After the fiasco with our boat Natasha, in Port Elizabeth, we made our way back to the crew house, set up a plan, carried out the provisioning and preparations and started the second half of our month long mileage building on Nina. With Nina, we sailed out of Mykonos and once again headed South. We set our heading for Cape Town and hoped that within a few days we would be rounding Cape Point and pulling into False Bay. False bay is a very large space where we would be able to sail a greater amount of mileage without necessarily having to worry about weather. Problem is, we couldn’t make it around Cape Point before the winds and swell started to take their toll. At around Cape Point, we had to turn back and head for Langebaan. Thus starting our love/hate relationship with the lagoon.

We made good time getting back to Langebaan Lagoon, but with the weather, we decided to stick it our inside the protected waters until we could formulate another plan and see if Mother Nature would cooperate with us. After about seventy some odd laps inside the lagoon, making a 4nm straight lines from the marina entrance to the lighthouses, we realized that our fate was to be stuck in the lagoon for the rest of our lives!!!!!!

The third week of mileage ended with 500 nautical miles sailed, some of that was down to Cape Town and back, but the majority was in the confines of the lagoon. On the good side of this, we became very familiar with the area that we will be tested in later in December. The bad side was, 500 miles down plus the 800 sailed in the previous two weeks, still left 700 mile to go and only one week to knock them out.

Nina served us well through the week, but the company’s third boat, Ariel, is a faster and more comfortable boat to sail. With the added benefit of auto pilot, it was decided that making up the 700 miles would be better accomplished on Ariel. So…we changed boats again. Packed, prepped, and knowing what was in store, we set out into the lagoon on Sunday with no hopes of getting out into the open ocean. But, it was alright, we knew that the miles would come and the time would go by and all would be wonderful in the end. Except, it never works that way for this group. On the first day of having Ariel out in the lagoon, we found that there was still a problem with the newly installed engine. On day 2, we had to sail her into Saldanha in order to find out the reason why the engine seemed to be shorting out on ignition and wouldn’t start. After spending the night in Saldanha and having an inspection performed the next morning, we then needed to be towed off the dock and made a short sail back to Mykonos. Getting back to the marina was uneventful and the docking under tow went just fine. However, the rest of the day was taken with maintenance and we were losing days and not gaining miles.

The problem was temporarily fixed, turns out water was coming in through the exhaust, and we were able to once again, get back into the lagoon around 5pm Tuesday night. But, temporary means that a permanent fix would need to be conducted, soooooo….again, on Wednesday, we came back into the marina and spent a few hours getting the necessary work completed. Wednesday night we got off the docks and were able to get through the rest of the week without having to come in. Bonus, the weather also broke a little and we were able to get out into the ocean for a couple of days. And O’ how it was worth the wait!

The trip up North started out as mundane as the trips across the lagoon had been. More water, some land, point the boat in a direction, and go sail for a while till we decide to turn around. But, Friday night, probably the most amazing thing since we had been sailing happened. Out of Cape Town, we saw hundreds of seals and a turtle. Rounding Cape Point, we saw a great white shark. A few times, huge pods of dolphins came to visit. But, nothing came close to what we encountered just North of the entrance to Langebaan Lagoon. It was reported that over 200 Humpback whales were headed North from Cape Town. It just so happened that they all decided to come along the same route that we were taking on our trip. It was nothing short of special, there were whales everywhere we looked and even some that ended up coming right next to the boat. They were loud and smelly, and absolutely beautiful. That evening, we all sat up topside watching these creatures, all the size of our boat, swimming and eating peacefully all around us. None of us wanted the moment to end, but of course, they were headed North and we were on our route sailing due South. After about 30 min, the last of the whales passed us, and we stayed up watching the few remaining spouts of water off in the distance as they continued their adventure and we continued ours.

Friday night was the perfect ending to our long trip, it was going out on top, it was finishing on a high note, it was more than we could have asked for. That night, the hours passed and as we continue to look at the GPS, we realized that our final day had arrived and by happy hour Saturday, we would be finished with what, at many times throughout, seemed insurmountable. It took a two week period of 800 miles, needed back to back weeks of 500 and 700 miles, it included three boats, two instructors, a van, and a whole lot of resolve.

What began in Cape Town on October 28th, ended in Langebaan on November 23rd. We started with little fanfare, just a quiet morning sailing out of the marina. Much like it began, only one person was awaiting our arrival at the docks when it ended. We celebrated this large victory, like we have celebrated all small victories throughout this course…by drinking. No one sitting at the Mykonos restaurants nor anyone spending time on their boats in the marina, nor anyone working or fishing on the docks knew what we just accomplished, but our crew popped a few bottles of champagne, took pictures, and congratulated one another to mark the occasion.

The next day, we cleaned the boat, took our gear and left over provisions off, and headed back to the crew house. Monday is the start of theory refresher. That means back in the classroom, back to the books, back to the charts and formulas and tidal ranges and o god can we get back on the boat already? Two days away from the boat and seven days until we’re sailing again, already we want to be back out on the water…it can’t come soon enough.

Coming into Mossel Bay was something to see. In the dark, early morning, the bay looks like one straight line of lights and water. Until you get right up on the entrance to the marina, it’s hard to distinguish what light is leading to where and exactly which direction the boat should be pointed. Luckily, our instructor/skipper is more than familiar with each and every port we enter. He came up from hibernation and directed us in through the confusion.

In the daylight though, we woke up to another, little coastal town. We wandered off the boat that “morning” to go have breakfast and beer at the yacht club along the beach. With the way the marina is set up, the yacht club is a bit of a walk and those approaching by boat will have to leave the dock, walk through a manned security gate, go around the corner, and down the road to find a row of food truck type restaurants and eventually the yacht club. Seeing as that was where the food, drinks, and showers were, we didn’t mind the hike too much.

Mossel Bay was only a quick, 1 day trip, and then we were off again trying to make Port Elizabeth before the weather hit us. We were scheduled to pick up and extra member of the crew in PE and the window to get there was closing fast. Setting sail out of Mossel Bay was mostly uneventful. The weather was getting warmer along the coast, so I did get to break out the man-sarong and, to the chagrin of the rest of the crew, got enjoy a bit of breeze up my skirt.

Along the way, we caught our second fish. Michael will be glad to tell the story of how he was single handily sailing the boat, keeping watch, spotting fish-on, and realing in the line all at the same time. Truth be told, no one really thought we had a fish on the line except for Michael. We may have lost it if he had not kept insisting that something was chowing on the hook. With the helpful instruction of the “dirty-Dutchman” (Stephan), I learned how to clean and filet a saltwater fish and soon, the little guy was prepped, wrapped, and stored in our fridge to be made into snacks later that night.

Next, and what would end up being last, stop was Port Elizabeth. Looking back, it’s a bit sad. We were making great time up the coast and were either solidly making way to Durban, or at least, getting to head back a bit to St Francis where we had braai, hot showers, and a good host to welcome us for a few days off the boat. But en route to PE, our trip took a bit of a turn for the worse. The oceans are riddled with rubbish and our prop found a plastic bag floating on or just below the surface. No one could have seen the plastic before we ran over it, getting it wrapped up around the propeller shaft and ultimately causing poor Natasha to need some repairs.

With luck, we limped into Port Elizabeth and were able to pick up our newest member, Wouter (Voter). But, we would end up spending about 4 days stuck, trying to figure out what our next move would, or even could, be. The good side was that PE is actually a big town with plenty to keep us busy. The bad side was, the marina there is absolutely atrocious and none of us were happy with the facilities nor the service we received. However, making everyone on the boat really happy, we received a visit from our good friend and former crew member, Garth. He drove the hour from St Francis to come hang out with us. Of course, he bought a few rounds of drinks for everyone and ensured that we all had a great time.

The final verdict on Natasha was that she couldn’t leave until fixed, which would take a bit of coordination and a lot of time. Time that we didn’t have. So, we rented a van and trailer, stuffed our gear inside and started the long drive back to Langebaan. Used to being in close quarters, the road trip wasn’t too bad and we got so see some beautiful country side. It felt strange though, passing by the towns that we had, just days before, sailed in and out of. None of us were too happy with the way it played out, but we’ve learned throughout this course to remain flexible. This was just another adventure and challenge we would need to work through. After about 12 hours, we arrived safely in Langebaan and if there is any consolation, I finally got to see my son who arrived while we were sailing the coast. With the boat broken, a few different courses currently underway at Sail Due South, and now the weather rolling in, we’ll see how we deal with the issues. But for now, maybe we just take a moment to relax, have a beer, and say hello to our old friend Langebaan Lagoon.

Monday morning we drove from Langebaan to Cape Town Yacht Club, found our boat hidden among the hundreds of other sailboats, and started our preparation for the coming voyage of 2000 miles. Yes, that’s right, 7 people, locked up tight in a 38 ft sailboat, and sailing over 2000 miles during the course of 4 weeks.

We cleaned, packed, and attended to the maintenance needs of Natasha. That night we slept in the marina, then at about 0800 Tuesday morning, we slipped lines, and Michael pulled us away from the dock. With little fanfare, our adventure had officially began!!

The first leg was relatively simple; an 11 hour sail around Cape Point to Simon’s Town. That quick jump to a town only 45 min away by car, gave us some of the most amazing sites we’d see over the course of the following week. Rounding Cape Point, we came across large pods of dolphins, hundreds of seals, a sea turtle, a couple of whales, and the highlight of the trip, a 4 meter great white shark that surfaced just off our starboard beam. None of us could believe how close or how big it was. Seeing the great white while sailing is one of those experiences which highlight why people travel and it’s something I’ll always remember about this trip.

(not a picture of the great white 😂)

Coming into Simon’s Town at night kept us from getting a good view of the sleepy little naval town. But the next morning we woke up to a picturesque village sitting on the banks of False Bay where we would be spending the next two days. It’s old, dating back to its establishment in 1680, and it mostly consists of the naval base and training center. Its main tourist attraction though is Boulder’s beach, where to my excitement, lives the African Penguins. They’re the cutest little birds that waddle when they walk and tend to fall over when they try to jump off even the smallest ledge. Mostly they just laid around sunning and posing for tourists while we all took pictures.

I guess I was the only one interested in the penguins, because everyone else took a hike up to Admiral’s Waterfall. The views of the bay and the surrounding area from the elevation were breathtaking. In the town, there are also a few museums, restaurants, and local shops. As with most small towns though, everything seemed to close down around 5pm and as the night got darker, everyone started to head back to the boat for a night’s rest before heading out on the next leg.

We had to postpone moving further up the coast towards Durban due to weather not being in our favor. So, around 0900 Friday morning, we pulled out of Simon’s town and pointed our boat back towards Cape Town. A short 8 hour sail got us to Hout Bay, just outside the Mother City. Once there, it was pretty much, shower, eat, and nap for three hours before we once again, untied from the dock and quietly slipped out of another marina en route to Mossel Bay.

And what a leg that ended up being!! We didn’t get the worst of what South Africa could give while sailing around the most southern tip. But during the 48 hours, working our way to and around Cape Agulhas was definitely eventful. The swells seemed to come from 3 different directions, we still weren’t accustomed to sleeping well on the boat, and the wind was gusting up to and past 30 knots. Put this all together with sailing overnight in the pitch-black dark and being tossed out of bed by yet another wave causing the boat to heal over, all of it continuing for 48 hours straight, and you get our first real sail! Truthfully, I have a new appreciation for sailing on the ocean. Up till now, I didn’t really know what to expect during our mileage trip. Now I realize what is normal and also can imagine it being so much worse. All in all, Cape Agulhas was kind to us. And there you have it, the first of 4 weeks complete and only 3 more to go.

We’ve already been visited by so many different animals, enjoyed our first of what Michael and Tristan believe will be many fish caught and cooked within the hour, hung upside down off the back of the boat while underway to clean kelp off the rudder, experienced sleep deprivation, been tossed by the waves, broke the toilet, almost ran out of water, had our food spoil, and for moments even hated life. Through every minute though, it’s been an absolutely great experience. Week one only started to make us stronger, the next three are going to give us the confidence to conquer the world.

Feels like it’s been a month since I last wrote. Trying to remember all that’s happened over the last few weeks, it becomes a bit of a blur in my head. I left off with working through Personal Roles and Responsibilities (PPR) and getting ready to do Power Boat level II training. Turns out, power boating would be the easiest part of the time that has passed.

We ended up getting some time off of our normal schedule to get the PPR completed, which took the entire week for study and getting the two online tests knocked out. In the end, it was a whole lot of reading, and using group study sessions to get through the pain. But, once again, we all passed and moved on to the next marker.

I mentioned the Power Boat Level II training. It’s a one day course and we took the time during the PPR week to get it completed. During our entire sailing course, I am pretty sure, that’s the fastest we’ll get to go on the water. It was definitely fun and we all had a lekker time running around the bay, trying not to fall off the boat. Much like our sail training, we practiced man-overboard, docking, and undocking while also enjoying the sun and beautiful day on the roughly 15ft center console zodiac.

After PPR and Power Boat were completed, we found a new way to celebrate… Carmen found this great beach side braai at Die Strandloper in Langebaan. It was 10 courses, all cooked over open fire and included seafood, chicken, and curry. It was, probably, the best group thing we have done since we’ve all been together. Of course, it also involved drinking, and with starting with the drinks around 1100 and going through to the next morning, everyone ended up with an eventful night and we were all feeling it the next day.

Somehow, we made it through the weeked and the following week was dedicated to Coastal Theory. We all realized that, at this point, the course starts to get a little more difficult. It’s not that we learn a bunch of new stuff (we did learn a few new things), but it’s where we take everything we’ve learned to this point and put it all together. Now it’s time to take weather, tidal streams, tidal heights, chart plotting, collision regulations, and more and put them into use at the same time. We worked through passage plans and pilotages using all that information to get from point A to point B as safely as possible. Coastal Theory includes 3 different tests. The first was relatively simple, covering a bit of a review of the previous courses. The second test was only 6 questions, used the charts, and took each person roughly 6 hours to complete. The third test was one big passage plan with various questions and plotting throughout. That 25 question test took the entire day with a break for lunch. It wasn’t that the test was overly difficult, it was simply the amount of detail that we put into each answer.

Getting finished with yet another week in the classroom, we headed down to the marina and jumped back on the boats for Coastal Practical week. This ended up being a hectic week with multiple schedule changes and problems that arose. First, one of the boats was still in Cape Town and not complete with maintenance. Second, one of the two boats in Langebaan was still on the hard and we needed to assist with getting it splashed, which took an extra day. Lastly, as we finally got out sailing, we raised our main, just to realize that there was a pretty big tear down the middle. All of those issues along with some strong winds and relatively big waves for the bay caused us to be flexible with our training. At one point during a passage from Langebaan to Saldana, the weather pushed us so much that we continued to tack on the same track, back and forth, not making any distance to our destination. We did get in one beautiful early morning motor sail with a wake up at 0300 and setting sail at 0400. Honestly, with all that went wrong for the week, and mostly because so many things went wrong, we gained a lot of experience and learned some valuable lessons. Just goes to show that the zero to hero courses do come with life lessons and experience gained, even if it’s not over the course of many years. Finishing out the week, we headed back to the crew house for some time on Saturday afternoon through Monday morning before driving down to Cape Town, packing up our long missed friend Natasha, and heading out for the much anticipated mileage building.

It’s good instruction, it’s important information, it’s knowledge and experience that we will need going forward for this course and our careers in sailing… But damn, the classroom is not the place we all wanted to be last week. Day Skipper Theory lasted five days and every day felt like two or three. Our classroom is on the second level of our crew house, to make matters worse, the entrance to the classroom is outside on a balcony of the second floor that overlooks Langebaan Lagoon. So, every morning, we were presented with this beautiful view of the bay that we had been sailing in the week prior. All of us, looked out at the water and longed to be out of classroom and back on the boat.

Day Skipper Theory was mostly about figuring out how to use charts (not maps, those are for land) and learning all about the collision regulations, sailing terms, and how to read and plan for the weather. I’m still working on the weather part, well…and the sailing terms, collision regulations, and how to use charts hahaha! No, really, the charts and tides make sense, the rest is just a lot of memorization and I started looking forward to sailing when we got to the weather portion, so I need to review…a lot.

BUT…we tested on Friday and everyone was happy to receive the news that we all passed and did well. Missing a few here and there, I think small mistakes and some “woops” moments came out during the four hour test. Passing the test meant, that we succeeded in theory and could get the heck out of the classroom and back on the water where we belong.

The weekend was made up of a few lazy days as they seem to be here in this sleepily little beach town. But, that’s not a slight, the bit of relaxation is always an appreciated part of the course. We did do a bit of studying over the weekend and Sunday afternoon, we started packing and making our grocery list for the week ahead.

Monday morning, we headed back to the boats, dropped off our bags, and then went to the store for provisioning. Once our weekly groceries were bought and packed away, we untied our slips and headed out.

Day Skipper Practical starts to incorporate being the skipper of a boat and leading a crew. So, we were broken down into positions for the week. For instance, Tuesday, I was the Captain; Wednesday, my position was the Cook; Thursday, it was my turn to be the Engineer; and Friday, I was designated as the deck hand. Monday, we sort of started with the positions that Friday also held since both days were to be half-days on the boat. That meant Michael was Captain, Carman got the chance to break the engine as Engineer, Tristan was in the galley cooking us mince stuffed sweet potatoes, and I was the Deck Hand helping out where I could. Though we had positions, we all also took turns at the helm on the different objectives for the week. The syllabus mostly consisted of different ways to dock, catch a mooring ball, and execute man-overboard drills. It was a great week geared towards getting us more confident in maneuvering the boat in relatively tight areas.

Coming into the marina and bringing the boat into the slip next to and around other boats can be stressful for someone with no experience and I have seen first hand when a bareboat charter captain doesn’t really know what he/she is doing. A poorly executed docking can end up being expensive. At the very least, it’ll cause your neighbors to be less than pleased with dinging or bumping their boats. I believe docking, is something we can all continue to practice and get better at.

Our different dockings included bow first in the marina, stern first in the marina, “ferry gliding” onto a dock using the wind and current, and “med-docking” using a mooring ball and tying up to the dock at the stern. We also caught mooring balls going down wind / against the current using the head sail and going up wind on a close reach. Both of these impressed me with the slow speed and accuracy we could get being under sail and not needing to use the engine. In the past, I would have always thought that it was necessary to use engine power to catch a mooring ball. Lesson learned! We also practiced the man-overboard drills under sail. With the man-overboard drills, we were allowed to use the engine, but we all wanted to try to only use sail power. Again, as with the mooring balls, it was interesting to me that we were all able to get right up to the notional man-overboard and on arrival, have our speed at nearly 0 in order to execute the rescue.

Other highlights of this week were a photo shoot Sail Due South was doing for their new marketing, a night sail, and getting to assist with pulling one of the boats out of the water for maintenance.

The photo shoot was fun, we had a power boat follow us around taking pictures as we docked, undocked, and did a series of well executed tacks during a short trip from Langebaan Yacht Club to Mykonos (Langebaan, not Greece unfortunately). And, of course, we all made sure we dressed to impress the day that the cameras would be out.

The night sail was dark and cold. It’s amazing how the lights look so far away until a buoy is right up next to the boat. Always keep a distance and never go straight at a light on the horizon. The channel markers gave me a good lesson in trying to gauge distance of lights at night. No, I didn’t hit anything, but there were a few times that a port channel marker seemed to just show up along side the boat. I was fine as long as I always made sure to not head directly for them. Also, twice we ran across buoys that had inoperable lights. Always keep an additional watch stander on board to help keep an eye out for hazards. A comforting part of the night sail was dinner! Carmen was the cook that night and she made us something called Bunny Chow. For all you non-South Africans, don’t worry. No bunnies were harmed in the making of dinner that night. Bunny Chow is best explained as simply a type of curry served up in a bread bowl. But warm and spicy and absolutely delicious, everyone was happy to be fed while on our three hour sail.

As I mentioned, the other highlight was taking the boat out of the water. Ariel was in need of a bit of engine work and we were able to assist in the getting her into the slip, tied off, and ready for the dock workers to attach the boat crane and move her onto the hard. I did this with my old boat once, so I know for any owner, this can be stressful. A misstep can cause a substantial amount of damage if not a total loss. Working around heavy equipment while in the military, I also understand that workers can be severely injured if everyone isn’t paying attention. But…she was pulled out and transported without injury. Unless you count the crabs that were clinging to their home on the keel. Carman tried to help one of them get back to the ocean. We’re not sure if the little guy survived the fall from the dock, it was a good 5 meters or so. Shame Carmen…shame!

Finishing up the week, we got some great news (for the students at least). Natasha would need to be sailed down to Cape Town on the following Monday. A 12 hour trip and our first real passage. I was excited until I realized that I would be taking a VHF radio course on Monday and would not be joining the crew on the trip. Sunday night, they all headed to the boat and departed around 1am. There weren’t many stories from the trip except that everyone was a bit sea sick and because of the crack in the mast (reason it was going to Cape Town), they motored the entire way. So, I don’t think the trip turned out to be as enjoyable as we all thought it would be. But, I am sure it was great experience for them, and I am still a bit jealous that I couldn’t join. In a few weeks, when we do our Coastal Practical, I think we are going to drive down to Cape Town and bring the boat back. We’ll get to sail in that case and I expect it to be a joll (Did I use that slang correctly?).

For now…we’re all working on our Professional Practices and Responsibilities (PPR) course on-line and are getting ready to go zooming around the bay at the end of the week for our Powerboat Level II course. Should we make bets as to who can get the top speed?