Day 1 – Sunday 9 February.

By Cathleen Hughes.

The crew awoke early in order to depart from Ilha Grande before midday but we were side tracked by various minor repairs and cleaning that needed to be done to ready the boat before the long trip. Eventually we made way at 11h30 and set an approximate course for Cape Town.

We were welcomed back to ocean sailing life with winds of 10 to 15 knots and a fairly bumpy sea. The boat balanced herself comfortably and we sailed on a close haul. The first few hours on board were pleasant with the new crew members settling in and finding their groove. We settled back into our usual lunch of freshly baked bread, tuna and spreads but this time we had the added bonus of a delicious chocolate spread similar to Nutella. A rolling watch roster was created for the return trip. This means that every crew member has 2 hours of watch but each hour is with a new partner. It works on a basis that the watch leaders; Rory, Cathleen, Peter and Chris; each start and end their shifts on the odd hours while Lorraine, Virgil, Renier and Ashwyn start and end their shift on the even hours.

The first bit of excitement came in the late afternoon when Cathleen and Renier were on watch and the reel whizzed off at a tremendous speed. Rory hastily woke from his slumber and pounced on the lines. As he was reeling in, Rory pointed out that the tension wasn’t like a tuna where the fish would be fighting but instead the tension was irregular and he was convinced that someone had tied a bucket onto the end of his line while he was sleeping. We suspect he has had experience with these ‘bucket fish’ before. As the object was reeled closer to the boat, it seemed to be dragging on the surface which naturally caused Rory to fall deeper into the belief that it was a bucket. Cathleen pointed out that it was more likely to be a bird which went for the lure and was now being dragged through the water. Someone even claimed it was a seal before we saw it jump out of the water and we could make out the outline of a fish. We didn’t know what type of fish it was but the prospect of fre sh fish was simply too exciting.

As darkness fell, the winds picked up to 25 knots and the swell increased to 2.5m. Our instruments had interference from surrounding frequencies and as a result weren’t working properly. The swell was causing the boat to roll and as a result the majority of the crew members fell victim to sea sickness. We reefed the main in an attempt to stabilise the boat but the swell was to rough. As the night dragged on we had a call over the radio from a nearby ship which we were on a collision course with. The comforting thought was that they called us by name which meant that our AIS was working again. Rory was at the helm and managed to manoeuvre around the ship with about 100m to spare.

The crew didn’t get much sleep with the combination of reverting back to UTC as boat time, rough seas and the sea sickness.

Our first fish

Rory’s catch