September 25, 2011-Sunday Racing

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Racing in African Waters

I called for the genoa, the “red bag”, and as it came on deck I went forward to help Andy hook it up.

When I called back to Judy, in the cockpit, to relead the sheets she demurred, “That’s the wrong sail.” She said.

I looked up from my work on the bow and saw she was right. In the few moments since I’d gone forward the wind had built. It had been 10 knots, now it looked like 15.

“What’s it blowing?” I shouted.

Judy glanced at the instruments and said, “16 knots, it’ll be more outside!”

We’ve had these conversations before and Judy is usually right, more often than I am, about which sail to set.

“OK, get the blue bag up here.” I shouted to the forward hands, and in a second the #4 jib came up. Andy rigged it and I went aft to line up for the start.

We reached back and forth a couple of times to get a sense of the line and set our clocks to the radio call: “Five minutes…NOW!” I decided on a port start at the left end, not the bold move that it usually would have been because for this race, being a reaching start, port was the only way to go.

We tacked, with speed, to leeward of Galactica, and went for the pin end.

“Three, two, one, START”. We were first to cross and we headed out of Richards Bay towards the anchored ships offshore, which we were sailing around today, leading the fleet and pulling out fast.

So, a good start, a good head of steam, and we had the right sail, for which I am eternally thankful. We just shouldered down and charged out to sea ducking the spray and looking for the first mark, a ship named “Sanko” five miles out, should be bearing 126 degrees.

We could see the ship’s masts and we homed in on it. Nomad, the 56 foot catamaran, overtook us on the way, her crew cockily demonstrating to us how their beer bottles could sit calmly on their cockpit coamings while we were heeled at 25 degrees and there was nothing calm about our ride and no beer drinking either. But we got the last laugh on Nomad. They were a bit shorthanded being only two aboard, and no navigator; they headed off to the wrong next mark. On Wings we had the next mark already entered on our plotter and Judy gave me the course: 250 degrees. We turned to that heading and saw another ship anchored three miles away. That must be it. Nomad, by this time, was nearly hull down, heading off on a course of 150, towards oblivion we figured, or Durban.

But with only three miles to go we had too little time to get the kite up, and anyway in 24 knots of wind we were already doing 9 knots and didn’t need it, plus, with the additional boost from the Alguhas current that flows southward around here at 1.5 knots, Banzai, the next mark, was coming up fast.

We jibed, rounded, put in a reef, and headed towards home, with Nomad nowhere in sight and the rest of the fleet following us a long ways back.

The last leg, like the first, was a close reach. We would have preferred a beat, but you take what you can get, and we sailed fast back towards Richards Bay and finished first by about two miles over Silhouette, the next boat, at 2 hours and 18 minutes for the whole course. We celebrated with cold beers, just like the old days.

At the awards party we found that going fast on the first outing doesn’t pay; they gave us a brutal rating and we corrected out to third. Silhouette won, 39 seconds ahead of Galactica and 14 minutes ahead of us on corrected time. But it was OK. We had fun, sailed well, didn’t break anything, and we made those other guys happy for beating us. Plus, we got a lot of favorable comments on how well Wings looked and sailed. All in all, a great day.

Wednesday we depart Richards Bay for the next port and the next adventure.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Richards Bay, SA

Click here to see the other photos

September 6, 2011-This Morning the Fog Rolled In

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Wings in the Zululand Fog

This morning I woke to find that for the first time since we’ve been in Africa a heavy fog had rolled into Zululand.

The air was still and damp and thick with the fog and the boats in the marina and the trees ashore were just grey silhouettes.

It reminded me of Seattle or the California or Oregon coasts and it felt like home.

I loved it.

I filled a cup with hot Zanzibar and grabbed the Nikon and went out for a walk in the fog.

The boatyard was silent, the guard asleep, and even the birds had their heads tucked under their wings. My feet crunched in the pine needles but otherwise there wasn’t a sound.

I didn’t find a lot to shoot but I enjoyed my little walkabout. I got back to Wings and Judy was still snug in her bed. I made another pot of coffee.

At 11:00 AM the sun burned off the fog and then the day was still and warm.

By mid afternoon a sea breeze came up and the flags were flying.

We haven’t had weather here like this before.

Africa continues to surprise us.

Click here to see my other shots.

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

September 1, 2011-Weaver Birds and Boat Projects

It’s been cool in South Africa and for weeks we’ve been looking forward to spring time.

Now the signs of spring are unmistakable: the days are growing longer, Wings’ heater is no longer required, and, most of all, the Weaver Birds are active.

The locals told us that when the Weaver Birds are active it is a sure sign of spring and boy, the Weaver Birds are sure active. In one nearby tree alone there must be a hundred nests being built by these energetic little yellow creatures and I guess they like to whistle while they work; the peeping is deafening.

The Weaver Birds build nests which hang down like baskets.

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Weaver Birds at work


Click here for more photos.

With the arrival of warmer weather work has resumed on boat projects all around the boatyard and marina. That includes our own projects and we’re redoing the big hatch on Wings’ bow.

wingssail images-chas gerretsen
Nice weather to fix the hatch

Click here to see the step by step.

We know there can be more cool days ahead but the change of the season is inevitable and soon we will begin our trip south.

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

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

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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

July 10, 2011-Shooting an Eclipse of the Moon

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Eclipse of the Moon

In June Judy and I heard about the upcoming eclipse of the moon and we decided to watch it from Wings' deck.

I've pointed my camera at the moon plenty of times but the shots never came out. I never understood why a beautiful moon looks so crummy in my photos.

With this eclipse I had another chance; we had clear weather and a good view of the sky and I decided to solve the problem.

Prior to the start of the eclipse I went on deck and took some shots with guessed exposures and then came below to look at them on the computer. As usual they were bad; overexposed and washed out. I dropped the exposure a little and tried it again. Better but still crummy. So I chopped the exposure way way down and bracketed a bunch.

That's when they started to work. It seems that you don't need much light to get a good moon shot.

Once I had it worked out then I shot these series about 10-20 mins apart and did the composite in Photoshop.

I'm happy with my moon shots of the eclipse.

The settings, for any shutter bugs out there: 200mm, 1/1250sec, f6.3, ISO Speed Rating 400

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Richards Bay, SA

June 25, 2011-Update: Mast is finished

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Refinished and re-assembled

We have had a few really nice days just doing mast work under the coconut trees on the yacht club lawn. We have a work table set up and we have all of our tools handy and the work is going smoothly. It is warm and quiet and very satisfying to work here each day.

We have now completed all the work on the mast and it is ready to go back into the boat. All we have to do is get the boat ready for the mast; the keel bolt backing plates (those which live under the mast) need to be replaced. We've taken one out and have had a new plate made. There are two more which we will do as soon as the first one is back in. It makes sense to do these even though they don't need it yet because they are showing some deterioration and probably will need replacing in the next few years. We'd have to pull the rig again to do them then. Might as well do them now.

"Cruising: doing boat work in exotic places"

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

May 02, 2011-Drying out in Zululand

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Drying the 3A

We are in Zululand Yacht Club in Richard’s Bay, South Africa, in the warm north east of the country famed for game parks and quiet living. Things are pretty easy going here especially in the boatyard where quite a lot of funky boats are getting refurbished. This is where we plan to work on our mast after we get back from some land travel.

The weather in Zululand has been great for drying out the boat and we’ve pulled the last of our damp sails out of the forepeak. Here the 3A kite gets some fresh air before being stowed for God knows how long. There's been an occasional rainy day but mostly we’ve had sunshine and blue skies.

That land travel promises to be exciting. We’ll go to a Safari Camp in one of the oldest game reserves, Mmfolozi, and then to a hilltop lodge in HluHluwe, another reserve nearby. After these visits we plan to venture further, to Kruger National Park. In fact we might be there already but for all the holidays which have jammed up the bookings.

But we’ve got the time and things will get organized. We’ll do our trips.

Meanwhile, we'll dry a few things, do a few little projects, and enjoy the weather.

Click here to see more images from Zululand Marina

Click here to see the Log Book Page

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

April 17, 2011-Update From Africa

We have landed in Richard's Bay Africa, as the previous post describes. We've got some cleaning up to do and some repairs to make (not many) and we've got to get an Internet connection (right now I'm writing this from the hotel lobby).

So, not totally organized yet.

Meanwhile, here are some links to some photos. More to come.

Click here for photos of Reunion Island and here

Click here for for photos from the passage

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

April 16, 2011-Arrival in Richard's Bay, South Africa

It's pouring down rain here and cold. I hook up power and turn on a heater.

The three others are sleeping.

I have a cup of coffee.

I contemplate:

We have completed our crossing of the entire Indian Ocean.

We are tied up to a marina berth in Tuzu Gazi Marina, Richard's Bay, South Africa.

We made it to Africa.

The last 36 hours were a race against the clock. We were due on Friday but mostly we just wanted to avoid another night at sea. We wanted to get here on Saturday at least. For a while it looked like we wouldn't make it. The wind was light and the waves horribly confused. Sailing was difficult. Our headings seemed to be towards anywhere but Africa. The crew was tired. Around midnight Mother Nature threw more at us: Sudden wind shifts and squalls and waves coming from every direction. The sea was attacked us unrelentingly with sudden changes. The only good thing was that the wind did not become too strong. But coping with everything else meant continuous work for us on deck. We were all tired.

At midnight, beyond exhaustion, Judy and I kept working the boat through more changes; a tack which happened when the wind shifted too quickly for the windvane was sorted out, a sail change down to the #4 when a squall overpowered us with the #2 was completed. The tangled ropes were untangled. The tired bodies were pushed further. We almost gave in and dropped all sail; to begin motoring. But motoring in these waves would be slow and uncomfortable too. We willed ourselves to do more. We sorted it out.

We prevailed.

We got the boat sailing towards the destination.

By 2:00 AM the wind was steady and building. It hit twenty from the SW, a close reach, and we trimmed in. The main flogged and I got on the helm and pulled hard on the tiller against the weight of the wind. I reset the windvane with more weather helm. We surged forward. The waves were big but Wings shouldered them aside. With a full main and #4 jib we flew in these condtions. The boat speed went to 9 and we were making good the losses of the previous two days. Finally.

I stayed on deck all night to keep watch; to keep it going. Judy sat below in her foul weather gear ready to help but these precautions were not needed. Wings flew and the windvane steered and we touched nothing.

Through the night and most of the next day we sped towards Africa. Through the darkness and rain, steady, cold, rain.

We did turn on the motor when the wind again dropped (but the rain kept up) about 40 miles out, and we kept the engine on even when the wind came back for a while. We didn't trust the breeze to hold. Motor sailing. But with the main pulling and the combination of wind and engine giving good speed we saw that we could make it to port by 19:00 Saturday. After dark, yes, but we thought we could go in. We kept pushing.

And at 19:00, with all hands on deck, we arrived in Richard's Bay, storming in under main on a broad reach, through the breakwater in the pitch black and pouring rain, guided by the lights blinking in the darkness on either side and our charting system showing the way on the big screen below .

No time for hesitation now, we could smell the barn.

George, from Winddancer came up on the VHF and talked us to a slip, meeting us on the dock. He said the authorities would not bother us tonight.

We tied up the boat, folded sails, had hot showers on board, drank champagne, and went to dinner.

The captain paid.

So, we are in Africa.

Now, there are lions to see.

Fred & Judy, with crew Jean-Mee and Jennifer, SV Wings, Richard's Bay

Click here to see the Log Book Pages for this passage

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