Cruising with SPAR and the AMBASSADORS of the SPAR LADIES VIRTUAL RACE 2021
By Karen Keeton

Tuesday, 3rd August 2021

A special morning cruising with SPAR EC Staff and the AMBASSADORS of the

SPAR LADIES VIRTUAL RACE 2021 (Have you entered yet?!)

All feeling a little extra special cruising in a Whale Heritage Site with spekboom in hand!

Thank you and picture credits to Leon Hugo of ZoomwiZ Studio

A wonderful account of the morning in the words of Alan Stapleton:

3 August 2021 Play Raggy for Me

They oohed and aahed

They gasped

One groaned…greenly

As they paddled with Pengis

Sallied with seals

Wallied with Willy

And danced with the Dolphis

Thanks be to Raggy Charters

For opening up the possibility

Of living limitlessly

***********************

They gathered early. The morning was misty. Fresh. A slicy breeze with a slicker of sunlight. Promising later warmth.

We had heard stories, almost fables. But not experienced them. Had been told, but had not felt…Nervously expectant, we gaggled, and giggled, whispered and wondered what lay in-store for us. 9 ladies, 4 men, awaiting their instructions.

After introductions from Lloyd, and re-assurance and safety stuff from Jake and Purity, we gang-planked down to the boat, and soon, we were asail. That slicy breeze cut deeper as we picked up speed, heading into the mist. (I should have brought that thicker jacket).

Waiting tankers loomed large, hulking, as we speed by. Birds, a-many, petrels, skuas, shearwaters and albatrosses fly abreast, greeting us, searching, and settling on the water. Dry. Aloof. Contented. All the while Purity and Jake feed us, precious bread crumbs of educated experience. Impressed by the beauty of the Gqeberha Bay, and being on the wrong side of the breakers, we plumed in confidence, moving up-front, and high, onto the Look-out area. Titanic and Living Limitlessly images featured fearlessly as Instagram alit with scenes from the seven seas.

A lone seal squealed into delightful sight, calling us to more of the seas’ mysteries.

And then a fin slices the ocean, and another, and another, as a pod of dolphins arrive. Frolicking, lazily spouting and spewing, diving deep and then, up…out-of-the water, disappearing again.

But there was more to come. Much more. St Croix Island…the Dolphins Love Island. Hundreds, literally, spouting and puffing, scratching and scrawling, happily. Free. No limits. Their mewing stilled our chatter into Wows! Half an hour of special love-making, seemed to take just ten minutes. “Oh, to be a dolphin” we wished as we warned our Jeannie of what lay in wait….

And then we headed to the penguins, who are sadly not as many as they used to be. Correct, and up-right, so righteously all-knowing in their pretty little ways. Some, camouflaged, brown against the rocks.

So much history in these island rocks, dotted above the sea. Dias and De Gama, crucifixes, and cross-looking houses. Abandoned, bashed by the waves, the penguins and birds, rest and shelter.

More seals, flap at us, waving and calling us “The whales are deeper”, they squeak. “Come, follow us” Neale Emslie’s face creases into a growl. His greenness grows as we whizz past the harbour, past PE, and out yonder, into deep, deep waters. Vast blueness, cut into white slivers by frolicking wavelets.

Deeper we go. Faster we go. Faster. The swells are growing. Standing tall, starting to roller-coast us ….Up, we go, and then dowwwwn. Upppp. A tilt to the left, and then down again. That icy breeze slices back as we scan the sea, far and wide, “Wishing upon-a whale”

“There! There…look!!” Mouths rounded as She rose, Up... Out-of-sea…High, and splashed back. A plume of satisfaction squirting into the air. And then she was gone. Deep down and we don’t know in which direction. Scan…look …watch…HOLD ON! These swells are higher and now, more often. While Lloyd and Gino seemingly laugh and laze with the rolling waves, I hold on tightly, knees bent, break-dancing to keep my balance. I so want to climb down but the fear of a swell luring me off that slippery little ladder, keeps me staid. A false smile of bravery badly camouflages my fear.

Neale’s green cap seems to be seeping into his face.

“That way! Over there “She is much closer now. Smash, she crashes. Heavily. Crash, her tail smacks the water. And again, she disappears. We wait.

Time ticks. The boat, she rolls. Now, not so lazily.

“HERE!!! To the Left.” Becky screeches. UP, She again rises. Magnificent. HUGE. Haloed by diamonds of sunlit spray. She is beautiful in her ugly massiveness. Craggy and mollusced. We have been treated to a splinter of specialness.

Time is now ticking by. We head home. Happy. Neale’s paleness almost peters.

A half hour zip-line back, past Pine Lodge, NMU, Radisson Blue, Something Good, Boardwalk, Barneys…. The traffic anting along the freeways. And us. Regal. In control. Part of nature. At one with the world. Smiling. Except for Neale.

Past the SPAR Stop Plastic signage at Bayworld and the Waterfront murals, the ugly iron ore containers, (what potential we are missing here) and to the harbor. A short wait longer as a tug takes a Container ship out, and in we slide. We are home.

A Great Day filled with new experiences, indelibly printed into happy minds. Each one of us a better, and wiser person for having been part of this special cruise.

Ten minutes back, onto the solid safety of home, Neale smiles again. We gather, again, at PEDSAC, for lunch and a-sharing of new memories.

To the Raggy Charter Team – a thousand Thank You’s for opening up a world of wonder which we should be shouting about. Right on our doorstep. Such untapped beauty.

Jake – you are a jewel. Purity – you are precious. Lloyd – you are just …. Lloyd

We are wiser, better people