Flying around the World by sea. ( presently at Sea off the SE coast of South Africa. )

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sat 20 Nov 2010 08:49
FRIDAY   19th   NOVEMBER   2010
 
02.00hrs  Ohhhh, it is still honking, 38  / 40 knots from behind , but we were flying along ,if we had wings we would have taken off.
 
The " Rev. Mother Aileen "  and   " Fr Neil " took to the bunks, actually Aileen slept in the saloon , which is always a comfortable
place for a nap.   " Fats" loved that spot and spent many happy hours snoring there to his heart's content .
keeping everyone entertained with his own special rendition of sleeping music...........zzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZzzzz........zzzzzz...Z  .
 
04.00hrs, Dawn   theis is always a great time, It makes you feel that the world has come out of its nightly slumber
as it waits for the magical Sunrise.  which is usually about 50 minutes later.
 
06.00hrs, The wind eased back a little to a comfortable 25 / 28 knots, and it was still directly behind,
S opened up the full main, ans 30mins later set up a goose winging arrangment while the others maintained their sleeping records.
We were touching 15.5 knots regularly , and with relativly flat seas, was wonderfull sailing,
 
08.00hrs, we were directly opposite " East London " and had sailed 255.6 n miles in 24 hours, a real record for us,
even if was with the benifit of a great current.
We had a light breakfast, which included porridge , made by Aileen herself and it tasted great.
We read the weather reports and predicitions over and over again,  With nowhere to hide around here if things get nasty,
we must be sure of the weather,  It looks that we will outrun the next weather change,   ........
 
13.00hrs, We altered course to 269T as we now headed WSW directly for Port Elizebeth  with just a mere 75 miles to go.
A beautifull day for a trip like this, Clear blue skies, flattish sea's and blue water, and,25 knots of wind from behind and warm, 
 in fact it was soooo  nice that we all did some sunbathing on deck,   Its a long time since we did that, ( top up the tan )
 
15.30hrs,  BANG.   The wind suddenly changed direction to right on our nose, blowing 20 knots   WOW ! all in 30 seconds, even more wow.
S & N scrambled to undoo the goose wing set up , and revert back to the normal arrangments,
This new wind built up to 25 / 30 knots quickly so we had to motor sail with a reef in the main and nothing else.
The current soon changed as well . ( Murphys Law ) so now we were only doing 7 knots , down from a staggering 15  Knots.
 
17.30  Aileen did a dinner, and we relaxed for a while, and only just a while,
This cloud began to build to the SW of us, and before we knew what was going on, we had a horrendous thunder storm,
The rain came down in stay rods, so much so, we had very little visability , and nearly collided with a largs fishing trawler,
The interesting thing here was that they never showed on the Radar. nor did any other trawlers for that matter.
and they were big boats.
The lightning was spectacular, even if it was frightning, but we had to keep going, through thick and thin.............
 
SHORTLY, after , we sailed into a huge flock of Gannets  /  Boobies , seagulls and all sorts of birds,
Then , we were surrounded by thousands of Spinner Dolphins,  they were everywhere,and jumping clear of the water as they sped along
through the sea,  But thats not all,  We counted about 25 / 30 Whales , all very close, so there is obviously a feeding frenzie going on here.
This was the most amazing thing we had seen in the wild life at sea.
To be remembered for ever.........................................
 
19.00hrs,  The sun appeared again, just before it vanished behind the horizon as we made our way closer to P.E.
 
00,00hrs  We arrived at the harbour entrance, all well lit up, again , its lovely to see all the lights along the coast before we
got to this point.   Ohhh  happy out,  It was blooming cold again as we nibbled our way into the harbour
and made our way to the Yacht Club, 
We had spoken to " Algoa Y.C " earlier and they had no marina berth big enough for us, so we were going to have to tie alongside a trawler,
but we were assured that they were real usuer friendly. and we would have no problems.
 
When we finally arrived ot the YC, we found " Wild Tigres" and " Destiny "  tied to a bunch of trawlers, so we rafted up to them ,
had a brandy and port and vanished into the scratchers,
 
Thats all
 
 
Signed  :-  Stephen  Hyde   ( Skipper )