Cape Town has been a place no one has wanted to leave. There is so much to see and do. The past week was filled with boat chores and provisioning, but we tried to fit in as much sightseeing as possible. That is why this post is being written while underway, and will likely not have any photos until landfall.
We got to the Kirstenbosch Gardens which are on the back of Table Mountain, still In the city. Cecil Rhodes donated his property for the start of these gardens. The setting is spectacular sweeping up the side of the mountain. Of the two square miles, seven per cent is cultivated and the rest is natural fynbos and forest. Fynbos is the local mountain scrub. Their restaurant had great food. Eating out has been a treat everywhere. The food has been good and cheap by Canadian standards. (A glass of wine in the $2/3 range, $10/14 for the whole bottle!)
Adrienne took four of us out for a day to the principal wine ares of Stellenbosch and Franshhoek. With 450 wineries, she and friends go annually on tasting trips. It is a bit like our Niagara area but on a larger scale. And the wineries have a backdrop of a mountain range. Plenty of gardens and golf courses interspersed. We visited two wineries. The first was Ernie Ells Wines. Since Rob has watched him golf for years it was fun to visit the trophy room and see all the photos. And the wines were actually good with a good reputation. Another winery, lunch and a bit of town browsing in Franshhoek rounded up the day. Here you could see a lot of the French influence as this was where many of the Huguenots settled after fleeing persecution in France. On another day we did the "hop on hop off" bus. Even though we only did some of the routes, it filled in the background on the many places we hadn't seen yet.
One evening we had dinner with two of the other boats we had met crossing the Indian Ocean. They were able to update us on them and the many other boats we had met and who had taken the northern route to South Africa stopping in Madagascar. One of the other boats, unfortunately, was held up at knife point in a remote harbour there. Madagascar got mixed reviews, and in view of the robbery incident we are just as glad that we didn't go that route.
I had a tooth filled, hair cut, boat washed and lots of food bought. One morning was spent picking up our visa for Brazil, and another replacing some of our worn running rigging as well as a new man overboard pole. (Lost half of the last one crossing the Pacific!). Marine supplies and services are also good and less expensive than many places. The roller furler and genoa are repaired and are working much better than previously.
On Wednesday a large fishing vessel in the harbour caught fire. During the first day the harbour, as well as the downtown city , were filled with smoke. There were thousands of styrene containers burning. On Sunday, when we left, the bat was still burning.
In the shopping malls the Christmas decor is already up and carols being played. Without Halloween and Thanksgiving they can get an early start on Christmas, reminding us that time is moving on. We needed to leave South Africa in time to get to Brazil, with flights home for Christmas. It has been fortunate that the first week set aside for this trip has a good weather forecast. The same was true for the passage from Reunion to Durban. Overnight on our first day we averaged close to 8 knots, and set a 24 hour distance record for Maggie. Of course a good current pushing us didn't hurt! After the first few days we should settle in to the moderate southeast trade winds.
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