I had thought that the sailing distance from Durban, South Africa to San Diego is about 9,000 miles. However, I have remeasured more carefully and come up with a figure closer to 11,000 miles.
Durban to Walvis Bay, Namibia 1600
Walvis Bay to St. Helena 1200
St. Helena to St. Lucia 3800
St. Lucia to Panama 1100
Panama to San Diego 3000
10,700
I am due to arrive back in Durban on January 12 and expect to have GANNET ready to depart before the end of the month. Even if we are ready, we may not get away then. Weather in South Africa is variable and changeable. It is a serious coast.
The next consideration is the hurricane season off the west coast of Central America. Nominally this begins in June, but out of season storms have become more common. I’m not sure I can arrive in Panama in time. I will know in St. Lucia. If I can’t, I’m not sure what I will do. Maybe kill time by sailing to the U.S. east coast. And, of course, I’m not even sure I can get GANNET through Panama.
Reading about changes in Walvis Bay since I was there on RESURGAM in 1987 is causing me to reconsider my route. I may sail Durban—Cape Town—St. Helena, which is 300 miles shorter than via Walvis Bay.
This is thinking aloud, not yet a firm decision, but I am leaning toward Cape Town.
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I’m writing this two hours before the start of the seventh game of the World Series. Unless rain intervenes, later tonight a deserving team will be in rapturous celebration and another deserving team will be facing a winter, and perhaps a lifetime, of despair. I wish the Cubs were playing someone like the Yankees who have won the series so often. I hope the Cubs win, but I will have sympathy for whoever loses.
New Zealand’s All Blacks, the best in the rugby world, are meeting Ireland in a test this weekend in Chicago. There has been no mention of this, and I doubt that even if the Cubs were not dominating the news, there would have been.
I checked and found that tickets start at $94 and go up beyond $700. Far less expensive than World Series tickets, but more than the experience is worth to me. I’ll watch a delayed television broadcast.
The test is being held at Soldier Field which seats 61,500. There are ten million people in this metropolitan area. I don’t know how many of them are rugby fans.
Go Cubs.
Go All Blacks.
