Cape Town

Marcy rounded the Cape of Storms on a breezy, but thankfully not stormy afternoon. Ginger, ever happy with cold weather, was bundled up and all smiles in the chilly breeze.





The moon rose over Africa as Marcy plunged down the Atlantic swells.



As we arrived in Cape Town in the wee hours of the morning, gusts of 40 and 50 knots blasted us. We were prepared for this because we had read about the famous wind called the Cape Doctor that rules this area. The wind is named so because is sweeps all of the bad air out of town and keeps everyone healthy, and it's signature is the white cloud on Table Mountain – the tablecloth.



We tied up at the Royal Cape Yacht Club as the wind, unusually cooperative, died completely for a few hours. The next morning, after admiring the stunning view of Table Mountain and tablecloth, we arranged to have Marcy hauled out.



In addition to bottom paint and new zincs, we took the rudder off to fix the long time problems with worn bearings and a nasty leak.



A crew working under the instruction of the very competent foreman made short work of our problems.



Ginger wisely left the boatyard grime for a few hours and returned from a visit to the V & A Waterfront mall (retail therapy?) looking fresh and wonderful.



The tablecloth remained set, however, and every night we wondered if would tip over in a gust. It never happened, of course, and we found a few windless hours just before relaunching to rebuild the trusty wind vane.



The yard manager himself manned the crane to relaunch Marcy.



The yard guys were as happy as we were to see Marcy safely back in the water.



After missing seeing penguins in New Zealand, we vowed to make an effort to see them up close here. Louis, an African friend and fellow sailor we first met in Darwin, offered to drive us to the nearby rookery.



We saw plenty of the little buggers, first in ones and twos, then in the dozens.





It was good to get away from the boat and be sightseeing tourists for a while.



After the wonderful time sightseeing,



we went back to our routine refreshed. As Ginger prepares for a short visit to Seattle, she cooks a few meals ahead for Peter. He will stay behind to work on the “list.”