We left, a couple of yachts, on Sunday. We were asked to wait until a large vessel leaves the port. It was to be 12 knots head to wind on the open sea. Right… a dead wave after the storm was so big that I started the next stage of my cruise like a rookie, swung over a rail, losing my lunch along the way… I started to feel better when a thunderstorm came. I turned off all the electric equipment because of lightning. I switched on a flashlight in order not to see what’s going on with the sky… Instead of the promised 12, we had about 30-40 knots. Those yachts which had anemometers registered over 50 knots during squalls. Tanasza struggled bravely on the waves, sailing very fast in those conditions…
The entire night passed in a similar fashion. A milk container partially opened for it fell off the shelf… so I was drinking it… eating oranges which were close at hand… which resulted in severe diarrhea… Imagine taking off a storm suit in this rain… I cursed my stupidity…

Asleep at last. I wanted to stay within 12 miles distance from a shore, where supporting current is the strongest, but the wind blew me farther into the ocean. I made good progress during the day, but weather news did not make me feel easy. An “unpredictable” storm change was going to come “unpredictably” faster. Geez, I should’ve trusted myself and stayed at the port. Yet, the locals said I can sail out. When will I learn to trust myself? And now it is too late to turn back.
I fell asleep while turning towards the shore, and I woke up only 6 miles away from it. I was lucky to wake up.

West wind caught me on the other side of the land rise. How unfortunate!!! I reefed the sail to the third reef point in order to move close to the shore as fast as possible, even though there was no anchorage there. The land rise and strong wind give birth to the world famous gigantic waves. I thought that Bass Strait near Tasmania was bad. But this place is more than one person can imagine. It surely does earn its name – it is called “The Wild Coast” of South Africa – only 250 miles of coastline is enough to break people and ships.
A window was left open (somehow) and when a wave hit Tanasza it flooded the navigation section – charts and bed totally soaked, but it was nothing compared to what was going on outside. I had to reef again for it was impossible to go on on the third reef point. Luckily, I had prepared the fourth reef point back at Vanuatu!!! Still, I had to loosen up the halyard in order to hook it up. And in these very few seconds when I had to run to the mast, the mainsail got hooked to the few steps on the mast. I tried to climb the boom, then climb the mast, but waves rocked the yacht from side to side heavily, the boom was half-submerged, and so was the mast (for a moment). And then the safety rope snapped, just when I had only one point left. So I was hanging there, gripping what I could, until I was able to climb down and hide in the cockpit.  The situation was not good. The mainsail was flapping on the wind, I could not pull it in, or fold it. Was I scared? Not about my life at least, but about the sail!!! I happened to pray for help... and I received it. Suddenly, the last step holding the mainsail released it. There was no time to tie myself up, I had only seconds... I did it. I kept telling myself aloud how lucky I was for quite a while. It’s a miracle that I was able to reef this fourth reefing point. I lost only 2 battens and damaged the leech.  Surprisingly, the mainsail was not completely torn.  I came close to the shore in these “wonderful” conditions. There was another yacht there, drifting. I was struggling head to wind, tacking between other vessels which wanted to find shelter from the wind. Fortunately, they all kept cautious watch and responded immediately whenever I asked for a course change when I was too close to shore to attempt turns.
By the way, it was meant to be only 25 knots coming from this direction. Instead, 59 was measured and not for 6 hours as predicted, but for 36 hours. I slowed down a bit before reaching the port for I wanted to enter East London during the day. I was welcomed by a brilliant rainbow, a group of large dolphins and a whale on a flat surface of water. beautiful. It crossed my mind that I might go on to Port Elizabeth, but I have to be reasonable – I need rest.
The entry was easy and I was passing port heads at  7 am. I had to tie myself to other yachts which seemed impossible considering my exhaustion and no one to catch hawsers. The only option left was to stop at a jetty.  I threw the hawser to an employee of a shipyard, inaccurately – the hawser landed in the water... but in the end Tanasza was moored and safe. I am so exhausted, climbing a tyre and a mooring chain, I added some hawsers and collapsed.
 
If it was a good weather window then I guess I’ll skip the next one. Believe me, now I understand why yachts go back to Durban, trying to leave it a couple of times... it was the longest 250 miles in my life...