29/07/2012, Mozambique Chanel
I was not long home in freezing Cape Town when I received a call to deliver a small 38 foot catamaran from Richards Bay to Mahe, Seychelles. So, it was trying to get all my laundry done and pack my bags and off to the Zululand Yacht Club in Richards Bay with my first mate, Dylan Le Roux, who had been my first mate on a previous delivery of Ultima Life from Cape Town to Trinidad. I already had another young fellow, Richard van Leeuwen, waiting on the boat as my crew member. After a hectic few days of getting the boat ready for sea, we provisioned for the two week delivery and set off at noon on Friday 27 July.
The first 24 hours at sea was quite hectic, with high winds of up to 40 knots and very confused seas building to over 5 metres. We spent the first night with a handkerchief size foresail out and trailing a warp and chain to prevent us from surfing down the front of the quite steep waves. All went well and we retrieved our "drogue" at noon on Saturday.
At noon on Sunday we had made a good 149 nautical mile run since noon the previous day - not bad for a small boat! As I write this blog entry, we are out of the fast flowing current, which flows in a southerly direction here in the Mozambique Chanel, and heading for a waypoint just east of the reef Bassis de India. If we can keep a bit of speed up, we should arrive there on Wednesday and then head a bit further north to keep in the southerly winds blowing off the western coast of Madagascar.
I am hoping to reach Mahe on or before Friday 10 August. Keep an eye on the blog to monitor our progress. Regards for now from John, Dylan and Richard.
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27/07/2012, Richards Bay, South Africa
We arrived in London safely on July 5. The trip up the Thames River was really an experience and I managed to get our arrival in the delta timed quite well - just at the end of the ebb tide. We just made the river it's self when the flood tide started and we managed between 9 and 10 knots all the way to Tower Bridge - the fastest the boat had manages for the entire trip!
After a few days of cleaning and getting Ultima Life ready for the handover to the owner, the time arrived and off I was, via a very disrupted Heathrow airport, back to Cape Town.
My radio has now been properly repaired by Icom America and, hopefully, will give me a few more years of service. To check the system, this email is being sent off via the Winlink system. John.
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05/06/2012, St George's Harbour, Bermuda
We arrived safely in Bermuda and are in St Georges Harbour. Two days out of Fort Lauderdale my HF radio decided to pack-up and just be a passenger aboard Ultima Life. At the moment I am trying to send it to the US for repair and have it forwarded on to the boat in the Azores. Let's hope this plan works. It does mean that, unfortunately, there will be no further blog posts until it is repaired and back on board.
Bermuda is a fantastic place, this being my first time here. But, as we undertake some repairs and maintenance on board, the crew are fitting in a bit of exploring of the island. It is a pity that I do not have sufficient time to do some exploring myself.
As I type this we have the remnants of Tropical Storm Beryl passing as a very intense low, north of the island - the wind is blowing around 30 knots and gusting up to 40 knots! I did want to depart today but, if the low has not fully passed the island, we may remain another night to let the seas calm and leave tomorrow morning at first light.
I am actually quite busy at the moment and so this post is going to remain quite short. Thanks to all those who have emailed me and sorry for the break in posts once again. Regards from all aboard, John
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28/05/2012, North Atlantic
Yesterday at noon we departed Fort Lauderdale with the raising of the 17th Street bridge as we passed under. Then it was out the channel to sea. We were a week late in departing, due to tropical storm Beryl interfering with our plans. It really is a relief to finally be at sea. And nobody has been sea sick!
I used the fast flowing Gulf Stream to help us get north east and at 02:00 this morning we had covered the 100 nautical miles to my first waypoint north of the Bahamas. We have now turned east-northeast to our next waypoint just north of Bermuda. I put this waypoint into our route just in case we needed to make a stop in Bermuda to effect any repairs or take shelter from any storms.
Last night we had some spectacular electrical storms just to the north of us. Thank goodness our route did not take us into their path as the lightning was really wild and was striking the sea on a regular basis - certainly not something to get involved in.
For those not familiar with the blog, I try and post our position each day on a web site called Shiptrak. The link to the site is on the right of this page under the favourites column. Simply click it and it will bring up a map of the world with our latest noon position, marked with a red bubble. If you place your mouse on the bubble, it will give our position and a short message. I try to do the post after our local noon each day but, please remember that as we head east, our local noon changes as we get into new time zones.
At the moment we are out of the current and proceeding quite slowly, doing just over 5 knots. Ultima Life is not a fast boat, but she is quite comfortable. I will be trying to make a new blog post every four days and keep you updated on what has been happening on board. For now I bit you all well with regards from Zsofia, David, Mehmet and myself, John.
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20/05/2012, Fort Lauderdale
I wanted to depart Fort Lauderdale today but, we are still here. Our starboard engine has an oil leak and we have to wait for a Volvo mechanic to come down to the boat and do a proper service and repair to it. This, I have been informed, will only happen on Thursday, so we are stuck here for another few days. There is also a problem with one of the boats air conditioning systems, so Tim, the owner, is trying to get that sorted out as well while we wait for the engine mechanic.
So, what have we been doing, you ask. Well, we have provisioned the boat for the trip, so all food is stowed in the various lockers, fridges and freezers. We have also dived on the boat and replaced two sacrificial anodes and spent some time cleaning the underwater intakes, which had some pretty bad sea-life growing on them. We have also replaced the topping lift - a line that holds the boom up, and done a number of smaller repairs. We also have replaced three of the electrical bilge pumps and switches that we're faulty. All this is time consuming, especially in the hot and humid climate of Fort Lauderdale.
As I type this we are having our daily afternoon tropical thunder shower and, due to the heat, am slowly sipping a can of "re-hydrate" - known to most people as "beer". Then, I have to apply my mind in making the next decision - what are we going to have for dinner tonight? I will sign off, leaving myself to ponder this singular, but most important question.
Regards from Mehmed, David, Zsofia and myself, John.
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