Day 52, Year 6 Waiting for Weather
Date: Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Weather: Overcast and WINDY
Location: Mossel Bay, Western Cape, South Africa
As expected, the winds and the seas picked up today. The wind is blowing a steady 20 to 25 with higher gusts and the anchorage is bouncier than it was the day we arrived. All of the boats here are hoping to leave tomorrow, but that might not be prudent. The trip from here to Simons Town in False Bay takes us around Cape Agulhas, the southern most point in Africa. When we first made our plans for sailing around the world, it was rounding this Cape that seemed the most dangerous of any part of the circumnavigation. The only way to avoid it is to go through the Red Sea and, in that case, pirates are more dangerous. So we will sit and wait. The weather really should settle down late tomorrow afternoon and the seas will calm soon after that. So it is possible that we will leave late tomorrow night or wait until Friday morning. It is a long standing sailor’s agreement to never start a passage on a Friday, but the weather on Saturday for rounding the Cape and for Sunday morning for our arrival in False Bay look really good, so we might have to break the pact this time and go for it. The whole trip should take around 40 hours. Can a person hold their breath that long?
