St. Helena

Hi All,
We arrived in St. Helena on February 15th, as predicted.  I didn't get to go ashore until the 17th though and the first thing I learned was that there is no free internet here.  Internet cost over $10.00/HR.  They also don't have ATMs or cell phones.  It's a pretty remote part of the Great Briton but I was a bit surprised.  In addition to all of that, I was not able to get money out of my debit card.  I have not had an issues using ATMs at all of the places we've visited so far but, for some reason, my bank rejected my attempts to get some cash for here...that reminds me, they don't use credit carts here either, cash only.  They also don't have many hotel rooms since the only way to visit the island is by ship or boat, I guess they don't need too many.  So I haven't been able to get a room while we're hear either.  So, with all that in mind, I just wanted to let you know that I will not be doing an actual post from here.  The island is absolutely fantastic and I have mush to tell you but I just don't have the time or money here.  I will be leaving on 2/21 for Grenada, which is a 30 to 35 day passage, please check back in a month or so and I will do my best to have something for you!

Sunset, Atlantic Ocean 2/13/15

Luderitz, Namibia

Luderitz was basically a diamond boom town after diamonds were discovered in 1908.  It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, along the South coast of Namibia and in the South-west corner of the Namib desert.  The town is built at the foot of a pretty well protected bay and is, pretty much, built right on top of the rocky landscape.  There is a ghost town about 10k outside of town where the first mining town was setup.  (There will be a separate post about the ghost town.)  The town has a population between 3500 and 5000 people.  Namibia was colonized by the Germans in the late 1800, shortly before diamonds were discovered but it was colonized because of the potential for mineral resources. Luderitz has definite German feel.  Most people speak very good English, with a German or Afrikaans accent.  It's a small town but, because it is so far from any other place, it has everything one needs, with many restaurants, hotels, hostels and B&B's.  The Town mainly works in fishing or diamond mining.  We've only been here for 5 days but we've seen a cargo ship, a petroleum research ship and a cruise ship in the harbor since we've been here.  Luderitz gets an average rainfall of 23 mm per year (that's about 1 inch) so it's been sunny and dry but very windy most of our visit.  If the wind is from the South or off the sea it keeps the temperatures fairly chilly but the it's warm in the sun, especially if you can get out of the wind.  Today the wind is very light and it's the warmest day we've had.

As of now we're scheduled to depart tomorrow, headed for St Helena, about 1300 nautical miles to the North-west.  It should take us almost exactly 2 weeks to get there.  I'm not sure how long we'll stay there but my guess is 4 or 5 days.  So, this will be my last post for a couple of weeks.

How about some pictures?

Sunset somewhere between Cape Town and Luderitz

Luderitz, from the wharf we're tied to.  The town doesn't extend past the hill but it goes a little bit farther north and south.

This is a good example of the landscape  around Luderitz.

The beautiful Ocean Cafe + B&B where I'm staying.

My room.  It can get pretty rough in these small towns but, that's the price you have to pay when you're adventuring!

My Bathroom...like I said, I'm roughing it.

OK, I just paused for dinner here, where they made us crayfish (small lobster) we ate with the hostess and her husband and the food and company were just wonderful.  It felt like a family dinner.  There are only 3 of us from the ship here and the couple who own the place.  They sailed here from Germany 3 years ago and just opened this place in November last year.  My room, with that amazing bath is only $60.00 a night and Gunther and B'artie (hopefully I spelled those correctly) are wonderful people. I've learned that it's incredibly easy to find friends, no matter where you are.

The view from the deck

Right now, while I'm finishing my blog post, the rest of the group have moved from the outdoor kitchen where we had dinner to the "Winter Garden", a glassed in dining area with a fireplace, where they are going to relax by the fire with a glass of South African wine.  Gunther said that during the diamond rush, before WWI, Luderitz was the riches town in the world.

Here is a sampling of real estate here.

This is right across the street from my B&B and nicely shows how they build around the rock formations.  I would love to learn more about the geology of this place, it's amazing and beautiful.

A lovely Lutheran Church.

This place was amazing, the fanciest place I saw.

The side of the place above, which faces west.

Up the hill from the place above

Next to the place above

This is a light house on the point that must be rounded to enter the harbor.  Between this lighthouse and the point is all a camp ground that is really lovely, with tent and RV camp sights.

All in all Luderitz is much nicer that one would expect, given its remoteness.  The people here have been very friendly and our visit feels like it has been much too short.  That being said, we have a pilot coming aboard tomorrow morning at 1100 and I believe there is some more Captain Morgan's rum and a fire waiting for me!  If I'm able, I'll post next from St Helena, where I hope we'll have sailed out of the cold Antarctic waters, back into some warm weather.

I read online today that Chicago just had a "top 3 worst blizzard in history" snow storm so, before I go, I feel like I should clarify that, when I say it's been cold, I mean, it might have been all the way down to about 50° at night.  You know, that feels really cold after sailing for 3 months in the tropics!

Departing Cape Town

Picton Castle cast off the dock lines and headed back to sea on January 25th, one day later than planned, because of some complications with immigration.  They wanted us to move from one wharf to another before they would clear us out of the country but we had to stop at the fuel dock first.  To move around the harbor we were required to have a pilot aboard but our pilot left when we got to the fuel dock and when we were ready to leave the fuel dock the new pilot never showed up.  The guys at the fuel dock said we couldn't stay there overnight but the guys at the harbor master said we couldn't move without a pilot so we spent several hours waiting for that issue to be sorted out.  Ultimately we got permission to leave without a pilot but by then it was getting dark and very foggy so we just moved to the outer anchorage and dropped anchor for the night Saturday night and left Sunday morning after breakfast.  Cape Town was great and I wasn't able to do everything that I wanted to do so I would be happy to go back again.  Cape Town also brought some mixed emotions because several shipmates departed the ship at Cape Town.  15 people left and 6 new people joined.  Even though I had only know my shipmates for 3 months, I feel like we had become friends and it was hard to see any of them leave.  I want to thank them all again for the companionship during the voyage from Bali to Cape Town and I wish them all safe travels in their next adventures.

Table Mountain peaking out of the fog as we depart Cape Town

There wasn't any wind so we motored for the first 24 hours before we got enough wind to set the sails and sail the rest of the way.  We had force 5 winds most of the rest of the way and we actually took in some sail to slow down, otherwise we would have arrived at Luderitz in the middle of the night.  The biggest factor during the 4 day passage was how cold it got.  Strong winds blowing pretty much right out of the South from Antarctica, along with the cold sea, due to the currents coming North from Antarctica combined to keep the temperatures pretty low.  Other than the cold, we had a pretty fast passage and arrived in Luderitz, Namibia about lunch time on Thursday, 1/29/15.

Safari

Cape Town is the biggest city that we've visited since I joined in Bali.  There is so much to do and see here that I had to make a special effort to get out of the city and see a little more of South Africa.  As always there were too many options and not enough time or money to do all the things I wanted to do. If one could afford to one could easily spend several months in Cape Town and the surrounding area without running out of new things to see and do.  One of my new shipmates, Norma, from Sweden, and I decided to do a 2 day safari at a private game reserve.  The place is called Aquila Game Reserve. They are about a 2 hour drive North-east of Cape Town and both the drive there and the game reserve itself were great.  The prince for the safari included pickup at the V&A Waterfront near the ship, meals, lodging and 2 game drives on the reserve.  The captain and his family happened to have scheduled the same safari and Norma and I so had them for company on the road.  It also happened to be Tammy's birthday as well, which we celebrated at dinner.

Aquila Safari is at point B.  We passed through some mountains and the valleys around them were filled with vineyards.  South Africa is wine country.

The halfway point snack stop.  The area reminded me of Southern California, just outside of Death Valley.

The vineyards started very shortly after we left the service station and the entire valley was full of vineyards, except for a few small orchards.  Some of the vineyards appeared to try and provide decent housing for their workers but many of the vineyards had shanty townships on them.  Small corrugated metal shacks crowded together in some dried out little bowl that must not have been suitable for grapes.

In some areas the grapes were heavy on the vines.  It appeared that they have sections that ripen in a cycle so the entire vineyard doesn't have to be picked at once.

They went on for miles.  We must have driven for 30 or 40 minutes with vineyards on both sides of the highway the entire way.

We're there!  It's funny how long a 2 hour drive in a van feels after spending a couple of months at sea.

This is the back of the main lodge.  There is some new construction on the left side but I didn't ask what they were adding.  The whole wall of windows is the dining room.  All the meals were buffet style and they were very good.  There is a large salt water pool just outside the dining room.

Swim up bar on this end and an infinity edge on the other end, looking out over the reserve.

The luxury accommodations, adjacent to the lounge building.

Inside the lounge.  There was a bar and several comfortable seating areas with fire places and TVs.  Then the back side of this building was a huge kids play area, indoor and outdoor.

This pond was beyond the end of the pool and the bungalows were beyond the pond.  There was a fence between the main grounds and the pond because the pond was within the preserve grounds.

This was our bungalows.  They were little duplex units with their own patios and each had a small fireplace.  Firewood was provided but we didn't have a fire.  The rounded section was the shower.

The accommodations were very nice.

I used the shower but I didn't try out the lovely bathtub.

Yes, there were also animals. I was a little disappointed to learn that the big cats are kept separated from the other animals.  They have their own large enclosure but they don't really hunt for their food, they're fed by the reserve and they're pretty used to people and the safari vehicles being around.  The reserve is over 18,000 acres of hilly scrub and offers safaris by horseback, quad runner or by truck, which was what we did.  Nate did the horseback safari and said he enjoyed it a lot.  He also said the countryside reminded him of his home in Wyoming.

So, without a lot of commentary from me, here are some animals:

Springbok

Wildebeests, the young one is onely 4 weeks old.

Youngish male White Rhino.  It looked like he was going to charge the truck we were in so we had to move away a little.

Female White Rhino.  Females have longer horns.

The young zebras were about 4 months old.  The zebras and rhinos were all herded together.

The other truck got closer than we did.  No windows or even walls on the trucks but the lions just ignored us.  They appeared to be pretty well fed.

Kudu.  I can personally testify that Kudu, Springbok and Ostrich are all delicious with Ostrich being the best and most tender of them all.

Aquila has an Animal Rehabilitation Center (ARC) where they were rehabilitating a pair of cheetah that were found nearly starved.  They said they did not expect to be able to release them back into the wild.

Cape Buffalo

These guys were about 40 yards from the pool on the day we left.  I didn't get to taste Cape Buffalo.

Yep, I was a bit surprised myself.  This was the biggest rabbit I have ever seen.

They also have a leopard on the reserve, though we didn't see it.  It isn't contained with the lions and so hunts for his food and we did see some of his handy work. It had killed a springbok the night we were there and we found the carcase.  One hind quarter had been eaten and the rest was just left laying. My guess is that it knows there are no other predators looking to steal the kill so it can go back whenever it wants to eat more. All in all the safari was a great experience and I'm very happy I did it, even though it was a little over budget, how can you come to Africa and not go looking for animals?