Another lovely day here, but it is starting to warm up. 82ºF/27.7ºC in mid-afternoon, kept comfortable by a pleasant breeze blowing in the companionway.
I think about buying a sun shade, and may, but it will make getting on and off GANNET more difficult.
I prepped the rub rails this morning. Scraping. Sanding. Taping. I’ll paint tomorrow.
In order to reach the port side, I had to dig out, pump up, and clean the dinghy. I’ll go for a row one of these days.
After painting the rub rails, I need to touch up a few spots on the topsides and then polish them.
With the Avon not occupying the starboard pipe berth, I slithered aft and inventoried my freeze dry meals. I have 60 New Zealand meals and 32 US. I will conserve the NZ for next year and eat the replaceable US meals.
In checking food bags, I came across two packages of trail mix bought in Durban, South Africa, a year ago January. Opened. Tasted. Still good, as there is no reason why they should not be after 8,000 miles.
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Of anoles, Jim wrote:
Traveling to Florida, beginning in the 60s, I would see green anoles around pools and patios, snacking on tasty insects. Gradually, they were supplanted by invading Cuban brown anoles, which are huskier. At my parent’s, the greens were rarely seen after the turn of the century. Investigation reveals the greens had moved aloft. Where browns exist, the greens tend to inhabit shrubs, trees, etc., living above the browns. One might postulate elevated patios are more likely to feature greens than browns. Please continue your research on green anoles to verify the hypothesis.
If you watched the anoles video link in the May 3 entry, you know that the more aggressive invasive browns are driving the native greens out, and probably up.
I have only seen greens on our third story deck.
It is a sad truth of evolution that aggression is rewarded.
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I thank Jim for sending a link to Jimmy Cornell’s most recent cruising statistics. It verifies my impression that the average cruising boat is now 45’/14 meters long. It is nice that so many sailors are rich.
There is at least one error in the article. You do have to go to the Royal Cape Yacht Club if you clear out of South Africa from Cape Town, but you can clear from other ports without stopping in Cape Town. I cleared from Durban in GANNET and from Port Elizabeth in THE HAWKE OF TUONELA.
Cape Town is one of the most beautiful and interesting cities in the world, and if a sailor has not been there, he or she should certainly stop. But the Royal Cape Yacht Club, where I have stayed twice and been treated with great hospitality, is located in an often windy corner of a busy, dirty, industrial harbor, and I did not want to take GANNET in there, and didn’t.
