Saturday in Simonstown

Saturday in Simonstown.

Start day is Wednesday, 5 days away.

This morning there was a little parade up the main street of Simonstown for all the race entries.

Rather nostalgic for me was that we started the proceedings at SAS Simonsberg which is where I was based when I did my national service in the Navy, way back in 1975/1976.

Anyway, Banjo was posted to walk right at the back. But just in front of two guys playing bagpipes. They, in turn were followed by a single bergie who just joined in and who was playing a pennywhistle. The folk at the front were lucky, they had some Capies playing jive music.

At the village square we had a ceremony and the "mixing of the waters". The Banjo poured it's St Francis Bay water into the inverted ship's bell with the waters of the other boats' home ports.

We were also handed our "permission to sail" certificates. The "ba" of Banjo put us first on the list. I felt so relieved. All the work, the expense, the dreams.......................

Afterwards we took Chris Lee, the Commodore of False Bay Y.C. for a sail. It was his first outing on a trimaran. He liked it very much. We also tried out the spinnaker which Andrew McKenzie is lending us. It worked beautifully. I think that's gonna be our working kite.

The weather is looking good for Wednesday.