03 Feb. 12
The month of January has gone forever and the clock is ticking away into February with us still sitting on the hard. The repairs are all so close to finished yet still feels so far away from completed. The problem being that no boat repair is a simple task that can be completed in one day. Everything has a process that has multiple steps to be completed and each step has a waiting or curing time. Today I will fair and sand the bow hopefully for the final time since I applied fine fairing compound yesterday and have spent the last two days sanding the initial course fairing compound. We then have to paint undercoat and two top coats to complete the last of the repairs on the boat. We still have other things to do but they are small strengthening upgrades as opposed to fixing old problems.
Last night I watched Lola as she looked up at the moon and my eyes followed hers to find an absolutely picture perfect half moon peering out through some clouds. I touched my arm and my mind wandered to a memory of my daughters face and the smile in her eyes when see looks at me, and I missed her. I am still not sure how I am going to cope on this trip without my kids considering that I am so emotional at the moment and we are still in the same country with them being only a couple of hours away by car. I am hoping that by the time we get to Cape Town I have managed to gain control of my emotions and will be able to face the trip across the Atlantic.
This morning as I am sitting outside in the cockpit I discovered that my senses have started to awaken again and I look up at the sky. A thin film of cloud is hiding the normally blue sky and there is not a breath of wind. A bird is sounding tock tock tock tock in the background with other birds chirping away to each other. Nobody is awake yet and the roads are silently waiting for the traffic to arrive. The last six months or so have just flown by without me being able to stop, taking some time to listen to the sounds of land and savouring the moment because my mind has just been too clouded with the boat work. I think that now that the work is coming to an end I may be able to rediscover the reason we are doing this in the first place.
04 Feb. 12
Yesterday we painted the port side, the curve under the trampolines and the deck repairs. Today we will have to paint and prepare the deck fittings in order to re attach them. Whilst painting the side I heard a loud crash and instantly recognised the sound as that of a boat being dropped from the trailer. I jumped down the scaffold and ran towards the slipway to see if I could help but once it fell, it has fallen and is now part of history that cannot be undone. The two people that own this boat, Linda and Afgeni, took it quite well and managed to maintain poker face in the chaos that followed whilst the trailer crew scurried around like rats trying to re secure the now damaged boat. I would be devastated after spending all this time on the hard working on the boat just to have it dropped when it is about to go back in the water.
I really enjoy this time in the morning when I have just got up and made my first cup of coffee. The world is silently waiting for the new day to begin and there is a freshness in the air that you can almost taste. At this time my mind can wander taking me by the hand and leading me to anywhere it wants to be, somewhere and nowhere all at the same time.
Some time ago at one of the Monday night braai’s Lola and I met an extremely attractive young lady from Norway or Sweden or somewhere there. She has been on my mind quite a lot, not because of her looks but because of our conversation that evening. She had been reading Nelson Mandela’s book, the long walk to freedom and was trying to establish how South Africa was actually doing. I don’t know if it was because I was too busy staring at her boobs or something to be able to answer her interrogation but feel that she misunderstood my answers or tried to read more into my casual not very well thought out replies. It had been such a long time since the change over from the old South Africa to the new that it was no longer a fresh issue in my mind. I keep replaying this conversation in my mind and when I do I have so many better replies compared to the ones I offered that night. Maybe next time I meet someone who has a keen interest in this topic I will be better prepared. It would probably help if they are ugly so that I can actually use my big head to think for me and not the little one.
The conversation went somewhere along these lines.
She” I am busy reading Nelson Mandela’s book, the long walk to freedom, have you read it.
Me” no” (I wonder what she would look like naked in a construction yard with a jackhammer in her hands)
She” is it because you don’t like the man”
Me” no I have nothing against him he is a great man that has done some wonderful things” ( hmm if that bra strap breaks would those drop down an inch or so)
She” why are there no black people here.
Me” uh uh don’t know” (what kind of a shit answer was that. Hey maybe running around on the beech in a tiny bikini bouncing a huge beech ball)
She” are the blacks not allowed to come here”
Me” what?” (does she have green or blue eyes)
She” so they aren’t allowed here then”
Me” what? (no the jackhammer one is definitely my favourite)
And so this continued without me being able to give any logical answers till Lola comes to the rescue and I walk away.
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