Okay, first things first. Thank you, everyone, for all the mail and the letters that you sent to us. It really is so exciting to receive mail, and it is still coming! Maybe we will have 3 weeks of mail! Ohhhhh! Ahhhh!
We are not the only Tall Ship in Cape Town at this time. The very pretty Swedish East Indiaman replica, the Gotheborg is up alongside near us. She is a replica of the original ship, which was wrecked here in Green Point, South Africa, in 1796. There is much mystery surrounding her sinking and no one ever knew for sure what caused it. Today she is a ship promoting Swedish business interests and is on a voyage to China. Millions of dollars are involved.
The chaos and busy-ness started early on Tuesday morning by unloading the hold of everything you can imagine. Totes lined the dock next to us filled with food, there was a chain of crew, and it really didn’t take us long. We also had the help of Danie’s two younger sisters, Carina and Alry. We couldn’t have done it without them!
There was paint, chalkboards, manilla line, old clothing and books for Christel House to distribute around to the different needy schools in and around Cape Town. AND then after lining everything up, we realized we were going to have to find a home for it elsewhere—YIKES! There was to be a reception on the dock as part of the celebration for having the Gotheborg in Cape Town. So we did a quick hooley around all our friends to get someone with a truck and a driver so that we could take the books to Christel House and create some space on the dock. IOC, our chandlers in Cape Town, very kindly offered donated a truck and driver to take the supplies, and we honestly could not have done it without their lending a hand. Ollie, Rebecca, and Mike were chosen as the lucky to crew to go deliver the supplies to Christel House. The rest of us were very jealous!
The crew are making themselves at home here, and many family and friends have turned up in the last couple of days. So, they have been off doing the sights: visiting Robben Island, taking the cable car up to Table Mountain, eating and drinking wine, going to Simonstown to see the penguins, and going to Cape Point. They are all already on it! And, of course, making friends. We invited the crew of Gotheborg over the night before last to be able to share our ship with them. Well, we made lots of friends… there was lots of music… and maybe one or two beers! Just like us they have many talented musicians onboard, and so we put together an impromptu little concert. It was a blast.
More updates will come as I have them!