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On most weekends, Deon and I paddle and sail this coast, spending countless enjoyable hours.

Spring is whale season off the South Africa’s Cape coast.

A Southern Right whale surfaces close to Deon off Steenbras mouth

The Southern Rights cruise the sanctuaries in their hundreds. On this day Deon and I paddled around to Steenbras River Mouth from Gordons Bay half hoping to see some. In the mouth in about 20m of inky water we almost paddled over a pair of adults.

They tolerated us for a while as we snapped some photos, and then slipped away as silently as they had appeared.

Below is a Google Earth track of some of our trips along the Kogelberg coastline.

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For a while we used a triangular sail on the double kayak, but lost it off Rooiels when a line came undone in a nasty south-easter and it proved too difficult to derig from the cockpit. We have plans to rig our own sail of a different design. The kayak is a lot of fun under sail and we have reached speeds of 13 km/h in an 11 knot breeze – but the sail must be manageable when things get rough…

Here’s a slideshow of photos from these weekend trips:

Related posts:

1. Paddling up the Steenbras There isn’t actually much of the Steenbras River to paddle...
2. Kayak Rooiels-Pringle Bay, Kogelberg Coast On this crisp morning, Deon and I launched at Rooiels...
3. Sea kayaking from Hangklip to Gordons Bay A 40km paddle along some of the most beautiful coastline...
4. Green machine prowls Gordon’s Bay Last Sunday I took the new lime-green Skua out for...
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