A hearty hello from the
quaint little marina in the harbor of Port St Francis.
Finally our journey is under
way again. Whilst in Japan we paid close
attention to the weather and realized that there was a really good possibility
for leaving on Friday 21 November, the wind was looking really favourable. We notified Graeme to get his leave in and
start making plans for his trip to Durban as he was coming with as crew. We landed in Durban from Japan on Sunday the
15th and hit the ground running.
Tuesday we had to make a quick visit to the Dentist to re-stick one of
Kevin’s crowns that came loose while in Japan.
A quick dash down the coast to collect bank cards that had been
delivered to my mom for us, purchasing paper charts for the entire trip –
Durban to Cape Town, purchasing and installing a new 70m anchor chain and rope
as ours was badly rusted on a couple of links.
Filling up with diesel, gas cylinders, mounting a new Raymarine display
Kevin had bought for the Nav table inside and diving under the boat to clean
the props – Kevin was brave enough to do that in the awful harbor water, I was
happy to pay someone!!
Then on Wednesday Runa of
South African Sailing threw us a beautiful curve ball, while we were currently
still in date on our safety certificate, due to expire mid-December, if we were
to be stopped and checked anywhere along the coast we would be in trouble as it
would have expired. The biggest issue
with this was that this year we would be required to take the boat out of the
water and clean and anti-foul and have our through hull fittings examined. We had decided to put it off til Cape Town as
we are planning to haul out and do some extensive work on her anyway and
figured we would have the inspection carried out afterwards. Anyway, Runa managed to organize an
inspection for Wednesday afternoon and the Inspector was happy to examine the
through hull fittings on the inside, fortunately all our safety gear was in
date, only the fire extinguishers that needed servicing which was done in a day
and we were approved and ready to sail, pshew.
 |
| Unusually grey Durban |
Fetched Graeme from the
airport on Thursday, did the final provisioning, final bits and pieces that
needed attention, safety gear out and paperwork filled in and cleared out with
Customs and Port Control. Then 6:30 Friday
morning we were off.
 |
| The MSC Opera had stopped off |
There were
approximately 6 other yachts that departed around the same time, some ARC
(Atlantic Rally Cruise) boats and some just internationals travelling to Cape
Town, was nice to know we had company.
We stayed in shore for the
first day, sailing past Hibberdene at around 6pm (wind terribly light so motor
sailing) at the same time as the rain arrived so unfortunately my mom and Faye
could only briefly see the light at the top of our mast, but we made the effort
anyway. On the way down, both rods were
out and both got a strike at the same time, the definition of confusion was
when Graeme grabbed a rod that was running and started reeling only to hear
line running still. They both worked
really hard and pulled in two beautiful tuna’s. 
Sushi straight away – delicious, only we ran out of ginger – oh dear bad
provisioning – made a note for next time.
When sailing past Umtwalume there was a large splash, Kevin shouted
whale and I said no way, it’s a rock.
Well next thing the “rock” lifted its flipper and then its tail and
slapped them on the water numerous times.
Took a while to live that down.
Once past Hibberdene we headed straight out to sea to try to find decent
wind and some favourable current, approximately 18nm off shore, and there both
of them were, only in the shipping lane.
Thank goodness for the AIS receiver we have in our radio (www.imo.org/OurWork/Safety/Navigation/Pages/AIS.aspx),
it enabled us to see ships coming from front and rear and to take avoiding
action, the problem is they couldn’t see us as we only had a receiver, not a
transceiver. Thus every now and then one
of these ships would suddenly change course and head our way again, kept us on
our toes right through the night, at one stage I was convinced we were about to
become the pink bit in a polony sandwich.
By Saturday we had good wind, had the spinnaker flying and 4 knots of
current with us, we were flying along, surfing down waves and reaching speeds of
up to 13 knots, absolutely awesome. Saturday
night, as we neared Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, the shipping activities
seemed to increase, not good for the nerves.
I insisted we get an AIS transceiver before we leave Port Elizabeth,
this would make us visible on the ships AIS as well and they would be able to
make provision for us, thankfully Kevin agreed. |
| Algoa Bay Yacht Club |
Sunday was foggy, misty and
rainy and the wind had once more died off.
We were back to motor sailing and couldn’t see more than a couple of
meters around us, quite daunting to know huge ships were passing within 3nm of
us and we couldn’t see any part of them, developed huge respect for sailors from
years ago who didn’t have the advantage of modern sailing equipment such as
AIS, must have been terrifying to see great ships looming out of the dark and
mist. We ended up crossing Algoa Bay
without seeing any of it, we managed to make out Seal Island in the mist. We did pass a little seal quietly lazing in
the water but that was it, we had only seen dolphins twice and at a great
distance and the one
“whale rock”. We
arrived in Port Elizabeth Harbour and ultimately Algoa Bay Yacht Club at 4:30
Sunday afternoon, to a very warm PE reception, lots of hands to catch mooring
lines. Our mooring was at the end of a
very rickety “L-shaped” finger, they have very few moorings and quite a number
of boats, some of which were our travelling companions from Durban.
 |
| Algoa Bay Yacht Club Moorings |
Monday and we took it easy
packing stuff away and generally tidying up, then as it was raining we caught a
taxi into town to Barney’s, a famous bar on the beach front. Graeme is a great Port Elizabeth guide, very
knowledgeable. Barneys has paddles of
beer, you select the ones you wish to taste and voila. Micro brewing seems big in this part of the
world. We had lunch there, then on to
the Beer House, Humewood Hotel and back to the Club bar, a real pub crawl,
thank goodness the rain had held up.
On Tuesday we headed for the
airport with Graeme to send him home, thanks Graeme, what a great trip. We then decided to hire a car as taxi fares were
starting to cost and very little was within walking distance of the Yacht
Club. Wednesday we popped down to see
the Marina in St Francis Bay, we were keen to see about making a stop here on
the way down the coast. The St Francis
and Nexus catamarans are manufactured here and we were interested in having a
look at the factories. St Francis Bay is
a bit of a geographical puzzlement, well for someone as directionally
challenged as me anyway. First off, as
you approach St Francis from Port Elizabeth, is Jeffries Bay, famous surfing
spot and popular holiday destination.
Next is St Francis Bay, followed by Port St Francis and then round the
corner is Oyster Bay. We thought we could
start at Oyster Bay and head along the coast all the way down to the canals at
St Francis, nope! 20kms of dirt road, our little white rental car looking like
a tractor and we were in Oyster Bay.
Merely a little residential village with NOTHING of interest, beautiful
houses and views though and no through fare to Port St Francis, so back along
the dirt road, the car is now brown all over and we arrive in Port St Francis
where the Harbour and Marina are. What a
gorgeous little marina, very little, but good solid moorings, apparently the whole
thing blasted out of rock, surrounded on all sides by blocks of holiday and
residential flats and a couple of restaurants and one or two small shops and alongside
the only private small commercial harbor in South Africa, catering for Chokka
Boats, chokka being squid or as we all know it, calamari, we have found the
calamari kingdom!!!!
A brief calamari
lunch at one of the restaurants and a stop at the harbor master who was not
very confident of having a mooring available for us within the next two weeks,
he was expecting ARC boats and had limited available space, especially for
catamarans, and we were off again. We
eventually realized that all the areas are individual communities and are
accessed by one main road, one cannot drive along the coast uninterrupted…..
We got back to Port Elizabeth
and the wind was blowing a gale from the North East, the first of two such
blows. The harbor is fully protected
from the terrible South Westers we are prone to on the South African coast, but
the entrance to the Club faces out to sea and all the wind and huge waves of a
North Easter pound into the marina.
Needless to say we bounced around like a cork on the ocean, whilst tied up to
the mooring, for two days. Once the wind
died down, the sea state continued for quite some time afterward. All the jerking and bouncing up and down
caused two of our eyebrows above the portlights to break, one of our cleats
pulled loose in our deck and over two weeks four of our mooring lines chaffed
through/snapped. In 2009 in really bad
weather the finger broke in places, causing 4 boats to sink and damaging others
as well as the walk-ons. We could
understand how that was possible.
Friday we flew back to
Durban to go fetch our car. Made a pit
stop at the Durban Marina, said cheers and thanks to everyone in the office, they
really made our stay in Durban a pleasure.
Then it was off to Skiport to collect our new AIS transceiver, woo hoo,
and then down to my mom for the night.
Saturday we travelled through the Transkei to Gonubie. 
The countryside is beautiful but oh my goodness
EVERYTHING crosses the road at will here, dogs, horses, donkeys, goats, cows,
pigs and sheep and the most stupid are definitely sheep – one starts running
and they all run, at full gallop, wherever and wherever is usually into the
road!! My nerves!! We nearly collected a Larry or two. Sad to see so many dead dogs along the road,
pity.  |
| The Rose and Ale |
We spent the night in a lovely
guest house in Gonubie, The Rose and Ale.
Went and found the pub in Cintsa West that we spent so much time at
during our holiday in East London years ago, like a step back in time, new
owners and more patrons but the bar was just the same.  |
| Buffalo River Yacht Club from Latimers Landing |
 |
| Buffalo River Yacht Club looking toward Latimers Landing |
Sunday morning we headed for the marina, well
firstly for Latimers Landing, once a beautiful area but now derelict and
dirty. We found the Buffalo River Yacht Club house
eventually, closed, and had a peek at the boats, one small jetty on which a
couple of boats were moored, the rest were all on swing moorings. Not sorry we bypassed this L
 |
| NSRI from Spur Port Alfred |
Next stop was Port Alfred and lunch at the
Spur on the waterfront, how beautiful.
These waterways used to be used for Formula 1 boat racing, the houses
surrounding the waterways are magnificent.
Next stop was Port Elizabeth and our poor tatty looking boat. A big surprise was the Admiral power cat tied
up next to and onto us that had arrived the day before, a quick stop on its way
to Cape Town from Madagascar and on board as crew with David Bird, was Luke,
last seen heading for Madagascar as crew on Andrea Helena. Late lunch was calamari (recommended by Nic
of Skiport in Durban) at the Yacht Club, one of Port Elizabeth’s top 10
restaurants and it really deserves that title, their food is excellent.
Must
be some kind of record, in one week we have sailed, flown and driven the route
from Durban to Port Elizabeth.
Monday
we went to the Addo Elephant Park, the bottom entrance only ½ an hour down the
road. We had a marvelous day, spotted
Zebra, a Jackal, Ostrich, loads of Tortoises, the very rare flightless Dung
Beetle, a couple of Hawks, Kudu, Warthogs and Red Hartebeest and best of all
Elephants, firstly one or two lone giants, then a herd in the road which
eventually caused us to turn and retrace our tracks, too big to argue with in
our little Micra. 
We stopped for lunch
at the Cattle Baron in the Park, then back past an area where Elephants are
known to be
and we found a water/mud hole and a herd of Ellies of all sizes,
big adults, teenagers and little babies and boy did they have fun in the mud,
spraying it all over themselves and rolling in it. 
A little further down the road and eventually
us and a couple of other cars were literally surrounded by herds of elephants
all slowly strolling toward the same water/mud hole, what an amazing
experience.
Before
we left Port Elizabeth, we managed a trip to the famous Bridge Street Brewery, I was elated to
find they do their own brew draught cider, lovely.
We
had found a weather window that would get us to either Port St Francis or
Knysna on Thursday night/Friday, a 10 hour sail and after a call to the Port
Captain in Port St Francis, fortunately the ARC boats had passed on by and we
could stay in Port St Francis for two weeks.
What joy as our poor boat was getting more ruined by the minute where we
were, the wind in Port Elizabeth blows the black dust from the piles in the
harbor and when you wash it off it leaves the boat yellow.
The piles are manganese and the fiberglass is
porous!! We managed a dinner with Jenny
and the girls on Wednesday night, great to catch up, last time we saw them was
when we were all in Australia and left our car parked in her garage on Thursday
after getting provisioning done, then an afternoon nap and by 9:00pm we threw
the lines off and bid Port Elizabeth farewell.
We
hadn’t reckoned the point of the bay into account in our travel calculations
and ended up with an extra 15nm on our trip, but what a lovely night sail, two
nights away from full moon, stars galore and hardly any ships, although now we
could see them and they could see us.  |
| Sunrise just outside Port St Francis |
The entrance into Port St Francis is tricky and very tight so conditions
have to be perfect to enter, we got here at 8:30am to a lovely gentle sea and
Kevin made the entrance and sharp turn perfectly, then a handbrake turn and
reversed into our new home, Nexus Yachts mooring, they had just waved their
first production yacht, Nexus 1, launched in 2009, on her way as she was part
of the ARC and on her circumnavigation.
After a couple of whiskey coffees, its cold in this part of the world,
even though it is summer! then a couple of hours sleep and we were good as new.
We
have spent some time exploring the coast, lovely walks up and down along the
sea shore and nature walks through the bush and over dunes. We got a ride back to Port Elizabeth and
fetched our car, helpful here as there is no convenience store for at least an
hour’s walk, long distance to carry groceries.
We spent a day scrubbing and scouring our decks, using tons of elbow
grease and skin and not making a huge impact on the yellow, figured we need to
put in more effort. Then in a stroke of
luck we paid a visit to the two catamaran factories and at St Francis we were
told of a product that they use to get rust and stains off their boats,
available in the Village – St Francis is so quaint it doesn’t have a town, it
has a Village.
We also visited Nexus
yachts, had received an invite from one of the owners who we met in the Marina,
and got a tour of the two new yachts they are building, very interesting. We got the Rust Stain Remover and got stuck
in and by the end of the day we had scrubbed the boat back to white, all over,
it was a huge success and we could all smile again, especially MaxScene.
The
NSRI here are extremely busy, at least once per week they launch and extract an
injured or sick sailor from the Chokka boats.
On Sunday morning we happened to be looking down on the Commercial
Marina in time to see them coming in with one of the Chokka boats,
unfortunately one of the sailors had what they think was a heart attack and
passed away, a risky business this Chokka boat story, watching them reminds me
a lot of watching Deadliest Catch.
We
have a fan. Sitting outside in the
cockpit the other night, Kevin was rudely interrupted in his musings by a large
splash and plop on the back step and up into the cockpit came a curious but
timid Sea Otter. He/she, not sure how to
tell yet, spent the better part of an hour and a half scooting up one step,
across the back and into the water off the other step, Kevin eventually managed
to get a couple of decent photos although it wasn’t easy cos the little otter
was just as curious and nearly knocked his whiskey off the seat trying to get
up there to see him. We even had to shut
the door to stop it going inside. It
seems very comfortable on our boat as in the morning we sometimes find pieces
of fish and scales across the deck and hear it sliding off the back when one of
us gets out of bed. So privileged.
It
is absolutely gorgeous here, a little peace of paradise indeed. Right now it is quiet and beautiful but
apparently that is all about to change, as of this weekend the tourists arrive
and apparently it gets full to capacity, many people from up country own
holiday homes here, the anticipation is huge and mixed feelings as tourists
bring money but upset the equilibrium.
There is a bar here in the Marina that is only open 20 days of the year,
it opened on Thursday for the “Season”. The Boat and Yacht Club (word Yacht used very
loosely) is also only open on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday but as of 10
December they are open all day every day.
 |
| Two gulls arguing over a fish |
Great view from their balcony and lovely people. There is so much movement of yachts down the
coast, between the usual influx of international yachts, there are the ARC
boats and the Governors Cup, a race from Cape Town to St Helena, starts 2 or 3
January, that we have not been able to find anywhere down the coast that we can
moor if we leave here, so we have been able to secure another two weeks here,
until between Christmas and New Year, for which we are very grateful and extremely happy.
Thank
you all for the birthday wishes and for thinking of me, we had an amazing day,
forced ourselves to relax and do nothing, a short walk then Kevin cooked an
awesome breakfast and bought me a lovely ankle bracelet and earrings in the
Shell Shop, then a yummy lunch/dinner at the Chokka Blok Restaurant, finishing
just in time before load shedding hit, fortunately that doesn’t bother us too
much on the boat so we chilled with good wine and tunes, well and truly spoiled, what a day…..
