Cape weather caused havoc in shipping

Ray Smuts
THIS IS a July Capetonians would prefer to forget Ð the wettest in 44 years and certainly one of the coldest, as rain and winds lashed the Peninsula again last week causing major damage and disruption including shipping delays.
As the weekend got under way, this correspondent counted at least 12 vessels at anchor which had dropped to seven by 06h00 on Monday.
Cape Town's port captain Eddie Bremner said winds of between 50 and 70 knots and swells of up to five metres between the breakwater and harbour had been experienced during the week. "Any sea generated by a 70-knot wind is pretty bad so if you can name a period where we had higher in Cape Town I would be interested to know," said Bremner.
While sailing ships and smaller vessels made it into port, a number of larger vessels could not as there was the danger of lines snapping in the appalling weather and some vessels had no alternative but to lie at anchor for 24 hours.
Surveyor, salvage expert and master mariner Godfrey Needham said sea conditions were "not the worst experienced by any means but certainly a good Cape swell".
However, the "good Cape swell" was sufficient for two container vessels to leave port and for yet another vessel heading for the scrapyard, the 191-metre Sun, to seek sanctuary in False Bay, held by the tug John Ross while her Chinese tug came into the port for bunkers.
A three-day weather forecast for the Cape and vicinity gave the outlook as partly cloudy becoming fine with a 40km/h south-easter gradually dwindling to 15km/h.