Visiting Cape Town is always a most wonderful experience. We had a few
days to get a lot done for our passage to the Americas. A few adjustments
here and there, a replacement or two, and with the technical support from
Royal Cape Catamarans, things were running like clockwork. I consider them
to be the best when it comes to technical support. I also have the most
wonderful friends in Cape Town who I try to spend time with every time I am
there. In no particular order, there is Nicky. She used to run the Leopard
Catamarans delivery operations before they started shipping them. Having twenty
boats with at least three crew on each all over the world at any time, she had
to be ready to jump into action 24/7/365. A lot can go wrong on one boat, at
any time, you have no idea. Twenty boats, a whole different level of potential
trouble. She had to allocate skippers, approve of crew, organise flight
tickets, skipper's payments, deal with family queries, girlfriends and
boyfriends of the skippers and crew, take and compile position and condition
reports twice a week, unhappy crew, unhappy skippers, breakdowns and the list
goes on and on, and on :-))). She managed more than a thousand deliveries,
nobody else in the world can lay claim to that. Skippers can be another breed,
and crew as well. She ruled with an iron fist as there was no other way to
control a bunch of hooligans at times. She never got the credit she deserved.
How she managed I have no idea, but she did. I visit her often when I am in
Cape Town.
Then there is Chevonne. Fatally attractive :-))), I met her when I started
delivering yachts twelve years ago. Wild as the wind, we always make a plan
to have a night or two, or three out on town. Shooting pool, pub crawling,
open mike evenings, live music events, watching sunsets and sunrises, we
get on like a house on fire. Tons of fun, always running around and
carrying on like there is no tomorrow. She works hard and plays hard like
you won't believe. On the ball real estate agent, action netball superstar.
We will at times party real hard till three am, and at five she will get up to
go and lead a strenuous boot camping session on the promenade. I have often
asked her what her secret is, and her answer, give yourself no choice. I
love spoiling her, expensive perfumes from abroad, bikinis from Brazil, we
just have a crazy wonderful relationship, and in case you were wondering,
no, we don't have a physical relationship :-))). We rock each other's
worlds. And everybody around us can see that we have a most special kind of
magic. Vonny Love :-)))
And then Goddess Dianne. Divine, beautiful, classy, elegant, sophisticated,
a lady through and through. Fiercely independent, highly disciplined, super
intelligent, well travelled, she makes a most wonderful companion. We can
sit and chat for hours about all kinds of weird and wonderful things. We
enjoy frequenting the best sushi venues in Cape Town. At times we get take
away sushi and enjoy it on whichever boat I am on. Sometimes we do lunch,
sometimes dins as we call it. One of our most memorable evenings was on
Second Wind, a Leopard 58. We got us a choice selection of sushi, pink Moet
champagne on ice, and had a wonderful feast as the fog slowly rolled into
the V&A Marina next to Cape Grace hotel. In the distance the fog horn was
blasting every now and then. Thought I died and gone to heaven :-))) She was
also one of the VIP guests when Second Wind was initiated. One cold rainy
winters evening we had some lovely food at Rick's Cafe where we were seated
next to a fire place. Many more secret little eating places I would love to
explore with her. Recently, we had to take Ooga Chaka for a sea trial. I had a
dinner date with Dianne, and fitting two new props took a bit longer than
expected. Instead of her having to wait for us to return, I invited her for a
sunset cruise/sea trial. We have previously also been out on a Leopard
Powercat. They needed a skipper to take some guests out one morning, and I was
available. Life is mostly wonderful ;-))) Wherever I travel all over the
world, I always send Dianne a 360 degree video of where I am. It takes us
sometimes weeks, sometimes months to get to one or other exotic destination,
and it pleases me immensely to share these moments with her. She is in the
travel business, 1st class floating holidays to be exact. Whether it be on
luxury yachts at top locations around the world, or canal boats in Europe,
she is numero uno. I call her my one and only 4eva friendy :-))). So very
good to have real close friends with no expectations, no complications. So if
you wonder why I love Cape Town so very much, besides the scenery, above
are a few reasons.
The Volvo Ocean race was also in Cape Town with the start on 10 December. I
looked at the weather and realized that we will have to depart 7 December,
the day after the sea trial. There was a black South Easter coming through
and hitting Cape Town on 9-10 December with rough seas till Tuesday. Suddenly
it was time to go. We had to fill 2200 ltrs of diesel into tanks and jerry
cans, clear out, do the last bit of fresh provisioning and go. Otherwise we
will be in Cape Town for another week, and as we have to make it in time for
the Miami boat show mid February, we could not afford to hang around. Tough to
do all we had to do in one day, but when the going gets tough, the tough gets
going. Nathan also enquired about the possibility of leaving on Thursday as he
was quite eager to get going. I informed him I will give him an answer soon.
Just before midnight on Wednesday I had a final look a the weather and made the
call. I messaged him as well as my other crew to be ready to leave Thursday.
His reply - " I will await your orders Captain!" I wanted to get out before the
storms hits, and fortunately the wind was in our favour, although we expected
some heavy seas and strong winds.
Thursday morning the crew were amped and ready. We worked hard the whole
day, fuelling up, clearing out, provisioning etc. 9pm we were all set to go,
switched on the instruments, started the motors and by 10pm we requested
permission from Cape Town port control to exit the harbour. It was going to
be a tough test for the boat and for the crew, but we did have Friday and
part of Saturday to get some distance between us and land. We motored mostly
on Friday, the quiet before the storm. On Saturday the clouds loomed ominous
behind us and the sea state also started building rapidly. I learned from my
good friend Paul Rackstraw, also from Cape Town, to always add 10kts to the
predicted weather, and again it turned out to be spot on. 30kts was predicted
with 4.5 meter waves every 8 seconds, bad enough. We got 40 kts with 6 meter
waves close on each other. Saturday night the storm reached us and the roller
coaster ride began. As we have a heavy boat I had the full genoa out. Not a
big genoa, but also not a storm jib. With the waves in close succession we
started surfing down one wave, slowed down as the wave rolled through under us,
and the next wave would crash into us from behind. The nautical term is getting
pooped, when the waves smash into and onto the boat from behind. It was pitch
dark and quite scary as the back of the boat would be lifted up, pushed
forward at speed and the bows nearly getting buried in the water boiling up
front. Up on the fly bridge the motion was amplified somewhat, causing one to
lean back and with abated breath hold on tightly. I started both motors and
ran them at 2000rpm to keep our motion going forward. As usual it worked a
charm and we were no longer getting pooped. Exhilarating yes, but really not
my idea of fun. If anything had to go wrong with the rudders we would be in
very serious trouble. But I also knew we checked and double checked all the
systems before we left. We ploughed like this through the night and the boat
held up extremely well. Sunday the storm intensified. Always interesting to
watch the wind speed drop from 30kts to 20kts and then blows to 35kts, drop to
20kts and maxing out at 40kts. As if the wind is inhaling deeply, and then
blowing out harder. Our average speed is 6kts. During the storm we surfed
and maxed at 18.6kts. Closer to land it would have been far worse and I was
thinking about the Volvo Ocean race contestants. They had to go the other
way down south and to Australia. The wind was right against them and I wondered
how they navigated this storm. Monday things started to settle a bit and we
were well on our way. Once again a calculated risk we took which worked in our
favour. Nathan and Dan was fine, Jaryd was suffering a bad bout of seasickness,
again :-))) Why do I smile ? :-))) This is how you learn respect for the ocean.
She can wipe you out in a moment, or she can take you in and look after you. No
compromise here, just pure unadulterated reality. A massive amount of respect,
a bit of luck and thorough preparation is essential. Mwuhahahahaha !!! After a
few days Jaryd started coming around. Before that he was mostly hanging like a
bat on the safety rails with his head down and feeding the fish. He once lifted
his head and I uttered - "What !!! Are you still alive ???" :-))) The number
one safety rule aboard a yacht is to stay aboard the yacht. I always tell my
crew that there is a lot of paper work involved should one of them go missing
at sea :-))) If one of my crew bumps their head or toe or any other mishap the
first question I ask is whether the boat is ok :-))) It somehow shocks them
into forgetting about their injury for a moment, and soon they realize they can
manage their pain. The next time they injure themselves the first thing they do
is to assure me the boat is ok :-))) We then attend to whatever injury they
suffered. We had a splendid sail from Cape Town to St.Helena and made it under
twelve days, a very good time for a cat this size.
We had precious little sun on our passage from Cape Town to St. Helena. Not
much rain either. We are four crew and I changed my usual rotating watch
system to fixed hours every day and night. I tried it on my previous delivery
and it worked well for us. I took the 6 to 9 watch in the mornings and the
evenings. Most wind changes occur during these periods. I told my crew they
can divide the rest of the shifts as they choose. Jaryd follows my watch from
9 to 12, then Nathan takes over from there, and Dan does the 3 to 6 watches
every day. I found this system to work very well and we are all well rested. I
make breakfast most mornings, and lunch/dinner we do around 2pm. Every one gets
a turn to prepare our main meal for the day. Whilst in Cape Town we also got
two sprouting kits, a few packets of alfalfa seeds, mung beans etc. Jaryd is in
charge of this. I gave him a few pointers and soon we were having great
success. I have done this a few times before on crossings and always great to
have some fresh, healthy greens aboard.
One day rolled into the next and before we knew it St. Helena loomed on the
horizon. We had fair winds from behind most of the time and was using our
screecher and genoa wing on wing and maintained an above average speed. We
arrived on 20th December at about 6pm and could only clear in the next day at
11am as RMS St.Helena was in, and they had to be cleared first. We took time to
do some preventative maintenance, Dan went up the mast to check the rigging. At
11am we were ready and the ferry boat took us ashore. Clearing in was quick, we
exchanged some $'s at the bank, did some provisioning, and arranged with
Richard and Jane at Anne's Place for a bbq the next afternoon. The annual
Festival of Lights was happening the day we went ashore. Richard informed me
that it is a huge procession that is attended by everyone on the island. All
types of vehicles made up with colourful lights, everyone was wearing some
colourful flashing lights, and music and dancing as the procession moves down
the main street. The festival is in aid of raising funds for the primary
school. It was a wonderful event and went on late into the night.
The next day we did some more provisioning, and as usual I went to pay a visit
to my very good friend Hazel who owns The Consulate Hotel. A most amazing hotel
with an astounding collection of mostly maritime antiques. She hails from
Botswana where she owns quite a bit of commercial property. Her partner Peter,
who hails from the UK but also lived and farmed in SA, used to be a physics
professor, and many years ago sailed from SA to St.Helena single-handedly.
Besides the hotel they also farm on St.Helena. Busy getting off the grid, they
are planning to get the hotel also under solar panels. Currently Peter is
constructing a dam on the farm as well. Besides having a few pet cows :-))),
chickens for eggs, and a variety of veggies etc., Peter is now also growing
tobacco using no herbicides or pesticides. Since the airport at last opened
less than a year ago, he will be exporting his tobacco soon. He gave me a
portion to sample and I wish him the best with his endeavours. The battles
these two had to endure to keep afloat, what can I say. Legendary. Hazel is
probably one of the most enlightened people I have ever met, and does not
suffer fools gladly. I know perhaps 0.1% of her life, and that already leaves
me in awe. If ever you feel an urge to visit a place way off the beaten track,
this is where you should come. The most remotest inhabited place on the planet.
A new hotel has been constructed, Mantis, St.Helena. If you like cold, clinical
and boring accommodation, it will suit you fine. If you prefer a place with
heart and soul, character and so much more, The Consulate is where you will
feel right at home. Google Consulate Hotel, St.Helena, you should find their
website and perhaps get a glimpse of what I am talking about. As usual, I just
popped in to say hi quick, and ended up staying hours :-))). I had arranged for
a bbq at 6pm at Anne's Place as mentioned before and had to drag myself away
from these two wonderful characters.
Was just thinking if I blog a bit more often I wouldn't have to bore you for so
long at one time :-((( Also excuse my use of symbols and perhaps incorrect
words and tenses etc. I am not trying to impress anyone with my perfect command
of English. It is my second language, I am only trying to express and share
some experiences with you. Let me try and scribble a few more words :-)))
At Anne's Place we had as we always do another gastronomical experience. I have
known the Sim family who started the establishment in the 70's for 12 years
now, and we have become best of friends. It started off as a small place in the
Company Gardens, and has expanded substantially. Every time I visit something
new has been added, and it has a worldwide reputation with sailors around the
globe. Always an immense gathering around the fireplace. All the visiting
yachties are invited as well as a few locals. I bring lots of charcoal and some
meat, Jane adds more meat, makes a great bowl or two of salad, some potato
fries, and dessert at the end. And of course a few cold beers, but all in
moderation. We normally do lunch there as well, they have a new big coffee
machine, a choice selection of cakes etc., and wifi. Great to spend the day
there after exploring the island a bit. This time round we met Dawn, a real
warm character from St.Lucia in the Caribbean. Her hubby has a two year
contract on the island and instead of just sitting around, she serves behind
the bar. She adds an amazing vibe to an already amazing place.
So very much more I want to share with you, so many places I've been.
Experiences, close calls, confessions.... I probably should get a thesaurus and
not use the word wonderful so often. Would'nt that be awesome :-))) Have to at
least say awesome once. Well, I will end for now, and will catch up soon again.
Adios
Paul
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