As soon as we reached Richards'Bay mid-september, we contacted the friends we met here in 1999. Robert, our South-African friend, who is now responsible for the inspection of cargo ships and our Belgian friends Isabelle and Yves who now have a cottage right beside their home in Mtuzini, not far from Richards'Bay. We spent two wonderful week-ends with them. During one of them, we had the typical South-African Braai, the BBQ and Yves used a head-light just like on "Minuit".

We also went back to our favourite game park, Hluhluwe-Umfolozi where we spent two days in total watching the wild life which is something which cannot be missed here in South Africa.
Unfortunately, Richards'Bay is not as friendly as it used to be with the addition of two coal terminals which meant we had to clean the deck and hull everyday since the coal is like black glue everywhere. We also missed the presence of international yachties like us so we just ordered a new main-sail and spinnaker and left the marina as fast as we could to go to Durban. Although Durban is probably the ugliest city in South Africa, we made a great number of new friends among international yachties and enjoyed the free of charge wireless internet.

We don't know if it's the global warming or just the lack of luck but we were stuck in Durban 7 weeks before we got any favourable weather forecast to sail the longest leg on this unfriendly South African coast to the nearest shelter. Well, then we were lucky and past the first two shelters to reach the new marina of St Francis, a tiny marina with an excellent restaurant where we enjoyed the mussels cooked in cream and other delicious dishes.

Next stop, Mossel Bay where we met French friends who were next to us in the marina in Durban. It was right in time to spend Christmas Eve together on the catamaran "Manta". On December 25, we decided to sail to Simon's Town, not far from Cape Town. Unfortunately, all weather forecasts proved wrong and we were obliged to take shelter, if we can call it shelter, behind Cape Infanta with winds up to 45 knots. We couldn't even launch the dinghy to spend New Year's Eve together although we were not far from "Manta" who also sheltered with ud. "Ty Mor", the other French boat, decided to move on and experienced their worse sea ever and arrived in Simon's Town with their main sail torn out and the fright of their life.

Simon's Town was a perfect stop. The little town is beautiful and the safety great. We took advantage of our stay to haul out "Minuit" to change the engine mounting blocks and put a few coats of anti-fouling on the hull before the crossing of the Atlantic.

Well, back to bad weather then as soon as we went back in the water. The storm stayed with us for a week and we only left on January 25 in a very heavy sea right after the storm. As always, the wind died on us then came back from the south-east to push us gently to Saint Helena where we stayed 48 hours.

We spent a great day with our friends of "Ty Mor" touring the island in an old Chevrolet dating back from 1920 with no roof, a great way to admire the scenery and it's not necessary to stop the driver to take pictures et the speed we were...especially when going up the hills.
The sky was perfectly blue and the tour of the houses where Napoleon lived in exile for 6 years before dying in one of them was a treat we will never forget.
The guides made us discover a part of the history we didn't know too much about and we were not astonished to hear that Napoleon was requested to justify his spending to the British, especially in food and wine which he ordered from Madeira and South Africa. There is still a vineyard producing wine Napoleon used to drink in South Africa, we heard.

To reach the quay in Saint-Helena, a good physical condition is highly recommended since the waves can be so rough, you need to take the local ferry because by dinghy, it's impossible and then jump up holding ropes as you land on the concrete quay.

On February 9, we left Saint Helena that we reached in 12 days and 19 hours (for a crossing of 1.750 nautical miles (3.241 km) for the next leg to Salavador da Bahia in Brazil which we reached after 13 days and 12 hours for a crossing of 1.949 nautical miles (3.610 km).