Weather at Cape Agulhas and Struisbaai
Our Club is not only unique in it's location, but also it's weather.
The sea of Cape Agulhas is notorious for winter storms, and mammoth freak waves, which can range up
to 30m high and can sink even large ships. This is also the point where the Indian and Atlantic oceans actually
meet — not at the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Point as is sometimes thought.
South of Cape Agulhas the warm Agulhas Current that flows south along the east coast of Africa
retroflects back in the Indian Ocean. While retroflecting it pinches off large oceaneddies (Agulhas rings) that
drift into the South Atlantic Ocean and take enormous amounts of heat and salt into the neighboring ocean. This
mechanism is one of the key elements in the global conveyor belt circulation of heat and salt.
The waters near the coast are quite shallow and known as the best fishing grounds in
South Africa, known as the Agulhas Bank. For the first 250 kilometers seawards the sea is less than 100 meters
deep, after which it steeply falls away to over 1600 meters
Always make very sure about weather conditions before
venturing out to sea!
Some forecasts here:
Struisbaai Wind
forecast
Agulhas Wind Forecast
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