Page 21 - Cape-Camera-Sept-Oct-2021

Cape Camera September/October 2021

One day my boss made a sarcastic remark. He said that if I spent
as much time at work as I did yachting, I could become a great
engineer. The next day I resigned my job, climbed on a yacht
and sailed off to the Caribbean, where I spent a glorious year
sailing around, backpacking the East coast of the USA before
coming back home. It wasn’t the reaction my boss was looking
for, but he made me realize I needed to sail over the horizon.
And the next one, and the next one …
I sailed with a family and we navigated across the Atlantic
Ocean with only a sextant and dead reckoning. One day I asked
the skipper how we were going to find the tiny island of St He-
lena in this vast ocean. He replied: ”Don’t worry, I know where it
is, I’ve been there before”.

the community got together to help each other.
Back home I bought back my shares in the yacht repair com-
pany and my son started at a local school. Besides his Caribbean
accent, the teachers said he was mature beyond his years be-
cause of the trip across the ocean. He had experienced life in the
raw instead of through a TV.
Another childhood passion of mine was flying. My first flight
was in an Airforce Dakota and I was hooked. Only later in life,
when we had paid off our house, was I able to realize my dream
and get my pilot’s license. Flying for fun and simply being up
there in the sky has been a big part of my life for many years. For
years I served as the chairman of the Cape Town flying club and
training school.
I always had an interest in taking photographs, with a cheap
A few years after my return to Cape Town the vast ocean called camera and no formal training or knowledge. Every now and
again. I accepted a job to skipper a yacht to the Caribbean for then I took a nice photo, but had no idea how I did it or why I
the owner. We left Cape Town with the owner and one other liked it.
crew member. Although we now had GPS technology, I still
used the old-fashioned sextant regularly to check that the GPS About 10 years ago a fellow yachtsman invited me to join their
was actually right! I navigated with the sun, the moon and the informal photographic group that used to meet once a month
stars, a skill which is lost today. Today a sextant is used for deco- at the Royal Cape Yacht Club. This was where I learned that the
ration or photo props. horizon had to be level, the eyes had to be sharp and please, no
power lines in a landscape! Yes, that’s how bad I was. Three peo-
After cruising up through the Caribbean islands we eventu- ple in that group influenced me immensely to do greater things
ally made our way to Florida. The owner asked me to bring the with my photography. They were Christo and Marleen le Grange
yacht back to Cape Town, while he flew home. I decided to sail and Francois du Bois. On Christo’s insistence I joined the Tyger-
the yacht back by myself. The trip via Bermuda and the Cape berg Photographic Club where my photography progressed in
Verde Islands took 3 months. A world with no telephones, fax leaps and bounds. The club environment was the best thing
machines, accounts in the post … but spend 3 months alone ever for my development. I decided to also join CTPS in 2018 to
on a yacht on the vast deep blue and you do go a bit moggy. get additional exposure and inspiration.
I ended up talking to the dishes. Luckily they didn’t talk back.
I met a lot of different people and different cultures on my trav- I love the monthly themes and seeing what other photogra-
phers do for the themes – and just what they do in general. From
els, each with his/her own story and way of life. It was a truly the word go I would go home with a glow after every meeting.
enriching experience. Another year spent doing what I loved. I was also inspired to save up and eventually bought a Canon
Back in Cape Town I started a yacht repair company, which is 5D MK3. Over the years the lenses followed slowly but surely.
what I am still doing to this day.
Soon after returning I got married and we had a son. When he
was four, the deep blue beckoned and we decided to buy a
boat and sail to the Caribbean. I sold my shares in the company.
The next two years were spent cruising around and working in
the Caribbean. My wife and I both found work in St Maarten. We
put our son into the local school where he picked up the local
accent and was soon speaking like a proper Rasta.
After two years we made plans to return to Cape Town. Two
weeks before we were due to leave the island was hit by a dev-
astating hurricane. We all survived but like thousands of other
yachts on the islands, our yacht was totally wrecked. Besides
the stress of losing the yacht, it was exciting to live through a
hurricane, a really wild experience. Living in the devastation
and the aftermath was heartbreaking but also heartwarming as

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