We have loved our time in South Africa doing the motorcycle/sailing/golfing/wine-country/dining/tourist tour of the country. We spent Christmas in Franschhoek with friends in the manor house at the Rickety Bridge Winery.

We played golf at some fabulous golf courses and some not so fabulous. We ate and ATE AND ATE AND ATE between Christmas and New Year. We celebrated the New Year with our ARC friends in the marina doing a progressive dinner from boat to boat and watched as fireworks welcomed the New Year.

We desperately missed our family over Christmas but very grateful to have had a visit from Matt’s sister Diane and husband Scott.

We are now starting leg 15 of our circumnavigation.

Our first stop is Walvis Bay (Whale’s Bay) Namibia, a journey of 785 miles. Namibia is famous for having some of the highest sand dunes in the world. Many of the sailors in the World ARC fleet are going to try some “sand-surfing” hoping to transfer sailing skills to sand-surfing. Even though the country is twice the size of California it has a population of only two million people. We will be spending three or four days in Namibia before heading to St Helena, a 1215 mile journey. 

Milling around at the starting line

St Helena is a very well placed island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. For those Napoleon buffs it is where he was exiled after wreaking havoc in Europe for so many years. One of our fellow ARC skippers is French. He has a slew of French friends joining him on this leg and they are spending a night at Longwood House where Napoleon lived. We will only be staying a few days in St Helena before heading to Salvador, Brazil a 1900 mile journey.

Salvador, Brazil will be the final stop of this leg and will mark the completion of the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. Our arrival in Brazil will coincide with Carnival. Carnival is a six day celebration which starts on a Thursday February 8th and goes through Fat Tuesday and ends on Ash Wednesday. 

And we’re off – Happy New Year from Matilda.

Matilda at the starting line (courtesy of committee boat)

Sailing by a ship in Cape Town Harbor