Royal Cape Yacht Club

Cape Town Harbour

Fur seals on dock beside our boat

View from our cockpit of the Cape Town harbour entrance

Royal Cape Yacht Club

Oct.29, 2016

I would like to make a few comments about our temporary home here in Cape Town. We have a visitors' membership while staying in the marina and have been made to feel welcome. They have all the facilities you would expect from a top notch marina. You can find good service people for most projects. All three boats are getting some work done. After so many marinas and rough docks, we all need some new fenders and lines, too. Our dock here has a resident seal that likes to sleep on the end  next to our boat. Once, another type of seal joined him.

It is good to see a yacht club that is as active as this one. On Wed sail nights there are between 60 and100 boats participating in racing! We are in a visitors slip right at the entrance to the marina so get to see a good parade. Last weekend there was a regatta for the insurance industry. Members of a company would go out on a boat skippered by a yacht club member and have a fun race. The decor brought in to host so many people for the meals was amazing to see. We have had a few meals at the club and enjoy their cooking and the prices. Will, who did our weather routing, came to join us for a meal and a personal meeting. He is a very active racer.

There is another major regatta that happens once every 3 years, the Cape 2 Rio race, starting just after Christmas. There are pictures up of participating boats with planning well underway. Our track will be easier heading to the north eastern bulge of Brazil. The prevailing wind is SE and the current flows north.

Antares pulled in near us this week. That is the first boat to arrive out of those we met along the South Indian Ocean route. They all sailed around the north side of Madagascar. They are staying in a marina that is part of the V and A. Hope to get together and share experiences and plans.