Arrived... Finally!
W2N 'Where to Next?'
Rob 'Bee' Clark
Mon 30 Mar 2009 16:35
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26:38.4S 15:09.4E
...And in just a mere two and a half
weeks!
Yep, I've finally picked up a mooring in the town
of Luderitz in Namibia.
I've not been ashore yet so there's not much I can
tell you other than from what I've seen from the inshore approach and that just
looked like mile upon mile of endless desert (or is it dessert, I'm never too
sure!?) The town looks quite civilised from here though and as soon as I'm happy
that Canasta's secure on her mooring, I'm going to go find me a nice
cafe and congratulate myself for surviving that unmitigated purgatory with an
enormous dinner of fresh stuff!
Then... bed!
The mobile phone is back on for the first time
since Gambia so the chances of there being a decent internet cafe or even WiFi
looks quite promising. If there is, I've got so many photos to upload to the
blog and I'll try if can to write up a long overdue newsletter. If not here,
then certainly in Cape Town which is now just 400Nm or so south from here.
That'll be the real landmark in this project but those of you who
understand the currents and winds of the South Atlantic won't blame me
for regarding that last leg from St Helena as a huge challenge that I'm happy to
say is now well and truly behind me.
Right, numbers...
Rhum line distance from St Helena to Luderitz -
1300Nm
Distance logged - 2208Nm
Time taken - 17 days, 23 hours
Best 24hr run - 150Nm (28/03)
Average speed - 5.12knots
Total miles covered so far - 9241Nm
Well, it wasn't all bad anyway. In fact,
notwithstanding the fact that it was always going to be an arduous beat into the
wind, waves and current, there were in fact quite a few days when everything
slotted in nicely - plugged in (as Tony would say!) There were of course a few
days of unpleasantness but only a couple of real frighteners and they were both
as a result of my own carelessness and fatigue. They were both within the last
three days and the first, having seen absolutely nothing for two weeks, was a
fishing boat trawling across my bow while I had my head buried in Alexandre
Dumas' The Man in the Iron Mask. Yep, my fault entirely - just
complaicency really. Luckily, I heard his engines and was able to leap to the
helm and swing her round just in time but the thought that I could so easily
have been listening to music (as is so often the case) or below decks really
shook me up. It's just typical though don't you think? You see nothing for weeks
and then when you do see civilisation, in the middle of an ocean, you narrowly
avoid ramming it! The second scare was this morning having slept for five hours
through a 20 minute watch alarm and waking up just 12Nm from the Skeleton
Coast. Actually it worked out perfectly but I've made a note buy myself a
much louder, much more persistent alarm clock than the egg-timer I've been
using.
Canasta took a bit of a battering I'm
afraid. She coped well considering she's just sailed further and harder than
most cruising yachts do in two or three seasons but I'll be glad to get her out
of the water in Cape Town to lavish her with some loving attention. You could
say that the last 9241Nm were the Shakedown sail. It's true too that
I've not seen a ship's chandlery since... um... since Cascais in Portugal (and
that wasn't really very well stocked). As a result, I've been adding daily to my
list of things to repair or replace. It's nothing serious although I've got to
take a good look at the whole battery, power consumption, charging, storing
thing as soon as possible 'cos it's been causing me a few (read - a lot)
problems. Oh, and the diesel that's still in the tank from Gambia has turned
into soup! Oh, and the main GPS is down... and the water's contaminated... and
the external Sat Phone antenna isn't working... and the genoa is in shreds
(actually it looks worse than it is but it needs patching up!)... and my nav
lights have failed... again... and a dozen other niggling problems. That said,
discovering that Canasta will balance the helm for days without
interference and with very little fiddling eclipses all the problems I've listed
and passifies any ill feeling I may have about the attrition. Really, honestly,
I barely used the autopilot at all and I'm sure that there aren't many yachts,
certainly sloops, that can claim to be as perfectly balanced in anything above
about 12knots of wind. Below that, she became awkward but in the rough stuff, in
the 35knot squalls, she kept a straight and true course about 40 degrees off of
the wind. Beautiful!
Okay, so I'm going to get ready to go ashore now
and will give you an update when I've had a chance to take a look around. Oh, I
can tell you that since the sun rose this morning, I've been sailing with seals
- hundred of them - even in the anchorage! That was a surprise. Right, more
later then...
Bee
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