Clearing Out...

After a massive week of having all of the final things fixed on Our Rose, Provisioning for two months or more, saying goodbyes, we finally had come to the day where we would be “Clearing Out”.   Our goal was to be heading away by mid/late morning.  We walked to V & A Waterfront Marina Office, where we needed a letter confirming we were paid up and leaving the marina (which is required by customs), we then walked 10 minutes to port area to Immigration, we filled in forms and they finally stamped our passports.  It was then off to Customs a walk of 15 minutes into city centre.  We queued and when our turn came we thought we had all the documents, however we had not been told we would require a “Export” document, a document that needed to be supplied from Rudi (boatbuilder), via a Clearing Agent – OH NO.  So, on the phone to Rudi – to cut a very long story short, urgency was put onto this piece of paper and we finally received it at 4.00PM.  We speed walked back to V & A Waterfront, onto Our Rose and we were finally ready to leave…

Alan the newest Nexus owner, and Roger of Nexus Catamarans came to :”Throw off the bowlines" – so that we could "sail away from the safe harbour, catch the trade winds in our sails”… and they waved us off…

We sailed overnight and arrived at Langebaan at 03:00am where we stayed for two nights, doing final provisioning. 

We finally left South Africa, Six Months after arriving on Thursday 28 March, at 17:00, the wind was forecast for a southerly to help push us away from the coast – here begins our First Crossing…