Year 7 Day 285 Chillin' In Africa
13 October 2014 | At Linga Linga, Near Inhambane, Mozambique
Dave/Overcast In The Morning, Sunny In The Afternoon
It seems so surreal to me knowing that we have finally sailed our way around the world to arrive at the "Dark Continent of Africa". It has taken the better part of seven year of sailing to get here but we have finally made it. I am anxious to explore our anchorage but today was a rest day and a day to start some of the boat repairs which we wish to complete before pushing on to Richards Bay in South Africa.
To the music of "Out Of Africa", Mary Margaret and I enjoyed our rest time while we are waiting for the bad weather to arrive. While we were not visited today by any dugongs or dolphins, we did enjoying the songs of the birds and the elegant walk of the long legged egrets and herons along the shoreline.
Today's boat projects were working on the head sail and determining why the starboard engine will not turn off when one presses the stop button up on the helm. The never ending saga of the thread used to attach the Sunbrella to the head sail rotting away and causing the Sunbrella to separate from the sail continues. This time, three pieces had come loose and flapped in the wind as we sailed across the Mozambique Channel. I have repaired this problem on this sail three or four times already. The pieces that I have reattached using my 3M 5200 trick have held up great. It is those sections that I have not repaired that are slowly coming undone. I think that by the time we get to a place with a sail loft I will have sealed all of the Sunbrella with 5200.
Regarding the engine stop button, I discovered that the problem was not with the stop button. Instead, it is the engine stop solenoid that no longer works. This solenoid is activated on the engine itself when you press the stop button up on the helm. This is the "off" switch that turns the engine off. To turn off this engine during this last passage I would have to climb down onto the sugar scoop to open up the engine room hatch and then climb down into the engine room. Once there, I then had to press the emergency stop button on the engine to shut it down. I believe that I am just manually activating the engine stop solenoid by doing this. Normally, it is not a big deal but when I had to do it at night, with the winds howling and the waves bashing and the ocean climbing up the steps of the sugar scoop, it is a bit intimidating.
Late this afternoon another catamaran came into our anchorage. We do not recognize the boat so I am anxious to go over and introduce ourselves. However, I will wait to do this until tomorrow because I know how tired I am when I arrive at an anchorage after a long passage.
A check of the latest weather GRIB file still shows that the earliest we will be leaving this anchorage and heading off for Richard's Bay will be on the 19th. The 20th may be better still but both of these days are still so far away and things can change in the meantime. What we are waiting for are two lows that are predicted to blow by our passage route. The first one is there right now and by the 16th it will have cleared to the east. However, on the 17th, a second one is predicted to form right between us and Richards Bay. It is predicted also to move to the east and, with luck, with be far enough away by the 19th that we can continue our journey. If not, we should be able to leave on the 20th.