First Blog of 2023 - The Many Faces of South Africa
Oceanpearl
Sat 21 Jan 2023 07:04
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>> ARRIVAL IN DURBAN
>> We received a very warm welcome from Marina and Yacht Club members on our arrival in Durban , but the warnings about moving around the city alone, not walking anywhere, not even across the road to the nearest ATM, for fear of attack or theft left us feeling a bit uncomfortable. In retrospect, Durban is probably no less safe than areas of most big cities but the Marina was on the edge of the commercial docks and harbour so apart from the yacht clubs, the opportunity to enjoy the city’s bars and restaurants was very limited. And the weather was pretty inhospitable for most of our stay.
>> But both Durban Yacht Clubs , Royal Natal and Point were both extremely hospitable. Some of our fleet joined the local racing crews and we met many of the local sailors , not least 23 year old David , both sailor and engineer who was very keen to get some ocean sailing experience. Marius invited him aboard Ocean Pearl to shadow him for a day. Watch this space!
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>> A trip to the mountains was a real treat! We drove about 4 hours to the Drakensberg mountains, and stayed at the Cathedral Peak Hotel. We had the honeymoon suite! a small lodge with an uninterrupted view of the dramatic ‘Cathedral Peaks’
>> The resort had been set up in the 1930s by Albert van der Rief, who when he first visited the area was captured by the beauty of the mountains and the vibrant fauna and flora. He had a vision of a secluded hotel that would be closer to the mountains than any other hotel at the time. After acquiring the land in the mid 30s, he set about building a road to his new land, training local labourers, laying down infrastructure and harvesting local stone and rock to build his hotel. The doors opened in 1939 and guests enjoyed guided walks through the berg, horse rides and evenings of dancing and entertainment in the hotel’s lounge. Some 83 years later, in many ways it felt as if time had stood still. The hotel is still owned and managed by the Van der Rief family who seek to maintain the vision of their grandparents.
>> PASSAGE TO CAPE TOWN
>> Having had a challenging sail down from Reunion, we were also somewhat anxious about our onward passage to Cape Town. We were joined by two members of the Point Yacht Club, who were happy to give us the benefit of their knowledge of local waters - and who were also excited at the prospect of sailing on an Oyster Yacht. That passage was also challenging, with the much feared Agulhas current that rushes down the East coast of Africa and in combination with certain wind patterns can make big seas and uncomfortable sailing. Extra confident with the presence of our Local sailors we were shocked and surprised when we had urgent need for first aid at 7am one morning, when Sean, sleeping on top bunk without using his Lea cloth, fell to the floor and cut above his eye badly, blood everywhere! He was fine after a bit of rest and a good breakfast and had a cracker of a black eye to be proud of.
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>> CAPE TOWN
>> We arrived in Cape Town on December 11th and said goodbye to Marius on the 13th to return to Germany and see his parents , having left 4 years ago. Marius had been sailing with us since May and we will miss him terribly. Most of the rest of the Oyster Fleet had arrived in time for the Oyster Christmas Party, held in a beach-front restaurant which was great fun.
>> So we need to find a new crew team for the next long passages.
>> Paul, Mary’s nephew had already signed up for this and was already booked to arrive on Friday 6th January and sail with us to Salvador in Brazil. We then invited David from Durban to join us to at least Grenada. We made contact through Crew-Link with a very upbeat Italian/ German sailor called Nicolo who agreed to join us, also to Grenada. Both would arrive in Cape Town on 4th/5th January. More on Cape Town later.
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>> CHRISTMAS IN THE KRUGER
>> So crew sorted, we flew to Hoedspruit airport for our 5 day safari in the Kruger National Park.
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>> In the absence of our families, who we were especially missing over Christmas, we thought the distraction of safari drives would be good compensation .
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>> Our first lodge was Simbambili in Sabi Sands. We had a fantastic room with its own plunge pool and day bed on our deck for animal viewing during our rest period between our dawn (5-8am) game drive and our evening (4.30- 7.30) drive. From our deck we could view a water hole where we saw elephants, impala, and numerous long legged geese and birds. On our drives, we got surprisingly and, at times, alarmingly close to lions, leopards, water buffalo, rhinoceros, wild dogs, giraffes, hyenas, zebras and others. We had a great guide called Trevor with a great command of the English language and a seemingly encyclopaedic knowledge of the animal and bird world. One example I loved was his selection of animal collective nouns, some familiar, others new to me:
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>> A troop of monkeys
>> A murmuration of starlings
>> A journey of giraffes
>> A dazzle of zebras
>> A herd of elephant
>> A pride of lions
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>> I was previously amused by the antics and skittish behaviour of warthogs and was looking out for them. To my sorrow, the first we saw was a young one - under the paw of a leopard who as she recovered from the chase was anticipating a tasty lunch! At our next lodge, Simbavarti, our deck overlooked a huge waterhole, large enough to be the home of several large hippos, although we only managed to see their eyes and sometimes the tops of their heads! They are very sensitive to the sun and only emerge from the water at night to graze the lakeside grasses. But this large waterhole was a great draw to many other species. From our deck, one day we saw together two warthog families with a total of four adults and 10 young scampering past , elephant, impala, kudu, zebra, and more!
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>> We had five fabulous days of safari, a total of 10 game drives, each with a drinks break in a beauty spot of either early morning coffee and cookies or sundowner drinks - the G &Ts were particularly good! Far from ticking all our safari boxes, the experience just made us hungry for more! We saw no cheetah on this trip so we have a reason to come back for more.
>> NEW YEAR IN WATERFRONT MARINA
>> So we returned to Ocean Pearl in the V&A Waterfront Marina in .Cape Town in time for New Year. We had made no advance plans and at the last minute arranged with two other boats, the Irish Irene IV and Akoya and us agreed to spend it together . Helen of Akoya would cook, Irene IV had an early flight next morning so as we had the space we hosted dinner for 12 on Ocean Pearl. Dana another friend did a deal with a local marimba band to come and play on our pontoon and after dinner all the other boats came and joined us. A very different and fun New Years Eve! We have had many fun day’s out enjoying some of the many delights of Cape Town and Western Cape - the Cape of Good Hope, the penguins of Boulders Beach, the live Friday night music at Hout Bay, Table Mountain.
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>> We had a lovely morning in Kalk Bay which has some lovely shops and restaurants and lovely people. We were joking with one lady in a small boutique and she said to me
>> “it’s so nice to see you laughing as so many old people never even smile”. Where did the ‘old’ come from?
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>> Then two dates that were put in the diary some weeks ago:
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>> 7th January, an invitation from owners of a new Oyster 885, to lunch and wine tasting at their winery in Paarl, called Vondeling. About 30 of us boarded a coach for an hour or so to a beautiful hillside vineyard. There followed a tour of the wine production, delicious sit-down lunch, tastings of a few varieties of their wines and live music. We were delivered safely back to the marina. Nico, one of our new crew recruits, was talking to an old friend who lives in Cape Town who invited us to his home in Camps Bay for drinks / dinner. Paul had popped to the shops and we were running out of time so we thought we could WhatsApp him to follow by Uber. We had an amazing evening, in and even more amazing home, complete with infinity pool, overlooking a stunning sunset over Camps Bay. We couldn’t get h9,d of Paul ….and returned to the boat at 11.30 ish to find Paul trying to sleep under cushions in the cockpit , his phone having run out of charge!!
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>> Next day, January 8th, the whole fleet were invited to a traditional South African Braai, at the holiday home in Cape Agulhas, of Dom and Sue, owners of Oyster yacht Makara and our next door neighbours for several weeks in Antigua as we prepared to l depart on our circumnavigation
>> We had all sailed past Cape Agulhas on our passage from Durban to Cape Town, very conscious of the vagaries of the current of the same name. We were giving land a wide berth at that time to take full advantage of the current so did not see the beautiful beaches of the southernmost tip of South Africa.
>> I booked an Airbnb nearby for the night of the 8th and we set off on a brilliantly sunny day with Cousin Paul and Nico on a 3 hour drive down South. The holiday house was positioned high over the beautiful coast with magnificent views. Many of the Oyster owners and their crew were already there as well as some of Susan’s South African family. The party was fabulous and we all had a great time, although conscious that we needed to prepare for our departure across the South Atlantic in the next few days. All the boats were dealing with various ‘issues’ as they prepared to set sail . There were several rigging problems, a few including us were seeing Henry regularly, including us, to get their water makers working efficiently. In planning major provisioning trips, Paul and I went to the major Cape Town fruit and veg market. It was massive. We wanted fairly large quantities of potatoes, carrots, squash and other long-lasting veg, but everything was in HUGE size sacks.. There were separate sections in each barn labelled at ceiling level ONIONS, CARROTS, POTATOES, TOMATOES ETC.
>> We sought advice and were recommended we visit a wholesaler up the road. We went there and were promised a personal shopper - our phrase!, when we came back for our final shop.
>> BIG PROBLEM !!!
>> As well as a problem with our water maker, we had a faulty goose-neck, the tricky joint between the mast and the boom. When the rigger had fixed this, Roger asked him to do a final rig check on the rest of the rig. Roger and our crew had already checked it in completion of the last two passages and found no fault . However, Sean the rigger came back to us with BAD NEWS. He had found a break in one of the strands on the main shroud, which holds up the 92ft mast. It is quite important - not something to take chances with when facing another 6000 miles back to Grenada and the Caribbean. The size of shroud that we need cannot be made in South Africa so a replacement shroud had to be ordered from the UK. We were promised 3-5 days. Then we were told that we needed to take the mast down in order to fit the new shroud!
>> We are now 10 days on, during which time we have had electricians and engineers gradually disconnecting all the electrics and hydraulics of the mast .
>> The shrouds have been made and been held up at different stages. Today , Friday, the part arrived, a crane has been ordered for Monday when the new shroud will be fitted and if all goes well we should be able to leave on Tuesday. We will have been here for more than two months and have had a fantastic time. Our departure has been delayed by two weeks, but there are many worse places to be stuck than at the foot of Table Mountain in the V & A Waterfront Marina. I
>> Follow us on https://my.yb.to/oceanpearl And see when we make it to St Helena and Salvador in Brazil.
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