Cape Town Outbound Day 5

Hi everyone,
We are currently in position 26 50S 09 21E and saillng at 4-5 knots on a course of 300M. The wind is SSE at 7-10 knots with a slight sea and a low SW swell.  We are sailing under full main and yankee.  Scattered cumulus clouds.  Another beautiful sunny day but with too little wind!  Our day's run was 136nm and we have 1062nm to go.

Dawn this morning

The last 24 hours has been very pleasant.  Until mid-morning today we were sailing along at around 6 knots in a nice 10-15 knot breeze.  The seas were low so the boat was quite steady.  Nic spent this morning baking so we have a loaf and a set of rolls.  THIS is the cruising life!

Last night was mostly cloud-free and also moonless until a couple of hours before dawn.  The night sky was stunning.  Jupiter was very bright and both Saturn and Mars were clearly visible.  Venus was extremely bright when it rose about the same time as the moon.

The sked this morning was disrupted a little by other traffic on the frequency we've been using.  6224kHz is the main ship-ship frequency in the 6MHz marine band so it's not surprising we encounter other traffic.  Using DSC would allow the frequency of each sked to be digitally transmitted to all yachts at the start of the sked.  This morning most yachts did change to the secondary frequency 4146kHz but several didn't so couldn't share their position and news.

During the small hours of the last two mornings I've been scanning the amateur radio bands.  Propagation conditions are excellent.  I could clearly hear stations from all over the USA and in Mexico, as well as in South America.  This was on the 40m (7MHz) and 20m (14MHz) bands.

As the wind lightened off it has been swinging from S to SSE.  We expect to gybe shortly and head north.  This should poistion us well for the forecast winds over the next few days.  Winds are expected to pick back up to 12-15 knots later today and then stay for some days.  Here's hoping the forecasts are right.

Cape Town Outbound Day 4

Hi everyone,
We are currently in position 29 36S 13 02E and saillng at 6 knots on a course of 330M. The wind is S at 12-15 knots with a slight sea and 1m SW swell. We are sailing under full main and single-furled yankee. Clear sky. A beautiful sunny day. Champagne Sailing! Our day's run was 151nm (again!) and we have 1192nm to go.

Yesterday afternoon the winds stayed around 18 knots until late in the afternoon when they piped up to 20-25 and swung from SSE to S. Naturally the change of wind direction prompted a gybe but the extra wind only made it a little more fun. Half an hour later the wind moderated to 15-18 knots. Since then we've been broad reaching on port tack with Kazi the Aries vane gear steering very well.

We had one reef in the main all yesterday afternoon and overnight. At dawn this morning the wind dropped a little more so we're now under full broad-reaching sail. The seas gradually settled this morning and now conditions are just about perfect. The boat is loving it, she trucks along at 6.5 to 7 knots solidly "in the groove".

The HF radio net now has about 10 yachts reporting in each morning. Several also chat in the afternoon. The boats are spread out in a triangle encompassing St Helena, Walvis Bay and Cape Town. Happily there are now two boats behind us, adding a boat which departed from Saldanha Bay. Twould be nice to overtake someone but the chances of that are vanishingly small (since they're all way bigger than us)!

We're now running 6 hour watches overnight and 3 hours during the day. So far that's working out quite well, mainly because of the relatively benign sailing conditions. We're eating well too, with the good conditions allowing Nic to "cook up a storm" each evening. The Cape Town fresh veggies are holding up well.

Cape Town Outbound Day 3

Hi everyone,

We are currently in position 29 36S 13 02E and saillng at 6 knots on a course of 020M. The wind is SE at 12-18 knots with a 1m sea and 2m SW swell.  We are sailing under single-reefed main and single-furled yankee.  Scattered cumulus clouds around.  A nice sunny day.  Our day's run was 151nm and we have 1318nm to go.

Yesterday afternoon we had a very pleasant time under full sail.  In the evening the wind increased to around 18 knots so we put a reef in.  Later we gybed onto starboard tack as the wind swung from S towards the SE.  This allowed us to stay east of the rhumb line which weather forecasts suggest we should do to keep some wind.

We plan to continue N until later this afternoon when we'll be about 100nm east of the rhumb line.  Then we'll gybe back on to port tack.  Hopefully this will keep us in the wind and allow us to track towards St H as the wind returns to the S.

Our first day out from Cape Town was under the control of Kami the autopilot.  The new arrangement is working well.  However, since we're not surfing on waves we decided to give Kazi the Aires vane gear a try.  Kazi loves the conditions and has been steering ever since.  We even gybed under Kazi's control (it steered while one of us adjusted its course setting).  I believe the oversized wind vane is making a big difference in these quite light apparent wind conditions.

Kazi the Aires vane gear at work

No prizes for the origin of the names Kami and Kazi.  Together they are Japanese for divine wind.  I just hope we've got the kazi = wind bit correct!

South Atlantic sunset last night

These are the nicest sustained sailing conditions we've had for a very long while.  I suspect we're going to have a couple of light wind days with bigger swell in a day or two.  Neverthess the guitar has emerged from deep stowage for the first time since we departed Australia.  Oh yes - the water temperature has climbed from 16C to 23C.  Nice.

Trust all's well where you are!