| Saturday, September 19, 1964: I escaped from the office at 13:00 after a very busy morning. We drove to Zeekoeivlei and launched the sailfish in rather rough water.By the way, this was my Californian sailfish which had crossed the Atlantic - albeit aboard the "Rockeater"! We broke the sheet line line and turned over. Mercia did not dare to go out on the sailfish, so we left at 16:00 and stopped at a drive-in before getting dressed for Dave's party. They served a plethora of fine food and numerous drinks, and there was a surprisingly high number of children (yes, not >< ) at the party. We left at 22:00, rather tired and bloated. |
| Sunday, 20 September, 1964: We slept late, read a bit and called my sister Carla in Holland so Mercia could talk to her for the first time.We then drove to the point of the Cape and enjoyed seeing the antics of the blue bottomed baboons there. On the way back, we visited a nice cousin in Simonstown, South Africa's Naval Base. We got home around 17:00 and went to bed, but were promptly rung out of bed by Rachel, George and his woman and Mercia's family. I cooked on a Japanese stove and did a reasonably good job according to the S.A. expert braaivleis makers. Mercia also impressed our visitors by cleaning up all dishes before we turned in and they left. |
| Monday 21 through Friday 25 September, 1964: This week I spent mainly at the office. We had problems getting the "Klipbok" ready on account of one week's delay of unloading barges in Luderitz. We were honored with an interesting visit by Sammy Collins and in turn visited his geologist, Hoffman, a fine and very patient person. I drafted a report on the mining factor and read a lot of evaluation statistics, including Sichel's. I spent an hour trying to explain ("compare and contrast") the units of carats/square meter and carats/cubic meter to Dave. On the home front, M started to have symptoms of morning sickness, and discussed these with Motherhood expert Rosemarie. |
| Saturday, September 26, 1964: An improved repeat of last week Saturday: wrote memoes in the office in the morning, then picked up Mercia (in contact lenses), Rachel and the Stephansens to go sailfishing in Vischhoek. It was almost too exciting, and Erik "crashed". We left around 17:30 and had a bite at a movie about Flipper, truly an oceanographer's favorite. Rachel stayed over for the night to Mercia's delight. |