Location: 31° 11.7 S, 01° 11 E
Thursday 12:00, 08.17.2006

The Schooner Maggie B was at 31° 11.7 S, 01° 11 E at noon on 17 August. We did 214 NM in the last 24 hours, and have gone 2872 NM since Salvador. Cape Town, or at least our aim point 100 NM South, is 927 NM on a bearing of 131 degrees Magnetic. The wind is 320-330 at 15-25.

We jibed at dawn and are now on Starboard tack, heading 170 at 9 knots. Heading South may allow us to catch the tail end SW’erly of the last big low to come through South of us. It appears as if we are in for three or four days of relatively unsettled weather, including the possibility of some fairly strong winds on our nose. We will probably have lots of tacks and jibes, reefing and shaking out of reefs, before we are tied up at the Royal Cape Yacht Club.

Now that we are getting close (yes, 1000 NM is close), we are looking hard at charts of approaches to Cape Town. One interesting spot is Monte Vema, a sea mount about 500 miles off the coast of South Africa. The bottom goes from about 5000 meters to 11 Meters in a few miles. Bart says that it must be a great place to watch whales, but I think that we’ll stay clear. The Agulhas Currents runs strong SW’erly past Cape of Good Hope, we are in the edge of the strong Easterly Southern Ocean Current and the strong Benguela Current runs NW along the West Coast. Enough currents to brew the whole ocean into a froth!

The swells and waves are now coming at us broadside. The boat is riding them well, but occasionally they alarmingly rear up alongside, as if they trying to peek into the cabin. Sometimes it is like driving in the Rocky Mountains or the Highlands of Scotland, where you go in a moment from being in a nasty tight gorge to popping out to see a lovely open meadow.

We are seeing lots of big boats now, as we are crossing the tracks of every steamer that comes around the Cape of Good Hope for North or South America. Radar watches have been increased.

We are down to our last six eggs, all of which have been assigned to baking. Blueberry muffins yesterday for tea did not survive to see the sunset. Besides getting GRIB weather files daily, we get updates from Commanders Weather every couple of days. We are going to start today trying to contact some South African weather men on our SSB radio. Nothing like local knowledge.

All is well.