El Barco

El Barco is a Ballistic 650 rigid inflatable: 6.5 metres on a 200hp Mercury Verado, and the most powerful RIB we run. She lives at Langebaan, which makes her the boat for the lagoon and the water beyond the breakwater.

What she carries

Seven guests plus skipper. The Verado gives her more push than her sister boat El Libre, which matters when you are punching out past the breakwater into open water rather than staying inside the lagoon.

Langebaan

The lagoon is shallow, clear and sheltered: a genuinely different body of water to anything on the Cape Peninsula. It backs onto the West Coast National Park, with Kraalbaai and its beaches across the water, and it is calm on days when the Atlantic side is unworkable.

It is also about two hours from Cape Town, so a day on El Barco is something you plan rather than decide on a Friday afternoon.

Beyond the breakwater the character changes completely: open West Coast water, and between June and November the migration brings humpbacks and dolphins through.

Booking her

For a skippered day, talk to us directly: tell us the date, how many of you there are and what you want out of the day, and we will put a price together.

She is also one of the boats we hire out for self-drive, from R4,500 a day excluding fuel, if you hold a valid skipper's licence and the relevant experience. That is a different arrangement to a skippered charter, with its own terms and its own checks; see rentals for the conditions.

What to know before you go

A RIB is a wet, lively ride. It is the right boat for people who want to feel the water and the wrong boat for anyone nervous about the sea; for that, one of the bigger, steadier boats in Simon's Town or at the V&A is the better call.

Bring sunscreen, a jacket for the run home, and soft-soled shoes or bare feet.

Weather calls are made 48 hours out. If we cancel, you get a full refund or another date.