Leaving Durban….  Tuesday, 04/03/2025

A brief update… All going well (no sudden changes to the weather forecast or technical problems with the boat), I intend to leave Durban this coming Thursday. 

Over the past week, I’ve been seeing a number of people, as well as making arrangements for departure. The weather is a sensitive thing. To sail down the South African coast, one needs a decent weather window: ideally, wind coming roughly from the north. What you don’t want is a strong southwesterly wind, which will counter the Agulhas current running down the coast and likely produce very large waves. Over the past few weeks the weather has been very changeable, producing very few windows for the three day (387 nautical mile) trip down to Port Elizabeth (now officially called Gqeberha, but still very commonly called by its old name, or just “PE”). 

The weather looks ok, and hopefully will remain that way.

My intention is to stay in PE for a few days and to visit Roger and Maryan, old friends (Roger is the older brother of John Hart, with whom I’ve outstayed my welcome here in Durban!). They have a game farm in the Eastern Cape – something on which I can report in the next week or so.

From PE I will then head to Cape Town (a further 415 nautical miles, so another three day sail). I intend to spend a week or so there – although I know Cape Town and surrounds fairly well, it is such a beautiful area that it would be a pity not to spend a few days. Will probably hire a car for a few days and go out to the heart of the winelands around Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, and perhaps drive down to Cape Point, which is a stunning drive between mountains and the sea, one of the great road trips of the world. And perhaps investigate the area to the north of Cape Town, which I don’t really know. I’d also like to walk up Table Mountain again – I did it in early 2019 and it’s not as difficult as it looks. Table Mountain is 1,086 metres high (3,563 feet), but the easiest walk, up Platteklip Gorge, is only a 650 metre climb because the starting point, near the cable car station, is already fairly high.

So there’s a reasonable bit of South Africa left to me before I depart. It will certainly feel strange to be sailing again, but it’s time to be on the move. As long as I leave Cape Town by late March I should be ok – the best time to sail northwest to St Helena is March, but running into early April hopefully shouldn’t be a problem. A brief stop there, and then onward to Ascension Island and then the Cape Verde islands, April being the best time for that voyage.