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.
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