I just checked tie 'Sent mail' folder and have found that only one photo was uploaded with my previous posting... I'm attaching the remaining two described in the last paragraph.
The cry of 'Land Ho!' went up at 10:16 GMT on the morning of the 26th October. Skipper, 1st mate and deck hand Niall had made the crossing of THE bay whiteout so much as a hint of it's reputation. This brings our voyage total mileage to 613 nautical miles. As we approached land we wondered how far ahead of Tormalind, an Estonian boat which left at the same time as us and who we kept pace with until the second night of the crossing when we suspect that they reduced sail for the night which we did not! We have an advantage in that we can reduce our fore sails without having to leave the safety and comfort of the cockpit whereas Tormalind have to venture out and manually remove one sail and bend on another. maybe they were just tired of us being in such close quarters!!? Thanks to the wonders of modern telecoms we were able to put out a request to the Tin Tin WhatsApp group and sure enough the answer came back that they were about 27nm astern.. Satisfying for us! (Photos wil...
this blog posting should have reached my Blog on the 20th Feb... but for some reason it did not leave my iPad. A quick update to say that after seemingly interminable delays waiting for spares... Tin Tin finally departed Cape Town on the 20th Feb.. (2 days after my visa expired!) We motored out of the Cape Grace Marina at 0620 and headed due North towards Lüderitz in Namibia. We made a quick transition back to voyage life, 3 hrs on and 6 off, and our trusty lunchtime salad of shredded red and white cabbage, with a trailmix and mayo dressing, made a welcome reappearance. we have had visits from 3 new species, Haviside's and Dusky Dolphins as well as Shy albatross. These are in addition to the magic encounter we had with Southen Right whales whilst out testing the water maker around Robben island. It was the water maker that delayed out departure from Cape Town as we waited for spares only to find that they didn't improve the problem. Eventually the local expert John sugges...
As with most projects, the last things that need to be finished seem to be the ones that take the longest. Currently this is tidying up the electronics associated with the engine installation. The new EVC connections have been established and we can now see engine data on the main navigation display, revs, temp, and pressure. What is proving difficult is to track down the source of the leaking current which means that something has a direct connection to the hull which shouldn't even the case! In a metal boat this is a significant hazard as over time this leakage causes the hull to lose material and get thinner... At the same time one display showing boat speed has decided to stop functioning, also not a good idea! We have now loaded all the charts and 300kg of edible stores, are very happy with the new freezer/fridge set up which gets the freezer down to -15C and the fridge to at least 0C.. Ice cream in the Pacific would seem to be more of a realistic proposition than a figme...
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