Tuesday 13-March: At breakfast the wind is gusting very strongly down the valley. Cloudy Bay is holding on her anchor OK, but if we are to be ashore for a while, Glen always prefers to be on a mooring buoy. So we move right into the head of the bay, within 100m of the shore, and take a buoy. The wind is much more sedate here and we won’t get wet from spray as we go ashore in the dinghy. The mooring is pretty tight on space though. With the dinghy tethered to the stern it only just clears the boat behind us. 20US$ for the night, not bad.
Today we walk the bay around to the north, up to the fort …or so called fort. It’s just 5 old cannons on a hill, pointing out to sea. The fort, if there was one, is long gone. On the way we visit two model boat shops, which Port Elizabeth if famous for. The little shops and workshops are both full of shiny varnished model boats, but not really that exquisite for the price they are charging. One shop, Sargent’s, has made a model of a Hallberg-Rassy 62, but Glen doesn’t think they have the proportions correct – and at $4,000 it’s certainly overpriced. “I’ll make a model of Cloudy Bay one day” says Glen, “and bring it back to show them”. Let’s wait and see on that one eh!?
We also visit Papas bar and restaurant on the hill overlooking the bay and decide to come back this evening when they have live reggae band. The day is very hot, certainly the temperature is rising now and the walk takes our energy.
After picking up our laundry, which was washed dried and folded for $9 a load, we head back to Cloudy Bay and have lunch, a cool-off swim and prepare the bikes for tomorrow, getting them out and making sure they are fully charged.
In the evening we head out to Papas. The reggae band is quite good, but Oana is not really a fan of reggae, and after a few hours it does seem rather repetitive. An interesting crowd though, some very “high” locals, one dressed totally in white, including white gloves – they are weird! The rest of the crowd seems to be older people, most of whom seem to know each other. Well, this island does have a lot of retired and resettled Europeans and Americans, so there is quite a community.
