Cape Town Royal Cape Yacht Club
Chantelle
Fri 12 Dec 2008 12:55
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Greetings from Royal Cape Yacht Club. Hope this
finds you all in fine fettle and preparing no doubt for Christmas
festivities.
As I am somewhat behind with the blog I thought a
few pictures might help fill in whilst I think back on the last 4,700 nm and
make some sense of it. As our last leg is still fresh in my mind then here's
a quick account outlining our passage.
Our trip from Richards Bay, our first land fall in
South Africa down to Cape Town found us with a near perfect weather slot. Bruce
our weather router remarked that conditions were as "good as it gets" so go for
it! This particular stretch of water is notorious so we were well and truly
hyped up, preparing for a rough ride. The fast flowing Arghulas Current, north
to south coupled with a south westerly buster is a sailors
nightmare. We did not wish to experience the mountainous seas which have been
known to break up huge ocean going vessels. Some of the accounts we read spoke
of 20 metre waves - it would be like falling into a crevasse! Thankfully our
guardian angel was smiling on us and apart from one slightly troublesome night
we cruised safely into Cape Town Monday 24th at 8.30am. The classic view of
Table Mountain looked glorious, unveiled (without her table cloth) in clear,
blue skies, sun shining. In addition we had a reception committee of Dolphins
and Seals, gently rolling along beside the boat. We had given up hope
of seeing any whales, as when other boats have reported sightings we've always
been in the wrong place at the wrong time, however the first part of this leg,
90 miles from Richards Bay to Durban was like a whale watching tour. These
magnificent giants of the sea entertained us to a spectacular show which we
will never forget. We were captivated for hours as they practised their
repertoire of moves, cavorting about the sea as if on a trampoline. Watching
them breach, heaving their massive bulk, bursting through the waters
surface was awesome. Spy hopping another of their favourite antics, along with
tail lobbing (inverted vertically in the water tail beating the surface) was
also incredible. Another favourite trick was again, inverting but holding their
flukes (tails) out of the water for minutes on end. We thought maybe this was
some kind of mating ritual. Whatever the reason we were enthralled by their
acrobatic leaps and felt very privileged that they had graced us with their
presence. It's one thing watching them from a distance but quite something else
when you find yourself side by side. A close up and personal encounter with 30+
tons of whale is to say the least a heart stopping moment. A mixture of
exhilaration and a fierce adrenalin rush as you pray they don't venture too
close. Ours was with us for a few minutes and then gracefully disappeared, to
where we'll never know, for a split second we feared it would surface closer or
maybe collide with us under the boat. Thankfully it was a peaceful encounter. La
Boheme another WARC boat was not so lucky however and had a bump, fortunately no
damage done.
So we are now ensconced in the Royal Cape Yacht
Club and here we stay until 03 Jan. Two things that strike us about this place -
never ending events, it seems to be a favourite venue for Xmas office parties,
and the wind. When it whistles down Table Mountain you certainly know about it,
gusting to 65 knots +. Strangely, further out to sea you would probably
only experience 20-30 knots, it's a local phenomenon, the mountain funnelling
the wind.
Well I'm about to be kicked out from wifi hot spot
so here's wishing you all a very Happy Christmas from Cape Town and hope the New
Year brings all that you wish for.
With Love
Kim and John
Chantelle
xx
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