POSITION REPORT ON SUNDAY 22 OCTOBER 2017

The Alba Chronicles
Neville Howarth
Sun 22 Oct 2017 05:30

POSITION REPORT ON SUNDAY 22 OCTOBER 2017 AT 0700

 

27:14S  33:19E

 

So far we've done 380 miles with 120  miles to go to Richards Bay. We did 140 miles in the last 24 hours.  We have 100% cloud cover and 10-15 knot SSE winds.  We’re sailing on a beam reach at 5 knots with 1 metre seas and 1 knot of current.  Here's what we did yesterday and overnight.

 

21 October 2017  Mozambique to South Africa (Day 3)

A couple of hours after dawn, the wind died and Glenys turned on the engine.  At 07:00, we were halfway with 250 miles to go. If we average 5.2 knots, then we will arrive at Richards Bay at 07:00 on Monday 23rd.

 

I downloaded two GRIB forecasts – at 1 degree and 2.5 degree resolutions.  Worryingly, the low resolution forecast showed pleasant, light 10 knot ESE winds for the day, whereas the high resolution one showed strong S 20-25 knot winds 50 miles ahead of us.  There was a very defined north-south line between the strong southerlies and the lighter north-easterlies.

 

Des Cason sent me an email saying “If you go west of 34E you will cross a shear line between two systems – the southerly component on the coast and the outer west edge of the high pressure south of Madagascar generating the NE/E conditions.  By 1800UTC, it’s back to SE10.”  We changed from our south-west course and headed south down the 34°50E longitude line.

 

The other worrying change on the weather forecast is that the next strong southerly will now hit Richards Bay at midnight on Monday 23rd instead of the morning of Wednesday 25th.  Our current ETA is 07:00 on Monday, so we now only have a 18 hour safety window to get to Richards Bay – the race is on.

 

I had another flurry of emails about berthing and haul-out  - it’s great having email via our satellite phone.  I contacted Jenny Crickmore-Thompson, who is the Durban representative of the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC).  We’re planning to become members of the OCC when we get to South Africa and, despite us not being members yet, Jenny has taken up the gauntlet and contacted the various people at Durban marina and boatyard. 

 

The admin office at Durban marina contacted us and offered us a berth in their marina from Monday.  Unfortunately, Durban is 80 miles further than Richards Bay and the strong southerly winds are due to get there only three hours before we could make it, which is too tight for me.  Perhaps we’ll spend a week in Richards Bay and then head down to Durban to haul-out and be on the hard when Craig arrives from the UK.

 

We continued motoring south with zero wind until 14:00, when I cracked up and changed course to south-west heading directly for Richards Bay.  The nil wind conditions continued for a couple of hours and then, within the space of 10 minutes, the wind increased to 15 knots from the south.  We put a couple of reefs in the main and sailed hard on port tack heading WSW rather than SW, but at least we were sailing again.

 

The wind was fluky for the next 3 hours, varying in speed and direction.  We had steep 2-3 metre waves from the south, so in the lulls, we were being stopped dead by the waves.  It was frustrating – I had to turn engine on a few times because I didn’t want to keep reefing and un-reefing the sails. 

 

Eventually, by 19:00, the wind settled down to SE 15, so with all the sails out and a single reef in the main, we were able to sail along at 5-6 knots with enough power to get through the waves.  Our route took us along the 1000 metre contour towards Jesser Point and, at 26°31S 34°15E, we had 2.5-3 knots of current with us. 

 

On our radio net at 19:00, everyone gave their positions and our little fleet is spread out over 100 miles. Alba is roughly in the middle, with the faster boats 40 miles ahead of us.  Some of the boats that are ahead of us crossed the 34°E shear line early this morning and had tougher conditions with 20-25 knot south winds all day, so I’m glad we headed south this morning.

 

However, the weather wasn’t going to let us off lightly and a persistent drizzly rain set in.  The wind picked up to 20-25 knots from the SE for a couple of hours putting us on a very bouncy close reach. I had to reef a few times, ending up with 2½ reefs in the main and just the staysail.  Even with that small sail area, we were cracking along at 6.5-7 knots , which combined with the strong current was 9.5-10 knots over the ground.

 

On Glenys’ 10-1 watch, we passed through some kind of localised weather system. The wind backed and died off to 8 knots from the north-east and it rained. Despite changing the sail plan to wing on wing, the wind and sea was so confused that she had to run the engine for an hour before it settled down to SE12-15.  The seas calmed down, so the remainder of the night was pleasant, but very dark with no moon.