South Africa rocks!
by Jenny Crickmore-Thompson & John Franklin 5 Dec 2021 14:35 GMT
South Africa rocks! © Jenny Crickmore-Thompson & John Franklin
This period, from September to about February, is the most entertaining season for us here in South Africa when the circumnavigating yachts hit our shores and bring lots of excitement with them!
A quick potted history: when the world descended into Covid pandemic chaos and hundreds of boats were left stranded offshore with no recourse to land, John Franklin, Peter Sherlock and myself teamed up here in South Africa and managed to bend the government's ear enough to get relief passed to allow foreign yachts in as a 6-week Humanitarian Project. South Africa was the first country in the world to do this, and several others followed suit. That was Nov 2020, we brought in 80 boats in the next 4 months, and the "Project" has now become full-blown regulation! Because of all the work we did last year, we (through OSASA, the Ocean Sailing Association of Southern Africa) have now been mandated to co-ordinate and manage the pre-arrival of all incoming yachts and their onward progress into the Atlantic, giving us direct access to both hundreds of worldwide cruisers and direct communication into the ears of the Government.
With that background, we are now fully into the 2021/22 season, and since September have brought in some 95+ yachts, with others arriving daily. The traditional "season" for arriving boats runs until about January, so we have another 2+ months to go. Of course, over and above the sheer pleasure of working with and meeting so many long-distance ocean cruisers, all this traffic makes for some fun and games. So far we have had 3 NSRI (National Sea Rescue Institute) rescues with one boat hit by lightning 250 nm offshore, a boat impounded for illegally entering Madagascar when it was still closed, boats caught up in ISIS-related troubles in northern Mozambique, a boat grounded and sunk off Mozambique and very tragically a sailing boat crossing from Tanzania to the island chain in the Indian Ocean hit something unknown and was never heard of again. Neither the Indian Ocean nor Africa are for sissies!
Not to mention the daily confrontations between our local port authorities whose home language is Zulu and have a smattering of English and who now have to deal with tired and grumpy French, Russian, Mexican, Chilean, Portuguese and Spanish whose English is just about as basic! There is a lot of loud sign language used, as authorities try to convince weary cruisers who can see the froth dripping off the cold beers and smell the steaks from the Dros restaurant just 200m away that they are NOT allowed to leave their boats until all official paperwork has been done.
This year we have had more OCC yachts than expected, including Roving Rear Commodores Stuart & Anne Letton on Time Bandit, Moonwave, Georgia, Eleanore, Steel Sapphire and Trance. All have entered into the spirit of South African entertainment and participated in the traditional braais with gusto, with Stuart Letton presenting a new member burgee to Dan Reasoner of Trance.
Richards Bay is the first port of call for most circumnavigators crossing the Indian Ocean once they have left the islands behind them, and the Zululand Yacht Club has as usual pulled all the stops out. Our OCC Port Officer here, Natasha Wolmarans, despite working full time and caring for an ill mother, is down at the docks twice a day, to meet each boat on arrival. Natasha hands out sim cards to all the newbies so the cruisers have access to the SA phone network, sweets to those boats with kids aboard, makes the necessary appointments for PCR tests (without which the cruisers are not allowed to leave their boats until cleared), and chivvies Port Health and Immigration to get there earlier than usual. Things work on African time here, so it needs someone behind the scenes chasing! Once all that is done, she will often take them to the supermarket to reprovision and visit the malls, even taking our RoRCs to a game reserve on her own time. Go, Natasha. (I must add here that this is paid for by OSASA, the association we set up here to lobby and liaise with the Government and does not come out of either her own or OCC's pockets).
Zululand Yacht Club does its bit too, organising a bottle of champagne for each incoming foreign boat, Monday night braais (bbq for the uninitiated!), Wednesday sailing/races, outings to Zulu villages to meet the people and regular music evenings. It has become quite hard for cruisers to leave!
So, notable visitors to date. Well, Baluchon has to take the cake. A 4m boat, built at home by Breton Yann Quenet, who left Brittany some two and half years ago to "do something interesting". Well, he's certainly succeeded! With no engine, no electronic gadgets and only a hand-held VHF, a large sculling oar propels him when there is not enough wind for his little sail - or when he needs to come into a harbour or anchorage. Needless to say, this almost created an international incident when he arrived off Richards Bay! Port Control said he was too small to negotiate all the big oil tankers and container ships - his reply "I have 0.8cm draft so I can keep to the shallows"! Then when we eventually got him into harbour, NSRI reported him to SAMSA (SA Maritime Safety Assoc) and said he would not be allowed to proceed any further down the coast as he had no engine! His reply "It's ok, I can rent a car and trailer and simply drive to Cape Town". Needless to say, after much negotiation and interaction from other yachties and authorities, this restriction was lifted.
It's been interesting watching the shift in circumnavigators this year: there are a lot more catamarans than previously, many more families with young children (Ohana has just arrived, with 6 kids!), many more single sailors in various size yachts from Europe. We have had several boats interacting with whales just offshore, and two en route north had to return after whale encounters damaged the boats. Many more boats decided to make a passage across to Tanzania before attempting the run down the coast and through the hectic Mozambique Channel to Richards Bay.
With tranches of severe weather impacting the Mozambique Channel passage this year, many of the boats coming in from Seychelles/Maldives/Mayotte have had to find hidey-holes along the East Coast of Africa, not necessarily known for safe harbours! That has resulted in boats arriving en masse as soon as a weather window opens. Fortunately, there are good South African radio nets and weather routers locally, and we run several Whatsapp and Facebook groups to get information out to cruisers quickly, simply and timeously! We get 5-25 messages a day on each.
It all impacts on the South African ports, however, and on Richards Bay as the first port of call especially. There is a constant daily shuffling of boats in order to make space for newcomers - made more problematic because so many now are catamarans and need more space. Tuzi Gazi, a small marina just behind the international reception dock, has been closed for almost 18 months but has been hauled back into service so small local ski and fishing boats can be moved there temporarily, easing the pressure on Zululand Yacht Club. Because it is such a short international cruising season here, there has been a dearth of investment in upgrading SA ports and harbours to attract small craft. In fact, that is OSASA's next task: to convince the Government to put their hands in their pockets and pay for this much-needed resource: better facilities in each port, more docks and moorings, and most importantly, secure tenure for the yacht clubs which are the backbone of the cruising community. A huge job, but we're getting there. What is it they say about eating an elephant? One bite at a time?
It all works out in the end. There is an Afrikaans saying " 'n boer maak 'n plan" - basically that a farmer will always work something out, make a plan. That's what we've been doing in South Africa the past 2 years - making a plan! And we've succeeded.
This article has been provided by the courtesy of Ocean Cruising Club.