Monday Jan 22
Around 4pm we saw something on the horizon that we couldn’t quite make out. It was a massive, somewhat shapeless form, not unlike an Island. As we drew closer and it appeared on AIS we saw it was the container ship Marit Maersk. At 1,300 feet or almost half a kilometer, It was a great, towering monster of the sea, two whisps of white smoke blowing from its twin funnels and stack upon stack of shipping containers reaching for the sky. The kind of boat that everyone moves out of the way for, sailboats, cyclones, and small islands included.
Just about a thousand Saumure sized boats would fit on its main deck alone with probably close to that again down below. It is hard to fathom a ship of such a scale and the value and sheer volume of cargo it carries.
We saw two more of these boats, one passing a mile to the north. A sinister sight in the moonlight with the red eye of its navigation light shining out from the ship’s shadowy sides as it sped by at 22 knots.
The shipping became increasingly steady with at least one ship almost always in sight as we grew nearer to land.
Freighters on the horizon
Friday Jan 26
I was standing at the pushpit adjusting our course with the autopilot when I happened to glance down and saw the flowing black shadow of something stuck in our propeller.
Once Cianan came up for his watch we decided it was probably best to deal with the problem right away, partially because we had several people tell us that you have to be very careful of sharks near the coast. We figured if we had an emergency, like a man overboard, it would be critical to have an operating motor. We would also need the motor to get into port. The wind was forecast to build over the next few days. Unfortunately the waves were pretty steep and the wind, fresh from the south, pushing us along at 2 knots even with all our sails down on deck .
We trailed a hundred foot line out behind us in case Cianan lost hold of the boat.
Cutting the net free turned out to be a fairly risky operation in itself. Cianan was in the water holding onto the propeller shaft with one hand while fighting to cut the net away with his other.
Cianan removing fish net from the propeller. It was a bloody process
The waves lifted him up into the air before crashing back down, dunking him two feet underwater while slamming him against the barnacles on the hull and the metal frame of the autopilot. This made for a very slow and challenging process but eventually it came free and Cianan climbed back on board dripping blood from numerous cuts and well bruised, but triumphantly holding a large chunk of fishing net. Luckily the sharks didn’t find us.
Cianan with his fish net
Sunday Jan 28
We could smell land far before we could see it. A smell like dried grass and crushed leaves. Every country has its own smell but all unmistakably smell of land. When we were approaching Australia we could smell the eucalyptus forest fifty miles out.
By 4 am we could see the lighthouses on shore. Richards bay is strange in that there is no waterfront on the open ocean and from as close as two miles you can’t see any sign of a city.
Coming into the Richards bay breakwater
We were granted permission by the harbour master to enter right away and motored over to the customs pier. It was low tide and the pier stood a good six feet above our heads but luckily there were ladders to climb up and tie off the boat.
We found our legs were a little wobbly when we first got on shore. We had been at sea for almost two months with only a few days on Cocos Keeling in the middle. Oddly our heels were really sore after walking just a short distance. I imagine that we’ll get our land legs back over the next few days.
Cianan enjoying the stillness of being in port after dodging cyclones
Clearing in was a simple process but involved a lot of waiting. After a couple hours a representative from the African cruising association OSASA came down to see how we were doing and called up port health who arrived shortly after. She didn’t come on the boat but we went to a restaurant close by and filled out some forms.
After another few hours a taxi driver came by and we arranged to go to the customs office the following morning. He was a very chatty and opinionated older Afrikaner with a thick accent liberally sprinkled with Afrikaans. .He warned us not to go out at night, not because of a criminal element, but because the hippos roam the streets then. He was also saying there are a lot of crocodiles in the bay. He made for quite an entertaining taxi ride and our immersion into South African culture.
The customs office was a 20 minute drive from the boat, stopping off at the marina to arrange a slip for later on. We walked into the customs office, which was a run down building surrounded by razor wire fencing. Inside, a security guard had us fill out a form, then pointed to a phone in the corner and told me to call a number. The phone number was the only words the guard spoke to us the whole time we were there. I called the number and could hear the phone ringing at the other end of the same building. After answering a few questions I was put on hold until the customs agent came up to the desk. It was a remarkably efficient process but not hard with a little patience.
We stopped at a mall downtown to buy a Sim card and some food. In the mall we walked past a store selling all sorts of guns with a display of pistols up on the wall. Just as we left someone came rushing into the mall carrying an assault rifle, presumably a guard.
South African Rand. We feel rich. One Rand is worth about ten cents Canadian
Back at the boat we could hear gunfire into the evening. One of the locals was saying it was the taxi wars.I’m not exactly sure just what that means.
We have been enjoying lots of South African biltong, a dried meat unique to South Africa. It comes in a wide array of different meats from beef to ostrich, kudu, eland, and springbok. It makes for a very nice change from our diet of the last few weeks. We are going to see how well it will store as we move along the coast of South Africa. It would be great if we could take a good supply of it when we head up the Atlantic to Halifax.
Despite these obvious problems Richards bay has been one of the friendliest and most welcoming ports we’ve visited, with people coming down to the boat to ask us about our trip. We even got invited to dinner by the first officer of a cruise ship that was moored near us.
Theft was a bit of a problem at the customs pier. At one point I looked up to see a monkey poking its head down the companionway and reaching for our tube of toothpaste. Anything left on deck would be made off with to the nearest roof to be sampled for edibility.
Vervet monkey looking for plunder on Saumure
We have to do a few repairs to the boat over the next week before we head out along the coast towards Cape Town..