One of the most enjoyable parts of the Freedom Swim (from Robben Island to Blouberg, on May 3rd) was the time we spent waiting outside Murray’s Bay Harbour on Robben Island, where the swim was to begin. Once we received the all-clear to head from Granger Bay to the island, we saw that the mist only extended a short distance out to sea, and it was clear at Robben Island.
Table Mountain and Robben Island
A motley assortment of boats – from a huge yacht to a two metre long rubber duck with a single 15hp motor, as well as some rescue boats, stand up paddle boarders, and kayakers – spent nearly an hour bobbing gently on the mirror-like ocean.
Waiting for the swim to start
A festive atmosphere prevailed. In order to assist their swimmers to identify them, boats were adorned with flags, balloons, inflated papsakke, towels, and other colourful items. Stand up paddle boarders moved through the crowd of boats, and we enjoyed a strange stereo effect when radio announcements were made by the organisers.
A tanker is visible in the distance
Clouds above the calm sea
An assortment of watercraft
The expensive, fancy Robben Island ferry is broken (as it seems to have been almost since the moment it went into service), so Nauticat, the seal watching boat from Hout Bay, is doing duty as one of the ferries bringing visitors to the island until a new ferry is obtained. The ferries practically handbrake turn into the harbour when they arrive, slowing down not at all, so there was a delay at the start of the swim while we waited for a ferry to complete its arrival.
The Robben Island ferry stand-in, Nauticat from Hout Bay, approaches
We could hear the countdown over our VHF radio for the start of the swim for participants wearing swimsuits, and about half an hour later the wetsuit swimmers hit the water. They started inside the harbour, so it was a few minutes before the first swimmer emerged from the harbour entrance and headed for the buoy that marked the start of the course.
Many small craft waiting for the swim to start
Once we had rendezvoused with our three swimmers, we were off! (Swimming happens at a pace close to walking speed, so we trawled along with just one motor at a time.)
Cranes and boats at the V&A Waterfront, half hidden by mist
The Freedom Swim series is a series of timed open water swims around the Cape Peninsula. Tony provided support to three swimmers who planned to complete the 7.5 kilometre swim from Robben Island in Table Bay, to Big Bay on the Blouberg coast. The day started extremely early, as I went to meet the swimmers at the V&A Waterfront at 0700 while Tony launched the boat at Oceana Power Boat Club.
Cape Town Stadium shrouded in mist
Once I’d collected the swimmers’ gear, refreshments and warm clothes, I went to meet Tony in Granger Bay. There was a thick mist over the Atlantic seaboard, and all the boats who were helping with the swim were drifting on the flat sea just outside OPBC. It took a long time, but when the mist started to clear we could see Cape Town Stadium looming over us.
Tony waiting for the mist to clear
We did a lot of standing by to stand by, and then we did some standing by. It was very quiet in the mist!
Other boats wait in the mist
At about 1030, after waiting for several hours, we got the go-ahead to set a course for Robben Island. Tony enjoyed testing the motors on Seahorse, as they’ve recently been changed. (And yes, we did get to the island first.)
Robben Island
The meeting point and start of the swim was Murray’s Bay Harbour on the eastern side of Robben Island. The swimmers were to start in two groups: the first swimmers would be in swimsuits (and Vaseline), and the second group, which included our swimmers, would be in wetsuits. We had numbers corresponding to our swimmers attached to the side of the console.
A blanket of mist below Table Mountain
I loved seeing Table Mountain from the sea. What I particularly liked is that the strip of mist below the mountain hid all signs of human settlement (including Cape Town harbour and the abominable Disa Park towers, but excluding the cable station), which let me imagine what this place might have looked like to early visitors to Table Bay.
Motoring out to Robben Island – looking back at Table Mountain
Lighthouses are beautiful and captivating, often positioned in lonely, windswept locations at the very edge of human settlements. The idea of being a lighthouse keeper, custodian of a light that is a warning against the might of stormy seas over submerged reefs, seems romantic and heroic. It is for these reasons that I am surprised there aren’t more books about lighthouse life; perhaps we are fortunate that there aren’t.
Sentinel of the Seas is about the St Georges Reef Light, situated on a rock about 10 kilometres off the northern Californian coast. The subject was researched in painstaking detail by the author, and he provides a great deal of colour to the process of constructing the lighthouse and its subsequent manned use as a warning to shipping. The cover photograph at left shows the small size of the rocky outcrop on which the lighthouse stands. The challenges of construction work at this location, combined with frequent salty inundations and fluctuating tides, were considerable. The main theme related to the St Georges Reef Light is, however, interwoven with several other ideas and story lines and the entire book is poorly edited, rendering the overall thread of the narrative disorganised and difficult to follow.
Today the lighthouse is in disuse after being replaced by a floating light buoy (apparently these days all but one or two lighthouses off the American coast are unmanned), but has been the subject of efforts to restore and preserve it. It has an official website, and at various times tours to the facility by helicopter have been offered.
There are no photographs in this book – I thought it could have done with some, even if they were only of the lighthouse as it appears today (although historical photos do exist). I was struck by the similarity between this light and Roman Rock, although I suspect Roman Rock’s location is a little more sheltered. Since the rock on which Roman Rock is built isn’t visible (the lighthouse base may cover it completely – I’m not sure), I wonder how it was constructed. Something to find out!
Kevin McMurray is the author of Deep Descent, a riveting account of diving the wreck of the Andrea Doria. Here, he turns his attention to the largely forgotten wreck of the RMS Empress of Ireland, a liner that sank in Canada’s St Lawrence River in 1914, after colliding with a Norwegian vessel in thick fog. Over 1,000 people lost their lives. The Empresslies in just over forty metres of water, but the current, cold water, low visibility and lack of ambient light make it an extremely challenging dive site on which several divers have lost their lives.
McMurray provides a detailed account of the collision, sinking, and subsequent enquiries into the accident. He also describes the history of diving endeavours on the vessel, which began in 1964, when diving equipment was considerably more rudimentary than it is today. As with the Andrea Doria, it is possible to penetrate the Empress of Irelandthrough the collision hole in her side. The wreck lies partially on her side, which makes the interior disorienting.
The author has dived the wreck several times himself, which enables him to speak authoritatively of the challenges of cold water, low visibility diving (much like what we sometimes do in Cape Town). The wreck lies some distance out in the river (the St Lawrence is wide and eminently navigable) which has its own associated challenges, too.
There has been a fair amount of political wrangling over the wreck, perpetrated by rival dive charters, self-appointed guardians of the wreck site, and others who hoped to benefit materially from the wreck, and McMurray details some of this.
I found McMurray’s account of diving the Andrea Doria to be more immediate (and to give me more nightmares) than Dark Descent, but it is nonetheless an extremely interesting book that itself serves as a monument to what is Canada’s worst peacetime disaster. Both McMurray’s books go some way to explaining the allure of challenging wreck dives that only few divers will ever have the chance to visit.
Here’s the view on Scarborough beach looking north, towards Misty Cliffs (the mist is visible in the distance). There’s a little river flowing over the beach into the sea, just visible to the left of the boardwalk.
Misty Cliffs is a suburb between Scarborough and Kommetjie. It’s in the distance in this picture – the residential area just visible against the mountain. I thought the name was stupid and overly gothic until I drove through the suburb myself; you can’t actually see it very well in the photo, but there is a permanent misty haze over the cliffs there.
We were very upset to hear that Lightley’s Houseboats, operating on the Knysna lagoon, went into liquidation last year. Fortunately the boats and licence to operate have been acquired by a lovely Dutch couple who are now operating under the name Knysna Houseboats. We took a short break in late April and spent four nights on a houseboat on the lagoon. The boats have been refurbished, standards have been raised, and the company has moved from the jetty at Belvidere to one in the Thesen Island harbour.
The Knysna Heads (from inside the lagoon)
The Knysna lagoon from the top of the Heads
Calm view of the Heads
Entrance to the Knysna lagoon from the sea
Houseboating is the most relaxing kind of holiday you can have; no unexpected visitors, no television (well, we don’t have one of those at home either), no computers (Tony forgot his and didn’t miss it at all), and nowhere particular to go. A skipper’s licence isn’t required to pilot the boats, but you have to go through a half hour course and write a short test before being issued with a temporary licence. The boats have a single 40 hp motor, and ours reached a roaring top speed of 10km/h heading downcurrent.
Interior of the houseboat
Attempting to hook a mooring block
Tony on deck
The last two occasions we’ve visited Knysna we dived in search of seahorses, beneath the Sanparks jetty on Thesen Island. The time to do this is half an hour before high tide, for a couple of reasons. One is that the tidal currents in the lagoon are something fierce; unless you want to do a drift dive out through the Heads, you have to dive near slack water. The other is that the rising tide brings clean seawater into the lagoon, increasing visibility. At low tide (we discovered last time we dived there) the visibility is so bad you can’t see a hand in front of your face. We found seahorses both times we dived in Knysna, but the second time (at low tide) more luck than skill was involved.
The railway bridge across the lagoon
Morning mist at the bridge across the top of the lagoon
Cruising around the lagoon
This time, high tide fell very early in the morning and in the evening. Because it’s close to winter, days are short, and we’d have had to have dived just before sunrise or just before sunset to coincide with the tide. This seemed like hard (and cold) work. We were on holiday, and lazy, so we left the dive gear at home this time. Hopefully next time we go to Knysna the tides will be in our favour, because I did miss seeing those little critters!
A prawn in a purple salad bowl
Almost transparent prawn
Photographing prawns and sole before releasing them
Baby sole
Night time fishing for critters
One thing we did do that caused us raucous enjoyment was to sit on the edge of our boat one evening as the tide was going out, with a torch and a plastic salad bowl. The most amazing creatures swam past on the outgoing tide, and with some judicious co-ordination of torch and bowl we were able to catch one or two of them, take their picture, ooh and aah, and then release them back into the lagoon. We saw flatworms, lots of baby sole, shrimps with incredible glowing eyes and almost transparent bodies, and even a small blue fish shaped like a needle that we weren’t quick enough to catch.
Beached ferry
Sandbanks emerge from the lagoon at low tide
During the day we looked at birds, motored around the lagoon a little bit, read, napped (embarrassingly much), and enjoyed the view. On one occasion we beached the boat and Tony wandered up and down a sandbank, where we could hear the sounds of mudprawns and a host of other creatures living just under the mud exposed by the retreating tide.
Heron on a moored boat
Tony making friends with the local Egyptian geese
A heron surveys the view
Cormorant drying its wings
An egret wades for breakfast
Cormorants sunning themselves
Oystercatcher on a sandbank
Curious heron
Resting heron
An egret in the shallows
Geese in formation
There is currently no dive operator or shop in Knysna, but they seem to open and close frequently. There is an angling and diving club in Knysna, and they can probably refer you to a local diver who can guide you if you want to dive the wreck of the Paquita near the Heads, or one of the other reefs in the area outside the Heads.
It has been a lean week with very few opportunities to go diving. Last weekend was no better. I spent Friday out on the bay in very misty grey conditions and the weekend was just too windy and rainy. A consolation for the wet and wintry weather has been the presence of a very relaxed pod of dolphins in Fish Hoek Bay and Mackerel Bay (where the wreck of the Clan Stuart is) for most of this week.
Ark Rock in the mist on Friday
This weekend sees the arrival of some wet weather, some wind and a host of conflicting reports of a huge swell. Earlier this week the swell was predicted to be close to 10 metres. Some weather sites still predict 7-8 metres but only arriving on Monday. Some sites claim there is a 4 metre swell in the bay right now but that is not there. I drove down the coast this afternoon looking.
Dolphins near the Clan Stuart
Anyway, regardless of who is and isn’t correct with the predictions, the wind and pouring rain will most certainly keep me from diving this weekend, and whether the swell is 4 or 10 metres, it’s going to be big. Sorry about that!
Travel
When the weather is this bad it helps to plan a trip to warmer waters to take your mind off how wet your socks are. We’re off to Durban on 17 June – if you act fast you can still join us – and the Red Sea in October. Let me know if you want more information on either trip.
Weather, always a difficult topic and sometimes difficult to understand. Last weekend we took the boat out on Saturday unsure of the conditions, and had quite respectable diving at Atlantis and Outer Castle with mist, a bit of rain and about 6 metre visibility. Sunday we were expecting a fair amount of wind and instead had really good conditions at Long Beach. We were out on the boat again on Monday and had heavy mist to start but it cleared and we had good diving in sunny conditions.
Octopus on the wall at Atlantis
This weekend seems set to be a stay at home weekend for Open Water students as there is a 5 metre swell coming into the bay tomorrow and the direction is southerly which means Cape Point won’t diffuse it for us. It rolls straight into the bay and will most likely trash the inshore sites. The shallower sites close to shore will be very surgy and this doesn’t bode well for good diving.
Atlantis sea fans
For the more experienced divers the offshore sites could yield good conditions as greater depths reduce the surge and the swell does start to drop off on Saturday, but a southerly wind will make the surface conditions a little choppy. I think Saturday will be touch and go but Sunday may be good as the swell is down to 2 metres and there is little or no wind.
Basket star at Atlantis
The plan is therefore two launches on Sunday, sites to be decided closer to the time based on Saturday’s conditions. Unfortunately we won’t be getting in the water on Saturday. If you want to be on the list for Sunday, text me and I’ll keep you informed.
Misty morning at Miller's Point
Lastly, don’t forget about the Cape Town Dive Festival. The dives for the Saturday are now 70% full, with Friday not far behind. You can find out what’s available and how to book by going to the CTDF website. Íf you want to know what dives we’ll be doing, you can find that list here.
Simon, Christo, Lauren, Shaheen & Mark almost ready to roll backwards
The last few weeks have been eventful for the marine world in Cape Town. For some thoughts about chumming, which has been very much in the news lately, you can click here and here, and for some general thoughts you can read this blog post. The ocean is a complex and ever-changing place, but it’s the same old ocean that we dived in a month ago. There’s something new to see every day – don’t let political drama and media hype put you off!
False Bay seen from Boyes Drive
Back to diving… or the lack therof
The picture above shows the patchy and murky waters of False Bay. Our diving plans for this entire week have been on hold as the weather, water and wind have not been of a nature typically required for diver training.
Christo and me on the boat with the BOS 400 in the background (picture by Maurice)
We did venture out last Saturday and dived the BOS 400 in very misty conditions. The visibility was around 15 metres but there was a huge fog bank hanging about so we decide to skip a second dive. I had cancelled shore dives for the weekend but believe it was a bad call as reports of great visibility and flat seas served to remind me that weather forecasting is best left to the experts.
We took the boat out today and dived with the cowsharks at Shark Alley and the seals at Partridge Point. The conditions were more windy and choppy than the weather forecast predicted, but the visibility was an acceptable 6 metres at Shark Alley and about the same at the seals, but very surgy.
On the boat in Maori Bay (photo by Maurice)
Weekend plans
Friday
We will launch from Miller’s Point and do a double tank dive or just one dive (I’m not taking the boat out of the water in between dives, so you can’t do just the second dive), maximum five people, dive site(s) and depth dependent on who books and how many dives you want to do.
Back on the boat for a double tank or a single dive (weather permitting) – sites on at least one of those days to be suitable for Open Water divers.
If you would like to dive, please let me know your preference for what day, and if there’s a particular site (False Bay side) that you’d like to visit. No promises, but your input is important!
Cape Town Dive Festival
This is going to be a big event, to be part of it you need to go to www.ctdf.co.za and register and book your dives. I cannot book for you, but you can do the dives I have booked if you wish. Or if you are tired of seeing my fins, pick any of the options available providing they are within your qualification.
Mozambique
Booked and paid for and we leave on Monday 7 May returning on Saturday 12th. So no diving with me that week, here, but you can still join if you’re tired of the office.
