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| On top of Table Mountain |
Somehow two months has passed since we first arrived in
Simons Town. Like any city-stop our time here has felt less like cruising and
more like real life—whatever that may mean. Most of our hours have been spent
immersed in projects and the conversations during our daily sundowners at the
yacht club have tended to revolve around where to find mechanics and spare
parts rather than locations for good hikes and snorkel spots. We did manage to
get some fun in—it’s impossible not to take advantage of some of what this
gorgeous city has on offer. Really, two months here is not nearly enough.
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| Sailing past the Cape of Good Hope |
Boat Chores
Before crossing any ocean (and after crossing one as
exciting as the Indian Ocean) there’s a lot to
be done. Our list grew when we discovered Cape
Town is an incredible place to get anything boat-related
done; the prices are affordable and the quality of work tends to be quite good.
Our work list was long (this is just a sample) but as our days are winding down
we’re feeling good about our next leg:
·
Injection pump rebuild—the engine has been
leaking diesel for the past few months and after exhausting all other options,
it turned out the injection pump was the culprit and Briegel Motors did the
rebuild. While Evan had the engine pulled apart it got lots of TLC with new
hoses, a radiator clean and a few other goodies.
·
Sail repair—all our sails got a good once over
and the genoa went into Ullman sails for a new suncover and some stitching
repairs.
·
Dinghy retubing—our dinghy tubes took a beating
in Chagos while hauling up and down anchors over and over to kedge off the boat
that went aground (should have had a cover). In two wide patches the Hypalon was
almost worn away and we were more of a deflatable.
Wildcat dinghies retubed us for <$500.
·
New flooring—we’ve never liked the flooring we
put down and found industrial sheet flooring to replace it with. The colour
runs all the way through so stains can be sanded out and it was easy to
install.
·
New life lines—we have spectra lifelines and
discovered the end of roll bin at Southern Ropes. No more needs to be said.
·
Spinnaker sheets—see above about Southern Ropes.
·
New kitchen faucet—our faucet broke in Comoros and we’ve
been on the hunt for a low faucet with a pull out sprayer. It took a while but
On Tap, came through.
·
Haul out—we’ll write about our amazing
experience at Port Owen separately but that’s where we are now. The hull is
painted and the rudders have spiffy new bearings which should solve the
mid-ocean kick-up issue forever.
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| Coming out by crane in Port Owen |
Fun, fun, fun
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| Fun with friends at the Farmhouse concerts |
You can’t come to Cape
Town without enjoying some of what this incredible
city has to offer. Rather than itemizing all we did I’ll just include a few
happy photos for now (we’re back in the water soon and we’ll run out of
internet). Next stop is Namibia.
Watch for a post about our plans from there.
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| a cute dassie on Table Mountain |
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| gorgeous Simons Town |
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| The Jackass penguins in Simon's Town |
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| Wine tasting-mmmm |
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| St James--just down the road from Simons Town |
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| Exploring Stellenboch with our fabulous driver |
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