Vleesbaai to Mossel Bay

My wife Judy drove up from Cape Town the afternoon before to spend the next ten days with us, so I’d been smiling a lot – it also meant our meals were about to go several levels better than canned food.

Leaving Vleesbaai was a little tricky, the swell up and the low tide exposing rocks I’d rather not have seen. Most of the paddle went into a 10km/h headwind with swell pushing from the right, cutting across the bay to the next point. I had a brief VHF chat to Warren from the parking lot at Pinnacle Point Golf Estate – impressive even from the water.

Rounding the point into the bay I kept clear of a reef off the Point Hotel. The hotel had offered us a room, but when I landed, local paddler and lifeguard Ruan Knobel scooped us up instead and took us home for a hearty breakfast. We stayed with the Knobels two nights, cappuccino on the Point Hotel balcony included. The next day was a weather/rest day – shopping admin, and Skyfall at the Garden Route Mall, where I felt distinctly claustrophobic among thousands of shoppers. Can’t wait to be back on the water tomorrow.