Saturday, 30th October 2010 (Bank holiday weekend at home) DAY 1 at Sea. LEG 19 of the World rally.
Distance to Richards Bay, South Africa........................................................1,365 n miles
Our estimated time to do the trip ................................................................8 days 3hrs
06.00hrs All hands on deck as we leave today. We washed down the decks again and had a light breakfast and then set up all the sheets and guys for the "Bag of Fear" if required.
09.00hrs Rally control morning radio broadcast. It became a fact that the two U.S. Sundeer 60's are going to stay for another few days.
10.15hrs Our neighbors Chessy let go her lines and now we were free to leave the dock. We already had the engine warming up, so at 10.20hrs we reversed out of our space, turned around and headed out to the starting area. There was a stiff breeze blowing from the north, over 20knots. Now that is totally at odds to the weather forecast, which predicted light winds for the first 3 days.
11.00hrs THE START of leg 19. We first headed south to a yellow mark just about 1/4 mile away, and only for Eowyn's message on the radio, all boats would have missed the mark. Once around the mark we set a course of 235 degrees T for the first way point about 30 miles south of Madagascar. Distance to this waypoint is 365 miles.
We goosewinged for the first 15miles in a good breeze, but as we drew away from the Island, the wind became lighter and lighter, so we decided to hoist the "Bag of fear", this increased our speed by about 2 knots and we soon drew away from the fleet. However, as the wind got lighter, below 10 knots, many boats turned on their engines and motored past us again off towards the horizon.
We got out the fishing rod, which we have not used for a while and after a good cleaning and polishing, attached a brand new lure and cast it out behind the boat, perhaps about 150m of line. Our first catch many hours later was a big plastic bag...
The weather was beautiful and we were happy scooting along at 6.5knots in 10 knots of wind. We had a school of Dolphins for a long while and this is always exciting, the cameras were clicking like mad..... We identified them from our marine book as "Spinner Dolphins" and are common in the Indian Ocean.
18.00hrs. The wind was still very light, and a little fluky as well, so we had to keep adjusting the "Bag of Fear" all the time. We had covered only 46 miles since we started, an average of 6.5 knots. Ohhhhhh that will certainly affect our estimated time of arrival, which we calculated to be next Sunday afternoon. Still there is a long way to go, all we need is a strong breeze...
20.00hrs We had dinner in the "Liquid Moonlight Restaurant" (the new name for the cockpit). It consisted of pork chops, carrots, baked beans, and creamed potatoes, which were whipped with mayonnaise, you know, that really made them very tasty... yum, yum! Nothing left on the plates, speaks for itself. Gobble, gobble, sleep, sleep, a little reading inbetween the sunbathing and "the cats the Queen".
Nothing on the fishing line either, and now its dark. Its interesting, but most of our catches to date (not too many now in fairness) have been around midday, so we will just have to be patient.
23.00hrs Wind and conditions still the same as they were earlier, and lovely sailing conditions too.
Distance traveled ........................................46 n miles
Distance to waypoint...................................319 n miles
Night watches :- 22.00hrs / 00.00hrs................................................. Aileen
00.00hrs / 02.00hrs..................................................Stephen
02.00hrs / 04.00hrs..................................................Neil
04.00hrs / 06.00hrs..................................................Terry
06.00hrs / 08.00hrs..................................................Collette
That's all for now,
Signed :- Stephen Hyde (Skipper)