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 moving around it to keep it from going moldy. It’ll be nice to have the dried meat to snack on and add to our meals instead of canned meats.
We were also able to get a new bilge pump in Richards Bay. It isn’t the highest quality but at least it gives us a back up pump.
Like all our dealings with African bureaucracy, leaving the harbour was not a simple matter.
In every other country we have visited, we have been free to enter and exit the harbour at will, so long as we are staying in the country. Not so in South Africa.
As it turned out, it was a two day process involving four separate government offices scattered around the city and a great deal of paperwork and rubber stamps.
Finally, with a great wad of official papers in hand we headed south. It was a bit of a challenge getting through all the anchored ships just outside the harbour. Richards Bay is one of the busiest shipping ports in South Africa
Our plan is to stay within a few hundred miles of the coast to make the most of the strong Agulhas current. The Agulhas current runs in a fairly tight band 30-50 nm offshore until we get to East London, then it diverges offshore more. When the current reaches Knysna it heads off south to the south. We aim to follow the current for as long as we can, till around Knysna.
Thursday February 15
We just put up our storm jib.
The first two days of sailing were fast and easy with the Agulhas current pushing us along at a pleasant 4 knots. Then the barometer started to fall… and fall…and fall…
The wind has shifted around to the south. Wind against current makes for very steep, closely spaced waves. This makes for a pretty rough passage as we pound through the waves.
Pounding through the waves
We can see the lights of Durban as we are sailing past it and they are quite bright in the night sky.
Friday February 16
We now have two reefs in the main and storm jib and the boat is still hardover on its side. The waves are very large and the wind is blowing 30+ kts from the south west. It doesn’t make for the most comfortable ride.
The winds have picked up to gale force headwinds, with gusts exceeding 50 knots. The constant water coming over the deck has found its way inside through every crack and seal, dripping from the ceiling and running down the walls in streams.
50kts on the nose with 30′ foot waves
We are in a busy shipping channel seeing about four freighters an hour. These ships rarely alter course, even by a few degrees to stay clear of us, despite the fact that bearing away or manoeuvring in these conditions involved a fair degree of risk for us. Turning broadside to a breaking wave of even 10 feet presents a risk of being rolled, never mind the 30 foot waves that we were in now caused by the wind and current being opposed.
Saturday February 17
A large breaking wave filled our cockpit to the combings and flooded down our companionway, leaving 4 inches of water over the cabin floor, into which all our remaining dryish clothing and our bedding promptly fell on the floor, where it sat, quietly sloshing back and forth in the filthy water.
Another challenge of these waves is they would quite often hide large ships entirely from view until they are almost on us.
Usually this isn’t a problem as they have AIS but around 4 am Cianan had just come on deck after being below for a minute to get a snack, when a 950 foot tanker appeared to leeward about 300 feet away. . Our AIS never picked them up, and by the time we spotted them they were almost on us. We just had time to start the motor and gybe the boat around. Less than 2 minutes later the tankers dark shape passed over the spot where we would have been, blotting out the moon. Had Cianan gone up on deck a minute or two later, things would not have gone so well…
We are tacking into the headwind at the moment which is fairly exciting. At about half past twelve last night the auto pilot pushing arm jammed. Cianan had to hang off the back of the boat while taking it apart to fix it. It was quite the challenge climbing out on the frame at the rear of the boat while getting buffeted around by waves and trying to unbolt the sheave with wind gusts of 40-50 kts!It made for quite an exciting night. We both took a fairly good battering and are feeling pretty bruised today.
Sunday February 18
It is now dead calm this morning which is a nice change after the last few days!
It does present a new challenge as we are just bobbing around in circles in this very busy shipping channel hoping none of these huge freighters get too close. We’ve had to start the engine a few times to get out of their way. The winds are supposed to build again tonight.
Monday February 19
We seem to be in the wind again. Unfortunately it is right on our nose again. We have double reefed the main and have the storm jib up and are taking a fair pounding again. I keep thinking of a quote from one of the Volvo Ocean racers when asked what it was like at sea to which he responded “its relentless’.. That about sums up this past week. I guess it is called the Cape of Storms for a good reason.
Another day heeled hardover
It went down to 10 C last night! We haven’t felt temperatures like that since the Tasman sea.
We just had to do a hard tack to get out of the way of a freighter and now everything that was loose, and a few things that weren’t, are now sloshing around on the floor in two inches of water.
We broke one of the vanes on our self steering over the past few days in all these storms. Another one broke off completely and went over the side so we are down to our last one. We should be able to fix the broken one so at least we will have one spare.
It has been too rough to cook in all this stormy weather so we have been pretty much living on biltong and fresh fruit. Grapefruits seem to last really well at sea as does the biltong hanging in our sail / meat locker.
Tuesday February 20
Over the past 12 hours the barometer has risen by almost 20 millibars! The winds have calmed down but we still have pretty large waves
Breakfast flock. Swarmed by boobies
Wednesday February 21
We can see the light house on the Cape of Good Hope.
Thursday February 22
The sun rose to reveal the striking rocky cliffs above the historic port of Simonstown this morning.
First view of false Bay
Cianan coming in next to the cape of Good Hope
We will spend the next week in Simonstown. resting, exploring and doing some repairs after that rather rough passage, before making our way around to Cape town.
The Cape of Storms lived up to its reputation, but our boat proved itself extremely capable in these adverse conditions.