Cape of Storms
Journeys of Aardvarc
Ed
Mon 24 Nov 2008 16:17
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position 33:54.4S 18:25.2E
The Cape of Good Hope is not known as the Cape of
Storms for nothing.
Certainly we encountered the worst weather
conditions yet on the way from Durban round to Cape Town.
The journey was about 800 miles and took us exactly
4 days, an average of 200 miles a day or over 8 knots!
One days run we did just under 250 miles, a new
record but we were being helped greatly by a 3-4 knot Agulhas current in our
favour.
On the way we saw a white structure behind us and
thought it was a capsized dinghy. We turned round and went back over a mile to
check it out and discovered that what we had been seeing was the tail of a
whale. Sadly we did not get a very good picture as it dived as we
approached.
The weather forecast had been iffy for a while but
there seemed no choice but to bite the bullet.
Most of the time we had 25-35 knot winds but as we
approached the Cape it all changed. The wind accelerated down off the mountains
at speeds up to 60 knots or so. The anemometer could not cope and was off the
scale. Fortunately we had some shelter from the headlands and this diminished
the size of the waves.
As you can see we managed a hearty breakfast in
spite of it all and kept up our sense of humour.
When we arrived in Cape Town the newspaper headline
told it all!
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