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Richard's Bay / Thu Mar 7

Today we docked in Richard's Bay, South Africa. It's located on the southeast corner of Africa just north of Durban.

We and another couple signed up for one of the ship's tours called 'Marine Mammals Boat Cruise.' It was described as 'taking a leisurely two hour cruise off the coast of South Africa' with the possibility of seeing dolphins, sharks, whales and sea turtles.

We arrived at the harbor as planned and boarded the boat. 
George and Larry
As we left the harbor to get to the coast, our boat stopped and the captain told us he had to wait for a larger ship to come in before we could go out - so we sat for about 10 min, going nowhere in a circle before heading out. 

Once we started for the coast things got rocky. It was very windy and the water was rough. The boat was going at high speed, bouncing all over and everyone was getting whipped with salt water from all sides. It was pretty scary. One older gentleman was screaming and one lady was crouched on the floor trying not to get soaked. It seemed more like a ride at Disneyland than a leisurely cruise. 

Larry and I and the other couple were in the front so we got hit with water from all sides and we had nothing to hang on to. The seats were soaking and we were slipping all around. Finally we got word that we were heading back to shore. That was quite the relief for everyone as none of us could imagine two more hours getting slammed with waves. Needless to say, we got a full refund. 
We all got soaked!

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