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American Spirit II - Day 322; Arriving at Port Elizabeth in Heavy Fog & the Hydro Generator is Damages; Sunday, November 23, 2014



As I indicated in the previous log, I stayed up at midnight with Jeanine for the 12:00 AM to 3:00 AM watch. Too much going on for anyone other than Joel or me to deal with. No offense to Jeanine. Reef, jibe and collisions.

At 1:15 AM the wind is 14/16 knots and we're moving at 7.1 knots thru the water and 6.9 knots over the land. We are now entering a counter current, a current going the opposite direction as the Aghulas Current. Its common for there to be a counter current when you have a large current offshore. Its the same way in Florida with the Gulf Stream.

At 1:17 AM I sight the light from the light house on Bird Island, an island our pilot book says is a serious navigation hazard due to reefs coming out from it. We're 10 miles away, yet the light looks like its right next door, rotating every 20 seconds and flashing twice before going 'dark' again.

At 2:45 AM the wind is 10 knots and our speed is 7.4 knots thru the water and 7.1 knots over the land. We're almost abreast of Bird Island. We're now 29 miles from the entrance to the Port Elizabeth harbor.

Joel relieves me and Jeanine at 3:00 AM. A heavy fog sets in at 5:30 AM, with visibility limited to 1/8 of a mile or about 200 yards.

Joel hears on the radio that Chicka-lu is going into Port Elizabeth ahead of us for repairs. Not sure what their problem is.

I get up at 6:40 AM and call Port Elizabeth port control to ask for permission to enter the port. Permission is granted. We can hear port control talking to other ships and giving permission for them to enter and leave port. Not a comforting thought when you can't see more than 200 yards. I can see Lluiton on the AIS close behind us. As we get close to the port the water turns rust colored with pollen in it. The sun starts to shine thru a little into the fog, and visibility increases to 1/4 miles. The wind is light at 5 knots, and we're moving at 6.6 knots. We're staying at the extreme right in the channel so we avoid any outgoing ships. We slow down at 7:16 AM as the visibility drops to 100 yards. We can't use our radar because its not rotating properly. We'll try to get it fixed in Cape Town. At 7:22 AM we see the tall buoy to the harbor. At 7:33 AM we can see the left jetty with a light on it 1.3 miles away. The fog is starting to lift now, quickly. Good timing. By 7:40 AM the fog is gone. The port control tower looms in front of us. It looks like an airport conning tower. We've never seen anything like it anywhere else in the world. Very, very impressive.

At 8:05 AM we're in slip 45 in the Algoa Bay Yacht Club marina. Lluiton arrives at 8:10 AM and takes a mooring ball. Saphir arrives at 9:35 AM and takes a slip 2 away from us, slip number 41.

We celebrate another passage with a rum and coke.

Breakfast at 10:05 AM consists of eggs, potato, two fruit cocktail and bread.

At 10:50 AM I fill out a one page form in the bar of the yacht club, and receive one key for the clubhouse and security gate, leaving a deposit of 300 Rand or about $27.

By 11:00 AM Joel and I are taking naps. I awaken at 2:00 PM with my phone ringing. Its Russ from Nexus, checking to see if we're in and asking where he is to dock in Port Elizabeth. And that he'll be in around sunset. During my nap Lluiton departs as they're not happy to be on a mooring ball and not a slip.

I then go thru a safari brochure that I picked up in the clubhouse as we're thinking of going on safari for 3 days while we're here in Port Elizabeth. Because of the weather, we're 'stuck' here probably until Saturday morning anyway. Civetta II is interested in taking a safari with us. I contact a couple of camps, Shamwari and Lalibela; and end up making a reservation for Tuesday thru Friday morning at Lalibela. For the first night we'll be in a 'tree top' lodging; and the next 2 nights in the camp. The cost is reasonable at $169 in the camp and $228 in the tree top, per day per person. The price includes all food, drinks and two range safari's per day. We'll leave for the reserve at 10:30 AM on Tuesday; and return to the marina at 12:30 PM on Friday.

Dinner at 5:20 PM is blackened steaks cooked on the grill by Joel; baked potato; and corn on the cob. We eat in the cabin down below because its raining out.

During the 6:00 net all I can hear is Alpheratz. They tell me they're arriving in a couple of hours and I tell them that we have slips for them and Ghost and will guide them in.

At 6:15 PM I notice that one of the three propellers on our hydro generator is broken off. Earlier in the day Joel and I notice that we have 3 gouge marks in the bow. Seems like we may have hit something last night, and that we then ran over it breaking off the propeller. Fortunately I have a spare hydro generator propeller. We'll install it tomorrow. Then I'll order another spare so I can bring it back with me from Florida when I go home for Christmas.

Nexus arrives at 6:19 PM and we help guide them in and help them with their lines. They're on the sea wall as they're too big to take a slip. Once they're tied up Jeanine produces a bottle of 'caramel vodka' and we all drink shots using Nexus's World ARC shot glasses. The stuff is quite good. I'm surprised I liked it because I'm not a vodka fan. Certainly not a straight vodka fan. Charles on Nexus tells me that Port Elizabeth is called the 'Windy City.' For any city in South Africa to be called that is very, very impressive as every city we've been in is really, really windy. Just last Monday a container ship anchored in or off Port Elizabeth lost 27 shipping containers during a gale because the ship was rocking back and forth so much.

Alpheratz arrives shortly after 7:45 PM in a light rain; followed by Ghost a half hour later in a heavy rain, along with lighting and thunder.

Back on the boat, we watch two movies: the first one an English comedy about time travel; and the second called 'Round 12' or something like that. Not very good.

Joel is in bed by 11:30 PM. I call home and shortly after talking to Janet my phone stops working because I've run out of pre-paid minutes. I go to reload it but can't because I haven't had the SIM card for at least 6 months. Jeanine will have to help me load more minutes on the phone tomorrow by going to a store to do so. What a waste of time! I'm up until 2:30 AM typing two logs, then to bed.

Brian Fox



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