Speech is Silver, Silence is Golden
14 February 2016
Hm – we have been a bit quiet lately as we didn’t think our doings were overly curious. So, we headed back to the UK for five weeks to see our family and friends, and we had a superb time: in Southampton with Julia and Tim, and meeting up with Paul and Anne (Seventh Heaven) and Robin and Pauline (formerly of Flapjack); then Beverley, East Yorkshire with Anna and Neil; two weeks in Northern Ireland with Norma’s mum and husband Roy, and family and friends too numerous to mention; concluding with a few days in rural Derbyshire with Anna, Neil, Julia and Tim. Just delightful … and remarkably we had comparatively decent weather that was not too cold and not too wintry. Photos in the Gallery.
Then back to Cape Town for some culture and sport – Rachmaninov concert at the City Hall, “Othello” at the Maynard open-air theatre and the final of the Cricket One-Day Internationals between England and South Africa (we lost and South Africa won the series 3-2).
Now we prepare MINNIE B for our departure – lots of prep to do and various replacement items but good progress. We will head for Luderitz and then Walvis Bay in Namibia before jumping off for St Helena and on to Brazil.
We will be very sad to leave South Africa as it has far exceeded our expectations. Cape Town is a very easy place to be and the hospitality at Royal Cape Yacht Club has been second to none. We have made some very good friends among the RCYC members and we will be back at some point in the future. There is much moaning among cruisers about having to clear out from RCYC and the cost of berthing, but frankly with the state of the Rand against European and North American currencies such complaints have more than a touch of loss of perspective in them. We would recommend staying at RCYC to anyone.
So onwards with maintenance and preparation … and we still have to make it up Table Mountain …