November 22, 2008 – Cape Town

It was overcast and a bit windy and, after 5 straight days of being on the go, we decided not to tour. Pat got a haircut and manicure in the mall while I toured the grocery store and got some snacks including biltong which is their version of jerky. We shopped for a few items we needed and then stopped by the Primi Wharf restaurant to visit Steff Rau who was previously F&B manager on the Mariner. Steff is now operations Manager for the Primi group of restaurants throughout Africa and we were fortunate that he was there that day. Primi is an Italian restaurant with a South African influence and we decided to have lunch. Steff told us that their main clientele is local rather than tourist and we loved the food & wine we had. It was a real pleasure to see Steff again and learn a bit more about Cape Town. After a long leisurely lunch we made our way back to the ship to unload our purchases and enjoy the view of the city and Table Mountain now that the sun had come out. There were still a couple of hours until final boarding so we walked back to the wharf area and watched street performers for awhile. There was a sail away party on the pool deck at 5:00 but we didn’t sail until 6:00 because we had to wait for the pilot. We joined 2 other couples in Portofino for an “African” dinner which included ostrich, springbok and Kingklip. Following dinner we watched the show, spent some time in the casino and finished in Galileo’s to chat with friends.