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.
It Only Takes Doing For An Adventure To Start 