RQYS MAINSHEET 2023

Table Mountain, Cape Town

Florida / Cape Canaveral | USA

Steve’s notes and Messenger updates continue … Motoring around southern Africa at 11.5kn but making only 5kn butting into the Agulhas Current (“like the eastern Australia current but stronger!”) , crossing the ‘Atlantic line’ the difference in temperature was remarkable – “from three layers of clothes to shorts and t-shirts in just five hours.” Cape Town was “a real eye-opener” over six days spent there – compared with Durban “where even the supermarket trolley-collectors carry sidearms!” The traditional noon ‘time cannon’ firing “hurt my ears down at the marina, but not as much as the Brazilian music which was to come.” “I got bitten on the toe by a sea otter while ashore, waiting to have a shower, about 8.30 one night (just like a dog having a sniff, the little critter wanted a curious taste) ... and it was sometimes hard to get any sleep on board in the harbour with the bumping and jostling of tons of seals herding fish up against boats to feed.”

Port of Spain | Trinidad & Tobago

Devil’s Island | French Guiana

St Helena island British Overseas Territory

Recife | Brazil

Salvador Da Bahia | Brazil

Walvis Bay | Namibia

Cape Town | South Africa

Salt pans and flamingo flocks, Skeleton Coast

Quick wave by a feeding seal

Four-and-a-half days up the inhospitable coast to Walvis Bay – “the night before arrival, we blew the headboard trying to reef in 38kn winds in pitch-dark ...two-thirds of the main sail in the water: a bit ‘character-building’ to say the least! “We stopped at Walvis Bay in Namibia for four days then on to St Helena for three days. Mostly had good sailing in light to moderate winds and slight seas, which was a pleasant change from the rough crossing of the Indian Ocean. Walvis Bay had some things of interest: looked at large flocks of flamingos in the lagoons, huge salt pans with a large processing plant which is one of the largest in the world, apparently! “We also had a 4WD tour on the beach to the east and some of the largest sand dunes in the world, up to 300m high and more than 250km wide: an amazing sight.”

CARNIVAL Brazil was a heavy load on the senses, Salvador Da Bahia where we cleared in was a big city and the old town above the harbour was very much old Portuguese, very colourful and vibrant and, as it was carnival time, the atmosphere was even more exciting for the locals: they really like to party, dance and make the most incredible noise. The little charter boats that run around the bay here have floor-to-cabintop speakers on these 10–12m older wooden craft; they have them blaring from 6am until 11 or so at night. We had tickets to “Carnival” which in Salvador da Bahia is held on the marine parade on the ocean side of the city. It took us an hour in a taxi to get near to where we were supposed to be – and our tickets were for unlimited booze and food in a grandstand area over looking the main road they use.

Bleak rocky Robben Island (12.5km NNW of Cape Town) tour was fascinating: “we stood before (but not allowed to enter) Nelson Mandela’s cell ... other cells placarded with the name, picture and brief bio of each prisoner, and our guide really brought the harrowing stories to life.”

Robben Island

Cable-car ride up Table Mountain (1086m AMSL) – literally “a tablecloth of clouds” – produced great photos and eerie videos of looking across and DOWN at rocky ridges being swallowed by the rolling overpour of encroaching mist ..

‘Tablecloth’ rolling in above Cape Town

Thirsty work, these 4WD tours …

A vivid, first-hand appreciation of why mariners over the centuries came to refer to that long (500km-plus) stretch of the Atlantic face of Africa as ‘the Skeleton Coast’ - shipwrecks abound over the years but are either swiftly torn apart or swallowed by the relentless march of the sands.

Mainsheet 2023

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Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Yearbook