Day 13 – Friday 21 February.

By Cathleen Hughes.

After many nights of cloudy skies, it was wonderful to finally be able to see a completely clear sky again. Trillions of stars are crammed into what we can see of the night sky with the occasional satellite and shooting star. It is the ultimate chance for star gazing because once anywhere near civilisation, the light pollution blocks out more than half of the stars. Some might even say that the crystal clear night sky over the ocean is one of the perks that make suffering through storms and bad weather all worth it.

Another warm, sunny day drew the crew out of their cabins and into the cockpit. It’s definitely the centre of social life and communications on the boat. It’s also the best position to be able to see all around the boat. Renier took a short stroll to the fore deck and peered over the side of the boat to find a single Tuna swimming alongside in the shade of our sail. Eventually all the crew members were sitting on the starboard bow gazing into the water, watching the fish swimming along. One by one, more fish appeared and joined the other fish. Through the water we could see the shining silver skin of the fish with stripes down its back and a bluish tinge. We knew that it was a blue fin Tuna; the most sort after and therefore most expensive Tuna. We thought we should bring a rod to the bow and taunt the fish with one of the lures. This turned out to be more of a challenge than we thought because the lure kept getting pulled beneath the boat and eventually we felt sorry for the fish and remounted the rod at the stern.

There has always been a musty smell that hangs around in the saloon area and today we had a thought as to where it was coming from. So we lifted the floor boards to expose the bilge pumps. We added a cap of orange scented cleaner and filled each bilge with sea water and slowly began to pump it all out again. The musty smell was now scented with orange but it still wasn’t completely gone and so we kicked it up a notch. We brought out the bottle of stay soft and poured a full cap down into the bilges and flushed them out again. It was a success and the saloon soon smelt like clean linen with musty smell completely gone.

Swimming off the stern of the boat is a highlight on these lousy sailing days when there is no wind. To be able to swim, a crew member must first put on a harness and tie themselves to a line that is firmly wrapped three times around the self-tailing winch. They can then jump in the water and swim freely until the slack is taken up and the boat pulls them along. On this wonderful afternoon, Lorraine and Cathleen decided to go for a swim. They harnessed up, secured their lines on the winches and made their way down onto the sugar scoop. Lorraine jumped in first and as her line trailed into the water behind her, it came loose from the winch. She was the first to realise what had happened and shouted to Cathleen to grab the rope before it went overboard. At first Cathleen didn’t see what had happened but she soon saw the rope trailing off and grabbed it just in time. She wrapped it twice around the base of the backstay, as it was the closest secured point, and kept tension on the end.

She managed to pull in some slack and tie the line off so Lorraine was secure again. After a few deep breathes, Cathleen slowly began to pull Lorraine back into the boat. Nobody was injured and once the line was properly secured again, they were back in the water. It was a sobering reminder of how quickly things can go wrong.

Making the best of a lousy situation is something that the crew has become very good at. So with the low winds and the flat seas that are horrible for sailing, we decided it was time for a braai in the middle of the ocean. Ashwyn quickly jumped into action and made his delicious meat marinade with Teriyaki sauce, onions, tomato sauce, chutney, parsley, mixed herbs, Portuguese spices and apricot jam. Chicken fillets and sausages were left to marinade for a few hours before it was placed onto the braai. Then pasta was boiled and left to cool before mayonnaise, peas and corn were added to it. Ashwyn then made a South African Salsa to go with our Brazilian tortilla chips. It was a meal for Kings which Ashwyn named ‘Taco a la alles.’ It was incredibly tasty with the South African and the Mexican flavours coming through. The meal was rounded off with Guava in syrup and chocolate cream.

The crew seemed to hang around for a while with Virgil taking the older crew members for a trip down memory lane with the likes of UB40, Oasis and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. There was a ship on the horizon that also caught our attention. Rory wanted to make his first radio transmission and so we radioed them to say hello and ask their bearing. They were kind and courteous and we all congratulated Rory on his first radio success at sea. We watched as they crossed our bow and made their way along our starboard side before it eventually disappeared.

It was a fantastic day all round, except for the wind, and the crew had all headed off to bed leaving the night watchmen on duty. During the 01h00 shift, the line suddenly went. After much scurrying around, Chris took hold of the rod and began reeling it in. Rory was awoken at the sound of the reel and was soon at his side. The two fishermen reeled in a 4kg Blue Fin Tuna under the cover of darkness. Chris had a tender moment and connected with the fish as they recognised each other from the earlier encounter on the starboard bow. Chris snapped back to reality, apologised and cleaned and gutted the fish. They placed it in the fridge, ready for supper that night.

GPS: S30 degrees 33.9 minutes / W024 degrees 32.1 minutes
Heading: 152 degrees