Sailing the wild coast

We finally left Richards Bay in the wee small hours of Monday 26 November in the company of Zoe who was to be our sailing companion for this trip. The locals call the East Coast of South Africa the wild coast because of the big seas and strong winds and often tricky sailing conditions. It is important to leave when the weather is right to avoid SW winds which kick up the sea againts the fast flowing Agulhus current. Since we had a short window the plan was to sail down the coast to Durban and then on again when conditions allowed. After an uneventful passage we made it safely into Durban harbour just before the sun went down. In the event we only had to stay one night but checking in and clearing out took ages so it was after 2pm before we finally lifted the anchor and got underway again. The passage down to Port Elizabeth was expected to take us 3 days but we actually went a lot faster than expecetd due to positive current of 3 to 5 knots which doubled our boat speed for a good day and a half. We were making such good progress we decided to press on to Mossel Bay another 175 miles further down the coastline. Arrived in a very swelly Mossel Bay after sunset so it was quite difficult to anchor in a dark rolling sea! Fortunately we only needed to stay the one night as the weather looked as if it would allow us to continue on around Cape Agulhus in favourable conditions. It was an easy sail or rather motor sail around Cape Agulhus with very little wind and calm seas. However we paid the price as once around the corner the wind shifted into the NW so we then had a very difficult time beating to windward in strong winds up to 35 knots with big seas on the nose. Every time the boat built up some speed it would be stalled by a huge wave. We took a lot of water over the bow and the forepeak was leaking water through the dorade so wet beds - again! We also managed to lose our port navigation light which was pushed off the bow by the waves crashing up. The passage up to False Bay was much harder than expected and we took much longer to reach Simons Town. Initially we had calculated that we would arrive sometime during the day on Sunday but it was shortly after midnight before we eventually arrived in the Marina. Zoe followed us in and we went to find our berths which we had been allocated. There was a boat in our berth so we just parked behind it as there was space (just!). Zoe had a clear berth so we both got tied up as quickly as we could then onto the dock for a celebratory bottle of bubbly! After such a trip there was a lot of discussion before we finally said goodnight and headed off to bed around 1.30pm. Simon's Town is home to the South African Navy so it has a huge Naval base and this dominates the town. There are lots of attractive shops and restaurants here and the whole place has a good feel. False Bay YC is delightful as it is home to many small sail boats and fishing boats. It has friendly staff and a really cosy family feel. The showers are among the cleanest and tidiest we have come across. The yacht club has free WiFi so e mailing is easy and quick. Peter is arranging for lots of small jobs to be done on the boat whilst we are in Cape Town including the major task of getting antfouled again. Yesterday we had a visit from Warren the Rigger who is doing a rig check for us courtesy of Admiral Insurance. The Riggers were supposed to come this morning but they have an emergency job so we will get the rig check done when we move to Cape Town. We also had a visit from David of Action Yachting who is arranging jobs on the boat and Peter went through his 'to do' list. Now we have managed to secure a berth at the Royal Cape YC early we will leave False Bay YC tomorrow in company with Zoe again very early to move around to Cape Town arriving before sunset. The weather looks good for us to leave so fingers crossed it is easier to get out of the bay than it was to get in! Whilst we are here we want to see what we can and walked down to Boulders beach yesterday with Zoe's crew to visit the endangered African Penguins who were quite adorable! There are several museums here so today we plan to visit the Simons Town Museum and the Naval Museum before collecting the laundry. Everything seems cheap here as the first load (9Kg) was only £6 for a full service laundry so am taking advantage and have a second load in today. It will be a shame to leave Simon's Town but we have to take advantage of good weather when we can to move the boat. The winds are not too strong tomorrow so it should be an easy sail - we hope!!