Day 11 – Wednesday 19 February.

By Cathleen Hughes.

The lightning carried on throughout the morning shifts and even when daylight broke through. It was only when we began sailing towards the gaps in the clouds, which exposed the beautiful baby blue sky, that the thunder began to subside. Eventually we emerged from the darkness of the clouds and we watched, mesmerised as the sun began to creep above the horizon. The warm rays of light reached out and caressed the skies above. Slowly, Rotary Scout became enveloped in a gentle orange light and the faces of the crew members on watch began to glow. Rays streamed through the portholes, crept up pillows and into the eyes of the sleepy sailors on board. We had finally reached the cloud gap and we thought that, just maybe, Mother Nature would treat us to a good day of sailing.

The main was put up so it could dry out for a few hours and once all the crew members were up and about, we began to fix the tears. We pulled the main down and inspected each tear. For the two bigger tears we first stitched and cleaned it with thinners. We then cut sheets of sticky back into the appropriate sizes and strategically stuck them onto either side of the sail. The trick to temporary sail repair is to cover at least three times the area of the tear in order to ensure it doesn’t grow bigger when put under pressure by the wind. For the smaller tear, we only needed to put the sticky back on due to its short length. It took us about two hours to patch up the sails but once it was complete, we hoisted the main and started sailing again.

Of course, the crew didn’t waste a single moment before they dragged their mattresses out and lashed them to the steel jungle gym at the stern of the boat. All the hatches and portholes were opened to create an air flow throughout the saloon and forepeak. The aft cabin also received some well needed airing. The crew suddenly sprang back into life as they began making themselves busy with odd jobs and the boat began to be a happier place with laughter and chatter filling the air once again.

The boat was back on a port tack which also made the crew more comfortable because it was no longer a scene from Mission Impossible whenever they needed to use the heads. Rotary was comfortable again, humming as she sailed close hauled with a course to steer of 154 degrees magnetic. Occasionally the wind would drop and we would bob along for about an hour until the wind picked up again between 10 and 15 knots.

For dinner Ashwyn threw together fried onions, chutney, baked beans and salty Brazilian sausage to create a delectable stew accompanied with rice. Once again the crew was together in the cockpit for the meal telling stories and spinning yarns about adventures from all over the world.
Night fall brought more lightning storms along the horizon and the winds slackened to 8 knots. On a few occasions the winds would suddenly die and a rain squall would follow. The rain would bucket down for about 20 minutes, soaking the watch shift and then it would disappear and the wind would pick up again but in a different direction. The shifty wind is a pain but it’s fairly light and therefore easy to manage.

We also experienced problems with our connection to the sailor, hence why the blogs have been rather delayed. After a phone call through to Mark Jennings, we were informed that our data had run out. We found this quite strange as we had been reloaded with 20MB only 4 days earlier by our sponsor www.sat4rent.co.za. We later discovered the usage was due to a software malfunction on our laptop and have since sorted out the problem. We would like to thank Grant Chapman for sponsoring the reload of our data that will keep our emails connected and therefore our blogs to be sent through.