Africa

Africa! How improbable. It's amazing where you can get on a sailboat if you just keep at it.

Our experience of South Africa thus far could not be more shallow. We have spoken to exactly one South African - whoever was on radio watch for Cape Town port control this afternoon. We've made it into the Royal Cape Yacht Club ahead of the easterly gale but too late to handle our clearance today. So all of that will wait until tomorrow. And tonight we enjoyed our dinner on board in a strange limbo, clearly in South Africa, but not yet processed by officialdom and given permission to be here.

And now that we have made our passage from South Georgia, and I am sitting here wearing shorts, our big southern adventure is over. Fifteen months from Valdivia, Chile to Cape Town, via Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, the Falklands, and South Georgia.

This trip, more than any other that we have done, was clearly a one off. No "Twice In A Lifetime" nonsense about it. I don't expect that we will live long enough, or that the energies of middle age will last long enough, for us to ever find ourselves retracing that route.

I'm glad that we enjoyed it so much that one time that we did it.

And now, to follow up on my three hours of sleep last night, and a long night and day spent sailing in fresh breezes through shipping...to bed!

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This post was sent via our high-frequency radio as we're out of internet range. Pictures to follow when we reach internet again. We can't respond to comments for now, though we do see them all!