Moved Aboard

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.