Page 10 - Cape-Camera-April-2023

April 2023 Cape Camera

Above right: Lionel working
45 feet above deck.
Right: Taking leave of
Shayele in Bimini.
ing places they visited.
She decided to keep to
the original Afrikaans
text because the col-
loquial humour and
the intimate, chatty
writing style in her
diary and letters
would not have
translated well
into English.
Her interesting But, by the time they reached Key West and Fort Lauderdale,
anecdotes and facts about even intrepid sailor Lionel had enough, and they decided to sell
their ports of call invite you to enjoy Shayele and return home. A big motivating factor was the fact
the journey with them. The route shows that their that Elmara was pregnant and they wanted their baby to be
first sight of land was St Helena island, after about two weeks born in South Africa.
of seeing nothing but ocean and occasionally a ship on the They toured several US tourist spots and eventually managed
horizon. They visited Napoleon’s house in exile, the cemetery to sell the yacht. After they delivered Shayele in Bimini to her new
where the Boer prisoners of war who died in exile were buried, owners and flew back to the States, they were arrested because
climbed the 699 steps of Jacob’s Ladder and enjoyed the many they didn’t realise that they required new visas to re-enter the US
other tourist spots on the island. after the one-day trip. They were lucky to be sentenced to house-
Next stop Ascension island, one mountain overrun by alien arrest with friends in Fort Lauderdale for one night as they could
vegetation after Darwin convinced Kew Gardens to send trees prove that they were soon leaving America.
to cover the barren island he visited in HMS Beagle. Spending a They arrived back in Cape Town on the cruise ship Australis
night with huge turtles laying eggs on the beach and the hos- two months before their daughter, Lin, herself an intrepid sailor,
pitality of the Americans based at the NASA observation centre was born. They settled in Cape Town, where they became mem-
were some of the highlights. bers of CTPS, but the travel bug remained strong.
In French Guiana they visited Devil’s Island, one of the horrific Over the past 50 years Lionel owned a total of 22 yachts, which
French prison islands immortalised by Henri Charrière in the he sailed — sometimes as far as the US — as easily as other
book, Papillon, about his escape from the island. people travelled to the winelands. Elmara is also a seasoned
The Caribbean, in particular Barbados, became the highlight traveller, who has visited more than 100 countries. She is now
of their trip, because they got married there on June 29th. They working on a book of the letters she wrote and photos she took
found a small church, a reverend willing to perform the ceremo- during these travels.
ny and Elmara made a wedding dress out of unbleached curtain The idea for Boer en Brit Seil Saam was formulated during the
lining. It was a simple ceremony conducted by Rev. Lionel Cum- CTPS outing to Agulhas in May 2021. In a record time of 18
berbach, with two fellow-yachties they befriended as witnesses months Elmara typed and edited her handwritten letters and
and a third to capture it on film. Two more guests arrived late diary entries and compiled them in a book format, complete
and joined them for a champagne celebration. with commissioned maps and photos. Despite often feeling
As can be seen from their route, they spent quite some time weak and ill after bouts of chemotherapy, she completed the
in the West Indies, Grenadines, Venezuela, and around Panama layout and negotiated with the printer to get her 246-page A4
and the San Blas islands. They experienced the intricacies’ of book published in March this year.
navigating the locks of the Panama Canal, which connects the * Boer en Brit Seil Saam can be ordered from Elmara Willis. Copies
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in a friend’s boat. Their pace was lei- will be on view at the CTPS May competition evening. The 246-
surely, with no firm plans and limitations on their stay in places page A4-size illustrated book, written in Afrikaans, costs R200.
they enjoyed, the essence captured in Elmara’s succinct obser- Contact her on WhatsApp 083 4171422.
vations.

10 Cape Town Photographic Society