Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Port Elizabeth to Mossel Bay South Africa
Port Elizabeth is a nice place to stay for a few days, but we now had a good weather wind and it was time to go. The weather window looked good for the next 5 days and we thought great, an easy trip to Cape town. Ya right! This is the bottom of Africa here and we have the two great capes to round. Cape Agulhas and then 100 miles further is the Cape of Good Hope often called the cape of storms. There almost always seems to be some sort of gale blowing here.
We motored out the port at 5:30am and about 11am the wind filled in and we had some good sailing. The seas were the most comfortable we have had in a long time. The wind got light during the night and we soon were motoring again. It was an easy night with most of the ships South of our course line and the seas pleasant. Had a few light rain showers and the wind was up and down. Around noon we listened the the local South African weather service on the VHF and big surprise! There was now a gale warning for the Cape Agulhas area and Cape Point (Cape of Good Hope). We had been talking to the Samm net for weather this morning and they mentioned nothing about strong winds coming. Cape Agulhas apparently is not a great place to be in a gale.
We were just coming up to Mossel bay so we decided to divert to there. This has happened several times where you think you see a nice long weather window and suddenly something moves in and it closes. Since we had thought we were going straight to the cape we were a fair ways out so it took a while to get into Mossel Bay and arrived about 9pm, after dark. Port control said there was one spot in the marina but I did not want to go up the dark and narrow looking channel looking for a spot as we could not have backed out of there. So port control said we could take take a spot on the end of the wall by the fishboats until daylight. There is just enough ambient light in the harbor to see what we were doing. Tired out we crashed as soon as the boat was squared away.
Early the next morning I took my kayak over to check the marina out and found the only empty spot was right on the end, nice and easy. We moved into here and washed the boat off. We could not get out of the locked marina and no answer on their phone #. About 9am the manager comes by and says sorry we cant stay there as it is taken. Great, so we moved out to take a mooring ball the manager said we could use that are outside the harbor behind the wall.
Just after we were settled in and had put up some laundry to dry a large zodiac roared by at full speed inches from our boat, drenching the boat in spray, wetting the laundry and also my dinghy that I had set out and was doing a glue repair. We were down below at the time and I was angry stuck my head out and gave him a rude gesture. We were right next to a swimming and boat launching area and they had no business driving like that. It turned out it was a police boat and when they came by after seeing my angry stance, and they said they were trying to fix their planning fins and needed a calm area to do it. I though then they should of warned us and we would could have been ready. Generally we have found South Africa to be one of the friendliest places we have been, the people always helpful.
We spent the afternoon walking around. This is apparently a much safer town than the other places we have visited along the coast. It is touristy and a nice clean city. We took an enjoyable walk along the coast trail past the Cape Blaize lighthouse and up the trail that follows the cliff tops for miles with super views.
While Mossel town is a great place and the yacht club is welcoming and a nice place. But it is not really a place a yacht can stop easily as there is no place in the protected inner harbor that you are welcome. If you have a problem or bad weather is coming, I am sure you can tie to wall or a fish boat. The marina is full this time of year and the slips are for smaller yachts only if available. You can anchor outside the wall and is safe there in most winds I think. It is a bit bouncy but okay and there is jet skis often buzzing around you, also there is no dinghy dock so you need to pull dinghy up boat ramp at yacht club. They are friendly and give out a gate card and can use there showers, complementary.
INFO
- We left Port Elizabeth Dec 9. We never saw more than a half to 1 knot of current with us no matter how far out we got. Though we never got out to 100 fathom line which is a long ways out on this part of coast, like 40 miles.
- Entering Mossel bay in the dark is not difficult with a electronic chart or chartplotter which I use. It is bang on. Call Port Control on Channel 12. The wall where we first tied up to is at 34 10.711S 22 08.843E. later the swing mooring we took was at 34 10.636S 22 08.401E in 16 ft. There are moorings and are newly done they said with one ton blocks anchoring them. But I notice they only used 3/8 inch poly rope coming to the surface and for the pickup. They said the mooring are for yachts. But I set my anchor drag alarm anyways. You could also anchor closer to wall if come in at night in 16ft at 34 10.62S 22 08.54E which we did initially but later they suggested we take the mooring as we were blocking the passage to beach a bit by yacht club which is used in daylight.
We noted later than printed on the mooring ball is 'light mooring' and coupled with the thin line I believe it is true and some one else confirmed this. So I re-edited this and say there are no moorings here. The one we used is light duty, another mooring is unusable, and one is marked 'private' and is more substantle looking than the others. I rowed to each one to check it out. We went and reanchored a bit closer to wall to be out of way. Later when wind went more east it but us side ways to swell and rolling got bad so I put out a stern anchor to turn us a bit into swell, then ok.
-The shopping, a good hardware store, marine store, and grocery stores are only a 10 minutes walk away and the tourist office as well.
-We have been using both the Peri Peri net and the Samm net for weather when at sea. These are mentioned in the Madagascar section of blog. Note the Samm net on this portion of coast uses 7120 on LSB at 08:35am local time and 01:35pm.
-Note. The next common stop for yachts is knysna. We skipped this as we thought we had a good weather through to Cape Town. This is a better place for yachts than Mossel bay from all I heard. The only if is getting in. Apparentlyh it is best if swell is under 2 meters and then come in a hour before high tide. All the yachts we knew went in with no problem. They said it was their favorite spot.
Entrance waypoint start is about 34 05.51S 23 03.44E to give an idea where it is.
We stopped at the next stop of Mossel bay when weather forecast changed. See next post.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
East London To Port Elizabeth
After checking the weather carefully, we left East London after 3 days there. But first you have to file a flight plan with the port captain's office, the paper work is getting easier with each port. It is only 140 miles for this leg or an overnight passage. There was still a SW wind blowing in the morning so did not leave until 10:30am when the wind lightened. A couple of hours later when out in the ocean and heading West the wind came around to a beam reach so we could shut of the engine and start sailing.
We had a mostly good sail but the seas were rough and lumpy making for an uncomfortable passage. Also had a couple of rain showers. For quite a while we were going 8 and 9 knots with help from the Agulhas current. Late in the night we had to motor for a few hours when the wind died and then by morning it had picked up again. On this coast you do not want to delay waiting for a nice sailing breeze, you go from safe haven to safe haven as quick as you can.
We arrived off the entrance to Port Elizabeth about 10:30am, 24 hours after leaving E London. It is a easy entrance into the port which we did after calling port control. Sal Darago who left after we did arrived in PE a few hours ahead of us and helped us into a dock slip in the marina. There seemed to be a number of empty berths as most of the international yachts had already left on the same weather window we did. The marina was inexpensive and had good showers. Port Elizabeth is a large city, but again we get warnings about being careful where you walk. We took a 20 min walk up to the grocery store nearby. The next day did nice long walk down to the beach in the same direction as the grocery store. Very nice down there.
The dock lines are getting a good work out in this marina as there is much surge and swell moving boat around. The decks are already a bit sooty looking just like from the coal dust in Richards Bay.
INFO
-If come in at night apparently can anchor off boom that protects marina or tie up to a fish boat or the wall just to North of the marina while you scope things out.
-We are in 12 ft at 33 58.03S 25 38.15E in marina.
-Boats coming down with us on this leg found the current was generally on the 100 fathom line. We picked up some current even well inside it about 8 to 10 miles off but eventually lost it when we got a bit to close in, but did not figure it was worth the extra miles to go out and fine it as would arrive in good time in the morning anyways.
We had a mostly good sail but the seas were rough and lumpy making for an uncomfortable passage. Also had a couple of rain showers. For quite a while we were going 8 and 9 knots with help from the Agulhas current. Late in the night we had to motor for a few hours when the wind died and then by morning it had picked up again. On this coast you do not want to delay waiting for a nice sailing breeze, you go from safe haven to safe haven as quick as you can.
We arrived off the entrance to Port Elizabeth about 10:30am, 24 hours after leaving E London. It is a easy entrance into the port which we did after calling port control. Sal Darago who left after we did arrived in PE a few hours ahead of us and helped us into a dock slip in the marina. There seemed to be a number of empty berths as most of the international yachts had already left on the same weather window we did. The marina was inexpensive and had good showers. Port Elizabeth is a large city, but again we get warnings about being careful where you walk. We took a 20 min walk up to the grocery store nearby. The next day did nice long walk down to the beach in the same direction as the grocery store. Very nice down there.
The dock lines are getting a good work out in this marina as there is much surge and swell moving boat around. The decks are already a bit sooty looking just like from the coal dust in Richards Bay.
INFO
-If come in at night apparently can anchor off boom that protects marina or tie up to a fish boat or the wall just to North of the marina while you scope things out.
-We are in 12 ft at 33 58.03S 25 38.15E in marina.
-Boats coming down with us on this leg found the current was generally on the 100 fathom line. We picked up some current even well inside it about 8 to 10 miles off but eventually lost it when we got a bit to close in, but did not figure it was worth the extra miles to go out and fine it as would arrive in good time in the morning anyways.
Friday, December 7, 2012
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
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.
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