The day Ruth and Ed were leaving we visited the Spier Cheetah Outreach program. We had the opportunity to get up and personal with these beautiful beasts. They ensure the safety of free range cheetah’s, by educating the public. Cheetah’s tend to kill the live stock on farms, so the outreach program will rescue them. They also breed Turkish Anatolian Shepherd dogs to protect the live stock, thus scaring the cheetah’s away. There are approximately 1000 Cheetah’s left in South Africa. Next to the outreach program is the Eagle Encounter, a bird of prey rehabilitation and education facility. Arriving just in time to see the falconer feed a secretary bird, photo right. They like snakes, so he ties food to the end of a plastic snake and teases the bird. Using his legs and talons, the secretary bird kicks and stomps on the snake until it is dead. Another treat was watching him train and feed the Harris hawks, mentioning they are one of the smartest birds and he can train them in less than a week. The children had the opportunity to pet a barn owl, top right and huddled in a protective crate were four baby barn owls. After our encounters we headed to Moyo for a refreshing drink and the children were excited to get their faces painted. Before dropping granny and grandpa off at the airport, we stopped for some tea at Vredenheim winery, where they had the Cape Town Lion encounter, featuring white lions. In one day the children had the opportunity to pet a cheetah, lion and owl, not to bad
Granny and Grandpa had a long and safe trip home. Phoebe and Drake recovered after only a few hours of tears. Now it was time for us to leave Hout Bay. Prior to our departure we enjoyed a Sunday afternoon at the Groot Constantia winery, the oldest one in South Africa. My cousin Liz, her husband Paul and their children Jess and Alex, joined us for a relaxing afternoon tasting delicious wines. After sampling the wines we made sure to buy a few cases of the delectable wine to fill our bilges. We have heard wine is expensive and average in Brazil.
Before casting off, the time had come to cut off Drake’s cast. Choosing to do it ourselves, it was more difficult than we thought, but we eventually succeeded. Planning our departure to coincide with the Royal Cape Yacht Club to Mykonos marquee yacht race. Leaving a day before we sailed passed Table Mountain and Cape Town and anchored off Dassen Island for the night, the light house is pictured above.
Our friend Erik Bjerring crewed on Alexs’ yacht, Addis in Cape. A 35 standard french design, built by Archambault with a rating of 1.036. Rob, Erik and Joe enjoy a cold Heinekein after a successful and fast race from Table Bay. The crew pose for a post race photo. Drake supports the team wearing a Addis in Cape t-shirt, the boat is proudly sponsored by the restaurant.
The following day was the pursuit race, where we anchored off the start line, displaying all the burgees for the yacht clubs we visited in South Africa. We also flew a Bavaria Yachts Flag to support Erik and an Intasure Insurance flag. As we had so many flags flying some boats thought we were the committee boat Because the skipper failed to read the race notes, they were called back, after they started next to us. After several boats made the same mistake, we decided to pull up anchor and move so as not to confuse anyone else. Two boats even used us as the start line as we were pulling anchor. Addis in the Cape flying a spinnaker below, placed second overall in this race. Well all said and done a fabulous weekend was had by all. I can’t remember the last time we stayed up until mid-night two nights in a row! Erik’s wife Colleen and daughter Tanille also joined in the festivities.
Blue Sky is now anchored off Saldanha Bay Yacht Club, which is managed by Paul and Mike. From a cruiser stand point, this yacht club is one of the best we have been to around the world. A self serve kitchen and Braai area, where we can cook and prepare our own meals. A large fridge and freezer, I love to cook large meals and then freeze them before a long passage. A washing machine and clean hot showers. The members and managers are welcoming and the weather is lovely.
The casual landscape of the front garden and incredible view made for a very relaxing weekend!
Our friends Hans and Liz from Rev de Lune, whom you probably remember us mentioning from Chagos, all the way back to Tonga, came to visit us. They gave us the good news that they sold their boat in Cape Town, but the sad news is we would not be cruising with them again. Guess we will just have to visit them in Switzerland.
We were fortunate to have Erik, Colleen and Tanille take us to lunch in a lovely fishing village called Paternosta for a farewell lunch together. After which, the following weekend, we were invited by Liz and Paul to stay at one a converted fisherman’s cottage for the weekend. It was a beautiful place to say good-bye to our good friends and family. We will miss South Africa a good deal. Baie Dankie! Lekker! (Thank you very much! It was all great!)
To see more of Blue Sky’s adventures go to http://www.thevoyageofbluesky.com
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