Crossing the Indian Ocean is a challenge due to the rapidly changing weather conditions. We enlisted the help of Des, a router in SA who helps boats free of charge. His daily advice was invaluable during our 14 day crossing and afterwards each time we left a port to sail to another. We arrived in a cold and humid Richards Bay but had a warm welcome from Natasha who helped us tie up and explained about immigration and that the taxi driver Eric would come to take us there and to go shopping. Informal Zululand Yacht Club was great, greeting us with a bottle of champagne, with many events like Monday evening bbq when you brought your own food but the Club provided all the meat! Here we met many interesting sailors many of whom we sailed with and are still in contact, like Kimi & Phil on Celio, Linda & Tony on Paroo. We spent many fun times together. In SA it is too dangerous to walk so Eric drove us everywhere. Through him we learnt about life here and to our surprise the racism still, between blacks and whites, the corruption and we experienced the constant power cuts. Very sad in such a beautiful country.
We spent 2 nights in St Lucia on a mini-safari where we could walk in the town but had to be aware of roaming hippos who are dangerous! During a cruise on the river we saw crocodiles and hippos as well as African golden weaver birds. Our evening safari was in iSimangaliso Wetland Park where we were lucky to see rhinos thanks to torches. Very early the next day we went to Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park and saw rhinos, elephants, buffaloes, leopards, impalas, zebras, snakes, birds…..sadly no lions. Our guide provided breakfast and later on cake and bubbly….very civilised! The next 10 days we spent cleaning, mending, diy and employed a local lad to clean all the chrome and gel-coat as labour cost is so very cheap and also they need to work. Arriving in Point Yacht Club, Durban the Commodore gave us a bottle of wine telling us not to venture outside the marina! We drank it with Kimi, Phil, Linda, Tony and Rob who also had been given bottles. All 4 yachts next sailed to East London where the Commodore Peter gave us a briefing on the weather. Using the engine a lot due to lack of wind, we made an overnight pit stop at Mossel Bay before arriving in beautiful Hout Bay.
The bay was full of seals who constantly swam right by the yacht! Eating out is cheap so we did so, often with friends, and cooked fish bought at the local shop. We went on a wine tasting tour visiting 3 different wineries: Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl where we sampled 5 different wines pairing food with wine. At Paarl it was with marshmallows! It was nice to see part of inland SA with its hills and to wander around these towns.
We flew back to Europe for a month during which terrific winds funnelled down into Hout Bay causing damage to boats. Fortunately Moondance did not suffer too much but upon our return we decided to sail up to the V&A Marina in Cape Town where Linda and Tony were happily moored. Although we left Hout Bay in the sunshine we quickly ran into thick fog and trying to enter Cape Town was quite a challenge with no visibility and a regatta taking place! Linda & Tony were at the V&A to help & show us around. Being in the centre of Cape Town was convenient for shopping. We went up Table Mountain and another day took a tour to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas the southernmost point of the African continent. It was extremely windy but beautiful and we saw countless penguins. Then it was time to stock up and prepare the boat for the long South Atlantic crossing to San Salvador, Brazil.
