“KAAAAA-BOOOOOM!”
For the third day in a row, now, that giant explosion occurs around noontime to scare the hell out of the cat, make me poke my head out to see smoke or brimstone of some kind, and rattles Sonrisa by the rigging. And three days in a row, I haven't figured out what the hell it is. All was to come clear soon, however.
With Christmas behind us, we intended the first Grog-Wagon Excursion to occur on Boxing Day. As it turned out, Jen was still feeling under the weather, so we didn’t get moving until late that afternoon. As the time to plan the evening’s Sundowners drew near, Pete texted: “Jen isn’t feeling up for much, but would you guys want to take Christmas dinner leftovers up to Signal Hill and watch sunset.”
“Sure that sounds like fun, but what is Signal Hill?”
Pete explains (while certainly harboring judgment for our failure to research the location to we recently arrived) that Signal Hill is the hill upon which the noontime signal cannon rests.
“Oh, I see!” It all becoming perfectly clear. I told you this City was built for sailors!
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A Sailor Needs Her NoonTime Cannon!
Oh, yes. Sailors definitely need a noontime canon.
For the last several hundred years, Cape Town has been shooting a black powder canon from Signal Hill at exactly high noon. The purpose of this canon is a signal intended to be loud enough that ships anchored just offshore can hear it and to set their clocks to exact noon. With the advent of GPS, this may not be as important now as it once was, but you see, having an accurate clock is a necessity of celestial navigation.
We sailors carry an almanac of tables that notate exactly where the sun, the moon, or a particular star will be in the sky at a given time of day or night. To navigate by that sun or star, a sailor would look through that funny telescope sailors use - a sextant - to measure how far from the horizon the celestial body of choice might be. She will note the time of day and her measurement, then she compare those figures to this book of tables and a few calculations are made.
Presuming a sailor’s ship-clock was accurate and presuming she took an accurate measurement of where the star/sun was at that time, she would know from what latitude and longitude she was viewing that particular celestial body. It would “place" her ship, somewhere in the ocean at points GPS now notates for us: for example, V&A Waterfront Marina at 33.9104º South, 18.4213º East. She can then mark her location on the chart, and voila! The sailor knows where she is.
I love the fact that Cape Town continues to shoot its noon time cannon! And therefore, yes, I must make a pilgrimage up to Signal Hill. We pack a snack bag, a nice bottle of wine (Pinotage, of course!), and I grab my camera.
Sunset Extravaganzas in Cape Town?
But Leslie, what about Crime?
I hesitated for the briefest of moments as I wondered... “should I worry about being divested of this thing in a Signal Hill Mugging?”
I’m sure you all have heard bad things about crime in South Africa, or maybe Johannesburg, or Cape Town specifically? As we’ve watched sailor friends sail through over the last few years, we’ve heard stories of muggings or the like, everyone having one story or another on the topic. How bad is it really? We’ve managed our safety so far, but sometimes I wonder if the Oddgodfreys just get lucky. Over the last couple of days, a few helpful sailors shared their perspective on the realities of crime. “As long as you are in the marina, or in the V&A Waterfront (shopping mall area), you are probably fine. We had one sailor have her purse snatched just by the aquarium one day, but a group of sailors heard her scream and ran to help her. A security guard and the sailors tackled the guy and got her purse back. Out in the rest of the city, during the day you are probably fine, but at night, things get weird. And if you go hiking, you shouldn't go alone.”
This sounds like a normal city to me. Any of this could happen in Chicago, L.A., Las Vegas, New York, Houston, Dallas, London....etc. etc. etc. couldn’t it? But still, it wasn't far from my mind. My camera isn't very fancy anyway, if someone wants it, the only thing I’ll be very sad to lose will be the memory card with my photos on it. I tuck it into my bag and away we go.
Sunset on Signal Hill is an activity done with you and your 1,000 closest Cape Town friends. We arrive on the hill to slot the car into whatever parking spot we could find in a line of hundreds of other cars. We climb the hill and find a festive atmosphere of others picnicking on the edge of the hillside. They overlook the sea, with a bank of cloud and fog stretching into the Western horizon. We circle around and decide that a view of Table Mountain and the City in the last light of day our preferred angle.
As the sun falls, the bank of fog that started out to sea slowly rolled inland, overtaking the city lights as they warmed to their night task. It was our first real overview of Cape Town, and it was beautiful. How many times on this trip have I pinched myself wondering, “Am I really here?” You can add this as one more time.
Cape of Good Hope
Steeped as it is in sailing history, everywhere you go on the coastline of South Africa there is interesting maritime history to behold. Sailing Pilgrimages became a common theme for our time in Cape Town. Signal Hill being the first, a sailors’ pilgrimage back to Cape of Good Hope (the overland route) turned out to be the second.
The morning after our trip to Signal Hill, we decided to check a “must-do” item off our list, and return to Cape of Good Hope, via the overland route. A fierce coastline when traveled by sea can be the most beautiful from shore. The ocean cuts away at the landscape, dresses it in flowers, sharpens the rocks, then softens it all with sea salt and mist. I felt this way when we drove California's Highway 1 coast line, and this drive was no different. I stare out at the coast while Pete pilots the rental car and reads out his favorite town and street names as we go.
“Ou Kappse Weg! Such a fun street to say! Ooouuuuu KAPpse wEG!”
We arrived at the Cape of Good Hope parking lot to find a Matt and Amy from S/V Florence and Austin from S/V Enchantress already there. “Hey! Fancy meeting you guys here!" Last we were all together was a beach on Fogo Island, Mozambique. This launches an unplanned but happy team event.
We climb the stairs to the lighthouse and overlook Cape Point. A sailboat is making its way around from Simonstown. Today, it's a perfect sunny day and there isn’t a whiff of wind to ripple the sea.
We hike out to the actual Cape of Good Hope, sort of a nondescript lump on the overall landmass. It looks so innocent, but we know, it's the current and swell around the area that makes it fierce, the land is neither here nor there.
We hike down to the beach and watch a fur seal surf in the curl of a wave. The water is cold on our feet, the sand is soft. Tiny flowers grow in the corners of rock and sand. We are all in the highest of spirits knowing we have this Cape behind us on our respective circumnavigations. I contemplate the way we all started from different points and different times, to find each other here today. Matt and Amy started from England, Austin started from California like us but paused for a few years in Hawaii, Pete and Jen of course started from Sydney, Australia. Cape of Good Hope is a milestone for all of us, and it's magnified being shared with friends.
“So, we are all entitled to pierce our ears on the right side now, who’s with me???” I declare as we stand upon the cape looking out at sea. No one seemed to be with me, except maybe Jen and even she seemed doubtful that this was a necessary part of our sailing ritual.
“What are you talking about?" more than one fellow sailor asked me. I thought this was a thing we all knew. Like the swallows to count 5,000 sea miles or the tattoo of the turtle on its hind legs after you cross the equator, the pig and the chicken on your feet, the phrase “HOLD FAST" tattooed across the knuckles of each hand…
"You know....the earring! You get to pierce your ear on the side to which you passed a Great Cape.” Everyone humors me, but no one commits. "Fine, whatever." I close my eyes and imagine just days from now sporting not only a new piercing on the right-side ear, but also the gold hoops I promised myself.
"I'm getting gold hoops, too. I've earned them by now." I tell Amy from S/V Florence who is a far more intrepid sea farer than I.
“What’s with the gold hoops?” She asks.
“Don’t tell me you haven't seen photos/drawings of sailors with their gold hoops in their ears,” Amy just shrugs. Just watch Pirates of the Caribbean, that will show you! Or Peter Pan? I swear this is common knowledge. Sailors would carry their wealth with them on their ears as an insurance policy. Run in to trouble, and all they need do is pluck their gold hoop from their ear and offer it as payment for passage back home (or more likely another can of grog). I can't believe I've sailed all this way without an insurance policy. How would I get home if Andrew set me on the dock somewhere and sail off without me?
Amy hadn’t known me for very long at this point, and I'm sure she thought I’m a bit odd. But, she would be right; soon she will realize it is part of my charm.
We are all ravenous after hiking around the Cape for hours, so we head back to a small nearby town to find some Fish and Chips at what is famed to be South Africa's best fish and chips shop. Unfortunately, the line was moving at a snails’ pace and we never could confirm that anyone ever received a batch of fish or chips within the span of two hours. So, we bailed out and ate fish and chips at the place next door to South Africa's best fish and chips shop. The view was nice, though.
I wasted no time before embarking on my next sailor pilgrimage to a jewelry shop called Black Bettie. I became more than enthusiastic about this place when their website explained the aquamarine stone is known as the “mermaid's stone" and gifted to sailors for courage at sea. I rang them up to explain I needed an aquamarine fitted for my Great Cape piercing. They didn't think I was even a bit odd.
With most my sailor friends balking and a new piercing being one of those things I must do when the motivation strikes, I decided a leader must go first and marched myself into the piercer’s chair. “A new place for gold hoops, here,” I say, “and my Great Cape Aquamarine on the right-hand side.” I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and soon, it is done.
Meanwhile, Andrew ditched me to go find lunch at what would become his favorite bagel shop across the street.
“I needed this!” I tell Andrew over the top of my own turkey sandwich on sesame bagel. “I feel at least 30% a more proper sailor! Maybe, I should get HOLD FAST on my knuckles after all.”