Monday, February 10, 2014

Sailing back to SA - day 5

Hi All.

Good News--Our young man --T-Y, is on the mend.
Thanks' Isabel for your advise on what to use from the First Aid Kit.
Last night wasn't as fast as we would have liked--averaged about 6 knots.
Thankfully that changed as the sun rose this morning.
We did our first major course change this morning since leaving Rio--did a Gibe and now running on Starboard Tack.
The wind during the day has been around 15 knots, and we have averaged around 9 to 10 knots---lovely sailing.

Some statistics:--
Dist traveled from Rio as at end of Day 4 = 722 nm
Trip Distance traveled on Day 4 = 180 nm
Dist. to Tristan da Cunha = 1091 nm.
We e mailed the Tourism office at Tristan da Cunha and requested permission to visit the island with our Multi-national crew ( Scottish , German, Swedish, Japanese and South African.)
The Harbour is too small to accommodate our Yacht, so will have to Anchor.
Hopefully we can get someone from the island to stay on board while the yacht is at Anchor--this will allow us all to visit the island as a group.
Last night was too hot on board--so most of us didn't get a good night's sleep.
Today again was a scorcher of a Day--cabin far too hot to consider a sleep during the day.

Mike LePlastrier( one of the crew members who sailed to Rio ) suggested we give some of our bottles of Captain Morgan that we have on board to the Islanders on Tristan.
Not a bad idea--we will see how they treat us first!!
Just got to make sure the Islander that looks after the boat while at Anchor doesn't treat himself to the Captain Morgan while we are ashore!

That's it for now.

Rex on behalf of the Crew on Rocket

Sailing back to SA - day 4

All is just about well on board Rocket.
T-Y unfortunately is not feeling in the best of health.
He started becoming not well on the first day--and yesterday and last night was not felling at all well--hit a real low.
He has a nasty, chesty cough, infected/soar ear, and a running nose.
However i think today things look like they are on the mend.
I have asked Johan Brink to advise us what to use from our Medical Kit
He thinks he got an infection when he jumped into the Water in the Rio Marina.
This was on Wednesday Morning.
We went into the pier to fill up with diesel.
We did this at 0630 am, as this was high tide.
After filling both diesel and Water tanks, we left the pier on falling tide---never a good idea.
Well we got temporally stuck on the bottom, and our hero T-Y grabbed a rope and dived into the water and swam to the side.
By the time he got there we had managed to get ourselves off the bank under our own engines.
As our Rio team know--the water around the Marina is Ugly !!!

This is day 4 and sailing has been great.
We recorded a Trip Distance of 187 nm for day 3.
In the 3 days we have been sailing we have covered 553 nm as the crow flies from Rio Marina.
Last night was beautiful sailing----smooth, near full moon, beautiful sky filled with stars shining down on us offering us a good journey, and warm--no need for Wet Weather gear.
Our average speed was between 7 and 8 knots.
Today wind is around 14 knots.
We have Main Sail up, Genoa on pole ( Flying Gull Wing ) and the Stay sail up ( T-Y's idea).
This gives us a speed of around 8 to 10 knots, and easy sailing-lovely.

We now have a herb garden on Board.
Shin bought some Basil Herbs( this is what he says and who are we to doubt him !!) in Rio, and these plants are now growing nicely under the Spray Dodger.
When eventually these herbs hit our food plates i will let you know what effect it had on either the food or us crew members.
Our fishing attempts have still shown no sushi.
We have dragged the fishing line some 4600 miles--and not a fish story to be told
This morning Shin caught a piece of Plastic !!
We then had a discussion on the negative effects of Plastic on our oceans.
It is a major problem.

We are all looking forward to going to Tristan da Cunha.
We have some 1260 nm to go
An island of 12 km in dia, and a population of 264 .
It is a Volcanic cone that starts some 3500 m below sea level and rises to 2000 m above sea level.
They had a volcanic eruption in 1961.
Luckily it did not destroy the village.
They have only 7 family surnames residing on the island.
We intend to visit the mouth of the volcanic crater, St Mary's School ( worlds most isolated school ), The Albatross Bar and take a long walk through the village center.
We should get there early Sat morning.
Only hope the weather is good as we have to Anchor.

Today has been the most relaxing day so far.
We are either listening to Music, reading or sleeping.
In retrospect--i am glad that our Auto-Pilot is out of action--it's a pleasure to helm Rocket-and the vast emptiness of the Atlantic Ocean is quite mind-blowing--it is soooooo----- beautiful---and ever changing.

That's it from a relaxed Rocket Crew
Regards
Rex

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Sailing back to SA - day 3


We have another glorious day—and i am sure it is going to be as hot as hell.

Had another lovely sailing day and night.

Last night changed to a 3 hour watch—everyone felt that 2 hours sleep was insufficient

Thankfully all the evenings have been clear with a near full moon and a sky full of stars..

Very beautiful.

And to be on watch as the sun rises is very special.

It’s so tranquil—everyone is asleep and there is just the noise of the yacht going through the water, the motion of this vast empty see, and the bright colours associated with a sun-rise.

Interestingly, i think i am enjoying this return trip more—maybe because there is no pressure to push the yacht to the limit, or because there are fewer of us on board, or because we are taking responsibility for our sailing decisions.---maybe all of these factors.

This morning saw a tanker go past us in the opposite direction—Volker made contact with them on VHF radio.

We are all very keen to go to Tristan da Cunha.

We should arrive there early Sat morning.

Intend to spend the day there.

Must walk up to the mouth of the Volcanic Crater, walk around the town, have a beer in the local pub---
Just hope the weather is good that we can anchor off the harbour---we cannot get into the harbour as we draw too much water.

Yesterday had a nice discussion with Shin and what he want to do once we arrive in CT

He really wants to stay in CT and open a Japanese Food Take away small kiosk.

It would be a 1 man operation.

All food would be prepared in front of the customer—on a gas fired Wok.

Customers will have option of :--

Rice, noodles, variety of fresh vegetables, chicken, meat or pork, and a range of sauce.

All food would be done on the Wok.

He says he saw this being done in Amsterdam—and it was extremely popular.

This was backed up by Amina—who said she regularly got food from these kiosks.

It is amazing how much travelling Shin, Volker and Amina have done.

They have all visited at least 80 countries around the world.

Shin says the most beautiful place he has seen is CT---hence his reason for wanting to stay there.

Volker only leaves for Germany at the end of March.

It is a real pleasure to have The Maxsea program on board,
We download the weather every day—and the Maxsea program calculates and shows us the optimum route to take, taking into account any restrictions we have placed.
Our restriction are a Max wind speed of 30 Knots, and a max wave height of 8 meters.

Need to go and do some Helming work.

Rex.

Sailing back to SA - Day 2

Hi.

All is well on Yacht Rocket.
Today was a really hot and sticky day--worse than normal. Any physical work including breathing bring on a massive sweat attack.
Lots of Suntan lotion is a must.

Last night and this morning we had really nice sailing conditions.
Today we flew the code zero.
We were sailing really nicely doing 10 to 11 knots.
Unfortunately the wind rose during mid-afternoon and we had to revert to Genoa and 1 st reef.
The wind has now reduced to around 10 knots and coming from about 110 degrees.
We are doing around 7 / 8 knots, and the boat is riding smoothly--what a nice change from the bumpy ride we have had since leaving Rio.
So far the sailing has been really nice.

Today we changed the filter on the water maker--the filter was very dirty and the water that was being made was not so nice--had a Rio Harbour Taste !!

Yesterday on several occasions we lost SOG ( Speed over ground ) reading. Not sure why but this will also effect out Total Trip measurement.
As such, the trip indicated we only did 171 n. miles yesterday ( day 2 )
In reality, i am sure we did over 200 miles.
At 1600 hrs today we were 421 miles from Rio ( as the crow flies )
That's all from us on Rocket.

Regards
Rex

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Cape to Rio party for friends, family and supporters at Stonehaven on Vaal in South Africa
celebrating Team Rocket's arrival in Rio!

Day 22 on Rocket / Stop Rhino Poaching

Dear Family and Friends

With just a few km to the finish of the Cape2Rio 2014 yacht race, I am happy to report that all is well, in fact all is fantastic, aboard Rocket/Stop Rhino Poaching.

Last night we literally flew through the night. The winds were gusting over 50kph and we had to even reduce sail – there was little sleep and much excitement – we could taste Rio.

Early this morning the wind died to a dribble – and our last 55km has been at less than 10kph. Frustrating to say the least – but at least we can see our end goal.

This will be the last posting of our adventure – thanks to ALL of you who have shared this journey with us. It’s been really fun knowing that we have some avid readers of our passage.

For the experienced sailors on our boat, this has been another transatlantic crossing – another notch in the belt. For us newbies this is the completion of a truly unique lifetime experience.

My impression is that our emotions have been thrown into a Laundromat and violently turned and tossed around. We have experienced close to absolute desperation during those initial seasick days. We have had variations of anguish, fear or panic (depending if you were simply thrown out of bed during a two-step broach or if you were the cause of this particularly inelegant dance). And of course we are now experiencing elation at the final completion and achievement if this goal. Our initial goal was just to safely complete the journey. The fact that we have fared so well is quite remarkable and of course gratifying to all of us.

This yacht Rocket was acquired in November 2013. It is testament to the fantastic effort from Gerrie, Herbert, Amanda and Rex that the boat actually was ready to sail across the Atlantic on time (only just!). Both Shin and Volker spent many days in Cape Town assisting with the preparation for the journey. A special thanks goes to these people for making this adventure happen.

A very special thanks to our wives/partners and families who have allowed us out on a boys adventure. This is highly appreciated (but please give us a much sterner warning next time).

The blast from the committee boat has indicated that we have crossed the line! We have officially completed the Cape2Rio 2014 yacht race on Saturday 25 Jan at 10:55a Brazil time (3:55 pm SA time) after 21 days and 1 hours and 55 minutes.

I now need to go on deck to join the champagne celebrations!

Lots of love to all at home and to all our friends.

Regards and THANK YOU!

Mike on behalf of Team Rocket/Stop Rhino Poaching