Hi Folks,

Well we set off from Reunion island on 15^th Nov aiming for the next stop in the Oyster World Rally, Richards bay towards the top of the SA coast. In fact the sail wasn’t too bad – at least we had circa 15-20kts of wind most the way and only short spells of motor sailing. Sea was a little on the lumpy side but nothing too much. The passage takes us South of Madagascar (shame not going their), for which the sailing guides advise not to go within 100 miles of the tip due to potential for big sea’s, but we don’t listen to that and decided to go circa 75nm from the tip to cut a whole load of miles off, and fortunately (or luckily) we had no drams getting round the tip – in fact wind and sea were both quite good, although we could see from the weather files there was weather closing in up the SA coast so needed to get there and hopefully miss the system coming in…….not long after passing the tip got the news that the new pontoon promised in Richards Bay weren’t there – Oh dear – need to divert to Durban (which is a shame as it looked like there’d be a lot to see there). So now having to go further it was fairly inevitable that we’d get a bit of weather in the system coming up the coast, no worries though we used to that……in fact it wasn’t too bad, HOWEVER on the final few hundred miles wind was building so time to reef in the Genoa a bit, which we’ve done loads of times, uum but on the electric winch – sheet got stuck, winch carried on a ping furling line came completely out of the furling drum, causing the whole genoa to come out – not what we wanted in a big wind/sea and now no way of furling it away – on option then is to drop the sail, again no fun in big winds/sea and as were dropping the genoa it bashed hard against the spreader causing a little (1m) tear – oh bugger, still not the end of the world, just a repair needed when we get into Durban!!

Ended up being a night entry into the Marina which is deep into the Durban harbour (one of the world’s largest), so a little care needed. ‘BLARR’ – flippin massive cargo ship hoots as he’s being pulled out into the main stream by a couple of tugs, just as we’re down the stream, oops time to get out of the way – no big drama though and soon clear, looking for a couple of the other Oysters that had arrived earlier, which eventually we found and moored-up at about 11pm……only to be ‘forced’ onto Duchess for a couple of bottles of bubbly with Sotto and Serendipity and Dreams when they eventually rocked up an hour later. Slow morning next day L, so over to the sailing club for Sunday lunch, only to be told that the word is we had an enormous party and got through a case or two of Champer’s – amazing how rumours start!! Even more so that Babe tends to be in most of them!?

So a bit of a straggly place Durban, marina a little tired and town generally like a dirty city (no offence intended), however the yacht club looked after us very well with a very warm welcome and fantastic hospitality – many thanks. To be fair we really didn’t get up to an awful lot in Durban, between checking in & out, fixing the sail, sorting a few other yachty things, SHOPPING (funny how we’ve again missed shopping centres and particularly well stocked supermarkets) and socialising at the yacht club + meals out. What we did notice is that we’re back in cold climes again – just like being back in the UK in summer, cold days and plenty of rain – in fact probably colder than the UK, and it’s summer here!?

What really came as a shock was how flipping cheap things are, especially food and drink – we ordered a round at the yacht club: 1 x beer, 1 x rum & coke, 1 x coke, 1 x glass of wine = about £3, that £3, yes £3 – it Durban was Cosmo I’d be staying here, just for the price of booze (I’d have said we’d, but Tish not of the same opinion). At the supermarkets a decent bottle of SA sauv blanc (and sauv blanc) = £3-5! Heaven!

Kady also flew in to joint us a couple of days later, having to change her local fight, but was no worries and great to have her back on-board – we’ll make a sailor of her yet – to be fair from shaking like a leaf (being scrared sh*tless) when we did the Antigua regatta in Jan 2013, she’s come on so well, even doing lone overnight shifts!

Nelius, being a South African also left us for his home to surprise his parents – naughty boy (first time he’s been them in in well over a year) so was a little phaffing around with flights to transfer tickets from Richards bay to Durban, but he got home and understand the surprise went down very well, though shame we didn’t get to meet his parents.

Unfortunately photo’s are also a little light on the ground for Durban, soz. 

Whilst there we learnt that there was an ‘alternative’ adult pantomime on nearby – great we thought, and great it was - booked for about 20 of us and had proper tables arranged on a number of levels and you could take food in and purchase beer and wine (at next to nothing) – what a refreshing change from UK! Pantomime was so good had us laughing all the way through with loads of camp and smutty jokes, one liners and put downs – again just wouldn’t get away with such in the UK!!

We had only really intended spending a couple of days here, however at this time of the year any movement down the coast is total determined by the continually changing weather with a risk of 10-20m wave if you time it wrong (can be fatal for ships, let alone small yachts) – as it happened had to wait for over a week to identify a suitable slot (some of the Oysters tried a few days before with a very narrow slot only to return in the afternoon due to 3-4 m swells). This really meant we could only get a certain way down the coast, for which we identified a slot which should just about get us to Port Elizabeth a few hours before the next weather system, and if there were any issues there was a potential stop at East London on the way – well that was the plan, so you’ll have to read the next blog to see what happened!!

Lots of luv,

Paul & Trish

xx