January 2025 – Sailing with Saphir

Namibia here we come

We made it to Namibia! Arrived early Wednesday morning after 5 days sailing / motor sailing.

We left waterfront marina on Saturday the 11 January and headed up to Namibia. We hade a good wind until late afternoon when it dyed out and we had to rely on the iron donkey. It is quite rocky and sadly my chicken stew fell out of my hand and messed up the refrigerator and the floor…… I did use the 3 sec rule and took up the stew and served it after heating it up of course for dinner. Nobody got sick all good.

Sadly we are only 12 boat out of 21 that left CapeTown due to different reasons, some waiting for delivery, others need help from expert etc. Hopefully they will join us in St Helena.

It continues to be rolly, but we do get used to it. The nights were cold so we put up our cover on the back and port side. It makes such a big difference. Know we don’t need to put on full gear during night shifts. Can’t get enough of sunrise and sunset Even the moon is with us and shines up the sea.

On the second day our friend boat Mistral got problems with there engine so they could use it. We planned for a tow rescue if they couldn’t get in to the marina when we reached Walvis Bay. So we ended up turning around to see if we could tow them in. We used our blue lines on one clech each and on the loop ends we attached a long white line and almost at the end, a floating ball. By the time we were behind them the wind had increased and the waves so we decided not to tow them. It would be too risky. This was a very good learning for us. Both how do it and also how difficult it is. Mistral continued sailing and was towed in by the marina early in the morning.

Knowing that they were getting help soon we continued to Walves Bay and dropped our anchor at 4.40 on Thursday morning. Happy that it was no wind or waves, since our remote control didn’t work, so we had to free fall it.

Hugs Eva

Cape Town days

Today we are leaving Cape Town. Can’t believe we have been here almost 6 weeks. It has been fantastic weeks with lots of positiv impressions travelling around in the neighbourhood. We have of course fixed things on the boat, such as got our main sail and genua repaired. Getting a new toilet which at the end turn out that it was nothing wrong with our toilet. It was a block in the pipes. The big KVH is gone and our starlink is using that pole instead. So happy to have the starlink in a better place on the boat.

Saphir also got new antifouling. That included at trip up to Saldana. Which I am really happy we did. On that trip up we saw a unge amount of humpback whales. It’s not easy to get any great photos with a mobil phone since they were far away so I was extra happy when one actually came up along the side of our boat. I got that on a video.

Saphir is up on the hard for some new paint on the hull.

I also went home for a week to meet up with family and friends. The most exciting was to meet Novalie in real life and not only on the screen. I had a great week home, having Ella, Filip, Nellie and Novalie staying with me the hole week, even Mia stayed for a few days as well. Max had to go to school so no sleepover for him. I celebrated my upcoming birthday twice. Nellie had her birthday party in the house and we also had Novilies baptism coffee. So a very busy week.

Back in Cape Town unpack and repack for the next trip, which was going to Camps Bay to celebrate my 60th birthday, where Elise came and joined us. She stayed with us for two weeks. I had a great birthday with a walk on the beach, laying by the pool for some hours, a manicure and a massage before we headed out for dinner together with Karen and Chris. So a perfect birthday in other words.

A few days back on the boat going to tabletop mountain and celebrating Christmas with some off the others boats.

Pink bubbles, ginger cookies and skumtomtar

After that off to explore the wine yards and celebrate Edgar’s birthday in Paarl. We stayed at La Rouche which was a lovely place where we had relaxing days by the pool and we did visit some wine yards as well.

Back in Cape Town Elise had a few more days before going home. First we celebrated New Year with family Svensson, our friends from Stockholm with a dinner at Pier Waterside continued with the fireworks on the boat.

Elise’s two last days we, me, Elise, Karen and Sonja almost manage to the top of the Lions head. The weather was really not the best rain and windy, so when we came to the ladders we decided to turn back. Together with Karen me and Elise went to Betsy’s bay to see the Penguin, which we sure did. It was quite windy and the waves was rough so the penguins stayed on land. We also went to the botanical garden at Betsy’s bay and had a lovely walk up the hill to Lisa Kloff waterfall.

Time for Elise to go back home and finish her studies to become a sea captain. Wish you all the best and see you when we are back home. It was so nice to have you visiting us.

One more week before we are off. First thing is to move the storage in to starboard side so when Chris ( our new crew) arrives he has a cabin that is not leaking. Food shopping, dinner preparation, sewing and knitting with the ladies.

And we are off to Namibia !

Port Elisabeth to Cape Town

Happy New year, it is the 3 Jan 2025 when this blog is posted. We have been in Cape Town since 1 dec and having a great time here, and the last two weeks Elise have been visiting us. More about that in a later blog. In the last blog we arrived to Port Elisabeth so let’s start there.

It is great to be moored here in Port Elisabeth specially as the wind speeds up. Even in the harbour we feel the wind as it was up to 20 m/sec. We discuss the weather and when it is best to leave with the 6 other Arc boats. Feels good to be sailing with them to Cape Town. One of the evenings we have a sundowner on Saphir. It was very packed.

Since we knew, that we were going to be stuck in Port Elisabeth for a few days, we decided to go for a Safari to Addo the Elephant park with Chris and Karen. What a great place. We saw lots of Elephants, ‘pumbas’, zebras, antilopes, kudus, buffles, one hyena and many different birds

Me and Karen took an uber to Sacramento to hike. It was a great walk and fabulous scenery although the weather could have been better. Shifting between sun, rain and wind. When we almost dried up the wind got more intense, the rain came and we got soaked, then it stopped raining and the sun came out for a while before it started all over again. Before going back to our boats we had lunch at Sacrament restaurant.

The weather window is opening up and we are out in the ocean again and heading to Cape Town. On the second night we pass Point Augulhas which means we left the Indian Ocean and are back in the Atlantic sea. This is also the most southerly part of Africa.

When we passed the Good Hope on the 1 dec at 12 we still had five hours left to Cape Town . We enjoy the last Nm and are looking for whales. Edgar sees a squirt from a whale. We see him/her just in front of the boat and that scared us a lot but it manage to dive before we came to close.

3 and 1/2 days on the sea and we are getting in to CapeTown. Now we have till 11 Jan to fix things on the boat such as toalett, sail and lots of other things. I will also make a trip back home to Sweden to see all my grandchildren, family and some friends.