reports on the blog.To recap what we have been up to a few highlights.
Last week Friday Steven landed a 30kg plus longfin tuna,what the Japs
call the chicken of the sea.Dense white meat,suitable for all types of
tuna dishes.We had four different tuna dishes that day and three the
next day.Never had tuna like this before and suffice to say ,lucky fish
to have been enjoyed somuch in so many ways.
We kept a bit offshore during our run up the west coast,up to 50nm at
one point before we started curving in towards Walvis Bay.8am Sunday
morning we were tied to a mooring bouy close to the Walvis Bay Yacht
Club.Soon someone spotted us and whisked us ashore on a rubber
duck.There we met some guys who is attempting to break the world speed
record on water for a sailing vessel,www.rocketsail.com.We saw some of
there video clips and they got uo to 54kts at one attempt.Is it a plane
that can sail or is it a boat that can fly?
We then had a Sunday lunch at the yacht club which we also enjoyed
thoroughly.Afterwards the commodore ,Pete ,took us to town to get one or
two items we didn't get in Cape Town.On the spur of the moment he also
took us on a little scenic drive past the salt pans and miles of desert
beach all the way to Pelican Point,the lighthouse at the entrance to
Walvis Bay.Every now and then we found small groups of seals basking on
the beach.One could get an idea of the vastness of the Namib ,the oldest
desert in the world.It was quite an experience and the VW Amarok was
also impressive.
The next day we left at 8 am to look for the fuel jetty.What an amazing
sight to see the shipyards repairing all types of ships,a long line of
vessels of all shapes and sizes.It was a somewhat surreal sight and made
me think of all the souls that have worked on these ships and the
stories they coulkd tell ,the storms they have weathered ,the comradie
they have have formed.After some effort we eventually found the fuel
dock and proceeded to take on 4000 ltrs.At 3300 ltrs the tank ran dry
and we had to wait there the whole day for the tanks to be filled
again.At 6pm we were fuelled up ,water tanks full and ready to leave for
St.Helena.The weather was blowing about 30kts outside the harbour and
our grib weather files predicted that the strong weather will start
abating on Tuesday.
Another PC 47 arrived on Monday and tied up next to us for the
night ,always nice to spend some time with fellow mariners.Tuesday
morning we had all our fuel drums tied down and the boat washed down
thoroughly.We had to leave in a hurry as other boats were also waiting
to fuel up and soon we were on our way again.Just out of the harbour one
of our fuel drums spilled some diesel and we had to clean upand secure
the drums a bit better.We were all a bit tender and didn't eat much last
night.The sea was fairly rough and taking the swell from the beam had us
bobbing up and down and around a bit.At three this morning we altered
our course by 15 degrees to give us a slightly better angle to take on
the swell.It made a fair difference both in speed and comfort.We are
finding a good balance and being heavily weighted we are also taking it
slow.The swells gradually turning in our favour and at the moment we are
taking it on at about 45 degrees from behind.
We are hoping to reach St.Helena next week Wednesday and our position is
21*59'S and 012*32'E.
Until next time take good care.
Paul
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