23/02/13 - Lord Nelson

Today began early for Aft Port and by 7 a.m. we had set seven sails with our seven watch members, ably assisted by Mate Jon and Cadet Toby whilst Liz nobly kept us on course. A gloriously sunny day saw more sail setting and tweaking, including goose winging the main course to trap the maximum wind as we continued sailing up the coast towards Durban against the Aghulhas current. Happy hour saw us slaving away down below to different music at each end of the ship whilst poor Toby struggled to study. A version of 'three little maids from school’ (Ann, Monica and Robin, looking very fetching in a black and white number) emerged from somewhere in the depths of the ship supposedly to act as messmen for our curry supper, which included Marcin’s mother’s tasty cheesecake. As a PS to yesterday’s safari blog, those of us who did not go spent the day swimming, shopping or just wandering around the town and were then taken by Arthur, Paul, Morgan and Terry to their yacht club, the Algoa Bay YC for an excellent supper. Many thanks to them and to Mandy Latimore. Today was the 33rd anniversary of the day that Mandy had her accident and she said that if she hadn’t had the accident she probably wouldn’t have done many of things that she has. Signing off from a convivial post-watch bar gathering. Lyn P, Aft Port.