Hugh
11/07/08, Jacare, Brazil

So we crossed the Atlantic........now what....Well now I am back in Angola doing another stint of work, I arrived back yesterday, 10th July and will be here until the 7th August. We are planning on staying in Brazil for my next hitch off work, so will not be moving the boat. We hope to do some tours around Brazil, would like to see Rio and Salvador. But for now I would like to add a few photos from where we left off in Namibia.
The crossing went off well but I did feel a lot of pressure with our arrangement of Work/Sail which was not always enjoyable. We were getting to one stage, in Namibia, where we were within a week of calling it all off for this year as we were being delayed with bad weather in the Atlantic, which we were told was so unusual for the Atlantic. But we got away ok from Luderitz, yet in fog. The seas between Luderitz and St Helena were very uncomfortable, we kept on wondering if we were crossing the correct ocean, as the Atlantic is supposed...to be the easiest.....well after 14 days and on my birthday, we arrived in St Helena, the last 2 nights were the worst. After 5 days in St Helena, after lots of rain, we said our goodbyes to St Helena and we set course for Brazil. We wanted to stop off at Ascension Island but because of our schedule......we had to miss it. Then on this leg we had some of our best sailing ever, we had about 10-12 days of steady winds where we never touched our sails or the windvane, and Pizzazz just sailed along on her own, we caught a nice big fish, after only seeing dead flying fish on the deck every morning up till then, so it was very welcome at that stage. But after 17days, we saw land on the other side, our last 2 day/nights we had a lot of rain squalls which made things interesting again. We motored up the river to Jacare where we anchored and were quite pleased with ourselves.

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Hugh
01/07/08, Jacare, Brazil

Well we arrived in Brazil on Sunday, (think 30th June!!). Internet was a problem in St Helena, so could not update the blog. We sailed for 14 days from Luderitz to St Helena, stayed for 5 days and then sailed straight through to Jacare, Brazil, which took 17 days. So we are both well and now busy organising our trip back and a safe place for Pizzazz. So keep checking, will update blog with more info and photos soon.

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Hugh
23/05/08, Luderitz

Well the weather looks good to leave tomorrow, Saturday 24th May, checking out today Friday and sailing for St Helena, so could be a while before we are available again.....

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15/05/08, Luderitz

Typical Luderitz scenery......

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Hugh
15/05/08, Luderitz

Pizzazz moored in very different surroundings

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Hugh
15/05/08, Luderitz

Our mooring in front of the Luderitz Yacht Club

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Hugh
15/05/08, Luderitz

This is sailing into Luderitz on emergency tiller steering, and fog....and very cold........lots of fun.......

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Hugh
15/05/08, Luderitz

We passed Cape Town early the next morning with no wind, so had to do quite a bit of motoring.

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Hugh
15/05/08, Luderitz

Leaving Simonstown with a wind from the front, so had to tack to get out of False Bay. We rounded the Cape Point just as it was getting dark.

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Hugh
15/05/08, Luderitz

Well we are still stuck in Luderitz, the weather is just not playing the game.....we are waiting for favourable weather but it seems like we have left it too late in the year. We have been given a 35-40 knot wind forecast on our route to St Helena and may have to sit for another week or so. will keep you posted.

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Hugh
08/05/08, Luderitz

Well we were on our way to St Helena when we got news of a front that would affect us, so after 4 days of sailing towards St Helena, we change our course for Luderitz. It was a difficult course as we were in a gale at the time and got news to run from a worse gale. We had to cross the SE winds and SW swell, so was very uncomfortable, the seas were the biggest we had seen before. Things carmed down as we got closer to Luderitz but it got very...very cold and also sailed into mist. But on our 6th day we approached Luderitz harbour and eventually picked up a bouy in front of the yacht club. We have enjoyed our stay here and are hoping to leave on the weekend 10th/11th, but weather permitting. I tried to load photos but the system here cannot handle it so will have to load another time, Thanks for all the e-mails and messages and we will keep in touch, chow for now. Hugh & Glyn

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Hugh
27/04/08, Simonstown - Cape Town

So the day has finally arrived for us to sail away into the sunset. We have had a busy week preparing and final provisioning. We had a few problems sorted and others that surfaced as well. So we are hoping to sail away at about 1 to 2 o'clock today the 27th, and everything going well we should hopefully arrive in St Helena in about 2 weeks or so, we have decided to give Luderitz a miss, as we are leaving a few days later than we wanted to, so until St Helena, cheers to all.

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Hugh
16/04/08, Simonstown - Cape Town

Well the time has come for us to start thinking of leaving, I am on my last day of work 16th April, for the next 12 weeks and looking forward to getting out of here and onto Pizzazz in Cape Town. We should be back on Pizzazz on Saturday, to do our last bit of preparation for our departure for Brazil. We have hired a car for a few days to speed up the process. We hope to complete everything that is required and then leave before next weekend, 26th April.
Our planned route from here is still to sail up the coast towards Luderitz, Namibia, stay there for a few days to rest and do last diesel, water and provisions for the crossing to St Helena.
We will hopefully do a last entry before we leave Simonstown, next week some time, so until then......

Route plan

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Hugh
26/03/08, Cape Town

A shot of the mountain range around Table Mountain from Signal hill.....

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Hugh
26/03/08, Cape Town

This is a shot from Signal Hill, of Table Bay with the famous Robben Island in the distance......

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Hugh
26/03/08, Simonstown-Cape Town

A view from the moorings of False Bay Yacht Club......

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Hugh
22/03/08, Simonstown-Cape Town

So with quite a few jobs off the list, we are just about ready, some final packing and tying up to do when we arrive again on the 19th April. We have had a great time in Simonstown, the Club has been great and am pleased we decided on going to Simonstown. The picture is the Simonstown waterfront as seen from the bow of Pizzazz, the house just below the house on the hill with the green roof........is our new friends, Ralph & Pats house, so can imagine the great view from there...

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Hugh
22/03/08, Simonstown-Cape Town

We were also lucky to be in town for the Navy Festival weekend. There were German Navy ships visiting and doing practice operations with the South African Navy. Saturday night they were shooting flares into the bay and firing rounds with tracers, so was quite a noisy weekend but a great weekend with canons firing through out the day, sounded like a war going on......

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Hugh
22/03/08, Simonstown

On the 9th March we had the Argus Cycle race come through town and was very festive and a beautiful morning weatherwise, not a breath of wind and clear sky's

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Hugh
22/03/08, Simonstown-Cape Town

We met some great new friends and we also had some great old friends visiting as well. Our friend Peter from the yacht "Ianda" who we met in Richards Bay, was there and also checked on Pizzazz when we were away, which we were very greatful for. We met George & Colleen from the yacht "Affirmation" who we had some great evening with and helped us tremendously with transport and tours around Cape Town. We also met Ralph, Pat & Maureen, Ralph & Pat are resident in Simonstown and Pat's sister was visiting from Wales, super people and also had great evenings with them and thank them for a great...uninvited braai at their house with an excellent view of the bay. We also had friends Pam And Graham visiting from Hondurus, who also took us around on a tour and to visit other friend, Gerry & Yvonne in HoutBay and then we had our great friends Francois & Mads visiting and giving us more tours of Cape Town, so a great time was had by all.....

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Hugh
22/03/08, Simonstown-Cape Town

And then he had to rest for the evening.......

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Hugh
22/03/08, Simonstown

We had 3 to 4 seals roaming the walk-ons day and night, but we had one that used to consantly catch his or her fish at night, right next to our boat. The walk-on light attracts the fish and the fish attracts the seal. While sleeping at night we would wake up with him bumping & pushing against Pizzazz. We offen sat before we retired, watching him catch these fish. This spot attacted many spectators, sometimes 5-6 people standing watching....

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Hugh
22/03/08, Cape Town

After arriving back in SA from another stint in Angola, Glyn & I had a great breakfast with my father & brothers in Pretoria on the Saturday morning and then spent Saturday night with Glyn's sister Di, for her birthday. On the Sunday we flew down to Cape Town. We spent just short of 4 weeks on Pizzazz, preparing her for her crossing to Brazil and also just chilling out. We decided to work in the mornings and then play in the afternoons, False Bay Yacht Club has a really great setting....when the wind does not blow.........

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10/02/08, Simonstown-Cape Town

Able Seaman Just Nuisance, R.N.
Great Dane - Great Friend "Just Nuisance", as the dog was to become known by, was by all accounts born on Thursday, 1st April 1937 in Rondebosch, a suburb in the south peninsula of Cape Town.
At an early age, the pup was sold to a Benjamin Chaney who moved to Simon's Town to run the United Services Institute (USI). The USI was frequented mainly by the Royal Navy sailors - The Royal Navy at that time being in charge of the Simon's Town Naval Base. This Great Dane soon grew to be a massive dog and it was here in Simon's Town that he was to become a legend.

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Hugh
10/02/08, Simonstown-Cape Town

A view of the main street in Simonstown

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Hugh
01/02/08, Simonstown-Cape Town

Crew - Peter & Mandy

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Hugh
01/02/08, Simonstown-Cape Town

Crew - Di

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Hugh
01/02/08, Simonstown-Cape Town

Crew- Hugh & Glyn

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Hugh
01/02/08, Simonstown-Cape Town

View of the Club House.....

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Hugh
01/02/08, Simonstown-Cape Town

View from the club house...

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Hugh
01/02/08, Simonstown-Cape Town

All safely tied up...........the wind did not stop for 5 days.....chafed through 3 ropes in 3 days.......

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Hugh
01/02/08, Simonstown-Cape Town

The emergency tiller worked very well, but by this time, we did not know at the time, but people were recording 58 knots on the moorings. As we approached the yacht club, we were protected by the Naval base harbour wall, before rounding directly into the wind....towards the mooring. Pizzazz moved on very slowly, but we noticed an empty mooring, just where we needed one, so we headed straight for it, luckily there was help waiting on the mooring, but could only get on with a second attempt. Once safely on the mooring, we were all relieved....but also very happy that Pizzazz had done so well and we were all ready for a cold beer.

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Hugh
01/02/08, Simonstown

So with Simonstown just 15 miles away, entering Valsbaai, Pizzazz was closing in very quickly, with the SE wind still blowing 20-25 knots and the seas up about 3-4 meters, Pizzazz surfing on every swell. We just had Roman rock with in our sights, when we noticed that we had lost our hydraulic steering, I switched from hydraulic to manual steering, so had to install our emergency steering tiller, I then went and topped up the hydraulic fluid but did not need much so this was not the problem, I then checked our hydraulic rams in the aft cabin bunk and then thought we had sheered a bolt, so we had to then plan our entry into Simonstown Yacht Club............

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Hugh
01/02/08, Simonstown-Cape Town

Once the SW had blown itself out and the wind moved to more Southerly and then South Easterly, we had another 100 odd miles to cover. By the morning of the 24th Jan, the SE wind had really picked up and with it the seas as well. Pizzazz was handling this very well and we were all happy to see all the mountains of the cape ahead of us. Beck's, our windvanes was a real treat, he was steering like a real champion...

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Hugh
01/02/08, Simonstown-Cape Town

By the time we were passing Mossel Bay, we heard there was a weak, 12 knots SW wind at Cape Agulhas so we decided to continue on, as we were sailing along quite comfortably at that stage. Our new Autohelm autopilot decided to stop working so we were sailing with "Becks", our windpilot steering. As we approached Cape Agulhas, the wind did change to SW, but were sailing quite comfortably in to it, until we noticed some water coming into the forward heads, by the time we noticed it we had to spring into action, so turned Pizzazz around and then decided to hove to, to keep the water off the bow, we eventually pumped the bilge dry and then investigated the cause. We found that we had fitted a electric windlass (anchor winch) to the bow, and where the chain entered through the anchor locker, there was a big hole for the chain, and the anchor locker was not draining quick enough, so the locker filled and the water entered through this hole, so we covered the anchor locker with plactic bags and cloths, as best we could, and decided to hove to until the SW wind changed to more southerly or easterly, which took about 30 hours of hove to......

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Hugh
01/02/08, Cape Town

We had some wonderful sunsets..........much to Di's delight

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Hugh
01/02/08, Cape Town

When we left Richards Bay we had a very weak SE wind so had to do a lot of motoring, once in the current it gave us a very comfortable boost. We passed Durban after 12 hours and were happy to be continuing on to East London. Finally after about 24 hours we got about 15 knots of NE wind and with the main & a poled out genoa, we were moving along nicely in about 4 knots of current.

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Hugh
01/02/08, Cape Town

So we finally got to start our voyage. When I arrived at the boat on the 11th Jan, Glyn & Di had got Pizzazz ship shape for her trip and we had a few final things to organise and load. Everything just fell into place, we had a spinnaker pole, Windvane and a garage that we did not know what to do with and within 2 days, all was sold, so we were pleased with that. Although it took a week to get going and say all our goodbyes, we were very fortunate to have our friend Gunter around, as he was a great help to us in our final moments and appreciate all the help he gave us, Jenny in the office was also a great help in getting our garage sold in such short notice, thanks Jen. So the weather window arrived that we were looking for, as we wanted to get past Durban at least, so on Thursday the 17th Jan we let go the mooring lines and Pizzazz was on her way..........Bye-bye Zululand Yacht Club.......thanks for some fantastic friends & memories!!!

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Hugh
03/01/08, Richards Bay, South Africa

Well we are one week away to me arriving back at Pizzazz and being ready to leave. Glyn & Di (Glyn's sister) are leaving Joburg tomorrow on the bus for Richards Bay. They are going to be doing a few last bits & pieces preparing Pizzazz for her first leg of her voyage.
We are hoping to sail from Richards Bay to Port Elizabeth or further, we are hoping to at least miss Durban. I will be weather watching next week and we will see how we get on, so until then.....

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Hugh
10/12/07, Richards Bay, South Africa

Amazing what a boat can take!!!

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Hugh
10/12/07, Richards Bay, South Africa

So Pizzazz is back on the water. Glyn & I returned from our check in to Oz & then had to make sure Pizzazz got into the water and all the provisions loaded. We enjoyed our stay in Oz, was busy as we were doing enquiries for a home for Pizzazz when we arrive there. We could not find exactly what we were looking for, we also looked at properties. So now that Pizzazz is all packed and ready to go we are getting excited about leaving. We have had to do all our safety inspections for going foreign, done as well. While we were in Oz, Pizzazz was broken into while on the hard. When we received the call, we expected the worst but when we arrived on Pizzazz, we were "happy" that only cash & booze was taken and nothing else. Anyway, when I return to South Africa on the 10th Jan, we hope to sail off to Cape Town as soon as possible, so until then....

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Hugh
20/10/07, Richards Bay

Well we eventually got Pizzazz onto the hard for her final inspections and bottom painting. We have got a bit of work on the hull and rudder, we are also having our SAMSA Inspection done for going international. Unfortunately Glyn & I will not be doing the work on the boat as are running out of time, so have had to organise help while we can concentrate on other items still to be done.

We have to fly out to Oz on the 4th November to validate our visas for Oz, and then plan on returning to launch Pizzazz again, and then start loading all our supplies. Glyn is doing all the shopping and should be ready to transport to Richards Bay by the 22nd Nov.

I have to return to Angola for work, and will be working over Christmas and New Year this year.
We are still on track to leave Richards Bay mid January and to leave Cape Town mid April.

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Hugh
28/06/07, Richards Bay

Well we finally got away from Durban, we waited for some favorable weather, for the past few days there have be strong SW winds blowing and 5 meter swells. Eventually the report came through that the seas were dropping. We waited until about 09h00 and then motored out towards the harbour entrance. As we turned to enter the channel we were amazed at the site of the sea outside, the breakers were rolling across the entrance. We had second thoughts about leaving but eventually continued, we were lucky as we caught a wave before it broke but we were still put on our side, we were motoring and the swell out there must have still been between 4-5 meters and not a lot of wind.

After about an hours motoring, the seas began to drop and funny enough, the wind picked up to about 15-18 knots, and we could now sail along. The motion improved with some sail up and we were eventually on our way. It was still a rolly sea, but we were sailing. The SW wind blew nicely until about 20h00 when we had to put the engine on again, we motored for about 2 hours until the land breeze arrived. The land breeze came in at about 15 knots, but brought with it the cold from the land, we got very cold out there, sitting in the cockpit with jackets and blankets wrapped around us. But Pizzazz was sailing along nicely, with the seas really flattening out.

The land breeze blew us happily into Richards Bay early morning, but without incident. As I got permission from the tower to enter harbour, the alternator belt broke, luckily everything was on hand and got a new one installed, without the tower noticing there was a problem, so we were back in Richards Bay again after being away for 5 months, and great to see all our friends again.

So now we have a garage to empty, deck to prepare and paint, water tank to do last clean out and arrange for Pizzazz to be taken out onto the hard. We plan on taking her out for 3 months (Aug/Sep/Oct). In November we will re-launch and start loading with provisions for the start of our first leg in January 2008.

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Hugh
23/04/07, Durban

Well, we are still in Durban and enjoying it, but will have to make a move back to Richards Bay in May. We have still been doing a few projects in preparation for the big trip. We completed installing a new track on the mast and now can also store our Spinny pole up against the mast. Glyn & I did some more clearing out of lockers, it is amazing what gets collected, I found our problem with our pressurized water, so now can have a decent shower on board. We had to re-bleed the hydraulic system as found the steering was not reacting as it should, after the replacement of all piping, but then found another leak on the hydraulic pump, which was serviced last month, so that will have to now be done before returning to Richards Bay. We also had some starting problem, so replaced the solenoid, we still had the problem, so had to remove the started motor AGAIN, as seemed like the culprit, we had it re-checked and I re-installed it, we also replaced the +ve & -ve cables onto the started motor and now we are all up and running again. We have delayed and delayed our return to Richards Bay, because we have enjoyed our stay and with a few problems still occuring, it is convenient in Durban to get things done compared to Richards Bay. So the plan is anytime from the 21st May, we will be sailing back to Richards Bay.

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Hugh
24/02/07, Durban

We completed 99% of all work before leaving Pizzazz in Durban for another 4 weeks. We plan on returning on the 23rd March, when we should be ready to look for weather patterns for our return trip to Richards Bay

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Hugh
24/02/07, Durban

Well after all the work we have done so far and past years dreaming of doing our first shakedown, we have done it and are very pleased with how it went. We still now have a lot of work to be done in Durban but at least the boat is sailable.
After organising a mooring, which were very pleased with, we got quite comfortable and started planning all the work to be done. We invited people to supply quotes on sun covers for the boat, sail repairs and stainless steel to be done. Peter our friend, started planning his work which was to replace all the hydraulic steering copper tubing with new hydraulic hose, new gas lines, new hot water geyser installation, new spinnacker track on mast and a few other odds and sods.
I returned to work and 3 weeks later we were back on the boat and progress had been slow so we could not leave for Richards Bay until all work was complete. I chased up the sun covers and sail repairs, which were promised to be completed and were still outstanding. Hydraulics & Gas lines were all installed and complete. We removed the starter motor and sent in for servicing, checked the solenoid. We also installed a new alternator because we were battling to keep the batteries charged with our existing system with the fridge running. Well while we were there we completed a lot of other jobs on the list, but the covers were holding us up from sailing back to Richards Bay, so we eventually had to decide to leave the boat in Durban for another 4 weeks while I returned to work.

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Hugh
24/02/07, Durban

Arriving with 30knots blowing, still pleasant sailing with it from behind

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Hugh
24/02/07, Durban

Enjoying the sail

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Hugh
24/02/07, Durban

Leaving Richards Bay

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Hugh
13/01/07, Richards Bay

Well we arrived at the boat on the 9th Dec all eager to get the boat prepared and ready to go to Durban after the new year party. Peter a friend, arrived on the 11th Dec, as he is helping us with certain items to speed up our progress.

After a week of hard work and very hot weather, Peter was ready to return to Durban for Christmas and new year. Glyn and myself still had a few items to prepare before we could relax but we also wanted to go out sailing.

So eventually we got to do some sailing in the harbour before Glyn's sister Di arrived for the trip down to Durban. Another friend Stone also arived and we were all happy to go out and do some sailing in the harbour and offshore, but the one day we were sailing in the harbour when our steering chain broke, so we had to switch over to emergency steering, which I wanted to test anyway and all worked out well and we were back on the mooring.

After our New Year's party at the yacht club, Peter joined us again and brought our new steering chain, which we installed and then we were all ready to sail away to Durban, except our 4 legged child started getting sick before we had left the mooring, she has about 2000 sea miles in her log book, so we had to leave her at the vet. Eventually at 21h00 the 4 of us were ready to cast off.

We had hda a cold front for the past 2 days so the sea was still lumpy from the strong SW winds, we left in a very light SE wind, so had to motor sail till about 02h00. We then picked up an very nice land breeze which got us doing 6.5-7 knots with a full genoa, with out the motor which was such a pleasure.

I had not spent much time setting up our new hydrovane windvane so had to sit and play with it, it did not work as well as I had hoped but I will have to check it out when in Durban.

The wind changed to a strong NE at about 10h00 and we reduced genoa and still were doing 6-7 knots as we closed in on Durban, after 17 hours, 14h00, we entered Durban harbour where we had organised a mooring for the next month or so, everybody was happy and the boat and all systems went well.


Unfortunately our little 4 legged daughter Jess, had got very sick and after a week in hospital, she came home to the boat but had to put her down because of complications, she has had Diabetes for the last year, may she rest in peace........

We plan on returning to Richards Bay in February again, after doing some repair work to sails, new awnings and some stainless steel work, so till then.

I was unable to bring any photo's this time but will load them as soon as I can.

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