Sailing around the World ( presently in Durban, South Africa )
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Tue 16 Nov 2010 07:45
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MONDAY 15th
NOVEMBER 2010
The night was dark, with a glow from the shore away
in the distance, The glow being the lights of all the little towns and resorts
along
the coast which was about 10 miles away to
the west.
The wind settled down, blowing from the North,
and steadily increased during the night , By dawn at 04.00hrs, the wind
was
in excess of 30 knots, so we had up our staysail
and had 2 reefs in the mainsail. The sea's had moderated by
now,
and we were having a pleasent sail... also
there was no sign of the leak in the port saloon window. so hopefully, we have
this sealed properly.
04.51 hrs, The blazing sun creeped up over
the eastern horizon, This is always a magical moment, looking at the solar
system
working its thing. However, it soon
dissapeared behind a big bank of cloud. and the weather began to deteriorate
again, but we are less than
25 miles from Durban,
" Tzigane " " Eowyn" & " Thor
V1 " were still beside us as we approached our destination, We radioed ahead
to - Durban Port Control -
and informed them of our arrival and permission to
enter Port. thats all 4 of us and the authorities were very pleasent
and helpfull.
We subsequently made contact with " Point YC " and
were directed to our berths on the Marina, the marina is a very
definatly in the need of some refurbishment. if not
a total replacment.
We were berthed alongside " Stealaway " , a
cat. that we last met in Mauritius. They helped us with our lines and it was
great to see them
again. They encountered some seriously bad
weather on route to here and had a large amount of damage to their structure
..
08.30hrs Once we were settled in, Aileen
cooked a big breakfast and this was duly swallowed down in a shot.
Neil and Aileen went to the club and got all the
paperwork out of the way , while skipper made a list of things that needed
attention,
The main items on the list were :- Fwd deck
light, spreader lights, ( None of these were now working ) .... the
A.I.S. the anchor
switches up at the Bow, ( as Fr. Terry would
say , "you mean up at the front end " ) The tricolour, we have
a 25 / 50 w - 24v L.E.D. bulb up there
on the top of the mast, and its range is very
limited. so we will put back a 25w - 24v standard bulb , so we can be seen
again from a distance.
thats like 6 miles at least.
10.30hrs We wandered up to town , well the
nearest part of town and called on Tony Herrick,, Tony has written all the books
on cruising the coast
of Africa, plus one covering the trip from Cape
Town to Brazil, We purchased some of these books, and he explained how the
weather works down
here on this part of the coast,
Facinating stuff, Of course this guy has sailed around the
World a few times over the years. so
he knows a thing or two about the sea.
There is a big race from Cape town to Brazil every
2 years, and would be like the A.R.C. a very big event, and its on again
this year , starting
next January, about the same time as we leave there
for brazil.......
Its fantastic to see and meet all these sailors,
and skipper is stunned by the amount of long distance sailing done all over the
world
by people of every age,
From the 20 year olds doing the "Mini
Transit" single handed race, from - La Rochelle - in France
to Brazil , in their 21' sailboats ( 6.5 m )
to the old jossers like ourselves, permenantly at
sea, mentally and physically......... sailing in every
direction,
Its definatly a desease.
We have made contact with Robin Clapham ,
thats Kevin Dwyers first cousin who lives in Cape Town, It will be
interesting to meet him
when we arrive there, as we heard so much about him
from Kevin while he sailed with us for 2 months at the start of the
event..
Later , Skipper met the electrician / electrical
man, and he quickly sorted out the tricolour, the A.I.S. the Fwd deck light and
the
spreader lights, ( Cross tree lights ,
) we also met the rigger , who will sort out the spinniker halward ( Fr
Terry,, the rope for hauling up
the spinniker ) So , all in all,
things seem to be working out quickly, and we hope to move onto
either " East London " or " Port Elizebeth
" in 2 days time .....Wednesday. It looks like we
may get a 3 day weather window,
"Weather window" is a period of
time where the weather is suitable to make a passage, or at least will not be
so unsuitable as to be dangerous.
18.00hrs...........
We all put on out best clothes, well you know on a
boat, jeans and shoes,
Skipper and Neil strolled up to the Yacht
Club and had a couple of beers , there we met people who have
been to Ireland
and we had a great laugh, before Aileen joined us and off we went by
taxi to the " Revolving restaurant" this was located on the top of the
highest building in Durban, The views were spectacular and much better
than the food,
We also found the waiters very cheeky. and demanded a tip. this is very
unusual, as tip's are not common in S.A.
22.00hrs , we got a taxi back to the marina, and
had an early night, as we basically had little or no sleep last
night.
thats all for now,
Signed :- Stephen Hyde, ( Skipper
)
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