Vasco da Gama – Leg 3
By Nicholas Chapman
Before we left Mossel Bay we encountered some engine problems. Luckily the yacht berthed next to us allowed us to jump start our engine using their battery. We nevertheless decided to buy a spare battery given the continuous problems we seem to be having with the engine recently. This delayed our departure time from 07:30 to 10:30. We also loaded our new tender onboard.
Once the engine was sorted, we finally motored out of Mossel Bay and was met with dismal sailing conditions and as a result trekked up the coast under engine for most of the day. The swell and rain left most of the crew feeling a bit seasick, especially James “Ausie” Rogers, appropriately named so since he spent the entire voyage down under.
While some of the crew were feeling a bit green Grant and Keith, a scouter from 1st Kynsna, were reeling in plenty of fish such as 4kg Bonito Tuna and Daniel was up on the foredeck attempting to patch up the torn foot of our Genoa.
Later that evening the wind came through at approx. 15-20 knots, but later died. We also saw plenty of fishing vessels looking for squid.
At about 22:00 while approaching Knysna, our engine failed again! We drifted in circles until about 01:00 when the wind thankfully picked up.
The next morning at 09:00, Grant managed to get the engine up and running, saving us another encounter with the NSRI.
Come lunchtime most of the crew had found their sea legs and had worked up an appetite. We cooked lamb chops, our freshly caught fish and yet another veggie burger for Daniel for lunch.
We enjoyed a pleasant afternoon of sailing until about midnight when the wind died. We motored until about 02:30 when a 10 knot Westerly breeze came through which quickly picked up to about 20-25 knots.
Keith and Grant, had a rather rude awakening when they were rushed out of bed to help reef our main sail which quickly went from a 1st reef to just a slither of the genoa as a result of the building wind.
By sunrise we had up to Sm waves and 35 knots of wind! During the night we had made some nice headway and passed Port Elizabeth but it took forever to get across Algoa Bay.
The heavy wind was much appreciated as we had a strong sense of urgency to outrun the bad weather expected around Port Alfred. We managed to achieve a top speed for leg 2 of 14.5 knots while surfing down a wave.
At about 11:00, the conditions calmed slightly allowing us to raise our mainsail to a conservative 3rd reef.
By lunchtime we were sailing with a full mainsail in sun and clear seas and were once again catching plenty fish such as Skipjack and Yellow Fin Tuna. A monster of a fish hooked onto our lines but managed to escape. We suspected that it could possibly have been a Marlin.
We had a magnificent sunset in champagne sailing conditions. The wind eventually died and we motored for the rest of the evening. We enjoyed a big supper of lamb chops, boerewors, veggie burgers, sushi and rice!
After supper, we were well underway into approaching East London. Nick and Daniel, stayed up through the night on watch while we approached the Port, motoring around a very rocky coast.
At about 03:00 we were cleared by Port Control to enter the harbour which happens to be a river port. Upon entering we found a large vessel that was restricted in its ability to manoeuvre but we managed to slip past it.
We motored up the river with myself at the helm and tied up to a lazy line for the night.
Overall, it has once again been an awesome passage and we looked forward to the trek up to Durban!