Richard’s Bay, South Africa is my last stop aboard SV Obelisk and my departure is definitely bitter sweet. I originally set out to sail across the Indian Ocean for a couple of reasons; to learn more about sailing, to see if living life at sea is something I might want to do on my own one day, and to see some amazing places. I feel good in saying that I accomplished all of those. Jesse was a great captain and I learned a ton about all facets of sailing and seamanship from him. I learned that I do in fact love life at sea and I will almost certainly go sailing across oceans again at some point. And the places, Indonesia, Cocos Keeling, Rodrigues, Mauritius, Reunion, Madagascar, were all amazing in very different ways.
I can only thank luck for how awesome all of the people I shared the boat with were. When you find a boat to live on for five months off the internet there is an obvious risk for disaster, but we had nothing but exceptional people aboard Obelisk and that made the trip all that much better.
The crew
As for what everyone will be doing after Richard’s Bay; Jesse and Nathalia will continue sailing back towards the Americas with Jesse’s dad, Kady is doing some volunteer work in Cape Town, and I’ll be traveling over land around southern Africa for the next two months.
The first month I’ll be traveling with Artem, one of my best friends from back in San Francisco, through South Africa. Him and I have traveled around Hawaii, Europe, and much of California together and I’m sure this African adventure will be just as good.
Our first braai in Richard’s Bay
For the second month Stephen, another of my good San Francisco friends, will join me to explore Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia. I’m super lucky to have friends that are willing and capable of traveling around Africa with me and I can’t wait to see what kind of trouble we can get ourselves in to!