I flew down to Cape Town last weekend to MC the Maserati Charity Yacht Regatta. One of the "perks" was that I would be on one of the racing yachts on Saturday afternoon and would then morph from waterproofs to dinner suit and flawlessly conduct the evening' gala dinner. The only possible fly in the ointment as far as I could see was chronic seasickness.
Having lived in land- locked Joburg for the past 32 years I haven't had much opportunity to hang off the side of a yacht with my derriere dragging in the water. I've sailed on cruise liners on very stormy waters in the Bay of Biscay and managed to make it to breakfast when even the waiters were looking a little bit green, but I didn't think this was a cast iron guarantee that I wouldn't be violently ill on what would presumably be grey and choppy Cape winter seas.
So I was delighted when I arrived at the Royal Cape Yacht Club on Saturday to sunny skies and calm seas. So calm in fact that Sea Oyster, the catamaran that was hosting team Maserati and me, had to use engine power to get back to land. Despite this we came first in our class; not difficult considering we were the only multi-hulled vessel in the race.
My flight out of Cape Town on Sunday morning coincided with the arrival of an aircraft with the words "United States of America" on the side. Yes indeed, the US President was landing at a bog standard airport. Apparently he couldn't land, Gupta style, at one of our key point military airbases because the runways are too short. How's that for bad planning?
It was a typically understated affair with fleets of bullet proof limos parked on the tarmac (no jostling at the baggage carousel for the Obamas) and lots of men in sun glasses with curly bits of wire going into their ears. Four military cargo planes were parked in a row, presumably to fly the whole travelling circus out again when the show is over.
I'm not quite sure why Barack Obama came here, other than to sample the superb Cape Town winter weather. The ruling party has made its anti American views known over the years and cabinet ministers have regularly thumbed their noses at the UK and the US. Quite what is in it for the US or SA is uncertain but I suppose we should feel deeply honoured that an educated black president with not a hint of scandal attached to his name should be prepared to converse with an uneducated black president mired in controversy. That's politics for you.