can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

American Spirit II - Day 339; We're Promised Our Brazilian Visas in 1 Day; We Book an Earlier Flight Home; and Have Dinner with Civeta II; Thursday, December 11, 2014



Up at 6:30 AM. At 7:00 AM I wake Joel and Jeanine up. We have a free buffet breakfast in the hotel.

I call the US Consulate in Cape Town at 8:45 AM, and the only way to call the Consulate and get a live person on the line is to click the option for extreme emergencies, those involving death or arrest of a US citizen in South Africa. When the operator answers the phone I tell that my emergency is a minor one, and I'm connected to someone who can help me. After talking to them, they tell me that they will have to talk to the Consul General and will call me back. They call back in 30 minutes and tell me that yes, they will grant me an emergency passport in one hour. All I have to do is go online and get an appointment. I tried that earlier and the first appointment date available is December 22. So we're out of luck.

At 9:45 AM we arrive at the Brazilian Consulate. Their Visa window opens at 10:00 AM. We plead our case, asking if we can get the Visa's back by next Wednesday. We're told 'yes.' Wow! Feeling good, we ask if we could get the Visa's back tomorrow because we'd like to fly home early, on Friday night. We're told, again, 'yes!' Holy Batman!!! There is a God. We go to the bank and deposit 2080 Rand each for our Visa's. $179. Then we buy some flowers for the Brazilian Consulate employee, Luiza; and give them to her when we hand her our deposit slips. She cries at our gesture. I guess she doesn't get flowers a lot from people getting Visa's. She's a nice lady and when we get back from Florida we're going to 'bomb her' with chocolate candy.

At the bank where we made the deposits, there is a 'man trap' you have to enter before you're inside the lobby of the bank. Used to deter bank robbers. Very high security and very cool. If a bank robber tries to enter a bank, he can be denied entry by being stuck in the man trap. Same thing when a bank robber leaves. I suspect that when an alarm is tripped that the first person who enters the man trap on exiting will be stuck there. Probably bullet proof glass, also.

I then get a call from the Royal Cape Yacht Club and am told if I can get to the marina in 10 minutes they can put the boat back in the water at 11:00 AM instead of 2:30 PM. We race over to the yacht club and after paying the invoice for the bottom job and other work done, we're put in the water at 12:22 PM. During the lift I am shown a digital readout that says the boat weighs 11,150 kilos. That's 24,530 pounds. The boat weights 18,210 pounds empty, so we've added 6,320 pounds or 35% with fuel, water, anchor chain and all the spare parts and other stuff we have on the boat. On our way back to the V & A Marina, we're in time for the scheduled 1:15 PM two bridge opening; except that just before we an make it by the swing bridge it slams in our face. We tie up the boat at a dock and go talk to the bridge tender. He's a jerk and says the next bridge 100 yards from his, a bascule bridge, is broken. However, the bascule bridge tender calls the swing bridge tender and says his bridge is not broken. We're just been 'Africanned!' They finally open both bridges and we're in our slip at 1:45 PM.

We go back to the hotel, which we've booked for the night, and arrive there at 3:30 PM. I call our travel agent and tell her to get us an earlier flight home. The Friday night flight isn't available, but Saturday night is. We take it at an extra cost of $212 apiece. A good deal. That will get us home on December 14 instead of the 18th.

Dinner at 5:30 PM is hosted by Vlado from Civetta II at the Irish Pub near our hotel. However, after we order a drink there we're told by the waitress that we can't have dinner because the electric company is shutting down power from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM. Rolling blackouts. I find out later that the reason is because the electric company forgot to order enough diesel fuel to power their electric generators; and that the company is short of money now to rectify the matter. So we get in a cab and go to a restaurant near our marina, an area that apparently isn't effected by the rolling blackouts. We eat at The Brewery. Joel and I split a beef and pork rib dinner for 2; that also includes onion rings, chips (french fries), a bottle of red wine and two free steak knives. I give one of the steak knives to Vlado as he's buying us dinner.

We're back at the hotel by 9:30 PM, and in bed at 10:00 PM.

Brian Fox

Previous | Next