Still In Port Elizabeth
11 May 2009
John
As you will gather, the weather that we expected originally on Tuesday, then Wednesday, then ????day, was delayed! So, we are still sitting at the Algoa Bay Yacht Club waiting for the cold front to reach Port Elizabeth so that we can climb on its back with a good westerly blow. And blow it appears it will as the predictions are for 45 knots at 35 degrees south but only 25 knots at 33 degrees south for next week - guess we will be sticking to 32 to 33 degrees south as we make our easterly. However, thank goodness we are already in Port Elizabeth as the wind, this weekend, is predicted to be in the region of 50 knots out of the west off Cape Agulhas!
So, what are we doing? Well, as the youngsters say, we have been "chilling". I recon that us old sods call it, diplomatically, "very little". We have been doing quite a bit of reading, listening to music, tweaking the electronics on the boat and other non-stressful jobs. Basically, we are all ready to throw off the lines and head east after topping up our water tanks. In the evenings we have been having a braai on the yacht club lawns as it is cheaper to cook that way than make use of the local restaurant.
Today (Wednesday 13 May), I hired a small car so that Luke, Yoni and I could drive to Addo and see the elephants. From the above photograph you will gather that we saw plenty of them together with a host of buck, warthogs, one wildebeest and, remarkably, one magnificent lion having his midday snooze under a thorn tree. It was a fun trip as I have never been to Addo. Renier is staying with his brother, who lives in Port Elizabeth, and will only be returning to the boat on Thursday afternoon.
Now let's get back to the weather. Today's prediction still has us departing on Friday but we need to track north a few degrees to miss some of the storm force winds. It appears that it will be a rough first four or five days so I need to keep a constant watch on the weather forecasts to ensure we are far enough north.
Well, that's the news from Moorings A1095 - a further blog report when we head out to sea from Port Elizabeth. Regards from the gang - John.