19 Aug. 12


The question of staying has been coming up a lot lately. Lola could get a job here in Richards bay as a teacher which she had discovered to be her chosen profession. I considered starting a sailing school so I still get to do some sailing. During the school holidays we could sail up the coast to Mozambique and back. It has been very tempting to cancel the trip. There is a multitude of reasons for these thoughts. Money being on top of the list with the fear of the uncertain future being a close second. Last night however Lola and I discussed the subject once more and this time it was Lola’s turn to make the decision to continue with the trip. It is weird how we seem to toggle, sometimes it is me and the next time she would decide. I never realised how many times the temptation to cancel the trip would come up.

23 Aug. 12

Today we went to the airport to fetch our son Rauen, back from his two week visit to Joey’s. Now that he is back we need to get the most important items ticked off the list and then watch the weather for a window. Our new navigation system on the laptop with an AIS receiver seems to be working. The power problems that we have had are still not completely solved. The MPPT charge controller that we bought hasn’t made any difference. We received it with absolutely no paper work and even though it seems quite a simple thing to install there may be a trick to it. I tried contacting the manufactures but they just ignore me. I will send one more e-mail to them in a final attempt to see if I will get some joy.

29 Aug. 12

After spending about sixty rand on cell phone calls to WRND I am still no closer to solving our power problems. I must have asked the guy four or five times to please send me a manual, but still I wait in vain. Perhaps it’s a secret and my qualifications aren’t classified enough. Or maybe it is on a need to know basis, and I just don’t need to know. We also want to buy an inverter from them since their pricing is good, but now I am not sure if I should. Maybe their pricing is so good because their equipment comes without manuals and doesn’t really work. The equipment looks quite pretty though so I suppose that would make up for its inability to work.

Today we will go and collect a rental car that we plan to use for a trip to Joeys to say our goodbyes to the kids and family. This must be about the fifth time we have said our final goodbyes, so perhaps it’s not really the final after all.

07 Sept. 12

Our visit to Johannesburg has passed the halfway mark and I find myself wanting it to come to an end so that we can get back home to Yrumoar. More than once during our visit up here I asked myself why we chose to stay here for so long. This must be one of the ugliest places on the planet, especially this time of the year. Everywhere we drive we are surrounded by brown dirty pieces of open land with black patches where veld fires have scorched the soil and destroyed the dry brown grass. The icy wind blows through your skin until your bones feel cold and brittle. Even the stars refuse to shine here in the night sky and only a few of the very brave ones will show their faces to the poor souls that are doomed to survive here.

We have however enjoyed spending time with our family and friends and we made a point of seeing Keagan everyday after school. Amy has been a bit more difficult to see since she has a busy life and lives in Pretoria, about sixty kilometres from my mother’s house where we are staying.

14 Sept. 12

A myriad of thoughts were making their way slowly through my head as we drove away from my mother’s house on our way back towards the coast line, and back towards our home on the boat. Like a slide show the memories of the past week flashed on and off in my mind. Images of each of our friends in turn cycled slowly across my mental vision. The slideshow would play for a while flashing some of the memorable moments of our trip, but always ended with the sad eyes that accompanied the goodbye’s. Saying goodbye has never been one of my strong points and this perhaps final goodbye to some was particularly hard. The slide show was still running when we made our pit stop to buy KFC for lunch. I sat eating but not really tasting anything as we had our lunch. After KFC we walked to the convenience store to buy coke for the next part of the trip. Rauen attempted a conversation with me as we walked along and I must have appeared to be listening as he continued speaking. After reaching the shop we departed in our separate ways and I found myself thinking that I was really glad he didn’t ask me any questions, since I didn’t hear a word he said.

The trip to Johannesburg was a trip of extremes going from Axel’s thousand odd square metre, ultra modern, home to my sister and Warren’s small broken, in dire need of repair, rented house, to Russel’s mansion with the forbidden west wing, and then to my daughter Amy’s small student apartment. Each place we visited brought its own individual experience and the memories that go with it.

Axel's Amazing home

Lindie and Warren

Kids in the Lambo

For the most part we stayed at my mother’s house, making a point of going to see my son, Keagan every afternoon once he arrived home from school. During our visit to Sam and Russel we all had our first unforgettable experience in a Lamborghini. Going to Axel’s house confirmed our decision that going on a boat actually suited us. His place is large and modern, but for me, excessive. At his place, Lola and I discussed what we would need should we ever decide to settle back on land again. We realised that we are obviously just too simple and require almost nothing to live happily. Our “wish list” if you can call it that, went as follows. First we require a fridge/freezer, then a comfortable bed. A small stove and some plastic garden furniture completes the list. Everything else would be considered luxury items. Thinking back to past Barry and Lola this was about all we had anyway before we decided to go, so I suppose nothing has really changed.