On Thursday we took a walk around to Axel and Peta and had boerewors rolls for lunch (It was national Braai day after all!) As we started the fire the wind picked up and boy did it pick up…40 knots gusting at 60! We could hardly stand let alone sail. We took a walk back to our boat to spend an awesomely rocky, rainy night in the marina.
Friday started out with some hot showers and as the wind continued to blow at gale force we stayed in the marina for the day, spending the time doing some boat work. There seems to be a never-ending list of tasks we want to get completed. We expect this to continue when we move onto the cat, it will probably fill our days whilst we take our trip. We managed to get the following ticked off the list:
- Making mooring lines (which includes cutting to length and sealing) to tie up to other docks.
- Replacing some shackles, including the one for the main sail clue, the topping lift and the main sail tack. Some of these were rusted, others were the wrong sizes etc.
- Readjusting the main sail to make the sail flatter.
- Tying new knots to the main sail attachments.
We also spent some quality time with the boys reading some bible passages, playing cards and reading “Just Cruising” (to keep the dream alive). By the time we headed for bed the wind was starting to calm down.
We woke on Saturday to absolute calm, not a breathe of wind and the marina filling up as people arrived to enjoy a warm weekend on their respective boats. We took a walk to the shop about 2km’s down the road and ordered take away burgers for lunch finished off with an ice-cream for the walk home.
Whilst walking past Sunset Cove Barry phoned Axel and we headed in for a quick visit. We spent the afternoon watching Axel play chef and make meatballs and “HOT STUFF” yes it was flaming hot! We took a walk back to the marina just before sunset and motored out into the dam with a very light breeze to hoist both the main and roller furler and watch the sun set. I took some amazing pictures in the peaceful surroundings. I always love it when we are under sail in a light breeze with no motor. Just after sunset the wind was gone again and we motored back in.
We sat on the boat and had a few drinks, when we looked up Marcelle had come back in after his 3 day trip up to Frankfort, lowering the mast in Oranjeville and re-hoisting it and doing the same on the return trip. He was very excited (and who wouldn’t be) it is a trip few, if any, have managed.Click here to read his full story Barry later went over to Ken’s boat and enjoyed more drinks with them whilst I slept.
We woke early on Sunday, hot showers again and a trip to town to buy some meat as we were expecting Tammy and Jason on Sunday afternoon. They finally arrived at about 4pm after a huge 47km trip from their hotel (which they thought was on the dam) and spent a few hours enjoying their company, the kids enjoying having 5 others to play with too. Tammy pretended to be the paparazzi and took about 100 pictures of the boats at the dock. By the time they left at around 8pm the marina was quiet. We were alone again.
As we had not managed to get any real sailing done yet we made a deal that the next morning we were going out…definitely. We woke to a very windy morning….
As promised we started the motor and Rauen released the lines and we were off…but the wind blew harder than the boat could move and Rauen and I found ourselves pushing us off both the dock and other boats before we managed to get out of the marina. Together with Kyle’s comments this should have been a sign that we should have stayed put but we had promised so….
We rolled only the head sail out, reefed at five turns and sailed with 1 nautical mile of the marina (we know this because we had a GPS on board…until the batteries died as the wind picked up further) we tacked and gybed and practised in the heavy wind. We started to gain confidence and turned the boat downwind for a fast sail past Villains point towards Deneysville. Just after Misty point the wind picked up and became ferocious, we decided to tack and head back to the marina, it was 10am.
We were beating into the wind and waves under motor and sail with no success. We were not making any ground travelling at 0.00 knots over the water and getting pooped with water every 10 seconds. We tacked round and sailed up the lee side of the island hoping to get across at the other end, I also put life jackets on both the boys and turned on the VHF to channel 16 (just in case) at this point as I was not feeling very comfortable. As we approached we realised the wind was just as bad as on the other side and we would be pushed even further from home that way so we tacked round again and sailed back from where we came. As we neared the end of the island it seemed we would make it past Villains point and be able to tack back to the marina but Baltic Sea was on the water and we were on a collision course. We were on a port tack, them on Starboard, which meant they had right of way and we had to turn to a beam reach to pass to their stern, putting us completely off course to pass Villains point. We tacked back again towards the island and once in the lee we turned and headed again for Villains point….we finally made it past!
Just after passing Villains point the dam got rougher, the waves were hitting us on the port side and turning the boat, broaching us with every wave. Kyle looked a little scared sitting holding onto the handrail with Rauen at his side. I asked “Are you scared boy?” The reply…”No….I am Terrified!” just before the tears started streaming down his face. I went inside and gave him a hug bravely saying it will all be fine, don’t worry, until he calmed down. (It helped that I was soaking wet and we had a good laugh about that). Barry kept hold of the tiller and we tacked 3 more times before managing to get to our marina. It took all of us to get the boat tied back up.
As I packed up everything I spotted the only casualty of the very rough sail…my handbag, soaking wet and covered in mud. It had been on the forward bunk and water had come in through the forward port hatch and dripped down…a sure sign we had been tipped far over whilst sailing.
We managed to get the luggage back up to the car in just 1 trip and headed home in a thunderstorm that had luckily held out long enough for us to get off the water – or we would have been rained on too!
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