Sail-away!!!!!
We were so happy to be on our way!!
It was a whirlwind of activities and tasks leading up to our departure from Cape Town on 21 October. We were blessed to have Father Christian give Rodeless a good Blessing and wash with Holy Water. We also christened Rodeless and prayed for the safety of all her crews. After a final weekend trip to Franschhoek to select a plethora of SA’s finest wines for ship’s stores, Meg left Cape Town. We were on our own without adult supervision or her valuable assistance. We ran around like chickens with severed necks or was it drunken sailors? I was too busy to tell. Long days buying food for the passage and evenings prepping the boat and making sure we had everything that we thought that we would need. We found a great butcher that froze and packaged our meat in vacuum sealed bags, then delivered everything to the boat. Several trips to Pick and Pay and multiple grocery carts later, we had filled up the boat and were “ready” to take off on a 30-day passage across the South Atlantic.
We checked out with South Africa Customs and Immigration on Friday morning as Balance were making last-minute modifications to Rodeless. They did a tremendous job checking every fitting, securing the dinghy, ensuring the rigging was right and generally making sure we would have no problems during the passage. Checking out on a boat is much different than going through Customs at an airport. We had to go to both marinas that Rodeless had visited and obtain a letter confirming that all our bills had been paid. Then to Customs and Immigration to document that I indeed own the boat and that I would taking a crew of 3 out of South Africa.
After successfully clearing customs (2-3 hours), we turned in the rental car and said good-bye to all our friends with Balance and motored away from the dock. I felt such a sense of relief as we passed under the V&A Marina bridges for the last time. The open ocean seemed like a much more serene environment than what I had been doing over the previous few days. As we left the harbour, the wind picked up to 25-30kts. We started our passage flying down the rhumb line on a broad reach to St. Helena, our 1st stop.
Now the real adventure begins!!!
I could not help but think how blessed I felt at that time. I had been dreaming of this day for the last 10 years and planning actively for the last 5 years: selling everything in Houston and moving to Cape Town to finish the project and arrive at this day. I fully expected that something would happen that would prevent us from living this adventure. You know what “They” say “When Man Make Plans – God Laughs”….. but, we finished, so I guess it was meant to be.