We motorsailed until 01:00, then turned off the engine at 01:00 and made fairly good progress under just the poled out Genoa until 04:00 when Coco de Mer came up and passed us with a nice wide margin on our starbrd side. We waited until they were well ahead, then turned on the engine again and began to follow them. At 07:00 we did some calculating, and decided if we pushed it, using the engine, we had a shot at arriving on Thursday evening. After the ubiquitous coffee and yogurt, and a unanimous agreement, we decided to go for it. The morning SSB net was quite lively, with some strong words put forth by one of the parties about when to enter the harbour. Lots of the boats seem really keyed up about this approach, and with a good many of them using diverse weather routers, the differences in interpretation of the weather are astounding! I’m finding that weather is a sort of sailor “religion”. It creates strong polarisation of opinions, devote following, extreme agnosticism, intense discussion, powerful proselytising, and today we were subject to an almost “hellfire and brimstone sermon” about one captain’s opinion of timing to come into the harbour, that rivalled some of the most narrow-minded preaching I’ve ever heard! Wow! And at 09:00 in the morning! We just hope that everyone listening had plenty of “grains of salt” on hand to take that strong speech with, and does their own thinking! (Thankfully, we all have a good supply of salt onboard from our sporty sailing two days ago...it glitters on our decks like frost on a fall morning!) While we appreciate folks sharing their information with the fleet, we believe every Captain is entitled to his own opinion , and has the right to make up his own mind and do what is best for his own ship. After that scathing radio admonition , Captain double checked the weather gribs, had a vhf chat with Pete on Coco de Mer, who was very gracious about us shadowing them, and we still felt confident forging ahead towards landfall. All that palaver created an appetite in us, so we scrambled some eggs, fried up some onions and tomatoes, and rolled the whole beautiful mess up with some cheese into breakfast burritos in flour tortillas. We decided today’s priorities would be eating well, getting enough rest, and pushing hard for a daylight landfall tomorrow evening. We spent the day like cats; napping, snacking, and reading the African pilot books and studying the chart for approaching Richard’s Bay. After the evening radio net, which we did not even stay on for the after discussion due to our weariness with the same questions and answers being raised, we ate a quick supper of fresh four cheese ravioli with marinara sauce, and more cheese on top. One of our boat crews’ favourite go-to comfort foods. The only thing missing was wine...but we hear there is plenty of wine ahead in South Africa, to be enjoyed when the boat is safely tied up. It is astonishing to think that we could be in our last 24 hours of this journey! Last night at this time we were 383 miles out, in 24 hours we have covered 203 miles!!! An unprecedented run for Sweet Dream! The current is helpful, we’ve found a groove that is flowing right along our course, and the wind is enough , in the teens, from just north of east, to keep the poled out Genoa full and drawing in tandem with the engine, but we are both marvelling at the progress we are making. At 22:00 when I came up for my watch, I was amazed to find Coco de Mer three miles off our port beam, and am delighted with the surprisingly smooth sea state right now. These night watches have been fabulous with the moon illuminating the wild Indian Ocean, and we’ve enjoyed fairly benign conditions thus far. I harbour no illusions though; we have crossed the North American Gulf Stream twice in our Atlantic wanderings. This Agulas current has my utmost respect!
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