Well, I made it into Cape Town today.

Everyone had been a little worried because my ETA happened to be right in the middle of a gale. I ended up getting ahead of the heavier wind, but was still in about 25 knots gusting up to 30 and getting pretty rough out. We had been told by some sailors form around here that it can be very hard to get into Cape Town and that 30 knots was the max amount of wind to try and come in with.

The past few days had been slightly unpleasant. I haven't slept much in the past few days with all the shipping and not at all last night. It's been windy, which is great in the open ocean when you can take it at comfortable angles because you don't have any nearby land to run into. Since I was heading into Cape Town I was just trying to get myself there as fast as possible to avoid the gale.

About 5 miles out, soaked, uncomfortable and pretty worried, I still couldn't see land because of the fog. All of a sudden the sun came out, the wind died down to a nice 15 knots and I had just changed course to head in towards the breakwater so I had the wind more behind me and was surfing nicely down the swell. A dolphin came out to play at the bow of Wild Eyes, surfing along with us. With the sun out land was just about visible and it was really a great end to the past few less than fun days.

Eventually my Dad, Zac, and Scott came out with a bigger boat filled with media. It was a little intimidating, all the people and cameras, big boats and such. But I had to laugh at myself a little, I've been half way around the world, had spent the previous nights dodging many large (up to 250 meter long) ships, and this little sixty foot power boat with a few media people on board was scaring me!

Getting in was a little trick, because my one working auto pilot display was down below. Once I entered Table Bay, I started up my engine and dropped my main, then hearing some strange sounds I looked behind my to see black smoke pouring out the exhaust, well, there went my engine.

The guys in Cape Town where a great help. They tied up beside me and helped me in and that all went well. So, now we have another job on our list, but its better things break now then later on when I'm back out in the middle of the ocean.

At the dock I hopped off the boat to the waiting media. They were all really nice people and having talked to people so little in the last few months, I found myself actually enjoying all the questions and people! I got Wild Eyes settled into her new slip, and then went up to the hotel for a nice warm meal and a shower. The ground wasn't exactly stable, it's very hard to walk in a straight line when the ground is moving... and I felt like I was going to fall of out of a chair when I sat down.

That is all for tonight. It's getting late here and I need to get to bed. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow, and I will make sure to post pictures!!!

-- ~♥A♥~