![]() What's next? Suggestions on a postcard, please! Glad we didn't know that at the time, and, now, here we are, parked up in Cape Town's V&A Marina along with Ocean Cruising Club boats, Steel Sapphire, Georgia, Ice Bear and Trance PO Robert looking after us all. Once again, all the weather windows opened, we broke our record and hit a top speed of 21.5 knots and also some strands on our lower shroud. Richard's Bay, Durban, East London then, finally, Cape Town. Without her support and guidance, we'd still be working our way through South Africa health, customs, immigration, port control - and in that order and only that order. Now, we've had some great experiences with Port Officers, from Orkney to Norfolk, Las Palmas to Opua and Natasha is one of the best. We didn't need to stop, the weather windows kept opening and seven days later we arrived in Richard's Bay, into the arms of Port Officer Natasha. ![]() We didn't stop there but those that did had no issues to report. all while at risk of being boarded by unpleasant and threatening officials keen to augment their meagre wages - who, like the weather, never showed up. Leaving Mayotte we were on what should have been a multi-stop trip down the Mozambique Channel - multi-stop so we could sit and wait for the world's most dangerous weather etc. The yacht club and its members offered a truly great and supportive welcome, cold beer, showers, laundry and crucially, guidance through the immigration process and, painfully, a venue for me to embarrass myself on acoustic guitar. Ladies in colourful, traditional dress, bustling open markets and men in Manchester United T-shirts. An interesting place and really, despite the Seychelles claim to a "first taste of Africa", when in fact, it's really "Africa Lite", Mayotte was definitely Africa. (We never found out where the most dangerous place was, but I clearly remember some wild days hanging on by my toe nails at Queen Mary Reservoir just outside London.) ![]() We finally up'd and off'd for Cape Town at the end of September, either heading for a fifteen knot, leisurely cruise or, a thrashing in "the second most dangerous piece of water in the world". Time Bandit parked up in Seychelles from May until September and the best cruising was.by motorcycle in Iceland - but that's another story. Undaunted, we went through the process of getting the required permit to visit the outlying islands, as tedious as it was pointless because Covid again took an upswing and I didn't fancy taking my wheezing chest anywhere like that. However, best you don't go to the other two islands where you're allowed to cruise, clutching your permit, 'cause they're rife with Covid. In Seychelles, it was just wear a mask and off you go. It was therefore something of a relief to get to the comparative, in fact, almost total freedom of the Seychelles via deserted Chagos where we had the islands to ourselves for two weeks. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |