Hi all,

Position: 37-04S 012-19W
COG: at anchor at Tristan
SOG: 0.0KN

ETA Cape Town 28 APR 2023 LAM

Early Thursday morning, the wind started to increase again, with the isobars between the low to the SW and the high to the NE being squeezed together. Down came the royals, upper staysails and outer jib.

The wind forecast showed a tendency for the wind to veer to the north, so we kept sailing above the course to the island as much as possible, following every windshift. In that way we managed to increase the bearing to the island degree by degree.

Before lunch the ship is accompanied for an hour by what was probably a Bryde's whale and during lunch a pod of Pilot whales show themselves a short moment to take a peek at us.

As we sail into another night with starry skies, the royals and upper staysails are set once again, to come down again four hours later and be set once again before breakfast.

Still lucky with the wind staying slightly more northwest than forecast, the bearing to Tristan changes in an ever faster rate as the distance decreases. At 11:00 first land is sighted. It's Inaccessible Island at 24 miles. With 561 meter it has been above the horizon for a while already, but the haze hid it from view. Water temperature is almost up to 20 degrees.

At 11:30, Tristan is also sighted at 37 miles. By now almost all voyage crew is on deck, probably anticipating suspension of the watch system by the end of the day.

It looks like an arrival time before dinner is possible and we decide to sail up to the anchorage. We approach in a wide arc, expecting a windshift to the northeast as we sail into the "bowwave" of the island. We manage to approach the anchorage to within half a mile, before the wind almost completely dies and we start drifting on the current. A short push with one of the engines brings us to the anchorage while all the sails come down.

The anchor drops at 19:10, voyage crew watches are suspended and as the sun sets, we notice that Tristan has a lot more streetlights than last time I was here.

We have sailed 1506 miles (70 miles more than the GC distance) with an average of 5.9 knots, of which roughly 215 miles were under engine power.

Eric