Current Position: 33 01.433’S 27 53.843’E; Timezone: UTC+2; SOG: 0; COG: N/A; TWS: 9; TWD: 195; Current Speed, 0.2 kt; Current Direction, 180 Distance to Waypoint (East London): At Anchor; Total Miles Sailed: 15914 nm; Engine Hours: 321; Estimate Fuel: 58+10+50;
Comments: I had my morning tea, then stowed the storm sail, sheets, and lines before starting my punch list for East London. The main issues are the sewing of the mainsail and fix the hinge of the cover of one of the lazarettes in the cockpit (screws for the hinge have stripped out of the wood). The rest is routine maintenance. There is no office at the marina, just a bar, where I can go to get a key for the gates. However, the bar is not open on Mondays. No worries, was not planning to go anywhere today. I was resting below and a little after noon I hear a horn go off. My neighbor was warning me that my anchor was dragging. It had not dragged the past 18h, but somehow the hold broke loose. It took me three tries to reset the anchor before it took hold in the mud, but when I tried to set it, it dragged again. It is 13:20 and I have dropped the anchor again, this time further upwind. I am going to give it an hour to settle in the mud before I try to set it. It dragged too badly so I had to reset it about 14:00. It is now 17:30 and the anchor has held 3.5h. I have the entire 350’ of chain out, a 10:1 scope. It has been gusting 30 kt, funneled up the river by the breakwaters. Fingers crossed it will continue to hold. I will set 1h alarms tonight to check. It is 20:00 and the anchor is still holding. However, the wind has decreased significantly and it is slack (high) tide. The wind is veering from the NE to the SW overnight. I have taken this into account when anchoring. It seems to me that if there is an issue it will come up in the early morning hours. I am setting an alarm at 2h intervals to check on anchor drag. At 20:45 the wind was from the SSW. Around midnight there was little wind and the boat floated around in various directions, but by 3:00 the wind had shifted and the boat had swung 180. The anchor presumably also swung and I was concerned that it was dislodged. It was hard to tell if the boat was dragging the anchor. I assumed there was a lot of chain in the mud as well and it was taking time to settle down. I assumed the boat should shift 600’ downstream, but instead it was only about 100’ downstream at 3:30. At 4:00 the boat’s position was still moving downstream, presumably as the chain played out. I got up at 6:30, an hour and a half after sunrise. The winds are supposed to be from the SW today with gusts to 25. The winds will lighten up tonight and be very light tomorrow. I am staying on the boat again today. If the anchor stays fast today, I know it will be okay tomorrow, then I may go ashore to get a shower, do some laundry, and do some shopping. Today, I am going to focus on the repairs. I filled the screw holes with some epoxy containing 302 filler and I found some longer screws. While that was curing I got to work sewing the mainsail. I broke the other half of the speedy stitcher needle immediately, so had to stitch the baton pocket by hand. After finishing it, I was not up to try and tackling the grommet reinforcement patches that are coming loose. Since the patches are in the middle of the sail and I do not reef the middle of the sail, they are not critical. I will wait until Cape Town when I can take the mainsail down and do a thorough assessment and repair. The epoxy was not fully cured after an hour … may not have used enough catalyst. I will let it dry overnight. Pretty much everything else on my punch list is routine maintenance (grease the porthole o-ring seals, etc.). It is almost 11 and the boat has not moved the past 7h since the wind shifted. However, the winds have been single-digits. The wind is picking up now and is supposed to gust 25 this afternoon. They have lined 100 Mercedes Benz cars up on the dock. Apparently, a ship is coming tomorrow to take them to the US. I am hoping I do not need to move my boat. I went ashore briefly to get a shower and check in. There is ZERO cost for using the facilities while at anchor.
Comments: I had my morning tea, then stowed the storm sail, sheets, and lines before starting my punch list for East London. The main issues are the sewing of the mainsail and fix the hinge of the cover of one of the lazarettes in the cockpit (screws for the hinge have stripped out of the wood). The rest is routine maintenance. There is no office at the marina, just a bar, where I can go to get a key for the gates. However, the bar is not open on Mondays. No worries, was not planning to go anywhere today. I was resting below and a little after noon I hear a horn go off. My neighbor was warning me that my anchor was dragging. It had not dragged the past 18h, but somehow the hold broke loose. It took me three tries to reset the anchor before it took hold in the mud, but when I tried to set it, it dragged again. It is 13:20 and I have dropped the anchor again, this time further upwind. I am going to give it an hour to settle in the mud before I try to set it. It dragged too badly so I had to reset it about 14:00. It is now 17:30 and the anchor has held 3.5h. I have the entire 350’ of chain out, a 10:1 scope. It has been gusting 30 kt, funneled up the river by the breakwaters. Fingers crossed it will continue to hold. I will set 1h alarms tonight to check. It is 20:00 and the anchor is still holding. However, the wind has decreased significantly and it is slack (high) tide. The wind is veering from the NE to the SW overnight. I have taken this into account when anchoring. It seems to me that if there is an issue it will come up in the early morning hours. I am setting an alarm at 2h intervals to check on anchor drag. At 20:45 the wind was from the SSW. Around midnight there was little wind and the boat floated around in various directions, but by 3:00 the wind had shifted and the boat had swung 180. The anchor presumably also swung and I was concerned that it was dislodged. It was hard to tell if the boat was dragging the anchor. I assumed there was a lot of chain in the mud as well and it was taking time to settle down. I assumed the boat should shift 600’ downstream, but instead it was only about 100’ downstream at 3:30. At 4:00 the boat’s position was still moving downstream, presumably as the chain played out. I got up at 6:30, an hour and a half after sunrise. The winds are supposed to be from the SW today with gusts to 25. The winds will lighten up tonight and be very light tomorrow. I am staying on the boat again today. If the anchor stays fast today, I know it will be okay tomorrow, then I may go ashore to get a shower, do some laundry, and do some shopping. Today, I am going to focus on the repairs. I filled the screw holes with some epoxy containing 302 filler and I found some longer screws. While that was curing I got to work sewing the mainsail. I broke the other half of the speedy stitcher needle immediately, so had to stitch the baton pocket by hand. After finishing it, I was not up to try and tackling the grommet reinforcement patches that are coming loose. Since the patches are in the middle of the sail and I do not reef the middle of the sail, they are not critical. I will wait until Cape Town when I can take the mainsail down and do a thorough assessment and repair. The epoxy was not fully cured after an hour … may not have used enough catalyst. I will let it dry overnight. Pretty much everything else on my punch list is routine maintenance (grease the porthole o-ring seals, etc.). It is almost 11 and the boat has not moved the past 7h since the wind shifted. However, the winds have been single-digits. The wind is picking up now and is supposed to gust 25 this afternoon. They have lined 100 Mercedes Benz cars up on the dock. Apparently, a ship is coming tomorrow to take them to the US. I am hoping I do not need to move my boat. I went ashore briefly to get a shower and check in. There is ZERO cost for using the facilities while at anchor.