by Judy Handley | Dec 24, 2010 | Sailing Logs Year 6, South Africa, Western Cape |
Day 61, Year 6 ’twas the Night before Christmas
Date: Friday, December 24, 2010
Weather: Rainy Early, Then Partly Sunny
Location: Simon’s Town, Western Cape, South Africa
It is the night before Christmas and all is well. Justin, Jo, and Ziggy arrived at Heathrow in London at 10 am this morning after a three-day delay and a 24-hour flight and we know they are just happy to be there. Heather, Jed, Sam, and Jonah arrived in Maine on Wednesday evening after a long drive from Cape Cod with snow falling all the way. We talked with Heather early this afternoon and just finished a Skype call with Justin, Jo, and Ziggy. So our children are all settled in with family for Christmas. We just wish we could be there with them.
We spent the day getting ready for Christmas-baking pies, sending email greetings, doing the last minute shopping. Tomorrow morning we will have Carla and Pieter of Odulphus over for breakfast, as well as Kevin of Ocapela and Duncan and Irene of Moose. We were all together for Happy Hour at the Yacht Club this evening, so we just invited the whole group for quiche and fruit flan on Christmas morning. After breakfast, we’ll cook the turkey, dressing, and veggies for the Christmas dinner with other cruisers. We will talk with our children on their Christmas mornings (our afternoon) and then head up to the Yacht Club for our gift exchange with the group of cruisers we arrived here with. Then other cruisers have been invited to join us for a shared dinner. Since we really only know Carla and Pieter of Odulphus it is not quite like being with a group of good friends or family, but I know we will all enjoy the time together.
A note about last night . . . After sending the log yesterday, we went to the Yacht Club for a braai. We sat with Steve, Truce, and Shep who are on a catamaran just across from us on the dock. Steve of Chicago and Truce of the Netherlands are the owners of Key of D and Shep is a crew member from Chicago. Steve and Truce are hosting a Christmas dinner party for good friends tonight and they are having “turducken.” I have never heard of this before, but it is a turkey stuffed with a duck and the duck stuffed with a chicken. Thus the name TUR-DUCK-EN. I’ll certainly have to try this sometime.
We hope you are enjoying a beautiful Christmas Eve and we wish all of you a very Merry Christmas.
by Judy Handley | Dec 23, 2010 | Sailing Logs Year 6, South Africa, Western Cape |
Day 60, Year 6 A Little Shopping, A Little Boat Work
Date: Thursday, December 23, 2010
Weather: Back to Beautiful Weather, but Cool
Location: Simon’s Town, Western Cape, South Africa
This was a day of pink jobs and blue jobs. Irene of Moose took Carla of Odulphus, Karen and CJ of Adriatica, and myself to the Sun Valley Mall to do a little Christmas shopping. That was the pink job. Mark stayed on Windbird and rewired our hot water heater and installed the new alternator. So now we can now have hot showers aboard, and we do need hot showers here as room temperature water feels freezing in this climate. The installation of the new Balmar alternator went well, so he is much relieved. He also rewired the reverse cycle heating-air conditioning unit that we can only use when plugged into a marina. We haven’t used it since Boston and Mark just wanted to see if things are still working. They are, so if it gets really chilly at night we can run the heater while we are here. So it was a full day of blue jobs for Mark.
Tonight at 7 pm we are going to a braai at the Yacht Club. You have just had your shortest day of the year, but we just had our longest. It is light way into the evening, so we will go to the braai and meet some of the other yachties here. That should be fun, but I must say that I am not much in the spirit of Christmas. It is so hard to be away from family at this time of year. Tomorrow I’ll bake pies, cut onions and celery for making stuffing, and we’ll attempt a cranberry salad from cranberries in a can as there are no fresh ones here. I ordered a fruit flan (tart) from the French bakery in town for Christmas morning as that has become a bit of a tradition for us. And then on Christmas afternoon we will join with the other yachties for our Yankee Exchange, a shared dinner, and singing.
We have gotten some wonderful Christmas messages from many of our cruising friends, friends back home, and family. I’m hoping to have time tomorrow to do some writing in return. Maybe that will get me into the Christmas spirit.
by Judy Handley | Dec 22, 2010 | Sailing Logs Year 6, South Africa, Western Cape |
Day 59, Year 6 Back to Cape Town
Date: Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Weather: Major Change-Overcast, Foggy, Drizzly, COOL
Location: Simon’s Town, Western Cape, South Africa
What a difference a day can make in the weather. The beautiful weather we have been having has pulled a disappearing act. Today was totally overcast, with clouds covering the mountains, constant drizzle, and a chilly 64 degree F air temperature. It’s back to the weather we had on the way down from Richards Bay, so the polar fleece and wool socks are out once again.
We took the 8:19 am train into Cape Town and headed for the Immigration Office to check into Cape Town/Simon’s Town. Folks who went in yesterday only had to fill out one form and it took no more than five minutes. Today we were given five forms (one of them four pages) that made no sense for a sailboat as they were definitely for large ships with huge crew, but the woman insisted that we fill them out, so we did. Now we have a folder on file in Cape Town, so when it is time to leave, it should be quite easy. Of course, the operative word here is “should.” We then hiked to the Brazilian Consulate where we were told by one person to fill out the forms we had downloaded on the internet. So we did and then we waited for another person to process the paperwork. She immediately told us that you cannot submit paper forms but must fill out the forms online. We have no idea why one person standing right next to another person didn’t know this, but so be it. Then we were told that once we fill out the paperwork online, we will need to print out the last page of our application and bring that along with boat documentation and crew lists back to office. THEN you have to go to the bank and pay via a bank transfer to pay for the Visa. But the real killer is the cost of a Brazilian Visa for US citizens. It is now $200 per person. Somehow we thought it was more like $75 per person. Or maybe we knew about the higher amount and just didn’t quite process it, but $200 per person is just more than we think we want to pay. We have never paid anything like this for a Visa to another other country and people from no other country seeking a Brazilian Visa have to pay nearly so much. We are wondering what the US did to Brazil to cause this. So now we are thinking seriously of not stopping there. If we were going to spend a few months there we wouldn’t mind paying so much, but for a one- to two-week stop, the amount is just too much. Not stopping in Brazil means a VERY LONG passage from St. Helena to Barbados with a possible stop at Ascension Island, but we’ll just have to go for it.
After finishing with the business matters, we hiked on to the Victoria & Alfred (V&A) Waterfront to do a little food shopping. We had to walk right by Bruce’s office on the way and we were pleasantly surprised to find him there. He thought he would not be in until tomorrow as friends from Australia have been visiting. But they were spending the morning at the Aquarium which is almost next door, so he took advantage of the time to slip into the office. We did lunch on the cheap today by buying sandwiches at the Pick ‘n Pay and then eating on a bench overlooking the water. And then we did a bit of grocery shopping and hopped on a bus back to the train station.
Tomorrow I go shopping once again. Irene and Duncan of Moose have a car and Irene has offered to take one person from each of the boats we arrived here with for a Christmas shopping trip. We will get the food for our planned get-together on Christmas Day and will buy the presents for our gift exchange. And when we get back, it will be time to begin baking the pies and making preparations for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. While I am away shopping, Mark hopes to get the new alternator installed. Let’s hope the installation of that costly piece of equipment goes smoothly!
We heard from our son Justin this morning and he said that he, Jo, and Ziggy will be staying in Albuquerque and then have to take a long route to London. They have to fly to Chicago, then to Miami, and then on to London. The total flight time will be 24-hours.
by Judy Handley | Dec 21, 2010 | Sailing Logs Year 6, South Africa, Western Cape |
Day 58, Year 6 Adorable African Penguins
Date: Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Weather: Same Old, Same Old-Sunny, Beautiful, WINDY PM
Location: Simon’s Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Today was penguin day. We had arranged to meet Pieter and Carla of Odulphus for an early walk to nearby Boulder Beach. It was bright and sunny and for the morning hours there was NO wind, so it was a beautiful walk along the beach. A South African cruiser told us just how to find the penguins, so we followed his advice and within twenty minutes of leaving the boat we were watching adorable African penguins. The walk we were on is part of Table Mountain National Park and they have installed a wooden walkway for people to walk on and a low fence to keep the penguins from venturing into the local neighborhoods. Some penguins were courting, some were mating, some were preening, and a few were sitting on eggs. Originally these little creatures were called Jackass penguins because they make a sound like braying donkeys and we got to hear plenty of braying. They live in the tangle of bush above a long beach strewn with huge boulders. The Park has put in big plastic containers so the penguins can get in out of the weather, but no one was at home in the numbered containers today. The penguins were just nesting under the brush enjoying the rays of sunshine that filtered through the dense growth. The little groupings of containers, each with a street address, looked like little penguin suburbs. We walked past the Park visitor center and eventually came to the entrance to Boulder Beach. It is a Park pay point and we were so happy to find out that our Wild Card paid for our entrance. Pieter and Carla had to pay 40 R each (~$5 US each) to enter and we walked down to the beach which was crowded with families with young children, but only one penguin. We walked through and started climbing over and under the boulders along the beach. We finally reached a place with almost no people and lots of African penguins. They were swimming in the water, walking in lines with one behind another, and just hanging out together. They would let us get very close and when they started to move away, I made a clicking sound that seemed to get their attention and halt their movement. We have seen Galapagos penguins in the wild and Yellow-eyed and Little Blue penguins in New Zealand, and today’s experience just added to our penguin repertoire. Pieter and Carla have never seen penguins in their natural environment, so it was really exciting for them. And we will probably take walks most mornings to revisit our penguin friends. It is wonderful that they are so close by.
For the remainder of the day, I did laundry, laundry, laundry and Mark worked on a few small boat projects. We met with Odulphus, Moose, Adriatica, Kire, and Huarya for Happy Hour and found out from Duncan and Irene on Moose that we really should have checked in with Cape Town authorities while we were in town yesterday. They drove in today (they have a car) and took Adriatica and Huarya with them. We are thinking that we will probably hop on the train tomorrow morning and do the check-in and visit the Brazilian Embassy to see if we can get our Visa. While in town we will also do some grocery shopping. Once home, we hope to be able to sit still for a couple of days and catch up on correspondence and get ready for Christmas.
I emailed our daughter-in-law Jo’s mother, Margaret this morning to see if Justin and Jo had arrived in England, but as suspected based on bits and pieces of news we get, Heathrow in London is totally shut down and it will be Friday before Justin, Jo, and Ziggy might get there. Right now they standing-by in Albuquerque waiting for flights. We sure hope they can get to England for Christmas. Margaret explained that there are hundreds of people just stranded at Heathrow sleeping anywhere they can find a space. She said that she has not seen winter weather like they had last year and this year since she was a little girl. Our daughter Heather and her family are headed to Maine from Cape Cod tomorrow. I sure hope their weather is a little more favorable.
by Judy Handley | Dec 20, 2010 | Sailing Logs Year 6, South Africa, Western Cape |
Day 57, Year 6 Day Trip to Cape Town
Date: Monday, December 20, 2010
Weather: Sunny and Beautiful, but WINDY . . . Again
Location: Simon’s Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Another day, another adventure. Early this morning we walked to the train station to head into Cape Town. We knew that the rail line from Simon’s Town to a town called Fish Hoek has been closed for repairs, but we also knew that bus would be there to take us for the first part of the ride–a beautiful ten-minute ride with the mountains on the land side and the crashing waves on the seaside. Once in Fish Hoek, we got on the train for the hour ride into Cape Town. Once in Cape Town, we called our friend Bruce who came to fetch us and take us for a morning exploration of Cape Town and its chandleries. We drove to a highpoint where we could look down on the city and have wonderful views of Table Mountain, the Twelve Apostles, and Lion’s Head and of the coastline below us. After that, Bruce drove us to the inner-city chandlery, Central Boating, and then out to Manex and Sea Port Marine in an industrial area to the northeast of town. After that we went further north to a suburb named Milnerton to C-Dynamics Sea Port and C-Dynamics had all of the big ticket items we have been searching for since arriving in South Africa, so it was a very successful morning. Finding a 210-amp Balmar alternator was the biggest success of the day and finding heavy duty swivel blocks for our Jibe-Ezy for 100 Rand rather than 600 Rand for the Harken alternative was the second best find of the day. Bruce’s office is in the V & A (Victoria and Alfred) Waterfront Center, so we went there to see the V&A Marina and Bruce’s office. Nadine and Tristen were in Bruce’s office and it was great to see them again. And then we saw Seljm, the boat that donated their spinnaker to be made into pirogue sails in Madagascar, and we saw Wild Tigress, one of the ARC boats that has crew from New Hampshire. But unfortunately, they were not aboard. So we have photos of the boat, but once again, no face-to-face meeting. We walked into the Victoria & Alfred shopping mall and were overwhelmed by the size of the supermarkets. A Pick ‘n Pay in Richards Bay was tiny by comparison to what we saw in the V & A. We then decided to have lunch in the V & A complex. After lunch, we walked back into the downtown area. As we walked away from the waterfront, it got hotter and hotter. We had hopes of doing some sightseeing, but we decided that early morning was the time for that. So we will try again on another day. But we did enjoy our walk through the market area of town before Bruce picked us up and delivered us back to the train station.
When we left Cape Town, the train was semi-full, but at the next stop past downtown, crowds of people got onboard. The rest of trip was crowded but since we had seats, it was fine. When we got back to Simon’s Town, we had Happy Hour on Odulphus to complete our plans for Christmas Day. Once the plans were completed, we left there and connected with a boat on the dock behind Odulphus that is from South Freeport, Maine. Betsy and Nat sail Bahati out of South Freeport. We had a great time getting to know them and hope to have more opportunities to get to know them better.
by Judy Handley | Dec 19, 2010 | Sailing Logs Year 6, South Africa, Western Cape |
Day 56, Year 6 Unbelievable Wind
Date: Sunday, December 19, 2010
Weather: Sunny and Beautiful, but WINDY
Location: Simon’s Town, Western Cape, South Africa
I always thought Chicago was supposed to be the windy city, but this place certainly has Chicago beat on that one. On a beautiful sunny day, the winds roar relentlessly through here at 35 knots. It shakes and rattles everything on deck and has the ability to loosen snap shackles and shake Dorade vents loose. Right now Mark is out on deck try to catch our main sail halyard that somehow unshackled so that the line is flying in the wind. It is flying behind us but our fear is that it is going to get wrapped around our wind generator. The wind generator is off but anything will turn in these winds. We are told to expect this on most every day. I’m sure we will adjust, but gale force winds while on a dock are just no fun. The lines and fenders are taking a real beating, but so far they are doing their job. I’m just glad we are not out at sea in this raging wind.
Our friends Bruce, Nadine, and Tristen from Hout Bay (between here and Cape Town) arrived this morning at 10:30 and we had a lovely time reconnecting. They called early to tell us they were coming, so we delayed our walk to Boulder Beach to see the penguins until Tuesday. When they arrived, we went to a seaside café for second breakfast and caught up on the happenings since we were together in Madagascar. Bruce’s office is at the up-scale V&A waterfront in Cape Town and he will be there tomorrow, so we have decided to hop on the early morning train to Cape Town and meet him there. He will then take us on what he calls the “one-hour yacht services tour” to show us where to find things we need in Cape Town. We will also check-in with the authorities in Cape Town and do a little sight-seeing. We hope to be back here by early evening. Odulphus is hosting a meeting of all the cruisers we came in here with from Mossel Bay to plan our Christmas celebration. We all got together at the yacht club tonight to meet Sam from the South African Maritime Mobile Net. He is one of our heroes that comes on the HAM radio here everyday at 1:30 pm to report the weather conditions while we are at sea. It was great to meet him. Graham from Port Elizabeth has been giving us the weather since Madagascar and Sam took over once we were along South African coast. We will hear Sam until we get far off the South African coast and then Graham will be with us across the Atlantic. We are just so grateful for these dedicated HAM radio operators who voluntarily provide us with the weather information.
So it’s off to Cape Town in the morning. We can’t wait to see this city that sits under the formidable Table Mountain. We’ll report on that adventure tomorrow night.
