Betwixt

 Sad to leave St Helena Island but eager to continue the big ocean crossing and experience the trade winds, we headed west sailing into the sunset.  The trade wind latitudes have a gentle steady wind, usually 15 knots with occasional gusts of up to 25 knots.  The wind was mostly behind us so we sailed goosewing;  Genoa on one side and the Mizzen on the other.  This was surprisingly uncomfortable with the boat keeling from side to side every two seconds.  But I think the boat looked beautiful, white sails stretched out like wings! The days and nights were mostly cloudy.  All alone in our small boat in the big blue ocean with absolutely nothing else in sight nor on the AIS.  When the clouds finally broke towards the end of the journey the night sky was magnificent and sitting outside on my watch I could chase the stars. This trip took 19 days.  It was physically exhausting.  The broken sleep as we did four hour watches; the  continuou...

 Charming, quaint, old world, friendly Saints, beautiful unreal landscape.  St Helena is a great pit stop in the Atlantic ocean. Jamestown is the centre of activities with benches strewn around for locals to sit and watch the world go by.  The town is two streets wide, uphill.  Jacob's Ladder with its 699 steps is the visible backdrop. There are 21 hikes on the  island.  Lucky to have done two of them.  One to Stone Top to watch the weekly plane land;  flight was cancelled due to fog, but great views nevertheless.  Second hike to Lot's Wife's Pond and a swim and lunch at the ponds. Ready to leave again.  Time to pull up the anchor, all 100m of it,  by hand.  We had to repair the mizzen mast which developed a crack.  Made a few blocks.  This is why John has a bandsaw on the boat.   1900 nm to Salvador.   Sailing in the trade winds which should be gentle and constant.  See you soon Brazil. Lot's...

 How to prepare to cross an ocean on a 35 ft home built yacht.  We have done the work to the best of our knowledge.  Completely off the grid, producing energy with the sun, and harnessing the wind to move us along.  Time to trust our own good judgement, and John's weather reading skills!  Coming up was a week of fairly strong southerly wind and a week of gentle south easterly trade winds;  this will take us to St Helena in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. The first week turned out to be very strong wind, gusting often, and rough sea swells.  Gale force wind arrived on the second day with waves breaking over the cockpit pouring into the cabin.  One breaking wave carried my potted herb plants which were tucked safely in the dodger, into the cabin, slamming them against the side above the chart table.  Wet black organic potting soil everywhere, over everything.  We were moving at max speed of 6 knots with a reefed jib, rolling from side to...

 A new boat chore is to clean some of the algae growing just below the water line, and looking very edible, like frilly leaf lettuce.  I drew the short straw.  On a nice sunny day, quite rare this time of the year in Cape Town, in my new wetsuit, I dipped into the murky harbour water armed with a spatula and a scourer.  John floated fenders around the boat for me to hold on to as I worked scraping the green growth and barnacles off.  We paid professional divers to do this in Richards Bay;  they made it look easy Cape Town was the last stop which would have any supplies or spares needed for our the boat until we reach Brazil.  It was also the last place where we had to make sure that we had everything in order to leave South Africa and the safety of land and shops.   What have we forgotten to do! One can never have enough spares.  It took a couple of weeks to source a spare alternator.  The fitting of the reverse osmosis water maker ...

 The view from the porthole making coffee in the morning is of Table Mountain.  Pinch me. Life on a small boat moored at the Royal Cape Yacht Club, which is in the very busy Table Bay Harbour of Cape Town, continues.  Tested the solar panels and worked on how they will be mounted onto the stern pulpit.  This will have to be trial and error as we go.  Being a ketch, we can have a lot of sail up.  The watermaker is the big challenge, but other yachties have told me they survive on rainwater.  Wash and do washing only when it rains.  No. On our voyage down the SA coast we made notes on problems encountered;  we need to fix this, we need to waterproof that.  Sometimes a solution is still to reveal itself.  So daily life involves making something new, fixing something, maintaining something, and cleaning something.  The reward is landing in a beautiful place with a view. Table Mountain as a backdrop. Fixing something, again Scary se...

 A month resting in Simonstown and time to cast off, before algae grows on the bottom of the boat.  In between the punishing winds that blew through this area this month, we worked on small jobs and bought all the parts and spares needed to finish the boat.   Every task takes longer on the boat, up to three times longer, so still work to be done when we get to Cape Town.  Worked on the engine alternator, the seawater pump, the solar panel, and made some oars for the dinghy. Friends and family visiting us, here in Simonstown and back at Richards Bay, has been appreciated.  Sister Sue flew here from the UK with an AIS transponder insisting that we needed one.   Hope we continue meeting up.  This is a small world. Our YOU and Huisgenoot magazines feature   Making the dinghy oars from Ash, on the walkway In rope heaven, 100m of braided rope for the sea anchor.  Hope we never have to use it!   One foggy morning One windy morning Fam...

The wind turned to blow gently south again.  We headed off escorted out the East London harbour by a pod of dolphins.  Up went the genoa and we sailed fairly easily with Hiero the self-steering windvane to assist.  The sea swells kept us watching our own balance, five points of contact all of the time as the boat rolled from side to side. At nightfall it started to drizzle and the clouds made it dark and hazy. This coastline was busy with ships due to the problems in the Red Sea.  Next a ship came barrelling down alongside us from behind.   I had that sinking feeling as I pushed the tiller hard away.  The monstrous bulk carrier churned silently passed us throwing a wave of water over us. That was close. Day time watches are a lot easier;  it does help if you are not sleepy.  The next night watch was in moon light, so much better.  Ships passing us seemed more considerate giving us a wide berth.  The following night was even easier a...