The sunset Cape Town cruise

Watch the sunset over Cape Town on a classic sailboat, the Spirit of Victoria. She’s known as the grand old lady of charter boats and has brick-red sails that make her the most photographed boat on the V&A waterfront – she’s even been featured in movie shoots. Unlike modern boats, we use ropes and pulleys to manually lift the sails so it’s a very exciting, authentic experience. You feel the boat tilt and suddenly you’re looking at the ocean below you with the spray in your face – people love it.

Our sunset cruise lasts an hour and a half. As we exit the port, we’ll pass seals lounging on red buoys, bickering over who gets the best spot in the sun. There’s also a pod of dusky dolphins that live in the bay, we see them almost every day surfing our bow wave. Sometimes we’ll spot penguins too, as well as huge bony sun fish in the water. Once, we even had a group of southern right whales pop up within arm’s reach of our boat, we were so close we could smell them.

As we sail towards the sunset you’ll enjoy some sparkling wine and soft music. The route takes us between Cape Town and Robben Island. One of our crew members actually lives on the island while another’s father is an ex-prisoner, so they’ll often share their experiences with guests. Eventually, we slow the boat down and take the pressure out of the sails, so we can bob on the waves while watching the sunset. It’s usually this beautiful red colour and, if there are clouds, you get a spectrum of bright yellow through to ember painting the sky.

When we pass the Mouille Point lighthouse we turn back towards Cape Town. That’s when we start to see lights come on in the city while the last rays of sun shine on Table Mountain in the background, which is often draped in a tablecloth of cloud. You get the twinkling lights of the city set against this dark mountain, which I always think of as the caretaker of Cape Town. It makes for a perfect photo of our iconic skyline.

Guests often comment on how great our guides are. We hire local guys and train them up, as we’re passionate about empowering the local community. Our skipper Lucky, for instance, comes from one of the townships outside of Cape Town. Guests say how nice it is to chat with South Africans and we really encourage that interaction. We also try and inspire a love of sailing in young people by partnering with organisations like The World Needs a Father and Scouting in South Africa.