Sunday dawned sunny and warm. We packed up, checked out and untied the ridiculous number of dock lines we had put in for the winds that howled off Table Mountain. We passed the still smouldering remains of the fishing vessel that went up in flames with a huge pall of smoke a couple of days ago. Outside the harbour we ran into twenty knot winds forward of the beam in choppy seas. It was downright chilly. Once around Robben Island we bore off a little to the north. We added the reefed main to the jib and and with wind holding steady at twenty knots on the beam life is very comfortable. Nine knots may not sound like much but we are thirty miles out and buzzing along nicely on a brilliant day.
We passed inside Dasseneiland, (Dassie Island). A Dassie being a Rock Hyrax, a mammal the size of a fat house cat that looks like an overgrown hamster and whose closest living relative is the elephant. They are common here and we saw several in the rocks when we walked along the coast.
I turned in as we approached Saldhana bay. Around 2:00am I was awakened by the boat thrashing along, the winds were evidently up from their steady twenty knots. I went back to sleep. At three I came up for my watch to find the winds in the high twenties. Zeke had taken in the mainsail when the wind had climbed into the thirties. The boat was settled back to a more comfortable nine knots. We were about 120 miles and fifteen hours out from Cape Town.
Monday turned out to be a peach. 180 n.miles noon to noon. Following winds in the low twenties, seas around six feet with occasional twelve footers, navy blue and covered with white caps. Our speed is mostly around nine knots, sometimes fourteen down the waves and just once at nineteenth knots. That was a ride and had me watching the bows closely. I would not have wanted to see them submerge as we rode down into the wave's trough. All in all the sort of day you wish you could keep in a bottle to savour on those not so good days.
Tuesday November 8th, election day in the US. What's the worst that can happen?
Bar one, the days following continued in a similar vein. Following winds between 20 & 30 knots with lulls to 15 and gusts to 35, moderate seas with occasional big swells to get your attention as the boat runs away, and clear sunny skis. Adjusting the sails is no more than setting the spinnaker for the day and jib overnight. But, it is cold, the water temperature is a chilly 54°F ,(10°C) that even the midday African sun struggles against.
We approached the entrance to Walvis Bay in the dark on the tenth. The bay is roughly square five miles by five miles, the entrance marked by five towering parked oil rigs light brightly enough to ruin your night vision. Feeling our way into the yacht club's corner was tricky even with the GPS chart plotter. The club is now hidden behind a large new wharf three quarters of a mile long and a half mile wide that is not marked on the boat's charts and is bereft of navigation lights. I was happy to have up to date charts on my cell phone, and I know how mickey-mouse that sounds. A little wandering around produced a mooring and we were secured for the night. The thought of having to attempt this entrance on even minimally out of date paper charts in the dark gives me the willies. We calmed our frayed nerves with a bottle wine and a shared chocolate bar. We should do that more often.
Walvis Bay is weird. A mix of beach front funk, medium sized town on the edge of the desert, large industrial port. Immigration and customs were easy, a couple of forms, some small talk, a couple of rubber stamps and Bob's your uncle. Making arrangements for everything else has been frustrating. Checking into the yacht club? Nope. Finding a mooring? Nope, we poached one, there are lots of empty moorings. Renting a vehicle? Nope. Arranging a tour into the country's amazing places, (and there are plenty)? Nope, well not quite. We are off along the beach for an afternoon tomorrow, and we stumbled across that. Phone and data services? Don't get me started. Uber? Never heard of it. ET would never have got out of here.
Link to today's paltry pic's :
* Our now resident seal.
* The interior is the Walvis Bay Yacht Club
* The chap in the dinghy is Zeke returning from a couple of charter cats having found out whose mooring we had poached. The boat boys knew and brushed it off with "don't even worry about it". The grey day background captures the mood of this place in the mornings.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uo5y70q3hjmyt2j/AAAQoAHGOgy1jUPbUCLJLVQNa?dl=0
Link to all photos:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/777m1sl5uebzqey/AABaKPwzXV0e_WlXZC0LDhDja?dl=0
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