Boucan in Saldanha

Boucan in Saldanha
Originally uploaded by brisegalets

Finally my stay in South Africa is nearing the end, and it was not without a grand finale. Cobus had organized for Sunday another "braai" where I could finally have the pleasure to meet the national Captain of the Brotherhood of South Africa, Louw Koos. He is also, by the way, an admiral and one of the top men in the South African Navy. He is also involved in that wonderful project that Manuel showed us in Simonstown, which includes teaching young kids from poor neighborhoods to sail, build, fix boats and win regattas at a world class level. It deserves to be known as a project and I will try to get a write up on this project and give it as large a distribution as I can.
For someone used to participate in barbecues the american way, a "braai" is a little disconcerting. Basically, the only item which is shared is the cooking device, the "braai", this time using wood. Then, every participant brings his own food, cooks it and eat it, drinking whatever drinks they had brought, everyone almost at different times. But it does not take away anything from the friendliness of the event and the exchanges of ideas and the conversation. And it gave me the pleasure of meeting a few more brothers from that table that I had not seen on Wednesday.
We were then supposed to leave on Monday morning, but the weather decided otherwise and Tuesday was looking like a much better option.
Monday, Manuel drove up from Capetown with 2 new mooring lines that we had broken in the previous windy days, as well as some fittings for the traveler of the spinnaker boom. He then took us on yet another tour of the area and a visit to Cape Columbine, famous for its fog, responsible for the fact that the coast up to Luderitz is called "the skeleton coast". Many ships have gone aground here, due to the fog in the old days before the radar, and the shipwecks litter that coast. We then had lunch in a nice restaurant on the beach in the village of Paternoster.
We returned to Papy Jovial, and this time, no jokes, we are leaving tomorrow morning for Luanda.