Sailing Course in Langebaan

9th April 2010

No politics today, just want to reflect on the sailing course that we attended. When we arrived at Cape Town Airport we had to find our luggage on a very poorly marked conveyor. This was not the case at Oliver Tambo in Joey’s that is well marked out at the luggage conveyors. After finding our luggage we proceeded to Avis rent a car to collect our bottom of the range Kia and travelled by road to Langebaan. The first impression that you get of Cape Town when you get out of the airport is the view of Table Mountain. This beautiful scene is then destroyed when you glance next to the freeway and see all the tin shacks and the absolute poverty of Africa.

As you drive along to Langebaan you leave the built up area and start to see the natural Cape bush called fynbos, looks a bit like a semi desert and has very few trees. Once we arrived in Langebaan we found the sail training school offices in the mall quite easily from the directions that they supplied, not that I believe you could really get lost here as their is not very much out there. The owner of the sailing school Jaco met us at the office and led us down to the marina at Mykonos.

Jaco then left us at the marina to look around whilst he tried to organise a yacht for us to use for the sailing course as the Wildcat that he used before had been sold. After a couple of hours of walking around on the marina and waiting we started to become worried that Jaco was not able to arrange a catamaran for the course and called him to ask for a progress report so that we could unload the rental car and have a place to put our stuff, and a place to sleep for the night. We agreed to sleep on a L34 for that night as the cat that Jaco had arranged would only become available later that night. So we unpacked the rental car and met two other guys on the L34 that were also on course. We grabbed an early night and in the morning went off to Avis to return the rental and met at the sailing school to start our course.

Day 1: Spent till about lunch time at the training school office and discussed planned routes, and bought some provisions from Pick and Pay. Thereafter we moved our stuff from the L34 to an Ocean Spirit 401.
The owner of the cat then took us for a quick motor sail in the Harbour to show Jaco the basic workings of the yacht. After we dropped the owner and his son back at the marina, we motor sailed to Saldana bay yacht club for an evening braai. On the way we noticed that the Port engine does not pump water and was starting to overheat and smoke, the owner had told us that he had a problem with the port motor and had just replaced the impeller, but this was obviously not the only problem. We continued with our journey and tied up at the yacht club, after the braai we went to sleep.

Day 2 : Motored around the harbour for about three hours trying to fix the port engine, but to no avail. Then we were supposed to sail on to Dassen island but Jaco decided that we should rather head for danger bay. We sailed in swells of about three meters to danger bay and dropped anchor for the night, in a beautiful and totally secluded anchorage. We set the anchor alarm and had to reset it during the night, but the anchor did not drag, we must have set the alarm too sensitive.

Day 3: Sailed back to Mykonos in almost perfect sailing conditions.

Day 4: Sailed from Mykonos to Paternoster, dropped anchor and used the dingy to shore to the restaurant. Later on the way back in the dingy a wave crashed over all of us and needless to say the very cold water of the Atlantic ocean was not pleasant.

Day 5: Sailed a couple of hours then motored back to Mykonos, to fill up with diesel. We then navigated through the narrow channels of the lagoon and anchored at Kraalbaai.

Day 6: Motored back to Mykonos, collected our upgraded car, departed back to Cape Town international airport and then on to Gauteng to row with the other slaves.

Politics

8th April 2010

I don’t really like to speak politics being a white male in South Africa I don’t really have a right to any opinion because my ancestors had some really bad ideas and thus I will be punished for this. The Bible even tells you that you will be punished for the sins of your grandfather, or is it great grandfather. Anyway I was really proud to be a South African in the new South Africa and had great hopes that this country was going to work together and succeed. Now however at the moment things appear to be turning south faster and faster. Political statements like shoot the boer leaves me with what choice, I may not be a boer or am I. What seems to be the definition of this boer, do I fall into the boer category and how long must I wait to find out. Do I wait till they arrive at my door in large numbers to kill the boer and then try to convince them that I am an English speaking South African, will this make me not a boer. Am I now faced with the dilemma of having to choose a side and what choice do I really have? I would have to choose the white side because my skin colour is white and where does this leave me?


Every white person that I speak to has the same dilemma as I do, well okay not every white, I do know one or two white people that have never quite accepted the new South Africa and are still living in the past, I cannot help these people, nobody can. The problem at the moment being that the uncertain future will make everybody choose sides and is creating a massive rift in the country between black and white.

What about my wife and kids? I feel extremely unsafe at the moment and see no future for my kids in this country. I watch the news and see the panic on Helen Zille’s face after the murder of Terreblanche, and I think to myself, if she is panicking what does she know that I don’t? Do I go and join the ranks of the AWB because even though I have always disagreed with them and their narrow minded policies, they may be the only protection against the government and the impending war that seems to be about to begin? The history of Africa shows us just how bad Africans can behave with mass genocide being the order of the day throughout the African continent. So why would South Africa be any different?

Coastal Skippers Course

Went into the bathroom at work today and found toilet paper pieces all over the place, so I started to wonder if someone in the office has a shredder butt, there can be no other explanation for this phenomenon, at home this never happens, but at the office I see it all the time. Fortunately the paper is unused so maybe they have shredder hands or just don’t know how to use toilet paper, perhaps we need to offer a training course at the office for this complicated process.

Coastal skipper practical done, or at least a part of it, sailing on a cat for the first time, what can I say, I am sold. Cat sailing is no different to sailing a monohull, except that the cat does not heel over and that it is noisy with the water slamming a lot under the bridge deck. This slamming was not uncomfortable but did take some getting used to. We did not experience any bad weather so I am not sure how uncomfortable this slamming can become, however at 20 knots of wind the sailing can be very exhilarating and exciting. The cat feels very stable and nothing moves from the place where you have left it. I remember that on our Vivacity we had to make sure that everything was stacked securely before you set sail, we used to put the cold drinks into the sink in order to ensure that they didn’t fall around all over the place but were still easy to reach when needed. On the cat you could just leave your glass filled with cold drink anywhere you wanted and it would be just where you left it when you needed it. I am not sure if this would be the same in heavy weather but for the conditions that we experienced this held true.
The other issue that I was concerned about was tacking, I have read some where that a cat does not tack well, so we put this to the test, and I found hardly any difference to my Vivacity when it comes to tacking, granted we did have good wind which always helps when tacking any boat. I am not sure how the tacking will be in light winds, but even on my Vivacity tacking wasn’t easy without speed so I assume the cat will behave the same.