22/10/2011, Luderitz, Namibia
Last Monday our water maker was repaired and the good ship Chez Patrick departed the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront marina at 13:45. Pat was under quite a bit of stress and it was a great relief when the lines were thrown off and we motored out of Cape Town harbour.
It was a bit unfortunate that we had been delayed for a couple of days, as our weather window was shortened - we had a coastal low off the Cape west coast which I knew would give us some head winds and a bit of a bumpy ride for a day or so. As it turned out, the winds were a bit stronger than anticipated and the seas a bit bigger as well. By midnight on Monday we were bashing into the seas, with things quite uncomfortable on board. Sherryl parked herself in her bunk and that was the last we saw of her until Wednesday afternoon, when the wind changed and conditions started settling down a bit.
During this unhappy period Pat and I decided to head for the Namibian port of Luderitz to take a short break and top up the fuel tanks as we had burnt off quite a bit of diesel motoring into the seas to keep the boat moving.
We arrived in Luderitz on Friday morning with a nice long-fin tuna in the freezer, which I had caught on the Wednesday morning, and tied up in the commercial harbour between two ships. The harbour was full of fishing boats getting ready for the main fishing season and, fortunately, the port control folk kept us well away from the fishing boats.
Luderitz is a small town that was originally formed around the diamond mining industry, where the first diamonds in the region were discovered, just outside town at a mine called Kolmanskop, which is now a "ghost town" and very expensive tourist trap. The small harbour services a fishing fleet, diamond diving fleet and cargo vessels that load up zinc from an inland mine about 300km away. Other than the above, the town is quite dead with a few restaurants, many places offering accommodation and a few shops. Sherry did a bit of shopping whilst the rest of us worked on a short list of "things to do" aboard Chez Patrick.
One of the problems we have on board is the brand new Bosch washing machine is giving error codes and stops working before completing its wash cycle. We have been onto technicians in Cape Town to try and solve the problem, but to no avail - it looks like we will be trying to get it going properly when we arrive in St Helena (and then most probably in Grenada too).
Last night we went off to a restaurant called "The Barrel", where I have been before, and had eisbein. I must admit that this is one of the best places I have come across for eisbein.
Well, in the morning we have the emigration officer due at 05:30 to stamp us out of Namibia, and then we will once again cast off our lines and head out to sea with our next stop being the south Atlantic island of St Helena, a 9 to 10 day sail from Luderitz. So, for now, cheers from Sherryl, Pat, Gareth and myself, John.
PS. The photo above is little Chez Patrick stuck between two ships on the commercial dock in Luderitz.
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Comments [4]
08/10/2011, V and A Waterfront, Cape Town
You most likely thought we had departed Cape Town and were "on the high seas". And that is just where we would have been if we had not found a serious problem with the water maker on board. On Friday we cleared out with customs and emigration and returned to the boat to prepare for the Saturday morning departure. We started up the water maker and noticed a leak on one of the valves. An hour later the Spectra agent, Bruce, was on the boat to tighten up the valve and noticed a leak on the high pressure pump. He stripped down the pump and found a serious break on the pump casing.
So, the long and short of the story is that a new casing is being flown to Cape Town by Spectra in the US and should be ready for installation first thing on Monday. The moment it is fitted and everything re-checked, we will cast off our lines and head off towards St Helena Island, a passage of 1699 nautical miles.
However, due to the delay, we may have missed our weather window and not be able to get far enough north before the next front approaches the southern African coast. If we see we will not be enough north and will be affected by the frontal system, we have the opportunity to head for the port of Luderitz in Namibia to wait out the front for a day or two and then continue to St Helena Island.
Due to the delay we also put off getting our final perishables on Friday. So, today being Sunday, the Davies family have been out doing the final perishables shop. Pat and I have been changing diesel filters on the engines and doing some last minute checks on the systems. We are now just waiting for the water maker to be properly commissioned and checked and we should be off on the first leg of our journey.
So, until we do cast off our lines, greetings from all aboard. John.
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08/10/2011, V and A Waterfront, Cape Town
I have been back in Cape Town for over a month now and slowly preparing the privately owned Chez Patrick, a Leopard 46, for delivery to Grenada.
On board will be myself, Pat and Sherryl Davies (the owners) and Gareth Davies. We are planning to depart on Saturday 15 October and having just had a look at the seven day forecast, the 15th looks good as a departure date. The planned route is from Cape Town to St Helena Island, where we will spend a few days, and then on to Prickly Bay, Grenada, in the southern Caribbean, a trip that should take six to seven weeks.
So, as we get closer to departure, I will post another update. Also, Sherryl should be keeping her blog running at the same time. It has just been formatted and thus it will take a bit of time to get it going "full steam". It will be found at: http://www.sailblogs.com/member/yachtletters/
Greeting for now - see you all in a few days time. John
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01/09/2011, The Caribbean Sea
I have been a bit lax in posting the final blog report for this delivery, but here goes.
We cut into the island chain and thus the Caribbean Sea, just south of the island of St Vincent. We had lost the current that was assisting us up the north coast of South America and were burning quite a bit of diesel to keep ourselves going and on schedule. However, we were low on fuel and I decided to pop into the company base located in a small lagoon on the south side of the island. So, at first light we entered the lagoon and tied up on the jetty. There was another delivery boat there, also making a quick stop for fuel. However, we took out a pack of sausage (for Dave - boerewors) and a pack of chops (for Dave - Karoo lamb cutlets) and the six of us had a true South African braai that evening.
At first light we were off again and able to sail with the wind just abaft of the beam - these boats love that wind. The next morning I came off watch at 06:00 and handed over to Byron and immediately hit my bunk. At 08:00 Byron woke me to let me know that he had picked up a mayday call on the VHF for, what he presumed to be a small fishing boat. There was one problem - he had no idea where the boat was as all the calling was in French. We were off the island of Guadalupe, which is one of the French islands. After about 15 minutes later the MRCC Guadalupe gave the position of the fishing boat in English and we realised were only six miles away. A very confusing time was spent on the radio to the MRCC - the person on watch did not speak very good English - and then we were asked to proceed to the location of the fishing boat and stand by them until the Guadalupe rescue boat arrived. So, what was wrong with the boat, you ask. It turned out to be a small ski boat with two persons on board, that had drifted 28 nautical miles offshore after running out of fuel the previous evening.
After waiting for six hours for the "rescue boat" to arrive, we again set sail and headed towards Sint Maarten. Let me explain that the "rescue boat" was just another fishing boat with a big outboard engine. What happened after we departed, I have no idea other than the knowledge that help had arrived.
So, we were delayed into Sint Maarten, but made it just after 10:00 the next morning. And we found Luke Tod, a fellow delivery skipper and his crew waiting to head off in a 38 foot cat, also for Tortola. Well, after a nice burger and chips, we departed St Maarten for the overnight motor-sail to Tortola. An hour later we had three members of the Dutch Coast Guard on board, having a chat and a quick inspection of the boat. Half an hour later they hit on Luke and were quite happy with his boat as well. As the sun rose in the morning we had Virgin Gorda in front of us and made for Spanish Town where we spent an hour legally doing the customs and immigration ritual and were in the BVI's. Two hours later we were tied up in Wickhams Kay and at the end of our deliver.
We fly home on Sunday morning, arriving back in Cape Town on Monday night - a long and tiring journey. So folks, that's it for this delivery - check back in mid October for the next delivery, which should be a lot more interesting. Thanks for reading my reports and regards from Wihan, Byron and myself, John.
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25/08/2011, North Atlantic
We are slowly getting to the Caribbean and this morning have only 750 nautical miles to go to Tortola. This being said, we are going quite slowly this morning, recovering from a really wild afternoon yesterday and through the night. Yesterday we had a slow build-up of really nasty looking storm clouds all around us with some heavy rain showers. Then, as night started, the lightning starts, the wind slowly changed direction from coming from aster, all the way round to dead on the bows. Then the wind picked up to over 20 knots and the heavens really opened up and it poured down.
The problem was the wind coming directly from where we wanted to go! This created some really nasty short and steep waves that we started to motor into. Not very comfortable! So, around 20H00 I decided to cut the engines, roll up all sail and just drift with the current and wind for a few hours. It was still not comfortable but the wind slowly dropped and shortly after 22H00 I re-started a motor and we slowly banged our way further towards our destination whilst the rain still came down in buckets. At midnight I handed over the watch to Byron and then he handed over to Wihan at 03H00. It was my turn again at 06H00 and I awoke to a flat sea, blue sky and only a couple knots of breeze out of the northwest.
So, at the moment we are motoring towards St Vincent - we may have to make a "pit-stop" there and purchase a few litres of fuel to get us to Sint Maarten and Tortola as this mornings GRIB file shows mostly motoring ahead. Also in this mornings download is an indication of a tropical depression developing near the Cape Verde Islands in the east Atlantic. This is the birth place of tropical cyclones or hurricanes, as they are called in the North Atlantic, and I do a twice a day download of the summary of tropical weather for the north Atlantic. If the depression does develop, I need to keep a constant watch on it and plot its track to ensure that we do not sail into its path at some stage.
We will start doing some cleaning and polishing of the boat on Saturday so that when we arrive in Tortola, most of the cleaning work has been done and we are free to do the final hand-over of the boat to the owners, relax a bit and then hop on a aircraft and start the long tedious journey back to Cape Town. But, until then, there is plenty to do. As soon as this report has been sent, I will be starting some baking - we need some fresh bread and I need to bake half a dozen bread rolls for our hamburgers tonight. So, for now, greetings from Byron, Wihan and myself, John.
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