Have You Ever Been This Far South?

Monday morning we drove from Langebaan to Cape Town Yacht Club, found our boat hidden among the hundreds of other sailboats, and started our preparation for the coming voyage of 2000 miles. Yes, that’s right, 7 people, locked up tight in a 38 ft sailboat, and sailing over 2000 miles during the course of 4 weeks.

We cleaned, packed, and attended to the maintenance needs of Natasha. That night we slept in the marina, then at about 0800 Tuesday morning, we slipped lines, and Michael pulled us away from the dock. With little fanfare, our adventure had officially began!!

The first leg was relatively simple; an 11 hour sail around Cape Point to Simon’s Town. That quick jump to a town only 45 min away by car, gave us some of the most amazing sites we’d see over the course of the following week. Rounding Cape Point, we came across large pods of dolphins, hundreds of seals, a sea turtle, a couple of whales, and the highlight of the trip, a 4 meter great white shark that surfaced just off our starboard beam. None of us could believe how close or how big it was. Seeing the great white while sailing is one of those experiences which highlight why people travel and it’s something I’ll always remember about this trip.

(not a picture of the great white 😂)

Coming into Simon’s Town at night kept us from getting a good view of the sleepy little naval town. But the next morning we woke up to a picturesque village sitting on the banks of False Bay where we would be spending the next two days. It’s old, dating back to its establishment in 1680, and it mostly consists of the naval base and training center. Its main tourist attraction though is Boulder’s beach, where to my excitement, lives the African Penguins. They’re the cutest little birds that waddle when they walk and tend to fall over when they try to jump off even the smallest ledge. Mostly they just laid around sunning and posing for tourists while we all took pictures.

I guess I was the only one interested in the penguins, because everyone else took a hike up to Admiral’s Waterfall. The views of the bay and the surrounding area from the elevation were breathtaking. In the town, there are also a few museums, restaurants, and local shops. As with most small towns though, everything seemed to close down around 5pm and as the night got darker, everyone started to head back to the boat for a night’s rest before heading out on the next leg.

We had to postpone moving further up the coast towards Durban due to weather not being in our favor. So, around 0900 Friday morning, we pulled out of Simon’s town and pointed our boat back towards Cape Town. A short 8 hour sail got us to Hout Bay, just outside the Mother City. Once there, it was pretty much, shower, eat, and nap for three hours before we once again, untied from the dock and quietly slipped out of another marina en route to Mossel Bay.

And what a leg that ended up being!! We didn’t get the worst of what South Africa could give while sailing around the most southern tip. But during the 48 hours, working our way to and around Cape Agulhas was definitely eventful. The swells seemed to come from 3 different directions, we still weren’t accustomed to sleeping well on the boat, and the wind was gusting up to and past 30 knots. Put this all together with sailing overnight in the pitch-black dark and being tossed out of bed by yet another wave causing the boat to heal over, all of it continuing for 48 hours straight, and you get our first real sail! Truthfully, I have a new appreciation for sailing on the ocean. Up till now, I didn’t really know what to expect during our mileage trip. Now I realize what is normal and also can imagine it being so much worse. All in all, Cape Agulhas was kind to us. And there you have it, the first of 4 weeks complete and only 3 more to go.

We’ve already been visited by so many different animals, enjoyed our first of what Michael and Tristan believe will be many fish caught and cooked within the hour, hung upside down off the back of the boat while underway to clean kelp off the rudder, experienced sleep deprivation, been tossed by the waves, broke the toilet, almost ran out of water, had our food spoil, and for moments even hated life. Through every minute though, it’s been an absolutely great experience. Week one only started to make us stronger, the next three are going to give us the confidence to conquer the world.