We arrived here on Sunday 6th. On the way after Port Elizabeth (where we did see what was probably a very nice beach area to the south with apartment buildings and malls etc) we stopped at Mossel Bay. Partly for fuel as they wouldn't supply yachts at PE unless you somehow went to a service station with jerry cans! and partly because the wind got up a bit early. We had wanted to down wind sail but the days when it was in the right direction it was up to 30 knots and with our patched old gennaker it wasn't worth it. So one night at Mossel Bay then down to Pringle Bay for one night. Both very nice looking towns where it would have been OK to linger but Oscar has a leave date from Cape Town now so we thought we'd better move along. Little drama leaving PE - we went to get our ships papers and passports for checking out only to find they we're not to be found! Working back we sorted out what had happened - we'd checked in then gone upstairs to the bar (as you do). Oscar went back to the boat as it was his turn to cook and Pete and I, irresponsibly but predicably stayed on for another wine or two and left the bag leaning up against the window! Luckily the restaurant was not open that night and we were last there. The bar lady found it the next morning when she opened up! We left Mossel Bay early in the morning in quite heavy fog. We were able to use our automatic fog horn that works through the radio and a speaker up the mast. (Up until now it had only been used to yell silly things to friends on the marina). Even so we set a fog watch front and sides and still had a close call with an inflatable that was haring around in the fog for some reason.... We saw lots and lots of seals, dolphins rounding up fish and thousands of sea birds diving for them, even a couple of killer whales. The fog continued almost all the way to Cape of Good Hope when it suddenly vanished and we had a fantastic trip in with Table Mountain looking stunning as the back drop to Cape Town. the marina in the Victoria and Alfred (not Albert interestingly) waterfront is very clean, well organised and civilised - what a nice change! Very strange immigration form asking to list stowaways....see pics
We are now settled in to the Marina and have cleaned the boat - absolutely filthy after the manages loader at PE dumped clouds of manganese on us. Had to get it off with oxalic acid - we now have very clean feet! the are lots and lots of seals in the marina a and a few sea lions. They just lie around on their backs only barely bothering to get out of the way of boats coming and going. Oscar leaves tomorrow morning after 3 months and one week with us and crossing the Indian Ocean. We'll miss his happy face and awful singing! He's excited to be going to see his family after so long.
