OK.. so we're still here. John has said, "We will move to Hout Bay a few times but has delayed departure at least three times for various reasons. The winds here are brutal and that is his main concern. Again this evening he has suggested we'll move tomorrow morning... we'll see.
Being on a boat trapped in a marina is boring. All we ever do is work on and around the boat. Except the visit to town I took alone (to get away from the boat) and the afternoon in Kirstenbosch Gardens we have done nothing but hang out here and run errands. It would be more fun to be working on a large yacht where I would be making some money.
John has been making some improvements to the boat... new latches for the locker doors in the cabin, a clothes hanging rod in the bow cabin (for crew a leeboard for my bunk (to keep me from failing out when the boat is heeled over), replacing a couple of old hatch doors, etc.
We spent all last night and this morning into this afternoon working on the charts for the Indian Ocean. Labeling, sorting and determining what we don't have. It's a boring, time consuming and dirty task. John wants to go to a place here called the Yacht Grot where he can get charts dirt-cheap. They are mostly copies of older Charts. he has thousands of charts on his boat, They are stashed in every corner, cubby hole and niche and he wants to go through them all.
Yesterday I spent almost the entire day going through the food lockers sorting, cleaning and tossing old stuff. There is much more space for provisions now. I have only scratched the surface of that task. There are at least 14 more lockers where food and cooking supplies are stored that need to be checked, re-organized , sorted and cleaned. This is a filthy job too.
Yesterday I had to go back into town to pick up the laundry I took in Monday afternoon. Not many do-it-yourself laundries around. Most places do a load for you for R32-35/load or about $6-7, wash, dry and fold. Anyway, there is a young (20) lad on a neighboring boat, David, from Wales. A nice fellow too, but very Welsh. Meaning, he is burning to a crisp and has only a 30SPF lotion to use. I suggested a 60+ and promised to keep my eyes open for some. On Monday afternoon I bought him a tube of 100SPF at the pharmacy for R110 ($16) and he was quite chuffed about it. So yesterday I took him with me to get the laundry and walked him around the area so he could get a feel for where everything is-. banks, laundry, pharmacy, etc? close to the RCYC (yacht club). He went to a bank and got some money to repay me and have some 'walking around' cash. When we returned he bought me a drink (orange juice at 10am) and his captain and crewmate joined us after a few minutes. They are on a boat called Four Sisters that they are to deliver home to England as soon as the bailiff (sp?) releases it.
Cape Town is a nice place but I am not seeing much of the tourist stuff yet. John has to take me up the cable car to Table Mountain and to rent a car to drive to Cape Point to see the penguins there.
Table Mountain is so named for its flat top, sort of like a table. When the winds are blowing hard off the Atlantic, a cloud forms just that side and sweeps over the top, rolling down the Cape Town side. This effect looks like a tablecloth. There are huge spotlights on it at night and when the tablecloth is there it is quite dramatically beautiful.
The weather here today is blistering hot, very little wind, just a slight breeze, My berth in the bow (V-berth to you non-sailors) was running about 34 deg C at 3:00 this aft while the stern area (quarter berth and nav. table) were about 26 deg C. I have been getting several reports of extreme cold in Ottawa and environs so do not expect any sympathy. Please do not sent messages with foul language curses bemuse I am not there to suffer with you. I have all the sympathy in the world for everyone who is not getting away from the winter.
There are many people reading this message who are in warm, sunny places too. They will be sympathetic to those up north too.
I have seen a few things here that are new to me. Seals in the harbour feeding and or sunning themselves. We had a seal snoozing in the sun at the end of our dock, just 30 feet from the boat. A group of us from several boats were photographing it and it did not seem to care that we were getting too close. Then it roles over and exposed the fact that it had a fishing line or net around its neck. A couple of the guys from the French exploration boat held the seal down (heavy, leather gloves on their hands) and the captain, Jacques, cut it off with a sharp knife. The seal was miffed but lolled over and continued to sun itself. Yes, I did get photos and will post them when I can get to a real high-speed web access.
Another surprise... squirrels! How did those damn varmints get to SA?? Well, I bet the Dutch and English brought them. Dogs and cats... a rare sighting. People here don't seem to go for pet ownership So when Tjarda and Chris (neighbour boat) show up with there little jack Russell terrier it is a real treat for us. Trixie is a sweet little dog and very excited to see people. Another animal... pheasants the size of large turkeys. They are like pigeons in the Kirstenbosch Gardens... hanging around the picnickers hoping for a free lunch. Pigeons and sea gulls... two birds I had hoped I left behind in the northern hemisphere. I think that is it.
Oh, yes. Located a couple of PADI dive places and got the name of a fellow from Tjarda (herself a dive instructor with NAUI) who I can talk to about getting my certification as an Advanced Diver.
Posted by gailene at January 21, 2004 05:52 PM