Day 1 to Cape Town

Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Sat 28 Dec 2019 10:00
34:24.344 S  24:23.422 E
 
Day One to Cape Town
 
 
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The gang decided to leave at six “after the clouds go over” as a local told us. Fred of course was on high nerves as “I get frightened of going off into the unknown”. That being the case it always amazes us that he gets itchy feet, leaves first and stays ahead of most of the gang and support.......Monika persuaded Didier on Harmoni that leaving on a Friday was no worse than any other day and Warren on Eliana, who had dithered until the very last minute......... Allen and Bear helped everyone off (except Roy on Peggy West who always said he would leave in the morning for Simons Town) and then Bear and I helped Allen and Patricia off (Nauti Nauti).  So thrilled to say we finally left ‘The Windy City’ at six o’clock. We swung out of the marina to pass Global Mirai. Her crew had managed a couple of days off but loading ore happened all day today. This 2012 bulk carrier flying the Panamanian flag is due into Singapore on the 17th of January. Her vital statistics are 189.99 x 32.26 x 11.3 metres. Her summerweight tonnage is 58,028 and she will trot along at 10.2 knots.
 
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We passed one of the Oldendorff girls and headed between the dock and the breakwater.
 
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The two black dots in each picture are bottlenose dolphins spuddling about. We always see these smiling creatures as harbingers of good luck.
 
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Football ground (centre) as we hope to leave the grey sky behind.
 
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Around the breakwater behind Nauti Nauti (as we did on entry).
 
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At the back of the gang. The one good thing about leaving last is we don’t have to suffer the indignity of being overtaken....
 
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At 19:30 we had enthusiastic visitors.
 
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A rainstorm to our right over Cape Recife.
 
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In all we struggled for two and a half hours in lumpy water and wind on the nose (fully expected) until we rounded Cape Recife and then set off at a fast trot, never quite breaking into a canter. Just the genoa sees us at 5.5 knots and heading west YAY. Seventy-nine miles done at the time of typing – too tired at six so it had to wait until I got up just now.
 
 
ALL IN ALL WE ARE FINALLY HEADING TO CAPE TOWN
                    AT LAST