To Walvis Bay Namibia

We left Luderitz just after sunrise for Walvis Bay, 230 miles to the North. This is about half way up the Namibian coast. There was a 25 to 30 knot wind blowing out Luderitz harbor but as soon as we got out to sea, the wind eased down to about 18 to knots. The harbor seems to have an acceleration zone here. The air was cold and the sea water temperature got down to 56 deg, the coldest we have seen since leaving home. The sailing was good and we turned in close to shore as we past Hotentot bay which is a possible overnight anchorage. Friends of ours spent the night there.

This part of coast was spectacular with huge sand dunes as far as you could see. There was more accelerated winds as we closed with Hottentot bay. We bore off and followed coast admiring the scenery. Later the visibility deteriorated with some fog moving in and we moved off coast a bit. We decided to spend the night in Spencer bay and arrived there an hour before dark. Again the wind picked up just as we rounded the point and it was blowing 25 knots as we dropped anchor. It had only been about 12 to 18 knots at sea.

This was a beautiful anchorage with barren rock mountains around us and a sand dune at the foot of one of them. There was a large seal colony on the point and penguins. No one was here except our friends on Cats Paw 4 who left the same time as us.

We left here just before dawn hoping to make Walvis bay before dark the following day. We had some good sailing with a bit of motoring, then during night wind picked up strong and we soon had two reefs in main for a few hours then back to slower sailing. Finally had to motor the last 50 miles when wind died completely. We arrived in Walvis Bay just as it was getting dark and dropped anchor near the yacht club where some other yachts were anchored.

INFO

-Had to go to a different building than previous to get a clearance document to leave Luderitz. The Port control guy showed us where it is when we checked in. Saw no other officials to leave except for calling port control when we left.

-Spencer Bay, we anchored in 23ft at 23 43.60S 14 50.60E Watch for strong accelerated winds as you round point. Anchorage was not too bouncy considering the conditions and how open it is. We did not land as wind was strong and a lot of surf, would have wanted to leave engine behind and it was too windy to row dinghy. 
  The wind on the coast seems often to be gale force or none, going by some othere yachts experiences.  Several other yachts got some strong se winds 35 to 45 knots  for short perionds of time and also motored alot. We managed to sail well over half the trip and got winds up to 35 knots.

-Walvis Bay we anchored in 13ft at 22 57.10S 14 29.01E and is good holding. There is mooring buoys available as well, can ask at yacht club. Sign in at yacht club, they are friendly and have showers and water. No dinghy dock, need to pull dinghy up on beach in front of club, though there is a small loading dock for temporay use.  An abandonded catamaran here usually has seals sitting on it.

-Walvis Bay was much more laid back for officialdom than Luderitz. We called port control when entering and I gathered she did not even want to here from us as long as we stayed out of the main channel. They do not want yachts in the ship channel. Having checked in at Luderitz we did not check in with any one on arrival at Walvis Bay. Got this info from other yachts and from the yacht club.  Provisioning here good but not much here for marine chandlry.
-Can get diesel by taxi at local gas station.  Can buy water at yacht club or at water place next door for faily cheap.
-It seems to get quit bouncy in the Walvis Bay anchorage for a day or two as light winds come from N and set up a uncomortable sea. We missed a couple of bad days while we were at Estoshia park.  But heard about it. This is the second time in just over a weak it got bouncy. Some one said its unusual??