Editor: A report you WON’T read about sailing in Algoa Bay:
It was a glorious day – flat seas and a steady 15 knot wind as the three of us exited the Port for a beachfront burn and hell for leather spinnaker run to the Bell Buoy.
A fast reach along Kings Beach towards the Shark Rock Pier saw us slowing down a bit as we prepared to hoist the spinnaker and race out to sea.
THAT was when it happened – these two knife wielding thugs came out of nowhere (we think they dropped from the end of the Pier). I wielded the winch handle at one like a nunchaka but he was too fast and ripped my right arm open, in the ensuing fracas we broached pitching the pointy bit guy into the water and forcing us to go into man overboard sequence whilst the kinife wielding miscreants ransacked the yacht taking our cellphones, two way radios, wallets and electronic equipment not nailed down.
A rubber duck roared up to us and the thugs leaped into it to make their getaway. …
DISCLAIMER: This NEVER happened and is probably an illustration of just how much safer it has become to take up the sport of sailing in preference to running or cycling alone through dodgy areas of Port Elizabeth these days.
Alan Straton
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