So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu

An early start – and then wrapping things up at Piccolo so we could leave at 7.40 am to get to the manse early so we could label our 52 boxes. We had already organized a vehicle to take all our worldly goods to the customs shed so the morning ran pretty smoothly. By 10 am all our suitcases and boxes were safely delivered. Actually, our boxes could be offloaded straight into the hold baggage container since there were so many of them. We had been a bit concerned about the space issue and whether we would fit into our 3 cubic metre baggage allowance, but no one counted our boxes or even blinked at the quantity. Back to the manse for the next two hours where we could spend our final morning with Graeme and Hazel – time well spent. At 12 we met up with Steve, Maureen, Pam, Geoff, Maddy and Nick W at the Coffee Shop where we had milkshakes and food – this is a traditional ex-pat departure, and after seeing countless people off from there it was wonderful to be having our own turn at last. Several people popped in there to say goodbye and the emotions were up and down. Eventually we walked our way to the final departure gate where we said our final farewells over many tears. I think we were last in line for our passports to be stamped because we were the last passengers to get bussed to the landing steps where we donned our life jackets. In fact, we were the only passengers on the bus and the only passengers on the ferry to the ship! When we checked in at the Bureau it turned out that we didn’t actually have any tickets but as it happens those things are non-essential anyway because they didn’t throw us off the ship. Seems we were supposed to have picked up our tickets from the shipping office this week. Fortunately we had an invoice to prove we were legitimate, but in any case we were on the passenger list. One can’t easily stow-away on the RMS! Our embarkation had been at 1 pm; the ship finally started moving at 2.45 pm but clocks were immediately advanced by an hour so that tea-time followed almost immediately at 4 pm. We watched all our familiar sights go by one last time as the ship sailed around the island from James’ Bay in the north in a counter-clockwise direction before charting course south-east for Cape Town. As we left we prayed and gave God thanks for our time there, for the lessons learned and the blessings He has poured out on us. Another chapter of our lives written and finalized. We watched and photographed the island until it became nothing more than a cloud-topped smudge.