SOUTH AFRICA
March 13, 2007 (edited
02-01-2021
For the accompanying
photo album go to: Borneo
through South-Africa
To-morrow I shall be on
my way home to the Americas. I'll be rounding the Cape of Good
Hope in the afternoon and enter the Atlantic, another ocean after the
Pacific and the Indian Ocean. It will be "Fleetwood" 's waters
for the next few years.
I had not counted on
spending nearly three months in South Africa. The maintenance
in Durban and here in Simon's Town, just on the outskirts
of Cape Town, and the waiting for suitable weather "windows"
were the main reasons for the extra time spent here.
Just before reaching my
first South African port, Richards Bay, on the way from Mozambique,
I had a nasty knock down. I was running under bare poles in about 30 to 35
knots of wind. All of a sudden, I heard a breaking wave rolling in, louder than
any of the usual breakers. The next moment "Fleetwood" was laid flat
on its port side. The top of the mast touched the water. The wind
indicator was gone. Fortunately, I was wedged in the nav-station,
listening to the 7 a.m. Peri-Peri net, otherwise I would have
been thrown all over the boat with the rest of the unsecured items. The starboard
lower lockers spilled into the port lockers. I was finding nuts and bolts that
broke out of their boxes, for the next months. I had just one of the
two wash boards in the companion way opening. A wave of water spilled through
it; fortunately on the galley and not on the
starboard nav-station with its vulnerable equipment.
I lost most everything
out of the cockpit. Binoculars, winch handle, fishing gear, bucket,
prescription sunglasses, etc. The dodger was ripped to shreds, its frame bent
and torn from its fasteners. I bought a tiny storm jib that
might help to avoid this. The conditions were too rough for my smallest 60% jib
and running under bare poles might have been part of the problem.
But then this coast is
infamous for nasty waves.
Half of the 3 months was
spent in Durban. This was also one of the best and most enjoyable stops on
this two-year voyage. The marina was within a short walking distance of the
town center. Two yacht clubs, the Royal Natal and the Durban Y.C., competed for
the visiting yachts' praises. Just about any boating equipment was available at
the close by chandleries. Over the years I had heard raving reports from
visitors to South Africa to the hospitality of its people and the
beauty of the country. But it still exceeded my wildest dreams.
Several people in
particular, like Fred and Eva Meyer of the Peri-Peri Net, but many
others made the stay in Durban unforgettable.
We all have heard of the
crime problems in this country. And some people
prefer Richards Bay over Durban because one is further
away from the, mostly impoverished, native urban
population. Richards Bay is also far from the marinas and there
is little to do in the town. The traditional white Durbanites in
the town center have been replaced by colored and black Africans and the whites
practically all have become SubD(b)urbanites. I
saw some very attractive residential areas with homes, landscaping and tree lined
roads that would be the envy of upscale California towns, with the possible
exception of the high walls and security systems. Here the white man still
lives in an unreal world compared to the black man.
Listening to the locals,
hearing the radio and reading the newspapers the future for the entire African
continent appears hopeless to me.
Many of the cruising
couples made visits to the wild life parks, and the Zulu reservations,
particularly from Richards Bay.
Christmas became a
memorable experience in Durban, after all. The Sacred Heart Cathedral had
a wonderful service in both English and French. The Cardinal, a black African,
went to seminary in Louvain and celebrated parts of the mass in
French. There was also a French speaking Flemish priest. The choir part that
sang in French were mostly Congolese refugees. Because the cathedral is down
town the congregation has changed from mostly white to mostly black. But it is
a vibrant and close community led by some truly caring pastors. The two female
Polish crews of the Mantra 28 also made Christmas very special. The two boats
are doing a round the world double handed regatta. A few days after I arrived
in Richards Bay, two Mantra-28 footers, “Asia” and “Ania”
arrived from Mauritius, flying the Polish ensign, crewed by two young ladies on
each boat. Joanna (nickname Asia pronounced Ashjah) Raczka, skipper on “Ania” and
crew Aleksandra (nickname Ola) Peszkowska, 22
years old. Joanna (Asia) Pajkowska, skipper,
with crew Karolina Bratek, 20 years old. I was
left to guess the ages of the two Asia’s. Asia Pajkowska participated
in the 2000 single handed OSTAR race from England to
the Caribbean. She did this without any sponsorship and finished
respectably in her class. She was a volunteer crew member on one of the Royal
National Lifeboat Institution rescue boats on the South coast of England.
She showed me the burgee, of the “Mazurey”, that was
left here at the Point Yacht Club by her country woman, Krystyna Choynowski-Liskiewicz who was the first female solo
circumnavigator. She accomplished this on March 28, 1976. The credit for
this feat is usually reserved for Naomi James who sailed around Cape Horn in
1978. There are good pictures of Asia and the other crew and details
of the voyage at www.mantra28.pl
The boats are owned and
sponsored by the Mantra yard and the voyage is run as a regatta between the two
boats. The four ladies cooked up a storm on Christmas Eve and I was invited as
the only non-Polish guest to their celebration that evening. They
served borsht, piroghees, special pastries,
etc.; they sang their Polish Christmas songs. They left Poland in September
2005 and launched the two boats in the Adriatic port of Portoroz. From
the Panama Canal they followed the “Milk Run” and spent time during
the cyclone season in Australia. They stopped in Chagos in
the Indian Ocean and Reunion and Mauritius before
heading for Richards Bay in South Africa. They are on their
way now across the South Atlantic to Brazil.
In Durban I
also had the unusual opportunity to be joined by another five solo sailors. I
am basically recapping what I wrote as a possible newspaper story. So,
bear with me.
Here is a rundown on all
of us, starting with the oldest, from left to right in the photograph.
Name Age Boat
Name Boat Type Home Port
Georges
Prat
75 Ierges
39’ Alumin Bayonne, Southern
France
Philippe Blochet 71 Ar Sklerder
35’
Steel Paimpol, Brittany, France
Jack van
Ommen
69 Fleetwood
30’ NAJA Gig Harbor, Wa., USA
Bill
Hughes
67 Kymika
33’ Westsail Fremantle, Australia
Dieter Pollak
66 Amazon
1 44’
Amazon Vancouver, BC, Canada
Noel
French
58 Tigem
44’ Bavaria Plymouth, England
Georges Prat, alias "Six Fingers" is, at 75, the
oldest and also the only genuine single hander. He lost the use of 4 of his
fingers on his left hand in an industrial accident. He is on his second
circumnavigation. Like all six of us he will follow the route from Cape
Town, via St. Helena to Northern Brazil and then cross the
Atlantic back to Europe.
When he is asked what “Ierges” stands for he tells everyone that Ierges was an ancient Greek mariner. A French
lady in Curacao came back the next day and told him that her husband
as a professor in Greek history insisted that Ierges is
not a Greek name. So, he had to explain to her that at the end of the 5-year
building process of the boat he finally settled on the boat name. His previous
boat name was a combination of his ex-lady friend, Marie and his name: “Margeo”. “Ierges” are the
leftovers. He added an accent grave to the last “e”. You never know when he is
serious or mischievous because he always has this mocking squint in his eyes.
As you will see from the photograph, he just does not look anywhere close to
being 75 and that is usually the way the conversation starts when you first
meet him; you have to guess his age. Someone told me once that for every year
you are on the ocean you rejuvenate a year. When I wrote to my twin brother, a
landlubber, that I would be celebrating my 60th when he was
doing his 80th, he warned me that I would need his company to get a
drink when I drop below 18.
Philippe Blochet, at
71, is also on his second circumnavigation. He started his first one in 1996.
On the leg from Cape Town to St. Helena he had a mild
stroke and fell unconscious. He woke up the next day and did not check with a
doctor till he returned to France, where he had an operation. He sold his
boat, bought a camping trailer, but after a few years the urge for another
circumnavigation got him here to Durban again. The name of his boat “Ar Sklerder” is named after
a chapel on the Brittany coast. Several hundred years ago fishermen
prayed for the fog to lift and promised to build a chapel on the spot where
miraculously a clearing appeared. “Sklerder” stands
for “Clearing” in Breton. Philippe carries a replica of the statue of Our Lady
of Ar Sklerder on
his boat. He retired from the merchant marine. He and I can get into deep
conversations on religion. He is an avowed traditional Catholic of the Monseignor Le Fevre movement.
One of the many
experiences he shared with me was when back in 1998 he stopped at Suwarrow in the Northern Cook Islands. He had two
passengers aboard at that time. They found a shipwrecked British couple, of the
“Short Time”, who had decided that they were going to stay on the deserted
island. During the 2nd world war
the New Zealand military had a communication post on Suwarrow. From 1952 to his death in 1977, Tom Neale, a New
Zealander lived in the buildings that were left from the second world war.
The shipwrecked couple
lived on the catch from the lagoon and coconuts. They asked Philippe to post
letters to the island’s governor, with a request to stay on the island, a
letter to their lawyer and one to his father. They also gave them one thousand pound sterling to bring back to his father
in England. The governor denied their request and they were later
repatriated from the deserted island. The money was put in a suitcase by one of
Philippe’s passengers and subsequently stolen. The French doctor paid the
equivalent, out of his own pocket, to Nick’s father in England when
he returned to France.
I had met Philippe
earlier, in Bali, and for me it was a pleasant surprise, to find him again in
Durban, because I instantly took a liking to him. I plan to stop and spend time
with him and several other Breton cruising friends when I reach
the Brittany coast at the end of the summer.
Bill Hughes immigrated
to Australia form North Wales when he was 29 and his
destination is Holly Head, North Wales. I found Bill on another boat
in Richards Bay, my previous port stop. I
heard a couple guys singing Welsh songs and when I checked it out he was drinking and singing with Henny, an ex-patriate
Dutchman living on his boat for many years already in Richards Bay, and
sometime musician.
Dieter Pollak, a German-Canadian was born
in Sudetenland and grew up in Westphalia. The Pollak family
lived for 12 years in Ireland and sailed
from Ireland to Canada. He worked as a millwright
in British Columbia and then started his own steel yacht building
yard, building amongst others the Amazon design. He took early retirement and
has been on this voyage since 1999. His wife, Hildegard, meets him at various
stops and accompanies him on short crossings. His destination
is Ireland and Germany before, eventually, returning
to Vancouver.
Noel French, who pulls our average age down to just under
68, is classified as handicapped. He was run over by a car, ten years ago. He
jests that he was resurrected one more time than Jesus Christ. He was
clinically dead twice during his operations when his heart stopped. He is now
totally deaf in his right ear and lost his sense of smell and taste and has
difficulty with his equilibrium. He has been on this voyage since October 2002.
On his way from the Panama Canal to Alaska he broke his
boom and diverted to Hilo, Hawaii and spent 6 months for the
season to change. He suffered a dismasting near New Zealand. I meant to
ask him what he carries in the blue bag, you see in the photo; I have never
seen him without it.
He read two biographies
of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He found contradictions and inaccuracies in them,
so he decided to write his version. He spent years on his research. He has a
particular insight on Mozart’s symbolism of the Free Masons subtly incorporated
in the Magic Flute, being a Free Mason like Mozart was.
Several of the six of us
have taken crew or passengers on part of our voyage. Myself, Bill Hughes and
Noel French have not taken any one else on board till now. I caught up with
Georges Prat again here in my final South African port, Simon's Town.
The old neighborhood
in Amsterdam spread out to all the corners of the globe.
In Durban I met Jan Kunst and his family. His brother,
Peter, was in my elementary classes and his father was our church pastor and
was also involved with the resistance group my mother was in during the second
world war. In Cape Town I met Eduard Jongsma. The Jongsmas shared the same church pew with our family in
the "Waalkerk" and Eduard was one year
behind me in elementary and later in the same high school. He is also a sailor
and ocean racer. We met twice at the Royal cape Y.C, and last week he took me
to meet his extended family in the Cape Town area.
You will see lots of
"Braai" pictures. This is the national past time; the South African
barbecue. Every yacht club has this at set days of the week. And with the
two clubs at the Durban Marina and the Bluff Y.C., we smelled of smoke most of
the week. Boerenwors is my favorite, a beef
sausage that comes in long single strings.
From Durban we
sailed most of the way in an about 10 boat fleet, who left the starting blocks
after a long wait for a suitable window to weather the "wild
coast", mid-February. The coast line here is infamous for its
enormous waves that can build up in a South Westerly against the swift south
flowing Aghulas Current. So, we listen
carefully to Fred Meyer on the Peri-Peri Net at 7 a.m. and
again at 5 p.m. to get the green light for a long enough window that
will carry us to the next port. From Durban, in particular, this is a long
stretch since there are no places to go and hide if the S.W. kicks up its
vengeance. Our first stop was East London, a true river port. We
were locked in for 10 days by the weather. Most boats then made it to Mossel Bay.
But the three slowest boats, a 32, 31 footer and
"Fleetwood" stopped in Plettenberg Bay to sit out
the South Westerly. From there I made it all the way to Simon's Town.
S-Town is in False Bay and is just a short train ride from
down town Cape Town. It is a delightful old town with a large
navy base and older homes at beach level and newer ones above on the
surrounding hills. The False Bay Yacht Club treats us again in the, now taken
for granted, South African hospitable style. Some of the boats of our fleet
went to Cape Town. The Simon's Towners all agreed that we had a
better spot. The Royal Cape is far from town and the moorage
more expensive.
There is a large Penguin
colony, just South of Simon's Town, at Seaforth.
I celebrated my 70th
birthday here on the 28th. My cruising pals spoiled me with a party, dinner,
gifts, cards and their attention. It was very special. On my birthday three
couples and I toured the wine country, not far from here, around Stellenbosch
and Franschhoek.
It reminded me very much
of Sonoma County, the wineries, the vegetation, etc.
I bought a new lap top
because my three-year old Dell Inspiron 1100 is falling apart and the salt air
has done it in. I also abandoned trying to revive the third, gone bad, Canon
Digital camera and bought a second-hand older model Nikon 35 mm direct reflex
digital camera. It should show a marked improvement in the next album.
I made three trips
into Cape Town in the commuter train that follows the breath-taking
coast line for a while, you can take this all in from your seat in
the restaurant car. Where ever you are in Cape
Town, Table Mountain is always forming a stunning back drop. The
downtown business center is quite attractive with lots of pedestrian streets
shaded with trees.