We Thought Leaving Would Be Easy — We Were Wrong | S5 E32

We thought leaving South Africa would be easy. We were wrong.

Our last stop before checking out was Langebaan — and if we're honest, it might just be one of our favourite spots on the entire South African coastline. Kite surfers everywhere, wing foiling from the boat, sunsets and sunrises we wish we'd had more time for. Naturally, we found it right as we were about to leave.

But before we could properly say goodbye, there was one more thing hanging over us: weeks earlier, an online system failure meant we couldn't formally lodge our visa appeal — and we had no idea if that would come back to bite us at the border. So we sailed into Saldanha not knowing whether we'd be checking out of South Africa cleanly, or walking into a much bigger problem.

What actually happened at that immigration counter genuinely caught us off guard.

From there it was straight into passage prep — one of our biggest provisioning runs yet, loading Happy Days I with enough fresh produce to get us through the unknowns of what we'd find (or wouldn't find) waiting for us in St Helena. And then, one last afternoon with our friends aboard Rolling Stones — a sunset, a pizza, and a goodbye we didn't film much of, because some moments you'd rather just be in.

Two boats, two directions. Rolling Stones heading north to Namibia. Us, turning west into the Atlantic.

This is our final chapter in South Africa — thank you for following this leg of the journey with us. The Atlantic crossing is next, and it's a big one.

⛵ Happy Days I — 2012 Leopard 46 Catamaran
📍 Langebaan → Saldanha, South Africa

We'd love to know — have you ever had a goodbye (to a place or a person) that hit harder than you expected? Let us know in the comments.

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