Cape Town to San Francisco

Once again I have the wonderful privilige to be out on the big blue.
Mission is to get to the Oakland Boatshow on time. The boat we are
sailing is a Leopard 44, and we will have to focus all the time to sail
as fast and as safe as possible if we want any chance to make the
boatshow. From Cape Town to Panama non-stop, a run of about 6500nm.Hoe
to crack that in 30 days or so. We can more or less determine how long
that should take us. The unknown factors are how long it will take us to
get through the Panama Canal, and then how long it will take us to get
up to San Francisco.

I am also fortunate enough to have very experienced sailors on board.
Myself we named the " Flying Dutchman ", Thibault whom I have done two
very tough deliveries before is now the " French Rocket ", and as 1st
Mate Stuart, the " Scary Scotchman ". Thibault flew in from France a few
days ago, and as a team we are going to give it our best shot.

Our team in Cape Town made huge efforts to get us out as early as
possible, and they did so in great fashion. Good to have the best team
in the world behind you. Our departure on Wednesday was abandoned an
hour or two out of Cape Town. We just passed Robben Island when I
decided to check my laptop......and it wouldn't boot. Start it and off
it goes, start again, and off it goes. I phoned Cape Town and made it
back in time to purchase a new laptop, have the data from my old one
transferred to the new one, and had to wait till the next day for Imtech
to load skyfile on my new laptop. Skyfile is the program we use to send
and receive emails via satphone. Thursday afternoon late all was set to
depart again, and at about 7pm we casted off. There was still an hour or
so daylight left, and wonderful to have radar on board. We had to dodge
a few ships on our way out, with an aggressive blow from behind, the
wind gusting up to 53kts. Once we were on our way I decided to send my
crew to bed and took watch from 7pm till midnight. Just to make sure we
are clear of any obstruction on our way out. Our watches are four hours
per day and three hour night watches.

We have a genikar as well. A genikar is a huge sail we fly when the wind
is not too strong, and a fantastic sail to make good miles. For stronger
winds we have an extra headsail. We use this sail in unison with our
genoa to create a safe twin headsail configuration that will spill some
wind if a strong gust or squall come through. On board we also have
1200ltrs of diesel to keep up the pace should we encounter some quiet
spells. As weather guru I once again have the honor of having my mom
sending me updated weather gribfiles every few days. She has been doing
it for many years, and at 75 years old this year, she rocks. Thanks Mom.

Currently our position is 32*31'S/16*13'E at 17h40 SA time. Our COG is
295*T or said in another way, we are sailing in a north westerly
direction. More west, expecting the wind to back a bit. Wind is a
steady 15kts South Westerly and on a close reach we are doing 7.5 to 8
kts. Full genoa and first reef in the main, not a cloud in the sky here
by us, good current, sailing smooth and fast enough for now. Total
distance we have to cover is just over 10 000nm.

We haven't cooked a meal yet, first finishing our bread and cold meats
on board. We normally do this for the first day or two at sea while our
sealegs settle. I'm not prone to seasickness and glad to see my crew are
also not to bleak in this department. Hope you have a nice weekend, and
will post our experiences out here as often as I can. Lots of miles
still to go, lots of fun ahead and lots of challenges.

Take care