The Cosmos Adventure - News

Joe Dorr Report From Cape Town, South Africa

Cosmos

January 5, 2003

Home for Christmas

Making my way home for Christmas was a little wackier than it should have been. I was able to leave for home early, so I took advantage of the opportunity to spend more time with Elke. The airlines don't allow people to do what is rational, so I did the completely irrational. I flew 800 miles back to Durban to catch a 1,000-mile flight to Cape Town instead of going 200 miles directly to Cape Town and then on to the USA. Well, it actually got more convoluted than that. As it turned out, the airlines did not have the same direct flights on my new day of travel, so I ended up flying from George (a small town near Knysna that should not be confused with George Hotz), to Durban. Then from Durban to East London, from East London to Cape Town, then from Cape Town to Johannesburg, Johannesburg to Isle del Sol, then from Isle del Sol to Atlanta, and from Atlanta to Washington, D.C. Thirty-six hours after getting on the first plane, I was landing near home.

At one time, such travel would have beaten me to a pulp, but sailing over some rough seas for eighteen months changes a person's perspective on what travel, endurance and patience are all about. The time seemed to go in an instant and I arrived home totally refreshed and ready for a full day.

Time at home was wonderful. Daphne and Mike's Cullen has grown like crazy.  Aaron is moving back to the States from London. Emily bought a new car while I was home and showed me the progress she has made on remodeling her house.  Brendan shared his opera experiences and pictures of his performance that I sadly missed. Seeing Kurt as well as meeting Silke was an unexpected pleasure. And being with Elke was great.

The whole home experience was over in the blink of an eye. Once back on the boat, looking back at time at home was like looking back on an earlier-life incarnation. Conversely, when at home, life on the boat seemed like a different incarnation.

My return flight on the 28th of December was to Durban, but I was able to get off in Cape Town and make my own way on the 200-mile trip to Knysna. I missed a flight by 10 minutes. All cars in Cape Town were rented or reserved until March because this is the high tourist season. So I decided to try my luck with a 200-mile taxi ride.

I went to the taxi stand and asked who wanted to drive me to Knysna. Instead of answering, they started talking about the impossibility of it. They got out a map and showed me how far. They talked about how busy they all were.

I simply changed my question to, "How much to drive me to Knysna?" One driver answered and another cut his price by 1/3. The price was competitive with the cost of the flight that did not leave for seven hours so I got in his '84 Nissan Maxima.

We hit the road immediately, but not for Knysna. He introduced himself as Norman. He said he wanted to pick up his driver because he does not like to drive on the highways. He is the car owner and only drives it on weekends.  His regular driver would make the trip to Knysna safer. He got on his cell phone and made arrangements to pick up his regular driver. Then he made another phone call to his auto mechanic and signed him up to make the trip too. He said he had just had the engine completely rebuilt and having his mechanic along would ensure that mechanical problems would not prevent us from getting to Knysna today.

We drove to the nicer part of the Clark Township, just west of the Cape Town Airport and pulled up in front of a house and just next to a burned out automobile and waited for the auto mechanic to appear. Three times his kids appeared and said something in Afrikaans to Norman as we continued to wait.  After about one half hour, a very big and heavy man came out with a fist-full of wrenches wrapped in a yellow shopping bag and got into the car. He introduced himself as Clarence Williams.

Norman then drove into a poorer part of the Township. He said that I should not try to walk through here at night. Clarence said I shouldn't even try to walk through here in the daytime because I would never make it. We stopped in front of a group of houses and in pretty short order, a smaller man came out. Norman got into the back seat with me and the new man got behind the wheel. I learned that his name was Isaac and that he had been driving for four years. Norman has been driving for seven years and owns his own car.  Norman said that in a couple of years, Isaac would also own his own car.

Now with the car owner, the driver, and the mechanic all aboard, the drive to Knysna took on a whole new dimension. It was hard to tell if Norman, Clarence and Isaac were all vital parts of making a safe journey to Knysna, or if Norman had invited his friends for a ride in the country, on a nice day (sort of an all-expenses-paid vacation). To me, the answer wasn't really important.  They were very good company and told me some of the stories of their lives.

Clarence, the mechanic, is also the deacon at his New Evangelical Church.  His church is "New" because he and some members of his old church were tired of paying for the Bishop's living habits so they formed a new church, apart from the Bishop. Clarence has seven kids and they all find ways to get into serious trouble with the authorities.

Norman was once a Cape Town policeman, under apartheid. He said that he was a "Member of the Fifth Column." He asked me if I had ever been to Mississippi. I told him I lived there for about six months. He asked if I had ever seen the movie, Mississippi Burning. He said that movie had a major influence on him. He pointed out places along the way out of Cape Town where he started fires against apartheid after he quit the police and joined the protest movement.

When I arrived back in Knysna, the boat was still floating and all of the guys were still healthy. Yoost Sol Van arrived the day before I left and now was red from exposure to the sun.  Daniel Walter had arrived during my absence and settled in. Cruisers from other boats gave me lots of hints about crazy goings on in the Captain's absence, but most of the rumors proved to be false.

We returned to the task of cleaning up the boat and completing some other projects while we waited for the right weather. It took two days until we had good weather arrived. On New Year's Eve, we anchored out in Featherbed Bay, near the Knysna Heads, planning to leave early the following morning.  We watched the celebration fireworks from the boat and turned in about 0100 in the New Year.  

In the morning, we watched and waited for the ebb current to subside in the pass between the Knysna heads. The waves in the pass were tall and white.  Another boat named Maude I. Jones had attempted to leave at 0530 and turned back to anchor and wait near us.

Low tide was at 0845, so at 0830 we raised our anchor and passed out of the lagoon with Maude I. Jones right behind us. It was still quite a bouncy ride. One second we would be looking straight ahead into blue sky, and the next we would be looking ahead into white water pouring over the submerged bow. The excitement is increased by the proximity of the rock ledges that have to be hugged to stay away from a mid-channel, slightly submerged rock.  While in Knysna, we learned that eight lives have been lost during the last year as two boats sank trying to make it through the Knysna pass.

We cleared the pass pretty quickly and started motoring toward Mossel Bay.  We still could not go all the way to Cape Town because we only had a one-day forecast of favorable weather. We mostly motored to Mossel Bay and spent the first and second nights of the New Year moored at the Mossel BayYacht Club.

The forecast for January 3rd was much better. We left Mossel Bay at 1000 hours after some last minute preparation. We motored a short way, but the farther we went, the better the winds got. By the time we got to the Cape of Good Hope, we were tearing along. From Cape Aghulas (the southernmost point of Africa) to the Cape of Good Hope and around to Cape Town was some of the most enjoyable sailing we have had in months. The winds averaged around 30 knots most of the time, but sometimes averaged around 40. We had gusts up to 57 miles per hour. We single-reefed the main and Genoa, and averaged about 10 knots for much of the trip. Several times we surged ahead at over 16 nautical miles per hour (about 20 statute mph). Cosmos handled all conditions with great finesse. We passed around the Cape of Good Hope, from the Indian Ocean into the Atlantic Ocean at 1700 on the 4th of January.  

Only two things broke. A worn main sail car popped out of its track when we did a controlled jibe in 35 knot winds, and the genoa leach line broke and pulled loose its jam cleat. These were small losses when compared to all the joy gained by all five members of the crew while making such a super passage through some of the most notorious waters in the world.

The excitement wasn't over when we rounded the Cape of Good Hope and headed north toward Cape Town. The mountains around Cape Town have a tremendous funneling effect on the winds from the Southeast. As we headed north to Cape Town, we would alternately experience almost dead calm when we were sailing beside a mountain, and 50 knot winds when we sailed in front of a pass through the mountains. The tall barren mountains and the valleys were beautiful off our starboard beam as the sun set in a perfectly clear sky off of our port beam.

We arrived in Cape Town at night at 2200 hours and although Cape Town is well lit (with aids to navigation) it is difficult to maintain calm when motoring into an unknown harbor with 50-knot winds.  All hands were on deck to help spot markers and avoid sea walls.  

The trickiest part was when we got into the tight quarters of the marina itself. We had been told to tie up at the fuel dock until morning, but on this dark and windy night, I could not see how we could possibly make it into the narrow space beside the fuel dock. We were being blown from every direction as the winds whipped around the marina. The two separated engines of the catamaran were very helpful in maintaining a position. Nonetheless, we are thankful the crew of Maiden (a racing boat that will depart on the Cape To Rio Race on 11 January) came on deck and offered to help us tie alongside of their boat. We accepted their offer, ordered pizza and enjoyed a late night snack before turning in for the first time in the Atlantic in over a year and a half.

Happy to be back in the Atlantic,

Joe Dorr, Captain of the Cosmos