Travels – rush cruising

South Africa – March ’23

By the latter part of February we’d really started to develop a home-from-home in Knysna. We’ve spent evenings with Julian talking boats and business, others with his lovely sister Renay and her partner Rod and some of their friends. We’ve met great people at the Yacht Club and uncovered shared contacts around the small world of sailing. Dudley generously lent us his “spare” dinghy – a newish training type boat he’d bought to get friends afloat. We’re really grateful, have done some club racing (and will do more) and are just not going to go there with the fact it’s a Topper Argo. OK guys??!! Let’s just call it RS competitor analysis.

It’s also inspiring to hang out in a community where a group of people have extensive ocean sailing experience, as well as dinghies in the boat park. From round-the-world races, to Caribbean and European boat deliveries and cruising, I guess if you’re going almost anywhere from here, the geography leads you to ocean sailing. Talking to Clarence the other day, it sounded as though the equivalent of a New Year’s Day club race at home, is the Cape to Rio race here! It’s also good to hear these guys talk positively about the boats CM build.

Paddleboarding on the Knysna River — Testing Rush’s new SUPs on upper reaches of the Knysna River

We marked Amanda’s birthday at the end of February with an overnight stay in a fabulous lodge at Plettenburg Game Park. Belle Balance lodge was a treat and, while the game park didn’t quite match Amakhala last year, the fact that we could see elephants, giraffe and other animals only an hour from Knysna was pretty cool. Favourite quote from our guide after earnestly tracking a rhino: “The rhino is not here, so he must be somewhere else”. Years of hard-earned experience.

Amanda at Belle Balance lodge on Plettenburg Game Reserve — Birthday girl at Belle Balance Lodge

The view at dawn from Belle Balance lodge in South Africa — Dawn view from the lodge

Giraffes at Plettenburg Bay Game Reserve — Plettenburg Bay Game Reserve

Next up, in early March, was a visit from a new-found friend (a bonus from this blog), Scott from Vancouver. Scott made contact a year ago while researching performance cats, with a view to retiring from his role as a trauma surgeon, persuading his prosecutor wife to do the same and, with new-found freedom due to uni-age daughters, head off to explore some world. Plans were modified late last year when Scott’s wife earned promotion to become a judge. A great achievement but the world must wait!

Scott is not a man to be easily deterred. We’d struck up a bit of a Zoom rapport and he decided to visit South Africa, take a stunning trip up to and through Namibia, then come down to Knysna to meet us, the CM team and Rush. He’s a top guy and we spent four fun days together, despite the weather going to rats. We parted vowing to meet up again soon for passages and holidays along Rush’s travels.

Scott Finlay and Amanda Wadhams at Knysna Heads — New mate Scott with Amanda at Knysna Heads

While we’re primarily here in Knysna for the completion and launch of the boat, it is also the first part of our adventure and experiences in some new parts of the world. We wouldn’t have spent time in South Africa and met people in the same way had it not been for the project and the introductions it brings.

The remaining jobs on Rush are steadily reducing and only a few items of equipment are outstanding. The solar panels finally arrived from the UK in early March and the trampolines (top of the tramp tech range and coming from the USA) were clearing in Cape Town customs. We’re awaiting Kevlar diamond shrouds for the mast which are being made in Italy. They should be despatched in late March.

Our SA visas have to be renewed in early April so we decided to head home for a couple of weeks in March to catch up with family and friends – new 90 day visas are granted on return to SA.

The flight home was definitely an experience we’ll remember. The plane developed a technical fault over the Med which we first knew about through being plunged into total darkness, followed by the pilot saying very simply “We have a technical issue and are diverting to Barcelona. We’ll land in 20 minutes. Fasten your seatbelts. I’ll tell you more when we’re on the ground”. No fluff – a man with stuff on. The cabin crew’s body language indicated that, while they were doing their jobs, they knew more than we did and were, well, frightened. From these and a few other indicators, it was clearly a serious situation and we weren’t sure whether it was going to end well. We said a few words to each other. Then the entire plane fell utterly silent.

It was a long forty (as it turned out) minutes until we landed – but it did end well! The landing was normal except for blue flashing lights following us down the runway. There had been an engine failure – that’s 50% of the engines on a 787. We passed the pilot as we eventually disembarked and were able to thank him and ask what exactly happened. He told us the port engine lost its oil so they’d had to shut it down – then various procedures automatically activate, protecting the remaining systems. I guess they couldn’t be sure whether there was risk to the remaining engine. The pilot pointed out that they regularly train for this type of thing in a simulator… but you could tell he was somewhat shattered. Must feel different with 265 people sat behind you. Apparently most air crew go through their whole careers without experiencing something like this.

Virgin plane at Barcelona airport — Great to travel but sometimes even better to be on the ground!

We’ll gloss over the following 24 hours trapped airside in Barcelona. Interesting how trivial that seemed in the circumstances – and the camaraderie between everyone was warming. Bit like a movie where you gradually get to know the people, from all walks of life and around the world. Sadly, no romances or murders we’re aware of… but imagine this: One of the passengers was a nineteen year old South African girl, travelling alone, on her first ever flight – with $400 given by her parents to last until she received her first ever pay cheque at a US restaurant.

Two weeks at home were absolutely lovely and flashed by, meaning we didn’t manage to see everyone we’d have liked to, but we did catch up with quite a few. It was quite hard to head off again, even though we’re very fortunate to be doing what we’re doing.

Heading into the hot and dusty Karoo

South Africa – February ’23

In mid Feb we headed off on Amanda’s planned diverse five day road trip.

An hour’s drive from Knysna the Outeniqua Pass climbs over the mountains above the town of George, on the Garden Route. The pass was originally created in 1847 (and known as the Montagu Pass), as a trade route inland from the coast, for horses and wagons. It was one of those hard-to-comprehend projects that took a significant toll. It has since been re-routed, re-built and re-named as technology, machinery and vehicles have evolved. After driving back and forth along the N2 (between the mountains and the coast) several times it was exciting to head into a landscape that had only been a dramatic backdrop until then.

Outeniqua Pass above George in South Africa — View from the pass over the Outeniqua mountains

We’re going to run out of superlatives if not careful, so let’s just say the pass has steep, lush, green and rocky slopes (a bit like Scotland on steroids) with huge views down over George at the foot and on towards the Indian Ocean. It’s often shrouded in the clouds but we lucked out with a crystal clear conditions.

The pass leads into the Karoo – a sort of cross between desert and rocky flatland pastures. The Karoo is hotter and drier than the coastal areas – over 30°C when we were there, with huge plains and red rocks. In the Outeniqua region the Karoo is also home to ostrich farms on, of course, another grand scale. Ostrich generated wealth through their meat, leather and, it now seems… monster feather dusters. Locals sell them on street corners in the ostrich capital Oudshoorn and we wanted one, but it would be a touch unecessary on a catamaran.

Amanda Wadhams in the South African Karoo — Heading into the hot and dusty Karoo

Next stop was the spectacular limestone Cango Caves – one of the world’s longest and largest cave systems and it’s best to let the photos do most of the talking. The stalactites and stalagmites have formed over millions of years and, of course, in caves they’re not subject to erosion or other degradation. Standing next to these incredible formations, in cathedral sized galleries, put us and our lifespans into perspective.

Rock forations in Cango Caves — Millions of years old stalactites and stalagmites in one of the world’s largest cave systems – Cango Caves

From the caves we drove along Route 62 which, like Route 66 in the States, has its own T-shirts, mugs and tea towels. It’s justifiably renowned. The best stretch came the following day, so we’ll jump to our first night’s stay.

Amanda had found a converted old, seriously rustic barn on an olive farm in the middle of… nowhere. Let’s hope Avis don’t read this blog because off-road use of the car was banned (how’s that ever going to work in Africa?). By the time we tracked down our barn the car was an indistinguishable dusty lump. Mountains towered above the barn on one side, with huge views over the karoo on the other. Utter silence. We wandered around the olive trees, cooked a braai (South Africans tend to burn wood rather than charcoal, so you have to light it long before you’re hungry) and lay on stone benches gazing at the stars. Should have booked a week.

Inside the Olive farm barn in the Karoo — One end of the beautiful olive farm barn – check out the bath!

Amanda in the outdoor shower at the olive farm barn — …and not much makes Amanda happier than an outdoor shower

View of the mountains from a wine farm in the South African Karoo — The view walking through the olive farm with a coffee, just after dawn

Next morning, after more dust and ruts, we re-joined Route 62 for one of the most epically breath-taking road trips we’ve ever done. Our photos just don’t cut it. It’s the size. Mountains on both sides, plains between, with the undulating road stretching, often ruler-straight, into the distance. Then, winding through another pass with a valley dropping away from one side of the road and a mountainside blocking the sky on the other. A scale you can’t really figure because there’s just nothing to give it perspective. Welcome to South Africa.

Eventually, Route 62 leads into the famous winelands, a hundred kilometres east of Cape Town and a complete change of scene from the olive farm. Names like Stellenbosch and Graeme Beck appear on signposts. Things become manicured and grand.

We were heading for one of the poshest wine farms (translates to vineyard), Babylonstoren, also boasting notable gardens that Monty Don travelled from the UK to film. Our wine-pro friends, Red and Helen, will testify that we’re not knowledgeable on this subject. And it was cooking hot – close to 40°C – too hot for us to want to taste wine. Even garden-passionate Amanda struggled looking around in the heat. BUT… lunch, made only from produce grown on site, was memorable. Anyone who knows The Pig restaurants in the UK will get it… but equally, have no idea.

Amanda Wadhams walking through the gardens at Babylonstoren, South African winelands — The gardens at Babylonstoren, in the winelands

Grapevines at Babylonstoren, South Africa — Babylonstoren vines

At the other end of the scale, just up the road, was Mitres Edge wine farm where we stayed that night. Our kind of place. Lola Nicholls, Mrs Mitres Edge, inherited it from her father, who owned several wine farms in the region. As the sole daughter she got the smallest farm (her brothers got the big ones) but was happy with that. She’s fully hands-on, doing everything with a few long-serving staff, producing wines under their own label and supplying grapes to some of the bigger names. Lola gave us a wine-tasting in her cellar and we left with a case for Rush’s bilge.

First job next day – find a car wash (and hence the car), before heading into Cape Town where there would be increased risk of Avis spies. Car washing is, of course, done by people not machines and we asked for a quick hose-off. Forty five minutes later, leathered and gleaming (just as well – with only 400km on the clock we had no-where to hide) and we were off again.

Call us sad but the first job in Cape Town was to check out the chandleries. Important intel for the post launch, personal tweak stage. We bumped into Clarence (electronics guru installing Rush’s systems) in the first one, shared some banter and were starting to feel like locals.

Then down to the waterfront where The Ocean Race (formerly Volvo Ocean Race) was due in the following day. We’d timed our trip accordingly. This edition’s small fleet were having a slow leg from the Cape Verde Islands down to Cape Town, with routing taking them down the Brazilian coast and as far south as the ice limit to pick up the SW winds across the South Atlantic, into Cape Town. The leg was already about five days longer than predicted, they’d had to ration food and another shut-down was expected on the final approach. That night, after 17 days of racing, the first four boats were within a few miles of each other with everything to play for (or lose) through fickle conditions approaching the coast. Nice.

We were confident there’d be people we’d know on-shore – race officials, media etc – and one of them would say “Come out on our RIB for the finish”. Absolutely none. But the finish was visible from the breakwater and we could enjoy the Cape Town atmosphere as they came in. Shore teams waited on the pontoons with fenders and burgers. Foiling IMOCAs are so cool up close and you could feel the emotions of the crews – relief and joy, or disappointment.

Holcim-PRB dock in Cape Town with Table Mountain backdrop — Holcim-PRB docks after winning the second leg of The Ocean Race 2023

The Ocean Race stage in Cape Town — The Ocean Race stage – coolest place to hang out that day

It rounded off our varied trip, ahead of the drive back to Knysna the following day. We won’t talk about passing a fuel station because, according to Martin, “we still have plenty”… followed an hour later by driving for miles, on fumes, at snail’s pace, in stony silence. All’s well that eventually…

South Africa – January ’23

Well… to be honest, we didn’t have the best of starts after arriving in SA on Jan 9^th…

But before we get into that, we did have a fabulous time over Christmas and New Year, prior to heading off. Christmas Day at Lepe Farmhouse with the Redmans and Heeley/ Stevens and their families – Boxing Day in Kent with Martin’s family – New Year in Staffordshire with Amanda’s Mum – numerous suppers and lunches with mates before, between and after – culminating in many of our very local clan joining us for a send-off drink or two at Montys pub in Beaulieu. Hectic – as it seems the South Africans say.

Until three years ago we were accustomed to coming and going from home, off on sailing and work travels. In fact in 2019 it was the end of June before we spent more than four consecutive nights in our own bed! This time, preparing to leave after being largely home based since the start of the pandemic, we were surprised to discover we’d put down roots! Our families aren’t actually very close to us geographically, but we’re definitely close. And our community of friends is amazing.

So all the farewells added up to us feeling pretty emotional and wrung out.

We landed in Cape Town, picked up a hire car for the drive to Knysna… and the rampant UK flu bug hit us. Properly. As many of you know, it can be quite severe and we were the most ill that we’ve been so far this century.

View of Knysna Lagoon and out to the Heads — The view of the “Lagoon” and out to the Heads at Knysna from our apartment

Fortunately, we’d booked a great apartment to live in while the boat is completed but it took almost three weeks to stop feeling rough, stop coughing and get our energy back. We weren’t up to spending much time at the factory and anyway, we really didn’t want to infect the team.

Don’t feel sorry for us. Fat chance. There are far worse things going on in the world and we’re now back on form, in South Africa and focussed on the boat… while it freezes back home!

There are a fair number of outstanding finishing jobs on the boat, some caused by supply issues, some just taking time. The upside is that we’ve been able to participate in many decisions (including detail changes such as interior flooring, which we’re now happier with than the original plan) with a visibility we wouldn’t have had from home.

CM46 Rush hull in late stages of build — Rush – wrapped for protection with boxes of equipment heading aboard

We’ve been here nearly a month and settled into a pleasant routine. Most days include a visit to the CM factory or one of the local suppliers (upholstery, graphics, domestic appliances etc), local sightseeing and walking, coffee at White Wash Café served by the very smiley Mr Stone and Abigail, swimming from the stunning beaches around Leisure Island, Wednesday evenings at the Yacht Club, Friday late afternoons at the Knysna Gin Distillery with a semi-permanent bar akin to Solent Cellar at Bucklers Hard (mind you at 280 Rand for a round of five G&Ts and two beers, there’s a difference – that’s about 14 of those British Pounds) rolling into a pizza next door and, Alison will be relieved to hear, Tuesday morning Pilates.

Amanda Wadhams at the White Wash Cafe in Knysna — Homework at the White Wash Cafe

View of the beach at Brenton in South Africa — The beach from Brenton to Buffels Baai to the west of Knysna Heads

Flower stall at Sedgefield Farmer's Market — Vibrant Farmer’s Market at the nearby town of Sedgefield on Saturday mornings

Martin and Amanda Wadhams on the beach at Leisure Island, Knysna — On the beach at the aptly named and beautiful Leisure Island, Knysna

We’ve met a couple of American families collecting catamarans from one of the other local brands, Vision Yachts. One of them has a surplus set of Starlink gear which we aim to snap up as it’s not available in SA. Apparently the Starlink RV service now works offshore in many regions; it’s affordable and with streaming level speed could be a sat comms game changer (don’t tell the mother-in-law).

As we mentioned in our Travel Post last year, Knysna is on the bottom of Africa on the well-known Garden Route. In addition to being a working town it is also a very popular holiday and retirement destination. It is, for sure, Africa “lite”. We’ve found nearly everyone to be extremely friendly and welcoming. Everywhere you park an unofficial guy directs you in and out of the space, expecting a tip, which takes a little getting used to. But they are trying to give a service rather than simply asking for money, so we respect that and go with it.

Frustration with the government has definitely increased since our first visit to SA. Perhaps the most visible demonstration of the way things have deteriorated is the electricity shortage, with several scheduled power cuts (known as load shedding) every day. Some days there’s no electricity for almost half the working day and some of the evening. Apparently several new power stations don’t work and some old ones are starved of maintenance. Businesses are folding. Unemployment is growing. People are concerned about how the downward spiral can be ended. It’s very sad in such an amazing country.

Tour Guide Amanda is planning a few mini breaks within South Africa over the next couple of weeks.

South Africa – February ’22

After an amazing trip to South Africa, visiting Current Marine, equipment suppliers and spending a few days at a safari game park we feel such a relief to have been able to get back out into the world again – and very fortunate.

The situation in Ukraine, which developed while we were away, and the hardship that many people are enduring makes it seem wrong to talk about our pleasure trip. But, it’s also the case that people in South Africa are very happy to have international visitors once again and they welcomed us. Many have struggled over the last couple of years. Furlough didn’t exist. This blog will form our lasting record of travels, thoughts and experiences and sadly, withholding our memories won’t help those suffering in Ukraine right now, so we’d like to write them up while they’re fresh.

While we’ve been holed-up in the New Forest for the last two years some deeply sad Covid events impacted our family yet, on the other hand, we also enjoyed unexpected upsides. We live in a beautiful area with beach and countryside playgrounds on our doorstep. We couldn’t complain. Having been perpetually on the move, we metaphorically drew breath – spent time with local mates, worked on the house and even, courtesy of the previous Rush’s lovely new owners, escaped for a few weeks of UK south coast cruising each summer! So, even when travel restrictions were eased, we’d not been outside the UK. This trip to South Africa to see our new boat in build and a bit more of the country was, in every respect, a BIG deal!

world cruising blog, performance cruising catamaran, outremer, marsaudon, hh catamarans, seawind catamarans, balance catamarans, cm46, cm52 — Cape Aghullas : Indian Ocean to the east – Atlantic Ocean to the west

South Africa is simply stunning. Our only other visit to the African continent was when we went to Current Marine during our catamaran research process. Following that, the prospect of spending more time there during a boat build was a major upside. There’s always a risk when you wait ages and build something up in your mind, that it disappoints. It didn’t. Never thought we’d be happy to remove belts and shoes, dig out devices and schlep through security… but even that felt part of getting our old lives back – pressing Play again. Much of the world isn’t vaccinated or out of Covid the woods yet. Recent years have taught us all to appreciate things in a way we didn’t necessarily before.

After flying into Cape Town, we picked up a car, loaded it to the gunwales with stuff for the boat and headed for Kynsna. The nav’s not taxing… leave the airport – join the N2 – drive for five hours along the well-known Garden Route – arrive (still on the N2) in Knysna, home of CM.

CM46, CM52, Current Marine, Martin and amanda wadhams, performance catamaran, outremer, marsaudon, ts42, orc42 — Knysna lagoon looking towards the Heads

Knysna is like the Salcombe of South Africa – a holiday town on a pretty estuary, surrounded by hills and with a sometimes seriously iffy entrance. It’s a great place to hang out. Several catamaran builders are based there. We’re not experienced SA travellers but, after initial trepidation on our first visit, we’ve felt safe. I’m sure there are areas to be wary of in major cities but nearly everyone we’ve met has been genuinely smiley and friendly. Our only real question, when the end of our trip approached, was “why the heck didn’t we book longer…?”

Arriving at CM and climbing the steps to stand on the deck of our boat was a proper moment. Up to that point we’d felt, temporarily, cruising boat-less. Suddenly, we had a boat again… OK, still in build but honestly, it will be amazing. Just about every aspect, at this stage, is better than we dared hope – the appearance, spaces, construction quality and all. This will not be a run-of-the-mill production cruising cat. Can’t tell you how excited we now are.

Meeting Julian (the man behind CM) again felt like catching up with an old friend. We’ve had so many calls, WhatsApps and emails – discussing everything from boat design to life and the state of the world – plus just about everything in between. While Covid created challenges for boat builders, having a boat development project on-the-go during this period has been a life-saver for me. Endless design details and equipment to research and consider. Picking up with Julian was seamless and fun.

The first week of our visit disappeared in a boatyard blur. All day, every day, it was almost like going back to work! As you’ll see from the photos the hull is built and faired with final internal details and subsequent fairing being completed while we were there. As we write this, paint spraying will be underway. By good fortune it was a great time to visit and work through loads more detail decisions with Julian and the team – from exact deck hardware positioning to table sizes and cushion designs. Remember, ours is the first boat of this, now standard, layout.

Some of the CM guys have been working with Julian for a long time and others have joined as the yard has grown, adding experience from the likes of the original Gunboat yard in Cape Town and Southern Spars in Auckland. An unexpected upside of our visit was the effect on CM’s wider team. Through recent times they’ve worked in isolation from the people for whom they’re creating boats. Our excitement, involvement and appreciation of what they’re doing seemed to mean quite a lot to them. It was certainly good for us.

We rented an annex apartment on Thesen Island which joins the Knynsa waterfront. It’s criss-crossed by canals, spotlessly tended and secure. It was a perfect, convenient base about ten minutes from CM and five from the yacht club and restaurants so, if you plan to visit, do contact us for details.

martin wadhams, amanda wadhams, cm46, cm52, current marine, world cruising catamaran, performance catamaran, gunboat, hh catamaran — Plettenburg Bay

With temperatures in the mid 20s, stunning scenery and great value food and drink (for people like us from Europe or the USA) living in SA is pretty flippin’ good. We spent our first “day off” at super-scenic Plettenburg Bay, about 45 minutes down the, you guessed it, N2 and then travelled three hours further (yep, on the N2) for a couple of days on the Amakhala Game Reserve.

When you think about it, there aren’t that many experiences which fall solidly into the “we’ll never forget it” bracket but this one did. If you visit SA, you MUST do it. Amanda had booked us into the very beautiful Bukela Lodge where we spent two nights in about the most glam tent imaginable. The landscape is vast and beautiful and exactly as you picture it. Our guide, Sim, drove us in an open Land Cruiser for three-hour safari trips in the early morning and late afternoon each day, tracked the animals everyone really hopes to see, quietly waited in the right places until they got so close you could hear, smell and could have touched them. That wouldn’t be such a great idea. Sim’s gentle character and the background knowledge he shared made the whole experience even more special. To be with iconic wild animals, in their world, simply observing them was quite emotional. We absolutely loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat.

After a few more days at the boatyard with Clarence the electronics installation supplier (serious hands-on equipment experience – offshore racing and cruising), the cushions manufacturer, taps supplier and even vinyl graphics company, we drove back up the N2 for a meeting with David Rae at North Sails in Cape Town to discuss our rig and wardrobe before a final night in a beachside hotel.

The afternoon breeze was fully up – sand flying – wing foilers taking off downwind to goodness knows where – Table Mountain as the backdrop. Yet another South African blast to our senses. Just time the following day, before heading to the airport, to go down to the V & A Waterfront which is a super-colourful, bustling equivalent of Sydney’s Circular Quay, with a warehouse selling local arty and clothing products, a food hall, aquarium, museum, street performers and en-suite marina.

We leant on a railing watching an American couple on their spanking new Balance catamaran, swarming with build team doing final commissioning jobs – thinking how later this year, that will be us.

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