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American Spirit II - Day 323; A Slow Day in Port Elizabeth; Monday, November 24, 2014



Not mentioned yesterday is that when Ghost got in Sunday night, Tim from Ghost said that while they were coming into Port Elizabeth they saw breaching whales, 3 flocks of swimming penguins and an albatross. A trifecta! Wow. Plus they had a comorant on their dodger top that had landed the day before during a thunder storm. It stayed on overnight and didn't leave until the next morning. Even when they pulled into the slip, a busy and noisy affair, the bird just stayed there in one spot, oblivious to all the commotion.

Up at 8:41 AM. At about 9:10 AM we tended lines on Nexus, who was leaving for Frances Bay, to go to the yard where the boat was built. Russ called me later and said that as they were leaving the harbor they saw numerous breaching whales. Breaching is the ultimate whale behavior that exceeds all others; when a Humpback whale jumps out of the water and lands with a big splash.

Its overcast and raining; but with the forecast calling for sunshine we figure the weather will only get better today.

Breakfast at 10:30 AM consists of eggs, potato, apricot halves and bread. Because of the rain we eat in the main cabin instead of in the cockpit.

At 11:00 AM I did emails; and at 11:55 AM I confirmed our safari to the Lalibela Game Reserve as a follow up to an email that Lalibela had sent to me.

Chris, a friend of Chuck Levin in Tampa, called me and we set up a dinner engagement for Friday evening. Chris went to high school with Chuck in Washington D.C.

At 1:30 PM we walked to a restaurant called 'This is Eat' for lunch. A strange name for a restaurant. After that we took a cab at around 3:00 PM and dropped Jeanine off to do laundry. We had to go to 4 laundry facilities before we found one where we could do the laundry ourselves. After that Joel and I got diesel for the 7 empty jerry cans and then were back at the boat at 4:50 PM and put the cans back on the boat, then rolled out the mainsail and fixed a small problem with it. Then we pulled all of the storage containers in the port cockpit hold area and retrieved a spare propeller for the hydro generator. Then Joel put extra lines out since we're going to be away for 3 days and are expecting a storm to blow thru. After that it was showers and get ready to go out to the Boardwalk for dinner. The Boardwalk was an upscale retail and restaurant area much like Epcot or Disney World.

We departed for dinner at around 7:00 PM, and ended up eating at a restaurant called the Red Rock Spur overlooking an artificial pond surrounded by restaurants and the casino. During dinner there was a Las Vegas Mirage type light show with fountains and water jets in the pond. Very colorful and impressive.

We called for a cab at 10:13 PM and didn't get picked up by the cab until 65 minutes later, despite assurances that the cab would be there in 10-15 minutes.

Once back on the boat Jeanine packed for our trip tomorrow while Joel played solitaire and I read and typed this log.

Lights out at 12:50 AM.

Brian Fox


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