Cape Town Outbound Day 2

Hi everyone,
We are currently in position 31 19S 14 26E and saillng at 6 knots on a course of 330M. The wind is S at 12-15 knots with a 1m sea and 2m SW swell. We are sailing under single-reefed main and single-furled yankee. There are scattered cumulus and cirrus clouds around. Our day's run was 143nm and we have 1436nm to run.

Yesterday afternoon the wind gradually increased until we put a reef in the main at 1600. Overnight tne wind got up into the low 20s and varied in direction between SSW and SSE. This morning it has been gradually moderating but we're holding our speed nicely and so haven't shaken out the reef yet.

For several hours before dawn we sailed through an area with a strong westerly current. It must have been at least 2 knots since our heading was 340M and our COG 300M. The seas were disturbed in the area which made the ride quite uncomfortable. We weren't entirely surprised by the current since it was shown fairly well on the RTOFS GRIB data we downloaded from SailDocs. Happily we're out of it now and if anything the current is with us, albeit nowhere near 2 knots.

The sked this morning had seven boats on the air. One of them is behind us which is always good - we hate being tail-end charlie! We asked about the evening sked and learned it has moved to 1700UTC. The evening session is intended more for chat, while the morning is for position reporting.

We will have limited access to world news until we reach the Caribbean. Before departing we subscribed to a BBC email news summary which arrives daily. Couldn't find a way to get Australian news via text-only email. We are also starting to listen to the BBC World Service on HF. They transmit some of their Africa programming from Ascension Island which is perfect for us. They are booming in from 1600-1700UTC on 17640kHz. Very civilised.

Cape Town Outbound Day 1

Hi everyone,

We are currently in position 32 34S 16 30E and saillng at 5 knots on a course of 330M.  The wind is SSE at 8-10 knots with low seas and a 1m SW swell.  We are sailing under full main and single-furled yankee.  There are scattered cumulus and cirrus clouds to the SW.  Our day's run was 121nm and we have 1563nm to run.

We had a great sail yesterday afternoon and overnight, carrying full sail throughout.  The wind gradually backed around to the S overnight and this morning it continued to SSE and lightened off.  Where before we were doing 6 knots we're now struggling to make 5 at times.  We're also broad reaching now where earlier we were beam reaching.  We expect more wind tonight which will be good.

Yesterday afternoon we saw one very large whale while NW of Robben Island.  It's tail fin was enormous when it sounded, and blue-grey in colour.  It was also much longer than the whales we see in Australia.  Tempting to think we might have seen a blue whale but we'll never know for sure!  We also saw a flock of penguins and several seals yesterday.

Today we've seen lots of gannets, several albatross and flocks of small seabirds.  The latter were rather like birds we saw south of Tasmania many years ago (in 2004 aboard Degrees of Freedom).  We also saw a single seal this morning.  Occasionally we see floating clumps of kelp, most of which are thankfully small.

This morning we took part in the HF radio net on 6224kHz at 0600UTC.  A total of 7 yachts took part and they are spread out along the way to St Helena.  US yacht Andiamo is closest to us - only 30nm away to our NE.

We just changed ship's time from UTC+2 to UTC+1, putting our clocks back.  That made our day's run (reported above) close to 24 hours and puts us in the correct time zone for our longitude.  We'll cross into the UTC time zone   at 7.5degreesE and then into the western hemisphere on this passage.

The last time Zen Again was in the western hemisphere was in the western South Pacific in 1997 when named "Zen" with second owner Mr Nishikubo.  She was last in the South Atlantic in 1991 when she sailed north from Patagonia with first owners Mr & Mrs Amanuma and named "Shirahae" (great south wind).  The black track on the map below shows Shirahae's voyage from Japan to circumnavigate South America.  It constantly amazes us to think of where our little boat has been!

The voyages of Yoshio and Akemi Amanuma on two yachts named Shirahae

Cape Town Departure

Hi everyone,
We departed Cape Town at 1315 today towards St Helena, 1700nm away. Our current position is 33 36S 18 07E, sailing at 6.5 knots on a course of 330M under full main and single-furled yankee. The wind is about 15 knots from the SW. Marvellous sailing!

We arose this morning to find the RCYC shrouded in fog. We took a taxi to the V&A Marina to pay our bill there and by the time we got back the marina was clear of fog but there was still plenty in the harbour. So we had a very nice breakfast at the club and got the boat ready for sea in slow time.

We were very lucky - the harbour was clear of fog as we departed. As we motor-sailed north the breeze rapidly died away and Cape Town alternately appeared and disappeared as fog banks went by. Eventually we had to motor for about an hour into a very weak NW wind - right on the nose. As we passed Robben Island on our starboard side a W wind gradually filled in and we were able to shutdown the motor. Huzzah!

We cleared out in Cape Town on Sunday and it proved to be very straight-forward. The RCYC clearances lady works on Sundays and she provided the letter we needed. We then took a taxi along to Harbour Master, Immigration and Customs offices (in that order). Weekends are good since the Harbour Master's office in town is closed and so one uses the office in the port - right next door to customs & immigration.

We departed South Africa exactly three months after arriving. We enjoyed our time here immensely but it is time to move on. From St Helena we plan to sail to Ascension and then on to the Windward Islands in the Caribbean. We characterised our Indian Ocean crossing as "eating the elephant". Perhaps our South Atlantic Ocean crossing might be thought of as "punching the rum". We're looking forward to our first Caribeean rum punch.

Trust all's well where you are.