Cape Town, South Africa to Luderitz, Namibia - Day 1
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Tue 4 Dec 2012 10:10
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31:34.459S 16:16.349E
December 4, 2012
Whale watching over lunch.
We left Cape Town early yesterday morning (Monday, 12/3) and
motored into light northwesterly wind until about 2:30pm when the wind did what
it was supposed to do, turn south. We've had mostly smooth sailing on a
broad port-side reach ever since.
Just to make things interesting during our long motor through
Table Bay, the whales and seals surrounded us, providing much needed lunchtime
entertainment. Neither ventured very close, but the seals did pop
their heads up on occasion, sometimes near enough to say hello. The whales
were not as friendly as our frolicking Bryde's whale in False Bay,
and were probably not Bryde's whales, but maybe southern rights or
humpbacks. In any case, they did put on a nice show of blows, fin
slaps and tail flips off in the distance on either side of us until we motored
into deeper water (200 m) and the wind shifted. A perfect send-off from
South Africa, we thought.
A chill in the air.
Aside from the chill in the air (63F), a little bit of ship
traffic, and headsail slapping whenever the wind went light, last night was
pleasantly quiet. For us thin-skinned tropic-dwellers, the cold does take
some getting used to though. With the wind blowing into the
cockpit from behind, we had to put up our rarely used 'back door' in an
attempt to keep toasty. The vinyl 'door' encloses the front half of
the cockpit (where we sit), sheltering it from the following wind, but it can do
nothing about the cold creeping in through the hull and floorboards from the
freezing cold Benguela Current. Unlike the Agulhas Current on
Africa's east coast, which runs south from the boiling hot northern Indian
Ocean, the Benguela Current runs north along Africa's west coast, bringing the
frigid waters of the Antarctic with it. Hmmm, this does sound like a lot
of moaning about a little bit of cold, I know, but imagine dropping your entire
house into a giant vat of ice water, then try to feel the damp
cold seeping in through every crack in the floor and up through your
limbs. Yeah, not pleasant, even for you winter-hardened
northerners.
At the moment, however, all is well (if still a bit chilly) as
we sail fast (8 knots) to the north under a sunny sky. Assuming the wind
conditions remain the same (15 to 25 knots from the south), we expect to arrive
in Luderitz, Namibia on Thursday morning.
More tomorrow (Wednesday, 12/5).
Anne
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