10th of December A sea is full of life, something is moving in the depths all the time. They called for the search for Roland’s yacht...:”maxi doesn’t want to come home” – those were the last words transmitted by the yacht... and yachts do have souls...  "Tyra" is close again. It’s good for they keep watch while I am asleep. A broken nail has been added to the log of losses. My alarm clock doesn’t like me anymore, I guess. It stopped working and I almost overslept Cape of Good Hope... Geez!!! It Is very cold and I can’t find the other glove... yet, it is so beautiful! Marvellous morning, so many dolphins, and seals, and birds, and mountains... A lighthouse marking way for ships... its light still visible in the dark... Sunset. The cape itself! a view which I will never forget...  A magical place where it is almost possible to feel breaths and hear conversations of those sailors who successfully passed Cape of Good Hope, and of those who lie at the...

I feel like I was in my own classic Polish movie "Rejs" (Cruise)... - ”I look left, I look right – a seal... a dolphin... a seal... oh, a dolphin... nothing interesting is going on” I am getting warm by a cooker which stopped moving after both hinges fell off (simultaneously, would you imagine?). I am quite bored with searching for my alarm clock. It is completely white and so is my blanket, hence, I always misplace it. Some people claim that the weather will be “OK” till Friday; others say that Wednesday will bring about a change for worse... It will complicate things a bit for I will be short of time if I want to reach Cape Town. Seems like I will have to look for shelter along the way. I keep my eyes fixed on the  barometer, it is difficult to hear something about the weather on the VHF, I get a lot of noise... I am going around Cape Agulhas at the moment!!! God, I’m so happy!!! Finally, the Indian Ocean is behind me!!! We earned a bit of rest from each other!!!...

In Mossel Bay it turned out that just today that the yacht club which is responsible for managing space in a tiny marina is closed. Since the harbour authorities couldn’t find any space for me – (much more yachts sail rather through The Cape of Good Hope then through the Red Sea, and there are more people who are on a cruise) – I decided to keep sailing. I was mad at myself that I had stopped and wasted so much of “the good weather time”. I was trying to enter this fishing harbour just to get some fuel… In response to my overheard conversation with a captain (during which I couldn’t help myself to express my opinion about “how things are here”), the police asked me not to move as they were going to escort me. I was waiting. I wasted 3 more hours because they didn’t turn up. My mate who was in the marina asked me through the radio why I was standing so far from the harbour heads… It turned out that my anchor didn’t hold the ship properly. Good I was on the...

8th December I reached the harbour past 2a.m.; my mates managed to sail their yacht into the marina just before me and took the last space left. My ship is lying at anchor just next to the coast.

Course, Sunday: I am sailing through a bay full of blue sharks, can you imagine that? It is their breeding area. There are lots of seals on which the sharks feed in the bay … once, I tore out a news article presenting the image of a marina I am about to sail into at night or tomorrow morning – the photos were taken from the sea level: the sharks were everywhere, one next to another, sometimes larger than the yachts in the bay… I remember telling myself – I will never go there… and yet, I am here… totally scared. I saw something on the water but I keep reassuring myself that it was a dolphin who was eating that seal… or that my eyes were so tired, confusing my mind, and in reality there was nothing there… You can go and try cage diving with those creatures in Mossel Bay… but I’m thinking I’ll skip the opportunity… Just a little chicken sailing around the world…   

5-8.12.08 East London, Friday: In the morning, when it had finally stopped raining, I put on the repaired mainsail, adjusted new battens and I attached reefs… and on top of that I managed to meet Roland, the Pole who had sailed into the harbour at night, during a yacht delivery for Durban. Onboard the “Windword”, the skipper, who was knowledgeable about the local conditions, gave me some useful advice about good anchorages, pointing them out on the map, in case some unexpected weather situation happened again and I was forced to look for shelter. I set off hoping greatly that this time the wind won’t be so severe and I will manage to get to Mossel Bay, which is 300 nautical miles away from East London.           The route, Saturday: The sea was flat. The waves were against me after the last storm, but they were gentle and with large intervals. The wind calmed down completely and I switched on the engine. On this route there is no place for sitting “not in...

I don’t know why people try to avoid this harbour and sail straight to Elizabeth Harbour. East London is a harbour on a river with very friendly people and a family atmosphere. John and Glen are happy to provide any help and information needed. In the yacht club (www.B.R.Y.C.co.za) you can have a proper “family meal” and play some instruments with “locals”. Everybody is extremely kind. I managed to take care of all important things like visiting a sail repairer (thank you Pit for giving me a ride), tanking up, Internet, hot shower, laundry and even receiving a good word… I will think of this harbour as a really nice place, worth recommending. I’m leaving tomorrow. I am not sure yet where I will go because everything depends on the weather.       

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...

Days are passing so fast. It rains occasionally. I spend entire days on Tanasza, fixing the self-steering gear. I dropped my wrench and one part into the water, but, fortunately, I had a spare one. The engine is fixed, the forestay – shortened and the standing rigging – set. A bit of knitting with the sail, stern light welded, inverter fixed, etc. Meanwhile, I’ve met a lot of people, every day brings some new friends. I have had a supper with a large group of Poles, it was very nice. Polish food – Grazyna baked a cheesecake – just like mom’s!!! She gave me what’s left to take it “home”. It was a pain to share it. I was visited, again, by Mira and Staszek who wanted to say goodbye, for I am sailing out tomorrow. I check the weather daily and I talk to other crews who want to sail out on the same day. A “bad wind” is supposed to end this night, and we want to set off as soon as it’s over, even if it‘s still dark. The Poles there want to take me everywhere...

next day It is raining, yet it is warm.  Deck of Tanasza is slippery when it is wet... so I slipped. I am wearing an orthosis now. I am fixing what I can (and have to) since I want to be ready when the first weather window opens – I am in a rush to Cape Town, where I am planning to go on a safari. Self-steering gear parts came on time, a mechanic is coming tomorrow, I’ve ordered a batten for my mainsail, and I went to buy some fuel... not that I remembered to take my credit card with me... Oh well, that’s just me :) The yacht is turning attention. Many people pop in for a small chitchat for there are not many lone female sailors in the port (a female life – so wonderful:)). I was visited by another bunch of Poles. I like it here, Africa is Africa. Once, I wanted to study Zulu... maybe it’s not too late... I guess it is normal that one dream gives birth to another one.

next day... I was woken up by Andrew’s visit. He’s a Pole living here with his wife. Very nice people. I visited them in their house... barefoot... again:) Afterwards, I moved the yacht closer to yacht clubs. I am using plural since there are two of them, next to each other and competing for each newly coming yacht. People are very kind here and they have a “fantastic” accent, but the city itself is not safe. Many of the yachts I know from the previous ports are moored close to me; we ate supper together (you can’t imagine how delicious a fresh meal can be after so many days at sea), and we spend the evening spinning sailors’ tales.

The ending was exciting. We were doing 7 to 10 (!) knots on average. Then the wind died for some time and returned, but accompanied by rain and, no surprise here (!), squalls. What is more, they were coming straight at us. The sea was very “uncomfortable”, with these short and steep waves... I can easily imagine what goes on in here when the wind is stronger... The place itself is quite famous; it is here where storms produce gigantic waves, and some of them can be 3 times bigger than the rest!!! We reached the port at night, about 25 ships to come by. Distances counted in hundreds of meters did not surprise us, but frightened at times. Right before I entered the port I was passed by a yacht full of surfers – by the way, sailing around the world looking for a good surfing wave is not a bad idea, is it? I entered the port at midnight and decided to moor my yacht at the first free spot available. I took care of the hawsers myself and run barefoot to look for a free place...

HA! “Tyra” turned out to be about 6 miles behind me… It did not respond to radio calls so I did not know it was there… and now we are both stuck in a current which allows for the maximum speed of 1 knot… great, isn’t it? But Kris and his crewmember Caroline changed their course in order to give me some fuel so that I can start the engine again and get out of the place… We had to come close together, side to side. Kris threw me a rope which I tied to a capstan, and then Caroline attached about 20 liters of diesel to the rope and pushed it all towards me… How nice of her:) Yet, both yachts rocked so much that I didn’t know whether I should look or close my eyes not to see it… The masts were so close at time that my heart was thumping like crazy… It doesn’t matter that the current decided to stop making problems just then and we could go on without a problem. What matters is the fact that you never know what is waiting ahead. Anyway, 30-35 knots at the moment,...

Today, I’m not going to bore you with my nautical problems, how about that? I will put my mind at rest and let it escape the reality… And I will stop talking about the weather… maybe it’s silly to go on and on about it… but if you take a closer look, this whole sailing, that’s lots of work, to be honest. However on the other hand, with each day I become more convinced that in fact, “everybody” can go and sail alone around the world. Certainly, a little bit of luck comes handy, and the more experience the person has, the less chance there is to make a mistake (which of course can be very undesirable at sea). But I am not supposed to talk about sailing… Well… a bird (a bird again). White, big, I missed it by 10 meters. The waves were as big as houses but the bird just sat there. Just like that. It sits there and dangles its feet in the water full of blue sharks – it must be either brave or insane… I talk about those sharks so often because they’re the...