11 April Walvis Bay

After a week here we've discovered the wind pattern is light overnight from the north and switches to a 20 knot houlie from the south from 2pm to send the wind whirling like a Dervish.

We discovered Walvis, pronounced either Wal-vis or Val-fish, means whale in Afrikaans.

While we haven't seen any whales in the bay there are many, many seals, pelicans and flamingos to see. The water is rich in krill which makes both the flamingos and the pelicans pink. It is also odoriferous.  One boat owner who likes to keep his power  boat clean has built a garage for his boat.   The birds perch on top and the seals sleep inside.

 

We tie the dinghy to the yacht club jetty and can either walk to town in twenty minutes or catch a taxi to the Dunes Mall for NAD20 (£1.30) per person. At the Mall there are three supermarkets, Checkers, Pick and Pay and Woolworth, a couple of large chemist shops and the usual clothes shops.

small craft anchorage. YC jetty is on far right of picture

Walvis Bay town is larger than Luderitz and has hardware shops, three petrol stations and three supermarkets, OK, Shoprite and a Superspar (you'll find fast, free internet in the Spar coffee shop). I found Walvis Bay better for provisioning than Luderitz – a greater range and slightly cheaper. If you want to top up on beer and wine go to the shops any day except Sunday; no alcohol sold on Sunday. This doesn't include bars.

The yacht club has a restaurant. There are more places to eat behind the tourist catamaran jetties and if you turn west from the yacht club jetty along the esplanade is a restaurant built on stilts over the water,

The Raft

The Raft, a higgly piggly construction on stilts which was our favourite place to eat.

We found clearing out to be super simple. It took us 35 minutes to walk to Customs located at the main gate to the port (22.57.11S 14.30.01E). Although we had all ships papers the lady didn't ask to see them. I filled in a one page declaration, she stamped it, gave me the original, and we were done. No charge. It was then a short 100 metres walk to Immigration (22.57.035S 14.30.05E ) in a building shared with another Customs department where we filled in departure forms, had our photos taken, passports stamped and we were done. No charge.

Next stop St Helena 1250nm WNW.