Still windy but keeping busy
09 January 2016 | Simon's Town, SA
Bill/still blowing like stink!
We've continued running errands and getting more small projects done. The wind has stayed with us for the last few days. We did get a break the afternoon we got a slip and for the next day, but ever since then, it's been windy with steady winds in the mid 20 knots and gust getting into the 40 knot range. Dock lines on boats have chafed through(on other boats) and need to be inspected regularly. We have 11 lines keeping us attached to the dock. We are even using part of our big snubber line we normally use with our anchor to make sure we are safely tied up. We inspected the lines and retied several just this morning.
We're still working on getting electronic charts for our plotter getting stopped by every company we try. Some try and gouge us by doubling or even tripling the costs. One company quoted us a price(which we agreed to even though it was high) only to email us a few hours later and jack up the price by over $250US!! I told them they could put their charts where the Sun doesn't shine. I called(thank you Skype) one of the biggest electronic chart companies(the names have been removed to protect the guilty)that I'd been told, and have seen on the internet,could be downloaded. The young lady I talked to swore that the only way to get their charts was to order them from them and they would ship the necessary SD card to us. Now South Africa is a nice place but their delivery service for companies like UPS, Fed Ex and others may take as long as a month once the package has arrived to actually get delivered to you. There was no way to get it here in time. I tried "Go Free Wireless" which works with B & G(makes our plotter) and they offer the exact charts we want and they can be downloaded!! I started working on the download so it would go onto the Micro SD card I had for the plotter. I called the company twice(thank you Skype)to ask questions and started the download. The first area we needed had 7 files to complete the chart area. By 0230, we'd made it to file 5 of 7. I finally decided to head for bed and let the computer do it's job and finish the download. I was up by 0500 and when I came out to the main cabin, I found the computer had turned itself off!!!! Once back on, I couldn't find any sign of the files I'd downloaded. They had vanished!! OK, lets download the small chart area we needed. It was only one simple little file but it still took over an hour to get it downloaded. Internet may be cheap here but it sure isn't the fastest. Once that download was complete, all it's files showed up on the SD card. Heaven only knows where the first files went. I clicked on the download button for the first chart area that had disappeared and a few minutes later, it pops up on the screen starting it's download right where the first download had stopped downloading. Three hours later, when the download was done, I took the Micro SD card to the plotter and installed it. Once on, well the plotter apparently had a problem with the card because it never even recognized it was in the plotter. Something got messed up with the download between the first try and the second try!! Of course, I made sure to do this download at the start of the weekend when the company's tech support was going to be closed till Monday morning so I have plenty of time to try and figure out what went wrong. I bought another 20 gigs of download just to get this and I'd used 15 gigs and had nothing to show for it. Now I've got to wait till Monday to get it resolved.
Last Thursday evening, we headed inland a few miles to visit one of the local wineries that make a wine called "Splattered Toad". It's a great Shiraz that runs about $3.00US a bottle! Every Thursday they have an "open house" of sorts where local chefs bring in food and set up booths. We got there early and through the afternoon, the crowd grew and grew till there had to be several thousand people in attendance. It was huge and if you got lucky, you got a chair. We ended up sitting on the grass outside over looking the harbor miles away. A beautiful way to spend an afternoon and early evening. The next day, we called the winery and because we are cruisers, they agreed to sell us two cases of the Shiraz so we will have it to enjoy during our travels. As good as it is, it won't last long. We picked it up later in the afternoon.
Yesterday, we called the car rental and extended out contract for another week. We still have lots of places we want to go and having a car is the only practical way to do it. Karen from Yolo tagged along with us so we could all do some more provisioning. She's looking for more line to use on their boat. It's been so windy that one of their dock lines broke under the strain from the pressure on the hull. It's still blowing in the 20's with gusts much higher. The forecast for the next week is for winds in the 30 to 40 range every day. It's like sitting on a freight train with the winds howling past 24 hours a day! It hasn't stopped blowing since last Tuesday. All that howling can get on your nerves after a while.
This afternoon, Karen and Jason from Yolo joined us again on another excursion to a small concert held up in the hills. Three bands played during the afternoon as hundreds of customers for the event sit around and eat tons of food made for the event. We got there about 1330 and didn't leave till after 1700. Lots of other cruisers were there, drinking and dancing the afternoon away.
It's becoming a challenge to find space for all the food and drinks we have been buying. Luckily, we've actually started replenishing our supplies when we got to Richards Bay. After leaving Thailand back in February, there has been little to choose from in the Maldives, Seychelles(very expensive)and Madagascar making South Africa the place for getting re provisioned. Luckily for us, the Rand(their currency) has been in a free fall since we got here. It's now at $16.30rand for one US dollar. When we got here, it was $13.20rand to the US dollar. We need to get as much on board as we can since our next jump across the Atlantic is about 5,500 miles with only maybe three or four stops along the way. Two in Namibia, St. Helena, and the Ascension Islands, none of which will have much in supplies. So it's stock up now with as much as we can so we don't run out. It's truly going to be our biggest jump making the trip from Mexican to the Marquesas seem short and it was well over 3,000 miles.
The picture today was taken from the hill side above Simon's Town showing the naval base as well as the marina and much of the town itself.