Today was rental car day. We'd made arrangements to get a "Rent A Cheapie" car on Saturday and today was to be our first day. I'd asked when I called where their offices were, telling her we were at the False Bay Marina. I guess she thought I just said "marina" when she told me they were just down the coast and to tell the taxi driver where we needed to go. We caught the water ferry in about 0830(he was running late) and checked in with Skilly(marina manager)about us getting a slip/berth. He was still working on it after three days off. He'd tell us later when we returned.
I called the cab company that the marina had recommended and about 15 minutes later, they showed up. When I told him where we needed to go, he'd never heard of the company. I called "Cheapie" and handed the phone to the driver. We found out that the office was just down the coast alright, but it was the west coast of Cape Town, and not Simon's Town. The offices were about 40 miles away!!! Cost for the taxi ride--about $40US. We'd stopped at the taxi companies office and had a chat and we all decided the best thing to do was catch the train from Simon's Town to Cape Town and then catch a cab. They were nice enough and gave us directions and even showed us the office where you buy your tickets. But before you get to the train station, you take a bus, all included in the train fare. We climbed into the bus only to wait about 20 minutes before setting off. Got to the train station with all of us running to catch it. Just as we exited the tunnel to the train, it pulled out. I'm sure the folks that worked there had a good laugh on all the white folks trying to catch the train. Next train, about 40 minutes. We grabbed a seat and waited. About 25 minutes later the next train showed up and we climbed on. About 40 people were in the car with us(about 10 cars per train). Twenty minutes later, we took off. A few minutes later, a man stood up and started singing. All made up gospel music songs. That went on for about 15 minutes getting louder with every new tune. Once he was done with that, he launched into preaching to everyone in the car, not in a nice soft voice but shouting at the top of his lungs. He was working so hard, he was sweating up a storm. This went on for the entire train ride. It got so bad that Tracy shoved toilet paper(emergency stuff we keep in my backpack) in her ears!
Once off the train, we grabbed a cab and got to the Cheapie office and got our car. Instead of the 0900 time frame we had hoped for, it was now after 1200. I had them add a day onto our rental plan. We'd pretty much lost a day just getting there.
We had a nice lunch at the Wang Thai restaurant just down the road right on the beach with a great view of the breaking waves and people playing in the sand. Once done, we headed for the distributor for Jeppesen charts. We were going to need a new set once we got the the Caribbean and we need to get it before we leave SA. We worked with one of their managers trying to get it set up for what we needed. The "store" we were in was anything but a "store". It was more of a corporate office than a store. Andre explained that they normally don't do retail but he would see what he could do. We expect to hear from him tomorrow. We climbed back in the rental car and headed for the dive shop that was going to repair our scuba gear. We had to make good time as we had to be back at the marina for the last shuttle back to Zephyr. It shuts down at 1630. I'd programed our locations into the IPad using Sygic(a program we LOVE)and let it guide us all over Cape Town and back to Simon's Town. We made it with 20 minutes to spare. Spilly(marina manager) had found us a slip. We checked it out on the way to the ferry and it looks a bit tight to us. It's still blowing out here with gusts up to the 50 knot range so we will decide if it even possible to get in there tomorrow when the Sun comes up. One not so nice thing about it is that right in the middle of the water way between the docks is a reef. Yes, that's right, a reef!!! Who leaves a reef in a marina when they are building it. Well, I guess the South Africans so. We will have to go right over it, or around it to get in the slip. Guess we will see how that works out. As for the ferry ride back, well we went with the family off IONA that had just come in. Father, Mother, teenage son and very young daughter. They had gone in for showers. By the time we pulled up to the side of their boat, we had water coming over the side of the ferry soaking everyone on board, us included. Once we got them off(daughter crying by now) we got to Zephyr were we both climbed over the rails getting just a bit more soaked. Once on board, we both headed for the showers and a glass or two of wine. It's going to be a noisy night with all this wind.