St Helena 2018 Bog – Day 1

After a good start and heading towards Robben Island and go round it, so that we could head West, the wind started playing games. It fell as low as 4 knots at times and the heavier boats like ours could only reach thus going one way or the other and not going anywhere. Eventually the wind filled in enough for us to get past Robben Island and on course of the waypoint we had selected. The wind stayed very fickle but with some rain squalls we did pick up nice speed but also lots of barely enough wind to keep heading in the right direction. The wind eventually started coming through at around 04:00 and we are fetching at around 8 knots with an 18 kn westerly wind. At around 09:00 we were in line with Saldanha Bay mouth.

The lack of wind, biggish confused waves and the boat wallowing did not do the crew any favours. Nobody was seriously seasick but queasiness was the matter of the day. We had a heated up supper, provided by Julie, of Pasta Bolognaise. Less than half was eaten but at least substance was had by most. Apart from Rory, Peter, Kyla and Ewan who slept below the rest stayed on deck in the cockpit.

This morning the crew is in recovery mode and I can see that before long the crew will be ready to go. Some had some tea and muesli and others had apples.
Hopefully the next blog will be more informative