Day 359: Cape Town, SA – 31/12/10

The wind howls all night and continues in the morning but at least it is still bright and sunny.  I call Maggie and arrange to go to Makro, the huge cash and carry place, with her and Bob later in the morning.  Unfortunately I can’t do any real provisioning until the fridge and freezer are fixed but there are other things I need.  I leave Mike to wait for the refrigeration guy that the marina office have recommended and hit the shop to bulk buy.

This is the first time that I have been in Maggie and Bob’s hire car – a purple and black convertible Beetle.  It’s centuries old and has various bits missing.  The hood is held down with rope, the seats are ripped and threadbare and they love it.  It broke down once (well actually I think the brakes went!) and they had a newer replacement for a while which they hated and demanded the old thing back immediately it was ‘fixed’.  They offer me the complete convertible experience ie taking the roof off – I decline.  The wind is so strong I am worried I will be blown out of the car!  We shake, rattle and roll our way to Makro.

Makro in Cape Town is the same as in the UK.  First you have to have a card, and for this you have to provide mobile number and e-mail address.  I wish I had remembered to give false information – now I will probably be bombarded with lengthy sales/advertising stuff while at sea.  Bugger!  I try to keep this crap to a minimum because our e-mails are accessed from the satellite phone which costs a fortune to use.

Even though I hardly buy any food, I still manage to spend over £80 on toilet paper (it’s amazing how much one needs of this), kitchen paper, cleaning stuff, bottles of sweet chilli dipping sauce and enough chocolate bars to see Mike across the Atlantic and beyond (as long as I don’t start stealing them).  At least that’s the heavy stuff out of the way.

When we get back I discover that the refrigeration guy hasn’t turned up although he had said it might be difficult to get to us since he was only working a half day today.  I hope he comes on Monday.

I put the shopping away and cook us some lunch, then we go to bed, sleeping on and off for most of the afternoon.  Eventually we manage to get ourselves up and ready to go out.  We head to the restaurant opposite Elliot Basin, Panama Jacks, to order a taxi.  They phone four companies for us but there is a 45 minute wait.  We had completely forgotten that on New Year’s Eve, taxis are like gold dust.  We order a drink and settle down to wait.  After a few minutes, the manager tells us that one of her waitresses will take us as she’s on a break.  How of her.  The waitress, Jennifer, is interested in the tales of our round the world adventure as she wants to do some more sailing herself and already has her STCW qualification.  She drops us off at the V & A Waterfront and won’t take any money from us.

We are already late but we decide we may as well be really late and walk over to the V & A Marina to see if anyone is aboard Brown Eyed Girl.  Judy, Joe, Jared and his new finance, Mercedes, are all there, and Joe cracks open a bottle of local rosé wine, regaling us of tales about the vicious seals that stalk the pontoons in the marina, one of which he had to chase away with a stick when it attempted to bite him (sometimes they won’t let you pass to get to your boat).

We leave them and head for Mitchells.  All the usual suspects are there;  Sophia, Sean, Bev, Moe, Oisin, Jutta, Jochem, Eline, Maggie, Bob and various friends.  We stay for a couple of hours but then go in search of food. 

Photo:  The Cape Town ‘eye’

The search is ridiculous.  We wander around the whole of the waterfront - there are queues everywhere and very long ones at that.  Mike doesn’t do queuing and after a complete circuit we end up back at the mall food hall and choose the fast food place with the shortest queue, ending up with a filled tortilla wrap each before going back to Mitchells.

Photo:  Bev, Maggie and me

Photo:  Mike and I

Photo:  Jutta, Eline and Jochem

Shortly before midnight we manage to get everyone out to watch the fireworks.  As the clock strikes midnight, hugs and kisses are exchanged all around, the somewhat short and lack lustre fireworks exploding over the sea.

Photo:  Yup!  That’s a firework!

But the evening isn’t quite over yet.

Day 358: Knysna to Cape Town, SA – 30/12/10

I wake up at just gone 4 am because I notice through my befuddled state that the wind has changed – for the worse.  Hang on.  Mike was supposed to wake me at 1 am!

I quickly get out of bed and pull on a tee-shirt – God it’s cold.  The wind is now a steady 30-35 knots and gusting over 40.  Being so rough and so close to Hout Bay Mike had decided not to wake me but carry on through.  He tells me there’s nothing for me to do at the moment and so I go back to bed.

Within a few minutes however, I realise that things are not going to be smooth weather-wise.  The wind is howling and I can hear the waves slapping over the top of where I am lying in bed.  I get up and get dressed properly, fleece, trousers, socks (socks!), shoes, wet weather gear and lifejacket, then sit on the sofa doing my frightened rabbit thing – the one where I just sit, say nothing and wait to be told what to do.  And I’m scared.

The wind is now constantly over 55 knots, almost directly on the nose.  The tops of the waves are sheering off and there’s froth.  I can see black clouds rolling off the hills behind Hout Bay and the wind is making a terrible racket.  Mike calls the harbour master but there’s no answer, despite the fact that we have e-mailed them that we are coming in early this morning.

He calls repeatedly, but no one replies.  Eventually someone from Cape Town radio replies and says that the harbour master isn’t there.  When is he ever?  He wasn’t answering when Chessie were calling for help either.

Eventually Mike decides it is just too risky attempting to enter Hout Bay and we turn the boat around and head towards Cape Town.  The only problem we have now is where to stay.  The Royal Cape Yacht Club have told us they have no room for us and the Victoria and Alfred haven’t bothered responding to an e-mail we sent a couple of days ago. 

I call the V & A, Royal Cape and Elliot Basin but get no reply from any of them.  Then I call Maggie and Bob from Ocean Jasper, one of the other rally boats who is in Elliot Basin.  While I am talking to Maggie, the wind suddenly drops right down to 8 knots.  What the bloody hell is going on.  Maggie warns me that it is over 22 knots in the basin, but after 52, 22 sounds fine to us.  Then the wind picks up again and as we wait for Bob to weave his magic, we turn the boat around again and head for the bit where it is calmer, and wait.

Apart from the wind, it is now a beautiful day with a bright blue sky, a bit of a change from the last two days.  Cape Town, from the sea, looks spectacular although Table Mountain is partially obscured by thick rolling clouds.

Photos:  Views of Cape Town from the sea

We don’t have to wait for long.  Bob has used his contacts and has got us a space in Elliot Basin, and after giving explicit instructions to Mike on how to approach, we make our way in.

It’s not until we are way into the harbour approach that Mike lets me go forward to attach the lines and fenders – it’s just too windy.  As we approach Elliot Basin, Bob is waiting there to guide us in.  As we get to the allotted berth, lots of people, Maggie, Bob and Lee as well as people from other boats materialise and take our lines.  By this time I am almost sobbing with relief!

Once we are securely tied up, Maggie and Bob give us a hug and a kiss and disappear to leave us to settle in.  I make Mike a dark and stormy cocktail, give him some breakfast, and send him to bed.

The wind through the marina is terrible, gusting to 40 knots, but the day remains bright and sunny.  Vanessa from the marina office comes to say hello.  It turns out that she worked for 4 years at a charter company in the BVIs – what a small world!  The gentleman whose berth we have stolen also comes to say hello and is fine with us having it until Sunday when he will bring his boat down from the west coast.  We will then just have to move to another berth opposite but the wind is predicted to have died down by then.

Photo:  Table Mountain from Elliot Basin

When Mike wakes up I send him to the marina office then make some lunch.  In the afternoon he goes back to sleep for an hour or two while I catch up completely on the blog.  How good does that feel?!  While he’s still in bed I manage to get off the boat (no mean feat as the pontoons are really low) and trot off to see Maggie, interrupting her cleaning.  We chat for a while, catching up then I leave her to finish.

In the evening we meet up with Bev and Moe who are staying on the boat opposite us for the New Year, and Jutta, Jochem and Eline but we don’t stay late as we are all still tired.  We do however, make the arrangements for tomorrow night.  We will all meet up at Mitchells Brewery in the V & A Waterfront at 7 pm and see where the evening takes us from there.

Back on the boat Mike and I fall asleep almost immediately, the wind still howling around us.

 

Our position is:  34 deg 21 min S, 18 deg 21 min E

Distance so far:  18706 nautical miles

Day 357: Knysna to Cape Town, SA – 29/12/10

I find it hard to wake when Mike comes to get me for my watch at 2 am but at least this is because I slept!

It’s Ann’s birthday today and I write a quick e-mail but can’t send it as the wifi dongle won’t work this far out to sea.  I watch some TV and catch up with some blog (very behind – naughty, naughty).  By the time Mike appears around 7 am I can hardly keep my eyes open and go down to bed without even bothering about my cup of tea or my breakfast and sleep solidly until nearly noon again.

Unfortunately, when I get up, spending too long in the bathroom getting washed makes me feel sea sick as the weather is now very breezy and the sea is uncomfortably rolly.  I stagger up the stairs (no sea legs yet) and collapse on the sofa demanding ginger syrup.

I stay on the sofa most of the afternoon, only getting up to check the instruments and outside every 20 minutes when the alarm clock reminds me to do so.  Mike, unfortunately and unusually, doesn’t sleep apart from a quick hour, and because we hope to be in Hout Bay early in the morning and are going to alter our watches slightly to allow for this, I send him to bed at 7 pm and this time he sleeps for two hours.

I manage to get the e-mail off to Ann and in the late afternoon she rings to say she will be coming to Cape Town after all with Terry when Alice arrives on 3 January, and they will be staying on the boat for a few days with us – but not going anywhere!

By the time it’s my turn to go off watch, I am well and truly ready for my bed again, staggering down the stairs and hurling myself into it.   It’s so cold on the boat (the water temperature is now down to 10 degrees – brrrr) that we have to put another blanket on the bed.

 

Our position is:  34 deg 30 min S, 18 deg 35 min E

Distance so far:  18644 nautical miles

Day 356: Knysna to Cape Town, SA – 28/12/10

I am awake at 6.45 am.  Mike is already awake and up so my cuppa arrives soon after.  I have had a good night’s sleep back in my own bed.

Ann and Terry arrive around 7.15 am to help us untie the lines.  We have hugs and kisses all around then we pull away into the lagoon while they race round to The Heads to watch us go through.

Our exit is very unspectacular.  It’s a grey and drizzly day with virtually no wind, which makes for an easy exit but not good video.  I can see Ann and Terry waving from the base of the lighthouse at the East Cafe and wave back, all safely tied onto the pulpit of the boat by my lifeline just in case there’s a sudden rip tide, which there isn’t.

It’s strange to be back on the boat after so long on land.  We’ve spent almost 5 weeks in Knysna and the longest we have had off the boat on the whole journey so far is three days in Australia.

So, to get back into the rhythm, I go to bed, just like I would do if I had just come off my night watch and sleep until almost noon, getting up to make lunch.  Mike has a Guinness with his and then has his turn in bed.  See, passage normality restored.

We still have very light winds in the afternoon which does nothing to shift the grey drizzly clouds, so we motor then put the genoas out on the starboard side and get an extra 0.2 knots of speed – wow! - hardly worth the effort, although this ‘help’ does increase to nearly a knot as the wind increases later in the afternoon.

By early evening the clouds part enough to just reveal a bit of blue sky and we can see the glimmers of a sunset through them on the horizon.  Neither of us are very hungry and just nibble at some dip and crackers in the evening before taking our normal watches.

 

Our position is:  34 deg 35 min S, 21 deg 15 min E

Distance so far:  18516 nautical miles

Day 355: Knysna, SA – 27/12/10

Mike and I get up early as refrigeration guy is coming to the boat and I really need to do some cleaning ready for going to Cape Town tomorrow.  I borrow a really large bag of Terry’s with all our clothes and drag them down to the boat to unpack, leaving Ann with the last few bits of our washing to get done.

The guy turns up and gets the freezer going but not the fridge – there’s a blockage and although he has a suction pump it is not strong enough to clear it.  Mike decides that the best solution is to have a working fridge so we switch the freezer down to fridge mode.

I clean out our cabin and bathroom thoroughly and make up the bed.  The rest can wait until we get to Cape Town.  I suddenly realise that it’s gone 2 pm and we haven’t eaten or drunk anything so we eat a mars bar and have a glass of water (haute cuisine, huh?).  The boat is still in need of a good hose down in the cockpit but the pressure in the water system is really high and Mike doesn’t want to risk more holes in the new hose so we leave it. 

Heine rings and we invite him and Jenny down to look at Jeannius.  Terry calls and he and Ann come down too.  We go to the oyster bar just along the dock for a couple of rounds to say goodbye.

Photo:  Ann, Mike and me

Photo:  Heine, Jenny and Terry

Photo:  All of us

Terry takes us shopping – at least with just a fridge there’s less provisioning to worry about and there will be plenty of time to sort it all out in Cape Town (the list of things to do and get done in Cape Town is steadily growing!).

We make a mad dash back to Ann’s to have our last decent showers and get ready to go out for a meal at the Dry Dock restaurant at the Waterside.  It’s at this point that Terry decides he trusts me enough to cut his hair (either that or it’s now got so long it’s annoying him enough to trust anyone) and in the failing light on the veranda I plonk him down on a chair clutching a carrier bag and give him a trim, my heart in my mouth in case I do anything horrendously wrong.  I’ve been cutting my hair for a year now and never made a disastrous mistake but this could be the time for one now.  In the event it’s fine – I think.

Photo:  Saying goodbye – Mike and Ann

Photo:  Saying goodbye – me and Terry

It’s been a lovely stay in Knysna, and a lovely stay with Ann and Terry (I don’t think Ann and I have spent so much time together since we both lived at home with mum and dad), but it has to end for the next bit to start.  We hug at the end of the dock and head back to the boat.  They’ll be down tomorrow to say goodbye again and to watch us go out through The Heads.

It’s good to sleep in our comfy bed again with our wonderful pillows, especially as Mike’s is now freshly laundered again and dried properly this time and no longer smells.

Tomorrow it’s back to the sea.

Day 354: Knysna, SA – 26/12/10

For the first time in ages I wake up at a reasonable time – just gone 8 am, and am without my regular companion, the terrible backache.  Obviously drinking a lot throughout the day must have done the trick and I am also minus a hangover.  How wonderful!

It’s a beautiful day, hot and sunny from the start, and needing to get rid of the cobwebs and have a bit of exercise, we drag Ann out of bed and head out to find a beach.  Terry has heard of one where the houses behind the beach are built castles.  It’s at Noitzie and we decide to give it a whirl. 

Noitzie is accessed behind one of the townships along a wide dirt track.  We have to go very slowly so as not to kick up a whole load of dust and eventually we end up in a very different setting – the golf and luxury housing of the private Pezula estate.  Although the township we passed through from the main road is a relatively affluent one, the difference between that and Pezula is stark to put it mildly.

Noitzie itself is a nature reserve, and at the car park we read about all the wildlife we could see on land and in the sea here, most of which I desperately hope we don’t see – sharks, jelly fish, snakes – but we end up seeing nothing.

The beach is accessed down a long slope then a very steep, irregular set of steps, but is well worth the walk as it is truly spectacular – a wide sweep of pristine sand with waves breaking all the way out to sea, coming in all directions over sand bars and the like - and it is almost deserted.  The castles built behind the beach are indeed bizarre though.

Photos:  Noitzie gives ‘sand castles’ a new meaning

I take the opportunity of rolling my trousers up and going in the sea.  Terry finds the sight of me standing in the water holding a handbag very amusing.  I find it less amusing as the bloody water is so cold I nearly wet myself with shock when the ankle deep water suddenly hits me with a knee height wave.

Photo:  Yes it’s freezing!

There’s a small river which flows down into the sea at Noitzie.  I don’t know what it flows through, or what flows into it, but the water is full of amazing colours – golds, blues and purples.  It is probably completely full of noxious chemicals or something but it looks beautiful as the sunlight shines on it.

  Photos:  Sun, fun  and strange colours at Noitzie

We go to The Heads but it’s so crowded that we can’t park near and we figure the restaurant must be really packed out too so we go back to Ann and Terry’s and have some lunch there instead.

Bev phones.  They have been trying to get hold of us but their phone calls haven’t come through even though Mike’s phone has been switched on all morning.  The mobile phone lines must be really busy.  We arrange to go up to Simola for sundowners with them.  They had managed to get to The Heads and had a lovely lunch then visited the waterfront where they assure us Jeannius is still sitting.

After the lovely invigorating walk in the morning, and once again with full stomachs, we all have an afternoon nap.  Well, all of us except Terry who doesn’t need one until just before 6 pm, giving him 10 minutes before I wake him up to get ready to go to meet the others at Simola!

We drink wine on their veranda watching the sun go down.  The sunset is glorious.

Photos:  From their veranda at Simola

Again, once the sun drops behind the hills, the temperature drops with it and Jutta and I are the first ones to head indoors, Jutta in her familiar place by the fire.

Photo:  Jutta warming her tootsies

We don’t make it a late night.  We’ve got to be at the boat early in the morning to see the refrigeration guy again and Jutta, Jochem and Eline need to make it down to breakfast at least once during their stay!

Day 353: Knysna, SA – 25/12/10

Ann wakes up really early and starts to prepare the vegetables then brings us a cup of tea in bed.  It’s slightly overcast outside but at least it’s not raining.

There are lots of phone calls to be made but everyone and his dog seem to be doing it using Skype and when we try, it keeps cutting out so we have to resort to using my mobile phone – that bill will be a nice present.

I wait as long as I can but my jewellery gets whipped out from under the tree and liberated from it’s wrapping pretty early on and I proudly walk around with my pearls and their lovely new setting, waggling my head from side to side so that I can feel them swing.  They do look lovely.

I make our traditional breakfast; Bucks fizz and scrambled eggs with smoked salmon.  The salmon is excellent (good old Woolies/Marks) and the weather is mild enough to sit outside and eat – what a welcome change.

Photo:  Cheers – Happy Christmas!

By late morning all the food is prepared and sitting on the side in the kitchen.  As nothing will take longer than an hour to actually cook, we can wait for our guests to arrive before popping anything in the oven.

Mike sets Ann’s new present up, copying all our films onto it for her.  While it can quite happily do the copying by itself once you have set it up, Mike feels the need to supervise the operation and make sure that nothing goes wrong!  You can judge from the picture how much supervision is required!!

Photo:  Mike working on two computers – yeah, right!

They all arrive around 2.30 pm, adorned with Christmas decorations and cuddly monkeys and we open the wonderful champagne that Jutta and Jochem have brought from the vineyards at Stellenbosh and Constanziana.  Wearing a Christmas hat, we have our very own Father Christmas thanks to Jochem.

It’s still windy on the veranda so we take our glasses around the back to the deck where it is in the sun and is sheltered from the wind.  Ann puts blankets down and we sit and chatter.

Photos:  Champagne and nibbles on the deck

Trish, Ann’s next door neighbour, arrives with a beautiful table decoration.  Her two dogs can hear her voice but can’t get to her through the fence so on and off they cry like a couple of babies.

The buffet breakfasts at Simola are meant to be wonderful and I would imagine that for Christmas they go all out for it.  (We had tried to book in but there were no places left.)  Unfortunately, they all missed breakfast because they woke up too late so Ann and I bring out all the delicious prawns, some dips and olives to keep them going.  I don’t want to put too much out though in case people get too full for their dinner.

Ann brings out a load of newspaper and tells everyone to make a Christmas hat to wear at dinner.  We can use anything from the garden to adorn them but she has no sellotape, just a very uncooperative stapler to hold everything together.  I cheat.  I steal some baubles off the tree and hold them on with some sticky labels – I know where Terry keeps his little supply!

Photos:  Christmas hats galore

Photo:  Bev doing her ballerina yoga pose – hope she’s wearing knickers!

Everything goes in the oven and just over an our later, with Christmas music going through the house we eat dinner.  Naturally, being in South Africa, there’s a power cut during dinner but it only lasts for about half an hour.

Photos:  Christmas dinner 2010

Everyone is stuffed after dinner so we leave pudding for a while and go back out to the deck for more drinks and to watch the sun go down although some take the opportunity of having a little nap.

Photos:  Watching the sunset from the deck

Immediately the sun starts to go down the temperature plummets and some reach for blankets.  Eventually it is just too cold and a hot dish is required so the Malva pudding goes into the oven.  While it cooks, Jutta and Eline use the oven to warm up.

Photos:  Jutta and Eline find the top oven warms them up

After pudding and cheese, there’s just time to take the photograph around the Christmas tree before people start falling over.

   Photo:  With Father Christmas around the tree

It’s been a lovely day and to top it all, as they leave I discover two bags of goodies under the tree from Chessie, one for Ann and Terry and one for Mike and I.  What little treasures they are.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!