Year 3 -18 August 2026 -Cape Town-South Africa

It was a lovely day when we woke and the sun shone and was with us all day which was lovely. Stormbird was looking like a proper yacht now with her mast and sails on.

We had breakfast and the diver to clean the hull was supposed to come early but did not. The water maker came and we started the generator and then we started the water maker and it all worked well and I was happy with that and the quality of the water we were making was excellent.

The riggers came to continue their work with the rigging and to tune it etc. The plan was to go to Immigration early. However, I needed a letter from the marina and they could not do this before 10.30am. I therefore suggested that Mark and Dave went off to do some of the last shopping which they did.

They returned with a lot of stuff and we began to pack it away. We then went back to the marina office and I paid. I was then issued with a letter which says we are of good character and have no outstanding debts! Armed with this we all walked to Immigration and had our passports stamped. I was also given an Immigration document. Although Customs are next door they would not issue the clearance documents and you have to send them by pdf a number of documents by email and they then reply to that. The marina kindly agreed to scan these for me. Once I had these I then sent them to a designated email for customs in the hope that they would send me the clearance documents which they ultimately did later in the day.

We returned to Stormbird and the gas man had been and had checked the stove. He said we could not get parts in South Africa for this stove. It is working so we are ok for now.

The riggers wanted to go out for a test sail and so we set out about 12.10pm to be able to get through the swing bridges which open at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour. We got out and the put up the main and checked that and we tacked. They then asked that we put up the genoa and suddenly Chris said put it away. The foil (the bit which the sail wraps around) had parted and the sail had been damaged. This appeared to be a disaster and Chris said lets go back to the marina. I could not believe it after all the works we had had.

We returned to the marina coming through the swing bridges and we returned to our berth. I thought how long is this going to delay us? We were in our berth at about 3.00pm. The diver came and started cleaning the hull. Mark and Dave went off to do the rest of then shopping.

The riggers had been in touch with North sails and there was a guy there to meet us when we arrived. The genoa was taken off and taken away for repair as there was a small tear in it. The riggers then set about repairing the foil which was not as bad as it sounded. They managed to sort out the foil and re screw it. The sail was back within an hour and a half and so by 5.00pm all had been repaired. They had pulled out all of the stops to get this done. The diver was halfway through and he said he will come tomorrow morning at 7.00am to complete everything. Mark and Dave came back with the final shopping.

At 5.15pm we went through the swing bridges and then out into the bay and we put up the mainsail, genoa and staysail on various points of sail and tested everything out. Luckily this time all worked well and Chris was happy and satisfied with everything.

We returned to the marina relieved and we had a beer with the riggers. We thanked them and they went off.

We went for our last supper to Den Anker which is probably the best restaurant here. We had a good meal and returned to Stormbird to be prepared to leave early mid-morning tomorrow.  

It had been a very busy day but at least we are now in a position to leave tomorrow.

 The picture of the day is coming back through one of the swing bridges.

 Need/Opportunity Year Three

I am now on the way to Durban and will then head for Cape Town and then on to St Helena, Azores and back to the UK. 

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com