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Cellpic Sunday – False Bay View

False Bay.

October 2024

Simon’s Town, South Africa.

On our visit to Cape Town, our guide put us in the Quayside Lodge in Simon’s Town. The hotel’s upper-level guests have a balcony that offers views of False Bay and the Simon’s Town Naval Base.

False Bay has an interesting and historic story behind its name. The name stems from early navigational errors. Sailors returning from the east would sometimes mistake Cape Hangklip for Cape Point, leading them to believe they had entered Table Bay (where Cape Town is located) when they were actually in the adjacent bay. This misidentification resulted in the bay being labeled “False.”

Since its discovery, False Bay has been a focal point for maritime activity. Treacherous conditions, including strong winds and hidden reefs, contributed to numerous shipwrecks, highlighting the bay’s inherent dangers. However, its sheltered coves and strategic position made it attractive for settlement and naval operations.

Simon’s Town, nestled within the bay, became a vital naval base under Dutch and later British control. The base is now a key point for controlling trade routes and projecting maritime power for the South African Navy. The bay’s warmer waters, in comparison to the Atlantic side of the Cape Peninsula, further enhanced its suitability for maritime activities. Today, while naval operations remain significant, False Bay also supports a thriving recreational maritime sector, including sailing, fishing, and tourism, ensuring its continued importance in South Africa’s maritime landscape.

About the photo: Early morning, looking slightly north of east, I snapped this photo with my Samsung S23U from the balcony of our hotel room at Quayside Lodge. I used Adobe Lightroom Classic to crop and adjust the level and tweak the develop module to decrease the highlights in the sky before sending it off to Luminar Neo for my usual tweak with Enhanced AI. In the original photo, two roofline peaks were blocking the view. As the rightmost peak blocked only a view of the water in the bay, I used Lightroom’s removal tool to replace that peak with an extended view of the water.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s also acceptable. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

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