Sunday, September 12, 2010

Are we there yet ?

This time, we were definitely going for Capetown. The night Friday to Saturday, we knew we were going to be motoring, but then after, the nice 20 knots easterly wind was going to help us all day. Then on Sunday, we were going to be motoring in a light westerly breeze before pushing on on Monday with an easterly to north easterly wind getting us to Capetown on Monday. Nothing of that happened, except for the motoring. And if we motor with no wind, then we have to steer by hand with no electric auto-pilot. The story of that auto-pilot is so long that it is not worth writing. We do not know whether it is the hydraulic pump which burnt (we could know if we looked, but we have not done it yet), or if it is the brains that we bought in Townsville to replace that of the Navico, but what matters is that it does not work and we need wind to use Firmin (the windvane).
So, after motoring all night, and all day, and again all night, and when I realized that we were in for motoring all the way to Capetown, I decided to call it quit and call in into Mossel Baai. We arrived there at 6 in the morning, and we have been sleeping most of the day, but with the little that we have seen, I am glad we stopped here. This time round, with no serious work to do on the boat, we will have time to be full time tourists and I like it.

No comments: