Day 3- Halcyon Days
A shift of wind direction from south west to south east was forecast so it stirred us into action to make a sail change. We messed around for two hours, first taking in the starboard pole and stowing it, then had three pathetic attempts to swing out the one to port. Not rigging the lines correctly it was only on our fourth attempt that we were finally successful. Clearly we are a little rusty and will need to smarten up our act. Now we goose wing but in the light winds of between twelve and fifteen knots we are driven crazy with the banging of the poles and cracking of the sails.
But we persevere until at last an afternoon breeze sprang up and Voyageur settled down, something akin to a leisurely stroll as we settled down to rest and read our books. But the wind refused to budge its position to the south east and we are find we are going in the wrong direction! The thought of taking it all down to change everything over to the other side was just too much for us so we stuck with it and waited. Meanwhile Tzigane jibed back and forth ahead of us and we finally lost sight of them when our course took us on a more northerly route. We just cannot believe how lovely it is out here. Could it be our reward for all the rigours of the Indian Ocean? Since emerging from the fog bank on day one, since then one glorious day has followed another, nights a soft blanket of twinkling stars. Ah, I have fallen in love with ocean sailing all over again!
There are several sea mountains to be avoided on our route northwest. A series of waypoints had to be plotted to avoid them with the result that our course takes on the appearance of a crooked dog's hind leg. The first, off Cape Columbine, north of Cape Town, was marked at 95 metres coming up 1500 metres from the ocean floor. At midday we were opposite Vema, a mount 350nm out from the coast, charted with just 7 metres below the surface, rising from a depth of 4900 metres. Our next detour is to avoid the group, two days away to the north west, Valdivia Bank with a least depth of 23 metres, 28, 115 and 163, all closely grouped together and rising out of depths of over 5000 metres plus. After giving this last a wide berth we can then head directly for our next destination of St. Helena.
Day 4
We ran goose winged all night, the genoa poled out but with one reef in. It seems that we have benefitted from Donald's expertise as Voyageur is well balanced, not rolling so much in the swells and averaging a comfortable eight knots in a fifteen to eighteen knot breeze. Very early this morning a wandering albatross comes to call. This is a most beautiful bird from its 138cm wide wingspan to its magnificent gleaming white under carriage. It swoops and soars around the boat. Just after 8am the log reading was 500nm. Voyageur has gathered up her skirts and is surfing down the waves at a steady ten knots. What's more we have one whole knot of current in our favour. If we can keep this up, if the wind holds, we might make the passage in ten days instead of David's predicted eleven. Tzigane is no longer within VHF range but we hear on the 9am roll call that they are 25nm behind, but for how long..... Suffice to say we are having a lovely time of it out here and long may it continue.....
Susan Mackay