Drowned Drone & Delay
33.90752˚ S, 18.4213˚ E
As It Was Foretold
The plan was to await the arrival of Dan (Wes’s brother) and his son Auden on the evening of Sunday, January 14th. They would have a few hours to visit the cape on the morning of the 15th, and then the boat would leave the dock that afternoon. Other than our excursion to visit the cape on Saturday, all of our energy had gone into boat preparations. I had in my mind that I’d like to get a drone shot of the boat as we left the harbor, but I hadn’t had a chance to practice flying the drone since leaving San Francisco.
There were still a few last-minute provisions I was responsible for picking up, so there was just a little bit of time to get in a practice drone flight before the shops opened. I reviewed the instructions, got set up on the dock next to the boat, and pressed the button for the drone to hover at 5 feet. Things almost immediately went wrong. The drone couldn’t seem to find a GPS signal, but even worse, it wasn’t able to maintain its position while hovering, and started drifting almost as soon as it was in the air (which wasn’t a behavior I’d seen during my earlier flights). As was foretold, my piloting skills were not enough to keep the drone from drifting into a concrete wall and falling in the water. Rushed takeoffs often end badly…
Scratch the Launch
While I was mourning the loss of the drone and doing the last-minute shopping, Wes was settling up with the boatyard owner Manuel (the guy who’s sailed around the world four times). Manuel pointed out that it might be better for a crew unfamiliar with the boat to have as much sailing in the daylight as possible, so an afternoon departure might not be the wisest. Wes took his advice to heart and decided to delay our departure until the following morning. Given the morning’s drone omen, we all heartily agreed.
During our last walk around the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, we had a chance to pop in to see the inside of the Silo Hotel, which also houses a museum. It’s even more interesting on the inside. Then we went to the customs office to get our passports stamped for departure, had a crew dinner together at a nearby restaurant, and then an early lights-out.
