Ray Smuts THE CAPE Peninsula was at its inhospitable best over the weekend as howling winds and pelting rain caused general mayhem and the closure for the first time this winter of the Port of Cape Town. Howling winds of more than 70km/h, huge swells and torrential rain nipped shipping movements in the bud with the exception of the P&O Nedlloyd Kowie, the only vessel to enter the harbour after a pilot had been landed from a helicopter. It arrived in Table Bay at 18:00 on Friday and berthed at 12:45 on Saturday. The only vessel in the container terminal which normally accommodates four or five, there was no telling when she would sail. A spokesman at the container terminal said the port had been completely closed at one stage over the weekend but that ships had otherwise been allowed to depart, as evidenced by more than 20 sailings on Saturday and Sunday. By 08:00 on Monday with a north-northwesterly wind of round 45km/h blowing (it had reached 70km/h at 01:00) 17 vessels - half of them container ships - lay at anchor in Table Bay but there was no telling when they would be allowed to berth . It was expected that 11 container vessels would be off the port by mid-morning but when they would gain access was a moot point as the Cape has fallen prey to a second cold front in three days and much will depend on the subsiding of swells before vessel traffic can return to a semblance of normality.
