[password] beavis
[position] 16 07.40S 43 12.96E
[weather] Sunny, clear, wind 10SSE
[speed] 4.5 knots
[heading] 260T
[status] Day 2 underway to Richards Bay, South Africa. We had beautiful sailing conditions all day yesterday, then motor-sailed starting at sunset when the wind died, then started sailing again at about 2:30 this morning. The 3 boats with whom we left from Baly Bay all are within VHF radio range, and we can see each other's relative positions on our AIS receivers, so it's nice to have some company. We had a very close encounter with a mother and baby humpback whales yesterday - they surfaced just in front of Slip Away, and I (Jan) quickly turned off the auto-helm and grabbed the wheel to steer around them. The baby then breached right in front of the boat, and the mother flipped her tail at us at least a dozen times, as we passed by her. She was probably less than 50 feet off our port beam - it felt like we could reach out and touch her. What a rush!

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