Saturday, 20th November 2010
We had hoped for a lie in following the trip for the last day and a half. But, But, NO, knock,knock, "any one there" ? It was Heidi from Wild Tigris and they were two boats inside us and wanted to leave as soon as they could. Soooooo we had to get out of the friggin scratchers and move the boat. Ahhh well, sure its time to get up anyway.
Destiny, another one of our fleet had to move also. We then tied ourselves alongside a trawler and Destiny tied up outside us. Their boats were destroyed from the black coal dust which was blown all over them from a nearby ship being loaded with coal. The wind was blowing the wrong way and they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the same for Wild Tigris. Now, one can wash down the boat and decks, but not the mast and sails. Ohhhhhh what a mess, lucky for us, the wind had changed again before we arrived. Later Destiny departed and later still Grand Filou arrived and tied up alongside.
12.00hrs Skipper and Aileen hired a taxi and we took a trip up to the Dominican Convent to visit the grave of Aileen's Aunt Lilly or her official name was Sr Stanislause, and was called in S.A. as Sr Stani, and she tought mostly music and the piano. Sr Stani left Ireland by ship with many other girls, all around the age of 17 and headed to South Africa to become nuns. The trip by ship took 3 months, and stopped at Madeira and other places on the way down.
We arrived at the Convent. Gawd, it was a big place, and the first thing to hit us as we arrived were all these Cricket players all dressed in white and running in all directions, ohhhhh real posh. As we passed through the security gates, we counted six different pitches with the huge collection of magnificent buildings up on the hill behind. These were the School and Convent.
Meanwhile, back at the ship, Neil was busy looking after things on board, and helping with the new arrivals. Particularly Richie and Charlie, his N.B.F's on Grand Filou of course they are all about the same age and get on really well together.
Back at the convent... It took Skipper and Aileen some time to find the entrance and someone to answer the door. The first door we tried by breaking our fingers pushing the bell (we must have looked like 2 ejits) standing there for about 10 mins before realizing the there must be another entrance..................... how dumb can we get..... but eventually we had success.
We were welcomed into the Convent by Sr Kathleen (from Galway) and after a while chatting and explaining Aileens connection to Sr Stani, she took us up a steep path to the grave yard, which was surrounded by trees on one side and the other side looked out over the city and the sea. A terrific view. We spent some time there looking at all the names on the graves and telling stories of Stani's visits to us in Limerick. Finally after perhaps an hour, we wandered down a different path, past a resevoir and through all these beautiful trees and back to the convent, where we met most of the other nuns still in the land of the living.
We had tea and scones while we explained to the nuns all about our travels. They immediately fetched a map of the world and we had to point out our route since leaving Ireland in June 1009 all the way to Port Elizabeth, plus all the different places we visited on route. Actually, we found all this very interesting ourselves. Reliving the whole 27,000 miles to P.E.
Most of the nuns were from Ireland, and all in all we had a great time. Sr Maureen asked us where our club was. We explained we were members of the "Royal Cork Yacht Club" in Crosshaven. Ohhhhhhh, she said with awe, "Do you know my nephew so, Paddy McGlade" well what do you know! Of course we know Paddy after all, he is the present Admiral of our club... and this proofs once again that the world is a small place and also the Irish seem to be everywhere... (Sorry Ingrid and Marion, but there are other Dominican convents which were run by the Germans).
Late in the afternoon, we organised our taxi again (who ripped us off) and said our goodbyes to a lovely bunch of humans. Meeting such wonderful people like the nuns, would renew one's faith in mankind. We really had a most enjoyable afternoon.
We returned to the boat and joined forces with Neil, Richie, Charlie, Moe and the lovely Bubbly Bev. We failed to get seats in the Yacht Club or the other local restaurant called "The Oyster catcher" so eventually hired a taxi and drove off to the --- BOARD WALK --- this was a huge complex of some shops and mostly restaurants of every type, plus a large Casino. We settled into "Squires" restaurant and had a great meal, mainly steaks, and watched the Ireland v the All Blacks live on TV, it was a great match and the result did not reflect really Irelands performance.
Later, Richie who is skipper of Grand Filou spent a lot of time trying to encourage skipper to take part in the Cape Town to Rio race. An interesting thought!
We had a few night caps, and hit the scratchers, zzzzzzzzzzz ZZZZZZZZZZ
That's all,
Signed :- Stephen Hyde (Skipper)