Saying Goodbye to South Africa

Goodbyes are never easy, and we’ve been saying a lot of them recently as we wind down our time in South Africa. But goodbyes are particularly hard when it’s your whole family you have to say farewell to! This is what I had to do in the late afternoon of December 26th. After a lovely Christmas with my mom and dad, 2 of my brothers, sister-in-law and nieces, we had to catch our plane back to Cape Town, to finish our preparations for our final big ocean crossing. Detlef, Karené, Téa and Maya, thank you for hosting all of us, and we wish you all the very, very best for your move to Glasgow, Scotland!!

Cheers!  To good times past and new beginnings

Back in Cape Town, we had one more day with our friends on “Moby”, before we had to bid them farewell as well! Loic spent the day checking out, and filling us in on the process, while Ben, Gaby and Victor caught a last movie together, seeing “The Last Jedi”, the new Star Wars movie. We squeezed in one last pizza dinner together, the two families making up a lively party of 9 at the pizza place!

The kids enjoying a last pizza together:  Victor, Arthur, Ben, Gaby and Anna

Early on Thursday morning, December 28th, while Moby was making final preparations to depart, we took Cool Runnings to the fuel dock to fill up our tanks and our jerry cans with extra diesel. As I was pumping the fuel into the tanks (Dave was inside monitoring the level), the dock hand looked quite surprised and said, “you’re doing a man’s job!”. I replied with, “Yes, I cook, I clean, and I pump diesel!”. He just laughed and went on his way! Back in the marina, we were just in time to head over to “Moby” to say goodbye. We helped them with the lines, and then ran to the bridge to give them a final wave and watched them sail off, on their way to St. Helena. We hope to catch up with them in either the Caribbean or Bahamas.

Moby sails past us on their departure...Goodbye guys...we'll miss you!  Hope to see you soon!

The following day, Friday, we did the first of 3 provisioning shops! Before leaving for Johannesburg, I had inventoried all our supplies and compiled a list of what we needed to buy. We started with the big items: flour, sugar, pasta, rice, long life milk, tinned food (tuna, jam, tinned veggies etc), and then the challenge was to find space on the boat to put it all! With 4 extra sails, we are already heavier than we’ve ever been, and all big storage spaces are taken up! But I managed, and we probably could have left then and there with the amount of food we bought! But we did two more shops after that: the next one was remaining items that I didn’t find the first time round, and items like cleaning supplies, toiletries and snacks (dried fruit, nuts, biltong, cookies and chips). Our last shop, the day before we left would be the fresh items: fresh fruit and veggies, dairy (yoghurt, cheese, butter), and bread that would last us the first couple of days. Provisioning is always a painful chore, but once it’s done, it’s done for a while, and I’m hoping (and planning) not to have to provision again like that for the remainder of our trip to Florida. 

My frame of mind when provisioning!

 
That Friday we also took a little time off to have a look around Cape Town. Dave had missed out on the Peninsula Tour the kids and I had done with my brother, Volker, at the beginning of December, because our new window was fitted on that day. So we decided to be tourists for the morning. We tried, in vain, to go up Table Mountain. There were so many cars, they were parking halfway down the mountain!  We decided to skip it, and continued the drive along to Hout Bay, along beautiful Chapman’s Peak, through Simon’s Town and back towards Cape Town. 

Looking back onto Hout Bay:  the clouds and sea seem to be in synch with their patterns

 
We stopped at the impressive Rhodes’ Memorial, perched high on the northern flank of Table Mountain, overlooking Cape Town. Cecil Rhodes was a mining magnate and politician, founder of the De Beers diamond company, and served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his British South Africa Company founded the southern African territory of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia). Although he died at a relatively young age (49), he left behind a large legacy in South Africa, and had the foresight to leave a large track of his land on the slopes of Table Mountain to the South African nation. Part of this estate became the upper campus of the University of Cape Town, another part became the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, while much was spared from development and is now an important conservation area.

49 granite steps, one for each year of Rhodes' life lead up to a bust of the man himself

The view from the memorial is pretty spectacular

Ben and Gaby peek out from behind the giant columns, while Dave takes in the view

We had been watching our friends on “Shuti” on their tracker, and talking to them on the phone. They had left East London a few days previously, and it looked like their ETA in Cape Town was going to be Saturday, December 30th in the afternoon. Although we had arranged that we would go to our friend Stephan’s house in Agulhas, on our return from Johannesburg, we decided that we would wait for “Shuti” and then they could join us for New Year at Stephan’s. (They had all met each other in the Seychelles, and Stephan had kindly extended the invitation to both Shuti and Moby). So on Saturday afternoon, a happy Shuti crew arrived at the V&A Marina, and slipped into a berth, not far from where Moby had just been berthed. They missed each other by just 3 days, but such is the cruising life!

Shuti arrives while the lazy seals on the dock are not at all bothered by the excitement!

We left Cool Runnings again on Sunday morning, December 31st, to go and ring in the New Year at the Southernmost point in Africa: Cape Agulhas. It was about a 3 hour drive from Cape Town to Agulhas, but it was a pretty drive, first through Sir Lowry’s Pass just outside of Cape Town, where we climbed a hill and had a good view onto False Bay, and then through some pretty farmlands, before finally reaching the rugged coastline of southern Africa. 

View from the top of Sir Lowry's Pass

Looking back onto the road

 

South Africa's rugged coastline - at Cape Agulhas

Stephan greeted us with a glass of Dieu Donné wine and some beer on tap and took us for a quick drive around L’Agulhas and neighbouring Struisbaai. The weather took a turn for the worse, and a cold, strong westerly wind started blowing. A few hours after our arrival, the Shuti’s arrived and together we all went to explore the Agulhas Lighthouse and walk down to the tip of Africa, where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet!

With Stephan and Shuti at the Southern most point of Africa!  

It's official:  he was there!

The Agulhas Lighthouse was built in 1848 and was the third lighthouse to be built in South Africa. Today it is the second oldest operating lighthouse in South Africa. We all climbed the old stairs inside the lighthouse to get to the top and take in the view. It was cold and windy, and those of us with a fear of heights did not take the additional outside stairs to the very top! 

The Agulhas Lighthouse

There were a total of 72 of these steps we had to climb to get to the top!

Ben and Gaby climbed the extra outer stairs to the very top!

We were holding on for dear life, trying not to get blown away!  

It was incredible to think of all the ships that have passed this point, looking for this very light as a guide to safety, and to know that not long ago, we were one of them! We had passed Cape Agulhas at dawn on November 25th, luckily in calm weather, and had seen the lighthouse from the ocean. A windy walk down to the actual southernmost point followed our tour of the lighthouse, where a cool ground sculpture of Africa gives a good overview of the entire continent, and we all had fun tracing our steps of our travels through South Africa. 

Ben balancing at the tip of Africa, while Eyal explores the Congo and Gaby and Yoav visit Algeria!

Ben is "sitting on the top of Kilimanjaro"  (South Africans will recognize the lyrics from a song by Johnny Clegg and Juluka!).  The lighthouse can be seen in the background

New Year festivities were low key and as rain settled in, there were also very few fireworks to be seen, only a few flares that burnt red into the sky, and then faded out. Soon it was midnight and just like that, a new year had begun! 2018 was upon us, and for us it meant crossing the Atlantic Ocean and heading home. We knew that next New Year we would be back in Florida, and our trip would be over. Knowing how fast 2017 flew by, we were a little saddened that 2018 was already here! New Year’s day was a similar, low key affair, with Stephan’s many friends popping by to say hello. 

A New Years Day outing - Dave, Lilach, Dror, Yoav, Des, Gaby, Stephan, Ben, Gudrun, Momi, Eyal.
Agulhas in the background

A reminder of how tough this coastline can be

Another view of Agulhas, without the humans this time!

Once again it was time for goodbyes as we got ready to head to Franschoek the following morning. Stephan had graciously opened both his Agulhas and Franschoek homes to us all (Cool Runnings and Shuti), but he was staying behind in Agulhas to enjoy the rest of his holidays before heading back to work and producing fine wine! So we bid Stephan and his girlfriend Des farewell and made the 2 hour drive to Franschoek. Steph, a huge thank you for your hospitality and good wine! We hope to see you in Florida sooner than later!! 

The Shutis and Cool Runners wish Stephan goodbye.  Thanks for everything...!!

 
Driving over the mountains and seeing the Franschoek Valley below never gets old and I marvel at the beauty every time we do it. The Dieu Donné vineyard is nestled on the slopes of the valley, and with the grape picking season coming up at the end of January, the vineyards are all green and lush.

The Franschoek Valley

We settled in at the farmhouse, and then were treated to a tour of the Dieu Donné wine cellar.  The kids played on the lawn and explored the vineyards.  

In the wine cellar

The view from Dieu Donne's restaurant

The grapes will be ready to be picked soon!

A protea grows in the garden

Later, leaving the kids to their own devices, Momi, Lilach, Dave and I drove into town and did a quick meander of the streets of Franschoek and stopped for a cup of coffee. We then bought the ingredients for the boys, Ben and Yoav, to make pizza that evening. Later on, with the sun setting behind the mountains, we sat outside on the veranda and enjoyed pizza that had been loving prepared by our kids (and Lilach supervising the oven). 

The sun sets over the mountains

Pizza on the vine covered verandah

Stephan's house at Dieu Donne is the typical Cape Dutch style architecture

Our down time came to an end, and on Wednesday we all had to head back to our boats to continue with our to-do lists. We did the second of our big shops and we also had a very important day to prepare for the following day, January 4th: Gaby’s 12th birthday!! Last year in Sydney, this year in Cape Town…not bad for a 12 year old!

Happy Birthday, Gaby!!

A Cape Town Birthday

Unfortunately it fell on the day before we had to check-out, and taking into account the length of time it took Loic to check out Moby, Dave decided to get some of it done on that morning. If I had to describe the process in detail, it would double the length of this blog, so I’ll just say it took him all morning to do one part of it. After some retail therapy (the birthday girl needed some new PJs!), we met Dave for a celebratory birthday lunch. Later that afternoon, we met on Shuti for cake and further celebration! Momi, Lilach, Yoav, Eyal and Dror sang “Happy Birthday” to Gaby in Hebrew and then again in English! Yoav had made a special “pudding cake” for her, which we’d sampled at his birthday in Chagos, and each boy had made her a present: Dror sewed a bookmark out of felt, and stitched a “G” on it; Eyal made a little bag, and stiched “GH” on it, and filled it with chocolates, and Yoav made a bracelet out of yarn. It is birthdays like these that we will remember forever!

Cake and presents on Shuti!

Thank you, Momi, Lilach, Yoav, Eyal and Dror for hosting Gaby's birthday party on Shuti!

On Friday around lunchtime we headed over to the Customs and Immigration office for the final part of our checkout. Because Dave had taken care of most of it the day before (which entailed getting clearance letters from the V&A Marina, the Royal Cape Yacht Club and the Port of Cape Town), the actual clearance from Customs and Immigration wasn’t too bad, and only took about an hour. With clearance papers in hand, we headed back to our boat. We had come to the end of our stay in South Africa! It was hard to believe. There were still people we hadn’t seen, and things we hadn’t done, but we had to think of all the friends and family that we did see, and the amazing experiences we had had. 

Our track shows some of our travels around South Africa!

A quiet evening of reflection was followed by an early morning start on Saturday, January 6th, as Cool Runnings let go of her dock lines one last time, and headed out of Table Bay. We waved goodbye to Momi and Yoav who had come to help us with the lines, and promised to see them soon in St. Helena. They had a few more things to take care of, and were planning to leave on Monday, January 8th. 

Good Bye, Cape Town!

We motor sailed 60 or so miles north to Langebaan, where we pulled in to wait out unfavourable weather that was forecast for Sunday, January 7th. It is here that I write the blog, while the wind blows and the rain falls, thankful that I have another night of calm, tied up to a dock, before heading out tomorrow morning on the second longest passage of our journey.

Back at sea:  just outside of the Langebaan Lagoon

The 1,700 mile trip to St. Helena will take us 11 or 12 days. Dave and I will have to get back into the rhythm of “Eat, Sleep, Sail”, taking our turns on night shift and resting when we can during the day. When our fresh bread runs out, and the store bought yoghurt container is empty, I’ll be going back to baking bread and making yoghurt. We have loved our time in South Africa, but we are all ready to move on, to get back to the simple life and to explore new places. This also marks the beginning of the end for us…we are on our way home…

St. Helena, here we come...