I was up at 5:30 this morning, wanting to work on the sails: lower the jib and retie the halyard, raise the main and run a leech line to the new fourth reef and attach a reef tack line to the new mast cleats. However, the wind was already blowing twelve knots from the stern, not the strength or direction I wanted. If the forecast is right Sunday morning will be calm.
Instead I made two shopping forays, and GANNET, already dinnered with months of mostly New Zealand freeze dry meals, now has 84 lunches on board: 12 cans Mackerel; 19 cans chicken; 18 cans tuna; 8 cans salmon; 12 packages of Laughing Cow cheese, each of which makes two lunches; 3 mystery cans bought last June in Australia from which the labels have fallen off; and 14 packages of crackers.
Tomorrow breakfast, which entails carrying 60+ small boxes of juice to the boat, as well as oatmeal, powdered milk, instant coffee, and dried nuts and fruit.
Tomorrow breakfast, which entails carrying 60+ small boxes of juice to the boat, as well as oatmeal, powdered milk, instant coffee, and dried nuts and fruit.
That will still leave paper: toilet, towels, tissues. Snacks. Chocolate. Toothpaste. Boxed wine. Cans of beer. Spirits. And probably some other things I am forgetting at the moment.
GANNET’s interior is getting crowded.
Even if you keep it simple, provisioning for two months is a hassle.
I’m still sleeping in the bow, but I don’t know for how much longer.
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I started running Craig’s LuckGrib app today. I enjoy watching the coming week’s forecast play out repeatedly.
This is a serious coast, with strong currents and few harbors. However, it is not ‘treacherous’ as today’s NASA Earth Observatory page claims. How many times do I have to tell people? And these are allegedly scientists. Seas can’t be treacherous. They have made no agreement with us that they can betray. They also can’t be cruel. Or merciless. They don't even exist. There is just a lot of water out there that we have divided up and given names. Water is insentient, as is the universe, and therefore not just indifferent but totally oblivious to us.
Beyond that, the case is overstated. The Agulhas Current weakens and dissipates as it flows west.
On my three previous roundings of Capes Agulhas and Good Hope, I have not experienced a great collision of the seas.
A serious coast, meaning the sailor has to be serious, not the coast, yes, but not treacherous.
There is also no Mother Nature, but that’s enough for today.