schooners and land/sea breezes

We clawed our way south around Cape St. Andre with foul current pushing us ashore and wind that headed us maddeningly around the cape forcing us to tack several times to clear the wide shallow point. We anchored just south of the cape in 20 feet of water 3 miles away from shore along the open coast. It was a rough night but sleep was welcome. The following morning found us motoring for an hour in windless seas against some north setting current. We have not started the motor for the last 5 days
using the sails to bring us on and off the anchor. It was time to make some water and charge the batteries a bit so it was a welcome opportunity to motor around a river mouth and through the current. As we got away from the cape the currents eased, the seas calmed and the sailing resumed.

Then, disaster! The VERY LAST roll of toilet paper was found and put on the rack. With 2 weeks to go until South Africa we have now instituted strict TP rationing. We still have a few eggs and some carrots but fresh supplies are dwindling. The last pineapple was cut yesterday and will be gone today. As far as meat, we caught a wahoo a couple of days ago and thanks to the advice of Steve from Oz we enjoyed fried wahoo skin and have been dining on sushi and sauteed fish as well. The fish will
be finished today and we're proud to have eaten the whole fish (except for the head) which is a big feat for 2 people.

Our anchorage last night was again a couple of miles from shore in 20 feet of water completely open to the ocean waves. Fortunately the swell is less than a meter and not steep. As we anchored we thought we saw a small anchor light a mile north but couldn't be sure if it was a boat or ashore. Peter was thrilled this morning as we got under way at 4:30A to see that it was indeed an anchor light of a schooner that had just gotten underway with top sails flying as it passed us. This, of course,
was a photo opportunity not to be missed and much time was spent just after sun rise photographing this beautiful boat. We hope to go about 60 miles today and anchor in a sand patch protected by a reef that we found on the chart. We'd like to get there before the sun goes down so we're flying the spinnaker to get every breath of wind out of the light morning breeze.