svbeachhouse

Author: kerri

  • Knysna to Simon\’s Town, Around Cape Agulhas – End Book Two…..

    Knysna to Simon\’s Town, Around Cape Aghulhas – End Book Two…..

    16 February – 17 February, 2013 As the \”Heads\” had such a bad nautical reputation and our next weather window would be blustery, we again planned our exit cautiously. This time, prepared from Cousin Gill that the \”heads\” had a web cam, we sent out a blog to several of our close followers to watch at 7:30 a.m as we\’d be leaving the heads for Simon\’s Town. Indeed, I was able to send out a quick email just before we departed and several people (including Gill and David), sent us screen shots from there computers and telephones of \”Beach House\” departing the heads. That was cool!

    The exit was no worry as we again left at high slack water. The swell was up to 3 meters (9-10 feet). The winds were not up yet, but we expected a very breezy passage with winds up to 30+ knot gusts from astern. After a few hours of motoring, the Southeasterly began to increase. We had a nice look at Wilderness and Mossel Bay in the distance and by dark, the winds were a blowin\’….! The \”breeze\” was a constant 25 knots with many gusts into the low/mid 30\’s. The swell was a constant 3 meters and the odd 4 meter (12-13 door) swell would go by. The big deal here was all the ship traffic.

    Once we were in the vicinity of Cape Agulhas, we had constant \”heavy metal\” (big ship) traffic. I was a bit surprised when I hailed one \”thousand footer\” and the deck officer came back with a lovely feminine voice! Not unheard of, but unusual. I asked if she saw us as she was overtaking us from astern very quickly and coming right at us. She said she did and would alter course to starboard (her right), to leave us on her port (left side). This indeed she did, but if it had been daytime, I could have asked her if she had any \”Grey Poupon\” she was so close. Complicating matters was the other \”thousand footer\” on our port side who was fortunately a bit further away. It did indeed feel like a freeway out there and on Alexandra\’s watch, she felt one ship was too close and woke me to decide what to do. Thank You Alexandra!

    No drama\’s or trauma\’s were had, but the big sea and wind kept a blowin\’. We made excellent time and passed Cape Agulhas, (The Southern most tip of the African Continent) at around 0500 on 17 February. I said a prayer for Cindy as we rounded. She and I always sang \”Lighthouse\” by James Taylor (which I of course played on the IPOD). If you\’ve never heard the song, give it a listen. It said a lot about who we were and what we were doing; dreaming safe at home in Marina del Rey…..

    Now another of the Earth\’s three great oceans behind us. The Pacific, The Indian and now the Atlantic before us……

    Once around the Cape, we were able to head more northwesterly toward Simon\’s Town. Simon\’s Town is a small old British Navy town only 30 minutes by car but an entire day\’s sail away from Cape Town. We gybed at first light and on starboard tack, headed fast for the barn. We knew it would take most of the day to get there, but at least the big ships were starting to head around Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope (more famous than Agulhas). We sailed till we entered False Bay and a bit past the very wide entrance where we began to see lots of Sea Lions. The water temperature had dropped over 7 degrees F (4 degees C) since our rounding of Agulhas. Agulhas is where the Agulhas Current (warm) meets the Benguela Current (cold) which runs north along the West African Coast. All the marine life would now change. False Bay is home to the \”Flying White Sharks\”. This is a most unusual place as the Great White Sharks accelerate from below lazy/sleeping Sea Lions and literally fly out of the water attacking their prey. We did not witness this, but it is well documented if you google \”Flying White Sharks of False Bay\”. Lots of still photos and YOU TUBE Videos about it.

    As we arrived, the winds were blowing 35 knots. Fortunately, as we came around the corner into the marina, it dropped to 13 knots! What a difference. We were met by quite a docking committee of cruisers who were expecting us thanks to an email sent by Dave and Kathie of \”Sunflower\” (whose boat was also there, but they were touring the countryside). We quickly found out that False Bay Yacht Club was another \”surg-o-rama\” marina. In fact, it would be the worst ever; destroying at least two dock lines.

    False Bay is where we\’ll do some touring and have our planned crew change. Alexandra will be flying back to the UK for work and other sailing adventures. Nikki will be re-arriving in South Africa soon where she was attending sad family business…. This was in effect, the end of \”Book Two\” of the planned trilogy of Scott and Cindy. Book One was the Pacific Ocean. Book Two the Indian Ocean. Book Three begins soon, the Atlantic before us. Lastly, the Epilogue and journeys end…….

    Hugs,

    KIT Scott and Alexandra (Next – touring Simon\’s Town and Cape Town)……

  • 2013-03 Victoria Falls (by land) – Photos

    To see the SHIP\’s BLOG associated with this Photo Gallery:  CLICK HERE

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2013/03/15 12:00 LATITUDE: 33-54.47S LONGITUDE: 018-25.14E MARINE: NO WIND_SPEED: 14 WIND_DIR: NW CLOUDS: 50% VISIBILITY: 7 BARO: 1013.2 AIR_TEMP: 23.3C COMMENT: Beach House -DOCKED- V&A Waterfront Marina-Cape Town, South Africa We\’re next to Sunflower our old friends Kathie and Dave from the US whom we met in Chagos. They were most helpful in assisting with my un-artful docking maneuver. No harm, just a bit embarrassing. Lovely spot, we\’ll be off to do some land touring Sunday – Wednesday by car, then back here to begin getting the boat bits done and off to the great north. KIT, Scott with Domestic Diva, Nik!

  • 03-2013 African Animals – Namibia by Land – Photos

    African Animal Galleries – Nambia, Africa. Elephants, Big Cats, Giraffe, Zebra and More!
    To view the SHIP\’S BLOG associated with this PHOTO GALLERY:  CLICK HERE

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2013/02/17 17:15 LATITUDE: 34-11.48S LONGITUDE: 018-25.96E MARINE: NO WIND_SPEED: 6 WIND_DIR: SW CLOUDS: 40% VISIBILITY: 5 BARO: 1006.5 AIR_TEMP: 22.8C COMMENT: Beach House – DOCKED – False Bay Yacht Club, Simon\’s Town, South Africa Just about 36 hours, 290 miles. It reminded me of coming OUT of New Zealand. Big winds and seas, but fortunately on the stern. It was blowing 36 knots as we came up to the marina, but we had a nice wind break here and quite a welcoming committee to help tie us up with. At the dock, it was only blowing 6 knots!…. We are in Simon\’s Town, but Cape Town is right next door. We did finally get to see the Cape of Good Hope as we entered the bay (through the heavy haze) and were greeted by hundreds of dolphins playing around the boat for about a half an hour. We\’ll be here for at least two weeks and then may move over to the Victoria and Alberts Marina before heading off to the Caribbean and parts north. Nikki will arrive next Sunday and Alex will depart on Saturday. Some boat maintenance and touring this week including having to get the auto pilot sorted. KIT, Scott

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2013/02/17 14:11 LATITUDE: 34-24.70S LONGITUDE: 018-42.18E COURSE: 317T SPEED: 8.0 MARINE: NO WIND_SPEED: 24 WIND_DIR: ESE CLOUDS: 20% VISIBILITY: 5 BARO: 1007.2 TREND: 0 AIR_TEMP: 23.3C COMMENT: Beach House – ABEAM – Cape of Good Hope to port, Cape Hangklip to starboard. Entering False Bay (Simon\’s Town). Should be docked by 7-8pm this evening. A very BLUSTERY sail.

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2013/02/17 03:15 LATITUDE: 35-11.12S LONGITUDE: 020-00.12E COURSE: 299T SPEED: 6.5 MARINE: YES WIND_SPEED: 23 WIND_DIR: ESE WAVE_HT: 0.5M WAVE_PER: 7 SWELL_DIR: SE SWELL_HT: 2.7M SWELL_PER: 9 CLOUDS: 70% VISIBILITY: 8 BARO: 1014.7 TREND: -1 AIR_TEMP: 21.7C COMMENT: Beach House – ABEAM – Cape Agulhas Light; Welcome to the Atlantic Ocean!… It\’s been a blustery night. We\’ve had only 2 reefs in the main and no head sail for the last 5 hours. It\’s almost dawn and then may set the staysail to starboard as we gybed 30 minutes ago. About 100 miles to False Bay YC. Arrival will most likely be this evening after dark.

  • 2013-02 Port Elizabeth – Knysna to Simon\’s Town – Photos

    The second leg of our sail around the bottom of Africa!
    To view the SHIP\’S BLOG\’s associated with this PHOTO GALLERY:
    CLICK HERE – Port Elizabeth                                CLICK HERE – Knysna                               CLICK HERE – PE to Simon\’s Town

  • 02-2013 Richard\’s Bay – Durban to Port Elizabeth, SA – Photos

    To see the SHIP\’S BLOGS associated with this PHOTO GALLERY:  CLICK THE TITLES BELOW

    Richards Bay Departure                            Richards Bay – Durban – Port Elizabeth                             Port Elizabeth

  • Richards Bay to Port Elizabeth with stop in Durban…..

    Richards Bay to Durban, South Africa…..

    02 February – 08 February 2013

    Alexandra and I had just had a lovely time exploring the Thorny Bush Game park near Kruger National Park in northeast South Africa. Included was a spectacularly scenic drive near Nelspruit, just west of Swaziland. The game park was terrific with sightings of all the \”Big 5\”. Elephants, Cape Buffalo, Lion, Rhinoceros and Leopard. (We got to see a Cheetah too!). If you want to see an amazing YOU TUBE video, google \”Battle at Kruger\”. I won\’t swear to this link, but give it a try. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM This was shot in 2010 by tourists.It\’s 8 minutes long and don\’t leave till the very end. It will give you a feel for what we saw, but without the dramatics of the video.

    The drive back through Swaziland (an independent nation), had the scenic highlights of \”God\’s Window\” and more dramatic vistas. It was time to start moving toward Cape Town and to that end, after the usual provisioning and boat projects, we left Richards Bay at 3:30 a.m. to make the long day trip to Durban.

    When we left, it was pitch black and we had a short period 2.5 meter (8 foot) swell running which made our first several hours quite bumpy and uncomfortable. The good news was that we got to sail for several hours and Alex quickly adapted with a big sailing smile as we were going through the miles on a nice port tack beam reach with the geneker and full main. We entered Durban Harbor around 3:30 pm and were fortunately able to get a slip where we settled in nicely at the Point Yacht Club.

    Durban (Downtown) is a bit dodgy as to crime, etc. and we were warned to be cautious. We actually walked to Customs/Immigration/Port Authority (which was fine), but then continued on to see the Aquarium. We were actually stopped by a local who warned us to move out of the area as it wasn\’t safe. NOTED! We took the taxi back whose driver laughed at us for being not too smart for where we were walking about. Parts of Durban (outskirts) are lovely and very nice; \”Downtown\”, not so much.

    The next day we took the taxi to the Aquarium (it was closed when we arrived yesterday) and enjoyed the afternoon watching the dolphin show and seeing the \”big fish\” in their tank. Monterey it\’s not, but it was quite nice. We also saw a big 50 foot monohull that limped in coming up from the south. He had an accidental gybe in a big gust and broke his boom. One of the crew had a badly cut hand, but seemed that all would recover. They were on a delivery up from Knysna; one of our planned stops.

    We were getting a bit noodgie as to moving on and with a seemingly \”ok\” weather window, would be off the next day on the 6th of February. The weather reports in this part of the world are pretty accurate as to direction and timing of the wind and sea. BUT awful as to the strength of the wind. If it says 5 knots, it could be……or 30 knots…ummm!

    We left with a predicted 10-15 knot norther which turned out to be 25+. This should have been my first clue! The day was decent, a bit bumpy and we were sailing off on the 3 day, 2 night passage to Port Elizabeth. That night, the winds went down, the sea went down and we thought a lovely motor with the strong Agulhas Current would be an okay way to fly. Then the LIGHTENING started. At first, it was behind us and not gaining. It moved north as we headed south. Then, on Alex\’s off watch. I started to see lightening on the bow about 5 miles ahead. Shortly thereafter, it started bolting down in front of us. First a mile off to port, then a half mile dead ahead, then a quarter mile off the right side, Then back in front of us and finally – WHAM! About 200 yards off our port beam (left – middle for you land lubbers), we had a strike. The wind instruments died, the AIS died, the bilge alarms went off and the sound was not only deafening, but you could feel the air shock from the hit. Alex quickly came up from her cabin and it started to POUR LIKE CRAZY. Then the outside/helm auto pilot went down. We took a deep breath and turned inshore as what can only be described as a surreal \”Tesla Coil Event\” was going off from cloud to cloud every few seconds. This was less than a few miles away to our seaward (left) side and the show went on for at least 3 hours!

    The final synopsis was: Lightening 1, Autopilot Zero, Wind Instruments came back but slowly would die off over the next few weeks. AIS came back to life. The Bilge Alarms were damaged and will need to be replaced. AMAZINGLY, our chart plotters (Raymarine e-127 and e-125), never went offline and didn\’t seem to care! Needless to say, \”That was exciting\”… but stand by…more to come!

    So the lightening went away…YEA! The wind slowly then died off during the night and we ended up motoring. The next morning, the predicted 5-10 knots from the south became 20-30 knots from the south! YIKES. The danger here is not the wind, but that the Agulhas Current in it\’s fastest area at the fastest time of year was pushing us down the coast (where we wanted to go by the way!!) at 4-7 knots!!! However, the wind and more importantly, the sea was against us. This created not a dangerous situation, but a very uncomfortable situation. Alex made a small offering of pre-digested meal to Neptune and was quickly back in action. Our speed through the water looked dismal. We were only going 1-2 knots. BUT, it was WITH the current so we were actually going 7 knots down the coast. We decided to tough it out and took our lumps for 18 hours. It finally subsided and we motored in flat seas past East London at dusk. A thankfully flat evening and the next day had us at Algoa Bay Yacht Club in Port Elizabeth by 3:30 p.m.

    The really cool thing about the last 50 miles was that we saw our first African Penguins in big groups as we entered the bay to Port Elizabeth along with distant Right Whales and nice weather. More soon,

    Scott with Alexandra (Her \”Deegness\”)…..recovering in Port Elizabeth, Algoa Bay Yacht Club