Cape Town - Final Touring and move to RCYC

Hi everyone,
Today we motored around from the V&A Marina to Royal Cape Yacht Club.  We are now moored in the club's marina which is tucked in to the industrial port area of Cape Town.  The club house is quite nice.  The jetties are (sadly) of the usual South African style, and are placed very close to each-other with narrow channels between.

New courtesy flag (long overdue)

We found the V&A an excellent base from which to finish reprovisioning for the South Atlantic.  It is also a great base for touring Cape Town, having easy access to busses and other transport.  The marina itself has better jetties and far more manoeuvring room than RCYC.  The V&A was also cheaper for us.

Zen Again at the V&A with Table Mountain in the background

Some yachts have managed to clear out from the V&A or FBYC.  For small boats like ours it seems we have to clear out from RCYC.  We've only been here for a few hours but RCYC seems pretty good.  I can certainly see it being a scary place to enter in a strong wind.

Zen Again at RCYC with Table Mountain in background

Yesterday we had a final day of touring Cape Town.  We visited the Two Oceans Aquarium in the morning and took the cable car up Table Mountain in the afternoon.  The latter was "third time lucky" due to high winds at previous attempts.

The aquarium is well worth a visit, having great displays of sea creatures from both the cool South Atlantic and the warm Indian Oceans.  The aquarium is particularly well setup for kids but has lots of interesting info for adults too.

Moray Eel at Two Oceans Aquarium

Clown (fish) convention at the aquarium

Pelican amid the kelp

Shark!

The cable car is quite impressive, taking around 40 people at a time up to the top of the mountain which just over 1000m above sea level.  The mountain top is quite flat as its name suggests and there are nice walks around the top.

Some of the plants on the top of the mountain were still in flower which made it very colourful.  Visibility was good, allowing us to clearly see the "back" of both Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope.  We saw several dassies, lizards and a few spectacular birds.

Table Mountain Cable Car

View of Table Bay on the way up

Upper Cable station at left with Lion's Head in background 

Nice flowers on the top of the mountain 

Cloud over Simon's Town from Table Mountain

West coast of the peninsula

Dassie!

We expect to clear out on Monday morning.  We may depart for St Helena on Monday afternoon or failing that on Tuesday.  At present the weather looks good.  In the mean time we'll enjoy RCYC while preparing Zen Again for sea.