15 December 2017 Richards Bay to Durban (Day 1)
The weather forecast doesn’t show any long patches of NE winds for the next 14 days, just a set of short 48 hour windows. There’s a window today, so we made a snap decision to head off to Durban, which is only 80 miles away. We’ll just have to spend the next few weeks hopping from port to port along the coast. Who knows where we’ll be for Christmas Day.
I jumped in the car at 09:00 and drove around to get a new Flight Plan stamped by Immigration, Customs and the Port Police. It all went smoothly and I was back at the boat an hour later. We zipped to the supermarket to buy some last minute fresh provisions and then dropped the car off at the airport.
A taxi dropped us back at marina just before 12:00; we finished off paying our marina bill, tidied the boat and filled up with water. After saying goodbye to a few friends, we left Richards Bay at 14:00. We’d emailed the marina in Durban and were pleased to get an email back allocating us a berth there.
When we motored out of the harbour, there was a 3 metre swell coming from the south. It was a gentle swell, but steep at the harbour entrance. Once clear of the shipping channel, we bore away and headed south-west on a beam reach. The wind gradually increased and backed, so I poled the genoa out to port and we rolled off down wind.
By nightfall, we had 20-25 knots from the North-east, which confused the swell from the south and made it a horrible corkscrew motion. I tried to read a book on my 7-10 watch, but the horrible motion was making me queasy - the seven weeks away from sailing has affected my sea legs. Unfortunately the wind continued to increase giving us gusts of 35 knots making the roiling sea worse. I could only pop down below for 30 seconds to check the AIS for ships before having to bolt back into the cockpit to nibble a Ginger Biscuit.
Glenys extended her 10-1 watch and gave me an extra hour in bed, which was long enough for me to recover and I felt okay when I got up at 02:00. By this time, the wind had dropped to 20-25 knots from the north and the seas were much calmer. During my 2-5 watch, I threaded us through a large anchoring area with scores of large ships waiting to go into Durban port - one of the largest in South Africa.
We made good time with 1 knot of favourable current for most of the way, so we were only five miles away from the harbour entrance as the first glimmer of dawn lit the horizon at 04:30. The Durban Port Control operates on VHF Ch09 and monitors AIS traffic. They called me up when we were five miles out and, without asking, gave me permission to enter the port.
The entrance was simple and we motored across to Durban Marina into a very tight berth, tucked in a corner. We were in bed at 05:30.
16 December 2017 Richards Bay to Durban (Day 2)
After a few hour’s sleep and breakfast, we went to the marina office to check in and get an access key to get through the security gates. Being a Saturday, the manager was the only person in the office and he (incorrectly) told us not to bother to clear in until Monday.
The marina doesn’t have any toilets or showers, but there are two yacht clubs next to the marina that have facilities and grant two weeks free membership to international visitors - we signed up as temporary members of both yacht clubs. The Royal Natal Yacht Club is oldest club in the southern hemisphere and is a very pleasant place. The Point Yacht Club is more modern.
We had a boozy lunch at the Royal Natal Yacht Club, where we bumped into Paul and Monique - they’d sailed down with “Looking For Dave” to have a break from working on “Full Circle” in Richards Bay. We met up with some of the other boats who had arrived today and most had cleared in, so we walked along the main road for a kilometre to the Customs & Immigration Building.
Immigration were friendly and filled in a load of forms for us. They hold onto our flight plan until we are going to leave. They told us that they will then come down to the marina to clear us out, after which we have 24 hours to leave Durban. We visited Customs who filled in another form, which they stamped and gave us a copy.
In the evening, we went to the Royal Natal Yacht Club and had dinner with “Full Circle” and Mark & Tina from “Thinking of Dave”. The food isn’t too bad and the drinks are cheap. As temporary members, we get discount on the menu prices.
17 December 2017 Durban, South Africa
A few of the members at both yacht clubs have told us that it’s not advisable to walk around Durban town. Apparently, a French cruiser was mugged a few weeks ago and his rucksack seized. When we walked down to the customs building yesterday, we felt a bit apprehensive and didn’t see a single white person walking around even though there’s a pleasant little park along the road side.
Glenys did some research on places to visit in Durban - there’s an aquarium, a botanical garden, a couple of small museums and it’s relatively safe to walk along the beach front. The number 1 tourist attraction is a 3 hour bus tour that takes you around the city, but you never get off the bus. Hmmm, none of that seemed to be particularly inspiring, so we had a quiet day aboard.
There looks to be a weather window on Wednesday 20th, which should get us to East London, so we have another few days stuck in Durban. The marina is filthy with loads of rubbish in the water and with the security concerns, we’re not that keen to step out, so we’re feeling a bit trapped. It threw it down in the evening, so we stayed in and watched some TV.
18 December 2017 Durban, South Africa
As it was Monday, we went to the marina office and checked in properly with the office staff. We chatted to a few other cruisers who are also waiting for the next weather window on the 20th and they haven’t done much in Durban either. It started to rain during the morning, so we couldn’t even be bothered to go to the cinema.
In the evening, we dashed through the howling South-west wind and driving rain to have a quiet dinner by ourselves in the Royal Natal Yacht Club
19 December 2017 Durban, South Africa
It still looks good to leave for East London tomorrow, so we paid our marina bill, filled in our new Flight Plan and walked down to get our stamps. The first stop was at the Port Authority, which is in an office just past the Customs building. They checked and stamped our forms and gave us a slip of paper stating that we had fully paid our harbour fees (free for the first month for international visitors).
Immigration filled in more forms and gave us a stamp. We filled in another form at Customs, then took our stamped Flight Plan back to the Port Authority, who send it to Port Control, who we have to call before we can exit the port. We have 24 hours to leave the harbour before the Flight Plan expires. What a palaver.
Fear is a funny thing. The 1 kilometre walk between the marina and the customs building is along a wide pavement, next to a grassy park, alongside a busy, modern dual lane road, with shops on the other side. We met several cruisers who wouldn’t walk along this road even in the middle of the day – we did, but we were very vigilant.
The authorities are obviously trying to smarten the place up and improve security. There was a huge sign in the park next to the marina, forbidding about everything bad that you could think of...
On the way back from the Customs, we stopped in a Spar supermarket and were surprised to see a guard with an automatic machine gun at the ready, guarding two security guys loading an ATM machine. Perhaps we’ll not go out at night.
20 December 2017 Durban to East London (Day 1)
The alarm went off at 04:30. We checked the weather forecast to confirm no change and then eased our way carefully out of the tight corner of the marina. There were dozens of small sports fishing boats calling up Durban Port Control, all heading out to take advantage of the blue skies and settled conditions. After getting a terse, monosyllabic approval to our request to leave the port, we motored out of the port entrance at 05:00 into a gentle 1 metre swell coming from the south.
The wind settled down to 5-10 knots from the south-west and we motored south looking for the Agulhas Current, which sets south at up to 3 knots. For the first hour, we had a favourable 0.5 knot current, but then encountered an adverse 1-2 knot current for the next two hours. We had no current for the next hour or so, but as we continued into deeper water, the current increased and by 11:00, around 13 miles offshore, we were being pushed along by a 2 knot current. Later in the afternoon, we had over 3 knots, so at times we were doing 8.5 knots over the ground.
I put out two fishing lines and rigged up the new set of birds that I bought in Richards Bay. In the afternoon, we had two strikes, but didn’t land either – one on the rod whizzed out and eventually snapped the line and the other was taken by a bigger fish/shark, leaving us only scraps on the hook.
The wind remained light all day. It backed to south allowing us to motor-sail on port tack, but refused to increase enough allow us to sail. The swell from the south gradually built to 3 metres with confused waves on top presumably caused by the wind against current. These waves made us pitch and slowed down our boat speed, so when we tried to sail, we didn’t have enough power to cut through the waves.
By 20:00, the wind had backed to the south-east at 8 knots and we had 4.5 knots of current, so despite only being able to motor at 4.5 to 5 knots, we were doing 9.5 knots over the ground. Unfortunately, the change in the wind confused the seas even more so it was a horrible crashing ride. I tried to hold the mainsail out with a preventer to try to gain some boat speed from the wind, but gave up as the boom flogged around in the waves. Eventually, we rolled the main away and motor-sailed all night with just the genoa.
By midnight, the wind had backed further to north-east and thankfully, the seas had calmed down – I guess that this was a result of the wind being in the same direction as the current. It’s a nasty bit of sea along here. We’re travelling in very benign wind conditions with 5-12 knot winds, but it looks like even light winds with a southerly component kick up a boat-stopping choppy sea. I’ve been told that they commonly get 8 metre high breaking waves in a south westerly gale – something to avoid...
At our 01:00 watch change, we’d lost the 4 knot current and only had 1 knot. There’s a plateau in the sea bed sticking out from the shore at 32°00.6S 29°29.1E, so I steered us south, heading back out towards the 1,000 metre contour, where I picked up a 3 knot current again. I don’t know if it was the best thing to do – perhaps the current would have come back if I’d stayed further in. Who knows? At least we had a 3 knot current with us again.
21 December 2017 Durban to East London (Day 2)
Just after dawn, the elusive current disappeared on us again and despite heading out to 1000 metres and then back in again to 300 metres, we couldn’t find it. However, the skies cleared to a stunning solid blue and the wind settled down to ENE 20, which allowed us to finally turn off the engine and run downwind, wing-on-wing in relatively calm seas averaging 6.5 to 7.5 knots. At 09:00, we had 60 miles to go, so we were hoping to get into East London before dark.
It continued to be a lovely day and we found the current again at the 300 metre contour when we were 45 miles from our destination and then we had a couple of knots with us most of the way to the breakwater – a fabulous day’s sailing after last night’s unpleasantness.
A couple of miles from the harbour entrance we called Port Control (on VHF16, working channel 12) and after a couple of questions, they granted us entry to the port. We motored to the end of the port where there is a bridge blocking the river and about twenty fore-aft trot moorings belonging to the Buffalo River Yacht Club.
There used to be a jetty on the north shore against which visiting yachts could moor, called Latimer’s Landing, but it is now derelict. There were two choices - anchor in 12 metres of water or pick up a mooring. As it was getting dark, we decided to anchor and sort it out tomorrow. Fortunately, one of the yacht club members, Graham shouted that there's a single visitor’s berth alongside their floating pontoon, so we pulled up the anchor and moored alongside.
Graham helped us with our lines and we invited him on-board for a few cold beers to get the low down on the area. The club is only open on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and they normally do a Braai on Christmas Day for the visiting Yachts. It’s not advisable to walk around the port area, so we’ll need to get a taxi wherever we go.