The Aguhlas Current
08 October 2017 | 120 Miles South East of Cape Aguhlas
7:30pm Sunday 8th October 2017 ( UTC+2 ) The navigation program takes into account ocean currents and has sort of tried to steer me towards Durban to take advantage of the strong Aguhlas current flowing down the East coast of Africa, but each time I sort of overruled this. The last occasion was the gale of a few days back. The program had me close reaching across its full force but I chose the much more comfortable broad reach, downhill sailor as at heart I am. Anyhow I came across the current this morning as the sea bed rose from 2000 metres towards the Aguhlas Plateau of 200 metres and it gave a boost of at least three knots as I was close to averaging ten knots for much of the day. With calms and gales forecast in the days ahead I was anxious to get round the bottom of Africa as soon as possible so much playing around with sail combinations as the wind varied from a thrifty thirteen to a thunderous thirty three. ( The numbers were true, the descriptors mine). Yes, the wind machine was still going, until in one of these rain squalls the yacht rounded up, just a little and just a little shake of the mast but just enough to upset my new found friend and she packed it in. My heart plummeted. We had become to rely on each other. I was at a loss. Then I remembered a little trick Bill Gates taught me. Turn everything off. Make a cup of coffee. Restart. It worked! Only this time she would only say it in metres per second. Live and let love I say. If she wants to go all Continental I can live with that.