Well, we had thought that we had seen it all but this morning presented another South African surprise. I had gone outside and on to the dock to use the fresh water spigot to wash off some of our watermaker filters. After doing that I turned to get back onto Leu Cat and I spotted a mother Cape Fur seal with her pup on the surface of the water between our two hulls. They were so close to the dock that I could have reached down and petted them if I had wanted to. Actually, I wanted to but I knew better since they are wild animals

What was even stranger than seeing seals right under our boat was that they both were on their sides with both their right rear and fore flippers being held straight up and in the air! They were side by side and looked as if they were practicing their synchronized swimming routine. I called for Mary Margaret to come out and see and soon we were both watching and laughing in total awe.

It was so bizarre! I ran into the salon and grabbed a camera and took a number of photos and videos. I have uploaded a video of this to YouTube and have included it into this blog. Watch it and you will also be totally amazed. What a treat it was to see this so up close and personal and they did not even care that we were watching.

Now, for the life of me, I cannot figure out what they were really doing. If any of you have any ideas, please let us know as we would love to understand what they were doing and why. Mary Margaret thinks that they were under our boat for protection but the weather was not bad and we certainly did not see any sharks nearby. Furthermore, why would they pose like this? After a while, Mary Margaret got cold because she was just in a blouse and it was pretty cold outside so she went back into our salon. I, however, had a sweatshirt on and just laid down on the dock and watched and watched and watched. After about a half hour though, I too went inside. When Graham arrived about an hour later the two seals had left but I showed him the videos I took. He also thought they were under our boat for protection but could not say why they were keeping their left flippers up and out of the water.

Mary Margaret and I soon departed and drove into Cape Town to do a number of errands. We stopped at a number of places to pick up some colored caulking for the salon work that Graham will be working on next week, we needed to replace a couple of pulleys that were worn out on one of our traveller end blocks, get some wood veneer for the woodwork that Graham and I will be working on next week and to check out the Royal Cape Yacht Club where we are required to go to in order to clear out of South Africa.

We also decided to have lunch at our favorite little Mediterranean bistro, Café Paradiso. Once again we were treated to an epicurean delight with their buffet and wonderful wine. We walked out totally stuffed and the bill was only $138 Rand with tip. That is just a bit over $10 US. What a deal!!!

We also wish to thank everyone who sent us an email or left a blog comment regarding our anniversary. It was so kind of you to take the time and pass on your best wishes. It means a lot to us. Thank you!