Views in and around Hout Bay harbour....
The fishing fleet, looking over towards Hout Bay entrance:
Fishing boat manoeuvring before tying up:
Jellyfish visited Hout Bay marina......
Hout Bay beach:
Kingklip, snoek, yellowfin and other fish ... at 'Fish4Africa' in Hout Bay harbour:
Hout Bay has been enjoyable - so different from Cape Town. It's a busy, active fishing community and there are lots of friendly people regularly on board their boats here in the Y.C. marina ... a sociable place! I decided to postpone my sail around to Simon's Town (now scheduled for this coming weekend) until after my return from Namibia .... but then found myself having to abandon that trip - a great shame, but it turned out I could well have had a major problem crossing the S.A. border either way - so, unhappily, I felt obliged not to take the risk.... I'll try to do something later in the year perhaps.
The sun has continued to shine with quite a lot of heat during the daytime, although the temperature still plummets at sunset with the cold air and lovely clear skies. We've had very few rainy days - a problem for the region since the reservoirs are not full and by now (in winter) they should be ... but I'm enjoying the blue skies and sunny weather.
After last Friday night (live music at the RCYC), I spent an enjoyable, relaxing weekend with Judy at her house in Table View, with a lovely beach walk one morning, exercising her two dogs, lots of Internet time spent finding out a bit about how my website works and a couple of nice meals in company.
Clive came by to replace a faulty engine tachometer which was itself a replacement for the original one, whose hours display kept failing, but the original turned out to be far better than the faulty replacement in that at least it showed the engine revs consistently!!
The new clear screen attachment to the sprayhood was finished, but details on the attachment points to the sprayhood have had to be adjusted several times - I think we might be on the final lap now!
Today's my birthday - it's been a beautiful day and I'm looking forward to a meal out with friends tonight. I've just received a long-awaited TeraG hard drive and LED screen for the computer (replacing a screen damaged by my January knockdown W of Cape Horn) - so I'm beginning to 'play' with those! I was supposed to be changing a faulty immersion heater on the hot water tank - but that job is being postponed to another day since I prefer to 'play' and relax today, rather than do anything less pleasant!!
I've just been able to hire a cheap car for a fortnight or so, meaning I'm far more mobile & independent now. (Many people have kindly been giving me lifts.) So tomorrow, I'll visit Klein Constantia winery - it's only a 15 minute, very pleasant drive away from Hout Bay, just over Constantia Nek. I'm looking forward to that.
Thursday 18th Aug
I'm writing this update in Gabriella's coffeeshop/restaurant not far from the harbour, after a delicious curried prawn & avocado lunch ..... Gabriella has just opened here - she deserves to do well .... a good atmosphere and great food!
Had a lovely meal at 'Maestro on the Beach' last night with several friends... back late... and up late this morning ...to drive to Klein Constantia for a guided tour of the winery by Adam, the winemaker there. Lovely protected valley with flowers, views of the mountains nearby (Vlakkenberg!) .... with a wine-tasting at the end .... & a birthday gift of a bottle of champagne... In addition to its good white and red wines, the winery is famous for its dessert wine - a lovely, light, not-too-sweet amber liquid.... 'Vin de Constance' - Adam recommended it with some blue cheese.... sounded good! (Napoleon had it shipped regularly from here to St Helena and many other famous people in the eighteenth century enjoyed it also!)
Photos of Klein Constantia winery, vineyard flowers and surroundings:
