Shipwrecked - The Cape of Storms

As the temperature in Cape Town soared well over 35ºC yesterday, people flocked to the beach in hope of a little respite. One thing you can always count on when you swim in the Atlantic Ocean, it's going to be cold no matter how hot it might be on the shore.

Our trip to the beach, took us to Blouberg beach, where you will find this shipwreck, left after a storm last year in winter.

The Seli 1 was grounded with 30.000T coal in September 2009, on it's way from Durban to Gibraltar. The NSRI were able to rescue all the crew members, in extremely dangerous conditions and Salvors pumped the fuel off the ship, which was also hampered by bad weather.

When you look at the ship, it almost looks like it was parked not wrecked - it calmly lies there, keeping watch over the beach goers.

It is no accident that Bartolomeu Dias called the Southern tip of Africa the Cape of Storms. It was later re-named the Cape of Good Hope, because of the great optimism of opening a sea route to India and the East. Depending on which season you make your visit, you'll find both names very suitable.

There have been so many ships that have come to the end of their sailing days at the Cape of Storms, some with tragic endings - like the Birkenhead, where only 193 of the 643 people on board were saved.

The Cape of Good Hope is the legendary home of The Flying Dutchman, crewed by tormented and damned ghostly sailors, it is doomed forever to beat its way through the adjacent waters without ever succeeding in rounding the headland.

Here is another wreck (pictured on one of our hikes), off Duiker Point, the Bos 400 which ran aground on 26 June 1994. Despite several towage attempts, the shipwreck was considered a total loss as salvors were able to recover little from the wrecked derrick / lay barge.