Whatever happened to those people you were going to sail across the ocean with?

You can read Part 1 (14 years ago) here.

I slept in till about 9:00 again. Sue was lying beside me, eyes closed, mouth hanging open, hands folded across her chest. If it weren’t for the light snoring you’d think she was dead. She’s fond of saying that she “slept like a DEAD woman”, but this is ridiculous! Plus, when she got out of bed shortly after I did she was pleased to report that she hadn’t slept at all until 8 in the morning! Oh no! I guess her poor sleep habits just follow her across the time zones.

I made some coffees and sat down to look at my computer. We check the news and our email first thing in the morning, but most of the time NOTHING HAS CHANGED! Okay, what’s next? Sue gets out the frying pan and prepares to make bacon and eggs. Yeah, but we have a ‘hob’, a glass stove-top with fancy buttons to press and digital read-outs. Well, since Sue had such a great experience setting the clock radio in the bedroom last night (it is off by about 7 hours and now faces the wall), figuring out how to use the cooktop should be no problem at all.

After quite a bit of reading step-by-step instructions from the owner’s manual, we sat down to enjoy our bacon and eggs. The eggs were quite a bit harder than we usually like them at home, but not too bad for a first effort. Sue’s success with the stove leads her to suggest that she probably will never even use the dishwasher here — she’ll just wash the dishes by hand. So much for technology.

After breakfast Sue went back to bed while I went out to do a bunch of errands. I packed up the car tarp in the garage and stowed it in a closet in our spare bedroom. Then I went to buy a few groceries, etc from the nearby deli and grocery store.

When I got back Sue got out of bed and we had sandwiches for lunch. It’s stinking hot here today, around 30 degrees. I finally closed up the doors and windows and turned on our A/C. We were expecting a FaceTime call from our kids at around 4pm our time, so mid-afternoon we went out for a short walk. We came back from the Albert & Victoria Mall with salt and pepper shakers. Shopping!

We both showered and then sat around waiting for that phone call! We told the kids to FaceTime between 4 and 6, since we’re getting picked up at 6 to go for supper at Marina’s house. At 5 o’clock there were two clean and dressed-up grandparents sitting around in the apartment, listening to the air-conditioner hum, waiting for that phone to ring! At around 5:30 it finally DID ring — and we were greeted with a big smile from our 3-year-old little buddy. So how was his first night sleeping in ‘his’ downstairs bedroom at Oma and Opa’s house? “Good.” (The kids picked one of the coldest days of our winter to move from their house into ours.) So all was good at home — Max had not only finished eating his pancakes for breakfast, but his puzzles and books and toys were more or less evenly distributed between all the rooms in the house.

Not long after we hung up the FaceTime call I got a text message from Helene, Marina’s friend who was picking us up and taking us to Marina’s for supper. On her way, meet her downstairs where she’ll come by shortly.

After a 10-minute drive up around Signal Hill we’re at Marina’s. And what a joy it was to meet again! Marina and her friend Lucas live in a home that looks up to Table Mountain on one side, and down to the harbour the other way. Unfortunately it was quite windy out on the deck so we elected to sit inside around the table and catch up.

Sue, Marina, and Rudy, with the sun setting against Table Mountain (and the ocean breeze messing up some hair-dos).
Sue, Marina, and Rudy, with the sun setting against Table Mountain (and the ocean breeze messing up some hair-dos).

Which we did. Poor Helene and Lucas had to sit and listen as Marina, Sue, and I did our best to fit our stories together. While I have often told the story of our ‘almost’ big adventure sailing across the Atlantic, Marina ACTUALLY DID IT! And then, after making the crossing, she continued to work on sailboats for another 3 years before returning to her home in Cape Town.

We had a lovely dinner, lamb and potatoes and salad, and coffee and dessert. And we visited for a full five hours. And we’re still not done! All three ‘Cape Towners’ were eager to give us restaurant tips and suggestions for things to do and places to visit. Sue’s notebook has enough places noted in it that we may not eat in on the trip again!

So, before we said our good-night and good-bye, we promised to do this again before we go home — and maybe even meet one or two other ‘sailors’ from that 2002 adventure.

Helene drove us back to our apartment. We were tired but happy — we’d had a very fun evening. So Sue went off to bed while I found an online stream for the first of two NFL play-off games. By just before 3:00am the Kansas City Chiefs had lost to the New England Patriots and I was going to bed.