8 January 2018 Cape Town, South Africa
The engine mechanics from Southern Power arrived at 10:30 and had the timing belt fitted in a couple of hours. I’d asked them to replace the lubrication pipe to the turbo, but there was a misunderstanding and they’ll be back tomorrow to fit it.
After lunch, our friend Ian ran us around, so that we could buy a few things on our technical shopping list - it’s handy having some local knowledge. He also took us to his doctor, where we made an appointment for a check-up in a couple of days. We were then dropped off at a huge Shopping Mall called Canal Walk in the Century City district, where we ordered a pair of glasses for each of us.
After all that running around, we had a quiet evening in, watching a movie.
9 January 2018 Cape Town, South Africa
The diesel mechanics turned up promptly at 08:00 and fitted the new lubrication pipe. When they’d gone, I removed the sea water pump and stripped it down to replace the seal and a rusty bearing. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the bearing out of the pump body, so needed to take it to the Volvo workshop for help.
The water came on at 09:00. Due to the water shortage, the water supply in the marina is only turned on for one hour, three times a week. After, topping up our water tanks, we called an Uber taxi and went into town to collect a small hire car - only £15 per day, which is a bargain.
I dropped Glenys off at the V&A shopping mall, so she could do some shopping without me moaning and I carried on to the Southern Power and they are going to get the rusty bearing out of the water pump for me. They also commented that the pump shaft is very worn where the lip seal makes contact, so they are also going to get the shaft chromed and ground back to the original dimension. I’m hoping that I’ll get it back by the end of the week.
I recharged our drinks fridge with R134a refrigerant - we have a small leak on it, but I’ve been unable to find anyone to repair it - another job for Trinidad. The boat yard has an oil disposal tank, so I dumped all of our petrol (25 litres) because we’ve had some of it for over a year and it hasn’t been used for three months - old fuel causes problems with the outboard.
The wind had been 25 knots from the south all day, but in the late afternoon we started to get strong katabatic gusts. I guess that the wind is rising up to the top of Table Mountain, cooling down and then dropping down the face of the mountain. As the sun went down the gusts increased in severity and we recorded 46 knots. Even in the marina, we were heeling over as the gusts hit us.
A strange cloud formation formed over the edge of Table Mountain, with the clouds rolling down the steep cliff. I found this snippet:
During the summer months, Table Mountain is best admired in all its magnificence against the blue backdrop of clear Cape skies. Ironically, it’s on such cloudless days that the mountain’s legendary white tablecloth is suddenly cast over the “table”, as if by God himself.
Albeit marvellous, Table Mountain’s “tablecloth” is nothing more than an orographic cloud formation (clouds that develop in response to the forced lifting of air by the earth’s topography). As a south-easterly wind blowing up the mountain slopes meets colder air at higher altitude, condensation takes place and a thick mist soon coats the top-most regions of the mountain.
As the cloud cover pours over the side of the mountain, the process is reversed. Clouds encounter warmer air layers lower down, where the moisture evaporates, making the clouds disappear. Despite its undeniable beauty, the tablecloth can be dangerous to unwary hikers. The cloud often descends rapidly, obscuring visibility and posing a threat to hikers unfamiliar with the mountain.
10 January 2018 Cape Town, South Africa
It wasn’t a very pleasant night with katabatic gusts heeling us over and ropes creaking everywhere. I got up at 03:00 to change one of the ropes, which was creaking right above our bedroom. However, we survived.
It’s been over 18 months since we had a medical check-up, so we went to the doctors. We had an appointment at a Medi-care centre in Century City, which is a kind of mini hospital with doctors; some specialists and a pharmacy.
They did various blood & urine tests and we had a consultation with a general practitioner. It was all very easy and the consultation only cost £25 each (although all the tests cost £150 each.) We’re going back in a few days to get the results of our blood tests, but everything else looks okay, except Glenys had a high blood pressure reading, so they’re going to check her again when we go back.
We had to miss breakfast because of the blood tests, so back at the yacht club, we treated ourselves to an excellent bacon and egg brunch.
In the afternoon, Glenys pulled out her sewing machine and did various Sunbrella repairs. Meanwhile, I went out to buy some new petrol and then put the dinghy into the water for the first time since we left Mozambique in October. We lowered our 15hp outboard onto the dinghy and I cleared the fuel pipes of the old fuel. To my astonishment, the outboard started after only three pulls.
By two o’clock, it was blisteringly hot, so outside work stopped - a complete change to the cold windy weather yesterday. We had a quiet night on-board.
11 January 2018 Cape Town, South Africa
We had a day off chores and drove down to Simons Town, stopping off at a couple of beaches on the way. The east coast of the Cape Peninsula is a series of holiday towns and, being the school holidays, the roads are packed with cars. The beaches are crowded with people enjoying themselves. Interestingly, there are colourful Beach Huts on some of the beaches, very reminiscent of Victorian England.
At Simons Town, we visited Boulder Beach, where there is a large breeding colony of African Penguins. The beach is a national park and visitors are corralled onto wooden walkways. There were hundreds of people there, but it was still a nice experience. The penguins totally ignore the tourists and get on with their lives. There were hundreds of penguins stood on the beach with about twenty penguins on their Nests, defending their eggs against the predatory Herring Gulls.
For lunch, we called into a nice little café on the main road and had a Bunny Chow, which is traditional South African dish, consisting of a curry served in a scooped out piece of bread.
We then drove south to the tip of the Cape Peninsula to visit the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. Along with the other hundreds of tourists we walked up to the lighthouse on Cape Point and had a great view of the Cape of Good Hope. There is an interesting hike down to the Cape of Good Hope, but we didn’t have time to do it. We drove back to Cape Town along the west coast along the magnificent Chandlers Way, which winds along the cliff face above Hout Bay.
In the evening we went to a Braai organised by Ian & Lynda at their golf club. It was a fun night - mildly chaotic and troubled by a cold westerly wind.
12 January 2018 Cape Town, South Africa
We went back to the doctors for the results of our blood tests. Everything is good with no sign of cancer, gout or anything else nasty. Glenys has slightly elevated blood pressure and we both have a B12 vitamin deficiency, so they injected us with B12 boosters. I have a slightly “troubled” liver, but nothing that a few weeks off the booze wouldn’t sort out - thankfully we’ll have some long periods of forced abstinence while sailing across the South Atlantic.
After escaping the doctors, we went to the Canal Walk mall and did some food shopping, loading three trolleys - a good start to the provisioning for the next three months. By the time that we’d lugged it all back to the boat, it was 14:30, so we spent the rest of the afternoon, pottering about stowing things away and doing a few small jobs.
Our engine water pump is still at the chrome shop and won’t be back until Monday 15th, so we’ve decided to head out to the Wine regions of Franschhoek and Stellenbosch on Sunday, staying one night and returning on Monday. This will give us four clear days to finish our provisioning; tick off a few more jobs; climb Table Mountain; and have final visits with our friends, before we leave on Saturday 20th. It’s all go.
13 January 2018 Cape Town, South Africa
We had a day on board doing a few jobs. After doing some laundry, Glenys took down the bimini and did some repairs.
I went up the mast to replace the spinnaker halyard and inspected the standing rigging. I found that the fair lead for the staysail halyard had worn badly - the halyard is steel wire and wears away the bronze fairlead. I last did it 3 years ago and fortunately I carry a couple of spares, but I’ll have to wait until after the weekend to get some Monel pop-rivets.
I also noticed that the Dyneema running back stays are showing signs of wear, probably from the mainsail pushing against them when we’re going down wind. I took them around to Southern Ropes and they’re going to supply new rope and do the splices for me. I should get them back early next week.
14 January 2018 Cape Town, South Africa
We were up early and drove for an hour to Franschhoek, a small town in a wine growing area. After having a look around the quaint town, we boarded a Wine Tour Tram, which took us to a couple of Vineyards – Ricketty Bridge and Grande Provence. They gave us an hour at each vineyard to do a tasting of 4 or 5 wines. Glenys and I decided to share one tasting, so that we didn’t get too tipsy.
After the tram ride, we were picked up by a small bus, which took us to five more vineyards, but we elected to only visit another three - Eikehof, Leopard’s Leap and Dieu Donne. It was a pleasant day, sitting around chatting and drinking wines, but none of the wines were outstanding. We’re not great white wine drinkers and we weren’t impressed by the ones we tried. The red wines were a disappointment as well, apart from a Merlot at Eikehof – we bought two bottles.
The vineyards were very varied – Leopard’s Leap was a modern, clinical, tourist trap and the wines were very poor. Eikehof was a lovely little family farm, with a super cheese platter and good wines - the owners serve the wines and chat about their farm. The other three were mid-range vineyards with nice old buildings and pleasant staff. Dieu Donne is high above the town with a lovely view of the valley and is a very nice place to sit in the late afternoon sun.
Glenys had booked us into a guest house called La Ballon Rouge, where we were lucky to be given an upgrade to a luxury suite, with a huge bedroom, a large lounge and a roof-top patio complete with Jacuzzi. Unfortunately, the Jacuzzi was out of action because of the water shortage.
Franschhoek is famous for its cuisine, so we had our eye on an up-market Indian restaurant, but when we got there all the tables were occupied or pre-booked. It appears that booking is essential for the better restaurants. We didn’t fancy a meal in any of the pretentious-looking French restaurants, so we opted for a rougher-looking place just past the church, where we had a fabulous pizza, sat on a garden bench under the trees – they served good wine for £6 a bottle, so what more could you ask for.