After a beautiful day and evening with our families – Willemien, Susan, Thys and my folks we had a good nights rest and left the dock early. A nice relaxed start, coiling away the dock lines, stowing fenders and generally getting the last few things shipshape as we left the bay. The dolphins came to say goodbye off the Sentinel and then we were heading north. It seemed like a repeat of our seatrials a few weeks before… light winds and calm seas.
We took the opportunity to practice man overboard drills. For this trip we were lucky – our old faithful Liza was coming with. She has been a star, spending two months last year with us helping to get the boat ready. It was good to have an extra person on board to help out, we had no illusions there was a lot to learn and having some help was important. Without her help we would be not nearly as organised and there would be too much going on for us to handle. It turned out to be a great decision, one we were not the least sorry about.
The trip to Walvis Bay passed in a bit of a blur – we split into two watches. Henda and Liza were together and I did a watch on my own. 4 hours on watch 4 hours off, 24 hours a day in theory, but actually we were casual during the day. Who ever needed more rest took it when they could during the day. In between the sailing, keeping watch, the kids and meals this was not as easy as it seems. Although you are together in a small space for a long time you end up not spending much time with each other!
The whole trip was a learning experience – how the boat sailed, what worked with different wind strengths and directions, battery management and electrical systems, navigation systems, autopilot settings, crew comfort, food prep, seasickness, and on and on. The girls young and older were great – struggled with seasickness but never complained or made a fuss. It was a hard trip for them. I think mostly they were in ‘survival mode’ for the first 3-4 days.
We crossed into Namibian waters on the 14/4 at around 6pm and from then on we started to run out of wind…. Most on the trip was either overcast of foggy, and around 450 nautical miles from Hout Bay we were becalmed for 2 days. Mostly in the fog, this was the time that we started to enjoy ourselves. I guess it was a blessing – Henda and Liza had gotten their sea legs. Since there was really no wind there was not much to do from a sailing standpoint, so we could all relax a bit. The fog kept me on edge a bit – no sun meant the solar panels couldn’t charge the batteries and the radar draws a lot of current. So we drifted around and kept an ear out (not an eye out) for ships.
After two days of that we decided to start up the engine and motor into Walvis Bay – we might still have been there otherwise!
What a sense of achievement we all felt when we were safely moored in Walvis Bay. The first leg was under the belt and we had done it! With style too – Mari and Hanlie went through the trip as though it was nothing. Henda and Liza were fantastic – still pulling their weight despite not being themselves for most of the trip. And as for me – I loved to see the deep blue of the water under the boat and had learned so much. From the standpoint of getting away and starting our ‘cruising’life the trip was a milestone. A very, very significant milestone. I think it is easy to get stuck and never leave… we definitely weren’t fully prepared. But waiting until we were would mean we would never leave, I think.
