Africa Travel Tip #346 - Foam parties in Africa kind of suck....

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After a few days in Knysna Harbor I was really starting the like the logistics of our marina spot. With 20 restaurants, a Yacht Club with Bar, and Hot Showers only meters from the boat, this was clearly paradise as far as conveniences when sailing.

While sitting around the boat making some repairs we met a young local couple that invited us to come to a party down the road about 20 miles in a town called Plett Bay. We showed up for drinks at a casual bar on the ocean as they told us they had bought us tickets to a huge foam party at some bar called Vegas in Plett. This night was clearly getting more interesting by the second and I had high expectations for a remake of my Cancun experiences 10 years past ; ) Unfortunately this did not happen in the least as I could of blown more foam through a bubble wand then they were pumping out and the mean age of this place 18.65 years old. Clearly we were a little out of our element, but we still had a great group and made the most of it as we sloshed thought the foam filled dance floor surrounded by dudes waiting in line to talk to Alex and tell him how sweet his beard was. We finished the night in our own beds at our newly made friends vacation home overlooking the bay.

Waking up the next morning was pretty rough, but we had big plans of a hike on the bluffs outside of town. It wasn’t looking good as there were thick clouds covering the hills we were to hike and a light mist coming down, but we decided to give it a shot anyways. I really wasn’t to in to this hike and figured it would be marginal at best, but was I ever wrong. It was a mystical place in which you instantly forgot you were a mere miles outside a major city. We hiked for around 4 hours down the edges of the lichen covered bluffs, white sand beaches, and jagged rock formations. Along the way we came across a dead jelly fish on the beach, which Diego picked up and started posing dramatically for pictures. He was really getting into it and before long put one of the tentacles in his mouth for the glory shot. Bad Move bro….. He must have had a metal lapse for a second and forgot that Jellyfish have some type of poison in there tentacles. All seemed ok at first and then he started to panic a bit as his mouth went numb. From past experience I knew that urine was the only thing to counter act this poison, and after bringing this up to Diego you can fill in the blanks of what happened next. Within minutes the numbness started to wear off a bit, but we were still laughing sporadically for hours about the whole strange sequence of events.

The rest of the hike was action packed with strange events. First we came upon what we thought to be a dead baby seal on the beach. That was until we got a foot away and he jumped up scared for his life as he B lined in for the water. Later on as we walked through a colony of sea gulls they all went on attack mode and dive bombed us hitting Alex in the head multiple times with both there beak and large amounts of feces. It was like a scene from the movie Birds. On the way out we saw some migrating Humpback Whales and a colony of a few hundred seals hugging the cliff banks. As we looked down from above, we awaited the image of some wandering Great White Sharks looking for a nice snack.

On the way back to Knysna we stopped by a local brewery called Mitchells to sample some local beverages and then headed back to the boat. We had intentions to take a lap around the harbor to explore the Knysna Heads and do some hiking, until the brand new sail 15 hp motor wouldn’t start. This was getting to the point of insanity. The second you would fix one thing, you would find something else that was broke. It never ends ….. Later that night we joined 4 other families of around the world sailors for a birthday party on one of their boats. It’s amazing how Alex had known them all so well, as he met them multiple times at different islands throughout his two year adventure. It was a night of great stories, which started to really motivate me to possibly consider my own around the world trip someday. One story that really stuck out was of a German guy that was eaten by a cannibal on a small South Pacific Island last year. It was all over the internet and world papers and it turns out these boats including Bubbles had a cook out on the beach the night before this happened with the German guy and his wife. The story goes….After all the boats left the next day the German guy had set up a pig hunt with the only known resident of the island. Sometime through the hunt the guide came to the boat to alert his wife that her husband was in trouble and he needed her help. She came to find him tied to a tree, as the guide turned on her and tied her up too. She somehow got free, and called for help once she got to her boat, but it was too late. Days later once authorities arrived there was nothing left but a fire with a bunch of bones that later turned out to be human remains.

Just as Knysna was getting a little old a weather window had opened up and Captain Rust informed us we would be leaving in the morning. I am known to get sea sick on any rough passage and quickly put my prescription meds behind my ear and hoped for the best. It wasn’t more than a couple hours out in the 10 ft. swell that I felt it coming on and headed for the bunk. Over the next 48 hours I was all but worthless to the crew as I successfully fought the sea sickness through lack of movement and lots of sleep. We made great time sailing day and night averaging around 8 knots the whole way. Mid was through a pleasant dream I heard Alex yell Dolphins!!! Hundreds of Dolphins!!!!..... I jumped out of my bed like a shot, grabbed the camera and was instantly sea sick free as I headed towards the deck. Dolphin sightings in the ocean are a pretty common experience as you will always run across a pod of 5 to 10 every couple days, but this was different. As I came above they were everywhere around the boat and coming through the waves as far as I could see. The large 10 ft. swell made the experience that much more amazing as the dolphins were almost at eye level bursting through the sides of the waves towards the boat. In two years of sailing Alex said this was the best Dolphin encounter he had ever had. How lucky I was to be a part of it, as I looovee dolphins.

One of our main goals of this passage was to stop in an area called Gaansbaai, which is the Great White Shark Capital of the world. We were going to try and chum the sharks to the boat ourselves to have a more authentic experience with the great whites. Unfortunately we sailed past this area in the middle of the night and as a last resort stopped on the way into False Bay near SImonstown and started dumping our chum into the water. Within minutes the seals were in play and trailing the chum line behind the boat. Our plan seemed to be working as we were bringing the real bait (seals) close to the boat for the sharks, but after a half hour nothing but more seals and sea gulls came in as we tossed out last piece of chum into the great blue.

The sun was gently rising in the eastern sky as we sailed into Simonstown, which is on the west side of Cape Point 20 KM south of Cape Town. It was a picturesque fishing village built alongside the large barren cliffs. We were told this harbor was completely full, but we went for it anyways and like usual found a spot with no issues whatsoever. In just the couple weeks I had been with Alex around these Yacht Clubs and marinas it is crazy how many people have told him you can’t do this, that, or whatever over and over again as it comes to sailing. They told us not to go into the Knysna Heads as you will lose your boat. Simonstown and every marina around Cape Town is full so don’t even bother. It will take you weeks to get to Cape Town as this is the wrong time of year to go there. On and on and on. Everyone so far has been dead wrong. Makes you wonder how much advice you get throughout life is actually worth listening too.

Time in Simonstown has been pretty chill with a lot of running errands for the boat and making repairs. It appears the list of repairs is getting longer and I can’t imagine how frustrating this must be for Alex. I know all this repair stuff would drive me out of my mind. My clear lack of patience when it comes to boat repairs and issues with sea sickness has already forced me to change my mind about future plans of sailing around the world, which I’m sure, will make my mother extremely pleased. Of course both of these things could always changes with age and prescription drugs so you never know.

On day two in Simonstown Celesta and I decided to head back to Gaansbaai for the cage diving with great white sharks. After getting up at 4 am for the two hour drive we ended up being late and missing the first boat. Luckily we were able to catch the second one and killed some time checking out some Right Whales tending there young only 100 meters off the beach. The shark encounters were pretty cool, but pale in comparison to what we experienced on the dive weeks earlier. We saw 7 different great whites within feet of the boat and the cage. It was a weird feeling as I was in the freezing cold water with these magnificent sharks’ only feet away feeling no rush of excitement whatsoever. I guess being completely safe in that cage kind of ruins the fun for me. I asked if there is any way to safely dive with no cages like we did before and he looked at me like I was on crack. I smiled and said I was just kidding, but I really was not in the least.

The reality of Alex’s current situation with repairs on the boat has set in and I have made the decision to start to part from Bubbles for the bulk of my last 10 days, To start I have made plans to drive a few hours north to Kiteboard on a lagoon with predicted wind over 30 knots tomorrow!!!! This one is sure to be a new experience for me due to the amount of wind and push my comfort level to the max. My prediction is something completely messed up will happen out there as it usually does when I get that kite strapped on my waist.

Wish me Luck…..

Cheers…..

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