Sarah arrived from London, a few days later and then we spent two glorious months in Cape Town. From a practical point of view much of the time was consumed with a general refit for Moonbeam. The forestay was removed and refurbished with a new stainless wire and the topmost foil which had been cutting the halyards was replaced with the spare that had been under the forward bunk cushions since we left England. The upper swivel was refurbished with new delrin ball bearings and a sleeve machined from acetyl plastic. Replacement windlass parts (main gear and worm) were ordered and paid for early in January from the Lofrans dealership but did not arrive until the 8th March. Once to hand, I needed a machine press to insert the gear wheel into the base of the unit and I found an engineering shop and got to know the foreman who allowed me to use whatever machine tools I needed in his well-equipped workshop. I just cannot believe that this would happen anywhere else in the world, especially as he would not take any payment on the grounds that I was doing the work myself. By the time I left Cape Town, we were on first name terms!
One by one the washing machine, microwave and radio failed as they had come to the end of their lives and were duly replaced. The old washing machine was donated to a local young man, Angus, who worked on the boat for several weeks at the rate of US$10 a day. He did a fantastic job of polishing the hull, and generally cleaning the topsides. He was a lovely young man, and it was a great pleasure to learn that he had managed to get the washing machine fixed and was in use to make money for his mum.
The autopilot drives were removed for service, and one was replaced with the spare as the motor had seized, but on refitting the drives the autopilot computer short-circuited. The local Raymarine engineer was completely useless, so the I sent the unit back to the UK and after it was returned and refitted it needed commissioning which could not be done until we found a smooth patch of sea. Sarah had brought out a new flux gate compass, but it did not work any better than the original one it was replacing, which made me think that it was not faulty after all. In order to pick up any signal it had to be repositioned above the stateroom bed. Much later, I learnt that there was a magnetic anomaly in the Cape Town area, probably because of the proximity of Table Mountain which was the cause of all my autopilot problems. It turned out that refitting and repositioning of a new fluxgate compass was entirely unnecessary exercise not to mention expense. However, I now had a spare!
Towards the end of February Moonbeam was pulled out at the Royal Cape Yacht Club where even as she was being lifted from the water the work team were already cleaning her off prior to antifouling her and repainting her lines. I serviced the Max prop and fitted new anodes before she was returned to the water and positioned back to the Victoria and Albert marina. Meanwhile the life raft was serviced, and new fire extinguishers acquired and fitted. A new immersion element which was a standard size for this part of the world required a bronze boss to be turned by my friendly engineering shop in order to fit. This only left swinging the compass and commissioning the autopilot outstanding, before we could set out for home.
Now it is true to say that having been away from the boat for four months, Sarah was not planning to complete another long passage. The tropical revolving storm in the Indian Ocean had taken its toll and rather spooked her. Consequently, this period in Cape Town started off to be an extended holiday in the sunshine, prior to her returning home and leaving me to complete the voyage.
So, we started off by going to have lunch at Vergelegan, which was one of our favourite destinations in the vineyards of the Stellenbosch. This was a beginning of a wonderful social time. We met up with Sarah's sister-in-law, Caroline and her partner Jeremy, who amazingly would become our next-door neighbours when we moved to Lymington years later. Our lifelong friends were staying nearby for two months hiding from the winter, so we were able to spend lots of time with them and they with us. Our nephew Tim and his wife Celine and their three daughters were living here in Cape Town, and it was lovely to get to know the little girls who were fascinated with the boat. Caroline and Jeremy had been visiting Cape Town at this time of year regularly and were a fount of knowledge of places to go, restaurants to eat at and otherwise general useful information.
We were made very welcome at the Royal Cape Yacht Club where we had lunch on many occasions. Similarly, we could not miss the opportunity of making the most of this time to explore the city and its surroundings. We visited Robin Island and returned to many of the places that we had been to when I was flying, with Sarah accompanying me on many a trip.
We had been adopted by a cat called Lucky who was owned by Eric off his catamaran, ‘Yela’. Lucky would leap on to Moonbeam come down the companionway and settle herself on one of the sofas in the saloon. Eric had owned a factory in Vietnam, where the local clay was used in the manufacturing process to make very fine but strong porcelain. When Eric decided to leave, I think that Lucky would have quite happily have stayed with us as she really did not want to go.
Although this was summer, there were several severe weather systems with high winds and heavy rain, and separately the occasional isolated thunderstorm. Just for a change the foghorn would sound throughout the night and would only stop once the fog slowly burnt off after sunrise. Throughout our time in the marina, there were always seals sleeping on the pontoon and sometimes it was necessary to turn a hose on them in order to move them so we could go ashore. Being situated on the waterfront was ideal because the extensive mall was only a few steps away and at the same time, because we were residents in the marina, we were able to park our car free of charge nearby.
Since my arrival in the Victoria and Albert Marina, we had not seen Paco as Nautibuoytoo was in Saldana, a few miles north having some work done to improve its longitudinal stability. He had come down to Cape Town once Nina and Sebastian had gone home to Perth, so we decide to visit him once ‘Nautibuoytoo’ was back in the water. Saldana Port was like a prison in that there were no less than three security posts to get past, each with a breathalyser kit, but it was good to see him and have lunch together to find out what his plans were. Meanwhile, Jim and Julia off ‘Papillon’ were in Simon's town near the Navy Shipyard which they reported to be really dirty. They came to have lunch with us at the Yacht Club, where Jim insisted, we should have 4 glasses of the same wine even though a bottle of it was cheaper. It reminded me of Madagascar!
Alan and Pauline off ‘Zebedee’ came into the marina for one night and stayed for supper before departing for Walvis Bay, as was Paco who came to say goodbye. By the middle of February, Sarah was in somewhat of a quandary, because she was torn between her plan of flying home to the grandchildren and her wish to complete the circumnavigation. However, by the end of the month she had made up her mind to sail back to Europe.
So, at the beginning of March we started to seriously plan our departure from Cape Town. Most of the foreign yachts, many of whom we had entertained on board and vice versa were headed for Walvis Bay in Namibia. However, by the time we were ready to depart we were about the last foreign yacht to leave, and so we decided to route direct for St Helena.
Having checked out of South Africa we found ourselves blocked into the marina because there was a regatta being held on that day, and we had to negotiate a slot to get out. Once free we tried to swing the compass but without success, as the sea was too lumpy, so we set off for Saldana Bay where we knew we would find smooth water and hopefully be away from the magnetic anomaly in Cape Town.
This being South Africa we thought it unlikely that there would be a problem even though we had departed, for a short visit to Saldana Bay even if the authorities noticed us, which they didn’t. A 24-hour stop enabled us to swing the compass and commission the autopilot so that we were fully ship-shape and serviceable to set off for our passage to Saint Helena.