A Sailing Adventure in Langabaan

When visiting the West Coast, there are a number of great little towns to visit. One recent trip I took with a friend of mine was to Langebaan. My friend Alexander has a holiday house on the edge of town and it was from here that we set out sailing across the Langebaan lagoon on a hoby-cat.

Here’s a short account of our adventure…

Setting out from the Natte Valleij farm, where Alexander produces his red wines

It took us a while to get going, but after packing in everything we imagined we would need, Alexander and myself set out in his good old “macking Mercades” on route to Oostewaal (the syndicate owned property on the edge of Langebaan) via a second hand bottle dealer in Brackenfel, where Alexander (wine maker of considerable talent and much skill) proceeded to wheel and deal himself some prime wine bottles at a super-duper price for next year’s wine, and with the seal of a handshake from Mr Ricardo Green we were on our way up the West Coast.

Once we finally arrived at Oostewaal, having failed to corrupt the Parks Board official into allowing us a shortcut through the West Coast National Park, we unpacked and set our attention towards the lagoon and the 16 foot hoby-cat which was to be the source of almost all of the week’s adventure.

Lets go sailing!

Sizing up the conditions, Alexander was a little concerned about the wind being a bit strong, but his eagerness got the better of him. Since I am not an experienced “first mate,” having last sailed at the age of ten, with the rank of “look out boy,” I was not in a position to argue (I was too keen to get out on the water anyway).

So we set off across the lagoon, meeting some choppy water as we went. The choppiness continued, and the sea swell became bigger, and the wind stronger. The front of the boat lifted higher and higher as we crested the swell, and strong gusts of wind caught under the trampoline (canvas floor of the hoby-cat boat) as we crested the waves.

With the speed we had built up, and a good launch off a large swell, the wind easily held us in the air. Then it lifted us. Then it lifted the front of the boat higher. And higher. And we were silent in the calm of flight. And then we were both in the water and the hoby was lying on its side.

A moment of stunned silence passed, then I asked, “So what’s the technique of getting one of these up again?”

Alexander looked at me blankly, “Um, I’m not actually very sure…”

After some thought we settled on a plan involving Alexander standing on the hull and me swimming to the end of the mast to lift it out the water so as to catch the wind with the sail. This might have worked in theory. Maybe…

After much struggling and pushing and jumping and tugging we managed to get some wind into the sail. The boat shot upright like a sleeping dog awakening to the sound of a cat meowing in his ear; this was too fast. The velocity was stunning and set us up for an act of maritime gymnastics, namely the infamous aquatic bom-ala-kiesie of the boat. It was hectic.

Eventually we gave up trying to right the bitch and sat chilled upon one of the hulls. We scoped out the direction we were drifting in, and realised that if we were lucky we would run aground on the small bird sanctuary island with a rocky shore. If we were unlucky we would drift into the open ocean.

The rescue

Luckily a couple of fisherman on a speed boat came to our rescue and pulled us ashore, near the Langebaan yacht club. We struggled and shoved the hoby-cat up onto the beach above the high tide line. There did not seem to be much damage, luckily.

Wet and chilled to the bone we stumbled along the coast and into the yacht club’s bar, where we begged a cup of coffee. It turned out that the barman and the customers had all been watching us drift across the lagoon –much to their amusement- and they were kind enough to allow us the use of the kitchen to brew up some of the best instant “Ricoffee” we’ve had in a long time. We warmed our wrinkled and frozen hands in a sink of warm water… it was heavenly.

After this respite we marched home along a dirt road that follows the coast in a shortcut back to Oostewaal. We would fetch the boat the next day…

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