We’re approximately twenty one hours into visit to Cape Town, and what an awesome time it’s been so far.

Our friend Alon, originally from South Africa, had put us in touch with a buddy of his, Dre, so we would have a contact in town that could show us the sights and give us some good local knowledge. Dre and his girlfriend Taryn went above and beyond and let us crash at their place for our first few nights in Cape Town. They even picked us up from the airport.

On our way to their place from the Cape Town Airport, Dre tried pointing out various landmarks as we passed them, but it was too dark to actually see anything. However, we did get to learn some local folklore regarding the clouds around table mountain and why ZA is considered God’s Country.

The story goes that a long long time ago there once was a South African by the name of Jan Van Hunks. Van Hunks made a deal with the devil. The deal was a pipe smoking challenge; whoever smokes their pipe the longest wins. If Van Hunks wins, then the devil leaves South Africa forever. So they climbed to the top of Devil’s Peak and lit their pipes. They smoked and smoked for days and days on top of this mountain. Eventually, the smoke accumulated so much that a cloud formed, and enshrouded Table Mountain, a phenomenon still seen today. The devil and Van Hunks kept smoking. Eventually, the devil became ill, and could not take a single puff out of his pipe. Jan Van Hunks had won the bet, relieving South Africa of the devil, and making this country God’s Country, as the locals claim.

We wound through the streets of Cape Town, listening to the local’s point of view on things, and eventually found ourselves at a beach bar called Pokolo. After a couple of rounds, we made our way back to Dre & Taryn’s place, and our jet lagged selves were finally able to lay horizontally for the first time in more than two days. Bliss.

Saturday we woke to go sailing! It was an informal race around Robben Island, and it was absolutely awesome. The iconic table mountain lent itself as backdrop to the turquoise waters on a beautiful sunny day. Stunning. The vessel we were on, Vulcan, is a modified GP42 and quite a fast boat. We lead the fifty-boat fleet for the entire race and took line honors.

Sailing

Rounded the island and on our way back to Cape Town

The sea was pretty flat until we got around Robben Island where the swell picked up. Along wave period made it mostly unnoticeable where we were a little offshore; we just had to adjust weights around the boat on the front and backside of the waves. When the swell hit the shore, though, it was quite the sight to see. Ten foot rollers smashing over the rocks, and forming into rideable slabs. Evidently you need a permit to surf these waves as the Island is a protected area.

As we were making our way back to Cape Town, a pod of dolphins decided to play in our bow wake. They splashed alongside of our vessel for a bit- manmade grey hull next to a much smaller grey body. Fortunately I was able to catch some footage while they said hello. One got so close I could almost touch it.

That evening our hosts had a wedding to go to, so Nick and I made dinner at the apartment and crashed early. The next day we were to have our first ever fish braai!