Landfall in South Africa

First glimpse of Durban

Approaching the harbour entrance channel

Inside the calm harbour - following local sailboat Sundance to the Durban Marina

Crews of the three boats, plus Ed, celebratingour arrival with "Windhoek" beer.

A peaceful and early to bed first night in Durban Marina

Landfall in South Africa

Sept 16, 2016

I still can't quite believe we are in Africa! So far, we have mostly seen the marina area of the huge commercial harbour. It looks like it could be anywhere in the world. We got in about 1:30 pm yesterday and it took until lunch time today to finish all the check in formalities. At least you could stay in the marina area and not be confined to the boat. We could have much needed showers and start on the laundry and salt wash up. A tour guide met us here and we have started to make touring plans. .Ed is here as a BPO representative and has been a big help in getting things organized quickly.

The end of the passage was a bit rougher than predicted. We had NE winds overnight Wed/Thurs up to 42 kn. We only had up a reefed main and were sailing downwind so no problems. But the ride was bumpy so not much sleep and another section of the bimini ripped. We are trying to get someone to replace it while we are here. Things were much calmer for the harbour approach in the morning. The last few hours were spent adjusting course to pass the various freighters anchored or moving in and out. We decided to follow one in to help see the harbour entrance. About halfway in, it turned around and started to travel towards us. It was a dredging barge working on the channel. In the meantime we were trying to call port control on VHF to get permission to enter the channel, and they were trying to tell us to get out of the channel. But our main VHF radio didn't seem to be functioning properly.. We were eventually able to contact them on our handheld VHF radio. Another local sailboat was coming into port at the same time. We decided to follow them this time. Eventually they dropped their sails and pulled up beside us and said that they would lead us in to the marina and even called ahead to get which slip we were to take. Much appreciated!

When we pulled in, there were marina staff to take lines. Then Ed arrived with his bucket of beers on ice, followed by the crews of the other 2 boats. That is the photo that is on facebook taken by Klaudia. We were getting congratulations on arriving before through Facebook weable to tell anyone ourselves! After an afternoon of work, a good meal at the marina and an early night to bed were a good end to the day.

An aside here for anyone coming to South Africa with children. They have strict rules for children entering the country. It has taken Tahawas 2 days to round up all the paperwork needed. Norm, Klaudia, and the boys have 3 different last names as families after divorces often have. But they needed a letter from the boys' father, marriage certificates and birth certificates. 

The weather has started to deteriorate today with another stronger south westerly arriving. I'm so glad we are already here. Chris on Tom Tom expects to be here by Mon. Hope it is not too rough for him.

Tomorrow, Sat, we are doing a Durban city tour. Sunday is a day to relax and do chores. Then on Monday, we are all heading out on a week's tour and safari. We have a van, guide, and accommodations along the way, all for a reasonable price. (It is a lot more reasonable for the Americans than for us.) Can't complain too much as the prices generally seem not too bad. We are really looking forward to the time we have here which we expect will be at least two weeks. We had hope to sqeeze in a trip to Victoria Falls as part of next weeks touring, however will have to do that on our own as Tahawus can't leave the country with their children. We'll try to get that trip in later.