Monday, 15th November 2010
The night was dark, with a glow from the shore away in the distance, The glow being the lights of all the little towns and resorts along the coast which was about 10 miles away to the west. The wind settled down, blowing from the North, and steadily increased during the night. By dawn at 04.00hrs, the wind was in excess of 30 knots, so we had up our staysail and had 2 reefs in the mainsail. The seas had moderated by now, and we were having a pleasant sail... also there was no sign of the leak in the port saloon window, so hopefully we have this sealed properly.
04.51hrs The blazing sun creeped up over the eastern horizon. This is always a magical moment, looking at the solar system working its thing. However, it soon disappeared behind a big bank of cloud, and the weather began to deteriorate again, but we are less than 25 miles from Durban.
Tzigane, Eowyn & Thor VI were still beside us as we approached our destination. We radioed ahead to - Durban Port Control - and informed them of our arrival and permission to enter Port. That's all 4 of us and the authorities were very pleasant and helpful.
We subsequently made contact with "Point YC" and were directed to our berths on the Marina, the marina is a very definitely in the need of some refurbishment, if not a total replacement. We were berthed alongside Stealaway, a cat, that we last met in Mauritius. They helped us with our lines and it was great to see them again. They encountered some seriously bad weather on route to here and had a large amount of damage to their structure.
08.30hrs Once we were settled in, Aileen cooked a big breakfast and this was duly swallowed down in a shot. Neil and Aileen went to the club and got all the paperwork out of the way, while skipper made a list of things that needed attention. The main items on the list were :- Fwd deck light, spreader lights, (none of these were now working), the A.I.S., the anchor switches up at the bow, (as Fr. Terry would say, "you mean up at the front end"). The tricolour, we have a 25/50 w - 24v L.E.D. bulb up there on the top of the mast, and its range is very limited. so we will put back a 25w-24v standard bulb, so we can be seen again from a distance, that's like 6 miles at least.
10.30hrs We wandered up to town, well the nearest part of town and called on Tony Herrick. Tony has written all the books on cruising the coast of Africa, plus one covering the trip from Cape Town to Brazil. We purchased some of these books, and he explained how the weather works down here on this part of the coast. Fascinating stuff, of course this guy has sailed around the World a few times over the years, so he knows a thing or two about the sea.
There is a big race from Cape town to Brazil every 2 years, and would be like the ARC a very big event, and its on again this , starting next January, about the same time as we leave there for Brazil....... Its fantastic to see and meet all these sailors, and skipper is stunned by the amount of long distance sailing done all over the world by people of every age. From the 20 years old doing the "Mini Transit" single handed race, from - La Rochelle - in France to Brazil, in their 21 sailboats (6.5 m) to the old jossers like ourselves, permanently at sea, mentally and physically......... sailing in every direction. Its definitely a disease.
We have made contact with Robin Clapham, thats Kevin Dwyers first cousin who lives in Cape Town. It will be interesting to meet him when we arrive there, as we heard so much about him from Kevin while he sailed with us for 2 months at the start of the event.
Later, Skipper met the electrician/electrical man, and he quickly sorted out the tricolour, the A.I.S. the Fwd deck light and the spreader lights (Cross tree lights), we also met the rigger, who will sort out the spinnaker halward (Fr Terry, the rope for hauling up the spinnaker). So, all in all, things seem to be working out quickly, and we hope to move onto either East London or Port Elizabeth in 2 days time .....Wednesday. It looks like we may get a 3 day weather window. "Weather window" is a period of time where the weather is suitable to make a passage, or at least will not be so unsuitable as to be dangerous.
18.00hrs We all put on out best clothes, well you know on a boat, jeans and shoes. Skipper and Neil strolled up to the Yacht Club and had a couple of beers, there we met people who have been to Ireland and we had a great laugh, before Aileen joined us and off we went by taxi to the "Revolving restaurant" this was located on the top of the highest building in Durban. The views were spectacular and much better than the food. We also found the waiters very cheeky and demanded a tip, this is very unusual, as tips are not common in S.A.
22.00hrs We got a taxi back to the marina, and had an early night, as we basically had little or no sleep last night.
That's all for now,
Signed :- Stephen Hyde (Skipper)