Author: wildernessofwaves

The clouds are on the verge of dripping in the dying red light of the day. It's going to rain. I always know because my left foot aches so badly I have to hobble. They had to fix some ankle bones down there when I was a kid and I'm a walking barometer. I'm still...

This post is for members only.

They say that sailors write their plans in the sand at low tide. There are plenty of reasons for that. It's because we are bound by the wind. It's because one minute Mother Nature has the face of God and in a flash she's got the grin of the grim reaper. It's because sometimes we...

This post is for members only.

There is polar air blowing up from Antarctica and straight into my bones. It is a deep glacial chill that slips in through every crack and is amplified by the water. My whole body responds, quivering, shaking, shivering. It is midday. I departed Hout Bay an hour ago on the rising tide. I am long...

This post is for members only.

I can't move without bumping into something wild in this country. It's like make-believe. Imagine walking along the beach and seeing this creature called a dassie, something that looks like a large rat but is most closely related to an elephant. The dassie is sitting there and then another one comes up and they just...

This post is for members only.

Hout Bay is drop-dead gorgeous. A little seaside fishing town surrounded by green and pink mountains on all sides. It reminds me of Colorado without the snow. It’s summer here, but at night I sleep beneath five wool blankets. The locals say, “the wind was made in Hout Bay.” I have not met the mountain...

This post is for members only.

The moon is new. I sleep hard and long and sail slow into the night. Celtic. Star Calypso. Dominator. Cape Sunrise. Golden Karoo. All traveling beside me. I rise before the day turns to gold. There is still an hour before sunrise and 17 NM until I'm at the Cape of Good Hope, or Cape...

This post is for members only.

I missed the sunrise. I was sleeping. It's high in the sky now. The wind is blowing harder and the water is getting bumpier and bluer and colder as I sail west. It is all a shock to my system. I had a lot of cargo traffic last night. I was too tired and the...

This post is for members only.

When the west winds blow across South Africa, the air and water are freezing cold, and I have noticed more rain during those times as well. Right now I am out here riding a south wind that is slowly turning more east, but I am cold now too. That is because I am getting closer...

This post is for members only.

I love Mossel Bay. I don’t regret that the lightning drove me here, to this space where the world ends and the ocean begins, yet somehow there is no entropy. So far it’s my favorite place in South Africa, and I have the strange feeling of “belonging” here. As if it is one of my...

This post is for members only.

I was fishtailing and surfing my way into Knysna, and I see-sawed and pancake-flapped my way out. I didn’t want to leave on a forecast that showed heavy thunder and lightning, but Libre did, so we did. We got seven different people’s opinions before departing. Some said, “Go, it’ll just be a little rain and...

This post is for members only.