Traveling Namibia

Walvis Bay is a clean medium sized town with huge wide streets. Good provisioning here though a wee bit more expensive than South Africa. Its about a 40 minute walk to the shops and can walk along the lagoon for a bit of it and see lots of flamingos and pelicans.

We rented a car for 5 days to do some touring of Namibia. First we did a 7 hour drive up to Estoshia wildlife park and spent two nights there. Instead of staying in expensive camp accommodations, we brought our tent and camped and cooked our dinners, saving a lot of money. The game parks are not quite as well run as the ones in South Africa, but the one nice thing they had is a waterhole beside each camp that is lite up at night and you can see a steady stream of animal come down to drink.

It was still quite dry for this time of year so animals were mainly near the water holes. We saw Rhino's, Jackals, a heard of 28 elephants come down and fill the water hole. A leopard came down and came back twice to drink and then a third time to slink around and then hide in the bush. Also saw a couple of lions prowling around near a waterhole we stopped by when driving.

After coming back to the boat we then headed down to dune 45 to check out the dunes down there. This was about a 5 hour drive to park entrance where you can get a permit. Namibia seems to be mostly desert, that varies from just sand and dunes to abit of green and rock and some small trees but still dry looking. It was a beautiful drive down there and we camped again for one night and drove back the next day.

The anchorage is getting quite rolly sometimes but we seemed to miss it being away on trips. but we are now going to leave in a day or two before it gets bouncy again. We have a 1200 mile passage to St Helena ahead of us and then 700 miles to Ascension island if we decide to stop there. and then to Barbados which is about 3100miles which is our longest passage yet. The boat is jammed full with food and we are almost ready to go.  Sorry have not had time to sort pictures up for the blog.

INFO

-Have to see port control, immigration and customs to check out. Port control was no bother, just gave us a clearance document. Custom was okay though they wanted the original of our boat registration even though we were leaving, but he relented in the end as we had original on boat. Immigration says you have to go immediately when they clear you there is no 24 hour grace. Yacht club wants to know too as a courtesy and they get inquiry's about yachts. The three offices to checkout with are all at far end of port, go down main road to Puma gas station and then head for the water front and ask around.

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??

Cape Town To Luderitz Namibia

Our time in Cape Town has flown by and it's time to go. Sunday morning we checked out with customs and immigration and the port captain filling out lots of forms that assume we are ships, not private yachts. We got under way be 11am and picked up a nice breeze as soon as we cleared the harbor. Our next stop would be Luderitz in Namibia about 500 to the North. The wind was forward of the beam and then slowly came around astern as we cleared Table Bay and soon we were sailing along at full speed in perfect conditions. By midnight the wind started to ease and by 3am we were only dong 2 to 3 knots.

I started the engine about 7 am and we motored for a few hours until the SE wind filled in again. This was the pattern over the next several days. A new moon was just starting so the nights were very dark. looking into the ocean we could see the most incredible phosphorus I have ever seen when the bow wake disturbed the water. As the waves broke you could see curls of green phosphorus boiling down the waves. One evening in the middle of the night I heard some dolphins blowing behind us as they followed our stern light. I watched them swim by our boat looking like green torpedoes as they disturbed the phosphorus.

We saw very few ships along our coarse, most of them seemed to be further out to sea. On our third day out we noticed the water temp got up to 65 degrees and the air much warmer. then a day later the water temp got back down to 60 then 58 degrees. This made for cold night watches. We had our toques on and sweaters and wind pants on if we spent some time outside.

Late in our third day out the wind started to pick up. We have been getting weather every day from the SAMM net on the HF radio and they said we would be getting winds of 30 to 35 knots tonight. They were right as by 9 pm we had 3 reef in main and about 5 feet of genoa out and were still doing 6 to 8 knots. The boat soon had a very uncomfortable motion as it rolled around in the big seas. By 4 am the wind started dieing making for bad sailing because there was a huge sea running and with the light wind the sails kept having the wind dumped out as the boat cork screwed in the wave and then the sails would fill with a bang. In big confused waves you need a strong wind to sail properly.

The last hundred miles we mostly motored as the wind died completely. This section of coast is known for lots of fog and that's what we got. The rest of the trip was in thick fog. I turned the radar on and set the guard bands so it would beep if it picked up any target. Also set radar scanner so that it would only turn on every 5 minutes and do 20 scans and shut off. This is a power saving feature. At night we both slept as you could not see even if there was something coming at us. The radar did a fine job and only woke me once with a target near by. It turned out to be a small boat about a mile off our port heading south. It was not a problem so went back to sleep. I would wake every hour or two just to make sure the boat was okay, that no wind had come up and sails and engine were all okay.

As we rounded Diaz point and entered Luderitz harbor we suddenly popped out of the fog and could see again. An hour later or about 6:30pm, we were tied up to a mooring ball that looked fairly substantial, though we were warned that their condition was unknown. But we have heard the anchoring here was not very good so either way we could drag. So we just made sure we kept our anchor drag alarm set. We cleared in with the officials next morning after a good nights rest. Then scoped the small town out. Very nice clean town, that looks almost 'brand new'. We climbed a small rock out crop by the church to get a great view of the town and harbor. It was nice to be walking again and get the legs stretched out.
The following day we got togeather with Cats Paw and Sal Darago and did a tour out to Kolmanskop. This is an old abandoned diamond mining town. It is about a 20 minute drive out and is basically in the middle of the desert, a very desolate spot. The building are full of sand from sand storms.  Namibia has got most of its money from its diamond mining industry and is doing fairly well as far as African countrys go. 
We are considering leaving tomorrow or Sunday for Walvis bay and may stop at an anchorage on the way up.


INFO

-We left Cape Town Sunday Jan 13 2013. Checked out with the marina office first and she gave us maps and instructions for the rest of the checkout procedure. This involved a trip to the port captain, immigration and customs, all separate offices in the port area. No fees had to be paid.

-Luderitz is 500 miles North of Cape Town but there are at least 3 good anchorages that you could pull into that are protected from the prevailing summer Southerlies on your way up. Dassen island, Sandy bay, and Lamberts bay.

- Definitely call port control on 16 or 12 when entering Luderitz harbor. We took a mooring at 26 38.319S    15 09.505E there was also a big open area right behind us you could anchor in, water about 17 feet deep. Cats Paw anchored just behind us and the waypoint given, they said the anchor bit fine and backedhard on it and held and they sat out a 30 wind without dragging. You then check in with immigration, customs and then port control. All offices a 5 minute walk away. Paid no fees and much less paper work than South Africa.

- They are happy to take Rands hear and lots of atm's nearby that give you Namibian dollars which are equivalent to Rand. A few medium sized super markets nearby as well, stocked similar to Cape Town and similar prices or a tad more. Can use the yachts clubs showers just by signing in at their guest book. After 3 days they will charge you 150 Namibian dollars a day or about $1.50 a day. There is a dinghy dock just in from of the yacht club which is not located where shown on the South African Nautical Almanac, but a bit further North.  I filled two jerry cans of diesel at local gas station and some one gave me a ride back for 10 rand, was only a block and a half.

Cape Town

Cape Town has been a great stop so far with lots of interesting to do. We tried to rent a car but none were available until after New Years.
We climbed the Lions Head which is a steep rock mountain and is about a 50 minute hike to top from parking lot. Spectacular views from top and our favorite hike here, done it twice. The last bit is bit of a climb to top using man made hand holds and chains, nothing too difficult. Table Mountain was next on our agenda now that our legs were getting back in shape. We unwittingly choose a very hot day to climb the mountain and found it difficult in the heat and should have started earlier, and hiking down was even hotter. A few days later we climbed the Table mountain again, but with the Cats Paw crew this time. This was a cloudy day and the peak never came out of the clouds but it was much easier to climb. This time taking only about an hour and 15 minutes to top. We rode the cable car down this time.

We did an hour and ten minute train ride into Simonstown for a look see and to see the marina there and visit friends there. Cats paw took us down to the beach where there is lots of penguins. Most of the people we know are down here has they could not get into the RCYC marina as it was booked full. The smaller yachts like us seemed to get in easier.

New Years eve another big blow came through with winds in the 40's and 50 plus knot range. The blow lasted for 2 full days. The Yacht club has put on a function for New Years eve, we went up there for a couple of ours with Sal Darago's crew. The music was too loud so we did not stay too long. Later that evening we went over to Sal Darago's boat and brought in the new year there with Dorothy's nanaimo bars, Cathy's mince meat tarts and Baileys. The fire works started at midnight and we had a good view from the back of their boat.

We got our rental car finally on Jan 2. Doing running around getting a few things we need and some provisioning, as we have 2 months of sailing ahead of us and don't expect to get a whole lot at St Helena. The only things the boat needed was some new reefing lines, a solar panel voltage regular which died awhile ago and a Caribbean Navionics chip which is really a luxury.  We climbed  Devils Peak  a few days later, its beside Table Mountain.  It took us about 2 hours 15 min round trip and has a nice trail to top. Trail starts near table mountain Platteklip gorge trail, which is same trail we used for table mountain. 
     We did a drive out to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope which is also called the cape of storms if your a pessimist.  They is a very worth while drive with great scenery and also a stunning  walk out the actual Capes.   A couple days later we took a drive through the wine country and Stellenbosch with its scenic mountain scenery.
We are planning to leave very soon and head North to Namibia.  After a short visit  there we will head out to St Helena then Ascension Island  and then to the Caribbean.  So we have a lot of sailing ahead of us and long passages.  We are now over half way on our circumnavigation and now feel we are on our way home.



INFO

-Its a 35 minute walk to the train station and, or downtown, and a 50 minute walk to the V and A waterfront a large mall and theaters. The train into Simonstown is about 1 hour 10 minutes and cost us 28 rand for first class. Apparently the yachts in False Bay Simonstown have to take a short train ride to get to a descent grocery store.

-Apparently yachts checking out of country must now all go to the RCYC yacht club in Cape Town harbor. If your in Simons Town your suppose to stop at the RCYC on the way out of country to check out here with your boat. African bureaucracy at it's finest. If you have already checked into country at Richards Bay or Durban you do not need to goto RCYC to check in, but if you come into the country here in Cape area apparently you are suppose to bring boat to the RCYC.

The club charges 1000 rand for this. If you are staying in the RCYC already, for ex 3 weeks, you will not be charged the fee. If you go in for just a couple of nights you will be charged the fee. This is a brand new policy and when we asked well how long would you have to stay in the yacht club to not be charged fee? She said this is a gray area and not sure yet, probably would have to stay  a week at least. There is 2 slips reserved for boats checking out, located at 33 55.132S 18 26.612E This whole policy still sounds a bit vague and I can see changes being made.  Note there is actually quite a few empty slips here now ( Jan 8).      I here that you can also check out of country, with your yacht at the V and A marina since it is also in Cape Town and close to customs.  It is more expensive to stay there than the RCYC but they are not charging the 1000 Rand  the RCYC is.

-There is propane tank filling done here at the RCYC, just take tank up to the chandlry in the yard here. Diesel here at RCYC as well at their fuel dock. 11 something rand a liter. Just about anything can be got or done for a yacht in Cape Town.