31 May 2011
We officially moved on board on Saturday with all our belongings packed everywhere all over the boat. Lola has spent the last three days trying to finding place for everything, but no matter how much she packs away there is still mountains of stuff everywhere.
We reinstalled our freezer that has now been converted to a 12 volt unit and will be testing it for a few days on battery power to see how well it works. Our sails are back from repairs but we haven’t yet managed to put them up and see how they work so among all the other things they are also just lying all over the place. The weather service predicted a strong south westerly wind this afternoon but at the moment all is quiet and the weather is just fantastic at the moment.
A couple that we know set out a few weeks ago to Australia. They chose the lesser travelled roaring forties route and should have arrived about fifteen days ago. They have been placed on the missing persons list and the Australian coast guard has sent out search and rescue to find them. I hope that everything is okay and that they are found soon.
1 June 2011
About 18 degrees Celsius on the boat, a little cold for Richards bay, but very warm compared to Gauteng which is probably around 3 degrees this morning. You can instantly spot the locals wrapped up in jerseys and scarf whilst us out of town ers are walking around in shorts and T shirts thinking wow this weather is awesome.
The freezer 12 volt modification isn’t working, so today we will be wrestling it out again and carrying it back to the boatyard to get fixed. At the moment the boat is leaning towards the one side so we will have to move things around to even out the weight. Its hard enough finding a place for everything without having to weigh it first and then deciding where it will fit.
03 Jun. 11
Yesterday the boat decided it was ready to leave all by itself and had both Lola and I running around in complete panic. I was busy making a shelf in the bathroom when I thought I heard Lola trying to start one of the engines. So I asked her using my loud voice why she was starting the boat. I could hear her scrambling about when she replied that she wasn’t trying to start the boat so I ran out of the bathroom to find Lola checking the exhaust to see if it was pumping water and that it was actually our motor that was turning over. Now I switched into complete panic mode as I get into Kyle’s room and get under the mattress to open the engine compartment. The more I wrestle with the mattress the less it wants to allow me to get to the engine. After throwing my toys out the cot for a while Lola arrives and pulls the mattress off the bed saving me from myself. I then rip open the engine compartment just to stare in blankness obviously looking for something that isn’t there. My mind was sure that this motor had a solenoid that I could turn off but I just couldn’t find it. So I scramble out of Kyle’s room across the boat to the other engine and wrestle the mattress out of the way and yank open the engine to discover that this is the only engine with a diesel solenoid. Running back and fourth between the two engines for a while wasn’t solving my problem so I tell Lola to undo the ignition panel so that we can pull the plug from the back of the ignition switch. Then I told Rauen to pull the engine cut off and still the starter is turning away. Eventually it stopped all by itself and my mind can only see dollar signs as I am thinking that the starter must have packed up by now and possibly have to be replaced.
We sprayed some switch cleaner into the ignition switch and tried the motor which started and shut down as if nothing had happened. So we are still not sure what the cause of the problem was and if it will happen again but for now all seems in order.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Departing JHB
12 May 2011
Reading over my last few postings, some of which I am not sure whether to post or not, has made me realize just how much turmoil my life is in at the moment. It feels like I am wading through a huge swamp. Thick mud all around me, slowly sucking up all my energy. Clambering over one obstacle just to encounter the next one, directly in my path.
We must have postponed the move down to the boat about a hundred times now. Every time we set a date something else has come up stopping us dead in our tracks and making us re-evaluate and change our date.
In fact it has become so bad that people are starting to accuse me of lying about leaving.
25 May 2011
The past few days have been extremely traumatic and my level of confidence has diminished to a level even I can’t understand. On Sunday the house was filled with tears as we said goodbye to my Daughter and her boyfriend. And this morning when I dropped my son off at school for the last time I suffered to hold back the emotions and keep control of myself. The fact that we have to leave them here is difficult, no almost impossible to deal with. Considering the fact that we should still see them in July during the school holidays doesn’t seem to make an ounce of a difference to the emotional rollercoaster that we are riding at the moment.
29 May 2011
We eventually ran out of excuses and finally left the house yesterday morning. Today we are sitting at Kim and Darren in Durban after spending the night here last night. We decided to rent a car from Avis after our second last bakkie didn’t make the trip from the panelbeater to our house. A trip of almost four kilometres. Luckily or unluckily it packed up before we had embarked on the 600 km trek down here, and we didn’t land up having to call a towing service in the middle of the freestate. Now as I sit here I ponder about our decision and wonder if it was the correct one to make with all our worldly possessions packed into the back of two cars and a very uncertain future accompanied by no income. There is nothing like having no income to make you realise how much everything costs. I called my Daughter last night and my son this morning, cost R20 in airtime for plus minus three minutes each. I shudder to think about the cost of international or satellite call.
Reading over my last few postings, some of which I am not sure whether to post or not, has made me realize just how much turmoil my life is in at the moment. It feels like I am wading through a huge swamp. Thick mud all around me, slowly sucking up all my energy. Clambering over one obstacle just to encounter the next one, directly in my path.
We must have postponed the move down to the boat about a hundred times now. Every time we set a date something else has come up stopping us dead in our tracks and making us re-evaluate and change our date.
In fact it has become so bad that people are starting to accuse me of lying about leaving.
25 May 2011
The past few days have been extremely traumatic and my level of confidence has diminished to a level even I can’t understand. On Sunday the house was filled with tears as we said goodbye to my Daughter and her boyfriend. And this morning when I dropped my son off at school for the last time I suffered to hold back the emotions and keep control of myself. The fact that we have to leave them here is difficult, no almost impossible to deal with. Considering the fact that we should still see them in July during the school holidays doesn’t seem to make an ounce of a difference to the emotional rollercoaster that we are riding at the moment.
29 May 2011
We eventually ran out of excuses and finally left the house yesterday morning. Today we are sitting at Kim and Darren in Durban after spending the night here last night. We decided to rent a car from Avis after our second last bakkie didn’t make the trip from the panelbeater to our house. A trip of almost four kilometres. Luckily or unluckily it packed up before we had embarked on the 600 km trek down here, and we didn’t land up having to call a towing service in the middle of the freestate. Now as I sit here I ponder about our decision and wonder if it was the correct one to make with all our worldly possessions packed into the back of two cars and a very uncertain future accompanied by no income. There is nothing like having no income to make you realise how much everything costs. I called my Daughter last night and my son this morning, cost R20 in airtime for plus minus three minutes each. I shudder to think about the cost of international or satellite call.
 |
| Packed and ready to go |
 |
| Empty house on departure |
Beginning of a life long dream or the start of an extended nightmare
19 Apr. 11
The myriad of tasks that have to be completed before taking a trip like this is humungous. First we had to complete the cupboards in the bedrooms of the house, then we still have to finish the plumbing and tiling in the bathroom. Next we applied for a pre-paid meter for the electricity which has taken five weeks already and we still have to wait another six to eight weeks before the meter arrives. In order to rent the house out we will have to have the pre-paid meter installed already. These are just the big tasks that have to be done and don’t include any of the business problems or getting rid of the last of our furniture. Luckily Lola has been relentless at getting rid of our personal belongings for some time already or we would definitely have run out of time.
We finally managed to sell one part of the business and moved our control room into the new owner’s premises yesterday. The other part we are going to sell to one of our existing employees. At the moment we are trying to sort out the accounts for the first part so that the transition can go as smooth as possible. Next week I have to start selling off the company vehicles. We also have to get to the bank sometime to make sure that our accounts remain open and active whilst we are away.
The kids passports are only valid for five years and we will have to apply before we leave for new ones for them as well as a new ID for me. Mine has been through the wash a few times and is all in tatters. I have been postponing getting a new one for some time now because I still have hair and am a lot younger in the old one.
We only have about a month left here before we plan to move down to Richards bay and the boat. Then the next phase can begin, getting the boat into ship shape for the trip. Hopefully the next phase isn’t as stress filled as the present phase.
24 Apr. 11
It is Sunday morning, in fact today is Easter Sunday and I woke up earlier than usual for a weekend. My mind was filled with thoughts as I had my first cup of coffee sitting in the garage waiting for the rest of the house to rise up and meet the day. I thought about the trip and wondered whether it was going to be the beginning of a life long dream or the start of an extended nightmare. So many different emotions are attached to a trip like this and not all are excitement, some are doubts. I am hoping that the decisions that I made along the way involving certain people, friends and family members, that I chose to ignore for what ever reasons doesn’t come back to haunt me on route and I suddenly find myself feeling as if I should have fixed things with these people before I left. On the other hand if I wasn’t going anywhere would I want to fall into the ever revolving trap of forgive and forget, then get screwed, then forgive and forget, by the same people over and over again.
Lola read her blog for the day to me and it is way more exciting than mine. Anyway as time goes by and we get closer and closer to leaving we decided to make our lives more and more inconvenient. A while ago we sold our fridge but after about two weeks of hell we borrowed a fridge from a friend making our decision that life cannot be lived without a fridge.
At the moment Lola is busy stamping our clothing in the bath since we sold our washing machine. The jury is still out on a washing machine and so far we have decided that we could live with hand washing for most things. Towels and bedding however, need a washing machine so we would probably make use of a Laundromat for these.
I never realised how much I would miss my lounge suite, since we sold ours we have been sitting, lying on the kids foam mattresses to watch TV. Not that we watch TV very often but the occasional afternoon nap on the sofa or just reading a book has gone. The boat has no real sofa type of seating so I will just have to miss my couch for the next few years.
This morning, being Easter hunt day, Kyle woke up all excited and came running through to the garage. Some years ago my kids stopped believing in the Easter bunny and I tried to convince them that in fact it was not an Easter bunny that came bounding around all cute and cuddly with chocolate eggs in his kangaroo type pouch but instead it was an Easter cockroach that vomited out the eggs. Hence the reason nobody ever sees the bunny. This morning I told Kyle that I seen the roach running around in the garage and stepped on him by accident so no eggs. He just looked at me for a moment then asked his mother where she had hidden his clues.
The myriad of tasks that have to be completed before taking a trip like this is humungous. First we had to complete the cupboards in the bedrooms of the house, then we still have to finish the plumbing and tiling in the bathroom. Next we applied for a pre-paid meter for the electricity which has taken five weeks already and we still have to wait another six to eight weeks before the meter arrives. In order to rent the house out we will have to have the pre-paid meter installed already. These are just the big tasks that have to be done and don’t include any of the business problems or getting rid of the last of our furniture. Luckily Lola has been relentless at getting rid of our personal belongings for some time already or we would definitely have run out of time.
We finally managed to sell one part of the business and moved our control room into the new owner’s premises yesterday. The other part we are going to sell to one of our existing employees. At the moment we are trying to sort out the accounts for the first part so that the transition can go as smooth as possible. Next week I have to start selling off the company vehicles. We also have to get to the bank sometime to make sure that our accounts remain open and active whilst we are away.
The kids passports are only valid for five years and we will have to apply before we leave for new ones for them as well as a new ID for me. Mine has been through the wash a few times and is all in tatters. I have been postponing getting a new one for some time now because I still have hair and am a lot younger in the old one.
We only have about a month left here before we plan to move down to Richards bay and the boat. Then the next phase can begin, getting the boat into ship shape for the trip. Hopefully the next phase isn’t as stress filled as the present phase.
24 Apr. 11
It is Sunday morning, in fact today is Easter Sunday and I woke up earlier than usual for a weekend. My mind was filled with thoughts as I had my first cup of coffee sitting in the garage waiting for the rest of the house to rise up and meet the day. I thought about the trip and wondered whether it was going to be the beginning of a life long dream or the start of an extended nightmare. So many different emotions are attached to a trip like this and not all are excitement, some are doubts. I am hoping that the decisions that I made along the way involving certain people, friends and family members, that I chose to ignore for what ever reasons doesn’t come back to haunt me on route and I suddenly find myself feeling as if I should have fixed things with these people before I left. On the other hand if I wasn’t going anywhere would I want to fall into the ever revolving trap of forgive and forget, then get screwed, then forgive and forget, by the same people over and over again.
Lola read her blog for the day to me and it is way more exciting than mine. Anyway as time goes by and we get closer and closer to leaving we decided to make our lives more and more inconvenient. A while ago we sold our fridge but after about two weeks of hell we borrowed a fridge from a friend making our decision that life cannot be lived without a fridge.
At the moment Lola is busy stamping our clothing in the bath since we sold our washing machine. The jury is still out on a washing machine and so far we have decided that we could live with hand washing for most things. Towels and bedding however, need a washing machine so we would probably make use of a Laundromat for these.
I never realised how much I would miss my lounge suite, since we sold ours we have been sitting, lying on the kids foam mattresses to watch TV. Not that we watch TV very often but the occasional afternoon nap on the sofa or just reading a book has gone. The boat has no real sofa type of seating so I will just have to miss my couch for the next few years.
This morning, being Easter hunt day, Kyle woke up all excited and came running through to the garage. Some years ago my kids stopped believing in the Easter bunny and I tried to convince them that in fact it was not an Easter bunny that came bounding around all cute and cuddly with chocolate eggs in his kangaroo type pouch but instead it was an Easter cockroach that vomited out the eggs. Hence the reason nobody ever sees the bunny. This morning I told Kyle that I seen the roach running around in the garage and stepped on him by accident so no eggs. He just looked at me for a moment then asked his mother where she had hidden his clues.
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