We enjoyed a fast and furious trip from la reunion to Durban, however the last 24 hours will be a time that we will wish to forget. Although we had wind from a favoured direction, a North Easterly, which was running with the Aghulas current, the waves were never the less pretty scary and sea water found its way into our precious home, not causing any great damage but none the less not a great outcome. Goodness knows what it would have been like in a South Westerly which for the avoidance of any doubt we would have stayed well cleared off and like some of the other yachts, who were in front of us, we would have stood still and waited for favourable wind.
We anchored off Durban Marina for 2 nights whilst Malcolm the marina manager did his conjuring acts to accommodate all the oyster yachts.
The Royal Natal Yacht Club had taken the oyster fleet under its wing and we received not only a great welcome but practical help, with booking help on the boat, booking tours, girlie pampering and of course restaurants and bars. We were lucky enough to arrive the day before they threw a party for participants. Their hospitality was exceedingly generous and Debbie retired back to Amelie around 1am. Some while after that Stephen insisted that he buy the Commodore a drink; Graem's response was 2 bottles of red wine please-they are now drinking mates. Very early Sunday morning Tosh, Olly and Eddie arrived to help remove the offending sea anchor (washing machine). Not many tears were shed by Debbie at this parting, not to mention the sight of two young men flexing their muscles during the extraction process. The following day a shiny new Miele arrived which with the return help of the Proteus boys, and much to Debbie's continued delight, marital strife is now officially over. The boat has returned to its famous chinese laundry look.
So we had arrived on a Friday and had kept busy awaiting the arrival of our friends James and Dawn who flew in on the Monday. We set aside boat chores and enjoyed five days of being tourists. On the Tuesday we visited the waterfront and lunched beside three pretty big sharks who eyed us up as lunch, luckily there was a glass screen between us and them. On the Wednesday Debbie took a boat break to go Christmas shopping whilst Stephen, James and Dawn went out for a day sail having informed Durban Port Control we needed to under go sea trials. We had in fact replaced the chocks where the mast enters the boat through the deck, more that ably orchestrated by Eddie, and it was reassuring that they held after our sail. Thursday and Friday saw us head off to Zululand Private Game Reserve. The first drive on the evening of our arrival was in the private game reserve where we were treated to encounters with water buffalo, baboons, giraffe, antelope and many bird and plant species. Our 2 hours were completely filled with one sighting after another. The whole experience was incredible with stilted log cabins overlooking a waterhole and visiting antelope. For the main event we had been up at 04:30 for a 5am entry into the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve. This is one of the largest and claims to be the oldest natural park in Africa, consisting 960 square kilometers of land, so I guess it wasn't surprising that our 3 hour game drive was not minute by minute quite so intense as the previous evening. It was none the less awesome to see 13 rhinos, hippos, zebra, baboons, water bison, and Debbie got very excited about seeing 2 pumbas (warthogs). The park with its breeding programme brought back the rhino from near extinction since in 1900 there were only 20 rhinos world wide compared to the 10,000 today; 1,000 of which were in the park itself. The lack of sighting of any lion, leopard or elephant merely fuelled our appetite to do it all over again. Morning breakfast brought momentous news that at the age of 95 Nelson Mandela had passed away, it had only been 2 days previously that we had been to see his autobiographical film the Long Walk to Freedom.
Saturday saw James and Dawn leave to see their family, and Stephen and Debbie whilst borrowing Pearl of Persia's car headed off to an iPad maps incorrect airport site, in fact it was completely the opposite end of Durban. Jaz had landed and refreshed herself with a beverage before they had even managed to find the correct airport, Debbie was panicking.
So now we come to the billing for the next stage of our journey form Durban to Cape Town. With the fierce Aghulas current, an average of 3 day weather windows and 800 miles to sail this would be the most difficult part of our entire world rally, well done Jaz for choosing this trip, we now know she likes a challenge. But hey you have to sometimes enjoy the unexpected and the fact is that we did the whole trip in 4 straight days enjoying the fastest sailing that Amelie has ever done and no sea water in the boat! We sailed past Cape Aghulas, which is the most southerly point of Africa, at sunset and saved sunrise for a fantastical sail around the Cape of Good Hope (otherwise known as the Cape of Storms). We were treated by strange looking fin like objects in water which we have since discovered were sunbathing seals. We used Jaz's eyes as our pilot to guide us through half and hour of really thick fog before breaking through to the fantastic site of Cape Town dwarfed by Table mountain. Wow! We've done it!
We wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year