It was an uneventful passage down to Knysna helped greatly by the Agulhas current. This is one of the fastest sea currents in the world and has wrecked many a good ship when a southerly opposes it and causes giant waves. We were lucky, chose our weather window with care and had north easterly winds for our 4 day passage. The weather was so good we could have carried straight on to Simonstown down in False Bay where we hope to make a longer stop but we really wanted to stop at Knysna as it is said to be one of the most attractive bays on this coast and has a reputation for having a tricky, exhilarating entrance into the harbour and we wanted to have a go.

As you can see from this shot of our navigator we touched on 12 knots at one stage. Annoyingly our log was not working as it had got weeded up in Richards Bay but at this stage we probably had over 4 knots of current. This is current not tide so it always runs this way and at this point off East London often at even greater speeds. The width of the current is surprisingly narrow, less than 50 miles at this stage. Sadly we had no moon to speak of so the nights were pitch black and seemed very long except were we had the strongest current when the sea lit up with so much phosphorescence it was like sailing through a lake of emeralds.

We were also very lucky to arrive off Knysna after a period of settled weather offshore which meant that the swell was low enough for us to enter what the Royal Navy once called the most difficult entrance in the world. The problem is it is a very narrow channel, encumbered by rocks but most importantly has a shallow bar very reminiscent of Salcombe in UK. The difference is that this channel is often completely covered by breaking seas that have caused many wrecks over the years.

Once inside it is calm and peaceful but still needs care as there are great expanses of shallows to be negotiated into the harbour. This photo is taken looking back at the entrance from the large sheltered lagoon...we were concentrating too hard to take pictures on the way in!

Knysna has an excellent yacht club, we arrived just as lunch was being served and were made extremely welcome. There is a pleasant marina where Herbie the Harbour Master is based., he is helpful and informative, especially with regard to the harbour entrance. A good range of restaurants is on hand and all the shops are within easy walking distance which makes a nice change from our last two harbours. Best of all it is the centre of the region that is justifiably known as the Garden Route. Hence we spent the next 5 days exploring the area by car, canoe and on foot.