The heavy weather eased and the crashing stopped as the wind went back round to North East. The low scootered off eastward eventually leaving us with a good wind but an ugly 2.5 knots of current against us so instead of the good old 6-6½ knots that Gryphon II was giving us we were only covering 3½-4 knots over the ground. This would not get us to Richards Bay in daylight which we really want, also we would like to cross the Agulhas current in daylight so we resorted to the engine and motor-sailed for much of the night. We are both so tired that we slept through it all on our off-watches. These counter currents have been a thorn in the side, they have plagued us all the way across and knocked us back by a day.

We had no damage in the blow and nothing was lost overboard so all good. There is going to be a lot of work once we've slept it off. Like the rest of the boat, the cockpit was continually awash and flooded 3 times so its sticky with thick salt, anything we have to touch has been washed down but that's all we can do at the moment. The inside of the bimini canvas, 2 metres above the cockpit is rimed with white salt rings; the ropes are sodden and salty and when the sails dry they will be crisp with it. Annoyingly, because we have to be in and out of the cockpit, plenty of salt has been trodden inside, keep wiping it up but it can get a bit slippery.

The grib files are forecasting 15 knots of NNE wind and we have 51 miles to go, we are unlikely to get in during daylight hours, it gets dark here at 18-18:30. We've got all the canvass out and are going as close to the wind as possible to get all we can out of it.

Three hours later

We're going through some 'what the h... is going on' moments in this 18 knot forecast area because the barometer has dropped and the wind has increased rapidly, we've peaked at 42 knots but mostly getting 33-35 knots. New gribs have been downloaded, not without difficulty having to hold up the Sat phone to get a signal and balance a laptop to take the info. Madly these new gribs are little different to last night's and are forecasting just 20 knots of wind. We're going through all this again but now on starboard tack, well its only fair I guess but so much for rinsing off the salty cockpit instruments! We've been bashing along with a boat speed of 8-9 knots which would get us in the bay in about 4 hours but, of course, we have the counter current. Still we could make it in daylight but frankly we're wondering what it will be like in the Agulhas current. The winds are not from the south so thankfully this blow is not the next low that was forecast for Friday coming in early. Unpleasant as it is, we are comforting ourselves that the wind is from NNE.

This is crazy, the area we are in now is forecast for 15 knots but the wind is registering at 39-42+ knots, it is like sailing through a waterfall punctuated with thuds and crashes. The counter current has moved across us so our boat speed and speed over the ground have evened out at 7-8 knots. Unfortunately we are being pushed south but are sailing as close to the wind as we dare so there is nothing we can do about that. The Agulhas current, which is a bit of a movable feast, should start in about 8 miles from here and according to Peri Peri Net yesterday is about 10 – 15 miles wide. The theory is that there shouldn't be much difference to present state as the wind will be going with the current; that's over an hour away, we can only hope for the best.

To ease the tension, well the little recreational VHF radio was switched on and to our surprise we got some nice African music, no dancing of course but we could jig at least one arm around. A one armed juggling trick with a tomato prior to cheese and tomato sandwiches was quite fun and writing this blog is quite a good distraction.

14:30 We can see South Africa! Low, dark hills on the horizon.

15:00

Difficult to believe, the wind dropped rapidly within a matter of ¼ of a mile of seeing 27 knots on the clock. Lo and behold it is has gone round more to the north and has subsided to 8 knots! Bizarre but wonderful, the smiles are wide. We're now in the Agulhas but suffice to say that we have had so much current anyway that with this breeze it feels much the same. We are being pushed south but once we come out of it around the 200 metre contour line we should be okay.

16:30

We are through and now in 68 metres and the water has flattened out. We should be in the harbour in a little over an hour, its very grey ahead.

17:10

Ha, another twist on us, perhaps just to add a bit more flavour to the ending of our voyage we are currently thrashing through rough sea toward Richards Bay in a thunder storm with a pair of hump backed whales putting on a great show of acrobatics, breaching and tail slapping as they pass us by. Fantastic, what next?

The last 3 days have been hard, today in particular because despite all best efforts to get weather information, it finally took us by surprise. It must be said after all this that Gryphon II has performed brilliantly, we're impressed with our boat and very thankful that Neptune himself didn't appear.

We tied to the quarantine dock at 17.30 tired but happy to be in Africa!