Once the rudder was fastened, our situation calmed down a lot; the boat could carry on sailing again. However, Cape Agulhas, which separates the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic, was still ahead, so we should not neglect it.
With the rudder failure, we learnt to be a little cleverer, and knew that the connecting point of the hydraulic arm was the weakness of the rudder; those screws would come loose continuously in big waves. For the rest of the trip, we checked the screws every hour before we wrote our sailing log. Every time I was tightening the screws, I felt like having an anti-anxiety pill to calm my nerves.
Gansbaai was still 120 nautical miles away; we had to sail one more day to arrive. Luckily, the breeze was steady at about 20 knots; the sea finally did not distress us anymore, and we sailed past Cape Agulhas peacefully.
On the fourth morning after leaving Port Elizabeth, in the light of dawn, our long-waited port, Gansbaai, appeared on the horizon -- at last! The night lights had not been dissolved into the day yet; some early-waking fishermen started going out to sea fishing with their powerboats. The sea was calm and the water was flowing softly. We dropped the sail and let Ithaca drift; then we waited for our friend to come.
All of a sudden, there was a big splash in front of the boat, not far away. A whale! Quickly, I called the children to come up to the deck. A triangular blackfin was breaking out of the water; it seemed more than ten meters long. Soon enough, it spouted another big splash. The children saw it and yelled excitedly. As the whale was swimming away, two seals appeared at the stern. Compared to the big whale, the seals were more like cute puppies. They were not afraid of people or our boat and they swam around us closely. Sometimes, the seals rushed to the one side of the boat, then dived down and appeared on the other side. They observed us with their black watery round eyes. Occasionally, the seals barked with sounds of "Arf arf.. Arf arf"; and the children also made similar sounds to echo with the barks of the seals. Who cares whether they understood each other or not!? The deck was full of happiness.
Our friend, Stefan, came with a powerboat to rescue us as promised. We had already tied a tow rope on the bow. The 40-horsepower engine was enough to tow us. Two hours later, Ithaca was slowly pulled into the harbour. On the top of the breakwater, a few people were standing and waving; a drone flew over and circled on top of our boat. Later, we learned that a sailboat being dragged into the port became the news of the town. In the two weeks of our stay, people often came to the anchor bay and looked at our boat from a distance, whereas we went to town and explored this beautiful fishing village.
Eventually, Ithaca was tied to a buoy and everything was settled. Recalling the experience of the trip, I felt like I was recovering from a serious illness. What was the imperative thing to do right now? It was not repairing the boat but going ashore for celebration.
The trip was a test to a sailor, and it was only one of the tests but not the least.
Gansbaai is a small and typical fishing village, and it has Cape-style of comfort and leisure. People who prefer quietness would like to come here for vacation. One of the precious characters of the town was good security. The houses mostlly have only a waist-high fence, and some of the houses did not even have walls. This was a pleasant surprise for us who were used to a high grid electrical fence in the city.
The people in the town mostly make a living from the sea. It is well-known in South Africa's supermarket for its canned sardines produced in the factory here. There is also an abalone breeding farm for export. Unfortunately, we could not visit the factories as they were closed due to the Christmas holiday season.
In the harbour, two big fishing boats of over hundreds of feet long were standing on the hard for maintenance. The boats had been painted with a new coat in bright colours and were ready to return to the sea after the new year. Climbing up the stone steps from the harbour and walking through the courtyard surrounded by low fences on both sides, we were ready to explore the centre of the town.
There was a little shop next to the harbour where we found small packages of shark biltong (dried meat) on the counter. I had only heard the news of shark attacks around the South African coast; I had never thought of eating a piece of shark meat. It was probably one of the special attractions for the tourists of this town. Although we were opposed to malicious hunting of sharks, since we were here, it wouldn't cause harm to buy a package to taste.
Stefan was a friend we met in Durban. He bought an old sailboat there and anchored in the marina bay. He wanted to sail her back to Gansbaai, but he needed to fix her first because the boat hadn't been cared for in years and was not able to sail in the open sea. At the time, we were living on board, and soon we came across enthusiastic Stefan and became friends.
When Stefan invited us to visit his hometown, we decided to add Gansbaai to our cruising route. It was inevitable that we would need his help to repair our boat. In the meantime, we also needed him to arrange an authorization from the harbour master for a temporary stay. After all, Gansbaai is not a port for sailboats; without approval, we were not allowed to anchor inside and stay here.
The next day, Stefan opened the engine compartment and checked the detached shaft. We found two more problems. One was the holding bracket of the engine cooler; the stainless-steel plate which was more than ten centimetres long was cracked and broken off. The other was the rubber pads of the engine feet, which were seriously damaged. The one-inch-thick rubber pads were almost penetrated through and the fastened screws were loose, which resulted in a kind of greasy dirt like black mud around the engine feet. If the engine feet are not stable, the engine and the shaft cannot be calibrated. Repairs on a boat are endless. The earlier you find a problem, the sooner you can resolve it. Otherwise, it might cause more troubles.
The reason for the shaft pulling off was uncertain. We could only guess that the coupling was not tightened during the previous repair. The loose engine feet created more vibration, which might have lead to the coupling getting loose and further freeing the shaft.
Perhaps we experienced too many dangers on the trip; none of us had the intention to leave the town soon. It would be better to simply stay here until Christmas.
Every day, we drove our dinghy into the main dock which was the access to the town. A number of seals were basking in the sun in the inlet along the way. They are really cute creatures and often make a pose for us by holding tails with their "hands", while floating there. This inlet had already become their home. If a fishing boat was coming in and unloading their catch, these seals would all happily flock to the boat, and seabirds too, hope to grab a few more fish than others.
This Christmas was the first Christmas we spent alone since the children were born. It was a bit lonely. In those previous years, three families --over a dozen of people -- spent Christmas together. Christmas gifts were piled up to the roof and we were always bustling with noise and excitement.
Rulin's godmother, who was living in the UK, visited us by surprise during Christmas. It turned out that she came to South Africa to visit her parents for the holiday. The town where her parents live was just tens of kilometres away from Gansbaai. We hadn't seen each other for more than a year. We wouldn't know if we could gather again soon due to our long voyage. It was a reunion, and it was a farewell too.
Time went fast and Christmas was over. Even though the town was beautiful and nice for a stay, it was not where we wanted to settle down. Ahead, countless towns and countries were waiting for us to explore.
Pierre monitored the weather closely every day. We needed to continue to sail westward and bypass Cape Town as well as the Cape of Good Hope. The South African coasts have never been a place for the faint-hearted or reckless sailors. The sea breeze was strong and didn't seem to want to ease soon. We waited for a few days and could not get a perfect weather window for our next voyage. The maximum wind would be still more than 25 knots. There is no help for it! This is it!
"Let's go!" The captain gave us the order -- and my stomach was filled with butterflies again.