Day 324: Knysna, SA – 26/11/10

The boat may have been swinging in a different direction to all the other boats all night, but it did it so gently that we don’t feel a thing and only wake up when a dinghy speeds by and its wake rocks the boat roughly.  It’s 4.30 am.  Ugh!

At 5 am we are drinking tea and deciding what to do, then at 6.30 am we get a call from the Yacht Club about one of the other rally boats, Kalliope, who have called them and are coming in tomorrow morning.  Roger tells us that we can come alongside one of their pontoons for a few days which will give us greater peace of mind than leaving Jeannius in the lagoon while we are in Cape Town.

Mike buys 4 hours of unlimited internet so I immediately start catching up with the blog and he gets our hire car and hotel booked.  We also find out that my passport arrived at the Consulate in Pretoria OK so that’s good news.  The internet is great for everything except Skype, which is a nightmare and we give up with it.

Around 11 am we are ready to move.  We get the anchor up and start to motor over to the Yacht Club, carefully trying to avoid the sandbanks which are not yet visible.  We are not quite careful enough and hit one, rocking for a few minutes before we manage to back off of it.  No damage done, but just a bit embarrassing!!!

We get to the pontoon, the wind gently blows us against it and people come to help us tie us.  We are directly in front of the Yacht Club restaurant in full view of everyone and probably very safe because of that.

Stephen from A Lady arrives and we go to have a drink with him in the club, ending up having lunch there while we attempt to get him connected to the internet, Mike’s skills coming in handy again.  David and his friend from Voyageur come in.  They have arrived in Knysna and are staying in a B & B up on the hill.

We go back to Jeannius to start packing up the stuff that we need to take to Cape Town with us and Mike talks to the marina manager and finds out that there is now a berth available for us from now.  We had been led to believe that there wouldn’t be one until Saturday so we were going to leave it until we got back from Cape Town but the thought of secure parking makes us untie the boat, redistribute the fenders and lines and head into the marina before someone else nicks the berth.

Mike backs into a very small space and we tie up – again.  I then disappear to dye my hair (the sun really takes the colour out so much quicker than at home), shower and get the boat in a state that we can leave it.  At least being in a marina means that we can leave the air conditioning, fridge and freezer on.  I open all the cupboards, drawers and doors so that air can circulate and hopefully the smell of pooh in my wardrobe will disappear before we come back!

Terry arrives to take us back to the house.  He looks at poor old Jeannius, battered and bruised from crossing two oceans.  She needs a good clean and polish and hopefully will get one of those here – the boat equivalent of a spa day.

We watch the sea fog roll in during the early evening.  It gets so thick that by the time we are ready to leave to eat, The Heads and most of the lagoon are not visible at all.

Ann and Terry take us to a beautiful restaurant called Firefly.  They have pre-ordered champagne for us and the food is wonderful as well as the decor.

Photo:  Mike, me, Terry and Ann at Firefly

As we leave the restaurant, whose style is eccentric/eclectic Indian, I see a door leading to the kitchens or somewhere else meant for staff.

Photo:  Interesting sign – meant for who?

We are knackered when we get back – having been awake early, moving the boat twice etc, all starts to catch up with us and we collapse into bed.  Sleep comes quickly.