Sunday  January 20^th,  2014

South Atlantic Ocean, a very long way  off Namibia,  19 02.0S 02 282.3E 

Today's Blog by David (Time zone UTC +1.0)

1              The range of VHF propagation is governed by the power of the broadcast and the height of the two  aerials: these need to be in  ‘line of sight’.  Typically marine VHF between vessels works up to about 15 – 20 miles; shore to ship communications (as south coast sailors,  fed up to the back teeth with listening to Joburg Traffic broadcasts from the Cherbourg peninsular - some 65 miles away at its closest, will attest) can get to 100 miles or more.

So it has been to our total amazement that we have listened to VHF traffic  from Cape Town when we were  1,100 miles distant, and received AIS signals from shipping sailing down the coast of Namibia when we were  600-700 miles offshore.   There are such things as “repeaters” which rebroadcast signals but they tend to be land based – or attached to oil rigs etc – but there ain’t any of those anywhere around here. Hmmmm.

2              Rudi, now assigned the rank of ‘Cabin Boy’ ( Occasionally we do call him ‘Roger’ by mistake. Ed. ) is a keen sailor but also a keen fisherman. So we have had a line trailing along behind us pretty much since we left Cape Town encouraged by the enthusiasm  of the proprietor of that fishing tackle shop in  Cape Town. Rudi has doggedly stayed with it, making up new lures and changing them over three or four times a day.  Frustration beginning to get the better of him we now have a second line off the starboard quarter with a smaller lure – the idea being that it might act as some kind of tantalising Amuse Bouche to an unsuspecting Dorado which, appetite whetted, will lock onto the main chance trailing a bit further behind from the rod on the port quarter!   

Seasoned readers will not be surprised to learn that the results of our fishing efforts after the first 1350 miles from Cape Town are:

Bites: 4      Lures Lost: 1    Fish Hooked: 1    Fish Landed (or should I say Boated): Nil.

Presumably because we are travelling so fast…?

Anyway, for shear perseverance alone the Promotions Board is considering an proposal that Rudi should be appointed to the rank of Seaman ( and all that entails) .

3              Progress to St Helena has been good – not fantastic but we have been logging an average of 175 miles a day. At that rate we will get there  Tuesday evening, so we have the Frog up again now to try to bring that forward to a daylight arrival.  It’s all a bit marginal (as to 1: whether it will be successful and  2: whether the kite will stay in one piece) but it makes us feel like we are “Doing Something” .

Errrr… That’s it Folks