Port Elizabeth to False Bay, South Africa - Day 2
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Fri 9 Nov 2012 11:16
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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
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