Port Elisabeth To Cape Town.

 It was so windy in Port Elisabeth and New Dawn was pushed &nd rubbed against the floating pier, that I lost five fender socks in one day. Awful marina and way too exposed.

 In addition the Ion ore dust was black and we were cover in it each day. Impossible to wash off. The ion ore loading terminal is in the background.

 OK my boat has the same name....

 Nice restaurant with friends in Port Elisabeth. They are all from South Africa and very friendly and educated people.

 Rough sailing from Port Elisabeth to Cape Town.

 Rounding the very southern part of Africa the famous Cape Agulhas.

 The maximum SOG was 16.1 kn. Not bad....

 And we had a small favourable current of about 1.6 kn.

 As I had chosen to go further south, I was trying to get a favourable current, but it resulted in having to add about 55 NM sailing to pass the Cape Agulhas and get out of the Indian Ocean and into the South Atlantic Ocean.

  And boy was it getting cold once we reached the Antarctic current and wind.

 Further north and 45 NM south of Cape Town we rounded the Cape Of Goof Hope, which was earlier called Cape Of Storms, but changed to the Hope one to encourage sailors to do the passage. This is one of the most dangerous coasts to sail and so far my worth 950 NM.

 Arriving in Cape Town, we were met with loads of Sea Lions and again whales, as well as birds.

Yes I did but Crocks, as mt other sailors shoes are "not make for walking"....

Saturday 26 January 2019:

After a rainy morning it finally stopped raining at midday and we could finalize the preparation of the boat and our visitors left so we could leave Durban Marina at 15:00. As we exited the port there was a 2.5 meter swell and 1.4 kn current from the south, I.e. on the nose.

Shortly after leaving we caught a nice Yellow Finn Tuna and the wind started to back more to the SE, as I had expected. This is the first fish Sean has ever caught and he managed to fillet it and cooked some pieces and froze the rest. Very nice with fresh fish.

I made a watch plan and we are testing it to see if it is suitable for us. The basic plan is that night watches are 3 h and day watches 4-6 h depending on the time of the day.

The new sails looks good and I am experimenting with them and finding how to best balance the sails. The main sail has 4 battens, which I am less happy with, as they often get caught in the in-mast furling system, but so far it looks good and with the battens, we have a bigger sail.

Depending on the weather we might have to make a stop in East London, which is 255 NM away and there is no place to stop in between if the weather change. If the weather forecast I have seen holds, we even might be able to sail the further 145 NM to Port Elisabeth, meaning a total of 400 NM. But I need to find the S going current to help increasing the speed and get in before the next SW gale comes. It is a highly risky area to sail as if we get a SW blow against the S running current, we can get waves of 10-20 m and it will become extremely dangerous to be sailing in these conditions. The waves has broken  even big tankers, so it is not to play with, but to get well informed and get the timing right at all times. I see a system coming in two days, so I have the pressure on me. The Angulah current can run 4-6 kn and I need to find it without delay.

Sunday 27 January:

Last night was a mixed bag of different weather with the wind coming from different directions and at times strong, but other times weaker, which together with the large unpleasant E waves/swell gave me a lot of work and little sleep and I continued to search for the Angulah current. At times we had a favourable current at 1.5 kn, but other times it turned against us.

This morning I found the current and we got a favourable lift of 3-3.6 kn. The rule of thump is that the Angulah current can be found at the 200 meter shelf (dept), but for me it seems to be stronger further out to sea and somewhere between 200-400 meter dept.

At 06:00 we had 205 NM to Port Elisabeth and my calculations is that I expect to reach Port Elisabeth Monday afternoon, only a few hours before the next SW blow should arrive. Hopefully we can enter the marina, before the blow, but it will be tight. The race is on - again.

It is now 17:30 and we have a strong NW to my surprise and 3 m waves. Progress is remarkable fast with, at times, up to 6 kn favourable current and our maximum speed (SOG) was 15.4 kn - remarkable. Our daily average will be around 200 NM and we have sailed, so far, 219 NM with another 181 NM to go. I start to wonder if we can make the next 200 NM in this NE wind under this weather window, but the wind should become unfavourable already Monday evening at the latest.

Monday 28 January (day 2):

Decided to stick to plan A and continue to Port Elisabeth and at 04:00 I changed to course. Here at 06:30we are 55 NM from the port, but the wind has dropped to only 4 kn, so the ETA is delayed, which worry me a lot. I have reserved a place in the marina for a few days and look forward to have a break while waiting for the next weather window, likely later in the week. So far it has been a fast trip covering 350 NM in 39 h, or 9 kn/h, or 215 NM in 24 h and it has been done along this inhospitable wild coast.

We arrived at the marina at 15:00, almost exactly 48 h after leaving Durban and as we entered Port Elisabeth we had 36 kn (gale) E wind and it was very intense getting into the space I had been allocated, as there were little space to manoeuvre in this strong wind. The Manager John had fortunately arranged with some of his staff to help with the lines and we parked in a great manner.

Thursday 31 January:

After there days in the very exposed marina, which is also extremely dirty from the port’s loading facilities of Ion-Ore, we left today at 13:15 and I hope to be able to reach Cape Town (CT) in the current weather window. As long as we can round Cape Angulah before the next blow, we should make it. The weather forecast is not too bad as the Barometer is soon expected to start to decrease during the coming 65 h, which should give us progressive S-SE-E-NE wind the coming 48 h. But then it becomes variable and unreliable after we round the Cape Angulah. My current calculation is that we should round the Cape Angulah by latest Saturday midday, about 300 NM from PE and then we can start changing the course to NNW.

By the way, Cape Angulah is the furthest south point of Africa, whereas Cape of Good Hope (COGH) is further NW, close to Cape Town, and it is usually thought to be the south point of Africa. At first the COGH was named “The Cape Of Storms”, but that name discouraged sailors to come this way and thus it was renames “Cape Of Good Hope”, to encourage sailors. The whole coast around here is also called “The Wild Coast”, and I can see why it has got that reputation.

By 23:40 we were making good progress and have 367 NM to go to CT. The forecast proves, so far, to be correct with SE 17-22 kn, giving us an average of 8.5 kn/h. I set the WP (Way Point) quite S to try to get the strongest current W going current at around 150-250 m dept and we have at the moment 1.6-1.9 kn, which is a bit less than expected, but better than nothing and far from the 4-6.1 kn seen N of Durban.

It is getting cooler by the hour. The water temperature is 20 ° C, down from the 26° we had in PE and Durban. I was told by an 84 years old seaman that the water temperature would continue to drop and when we reach Cape Angulah we should enter the Antarctic current with only 10° in it. Thus I have started to prepare my warm close and the “dyne” is ready. But we are already wearing long pants and jumpers and at night the foul-weather gear is out of the cupboards.

Since PE the commercial traffic has increased significantly and we have many tankers and container ships around us. As usual the Danish Maersk line  have been spotted, as well as Med. Shipping Company (MSC) which both seem to dominate in this area. I expect soon to reach the traffic separation lanes around the oil platforms.

After all the work done at Yacht Lift in Durban it leaves me to continued checking the engine room and the bilges, to be sure there are no leaks. It is always worrying when these kind of work have been done and I need to ensure that everything like rudder and shaft works well and are not leaking.

The wind is forecast to increase the coming 1-1.5 days and we might get 40+ kn E wind, which is a Gale 8-9 BF, but as it should arrive from the stern (aft) we should be able to handle it, but the waves are forecast to be 3.5-4.5 m.

Friday 01 February:

It is 05:35 and the wind is ESE 20-22 kn and the waves are about 3 m from SE, giving us a rock and roll sailing condition. I have rolled in most of the mainsail and rolled out the complete Genoa, as we have the wind from the stern. This steadied the sailing but at the cost of a lower speed to only 5.5-7 kn and risk adding hours to the trip. Very dark clouds are to our S and I hope they will stay there as we need some sunshine to charge the batteries from the solar panels, as the batteries are below 90% charge, or 437 Ah.

It is still getting colder and colder and when I can get to bed in the saloon, I have the use of my “dyne”. I sleep in the saloon, so Sean can quickly get me up when needed, as he is not yet comfortable holding single handed watches and adjusting sails, etc.. Thus I start to feel that I am lack of sleep, but it is best like this and he can call me when needed.

In search of the favourable current, I sailed, perhaps, a little too much S and we are now about 50 NM further S than the direct route along the coast. So far I usually see 1.3-1.8 kn current, but this morning, it seemed it is dropping and is disappointing. We are 95 NM from Mussel Bay and 320 NM from CT and its 06:00.

As to the wildlife since leaving PE we have seen a lot of Sea-lions, whales on a distance, as well as birds, but we have not caught fish since Durban. In any case it is too rough to land fish and fillet them on the aft deck and I asked Sean to stop fishing as the conditions are too dangerous to be on deck. Many of the birds circle around us and some are curious and hover above us looking at us.

The commercial shipping is getting more dense and usually we see on the AIS about 10-15 ships within 24 NM. Again Maersk is the dominant, but then that Danish shipping line is now the worlds biggest shipping company.

This afternoon we got a big blow of an 8 BF with 36+ wind and waves of 4-6 meters. I reduced the mainsail to nearly nothing (about 1.5 m out on the boom) and had 3-4 reefs in the Genoa. This steadies the boat but it is a bit of a wild ride. We are passing an area with loads of oil wells and there are several traffic separation zones.

At 15:15, i.g. 24 hours after departing PE we have sailed about 200 NM, which is again fast and have 123 NM to Cape Angulah and 254 NM to CT. If we don’t stop in Simon’s Town - 50 NM S of CT - I will try to slow down so we can arrive in daylight. I will recalculate the ETA on Saturday after we have passed the Cape Angulah.

Saturday 02 February:

As mentioned earlier, this coast is Wild, to say the least. All the way from the Mozambique Channel, last year, to Richards Bay, Durban and PE and now CT has been a wild ride with continued low and high systems following each other with 2-3 days intervals. Since leaving PE we have had 30-40 kn wind and waves of 3-6 meters almost constantly. Our maximum speed has been 16.2 kn and the last 30 hours we have only sailed on the Genoa.

We will pass Cape Angulah in a couple of hours, but will not see it as the weather is too poor with rain and fog.

It is now 07:00 and we have 137 NM to CT and unfortunately it looks like we will arrive at night time so I might drop anchor to the N of CT, or try to slow down the boat.

Here at 17:30 we have had loads of strong wind, but it stopped blowing two hours ago and the wind dropped to almost nothing and it got very foggy. The reason was that the wind shifted to SW-S and the huge seas flattened quickly but soon started to build up from SW. We have now 20 kn SSW wind and it is great sailing again with all the sails rolled out and the speed is back to 7-8 kn. We have 73 NM to CT.

As we are nearing CT there are a huge amount of pods of Sea-lions and they are everywhere and I am surprised they are here about 20 NM from land. But they don’t get too close to us and seem shy as we get closer to them.

It is now very cold as we are in the Antarctic current, which I have not yet seen to be 10°, but have measured it to be 14°, which is a big drop from the 22-26° seen further N and in the Indian Ocean. But we are now out of the Indian Ocean and in the South Atlantic.

Sunday 02 February:

And it got even colder as the evening progressed. OK there is a small cold front passing and it should soon be gone, but I am surprised of the intensity of the cold and the sharp change.

The wind dropped completely at midnight and I had to start Volvo. We have 34 NM to CT.

At 06:15 we are almost at the CT port, with little wind from the west and very humid and foggy, but at least it has stopped raining. I have reserved a berth at the V&A Marina and entered the port at 07:30. Welcome to Cape Town, a town with 5 million inhabitants.