Author: Saumure

Day 40 About 6:30 am a tropical bird landed in our cockpit with a resounding crash followed by an indignant squawk. It looked quite out of sorts sitting in a ball of feathers on the bottom of the cockpit and so I picked it up and moved it to the more comfortable leeward bench. It… Read more

After a certain amount of time at sea, you run out of things to talk about and lapse into hours, if not days of silence. For us that amount of time was 30 days. 30 days with almost no input from beyond our 9 foot by 30 foot expanse of wood and fibreglass in a… Read more

Day 18. A feathered friend and St Peter and St Paul: We passed close by st peter and St Paul rocks which is a very small island right on the equator.  It’s owned by Brazil, who keeps 5 people there in order to maintain a claim on them and the surrounding waters. The island was… Read more

I thought I’d start this entry off with a short explanation as to our route plan and why we decided to skip Ascension and Bermuda, putting the length of this leg up from around 3700 nm to over 5300nm. The number one factor is money. After 9 months of cruising the coffers are running critically… Read more

Saint Helena is a small island of about 4000 people, until 2018 it could only be reached by 5 day voyage by boat from South Africa. The island has a long history with the British east India company dating back to the 17th century. Our first view of Saint Helena Jamestown is a small town… Read more

In our rented 2wd VW Polo heading for Kolmanskop Callum in front of our 2wd polo enroute to Kolmanskop  Kolmanskop  Callum on the hill above kolmanskop  Callum next a railcar  Callum in a sand filled building Cianan in a sand filled doorway   A very fancy staircase  It’s important to stay clean in the desert Hiking… Read more

It takes about 2 hours to walk the whole way around Luderitz, but we still managed to spend two days exploring the town. The main road in town is paved with the larger offshoots being made of brick. Everything else is hard packed sand. As we were soon to discover this sand could be quite… Read more

We stayed at the False Bay Yacht Club in Simon’s town. Positioned under the Lee of South Africa’s naval fleet and right in the historic Port of Simon’s town.  Simonstown The dock was rickety and there was only a couple inches to spare between us and the boat beside us, which made for a challenging… Read more

  Sailing the Cape of Storms Tuesday February 13 We left Richards Bay well stocked with food including three enormous strips of biltong each one two feet long. They are well vacuumed wrapped so hopefully they won’t spoil. We have the open biltong hanging in the sail locker where it is relatively dry and has air… Read more

Tuesday January 30th We spent most of the day at the Tuzi Gazi Quay, chatting to the locals that came down to see the boat while we waited for high tide at 6 o’clock that evening. When high tide finally came we cast off and motored around Naval island to the Zululand yacht club. Wednesday… Read more

Our first encounter with an elephant Cheetah Lions enjoying the view Sunset over Imfolozi a grumpy elephant we encountered on our way back to camp Rhinos 50 knot headwinds approaching the cape of storms Moments before the cameraman came to regret his decisions Large flocks of birds at breakfast Read more

Monday Jan 22 Around 4pm we saw something on the horizon that we couldn’t quite make out. It was a massive, somewhat shapeless form, not unlike an Island. As we drew closer and it appeared on AIS we saw it was the container ship Marit Maersk. At 1,300 feet or almost half a kilometer, It… Read more

Glorious sailing in the Indian Ocean before the cyclones Cianan before getting a haircut from his brother What happens when you let your brother be your hair stylist! Heading into cyclone waters An ominous front. It hit us hard as we were taking in a reef 5 minutes later Callum trying to stay out of… Read more

January 12The last two days have been pretty much idyllic sailing with enough wind to maintain 4 knots on a beam reach and a relatively flat ocean. We have now entered the area affected by what at the moment is a tropical depression but is still forecast to become a category 1 cyclone by the… Read more