Day 8 to SA
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Fri 8 Nov 2019 06:00
|
25:24.737
S 36:32.420 E
Day Eight to Richards Bay,
South Africa
I woke to a sunny morning, Bear had
wound the genoa in and the engine was on, I had slept solidly throughout. The
engine went off after lunch, a sneaky five one win to me at backgammon and we
settled to sail from 14:00 (the engine would stay off for the next seventeen
hours, I gave in at five this morning when my speed dropped to 1.8 knots).
 No explanation required of the skipper.
The plan was to stay along the 36
degree East line as we knew ‘the sloppy’ bit would happen around dusk. Mick
on Zoa, some hundred miles ahead managed to talk on VHF zero eight to
Bear for ages, he gave a clear report of his conditions knowing it was coming
our way. “Expect twenty knots for six to nine hours, sea no big deal”. Great,
good to know what’s what. We knew from Des’s
email that the ‘weather’ would end up stuck in the corner of Maputo Bay and if
things worsened or sea got lumpier than predicted we could run further from the
coast.
We plotted a course
to Zoa and Bonnie’s positions and did some good mileage. 10:00
to 14:00 twenty point two nmiles, 14:00 to 18:00 twenty four point seven, 18:00
to 22:00 twenty one point seven. (Oooooat 14:00 we had clocked through the
thousand to 1008 nmiles.
 Serafina
at 14:27, love the pictures of boats when their hull has
‘disappeared’.
   The sea was
friendly enough with the odd little tuft.
 With the sea wiggling us a bit more it
was time for me add an extension.
 18:50, sun
setting.
The weather came in at nineteen
hundred (of course on my evening shift......... a solitary gust to twenty three
knots but an steady nineteen to twenty one. Bear pulled the genoa in a bit, we
stopped leaning so hard and all was well. Speed variable. I only managed
nineteen miles overnight as the wind dropped to six knots. Awaiting email from
Des giving the all clear to head directly (dreckly – yeeha) to Richards
Bay.
The boats that had ducked into
Bazaruto are leaving tomorrow morning. 135.1 nmiles in the last twenty-four
hours.
ALL IN ALL VERY WELL
ABOARD
HAPPY
CREW |