Day 75 - Leg 5 Day 1 at Sea 'Departure from Cape Town'
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Mon 7 Sep 2015 10:21
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Friday morning we prepared to depart. We have been
debating our next port of call which was initially going to be Ascension Island.
However, the more we looked at it, the more difficult this looked due to the
strictness of the procedures, along with the difficulty of obtaining fuel - a
dinghy ride, a 2 mile taxi ride and all in jerry cans - we would have to do this
multiple times. St Helena is 1,700 miles away, Ascension Island 2,400
miles away and Cape Verdes 4,000 miles away. We decided that we would set
off towards the Cape Verdes, with St Helena as a backup if we need to get more
diesel.
We were still waiting for the sail to be delivered so,
off we trotted to the supermarket to do our final provisioning. As we were
considering a 4,000 mile leg, we needed to increase the amount of meat on board,
and also stock up with plenty of fruit and veg - preferably of the type that
lasts the longest at sea.
On our return from the supermarket, we left the V&A
marina and motored Seaduced over to the Royal Cape Yacht Club where we would
begin the process of clearing out. While the boys were packing away the
provisions, I went to the yacht club to obtain clearance from them that we had
paid all our dues and could proceed to the next stages, Port Authority,
Immigration and Customs. However, Diane from the yacht club advised me not
to go to the Port Authority etc until we had the sail actually on board because,
if we cleared out and were then delayed, we would have to go through the whole
process of clearing back in then clearing out again.
Well, we waited for the sail which had originally been
promised for Thursday afternoon. Friday evening we were told that it would
arrive on Saturday. Saturday afternoon, we received a call saying that
they were still finishing the sail and could they bring it round at first light
on Sunday. We had bought a 200 litre fuel drum to give us an extended
range so, rather than waste time, we purchased 5 jerry cans and spent a couple
of hours wheeling jerry cans between the boat and the fuel dock and are now
carrying an additional 325 litres of fuel on top of the 1,300 litres in the
tanks.
So, we were all ready at 06.30 for the big moment and at
07.00, the sail eventually arrived. Joe from North Sails helped
us to hoist it to check sizes etc, and it all looked pretty good, so we dropped
the new sail and bagged it up then hoisted our original repaired sail for the
journey home.
In the meantime, I went to the yacht club to start the
process of clearing out again. Once I had the paperwork completed (in
quadruplet), we jumped into a taxi to go and get some breakfast, then all
trooped along to the Port Authority, Immigration and Customs to clear out.
We then returned to the boat and were all ready to go - or were we?
The wind had started to gust 25 knots and there were
massive clouds forming over Table Mountain, or where we assumed it was, because
we couldn't see it any more. I went to get some more weather forecasts and
they were very confusing, some saying 50 knots of wind and some 20 knots.
I decided to postpone the trip until the morning, partially due to the uncertain
conditions and partially due to the fact that we would be setting off to sea
late in the afternoon in unpleasant conditions, with a crew who wouldn't have
time to get their sea legs before nightfall.
Monday morning, the weather looked better, if somewhat
blustery so, at 07.00, we slipped our lines and motored out of the harbour -
homeward bound at last.
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