We spent our first couple of days in Richards Bay getting cleared through customs and immigration and taking care of some the other arrival overhead.
Trip highlights from October 26th and 27th follow. Note that the events covered by this blog occurred before the Brush with Disaster, but we wanted to the get the Brush with Disaster post up in a timely fashion, so it went up early.
Click any image for a larger view, or click the position to view the location on a map. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at http://mvdirona.com/maps
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Customs
Position: 32 4.70, -28 47.66
Customs came by this morning to clear us through. They didn’t come on board and just had us fill out some paperwork and return it to them while they waited.
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Tuzi Gazi
Position: 32 4.76, -28 47.64
Once we’d cleared customs, we could move to our slip in the Tuzi Gazi marina. The other marina choice in Richards Bay is Zululand Yacht Club. We chose Tuzi Gazi mainly because they could confirm a booking whereas Zululand is on a first-come, first-served basis. When travelling long distances, its important to know you’ve got a spot to land in. Immigration met us here later in the day and cleared us through, then we could swap our quarantine flag for a South African courtesy flag.
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Welcome to Richards Bay!
Position: 32 4.76, -28 47.64
Keith Harvey of the Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone stopped by to welcome us to the area and dropped off a huge package of useful information. Richards Bay is looking to be one of the most friendly places we’ve visited, and we’ve had a remrkable trip so far.
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Boat wash
Position: 32 4.76, -28 47.64
We cleaned the boat today with some local help. James is using the crane to lift himself up to clean the stack. We’ve not given the boat a complete wash since leaving Darwin and the stack was particularly sooty after all those long runs.
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Security
Position: 32 4.90, -28 47.67
We took a short walk around the area later in the day. Security is very high everywhere, with electric fences or at least barbed wire protecting most houses.
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Mariners
Position: 32 4.74, -28 47.63
Dinner at Mariners restaurant overlooking the marina to celebrate our successful crossing. Dirona‘s blue deck lights are just visible in the background near the top of the picture.
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Monkey
Position: 32 4.76, -28 47.64
Monkeys live in and around the marina and we see them running about in the mornings. Spitfire hasn’t noticed them yet, but we’re sure he’ll be quite concerned when he does.
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RIS car rental
Position: 32 2.58, -28 45.54
RIS car rental picked us up at the marina and drove us to their office so we could pick out a vehicle for a few weeks.
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Vodacom
Position: 32 2.92, -28 45.30
We stopped in at the huge Boardwalk Mall to pickup a SIM card for cellular connectivity. We’ve got most of the arrival overhead out of the way now and are ready to get out and explore.
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Cruisers beer
Position: 32 4.73, -28 47.61
Beer at Jacks on the Bay with some other international cruisers staying at Tuzi Gazi. Clockwise starting from Jennifer’s left are Richard and Alison Brunstrom of Vulcan Spirit of Britain, Sara Osterberg Carlson and Magnus Carlson of Mahimahi of Sweden, Phil and Norma Heaton of Minnie B of Northern Ireland, and Roderick van der Meulen-Bruseker of Happy Bird of the Netherlands.
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Click the travel log icon on the left to see these locations on a map, with the complete log of our cruise.
On the map page, clicking on a camera or text icon will display a picture and/or log entry for that location, and clicking on the smaller icons along the route will display latitude, longitude and other navigation data for that location. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at http://mvdirona.com/maps. |
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