Mid June 2015 - Mid July 2015 (False Bay Yacht Club - Simons Town)

Chilly, chilly, chilly.  We bit the bullet and purchased a halogen double bar heater, fantastic, shed a warm orange glow down the passage at night and made everything so toasty.  Unfortunately one week and we had killed it, both tubes blown, not quite up to boat life!!  Next a Ceramic fan heater, so far so good….

 

Our wine stocks were dangerously low so an emergency trip to Stellenbosch was required.  We got hold of Taunnee, our friend who used to work at Porky’s in Richards Bay and who is now studying and living in Stellenbosch and she proved to be a most willing participant in our purchasing/tasting tour.  We had a lovely day, spent a lot of time at Spier wine farm, a massive estate with bird enclosure, hotel, two restaurants and wine tasting.  We did the chocolate and wine pairing tasting, amazing how different chocolate can taste and can make wine taste, an education indeed.  

We were all in agreement that the cardamom, granadilla and white saffron chocolate (who makes this stuff?) was interesting but should not be paired with wine, I was unable to even eat the white pepper and plum white chocolate, never mind pair it with the Cap Classique and a really awesome Chardonnay/Pinot Noir (aren’t I just starting to sound like a connoisseur?), they were perfect on their own.  The lady who guided us through the process was really informative and funny, a great experience.

Our friend Eileen has become the main hub in a rather wobbly Glencairn wheel.  She has single handedly pulled together a very successful neighbourhood watch and is seriously involved with the Police in combatting crime in her area, a huge feat.  Kevin went out with her on patrol of the neighbourhood and our Terios became the weapon of choice, impressive huh?  Well done Eileen, such dedication and tenacity can only pay off.

 

A huge surprise was a really brief flying visit from Thomas Lutz, a friend from when I worked at ATE and who I haven’t seen since leaving there 7 years ago.  Great to catch up.

Gordons Bay Marina

G'nT at Yacht Club

Next we took a nice little road trip.  The original plan was to get to Aghulhas but upon studying the map, we realised a weekend was never going to be long enough so we cut it off at Hermanus, deciding on Klein Mond as our base.  We departed Friday afternoon, stopping for Kevin’s NAUI DM card in Gordons Bay, he got his 10 year service badge, which was issued last year, clever chap, then on to the Marina   From here we headed for the yacht club where we were warmly welcomed and enjoyed a welcome G’nT on the balcony, overlooking the really full and obviously popular marina.  

Our Apartment was 2nd from Right

View from the Apartment Balcony

Dragging ourselves away we headed North past Pringle Bay and Hangklip, the point we were so happy to round when we sailed down before heading across False Bay on our trip to Simons Town, flashing through Betty’s Bay and reaching Klein Mond before sunset.  We were met by an incredibly helpful and friendly agent, Karen, then into our amazing apartment with its beautiful sea view, even from the bed in the attic, so peaceful and relaxing.  The apartment is part of a new harbor development, also a work in progress, the road leading down to it lined with all sorts of interesting shops and restaurants, warranting a mini shopping spree on Saturday morning.  We were struck by how many friendly helpful people we encountered, bought some goodies and got some good ideas too. 

Ocean Quest

Then off down the road to Hermanus, where we stopped at the new harbor. It gives the impression of a really ambitious project that is around 60% complete, some restaurants and whale watching charters and to our pleasant surprise Neptune Divers who have an Island Spirit Catamaran named Ocean Quest as their base for diving.  Incidently Ocean Quest was the very first Island Spirit Catamaran we viewed and the reason we wanted an Island Spirit, unfortunately she was a tad run down then, guess at least now she is being used.  

Hermanus - the original harbour

Such a clever steel statue

Lunch while whale watching

We had both imagined Hermanus to be a quaint little fishing/whale watching village, what a surprise, upon reaching town, to find a really well established tourist destination, famous indeed as the best land based whale watching destination, hosting the Two Oceans Hermanus Whale Festival which takes place there in September/October and where one is apparently guaranteed of seeing whales aplenty and loads of festivities, including a whale crier, there are many, many guest houses and hotels and various other forms of accommodation, a centre with a huge market and loads of different restaurants to choose from, we found a great one with an ocean view for lunch, spotted a couple of whales eventually, but it is still early in the season.  How lucky were we to see a huge pod of dolphins just off shore as we were walking back to the car, never get tired of dolphins.

We were supposed to head back on Sunday but the setting in Klein Mond was so awesome we stayed another night and on Monday headed back to Simons Town.  On our way through Betty’s Bay we found the Stony Point Penguin colony, penguins everywhere and what was so great were the number of babies, well actually teenagers in Penguin terms, the little brown chaps still reliant on their parents for food but almost the same size as the parents, busy gaining their waterproofness.  

Making the most of the sunshine

Great to see other residents including Dassies (Rock Rabbits) who were unashamedly loving the sun.  There is a story board explaining that during the last great oil spill, in desperation, the majority of the penguins were gathered up and transported by trucks to Port Elizabeth where they were released back into the water.  

Fresh red spot

Faded red spot with baby

Amazingly, the majority of them made it back to Betty’s Bay just as the last of the oil spill was being cleaned up, how clever are these little guys to know which way to swim home.  That said, we were so excited when we spotted two Penguins with red chests (you might remember from our stop in Cape St Francis where we released a Penguin back into the sea, with its little red chest, specific mark of Cape St Francis so that they can identify them if necessary), one of the penguins was the proud parent of a baby, its red spot rather faded, and the other sporting a more fresh marking, what a story they must be able to tell of their journey from Cape St Francis – whales, sharks, storms, wow…

Brunch in Gordons Bay followed, nothing seems to be open in Pringle Bay on a Monday morning and sadly our adventure was over for now, a really lovely break.

Kylie came to visit, what fun, she was a real trooper, getting her sleeves up and helping out as yet another one of those 5 minute jobs became a three day affair.  Kevin decided to re-seat the lid of the starboard watertank that was leaking, only upon removing it realised that three of the studs holding it in place had for some reason been cut short so no wing nuts on those, then one of them was stripped and the lid was riding on the fiberglass that had not been finished properly.  This job now necessitated removing the recently fixed shower trough to gain decent access and that was not an easy job, some blue air, blood sweat and tears for a day and a half and it was out, then fixing the 

Its cold at Sunrise @ Seal Island

problem and reseating the lid, then putting it all back together!!  We did at least manage a trip to Royal Cape for lunch and dinner and cocktail at V&A Waterfront.  An impressive prawn dinner at Seaforth Restaurant at Boulders Beach where we were delighted to find a couple of naughty penguins swaying down the road, followed by a visit to the Penguin colony there a couple of days later.  A rather rude awakening one morning as our friend Tertius and his daughter Nadia invited us out on his beautiful catamaran Infiniti to go and watch the shark cage dive operators at Seal Island.  

The Shark boats just before Sunrise

The birds leave Seal Island at Sunrise

They use a rubber seal to entice the sharks and this has resulted in some amazing breaching shots of great whites.  We set out at 05:00 and even though we were wrapped up good and solid it was freezing (even got to try out my new beanie).  We got all excited as the operators boats arrived only to be unceremoniously shooed to the other end of the island by them as they had a “BBC film crew” on board shooting a documentary and needed the space L  Anyway, from a distance we saw a shark catch a seal and another one tail slapping, then on our return journey we found a huge pod of dolphins, spotted two whales and combined with the seals and penguin it was a really great, although freezing, trip.

In charge - SAS Assegai

With the Squirrel Monkeys
at World of Birds

A trip to the SAS Assegai submarine museum and to World of Birds was the end of it and then she was heading back to Pretoria, something about having to write her learners license test (which she passed, clever child, now we can go out and party, got chauffer).

Next day we picked up our crew, Graeme and we were set.  The Lipton Cup Challenge is once again upon us, this year it takes place in Cape Town and Zululand Yacht Club have again entered a team.  We decided to couple supporting this event with our move round to Royal Cape Yacht Club (RCYC), in the harbor area of Cape Town, one we were planning to do before the end of July anyway.  

Boat and Team

A request from the team and the Club for Kevin to take on the role of Team Manager for the event cemented the deal.  A further cry for help with fetching the team from the airport and organizing a rental car for them resulted in the parting of ways at 5am on Friday morning.  

Maxscene arrives at RCYC

I was the one throwing off ropes and waving farewell to Kevin and Maxscene, and Graeme of course, but what a strange feeling, first time they have left without me!! Collected the guys from the airport and spent the day in the sun at RCYC watching preparations for the race.  

Maxscene and crew arrived at 16:30, exhausted after a really tough rounding of Cape Point, huge waves side on and lots of wind and cold, shame, felt so sorry for them.

No time to sit on those laurels though, Kevin was to attend meetings daily at 08:00, a tough deal seeing that the sun still only rises after 7am here and I might have mentioned it, but its damn cold, especially early morning.  After all the formalities were over and a couple of “fix-it’s” done, we were ready – the guys were joined by a really sparky, friendly, Susan the fifth team mate, such excitement.  Racing took place Sunday to Thursday, although Tuesday had to be abandoned due to lack of wind, there had to be three finishes for a result and thankfully by Thursday they had said result as Fridays racing was cancelled due to severe weather conditions, winds of 40knots+ and swells of 4 meters.

On Wednesday the Bridge Boat – the boat on which the committee sit for the duration of the race – a very nice power boat, broke.  Left them in a real pickle and they asked us if we would mind stepping in – of course not, Kevin still can’t get the smile off his face, it was a real privilege and we had many thank you’s from all involved.  Prize giving on Friday night was an impressive affair, despite the horrendous weather and our team came 14^th overall, they did well, gave it their all, never lost their sense of humour and kept trying no matter what.  

This is what a 2kg bar of chocolate
looks like, thank you from the team

Biggest blocks of chocolate ever!

Hopefully they will be able to get a team and sponsors and some form of organization together by next year’s event, if we are around we will support them again.

With the racing and responsibilities over we did a little wine tasting with Graeme and visited Piet and Vicky and learnt the proper way to braai fresh snoek – interesting – still trying to figure out where we would “wind dry” that large piece of fish on a boat!!  It was delicious nonetheless J  

Then sadly it was time to say cheers to Graeme and not a minute too soon as the weather has turned once more and the wind is howling again so its been a day of taking cover and getting back to work……