It would seem that my father has had the last laugh however. On returning to Cape Town I noticed that my sense of taste was diminished. Smell was functioning and I knew this because both Annie and I could smell the burning tea cosy that had been put onto the still alight stove. It continued to burn ferociously when taken up into the cockpit, thick acrid fumes permeating the boat. It took a good dousing from the cockpit hose to put it out. Forgetting to turn off the stove has become a circumnavigating hazard for we ageing sailing folk.

Anyway, loss of taste has been one of the major symptoms of the Covid which I and at least two others picked up at the funeral. The other symptoms have included aching and desperate fatigue, a tickly cough and diarrhoea (the latter two not being a good combination). The loss of taste is extraordinary - not even a flicker from the likes of coffee and marmite. Chilli and garlic? Zilch. Interestingly a completely flavourless lemon and honey throat lozenge did elicit a slight stinging response from the tip of my tongue.

You may recall that 18 months or so ago there was great international concern about a South African variant of Covid. There was even talk of completely isolating the country. How things have changed since then! Few people here wear a face-mask and over the counter Covid test kits have only just become available. At £9 per test you won’t be queueing to buy one!
Just like the UK you would hardly know there has been a pandemic and yet, as I am demonstrating, the virus is alive and well and freely circulating (at least in the UK). Annie (also now testing positive, feeling unwell but with tastebuds intact) and I have each had four vaccinations. We had boosters just before Christmas. Goodness knows what our symptoms would have been like without primed immune systems.

I am determined not to be the rather easily identifiable source of an outbreak of the English variant. We have been isolating - hardly an imposition when the only thing you have energy for is to sleep. Our appetites have gone, I couldn’t eat anything for four days, so not socialising in the local bars and restaurants is not a problem. I couldn’t have tasted it even if we had. Friends and the marina are aware of our plight. Interestingly but perhaps not surprisingly my first forays out after five days have elicited mixed reactions. Some look like throwing themselves off the pontoon rather than come within viral distance. Others claim to have had Covid several times and are completely unfazed. We’ve had a couple of jobs done on the boat with Annie locked in the front cabin, surfaces cleaned, windows open, fans on, face mask and hand sanitizer provided and me staying away. Karl the electrician was here today and preferred to work inside the boat rather than outside in the heat - at around 30 degrees it is hot by Cape Town standards.

Today I did a second Covid test. The first, on Monday, had a dark, almost black positive line within milliseconds of the drops hitting the test surface. Todays test slowly showed a very faint pink positive line. So it would seem that these lateral flow tests can be accurate, even indicating the level of antigen present. Apart from ongoing tummy trauma (which seems odd for a respiratory disease), it looks like my troubles are over. Annie isn’t out of the woods yet but should be in a day or so. Also the Ocean Challenge race is in town - at least everyone bar the boats is, the boats being delayed out on the ocean somewhere. I am really keen to see an IMOCA class racing yacht like the one I raced around the world in the Vendee Globe last year. I told the marina manager this recently and I thought he was going to kiss my feet. Sweet of him to take me seriously but I had to confess it was just the virtual race.

With a few delays - some Covid related - all the planned jobs on the boat are now complete. We had a scare with the new wind instrument cable that failed to deliver any data. This was causing Karl a big headache until I pointed out that the cockpit reader was still connected to the temporary transom cable. Even this didn’t fix the problem until Karl put in a new connection box for the mast and cockpit cables. At the same time the new masthead light stopped working and I was beginning to think we were in a worse position than when we arrived in Cape Town. However, this was also traced to a faulty connection box and all is now well. The Hydrovane pin has been fixed, the flag pole is snug, the port nav light has been replaced by an LED and the anchor is now rock solid on the bow roller. We have refuelled, filled the gas bottles and just have the genoa to bend on. What could possibly go wrong ahead of departure? Well, the bilge pump actually. This doubles up as the shower drain pump, the pipework from which we had cleaned out in Thailand. So, imagine my dismay when draining the shower tray to find the water level pulsing up and down without actually draining. We do have a spare bilge pump and this is the excuse we need to clear out the rear cabin for access and dispose of some of the junk we have accumulated there. Paul will be replacing the pump or flushing through any blockage in the pipework while Annie and I will hopefully be sorting our clearance out of the South Africa formalities on Monday, negative Covid tests permitting. However, Annie says we are not leaving here until we have at least been up Table Mountain……….