It’s been an interesting week. Well, week and a half.

I arrived on a perfectly calm and settled day when the entrance to the lagoon was harmless and the waters within like glass. In fact, that’s pretty much how it is now as I look out across the moorings in beautiful sunshine and the temperature in the mid twenties. Had I not have witnessed the full wrath of the South African weather just a few days ago, I might find it hard to believe that this is winter. Late last week, as forecast, a huge storm came through the cape lasting nearly three days with a series of fronts bringing winds in excess of 70knots. It really was the ugliest storm I’ve come across in the entire voyage and it was some comfort - little comfort, that I was not at sea but tethered securely to a swinging mooring. The force of it ripped my dinghy and outboard from Canasta leaving me completely stranded and expecting to have to fork out for an expensive replacement. As the storm eventually abated, the Vice Commodore motored past to check that I was okay and, to my utter relief, told me that my dinghy had washed up on the beach and been taken back to the yacht club. Phew!

I’m enjoying Knysna. I’ve already mobilised my tiny fold-up bike and ventured into the surrounding nature reserves and beaches. I’ve made many new friends already and I’m looking forward to the Knysna Oyster Festival that begins this weekend and, so I’m told, is the highlight of the town calendar. Thousands of people will descend on the town for ten days of music, sports and, I presume, oysters. I will have to vacate this mooring today or tomorrow as the owner is returning so I may go into the marina for a week or two but to be honest, I’d rather be out here. It is so close to all the bars and facilities and yet it is so tranquil out here.

These pictures show the lagoon in it’s passive state but, although I didn’t get any photos during the storm, I did take a walk up to ‘The Heads’ a day or two after it had passed and was slightly alarmed to see 4m breaking waves right across the entrance and, even more alarmingly, right across the leading line that guides vessels through the rocky entrance!

It’s ferocious!

Okay, so that’s it from me for now. I hope you’re all well and, Emily, I hope you a great birthday yesterday. Let’s hope that the British and Irish Lions can win on Saturday after their narrow loss last weekend. They lost the match and the series but, I think, won the moral victory.

Bye for now,

Bee

Rob Clark

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