22 January Gun battle in Hout Bay

You've survived 60 knots winds entering Hout Bay and on your second day in the marina there are gun shots on the wharf.

We'd spent an hour in the yacht club using the Wi-Fi and on leaving we hear pop pop sounds coming from the area on the jetty where a salvage company are raising a sunken trawler. People on the balcony of the yacht club beckon us back inside the security gates and we watch an altercation between police in flak jackets and some very angry local men.

The story we learned later was as follows. The salvage team had divers in the water when a large rib belonging to abalone poachers roared past where they were working. The salvage team called the police who arrived ready for serious work. The police used their rib to confiscate the poachers rib and as they were towing the boat away rocks, iron bars were thrown at the police, a flare gun appeared and the police retaliated with shots, probably rubber bullets, fired over the heads of the antagonists on the dock.

Welcome to Hout Bay, a not so sleepy fishing port.