Hout Bay, South Africa

Entrance to Hout Bay - Misty

We entered Hout Bay on a cold and freakishly misty day on 28th January 2014. A two days sail from Knysna, we passed Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of the African continent where the Atlantic and Indian Ocean officially meet.

Hout Bay is a town near Cape town which is surrounded by mountains to the north, east and west and the southern Atlantic Ocean to the south.

A beautiful bay

  

We berthed at Hout Bay Yacht Club (S 34.03.017 E 18.20.894) for slightly over a month. It lies about 15 nautical miles south of Cape Town harbour. The view of the mountains are spectacular. This is one of the busiest fishing harbours in Western Cape.

It may look serene but Hout Bay does suffer from very strong Katabatic winds from the East. We experienced winds of up to 50 kts one night.

We often had Cape Fur Seals hop onto the pontoon next to us. I found it interesting to know that they are the largest fur seal species, can live up to 21 years and exhibit large sexual dimorphism i.e. the males and females differ in size.

Cape fur seals feed on shoaling fish, squid, octopus, sharks and rays

I was surprised when I heard them bark like dogs. It's no wonder they are often referred to as "dogs of the ocean".

The one on the left must be a bull (male). The bulls can grow up to 2.5m in length and weigh 200-350 kg, the cows are much smaller at 1.2-1.6m and 40-80 kg. Males have a large chest and a thick mane and the smaller females have a silver-grey fur.

This is pretty much what they do all day :)

We also spent some time working on Raptor.

Replaced the rubbing board on the starboard side

Curious Cape Fur Seal came to check us out

Made some chopping boards

And we bought a second hand Singer sewing machine made in the 1930s at a flea market just opposite the Yacht Club.