31 August

16 Aug. 10


Pay day, or is it pay out day. I suppose if I was working for someone it would be pay day, but since I am not it is pay out day. Would be nice if I could just keep the money and not pay anyone for a few months, that way the trip would be very soon, however I don’t believe that my employees would agree to this idea.
Today we went through to Germiston and registered Yrumoar with SAS. Now the task of removing the old name everywhere and renaming her has to be done next time we go down. We want to make a bit of a ceremony and celebration out of this, very exciting stuff.

18 Aug. 10

Lately I have been reading more and more books. At the moment I am reading “ Demistifying Sectional Title", "The Book Of Photography" and "Come Wind Come Weather” all at the same time. My English teacher at school would have been so proud of me right now. Unfortunately, I never knew that I enjoyed reading until about a year ago and never did much reading before then. So it’s as if I am trying to catch up on lost time. I cannot decide what kind of books I really enjoy yet but it seems to be all kinds. Early in the morning whilst having breakfast I like to read the photography book. During the course of the day I like to study up the sectional titles act, and at night before I go off to dreamland, I read the sailing adventure story. Oh my goodness I think I have become a nerd.















24 Aug. 10

Well it seems our “stolen trip” is coming to an end, so tomorrow we will be heading back to gangsters paradise and back to real life again. Thanks to the ongoing teachers strike we were afforded this little break away. Axel and Peta came to visit over the weekend but we didn’t go out sailing with them instead we went to see the beach and had some wicked curry over at the dockside. Thanks for the visit guys, hope you enjoyed your stay.

We eventually went sailing yesterday in a good 15 knots of wind. Lola kept her pointed into the wind whilst Rauen and I hoisted the main sail. Previously I mentioned that the sail plan has to be fixed since the installation of the bimini (the roof over the cockpit or outside area). So in order for the main sail to be hoisted I had to first make a new tack (the front point where the sail attaches to the mast). I used a short piece of rope about 300 mm long with two bowline knots at either end to make the new tack, that together with the use of one of the reefing lines enabled the main sail to function in a fashion. We unrolled the fuller headsail and sailed around in the harbour for a while whilst practising to tack (turn with the front of the boat through the wind) and also to ensure that my modification was working. Once I was comfortable that everything was working we headed out of the harbour and into the ocean. The wind and sea state in the harbour is almost like sailing on a dam with the difference coming as you near the exit of the harbour and you start to feel the swell of the ocean. The boat gently starts to move up and over each swell as it comes. Once you pass the break waters the conditions change rapidly and the movements increase dependant upon the state of the sea. We had two metre waves with a five second interval between the waves and since we were sailing on a beam reach (the wind coming from the left or right side) the waves were also coming from the side making the boat rock from side to side with the occasional hull slam that comes with sailing on a catamaran.

Due to the break waters and because it is shallow the sea is very confused with waves coming from all sides when you just leave the harbour but once you are outside the conditions calm and the waves start to come in sets making the motion on the boat a lot more pleasant. Lola did all the steering and once we returned to the harbour she complained that her feet were killing her because she had to stand all the time since we don’t have a chair to sit on whilst steering.

We had packed our laptops on Kyle’s bed to keep them from falling around in the ocean thinking that it was a safe dry spot. To our surprise we discovered that water had found its way onto Kyle’s bed. After some investigation and having to strip the motor ignition panels out we found a small dam of water behind the ignition panels above Kyle’s bed. We now knew where the water had come from, but how it got there still has to be solved.

The hidden offending dam of water

15th August

12 Aug. 10


Back from the weekend and rowing with the other slaves again. The teacher’s strike allowed us one extra day on Tuesday added to the already long weekend, so we used this day to drive back. We spent some time on the weekend going through some of the lockers on the boat and I was amazed at how much stuff can fit into these lockers. I also managed to secure Kyle’s bedroom door and the sliding door so that they don’t fly open and closed whilst we are sailing. The bathroom door still has to be done then all the doors are ready for the trip. One job done, 12 million to go.

And even more comes out!

15 Aug. 10


For some or other reason the last trip on the boat was very eventful. Firstly I could not reverse out of our slip without nearly popping our fenders against the walk-on. On our last trip whilst I was trying to teach Lola to reverse out we got one of the fenders caught on the mooring cleat and it popped.

We haven’t replaced this fender yet, so I don’t know if this was in the back of my mind causing me to loose concentration. There was only a slight breeze blowing so I couldn’t blame the wind either. The next problem occurred once we left the marina.


After the no-wake zone I increased the motor RPM to two thousand revs and waited for both motors and the boat to stabilize at the new speed but something just didn’t feel right. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, it was as if the steering didn’t respond correctly but when I turned the wheel the boat turned as it was supposed to but not exactly as was “normal”. So I spun the wheel again and still not the reaction that I was used to. Even though we have spent only a short while sailing Yrumoar, I already have a feeling for the way that the she reacts, and this time she was not reacting in the same way. So I slowed the motors down to idle speed and played with the wheel spinning it in both directions to check. The result was the same she turned fine in both directions but it just felt wrong. I then decided to check the instrument panel for the motors and noticed that the port motor’s temperature was extremely high and all the warning lights on the panel where lit. I had checked the motor upon start-up and a little while later and she was pumping water just fine so there must be another problem. I then decided to switch off the motor and restart, voila, magically everything returned to normal.

The next incident occurred in the harbour mouth as we returned from our outing. We were sailing along peacefully when suddenly, thump, we collided with a submerged object. It wasn’t a hard thump but we all looked at each other and said “what was that”. Lola looked backwards to see what we had hit but we couldn’t really determine what it was. I checked below deck for damage but couldn’t see any.

We knew that the chart showed a ship wreck at this spot, and the pilot guide says that you should not cut the corner coming into the harbour, but we had sailed over this same spot before and didn’t hit anything. I believe we were lucky this time and perhaps it was meant as a lesson to me. The lesson “always check the chart and believe the pilot guide”.

The last incident came whilst trying to park back at our spot, first I went into the anchor of the steel yacht parked opposite to us, then we kept nearly drifting into the yacht next to us. After three attempts we eventually managed to tie up.

I can’t explain my incompetence during this trip but I believe it won’t be the only time and possibly the first of many.

05 Aug. 10

04 Aug. 10

Found a site on the web today of a family sailing, or shall I say planning to sail around the world. They flew down from Canada to Mexico about two years ago and bought a boat there. According to one of the video interviews that they made they were planning a three year trip. They are still in Mexico. I hope this doesn’t happen to us.

Its 12 o’clock now, two hours to go until we leave the house to fetch the kids at school and take the 7 hour journey down to the boat. Rauen is bringing a friend with that has never seen the ocean before and is very excited. You never know how lucky you are until you meet others that aren’t quite as lucky, this kid is 13 years old and hasn’t had the good fortune to see the ocean before.

I don’t really do much exercise and as the years are starting to catch up on me my body has started to show the neglect. Whenever I think about exercise the thought of going to gym pops up and in my head and I can see images of pure suffering. Hours spent running or riding a bicycle but not getting anywhere. I like it when exercise doesn’t feel like it is being done on purpose, like walking to the beach with my kids and kicking a soccer ball around or having a swim. I haven’t been able to do much of this yet but hope to find some exercise routines that aren’t routines that will reverse the effects that the past has left behind in the not to distant future.

02 Aug. 10

This week we decided to get stuck into the housework that we have ignored for some time. We went down to what used to be Mica but is now Build it, same people different name, to get some plumbing parts so that we could complete the second bathroom in the house that we have neglected to do. Its my fault, I am the one that loses interest in a project as soon as it is good enough, so I therefore never finish anything to perfection but rather to “ it will just have to do as long as it works”.

Shower pipes

However it has come to the stage where I have no more choice but to complete the house before December this year since we want to move onto the boat and rent out the house. Then the serious boat work will begin. At the moment the boat isn’t really sea worthy in my opinion. One of the many problems is that the refrigeration is powered by 220 volts and the big double door fridge freezer has not even been secured, so every time we go over a wave I watch the fridge as it starts to walk around in the saloon looking for a place to fall over and I start to imagine the damage it would cause. Next the sliding door has a small latch at the top of the door that is supposed to keep the door in a certain position. This latch has no clip in it thus it works itself loose after a few waves and then the sliding door slams open and closed, open and closed, open and closed again until I can get to it to fasten the latch again. And so on and so forth.

We had another visit from my mother and stepfather this weekend and he compared our intended boat trip to a drunk driver taking his child in the car and driving down the road. When I asked him how these two things could possibly be related he said that my kids have no choice in the matter just like a child of a drunk driver has no choice.

Wow! I never saw that one coming. Maybe he has a point, taking little children out into the big deep ocean can be dangerous, but way less so than taking them on any public road, less traffic for one thing, therefore less drunk drivers.

Okay at the risk of loosing everything I am going to admit that I have been following Bumfuzzle. His site has been one of the many sites that we have found that have just made this planned trip become impossible to ignore. What amazes me is the help that people have offered Pat and Ali, but then again I suppose if I read that they needed something that was possible for me to provide I too would offer to help.