August 12, 2011-Sailing out of Richard's Bay

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Sailor Girl

The mast has been up a month, the rig is tuned, the mainsail repaired, the hydraulics all fixed; we’re ready to go sailing.

So today we took Wings out for a little test sail. The weather was perfect: blue African skies, blue Indian Ocean, big east coast waves, and 20 fresh knots of true cool wind with plenty of punch.

Wings loved it, we loved it.

We set the full mainsail, a bit flat, and a #4 jib and headed out into the fresh NE wind close hauled and doing 6.8 knots. We got a few splashes of salt water in our faces to keep it real, and we took turns steering. I went forward on port tack and checked the rig; the mast was perfectly straight and the shrouds felt good. Oh, I could take a couple of turns on the lowers and the D-2’s but nothing critical. Tacked over and checked again in starboard. Same result. Job done we settled in and just let everything work for a few hours. We smoked on upwind in the big waves and enjoyed life.

At 2:00PM we cracked off and the speeds climbed. We jibed over and headed back on a beam reach and started to surf: 8’s and 9’s; Judy saw 10+ a couple of times. Good sailing.

We surfed into the Richard’s Bay channel and Judy went forward to drop the jib. Behind Naval Island we took down and folded the main.

We were back in the slip at 3:30 PM.

Life is good when you can go sailing in the ocean in conditions like this.

Click here for more photos.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Richard’s Bay, South Africa

August 3, 2011-Photos From Tanzania

We've now posted the photos we took in Tanzania, mostly on the island of Zanzibar. I've fanticized for years about sailing to Zanzibar since I first heard of the place the 1980's. We didn't sail there but we visited just the same. It was pretty close to what I'd imagined: a maze of a city of old buildings on the waterfront in East Africa with a mix of Arab, African, and Indian populations.

Well, nowdays most of the Arabs and Indians have left, but the architecture and the charm remains.

Click the links below to see photos from Stonetown (Zanzibar) and Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania).

Stonetown Waterfront Road

Click here for images of Stonetown.

Laughing Man

Click here for images of the people of Zanzibar

Click here to see our hotel in Stonetown (The Kholle House)

Click here for scenes of Zanzibar's harbor of working dhows

Click here to see an old, restored, hospital,the Old Dispensary

Click here for photos from Dar Es Salaam

OR...

Click here to go to wingssail images
for all the images from Tanzania.


Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Richards Bay, South Africa