Dolphin watching in Algoa Bay

Port Elizabeth and Algoa Bay was recently branded as the Bottlenose Dolphin Capital of the World because of the fact that the area is home to probably the biggest population of Bottlenose Dolphins in the world.  Join Lloyd Edwards and the team of Raggy Charters on a virtual cruise of Algoa Bay out to St Croix Island and along the beachfront to view the dolphins on this video and perhaps you may just decided to do it in real life next time around.

Cruising with Raggy Charters

Raggy Charters made Port Elizabeth proud during 2014 by being announced the national winner in the Marine Adventure Category of the Lilizela Tourism Awards.  I found this video posted on YouTube two years or so ago by a visitor who went on one of their cruises to St Croix Island just to give you a bit of a taste on what to expect if you go out with Lloyd and his team.

Penguin Island Cruise with Raggy Charters video

At the recent 2nd annual South African Tourism Lilizela Awards Raggy Charters of Port Elizabeth won the Marine Experience category in the customer experience section.  It is a huge accomplishment not just for Lloyd Edwards and his team but also a feather in the cap of Port Elizabeth and Algoa Bay.  It proves that this area can compete with the best the rest of South Africa has to offer as far as marine experiences   I came across this video by Ellie Bottomley on YouTube that she made of their cruise out to St Croix Island and the sightings along the way.

St Croix Island

 In 1488 the Portuguese explorer Batholomeu Dias sailed into Algoa Bay and landed on St Croix island

where his crew celebrated Mass and planted a padrão or stone cross.  The island, which is visible from the Port Elizabeth beachfront, is 3.9 km from the nearest land at Hougham Park and rises up to 59m at it's highest point.  It is 12 ha in size and is 700 meters long at its longest point and 360m wide at its broadest.  There is very little vegetation on this rocky island which is also home to the biggest breeding colony of African Penguins in the world. 

African Penguin

St Croix Island in Algoa Bay is home to the biggest African Penguin colony in the world. Unfortunately the number of penguins on the island has drastically reduced over the last couple of years and the reason for this basically comes down to pollution and over fishing. SAMREC (SA Marine Rehabilitation and Education Centre) at Cape Recife takes in marine animals and birds that is injured or effected by pollution and does a great job nursing and caring for them as well as rehabilitating them back into the wild where possible. I haven't been to SAMREC for a while so I haven't seen their new rock pool facility, but I will pop in there soon and get some pics for the blogs.

On a clear day...

This is the spectacular view from our daughter's bedroom door in Richmond Hill, on one of those lovely crisp days when it has rained, and cleared and everything is crystal clear. In the foreground you can see the fish farm near the harbour, beyond that a ship approaches port, and beyond that St Croix Island floats on a shimmering horizon.

We are actively involved in neighbourhood patrols, spending several hours in the middle of the night each week, trying to take back our neighbourhood from drug dealers, pimps and thieves. On days when we wonder why we put up with the crime around us, we look at views like this and are reminded that it is worth it, and we are encouraged to continue our efforts.

St Croix Island #3 - Guano

These lonely looking houses on the leeward side of the island were built for guano collectors. This was apparently not a very succesful venture, as the collection of guano was made difficult by the terrain. The smell of the place would have put any normal person off, before they started.

St Croix Island #2 - Penguins

St Croix Island rises out of the sea like a large rock and looks like a very inhospitable place, but it boasts the largest colony of African penguins in Southern Africa.


Wherever you look on the island there are groups of penguins. They are increasingly coming under pressure, as the fishing trawlers have depleted the area of fish. Recent sudies have shown that they travel up to 155 kms to find food. That is a long swim by any standard.

St Croix Island

The cross on St Croix Island is a replica of one left by the Portugese explorer, Bartolomeu Diaz, way back in the 1488. St Croix is the largest of the three islands off Hougham Park. The other two being Brenton and Jahleel.


Joshua Slocum talks about Algoa Bay in his book 'Sailing Alone Around the World':

The early Portuguese navigators, endowed with patience, were more than
sixty-nine years struggling to round this cape before they got as far as Algoa
Bay, and there the crew mutinied. They landed on a small island, now called
Santa Cruz, where they devoutly set up the cross, and swore they would cut the
captain's throat if he attempted to sail farther. Beyond this they thought was
the edge of the world, which they too believed was flat; and fearing that their
ship would sail over the brink of it, they compelled Captain Diaz, their
commander, to retrace his course, all being only too glad to get home. A year
later, we are told, Vasco da Gama sailed successfully round the "Cape of
Storms," as the Cape of Good Hope was then called, and discovered Natal on
Christmas or Natal day; hence the name. From this point the way to India was
easy.