Waiting for a Weather Window

The narrow entrance to Knysna is known as "The Heads."

We arrived in Knysna on Tuesday, November 29th thinking we would be here for one week at the most before we continued our journey down the South African coast.  It has been eleven days and, so far, it looks like we will be here another week before we get an appropriate weather window to leave.

An appropriate weather window means the following:  the wind will be from the southeast to northeast and forecasted for no more than 20 knots; sea swells will no be more than two meters high; barometric pressures will not be too low; there will be no bad weather coming from the west; and, these conditions will last for at least three days.

Our next run will be to either Simonstown or Cape Town, and to get there, we must round Cape Agulhas, the southern-most tip of Africa and the place where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet.  Right now, it is rough out there!  Winds are over 30 knots, and can gust over 40, causing high ocean swells that can topple sail boats.  When the winds are westerly, which is often, due to frequent Antarctic low pressure systems, it is not only pointless to try to sail head on into maelstrom, it is dangerous.  So, we sit and wait.

Knysna Lagoon has many shallows.

And there is probably no nicer place on the planet to wait for a weather window than Knysna.  After we "surfed" through the narrow entrance to the bay, known as The Heads, we carefully navigated shoals and shallows across the Knysna lagoon, around the narrow peninsula known as Leisure Island, to the far right side of the bay at the Knysna Marina and Yacht Club.  Our boat is well protected, and we are in a sunny, beautiful, and friendly town in the heart of what is called South Africa's Garden Route.

It's rough out there.

We will post another blog on our adventures here, but we wanted to give you an update on our lack of progress down the coast.  Yes, we are enjoying Knysna and the surrounding area, but we are also waiting for safe weather conditions before journeying back out to sea.  If you wish to help us hunt for that weather window, you can go here. On the left hand side, select Indian Ocean and then click on South Africa to Seychelles.  You can then download a zip file of the most recent weather forecast for wind, pressure and wave.

That's what we'll be doing every morning, trying to find the magical window to continue our trip west to Cape Town.  We hope we're there by Christmas; until then, we're "stuck" in Knysna.  There are worse fates.