Sailing around the World ( presently in South Africa )
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Mon 22 Nov 2010 07:28
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SATURDAY 20th NOVEMBER
2010
We had hoped for a lie in following the trip
for the last day and a half. But, But, NO , knock,knock, " any one there "
It was Hidi from - Wild Tigris - and they
were two boats inside us and wanted to leave as soon as they could.
Sooooooooooo we had to get out of the friggin
scratchers and move the boat, Ahhh well , sure its time to get up
anyway.
"Destiny," another one of our fleet had to
move also ,
We then tied ourselves alongside a trawler and
" Destiny " tied up outside us. Their boats were destroyed from the black
coal dust
which was blown all over them from a nearbye Ship
being loaded with coal. The wind was blowing the wrong way and they
happened
to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. and the
same for - Wild Tigres-
Now, one can wash down the boat and decks, but not
the mast and sails, Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh what a mess. lucky for us , the wind
had changed again before we arrived,
Later < " Destiny " departed and later still "
Grand Filou " arrived and tied up alongside.
12.00hrs Skipper and Aileen hired a taxi and
we took a trip up to the Dominican Convent to visit the grave of Aileens "Aunt
Lilly"
or her official name was Sr Stanislause , and was
called in S.A. as Sr Stani.and she tought mostly music and the
piano.
Sr Stani left Ireland by ship with many other
girls, all around the age of 17 and headed to South Africa to become
nuns.
The trip by ship took 3 months, and stopped at -
Madiera - and other places on the way down.
We arrived at the Convent, Gawd, it was
a big place, and the first thing to hit us as we arrived were all these Cricket
players
all dressed in white and running in all
directions, ohhhhh real posh.
As we passed through the security gates, we
counted six different pitches with the huge collection of
magnificant
buildings up on the hill behind, These were the
School and Convent .
Meanwhile, back at the ship, Neil was busy looking
after things on board , and helping with the new arrivals,
Particularly Richie and Charlie , his N.B.F's on "
Grand Filou " of course they are all about the same age and get on really well
together.
Back at the convent, It took Skipper and Aileen
some time to find the entrance and someone to answer the door,
The first door we tried by breaking our fingers
pushing the bell ( we must have looked like 2 ejits) standing there for
about 10 mins
before realizing the there must be another
entrance..................... how dumb can we get..... but
eventually we had success.
We were welcomed into the Convent by Sr Kathleen (
from Galway ) and after a while chatting and explaining Aileens
connection
to Sr Stani, she took us up a steep path to the
grave yard , which was surrounded by trees on one side and the other side looked
out over
the city and the sea.--- A terrific
view.
We spent some time there looking at all the names
on the graves and telling stories of Stani's visits to us in Limerick
Finally after perhaps an hour, we wandered down a
different path , past a resevoir and through all these beautifull trees
and back to the convent, where we met most of the
other nuns still in the land of the living.
We had tea and scones while we explained to the
nuns all about our travels, They immidiatly fetched a map of the world
and we had to point out our route since leaving
Ireland in June 1009 all the way to "Port Elizabeth ",
plus all the different places we visited on
route. Actually, we found all this very interesting
ourselves.
Reliving the whole 27,000 miles to
P.E.
Most of the nuns were from Ireland, and all in all
we had a great time. Sr Maureen asked us where our club was,
We explained we were members of the " Royal Cork
Yacht Club " in Crosshaven ,
Ohhhhhhh, she said with awe, " Do you know my
nephew so , Paddy McGlade " well what do you know ! of course
we know " Paddy "
after all , he is the present " Admiral " of our
club................and this proves once again
that the world is a small place and also the Irish
seem to be everywhere...... ( Sorry Ingrid and Marion , but there
are other Dominican convents
which were run by the Germans,)
Late in the afternoon, we organised our taxi again
( who ripped us off, the little creep ) and said our goodbye's to a lovely bunch
of humans, Meeting such wonderfull poeple
like the nuns, would renew one's faith in mankind.
We really had a most enjoyable
afternoon.
We returned to the boat and joined forces with
Neil, Richie, Charlie, Mo and the lovely " Bubbly Bev " We failed to
get seat's in the Yacht Club
or the other local restaurant called " The Oyster
catcher " so eventually hired a taxi and drove off to the -----
BOARD WALK ---
this was a huge complex of some shops and mostly
Restaurants of every type , plus a large Casino.
We settled into " Squires " restaurant and had a
great meal , mainly steaks, and watched the Ireland v the All Blacks live
on TV, it was a great match and the result did not
reflect really Irelands performance.
Later, Richie who is skipper of " Grand Filou "
spent a lot of time trying to encourage skipper to take part in the Cape
Town to Rio race,
An interesting thought !
We had a few night caps , and hit the
scratchers, zzzzzzzzzzz ZZZZZZZZZZ
Thats all
Signed :- Stephen
Hyde ( Skipper )
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