We searched for the 16 knot SSW predicted winds from two sources....but alas. We motored and battled on with the genoa trying it's best to increase our speed. Suddenly a thick arrow appeared on the radar while I was doing the watch...the Benguela Current was registering an amazing 9.4knots! It wasn't a mistake because from then on, we could follow the Current pushing us at a average 2 - 3 knots. The whole day and into the evening we suffered forward with the wind on the nose all the time, and our Skipper decided to cook us a hearty meal of chicken and rice with honey sweet pumpkin!
I was doing the grave yard shift and the fog was so thick I couldn't even see the Catlyn's bow. And then, the depth metre registered, 3,5m depth! On the radar I could see that we were about 4 sea miles from the Coast, and ahead of me was warnings of underwater rocks! Oh dear, are we going to sit on a rock like Noah's Arc soon? I tapped the metre but it only went a little deeper and then back to 3,5 metres. This was the time to wake up my Captain. We changed course for a while, went down to check the depth metre...and then all of a sudden we were on 70 metres again! I never thought that I would fear shallow water so much! Being on the sea and looking at the depth metre growing to depths of 330 metre so far, made 3,5m so fearfully shallow!
After a pitch black night wet with fog, Janlie awoke the crew with the smell of crumpets. Are we going to miss her when she goes to Stellenbosch soon!
Everything went smoothly except for the star board engine's fan belt going slack and white smoke seeping out. Luckily we are close to Walvis and our engineer can do his thing!
Just before 3 o'clock we sailed into Walvis, really looking forward to step on land. We felt so welcome when a big seal jumped onto Catlyn and showed us the way to the Yacht Club!
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