Location: 34° 14 S, 23° 16.5 E
Saturday 12:00, 10.14.2006

The Schooner Maggie B is underway again! Our noon position on October 14th was 34° 14S, 23° 16.5E. We are making 6 knots with full main and The Bird G2 gennaker, in 12-15 knots of wind from 310 degrees. We are about 8 NM off of Cape Seal, at the entrance of Plettenburg Bay. So far we have only 2/10 knot of adverse current, with little swell.

Knysna was very kind to us. Such a lovely place! Quite hard to leave. We made good friends at the Knysna Yacht Club and three boats accompanied us out the Heads to make sure we were safe. The heads looked quite fearsome but we hit the bar right at high tide and had plenty of depth and no breaking waves. Whew!

To celebrate the Captain’s Birthday, we are underway with Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones singing their hearts out over the ship’s Bose system. The boat is rocking!

Durban is about 500 NM away. The weather forecast is basically so variable that we will just have to take what comes and do the best with it. We will need to progressively stick closer and closer to the coast, with Old Hands at the Yacht Club recommending not straying more than 1/2 mile as we get around to the Transkaii Coast after East London.

Lunch is just on — chicken breasts poached in white wine with garlic, onions and peppers, rice on the side. Plus a lovely bottle of South African “Cap Classic” sparkling. The wine is called “buitenverwachting” which means “better than expected” in Afrikaans.

I was just about to type “all is well” when the gennaker block (@#$%^& Lewmar) failed and The Bird had to be recovered from the water. We had just checked all the rigging in False Bay. It appears to have separated and spat out the center core. 15 knots of wind!

All is….now…well.