Day 55, Year 6 Arrival in Simon’s Town
Date: Saturday, December 18, 2010
Weather: Sunny and Beautiful, but WINDY
Latitude: 34 11.391 S
Longitude: 018 26,030 E
Miles Traveled: 218.5
Passage Statistics:
218.5 miles in 42 hours 05 minutes
Sailing Hours-15 hours 55 minutes
Motor Sailing Hours-26 hours 10 minutes
Average Speed-5.2 knots per hour
After a wonderful sail yesterday around Cape Agulhas and a rocky and rolly downwind sail last night, we arrived at the dock in False Bay Yacht Club at 7:50 am. There was absolutely no wind when arrived which made pulling into a slip very easy, but as the day progressed, so did the winds. The manager here is John and he came down the dock shortly after we arrived. He warned us that on most days the winds will blow here anywhere from 30 to 45 knots, so we have tied Windbird securely. Getting in here was easy, but we will have to look for another similar weather window to get ourselves out of here. In the meantime, we have at least three weeks before we have to worry about that. Our job now is to just enjoy being here.
No sooner had we arrived than we got a call from our friends Piet Hein and Tory of Double Dutch. I have explained in an earlier log that they were the first ’round the world cruisers we met in the Caribbean and it was great to get their early morning call welcoming us to the Cape Town area. They arrived home after a seven year circumnavigation last year. Today they were going to their daughter’s home for a pre-Christmas weekend family get-together and luckily she lives near here, so they stopped by for lunch with Piet Hein’s brother and his wife visiting from the Netherlands. By the time they got here at noon, the winds had gone from 0 to 30 and then the winds continued to build in the afternoon. We had a nice lunch at the yacht club with Piet Hein and Tory and Piet Hein’s brother and his wife. The winds continued to build, so by the time Mark and I headed back out Windbird, we were really glad that we arrived early today and got settled in before the winds piped up.
We are within walking distance of Boulder’s Beach where a colony of South African Black-footed Penguins live, so early tomorrow morning we will go pay them a visit. I call them “black-footed” but the South African literature calls them by their proper name, Jackass Penguins. As a first grade teacher, I taught an extensive unit on penguins and it was just easier to call these guys “black-footed” rather than having the children gasp when I said “jackass.” And in fact, at the Museum of Science in Boston, they have a colony of these little guys and they also call them “black-footed”-but South Africans have no qualms about calling them Jackass Penguins. They were named this because they sound just like donkeys. But whatever name is used, I can’t wait to see them tomorrow.
After we arrived this morning we checked in at the yacht club and walked through the town. It is a beach vacation town and feels much more like a 1950’s town than a more modern one. There is one road that runs parallel to the beach and dead ends not too far south of here. There are a couple of roads leading to the main arteries connecting this beach area with Cape Town and her extensive suburbs. There are only little shops here, no supermarkets or big condos. The yacht club is also from another era. It is really quite delightful, small and not in any way ostentatious. There is a train that runs from here to Cape Town proper, so we might take that on Monday and do our first Cape Town explore. It is beautiful and I think we will enjoy our time here.
We had Skype video calls with both of our children today. Heather, Jed, Sam, and Jonah were getting ready to head to Boston for a Saturday matinee performance of Revels. This is a musical celebration of winter solstice. We have attended twice with them and it is such a wonderful way to launch into the holiday spirit. They will head to Maine on Wednesday to have Christmas with Jed’s family in Boothbay. But in the meantime, Jonah is still the rock ‘n roll baby. He loves to hum/sing and he loves to hum/sing to the music. During this afternoon’s call, Sam busied himself painting in a huge coloring book given to him by Santa. Jonah just liked singing and swaying. In the early evening we connected with Justin, Jo, and Ziggy in New Mexico. They have been buried under a two-foot snowfall and today was their New Mexico Christmas. They fly out on Monday to spend the real Christmas holiday with Jo’s family in England, but today Ziggy opened his presents from us. Heather and Jed sent him a little wooden stove and we sent cooking utensils and a tea set. He was quite the performer, cooking for us and feeding us through the computer screen. And he pours tea a mean cup of tea. He had opened the drum set we sent him from Santa a little earlier and evidently put on quite a performance, but he was only into cooking when we were on Skype. Chez Ziggy put on quite a cooking performance, but we will have to wait to see photos of him on the drum set. So all is well with our children and grandchildren, but.we miss them SO much. It was a great afternoon talking to our youngest ade smallest. Hopefully we can all be together next Christmas.
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| 101218 Day 55b South Africa–Walkabout Simon's Town |
