It isn’t often that Knysna gets a mention in PORTS & SHIPS – the last time may have been during the visit of two South African Navy minesweepers last year.

However the former commercial harbour nowadays sees mostly pleasure craft and her days of ships coming to load timber and other cargo have long since past. PORTS & SHIPS hopes to include a section on South Africa’s forgotten ports and harbours – this is one of the projects ‘in work’ and under research, and Knysna with its rich and fascinating history is sure to feature then.

But recently the lagoon and small craft harbour was back in the news with the arrival in ‘port’ of the luxury motor yacht LADY MICHELLE. The 50 metre yacht, which was built in 2007 is actually a little larger than the minesweepers that visited the lagoon during the last Oyster Festival in 2008, but it wasn’t her length that attracted the attention of locals and holidaymakers. The yacht’s beauty saw to that.

Lady Michelle had sailed up the coast from Cape Town where she had arrived during October last year, before moving on to Knysna on New Year’s day. Why Knysna, you ask? Well, five of the crew - the skipper Brett Gething and his wife Gillian, who is the chief stewardess, as well the first officer Craig van de Venter, the stewardess Candice Eaglestone and the bosun Vaughn Hoffman are all South Africans, with the two Gethings and Hoffman actually coming from Knysna, so it made sense to the yacht’s owner Mike Fernandez to spend at least a short time in such a beautiful place.

Mr Fernandez is an American citizen but was born in Cuba, having left that island as a refugee with his family in 1964.

You can read more about the Lady Michelle HERE