Weds - 18th & Thurs 19th – Cape Town Days 5 & 6
Posted by Della Parsons on Saturday, December 5, 2009
The next two days were working days. Actually I thought I had the morning off on Wednesday but the Corporate sail was brought forward to 10.30am. We were up and sprucing up the boat from 8am. It was fairly clean and tidy but when you've lived on a boat for 3 months it feels like home and we were amused to note that it felt exactly like having friends round to dinner and the mad rush to make the place look spic and span beforehand!
We tidied away to the sound of the wind whistling through the mast in the marina and the un-harmonic clanking of many halyards. It pretty soon became apparent that we wouldn't be going anywhere as getting out of the marina safely in these winds was unlikely.
We kept our guests amused with boat tours (once again I got told off for talking too much!), media shows and a few little practical exercise to get their blood flowing. They thanked us with lunch – which was very much appreciated!
After an afternoon of maintenance I got a text from Lou to say she'd found my much sought after Cinnabons! I knew they were in Cape Town somewhere – just hadn't tracked them down yet. I flew off to meet her at the appointed place only to find she had me on a wild goose chase! It wasn't the right place anyway but the one she thought she'd found in the guidebook turned out to not be there! After a very long walk in the search for tea and sticky buns we decided it was actually time for aperitifs! We went back to her guesthouse – which was more like a very small, exclusive 8 star hotel – where she had a bottle of champagne and a dish of strawberries waiting! I supped and raised a toast to The Bubbles Club back home – knowing they'd be nodding their approval!
Thursday brought lighter winds so a full day of two separate corporate sails followed. As we pulled out of the marina, Piers informed me I would be the running the boat for the day – nothing like a bit of notice! So I went into Show-mode, desperately trying to remember everything, keeping an eye on the new crew on board as they were a tad rusty and a lot over enthusiastic and also making sure we didn't kill any of our sponsors!!! Everyone settled down well and I got our corporate guests involved in winching, sweating up sails, trimming them and wrestling them back down again while Piers took charge of the helm and kept watch while they all had a steer!
Everyone – on both sessions seemed to enjoy themselves and I think all came away with a new appreciation of just how physically demanding life on board could be.
I also found an additional benefit to corporate sailing as one of the guests had been asking me about my year off, my reasons why etc. We got around to talking about my fund-raising for DebRA and the upshot is I got invited to talk to his management team on my return – about the challenges of the Round the World Race – in return for a hefty donation to DebRA! A good days work all round!
The other thing we talked about was climbing Table Mountain. It was still my intention to do it but finding anyone else daft enough not to use the Cable car was proving difficult! Both Dan and John expressed a keenness to do it so a very sketchy plan was hatched to meet at 8.30 the following morning at the lower cable car station ready for our expedition up!
We tidied away to the sound of the wind whistling through the mast in the marina and the un-harmonic clanking of many halyards. It pretty soon became apparent that we wouldn't be going anywhere as getting out of the marina safely in these winds was unlikely.
We kept our guests amused with boat tours (once again I got told off for talking too much!), media shows and a few little practical exercise to get their blood flowing. They thanked us with lunch – which was very much appreciated!
After an afternoon of maintenance I got a text from Lou to say she'd found my much sought after Cinnabons! I knew they were in Cape Town somewhere – just hadn't tracked them down yet. I flew off to meet her at the appointed place only to find she had me on a wild goose chase! It wasn't the right place anyway but the one she thought she'd found in the guidebook turned out to not be there! After a very long walk in the search for tea and sticky buns we decided it was actually time for aperitifs! We went back to her guesthouse – which was more like a very small, exclusive 8 star hotel – where she had a bottle of champagne and a dish of strawberries waiting! I supped and raised a toast to The Bubbles Club back home – knowing they'd be nodding their approval!
Thursday brought lighter winds so a full day of two separate corporate sails followed. As we pulled out of the marina, Piers informed me I would be the running the boat for the day – nothing like a bit of notice! So I went into Show-mode, desperately trying to remember everything, keeping an eye on the new crew on board as they were a tad rusty and a lot over enthusiastic and also making sure we didn't kill any of our sponsors!!! Everyone settled down well and I got our corporate guests involved in winching, sweating up sails, trimming them and wrestling them back down again while Piers took charge of the helm and kept watch while they all had a steer!
Everyone – on both sessions seemed to enjoy themselves and I think all came away with a new appreciation of just how physically demanding life on board could be.
I also found an additional benefit to corporate sailing as one of the guests had been asking me about my year off, my reasons why etc. We got around to talking about my fund-raising for DebRA and the upshot is I got invited to talk to his management team on my return – about the challenges of the Round the World Race – in return for a hefty donation to DebRA! A good days work all round!
The other thing we talked about was climbing Table Mountain. It was still my intention to do it but finding anyone else daft enough not to use the Cable car was proving difficult! Both Dan and John expressed a keenness to do it so a very sketchy plan was hatched to meet at 8.30 the following morning at the lower cable car station ready for our expedition up!
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