Durban to Cape Town

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8^th – 12^thDecember

Well, unheard of, but the weather window kept opening up instead of getting smaller, and we actually managed to get all the way from Durban to Cape Town in 5 days!!!! On the second day out we found the Agulhas current and were doing 10 – 12 kts most of the time. In fact, we recorded our fastest passage ever – we did 242nm in 24hrs. We were flying. AND, then because we stayed out wider and most boats went closer inshore, we stayed in the current for so much longer than them (a good 12hrs) and ended up catching up to them around the bottom of SA. Boomerang were over 42nm ahead of us at one stage, and we ended up ahead of them (for a very short time) until they came further offshore with us. We were still hedging our bets a bit with the weather and were all prepared to go into Simmons Town if need be, but the weather held out. Most of the 0800 and 1730 radio scheds were focussed on the weather and what it was doing.

Some major landmarks for us were passing Cape Agulhas (the most southern tip of SA) which also then lead into the Atlantic Ocean from the Indian Ocean and rounding Cape of Good Hope. (this happened at 4am on Trina’s watch). The worst bit of weather we had also coincided with the rounding of Cape of Good Hope. We had consistently 25-30kts for a couple of hours and were just running on a double reefed main. Then we had strong gusts and I (Trina) had quite a few minutes where it was over 40kts. That was a bit not very nice for me!! However, I handed over my watch at 6am to Phil and within an hour or so we were motoring as the wind had died completely. The last couple of hours were motoring into Cape Town, marvelling at the stunning, very rugged and mountainous coastline. I really didn’t expect it to look like this. Table mountain loomed high and really stood out, and there were seals all around welcoming us in. Neither of us really slept during the last 2 days as it was too exciting passing all these landmarks, so we were a bit tired when we finally got into Cape Town.

We were booked into the Royal Cape Yacht Club so went right there and tied off. The marina has an amazing view of Table Mountain (actually all of Cape town does)so we spent the rest of the afternoon sorting out the boat and then caught up with Libby and went to find Boomerang to celebrate our ‘arrival’.

13^th December

Moved to the V&A Marina!! We had tried contacting the office at sea and were told that they were unequivocally full and there was no room. However, Boomerang had a booking here and on their arrival..informed us otherwise. So...this morning, with a plan in mind...we came over to the V&A and had a chat with the marina managers. John from Boomerang had already spoken to them yesterday hinting at the plan so when we arrived, they already knew our basic plan. It went like this:

Luna Verde was in a pen and there was just a little bit of room left in that pen for a small yacht, but not for any of the larger ones that wanted to come in. We already knew LV and they were happy for us to move in next to them. They are also Dutch and have been sailing with Boomerang and Sea Quest for a while. (Boomerang is only in here as they are rafted up to Sea Quest – otherwise there would’ve been no room for them either.) Anyway, after outlining our plan to squeeze in next to LV (as we are such a small yacht and they wouldn’t get any bigger one in there) and that we wanted to stay here for 3 weeks, Louis had to check with his ‘colleague’ Michael (who was standing right next to him). After conferring with Michael right in front of us (who was more than happy for us to squeeze in) we were allowed to come on over. YAY.

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