Day 78, Year 6 Shopping, Sewing, Cleaning, Socializing
Date: Monday, January 10, 2011
Weather: Sunny with Moderate Winds
Location: Simon’s Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Today was a busy one. Mark stayed home and sewed patches on our stack pack that covers our main sail. A tarp we had shading the deck while in Chagos rubbed holes in our then new sail cover, so now it is a not so new patched sail cover. While Mark was working on that, I went shopping with the ‘girls’ and managed to spend all of our money. But the freezer is now full of meat and all cabinets and cubby holes are filled with food but our pockets are empty. As soon as I got home with the food, I launched into the frenzied activity of vacuum packing and putting all of the food purchases away. Then we took the newly patched sail cover out on the dock and did a little cleaning. Cochin, India dirt and Richard’s Bay coal dust have taken their toll on our light tan covers. The scrubbing and cleaning didn’t really get rid of any of the dirty spots, but we feel better for having tried. I then launched into cleaning all of the canvas in the cockpit. There were mildew spots here and there and hopefully I got rid of those. By the time this job was done it was time to go up to the Yacht Club for a cruiser organized braai.

I am always amazed by the diversity of talents and experiences of fellow cruisers. Tonight, talking with Kevin of Ocapela was really fascinating. He grew up in South Africa and has walked across Canada, Europe and Southeast Asia from India to Singapore. From here he will sail to Thailand and will then walk the Great Wall of China. At that point he figures he has walked most of the distance of the land mass around the world. Mark and I both had fascinating conversations with other cruisers and just generally had a good time. There was accordion playing by Carla and singing led by Pieter of Odulphus. The main topic of conversation was about the weather forecast for the week and figuring out who is leaving when and for where. Key of D, Adriatica, and Windbird are all planning to leave within the week and Odulphus will be following soon after. But leaving means we all need to make sure we have seen everything we had hoped to see here and that we have our boats ready for passage. So I think there is going to be a lot of frenzied activity for the next few days.

110110 Day 78 South Africa–Monday Night Braai at FBYC