The Buffalo River Yacht Club (BRYC) was built next to the riverbank. Not being visited by many foreign boats, the office was unmanned during the day and the club was only open in the evenings. That was why all my efforts to call them early that day were in vain. The club was small, but it was very accommodating. The shower room was furnished with a homely warmth. Furthermore, the BRYC club provided barbecue facilities and vegetable salad every night to visitors. The club members and visiting boats only needed to bring their own meat to join the braai (barbeque in South Africa) party, and with some music and a couple of beers from the bar, everybody was talking freely and happily.
The two men who came early to help us were the main members of the club. They organised the braai and helped with the fire; meanwhile, they warmly introduced the club to us. Their children, who were similar in age to our children's, came here to play too. With our children, the club was very lively each night at the time we were there. We also found out that the club had recently become one of the reception clubs in South Africa for the famous World ARC Rally, and I believe it would soon be well-known to the international sailing communities.
At the braai, we met sailors from another sailboat, Andromeda Sol. Our two boats set off on the same day from Durban and we were planning to cruise the same route across the Atlantic to Brazil. There were two men on board, the owner Pete, an Australian guy who had worked in South Africa for many years, and the captain Vincent, who was invited to take the helm. Vincent is a native from Durban; he usually delivers sailboats all over the world and knows all the marinas and docks around South Africa. For example, when Andromeda Sol entered the waterway, we were still busy tying the last ropes on our boat. I observed that she approached directly to the far left waterway without any hesitation. There wasn't an open space, I knew it, and it was the narrowest channel; docking there was undoubtedly a dead end. But after entering the channel, Andromeda Sol docked side by side to a moored sailboat. In just a few minutes, they had gone ashore -- my jaw was dropping!
Later, we learned that it was difficult for a sailboat to turn around in the channel, but boats could go forward to the end of the channel and turn at the bridge where there was enough water space. However, in an unfamiliar port, facing such narrow waterways and a low bridge that the boat mast cannot pass. Would you have the courage to take your boat in that way? We did not!
Unfortunately, Andromeda Sol decided to set sail earlier than us, as she was heading to a different port. Our two boats were separated since then. We later heard that she got boarded and burgled in Brazil.
Uber taxis had not yet entered East London at the time, so it was inconvenient for us to go shopping. If not calling a taxi, we had to walk a mile next to the tall bridge to get to a shopping mall on the other side of the river.
Strolling along the beach road, we soon learned that although East London was named after London from England, the modern development of the city was from bachelor immigrants from Germany. Above the seaside road, there were a lot of statues and information about the immigration history of the German descendants.
On the same road, we were surprised to see an aquarium built next to the beach. As we walked through the aquarium door, an unknown beautiful creature with brandished claws in an aquarium tank immediately caught our attention. At first, I thought it was some kind of seagrass swaggering in the water, but in fact, after reading the information, it was a starfish called Basket Sea Star. It was really a strange creature! The aquarium was not very large, but there were many different collections. What's more commendable was that this aquarium was so well-maintained, and the collected species were living well and healthy.
In the outdoor areas of the aquarium, we saw many penguins. These penguins were living in a small ocean pool, chasing each other cheerfully. I was standing outside of the fence which was just one meter away from the pool and capturing the moment of their funny gestures with my camera, but these penguins did not mind at all and continued fooling around. Many of the penguins had been adopted by humans; penguins' and adopters' names were both printed on the board in front of the pool fence. No wonder the aquarium was well-managed. This was indeed a brilliant idea.
How come penguins in cold regions could live here happily? Later, by checking our cruising logbook, I found that although East London was not far from Durban, at about 40 nautical miles outwards in the ocean, the water temperature cooled down drastically, from 26 degrees Celsius to 16.5 degrees Celsius. For that reason, the penguins could play with joy in the cold-water pool.
Opposite the penguins' pool was the seals' pool, with the Indian Ocean right behind it. While admiring the seals, we could also appreciate the views and waves of the ocean. These seals loved being around people. There were not many tourists, but the seals were still jumping and swimming entertainingly. For a while, they climbed out of the pool and came forward to us, then they dived down into the water and swam away. They were playing all kinds of tricks to make us laugh. The children and I enjoyed it so much and were reluctant to walk away from these lovely sea animals.
In our first voyage, we found two of our navigation devices were not working properly. One was the water speed transducer, the other one was the autopilot.
The water speed had been shown as zero since the time we left Durban. We used the value between the water speed and the GPS speed to estimate the speed and direction of a current, then we adjusted the sails and our sailing angle. When Ithaca took shelter in East London, Pierre and I removed the thru-hull speed sensor and found that the rotating paddle wheels were full of small barnacles. The warm water in Durban had accelerated the growth of the barnacles. After cleaning, we tested it manually and the water speed returned. Happiness! We put it back in the hull fittings, and the job was done.
The autopilot was new and had been installed six months before the trip. It was a Garmin autopilot, the same brand as our boat's chart plotter. As these two systems were compatible, we created the waypoints on the chart plotter, the autopilot would take Ithaca to the waypoints with a single touch. It was a solution once and for all!
During the trip, when the wind increased to 15 knots or more, the autopilot created a loud noise. It was so loud it tortured us mentally and physically. It sounded like the inside part of the autopilot was too rusty to steer the boat, and it was about to break in a moment. It made Pierre and me suspicious, so whenever the wind sped up nearly 20 knots, we had to turn off the autopilot and steered the boat by hand, which was extremely tiring. Once we arrived in East London, we immediately contacted the Garmin's agents in Durban; they agreed to replace it with a new autopilot for us without any hassle. In the beginning, we choose Garmin products -- one of the advantages was that when the system had a problem, they would solve or replace it instantly. Their after-sales service was excellent.
After three days of rest in East London, the strong wind almost passed. We couldn't wait to untie the line and set off to our next port - Port Elizabeth. This was the port we have visited before, though a new challenge was indeed waiting ahead of us.