Durban to Cape Town and Happy Christmas
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.
We are currently sailing gently off Madagascar with 1,000nm to go to our next landfall, Durban. So far, the sailing in the Indian Ocean, for us, has been fantastic and during our passage from Cocos Keeling to la Reunion Island, we broke our 24 hour sailing record and achieved 211nm. In fact over a three day period, days 6,7 and 8, we recorded over 600nm. During the passage, Debbie’s son, Jon, celebrated his 21st. birthday - a day of reflection but Jon and Jaz are visiting us in South Africa, so the celebrations will continue.
We approached Indonesia with some trepidation because of stories about boat theft, sailing in convoy for security and corruption amongst officials. As this story unfolds you will see all these worries were for us, unfounded.
Writing our blog today is poignant as it is exactly one year since we said good-bye to our family and friends, at our ‘Bon Voyage’ party, and also, it would have been Stephen's Dad’s 87th birthday. Without knowing it, we shared his last birthday together.
Darwin is in the Northern Territory of Australia, a multi cultural capital but still in touch with it’s rich indigenous culture. The Aboriginal people, the original custodians of the region, continue to have an unique relationship and respect for their land, creatures, weather, seasons and dreams.