Last Voyage South

On the 22^nd the Port Quarantine Officer warmly confirmed we could venture ashore at the end of our quarantine period the next day. He is a kind man who often phoned us when we were ill just to see how we were and to offer any assistance we might need. Here in South Africa we have found the local officials to be without exception kind, attentive and thoughtful.

The photos were taken on that first contact with the Yacht Club when we were just so relieved and grateful that we had survived Covid. Yet another adventure on our circumnavigation.

The day was beautiful and warm and sunny and we did five water runs with the 25 ltr container. Rob rowed and I winched the container on board using a masthead halyard onto a mast winch, and it didn’t get any easier! We chatted with family and heard from Bron’s brother Brian in CT that they have the red carpet all ready to roll out! So a welcome awaits us there which is nice.

“The only way we knew you were still alive was when you hung the washing out!” Conrad told Rob when he was ashore recently on one of our ‘get fit and filled up’ water runs. He and his daughters Anna and Willow took us up to the local SuperSpar yesterday so we could shop while they did the same. So now we have enough fresh food to get us around to Cape Town.

Looking daily at the Windy App we had thought that there was no weather window for this week and we have given up on the idea of a four day window to get right around to CT in one hop. Then Des emailed and pointed out the 24 hour window starting tomorrow, which will let us move on to Port Elizabeth, 130 miles south from here. Then there will be another window around Tuesday to get us to an anchoring spot in Mossel Bay just two days from CT with Cape Agulhas (the most southerly) and the Cape of Good Hope (the most south westerly) points on the African coast in between.

So we have filed our flight plan with Conrad and John at Port Elizabeth and he has sent it to the Port Authority here and at PE. These flight plans may seem tedious to some but they are to give the rescue authorities an immediate identification of any craft that is in trouble and needs rescuing on this wild stretch of coastline. Besides they seem to get simpler to fill in the further we go.

Our friends on Mirabella are setting off from CT at the same time as we leave here tomorrow. They are heading 3,400 miles NW to Cabedelo in Brazil so naturally we wished them a safe passage. In fact the weather in the South Atlantic looks perfect for them with 15 – 20 knot SE winds and a current to help.

So yesterday, with the good news we could move on tomorrow tucked under our belts, I set about cooking a meal to last for three evenings, with variations of course, and then made a batch of wholemeal scones just because I felt like it and because we have some nice squirty cream and strawberry jam. Our neighbours, Mary and John, from Bee Haven, came aboard in the afternoon for an English Cream Tea, without the clotted bit. We sat opposite them in the saloon, so we did practice social distancing and enjoyed three hours of happy discourse before they left long before the evening curfew of 9.00 o’clock. Even though we have had the virus and now should have antibodies to last us around five months, we do not rule out the possibility of catching it again.

It is raining today and this is forecast to continue right into tomorrow. We should pick up the last of the Agulhas Current for the first 30 to 60 miles before it heads south and then south east across the Indian Ocean while we head in the opposite direction, and at least the rain will ease the bird poo off Zoonie’s decks.