Tuesday 23 April 2013

MOSSEL BAY TO CAPE TOWN April 19th to 21st 2013

Second of the GREAT CAPES ticked off. Cape of Good Hope.
19th April. 1.00am on the way out of Mossel Bay after a 6 day stop over. 

There is always something to fix so we were not idle. The first couple of days in the fishing harbor were an opportunity to fix the gen-set again! It's not a stop I would recommend. There are no facilities on the dock ie. power or water. The security gate is policed to the point where you are breathalyzed and searched as you return with stores etc. The fish factories are very very smelly and the boat got filthy from the tires, and huge flocks of pacific gulls hanging around waiting for the fishing boats.

View from the back of Taipan Cape Town
The up side is that the anchorage in front of the yacht club has very good holding and even in 30+ NE weather we had no problem. It slaps back off the harbor wall but that was just noisy. In almost all other weather I would think it the best option. The harbor is untenable for yachts in NE weather because there is a big surge inside and boats are against large tractor tires. It is possible at low tide to find the boat under the tires.
The town itself is very pleasant and an easy stroll from the yacht club. 
There is a very big Shopping Center about 10 min taxi from town center, but we didn't go there. We found everything we needed within walking distance. Fuel had to be carried in jerrys by taxi and water from the yacht club.


Taipans neighbours

It's roughly 250nm to Cape Town from Mossel Bay. We experienced very little wind from the  south and east for most of the trip. The sea to the east of Cape Aghulus was quite big and uncomfortable but after the cape it settled.

We made Cape Town in perfectly calm clear conditions by midnight on Saturday 21st and were securely tied up in the V&A Waterfront Marina by 1.00am Sunday 
Let the fun begin!