First Leg at Sea – South Africa to Saint Helena...

We immediately got into the rhythm our new life, which consisted of shifts.  We do 4 hourly shifts during the day from 0600 and 3 hourly shifts at night beginning at 1800.

First day out, we caught our first fish – a tuna – delicious Sashimi!

The weather to begin was lovely, turning to rain and thunder on the morning of day 3.  We were cruising along nicely.

http://youtu.be/5n0BI2WGcI4

Day 4, I was on midnight to 0300am shift, we were on a beam reach and the wind was getting up to 30 (ish) knots, we were sailing along beautifully.  About 2 hours into the shift, there was a big “bang” noise, I came inside to try and see what it was, and Mark came up from his cabin and he was drenched – the large Port Aft window has cracked – it had completely opened up, let in a huge amount of water and then closed up again.  This was incredibly scary!  

We had to make immediate repairs, Mark and Richard used epoxy, glue, putty (everything we had available) to try to close up and secure the window.  

The decision now was, what to do???  We were so close to the gentle trade winds – do we carry on, or do we turn around and try to head for Namibia for repairs.  We had been sailing away and north when we left SA, therefore we would experience the seas again associated with leaving a coastal region.  We ended up deciding the safest was to continue to the trade winds.

Friday 05/04, first time change – clocks back 1 hour.

Monday 08/04, stopped in the Atlantic for a swim – AWESOME!

Tuesday 09/04, Eleven and a half days after leaving South Africa we arrived at Saint Helena