Free The Triangle and The Mountain: A Bermuda Triangle Adventure by Jake von Alpen Page A

the two of them and instead rolled
out all existing sails to their maximum, including the massive number one Genoa
and the oversized mizzen fore staysail.  
    “What happened to our wind from that side?” asked Madeleine
and pointed to the starboard side.
    “You mean the trade winds,” said Grant. “No idea. The sea
gods blow the way they decide to blow and we just go along with it. Even the
Caribbean Weather Station did not know about the squall that we’ve just
encountered, mean as it was. Could you belay this halyard to that electric winch
behind you and give it a few turns?”
    “Like this?”
    “No, like this.”
    Madeleine was a talker, so she continued where they had left
off earlier.  “When you come to our house remind me that I show you around. There
are some things that might interest you as a South African.”
    “Oh, really?”
    “Yes, I think so. We had Boer prisoners of war from South
Africa on Bermuda a century or so ago. Some of them carved the most beautiful
things from wood. We have an ox wagon with a full span of oxen, as well as a
little grouping of Boers with their guns amongst the rocks, all it from cedar.
I know it very well because as a little girl I sometimes helped to polish it.”
    “You’re kidding me about the Boer prisoners, don’t you?”
    “I’m not kidding you at all. Look it up on the internet if
you don’t believe me,” she said. “At some point in the past there was a war between
my country and your country and that was where the prisoners came from.”
    “Between us and Bermuda? You’re not serious.”
    “Bermuda is part of the UK, remember.”
    “Of course, yes. OK, it’s clear to me now,” he said. “They
called it the Anglo-Boer War.”
    “Talking about your country where you want to build your
castle,” she asked, “Do you really own a farm with a whole mountain on it?”
    “Not a whole mountain,” he said. “The farm is on the side of
the mountain but quite high up.”
    “Does it have a nice view?”
    “It’s got the most fantastic view in the world.”
    “Really? What do you see?”
    “If you stand up there you see two oceans at the same time.
There is Table Bay on the one side and False Bay on the other side. Waters from
the Atlantic and the Indian oceans mix right there before your eyes in False
Bay. What is amazing,” he said, “is the clarity of the air, which makes the
colours stand out so vividly. You have the bright blue of the sea, the pale
blue of Table Mountain on the horizon and around you, by contrast, the green of
the Cape Fynbos , which is what they call the vegetation.”
    “Really? Is it all jungle?”
    “No, not jungle and not savannah either. It is a kind of
brush, I suppose, not very high but very green.  And down in the valleys you
have the vineyards, which is a different green. Everybody around there is in
wine farming. It is stunning. You have to see it to believe it.”
    “It sounds impressive.”
     “It is. And you know, it is quiet. You don’t hear a sound
from traffic or anything like that. You just see things move far away down
there on the highways. Where I want to build my castle you even look down on
the aeroplanes as they fly past.”
    “You’re not serious! Your farm must be as high up as
Everest.”
    “I’m serious, actually. What happens is that you have Cape
Town International about forty kilometres away. You look down on the jumbos as
they come in to land. When it comes to small planes it is high enough for them
to fly by below the place at their normal altitude.”
    “It sounds worthwhile seeing,” said Madeleine. “Did you pay
a lot for it?”
    “Actually, I have not paid anything for it. It’s a gift.”
    “How nice! What have you done to deserve that?”
    “Not much. I just paid some attention to two very old
people.”
    “Are they your parents?”
    “No, we are not related. The thing is that they feel
abandoned by their children and other members of their family. Which is why
they’ve