Category: 2013 April Positions

YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2013/04/26 09:35 LATITUDE: 33-54.52S LONGITUDE: 018-25.16E MARINE: NO WIND_SPEED: 5 WIND_DIR: SSE CLOUDS: 10% VISIBILITY: 20 BARO: 1019.1 AIR_TEMP: 21.1C COMMENT: Beach House -DOCKED- V&A Marina – Cape Town, SA for repairs…… We have arrived at the V&A Marina where we have a nice interior slip. The weather was a huge blessing as it was essentially calm the entire 70 hour motor. The winds will be back strongly soon! The good news is, preliminarly, we think that the parts from the US may be minimal and the big mandrel can be repaired or replaced here in Cape Town. The steering of course needs to be thouroghly gone over and we need to reset, refresh and of course as winter is here, watch the weather. All is well and you can use our land emails again as we have internet. KIT, Scott and Nikki

YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2013/04/25 08:09 LATITUDE: 31-20.38S LONGITUDE: 016-56.72E COURSE: 157T SPEED: 6.8 MARINE: YES WIND_SPEED: 8 WIND_DIR: NNE WAVE_HT: 0.0M WAVE_PER: 0 SWELL_DIR: SW SWELL_HT: 0.5M SWELL_PER: 6 CLOUDS: 10% VISIBILITY: 15 BARO: 1019 TREND: 1 AIR_TEMP: 20.0C SEA_TEMP: 16.7C COMMENT: Beach House -EN ROUTE-Cape Town, SA. Should arrive Friday afternoon. It\’s nice that this weather window has steadily improved and I think we\’ll get in before the next southerly kicks up. We had an alternator/water pump belt break on the port engine. Fortunately, it\’s nice and calm. The repair went fine in about an hours time. We also got some good news that we may be able to fix the boom rather than replace it…. Stand by. When I get to Cape Town and get settled, I WILL catch the blog up. Nothing out here but sea lions, bull kelp floating around and us! KIT, Scott and Nikki

YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2013/04/24 11:16 LATITUDE: 29-09.43S LONGITUDE: 015-57.97E COURSE: 159T SPEED: 7.3 MARINE: YES WIND_SPEED: 5 WIND_DIR: ESE WAVE_HT: 0.0M WAVE_PER: 0 SWELL_DIR: SW SWELL_HT: 1.5M SWELL_PER: 6 CLOUDS: 10% VISIBILITY: 20 BARO: 1015 TREND: -1 AIR_TEMP: 22.2C SEA_TEMP: 14.4C COMMENT: Beach House -EN ROUTE-Cape Town, SA – just south of Namibian border Happily, the head winds of yesterday afternoon are gone and we\’re motoring into fairly small swells with no wind waves at this time. We\’ve about 300 miles to go and expect to be in Cape Town on Friday mid day to late afternoon, depending on what goes on with the winds. We got some potentially good news that our boom may be able to be repaired vs. replaced. But I won\’t hold my breath till I get to speak with the supplier in the USA. KIT, USE SAILMAIL… Scott and resting Capt. Nik!

YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2013/04/23 10:36 LATITUDE: 26-37.01S LONGITUDE: 015-06.48E COURSE: 259T SPEED: 7.4 MARINE: NO WIND_SPEED: 12 WIND_DIR: WSW CLOUDS: 10% VISIBILITY: 15 BARO: 1012.9 AIR_TEMP: 26.7C COMMENT: Beach House -EN ROUTE-Cape Town, SA for repairs. Abeam Diaz Point, Namibia The weather looks \”ok\” for the first 18 hours after which is goes lighter and improves for we south bounders. Wind has a lot of west in it, so it\’s not too bad \”into it\”. It\’s supposed to lighten around sun down and not pick up again for a few days. This will \”hopefully\”? get us back into Cape Town without having to bash into it. KIT, USE SAILMAIL ADDRESS… Scott and \”Watch Commandress Nikki\”…..

YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2013/04/18 18:23 LATITUDE: 26-38.42S LONGITUDE: 015-09.44E MARINE: NO WIND_SPEED: 25 WIND_DIR: SSE CLOUDS: 10% VISIBILITY: 12 BARO: 1018.2 AIR_TEMP: 13.9C COMMENT: Beach House -ANCHORED- Back in Robert Harbor, Luderitz….. Crew is safe but tired. We had winds steady at 30-35 knots on the way back and saw gusts into the 40\’s, one at 52 knots! Glad to be back. It\’s a mess and we\’ll have to head back to Cape Town. I suspect for a minimum of a month and possibly two! The boom is a loss and we\’ll need to get a new one from California. We\’ll move up our tour of Sossuvlei Dunes to Sunday/Monday and look for a weather window (starting to shape up on Tuesday to Friday?) to motor the 500 miles back to Cape Town…. KIT, Scott and Nikki

YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2013/04/18 09:45 LATITUDE: 26-06.23S LONGITUDE: 014-47.96E MARINE: YES WIND_SPEED: 25 WIND_DIR: SSE WAVE_HT: 1.0M WAVE_PER: 6 SWELL_DIR: SW SWELL_HT: 3.0M SWELL_PER: 8 CLOUDS: 10% VISIBILITY: 20 BARO: 1018.2 TREND: 1 AIR_TEMP: 16.1C SEA_TEMP: 13.3C COMMENT: Beach House -BOOM BROKE – En Route to Walvis Bay…turning back for Luderitz I emailed everyone that we\’re okay as is the boat. We almost lost the mainsail overboard. Steering failure caused the autopilot rudder feedback unit to quit for a few minutes. Again, we\’re okay, headed back to Luderitz. A nasty upwind motor slog against big winds and seas. We must get back to Cape Town to fix this. Nowhere in Namibia can it be done. More soon… Tired Scott and Nikki

YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2013/04/16 05:20 LATITUDE: 26-38.43S LONGITUDE: 015-09.44E MARINE: NO WIND_SPEED: 1 WIND_DIR: SE CLOUDS: 60% VISIBILITY: 10 BARO: 1012.4 AIR_TEMP: 13.9C COMMENT: Beach House -ANCHORED – Robert Harbor, Luderitz….. Entered just before first light and anchored at first light. Lots of old tired boats here. Most notable to me is a pretty decent looking Brown 37 Trimaran. We\’ll most likely stay here till Thursday and depart early morning for Walvis Bay. It\’s pretty industrial/fishing/mining looking here. But we shall see! KIT, Scott and Cooking Nik…:-)

YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2013/04/15 05:26 LATITUDE: 28-54.38S LONGITUDE: 015-45.11E COURSE: 336T SPEED: 7.0 MARINE: YES WIND_SPEED: 4 WIND_DIR: S WAVE_HT: 0.0M WAVE_PER: 0 SWELL_DIR: SW SWELL_HT: 1.0M SWELL_PER: 8 CLOUDS: 100% VISIBILITY: 10 BARO: 1014.2 TREND: -1 AIR_TEMP: 12.2C SEA_TEMP: 15.6C COMMENT: Beach House – ABEAM- Orange River Mouth – Border of SA & Namibia. 140 miles to go Yesterday we had a very calm day, it\’s just about a lake out here. We\’ve motored all but 3 hours of the trip and expect that if a sail is to be had, it will be this afternoon. The water is still cold, night time is overcast to foggy. We\’re just inside the main north/south shipping lane, so we still get about 10 vessels a day in our general neighborhood. We currently see two vessels, one is stationary about 20 miles off the coast and the other about 40 miles off the coast which are \”dredging\”. We suspect for diamonds! From the Orange River, the way up to around Walvis Bay there are shore based diamond mines. The Namibian Desert on the coast is the oldest desert on earth and it\’s strikingly beautiful. This is one of the reasons we\’ve decided to make the two stops in Namibia. The public cannot travel to areas where the mines are. No tours here! Just the red/pink sand dunes. MORE on those after we\’ve been there in the blog. I\’ll catch the blog up shortly. KIT, Scott and Off Watch Nik, motoring along the Namibian Coast…..

YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2013/04/14 07:39 LATITUDE: 31-24.27S LONGITUDE: 016-56.95E COURSE: 336T SPEED: 7.0 MARINE: YES WIND_SPEED: 7 WIND_DIR: N WAVE_HT: 0.0M WAVE_PER: 0 SWELL_DIR: SSW SWELL_HT: 1.5M SWELL_PER: 8 CLOUDS: 100% VISIBILITY: 7 BARO: 1017.9 TREND: 1 AIR_TEMP: 15.6C SEA_TEMP: 14.4C COMMENT: Beach House -EN ROUTE- Cape Town, SA to Luderitz, Namibia……160 miles south of the SA/Namibian Border Last night\’s beautiful skies turned to pea soup fog at midnight. We had to turn on the radar and indeed saw a small fishing boat right on our line. We hit something in the water last night. No worries, but we were concerned it might have line on it. We put the engines in neutral and just sat for a few minutes. Back up and then proceeded on. We\’ve bumped two big strands of cold water \”bull kelp\” (sea weed). Again, just a bump, no worries. Yesterday afternoon we had do dodge the cray fish pots off Dassen Island (half way to Saldana Bay from Cape Town). Seas calm, gray gray day. It\’s cold (the water is the reason – The COLD Benguela Current). Motoring in flat seas with a very slight 5-8 knot headwind. 300 Miles to Luderitz KIT, Scott and \”on watch\” Nik! If RESPONDING, USE OUR SAILMAIL ADDRESS (WDB5638@SAILMAIL.COM)

YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2013/04/13 18:32 LATITUDE: 32-50.50S LONGITUDE: 017-39.44E COURSE: 323T SPEED: 8.5 MARINE: NO WIND_SPEED: 12 WIND_DIR: SSE CLOUDS: 0% VISIBILITY: 10 BARO: 1015 TREND: 0 AIR_TEMP: 15.0C COMMENT: Beach House -EN ROUTE- Cape Town, SA to Luderitz, Namibia……ABEAM Cape Columbine We got in a two and half hour sail this afternoon but despite the 14 knots of wind, it\’s from dead astern so we\’d go to slow. Nice current push giving us over 9 knots regularly. Should beat the low if it doesn\’t speed up due to hit Cape Town in two days (Nambia in three). Tried to listen for the Peri Peri net tonight, but heard nothing. Absolutely cloudless, calm night with a 2 meter swell. Nikki asleep, Scott on watch. KIT, Scott and Sleeping Nik