05 Aug. 13
What do I think of East London so far? Well it’s a small city with very
few sky scrapers a tiny aquarium and a few beaches. We drove through it
yesterday with a friend of Lola's who she had not seen in almost 17 years but
kept in contact with through Facebook. We had lunch at their place and spent
the day listening to the stories of old times. It was fun and we promised to
take them sailing before we leave. Hopefully I am not lying this time.
06 Aug. 13
So yesterday we climbed over the steel boat next to us and made our way
carefully across the derelict docks to catch a taxi to the mall. The taxi
arrived quickly but was one of those tiny chevy sparks and the four of us with
our three diesel containers had to squeeze ourselves in like sardines in a can.
At the mall we posted some documents to the lawyers for the sale of our
house, had lunch at Wimpy, filled our diesel containers and bought some
groceries. While waiting for the taxi some guy came over and asked me what I
thought about the weather and how I enjoyed my weekend. I knew his small talk
was leading up to something but I answered him patiently and waited for the
inevitable. I didn’t have to wait very long, about five seconds before he
begged me for some money for food. Unfortunately for him I have lived in Africa
my entire life and he was not the first guy to beg from me, he was possibly
number six hundred and seven million so I just said no I don’t have a job
either and have four kids to feed, after listening to my story I think he
considered giving me some money for a split second but changed his mind when he
looked at my shopping trolley. The trip back in the taxi was even more squashed
and we had to load the groceries onto our laps filling the little car all the
way to the roof.
06 Aug. 13
Went to town again to fill our last two Jerry cans with diesel before
the price goes up tomorrow. The lady that picked us up yesterday was also the
owner of the taxi business and she had invited us to her house so today’s taxi
took us over. She lives in a suburb named West Bank and on the way over I
thought if this West Bank also has a Gaza strip next to it and is bombed every
so often. Well, talk about the wrong side of town. The houses are old and small
like the type they used to build as railway houses in the old days. The
neighbourhood is run down to the point that it makes Brakpan look like an
upmarket city. The roads had more potholes than tar and almost every house had
a couple of unemployed people sitting on the porch looking rather used and
miserable. She owned two properties next to each other and had converted most
of the useable space into small flats filled with different families. In her
house she had an assortment of parrots, cockatiels and some other birds as well
as two small marmoset monkeys. We were given a tour of the house and the
backyard that was filled with some wannabee race cars. The type they use on
oval track racing. We hung around a while, had some coke, spoke about the town
and went on our way again with an open invitation to visit or go out for supper
before we leave. It was an interesting few hours and reminded me of my uncle
Tolly. He also lived in some dodgy neighbourhoods and always had broken and
half built cars filling his backyard.
07 Aug. 13
This dangerous coastline lives up to its reputation. While we were
sailing down here Lola kept a constant eye on the barometer and checked the
weather forecast regularly. The latest forecast before we arrived predicted 25
knots north easterly winds and we considered passing East London and heading
onto Port Elizabeth. However, since we are relatively inexperienced and
honestly quite petrified we decided to head into East London and wait for a
milder prediction to come. On Friday while we were sitting in the cockpit
safely tied onto the docks we watched as a yacht left the harbour. Lola and I
spoke about them leaving and we believed they would be heading south taking the
predicted 25 knot north easterly wind to get to Port Elizabeth. We spoke about
this and decided that we wouldn’t leave on that weather window since it had to
much wind for us. We prefer a prediction with no wind. Yes I know that sounds
very un-sailor but we have discovered a prediction of 25 knots can easily turn
into forty, add to that the land breeze that develops and suddenly you are
sitting in 50 knots shitting yourself. So that window was not for us. Yesterday
we read the newspaper and discovered that their yacht was heading north and had
hit a reef and was shipwrecked on the wild coast shore. Fortunately all the
crew survived but it reminded us of the dangers out in the ocean and added to
our already petrified feelings.
S/Y Boundless is the yacht on the left
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