Meet up in Richards Bay, SA

Meet up in Richards Bay, SA © Ocean Cruising Club

Thirteen boats in total - a very international group consisting of several Australian boats, Turkish, Hawaiian, Vanuatu-an, French, and even some British and Americans - took part in this event that continues to grow each year!

There was a mix of nationalities on board, including Malaysian and Filipino crew and partners, and as always some incredible stories.

Frank lost his keel coming in and is waiting for a replacement from France - big customs issues! Dustin, single-handed (literally as he lost an arm and a leg in a bike accident!), started in Hawaii but is leaving the boat for six weeks to crew on a friend's boat from Chile to Antarctica, then will come back and continue his quest to be first single-handed sailor to circumnavigate.

Mustafa and Eli will be on only the 15th Turkish boat to circumnavigate - wonderful young couple, such an excitement about the world! Colin on Burmese Breeze is on his second circumnavigation - he "just enjoys it so much"! Tom and Kate will leave their boat in Richards Bay and go home to Australia for six months or so to make some money to carry on again - what he calls "jump-cruising". Fascinating stories!

To add to all that, our PO Richards Bay, Tata Mncedi, brought along a group of local people. Jeff is the chieftain/inkosi of a royal tract of land and is building a lodge; we plan to have the next Richards Bay BBQ at his place in rural Africa. Hlengiwe runs township tours and has a tavern where she provides lunches for visitors - decorated with a brand new OCC burgee. Tata also runs a sailing school - something for us to keep an eye on.

All in all, a great evening. I unfortunately was enjoying myself so much I forgot to take any photographs!!! But here is the anchorage at ZYC.

One interesting comment from most of the people there: very few of them had heard about the OCC despite having sailed thousands of ocean miles. How to address this? Ideas welcomed!