24 Oct. 12
We caught a taxi into town and bought a mirror. This will be the only mirror on the boat and I will fit it in the main bathroom. Until now we haven’t had a mirror on the boat but decided that it was probably a good idea to be able to see what we look like before we get off the boat and meet new people.
Whilst in town walking through the mall, Lola looked at me and told me that she feels excited about our trip for the first time in a while. We had been studying the weather and there appeared to be a window opening up on Sunday morning. The window seemed long enough for us to reach East London. This was the main reason for our visit to town. I also felt a prickle of excitement in my stomach as we stood outside the mall with three overloaded trolleys waiting for the taxi that would return us to Yrumoar.
The rain was pelting down on us as we loaded the groceries into the boot of the taxi. We were completely soaked by this sudden downpour but this just served to elate our mood even more and I found myself happily daydreaming about exotic destinations as the taxi drove up to our dockside. I was so busy dreaming that I almost forgot to pay for the taxi ride and Lola had to stop and reminding me that I have to pay.
This morning however things have changed. I woke up to hear Lola say that all her clothes lying on our bedroom side were soaked. I got up and together we discovered that our portlight had leaked during the night and a small puddle had made itself at home on the side. This was something that we believed we had fixed over a year ago now.
Next Lola went onto the internet and discovered that our weather window for Sunday had changed. The window was still there but someone had drawn the curtains, ruffled the sheets and stirred the seas into a frenzy, tossing in, for good measure, some near gale force winds. All my excited feelings were suddenly gone as reality pressed its heavy hand on my head, forcing me back down onto the ground.
28 Oct. 12
Lola has fanatically cleaned the boat over the past few days. This is a bit unusual for her since she has never been a neat freak before now. I must admit that the boat looks fantastic and she has been doing a fine job. I have possibly jinxed her cleaning spree now that I have mentioned it. At least we now, for the first time since we bought the boat, have a place for everything.
Yesterday morning Lola dressed up in a bright yellow rain coat and I dressed in an even brighter yellow raincoat. Looking like two complete idiots we walked the two kilometres to the water police in the rain with our flight plan to Durban. I still don’t quite understand why it is called a flight plan and not a sailing plan, but I suppose there must be some or other good reason for this. Another weather window appeared to be opening up and we decided to use this window to sail down to Durban. We arrived at the water police looking like a pair of luminous drowned rats and had our flight plan stamped. Then the rain stopped and we managed to dry out during our walk back.
This morning at two o clock, after tossing and turning, waking every so often and looking at Lola’s cell phone to check the time, we got up. Lola made me a cup of coffee and we sat in the cockpit preparing ourselves for the day ahead. Our next door neighbours also got up and I invited them over for a cup. The weather service had predicted that the wind would swing from south west to north east at about three o clock. Three o clock came and went, but the wind stayed south westerly. A thunder storm was periodically lighting the sky to our west and was accompanied by light rain. Lola and I decided that we would wait for the thunder storm to pass before we would leave. The prospect of being the tallest thing out on the ocean during a thunder storm isn’t my idea of fun. It fact it rates in the area of bungee jumping without a rope, or sky diving without a parachute. So we waited for the storm to dissipate. After about an hour, it did, but the wind was still coming from the south west. So we waited.
At about six the wind appeared to have made a turn to the west, so we said our goodbyes, untied the mooring lines and started motored towards the harbour mouth. On our way we hoisted our main sail reefed down to the third reef. Once we exited the harbour we were met by three metre waves spaced about ten seconds apart. We were also met by about two knots of south westerly wind. We continued out for about a half an hour trying to decide what to do. Eventually we decided to turn around and come back and wait for an actual window. One that we can sail, using the wind and not have to burn all our diesel motoring against the wind.
It is now eleven o clock and the wind has just switched to north east.
29 Oct. 12
I am again beginning to wonder if we will actually ever leave. So many thoughts float around in my mind. Has the weather really been the only reason for us to still be here? Is there something else that is keeping us here? Are we just afraid to drop the lines?
30 Oct. 12
Woke up at four this morning to the slap slap slap sound of the main halyard knocking against the mast. The mast is right above my head and the noise carries itself down the mast and into our bedroom. We have a bungee cord attached to this halyard to stop it slapping against the mast, but this morning it was slapping anyway. So I got out of bed, put on some shorts, and went outside. It had been raining the whole night and the decks were super wet. It was also quite cold. I checked the bungee and it was still attached, so I looked up the mast to find the source of the slap. Somehow or other the halyard had hooked around one of the mast steps near the top of the mast and pulled itself close enough to the mast to be able to slap away happily onto the mast. I unhooked the halyard from the step, tightened the bungee and voila the noise stopped. The cold wind coupled by a slight drizzle and my warm state of dress however made sure that I was now completely awake. Since I was already awake and already wet, I decided to have a shower. Unfortunately for me someone here at the yacht club had decided that hot water in the showers was unnecessary, so they had some device installed that would make sure that we never have hot water again. I think I will have to write a strongly worded letter to the club.
Since we are going to be here for another week or so I decided to start making some new stairs for the coach roof. The existing ones are made from wood and have rotten to such an extreme that we can no longer use them. Wood. I hate wood. I never hated wood before we bought a boat, but now, I hate wood. The only thing I can say about wood is that it will rot. It’s not even good enough for a braai since the invention of charcoal. Anyone that decides to build anything on a boat with wood must be an idiot.
01 Nov. 12
Another new month has arrived and another old month has passed and still we haven’t left. I never realised just how long it would take us to leave. I honestly believed that we would be gone within a few months after we bought the boat. But still here we sit.
The new stairs are slowly taking shape and I converted the spare room into a workshop so that I can still work when it rains. And that is all that has been happening, rain, rain and more rain. We haven’t even been able to test our new solar panels since there hasn’t been any sunshine. I can remember last year at about this time, we were still on the hard, and also struggled to find days to work when it didn’t rain.
Our financial woes are also on my mind at the moment. Yesterday I received a call from my X asking me about our plans for next year. She asked me how we will be making payments whilst we are out at sea with no internet connection. I told her that the payments are taken from my account via debit order, so nothing really changes. Her phone call however reminded me that real life still has to happen and we still have huge financial responsibilities ahead of us. My daughter finishes her degree this year so will be meeting the real world next year. My oldest son is going into his final year at school next year and wants to study engineering at university thereafter. We then still have two other kids that need to be educated. After her call I felt the tightness in my chest caused by stress. Stress that comes with reality, and the realisation that we are like trapeze artists, swinging high above the ground, happy and free. But looking down towards the ground so far away, I suddenly realise we are swinging without a safety net.
06 Nov. 12
I hate the parking we are in at the moment. The walk-on is new and therefore in good repair. However, it is situated next to the slip and there is a constant flow of boats in and out of the water just behind us. These boats are going out of the water because they have something wrong with them and need to be repaired. The repairs are mostly routine, but every now and then, one of these boats has a problem.
This morning one of those boats that have problems had to use the slip. I sat in the cockpit and watched as he came motoring down the channel towards the slip. He went straight past the slip without turning, and for a moment I thought he was just going out to sail for the day. I was just about to loose interest in him when I heard the roar of his engines. This was my first indication that he was experiencing problems.
I followed the sound of the roaring engines and discovered him in the channel trying to turn around towards the slip. He somehow managed to turn and came flying at full tilt, barely missing the lagoon that was parked at the end of our walk-on, past the back of our boat. With the motors still at full tilt he shot across the water and headed straight past the slip in the direction of the boats on the next walk-on behind us. I could see the panic on the skipper’s face as he rammed the motors into reverse gear, only to discover that this made him pick up even more speed going forward. He then pulled the levers further backwards, hoping to stop his forward momentum, but with the motors reaching maximum revs his forward speed just continued increasing.
The innocent crew from Sea Shoes were all standing on the back of their boat and managed to push him into a different direction. The direction however led him straight into the stern of Klai, the boat parked next to Sea Shoes. I heard the crunch as the two boats met. The skipper kept shouting to his assistant on the boat to push him away, but it was already to late and his assistant just couldn’t ever have enough strength to stop the six or ten tons of heavy fibreglass and steel from meeting.
I could feel my heart beat racing as he somehow managed to turn around and started accelerating towards our side of the docks. Lola and I shouted at him to stop the motors and rather toss a rope across to us. He didn’t listen and just kept on going faster and faster. His bow swung again and this time he headed towards the rocks just to the left of the slipway. Again he yanked down hard on the throttles. The motors roared and he rushed forward towards the rocks. I grabbed my head in anticipation of the imminent crash I was about to witness. Somehow he missed the rocks and headed for a second time in the direction of Sea Shoes. He barely missed them for a second time and again headed in our direction. Lola again shouted for him to slow down, switch off the motors and toss a rope towards us. At this point he managed to turn and headed at full speed towards the slipway. By now a huge crowd had gathered on the docks and everyone was shouting for him to toss ropes instead of trying to use his defective motors. Once again he rammed the throttles into full reverse gear and shot forward onto the slipway. The trailer was in the slipway waiting for his arrival and the workers had to jump off the trailer and run to save their own lives as he came tearing down onto them. I heard the thump and seen the shudder as the boat collided with something under the water and came to an eventual standstill.
It took about an hour for my adrenalin to calm down and for my body to stop shaking. We need to get out of here.
07 Nov. 12
Again we took the two kilometre walk around to Tuzi Gazi waterfront and handed our flight plan across to the police officer sitting behind the counter. This time however it was slightly different, he checked our forms and made some phone calls. I asked him, “Who are you calling?” He answered, “The guys downstairs.” I asked him, “Who are the guys downstairs, and why are you calling them?” He informed me by stating, “You need to be inspected, and I am arranging an inspection for you.” I said, “oh! that’s a bit different to the last time we checked out.” He dialled a few numbers getting no response from them. Then he looked over at me with a quizzical look on his face, his eyebrows raised high on his forehead. Suddenly his expression changed and with a new resolved look on his face he dialled one more time. When a voice answered the call he introduced himself to the voice and promptly handed the receiver across to me. I stood dumbfounded with the receiver in my hand. He then pointed at the receiver motioning me to speak to the unknown voice on the other side. I said, “hello.” The voice replied, “hello, how can I help you.” I replied, “…uh…. I don’t know.” The voice asked, “who are you?” I answered, “Barry.” The voice asked, “And why are you calling me?” I said, “I am not sure, this police officer mentioned something about an inspection, but I’m not sure why, or what he is talking about”. He said, “oh, are you leaving the country”. I said, “no”. He then instructed me to hand the phone receiver back to the police officer. I did. They spoke for about three seconds. The police officer on the other side of the counter said okay, stamped our flight plan and we left the building. Tomorrow morning we will hand the flight plan in at the office and it will be faxed across to port control. We then have thirty six hours to leave the harbour. Hopefully the weather stays the same as predicted.
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