Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Today we got an early start at 6:30 so we could pack a day bag, eat Macs
delicious egg frittata, sing happy birthday to Nashota, and sprint across the bridge
to catch the van, which we almost missed.
Our first stop was Boulder Beach, covered in native African penguins. As we
walked out to the boardwalk, we saw dozens of them sleeping, grooming each
other, shedding feathers, and waddling out to the water.
Second on the itinerary was Millers Point, which was our first snorkeling
opportunity of the semester. Halfway through gearing up, a pack of baboons
sprang out from behind the hill and nearly stole our snorkeling equipment. Fortunately
and to our surprise, our backs were covered by a man with a paintball gun who
fended off the baboons, allowing us to continue suiting up.
We spent the next few hours swimming and free diving through a diverse and
dense kelp forest ecosystem full of interesting fish, sea urchins, starfish, and even
a few species of shark. As we encountered each species, we wrote down what we
saw on waterproof diving slates for later reference in our Marine Biology course.
After we had exhausted the kelp forest, we sat down on the rocks and ate the
leftover lunches we had packed earlier that morning.
After snorkeling and eating lunch in the hot sun, we all passed out on the hour-
long van ride to our last adventure of the day: Hiking up Lions Head.
The ascent started lighta mild dirt trail, winding circles around the mountainbut
quickly escalated into a steep rock course with frequent vertical steel ladders,
handles and chains for assistance.
After a three-hour-long adventure up and down the mountain following the
snorkeling and the penguins, we were all exhausted and ready to head back to
Vela.
We got back to the boat in time for spaghetti and Nashotas birthday cake
prepared by Emma and Kyler.
Today was packed with adventure, and I know were all feeling pretty excited to finally sail Vela tomorrow!