At Sea - On route to St Helena

It has been one week at sea and it seems like yesterday when we were having all the help from Lea and Sozon, shopping for food, putting supplies on board, cooking, clearing customs and having our last lunch at the Royal Cape Yacht Club. We have covered approx. 1000nm towards St. Helena, but have actually sailed 1250nm in the week. We have been doing approx. 8kn. since the slow start on day one. This morning we slowed to 6kn. so John suggested we put our asymmetric spinnaker up. Because of it, we are doing 7-8kn. in 9 knots of wind!! The seas are flat today so we are powering along. Yesterday we were hit by waves from all sides and Arti ended up with a flood in the kitchen, via the kitchen window and a very wet doona from a flood through the cabin window! We have now entered the tropics and our first crop of flying fish were found on the deck this morning. John has just had his first bite, but unfortunately (lucky for the fish!!) it got off the hook - so, no fresh fish for dinner yet! Dimitri cooked us a lovely meal of Cape smoked snoek (fish), mushrooms, chips and a pear, pine nuts and green leaf salad - we have photographic evidence...

For the last two nights we have had a full moon and we are travelling in the same direction as it moves across the sky. It illuminates the surrounding sea world as we travel along the beautiful silver highway that it creates. So far the Atlantic seems to have far less sea life than the Indian or Pacific had and we have not seen much at all since we parted with the African coast. There are not even any ships where we are. Reading the pilot books, it seems that we will not be able to get any clean water until we get to Portugal so we are being very frugal with it. The boys would love it as they would not have to shower every day! Thanks for all the kind wishes and news from home. 

All our love, 

Dimitri and Arti.

At Sea - On route to St Helena Island

Hi Everyone, well today was smooth sailing in good wind, swell not too big and sky overcast but the weather is getting warm as we head further north. We have settled into a routine on the boat now and John and I have started harmonica lessons and I took out my Spanish books for the first time today. We also took out the "Jambox" for the first time so now we have a speaker in the cockpit. Kim, please thank Aileen for the fabulous steer! Thank you also to Doreen for putting me onto the "Dreampot". Every morning after breakfast I use the hot water from the kettle to put something into the Dreampot and so, by the time dinner comes around, our meal is more or less cooked. Saves time, and most of all, valuable gas. I did some navigating today and worked out that we have 5,567nm to go if we go to Portugal via the Azores. We probably will as if we go via Canaries, it will be 1000nm shorter but we will be going directly into the wind. We will make a decision when we get to the Cape Verdes, depending on the weather. That is 38 days sailing as the crow flies, which of course we cannot do! Jan, Nick and Anne, hold thumbs we get to Lisbon in time to meet you. We are really looking forward to seeing you guys.

We are not seeing much sea life. After the whales and sea lions on the South African coast, we have just seen one large sea bird although it was pretty spectacular, with a huge wingspan. I don't know too much about birds so I am not sure what it was. We are not catching any fish as we are probably going too fast for them.
Drop us a line sometime.

Love Arti and Dimitri.

P.S.
Dimitri says We are too far north for albatross so I think it was a petral. The jambox was great, we were in the cockpit, playing "bat out of hell" loud and belting along at 8.5 to 9 knots, when John said "you make it sound too exciting, like we are dancing with margaritas in our hands, but really I am lying here, slightly uncomfortably, drooling from the mouth, and we haven't had a shower for a week!" He is in fact having fun,playing guitar, fishing and he and Arti are about to try there hand at a harmonica!I will have to start on Spanish lessons soon! Love to all.

At Sea - On route to St Helena Island

Hi all, 

Day 4 at sea, and we have settle in at last.The wind was dead behind us, and although you may think we could just head for St. Helena, we can't sail that course as the mainsail could gybe(swing around to the opposite side.) and bring down the mast! So, we have headed north along the coast, covered 600 miles and only made 400 miles towards St H.We have now had a deliberate(Slow)gybe and turned on a more or less direct route to St Helena. Winds are strong at 20 to 25 knots seas chaotic and the famous large Atlantic swell is 3 meters, following us so comfortable. We are flying along at 8+ knots, surfing the waves at up to 12 knots! We are all revelling in the conditions.We got up close and personal with a mum & baby humpback on day1, saw a survey vessel in the distance(I suppose for oil) & were warned to stay 6 miles clear by guard vessels, passed lots of ships,but very little sea life. We are still in the cold Benguella current.No need to use engine so far! So far, a great trade wind passage. John must be over his seasickness as he started fishing. As always, he is optimistic of a large fish judging by the size of his lure! Thanks to you all for your good wishes 

Love to all 

Dimitri & Arti

At Sea - On route to St Helena Island

Hi Everyone, 

Hope you are well. Things are going well here, although John is still seasick and Dimitri was seasick yesterday and, once again, I am not getting much sleep. There is a big swell out here so we are being knocked about quite a bit.

The bit of exciting news from yesterday is our close encounter with whales. As we passed by the mouth of Saldanha Bay, we saw many sea lions and a few whales blowing in the distance. All of a sudden a whale surfaced right next to us, then another which was probably a baby. They played around, right near us for awhile, then one surfaced, facing the side of the boat and about 5m (15-20ft) away. It looked at us and then dived directly under the boat. It stayed under the boat for quite a while (we know this as our depth sounder went to 11m from 50m) and then eventually surfaced on the other side of us. It was quite eerie knowing it was under us for so long. 
We have now done 250nm but as we are mostly sailing (and not going in the direction we want), we are only 160nm from Cape Town towards St. Helena.

We have issues with our internet and Dimitri has spent many hours trying to get it fixed. Finally after a prolonged satellite phone call ($$$), it is working after a fashion but we cannot get into our usual e-mail account(Gmail decided it doesn't recognize our computer)Still, at least we can download weather using it. We may have to start a new account when on WiFi later! Luckily we now have our HF radio sailmail account which I am now using so we can still be in contact.

Keep well and smiling
Arti and Dimitri.

At Sea - On route to St Helena Island

Hi Guys

Well, we finally said "Goodbye" to Cape Town. We got away at 3pm. this afternoon, after going from building to building (needed a car to get from one to the other) clearing immigration, port control and customs. We had a lovely sail past Robben Island this afternoon with the gorgeous Table Mountain, Devil's Peak & Lions Head backdrop, coated in a misty blanket that looked like snow. After about an hour fog came down and we could hear the anchored ships blowing their foghorns. Now, 7pm. we are blanketed in fog, all is silent here and it is quite eerie sailing along, seeing only the closest wave as it approaches. This part of the coast is famous for it's fog which keeps all fauna and flora alive in the Namib Desert.

We are now about to conquer the mighty Atlantic Ocean, which is renowned for it's big rollers, coming up from Antartica. It is quite exciting really. We have 1,700nm to go to St. Helena. This would take us 11 days if we could sail there directly. However, we have to go in the direction the wind takes us now, as we cannot motor as we do not have enough fuel to get all the way to Portugal. We need to save it for later, until we are closer and for when we get to the doldrums.

My good friend Lea has decided not to sail with us, so it is just the three of us aboard - Dimitri, John and I, so once again the boys outnumber me!

Love to you all.

Arti & Dimitri

Cape Town

Hi Guys

We had a cold and wet ride down the coast to Cape Town but were treated to lots of sealions, birds and a whale just outside Saldanha Bay.  Later during the trip, a whale surfaced just in front of the boat - what a sight!  It was cold and rainy but otherwise uneventful, except for berthing in the marina.  They had made a mistake and given us a berth that was far too small for us and luckily there were about ten people to help us otherwise we would have been in big trouble.  All well in the end.

Love to all.

Arti & Dimitri