On the road...or sea!

21 Apr. 12


Yesterday we motored around in the harbour looking for the last time at the big ships on the docks. We watched them as they slowly sank deeper into the water as hundreds of kilometres of conveyor belts fed their hungry bellies with tons and tons of black coal. The coal dust drifted across the harbour and settled on everything in the surrounding area including the inside of our lungs. On our way back we entered Tuzi Gazi for the last time and said goodbye to the waterfront area that has been our home entertainment for the past year or so. Before returning to our walk on we decided to drop an anchor just outside the channel and spend the night at anchor. Lola and Rauen paid out the chain and dropped the anchor overboard. We waited for the anchor to bite into the ground and spin the boat into the wind. This never happened and we just slowly dragged the anchor whilst we drifted sideways to the wind into the channel. So they hoisted the anchor and I motored us out of the channel. Again Lola and Rauen dropped the anchor and we waited. Again we drifted. I went to the front and Lola and I spat a few words at each other without any solution. They lifted the anchor again and I motored back out of the channel for the third attempt. Again we drifted. At this point we gave up and motored back to our walk on. This morning we replaced the 30 pound CQR anchor with a 60 Pound Bruce anchor. We bought the heavier Bruce some time ago but were trying to sell it. Although I wanted a heavier anchor the Bruce required boat modifications in order to carry it. I had just been too lazy to do the modification. Luckily nobody had made us an offer yet. Now the boat has been modified and I am actually happier even though it made me work, which I am not too happy about. I hurt my back muscles, broke two brand new large drill bits and a drilling machine whilst modifying the anchor.

On a more serious note we are still waiting for our SAMSA papers and the famous ships plaque has, without inspection, now been securely fitted, using Prestik.

22 Apr. 12

I decided to stop drinking brandy in the evenings for a while to see if it helps with the pain in my arms. My arms have been in pain since January and at this point I am becoming a bit desperate so I am willing to try anything that may solve the problem. Having no brandy in the evenings creates problems of its own. We used to sit happily in the cockpit having a couple of sundowners, the more sundowners, the happier, and that was our simple entertainment for the evening. Now I find sitting in the cockpit without the sundowners isn’t as much fun and we get bored. I also want to snack all the time. So last night, after three of four nights in a row with no sundowners, we headed via taxi to Jacks Corner. We all enjoy the atmosphere at Jacks and the view of the harbour mouth and ocean is spectacular creating a good feel to the place. Because we haven’t been out for a while and since it will be our last visit to Jacks, we all pretty much pigged out ordering starters, mains and deserts. It was a good sober evening.

This morning I woke up just before five. Now as I type this the sky has turned red announcing the arrival of the sun. It reminded me of the saying “red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors warning”. Quite appropriate today since we are expecting the wind to switch from north east to south west some time during the course of the day.

24 Apr. 12

The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Our journey is about thirty thousand miles but will begin with the first 88 miles or so tomorrow. Yes we are eventually going to escape Richards bay and start our actual trip. Our first leg will be down to Durban. According to the weather prediction the south westerly wind will swing around sometime tomorrow and the north easterly will begin. On Friday the south westerly will make its return. Durban will get the south westerly about six hours before it arrives here in Richards bay. This should allow us a weather window of about 48 hours. We should take between ten and twenty four hours according to my calculations. But since this is our first trip, and I am not really sure how accurate my calculations are, I have given us a 24 hour leeway in case things don’t go according to plan.

On a personal note we have met lots of people down here and made some really good friends. Some of these I am really going to miss. Others not so much. I would like to mention a few that made a difference. Dylan is possibly the one person that supported us the most with his knowledgeable help and assistance. He came as if called at the times when we seemed to need him the most. I don’t really know how I am going to repay him for all his advice and assistance. I am a little bit confused how he knew we needed him at times and started suspecting him of having hidden spy cameras on our boat. Perhaps he just had a sixth sense.

There are many others like the cute friendly ladies in the marine store that made our many visits to Pro Radio and Marine much more pleasant. Fiona in the yacht club office that was always willing and able to assist, scanning and faxing documents all over the place. The slightly strange but interesting family from sea shoes. In fact ninety percent of the people that we met here at ZYC. And since there are about thirty people here, the three of you that irritated me should know who you are.

It is easy to understand how you could get trapped here and never leave. The setting is absolutely beautiful, the weather mostly fantastic, and the people friendly and helpful.

Sea Trials

17 Apr. 12


Woke up on Sunday morning still feeling lethargic and listless. Lola and I sat in the cockpit staring at each other with rather blank expressions on our faces as we tried to discuss the list again trying to muster up the energy to tick at least one thing off. The list, the list, the list, everyday, the list. I am so sick of the list. Lola could obviously read my mind and suddenly gave me an understanding look. She then suggested that we should not work on the list but rather head out for a sail even if it is just in the harbour. I agreed with her that this was a better way to spend the day.

It was a little later after our morning visit to the bathroom that I noticed it was Sunday. The notice board had been chalked on with the details of the Sunday race meet. This must have been the point that the idea first entered my mind so I made my way back through the boatyard in search of my better half to convince her of the idea. If we are going to untie the docklines we may as well head out to sea and enter the race. Lola agreed stating that if we managed to get the boat ship shape in time then we should take part. Suddenly we all sprang into action stowing away stuff that has been lying around all over the boat for months now waiting to get used to tick things off the list. We quickly found homes for most of the stuff and the rest got jammed into any available space. The clock was ticking but we managed to escape the constraints of the dock with a few minutes to spare. We headed out into the channel and shook the cobwebs out of our never before used main sail. She went up smoothly and sucked up the wind as we tacked around in the channel waiting for the race to begin. We had entered one race before but never managed to reach the start line. Our inexperience showed right from the start as we stupidly chose the leeward side of the channel and had to tack back and forth in the harbour mouth a few times before we managed to exit the harbour. By this time the other sailboats were almost halfway to the horizon.

The predicted wind was between six and nine knots. Our wind instruments don’t work so we just had to accept the prediction. Judging by the sea state and our boat speed of seven knots I predicted the wind to be more around seventeen knots. We continued speeding, if you can call it that, at between seven and ten knots slowly closing the distance between ourselves and the other boats. By the time we were about one mile from the turnaround point the distance between us and the second last boat was no more than four hundred metres with the others just ahead. We were close hauled and Yrunoar was bouncing through the choppy sea. Occasionally the sea spray escaped over the bows cooling me in my seat behind the wheel.

I knew that once we rounded the mark we would be sailing on a broad reach and since we are on a catamaran we would most certainly catch the other boats. I had noticed the rigging wires on the leeward side of the mast flapping away in the wind but decided that I won’t mention this. A few minutes later we entered the Mozambique current and I could feel as we were pushed slightly off course as the current tried to push us down towards Cape Town. Unbeknown to me everything was about to change.

Lola went inside to do something and looking out of the saloon windows must have caught site of the flapping rigging wires. I heard her a long time before seeing her as her frantic angry face came flying out of the doorway. I thought she was going to suffer a complete meltdown as she screamed at me that it was all my fault and she wants nothing whatsoever to do with me ever again. I tried to pacify her but she was having none of it. Right this instant I was to drop that main sail and take her back to shore now. I could see from the demonic look in her eye that she meant business and decided it was wiser to obey than object.

We will never know if we would have caught up to the other boats. But in my wild imagination I believe we would not only have caught up but also overtaken. Maybe, perhaps.

19 Apr. 12

This year has been the most difficult and trying time on Lola and my relationship. I think back now to new years day and can still remember the strange look in Lola’s eyes. For the first week of the year she carried that look in her eyes. I am not really sure that what I did on New Years Eve was so bad that it should have ruined our relationship, but for a while into the new year it did. It is now four months down the line into the year and the occasional mention of new years still pops up. It reminds me of our wedding day and the minister’s sermon. He preached about knitting a jersey and dropping stitches as you knit, leaving behind a hole or many holes in the jersey as you go along. He mentioned that the only way to fix the holes was to unravel your knitting and go back to the place where you dropped a stitch. If you don’t your jersey will always have holes that let the cold in. I find myself doubting our relationship and feel that Lola no longer trusts me completely as she once did or is hiding her real feelings from me. I am not sure how to go back to new years to fix whatever the problem may be, or if the problem even started on new years and isn’t seeded back further somewhere. The meltdown on the race didn’t help matters and my selfish behaviour towards her reaction was unacceptable. Even though I have apologised for my behaviour I still feel that there is something missing in our relationship that used to be there. I am not sure if I want to put this on my blog but I do want to remember how it felt and when it happened.

20 Apr. 12

This morning I woke up to perfect weather for a trip down to Durban. We weren’t quite ready but decided that we have to focus on getting ready. So we started the motors and drove up to the wall. At the wall we filled the diesel tanks. One hundred and sixty two litres. Hopefully this is enough to get us down to Cape Town and across the Atlantic Ocean. Actually I hope that it’s enough to get us all the way to New Zealand but that’s just hopeful me. Unrealistic, hopeful me.

I think Eric must have heard of or read my blog because I see how he sort of eyes me when I walk past and half ass greets me when he has absolutely no choice because we have to cross paths. Ah well, I’m really going to miss his friendship. We were after all very close, almost like twins really.

Nothing to do?

09 Apr. 12


And just like that my kids have gone. They arrived on Friday afternoon at about two and left this morning at ten. A whirlwind visit with very little sleep trying to steal every precious second possible away from father time. Last night we didn’t sleep at all and instead spent the evening sitting in the cockpit talking. By four this morning we were all suffering from sleep depravation and struggled to keep our eyes open with one of us at a time slipping in and out of consciousness periodically. Just to be shouted awake and back to reality by the remaining zombies. As I write this I find my eyes swimming around a little and my view seems hazy. But it was worth ever second of the time. Now I suppose the long suffering misery cycle can begin again and I land up missing them once more. This time however we will see them again somewhere between here and Cape Town.

11 Apr. 12

I opened my eyes and looking around my cabin my thoughts turned towards the day that lay ahead. For the first time in months I felt completely calm and relaxed. I allowed my thoughts to wander and they led me to the realization that this trip could actually take place. My cabin felt cosy and warm then it dawned upon me that I could just stay lying in my bed for the rest of the day if I felt like it. I was under absolutely no pressure to do anything. That thought was inspiring and I felt the stress of the past few months slipping away into the distance. I eventually got out of bed. Not because I had to but because I chose to.

We caught a taxi into town, walked around in the mall and had a disappointing lunch at Maxi’s. I had a good chat to Keagan on the cell whilst Lola rummaged through the underwear at Woolworths. Then we stopped at a few more shops collecting some things for the boat and caught the taxi back. Now I am going to sit outside in the cockpit and have my second cup of coffee, allowing my mind to meander and search through the memories of the past weekend.

12 Apr. 12

I couldn’t get myself motivated yesterday to do anything significant so I didn’t get much done. We went to bed before nine last night and woke up at four this morning. The bed is so uncomfortable that spending time in it makes my body feel like a bus has driven over me twice. We keep saying that we have to make a plan to fix it but haven’t made it a priority. Perhaps it should move up on the list a few spaces.

13 Apr. 12

Friday the thirteenth, always an interesting date if you are superstitious. For me, it’s just another Friday, and since we don’t have to go to work it may as well be Wednesday or Saturday. I am hoping to get a few more things off the list today but with my arms still being in pain and my motivation level being at an all time low I am not sure how much I will achieve. We are still waiting for SAMSA to issue our seaworthy certificate and have left two voice messages for Runa at SAS. She however seems to be ignoring us. We are obviously not high on her list of “favours” to do for strangers that have paid you for some work to be done. The weather has been rather cold for Richards Bay and last night the boat slowly rocked me to sleep as the south west wind created small waves on the water. I love the motion and it reminds me of my childhood, sleeping on a swinging garden chair under a large oak tree, the chair slowly swinging back and forth. One of the better memories from a confused and traumatising childhood.

It is so beautifully calm this morning with the water taking the appearance of a mirror. The sky is covered from horizon to horizon in white clouds that look a bit like upside down woolly sheep grazing slowly on the stars. I like to take a mental picture of this image and store it in my mind. I hope that one day, when I am an old man with a long white beard, I will be able to search the recesses of my mind and find this image. Hopefully the memory of this day comes flooding back and I can relive the emotions that went along with it.

05 Apr. 12


Yesterday afternoon at five thirty Mike arrived unannounced at our boat with the ships plaque. I was sitting in the cockpit having a cigarette when I heard someone walking towards Yrumoar. He stood at the side of the boat with a small package in his hand waiting for me to speak. I couldn’t bring myself to greet him and just said “you brought our ships plaque”. to which he replied “yes” and handed it over to me. I took the package from his hand and looked at it. It was a small piece of brass coloured plastic, about half the length of a school ruler, with some black printing on one side and double sided tape on the other. Then I heard Mike’s voice say “I have to inspect that you have installed it on the boat”. So I had no choice but to invite him to climb aboard. I called Lola into the saloon and Mike stood “inspecting” as we removed the double sided tape and stuck the ships plaque to the side of the nav station. Wow that was such an important inspection I am sure that ships all over the world are sinking on a daily basis because they forgot to have that inspection done.

Our ship plaque...so the numbers can't be seen...

This morning I got up and found the newly inspected ships plaque lying on the floor. The double sided tape just didn’t hold, what a surprise. Now I wonder if I had better call Mike to come and inspect as I stick it back again or maybe I should just drill a few small holes on the corners and screw it on so that it won’t fall off again. I will of course have to do this secretly and without anyone knowing that I have installed a ships plaque without being “inspected”.

6 April 2012

Dylan arrived here at about eleven or twelve last night more than slightly intoxicated. We tried to sober him up for about an hour by feeding him coffee and peanut butter sandwiches. He refused to sit down and instead kept rocking about and appearing to fall over, then finding some sort of balance then repeating the steps. After watching him helplessly for a while and constantly hoping he doesn’t fall and damage anything his stomach eventually won the battle and he spilled his lunch overboard. Now we were finally on the road to recovery and a couple of glasses of water later Lola had him safely tucked into the spare room bed. This morning he stumbled about the boat a little confused making only occasional eye contact with us. Lola fed him breakfast and he was on his way to beg for mercy from his better half. I still remember having those experiences myself. The implications were always the worst if you misbehaved on a Thursday. The weekend is then spent with a partner that hasn’t quite forgiven you acting and feeling as if you had betrayed her trust. By the time all the open wounds are healed the weekend is gone and Monday has stolen both days from your life forever.

Inhaca - or not Inhaca

01 Apr. 12


The immigration official was a slightly chubby friendly faced black man. He smiled and made polite conversation as he brushed casually over our documents and stamped our passports. We ordered lunch at the yacht club while we waited for the customs official to arrive. He apparently got lost or went to the wrong place. I took an instant dislike to the customs official before he even arrived. Fiona from the yacht club office was probably partially to blame. She had made a call to him trying to find out if he remembered his appointment with us at the club. He flew off the handle and rudely explained to her that she had better not be wasting his time and he refuses to wait for longer than ten minutes. My feeling towards him was confirmed when he arrived. He walked into the clubhouse and sat down without greeting or acknowledging anyone on his route. He sat down at one of the tables and spread out some paper work. Then looking around at all of us waiting on him, but at nobody in particular he barked out a question in a terrible African English. We all looked at each other hoping that one of us understood what was required. He repeated his question using an abrupt tone and it sounded like he was asking how many of us are leaving. We all misunderstood and answered all of us at which point he handed us each a form to complete. Once we discovered that he meant how many ships are leaving he jumped up and snatched the forms back throwing them back onto the table only leaving one form per skipper. At that point his phone rang and he answered. “yes! What! Just come to the yacht club!” pause. “No, just come to the yacht club!” Longer pause. “The yacht club! The yacht club! Just come straight to the yacht club!

He seemed to calm slightly after that and filled out our forms without saying another word. So we are now officially in no mans land. On Monday morning we should get our SAMSA documents and ships plaque. If all goes according to plan we should leave Monday afternoon or early evening. The weather forecast has a 15 knot south westerly wind predicted that should allow for some good sailing up the coast towards Mozambique. It still feels a bit unreal so I’m not excited yet but rather have a feeling of indifference towards the whole trip.

02 Apr. 12

Today is my birthday and we would have sailed on up to Inhaca but once again Mike from SAMSA has decided my future. Yesterday Lola spoke to Runa from SAS and she told Lola that she can no longer send our ships plaque up on Monday. The reason, Mike from SAMSA refuses to allow another inspector to inspect the ships plaque. Inspect the ships plaque? What is there to inspect on a stupid little engraving that is so difficult and important? The people at SAMSA obviously have nothing better to do with their time than play little stupid childish waste of time games. I just can’t stand the fact that my life can be controlled so easily by one person. I wonder if this guy decided that he disliked me instantly and now on his little power trip it excites him to mess me about. Needless to say my spirit was broken and the trip to Inhaca will no longer happen. Leaving on Tuesday afternoon, if Mike shows up, and history has proven that he is as reliable as the weather service, would make our arrival after Wednesday evening’s pre-race briefing thus disqualifying us from the race.
04 Apr. 12

Yet again we sat on the boat waiting for Mike from SAMSA. He obviously works on a different time zone to us. I haven’t quite been able to establish which time zone he works on so land up working on my own one and then being confused when he doesn’t arrive. On Sunday Runa from SAS told Lola that her and Mike from SAMSA would be on our boat at ten o clock yesterday morning with our now famous ships plaque. Ten o clock came and went with Lola and I waiting on the boat for our visitors to arrive. At quarter past ten Lola phoned Runa and spoke to her voice mail. Eventually at quarter to eleven Runa called back asking Lola if she was looking for her. Lola was as sweet as pie as she kindly told Runa that she had been looking for her and we have been sitting on our boat waiting for them to arrive. Runa then informed Lola that they weren’t coming at ten anymore and that instead Mike would contact us at twelve when our ships plaque is due to arrive in Richards Bay. Well I found myself fighting with Lola afterwards telling her what she should and shouldn’t have told Runa over the phone. Typical, kill the messenger scenario. I know it’s not Lola’s fault that these people have absolutely no consideration for anybody but themselves. People with some consideration would at least have picked up the phone at ten and said “listen toolbox, you don’t have to sit on the boat like an idiot waiting for me, I am no longer coming”. Instead they will just make you wait and wait forever. The twelve o clock phone call also never came. Maybe they meant twelve o clock in December 2020 but it definitely couldn’t have been twelve o clock yesterday. I don’t even know what I am supposed to do at this moment. The problem that I have found in this boating industry seems to be that everybody acts as if they are doing you a favour. It doesn’t matter that you have paid them for a service, they don’t have to provide said service and instead they are doing you a huge favour. It pisses me off.

On a lighter note Amy, Keagan, Warren and my sister are coming to visit this Easter weekend.

After waiting in vain yesterday we went to immigration and then to customs in town to clear back into the country even though we never got to leave the dock side. Thus the whole Inhaca exercise turned out to be a complete waste of time and money. At this point I wish to thank all those involved for the “school fees” payments that I have made.

SAMSA

22 Mar. 12


Managed to tick off quite a few of the smaller jobs from the list today. We also received a phone call from SAS informing us that we have eventually, after only six months, been issued with our MMSI number for our EPIRP. Now we can book our final SAMSA safety inspection. We still have a few bigger jobs and one or two small ones to complete but today I feel a bit more positive that we may be able to get finished in time for the race. I also miss my kids a lot today.

27 Mar. 12

The boys got themselves into trouble last night by not washing the dishes yesterday when they where told to do so. They have been slowly slacking off and getting them to do anything has become more and more difficult as they seem to be to tired and disinterested in anything but playing. They also get up when they feel like it and don’t put in much effort at schooling. I find that I have to beg them for three days in a row and on the fourth day they will decide to listen after I almost lose my temper. With all the repairs going on it has become their task to wash the dishes. There haven’t been many dishes since we haven’t had much time to cook and have had a lot of take outs haven’t got a clean glass or spoon to use. This forms only part of the problem the other half is that the dirty dishes are left all over the place leaving me with no work surface and attracting all sorts of insects.

We have one or maybe even two leaks in the starboard hull under the waterline. I have been trying to establish where they are but haven’t found them yet. The one appears to be in the engine compartment under the engine. The other one somewhere around the keel.

29 Mar. 12

Today we will put back our sails and do the last few small jobs on the list. Then from our side Yrumoar is ready to tackle the race from Inhaca Island in Mozambique. We waited yesterday afternoon for Mike from SAMSA to arrive for our final safety inspection, but he never came. The SAMSA registration may be the biggest obstacle that lies ahead of us and may still prevent us from leaving the country.

30 Mar. 12

I phoned the SAMSA inspector yesterday morning and asked him if he forgot about us. He insisted that he came down to our boat and knocked but we were not on the boat. I then asked him if he went to the correct boat because we were sitting on the boat waiting for him. He again insisted that he had the correct boat and was here. Well, he must be invisible and on another plain that the normal human eye cannot see or hear. Something like a dog whistle that only dogs can hear. I gave up arguing with him after a while and we made a new appointment for yesterday afternoon at four thirty. You will never guess but just before four we received a phone call from someone else telling us that he is unable to make our appointment. Now we have a third appointment for ten this morning. Lets wait and see if he arrives for a change and is in his human visible form.

The whole SAMSA dealing with the beaurocracy thing has been a pain in my butt and has pretty much halted any plans we had of leaving for the Inhaca race. So all our preparations and the mad rush comes to a grinding halt while we wait for these twats to own our lives once more. It seems to me that there is no real escape from the forced requirements of society and the dream of having complete freedom and sailing into the sunset is very different from the reality.

31 Mar. 12

Mike from SAMSA eventually arrived for our ten o clock appointment at half past eleven after I had phoned him three times. I made the first call at ten fifteen and he told me he is about a half an hour away. The next call was at eleven when he told me he is just outside the gate. The third call I made in my mind when I imagined telling him how I was going to attach an anchor to his leg, toss him overboard and set his head on fire if he managed to break the surface. We passed the inspection with him picking around his list up and down a few times to try find fault with our equipment. Once he eventually left we hurried on to the office and e-mailed our documents to Runa at SAS. She made some promises and jumped into action trying to arrange all the necessary or unnecessary paper work with SAMSA. We sat down to some T-Bone steaks whilst Lola ran into the office and back a few times making phone calls and internet payments allowing the flies to eat half her steak and eventually eating the cold leftovers after the flies had finished..



I forgot to mention previously but the very same day we had our EPIRP recoded the yacht club held a memorial service for Barry and Allison on Tiana that went missing at sea. The coincidence of this amazes me and reminded me of the twilight zone since we bought our EPIRP from Allison.