November 20 2001 - 1100hr

   "VMG  (velocity made good)  made good 7.5knts "
    Bob says as he sticks his head into the cockpit, the log in the cockpit only reads only 3.5 knots.

   That is the Agulhas current doing its work.

We are paralleling the coast with a distance of only 2 miles offshore and we are flying over the bottom. It is very scenic with green cliffs, no habitation, river mouths with small canyons and a few waterfalls falling straight into the sea ...... very pretty!

The second leg of this trip was a rough start.
The two day weather forecast called for NE winds for 2 days and then later turning to the SW. This looked like the right opportunity to set sail for E London about 225m further to the S. What needs to be avoided "specially here" is strong winds going against the fast flowing Agulhas current. The current sets South, so we are trying to avoid being out there with SW or S winds -  wind against current.

                            Trying to make it out of the harbour was very tough.
It started with me just doing a routine bilge pump check...the bilge was flooded with water everywhere. Different compartments, fresh water I noticed - how can that happen? I think there is a leak in some of the plumbing or inspection plates in the tanks. Days later I am still pumping out fresh water - a lot. That will give me something to fix in the next port, got to take the whole floor out to get to the tanks.
 
Then, leaving the harbour there was 25 to 30km right on the nose with huge waves at the harbour entrance - very steep with big breakers. We buried the bow continuously and the wave breaker on deck was doing overtime! So was the engine, full throttle. Snap, there went the no 2 windvane blade, broken right off and into the sea. We returned to pick it up, it took 4 tries before we got it finally back on board. It had been snapped in half by the wind! It took a long time to clear the breakwater (I'd almost given up and thought about going back).


As we entered the Agulhas current the waves got higher steeper and bigger and higher some more. We had the jib and 1reef in the main up. It was tough going with the boat being tossed around quite badly - guess who cooked that night! Fresh water still filling the bilges, lots of pumping. That night the wind eased off and so did the waves after a long time, then the wind died all together. Then in the middle of the night freighter dancing began. We at times saw 3 or 4 freighters traveling at the same time, all hugging the coast just like us - a real highway! Some seemed to be aiming straight for us. Now it started to rain and the visibility became quite poor. We had to start the engine and on 3 occasions had to change course 90 degrees because a freighter was going to run us straight down. They did not see us, did not change course or answer the vhf radio. No sleep for the skipper that night. Then the wind started to come from the S now (right on the nose) and I decided to hug the shore so we would be out of the current and out of the freighter lanes. Daybreak brought calm seas and wind out of the S.
 We started tacking with very limited progress. We found a small piece of land sticking out and decided we can hide there until the wind will be in our favor again from the NE. That's where we departed from this morning at 5 am. It is now 12am and we are still motoring with no wind - speed through the water is 3.5kn and the GPS tells us we are doing 8.3knts over the ground -  Yep That would be the infamous Agulhas current doing it's thing in our favor this time!!!!! Thank You current!

Durban is a nice city.
It reminds me a little of Vancouver and has the downtown high rises next to the harbour and ocean. Now I know what it feels like to be a minority! After spending 2 weeks out at sea it was kind of different to be surrounded by very many black people. The streets are packed,  too packed, with people!
 
Many shops have gates. You have to hit the buzzer before you are allowed in. Security guards everywhere with parked car watchmen every where and gates in front of the  windows. You don't walk the streets at night when you are alone - hang on to your purse, wallet, bags - people are being robbed at atm machines. A 9 month old baby got sexually abused by 6 guy's - unbelievable! 20 plus% of the population has AIDS -  here some people really believe that when you have sex with a virgin it will cure you from AIDS.

Clearing in was easy The marina phone customs - a bit of paperwork - did not look at fruit or vegetables. Not even a stamp in our passport as we entered, not even as a souvenir, I asked twice. We had to clear out to leave Durban. Now that was not easy, taxi to the port captain, customs, emigration, port captain - mega mileage and took 1 hour of taxi time!

Point Marina Yacht club was great. Good facilities, showers, phones and above all a 25 dish buffet of great food, good wine and friendly service. We get 6 rands for a dollar. One of those great bottles of red wine like we had on our arrival is 35 rand or $6. Dinners 30 to 50 rand - we can live here like kings with our cdn dollar, even better for the yanks of course.

Bzzzzzzzzzzz......"the fishing rod".......... Bud yells.
I leap into the cockpit, the fishing rod over port is almost folded in half. I undo the lashings and hand the rod over to Daniel, after all you got to let the client catch the fish! Big smiles!!!!Looks like a big fish!!! "Hey Bob, can you bring in the hand line" I ask.
"It's got a fish on it"........ he yells!....... 2 lines..... 2 fish..... no waiting!!!!!
 
Daniel landed a 3.5 ft Wahoo .....and when Bob's fish came inside we noticed that it had its tail bitten right off, it was half a fish only. It was a large wahoo that must have been bitten in half by a larger fish while it was trapped on our hook. We released the big one (no fridge), and ate the half fish - Paul's deep fried fish in batter for lunch!

 Wind has changed now!
It's out of the SW and on the nose, light wind so far. Have to be careful, this is wind against Mr. Agulhas, the bad combination. No 3 up with 1 reef in the main, seas are still calm, freighter coming up.
 

0645 hr  November 21  Wednesday   
The sun is shining with light wind on the nose. Motoring at 2.5kn, heading out to get a boost from Mr Agulhas. The weather looks good and I hope the wind direction will change in our favor soon.
At 3 am last night the wind was howling at our rolly anchorage. The coast looks beautiful in the early am light. Rolling green hills - a la the bay of islands in New Zealand!
A small school of dolphins came to wave us out.....hey!!!.

9 am
Hey, it's getting better by the minute!
Traveled 9m into the wind and a 1kn counter current made 3 m towards our destination and we are anchored again! Too much wind to motor into. Another totally exposed anchorage with huge breakers crashing on the beach close to the boat. I am starting to get a bit concerned about our timing and minimum progress - 140m in 3 days. We still have a good 600m to go to Cape Town. The weather is fine right now, but not the wind -  direction has to change before we can make good progress.

1700hr   
"hey look whales right at the bow"
I turn my head to the right and right at the starboard bow I can see the 2 whales.
Not more then 2 boat lengths away, swimming right towards us. Just before they reach us  they dive under the boat not to bee seen again! Phtttttt - That was close! We are enroute too? Back to this mornings anchorage, it got dangerously wild at the last anchorage, with current, increasing winds, building seas, breaking waves and absolutely no protection from the SW winds.
 
First time in this itinerary... turning back!!!
So now we are back from where we started this morning and it offers only slightly better protection from the high waves and wind. 1.5meter swells with breakers make the boat rock like mad and roll us 30 thirty's at anchor. We are surrounded by big breaking seas on the cliffs and beach nearby. We are only 20 boat lengths away from some of these breaking seas.
Glad I learned some good anchoring tricks in the Baja, they come in handy now, and I  got a big anchor - best insurance policy!

1900hr                                                           
It is getting dark!    So is the sky with big black threatening clouds, winds picking up, gusting at 30 plus kn over the hill. We are dipping the windows in the water "at anchor"!!! My fear is that the waves will start breaking where we are anchored in 30 feet of water, than we must leave right away! With out delay!!! If that plays we only have 1 option left and that is to sail out of here - to sea, down wind, probably in the direction of  Durban where we came from. Then we must hug the coast closely to avoid the Gullahs current with it's possibly monster waves! So we prepped the boat to sail in storm conditions. Inner forestay with storm sail hanked on, running backstays up. Cleared the deck, buttoned everything up, take bearings to leave with bad visibility, briefed the crew with a plan of action. That's all we can do for now, besides waiting and that is exactly what we will do - waiting and waiting!  Wish us luck, we can use some!  I guess that is why I called it Adventure sail and learn voyaging!!!
 

1100am  Thursday   Nov 22 
All was calm waking up this morning.
Winds and wave died overnight and this morning things looked very serene and pleasant, but we are still at the anchorage because the light breeze was still out of the SW and yesterday we learned that there are no better anchorages nearby. So here we are patiently waiting for the wind to change to the NE. Fishing rods are out (we ate all the fresh meat) Skipper got carrot muffins in the oven, ropes are hanging out to dry because a cockpit locker got filled with water in our last squall.
 
"Dolphins... Dolphins... in coming... a whole...school of them!!!!"
So they are swimming right to the boat at anchor. "I always wanted to swim with dolphins" I announce. Quickly I put on my snorkel and fins and leap into the ocean swimming towards the dolphins. Unfortunately I can see sweet nothing underwater because of the poor visibility, I can only see just beyond my flippers. The dolphins come within 10 feet of me but I cannot see them, I can hear their squeaking loud and clear. I swim around for some time without seeing any Dolphins. Daniel has now joined me. Just as I am about to turn back to the boat I see movement. "Aaaah finally a dolphin" I think. But is not!!!...The 6 foot shark turns right in front of me showing himself off. Stay calm I think, don't start swimming like mad and no splashing. "Daniel you better get out of the water now!!" I calmly say to Daniel.Then I calmly swim back to the boat and am happy to be back in the cockpit!
 I wanted to swim with dolphins NOT SHARKS!!!
 

1700hr
We are Sailing...we are Sailing........ LaLaLaLa
Yep.... finally the wind backed not the SE and we are now underway again.... Huraaaaaa

This is quite the trip sailing in this current - we have the no 3 up with full main, a  reach, sailing at about 4 to 5 kn, but the Gps tells us we are blasting (over the ground) at - get ready!!!!...at....7...8...9....9.5....10....10.5knots. Waaauw that is CURRENT The swells are out of the S and are huge sometimes, very very lumpy, no breakers which is good!
Tons of wildlife here. School after school of dolphins visit us and leap around the boat, we have seen whales spy hopping and large fish keep jumping out of the water, close to the boat and far away. Talking about big fish! We were trolling a lure on the yellow fishing rod. "Fish, we got a fish" yells Bud who was hand steering the boat. Whaaaak and there goes the rod, snapped, broke right in half right at the handle. End of fishing rod, even the reel got broken and is no good anymore. Man that's what I call a bite! Needless to say he took the lure!
Some expensive fish....
 

1800hr
Just received a promising weather fax.
We are riding the edge of a small high which brings light and NE, E, SE winds.
This is the first time we have received a clear picture from SA at all.
Reception has been very poor or rather non existent.
 

Thursday November 22, 1700 hr
Weather o weather...forever changing weather...the planets engine!
This voyages requires Patience and patience.Light wind all of last night but fantastic SOG (speed over ground) thanks to Mr Agulhas.But it would not last, not even 24 hours. This morning at about 7am the wind died all together, then veered and.... poeeeeef .....yep........ back to the SW....... right on they old...... snazee.about 20m offshore, so we set sail for the coast, close hauled. The coast offers almost no protection from the sw wind "but" we got lucky (I always do) and we arrive at the only possible hideout in a 100miles. So here we are sailed less than 24 hr after waiting for 2 days and we are back at the waiting game again. Patience,  patience. Great mileage though - 23hr of sailing in which we covered 154m of which was 64miles was current. Hello, strongest current I ever sailed in! This very wide open bay is very pretty, looks totally different than the last bay. Here we are surrounded by dunes and hills with wide and high bare sand dunes kind of like Cabo Falso when just before Cabo San Lucas.Got two breads in the oven, it looks that these finally are rising the way they should. My two prior attempts where not very successful, did not rise the way it should have. I used a different yeast this time - maybe that was the problem!

1700hr  Saturday  November 24
This morning after a very lumpy night at anchor with major rock and roll action and the reception of a friendly weather fax, we hoisted anchor and started motoring out of the bay into a windless ocean. We are STILL motoring 8hr later and there is no outlook for any wind yet. It's nice and scenic this coastline - dunes, sandy beach and green hills with hardly any civilization, but boy we are not making any progress at all!!! It has cooled off a lot, I went for a swim this morning and it was a short one. Too cold.T shirt and long pants weather. Tried my bread today - t'was SUPEERR, and I cooked up a great Nassi Goreng dish last night including the kroepoek and satee sauce Hmmm....
If the wind does not arrive soon we will kill the engine for the night and we will than simply float.
The Agulhas current is now about 15m offshore and going out further so there will be no more free ride and great sog, because we now need to follow the shore. We are planning to stop at Cape ST Francis. There is a nice little marina there 90m ahead of us and we are planning to stop at Knysha, apparently a must see.

Sunday  November 25  0845hr
Finally after 14hr of motoring we got wind out of the NE. Yaaaaah. The weather fax tells us that the S Atlantic High is pushing itself over SA - this gives us our good wind direction. The weather fax has been very good to have. We are able to understand what is going on around us and see all the H's and L's that surround us everywhere. The weather is constantly changing here. This morning a booby plunged down on the fishing lure. Daniel tried to release it but the bird was quite large and the lure broke in two. I am afraid that was the end of a nice booby. It's always sad when something like this happens. In Mexico I once hooked a pelican witch was a real sad story.

We are now only 30m off Cape ST Francis.
Here we are planning to stop for a few hours. Everybody is a bit stir crazy after being cooped up in the boat for so long, waiting and waiting. We are also running a little low on veggies, fruit, meat etc. We do not want to miss any of the great wind we have right now so we are planning to make it a quick pit stop.

1645hr
No Pit stop!
The wind started to blow at 20kn, the marina was a lee shore and in order to leave again we would have to round a rather large Cape. It being a lee shore with large breaking seas and having to motor into the wind was not worth it for a 4 hr pit stop. So we decided to sail on to Knysha. This is the must see place on the S coast. With an little luck we arrive there tomorrow. We have about 70m to sail from here. Wind just went down to only about 8kn.  Easy downwind sail with the no 3 flying.

1930 hr
The ocean is flat calm...the sun just set....we finished Bob's rice.....all of us smoked cigars in the cockpit while the red sun disappeared below the horizon....no green flash!.....took pictures blowing cigar smoke in magic light....changed sails....I look up in to the sky and see the 3/4 moon.

1900hr Tuesday November 26
Back at sea again, after a very nice break/stopover in Plettenberbaai next to Cape Seal.
We had to beat all the way to get there, very slow going but we got there at about 4 pm  and anchored in front of the small (private) resort town. It looks very pretty with very many nice villas, mainly white people and a few black people. Quite in contrast with Durban.The crew went ashore to the bar/restaurant and Daniel and I hiked up to the Spar (grocery store). Things are sooo cheap here for us! I got a whole shopping cart full including 2 bottles of wine for only $100.00 - nice for a change! I asked the manager to phone a cab but the 1 cab in town was not answering the phone. He then offered us a ride to the beach in his pick up. Goes to show you how nice these people are. We left this morning at 1100hr and the wind finally started to come around to the SE.Got to run and take advantage of that. We still have over 300m to go to Cape Town with only 5 sailing days left. We had hoped to stop at Knysna (the must see place with a very dramatic entrance sailing in through 2 very steep cliffs). Today the waves are really up so when we sailed past we could see the waves breaking at the entrance. Too dangerous to enter so we sailed on.We need to take advantage of this great wind. It's blowing 25kn SE.  We are flying the no 3 and blast at 7.5kn in the right direction so we are making some good tracks. There is a very very large swell out of the S running and the boat is really working hard - so is "Mr Fleming", the wind vane.

Wednesday November 28 2001 1900hr
A historic moment for the boat, the skipper and crew!  Rounding Cape  Agulhas.
The most Southern point of Africa where the South Indian and the South Atlantic  Ocean meet.
                                                                 
We are lucky  the  weather is sweet - a light wind with a moderate sea, unlike the last 24 hours witch saw us blasting through very turbulent seas with plenty of breakers and the boat dancing so wildly that none of us slept a wink last night. But it resulted in a record setting 24hr run - 161miles, the old record was 160miles. We are celebrating this special occasion with a toast to the Cape - red wine and mixed nuts. Standing in the cockpit with the Cape in sight "you don't experience that every day of your life". Now we are entitled to have our right ear pierced and wear an earring (the side on which you pass the cape). Bud, Ted and Bob are planning to do just that and get their ears pierced in Cape Town. This was also Derek's Grieve day! Daniel and I filmed Derek's funeral ceremony spreading some of his ashes out over the sea. We did it right South of the Cape with the sun shining brightly. I should have some good footage to put a little ceremony together, this I am planning to give his dad and his girl friend .I was deeply moved and shed a few private tears after sending his ashes free into the sea. Goodbye Derek my friend.  Goodbye, be forever free in the sea!.....Fair winds!

Thursday  November 29  Cape of Good Hope
The music is rocking the Ar Seiz Avel as we are making our way past the Cape of Goodhope.
We are sailing wing to wing with a reef in the main and the little jib poled out over port, sailing downwind under a bright sun, very cold ocean, moderate sea with a few white caps doing 5.5knots. We are SOOOOO lucky with the weather. I know it is summer but this is the "CAPE" Now because of the good winds we are ahead of schedule, so we are now setting sail for Houtbaai, only 10m before Cape Town. We are scheduled to arrive on Monday the 3rd of December 10 am., so we got some time to kill. The boys are dying to find a shower and to clean up a little. It's an interesting feeling for me to sail in the South Atlantic, the water here comes up from Antarctica so it's freezing cold and looks very gray in spite of the nice blue sky. From hereon on it will be Atlantic Ocean all the way to St John's NFLD., Canada. But first there is a lot of work to be done on the boat, new fridge and of course hauling out, looking for the leak. I went to check on the leak this morning at the area behind my bunk, this is where the water entered the boat. Well there is NO water entering the boat there now but there is plenty of salt water coming in to the boat. So where on earth does it enter now? I have to pump all the time. Mystery oh mystery, reveal yourself please. All this water entering is eating on the integrity of the hull and I need to find it and fix it soon. I hauled out twice before in Australia looking for the leak but without success! I would like to have a dry boat for the next 5 legs and years to come! A lot of freighter dancing last night. During my watch one came up dead ahead coming straight for us (why do they like us so much on this leg?) I radioed,  no response, again, no response, again. Well that left me with only one more choice and that was to jibe the other way "and get the hell out of his way". Don't these commercial boats have lookout's? You wonder about that sometimes.

1600hr Friday  November 30  Houtbay
What an incredible scenic harbour this is.
It is a bay about 1 mile across with a white sand beach, a dune type setting and then the rest of the bay is lined with beautiful high mountains. A very unique setting. We arrived here yesterday afternoon. As we got near the mountains the wind started to dramatically increase - very dramatically. It gusted up to 40 plus knots, big gusts. There is a marina behind the breakwater with steel docks because it blows here a lot and often in the summer. Docking the boat was a one shot deal with these winds. It luckily went well and we had a few line catcher's. The crew ran off for showers at the yacht club and I stayed behind - finally a moment alone - drank a glass of wine with some mixed nuts and reflected a little on this last trip. The trip is technically over. We may not even go to Cape Town which is not as nice as here and this place is just on the other side of Table mountain.

 1130 hr  December 03  2001  
  
Royal Cape Yacht Club Cape Town
Leg 5 is completed

We did it......It was great with an excellent crew. They are happy leaving the boat with their new found offshore sailing skills and a cape rounding to boot. There were minor breakdowns, and we got plenty lucky with the weather.

I have to haul out at the Royal Cape Town Yacht club..... Fix the fridge...... do maintenance and Christmas, Dolores  will be visiting, my parents visiting, prepping for leg 6 ....."the Brazilian leg", catch up on my sleep and keep on sailing around the world.......sharing my love of sailing with those people that sign on for an adventure of a life time aboard the Ar Seiz Avel and want
to learn what offshore sailing is all about.

Fairwinds to You
Paul Mulder