Port Elizabeth to False Bay, South Africa - Day 2

Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Fri 9 Nov 2012 11:16
34:51.068S  20:30.663E
 
November 9, 2012
 
25 miles to Cape Agulhas!
Rounding the southern tip of Africa is right up there with crossing the equator, rounding Australia's Cape York, crossing the International Date Line, transiting the Panama Canal, and crossing the Pacific and Indian Oceans - all big milestones for circumnavigating sailors.  One would think rounding the rugged waters of Africa's Cape Agulhas would involve huge seas and crashing waves.  Many times it does - but - not today.  In fact, Don woke me up early this morning so I wouldn't miss the huge pod of dolphins circling the boat as we motored through a calm sea under a clear, blue sky.  Doesn't sound like a dramatic cape-rounding, sailing kind of day, now does it?  That's ok.  Like crossing the equator or the date line, rounding Cape Agulhas is more a mental exercise than physical.  We are a fair distance off-shore, so it's unlikely we'll even be able to see the cape, so instead we'll just visualize it and make do by taking a photo of the GPS showing our latitude and longitude position just south of the pointy end.  This way, if anyone questions our cape-rounding claim, we'll have proof.  Really, the whole milestone thing just helps us feel like we've accomplished something important, which I suppose we have.  However, the real reason we keep track of milestones is to provide justification for the celebration that comes afterwards.  Otherwise, it might be considered impolite to be caught out celebrating for no good reason.
 
About the dolphins.
Don went forward to adjust the main boom vang this morning, and caught a flash of something big, white and gray darting through the water toward the bow.  It took a moment for him to realize it was a dolphin and not some piece of flotsam fallen off one of the many ships that ply these waters.  Then, upon closer inspection of the surrounding waters, what initially looked like white caps, turned out to be the remnants of countless dolphin splashes.  We've never seen anything like it.  A wide band of them stretched far out to either side of us, seemingly sent by some higher Neptune-related power to escort us to the cape.  They stayed with us for over an hour, during which time we could hear their high-pitched dolphin talk.  Unfortunately, we couldn't quite make out what they were saying.  Maybe, just maybe, they were conveying congratulations to us for our momentous cape-rounding.  If so, it would seem we have even more justification for our planned celebration.
 
And the sailing.
Oh yeah, the sailing.  It's been good.  Downright splendid at times.  We sailed nicely all day yesterday in 15-20 knots of chilly northeast wind.  Things started to pick up around 4pm, and we got a few promised gusts to 30 knots until 5 this morning when the wind fast disappeared, as was forecast.  Given that the sailing was an easy downwind jaunt, we spent most of our time dodging ships as we passed north of a big (we think it was big, although we couldn't see it in the starless, moonless pitch black of last night) oil platform.  The tip of Africa is an obstacle all sea vessels must clear, so ship traffic has been heavy.
 
Aside from the droning engine, all is quiet now as we glide ever closer to the cape.  We expect to reach it later this afternoon, then will probably motor through the night in light wind to False Bay (just south of the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Town) where we should arrive at the yacht club in the morning (Saturday, 11/10).
 
We'll update the blog tomorrow after our arrival in False Bay.
Anne