As of now, we will be out of Durban tomorrow sometime. The forecast are for great weather over the next 5 days or so but we will just have to wait and see what happens when we get out of here. With the winds swinging from the south to the east and over to the northeast, its should be a good ride. It's about 790 miles to Cape Town and with luck and enough good weather, we might just make it in one jump. I'll be posting as we go so stay tuned. It's going to be an interesting trip.

As predicted, the winds that have been coming out of the northeast to east swung around to the southwest just past 1200 this afternoon. When we last anchored, we played out the chain so our stern was hanging just short of the main channel. When it shifted to the southwest, our stern was hanging over some really shallow water. About 7 feet deep. We wanted more to be on the safe side so we started up the motor and pulled up the anchor and moved again. Not a lot but should the wind change again and come out of the northeast, Zephyrs going to be well out in the shipping lane of the harbor and we will have to anchor again. There just isn't a ton of space here to anchor safely and have enough swing room to keep our boat in one location with enough room under the keel. This time, with the wind forecast to be close to 40 knots, and a depth under the keel of about 20 feet, I let out 210 feet of chain. we shouldn't be going anywhere. Each time I let out more, we waited for Zephyr to snap back and drive the anchor that much deeper in the mud. When we finally put on our snubber, we puled back under engine power and really set the hook, hopefully deep with good holding. It's blowing as I type this in the 28 to 32 knot range with gusts higher and we are on anchor watch with the IPad program watching were we are and all set to sound it's alarm should we loose our grip on the bottom. We've never anchored and reanchored as much as we have here. Wether it's due to a dragging or just to be in deep enough water to be comfortable, we've anchored about 5 times and sometimes dropping and raising the hook several times before we are comfortable in a good spot.

This isn't the first time we have been traveling on Christmas. In 2012, we were headed out from Tuvalu heading for the Marshall Islands when we blew our engine and changed course for Pohnpei. While we were quite upset at loosing the engine, we met absolutely amazing people in Pohnpei and are very glad we went. So, tomorrow is another day. I'll let you know if any thing happens during the rest of today.

It's now coming up on 2300 and the southwest winds have continued to blow. Keeping continually in the 20 knot range, we have had the gusts up to 40 knots we expected but they came earlier in the afternoon. The forecast is for them to die off as the night goes on but I don't normally put a lot of faith in the forecasts I get some times. The other two boat out here have been bobbing up and down merrily as the wind and waves rush past them. One was rocking so badly that his bow was taking water over it. I'm glad we re did our anchor as once it was done again, we really had the time to pull back on the chain to set it. When last we did this, we were pulling in the opposite direction. Now at least it's pulled back in the direction we need it to be. Now if the winds die off, well we will get pulled forward and end up in the main shipping channel. We may end up redoing the anchoring again before we leave if another of the tugs comes by. But, tomorrow is another day. Rain is forecast and we have just a few sprinkles right now but there is more in the forecast for tomorrow. It could be a soggy day getting out of here.