Another beautiful day in another beautiful destination.
Neil was up and off to meet a S.A. friend for his for breakfast before skipper and Aileen surfaced.
After a light breakfast, we got started on the list of things to be done. A whole page of stuff ;- like, repair the Para- and mainsail, have the hydraulics on the boom checked, visit a dentist, have the hull cleaned, get the boat antifouling, varnish the toe rails and cockpit table, get a new pump for the refrigeration, get a diaphrame for the whale pump, have the engine and generator serviced, have the spinnaker halyard re fitted into the mast, look at the fwd loo, just to mention but a few...
Skipper went to meet Louis Souls, the marina manager and sort out the paper work. We met all of the crew from Destiny and S&A had to go visit them for a lovely cup of coffee, of course we had a long chat about our trips down the coast. So there are 3 World ARC boats here in the V&A dock, which is located almost in the centre of Cape Town. That's Wild Tigris, Destiny and A Lady.
Aileen and Skipper later walked up across the foot bridge to the main V&A waterfront Mall and shopping area. It also housed a large dry dock, still in operation with two large Tugs in there being repaired, and also had a concert arena bang in the centre, there was a live band playing and thousands of people sitting and standing enjoying the whole scene.
The whole area is very impressive, Aileen toddled off to have the hair done, while skipper returned to the boat to look at this forward friggin loo, this toilet has not worked properly for yonks, so its time to get stuck in! Neil had returned at this stage, just in time for a lesson in Sh 1 t. We spent 3 hours taking the pipes out, they were so lined with calcium that we were amazed it worked at all, we opened up the holding tank, phew what a smell, but we hosed it out and were happy enough with that, but we failed to get off the pipe connection to the bottom of the tank, so gave up and will return to it tomorrow.
Neil was to look after Wild Tigris for the Christmas and that was canceled today. He was sooooo disappointed, and S&A felt real sorry for the young fellow.
Later we went to the Cape Grace hotel, almost alongside the boat and had a good few scoops to recover from the "S*#te day" in the loo, and also have a posh meal in real posh surroundings. Ouhhhh! it was like being in the Savoy in London, linen table clothes, lots of colourful flowers, loads of waiters. Aileen was done up and looking so good, that the manager couldn't believe that she was sailing around the world. Neil and skipper looked so bad in comparison, and especially after what we had been into but no credits for us. Anyway, whats new!
We had a great evening and had a night cap on Destiny before retiring to the scratchers.
That's it.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde (Skipper)