Return Crew Day 19 – 26 February 2020

Kristy Whillier

And so the final stretch of the trip has come, and although we’ve been experiencing minimal wind that can’t decide if its ‘Arthur or Martha’, whereby its constantly changing direction, we are all feeling refreshed and ready to complete the sail back to Cape Town. We did, however, start the return off with a swim in the icy Tristan Da Cunha water considering we couldn’t score a warm shower from the locals! But it matters not; we smell and look a bit more human now.

We were a few hours into sailing last night, and due to the inconsistent winds, it caused us to do a few donuts. We have decided to rename the ‘Granny gybe’ to the ‘Clare gybe’ (which she is fully embracing).. After multiple donuts (Clare Gybes); we heard a call on the radio from Argonaut: “Rotary Scout, Rotary Scout, Rotary Scout, come in for Argonaut”. We were all quite confused and worried as Rory climbed down the companionway to reply. Rory: “Argonaut, send your message for Rotary Scout, over”. We waited in anticipation when the skipper replied: “It looks like you guys are on your way back to Tristan, Is everything alright there?” We all instantaneously starting rolling around in laughter, to the point where we could barely reply. Rory replied back, while giggling and trying to keep a straight face at the same time: “yes everything is all good here, just experienced a few granny gybes due to the wind and due to eating dinner”. The skipper replied while laughing: “Oh okay! We were watching you guys and just thought we would ask” …. Needless to say, we all giggled for a few hours after that and will definitely be one of the highlights for the trip, and will always be known as a Clare gybe from now on. We did concentrate a bit harder after that though, I must admit.

To jump back to the island, we have all agreed to write a bit about what we thought about the island and our experience individually. Im sure most will say this, But the island is absolutely beautiful! The locals were all very friendly and welcoming, and their relaxed vibe carried through to us. They were all very keen to chat to us and ask questions about our journey. I must say though, my favourite part of it all was the way that they looked at us… As if we were about to steal all their cattle and beer; which in all honesty, was a high possibility!! Many different ways were thought of about where we could keep a cow and a few chickens on the boat: sadly, we could not come to a conclusion. We had a good day on the island nevertheless, and were all sad when we had to leave after taking over their tourism shop/coffee shop (as South African’s do), but we were keen to start the last stretch home.

So far the sailing has been a bit rough and uncomfortable with large swells, but we are heading 36 degrees in a South Easterly direction along the latitude line, and are hoping the wind changes direction shortly.

78 nautical miles since our last blog late last night.
Total: 2118nm