Day 53: AIS error

/in /by
Finally, a clear sky to start the day.
Still lots of moonlight. I was up at 4 am, and instead of reading to fall asleep, I jumped outside and put 2 hours of magnificent paddling in just my board shorts. Lekker and cool. No rain squalls and no beating sun ☀
 
I noticed a red error light intermittently lighting up on the AIS unit last night. Looking at the VHF display, it seems as if the AIS unit is not transmitting my position every 3min. (Usually, it’s much more often, but I am going slower than 3kt) There are gaps as long as half an hour. That’s a little concerning as I am coming up to some busy traffic near Salvador.
During the shore team chat this morning, I got hold of the Garmin technical guy, Dylan. He really knows his stuff. We did a few things, but unfortunately, no solution was had.

Error warning and power lights on AIS

The info that the AIS sends out

 
I will call the next vessel I see and ask if Osiyeza shows up on their AIS.
 
Weather Router Robin has asked me to head further North and supplied me with a waypoint to aim for.
It looks like there will be predominantly NE winds next week on the approach to Salvador, plus a Southerly current. I need to go North to avoid being pushed South of my destination. Pressure is starting to mount. It would be a shame to miss my destination 🙃
 
I called up a ship called Leo Ocean, and they kindly confirmed that I appeared on their plotter. Not sure what the error light means. The only way to find out is to attach a laptop to pull the error codes off. I don’t have a laptop on board. Even with the error light, it seems to be transmitting my details.
 
This is the second one I have seen. It’s the biggest blue bottle I have ever seen. Actually, it’s not blue but pink. A large pink bottle. It’s the size of a side plate and shaped like a Cornish pie. I need to be quicker getting my camera 📷.
 
I have had company for most of the day. It started with four birds feeding on baby flying fish about four swells in front of me. They shriek each time they dive bomb for a flying fish. As the day progressed, more and more birds came to join in. I have concluded that there must be a school of fish chasing the flying fish, which makes them take to the sky. Maybe the shrieking from the bird is a thank you to the fish for pushing a meal into the air.
 
This carried on for hours. Eventually, I counted 15 birds. They started to work in groups. One following the next. Three or four at a time would dive. The poor flying fish had no chance now. It had to evade the big fish trying to eat it, and now four darn birds were also in on the action. It was a wonderful afternoon watching nature’s TV.
 
David Attenborough, eat your heart out 😘
 
Officially under 1000km to go and have crossed another timeline so I am 4 hours behind South Africa.
R298,220 raised for Operation Smile
54 smiles changed forever
Donate here

Day 52: Short and sweet

/in /by
The day started early. 3 am. Could not get back to sleep. Grrr.
Grabbed the kindle and thought that I would get the sleep to come. It usually did.
An hour later, I was still reading.
Ok, let’s do some paddling.
Open the hatch, and it’s all dark. The moon is hidden by the clouds.
Another squall is about to pass overhead. The first raindrops are starting to fall. I’ll start after the squall.
 
I close the hatch and carry on reading. Two hours later, the alarm goes for the shore team chat. Still raining. After the check-in with the world I noticed the sun had come up behind the clouds, but the rain had stopped. I pull on a pair of board shorts and my blue hooded paddling top and hit the first session of the day.
I crank up a 3 hour IBIZA chillout mix and get into the groove. 10 minutes later, another squall and rain. Funny how it can feel chilly, yet it’s still 28°, and the waves splashing over the side feels warm.
 
Today was just rain squall, one after the other. It pretty much goes like this.
The wind gains in strength, followed by a wave of rain. The rain falls hard and has a flattening effect on the sea. The squall passes overhead, and the wind dies down to nothing.
 
The harder it rains, the lighter the wind under the squall. With less rain, the wind seems to be stronger.
 
My paddling clothes tried to jump over the side when I took them off. I took that as a sign that perhaps they needed a wash to keep them from doing anything rash. After washing them, it’s become challenging to dry them with all the rain squalls. I had to hang them up inside above my bunk. Hope they dry by morning.
 
My solar panels are of such excellent quality that without even seeing any direct sunlight today, they charged the battery to full by 1 pm, and I was able to make plenty of water to do the laundry after that.
 
It’s pretty humid in the cabin now with the wet clothes trying to dry, but I could not wait for another second to wash my blue top. It was pretty nasty after almost 10 days without even a rinse.
 
I started listening to Eric Idle “Always look on the bright side of life” – A Sortabiography. It’s perhaps the best audiobook so far. Listen to this and John Cleese in tandem give an incredible insight into their lives growing up in that era. So very different from the buttercups of today.
 
I have another milestone to celebrate soon. Passing the 1000km to go mark. About 10 days, and I am eyeing the 19th as a good day to arrive.

Day 51: Stop theif!

/in /by
It started as usual, with my alarm blaring, “Do you like American music” Violent Femmes, reminding me that in 5 minutes, it was scheduled time with the shore team. I flick the Thales VesseLINK switch to the on position.
 
This takes place at 09:00 South African time. Unfortunately, it’s still dark where I am. Officially it’s 06:00 here, but in two days, it will be 05:00 as I cross over another timeline.
 
The alarm is not there to wake me up. I am already up. Coffee and kids are taken care of already. I have started paddling as early as possible to get shifts in while it’s still cool, and with the moon as bright as it is, it feels like daytime.
 
I managed to get ahead of the first long-line fishing buoys. I have reached the second one, which is slightly to my North. I am trying to keep a WNW heading which is parallel to the line. It’s 110km long, so it will likely take a day or so to clear it.
 
Just after sunrise, which was obscured by ominously dark clouds, the wind and swells started to increase. It eventually got to 25kt of winds and steep breaking swells. I thought, “are my last two weeks going to be a repeat of the first two weeks”. Weather Router Robin had made no mention of this!
 
It certainly felt like the first weeks leaving Cape Town, but a few hours later, it calmed back to typical trade conditions. Thankfully it was just a rather large squall.
 
The tranquillity of being out here has allowed me to let my mind wander, and this morning I bumped into a memory that has not been visited for a while.
 
Maybe there was some relation to the long line fishing stealing from the ocean and today’s memory.
 
“Stop thief!”
 
In the late ’90, I was contacted to see if I could help find and bring a stolen yacht, which was believed to be in Mayotte in the Comoros Islands, back to South Africa. I had spent some time sailing there the year before, so I knew the island quite well.
“Sure”, I said.
 
We flew up from Durban in a King Air turboprop which belonged to the owner of the yacht, and he was also the pilot. The insurance representative who contacted me was the third person on board.
 
If I was going to hide a yacht on the island, where would I go? I suggested a cove on the NW side of the island with a waterfall that falls straight into the sea. A stunning but secluded spot. On our approach, we flew over the cove and guess what we spotted. Yip, there she was.
 
We had flown to Mozambique first to refuel before crossing the Mozambique channel for Mayotte. When we got to their airspace and requested permission to land, they politely declined because we had not submitted any flight plans. Eventually, we landed as we lacked the fuel to get anywhere else.
 
It was a weekend, and the courts were closed, so we could not rustle up the local authorities to help until Monday morning. Worried the yacht may leave, the owner decided to confront the thieves.
 
The “thieves” were actually in the process of/or pretending to buy the yacht, and while doing some paperwork, they somehow got the owners and their names plus signatures swapped around on an official document. With this document, they quickly left Richard Bay. The local customs were none the wiser, and off they sailed.
 
We headed to the waterfall cove and confronted them. They were all very apologetic. It was a misunderstanding. I went to inspect the yacht to see if she was ok to take back home.
The first thing I noticed was a massive wooden carved eagle lashed to the front beam. The thieves were very Afrikaans and staunch AWB members. It was an old 40′ catamaran. Inside, it was a mess but nothing that would be a problem for sailing.
 
Back on shore, the “thieves” agreed to sail back, with me being their skipper.
Hang on a minute, I thought.
We agreed to meet the following morning at the same spot.
 
Back in the guest house, I said to the other two that there was no chance I would sail with those people. They would slit my throat and dump me over the side the minute I went to sleep. Sense prevailed, and it was agreed I would fly two crew up to help, and the thieves would stay ashore.
 
The next morning the yacht was gone! We left the island, flew north for a while, and spotted the yacht. Nothing we could do but fly home.
 
The owner never got the yacht back. It was sold twice before it was tracked to the Suez Canal, now owned by one of the canal pilots, but it was too expensive to recover by that time.
 
The whole experience was a bit like a scene in the movies where they fly to Paris just for dinner, except for me, it was two other blokes. Not quite the same thing.
 
I am starting to see some more bird life. Not sure what these birds are, but they will come within a hand of me while squawking loudly.

Friendly bird needing ID

 
It turned out to be a good day made better with food mileage. The best part was a lekker shower with 2L of Cape Town’s finest tap water as I lightened the load.

Emergency 3L water bladders stored in the forward water ballast compartment

 
Beef lasagne for dinner and a cracker sunset rounded off the day.

Last nights sunset

Raised for Operation Smile: R276,780
New smiles: 50

Please consider donating to my charity here

Day 50: Power house

/in /by
I have reached the point where I have enough emergency water to reach Brazil. There are 2L per day, which I will start to use to help lighten Osiyeza. Lighter = faster. When I get to Salvador, I estimate Osiyeza will be 15-20% lighter from my own weight loss, water and food. All this reduction in weight went overboard via a little black bucket 🪣😆
 
A technical blog to follow about the electrical system on board Osiyeza.
 
The solar panels are split into two units. The front side panels are 2 x 75-watt Solbian SR (super rugged) flexible peel-and-stick units. The aft is 2 x 160-watt SR flexible peel and stick panels. This gives a total of 470 watts of solar power.

Solbian solar panels

They are each connected to their own Victron MPPT 100/20 48-volt charge controllers, giving me redundancy if one controller should fail.

Victron Solar controllers

 
The design of Osiyeza had to take the size of the aft panels into account, which was one of the reasons she has a very wide stern as opposed to the traditional pointy kayak tail.

Simple wire design

 
A Victron smart shunt records everything that goes in and out of the batteries. The smart shunt is connected to the Victron Venus GX, which collects and records all this data.

Smart Shunt

Victron Venus GX

 
The Victron Venus GX is also connected to the NMEA2000 backbone to get GPS info from the chart plotter. It records the GPS position every 15min.
It’s also connected to the Thales VesseLINK via LAN cable and WiFi as a backup. When I log onto the internet, it automatically sends off the latest stored data. Albert can then use this as an additional track-recording device.
All the historical data relating to the solar, batteries and power consumption are also updated on the Victron remote console. Albert can monitor everything about the power usage and generation system.
 
On board, I can monitor all the data via the Victron Connect App using Bluetooth. I can see real-time and a 30-day history.

Victon Connect App view

 
The are two Victron 100Ah LiPo batteries giving me 200Ah 12 volts. So far, the maximum overnight usage has been only 12%, so there is no load shedding on Osiyeza. The batteries are generally fully charged before 11 am.

Batteries

 
I wanted the best possible components on Osiyeza as my life literally depends on them working without fail. This is why I chose Victron above all others and imported the Solbian Panels from Italy.
 
Attempt #1 failure was due to a leak in the rudder mounting and subsequently water incursion in the mismatched solar connectors, which caused the wires to corrode. Human errors rather than gear faults.
Coordinates: -14.908150°, -27.196170°
Money raised for Operation Smile: R270,105
No of smiles: 49
Click here to help me reach 70 smiles before I get to Brazil.

Day 49: Previous kayak ocean crossings

/in /by
This is not my first time taking a kayak across an ocean.
It is in fact, the 4th time!
 
What?
 
The first time was a trip to Seychelles with Martin Coetzee. We each took a surf ski and lashed onto the guard rails. Each day we would jump off the yacht with a ski and go for a paddle. We also paddled wherever we stopped, like in and around Nose Be, Madagascar. We also pulled a lure behind the ski and caught some small fish.
Once in Seychelles, we took a day to surf ski around the main Island, Mahe. It’s about 80km and was the furthest I had paddled before in one day. We also made the sports page of the local newspaper. 🗞

Spending the night on the beach holding the newspaper article

 
Another time was a crossing; I think it was to the British Virgin Islands. Beetle Bailey, Bryan Cockrell and non-paddler Alasdair McArthur came along as crew. This time we shared one ski and did the same thing all the way across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. On light wind days, we would paddle way off ahead of the yacht, and on the windier days, we would sit and ride the yachts slip so as not to get left behind. This trip has a lot of wonderful stories that need to come out one day. 😜
 
The last trip a few years back was one across the Indian Ocean to Thailand. I was the only paddler, and unfortunately, with an inexperienced crew and an owner I did not trust. My paddling was limited to the calmer days when I was quicker than the yacht. 🙃
 
Another of the Oyster Yachts passed about 10nm north of me. Unfortunately, they were not in a great position to come down to me, so I did not make contact.
 
I spent much of yesterday evening trying to avoid getting caught up with longline fishing gear. These fishing boats stretch their main line out over 100km in length. There are little buoys spaced every few kilometres to keep the line from sinking. These buoys have AIS to show their position but are poorly maintained. When the sun sets, half the AIS units go dead.
Hundreds of baited hooks are dangling from this long line that catches anything and everything.
These buoys move around a little slower than I was going depending on what the fishing boat is doing. Pulling them up or dropping them off.
 
I have heard of a yacht that got hooked on one of these buoys and got dragged around through the night, and it eventually sank! I met one of the crew members who told me the story. Bizarre and a little frightening.
 
I was trying to negotiate my way between two of these buoys when the sun set, and they vanished from my screen. About an hour later, I spotted one of the buoys just 50m on my port side, and a while later, the fishing vessel came down the line picking the line, and its catch up.
 
I can’t fathom how bloody long the line is. There are a few of them around here, indiscriminately wiping out the ocean. 😡
 
Coordinates: -15.197350° lat -26.232420° long
With only 2 weeks to go Richard has less than 1500km to paddle. That’s definitely something to smile about. To show your support, sponsor a smile and help him reach 70 smiles before he gets to Salvador.
Click here

Day 48: Naked yoga

/in /by
What great paddling conditions we are having out here. All the elements lined up in the right direction. I have worked out that when I paddle Osiyeza at a slight angle to the swells, she gets into a rocking rhythm. I am not exactly sure if this motion somehow reduces the water friction or gets water to flow around the foils faster, but whatever it does, it seems to help maintain a higher average speed through the water.

Full moon setting this morning

 
I remember, as a youngster, reading a glossy book on naked yoga. I use the term “reading” loosely. There may have been text in the book, but I am quite sure I never glanced at any.
 
I tried to stretch my back and legs this morning and got myself a little tied up in knots. It’s particularly challenging doing it inside a tiny space on a rolling kayak.
 
Imagine my best impression of the “downward dog”, except my hips hitting one side and then the other of the cabin as Osiyeza rolls about. ( You only have yourself to blame for trying to imagine me doing this naked)😳
 
I should have taken more notice of how to do the positions rather than who was doing them. All in all, my back seems to have recovered from the oopsie on the dance floor. I mean the solar panels. (Lisa, I will have to come for yoga lessons 😉)
 
Today, I dug into the aft hatch and pulled out another weekly food bag.
Unfortunately, the biltong and droe wors have more white mould build-up. I can wipe the wors clean and hang them up in the cabin to dry. It’s just too much of a mission to try and clean the biltong, so instead, I chose to out-manoeuvre the mould and ate all the mouldy pieces first.
What could go wrong?
 
I have started listening to “So anyway, Autobiography” of John Cleese. It will take a few days to complete at 13hrs 33min long. I am thoroughly enjoy the ebooks. It takes a little while to tune into the reader’s voice over the sounds of the ocean. Suddenly three hours have happily slippy by.

 
Am I turning into a prince 🤴?
Or perhaps I have shed some of my protective fat, or is the mattress foam collapsing?
Which one?
Under my mattress, there are two separate lockers. One houses the watermaker and food, while the forward one has the batteries, solar charge controllers and other electrical components. Each lid has three aluminium tabs to keep the lid locked in place. They are maybe 3mm high, but now dig into me when I sleep. I have never felt them before. I suspect only two of the three possibilities fit the occasion.

The pea to my prince

If you are enjoying Richards daily posts and he is making you smile, please consider donating to his charity, Operation Smile.
He has raised over R250k for  the charity which works globally to give children born with cleft lip and palate safe, transformative surgery. His aim is to raise enough money for 70 life-changing cleft lip and palate operations, giving 70 children new smiles. So far, Richard is up to 45 smiles.
Click here to make someone smile.

Day 47: First aeroplane spotting

/in /by
Following on from the other day’s random thought of airbags in aeroplanes, I saw my first aeroplane today, belting across the sky. A flight heading to Rio, I am guessing by the heading. They should be there in only a few hours. When I was younger, it would depress me when I saw an aeroplane because it reminded me of how slow sailing actually is.
 
“Sailing is the most expensive way to get someplace the slowest.”
 
Anyway, as an “elderly” man, it no longer bothers me. If it did bother me going at Osiyeza speed ( Ave 2kn), I would have been suicidal by now. Kayaking is so simple compared to sailing. All I have to do is point in the correct direction and paddle. No need to do anything different when a squall comes through. Just carry on paddling.
 
The aeroplane reminded me of a sailing trip from Cape Town to California on a catamaran (Searose) in 1995. It was just four mates on board. Mike, Ken, Mark and I. It was in the days before the internet or CDs, but we did have a VHS machine and television on board. We only had a couple of video cassettes for the trip, but the best was “Top Gun”.
To date, I have watched it more than 70 times. My all-time favourite.
 
By the end of the trip, we could recite the entire movie with the sound off.
 
“…permission to buzz the tower.
Negative Ghost rider, the pattern is full…” 😂
 
Before you ask, the answer is yes, I do have a copy on board and yes, I have seen and enjoyed the sequel.
Raised for Operation Smile: R245,575
New smiles: 45
Please consider a donation to Operation Smile through my fundraiser, my goal is 70 smiles before I get to Salvador. With less than 3 weeks to go, we need to change a smile each day!
Click here

Sleeping feet first

A little mould starting on the biltong

Day 46: First human contact

/in /by
For something different, I slept the other way around. Feet forward. It was an odd experience. I am not sure what to make of it. Was it better, and if so, what makes it so? I think I need another night or two that way around to make up my mind. One negative is I have to open and close the top hatch to get in or out of the bunk.
 
Shore team technical director Albert and I have been keeping an eye on the Oyster yachts heading to Salvador from St Helena Island. This morning one was only 28nm behind me and heading straight toward me.
It took a while before they popped up on the AIS at about 10nm. From their AIS info on my chart plotter, I can give them a direct call request via the VHF radio. This happens automatically with a push of a button. It basically sends their radio a message saying Osiyeza would like to talk to you, and this is the channel they are on. They need to push yes, and their radio will switch to my selected channel, and we can start chatting.
 
The yacht’s name is Serendipity. On board, it looked to be Mom, Dad and young son and possibly father-in-law and either older son or he’s a crew member.
 
 
They came up close and did a sail past. Then dropped their sails. Turned around and motored back to me. We had a lovely chat.
They asked if there was anything I needed. I could have done with some extra coffee, but I declined to keep the keyboard warriors happy that I remained unassisted.
 
I did suggest a little tow, but nothing doing. 😂
 
They had a drone they set free, and it buzzed around me for a bit while I paddled, showing my best style and trying not to look like the old man of the sea. I suspect I failed at both.
 
I passed on my contact details via the radio, and there was a promise to get the footage to me. It would be lovely to see. I asked if they had WhatsApp coms on board. Nope, they only have satellite email. Osiyeza is quite fancy in comparison 👍
 
Osi and I got buzzed by another Blue Marlin. I videoed it using my cell phone as the other cameras were being charged following the meeting with the yacht. You can make out something on video, but the Marlin does a good job of blending in.
 
Oh, I wonder if Simba chips would come to the party. Today’s packet of Fritos was very stale. Yes stale!
Yes, I still ate them.
The stamp on the packet clearly states three more days till it expires. I feel terribly cheated. Stuck out here with no sympathy or recourse. I feel this is maybe my lowest low for today. 😉
 
I just remembered that sleeping the other way around, I can see stars through the hatch, but watching for too long made me a little dizzy.
 
The freeze-dried food from ForeverFresh is of a really high standard and quality. Tastes awesome, and I could not recommend it more highly. I know for a fact that I am not pregnant, but I have had a food craving all day for what I don’t know.
 
I am quite an adventurous eater. Maybe better described as I am not a fussy eater. I remember a childhood experiment with my best mate Wayne. We must have been about 9 yrs old and in his Mom’s kitchen. We thought this would be the next big culinary craze even though we could not even spell culinary.
 
It was garlic buttered toast smeared with peanut 🥜 butter. Don’t knock it until you have tried it.
 
The reason this memory popped up was because today, in my “elderly childhood”, I experimented with some Macadamia butter from Buttanut and mung bean sprouts all mixed together. I was pleasantly pleased with the result. It is fair to say it won’t garner me a Michelin Star but out here , who cares.  
 
What a wonderful distraction it was. Thanks, Serendipity!

Day 45: Time benders

/in /by
Started listening to another EBook today. Michael Caine “Blowing the bloody door off and other lessons in life.” I put my cheap waterproof Bluetooth speaker under my seat. My phone, which is playing the ebook, remains inside, away from the ocean clutches and on charge. I use my Garmin Quatix watch to control the volume etc.
See, elderly men and technology can go together.
 
Time seems to speed up as soon as I get into the story. The next thing, a few hours have passed.
 
Another time bender is podcasts. I have a bunch of Jordan B Patterson podcasts. I must admit I need to replay many of his sentences to fully digest what he is trying to convey. He is a very interesting cat.
 
Today a random thought popped into my head, and I am unsure what to do with it. “Why not have airbags on aeroplanes.” I am just going to leave it there.
 
My dodgy spine seems to be responding to the 💊 smarties, which is encouraging. Each day I seem to be able to put a little more time into the paddles than the previous day. Need to get back to those 100km days.
 
The Oyster Yacht Rally left St Helena Island a few days ago, and they are on their way to Salvador. The fleet is slowly starting to converge on my position. The other night, I chatted with the first yacht Adalia 2. The lady I spoke to said they had surmised Osiyeza was a rowing boat or similar because it was going so slowly. 😂
 
Saw a blue bottle yesterday for the first time in weeks. The little guy must have been blown way off course. I also got a glimpse of a Pilot fish, so I guess Cheech & Chong are back. I wonder where they go. Maybe go off looking for something to 🚬
 

Day 44: Min Dae

/in /by
Min Dae seemed just the other day!
 
It may be a little longer if my back does not start to feel better. There was almost murder on the dance floor. I slipped on the aft solar panels when I checked the rudder fitting yesterday. I fell onto my left elbow and back side. I was lucky not to break my paddle. I am a grumpy little camper at the moment. I have started eating those special smarties again.💊
 
On the bright side, these Solbian solar panels are certainly living up to their SR status, Super Rugged. My back, not so much. 🥺
 
Even though it’s still three weeks or so away, people have been asking, “what will be the first thing you will do when you reach the other side?”
 
Besides probably stumbling and falling over, it will be to give my favourite wife, my only wife, Judy, a big hug and kiss. That would be at the top of the list. 💃
 
Followed by a glass of bubbles 🥂 or Caipirinhas 🍹.( Probably fall over again) Pizza 🍕 or steak 🥩 I can’t decide.
 
Today I was thinking about how I ended up in this particular spot on the ocean. It’s been a long and bumpy ride. Research started in 2010 when Alexander Doba first kayaked across the North Atlantic. My design ideas began in 2018. Announced the crossing in 2019 on Smile FM radio and started building in 2020. Pandemic delay. 2021 #1 attempt to Walvis Bay. 2022 is this current attempt. As you can see, it’s been in the making for quite some time and will soon be in its closing stage.
 
Something that I keep forgetting to factor into the equation for a long adventure is the monthly expenses for life left behind.
I don’t get paid to do this. That would be nice. 😉 I take unpaid leave, so there is no salary. At the end of each month, I still have to make the usual house, rates, car, insurance etc, payments.
 
I mentioned this because it’s one of the reasons I won’t have the top of my arrival list come true. The cost of getting to Salvador is quite something. In fact I don’t think any of my shore team will be coming to Brazil. I will just have to wait till I get back to Cape Town.
 
Lowered my camera over the side to see if Cheech or Chong were still in the mix, but alas, they were nowhere to be seen.
Money raised for Operation Smile: R241,043
New Smiles: 44
Click here to help me reach my goal of R385,000 or 70 smiles.