Safe Arrival in False Bay - False Bay Yacht Club, Simon's Town, South Africa
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sat 10 Nov 2012 09:59
| 34:11.480S 18:25.970E November 10, 2012 Rounding Cape Agulhas. Check. Piece-o-cake. Or as Don would say, 'piece-o-baklava' (not sure why he is so fond of saying this as he isn't even remotely Greek?). We rounded Cape Agulhas right on schedule late yesterday afternoon. Although rounding the cape itself was a blasé motor in light wind under sunny skies, we could see a few whales blowing in the distance. Certainly they were sent by their dolphin cousins to grandly welcome us back into the Atlantic Ocean. And what a welcome it was. As soon as we pointed Harmonie toward the northwest after clearing the shoals off the coast of the cape, the sea became flat, and the wind picked up just enough for us to sail beautifully at five knots. It took us a moment to realize why the circumstances had changed so dramatically in such a short time. We were in the Atlantic Ocean. That nasty, unpredictable, tumultuous Indian Ocean was literally behind us. Ahhhhhh. The wind held up long enough for us to have a quiet, leisurely dinner capped off by the first 'real' sunset of the season (up until then, each evening the sun sank into oblivion through banks of gray cloud gloom). We joked that we'd probably see our first green flash of the season. And we did. Magic. After the light wind went too far south for us to sail, we motored through the night dodging ships and large fishing boats. Our track from the night's motor looks like a drunken sailor's trail home - lots of direction changes, but general progress in the right direction. Once we turned into False Bay, just south of the Cape of Good Hope, we had the place to ourselves for the final 20-mile run in to the yacht club. We thought we had the place to ourselves, anyway. We had just finished breakfast and I was down below when Don yelped, "A whale! A whale just blew saltwater all over me! He's right next to the boat!" Wow. Over the years, we've heard many boater friends tell stories about close encounters with whales. We've always nodded our heads and smiled, sometimes mentioning the various sightings we've had, but never bragging about our own close encounters. Mainly because we'd never had one. Until this morning. The whale frolicked in our wake just like dolphins do! He (she?) was a slim 30-35 feet long, and gray with a white underbelly. We know this because he seemed to love gliding along Harmonie's port side (and I mean alongside, as in we looked down and there he was, just under the surface), then twirling around so we could see his belly. He swam under the boat and did the same on the starboard side. Back and forth, back and forth he went, coming up for air now and again, the sudden noise of his breathing making us jump (and take cover from the spray). Can you imagine? We couldn't, until now. Fabulous. As we approached the head of the bay where the yacht club lies, the wind picked up as advertised, and we battled in against 25 knots, salt spray flying everywhere as I tried to get dock lines and fenders sorted. Things calmed down somewhat after we rounded the nearby navy base break wall, and to the amazement of all the yacht club members on the docks today (quite a few as it's a sunny Saturday), Don deftly turned the boat around and backed all the way down a long marina 'aisle', turning the boat neatly, stern first, into the waiting slip along the main dock. All done in 20 knot gusts of wind. We've only been here a few hours and already Don has received accolades from at least six observers. He claims it's Harmonie's powerful bow thruster that makes difficult dock landings easy. I say it has more to do with skill than equipment, but in either case, the end result is good, we're here. And 'here' is nice! It's a proper marina/yacht club with real, sturdy, well-maintained docks and a pretty little town climbing the hill beyond the yacht club. There's no loading docks or freighters in sight. Nor a squid boat fleet. We haven't even left the boat yet, and we can already tell we are going to like this place. Time for lunch. Later? Champagne. Next up: Richard's Bay to False Bay passage summary and pictures Anne |