Zululand Marina to Cape Town

We finally got our weather window.  The issue was a good South Wester had just past us blowin’ about 35 knots... the kind of wind that could kick up ugly dangerous waves in the Aghulas current which started at our doorstep.  There was another SWer right behind the first, about 24 hours away. That next blow was forecast to hug the coast according to all the weather models.  The Crews of AURORA and the good ship ALTAIR digested all current weather information and decided to leave ZULU Land behind as soon as the wind died and head out 75 to 100 miles off shore and let the next SWer pass inside of us.  Important to note that Aurora also had weather routing advice from the greatest guru of them all… Chris Tibbs (chances are that Eilo wouldn’t have left Zululand without Chris OKing it!!!)  When the afore mentioned blow past us we would have 3 days until the next storm.  So we cast off at 20:00 hours, just at sunset, and headed out.  There was a little wind behind us so we sailed through a maze of very large cargo ships at anchor off Richards Bay (the busiest port in SA).  Finally the wind picked up and we flew for almost 24 hours until we felt the effects of the predicted in-shore storm.  The wind turned and started coming directly at as but was blowing light.  We motored on and off (but mostly on) for another 3 days (at night we had to contend with boat traffic and had to change course at the request of one of them, made night watches interesting!).  Now another SWer was kicking in big time so we pulled into the port town of Mossel Bay and dropped anchor next to ALTAIR around 5 in the morning. A few hours of deep sleep and we were ready to check out Mossel Bay, a cool little sea-side town.  It’s a favorite vacation destination for the locals.   We found a quazi safe place to tie the dinghy up.  2 Fleet boats who had arrived and left 3 days before us had their dingys holed on old rebar sticking out just below the water line at the various tie-up spots.  That’s a problem because a dinghy with a hole does not float for long.  We attempted to clear in using our Flight Plan which we were required to submit before departing Richards Bay – but the Customs/Immigration office was closed.  So we proceeded to check out town highlighted by a couple of nice art galleries and half a dozen antique shops – which seemed out of place but had lots of great stuff and surprisingly some very serious antiques.  If only AURORA was 10’ longer!   Many locals make a life fishing.  As you can see they grow up fast:

We made it back to the bars and restaurants lining the shore – the entrance of this restaurant was bizarre enough to pull us in:

…for lunch.  The silly look on Captain Ken’s face (note AURORA hanging out over his right shoulder):

… may be more related to the story being told to him by the restaurant owner than the beer consumed.  The restaurateur was showing us a picture on his I-phone taken a few days before of a giant 14’ great white shark about 20’ away from his restaurant’s dock and 2 people sitting on his dock with their feet in the water who had the close experience of their lives.  The Great Whites come in to feed on the seals but the seals in town are getting smarter.  The seals have wiped out the fish close to shore so they head out to deep water to feed around sunset each day.  They were getting picked off by great whites so now and they travel in a long line, close together head to tail so they look like an enormous beast to the sharks who leave them alone.  But the sharks got smart as well.  They hang out in deep water at night and wait for the seals to return piece meal after they feed.  The lights from town silhouette the water surface enabling the sharks to spot lone seals and pick them off – yum.  But then the shark population starts to build and then the Orca’s arrive and start eating the sharks who all of a sudden disappear for a while – a good food chain story related to us by another local. We had some simple fare for lunch but the Hake Eilo had was the best fish we have tasted to date so far on our years odyssey.  It was cooked on coals over a wood fire wrapped in aluminum foil stuffed with butter and garlic.   We ferried diesel in jerry cans from the local gas station via a cab and dinghy until our boats were topped up and hoisted anchors around 18:00.  We started sailing as the  big wind had passed – but just to throw one more curve ball at us the Indian Ocean winds shifted again to the point where we had to drop our sails and motor.  And motor we did for the next 40 hours.  We passed the Cape of Storms, with its politically unpopular but very apt name.  That name has been upgraded now to the Cape of Good Hope.  To the right of the point below –

we left the Indian Ocean behind and to the left we entered the South Atlantic.  Captain Ken had previously exhausted all the expletives in all the bits of languages he knew to express his strong dissatisfaction with the Indian Ocean so all he could muster was an about face on the transom of AURORA for a final salute to that formidable body of water – a proper silent Jersey Salute put an end to that portion of our transit of the planet.  A couple of hours later we spotted Cape Town.  There is no mistaking Cape Town’s signature Table Mountain:

... or if you prefer dressed with her table cloth:

We entered the V&A Marina after passing the swing bridge and then the Dutch style drawbridge:

at the 16:45 opening on December 5^th.  The marina is right in the middle of the new center of Cape Town – the V&A Waterfront.    AURORA’s slip:

… ended up being a 5 minute walk from the waterfront excitement with maybe 100 restaurants covering the full spectrum of world food (Cape Town was voted food capital of the world in 2016 by Conde Nast) , ten times that amount of shopping opportunity emporiums including one building devoted to African art), bars, clubs, museums and other forms of excitement – like the Volvo Ocean Race being in town with all it’s finery.  Leg 3 of that race, from Cape Town to Melbourne, started on Jan 10^th:

The other way from our slip was a 20 minute walk to the old Cape Town centered around it’s town hall:

Lots of African handcraft market eye candy:

…and walking malls:

…Boer estates:

…Museums like the national Gallery:

…or the old slave hall:

 where slaves from various countries around the Indian ocean (but none from South Africa) were bought and sold until Britain abolished slavery in 1838.   Or the old Malaysian section of town, Bo Kaap, characterized by brightly painted houses:

The rumor is - in the good old days the houses looked similar and were painted similar colors so husbands coming home after a hard evening of drinking would end up in the wrong house – leading to all kinds of problems, so the wives got together and solved that issue by painting their houses different colors so husbands could find their own abodes.   OK, OK the true story is that the Malays were slaves and once freed wanted to express individuality and so painted their homes bright colors to do so! We did not have Cape Town on our travel destination horizon but it blew us away way truly exceeding our low expectations.  It is one of those magic cities on earth… we will visit it again some day – BUT NOT VIA THE INDIAN OCEAN.  We did rent a car for a week to check out some of the local area.  We blew a day to see what the Cape of Good Hope looked like from land:

On the way we saw some birds.  Small ones:

…. and a few big ones:

… past some lovely bays :

… and  amazing white sand beaches:

The next day we went further afield, to the north.  Our first days stop was the Aquilla Game Park.  Not a big park and much different than the parks further up north as up north they have more water and thus more vegetation.  We did finally see another of the big 5.  Here’s the King:

… and the Queen:

You can tell they are good friends:

We got the evil eye from this Wildebeest.  Check out the eye lashes.  It must be a lady:

Ever wonder what a 3 week old Rhino looks like – wonder no more (mom was not too happy with us – but she let us live):

The next day we were off to the Franschoek  wine region.   Located in a spectacular set of valleys:

cranking out some very tasty wines wines.  The first day we hit 3 wineries to get back in shape.  But the second day we tied our previous winery record visiting 6 wineries.   Here is Eilo on a wine tram after the fifth:

 and all wine was tasting good by #6.  Here is Eilo congratulating the owners of the final vineyard on their exceptional vintages:

We did travel around local to Cape Town up the west coast about 100 Km one day to a national park:

 and the shore town north of it (note how Eilo found an Irish flag):

AURORA hosted a Secret Santa session on AURORA for the crews who did not head home for the holidays:

We had to go out to Robbin Island about 11 Km off shore to see the cell where Mandela spent 18 years of his life.  What an amazing guy:

We did get up table mountain for some impressive views and cooler air   One time hiking/climbing (ouch), and the other by gondola:

And New Years at the V&A waterfront was filled with music, food and drink and their fireworks started exactly at New Year – as far as we know it is the only thing that happens on time in Africa:

The day after new years day there is a huge festival and parade in the Mother City - as it is locally known.  It commemorates the only day of the year which slaves used to get off to celebrate (prior to the abolition of slavery in South Africa in 1834).  The parade is very loose and informal.  It started about 2 hours late and was very random but very vibrant – kind of like a New Orleans jazz funeral parade on a very large scale:

We have been eating and drinking far too much since we arrived South Africa over a month and a half ago so it is time once again to set sail.  This time heading to Brazil… arriving just before the start of Carnival.  We traverse the South Atlantic by way of Saint Helena for a 3 day stopover.  Their claim to fame is Napoleon was exiled there for a good few years and then died and was buried there in an unmarked grave due to the Brits (who wanted him to be General) and the French (who wanted recognition as Emperor) not agreeing on what could be put on the gravestone for almost 2 decades before his remains were moved to Paris.  That ends your history lesson for today as well as this chapter of the blog.