Sailing around the World and into Richards Bay, South Africa.
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sun 7 Nov 2010 13:42
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SATURDAY 6th
NOVEMBER 2010 (Day 8 at Sea
)
We are back in buisness again,
00.00hrs Aileens watch untill 02.00 ,
followed by skipper untill 04.00, by Neil and then Terry.
It is a very dark nightand we have a course set for
a waypoint 110 miles NE of Richards Bay, ( 28 degrees S : 34 degrees
E )
Our biggest problem at present is to slow the boat
down, a thing we are not used to doing.
We need to arrive at this waypoint at 06.00hrs
tomorrow morning , to take advantage of the strong " Agulhas Current " and the
receeding winds.
Well, thats what we are being advised by
Bruce, This current that has the Pooh frightened out of us.
Well, We can suppose that a current 3 /
5 knots flowing against a 35 / 40 knot wind is definatly going
to whip up a big sea.
There is lots of shipping going to and fro from
Richards Bay, which is one of the biggest harbours in S.A. and we cannot
identify them
as our AIS has ceased working.
09.00hrs Radio Call, It seems that "
Wild Tigres" " Grand Filou" and " Killopie " are close to us,
within 15 / 20 miles.
after them, the nearest boat is " Drammer" which is
148 miles behind, and then away back is " Tucanon " at 240 miles behind,
thats almost 2 days, and behind them are Crazy
Horse and Ocean Jasper, the two Yanks. ( but , they did leave 2 days after the
rest of the fleet
because Jimmy is in Love )
11.00hrs Distance travelled
........................................... 1219 n miles ( position 28 07S
: 36 27 E )
Terry was in flying form again with his funny
remarks flying , and he is known as " Fr Terry " and Neil as "
Fr Dougal " by some of the
other boats, ( The Irish guys of course
)
Skipper has a class on board every day and includes
:-
1 position of ourselves and
distance and location of all other boats in the fleet. relative to our
position.
2 Sailing and navigation details,
( today, its all about trough's and weather, at home these trough's are called
fronts )
3 How to eat your food without it going
over the side in bad weather . laugh.........
We sent out for an updated grib file , giving the
forecast every 6 hours over the next 48 hours...... very important .as things
around here change so fast. its
frightning.
14 .00hrs The conditions pertaining right now
are beautifull, blue skies with lots of birds,a deep blue sea, with lots of
bumpy waves,
and plenty of heat and humidity. we enjoyed the
bliss ,as we knew that it would not last long.
Plenty of shit coming down the tracks ......and we
expect that we will have the full effects by midnight.
We had a response from our friends on " Destiny "
who left 2 days before us and are already in Richards Bay, we sent them an email
yesterday
and asked if they could get advice from the locals
about the expected conditions and what we should do ...
The response was interesting, in so far as they
reccomended that we forget the waypoint and go straight for Richards Bay,
take the rough stuff at the start and things will
calm down by midday sunday,
we passed on the info to the other boats and ,
having spent so much time trying to slow down, now, suddenly we were flat out
again
with the engine as well as the sails flying
and heading for our final destination.
Dinner consisted of " Pizza's " an alternative to
the usual grub, and was very tasty. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
21.00 hrs We were still motering with a
light NNW wind,
23.00hrs, The wind has gone West and
building. Trip so far.......................1,249 miles
23.45hrs, The wind was now 60degrees on our port
side from the SSW and honking at 30 / 32 knots , seas just
bumpy.
We had " Wild Tigres " about 3 miles on our
Starboard side ( The green side ) and " Grand Filou " on our port side ( the red
side )
( Terrys simple language )
We have a 2 knot current running north south,
straight into the wind .. feck. Ohhhhhhhhhhh trouble comming
!
Thats all for tonight :-
Signed :- Stephen Hyde ( Skipper
)
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