Year 8 Day 9 Playing Like A Puppy
03 July 2015 | False Bay Yacht Club, Simon's Town, South Africa
Dave/Sunny
Mary Margaret was in the process of making dinner this evening when she looked up and out our salon window that is above the galley. She then tells me to come out and look at what she was seeing.
There, between the two boats docked behind us, was a Cape fur seal playing in the water. He had caught a fish and was playing with the portion that he had not yet eaten. It was so cute to watch as he would throw the fish up in the air, dive underwater and then come to the surface to pounce on it. He did this time and time again just like a little puppy dog playing with a stick.
Each time he threw the fish up into the air, a swarm of sea gulls would try to catch it and one was so brazen as to try to pick it up when it was on top of the water. However, the seal was very watchful of all of this and would swim up from under the water and burst forth scaring the bee-gee-vees out of the bird. It was soooo much fun to watch.
I grabbed the camera and snapped off a few quick shots and will post what I captured to show you what we saw.
Today the winds died down a little bit which made for a more pleasant day. The sun still reined supreme which, without a strong cooling wind, resulted in a much warmer day. Mary Margaret again walked up to the village's main street but this time she was off to the local spa. It was massage day, something she has been looking forward to for a long, long time. I cannot remember the last time she had a massage but our agreement is that she can have a massage anytime she wants while I can go and play golf anytime I want. While back in the States I played lots of golf but she only had a message once or twice. She was greatly overdue!
When she returned, she was a new woman: laid back, mellow, relaxed with a happy glow on her face. It looked to me that she really enjoyed her time at the spa. I wish I could do that but I am just not a spa type of guy. Just give me my golf club so I can kill that little ball out on the links: Grrrrrrrr!
While she was gone I did a few errands and put together a long list of the infamous "boat projects" that I need to do before we shove off in September to begin our South Atlantic crossing. I will not bore you with what is on the list, but on each day that I do some work I will mention what I did. That way, those of you who are contemplating the cruising life, will have some insight as to what the things are that a cruiser must deal with to enjoy this lifestyle. As I have said before, I am never bored living on a boat as there are always so many things to do just to keep the boat in a ship shape status.
Today I worked on three things. I replaced the worn out sound proofing material that helps keep our generator so quiet. I also took one of the dingy wheels up to the local car mechanic so he could replace the tire which had shredded a bit when we were being swamped by the surf in Anse Lazio beach in the Seychelles and at the beach off of Ponta Da Barra in Mozambique. Finally, I replaced a mounting bracket to one of our fans in the stern cockpit. This cockpit does not get much wind when we are at anchor since the salon blocks the wind. When we are in warmer areas, it needs the work of fans to push the air around a cool you off. We have installed 4 fans in this cockpit and two of them need their mounting brackets replaced. See what fun we cruisers have...