Location: 34° 53.5 S, 12° 28 E
Monday 12:00, 08.21.2006

The Schooner Maggie B’s Noon Position on August 21st was 34° 53.5 S, 12° 28 E. We are only 304 NM from Cape Town! This last bit still seems like a lot, even though we have gone 3565 NM since Salvador. The wind is piping up from the South, currently 210 degrees magnetic at 18-25. JASB = Just Another Southerly Blow.

We are currently on course or better for our “aim point” 100 NM South of Cape Town, at 7.5 knots. We should make it OK for Lieve’s birthday! This wind is due to freshen and come more Easterly, so we will probably need every yard of Southing we have “saved up.” Together with the wind backing to the Southeast, we can count on the Agulhas Current to push us back to the West and North. We are saving up our southing like a skier holds a little high on a hill before a long traverse or as a cautious pilot would save some altitude on approach to a tight runway.

We are beginning to see some smaller seabirds, which must be land-based on South Africa. Their ID’s will have to wait until we get a South African seabird book. I believe that we saw an immature albatross yesterday, but cannot check the ID and we did not get a photo.

Last night was not as bad as the night before, but it was wearying. All foul weather gear is damp or wet. Favorite clothing has become painted on (worn night and day). Knit hats (Canadian “Tooks”) may never be dry again. The cabin was a little nicer by noon today because we ran the main engine for battery charge and ran the heat as well, so at least the pilot house is dried out and the bunks are warmish. My favorite piece of clothing, which I have been wearing for a while, is a top of very fine Merino wool, made in New Zealand. Warm when things are cold, feels fine even when wet and not hot when under layers of foul weather gear and working hard on halyards.

We are sailing under full jib and two reefs in the main. Fore stowed away. Pounding hard closehauled on starboard tack. The seas have organized somewhat, but the current (1-1 1/2 knot from the SW?) has make the them peak up a bit. If the wind lightens any more, we will put the fore up with two reefs, to help us go to weather. Right now that would be too much sail.

Two days!

All is well.

American Sea Writing

I just finished a lovely book American Sea Writing edited by Peter Neill. It was given to the boat by my friend and future shipmate, Robert Farrar. It has pieces by obvious authors like Melville, Dana and Twain, but also lovely pieces by James Fenimore Cooper, James Agee, Eugene O’Neill, Langston Hughes and may other less likely. Well worth it!