can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

American Spirit II - Day 331; We Leave Mossel Bay for Cape Town and the Atlantic Ocean; Wednesday, December 3, 2014



Up at 8:00 AM. Breakfast at 8:40 AM: eggs, potato, chilled fruit cocktail and bread.

Vlado and I headed to the Mossel Bay Yacht Club to pay our marina fee, which was 600 Rand for 3 nights, or about $18.00 a night.

At around 9:30 AM we drive to the Bartholomeu Dias Museum, about 1/2 mile away. Its raining, overcast and cold. The museum visit is spectacular, with a facsimile of the Portuguese Caravel ship that Dias sailed in to Mossel Bay in 1501. He was the first Portuguese and the first sailor, in the Age of Discovery, to round the southern tip of Africa. Unfortunately, he drowned on this voyage or a subsequent one. The ship in the museum was actually built as close to the actual design of the ship he sailed in, and was actually sailed from Lisbon to Mossel Bay in 1987 or 1988?

The Caravel was used mainly for exploration and had two lateen sails and two masts, with the latter one higher than the forward one. He had a crew of 33. History has it that letters were left in an old boot hanging on a 'post office tree.' A later ship transiting the cape would take the letters, and leave others if need be, and return the letters to Europe. Even if a letter was picked up by a ship from a country at war with the the ship's country, it would be delivered to Europe to a 3rd party who would deliver it to the proper country. At any rate, Joel and I each mailed some post cards from a bronze shoe placed by this tree, the cards to be collected and stamped with a hand stamp designating that they are from the oldest post office in Africa, 1501, 513 years ago. I mailed 10 post cards myself, so anyone receiving one let me know when you receive it and what the stamp looks like.

After that while Jeanine went to the yacht club shower, Joel watered and fueled the boat, and put the electric lines and transformer away, while I went to the grocery store to buy a couple of provisions, filled the rental car up with fuel and then returned the car to AVIS. I called for a taxi for a ride back to the marina and on the way the cab driver picked up another fare, and then deposited them before taking me to my destination. Interesting.

Civetta II had left the marina around noon as they wanted to sail with the high tide. We started the engine at 2:30 PM and departed shortly thereafter. Exiting the harbor, we had to contend with 8-10 foot seas in shallow water, and we had to head east, the wrong direction, tacking over the waves until we were far enough from the cape to turn right and sail west. As we were doing this my American Spirit cap got blown overboard, so we had to turn around and use a boat hook to fetch it before it sank. We were successful. Each of us on board has now had our cap blown overboard and successfully recovered. Once we turned west we rolled out some main and some jib, and motor sailed.

At 4:35 PM Joel saw a whale breach 1/4 mile to port. And throughout the day we saw numerous seals on the surface. A pod or school of dolphins, about 12 of them, swam up and jumped off the bow.

During the communication's net at 6:00 PM Folie a Deux indicated that they were just south of Mossel Bay, about 3 hours behind us. I couldn't raise Nexus, but apparently they heard us and texted Jeanine later to give us their position and state that they had passed Cape Aghulas 5-6 miles offshore with no problem. So instead of passing the cape 24 miles offshore we changed course to pass it closer in.

At 6:10 PM a pod of 100+ dolphins swam by the boat; and at 6:13 PM I saw the largest whale blow I've seen yet on our trip. The whale was to our starboard and the mountains on the coast line made it easy to see the white plume against the dark backdrop. Because the blow was so high I'm thinking it was a Bryde Whale and not a Humpback, whose blow is much shorter.

Dinner at 6:25 PM was freeze dried Lasagne with Meat Sauce, green peas, and chilled fruit cocktail.

I napped from 7:42 PM to 9:00 PM while Joel was on watch. Jeanine went to bed after doing the dishes. She'll get up at 3:00 AM for her watch. During his watch Joel was visited by rain showers.

During the 9:00 PM to midnight watch the moon lit up the area, even though it was still overcast.

At 9:30 PM while I was texting a wave got my I Phone wet, even though I was sitting under the dodger. It was cold, raining on and off, windy and with 8-10 foot seas. I was wearing a new wool cap and scarf that I'd bought in Mossel Bay.

At 10:00 PM the wind was 17/19 and we were moving at 5.5 knots thru the water and 7.5 knots over the land; and we were 9 miles offshore. Our speed thru the water didn't seem right; and I figured out why an hour later.

At 10:05 PM a small pod of dolphins swam by. I could see them jumping in the filtered moonlight along the starboard side and bow of the boat. You never get tired of seeing dolphin jump.

A wave covered the foredeck at 11:01 PM and then smashed into the dodger, with water running over the top and around the dodger, and a lot of it then being blown into the cockpit where I got totally drenched, again even though I was under the protection of the dodger.

At 11:15 PM I figured out why our speed thru the water was so slow. When I fixed the paddle wheel earlier on the knot meter, I inserted it back in the boat with the arrow facing the wrong way.

At 11:45 PM the wind was 17/20 and we were moving at 6.7 knots thru the water and 7.0 knots over the land, still motor sailing with the engine at 1600 RPM's and 80% of the jib out and with a 2nd reef in the mainsail.

Brian Fox

Previous | Next