Sailing Vessel Beruta Ship's Log
Port Elizabeth - Cape Town
Tuesday 5 December 2023
The distance from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town is 415 nm, or slightly over 3 days of sailing. There are few possible stops in between but they did not make sense with a current weather forecast.
In the forecast there was a following wind most of the time, from 10 to 35 kts.
I left Port Elizabeth harbour at 5AM, at the sunrise. A port clearance was done online a day before on a website. I arranged a berth at V & A marina at the waterfront of the city. The Royal Cape Yacht Club also had a berth but the club was a bit away from the city center.
There was an interesting observation in regard to marina fees in South Africa: a flat rate regardless of a boat size! It is certainly attractive for large boats and cats! Small boats like mine would incur similar expenses as in other places. At least in East London Buffalo River Marina and in Port Elizabeth it was the case.
A day before I replaced torn out tape in the top mainsail slider with a stainless shackle. I had thought it would have lasted longer. When I was hoisting the main, it stuck. The rigid shackle was the cause. I had to replace it with a spring hook in a rush when leaving the harbour. It worked better but not ideal. Later it managed to pull the slider out of the mast groove.
For the first few hours there was a head wind 10 kt T. Close to noon, the wind shifted to ESE, I was reaching for a short while with the jib and the main with a single reef. Then the wind blew almost at the stern, and the jib had to go.
I needed to maintain 5.5 kt speed to arrive to Cape Town in the morning. So I had to help with an engine.
It was cloudy all day with some rain in the first half.
I finally stopped the engine in the evening running close to 5.5 kts under the main sail.
Wednesday 6 December 2023
The 22° C temperature in the cabin at night was deceiving. It felt like 15 or less. I wore 4 layers!
At 3AM I took the second reef - the wind was gusting to 20 kts. The speed was around 6 kts. I also had to change tacks because it was at 180°. To avoid accidental gybing, I tuned the wind pilot to steer the boat 170° to the wind. In other words, Beruta sailed 10° off course on one tack, then 10° off course on the other.
In the morning the wind shifted to the south, and I was able to sail on a portside tack at 170° on course.
I was far from a shore, perhaps, 25 nm or so; hence, there was no GSM signal, and my mobile Internet was not working. Starlink was not behaving again. For a GPS fix it took over 20 minutes, which was not actually bad. But the dish was not able to connect to any satellite for hours. What am I paying for?!
I had wanted to get the fresh weather forecast and email Des.
The next night was supposed to be the windiest. In the last forecast the wind was 30 kts gusting to 35, creating 3 m waves with a period of 7-8 seconds.
In 3.5 hours I got connected! The weather forecast stayed more or less the same. Des confirmed the safe voyage to Cape Town.
At lunch, I found some fresh water coming out the artificial teak in the galley. It turned out to be from my fridge. Accidentally, its temperature was set to the minimum, and everything there was frozen overnight. Once I turned it off, it started to defrost and drain.
My average speed for the last two days was 6.1 kts!
Thursday 7 December 2023
This night the temperature in the cabin was 23° C. It felt noticeably warmer than the night before. I just wore a fleece jacket.
The wind calmed down a bit after the midnight. It was no longer more than 20 kts apparent. The speed also dropped to under 6 kts. ETA to Cape Agulhas increased by an hour. I took one reef off the main.
At 6:40 (UTC+2) Beruta was abeam Cape Agulhas, the most southern tip of Africa. I was officially back to Atlantic Ocean, which I had left 7.5 years ago.
The apparent wind became light 10-15 kts, also a modest opposite current of 0.5 kt was added. I took the second reef off and started the engine.
At 3PM (UTC+2) the wind became opposite. It started from 10 kts and quickly increased to 25 apparent gusting to 30! This was not in the forecast! I opened Windy to confirm. It showed a blue area with no wind. In fact, it was the center of the low pressure system that drove strong north wind.
I had to increase the engine RPM to almost 3,000 and tack twice. The closer I was getting to Cape Point, the weaker became the wind. In about 5 hours, when I was rounding the Cape Point and shortly the Cape of Good Hope, the wind became light but still opposite around 10-15 kts apparent.
Friday 8 December 2023
At night the wind became light and variable but there was a strong current about 1-1.5 kt. I had to continue running the engine at high RPM to counteract it.
I approached Cape Town at the sunrise. I called port control on channel 14 and got permission to enter the port.
When I rounded the wave breaker, I called Swing Bridge on channel 71, hoping that it worked. They did answer and opened both bridges for me to enter Victoria & Alfred marina.
A security guard helped me with the mooring lines. I had to dock twice as the first time I came to a wrong finger slip thinking that my assigned berth was already occupied but it was just blocked from a view by a large power boat. Anyway, it was easy because there was no wind.
Once I washed the boat, I went straight to bed. I had very little sleep over the last three nights.
I woke around 3 PM and managed to get the access card from the marina office. It was already closing. They are not open over the weekend.
The rest of the day I walked the lovely V & A waterfront watching various African performances, and just enjoying the views and my last achievement of conquering the Indian Ocean and rounding one of the world's great capes, the Cape of Good Hope.
All pictures from Cape Town are on Google Photos, a video is on YouTube.