Christmas (and NYE) in Cape Town…. Charlie Brown style!

But first let’s celebrate our arrival!!!

Our lines were caught by David and Amy on SV Starry Horizons which was the beginning of lots of fun trips and gatherings….

Not too quick though….Your’s truly spent the first week or so dealing with this…yes mostly self inflicted…so I hobbled around or stayed on the boat icing, elevating, and kept it wrapped for about a week.

It was pretty painful but the silver lining was that it happened 3 days after we arrived so thankfully I had time to heal it on land rather than trying to while we were under way.

So Trevor got to do a lot of exploring by him self…something I am sure he didn’t mind…mostly spending the first week or so looking for boat parts to order for boat projects to do after the holiday season. Similar to New Zealand, lots of shops close for almost a month around the holidays. It was a mad rush to get familiar with what was around for what he needed and who could do it. I managed to get out a bit…and day by day my ankle got better. Let’s do a quick tour and summary of the things I was able to do….

Photo from: https://www.capetown.travel/theres-something-for-everyone-at-the-va-waterfront/
V&A Food Market: Burritos, wraps, burgers, pizza, oysters, noodles, sandwiches, sushi, yummy desserts, and they even serve beer and wine. You could seat outside on picnic benches and watch the world go by.
V&A waterfront hosted a semi-permanent location for the local animal shelter to highlight adoptions. Anyone could take a 4-legged friend for a walk. Yes…we talked about it…how about this guy..? Appropriately named don’t you think..?
Near the V&A Waterfront was a great weekend and Wednesday night market. Not the market we were used to. It was very hipster with great local foods….
The market even had a bar…? Poula and us took advantage of it.
Ahhh…Deloitte…you are EVERYWHERE…!!!!

Don’t have to go far to find these guys/gals….

We saw a guy cleaning this boat for hours earlier in the day….then this big daddy showed up.
No words….!
At night, Trevor would brave them so we could pass them on the way back home to the boat. One time he threw a marshmallow at one as a treat…let’s just say they don’t like marshmallows : )

And the best part was that we basically get to wake up to this….

Unfortunately we didn’t go up to the top of Table Mountain….it would of been nice to see the Dassies (look like an ear less rabbit) who live up there but as we learned, you can’t see everything.

We had a chance to exhale and enjoy great company with Amy and David on SV Starry Horizons…. Jazz night, winery tour, and a Portuguese dinner.

The Crypt Jazz Club was a great night out…Trevor even put on a button down short and dress shoes..?

Wine tour to Stellenbosch.
The gang….David, Amy and Thomas who is David’s brother Thomas visiting them over the holidays…
Best wine of the day in my opinion…
a Do Not Enter Wine Line… (LOL)?
Second winery….
Very busy place….
The grounds were huge and you could seriously spend all day here. Lots of stuff for kids…but it was time for lunch!
WOW…what a place….Amy had to make reservations for us here it was so popular.
The portions were huge!!
View of Stellenbosch…breathtaking!
4th and last winery….Amy and David came here 10 years ago so it was cool to see them re-visit here. We didn;t have reservations but they felt bad for us and gave us 1 free taste each…too kind!
Too cute these two….

This Portuguese restaurant was recommended to us….the Starry Horizon crew agreed to check it out with us. Totally our kind of place: red plastic chairs, live music, a little dive bar, it was perfect!
Unless you are vegetarian….
David had a flaming stick of meat….
A little jig to the live music.

But the holidays were coming on fast….the rest of the fleet that left Richards Bay a day later than us were hunkered down in different ports down the coast making their way to Cape Town… so it was just about 5 boats here at the V&A marina.

Amy and David kindly offered to host for a international Christmas dinner potluck….It went a bit late as usual ; )

SV Starry Horizons (US) , SV Canace (Kevin and Irma and son from South Africa), SV Ostrika (Poula and friend Sophie (Swiss, Itailan), SV Maria Lena (Brian and Rosemary from Canada), SV Aventry (Jamie and Lina from Scotland and Sweden) and us….such a cool mix of people!

In addition, we were invited to spend Christmas morning aboard Starry Horizons to share in their Christmas morning traditions of Cinnabon cinnamon rolls and opening of presents….we brought champagne and OJ and coffee and baileys…they provided the cinnamon rolls…. We ever got a Christmas present!!!

Man, thank you Amy and David… for such a wonderful Christmas away from home….it feels like family (hugs)!!!!

Thomas narrating a Mad Lib Christmas card we all helped to complete…. too much fun!

And all of a sudden it the end of the decade!!!! We had a few more boats come in just before NYE….but no one was really talking about getting together so we made a last minute plan and invited everyone on Slow Flight for drinks and yes…dinner of champions…..PIZZA!!!!