Tuzi Gazi Marina Information page

Tuzi Gazi Marina Information
Upon arrival in Richard's Bay, all boats should call the Richard's Bay Port Authority on VHF channel 16 or 12. You will be instructed to proceed to the customs dock in the small craft harbour to await the arrival of immigration and customs officials. The Port Authority will inform the appropriate immigration and customs offices of your arrival. The check in procedure involves no costs, nor are there any fees for lying alongside the customs wharf, even for several days.
The customs and immigration officials can sometimes take a bit of time to get to you, therefore it does not hurt to contact the Port Authority by VHF to remind them of your waiting status. Port Authority has little control over the punctuality of the customs and immigration officials, but they will continue to remind them of your presence at the customs dock. A wait of 24 hours is not unusual. In the meantime, if you wish to enter the Tuzi Gazi Marina, simply walk the short distance to the Tuzi Gazi Marina security office and inform the 24-hour uniformed security guard of your intentions, enter your request in the guest book and someone from the marina will get back to you within a short time. Alternatively, you could contact a marina official by telephone or email. See our Contact page for these numbers. There is also a check out procedure for all foreign yachts, called a "flight plan", even if you are not leaving South African waters to travel to another South African city or province.	Customs Dock in Richard's Bay
Tuzi Gazi Marina is located within the Richard's Bay Small Craft Harbour at the Tuzi Gazi Waterfront development. It is very well protected from winds and wave action from all directions. The marina itself is of modern construction consisting of stainless steel framework with heavy wooden planking for walkway atop fiberglass flotation pontoons.
Tuzi Gazi Marina is protected from all sides.	Numerous large stainless steel cleats are positioned on each slip finger. High pressure potable water and 220 volt/xx amp electric service is available at each slip. Water and electricity fees are included in the slip rental rates. There is a full-time liveaboard marina maintenance staff member available at all hours to solve any problems or answer any questions that may arise. The ablution block is a modern facility located ashore at the head of the marina opposite the security office. It is a locked and monitored facility for the exclusive use of marina members. There are six excellent showers each for men and women. Each shower has a separate shower stall with locking sliding door, shower curtain, wooden seat, clothes hook, and high pressure hot and cold water, The entire ablution block is covered in ceramic tile in excellent condition and is cleaned daily by a dedicated staff member. The toilet stalls have separate partitions with locking doors.
The community surrounding Richard's Bay is a relatively safe environment. There is a police Security and Protection (SAP) constabulary located at the Tuzi Gazi Waterfront with frequent police patrols obviously present. One can walk about the area during daylight hours with little concern about being molested or robbed. There are numerous shops in the immediate area including restaurants which appeal to every taste and pocketbook, from excellent take-away curry shops for the budget cruiser, reasonably priced restaurants like Maritino's Portuguese Cuisine and Ruben's Italian Food, which makes an excellent thin crust oven-baked pizza for a modest price, to the more elegant dining at the Grill Fish restaurant with really good food.
Office of the municipal Security and Protection police at Tuzi Gazi waterfront.	Good restaurants are only a few steps away from Tuzi Gazi Marina.
There are numerous merchants and local craftsmen in the immediate area of the marina. One of the best of them is Gideon Van Der Linde at Universal Welding. He is a stainless steel fabricator who does excellent work at very reasonable prices. He is qualified to work in 316 stainless, aluminum, mild steel, bronze, titanium, nickel, and monel. Gideon is very good at engineering solutions to hardware problems aboard ocean cruising sailboats and powerboats. He has constructed many large radar towers for offshore boats. His cell phone number is 0845114305.	Gideon constructing a radar tower for a large cruising sailboat in his shop.
Sandy of Sailors Corner.	Sailors Corner, a service of Ascent Marine Services Pty Ltd, is a local chandlery located about 100 meters from Tuzi Gazi Marina. It is run by the ever-cheerful Sandy Schroeder and offers cruising yacht and ski boat spares and accessories. They have a good array of specialized marine hardware, paints and wood coatings. Sandy can order anything out of Durban or Cape Town with two or three days. Her business cell phone number is 083 656 5041. The shop phone is 035 788 0962 and 035 788 0963 for FAX. Sailors Corner also offers yacht and ski boat valet service (absentee maintenance) on contract.
Danie Scheepers runs the Woodzone woodworking shop next door to Sailors Corner. He has a very well equipped shop with a staff of about six workers. He is well versed in the requirements of offshore cruising vessels, having rebuilt several vessels himself, and can build most any thing with Burmese teak or excellent African hardwoods. Danie is a quite colorful gentleman of South African Boer descent and also an accomplished musician. His shop telephone/fax number is 035 788 0917.	Danie in his woodworking shop.
Other services and assets to be found near the Tuzi Gazi Marina are as follows: Mail and DHL package delivery service at the marina security office. Laundry service pick up and deliver same day on Monday and Thursday, inexpensive, folded and/or ironed, returned wrapped in plastic. Ice, block and potable cube available from nearby merchants. ATM cash machine. Slipway next to the marina for drying out of yachts, painting bottom, servicing zincs. Labor pool available for working on yachts. Telephone land line connectivity available through phone company. Wireless internet connectivity coming. Weather advice from Fred on "Peri Peri" net, on SSB frequency 8.101 Mhz each morning at 0700 local time. Synoptic map of coastal weather available at www.weathersa.co.za/ship/ship.gif Taxi service into town, many are available, Falcon taxi (082 720 2600) is very safe and reliable, telephone. Modern Pick and Pay and Spar supermarkets in Meerensee and Richard's Bay. Shopping mall and industrial complex at Boardwalk in Richard's Bay. Inexpensive electrical connectors available in the security office. Braii (South African BBQ) for all the yachties every Saturday night at the marina. Dive bottle refill and inspection at Zululand Fire Control on Dollar Drive in Richard's Bay (Keith @ 035 789 3402).
	The Tuzi Gazi Marina security office can receive and hold packages, mail, relay messages, hold laundry for pickup and delivery, and open the main gate or shower block for you many times when you forget your key, . . . and always with a smile.

The slipway at Tuzi Gazi Marina is a municipal asset which can be utilized by visiting yachties at no charge. To use this facility, one must simply sign up at the local chandlery, Sailor's Corner. You can clean and paint your bottom, being as careful as possible not to pollute South African waters. Fines have very infrequently been levied in the instance of blatant disregard of environmental laws. You can change your zincs, inspect your prop, and whatever, just be observant about the pollution issue. There are cleats and tie downs located on the cement pier. It is a very safe slipway. The concrete bottom slopes downward 10:1 and the tidal range averages something around 1.9 meters. Many yachties spend the night tied to the wall at the far (deep) end of the slipway and move their boat forward during the early hours of the high tide by hand until the boat touches bottom. Then they drop back about one meter to ensure 0.1 meter of water under their keels in the following high tide (10:1 slope). They normally secure their yachts to the wall with a single halyard taken 45 degrees off to starboard, tied to the rail of the marina walkway, in addition to the usual bow, stern, and spring lines. There is a stout ring forward set into the concrete slipway bed for securing a line forward.	Yacht with draft of 2.2 meters on the tidal grid slipway at Tuzi Gazi Marina.
Game parks abound in Kwa Zulu Natal and they are a wonderful asset unique to Africa, found nowhere else in the world. There are several wonderful game parks with a short driving distance from Richard's Bay. One of the best is Imfolozi Game Park, an hour's drive by rented car. It contains a tremendous variety of big game including all of the "Big Five", elephant, lion, leopard, cape buffalo, and rhino. The park is known worldwide for its success in reviving the population of white rhinoceros. One can book overnight reservations in a variety of accommodations administered by the park, varying in style from the luxurious hotel-like rooms at Hilltop the to comfortable and inexpensive thatch huts and safari camp tents at Mpila.	Herd of approximately 200 elephants crossing the Black Imfolozi River.