The westerly had just abated and we left Durban harbour at 22:00 on the night of Thursday 21/11. Heaven forbid we leave on a Friday, every mariner knows what bad luck that brings! We started off in little to no wind, but by 10:00 the next morning the north-easter had arrived. When the breeze passed the 18 knot threshold, we dropped Günter (our new light spinnaker) and put up our trusted heavy black kite.
At around midday the breeze had increased significantly to around 28 knots, and that's when we got the spinnaker wrapped on the forestay. We tried everything to get it down, but after about 20 minutes, the top of the spinnaker gave in and tore down to the middle - tightening the wrap on the forestay in the process. The wind was now so strong and the wrap so tight, that the only way to get the remaining spinnaker off the forestay was to cut it free. It was a heartbreaking call to make, but it had to be done.
After that we hoisted our little red storm spinnaker, but when the wind touched 30 knots we decided that discretion was the betternpart of valour. We dropped the spinnaker and polled out the storm jib in stead.
We saw through the night with a reefed mainsail and the storm jib poled out. Nice and comfortable. At 2 am our sleigh-ride ended with the north easter disappearing. Some time after 20:00 that night we lost our speed and depth instruments to water damage, but the last top speed that we saw was 16.2 knots over water. The water damage also took out our GPS, so we were resorting to three-point fixes, dipping light-houses and other non-electronic methods of fixing our position.
At 10:00 the next morning (Saturday 23/11) we managed to bypass the broken instruments in the SeaTalk system, and get our GPS working again, thanks to our resident electrical engineer - Oom Andries. We were past East London at this stage and had made excellent time.
Halfway between East London and Port Alfred the south-wester returned, at about 20 knots on the nose. The sailing was uncomfortable and wet for the 12 hours it lasted, until it died off completely near Bird Island lighthouse. It was a long motor across Algoa (Nelson Mandela) Bay, and we stopped in at Port Elizabeth at 09:00.
The purpose of the stop was twofold: the rudder bearings had a bit of movement in them to be inspected, and we had to make a crew exchange. Wentzel had to fly home for a family commitment, and a friend from Wits, Jay Caboz, was to get his first taste of ocean sailing. Jay is a journalist with Forbes Africa magazine, and very talented photographer.
We had some other friends meet us in PE too, but not for the sail. Ronnie Baer arranged us a mooring for the day, and carted people around to airports, shops and petrol stations. Dad's cousin Christine Schoeman brought us some essential stocks (rusks, brownies and a phone charger), and her husband Oom Louis brought along some tools to help us disassemble the rudder bearing.
By lunch time, we were ready again, and the easterly wind had arrived. Jay had his baptism of fire beating up past Cape Recife, but as soon as we turned the corner life just got much better. We had about 25-30 knots behind us and building, and the storm jib poled out with 2 reefs in the main.
What a night that was. We headed out downwind on port-tack, and put a gybe in close to midnight. By the time the morning rolled around we had almost reached Knysna! In two shifts during the night (3 hours each) we covered almost 90 nautical miles. Our maximum apparent wind was 42 knots, so we're guessing that the true wind speed crossed the 50 mark at a stage.
The breeze had dropped off by morning. Which left us a bit of light wind beating to Mossel Bay.
There's still more to come...
Brennan
At around midday the breeze had increased significantly to around 28 knots, and that's when we got the spinnaker wrapped on the forestay. We tried everything to get it down, but after about 20 minutes, the top of the spinnaker gave in and tore down to the middle - tightening the wrap on the forestay in the process. The wind was now so strong and the wrap so tight, that the only way to get the remaining spinnaker off the forestay was to cut it free. It was a heartbreaking call to make, but it had to be done.
After that we hoisted our little red storm spinnaker, but when the wind touched 30 knots we decided that discretion was the betternpart of valour. We dropped the spinnaker and polled out the storm jib in stead.
We saw through the night with a reefed mainsail and the storm jib poled out. Nice and comfortable. At 2 am our sleigh-ride ended with the north easter disappearing. Some time after 20:00 that night we lost our speed and depth instruments to water damage, but the last top speed that we saw was 16.2 knots over water. The water damage also took out our GPS, so we were resorting to three-point fixes, dipping light-houses and other non-electronic methods of fixing our position.
At 10:00 the next morning (Saturday 23/11) we managed to bypass the broken instruments in the SeaTalk system, and get our GPS working again, thanks to our resident electrical engineer - Oom Andries. We were past East London at this stage and had made excellent time.
Halfway between East London and Port Alfred the south-wester returned, at about 20 knots on the nose. The sailing was uncomfortable and wet for the 12 hours it lasted, until it died off completely near Bird Island lighthouse. It was a long motor across Algoa (Nelson Mandela) Bay, and we stopped in at Port Elizabeth at 09:00.
The purpose of the stop was twofold: the rudder bearings had a bit of movement in them to be inspected, and we had to make a crew exchange. Wentzel had to fly home for a family commitment, and a friend from Wits, Jay Caboz, was to get his first taste of ocean sailing. Jay is a journalist with Forbes Africa magazine, and very talented photographer.
We had some other friends meet us in PE too, but not for the sail. Ronnie Baer arranged us a mooring for the day, and carted people around to airports, shops and petrol stations. Dad's cousin Christine Schoeman brought us some essential stocks (rusks, brownies and a phone charger), and her husband Oom Louis brought along some tools to help us disassemble the rudder bearing.
By lunch time, we were ready again, and the easterly wind had arrived. Jay had his baptism of fire beating up past Cape Recife, but as soon as we turned the corner life just got much better. We had about 25-30 knots behind us and building, and the storm jib poled out with 2 reefs in the main.
What a night that was. We headed out downwind on port-tack, and put a gybe in close to midnight. By the time the morning rolled around we had almost reached Knysna! In two shifts during the night (3 hours each) we covered almost 90 nautical miles. Our maximum apparent wind was 42 knots, so we're guessing that the true wind speed crossed the 50 mark at a stage.
The breeze had dropped off by morning. Which left us a bit of light wind beating to Mossel Bay.
There's still more to come...
Brennan
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