The heartbroken sister of an angler who drowned after falling off a moonlit cliff at Morgan Bay in the early hours of Saturday said he died doing something he loved.
Mireille Barnard-Gouws, 28, said Jacques Barnard, 29, was passionate about fishing and had taken his new American wife, Alexandra, on a midnight fishing expedition.
Barnard-Gouws said her brother, a talented chef, and his wife were living in Charleston, US, after he met her while working on a luxury yacht in February last year.
“He was the chef and she was the captain and he phoned home to say he had met his wife. Three months later, they eloped and got married under a tree in the pouring rain.”
Barnard was schooled at the Drakensberg Boys Choir, and St Andrew’s College in Grahamstown and matriculated from Merrifield College in 2005.
He was head chef on a Western Cape wine farm before working on yachts in the US.
“He suddenly had a desire to come home and they resigned and came to South Africa for three months. He wanted to show Alex South Africa and spend Christmas here.
“They arrived on October 5.”
Barnard-Gouws, who is a teacher at Hudson Park High, said she and her husband Eugene Barnard-Gouws and their baby girl joined her brother and his wife for a weekend at the Mitford Hotel in Morgan Bay on Friday.
They had braaied before the two men and Alexandra went to play pool.
“When they got back, I heard Jacques chat about going fishing and I thought if he goes I’ll never see him again, but I didn’t say anything. He was never scared of anything.”
She said Jacques and Alexandra left at about midnight.
“They were halfway down a cliff and Alex was reading in the moonlight while he was fishing. She told me he kept turning around to say ‘I love you so much’. When Alex said she was tired and was going to bed, he stayed behind because the fish were biting.”
Barnard-Gouws said she checked to see if he was back when she awoke at 5.15am.
“He was not there but I thought he’d returned and gone out again, so we went for a walk. Afterwards, I woke Alex who panicked and ran up the hill and when she came back she had his hoodie and his shoe.
“She said he wasn’t there.”
After notifying the Kei Mouth Police, search teams, including residents and the NSRI, were deployed on sea, land and air.
His parents – Bonnie Doon residents Christo Barnard of conveyancing firm Barnard and Majavu and artist Marguerite – joined the search, combing the coast at Double Mouth.
“At 2pm we got the call that his body was spotted about 400m from the lighthouse at Kei Mouth. An NSRI diver and a helicopter pulled him out. He had a gash on his head and was covered in scratches.
“We think he was packing up to leave, lost his footing, knocked his head and drowned.”
The funeral will be held at St Michael’s Anglican Church in Nahoon at 2pm on Saturday. — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
Angler died doing something he loved
Mireille Barnard-Gouws, 28, said Jacques Barnard, 29, was passionate about fishing and had taken his new American wife, Alexandra, on a midnight fishing expedition.
Barnard-Gouws said her brother, a talented chef, and his wife were living in Charleston, US, after he met her while working on a luxury yacht in February last year.
“He was the chef and she was the captain and he phoned home to say he had met his wife. Three months later, they eloped and got married under a tree in the pouring rain.”
Barnard was schooled at the Drakensberg Boys Choir, and St Andrew’s College in Grahamstown and matriculated from Merrifield College in 2005.
He was head chef on a Western Cape wine farm before working on yachts in the US.
“He suddenly had a desire to come home and they resigned and came to South Africa for three months. He wanted to show Alex South Africa and spend Christmas here.
“They arrived on October 5.”
Barnard-Gouws, who is a teacher at Hudson Park High, said she and her husband Eugene Barnard-Gouws and their baby girl joined her brother and his wife for a weekend at the Mitford Hotel in Morgan Bay on Friday.
They had braaied before the two men and Alexandra went to play pool.
“When they got back, I heard Jacques chat about going fishing and I thought if he goes I’ll never see him again, but I didn’t say anything. He was never scared of anything.”
She said Jacques and Alexandra left at about midnight.
“They were halfway down a cliff and Alex was reading in the moonlight while he was fishing. She told me he kept turning around to say ‘I love you so much’. When Alex said she was tired and was going to bed, he stayed behind because the fish were biting.”
Barnard-Gouws said she checked to see if he was back when she awoke at 5.15am.
“He was not there but I thought he’d returned and gone out again, so we went for a walk. Afterwards, I woke Alex who panicked and ran up the hill and when she came back she had his hoodie and his shoe.
“She said he wasn’t there.”
After notifying the Kei Mouth Police, search teams, including residents and the NSRI, were deployed on sea, land and air.
His parents – Bonnie Doon residents Christo Barnard of conveyancing firm Barnard and Majavu and artist Marguerite – joined the search, combing the coast at Double Mouth.
“At 2pm we got the call that his body was spotted about 400m from the lighthouse at Kei Mouth. An NSRI diver and a helicopter pulled him out. He had a gash on his head and was covered in scratches.
“We think he was packing up to leave, lost his footing, knocked his head and drowned.”
The funeral will be held at St Michael’s Anglican Church in Nahoon at 2pm on Saturday. — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
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