Paddle from Hout Bay to Three Anchor Bay.

Mike's invite to join him on this paddle was pretty last minute, which happens when the weather dictates. Fortunately Simon's Town paddlers are mostly adaptable, so there were plenty of takers.
Margaret, Derek, Mark, Basil, Barbara, Hendrik, William and myself set out on a perfect morning into a dreamy sea without any misgivings.

The trip to Seal Island was effortless and wonderfully scenic. As we approached the perfoming seals, the tour boat Calypso breezed passed, laden with smiling oriental faces. Cameras clicked furiously and suddenly we were big in Japan, although those awesome cliffs and the rising swell soon started to make us feel small and helpless.

Barbara soon took her first of many dunkings as the sea turned into a washing mashine. In the shadow of the cliffs the water looked dark cold and menacing and the mist started to roll in. Barbara's legs soon turned numb with cold which didn't help to improve her balance on her unstable surfski. We were very relieved to be in the comfort of our relatively stable kayaks.

As three of the kayaks started to disapear into the mist ahead of us and couldnt hear our shouts. William realised to his delight that he could legitimately use his whistle, (My ears are still ringing, but it did the trick) and Mike turned back to reasure us that calmer conditions were just around the corner at Sandy Bay and the mist would soon fade.

The eerie fog horn continued to boom out of the white fog ahead and we chose to not turn back but to trust Mike's experience. Barbara battled on gamely but wisely decided to bail out at Llandudno where we stopped for breakfast.
Mike was spot on with his predictions and the rest of the trip was pure pleasure.

Some of the highlights for me was the sight of the wreck of the Boss 400 looming surrealistically out of the mist and the hang gliders drifting off Lions Head. We truly live in an amazing part of the world and although False Bay with its Whales and Dolphins will always be the best place to paddle, there are definitely adventures to be had on the Atlantic side too.

Margot King

Dolphins, again

The huge pod of dolphins that has been gorging itself for weeks on the huge school of fish, which seemingly cannot find its way out of the bay to potential safety, made another appearance during one of my tourists trips. This time it was right in Simon's Bay and they were not feeding so hung around for 15 minutes or so swimming around the kayaks. Luckily my customers had their camera and got some great shots. As usual click on the photo to see a larger view.

Cape Point Paddle - Sunday 11th

UPDATE. The wind blew rather stronger than forecast so the trip was changed to a downwind run from Millers Point to Fish Hoek.

The forecast at the moment looks marginal for an enjoyable paddle to Cape Point unless you are fairly experienced. It does however look good for a Buffels back to Simon's Town paddle for the fitter ones. It's the swell that may prove a problem at the launch and if it's a issue there it will certainly it makes for big swells at the Point. So no promises, it's a call we will have to make once we are there.

It is important for us to know who is coming so if you are, please email margaret@paddlers.co.za to let us know.

Meet at Paddlers shop at 8.30am to organise car pooling. Remember your Wild Card, especially as some people may have to go back to Buffels to fetch cars.

Bay Crossing - Kim's impressions

We had been talking about paddling across False Bay for a couple of years.  The more we talked and strategized, the more opportunities we missed.  The weather forecast and sea conditions for Sunday 29 March were perfect for a crossing.  “Let’s Just Do It’” someone said.  So we did.

Seven experienced sea-kayakers from the Paddler’s Kayak Shop network of regulars set out early on Sunday morning from Millers to tackle the 33kms to Rooiels.   To be honest, I joined the group for `the t-shirt’.  So that I could say, if anyone asked, that I had paddled across False Bay.  The experience was awesome with perfect conditions and for those of you interested in numbers, we completed the crossing averaging a comfortable 7kms per hour.   It was not at all the long, eventless, open ocean slog that I had expected.  Hardly had we left the slip at Millers when we were surrounded by wheeling Malgas (Cape Gannet ) who eyeballed us almost as if they thought we were a fishing party worth watching.  Our route took us just south of Whittle Rock which seems to have lost its marker buoy, but which we located surrounded by Kalkbay Chuckies.  The crew was busy with their hand lines and not especially interested in us – no doubt in their long years at sea they have seen so many unusual sightings that a handful of sea-kayakers in mid ocean is all in a day’s work.

At about the half way mark with Cape Point looking rather small behind us and Cape Hangklip and the Koggelberg Mountains still a distant smudge half buried in cloud we rafted-up for very welcome coffee and crunchies.   After over two hours at sea there was the inevitable discussion about how to relieve a full bladder while sitting in an unstable craft over 17kms from nearest land.  There were various solutions, most of which were not tested so that for some of us the situation did add to the endurance aspect of long distance paddling.

In our experience, the middle of the bay is not the quiet preserve of deep ocean swells but is full of life.  The variety of seabirds that we could not recognize added to the excitement of being in new territory.  Judging by the birds and the vast assembly of seals, there must be huge shoals of bait fish in the bay at present.  The seals looked satiated and hung together in companionable rafts of raised flippers.  As we paddled past, small groups of seals detached themselves and porpoised playfully after our boats.  The spray kicked up by diving Malgas had us thinking about whales, and sure enough a Bryde’s Whale blew and then surfaced close by.

As we approached the-other-side of False Bay our destination became more real.  We were also, sadly, seeing floating plastic as we approached land. Hangklip lighthouse, which at first looked as if it was standing in the sea, was now visible on its low-lying fringe of land and Rooiels was taking shape – as were the white plumes of breaking waves crashing onto the rocks along the coast.  We know that Rooiels has a safe landing beach and that Derek had recently paddled from Rooiels while escorting swimmers in an across the bay attempt. Ja!  We thought that we had done amazingly well to paddle across False Bay, but that swimmers have swum the same crossing is really impressive.  We followed Derek around the point into Rooiels Bay and saw not only an easy beach exit, but also Liz and Honey our support crew waiting for us.   We had just done it - the plan came together.  There is no t-shirt big enough to say it all, but I shall never be able to look across False Bay again without reliving a part of the wonderful experience. There is nothing False about this Bay – but that’s another story!!
KimK

False Bay Crossing

We've talked about doing it for years but getting a willing bunch together on the same day with the weather perfect and on a Sunday is rare but it all came together at short notice this weekend.

Silke Carstensen, Kim Kryshaar, Derek Goldman, Chris Kryshaar, Mark Webb and Margot and William King set off around 7.45am...

...from Millers Point heading to Rooi Els 32.5km away as the Google Earth crow flies.

The forecast light westerly wind, which would have been a tail wind, and the main reason for going this day, never really materialised and for the first half of the crossing we headed into a moderate northerly. While it never blew strong enough to slow you down much it did create a cross chop against the 3m swell opposing it from the south.

By around half way the wind dropped to almost nothing and the swell increased as the barrier effect of the Cape Point peninsula lessened.

It's tough on the back and bum so it helps if you're a bit supple and can lean back this far!

Hangklip slowly - too slowly - gets closer and looms larger. An hour or so from landing another friendly Brydes whale paid a visit to the lucky paddlers, but this time did not stay to play. It passed across our bows, turned around us and from just 15m or so showed its fin, dived and disappeared. (Margaret said there was another whale very close to us as we left but none of us actually saw it!)

One expects the trip to be boring for long stretches but deeper into the bay the wildlife increases and we were often chased by playful seals and the birdlife is magnificent. The beautiful Cape Gannet is plentiful and (we think) Petrel as well. Nothing wrong with the view of the mountains ahead either.

Around 5 hours after leaving we arrive at the small holiday hamlet of Rooi Els to be met by our transport crew (thanks Liz and Honey), Hansa "bombs" in hand.

Click on the pictures to enlarge.