Year 7 Day 280 Passage to Richards Bay, Day Three: We Got Rhythm!
08 October 2014 | 900 nm NE Of Richards Bay
Dave/Partly Cloudy
Very early this morning, as it was predicted, the winds finally died, the seas mellowed and we turned on one of the engines and pretended we were a motor yacht. Believe me, after the bashing we did at the start of our channel crossing, neither of us was complaining.
As we got closer and closer to the Mozambique coast we slowly, ever so slowly, started feeling the effect of the current that we were looking for. The width of the Mozambique current runs from the start of the continental shelve to about 35 to 50 miles offshore. Thus, we had to get at least that close to shore to get into the current.
When we motor with one engine on at just 1800 RPMs we usually make 4.3 knots. Since our speedo is not working properly, our chart plotter does not show the current direction and speed accurately. To know that we were catching the current, we had to watch our SOG the GPS gives us on the Chart plotter and when it starts to increase, we would know that we were beginning to catch the current. It seemed forever before we saw the SOG indicator slowly adding tenths of a knot to our speed. It took about 4 hours before we were getting 2 knots of current and we knew we were riding it toward Richards Bay.
As we were motoring along waiting for the wind to kick back in we were surprised to be hailed on our VHF radio by Dave and Peggy of SV Rhythm. They were about 3 nm behind us and saw us on their AIS plotter. We did not see them because they only receive AIS, they don't have a sender unit.
It was great to hear them since the last time we were together was last May in the Chagos. As we talked I shared with Dave that I was not getting a good Iridium signal and was not getting my weather information. He suggested that it may be the phone's antenna and that I should check it out. Well, guess what? Dave was right!!!! Apparently, all the bashing we had a couple of days ago knocked the antenna connection loose and once I retightened it, I was getting 5 bars of strength again. Yea! I owe Dave a beer for that suggestion.
The winds stayed nil until around 1500 when they slowing came up again but this time they were coming from the NE. This is the main reason we chose this weather window because these winds should stay with us for a number of days and with the assist we get from the Mozambique current, we should be able to make great speed while doing some nice downhill sailing. By 1600 we were making 8.3 knots of speed going wing and wing with a reef in the main. We always sail at night with a reef in just in case a squall comes along and since it was so close to the evening we just set the reef in when we raised the mainsail.
If the weather reports are correct, we hope to have at least three days and maybe more of this wonderful downhill sailing with a boost from the current.
At 1800 our position is 16 21.350'S:040 33.610'E, our course is 232 degrees true, our SOG is around 8 knots. The wind is from the NE at 9.5 knots apparent. The seas are very mild. We have about 900 nm to go and we have gone 430 nm so far on this passage with an average speed of 5.4 knots.