After a challenging Indian Ocean passage, we were ready for some land time and what better place to explore than southern Africa! Come with us as we travel inland to incomparable game parks and unique experiences, then make our way down the Wild Coast of east Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope and complete our world circumnavigation in Cape Town.
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It seems there are some strict criteria for actually completing a bona fide circumnavigation … and we thought it just entailed sailing around the world and “tying the knot”, i.e. crossing your track. It seems it's much more complicated than that.
For example, Guiness states that:
A true circumnavigation of the Earth must:
From the above, it follows that a true circumnavigation must:
Francis Chichester, the famous British sailor who completed a solo circumnavigation on Gypsy Moth in the 1960s, the Explorers Web Adventure Stats, and many others use the same criteria. The World Sailing Speed Record Council uses a slightly different criteria, however. They state that the vessel must start from and finish at the same port, cross all meridians of longitude, cross the equator, and travel at least 21,600 nautical miles. Each leg must commence at the exact point where the previous finished off (meaning the legs cannot be completed out of order). They have no requirement to reach antipodal points.
I know – this is way too much trivia, and why do we care anyway? We care because a circumnavigation is an achievement, and it is human nature to attempt to set records accomplishing it. Who was the fastest? the youngest? the oldest to circumnavigate the globe? And to set a record circumnavigating the globe, there must be a definition of what constitutes a circumnavigation. While sailing around the world via a route entirely in the Southern Ocean would be an admirable feat, the distance traveled would be well under 10,000 nautical miles, less than half the distance of a great circle of the Earth, and it is not reasonable to call this a true circumnavigation.
Some interesting circumnavigations:
First circumnavigation: Juan Sebastián Elcano and the remaining members of Magellan's crew. They set out with 5 ships and 200 men in 1519, and returned to Spain after a west-about circumnavigation with 1 ship and 18 men who were barely alive. Maybe this was also a record for the highest crew attrition rate for a circumnavigation?
First solo circumnavigation: Joshua Slocum on Spray in 1898. He actually had four sets of antipodal points on his trip.
First nonstop solo circumnavigation: Bernard Moitessier. He was a participant in the 1968 Golden Globe Race, but dropped out of the race, deciding to continue on to Tahiti and not return to the finish line in England. While he didn't finish the race, he circled the globe 1-1/2 times, and actually closed the loop for a circumnavigation before the race winner, Robin Knox-Johnson.
Most amazing: Jon Sanders who completed a non-stop, solo, unassisted triple circumnavigation in 1988. He was alone at sea for 658 days. Wow!
So how did we stack up? Was our trip around the world a bona fide circumnavigation? Here are our particulars:
It took us eight years and we certainly didn't set any records (although if it took us much longer, we might have qualified as either the slowest or the oldest circumnavigators). While our meandering route encompassed more than double the distance required, I didn't find a record for the longest sail around the world, but probably no record there either. By any definition, however, it was a bona fide circumnavigation … accomplished by sailing just a little further.
Our short getaway wasn't quite finished. After a lovely B&B breakfast at the Oystercatcher, we headed out, but we weren't in a big hurry. We wanted to explore a bit more of Shelley Point first and then dawdle down the coast on the way back to Cape Town. It turns out Shelly Point has lots of wildlife. We'd seen a “watch out for wildlife” sign, but on our arrival hadn't seen a thing. We drove through the winding roads of this exclusive community on the way out and saw all sorts of critters … tortoises, lots of birds and even a fleeting glimpse of a mongoose.
We had noted a lighthouse on the point and drove closer to get a better look. The Stompneusbaai Light isn't really a lighthouse at all, but rather a leading light. Evidently, the developer of the Shelly Point Estates was a lighthouse enthusiast and built the “lighthouse” to suit his fancy.
We took a washboard,gravel road from St. Helena Bay to Paternoster, shaking a few fillings lose en route. There were a few farms along this route, some abandoned. Tumbleweeds blew across the road, reminding us of eastern Colorado. There were odd rock formations here and there, and the land looked parched and barren. We were intrigued by the number of raptors sitting on fence posts and utility poles on the look-out for lunch.
Paternoster is a pleasant, touristy little town that sits out in the Atlantic just north of Cape Columbine. We drove through, admiring the white-washed cottages and sweeping expanse of the busy beach. It wasn't time for lunch and the gas station was out of gas. We headed towards Saldanha Bay in hopes of finding some petrol there.
We'd stopped at Saldanha Bay with Nine of Cups on our last departure from South Africa to fix a furler problem. It definitely looks different from the sea. Driving through this mineral export town, the red dust of iron ore seemed to cover everything. We found gas, filled up and headed south on the coast road for Langebaan Lagoon and West Coast National Park. A very good decision.
Again, we were off-season for the spectacular aspects of the park … wildflowers. August and September are the prime months. I nicked a photo from the national park site to give you a glimpse of the flower extravaganza in season. Wow!
We weren't deterred, however. The views of Langebaan Lagoon were spectacular from our vantage point as we watched pale pink greater flamingos swinging their heads back and forth, filtering the water for food.
Not far away, wild ostriches stomped around the dry bush, looking as if they had some place important to go, but clueless as how to get there. We stopped for several more crossing the road in front of us. Obviously, there was a meeting somewhere.
There were several lookout points along the road providing gorgeous vistas of the lagoon and informational kiosks about the park, its history and its inhabitants.
We stopped briefly at the Geelbek House Restaurant and Visitor's Center. This picturesque Cape Dutch building, now a national monument, was originally built in 1744 and was the original homestead of the Geelbekkenfontein farm, named after the yellow-billed ducks that live in the area.
The highlight of our day was a bird blind in a marshy area at the foot of the Langebaan Lagoon. Accessible by a boardwalk, the hide was perfect for viewing African spoonbills, sacred ibis, ducks, dabchicks, coots … just us and so many birds. They were oblivious to us and I just kept snapping pix. Bird photography heaven.
The day was waning and it was time to head back to Kaapstad (Cape Town). No regrets … the overnight getaway was a perfect celebration and going home to Cups was a great ending to the day.
Hi there and welcome to Just A Little Further!
We are David and Marcie Lynn and we've lived aboard our Liberty 458 cutter-rigged sailboat since 2000.
What began as an urge to travel slowly and economically at our own pace ended up an adventure of a lifetime.
Well, here we are ... nearly 90,000 miles under the keel, 5 continents, 5 Great Southern Capes, 36 countries and almost two decades later, still taking one passage at a time and going just a little further.
