We decided to take a walk to the Spar about two kilometres from the
harbour entrance and passed the South End Museum so decided to take a look. The
museum is about the forced removal in 1960 of the people who lived there and
includes some history about all the different race groups in the Eastern Cape.
It’s true that history is written by the victor and since I was taught history
in the apartheid era I can see how it has been changed to suit the new South
Africa. I was taught that Vasco Da Gama landed near here somewhere and was
attacked by the locals. He killed many of them in the battle and drove them
off. He obviously won at the time otherwise I wouldn’t have known about it
since he would have been dead and couldn’t relay his story. Now the new history
goes that he landed here and “stole” water so the locals attacked him suffered
very little casualties and they drove him off. I suppose every story has two
sides, depends who is telling it. I also noticed the new South African history
starts in 1950. Before 1950 nothing happened and no humans walked the planet. I
know the old government was stupid and did some really atrocious deeds that nobody
is proud of but these things did happen and should be noted in history so we
don’t make the same mistakes in future. We can get to make new ones instead.
My first impressions of Port Elizabeth. From where we sit in the harbour
it is an attractive city. The buildings are interesting and modern and the
landscape clean and good looking. About the locals, PE must have the most
attractive women in SA and Rauen and I have been exercising our neck muscles as
we have to spin our heads from one attraction to the next.
We caught a taxi to the airport to pick up a rented car. Afterwards we
drove to one of the many malls in PE to meet Leon an old friend from Lola’s
school days. We arrived a bit early for the meeting so took a walk around the
mall and looked in one or two of the shops. Leon arrived a few minutes later
and we had coffee while Lola caught up on years gone by departing with “lets
not wait 20 years till we meet again.” However, our future is now so uncertain
we can never tell when or if we will ever see someone again.
Yesterday we drove to Jeffreys Bay to see Lola’s gran, her uncle Reg and
his wife Denise and Chantelle her brother’s ex. I wonder if it’s just me or what,
but somehow all the people we are meeting are related to, or friends of Lola
and nobody has anything to do with me. Must have something to do with my secret
past as an undercover agent or the fact that I am from a distant planet.
Oh, two things I forgot to mention regarding our sail from East London.
Lola was not seasick and it made a huge difference to our sail. And the second,
Yrumoar developed a new creak near the Nav station. We tried to see what was
causing it but couldn’t find anything so sent Rauen under the boat when we got
here with my “test instrument” to tap around and make sure nothing had broken
under the bridge deck. Fortunately he didn’t find anything wrong under there
and since we can’t find anything obvious inside the boat either we decided to
strengthen some of the bulkheads in that area and hope it stops the creak.
11 Nov. 13
On Saturday we decided to go down to the beach and try out the IPTS.
IPTS, integrated public transport system or in laymen terms, the bus. The bus
stop was just outside the harbour and we only had to wait a few minutes before
a bus arrived. The bus trip was short but enjoyable and we walked through the
flee market had lunch, watched Rauen skate at the skatepark and finally headed
to the beach. PE has a beautiful beach with soft clean sand and turquoise blue
crystal clear water. In my opinion the beach in Port Elizabeth would be far better than the
beach we saw in Mauritius except for one thing, the water temperature. In
Mauritius the water was warm and inviting. In PE the water was not.
On Sunday morning the Herald Newspaper came to the yacht club to do an
interview with us. It seems fame has finally reached our doorstep. Okay no, it
seems Lola knows people who know people who know other people. Thanks Leon.
We strengthened the bulkheads with an epoxy fillet and a layer of glass.
Hopefully our creak disappears.
Last night we had an impromptu party on Yrumoar. Dylan arrived from Cape
Town to sleep over and Ian on HQ whom we had met in Richards bay also arrived.
We also made a new friend John. He owns a 24 vivacity that is moored next to us
and I chatted to him about it since it reminded me of our time on Bluefin. He
had some interesting stories about his time in Argentina and we all stayed up
till after midnight having fun and catching up.
This morning two boats left and I helped Miscky undock and watched her
leave. We then took a ride on the back of a bakkie to drop Dylan at the airport
and bought the newspaper. We just had to see the article and couldn’t contain
our excitement when we saw Kyle’s image on the front cover. Our story was on page
3 and it sounded great. Ian also left this afternoon and we are alone again.
Well not quite alone since about 200 other boats are docked in the harbour but
alone in my mind anyway. And of course the inevitable goodbye’s had to come
again. I don’t know if I will ever get used to them.
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