Shand's enough for their generous hospitality. It was the
perfect finishing touch to the great time we had in South Africa.
Sharp Cheddar Dreams and Cold Cut Wishes
I've had a recurring dream on several passages now. It usually
happens 3-5 days into the passage. The details vary but the main idea is
that I've somehow made it to a grocery store while the boat sails on and
I've got a limited time to grab a couple items before rushing back to
the boat. I run around the store in a panic, usually grabbing stuff we
can't keep due to our lack of refrigeration, last night it was
mozzarella and pepperoni to make pizza. I never make it to the checkout
though before the rush of water by the hull reminds me that I'm hundreds
of miles from land, let alone a grocery store. So, what did you dream
about last night?
Thanks
I have been meaning to write this post, but it kept slipping my mind.
I just wanted to thank David and Leslie Shand of Cape Town for taking us
out on the town, driving us around to get provisions, and having us over
to their house for a real South African Braai(BBQ). David and Leslie are
friends of Clint and Fiona Cole, whom Casey and I took classes from and
worked for when we were in college at Washington State University. David
and Fiona grew up together near Johannesburg, and when I told Fiona that
we would be heading around South Africa on this trip, she was adamant
that I look up David. David took us to the South African version of
Costco, which is called Makro. It was amazing. We didn't go super canned
good crazy like when we left Mexico, but we did stock up on lots of our
favorite stuff, including about 200 candy bars. . . diabetes, here we
come. It was also really nice to hang out at a house for a little while.
We had BBQd bacon, sausage, and lamb chops, plus a bunch of tall-boy
Windhoek lagers. Then we watched rugby. It was all in all a perfect
Sunday and great evening before setting off on a long passage. Thanks!
boring heading #117
So the silverware drawer flew out of it's home next to the stove last
night. Wouldn't be so bad, it's happened before, except it busted off
the top when it hit the other side. Guess it'll have to get a glue job
and some varnish work in the future. Gives you an idea of how rocky
things can get. These things are supposed to stay in place with little
indents and keeper devices but things always find their way past these
best efforts. The rain from yesterday is gone. I wish we could get the
wind a little more on the beam. It always seems to come from dead aft.
Which makes it hard to sail the course you want without jibing a few
times a day and always worrying about doing the same accidentally. Also
the boat get into an annoying roll back and forth that having the sails
always pushing to the side dampens. The rumor around is that Jeff saw a
boat.
back and forth, back and forth
okay, so NOW things are back to their normal rocky conditions. We are
running downwind and the waves are coming from right behind us. Every
now and again we get turned a bit sideways and rock about 25 degrees to
starboard and then really quickly back to port. This is quite effective
for launching anything that is loose or sitting on a counter. Once last
night the silverware drawer jumped out and scattered all over the galley
floor. I was sound asleep when it happened and it scared the living shit
out of me because it was so loud. We have pretty much eliminated most of
the clinks and clanks of things shifting around in cupboards and
drawers, so it is easier to sleep. Still no fish. . .any advice Alaska?
Not a creature was stirring
It occurs to me that this is our last big ocean crossing. For the
remainder of the trip once, we reach Brasil, we will be relatively close
to land. Just as with most things by the time we get comfortable doing
something it's usually time to leave it behind us. That goes for ports,
countries, and now even long passages. I guess that means we never
really get bored with any one aspect, which is good. So it's back to the
Americas. Every mile now is a mile closer to home. Every time zone is a
time zone closer to the one we call home. We've still had no sightings
of freighters. No fish. Winds are fairly steady. Always out of the SE
and usually enough to sail on and never too much. But that's the trades
for you.
North and West
Things are still good out here. The seas are pleasant, the waves are
small and the current is giving us a great boost. Right now we are
making 7.2 knots and we have had much rougher passages than this only
making 5 knots. I'm listening to Casey's Super Jumble Mix on the stereo
right now that has gone from DMX to Rage Against the Machine to The
Postal Service to The Cranberries all in the last 15 minutes. . it's
quite a mix. I had to laugh because when I was in high school and out in
the woods drinking beer around a bonfire made from stolen pallets
listening to Rage Against The Machine blasting from the tiny speakers in
my 1984 Pontiac Bonneville, I would never have thought I would be
someday be listening to it somewhere off the West coast of Namibia.
Happy Birthday Grandma!
She doesn't have a computer but I'm sure it will find its way to her
somehow. As I'm sure has been mentioned we have left sweet home Africa.
It's great to be on the move again. This was the least stressful
beginning to a big crossing yet. I've even been getting decent sleep
already which is usually hard to get into. We're well stocked up with
food and fuel to get us past Brasil. First stop however is St. Helena
island. Which is famous for something I think. Perhaps for me having my
birthday party there this year? Nothing much to report. We are supposed
to be on a shipping route from the Cape to NY, but haven't seen any
ships since Cape Town. That's a good thing though. The sailing is fairly
quick and the weather is sunny but not hot. Suppose it can't really get
much better than this.
Nothing exciting.
As usual, just mentioning good wind in an update will cause the wind
to decrease by at least 50 percent, and this morning has been no
exception. We were down to about 3 knots for the last 10 hours or so,
but the wind has recently picked back up and we are just about pushing 6
knots. So, lesson learned. No fish yet, but the hand line is out and
Casey already told me that I had to cook the fish that he is about to
catch. . .we will see.
Back on the water
We're back to sailing again after 6 weeks in Cape Town. We had a
great time there and met all kinds of nice people. Yesterday we did all
our checkout paperwork and were off the dock by 1400. Cape Town was
great but it feels good to be on the move again. We were greeted back
onto the ocean last night with the most spectacular display of
phosphorescence I've ever seen. The boat's wake was this giant glowing
mass that would expand and contract as we plowed through the waves and
the crest of every wave was brightly lit in every direction all the way
to the horizon. Our next stop is St Helena, Napoleon's (Bonaparte not
Dynamite) final place of exile in the middle of the south Atlantic. From
there it's on to Brazil, possibly stopping at Ascension Island on the
way.
A great start.
Hey there everyone! Just wanted to let everyone know that we are once
again on our way and are out in the South Atlantic Ocean. We are about
200 miles WNW of Cape Town already and are having a really pleasant and
fairly quick passage so far. The seas are pretty calm right now and
since we are getting a boost from the Benguala current, we are making
between 6 and 8 knots without having to work very hard for it. Last
night I slept better than I had the entire time that we were on the dock
in Cape Town, and today I woke up for my watch with a pretty good drool
puddle on my arm. This is a great change from most beginnings of
passages, when I am a sleepless zombie for the first two or three days.
Last night we had the absolutely most amazing phosphorescence(google it
if you don't know what it is) in the water. It was so bright that it was
lighting up the sails and every tiny wave around us was lighting up as
well, so it felt like we were sailing through the stars. The stars were
also really bright, so it was a really cool effect, kind of a Star Trek
thing. The stern of the boat was all lit up from our wake and it looked
like the green spooky lighting in the lab of some mad scientist. The GPS
says that we have 1490 miles to go to St. Helena, which should take us
between 12 and 15 days to make, depending on the wind of course. We
haven't started fishing yet(much to the dismay of our Alaskan friends),
but will be commencing in the next day or so and hopefully will have as
much success in this ocean as we have in the previous two.
Paying a bet.
Well, as much as it kills me to do, I have to finally pay off my debt
to Jeff Dahlin over our yearly bet on the outcome of the Apple Cup. For
those of you who don't know, the Apple Cup is a College(University for
you silly foreigners) American Football(not soccer for you silly
foreigners) game played between the Washington State Cougars and the
University of Washington Huskies. Matt, Casey, and I are all WSU alumni
and are hopefully representing the school well on our world wide bar
hop. Anyways, each and every year since I met Jeff Dahlin at my first
job out of school, I have made the wager that the loser of the Apple Cup
must wear the opposing school's shirt for one day at work. Last year,
We(the good guys) won and Jeff Dahlin sent me his picture as per our
agreement, which I promptly put
up on our website and said bad things about him. This year, Jeff was
kind enough to get me a Husky shirt when I was back home and I have
taken the picture and emailed it to him. The agreement however doesn't
extend past one day and one picture, so I think that I just found myself
a nice new purple fish cleaning rag. Oh, and I owe Josh Miller $20 for
the game.
Ready to go.
We have gotten pretty much all the food that we need to get and we
have done all the projects that we need to do. We are just waiting for
Monday morning to come around so we can check out of the country. We
will be heading to the tiny island of St. Helena which is roughly in the
middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. It will provide a nice break for our
passage to Brazil. As of today, the plan is for us to land in Recife
first, then head north to Cabadello and then Fortaleza. As always, our
plans are never concrete and the winds, currents, and our boredom level
at sea will possibly lead to some changes.
Back in South Africa.
Back in the country for less than two days and I already have a
pretty good sunburn. My trip back to Seattle was great. I got to spend
time with my girlfriend, see lots of family and friends, and even have
Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners (with the turkey and everything). Now
we are running around doing errands and boat projects with the hopes of
leaving for Brazil in about a week. We just applied for tourist Visas
for Brazil. They take our passports for three days (which kind of makes
me nervous). Things are looking good on the boat, nothing major needs to
be done. We haven't gone on any big food buying runs yet, but that will
come soon. If you want to get a hold of us, make sure to email us now,
because we are going to be at sea for most of March and the beginning of
April. It was great seeing everyone when I was back, and I hope to see
everyone again when we get back to Seattle in about 6 months or so.
So these 4 guys walk into a bar...
Now this sounds like the lead in to a joke or a good story (at least)
so here's the story: When I showed up in Cape Town the arrival routine
got changed a little bit. Normally for Casey Jeff and Matt, there would
be someresting and recovering from a crossing but since I only had a
week, and Jeff and Matt were planning on a back home trip, we had the
'week of fury'. Wetried to explore, have a few beers, sight-see, have a
beer, stay up too late, talk to people on the shark dive (twice), have a
beer, ride the gondola up Table Mountain etc., and everywhere we went
Casey Jeff and Matt were celebrities. Whenever we had a chance to talk
to people we'd meet (not just in bars) A conversation would start pretty
easily since (I know this isgoing to come as a shock to some of you) we
have an obvious American accent.So the conversation gets going and about
two sentences in there's a question like How long have you been
here? or Why did you decide to come here? or ...
anyway, you know the drill.... If it was me being asked, I'd say
something like ...well I just flew in to visit these guys for a week
on sort of a lark... Now this is quite true and actually a pretty
decent start for a conversation, but the next obvious question is
something like Oh...well, how did they get here? THEN I would
invariably have to explain that ...well as silly as it my seem these
dudes took the long way and sailed here... ...Yes, yes that would be on
a boat. At that point my part of the conversation is pretty much
done (if I was lucky enough to be in it at all),because Casey Matt and
Jeff have developed sort of an adaptable tag team approach to a whole
bunch of sailing stories. And the whole theme is sort of colored by the
fact that they're all young and the idea of sailing around the world
while not really new is a significant departure from the typical fate of
three young engineers from the Northwest US. I hope that none of this
sound at all like I'm jealous (Hell yes, I'm jealous!) because I had a
great time watching and participating in the action. Jeff Matt and Casey
are so used to it that they sometimes don't notice how interestingly
not-normal they sound. --Yes Casey, that would be just a little jaded.
One evening Dan McMahon and I watched Matt, Jeff and Casey regale people
that we were sharing a table with, we just laughed and were shaking our
heads in amazement. Once on the shark dive trip I walked back to the
rear of the boat where about half the people on the trip were sitting
around Jeff listening to stories and asking questions (since the charter
guides had already told us everything they knew about the (at that point
invisible) Great White Shark. At another point when Casey started a
story off with ... So, we were a couple days out of Mauritius, and we
ran into a pretty good squall, maybe the biggest one we've hit... I
had to stop him and ask him if he realized what he'd just said. I think
he needs a parrot, an eye patch and possibly a hook before he uses lines
like that! Anyway, So these guys decide to sail around the world,
and...
Ask When They Left Australia
Jeff and Matt left for home last week and I've been hanging out with
La Familia and Petrel, a couple of Norwegian boats we met in Richards
Bay. This is how they introduced me to the other cruisers at yacht club,
"Ask when they left Australia." Followers of the site may have noticed
that we spent of fraction of time in the Indian Ocean that we did in the
Pacific. Cruisers notice why. We left Darwin in early November, the
beginning of cyclone season in the Indian Ocean, or anti-cyclones as
their known in the southern hemisphere. We hired a weather routing
service to watch out for developing systems, keep us informed and advise
us on how to dodge them. Fortunately we made it clear across with
nothing more than a squall. For the most part the winds were quite light
and the seas comfortable. I'd heard stories of a nasty cross-swell and
reinforced trade wind that blows 20-25 constantly but our experience was
much more like the sailors dream. Our rounding of South Africa was
equally quiet with light winds, small seas and lots of motoring. These
fortunate conditions were due in large part to the lucky properties of
the hideous moustache, furry sideburns, and toupee-like coif that I
began growing when we left Australia. You can see the progression in our
new pics. Alas, the stache grew too powerful though. By the time we
rounded the Cape of Good Hope we didn't even have enough wind for Earl
to steer us so I've shaved it all off again.
End O' Fury
Sunday after the shark dive was the last day of Kevin's visit and the
day Jeff was flying home. We went to the V & A Waterfront, did some
shopping and then visited the Two Oceans aquarium. It was one of the
best aquariums I've seen although I've admittedly only been to a handful
of aquariums before. It had this great kelp forest with some huge fish
in it, some monster crabs and lobsters that looked like they'd come from
a scary sci-fi movie and a big shark tank with ragged tooth sand tiger
sharks.
After the aquarium we headed back to the boat and said goodbye to
Jeff and Kevin. Dan and Matt were flying out the next day so the three
of us went out for an uneventful night that ended watching tail end of
the super bowl at 3am in a sports bar. It turns out that without the
Seahawks, I was even less interested than expected. It was great to get
out and see some of this beautiful country but now that the Week O' Fury
is over I'm looking forward to a decent night's sleep.
Week O' Fury, part 3
On Friday the 2nd we planned to see Table Mountain then go down to
Simonstown to see the Jackass penguins. We took the gondola up Table
Mountain but I'd still like to hike it just because. I'd like to spend
more time looking around. I could have easily killed half a day looking
around the top of the mountain. None of us thought it would be that cool
so we just planned on having breakfast up there before picking up Dan to
go see the penguins. I'm glad we got up there and maybe I'll get a
chance to go back before we leave.
We picked up Dan, our recent acquaintance from the shark dive, about
11 and headed south. It was a great drive or ride I guess, Kevin and
Jeff did all the driving. Seeing the penguins was another event that I
enjoyed way more than expected. I've seen penguins in zoos before but
being right in the middle of them some something else. They seemed so
cool and calm, not as fidgety as other birds.
After the penguins we went to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope.
It was much more relaxing seeing them from land and it's always nice to
get another perspective. We hiked around and saw baboons and nearly hit
and ostrich with the car. Our new friend Dan fell right in with our
group like no one else could. He told hilarious stories but wasn't
constantly hogging the conversation and could trade silly movie quotes
with us with ease. Basically, Dan's a laid back, fun loving guy with a
good sense of humor or at least one similar to ours.
That night we went down to Camps Bay, one of the tonier areas of Cape
Town, to grab a beer with Dan. This was going to be an early night for
us since we were getting picked up at 7 for our follow up shark dive.
One things led to another and next thing you know we're catching a cab
home at 5am. We still made the shark bus at 7 hoping for an extra 2hrs
of sleep on the ride down. Everything was going wrong for the dive
company and we didn't get on the water until about 3 in the afternoon.
We did see a shark this time, which was exciting. It came after the bait
several times but never got very close to the cage. Great whites have
such a distinct shape and it was awesome just watching one swimming
around the boat.
You guys must like the pictures.
I just looked at our website traffic and we have done a Gigabyte of
traffic in the last 36 hours. It is really nice to see. We'll keep
putting them up if you keep looking at them.
Week O' Fury, part 2
On Wednesday morning we woke early for our Great White shark dive. It
started with a two hour bus ride down to Gansbaai where we were served
the most meager breakfast I've ever seen. They gave a rundown of what
we'd be doing and headed down to the boat. We loaded onto the boat,
drove out into the bay, set the anchor then the crew started chumming
and setting up the cage while our divemaster gave us more detail on how
things would work and some information about the Great Whites in this
area. We were to wait on the boat until we saw a shark. Once a shark
showed up, they would start cycling people through the cage tied to the
side of the boat. Each person would get about 15 minutes in the cage. If
the shark hung around long enough then they'd break out the dive gear
and people could sit in the bottom of the cage for a while. We'd be in
the cage the whole time so the sharks couldn't get to us. It turned out
this wasn't a risk for us even without the cage. We didn't see one shark
the entire day. Jeff pointed out that we'd just paid for a day of
hanging out on a boat at anchor, something we do for free all the time.
All wasn't lost though. They told us we could come back again for free
and no one had ever been skunked twice. Also, we met some really nice
people including Dan McMahon from LA who we arranged to take a car tour
with on Friday. Thursday we went to the Aquila game reserve. This was on
the other end of the spectrum from the shark dive where we were fed a
little bit of crappy food and didn\'t see a thing. Our day at Aquila
started with champagne as they checked us in and then we were ushered
into a dining room with a huge breakfast buffet. After breakfast we
loaded into bench seats in the back of an old Mercedes truck. We drove
around the reserve and saw hippos, elephants, rhinos, springbok,
giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, and buffalo. They were introducing three
lions to the existing pride and had them in a smaller enclosure adjacent
to them so we were able to see those lions. After the tour we returned
to the main lodge for another gargantuan buffet for lunch. After lunch
we went over to a pen where they had a couple cheetahs and were able to
go in and pet the cheetahs. Yes, it was as cool as it sounds maybe even
more so. Now for those of you wanting the real African safari
experience, you'd want to go to Kruger National Park or something
similar. If you're just in Cape Town for a week and want to see some
cool stuff, I'd recommend this place.
Seals to the left of me, Capes to the right...
The Cape of Good Hope isn't the southern most point of Africa, as I
believed until a few weeks ago. The true southern most cape is Cape
Agulhas. Well, I missed both capes this morning as I was sleeping,
although it was too foggy to see them even if I was awake. This trip
around one of the key features of our planet (which is known for it's
bad weather and slew of sunken ships) has gone off very well for us.
We're still a little less than half a day from Cape Town. Since Mossel
Bay they winds have been so light and variable that we have been
motoring the entire way so far. With no wind there are few waves other
than the long swell that comes up from the south. This all goes with the
careful eye we have kept on the weather. If we were out here a few days
ago or stayed out a few days longer we could be certain to see an
entirely different ocean. Also today we've been seeing lots of seals,
even though we are 10 miles from land. Most just sit head down with
their feet sticking out of the water, my guess is looking for something
to eat. Saw many in groups of 2 or 3. Some swim and roll on the windless
glossy surface. Some poke their pointy heads out and shake the water
off. I think I even saw a small one. After seeing so many dolphins, it's
great to have a new creature to marvel at on a watch. Since seals are a
favourite food of the Great White I kept hoping to see one as well. No
luck though. On a sadder note, we ran out of toilet paper. Napkins don't
fill the role as I then clogged the system. So I spent my Sunday
afternoon taking apart various hose connections, trying to find and
remove the clog. I did eventually. Then I got to clean everything, and
then rinse everything including myself in a nice strong bleach solution.
So from seals to another word that starts with S, it's been another
great day in the adventure of the sohcahtoa.
Week O' Fury, Part 1
We haven't put a post up since getting to Cape Town so I'm going to
backtrack here and try to catch up on the events of last week. Our
friend Kevin Summers was waiting for us here when we arrived and he's
going to submit some guest posts to the site to give an outsiders view
of things. Our views maybe a bit skewed after a year and a half away
from home, "jaded" was the term Kevin kept using. Our first day here was
pretty relaxed. We were still tired from our passage from Mossel Bay and
Kevin from flying halfway around the world. We spent the day wandering
around Cape Town and saw some of the sites in the city and signed up for
a couple tours later in the week. I must say that I'm really impressed
with Cape Town. It seems much more accessible and safer than Durban.
Granted, we didn't see much of Durban off the waterfront since we were
working on the boat and waiting for our weather window south. After
touring the town we did rally for a big night out to celebrate our safe
and successful navigation through one of the more dangerous stretches of
water we'll see on this voyage. We took it easy the next day also since
we had to get up early for our Great White shark dive on Wednesday. We
did go see Blood Diamond in the theater on the VA Waterfront. This was a
cool experience for several reasons: one scene is shot on the waterfront
a couple hundred yards from the theater, there were a few SA
colloquialisms in the movie that we'd picked up on in our 3 weeks here
such as "Lekka", "Is it?" and "How's it?", and the audience reaction was
very interesting. I'm not sure how to describe it but people here are
obviously more familiar with the current history of Africa and could
understand the Afrikans spoken in the film. They'd laugh heartily at
jokes about America or things said in Afrikans and there was a
collective gasp when DiCaprio uses a certain racial slur local to
Africa. It's a good film, but seeing it here made it a really great
experience. Okay, I'm going to wrap this up so I can go into more detail
about our next few days. Stayed tuned, more to come.
A bunch of pictures
I just put up a whole pile of pictures. There are some from as far
back as Fiji, but the majority are from Darwin all the way to South
Africa. I'll get them organized better shortly. Some may look similar,
because there are pictures from Matt and also from Kevin.
Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land is the title of the Robert Heinlein book
that Casey is reading at the moment. The same phrase describes me
perfectly, arriving in Cape Town late Sunday night. A short
introduction: I've known Casey and Jeff since they started working at
Cypress Microsystems, I know Matt through them. I've been telling them
that I'd come and visit but have never made it for all the standard
completely normal resons. Finally I told them I'd come and visit them in
South Africa. As they approached South Africa it became clear that I
needed to put my frequent flier miles where my mouth was. We coordinated
via email, picked a date and I got a trip arranged. However, as my
departure date neared the boat was still several hundred miles from Cape
Town. After more email back and forth I still got on a plane in Seattle
unsure if the SOHCAHTOA would be in Cape Town when I got there. I really
know next to nothing about South Africaand had been getting numerous
warnings from Casey that I could be stabbedfor my cell phone. Is this
sounding like an adventure yet? At the last possible moment I got a
hotel room for a couple of nights in Cape Town and arranged for a ride
from the airport. Happily when I arrived at the airport there was a text
message waiting for me that they expected to arrive at the Yacht Club
the next morning. So my mission to join in on a little bit of the 'big
adventure' is starting. The good news is that Cape Town appears to be an
absoulutely beautiful city. Compared to Wintery Seattle, it's a tropical
paradise, in the middle of the Southern Hemisphere Summer. These guys
are sure spoiled. Grok?
We made it!!!!
We are offically tied up to a dock in Cape Town, SouthAfrica. We have
crossed the entire Indian Ocean and are nowin the Southern Atlantic. Our
friend Kevin Summers is hereand he got to join us in our getting here
celebrations. More later, but WE ARE HERE!!!!
Around the corner.
We have just passed around Cape Agulhas and are now heading to Cape
Good Hope, which is about 70 miles NW of our current position. There
isn't much wind to speak of, so we are motoring along and have been for
about 20 hours now. The wind is supposed to pick up from the SW here in
a few hours, so we have been really pushing to get here before it
starts. Now instead of the wind being right on the nose when it
switches, it will be on the port beam, which is a really good point of
sail for us. I think it was forecasted to be 10-20 knots and should blow
for 12 hours or so once it starts. We will continue on through the night
and should be arriving in Cape Town first thing tomorrow morning, about
24 hours from now.
on land in Mossel Bay
Sitting in an internet cafe in Mossel Bay. Town is nice. Much much
less scary than Durban. Durban wasn't really that bad after all. Weather
is a bit cooler. Don't even need the fans on the boat at night anymore.
We'll be waiting here for a SW low to blow through then move out to
round the Cape. So far the African coast has been a wonderful sail. It's
different for us to sail day and night in sight of land. The terrain is
quite picturesque. Can't wait to round the Cape and see the landscape
around Cape Town, which is supposed to be beautiful. Then we can look
for a dive with great white sharks. Seriously. Also we just saw a
brochure for ostrich racing. They have jockeys! Too bad it's a ways out
of Mossel Bay and I don't want to leave the boat on the anchor when the
wind is going to be coming in.
Anchored in Mossel Bay
We have just arrived in Mossel Bay (8am) and are now safely anchored
outside of the harbor. We have gone somewhere around 580 miles since
Durban and it feels really good to have some pretty nasty coastline
behind us. The anchorage here is supposed to be all sand and should hold
well when the wind turns to the South West later on tonight. The
forecast is for it to blow for24-36 hours and then return back to
friendly North Easterlies, which is when we will continue on our way.
From here it is 120 miles to Cape Agulhas and then another 110 miles to
Cape Town. If the wind follows the forecast(which is doesn't always do),
we should be in Cape Town sometime on Sunday or early Monday. . .which
will rock. That will mark our entrance into the Atlantic Ocean. Last
night I realized how far south we were. We are 34.5 degrees South, which
is 2070 miles off of the equator. The last time we were this far from
the equator was when we were North of it, on September 6th, 2005. This
was on our passage down from Seattle to San Diego and was at roughly the
same latitude as Santa Barbara, California. Even though it is summer
down here, it is still much colder than we are used to and have actually
(*actually*) had to wear coats and sweatshirts. . .although we are sill
in shorts and no shoes, of course. I am guessing that the temperature
dipped below 70 last night, which can be a bit of a shock when you have
been living in 80+ degree weather for more than a year. Once again, all
the people back in Seattle are really feeling sorry for us as they
scrape the ice off their windshields.
rats, no rats...
Weather has been good. Well, predictable at least. We're listening to
a weather router 2 times a day, downloading various current, wind, wave
and synoptic charts, and listening to the local coastal forecasts. With
all that we have a pretty good picture of what is coming. We decided to
keep on past the reported rat town (East London) and see where we can
get to before the weather window closes up. Maybe Port Elizabeth or even
Mossel Bay. Right now the wind is hardly blowing, the sun is shining and
we're motor sailing to keep up our speed.
Sail + Motor + Current equals 9.5 knots
We are making great time heading south and are taking full advantage
of the fast moving Agulhas current. It runs along the SE coast of South
Africa at speeds up to 6 knots in places. We are currently about 50nm
from a place called East London, which is the first sanctuary for boats
coming down from Durban. This stretch is the most dangerous part of the
trip because it has bad weather and absolutely NO safe harbors for the
entire 250 miles. Soooooooo, I am feeling cautiously optomistic about
this part of the journey. A lot can still happen in the 8 hours it will
take us to make the next 50 miles. We are currently in the middle of
some SW winds that are blowing about 10- 15 knots. These winds are what
make this area dangerous, because they blow directly against the current
and make really steep breaking waves. The current runs the strongest
just a bit seaward of the 600 foot deep line (100 fathom line), so when
these winds come, you head inshore where there isn't as much current. We
are currently in about 280 feet of water and have dropped perhaps 2-3
knots of current. . .so the waves are much smaller. This current weather
should turn to Southerly winds within the next 8 hours and then over to
North Easterly winds, which are the perfect winds for what we are doing
right now. The weather window is supposed to hold until Thursday or
Friday, so we might be able to make it as far as Mossel Bay, or farther.
Lakka Docking
Thursday we were trying to get the windvane back on the boat after
having new brackets and tube clamps made/welded. That's because some of
the factory ones, that are almost 10 years old, had cracks or simply
were broken. It's an interesting maneuver to attach all the support
tubes to the boat while sitting in the dinghy and then install the main
unit itself. You have to align about 6 different things at various times
and get the bolts through. All on a boat that is likely crooked, mounts
that are mounted crooked, and various pieces of stainless steel that
must be bent after steering a boat for almost 70,000 miles. We're part
way into it when we get the word that the boat who's slip we're in, is
coming in. In half an hour. This boat was supposed to not be coming back
for a while, but oh well. So now we need to move, but don't have
anywhere to move to. Nevermind we're in the middle of reattaching a
critical piece of equipment and also planning to leave port in 2 days.
There is a free international dock here, but the gate to land for that
is locked to us, making it very much a pain to run errands and do the
things that usually happen before we leave port. Anyways, our
predicament gets to a person that informs us that we can use a slip down
the dock from where we are, though this is as we are already untied and
exiting our first slip. We decide to go to the slip rather than the
international and dock without trouble. Then today, after we've finished
installing our windvane, we get word again. A catamaran is coming into
our new slip and we need to leave again by the end of the day. Only now
the low pressure front that we are waiting to pass is plenty here and
the winds are blowing decent. Winds make docking more stressful. Much
more. As they are predicted to build more until tomorrow morning, we
decide it's better to go sooner than later. So again we untie and move
slips. Now we are near the end of the finger, a very long finger, and a
long way from the head of the dock. So everytime we want to make a call,
use the toilet/shower, etc., we have to walk a third of a mile. At least
the boat is ready to go. Next stop, likely East London. Where rats try
to get into the boat at night so you have to sleep with all the windows
and hatches closed. Oh yeah, it's 80+ and humid here. Loving it still...
we're racers now!
Not really, but we did just get back from our very first race. Not
our boat first of all. The Commodore of the Point Yacht Club invited all
of us to the wednesday night race here in Durban on his boat. A Fast 42,
google it. We did about an hour and a half of racing around buoys in the
Durban harbor. Mostly I tried not to do anything dangerous. The 3 of us
were stationed on the jib winches. The tacks were MUCH faster then we
ever could ever do on our boat and we did enough tacks and jibes to get
us though a few weeks of sailing. Even the spinnaker was flown for the
downwind portions, but not nearly long enough to really figure out how
to do it. In all it was totally fun and a very good time of
nerve-racking excitement. Something to do more of, but for now we are
definitely cruising sailors.
STILL waiting for the weather
Well, the weather window that was supposed to be on
Wednesday/Thursday didn't exactly appear, but the forecaster is saying
that there should be one on Saturday/Sunday. I am personally going
stir-crazy here and would really like to get moving. Two nights ago we
went about a 1/2 mile away to a restaurant that we could actually see
from the marina. We walked down there before dark and finished eating
around 10. We asked the staff if it would be safe to walk back
(remember, this is a 1/2 mile and we could plainly see where we were
going). They all said NO WAY! We needed to get a cab, which was a 2
minute ride and about 2 dollars. It just doesn't give you that happy
feeling in your heart.
On the website front, I have added pages to the Route section. If you
look at one of the google maps, all of our stops are shown, and the
track is taken from our daily logs. The tables below the maps show daily
runs and total distance sailed for each leg. I also finally added links
to the Boat - Links page and even added some more recommended books for
sailing under the Boat - Books area. That's about all for now.
Waiting for the weather
It looks as if the weather window that was supposed to open up on
Saturday/Sunday isn't going to happen, and the next one will be on
Thursday, so we are going to be here in Durban for a bit longer than we
expected. Our windvane is getting fixed by Mike the stainless-steel guy
and we should have all of our new brackets back by this afternoon. We
have been completing various small projects that have needed to get
done. I think I might even go and get some varnish and start on some of
our exterior teak. We haven't seen much of Durban so far and we hope to
take a few tours and go exploring in the next few days.
In Durban
All is well. Found free wireless internet at the yacht club. Been
downloading some podcasts and articles to pass the time on the next
passage. Also getting some new mounts for the windvane fabricated as the
originals had some nice cracks in them. The town isn't as dangerous as
we were led to believe. But I still don't walk around at night, carry
anything I would get stabbed for, and generally keep an eye out. Pretty
standard city stuff. The members at the club here are quite rude to the
wait staff. It's amazing. Banging glasses on tables to get attention and
never saying please or thank you. The grocery store was very crowded.
People trying to cut in line. Had to almost push your way through the
entire store. Finally to get some lunch meat I realized I just had to
yell out what I wanted. The people behind the counter don't make eye
contact and don't look happy.
No Big Deal
We survived yesterday's low pretty easily. The conditions never
really increased beyond what we had during the whole fender fiasco. The
low that hit us in the marina in Richards Bay was a full blown gale with
the wind howling through the rigging. I was bracing for the same
yesterday with the addition of anchor dragging, sleepless night goodness
so I was pleasantly surprised when the wind and rain calmed down before
midnight. We got into the marina today so we'll start getting the boat
ready for hopping around the cape.
Want to waste some time?
Download this game from our
website. The game is originally German(I belive) and is called
Shiffbruch, which means ShipWreck. You are just a little guy on an
island that has to survive and signal for a rescue ship. It is horribly,
horribly addictive. Download it, run the .exe to install it and then
spend the next half a day trying to figure out what the hell is going
on. If you read the instruction, it gives you a ton of clues about how
things work and what you should look for. I'd suggest planting fields so
you have a food supply. Email me with any opinions or high scores (how
long it took to get rescued). I have played this stupid little game WAY
too much.
Website changes
I have just uploaded some changes to the website. Hopefully if all
goes well, the majority of you won't see much difference. I have broken
the old logs up into a number of different pages by date. The 'archive'
was just getting too big. I have also changed the viewer so that it is
much more efficient and shouldn't take so long to load. It also now
pre-loads the next image, so there should be almost no lag. . .unless
you are on dial-up or are in South Africa. Then you will experience a
long boring wait while the picture updates. Internet Explorer users will
also be able to go through the pictures using the right and left arrow
keys. FireFox users are screwed for now, but I'll figure out how to do
it eventually. With all of these changes, I am certain that I have made
an error or two. Please click around and email me if there is anything
on our website that just doesn't seem to be working correctly. Thanks.
Operation - Fender Rescue
We've had the Duchess tied alongside and locked with a cable to the
toerail due to all the reports of theft here in Durban. We put a couple
of fenders between the two boats and Matt was looking around at one
point and noticed one of the fenders floating away. Matt and I piled
into the Duchess to mount a rescue attempt but couldn't make it to the
fender before it washed up on the beach where we saw the other fender
already beached. It was a bit too rough for a beach landing so we
circled around to a public dock where we were greeted by a woman trying
to sell Matt crack. I stayed with the Duchess, rather than abandoning
her to the crackheads, while Matt retrieved our fenders. Then we made
the wet upwind trip home. Conditions have been 20-25kts of wind with
about 2ft wind waves and intermittent showers most of the day.
Waiting
It's an overcast Sunday morning here in Durban and we're waiting for
the next buster to come. If history has taught me anything it's that
being at anchor during a gale is not a fun and relaxing way to spend
your time. We just missed getting a slip in the marina by just a couple
boats. Hopefully one will open up after this low goes by us and another
group makes its way south. We'll be waiting this window out so we can
make some minor repairs on our windvane Earl. He's been way too valuable
over the course of our trip to let him fall into disrepair.
Anchored in Durban
We got to Durban this morning after a very quick trip from Richard's
Bay. We went only about 10 miles offshore to get into the Agulhas
Current a little bit and get a boost. We picked up about 2 knots for
free and if we get all the way out into the current, apparently you can
pick up 4-5 knots. That should come in handy when we make our break from
Durban on Tuesday or Wednesday. In the few safe harbors along the South
African coast, boats congregate and wait for the next "weather window"
before attempting the next leg of the trip. The people at the marina
said that the last weather window was not very good, and everyone that
was supposed to leave didn't. So that is why we are anchored out in
front of the marina right now along with a few other boats. We have
talked with someone that owns a private berth at the marina and we might
be able to get a slip tomorrow, providing that the boat that is there
now leaves. I am not holding my breath, because the boat is right now
stacked high with all kinds of crap and doesn't look like it is leaving
anytime soon. There are two yacht clubs here that provide free
memberships for cruisers and that have showers, internet, pubs and
restaurants.
Getting ready
We are checking the weather and getting ready to make the first of
many short jumps down to coast of South Africa, eventually turning the
corner and getting to Cape Town. The weather looks good, and the bouy
reports say that the weather should hold for the next two days. It is
only about 80 miles to Durban, so we can make the jump easily in one day
if we motor the whole way. The weather then looks like it will turn
crappy for a while. This is just the nature of the weather here. From
Durban we have a much longer leg, almost 300 miles, without any
protection or safe places to hide until Port Elizabeth. We will be
closely watching things for that passage. If you would like to see what
the weather is like for us, check out the website www.weathersa.co.za
and click on the marine link.
Bad Ice
My Dad's good friend Don Sache always says that if you ever get a
hangover, it must be from bad ice. Well, I am pretty sure that the
Slipway bar at Richard's Bay must have had a pretty big batch of bad
ice, because I didn't feel so hot the other morning.
All contents of this site, unless otherwise noted, are © 2007
Casey McNeese, Jeff Stewart and Matt Smith. All Rights Reserved.