Slowly the wind started to pick up, and slowly the swells were growing! Somewhere we lost the wind anemometer ontop of the mast in windgusts up to 35 knots, not a very good reflection on Sparcraft in Cape Town, and now it was only the South-African flag showing us the strength and direction. We sailed with the main and genoa, and reefed down every now and then. For two days we had swells up to 3 meters crashing down on Andando, leaving her with a salty crust. But we didn`t complain, the sailing was the best! The miles were shrinking every day, and we were nearing the end. The nights were so cold, we were freezing, and we layered up. I left our sailing gear on Catlyn, and only packed old jackets to throw away on the other side. I only packed our really worn shorts and t-shirt, to hopefully shop some new decent ones in New Zealand. So after I borrowed a pair of thick socks from Peter, I was dressed for my night shifts!
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| Fantastic weather for sailors in a hurry! |
Slowly the wind started to pick up, and slowly the swells were growing! Somewhere we lost the wind anemometer ontop of the mast in windgusts up to 35 knots, not a very good reflection on Sparcraft in Cape Town, and now it was only the South-African flag showing us the strength and direction. We sailed with the main and genoa, and reefed down every now and then. For two days we had swells up to 3 meters crashing down on Andando, leaving her with a salty crust. But we didn`t complain, the sailing was the best! The miles were shrinking every day, and we were nearing the end. The nights were so cold, we were freezing, and we layered up. I left our sailing gear on Catlyn, and only packed old jackets to throw away on the other side. I only packed our really worn shorts and t-shirt, to hopefully shop some new decent ones in New Zealand. So after I borrowed a pair of thick socks from Peter, I was dressed for my night shifts!The sailing got even better. The last two days the swells grew up to a monstrous blue 5 meters! They topped the bimini of Andando, and we couldn`t believe the force of this water pushing us forward, and Andando just politely lifting her ‘derriere’. With the wind reaching speed of 25/30 knots we never felt unsafe. Our top speed was 16,5knots! Johan sailed between 9knots and 13 knots since midnight, our last night. Someone was in a hurry to get this almost three month long journey, short of 4 days, over and done with!
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| A fantastic sunset painted by the wind... |
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