Cape Town Stopover (cont)

Date: 20 October 2003
Day: 87 (Day 16 in Cape Town)

Local time: 1200 GMT+2

Leg Number and name: In Cape Town

Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003

Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town

Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk.


Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm

Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October


Notes: Hello Marje and John, and Everyone


Yesterday was a day away from the jobs Marie Christine and I went to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and walked up Cecil Rhodes' ox-track still lined with his camphor trees. Sitting peacefully on one of many memorial seats, with a green flank of Table Mountain rearing up before us. I thought of my own three brief visits to Cape Town: 1956, 1977, 2003. This is a taut place, what will I see if I return in another 25 years? I will be 90 by then.


Beyond the side of Table Mountain lay the deep blue sea. Will I see Albatrosses out there 25 years from now? The gardens have a display of Cycads, the very same plant on which the dinosaurs grazed millions of years ago. Why must we kill all the Albatrosses?


Stewart, a small and freckle-faced boy, son of the people we had lunch with, had left a bit of his prep on the hall table:

The land breaks up in the time of the degradation and we lose our topsoil, then crops won't grow. Don't break, heal the land, take pride in your country.

Date: 21 October 2003
Day: 88 (Day 17 in Cape Town)

Local time: 1200 GMT+2

Leg Number and name: In Cape Town

Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003

Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town

Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk.

Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm

Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October


Notes: Hello Marje and John, and Everyone


Work resumed today and people were everywhere. It looks as if we'll be ready.


Marie Christine addressed the nation on South Africa's version of Woman's Hour and a ripple of applause rocked the boat from Nick, Igor and Christina, so I joined in so as not to be a gooseberry. But this is a tough place with plenty of problems of its own, never mind the invisible Albatross. But we are building a core of people who will keep working to help the old boat until we return next April of May.


Into the mist... John Ridgway

Date: 22 October 2003
Day: 89 (Day 18 in Cape Town)

Local time: 1200 GMT+2

Leg Number and name: In Cape Town

Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003

Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town

Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk.

Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm

Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October


Notes: At the airport by 0700 to meet Trevor Fishlock. My fourth visit. Just about got it workled out now. Still not been to a Filling Station though, will I get beaten up? Igor tells of the recent 10 day Conference in Durban, for World Parks where 2000 attended and 600 were assaulted. Christina Barlow, defending at home, interjects, and tells me I will survive in Cape Town.


We have poured into the hire car, the last of the petrol we brought from Scotland at 85p per litre. We want to use the petrol jerry cans for diesel on this Leg.


My old chum Skip Novak appeared in his new giant aluminium sloop 'Pelagic Australis'. At some 70 feet long and 20 feet wide she is an upsacale version of a 45 foot boat he specified for me in 1999. Special lifting keel to slip into small bays to avoid drifting icebergs in Antarctica. All those years of Skip's trips down there, out of Ushuia, will have awakened support for the Albatross in so many people.


Good steady progress on all fronts with the boat for Saturday's departure.


Into the mist... John Ridgway

Date: 23 October 2003
Day: 90 (Day 19 in Cape Town)

Local time: 1200 GMT+2

Leg Number and name: In Cape Town

Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003

Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town

Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk.

Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm

Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October


Notes: At 0800 I met Quentin off the London flight. The day rushed by, with people all around and jobs suddenly accelearating. Even so the Riggers were still at it, long after dark.


In theory we are now all set for sea trials tomorrow. This gives us time to make alterations after the trials.


Provisions are aboard and stowed!


We are getting such support from the scientific community here in Cape Town. It is most heart warming. Nothing seems too much trouble for them.


The lights are very much red and amber now, any minute they'll go green.


Into the mist... John Ridgway

Date: 24 October 2003
Day: 91 (Day 20 in Cape Town)

Local time: 1200 GMT+2

Leg Number and name: In Cape Town

Focus of leg: Preparing for the Southern ocean - planned departure date 25 October 2003

Position - Latitude, Longitude: In Cape Town

Position relative to nearest land: In the Royal Cape Yacht Club marina, about 200 yards from shore via the boardwalk.

Distance traveled since last port: 5,880 nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 8,000 nm

Headed to: Melbourne, Australia departing approx 25 October


Notes:

Notes: A terrific rush. Always the same at the start. Aldo Berutti, Head of Birdlife South Africa, phoned to say our stay in Cape Town had created more publicity for the Albatross than any project they had ever had.

In the afternoon, Igor and I, went with Quentin and Anton to film a pirate fishing boat which had been arrested by the French.

Registered in the Dutch Antilles we could see the previous names she'd had during her chequered career. How many Albatrosses had she killed?

While modern technology can ensure each boat reports its position automatically, every half hour, this is a pointless exercise if that position is only reported in its 'Flag of Convenience' country. Every fishing boat could easily report to a neutral 'Umpire' international body.

We gave a presentation to 60 under-priviledged black school children from Hout Bay, a nearby fishing community. Many of them could become fishermen. All we need to save the albatross is a willing skipper one every fishing boat. Marie Christine and I sang a song for the children and they responded wuth a dance about a wounded bird. I thanked them,"You may not understand what a Petition is, but I know you understand what we are trying to do for the Albatross." I've always been one who cried in the movies. Soppy really.


Into the mist... John

Now go on to the next Leg, Cape Town to Melbourne via a brief stopover in Kerguelen 25 October to 7 November 2003

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