Tender scare and 1st train in 25 years: Luderitz, Namibia, 2014

There are ports and then there are ports.

When cruising on the sea we visit several ports. Some ports, as in Auckland, Amsterdam or Vancouver, are right in the city. We walk down the gangway into the port authority buildings, clear immigration( if not already done on board) and walk right into the city hub. Some ports are quite far out of the city and we may be shuttled to the city centre by a local bus company ( mostly free). Then there are ports that are not deep enough for huge ships to dock. These ports may have floating docks, connected to the mainland with a floating walkway. Then there are others in which the ship anchors in deeper waters and tenders passengers to and from the shore. Tendering simply means ferrying passengers to and fro in life boats. 

And we were tendered into Lüderitz in calm seas under clear skies.

Diamond boom and bust, a sip of the briny

We are in Luderitz, named after the German,  Adolf Lüderitz, who owned the land. In the early twentieth century. Diamond was discovered during construction of the railway line (in Kolmomskop, now a ghost town, buried under the shifting sand dunes of the Namib Desert, outside Lüderitz) and as a result the town boomed. The colourful colonial homes with the landscaped gardens and the Church are testament to it. But the terrain is rocky and not conducive to agriculture. 

Where do they get their drinking water? They only get about 2 cm of rainfall a year! As we walk around town we see women sweeping out sand.  Spying the town library we walk in and chat with the librarian. She enlightens us. The town has a salt water condensing plant, hence the drinking water. The day before they had experienced a severe sandstorm, not unusual, and the town has been practically swept clear not only because of the shipload of visitors but also. . . .

The train! The train!

The main thoroughfare, Bismark road, is lined with school children and townsfolk. They have been there for nearly an hour. We chat with them. They are thrilled that we were educators. They are expecting a train, the first in 25 years, which is probably delayed because the tracks would have been covered by the sand from the sand storm.  

While they patiently bear the heat and wait for the train we walk around the town along the colonial villas and all the way up to the church as well as the town's founder's home which is now a museum. We are impressed. We walk down the rocky outcrop, a lonely place (a couple were robbed of their ipad here and nothing could be done for the teens were swift-footed), before we come back into town just in time for the train's arrival. Its an ancient train and we can imagine the problems that can arise in such terrain and climate.

Buffeted, slammed, dashed

By lunch time we are all done with the excitement and so walk towards the dock to queue up for our tender, eagerly looking forward to a cold salad on board. While we were ashore the wind had picked up and there is now a considerable swell around the ship. It is a bumpy ride indeed. Our tender heaves from side to side. As the swells rise we bob like a cork. It gets worse. The sea turns its fury on us as we approach the boarding platform on the ship. In normal times the tender aligns itself against the boarding platform, we step from the tender onto the platform, climb up a few stairs and we are in the belly of the ship. But that isn't happening now. We are lashed, and dashed against the ship. Imagine how challenging it must have been for both the ship and tender pilots to keep their barks steady in a seething sea. Everybody in the tender has become quieter. We are hoping none of us gets sea sick. We know where the life-jackets are, if needed. We trust the crew. Finally some crew on the platform manage to haul in and secure the ropes from the tender to the bollards on the platform. As we gingerly walk towards the door we are told to wait till the gap narrows before hopping on to the steady surface. I manage it and so did many others . When the gap widens the crew and passengers wait patiently. The crew does a marvellous job in pulling passengers out of harm's way when just as they are about to hop across the gap widens. There was one near mishap. The passenger had one foot on the ship and another dangling in the gap. He was not light either. What strong hands must have pulled him to safety! What a well trained crew!

A very eventful and memorable day, indeed.

We have had many thrilling experiencess on the sea as in avoiding a cyclone, taking measures against pirates, being tossed by rogue waves in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, sailing through treacherous waters near the Falkland Islands and the capes at the bottom of Africa and South America,  and in the North Pacific Ocean off the Kamchatka Peninsula. Plenty to write about in future blogs.