Year 8 Day 2: Yep, It Is Winter Here
26 June 2015 | False Bay Yacht Club, Simon's Town, South Africa
Dave/Sunny, Windy and Brrrr
After a night spent in our own beds, we woke thankful to be back home. While we had such a great time these last seven months traveling in North America, seeing so many friends and family members, there is something to be said of the adage: “There is no place like home”.
I say this even though not everything is perfect on Leu Cat. No, I am not complaining about our boat. She is the perfect yacht for us and we love her dearly. Instead, it is the darn rolling blackouts that are so prevalent here in South Africa. This wonderful country has gone through so much in these last few decades but still has much more to go through in getting its “act” together. One of the things it needs to do is to expand its infrastructure to keep up with its growing population. Leading the list of needed expansions is building more power plants. The country currently cannot provide enough electricity to meet the demands that are put on it. To compensate, the country has instituted a series of rolling blackouts in order to spread the impact of the lack of adequate energy equitably. Last night, it was Simon’s Town and its surrounding region’s turn to not have power. For about six hours we piled on the blankets and shivered ourselves to sleep. The low temperatures during the power outage hovered just above 40 degrees F and the winds were howling at about 30 knots. In a word, it was…Cold. Brrrrrrrr.
Fortunately, when we awoke, the sky was clear and the power was back on. Our heat pumps had clicked back on and we had warmth through the boat. Yea!
Late this morning our rental car arrived here at the Yacht Club. We have decided to rent a car for the next few weeks so we can get around more easily and start our exploration of South Africa. The exploration will have to wait a week or so since we first need to finish un-mothballing Leu Cat and restocking supplies. Having wheels to do this will make things so much easier. Simon’s Town is a quaint, small seaside village and, as such, lacks a supermarket. Thus, stocking up on fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and other goodies requires transportation.
Once the car arrived, my first task was to go over to the town of Noordhoek where they have a mall with both a Vodacom store and a number of supermarkets. To have good Internet, I needed to buy and install a SIM card in my smart phone. It will act as a hotspot onboard Leu Cat. Next to the Vodacom store was a Pac and Save. This is a wonderful supermarket loaded with all the goodies we could want. While Mary Margaret stayed on Leu Cat, slaving away in efforts to restore some order while unpacking our remaining bags, I took the list of essentials she gave me and waltzed up and down the aisles picking up the items we will need to get us through the next a few days.
It was late afternoon by the time I returned to Leu Cat and both Mary Margaret and I were still feeling the effects of our long plane travel from the US. We made a light dinner and called it a day. Unfortunately, shortly after going to bed we were hit with another blackout. Grrrrr. Or should I say: “Brrrrr”. Thankfully, this one only lasted 2 hours so before too long, we were shucking off the multiple blankets as the heat pumps restored the warmth in our boat.
By the way, the photo posted to this blog shows Leu Cat as she is currently docked at the False Bay Yacht Club. She is the second catamaran from the end of the "B" dock, as marked.