Yachting, tourism and recreation
Durban harbour has three marinas for yachting purposes - the Bluff Yacht Club facility, the Wilson's Wharf marina used mainly by motor craft and the main marina served by the Point and Royal Natal Yacht Clubs. The main marina is also home to Café Fish (bar and seafood restaurant).

Various operators based in the harbour operate mainly harbour and/or bay cruises. The Natal Sharks Board's tour boat, which takes tourists along on shark net inspection outings, is also based in the harbour. The Point Waterfront next to the harbour entrance serve food and drinks while ships sail past in and out of the harbour. Service at the Waterfront's various shops may be interrupted during the planned widening of the Harbour's entrance channel, you would be well advised to check on the state of operations before heading in that direction.

Deeper into the harbour the very informal BAT Centre offers drinks, snacks, entertainment, performance art and art exhibitions. The Sugar Terminal at Maydon Wharf conduct daily tours, which includes an introductory video on the huge sugarcane industry in KwaZulu-Natal and a guided tour through one of the terminal's huge sugar silo's (interesting but with a nauseating sweet smell in the air…).

The harbour also features a passenger terminal for visiting cruise ships, which operate mostly between November and May.

History summarised
Durban harbour was first conceived as a harbour in 1824 when the first European settlers arrived with the intention of setting up a trading post. The Bay of Natal (Durban Bay) is one of the few natural harbours on the Southern African coastline.

The first official harbour master was appointed in 1839 / 1840. Once a notorious sandbar at the harbour entrance had been conquered Durban harbour went on to become Africa's busiest general cargo port and home to the largest and busiest container terminal in the Southern Hemisphere.

Location and size
Situated at Longitude 31º 02'E and Latitude 29º 52'S, the port is 680 nautical miles north-east of Cape Agulhas (the southern most point of Africa) and occupies the natural expanse of Durban Bay - an area of 1850ha, with the water area being 892ha in extent at high tide and 679ha at low.

The port has a total of 59 effective berths excluding those used by fishing vessels and ship repair. A total of 302km of rail tracks extend throughout the port area along with several major marshalling yards. The port operates 24 hours a day 365 days a year. The entrance channel has a depth of 12.8m. The channel width is 122m but the intention is widen the channel by a further 100m commencing in late 2005. The port operates a fleet of eight tugs. The fleet handles in excess of 800 ship movements each month.

Port Volumes
The port of Durban handles the greatest volume of sea-going traffic in Southern Africa. Between January and December 2001 Durban harbour handled a total of 4,201 ships with a gross tonnage of 179,350,109. Cargo handled totaled 31,788,020 tonnes plus another 24 million tonnes of oil and petroleum product for a total of 55,788,020mt. The Durban container terminal handled a total of 1,223,601 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalents). The containers handled at Durban represented 63.83 percent of the total containers handled at South African ports.

The Durban Car Terminal - the country's largest import and export facility for the motor industry, handled 110,000 motor vehicles during 2001. The facility is currently being expanded to enable it to handle up to 150,000 units.

(source: mostly adapted from "Ports & Ships" - December 2003, see link below)