Sailing Trance

Monday February 21, first stop customs and immigration, passports stamped, in and out as our stay here will be short.

Fernando de Noronha is group of 21 islands 220 miles off the coast of Pernambuco State in Northern Brazil. Discovered in 1503 by a Portuguese expedition. Only the largest island is inhabited with a population around 3000. It is 7sq miles. Official language is Portuguese. 70% of the island is a National Marine Park and also a World Heritage Site. The island is a feeding ground for tuna, billfish, whales, dolphins, porpoises, sharks, and marine turtles. There is a high population of spinner dolphins and the island offers protection for the endangered hawksbill sea turtle.

There is only one paved road, the main road that goes to the airport. The other roads are either dirt with scattered stones or larger rocks tightly together.

We took a guided tour by Palo to the National Marine Park with Ohana. There are several beautiful isolated beaches where the walks to them was over rocky, hilly trails. One trail had a long elevated boardwalk, then the entrance to Baia do Sancho beach, ranked as one the best beaches in the world, was down two ladders, followed by a rock staircase.

Tuesday February 22, we had visitors this morning. Robbie Jr and Millie from Ohana wanted to come see our boat. The adventurous little ones set off on a paddle board from their boat to ours about 75 yards apart only to get caught by the wind and current, which drifted them backwards. Bautista, crew from Ohana, rescued them and towed the board to our boat.

The morning was spent with lots of questions about things in Trance. Dan performed some juggling then we baked chocolate chip cookie bars together. When the cookies were done, we took them to shore in our dinghy to join the rest of the Ohana crew for lunch. On our dinghy ride in we were escorted by I bet every Spinner Dolphin in the bay! They were swimming in front and next to us often jumping in the air splashing to the water!

After lunch, we brought jerry cans to Trance filled with diesel to fill our tank. There is no gas dock here which is really surprising because of the number of fishing and tour boats in the harbor. Bautista helped Dan, tomorrow they will refill the containers and fuel up Ohana.

We had more visitors in the afternoon, Mechie, Lulie, Amalia, Millie and Robbie Jr came by for a tour of Trance. Lulie, Millie and Robbie stayed the rest of the afternoon. They wanted to watch a movie, I let them pick it out, they chose “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”.

Wednesday February 23, s/v Lazy Lightning arrive today, good to see them again. Dan and Bautista refueled Ohana.

We walked around a bit this afternoon close to the marina area. Upon the hill stands a little white church overlooking the harbor. The Chapel of Sao Pedro dos Pescadores. The view from on top of the hill of spectacular.

For dinner we stopped at a restaurant near the harbor only to find team Lazy Lightning there. We joined them for a few adult beverages as they were just finishing dinner. After they left we had a fabulous dinner with selections recommended by our waiter.

Thursday February 24, it was a beach day! We took the bus across the island to Praida do Bode beach. Beach chairs with a table under an umbrella are available to rent for the day, we did as there was no shade. A beverage stand selling alcoholic and soft drinks was there also. For a while we were the only ones on this beach.

Goodbyes for now dinner with team Ohana at Mergulhão Noronha. They are leaving over the weekend as they need to test their watermaker after the repair. They are headed for St. Barts where their family members will meet them.

Before sunrise we will depart for Barbados in the eastern Caribbean. The passage is just under 2000 miles and should be a 10-14 day journey.

Wednesday February 16 – Day 9, total nautical miles traveled 1113, 141 nautical miles travel in the past 24 hours.

Today’s matinee “Palmer” starring Justin Timberlake

Grilled hamburgers in a wrap folded pie shape for dinner.

Three birds sitting the boat, riding in the dark of night. They were very polite and didn’t leave a “mess”.

Thursday February 17 – Day 10, total nautical miles traveled 1265, 152 nautical miles travel in the past 24 hours.

The batteries don’t seem to be holding a good charge throughout the night. Which is surprising since there is so much sunlight during the day. On the other hand, the autopilot (sailing downwind in sloppy waves) requires a lot of electricity. Also, the refrigerator is running longer, since the tropical air and water is warmer. So Dan dragged-out the portable generator to give the batteries a boost rather than start the boat’s engine.

For the past several weeks, the autopilot has been periodically stopping. Today it quit working altogether. For three hours I manually steered while Dan did some major troubleshooting, finally success! MacGyver Dan for the win!

New time zone, GMT-2. It’s 4:00pm In Fernando de Noronha, Brazil, 1pm in Philadelphia.

For dinner, chicken with roasted red peppers over rice.

I think we should name these three birds that visit us at night. They had quite the conversation between themselves, maybe they are giving us names?

Friday February 18 – Day 11, total nautical miles traveled 1408, 143 nautical miles travel in the past 24 hours.

The morning wind was light, 8-10 knots with sloppy waves. Then for 3 hours squalls rolled in. Highest wind we saw was 20 knots, lots of rain. After lunch it cleared up with partly cloudy skies, 10 knots of wind.

Laundry day, we both washed a few items and they are hanging to dry around the inside of the boat.

Baked potatoes topped with cheese for dinner.

They’re back….our three birds, along for the night ride.

Saturday February 19 – Day 12, total nautical miles traveled 1535, 127 nautical miles travel in the past 24 hours.

Today’s matinee double feature “Limitless” starring Bradley Cooper, and “Redemption Day”, starring actors I’m not familiar with.

*Sourdough Notes* the levain was started last night ready to be mixed in the afternoon. While waiting for the oven to heat up for the bread, we baked a tray of chocolate chip cookie bars. Another wonderful Belle loaf! Gotta love the smell of baking bread in the middle of the ocean!

Oh my the stars! The Milky Way, The Southern Cross to the South, The Big Dipper (Ursa Major) to the North! The Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) just below the horizon and raising, might see both the North Star and Southern Cross in the same sky if it weren’t for the 84% waning moon.

One bird tonight, perched upon the Simrad radar, wonder where her friends went? Perfect, we’ll name this bird Radar.

Sunday February 20 – Day 13, total nautical miles traveled 1701, 166 nautical miles travel in the past 24 hours. A new speed record for this passage.

A quick squall this morning bringing a brief rain shower followed by an increase in wind, 16-20 knots, now cruising 7-9.5knots with sloppy seas.

4pm the anchor was dropped off a sandy beach on the island of Fernando de Noronha. Total nautical miles traveled on this passage, 1783, it took 12 days, 9 hours.

We had dinner with team Ohana at O Pico restaurant serving traditional Brazilian foods.

Monday night February 7,

Tuesday February 8- Day 1, departed St Helena with Ohana and Lazy Lightning (they are heading to Ascension Island) at 7am. The Brazilians will depart in a few hours (they are heading home to Brazil). The wind was very light, it was a motor sailing kind of day. Early evening, I baked a banana bread for breakfast.

Dan and I decided to have a daily trivia question for Ohana. There are 11 people onboard, 6 are children ages 5,7,10,12,14 and 16. All the kids are girls except the 10 year old. Today’s question was how many cornrows did Meche have in her hair? She had them added in South Africa. Everyone guessed a number then they were counted. The answer was 65.

Wednesday February 9 – Day 2, Happy Birthday Dylan! Total nautical miles traveled, 143. We will have light air for the next few days. Typically there is high pressure known as the St. Helena high that would generate wind for us. But, there is a massive low with a cyclone in the Indian Ocean near South Africa, sucking all the power out of the high.

Today’s trivia question, name 5 of the requirements on a US documented vessel, boats our sizes, 40-65ft. (Although the family is from Argentina, Ohana is a US registered boat) Most had 4 of 5 correct. Answer:

• Registration and numbers
• personal flotation devices
• visual distress signal
• fire extinguishers
• sound producing device
• navigation lights, placards
• marine sanitation device
• navigation rules

Tonight for the first time I saw the “Green Flash that is sometimes seen due to the bending of the light in the atmosphere at sunset or sunrise on the ocean, pretty spectacular! This was only the second time this was observed this on Trance, Dan has seen them both.

Thursday February 10 – Day 3, Total nautical miles traveled 288, 145 nautical miles travel in the past 24 hours.

Today’s trivia questions were all about St Helena. Most questions were related to what was learned on the tour we took with Aaron, Ohana did the same tour several days after us. We all remembered a lot! Thanks Aaron!

• Endemic Bird: wirebird
• Where did the Flax come from: New Zealand
• Name the four giant tortoises: Jonathan, David, Fred, Emma
• Famous Sailors who visited the island: Joshua Slokum, Cook, Bligh, Captain Dan
• 8 sunken ships in Jamestown harbor, what ship was sunk by a torpedo, how many survived? Darkdale, 2 people survived
• Three sources of electrical energy: wind, solar, diesel generators
• Number of steps in the ladder: 699
• Why did Captain Cook plant and spread cactus around the island? For Vitamin C from the fruit to prevent scurvy
• What is planted in the Millennium Forest: gum wood trees
• What do Whale sharks eat: Plankton, small fish, squid, not people

Friday February 11 – Day 4, total nautical miles traveled 430, 142 nautical miles travel in the past 24 hours.

Trivia questions of the day are all about the Winter Olympics:

• What events are on ice? Curling, speed skating, figure skating, luge, hockey, bobsled and skeleton.
• Maximum number of ice hockey player on the ice? 12.
• In what sport does a person perform a triple lutz? Figure skating.
• In what sport are competitors moving the fastest? Alpine skiing.
• What Caribbean Island has a bobsled team? Jamaica.
• In what country were the first Olympics held? France in 1924.
• What city has hosted both Summer and Winter Olympics? Beijing.

The clocks were turned back one hour we are now GMT-1, 1:13pm here, 9:13am in Philadelphia.

Saturday February 12 – Day 5, total nautical miles traveled 571, 141 nautical miles travel in the past 24 hours.

We are developing The TRANCE Moca (like Starbucks) recipe: coffee or instant coffee, hot chocolate pack, at least two coffee creamers or heavy cream or powdered milk, sugar or sweetener of choice, mix (shaken… not stirred) with enough water and ice to serve two.

Trivia of the day, clouds.

Three ways to classify clouds:

Classify by Shape

Flat Clouds – called “Stratus”, or ends with “-stratus”, or begins with the shape prefix “Strato-

Puffy Clouds, like cotton balls or cauliflower – “Cumulus”, or ends with “-cumulus”, or begins with the shape prefix “Cumulo-“

Classify by Height

High Clouds: Called “Cirrus” or begins with the height prefix “Cirro-“ : ice particles, thin, transparent, sun and moonlight passes through

Medium Level Clouds: Begins with the height prefix “Alto-“ : water droplets, thicker, light might pass through

Low Clouds: Have no height prefix: dense, water particles or dense fog, minimal light passes through.

Classify by Rain or Precipitation Prodiction

(Drizzle, Rain, Snow, Sleet, Hail) Ends with “-nimbus”, or begins with the prefix “Nimbo-“

Ten basic types of clouds:

• Cirrus – wispy, mare’s horse tail, often a warm front is approaching , arriving in a day or two, maybe with rain
• Cirrostratus – continuous thin sheet, halo around sun & moon
• Cirrocumulus – puffy, thin
• Altostratus – grayish bluish veil sheet, light may passes through or shadow
• Altocumulus – gray veil sheet, yet puffy bottoms, sides, tops, light might pass through or shadow
• Cumulus – Individual dense puffy clouds, shadows, imagine figures and shapes.
• Stratus – Completely or almost completely covered sky, dense. Grey dark flat bottoms, minimal light
• Stratocumulus – More numerous, linked puffy clouds with gray and flat bottoms
• Nimbostratus – Like Stratus with a higher top, completely or almost completely covered sky, dense. Grey dark flat bottoms, minimal or no light.
• Cumulonimbus – Cumulus clouds that produce precipitation, grow into tall sometimes huge “thunder clouds” by convection, anvil shaped, thunder, lightning, wind, “Danger Clouds”.

Sunday February 13 – Day 6, Are you ready for some football? It’s Super Bowl Sunday, But first pancakes for breakfast!

Total nautical miles traveled nautical 711, 140 miles travel in the past 24 hours.

*Sourdough Notes* started a Belle loaf this morning, the levain grew overnight, should be able to bake it late afternoon. Before the bread is baked there are a few “nice” bananas to be made into banana bread.

With the apparent wind angle around 160, the spinnaker was deployed. True wind is 10-14, we’re cruising at 6.5 -7.2knots.

Today’s trivia, The Super Bowl! Ohana said they studied overnight by watching the movie “The Blindside”. American football was compared to soccer and rugby. The differences in the fields, ball, players on the field and scoring objectives. They had many great questions about the game as well as answering our questions to them. Super Bowl activities like parties, food, halftime entertainment, singing of the National Anthem and TV commercials were also on topic. After the conversation was complete, they said we were next! They will ask us questions tomorrow about Latin America, not sure how well we will do! 😶

Late afternoon the banana bread and Belle loaf were baked, just in time to start dinner, Buffalo chicken wraps.

Monday February 14 – ❤️ Day 7, total nautical miles traveled 844, 133 nautical miles travel in the past 24 hours.

Last night was the first time we flew the spinnaker all night. The moon was nearly full, the seas were calm with 6-8knots of steady wind. This morning we jibed the spinnaker. With the cutter rig, this process has many steps. The sail gets doused, pole returned to the mast to dip around staysail boom, then reattach sheets and guys, raise the pole, jibe the main, raise the spinnaker. Somewhere during this process the sail snagged on something causing a not so nice tear. The sail was dropped, and bagged, Genoa deployed wing on wing using the pole, staysail was also deployed and winged out.

Trivia of the day, Team Ohana asked us questions about Latin America. We even got some questions right, it was a fun test. Always good to learn something new.

Tuesday February 15 – Day 8, total nautical miles traveled 972, 128 nautical miles travel in the past 24 hours.This morning, Ohana is 15 miles ahead of us. With us not being able to use our spinnaker, and they have a huge parachute spinnaker, the distance between us will only continue to increase. Today’s matinee “The Spy” starring Melissa McCarthy and Jude Law. For dinner grilling tuna steaks with mashed potatoes.

Two birds came along for the ride at night, resting upon the solar panels.

Friday February 4, we hired Aaron for the morning to take us to a few places we didn’t stop at on our previous tour. Longwood House, property owned by the French Government, was Napoleon’s residence and where he died. Taking photos inside is prohibited.

Napoleons tomb, this area he chose to be buried in as he enjoyed the peaceful landscape and plants there. His remains were moved to Paris.

St. Paul’s Cathedral built in 1851, known as the “Country Church” as it is located outside of Jamestown. It is the cathedral of the Diocese of St Helena.

The boats in quarantine were released today. We had arranged for all of to have dinner together at Anne’s Place later in the day. Johnny the ferry driver agreed to do a 9pm run for us back to our boats.

Dan and I spent the night in at the Blue Lantern hotel. The day before we met Donny who owns a local pub here, he invited us to his establishment as they were having a local band “On the Rocks” play. The music was great, lots of dancing! Donny sold us a bottle of Tungi, a local spirits distilled on the island from prickly pears. It hasn’t been brewed for many years due to the lack of the fruit.

Saturday February 5, together with our friends on 6 other boats, we swam with Whale Sharks! January and February are the hottest months on St Helena. This is also the time when fish are spawning. Whale sharks are docile creatures that feed on plankton and small fish. They can grow up to 40 feet or more. Our GoPro decided it wasn’t going to work any more, there were none to be found in town.

Sunday February 6, together with 6 other boats we arranged a trip to the local distillery. Paul and Sally operate the business out of garage attached to their house. They distill Rum, dark and light, Gin, a lemon liqueur as well as a coffee liqueur. He also makes wine and Brandy.

Dan conquered Jacobs Ladder 14 minutes up, 8 minutes down!

Monday February 7, preparations to check out of St Helena Island today. Immigration, Customs, Port Captain, passports stamped! We will depart early Tuesday morning for Fernando de Noronha, Brazil.

Random Facts, St. Helena

• There are three gas stations
• No traffic light
• Maximum island speed limit is 30mph
• Locals here are referred to as “Saints”
• 97+% of eligible people here are COVID vaccinated
• Darwin slept here
• Halley (Halley’s comet fame) was here to map the stars in southern sky
• Face masks are not worn here
• St Helena coffee is amongst the rarest and highly prized in the world. Green tipped Bourbon Arabica beans, introduced here in 1732 from Yemen
• Postage stamps from St Helena are world famous
• Population a little over 4000
• The airport opened in 2018
• Longwood Golf Course (only golf course) is 9 holes with 18 tee boxes
• 21 Post Box Walks, at each trails end there is a post box an ink stamp and visitors book.
• Largest employer is the government

Friday January 28, St. Helena island is at 15 56S, 5 46W in the South Atlantic Ocean, measuring 6 by 10 miles, the land area is 47 square miles. It is a British Overseas Territory. Discovered in 1502 by Portuguese, later was under Dutch rule, the East India Trading Company, then became a British possession. It was an important port until the opening of the Suez Canal. It’s remote location made an ideal place to exile prisoners, the most famous being Napoleon. He was exiled to the island in 1815 and died on St. Helena Island in 1821. His residence, Longwood House still stands as well as the the location of his tomb. He is no longer entombed there, his remains were reburied in 1840 in Paris, France.

Here in Jamestown, there is a ferry service for a fee that will come to your boat to take you ashore. On the hour 6am to 6pm by request. You can take your dinghy in, but the landing area is quite rolly and would be very wet. At 12 noon, along with Susan on s/v Lost Girl, we caught the shuttle and went ashore. She arrived on Wednesday also, sailing from Cape Town. The three of us went to the port captains office where we were met by custom and immigration, passports stamped.

Next stop was the bank to get cash. Only cash is used on this island, no credit/debit cards. There are no ATM’s on the island. The currency is the St. Helena pound, good only here and on Ascension Island.

We had lunch at the Consulate Hotel. Sundowners on our boat with locals Case and Kyle who are staying on a boat near us.

Saturday January 29, Happy Birthday Ben! Dan and I walked around Jamestown most of the day. After lunch we met up with Susan, we had an early dinner, then took the ferry back to our boats.

James Bond continues with evening showing of “Die Another Day” and “Casino Royale”.

Sunday January 30, together with Susan, we hired a tour guide to show us around the island, Aaron from Aaron’s Adventure Tours. Born on St. Helena, he came highly recommend by several people throughout the town.

The roads on the island leading to the interior and across are single lane, hilly, very curvy with multiple switchbacks having frequent pull off areas to allow cars to pass. Car going uphill have right of way to those going downhill.

s/v Moyo has been here at St Helena fir over a year. There son is going to school here too. Early evening they stopped by our boat after returning from a day fishing and brought us as well as other boats at anchor here lobsters. We cooked them up right away, froze some of it.

Tonight’s movie, James Bond, “Quantum of Solas”.

Monday January 31, Happy Birthday Luke! Today we had a late start going into town as it rained all morning. After catching the 11am ferry, we walked to Annie’s Launderette where we dropped off three bags to wash. They should be ready by Wednesday for pick up.

We stopped in The Market for lunch only to be joined by Steve from Port Control.

For dinner, pasta with lobster in a garlic olive oil sauce.

Tonight’s movie, James Bond, “Skyfall”.

Tuesday February 1, Happy Birthday Dan!❤️ went into town on the 9am ferry, had breakfast at Ann’s Place.

This morning we met a local woman Joyce Henry. She knits turtles, you can purchase them at the Arts and Crafts, a store where locals sell handmade goods. We purchased one from her directly.

Dinner tonight, Linguine Alfredo with lobster and a refreshing South African white wine.

Tonight’s final James Bond movie, “Spectre”.

Wednesday February 2, we spent 2.5 hours at the doctors office today. Dan had a cut on his foot we felt it best to have it looked after before departing here. On the way back down the hill we picked up our laundry then had lunch, purchased 2 hours of WiFi, had two Jerry cans filled with diesel, by late afternoon we headed back Trance.

Our friends arrived today from Cape Town, Ohana and Northern Pearl. Sea Dancer arrived late Tuesday afternoon. They are all in quarantine, will have their COVID test tomorrow.

Thursday February 3, provisioning day. We purchased items that need refrigeration, took them back to the boat, went back into town for produce. Johnny the ferry operator gave us a nice filet of tuna this morning too, that will be tonight’s dinner! Tuna steaks with a honey soy sauce glaze with sautéed potatoes and carrots.

Monday January 17 – Day 1, By 12:30pm, we had departed from the fuel barge and the continent of Africa, for the island of St. Helena, a UK territory. It is about 1300 nautical miles northwest from Walvis Bay. COVID restrictions there are 10 day quarantine, yet time at sea counts. Plus, a mandatory free COVID test upon arrival, but only performed on Thursdays. After a negative results you are allowed to go ashore. We have timed our passage to arrive on a Wednesday.

With all three sails deployed. We were cruising 7.5knots in a 12.4 knot breeze.

The moon is 100% waxing making it difficult to see the stars, yet adding miles of visibility to ocean.

Tuesday January 18 – Day 2, total nautical miles traveled 142.

Our weather person told us the forecast was 8 meter (over 26ft) waves in Cape Town, coming from the south. Yikes! We are 865 nautical miles north, should get some remnants of the waves on Wednesday.

Wednesday January 19 – Day 3, total nautical miles traveled 306, 164 nautical miles traveled in the past 24 hours. Forecast is for us is 3.7 meter waves, 8-12ft. In Cape Town, 6.5 meters or 21 ft. The actual waves for us were 3ft. at soft rolling at long intervals.

Thursday January 20 – Day 4, total nautical miles traveled 452, 146 nautical miles traveled in the past 24 hours. New time zone, GMT+1, 10am in Lagos, Nigeria, 4am in Philadelphia.

Moderate winds 7-10 knots, the sails are wing on wing with staysail Hoyt boom winged out too. Too many waves to successfully fly the spinnaker.

I haven’t posted food in awhile, for dinner I made balsamic chicken and peppers with potato wedges.

Friday January 21 – Day 5, total nautical miles traveled 583, 131 nautical miles traveled in the past 24 hours.

*Sourdough Notes* started the levain Thursday night, mix today, baked at night. This loaf is equal parts flour from Indonesia, South Africa and Namibia.

Saturday January 22 – Day 6, total nautical miles traveled 702, 119 nautical miles traveled in the past 24 hours. The sky was cloudy most of the day with moderate winds 9-12knots.

It was a James Bond double feature matinee kind of day. “The Spy Who Loved Me” and “Moonraker”, frequently checking on the outside plus we had the AIS and radar alarms on.

Sunday January 23 – Day 7, total nautical miles traveled 844, 142 nautical miles traveled in the past 24 hours. Pancakes for breakfast, no blueberries.

This day we crossed the Prime Meridian, where East becomes West, Longitude 0 0.00E/W. New time zone, GMT +0, 8:38am in St Helena Island, 3:38am in Philadelphia.

Another James Bond double feature matinee day, “For Your Eyes Only” and “Octopussy”, Dan made buttered popcorn.

The wind has been pretty steady all day 12-15knots with little rolling waves and sails are wing on wing.

Monday January 24 – Day 8, total nautical miles traveled 989, 145 nautical miles traveled in the past 24 hours. 18knots of wind in the morning, the most wind seen so far, by late afternoon the wind was 12-15knots.

Another James Bond afternoon double feature, “A View to a Kill” and “The Living Daylights”.

For dinner I made barbecue chicken and a potato salad, so good!

Tuesday January 25 – Day 9, total nautical miles traveled 1140, 151 nautical miles traveled in the past 24 hours. We are moving too fast as it’s best to arrive in daylight. We will slow down for the rest of the trip by reefing the sails.

*Sourdough Notes* started a levain in the morning. Hopefully the warmer weather will allow it to grow faster.

Continuing with the James Bond matinee marathon, “Licence to Kill” (that’s how it was spelled on the movie, must be the British way)

Wednesday January 26 – Day 10, total nautical miles traveled 1279, 139 nautical miles traveled in the past 24.7 hours. After 9 days, 49 minutes, we arrived at St. Helena and connected to a mooring ball at 9am.

We are currently under quarantine, our yellow flag is flying. We will have COVID tests done tomorrow. If all is well, we will be allowed on shore.

And so the James Bond marathon continues, “GoldenEye” and “Tomorrow Never Dies”.

Thursday January 27, at 12:30pm the health department nurses came out to the boat along with Port Control to give us our COVID tests. This is the seventh time we’ve been tested since French Polynesia.

Dan was busy polishing the stainless on the boat, I’ve been working to finish sewing by bags to gift or sell.

More James Bond this evening, “The World is not Enough”

Friday January 28, negative COVID test results this morning, time to explore St. Helena!

Friday January 14, Etosha is one of the largest national parks in Africa at 8600 square miles. Established in 1907 and became a national park in 1967. The main characteristic of the park is a salt pan (a dried salt lake) that can be seen from space, it comprises 23% of the park. There are several waterholes throughout, which make for great wildlife gatherings and viewing.

Monday January 10, Happy Birthday Mike! We departed Luderitz by 9am, heading north to Walvis Bay. It’s a no wind kind of morning.

Tuesday January 11, Totals nautical miles traveled 131. The morning was a calm motor sail in fog with 5knots of wind. At one point we were being followed by at least 100 seals. It was amazing! They were surfing the water like dolphins trying to keep up with us.

Wednesday January 12, 8:30 am we arrived and anchored in Walvis Bay. Total of 249 nautical miles traveled this passage.

Walvis Bay is a small coastal town protected by a long sand spit. Surrounded by desert, it is a busy fishing and shipping port. A tidal lagoon there is home to Flamingos, Pelicans and Damara Terns birds.

In the afternoon we rented a car. It’s a Toyota Fortoner, counterpart to a Toyota Forerunner.

Thursday January 13, Departed Trance at 7:30am, loaded up the dinghy motored to the yacht club. Loaded up the car, locked the dinghy near other boats at the yacht club. Off for three days, 2 nights heading north. We arrived late afternoon opted to check in to the hotel and have some pool time.

Friday January 14, visit to Etosha National Park. See separate post for details.

Saturday January 15, we stopped in the city of Swakopmund, also surrounded by desert, settled by German colonists in 1892. It is a coastal city with pristine sandy beaches reminiscent of any southern California beach town. There are modern upscale homes, palm tree lined streets and beautiful flowers. A midsts the modern there stands several 20th century buildings of German architecture still in use today.

Sunday January 16, provisioning day, produce and meats plus a few essential paper products.

Monday January 17, picked up our laundry, visited customs and immigration, passports stamped! Returned rental car, fueled up Trance and we’re off to St Helenas!

Thursday January 6, In a rented 4×4 vehicle, which is necessary for most roads here, a four hour drive south took us to the Fish River Canyon. Similar in view to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Depending on which list you find Fish River Canyon second largest in size to the Grand Canyon. There were three other vehicles visiting when we were there.

We stayed overnight at the Canyon Roadhouse, near Fish River Canyon. It is decorated with nostalgia of old cars and gas station signs as if it were a museum. We were the only guest staying in the lodge. There were campsites also affiliated with the lodge, we saw 4 vehicles in the site.

Friday January 7, our stay included breakfast. A buffet was laid out that could feed 20 people! It was a lot of food! With permission, we took the apples, pears and grapes from the spread to have in the car.

On our way North to Sesriem we stopped to see the Hardap Game Park. It is a relatively small park, we saw Springbok, Ostrich and Kori Bustard birds. Adjacent to the park is the Hardap Dam. The reservoir dams the Fish River. This stop was recommended by people we met at the Canyon Roadhouse.

After a 6.5 hour drive we arrived in the town of Sesriem where we stayed at the Sossusvlei Lodge, with dinner and breakfast included. Set in the desert, each room is in it’s own building. We had a wonderful view of the desert.

Saturday January 8, Also within the lodge was an Activity Center that organized a variety of tours. Our plan was to leave at sunrise to see Sossusvlei, but opted to go with a tour. There were two safari vehicles that departed at 6am, with 4 guests in each. First dune we stopped at in the Namib Desert, is called Dune 45. It is permissible to climb this Dune, it stands at 560 ft. The name comes from it being 45 kilometers from the road that connects the Sesriem gate and Sossusvlei.

Sossusvlei is a white salt and clay pan known as Deadvlie. Remnants of a once river marsh with dead trees, surrounded by very large red dunes of million years old sand. Dune 7 is the tallest in this desert over 1256 ft, it’s the 7th dune along the Tsauchab River. Big Daddy, which you are also allowed to climb is over 1066 ft. We climbed what the tour guide called Little Daddy. It is the long plateau before Big Daddy’s peak. Similar in height to Dune 45.

Upon returning back to the lodge, we had a late checkout, took quick showers, as we were full of sand, then departed back to Trance in Luderitz, another 6 hour drive, with beautiful scenery.

Sunday January 9, The now ghost mining town of Kolmanskop, 15 minutes outside of Luderitz, was once one of the wealthiest in the world. The hospital had the first X-ray machine in the southern hemisphere. Three of the buildings were furnished with period items, the General Store (the sewing machine), the store owners house and a bowling alley. In 1912 one million carats of diamonds were mined, by the 1930s the town’s riches were for the most part depleted. Then diamond deposits were found about 165 miles south, by the Oranjestad River. Many of miners moved there. Kolmanskop was abandoned to the desert in 1956.

A Sunday drive around the Luderitz area.

Saturday January 1, 2022-Day 1, we departed Cape Town this morning for the country of Namibia. It is located on the Atlantic coast of Africa, the first country north of South Africa. At 10:15am, the bridges opened for us.

The winds were light all day, the most we saw was 7 knots, it was a pleasant motor sail.

In the afternoon we deployed Cody. It took a long time to unfurl, then we saw the the head swivel was not turning, we tried to lower the halyard a little to ease it off a bit, only to discover the halyard was all twisted at the top from unfurling it. Then it would furl! Dan detached the sail from the bottom furling unit and by hand untwisted the sail. So the swivel turned but apparently not when under load? How can we be the only ones which such issues with the Harken Reflex Furling system? Harken claims they’ve had no complaints or issues with the system. We took the sail down, bagged it up. We don’t need another precarious situation with it. The sail has also been modified twice by two different North Sails lofts. Did I ever mention Cody was a super expensive sail? Do sails and furling systems have “Lemon Laws”?

Sunday January 2-Day 2, blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Dan added whipped cream to his.

Totals nautical miles traveled in the past 24 hours 143. The morning we continued to motor sail. By afternoon the wind finally filled in 17-25knots, cruising 7-10knots. waves 3-4 meters.

Oh my the stars! the southern cross, the Milky Way!

Monday January 3-Day 3, Total nautical miles traveled 330, 187 nautical miles traveled in the past 24 hours. The wind remained steady all day 16-20knots, cruising 5-7knots. By evening the velocity dropped 10-14knots with calmer seas.

Tuesday January 4-Day 4, Total nautical miles traveled 499, 169 nautical miles traveled in the past 25.5 hours.

Arrived in Luderitz, the anchor was dropped in the bay at 11:30am. First order of business, Port Health. We arranged to meet the officer on shore by the “Luderitz Yacht Club” , which is really a bar restaurant, however it does have showers for visiting yachts to use. As we tied off the dinghy, we were greeted by Andy who acts a liaison between Port Control and yachts. After our visit with Port Health, Andy walked us over to immigration then customs and the port captains office.

And so the mishap begins. We were a bit rushed off the boat as port control told us Port Health would meet us on shore soon to review our COVID tests taken in Cape Town. We sat around waiting, finally 1.5 hours later he arrived. As we were filling out paperwork at immigration, we received a call on our hand held vhf radio from port control that our boat was drifting, the anchor was not holding in the 25 knots of wind. Dan and Andy ran back to dinghy and quickly made it back to Trance, who had dragged at least 1/4 mile, where the anchor dug in and she rested unharmed to herself or other boats! Andy is on his boat everyday and controls the moorings. With his help, he and Dan attached to a mooring ball, in this much wind it was a bit difficult. Andy also mentioned the bay is monitored by cameras because of the Diamond mining ships.

Meanwhile I completed the immigration paperwork, passports stamped!

The ocean off the coast of Namibia are mined for diamonds. The world’s richest alluvial gem quality diamond deposits are off the mouth of the Orange River extending up to Luderitz. A vast area on the coast is restricted as well as and several kilometers inland. Public beach access prohibited as you can walk on the beach and pick up diamonds. De Beers who controls the world diamond industry sets the price in Amsterdam and New York by restricting the supply within the diamond companies world wide. It is illegal here to possess uncut stones, without a mining permit, punishment is 10 years in prison non-negotiable.

Wednesday January 5, Luderitz, it is a small coastal fishing and mining town with a population of just over15,000. Surrounded by deserts, there is only one road in and out of town. Established in 1883, it is known for its 20th century German colonial buildings. We walked around town to find the many examples.