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Day Three to Luderitz…..

Cold and Wet
May 21st, 2013 (Eastern Hemisphere)

After we gybed the main yesterday, we were pretty much right on course and had stronger than predicted winds (yet again!). Initially, it wasn\’t blowing too hard so we put up the spinnaker again. Shortly thereafter of course, the winds piped up into the low 20 knot range and we were galloping a bit too fast; hitting 9-13 knots. It\’s a long boat ride and I don\’t want to stress out the boat and the crew, so we took the kite down and went to a single reefed main with full genoa to port (starboard tack). We rode this till mid night on a cold, lumpy dreary day.

Mid night last night, the winds started to shift to the East so we rolled up the genoa and motored. With the mainsail up, we were going around 7 knots. At 6 a.m. this morning, the winds shifted to the NNW at 20-25, right on the nose with 60 miles to go. No fun. We rolled up the mainsail, and bounced for a few hours and the wind has now settled back to 15 knots from the NNW. Still not the greatest ride, but we will be in Luderitz in about 4-5 hours so we\’ll get over it.

This is a small coastal low pressure system that the \”Skeleton Coast\” is known for. It would play havoc with an old sailing ship as difficult as they were to maneuver. With our \”iron genoa\’s\” (aka motors), no worries mate. Currently, there is a much bigger low pressure system out in the South Atlantic and we don\’t want to find it. It has the same conditions we are now in, but much stronger with winds to 40 knots. As such, we\’ll be sitting in Luderitz and watching the weather to see when the South Atlantic High re-establishes itself and gives us the green light for the jump to St. Helena. Were making water before we get to Luderitz as the harbor is very muddy, I don\’t want it clogging up the filters. IF it calms down a bit, we\’ll do the wash in the machine and otherwise we\’re just reading and relaxing and looking forward to a good night\’s sleep inside the well protected bay. We\’ll top up fuel and watch the weather. Getting ready for the start of the big jump; off to the mid Atlantic island of St. Helena.

KIT,
Scott and Nikki

Half Way to Luderitz…..

May 20th, 2013 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Yesterday started out with light winds and predicted to essentially drop off to very little. However, as I have come to learn, the timing and direction of the GRIB (Gridded Imbedded Binary Files) that we use as computerized weather is accurate. The strengths of the winds are not.
Usually, the strengths are under reported by around 5 knots, sometimes a bit more. Yesterday we had winds of 15-25 knots most of the day. The computer said 12 and dropping.

As such, we flew the spinnaker with the full main and all systems worked well. We had some exhilarating surfing between 9-12 knots. As we\’ve a lot of ocean to cover, I didn\’t want to shake our rusty sail handling out in the middle of the night, so we took it down at sunset.

The direction of the winds is taking us a bit offshore, but we\’ll gybe this morning when Nikki gets up and be headed almost exactly at Luderitz. We\’ve 200 miles to go and should be there by tomorrow afternoon.

Someone quickly knock wood, all systems seem to be working just fine (thank you very much!). A few little bug-a-boos. Our new wind speed/direction instrument is too quick to react and we haven\’t been able to dampen it. I also think it\’s out of calibration and is reading the winds a bit too high.

My \”eye\” sees 12-14 knots on the water, the instrument says 18-21 knots. Looks good, but isn\’t as helpful as it should be.

It was COLD last night. We saw 49 degrees F!!! (9.4 C), It\’s now 0745 and still pretty chilly. No clouds but lots of haze for which this coast; known as the \”Skeleton Coast\” is famous for. Heavy fog like London or LA can be the norm. Yes my UK friends, LA gets heavy fog! (And the water is COLD!).

The Skeleton Coast was so named as in the old sailing days, lots of ships wrecked here in the low visibility conditions. It didn\’t help that the area was virtually unpopulated for hundreds of miles north of Cape Town up the coast to Namibia and Angola.

The day before we left Cape Town, a 46 foot Catamaran on a delivery across the Atlantic hit that heavy fog off Dessen Island. They went aground where the boat still is! Two out of every three catamaran\’s in the world are made in South Africa. Almost all of them sail across to the Caribbean or to Europe; most for the charter markets. Robertson & Caine is the world\’s largest manufacturer and makes all the boats for the \”Moorings Charter Group\” of which \”Sunsail\” is the parent. They have lots of boats leaving Cape Town all year round. Some with more experienced crews than others!

The sun is rising, the coffee is hot, the generator purring.
Gybe Ho!

KIT, position report out in about an hour.
Scott and Offwatch Nikki

Cape Town and off to Luderitz, Namibia….yet again!
May 18th, 2013 (Eastern Hemisphere)

We were able to get out of the V&A Marina on the 0930 bridge openings. There are two there. The Bascule (which in French means draw bridge) and the Swing Bridge. This is a long walkway that is spun 90 degrees along it\’s entire length to open. The tourists waved, so did we and with a call to Cape Town Port Control said our good byes.

Now, I\’m back tracking a bit as I forgot to put this in the blog where we left Cape Town the first time.
Every time I undertake a long voyage, I either have the rig (mast, boom and all it\’s wires) professionally inspected or do it myself. I always however like a second set of eyes on it. When in Indonesia last year, friend John Wolstenhome of \”Mr. John VI\” took a look and gave me a good report.

As we were about to leave on a 5000 mile (7500 km) trip, I has Associated Rigging do the inspection. They found a small crack in our staysail tang aloft. I\’ll put it in the photo log when I catch up. Anyway, they fixed it and we were then … good to go. Unfortunately due to our steering failure and \”boom, boom\” we had to return. I thought Associated did a great job the first time and was happy to have them do the boom repairs when we returned.

Yesterday was a typical get away day. Everything was ready to go. HOWEVER, the day before was anything but. I have rarely come across Immigration officials who are an intentional pain in the rear; but we found her…

When Nikki and I went to clear Immigration, she asked us where the boat was? Our clearance paper said, the \”V&A Waterfront\”. She informed us we needed to move the boat 3,000 meters to be \”inside\” the Port Authority or she couldn\’t check us out. No one has been told this in years! She wouldn\’t budge. Now it sounds easy enough to move the boat but think it through. Power cords, water disconnects, all the dock lines, two bridges (each way!) and negotiating a small tight anchorage and docks at the Royal Cape Town Yacht Club. And, we weren\’t their slip tennant, so we would have had to A) Find a space which is very tight there and B) Pay fees, etc. C) NOT be able to go back to the V&A. Hence, this was no small matter and would have taken most of the day.

The Marina Mgr at the RCYC was very creative and assured Immigration that we were \”too large\” for their current dock space (which was true BTW!) and is why we were at the V&A. \”Oh, she said, if they\’re too big for your docks, then we\’re allowed to clear them\”. This wasted about 3 hours and several layers of stomach lining. The day before we leave on a long trip is like getting the Space Shuttle ready. One hick-up and your aborted for who knows how long? Remember: Winter is Coming and we had a weather window issue. Further, Immigration should have cared less where the boat was; it\’s Customs who want to be able to inspect if they want too. They almost NEVER do. This was a first for the V&A management. They say, they\’ll try and get it fixed. Another boat we know came in the Immigration office right behind us. They were 60 miles north of Cape Town. Guess what they got told! They are still there as I write and will be for at least another 7-10 days now due to the weather. This is the kind of stuff that makes cruising unpleasant and it was totally a power play and as they say in the UK; \”Jobs-worthiness\”….. Nuff said…

We had lovely weather for our departure and from Dessen Island (about 35 miles north of Cape Town), we sailed all night in 10-15 knots of wind. We gave it up once we could no longer maintain 5 knots boat speed. The swell is up due to big Southern Ocean storms, but fortunately, they are not near us! US Sailing Vessel \”OZ\”, Steve and Pat are about a half day ahead of us. We made first contact this morning with the SAM HAM Net which assists we boaters in weather across the Atlantic. Once across the pond, we\’ll be able to get the Maritime Mobile Nets which will do the same from the other side.

So, we\’re back to motoring for the moment, expect to be in Luderitz on Tuesday afternoon….
I think I hear a song?….:-)
KIT,
Scott and Nikki