I arrived in Cape Town for the beginning of my three-month sabbatical, on the last day of 2025. The Mother City, as it’s also fondly called. Every time I come, I am reminded of the warmth, kindness and genuineness that South Africans share with everyone around them. There is positivity and colour everywhere you turn.
On this, the last day of the year, I drove to False Bay and Simon’s Town for a cup of tea and looked out across the bay, imagining Scally and my Mom, Dad and Manuel sailing by all those years ago. A few days later, I set about to find where Scally was moored just before departure from South Africa. The Royal Yacht Club.
The port of Cape Town is enormous, with lots of nooks and cranny’s for all sorts of vessels from small boats, fishing boats, passenger liners, cargo ships and oil tankers with all manner of flags and ports of origin, yachts and other types of pleasure boats. It dominates the city and can be seen from everywhere, so finding it was not hard. Finding the entrance to the yacht club on the other hand, took more than a few tries. I had to go through at least three barriers and show my ID and driving licence, open the boot, open my bags, explain why I was there and who I was visiting. I finally made it but had to fill out a lot of personal details at the entrance to the RYC before finally being let in, with a stern warning not to go onto any of the pontoons.
I possess a very old photo from the day of our departure in 1982, and so knew more or less where Scally would have been moored. I walked along the wharf a little and saw the pontoon where she had been, although the pontoons in those days were significantly more rudimentary. You couldn’t imagine a more idyllic and dramatic setting for a yacht marina than this one; the backdrop of the magnificent and imposing Table Mountain on one side and the wide open Atlantic on the other. I ordered an iced coffee and sat in the sunshine overlooking the RYC and its yachts and boats, and imagined all of us getting ready to depart all those years ago.
Dates: I was in Cape Town in January 2026.
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