Passage Summary and Pictures - Richard's Bay to Simon's Town, South Africa
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Mon 3 Dec 2012 03:14
34:11.480S 18:25.970E November 2, 2012 - November 10, 2012 Sorry for the delay. The blog has suffered while we've been wrapped up in boat jobs, sightseeing, wine tasting, visiting an old friend, and sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Town. We are now berthed at the Royal Cape Yacht Club in Cape Town, where we've just emerged from one of Cape Town's famous southeast blows. Unlike Richard's Bay's southwest busters, which blow hard for only 12 to 24 hours, Cape Town's southeasters roar for days. It started Wednesday afternoon (11/28) and didn't finish until early Saturday morning (12/1). The wind howled consistently in the upper 20's with gusts every few seconds into the 30's and 40's. The highest we saw was 54 knots. That's a lot of wind. Between the howling wind and a nearly constant heel to port, we felt like we were at sea. Every time we made it to solid ground after trying hard not to be whisked off the dock by a blast of wind, we spent at least a few minutes swaying - swaying inside our heads, anyway, until our brains caught up with the fact that we were standing on firm ground. The swaying phenomenon doesn't often happen to us salty folk, but then we've never experienced a Cape Town southeasterly blow before. The good news is the docks here are built to withstand the punishment, so we didn't worry about disintegrating dock fingers or shifting main docks. The roar of the wind and heel of the boat were distracting to say the least, but we decided being tied to a solid dock and feeling distracted was much better than being wind-battered and feeling exhausted at sea in the same conditions. Wait - I'm wandering off-topic here, sorry about that. A little later there will be more on our adventures in Simon's Town and Cape Town. For now the topic at hand is our two-part passage from Richard's Bay to Simon's Town... The long dreaded sail around South Africa's notorious Wild Coast is done, and aside from the three to five knot assistance from the Agulhas Current and surfing down a few unforgettably large waves, it wasn't all that wild - which, of course, is a good thing. While some may think we are wild adventure seekers, the truth is we like our adventure to come in smaller, tamer, packages. Like sailing with a giant pod of dolphins, for instance. Or serenely sailing alongside a frolicking Bryde's whale. Or sipping tea without chance of it spilling after rounding Cape Agulhas. That sort of thing. Sailing the Indian Ocean and around South Africa's coast has been the most challenging sailing we've done, but thankfully not as challenging as many others have experienced. With the southern tip of Africa behind us, we are looking forward to heading north and re-entering the tropics where the almost always kind trade winds should be waiting to push us back to the Caribbean. Richard's Bay to Port Elizabeth and Port Elizabeth to Simon's Town tracks. Our tracks are never straight (unless we are motoring), but we didn't do too badly. Along the southern coast you can see where we jibed (changed direction) a few times to keep the wind a little further forward while it did its best to blow from directly behind (we were too lazy at that point to put up the downwind rig, knowing it wouldn't be needed for long). Passage Statistics: Total nautical miles traveled - 890 Total time - 5 days, 11 hours (Richard's Bay to Port Elizabeth: 66 hours; and Port Elizabeth to Simon's Town: 65 hours) Total time sailing - 2 days, 13 hours (47%) Measuring the time sailed vs. distance sailed is a bit unfair as the distance we covered while sailing was closer to 50%. Total time motoring and motorsailing - 2 days, 22 hours (53%) Unfortunately, hitting the right weather window in which to travel around the coast of South Africa usually means a fair bit of motoring before or after the good wind (NE or E) appears. Average speed - 6.8 knots (7.8 mph) We picked up the Agulhas Current at 2 knots when passing Durban. Over the next 31 hours, the current increased to 3 and 4 knots, and briefly hit 5 near East London. We exited the Agulhas Current when we turned for Port Elizabeth, and shortly thereafter experienced a 0.5 to 1.5 counter-current nearly all the way to PE. Degrees of latitude traveled - 5.5 to the south (away from the equator) Degrees of longitude traveled - 13.5 to the west Highest wind - 30 knots (35 mph) with gusts to 35 on several occasions, but the high wind was always behind us so we barely noticed it until we surfed down a couple of monster waves in the strongest part of the Agulhas Current (and hit our new speed record - if only for a few seconds - of 15.4 knots SOG). Highest cabin temperature - 82F (afternoon of day 2 after leaving Richard's Bay) Number of near-calamities - none. We love a boring passage. Ok, ok, it didn't quite fall into the boring category, what with big current, wave surfing, fog, oil platforms, dolphins, fishing boats, ship traffic and a whale, but there were no calamities or near-calamities either. A very good thing. Number of major milestones achieved - one. We are thrilled to have Cape Agulhas and the Indian Ocean behind us. Number of relatively rare Bryde's whales pretending to be over-large frolicking dolphins welcoming us to False Bay - one. Fantastic. Number of giant dolphin pods escorting us toward Cape Agulhas - one. We can never get enough of the dolphins. Some day we'd truly like to have a conversation with one - they always seem so eager to talk. Number of evenings actual cooking took place - one. Highly unusual! After rounding Cape Agulhas we had such perfect sailing conditions a pot of water was boiled and pasta cooked. It's very difficult to get good pictures of dolphins, but here's one of the many in our pod escort. And a few others just under the surface alongside Harmonie. Rounding Cape Agulhas. Doesn't look like much, does it? Hard to get excited about a small lump of gray in the distance... Aha, now that's better. This photo was also taken as we rounded Cape Agulhas. Watching our position on the chart was much more exciting than trying to see the real thing in the distance from the cockpit. Proof that real cooking did in fact take place after returning to the Atlantic. Birthday and cape-rounding celebration our first night at the False Bay Yacht Club in Simon's Town. We apologize for the lack of whale photos. When it happened, neither one of us was willing to leave the cockpit for the few seconds it would have taken to grab the camera. Over the course of our travels, we've found that although the best things sometimes go undocumented, we never forget them. Sorry for not attempting to share the whale! Next up: Simon's Town and around. Anne
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