Saturday night was the last night we had to spend with Amy, Keagan and Dean. The weather service predicted strong South Westerly winds and terrible weather for that night. We studied the prediction and felt disappointed that our last night together will be ruined by the weather. God must have seen our disappointment and delayed the weather till Sunday morning, giving us a clear beautiful windless evening instead. This allowed us the time to sit outside in the cockpit till about three in the morning before we eventually decided that we should get some sleep. We woke up again at five and after having our last cup of coffee together we helped pack the last of their belongings into the car and waved them goodbye.
We decided that our last Friday night should be spent at the waterfront. At around nine we arranged a lift with a friend who dropped us outside. We spent the evening alternating between the two remaining nightclubs here. Around three o clock in the morning we had enough and all six of us pilled into a small taxi sitting on each others laps and made our way home. It is now Tuesday and we are still trying to recover.
We discovered some more wood rot around Kyle’s portlight and will have to fix this before we can go again. We will spend the next few months waiting here so hope to tick a few things off the list. I want to focus on my book and hope to finish it before we leave here but haven’t made much progress since our return trip from Durban.
19 Jul. 12
During the night I woke up to Lola writhing and wincing in pain caused by earache. I am hoping she sleeps in a bit this morning and her earache gets better. I felt helpless lying next to her listening to her muffled suffering, trying not to disturb my sleep. This ear has been hounding her on and off for some time now with no real solution in sight. I did recommend a doctors visit but she stubbornly refuses saying that doctors don’t help, they just cost money.
Sitting here back at the beginning point of our planned sabbatical trip has raised many doubts in my mind. Mostly doubts concerning money. We have been delayed by almost two years and this delay has eaten its way into our budget. Thoughts about abandoning the trip or delaying it and starting some or other business venture keep appearing in my mind. The reality about any business venture is that it takes large amounts of cash and time to set into motion. The trip would have to be placed on the back burner until the business is well established and can fend for itself. History then teaches me that the moment the business is left un attended, it starts to fall apart and will eventually die. So any business ideas will actually kill the trip completely. I therefore have to resist the temptation and find other things to keep my mind occupied if we want to have any chance of continuing.
23 Jul. 12
Mtoro, a French couple with an adopted Malagasy son left a few days ago on their return voyage back to Myotte. We had made friends with them in the time they spent here so were on the docks to untie their lines and say our final goodbye’s. They started the motor and we tossed the lines to them as they motored backwards towards the opposite dock. Mario, the husband, mentioned in his broken English that he wishes he had his dingy motor attached to the back of the boat as it helps to steer the boat in confined spaces. We watched as they continued backwards slowly turning the bow towards the channel. The finger next to Mtoro was unoccupied allowing enough space for an easy exit away from the dock. Everything went smoothly and I thought we could start walking back towards Yrumoar when they selected forward gear and started moving towards the channel. The wind was blowing south west and we watched as their boat suddenly turned back towards the dock and headed straight towards another boat. Lola shouted to me that I should run around to the end of the dock and attempt to push them away from disaster. I hesitated for a moment worried that they were going to crash into the finger of the dock that Lola was standing on and thus run her over. Lola instructed me one more time to get onto the opposite finger and push them away. I ran towards that finger. The finger had two sets of stairs placed upon it to allow the owners of the boats usually parked there access onto their boats. As I tried to pass next to the stairs the finger tilted and I lost my balance. Instinctively I grabbed onto the stairs to regain my balance just to discover that the stairs also lost its balance and we both landed in the water. Fortunately two other people working on another boat had seen the pandemonium and ran over to help. One of them rescued the stairs and the other one helped push Mtoro away from the finger and then gave me a hand to get out of the water. In the meantime Mtoro reversed away from the dock again and going backwards towards the channel this time nearly collided with Yrumoar and two other boats on the opposite side of the docks. We tried to run around and save them but could only watch as Silvi the wife and Leo the son pushed Mtoro away from the other boats. By the time we arrived on the opposite dock they had made it into the channel and I stood laughing and dripping sea water as we waved them goodbye. The unplanned swim cost me a cell phone and a nearly full box of cigarettes. In future I think I will just watch people leave from the safety of our boat instead.
25 Jul. 12
Back when I was a child I used to have a little wooden dog. The memory of this dog is a bit vague but from the picture in my older mind I can still see its little wooden body. It had four plastic wheels with the back ones buckled making the dog go up and down whenever I pulled it along on a string behind me. The tail was made using a spring with a small round plastic cap on the end. The ears where pivoted pieces of plastic in the shape of a butter bean that had been driven over by a steam roller. This little dog went with me everywhere I went. This morning I miss the little dog for some or other unknown reason and wished I had kept it. I wonder if part of that child is still with me or perhaps I am just sad because he had to grow up.
31 Jul. 12
The last few days I have been feeling very antsy and restless. We need to move on and it is getting harder and harder sitting here waiting for summer to arrive. I don’t know how much longer I will be able to contain myself.
Woke up at half past four this morning. Whilst sitting in the cockpit freezing my butt off drinking coffee when, suddenly, and for no particular reason at all, I was overwhelmed by emotion. Firstly I missed my kids, then I thought about all the friends I have ever had in my life. I even missed the ones that I made in primary school and haven’t seen since. Not sure what brought on this extreme display of emotion but was glad nobody was awake to see it. Perhaps it was caused by the full moon or maybe its just that time of the month for me.
01 Aug. 12
My kids are always saying that I tend to exaggerate things a bit. Now I don’t agree with them since I feel I always stick to the facts as closely as possible. In a letter I wrote to them I explained the exact story of how I landed in the water and destroyed my cell phone. I copied and pasted the story. Its true, this is how it actually happened.
I wonder how much the story of the drowned phone will grow over time. It always starts off quite close to the truth but then somehow lands up being in a league of its own with a whole new life attached. Yesterday already I was explaining to someone how I jumped in to save a small black kid. Then I added that I also saved an old white guy. The old white guy had jumped in first to try save the young black kid. However as it turns out the old guy had dementia and he actually pushed the young black kid into the water, then he forgot that he did this and discovered the young black kid struggling for his life so decided to jump in after him. After he had jumped in he forgot that he himself couldn’t actually swim so only made matters worse. That was when I arrived and jumped in. unfortunately for me the old guys mind flipped again and he turned into the first world war hero that he was, pulling a diving knife out and a spear gun, he tried to send me to my demise because he imagined that I looked a bit German. I tried to tell him that I only had one or two German friends in my life but have never actually been to Germany. This made him even more mad and he accused me of being part of the Gestapo. A spy sent by the Russian army in a South African disguise with an English accent to kill him. But before killing him my mission was to befriend him and find out how deep the allies were digging their trenches. This was when I grabbed the steps from the walk on and smashed them into his head.
Anyway to finish off the true fact story. The black Ethiopian starving kid survived and I sent him back to Ethiopia with a single egg. He will probably grow up to be the bill gates of Ethiopia, providing he didn’t eat the egg on his way home, and used it to start a chicken farm instead. The old guy, well he just didn’t make it.
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| M'toro raising their new main sail |
