Capetown South Africa
Jan 2015
Been quite a spell since my last posting. We were home for a
couple of months regrouping. Holidays and all. So were off again.
Long trip to Capetown. Two nights in the air. Not to
impressed with Dubai airport where we spent a nice long 8-hour layover.
Small glitch at the airport coming into South Africa. They
were going to refuse Dawn entry. She didn’t have enough empty pages in her
passport for their liking. Very tense time there while we successfully talked
their rather crabby customs and immigration officer into using a half page
rather that the two unused pages they require. Thanks for that. They could have
tossed us out. The thought of getting back on a plane for another 36 hour
travel run back home was not to enticing. Had to go to the American embassy to
get more pages sown into her passport. That was fun as well.
Only had a couple of days in Capetown before we left on passage
so really didn’t get to see to much of the place. Next time. Later this year
maybe. This time we are joining our friends Russ and Laurie on their cat Nexus
as crew. The Atlantic awaits.
1700 miles, 10 days to St Helena. A rock in the Atlantic.
Very smooth passage. If only they were all like that. Motored for a couple of
days in very light air but for a change……
it wasn’t my fuel. I am enjoying being crew and not captain.
Our send off committee. They came and played for a while.
Didn’t really know what to expect of St Helena. Its 28 sq
miles of volcanic rock and a territory of Great Britain. Probably most well
known for being the place where they exiled Napoleon after his defeat at
Waterloo. They stuck him here because no one could think of a more remote place
to stick him. And remote is certainly is. Only access is by boat. They have no
airport. But a very interesting vibe here. People are very friendly and seem
genuinely pleased to have you visit. 5,000 permanent inhabitants. Plus about 75
ARC sailors to liven it up a bit.
First night in had dinner at a Chinese place owned by a
Pilipino gal. Chinese food
and Karaoke. Normally not a big Karaoke person but after a
few glasses of wine we were all belting it out at the top of our lungs. The
owners son, the cook, was a very good singer. We did a duet of something or
another that I cant remember. We were joined by a French couple so it was 4
Americans, 3 French and one Kiwi and we had quite a good time. And after a
ten-day dry passage (no alcohol) we all got pretty loopy on the very nice wine
they were pouring. Or maybe it was lousy wine but after ten days it didn’t
really matter.
From Left, Finnbar (New Zealand), Dawn, Me, Eric (France),
Laurie and Russ. The Nexus crew for the next month or so. Through Brazil.
This is the owner and her son. Very nice folks. What a meal
they put on. Provisioning there is a little spotty so our order for dinner
was…… whatever you want to cook ,
whatever is the freshest, and however you want to prepare it. It was excellent.
Took a guided tour of the island. 9am-5pm. Rather long. There
really isn’t all that much to see there. This is Colon, our guide. The “bus” is
a 1929 Chevy with 28 screaming horse power. There were ten of us on the bus.
But it has “been in the family, and making it up and down the hills for 60
years”. Then it rained. And O’l Chevy is not particularly waterproof.
Didn’t really know what to expect of St Helena. Its 28 sq
miles of volcanic rock and a territory of Great Britain. Probably most well
known for being the place where they exiled Napoleon after his defeat at
Waterloo. They stuck him here because no one could think of a more remote place
to stick him. And remote is certainly is. Only access is by boat. They have no
airport. But a very interesting vibe here. People are very friendly and seem
genuinely pleased to have you visit. 5,000 permanent inhabitants. Plus about 75
ARC sailors to liven it up a bit.
Our NZ fellow crewmember Finnbar got an email from his “grannie”
informing him that he has relations on St Helena. He had three names on a piece
of paper and went off to find his kin. Turns out he is related to about ½ the
island. They gave him a large printout of a family tree that goes back to the
1600s. Got a big mention in the local newspaper (circulation 100 copies or so).
Met a couple of his family. Very nice folks. I will look them up next time
through.
A “small portion” of the family tree that they gave Finnbar.
Whoa!
Side bar story: An ARC cat that was anchored behind us was
slowly dragging anchor. Heading for the very rugged unfriendly shore line. I
hopped a ferry to shore to try to find the owner who was not carrying a VHF
radio. On the way in I asked the ferry driver to do a circle around the cat and
give an opinion as to whether or not is was an issue. They know the bottom topography
and holding. He was concerned enough to call it in to Harbor Control who sent
out a good sized boat to help keep it off the rocks. Took me ½ hour to find the
captain and another 20 minutes to ferry back out. By then the boat they sent
out had it under control. The local guy who was on the cat securing lines was a
relative of Finnbars. He is on that chart somewhere. Brian is his name.
Another attraction here is a stairway they call Jacobs
Ladder. 699 steps up to the top where there is an old fort. Or, “another
crumbling wall”, as Paige would say. Friggin heart attack is what I call it.
The record for climbing it is held by a local fellow. Just over 5 minutes. We
took 22. Which they said was actually not bad for first timers. Got a
certificate and everything. The rest of the crew went snorkeling with whale
sharks. Next time through I’m going to fit that one in. The pix were something.
Then on our way to Salvador Brazil. 2000 miles. Wind forecast
did not look to good and unfortunately it was correct. Lots of very slow days
and lots of motoring. I could blog it day by day as a cure for insomnia. It was
Ground Hogs day over and over and over. And over. Fishing was lousy. Hooked a
couple but landed zero. A couple of the boats did land fish but over all it was
pretty barren. We fished at night with glow sticks. We towed bubblers to make
fish noises. We threw out the entire tackle box to no avail.
Moving back up toward the equator and the sun is growing in
intensity. You could fry an egg on deck. Or your feet if you would rather. My
dogs are barkin! And yes, I know them is some ugly feets.
So we arrive in Salvador Brazil. 13 day, very long passage.
Out of the last 27 days we have been at sea for 23 of them And Brazil is not
going to go down as one of my favorites. I think I will be heading home from
here for a while. Nexus has solid crew to get back to the Caribbean. They don’t
need me. I will possibly join them again in the West Indies and crew for them
back up to the States. But for now…..
escape from Brazil and back to the cold and snow. I’m sure I will regret
this.
All for now.
M
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