Sailing North...blotch up!

26 Feb. 13

I think today is the third day in a row that I feel depressed. I am not sure why I feel down but can’t seem to snap out of it. This “dream” hasn’t turned out to be anything like I expected and I feel disillusioned by it.

27 Feb. 13

My mood seems to have lifted slightly even though nothing has changed. I did manage to fit the new alternator and the motor has been running for the last hour. We dropped the old one at an auto electrical repair shop and will keep it as a spare when it is fixed. I will test the alternator for another hour to make sure it doesn’t decide to overcharge the batteries, like the old one did, and then tick the repair off the list. The progress on the stairs is still going along slowly. The wood rot on the coach roof near the water filler cap that I discovered the other day. Well, it’s on the to do list. I just haven’t been up to doing anything about it yet.

 My book is making progress and I have almost typed 50 000 words Reaching the 50 000 milestone would make me around halfway. So definite progress on that front. 

 04 Mar. 13

The last week has had a few memorable moments. We decided to sail north back up to Richards bay, hoping that we may get work there since we haven’t had any joy here. So about a week ago Lola and I left the boys on the boat, got onto the dingy and made our way to the club to settle our account. The weather experts predicted a howling Southwest wind of 30 knots, but it was only due to arrive at about five in the afternoon. We left the boat at about nine. So it was in a flat calm that we made our way across the channel. Whilst motoring along on the still water, Lola made a comment saying this must be the calm before the storm and I laughed. The dingy docks is about three hundred metres from us, all the way on the other end of the channel and around the boats moored in the centre of the channel. We normally take a short cut between the boats in the centre, making our way carefully between the myriad of ropes that are used to moor them, across the channel and onto the only walk on. Its only about fifty or sixty metres away and saves us time. We also avoid having to compete with the fifty other dingies tied to the dingy dock.

 So as per habit we used our shortcut and landed on the walk on.

 The first section of the walk is made of floating concrete segments bolted to each other to make it as long as required and held in place with ropes. This section is about a hundred metres long. Another section about thirty metres is attached to it at ninety degrees. This second section leads onto the land and is anchored to the ground more securely.

 We walked down the first section, came to the ninety degree turn, turned and walked onto land. When we arrived at the office the young lady in accounts told us she was busy and asked if we mind waiting for about an hour. We said it was okay and we sat around waiting for her to finish. About ten minutes had gone by when the predicted for later, 30 knot south west wind arrived, bringing along with it a few extra friendly knots. A huge cloud of dust covered the sky within seconds and both Lola and I worried about the kids on the boat. So we went outside into the howling wind and swirling dust and looked across the water. Our boat is quite well protected from the south west wind by some large mangrove trees and everything seemed okay. We stood blinking in the dust for a while considering our options then decided that the kids would be fine, so went back inside and waited for our account.

 After an hour we went to ask for the account. The lady was still busy and she asked us to wait a few more minutes. We were getting tired of waiting and were still worried about the kids on the boat, not wanting to leave them alone for longer than we had to so I asked her if she would e mail it to me when she was done. She agreed and we made our way back towards the walk on. As we left the club we noticed that the piece of the walk on that leads onto land was twisted up on one side and the other side was under water. We stood pondering our situation when I heard someone talking to us. It was Graham, another guy at the club busy building his yacht. He said, “oh so you have to go across the wall of death.” “the wall of death.” I asked and he repeated the words pointing at the buckled walk on. He then told me it happens whenever the south west wind blows and has happened so often that it now has a nickname. “the wall of death.” Quite dramatic.

 We had seen it happen once before but never knew it had a name so found it quite funny.

 Anyway Lola and I walked down to the buckled walk on and stood looking at it for a while trying to find a way across. The dingy docks is next to it so we decided to go onto the dingy docks, climb into someone’s dingy, then climb from that dingy onto another one next to it, then push the one away from the other one and onto the other side of the walk on that is still flat and useable. Once we arrived on the dingy dock we could see the other side of the “wall of death.” Seeing it from another angle I decided that I could climb across the buckled piece and fetch our dingy. Then I would motor down to the dingy dock and fetch Lola. Lola agreed and waited for me on the dingy dock. I made my way back to the “wall” and managed to hold onto the side in the air whilst climbing over. When I got to the other side I heard Lola’s excited voice shouting, “I can do that, I can do that.” She was jumping up and down and reminded me of a little girl that had just discovered a jungle gym for the first time in her life. So I just laughed and waited whilst she ran skipping and bouncing towards me. She managed to get across without any problem and we walked down to the dingy. Getting to the dingy I filled the water bottles and we stood discussing how we were going to get back to the boat in the howling wind. Between us and our kids about fifty metres of water was bouncing and whipping. Small waves had formed and white foam was flying around in the air. Our dingy has a small motor and Lola asked me if we would be able to motor against the wind. I told her our little motor could pull a truck through this water, but we were going to get very wet. We did get very wet and our little motor managed just fine.

 Back on the boat our e mail arrived and we settled our account. Then we waited till the next morning when the weather had calmed, and went to port control to clock out and hand in our flight plan.

 Since it was Friday, we had until Monday morning to leave Durban harbour and decided we would leave on Saturday night at about eleven. The predicted weather for the whole weekend was mild with very little wind in Durban, but slightly more in Richards Bay. We needed a mild window not wanting the terrifying experience of after our last trip so we were quite happy with the mild prediction. Not wanting to leave our mooring after dark in case we managed to tangle ourselves in the ropes again, we decided to leave during the day on Saturday, at high tide, and sail across to point yacht club near the harbour mouth to drop our anchor and wait. At point we planned to have lunch and get some sleep in the afternoon so that we would be rested for the trip ahead. Unfortunately getting the boat ready took longer than expected and we missed the early morning high tide and had to wait until the afternoon when the tide came back in before we could leave. The tide was only high enough again at about three so we waited. High tide finally arrived and we managed to leave without tangling ourselves into the ropes.

 Whilst motoring towards point we decided not to anchor and headed out of the harbour instead. Outside there was no wind with a two metre swell that came from the east. This easterly swell made Yrumoar roll from side to side. As she rolled from one side to the next over the swell the boom would fall across to the one side then jerk back to the other side bouncing the blocks on the bimini roof. The noise was irritating and I tightened the bridle ropes. The boom still jerked from side to side but the noise was less. This side to side rolling motion continued and became quite uncomfortable and I found myself getting irritated after only a few minutes at sea. Lola obviously didn’t enjoy the motion either and soon we were arguing with each other for no particular reason. The sun was just starting to set when we established that our arguing was caused by both of us feeling tired already. The night before we had a late night and we had to get up early to prepare for the trip so didn’t get much sleep. The lack of sleep had obviously caught up to us. After motoring for another hour or so, both Lola and I decided that we weren’t up to an overnight trip and turned Yrumoar  around.

 

We arrived back at point at about nine in the evening and dropped our anchor. Since we were already bushed none of us wanted to stay up to do anchor watch. So we dug up our small handheld GPS to set an anchor alarm. When we tried to switch it on we discovered that the batteries had leaked and no longer worked. We looked in the spares locker but had no spare batteries so had to give up on that idea. The weatherman predicted no wind so we figured it would be okay, trusting our Bruce anchor not to drag we quickly fell asleep.

 The anchorage is very bouncy whenever the tug boats come past and Durban is a very busy harbour that never sleeps, so the tugs are up and down the whole night. This also didn’t help our tired bodies and we woke up at three in the morning after a fitful sleep still feeling exhausted. Our plan was to leave at three but our tired bodies refused and we only left, after multiple cups of coffee, at five.

 It was beautiful outside on the ocean. Not a breath of wind was blowing and the swell was under a metre. The sea looked like a mirror and I could see my own reflection when I looked over the side. Since we knew this was going to be a motoring experience we had filled the diesel tanks and would run one motor at a time to save fuel. We started running the port motor and would change to the starboard one after two hours.     

Leaving the harbour we sailed out to sea until we found the counter current. The counter current runs north at about one to two knots and we wanted to use it to gain extra speed hoping to shorten the journey by a few hours. We found the counter current at about fifty fathoms and our speed increased from four and a half knots to almost six. The motion was pleasant and the view of Durban and as it drifted slowly by was phenomenal. Watching a big city float by in the distance whilst you are on the water makes you feel unattached and free from the stress and pressure that lives in that city. It’s a good feeling and I enjoyed the moment.

 

After motoring using the port motor for about two hours I switched motors and started the starboard one. The autopilot compensated for the change in motor and our speed stayed the same. I was just about to settle down and have a cigarette when I noticed the temperature gauge move rapidly past the normal mark on its way to overheat. So I quickly jumped up and cut the motor. Lola and I looked at each other trying to read each other’s thoughts. With one motor down and no wind we would have to rely on the port motor only. We were still in between the large container ships anchored outside the harbour and the harbour entrance was still faintly visible behind us. After discussing our options for a while we decided to push on and started the port engine again.

 We motored past Umhlanga lighthouse, then past Umdloti and onto Balito. The boys settled down and watched a movie on the laptop while Lola and I went to sit on the trampolines. We sat watching the bows as they sliced their way through the water, occasionally rising up into the air, then plunging back down into the water creating small upside down waterfalls as the water splashed up against the bows then tumbled back over onto itself. We were still sitting happily watching the water when a large line on dirt appeared to be floating across our path. We both looked at the rubbish in the water as we passed through it. It looked like a bit like an oil slick with some plastic packets mixed into it. I heard Lola tell me that she hoped it doesn’t damage our motor. Her words were still ringing in my ears when the motor changed its sound from its normal sloshing sound to a constant blowing noise. We both jumped up and ran to the cockpit. I checked the temperature gauge and it was rising rapidly so I cut the motor.

 Now we had no motors and no wind. We sat drifting around for a while trying to decide what we should do. We were less than halfway to Richards bay so decided to hoist the sails and wait for the wind. The wind arrived about an hour later but was very light, about six knots. Again we discussed our options and decided to turn around and make our way back to Durban. It was a slow sail in the light wind but we managed to get our speed all the way up to four knots.

 We arrived back at the harbour mouth just before sunset and sailed to point where we dropped our anchor to wait for the morning. In the morning Rauen dived down to check if anything was wrapped around our sail drive. After he checked he came up and told us it was clear. We then stripped the raw water pump to check the impellor. It was fine. Next we stripped the heat exchanger. Some of the tiny holes in it were blocked and we cleaned them. Before replacing it I decided to check the rubber boots that hold it in place and found hundreds of tiny sea shells in the one. Problem solved, on the one motor at least. The other motor seems to have more than one problem but we managed to get it to work long enough to get us back to the bluff and safely onto the mooring lines.