Time is going quickly here in Capetown and we have many busy bees hammering, tightening, hauling, all over the boat. We found out that all the soot on the inside of the engine room was due to a burned up starter. No one knows how it could have happened but it did and so we will deal with it. Lucky that the boat didn't burn up but there are safety features onboard that saved the boat. Charles is one of the worker bees attending to that and is rebuilding the starter mechanism and wiring for us. All the halyards are now replaced. The sails are still getting repaired. The bottom must be cleaned on Thursday. So far the real holdup is the visas. The start for this leg is Sat and our visas won't be ready until Tues. That is the bottom line.
We went to the party on Tues. night and met up with most of the fleet for a welcome party. Some of the fleet was still in various other stages of repair and couldn't make it to the party. Thurs. will be the skippers meeting and dinner and most of the folks should be there for that. We had a great time introducing Joe and Pippa who are our friends, to all the folks from the fleet. Joe was a member of MYC and sailed with us in the Chesapeake. Joe has been following the blogs and enjoyed meeting all the people he has been reading about on the blogs. He says it is good to put a face with a name you have been reading about for a year.
Today while we went on a wine tour with Joe and Pippa, Matt cleaned the engine room, the workers put on all the new dorades and the anchor support so it won't clang and rattle now while we are out at sea. Tomorrow it is back to cleaning and polishing, getting the sail repairer to bring the sails back, and get the phone and internet working again. The pump for the refrig is giving us a fit again. Seems like things are back to normal rather quickly with challenges to be met.
Thanks to Joe and Pippa who made sure we saw the great sights and had some wonderful food here in Capetown. We will miss them when they leave tomorrow. Their friends from Capetown, Pippa and Vernon we very welcoming and kind to us as well. Thanks to you all!
We have certainly had the fast version of touring around South Africa. There will be lots left for us to see the next time we come to visit.
Rosemary, Bill and Matt