Durban to Cape Town via Port Elizabeth (with roundings of Cape Agulhas and Cape of Good Hope)

Tuesday 11^th February, Cape Town, South Africa.

Woke to a beautiful, calm sunny morning here in Cape Town with a lovely view of Table Mountain behind the marina. A little different from last night's dark, windy and honestly pretty hairy arrival. We were lulled into breaking our (not particularly hard and fast if you remember Darwin) rule about not coming into strange places in the dark by an ETA that was enticingly close to sunset and a more tempting prospect than bobbing around aimlessly off the coast for ten hours waiting for sunrise. And, as Karl noted, it was a full moon – practically daylight! And a lovely Canadian couple we knew from Durban had called to say they'd be waiting at the dock to take our lines. What could possibly go wrong? Well, The Universe decided to dim the lights and turn up the wind to 25-30 knots at the exact moment we entered the big, maze-like Cape Town port. Blindly (literally) following the GPS from one basin to the next, me on the bow peering into the darkness while Karl kept asking “where's the gap in the wall, can you see the gap in the wall?”. Turns out it's very hard to see things in the dark, especially when you don't really know what you're looking for. 

It's all fun and games until the lights go out

When we finally got to the marina entrance Karl decided nope, too windy, not docking in this, let's go back offshore and wait until morning (I found Karl pale and dazed-looking at the helm gibbering something about the boat being turned by a gust “like a toy......the bow was just taken like a toy boat”). Grand. Safe decision. Until Port Control denied us permission to leave while there was a large ship departing. So, confined to our basin, we circled and circled and mulled things over and made a plan for one last recon run which improved Karl's confidence to such a degree that he decided to go for it. And in we went. Squeezing into a tight marina with the wind howling Karl did one of the best dockings we've had in ages. I tell ya, put him under a little pressure and the man's a genius.

Gráinne nestles in under Table Mountain

And now here we are in Cape Town. In the Atlantic. We left Durban just over a week ago. We had planned our departure for Thursday, got everything ready, done all the paperwork, said our goodbyes and were just about to cast off the lines after a final check of the 0900 weather. But the weather had changed and it wasn't safe to leave. Trapped until Sunday. 

Yet another final visit to a lovely little bar at the marina

So Friday was going to be spent repeating all the departure paperwork. It got off to a bad start when the bank (where we had to pay the port fee) was closed due to load-shedding (the South African power stations not being up to the job of supplying enough electricity for all). But ok, went back an hour later after it re-opened. Then headed off to visit the Port Office, Customs and Immigration. In response to our comment about the unusually heavy lunchtime traffic our Uber driver mentioned something about it being rush hour because of the half day. Half day?! We both (silently and avoiding eye contact) thought the same thing – the offices we were visiting sounded like the sorts of places that would close on a half day if such a thing existed, trapping us until we could do the paperwork on Monday and maybe missing another weather window. A sinking feeling. But we got to the port office and it was open, and then to Immigration which was open, and then to Customs which was open and then back to the port office which was still open. And then the minute after we handed over the final paperwork to the port officer the boss said “ok, you can all go home, have a good weekend”. Escape by the skin of our teeth. The delay turned out for the best because Saturday was South African National Beer Day. 

National Beer Day tasting flight with fermented food

To celebrate we did a brewery tour at That Brewing Company and attended their brew school session on hops where the tasting of various experiments strongly drove home the message not to leave your beer exposed to sunlight (and cans are awesome). On our last night we went to the Point Yacht Club to watch Ireland's first Six Nations game but got distracted chatting with three local sailors, one of whom's GP was Karl's Surf Club locker neighbour. Small town, Durbs.

And we did get away on Sunday. 

Karl drives us out of the harbour, hard to believe we're really leaving.

Had a thunderstorm the first night which made Karl a bit jumpy for a while. Then we found the glorious Agulhas current and started hooning along at 10 knots. The cover of one of our headsheets (very important rope on the sail up front) started to strip so we had to untie, chop off the end and re-tie the sheet – it had been a big enough effort in the flat calm of the Réunion marina last time we did this but the rocking and the rolling at sea really upped the challenge. While doing all this we had no sail up and discovered (a little embarrassingly) that we were still doing 7 knots. So much for our perfect sail trim getting us the speed. We had some fog which was a first for us, a bit spooky knowing there's a big ship passing close by and not being able to see a thing. 

Imagine passing this in the fog and not seeing a thing

One night the universe decided to throw everything at me and I had sunset on my left, moonrise on my right and a thunderstorm in between. Quite the light show. And then our weather luck ran out and we realised we'd have to stop in Port Elizabeth to wait for a low (pressure weather system) to pass. But PE turned out to be delightful. And they didn't require any paperwork at all! None. Nothing. Nada. Love at first sight. But it was weird to be sitting in the cockpit with a different view after three months in Durban. PE's a nice little (sorry Ralph) city of about 300,000. Lovely beaches and coastal walkway, safe to walk around, funky little businesses and cafes/bars/restaurants. 

Sunrise on my morning watch approaching PE

Karl doing a pose

PE when it's sunny

We tracked down the local microbreweries on a rainy, rainy day that was just perfect for doing nothing more than sitting in microbreweries watching the rain. For the record, Richmond Hill Brewing Company has the best set-up I've ever seen: a small brewery in a shed that opens into an attached super-cosy marquee (a.k.a. the bar) complete with wood-burning stove. And they do a good Irish Red Ale too.

Rugged up to enjoy the beer garden at Bridge Street Brewery

Soggy, soggy pub crawl day

Richmond Hill Brewing Co. tent and brewery

The day just kept getting better for Karl

So after our brief but passionate love affair with PE it was time to get going again. But PE didn't want to let us leave – we battled head winds and an unfavourable current all morning trying to claw our way out of Algoa Bay under sail and motor all the while casting wary glances at the nearby lee shore. Not the most fun morning's sailing I've every had and, pretty as it was, I was very glad to see the back of the Cape Recife lighthouse I can tell you. And then back to downwind sailing, the best kind of sailing, with a relieved Karl singing along to Abba in celebration. Very busy shipping down this neck of the woods, lines and lines and lines of ships in both directions coming and going between South America, Europe and Asia. 

Ships everywhere, and that's just the ones heading west.

You see all sorts of weird things out here: a dredge on its way to Singapore.

The big highlight of this trip was passing Cape Agulhas – the Southern tip of Africa and one of the World's three great capes. And the only one I have any intention of being anywhere near in a small boat (see Google for the reputation of these capes and small sailboats). Actually, we were vaguely near Cape Horn on the way to Antarctica and we've been to Cape Leeuwin (landside) so really we have done the three capes! This was where we passed from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. Our first time sailing in the Atlantic despite it being the only ocean we knew for the first half of our lives. So Gráinne's come from the Coral Sea in the Pacific Ocean, across the Indian Ocean and is now in the Atlantic. Pretty cool.

Gráinne rounding Cape Agulhas

And in real life: middle age people attempt a selfie in front of a famous landmark.

The approach to Cape Town was really beautiful. Nature put on quite the show. Table Mountain was all dressed up in it's white cloud and glowing in the setting sun, there were lots of seals swimming along after us and then staring in at us with their big eyes and an amused look, we saw a dolphin and there was even a whale for goodness sake. 

Table Mountain

It was all so lovely......until that dark windy business that we shall never speak of again. And now we'll hang out here for a week or so and do some more tourist stuff again – Karl hasn't yet ticked the Table Mountain cable car ride box.

Tip of the Day

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