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Boom – Kalk Bay Harbour takes a pounding

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Saturday, 7 May 2016. An unseasonal ESE wind started blowing across False Bay the day before. The wind picked up all day and into the night with top speeds of more than 50 knots (close to 100km/h) recorded at Cape Point, at the entrance to False Bay, through the night. The wind pushed a huge swell into the bay and I had a gut feeling (and a bit of help from the charts) that Kalk Bay could be good for photographs early Saturday morning. I was on the rocks outside the harbour before sunrise to take in a very rough sea and high winds and spray from the waves. The waves smashing into the harbour wall were made to look even more dramatic by the high winds creating even more spray above the waves.

On leaving, my brother and I went upstairs to the Harbour House restaurant to get some photos looking down the harbour wall. As we got there we saw three men running along the jetty towards the lighthouse and the area where most waves were breaching the wall. They pulled in the boat closest to the lighthouse and one man climbed on board. The other two then tried desperately to get the boat closer to the wall so they could attach a second line to further secure it. They struggled. The guys were clearly seasoned mariners and kept a close eye on the sea outside the harbour wall. Each time a large wave approached they sprinted back to safety to then return when the water had subsided. I don’t think they were in any real danger, thanks to their experience, and managed in the end to secure the boat – it was still there when we returned later in the afternoon.

Wild weather, wild seas, such great energy.


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