Focussing on the goal

18 Jun. 09

Went to the paradise bike rally in Grasskop a few weeks ago on Axel’s bike. Had a good ride which brought back some really good memories of my own bike that I sold in order to buy the yacht at the Vaal. The weekend was great but it allowed me to decide that the goal of sailing around the world was the first and foremost in my mind. Lola and I discussed some of the things in the house that we no longer really use and decided to sell some stuff. We are going to compile a comprehensive list of everything that we own and decide which of these are towards the goal, the rest we will price and advertise for cash. We also decided that we will probably buy the Coplan Ocean Spirit 34’ hull, deck and bulkheads and we will complete the work in our front yard.

22 Jun. 09

Went down to the Vaal for a day sail on Saturday, it never fails to amaze me how little wind is required to move the yacht. Okay granted not very fast but movement none the less. To give you an idea, distance is very difficult to judge on the water and since none of the instruments on the yacht work, I have to estimate the distance at about 1 to 1.5 km from Bayshore Marina to the island. Well we left the marina at about 12h30 and motored straight out towards Deneysville for about 1 km then we cut the motors and just floated about for an hour or so. I felt a small breeze and decided to hoist the main sail and the headsail to see if we would move at all, and sure enough we started to move in the direction of the island. About an hour later we were at the island and two hours later we were back at the marina. So if you are in a hurry better get a power boat.

25 Jun. 09

Was speaking to Jeff at the marina, he owns a holiday 23 and a Bayliner, and he told me that his outboard motor was stolen along with a few other outboards. Very disturbing news, so he replaced his motor with a second hand one that he acquired and was testing the new motor on the weekend. I hope I spelt Jeff correctly because my daughter also knows someone called Jeff but his name is spelt Geoff. Also met another guy whose name eludes me right now but I think it begins with a M, Jeff talks very highly of him and his sailing experience so I want to make a point of getting to know him a bit better and see if he can give me some pointers.