CAPE TOWN TO NAMIBIA 11th November

We spent the first night out, at Dassen Island which is only 40 NM North of Cape Towns so the first day was an easy run of just over 40nm.

As we left Dassen Island on Tuesday morning we sailed into a big pod of whales. There were about 100 or so Hump Backs and Southern Rights. Very impressive sight. 

Just a few of the biggest pod of whales we've ever seen.

The wind picked up until we had 25 KN on the nose and were reefed down to just the staysail and 2 reefs in the main. It wasn't looking good. These conditions lasted about 4 hours and then gradually subsided to pleasant 10 to 15 on the beam and that has pretty much how its been ever since although we have had down to just 6 knots at times. We are certainly not breaking any speed records and still have 420nm to Walvis Bay at 5am Thursday.

There have been heavy fog warnings for the entire west coast for the last couple of mornings so we went well off shore. We are currently 70NM off.

We have had the inevitable little annoyances. Auto Pilot 1 is totally on strike and Auto Pilot 2 is mutinying!! It seems that with three crew the pilot believes it should have a break down.

1pm Thursday. We have had the motor on since 6am. No wind. Sunny day, no fog so all well.

GONE WEST and LIST OF SERVICE PROVIDERS 11th Nov 2013

Jaun-Ree. Skipper

We left Cape Town at 1.30pm today to sail to Walvis Bay Namibia. With us on this leg we have Juan Ree Bosman a young SA sailor on a mile building trip to progress to the next RYA certificate. Weather was nice following wind and small swell.

We said all our farewells with great reluctance. We have met and made so many good friends here in South Afica. We arrived in Richards Bay on the East Coast on the 7th of November 2012 and SA has exceeded all our expectations in every way. Farewell and many fond memories.

While we are on passage we will be limited in our ability to post pictures and will up added when we have the Internet again.

LIST OF SERVICE PROVIDERS WE WOULD RECOMMEND IN CAPE TOWN AND SALDAHNA BAY
CAPE TOWN SERVICES


CB FILTRATION
021 5526409
Unit 1 Stella Rd
Montegue Gardens
Barry


James Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
0217626912


Global Marine Services Andrew Ramsay

CPT: Head Office

UNIT 1, POINT BUSINESS PARK

KOEBERG ROAD, MILNERTON

CAPE TOWN

TEL: +27 21 555 1574

FAX: +27 21 551 0221

sales@globalmarine.co.za

andrew@globalmarine.co.za

marius@globalmarine.co.za

Cobra Kyodo Iridium, McMurdo GME Digital Yacht Fusion  Icom Garmin Pacific Aerials

Seaport Supply

Chandler Steven Brown

021 5106262

steven@seaport.co.za

HUBE WELDING & ENGINEERING

Hugo 0793903324

0875502160

hubewelding@yahoo.com

YANMAR

James De Jong

Ph 021511820

jdejong@seascapemarine.co.za

C-Dynamics

Address: 1 Elgin Rd, Cape Town 7441, South Africa
Phone:+27 21 555 3232

Electric Systems. Refrigeration Systems Batteries, Power generation, lighting and more

robert@c-dynamics.co.za

Diving Services and Underwater Repairs

Terry Lee

Ph +27 825528161

leeterry@iafrica.com

TS RIGGING SOLUTIONS

+27 (0) 829267518

trevorspilhaus@gmail.com

Marine Industries Association

Vanessa Davidson

0728363998

If you have any issues with bureaucracy

THRIFTY CAR HIRE

+27214184137

gail@thrifty.co.za

Southern Pumps

Johnson Pumps

Damian Crowley

021 5512490

damian@southernpumps.co.za

NORTH SAILS

Ph +27(0) 215112154

The Fishing Specialist

Fishing Tackle and Equipment

Contact Details:
Address: Unit A5 Olympic Park, Voortrekker Road Goodwood Cape Town
Phone: 0215914240
Fax: 0215914241


SOUTHERN ROPES
Physical address:48 Section Street, Paarden Eiland,Cape  Town GPS Co ordinates: 33 54’51.96”S 18 28’32.21”E +27 21-510733 +27 21-5107335

Bruce Robinson

PowerSol

Bruce Robinson

bruce@powersol.co.za

Spectra Watermakers, Solar Panels, Inverters, Regulators Professional Advice

Unit S12, Spearhead Business Park, Cnr of Montague Drive & Freedom Way

Montague Gardens 7441 Cape Town South Africa

Tel: +27 21 552 1187
Fax: +27 21 555 2503
Mobile: +27 82 829 7370

SPECTRA BALMAR

V & A WATERFRONT MARINA.

LOUIS SOULS

lsouls@waterfront.co.za

Ph +27(0)214087832

MANUEL ENGINEERING AND BOAT REPAIRS

0823718757

TAXI

llunga ph 0833292651

SALDAHNA BAY SERVICES

YACHTPORTSA

+27 (0) 227144064

Cindy cindy@yachtportsa.co.za

Glenn glenn@yachtportsa.co.za

Natania natania@yachtportsa.co.za

Haul out Facility and small marina.

WWW.yachtportsa.co.za

Manolo's Precision & General Engineering

Manolo Ph 022 7141787

CAPE TOWN. KHAYELITSHA October 16th

Still in a social whirlpool. 

Sheep's heads anyone! Street vendor

More wine farms and a few less attractive but very interesting diversions. One of which was a detour via Khayelitsha. Its a shack suburb allegedly covering 40sq km. Construction regulations are non existent and many residents have a walk of over 200m to water. The government can not keep up with demand for housing in Western Cape so the influx of people from other parts of South Africa and countries to the north are housing themselves with whatever they can beg steal or borrow.

These are up market shacks.

Wikipedia on Khayelitsha

On the converse, because South Africa is a land of contrasts for sure, Vergenoegd winery about 10 km from here was sensational. The meal was second to none and the lovely old farm buildings, although showing signs of deterioration, were so peaceful and beautiful. The rest of the day out with Robert and Trudie included tastings at 3 vineyards towards Stellenbosch and then Indian dinner in the City. Huge day out and lots of wine sampled.

Photos from Khayelitsha

Photos of Cape Town and Winelands

CAPE TOWN. CITY OF SOCIAL PLENTITUDE. 8th October

Late afternoon. Boats in Hout Bay. SA

CAPE TOWN = FUN. 

The V&A Waterfront is an exceptionally lovely place to be in a boat. A bit the same as Constitution Dock in Hobart, Tasmania, only a lot bigger city. 

We left all our great friends in Saldahna but nearly all of them have been to visit us here in Cape Town which has been fun and busy. Ivy our friend and manager of the Saldahna Bay Yacht Club took her long weekend and spent it with us aboard Taipan. Robert and Trudie bought their boat over from Royal Cape YC to park beside us and we had a fat time. During the weekend we enjoyed a festival for the blessing of the Portuguese fishing fleet. A couple of large marquis and lots of food, drink and music all right beside us on the car park. On our first weekend in Cape Town we d id a tour to the south of Cape Town with Robert and Trudy for a day. Beautiful vineyards, fabulous tapas lunch at Kalk Bay and jackass penguins at Simons Town. Drove back up the west coast which is spectacular.

One of a number of  Portuguese Fishing boats

Work aboard hasn't stopped of course. David never stops. The toe rail must be a mile long it has been such a project! Then there is the new engine stop button to install and still have light to fit on mast. We have had a anchor bracket for the stern anchor fabricated here by Hugo, of 

Hube Welding and Engineering. hubewelding@yahoo.com 0793903324. A truly beautiful piece of work.

My major project has been commissioning the new iMac desktop to run Windows 7 and OX S 10 on separate partitions. I'v had to re-install all the old programmes I like, on both systems. Unfortunately the only programme which has to run in Windows is the Airmail software for the Pactor Modem which we use to send and receive emails, weather etc. when on passage. The manufacturer of this device have not written software drivers for MAC. I am impressed with the iMac I have to say! The versatility of being able to run both systems suits me perfectly. I have my Photoshop software loaded again so am happy little computer Vegemite!

A friend of Roberts who went off to the West Indies doing a catamaran delivery loaned us his car. That has been wonderful for all those little jobs to the chandler!. Essentially we are almost along side the enormous V & A Waterfront Shopping Centre, so most of our needs are met with a short walk.

We bumped into old friends from Albany at Mitchels Pub one night much to all our surprises! This ensured a serious number of bottles of red wine were dispatched along with lots of laughs and good fun.

Max n Jenny Shearer

Last weekend the Cape Town Boat Show provided an interesting day out and still more visitors.

The weather is really improving and we hope to head off again in the next few weeks. Our  plan to go to The Gambia is looking a little shaky. The West African nation described the 54 member grouping which includes the UK and most of its former colonies, as a "neo-colonial institution". Based on the possibility of unrest there, we will almost certainly now head to the Caribbean from Namibia.

SimonsTown Pictures 

GOING BACKWARDS TO GO FORWARD. 18th September

Yesterday we grabbed an opportunity to go south again to Cape Town. 

Sad farewell to all our good mates at YACHTPORTSA. Cindy, Glen and Nat and Ivy and the crew at Saldanha Bay Yacht Club and of course Manolo our good friend and engineer. 

After a 5am start, we managed to make it out of the harbour entrance just after 7am. Yes you guessed it.... FOG. beautiful when we set out but before we got the the first markers we were in fog and awaiting the appearance of an ore carrier and pilot boat. They both appeared on the AIS so we watched carefully and eventually they emerged through the gloom. They were the last vessels we spotted for the trip. 

Swell was about 4M  and wind built to 25KN by the time we hauled the main down in the lee of the Cape Town harbour wall. Following wind made it as pleasant as it was going to get at this time of year but...FREEZING!.... At 4pm we were mighty pleased to arrive in the V&A Marina once again and warm up. 

What plans....?? I can find a few little things to keep the captain busy till the weather warms up... they keep promising us it WILL warm up!.

CAPE COLUMBINE 7th September

 
Just a short update as we while away time here in Saldanha. On the weekend we went up to the Cape Columbine Light house and stayed in a light house keepers house with Trudie and Robert, our friends from Cape Town. Trudi spent her early childhood in the house as her father was the light house keeper there for a time. It is a relatively new facility, having been the last manned lighthouse constructed in SA in 1936 after a number ships were wrecked on the nearby coastline.

Some of the many faces

The main structure is Deco and very different style to the traditional lighthouses we are familiar with.

The light house is set in a nature reserve and at this time of year the flowers are spectacular.

Last week I volunteered to make dinner for the yacht club on Thursday night. It was a lot of fun and we ended up with nearly 40 people so a successful night. I don't know what came over me..I dont even like cooking!!!.. Korma Chicken Curry, Dahl with Sweet Potato and Spinach and Rice and Popadams. Ivy made a stunning Tiramisu so we were all well fed.

Not a friendly shore to wash up onto

Fuel system update..I think we must have the cleanest fuel in south Africa now after the filtration has been running for days and days...Can you wear out diesel?

Other maintenance has been progressing. David has sealed the toe rails again... an on going project... needs to be done every few years. 

Then there was fog and a very erie fog horn.

The mast job re-started and stopped abruptly today when, having dragged him the to top, he broke a drill bit, the battery on the drill went flat, and then the VHF antenna broke off... sigh.. so down he came again and nothing was achieved for all that winching.

I have the new iMac tamed and must say I am loving it. 

Well thats it for now. Still planning to go down to Cape Town as soon as we get a decent weather forecast. We are not able to clear out here. We have to take the boat back to Cape Town. While there we plan to top up the provisions again and have the air-conditioner looked at in anticipation of some warmer weather.

More photos from CAPECOLUMBINELIGHTHOUSE

BUSTED.......BUREAUCRATES AND BALDERDASH 31st August.

Established in 1685

The original home and old Oak

Time seems to have flown by since the last post. We have been really busy with jobs aboard and with Bureaucrats! A couple of weeks ago we went off to Cape Town to celebrate Trudie's 60th birthday with she and Robert and some of their friends at her house. It was a great night and we really felt like locals when we walked in and immediately met two other couples we knew! Friends of Robert and Trudie's of course but it was real fun.

The cobwebs are original

Fermentation tanks now restaurant.

On Saturday Robert had booked dinner at Murati vineyard in Stellenbosh wine lands. Its very hard to have a favorite vineyard but Murati would be at the top of my list. It is so totally bohemian. Fabulous rich history to be appreciated. You can feel it, smell it and taste it in the home cooked farmhouse food they serve.

Murati Vineyard

The drive home held an unpleasant surprise however, when I checked my emails to discover an email from the SARS, (South African Revenue Service) to notify us that Taipan had been impounded and there was a demand for copies of documents of Registration, Visas and passports. On a Sunday! We hurried off the appropriate documents and heard nothing. Monday Tuesday and Wednesday were spent either in the SARS office trying to sort out their problem or waiting for feedback from them. It became apparent that a sweep conducted by SARS of Foreign Yachts around the ports of South Africa had seen a number of boats either detained, impounded or seized.  On Wednesday evening we finally received notice that we could remain in the country with Taipan until the 3rd of October. We had a visa extension application in until the end of November. We certainly hope to be gone before 3rd of October.

Very worrying is the total lack of communication between various officers in the department. Some officers told us it was totally insane and that there was no justification for the actions taken. It appears that some regulation referring to Commercial Vehicles is being used to harass the foreign yachts. 

While we were in Cape Town we purchased a replacement computer for the Sony which died with the Digital Yacht AIS during installation of the latter. I have been stumbling along with the new iMac and am happy to report that we are mostly all up an running in Mac operating system. I will however have to install Win7 in Boot Camp to run Sailmail which uses a modem run from the HF radio. There is no software available for Mac to run the Pactor  because we are told that Pactor is unwilling to share its secrets out of house for fear of copies. Until they have a mac programmer on board there wont be any short cut for this problem.

David has been putting the finishing touches to the Fuel Filtration System. We purchased and installed a Facet Pump and a Keenoil depth filter. Now we are finished. Time will tell. This web site was after exhaustive research the most appropriate for us. We didn't use Gulf paper filters but the Kleenoil Filter is similar. Our primary resource for the new fuel filtration system. The tanks have been repaired, painted and had extra inspection openings added so we can get to all the sections. David has moved the return to the furthest end away from the engine supply line so hopefully fuel is all cycled through the cleaning loop when it is running. 
 
The weather has been horrid, cold and wet. The social life has been hectic. We are indebted to so many wonderful people both here and in Cape Town for their wonderful hospitality and generous inclusion of us in their social events or shopping trips. The Saldanha Bay Yacht Club continues to delight us as does Manolo who never fails to come on Saturday to take us to breakfast and shopping.

Yes. We are still planning to leave but right now there is snow on Table Mountain and its defiantly not the time to go anywhere.

Saldahna 

THE BIRDS AN THE FLOWERS 14th August

David Martin Patty and Ivy

The beautiful Indian summer weather of last week saw us out and about to admire the beginning of the wild flower season around Saldanha. Ivy picked us up on Tuesday for a spin north to Aurora via Port Owen. Patty and Martin in Aurora hosted us to a splendid and unexpectedly delightful afternoon in their amazing 100 year old home. We managed to spot two rare blue crane, national emblem of South Africa. The flamingos were everywhere on the wetlands just near Port Owen and what pretty birds they are. Ive never seen them before live and wild so it was a pretty good avian and floral  trip!

On Thursday we were again gathered up by Ivy and taken to the Military base Reserve for a 2 hour walk around the spectacular coast just across the bay. So like Albany. There is a rocky outcrop with the abandoned buildings of the Reckys. A specialized Military Unit of South Africa which has now been abandoned. The Island would have been a pretty formidable fortress in its day. Now it just begs to be painted.

Remote rocky island once the home of the Recky's.

On Sunday we had a surprise visit by Manolo who has done such a sterling job for us on all our welding, shaft and tank jobs. He is a delightful man and had mentioned taking us to Spar for breakfast one Sunday. Well he came... and he picked us up and whisked us off to Spar and it was a great breakfast. Even the Latte was good. Then we were chauffeured to the national Park near Langerbaan to see the flowers there before going to the waterfront for lunch. We then went to visit his sons and their families in their home at Langebaan. Fantastic day. Such a lot of good friends weve made here it will be hard to leave. Add to that the fact that the marina is only $15 per day inclusive and why would we want to go??? 

Wild flowers at Langerbaan

Work hasn't stopped although it may sound like it has from all the tripping about we've done. 

David with Manolo

The two 100Lt Diesel tanks came back from Manolo's with an extra inspection port in each so we can now get to the insides of the whole tank including behind all the baffles which had been harboring an alarming amount of disgusting filter clogging gunge!

A new Facet Diesel Pump arrived via Fedex from the US... no thanks to the South African capacity to double the cost on arrival.... another story... it has a 200Lt per hour capacity and has been installed in the fuel cleaning system. It does not pump quite up to spec when its forcing fuel through a 10 micron Racor filter but it is managing a respectable 120 Lt per hour so fuel should be shiny!. 

There is another new water pump on the Mase Gen-set. Its a 12V Johnson flexible impeller pump rated at 25Lt per min. It is rated for continuous use by Johnson, so we will see! The last pump was also rated for continuous use by Jabsco for fresh water and sea water, in their website... but when the pump failed after only 6 hours David phoned Jabsco and they said that it was only continuously rated to pump Diesel! It was also a 12 V impeller pump with a bronze impeller. Very OVER Jabsco! Darn gen-set also melted a capacitor and had an oil pressure switch failure. Almost all these things happened at once so David was in his element with his detective amp meter running hot all over the place. Hes become a Hz-aphobic too since the capacitor event.. The unit has done 3000 hours. It is just a little 1 cylinder Yanmar air cooled diesel motor. It has a radiator inside the  acoustic case, which is sea water cooled. Apart from ongoing impeller failures and wireing issues its been a pretty good little unit. We hope the new pump will fix the impeller problem.

The Fuel tanks have had two coats of Carbomastic 15 protective epoxy paint to inhibit salt water corrosion of the aluminum. They should be ready to reinstall on Friday. THEN we should be ready to leave. We have to go south to Cape Town to clear out of the country as Suldahna is not an entry port any longer. ITs a big pain having to go backwards but we will just wait for a good northerly wind and duck out for the 60nm run back. It will be a good chance to sea trial all the new systems I guess.

Rugged!

Aurora is a little north east of Velddrif. Port Owen is at the mouth of the  Owen river which runs through Veldrdrif. Vredenberg has a big mall with all the supermarkets etc.

SAILING FOR FUN. A forgotten concept! 24th July

Sunday morning fog about 200m Vis.

Replaced the Goose Neck Fitting.

We are still in Saldanha Bay at Yachtport SA marina. We have sort of just settled in for winter. The rig is replaced and the new sail has had a trial run now that we have the new goose neck fitting. 

Fuel tanks are out getting cleaned, serviced and modified. We are having an extra inspection opening put in each tank to enable us to get behind the baffles. The crud in the "clean" tank when we actually tipped it upside down was very scary. Just waiting there for some nice rough weather to come up and block everything!

Testing the new sail

On Sunday we left the marina to try the new sail and the new shaft. The sail looks great except for some reason, which escapes me, they made the leech shorter than the last sail, so the end of the boom sits higher and now its more difficult to reach the topping lift. Bit of a pain and there seems no reason for it. We still haven't tried the reefs out to see how it sits with them in. The new sail is nicely cut and well made however and has a lovely roach in it which our last sail-maker failed to achieve with the old one. There was only 6 knots of breeze so it was really just an exercise. After bagging the main we motored down to Langerbaan to give the shaft and motor a run. Its only 4nm!. Well the shaft is fine. No vibration and no heating of the new flexible coupling. Good signs. We had no fuel issues. It was superb weather but the channel is narrow and has some shallows and a good current running so we motored back to the Yacht Club at Saldanha Bay to spend the night on anchor. We have done the reconnoiter now and next nice Sunday we will go for lunch to the Langerbaan YC which allegedly has an awesome buffet lunch. There was a really heavy fog on Sunday morning which prevented us leaving early enough to do the test stuff and stay for lunch.

So that is is from Saldanha Bay for another week.
 Saldahna Photo Album

SITTING OUT SOME WINTER IN SOUTH AFRICA. 13th July 2013

We have decided the rush is off, because its so late now, that racing to the UK for winter doesn't seem like a fun option, so we are plodding along with a few projects which have been begging attention. 

We relaunched without incident after a week on the hardstand, and the new shaft, cutlass bearing and flexible coupling seem to function OK. No funny noises and no leaks. I guess thats the most you can hope for prior to a sea trial.

The mast project is waiting for a small welding repair job, the spreader lights are held up in customs some where. The new LED anchor light is installed. All the wires are in and the fog horn is installed. Trevor has almost finished replacing standing rigging and mast tune.

Our new sail arrived and is on the boom but we found a crack in the goose neck fitting which attaches the boom to the mast, so we cant test the sail until we get that repaired. We will also get a new fitting made and keep the repaired one as a spare. Lucky we didnt go to sea like that!

The 4 burner gas stove, oven and grill, has been in bits and the barista come stove mechanic has seen to its much improved operation. A good clean of all the jets etc. Most things just require taking apart, cleaning and putting back together to make them work correctly. This was the case with the stove. 

A fuel tank has been weeping for a while and we decided to get that out and clean it up to find the leak. Its aluminum, 4mm, and has been in Taipan since 1987. Well its a good leak. About 10mm when all the crud was cleaned off. So that will be patched and the tank coated with bitumastic or coal tar epoxy to help prevent further corrosion.  Fortunatly our tanks are very easy to get to and remove. While the tank is out David has been making good the area it inhabited. Tanks are cruddy things and good clean of the area and some new insulation and wiring was done while its easy to get at. Tank is on the dock awaiting the welder.

Seems its been welding week. Goose-neck, spinnaker halyard plate on mast top and fuel tank. Hope thats the end of it.

The insulation project is completed and we managed to put away over 9sq M of foam. The front cabin is now habitable again. We have noticed that all the local boats use and recommend a dehumidifier. We may have to look into that for the future. Even though its cold here it is also very humid. Stuff drips!

On Tuesday we had a day out driving with Ivy, the wonderful manager of the Saldanha Bay Yacht Club. We got the grand tour of the area, starting with a drive over to Paternoster for a walk round this quaint town, and lunch on the beach at Voorstrandt Resturant. It was a fabulous day and being school holidays here there was plenty of activity. Lots of families enjoying the sunshine and beach. Some were even swimming! The water is 9 degrees!!

Later in the afternoon we drove down to Langerbaan on the lagoon. Its a 17km waterway, quite shallow, surrounded by national park and Military base. Beautiful setting and some nice anchorages we are told. It was good to see it from the land as we are considering taking a sail down that way to test run all the changes / improvements we have made before we decide whether to head off to Namibia of back to Cape Town. We possibly have to return to Cape Town to clear out of the country. It was a wonderful day out and Ivy should be declared a national treasure!
  
Saldahna Picz