South African dawn

The African coastline to starboard was dark under wonderfully coloured thunderclouds.

The weather front, predicted to  bring 25knots of wind arrived with a bang just after we had triple reefed, bringing 3 hours of sustained 38-48knots of wind from the south south west and torrential rain. We could not hold our course and began to be driven towards the Wild Coast. The rain and wind flattened the water into a seething hissing whiteness, but as time wore on the waves began to grow and I was conscious that the 3 knot Agulhas current could eventually make them very uncomfortable, if not dangerous.  The recommended strategy is to run for the 200metre line to get out of the current, and our course had just about reached that point after 3 hours when the wind dropped suddenly.

Justin and Mark took over the next two watches and when I came back on duty at 03:00 we were motoring dead to windward in light airs.   The sun rose at 04:49 and I took this photo of the St. Mawes Sailing Club burgee and our Cornish ensign.