New Residents at the Durban Marina

Several things have changed in the marina since I left in early December and returned three weeks later. There are fewer international boats for one thing. Many folks have moved on to Cape Town and points beyond. There are only 4-5 visiting boats besides us here and most of them will be gone when we return from our inland travel. As always, we're on the slow side of moving on. There are some new residents, however.

As I was walking to the clubhouse the other morning, I heard an odd bird sound that surprised me with its raspy hoarseness. I saw what I thought was a pair of odd colored brown ducks with a flotilla of three ducklings behind them. They climbed out of the water with their little entourage and exposed bright pink legs and webbed feet. I wasn't familiar with this species at all and looked them up in my South Africa bird book as soon as I returned to the boat. Well, they weren't ducks at all … they were Egyptian Geese and goslings. How exotic does that sound?

According to Wiki, the Egyptian goose is endemic to Africa south of the Sahara and Nile Valley. The ancient Eygptians considered them sacred, as evidenced by their frequent presence in ancient Egyptian artwork. At the Pyramid of Meidum, near the great tomb of Nefer-Maat, some paintings were found that are considered to be the best and the oldest ever found in a tomb.  The most famous is called the "Scene of the Geese of Meidum", a beautiful representation of Egyptian geese painted on a mud brick wall.

The Egyptians domesticated them and subsequently they've been raised for food. Apparently, they mate for life and are very territorial. The raspy sound is typical for the male; the female is louder and more vocal. (hmm!) I'm not sure why I'd never seen them before, perhaps they were nesting in early December?  They're around each day now, gracefully swimming in the filthy canal between the docks and the clubhouse, artfully maneuvering around the floating trash. Obviously they're neighbors who don't complain.

Life in the 'hood - Durban Marina

Each time we move from one marina to another, we find ourselves in a totally new neighborhood. We don't usually know our neighbors or the lay of the land or what's where, and it takes a few days to get things figured out. Depending on the friendliness of marina staff and/or an associated yacht club, the learning process can be easy or painful. It's been pretty easy here in Durban at the Durban Marina, mostly because of the people.

The marina itself is nothing to write home about (which, of course, still doesn't keep me from writing about it, does it?).  The International Jetty where we first docked only accommodates one boat at a time and has minimal turning room. There are tie-ups for several boats all crowded along the shoreline there and all behind a locked gate. There are two other piers which jut out from the shore and we're located on the C dock. We use our thumbprints for entry to the piers which we thought was rather novel although sometimes it takes a few tries to get in or out. Good thing is we always have our thumbs with us and don't have to rely on having a key.

The piers are long and rickety and the heavy rust would indicate they're in definite need of some maintenance. We wonder what holds them together.

The newer pier has both water and metered electric power on the dock. Our pier has water, but unfortunately does not have power. We're still depending upon our wind generator and solar panels to keep the batteries charged and generate power. Without the nav instruments running, however, this hasn't been a major problem unless I want to sew or David wants to run power tools or we happen to want hot water, for instance. We can always run our trusty little gas generator, but it's noisy (for us and our neighbors) and we'd usually rather do without.

As I mentioned before, unlike most marinas, Durban Marina only takes care of the boat berthing and offers no other amenities. The Point Yacht Club, which offered us free 2-week membership for just showing up, is next door and offers all the amenities we need. It's quite a friendly club. We're nearly at the end of the pier and the long walk to the club … probably ¼ mile … is always an issue first thing in the morning when nature calls. We've found a solution, however. South Africa does not have Daylight Savings Time and thus, the sun comes up around 0430 currently. This has worked well for us as we usually awaken with the sunrise. We've been lugging our laptops to shore around 0530 along with our cuppas in the morning. We can do wifi to our heart's content in a comfy lounge with rarely anyone else around and still be close to the bathrooms when necessary. We're all for efficiency.

I must tell you that the prices here in South Africa are definitely budget-friendly. When we visited South Africa in 2007, the Rand vs. US $ was 7:1. The South African rand (ZAR) is currently about 10:1 US$. We've been dining out frequently lately since tasty meals at the on-site Tradewinds Restaurant  run about $12 total for the both of us including a beer or glass of wine each. It's hard to compete with that at the end of a long day of boat work. Just for grins … a Castle beer costs about $1.40 US and a glass of house red or white wine is $1 US.

We can deal with the long walk, the rickety piers and the lack of shore power, but the harbor water and smell in the marina, especially at low tide is abhorrent. Raw sewage comes to mind. It literally takes your breath away some days. It's amazing that the fish life thrives here, but it does. There are good size mullet and lots of smaller fish hanging out … eating critters from the reef-life on the bottoms of  unused boat.

Interestingly, there are none of the usual sea birds around, perhaps because we're right downtown Durban. Instead of waking to the calls of seagulls and terns in the morning, there's the cooing of doves and pigeons and the squawking of ibis and herons.

We'll be here for about six weeks … resting and repairing … and we'll know the marina and our surroundings well enough  … and then, of course, it'll be time to move to a new neighborhood.

Getting Things Done Durban-Style

The list of repairs and replacements for Nine of Cups is long, as you well know, but I have to say we are very impressed with the efficiency and responses from the Durban trade community. Our experience in most ports is that after chatting with other yachties and talking to local people around the marina, we finally get the name and number of someone who “might” be able to help us. We call. We wait and sometimes, just sometimes, the person shows up, perhaps offers a quote with no guarantee of delivery or quality and then might never be heard from again. Or perhaps the quote is five times what we'd expected or, as in Mauritius, there is no quote, but we're assured of a “cheap, don't worry price” … which we know will be the blue-eyed yachtie special and we're just not game for that. To our delighted surprise, the Durban Marina has answered many of our questions. Mobile phone service? Supermarkets? Laundry? They also have a display of tradesmen' cards offering all sorts of yacht services. We picked up another card with the possibility of getting our bimini and dodger replaced. We called and, son of a gun, if someone didn't show up within a couple of hours, take measurements and give us a quote and a delivery time on the spot. What? We placed the order for delivery in early January.

David needs a new whisker pole toggle fabricated and chatted with Rob, the go-to guy here at the marina. No problem, he can have it done in a few days and took the piece with him. What about drilling and tapping the new larger holes in the steering quadrant rudder arm? “Well, David, we have a machine shop here on site. Bring your own bit and you can do it yourself. No charge.” Oh, my!

Is there a chandlery nearby? Well, yes, of course, there's Seaport Supply, but it's a lengthy walk. Just give them a call and they'll come collect you and bring you back. Don't have what we need in stock? No worries. They'll research it for us and get back with pricing and delivery. No charge … no obligation. Really? And there's another branch of Seaport Supply in Cape Town, too. No time to get a part in here? They'll ship it to Cape Town for pick-up.

What about a sail repair? They'll be down this afternoon to give us a quote. And they actually showed up!

Our lives have gotten considerably easier and more efficient. All that AND Durban prices are reasonable and within the budget. We might even have a shot at getting all our work done and seeing  more of South Africa than the marina dock. We're liking Durban more and more each day.