Calypso pictured on the Royal Cape Yacht Club crane about to be splashed after a week on the hard at the end of April 2019.   Looking good with a couple of coats on anti-fouling paint and a touch up of the white topsides where the rubbing of  fenders had damaged the finish.

West Coast Cruise.

The day after Christmas we sailed to Dassen Island 35miles north of Cape to meet up with 30 odd yachts for the start of the annual West Coast Cruise visiting  Dassen,Saldanha, SandyPt and Port Owen about 100 miles distant.

Picture perfect scene on the Berg River at Laaiplek.
Pictured is a Shearwater 39 by Dudley Dix with an unusual gaff rig, the others being masthead sloops.

Calypso alongside Petr Muzik's Shoestring with which he completed a circumnavigation a few years ago in his seventies.

Calypso in unfamiliar surroundings at Port Owen Marina at Velddrift. Two miles upriver it was great having perfectly calm water, unlike home base at RCYC in Cape Town where she is secured with 12 dock lines!

 Calypso with two sparkling new coats of anti-fouling prior to splashing.
Also fitted a new speed and depth transducer for the just purchased Simrad instrument package and touchscreen plotter.

 The  wind was blowing 30 knots when put back in the water so was left at the slipway pontoon till the next morning.

 Early morning sunlight creeping across the face of Table Mountain.

Table Mountain, an early morning backdrop to the peaceful scene at Royal Cape Yacht Club

THE CLOUD

• A Wilding (10). 1964

Mysterious and lonely wanderer of the sky, 
Pass on quietly through the night;
Above the earthly squalor travelling high
Silently cruise, phantom ruler of the skies in flight.
Bathed by the sun at dawn in a ruby glow
Changed by the winds and currents to every shape,
Sometimes    scuttling   across   the   heavens, sometimes slow
You   bring water and coolness to farmlands and lake.
Reaching   down   to   mountain   peaks   with wispy hands
With   no force of your own, your path set by fate.
You cross the countryside, towns and many lands,
Never knowing the frustration and restraint of a gate.
Across the open   places on your unknown errand bent
You   pass on your mysterious way until  all moisture is spent .
A Wilding (10).

Found this in my Stellenbosch   ( Paul Roos Gimnasium )  high school year book of 1964.

50 year reunion this week on Friday!

Alan Richards found on the Chesapeake

Alan Richards, pictured on the right of the Photograph, Calypso's first owner has been found on Chesapeake Bay.

" I was very excited to hear she is in new hands now and might once again sail around the world.Even after selling her 32 years ago, she is still a very big part of my life and I have such wonderful memories of my life spent with Calypso."

"I am the original owner of calypso and I spent 2 months in Hong Kong watching the final touches to the boat and then preparing her for the trip to South Africa. I sailed her in the 1976 Cape to Rio Race and then continued with my circumnavigation. I figured that I sailed her 40 000 miles! On the trip from Mauritius to Durban we were caught in a cyclone for 5 days, which was quite an experience. In 1976 while crossing the Saba Bank south of Saba Island we were dismasted due to the failure of the port aft lower rigging toggle. The aluminium mast was built in Marblehead Mass in 1976."

March saw Calypso on the RCYC slipway for antifouling and general inspection of all underwater skin fittings, prop and shaft and replacement of sacrificial anodes by me.

A few gellcoat repairs and buffing by a contractor.

She had been bought without a survey having been done and thankfully there were no surprises!
Cecile is seen above managing a last minute touchup.

Good friend Braam du Toit with family having a lunchtime snack in Calypso's spacious cockpit.