Durban to East London

Before leaving Durban we did a one overnight trip to the Drakensberg mountains. We shared a rental car with Cats Paw 4 crew again. It was about a 3 hour drive into the mountains. The scenery is beautiful with hilly grasslands and large rocky cliffs. We did a 3 hour round trip hike up to some ancient paintings and then to the top of the hill. You have to have a guide to do this hike because of vandalism to the paintings. He did not cost much but he took off on us as soon as the gate to the paintings was locked, so much for our guide.  The highest mountains were socked in and we had some rain on our descent but overall we had good weather.

We arrived back in Durban about noon in pouring rain. Then Barry and I ran around doing the silly checkout dance to go to the next port while the Lady's went to get last minute groceries. The checkout procedure was completely different than Richards Bay with just a visit to the marina office then Port Captain, Customs and then back to Port Captain.

A South wind was still blowing and rain pouring down so we delayed our departure until 7pm when the South wind finally eased. We only had a short window to do the 240 miles to East London so had to put up with the light South wind until morning and then we would get our N Easterlies.

The N Easterly kicked in as predicted and it was a good sail the rest of the way to EL. The seas were fairly large and sometimes a bit confused. We were hitting speeds of 9 to 11 kns coming down when we found the Agulhas current half way to EL so made up for our slow start.  Late afternoon we entered the harbor and anchored with a few other yachts just in front of a bunch of yachts on fore and aft moorings.  It is a very protected harbor with almost no swell inside.
 The local yacht club is very friendly and even opened their club up on a monday for us international yachts for a bra or barbecue and drinks.

INFO

- Left Durban Nov 30 7pm arrived East London Dec 2 about 4pm

- Call Port control when entering East London16/12. Latimers landing is condemned so yachts have to anchor. We anchored in 37 ft at 33 01.43S 27 53.87E

- The first half of trip down we found only half to one knot of current and we were about 8 to 10 miles out. Then just past Cape St Hermes around 31 40 deg chart showes about 2000ft deep, we picked up a good 3 knot current for the rest of the way, though it slowed as we neared EL.

- The Buffalo river yacht club is welcoming and can use showers there and get water, use their pub and leave dingy there. We walked up to a grocery story Pick and Pay about 20 min walk up main road. We left dinghy at Ladimers landing where there is a police station. You also get your flight plan for the next port there. Locals say not safe to walk around much.
    If there is room for lots of yachts, some may have to move temporarily when a ship comes it and needs the dock at that end.