Tuesday, 24 June 2014

Up Around the Bend

Day 29 of the Return Trip

With our destination so close we have been keen as ever to keep this boat going fast in the right direction. The Golden Earring sum it up quite nicely for us:

"I've been drivin' all night, my hands wet on the wheel. And there's a voice in my head that drives my heel..."

It's not just the driving will to get home that is spurring us along. We are also trying to outrun a very big Westerly breeze that is hot on our heels.

We may have been a bit cheeky and pulled out the A3 spinnaker from its burrow in the forepeak (thanks, Investec!). Since we broke the pole ring on the mast the other night, we can't use any of our symmetrical spinnakers, so we dug out and hoisted our biggest asymmetrical kite. We've had 15-18 knots on the beam for the whole night. It did get over 20 for a few hours, during which we changed to our trusty work-horse #1 genoa.

This morning, shortly after a magnificent sunrise (probably the best we've seen on this trip. Maybe even ever), we crossed the 15 degree line, which puts us in time-zone Bravo, or UTC+2, and on SA local time! Gina made pancakes for breakfast to celebrate.

We are now less than 150 miles from Cape Town, and hoping that the forecasted weather will hold out. If it does, then this will be our last blog post send from the satphone. Our current speed puts us at the entrance
to Cape Town Harbour at 10AM local time. 

If you're in Cape Town and free tomorrow morning, take a mozie up Signal Hill and look to the west for the little boat under a big blue spinnaker.

We'll post a more accurate ETA closer to our arrival. Probably once this
evening and once tomorrow morning. So watch this space!

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