Cape Town continued

To continue and to give Liam and Katie our coordinates:

Date Monday 23rd Feb.
Time: 18:21
Speed: 23 knots

Lat: 35 degrees 5.59 S
Long: 021 degrees 44.88 degrees E

We have rounded the "Cape of Storms" (or of Good Hope depending on your point of vew!)in a strong South Easterly wind so big seas and have now also passed Cape Agulas the most southerly point of the African continent. I last did this journey in the opposite direction sailing from Mumbai (Bombay) to Cape Town when I was the same age as you Katie, with my Mummy and Daddy; Grandad has never been so far south before.

We are very close to the coast of South Africa because we're seeing birds (which means we're near land) and some people have seen whales but unfortunately I have missed those.

On our last day in Cape Town we took a group of students to the Wine disreict seeing (to be academic) the huge and rather beautiful Afrikaaners Monument in Paarl which was designed and built in the 70's, then on to the Afrikaans Language Museum which was closed because it was Sunday (I heaved a sigh of relief) and then we drove to my favourite old Dutch Manor House and vineyard, Boschendal, between Paarl and Stellenbosch. We looked through the beautiful graceful Dutch house and then had lunch under the massive oaks lining the long avenue leading up to it.

After that it was on to Stellenbosch a very attractive Afrikaans university town which G. and I have stayed in twice and like very much. There are very old houses lining the streets, oak trees, a large square common ground and of course the famous Afrikaaans university of Stellenbosch. There are some gorgeous shops (boutique style) and many places and restaurants where you can do wine tasting....which we did. We sat with the students and gave them an idea how to do it..looking for bouquet, 'legs', flavour and NOT spitting it out! We each had 6 small glasses, about a third full; 3 whites and 3 reds. We marked them for excellence and compared notes...great fun!

We drove back to the ship expecting to sail at 8 pm last night. However because of the very high winds it was dangerous to get out of the narrow harbour entrance so we were still there when we aawoke this morning...a lovely surprise for me. Sadly there were forest fires behind devils peak and there was a smell of burning and thick smoke. My daughters will remember that when my mother sailed to India and left me in my boarding school which was half way up Table Mountain there were forest fires and she thought I might be burned to a cinder, When she reached Calcutta and my dad she thought there would be a pile of letters from me; there wasn't one! So my father had to cable to make sure I was still in one piece....we never to her dying day heard the last of that story, the ultimate guilt trip!! I thought of her when we eventually sailed out of Cape Town this morning.

I was terribly emotional last night at the thought of saying good bye to this beautiful city which had been my home for so many years so waking up and seeing the mountain again was a gift...I wonder if I'll ever go back?