Checking out of South Africa...once again

We getting really good at the checkout procedures in South Africa. We had several opportunities to check out in Durban before we finally departed. Here in Cape Town, we've already gone through the process once, and now, we've just done it all over again. It becomes easier with practice.

I don't think we've ever provisioned so many times for one passage. Every time I thought we were close to leaving, we planned a large provisioning. Because of several delays in our departure, we subsequently managed to eat up most of the provisions we bought. So, after hiring a car once again, we provisioned once again and then topped up the propane tanks … once again. We did all of our pre-passage checks … once again. We said all of our goodbyes … once again. David used our old dock lines to make ocean plait mats for our friends as parting gifts.

After getting all of our paperwork from the Royal Cape YC once again, we proceeded down dreary Duncan Road to Port Authority, Immigration and Customs (in that order), once again. It's a sad commentary that the folks there recognized us on sight.

The weather window seems to be holding and we're confident that with several days of southerlies plus the cold Benguela Current to push us north, we'll get to Luderitz, Namibia in 4-5 days. Nine of Cups is all ready and the crew is primed to head out. Let's see if we can make it out of Table Bay this time and actually begin our new passage.

Stay tuned for passage updates.