Simon\’s Town to Cape Town…..
March 15th, 2013 (Eastern Hemisphere)
It was time to finally move the boat the 50 mile trip from Simon\’s Town in False Bay to Cape Town. By car, this trip takes about 35 minutes as it\’s only about 17 miles. But by boat, we had to go 15 miles south to get around Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope before heading north to Table Bay.
We had a decent weather window and decided on a very early departure as to not get to Cape Town too late in the day.
The sun rose as we rounded Cape Point – Cape of Good Hope and we played \”Lighthouse\” in honor of Cindy. The song is by James Taylor and if you\’ve never heard it, it\’s sweet and worth the listen. It was one of our all time favorites and spoke much to the way we felt about coming more than half way round the world…… There are over 2000 known ship wrecks along the coast from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth. A distance of only a few hundred miles.
Cape Point Lighthouse – South Africa. Just before Sunrise………
Table Mountain from the South……. You can see the Cable Car station at the top left of the mountain. It\’s the little blip on the end of Table Mountain….. A spectacular site from the sea.
This photo was taken from the V&A \”Eye\” A modern ferrous wheel at the Mall……\”Beach House\” is behind the green building
A tradition of the old sailing ships was to give those who had never seen Table Mountain from the sea a small gold coin on their first viewing. Nikki and I had learned that from reading James Michener\’s \”The Covenant\” (THE definitive book on the history of South Africa and we highly recommend it). Nikki\’s Gift upon our arrival……
Some of you might think it looks like Chanukah Gelt!….:-)
The trip was easy enough, our new auto pilot worked well and we were docked right next to Dave and Kathie Blanding on \”Sunflower\”…. One more side trip of the area and the real work begins to get off the dock and toward the Caribbean! Next, the Wine Region tour and Cape Agulhas……
Stay tuned, Scott and Nikki