My whacky humour is back

15 Feb. 13

Woke up really early this morning and sat outside drinking coffee and listening to the world around me wake up. It is a paradise for bird lovers here and all around me many different species of birds were flying about. Two large pelicans came souring past the back of the boat and five or six small wagtails were competing for space on our lifelines, taking turns to all try and sit on the same spot. A dove was calling a mate on the spreaders and a small family of Egyptian geese swam nearby. Reality however was always skirting its way around the edge with the ever present noise of trucks and cars in the background adding a bit of big city reality to the mood.

 16 Feb. 13

Progress on our new stairs has been very slow. The weather in sunny Durban is mostly to blame for this. I don’t know how Durban acquired the reputation of being the sun capital of South Africa since it is only sunny here between five and six in the morning then it turns overcast with rain for the rest of the day. So if you happen to be a late sleeper you will never get to see the sun. We are also waiting for a new alternator for our starboard engine. I don’t know why I say we are waiting since we don’t really have any plans to go anywhere anyway so technically we aren’t really waiting for anything.

 

21 Feb. 13

Stardate: 15….. Year: 2025……..Mission: Get out of Durban.

Its feels about the same as trying to leave into outerspace at the moment. We are having problems with our tenants and cannot make contact with the accounts department of the managing agents. Okay we can make contact but they seem to be speaking a different language to the one we are able to communicate successfully in. Working Via the internet and E-mails is like speaking to Houston from planet Durban. We send them a simple E-mail expecting them to fill in the blanks using the data they have access to and send the completed mail back so that we can check if all is in order. Quite simple really. However, somehow Television and the media has sold everyone left on earth the idea that computers and software will make their lives much easier and less complicated, freeing up their time to be able to do the things they really want to do. The all believing human race then adopts this theory, and suddenly when it is all to late to reverse and go back, they discover, to late, that they can no longer think or operate without the use of a software package and a computer. Unbeknownst to them the software engineers have always had a secret desire to rule the world. (Sorry Russel,….but deep down inside I think you know its true) and then simply use the accountants of the world who already suffer to communicate in human to slowly spread their pandemonium across the face of the planet. Oh damn as my fingers are typing and I see the letters appear magically on the screen my brain seems to be draining out slowly.   

22 Feb. 13

We are still sitting in Durban trying to solve our financial issues. Lola has been on the net in an attempt to find alternative income sources but nothing has really helped. I am about a third of the way with my attempt at writing a book and hope to finish before we run out of cash. I don’t even know if the book will get published but will finish it anyway. Something of a personal goal that I have to complete. On a positive note. Living on a boat, working with paints and epoxies, then having no access to an iron makes your clothes suffer. Eventually everything you own makes you look like a homeless person. There are many “jobs” here in SA for homeless people so at least we will have something to do once we have broken the bank completely. And our painting experience will come in handy when we have to make a sign board that says “broke, need money to go cruising.”

Fibreglass work again?

28 Jan. 13

I swopped my files onto a new laptop today since my old one has been giving me grief and this one also has a longer battery life. Now I can sit on the boat type my book and update my blog for a few hours whilst the battery is charged. My old laptop only allowed me fifteen minutes before it needed charge. This one has about three hours. We bought this one a while ago to use for our navigation and it doesn’t have another job so we decided it would be okay to use it for my stuff. My old one is still working so I donated it to the boys for their computer games.

31 Jan. 13

We were sitting in the cockpit, each in our own thoughts when Lola asked the boys what they enjoyed and disliked most about living on Yrumoar. Rauen struggled to find his words but Kyle, who always has a lot to say, started and told us he enjoyed the fact that there is no rush anymore. He gets up in the morning when he wakes up and we don’t have to rush about and get ready for school, rushing through breakfast, getting into the car and rushing off to work. What he dislikes he wasn’t sure about but eventually decided that he did get bored when he had nothing to do and all his battery power on his playstation was gone.

Rauen found his words and informed us that he also loved the slower pace at which we lived. He told us he was never bored and really enjoyed having nothing to do sometimes.  What he disliked was being asked the same questions repeatedly whenever he met someone new. The one particular question that he hated was, “what do you eat?” He thinks it is a stupid question and doesn’t know what his answer should be.

Lola explained that she also loved the slower lifestyle and getting to spend so much quality time with her kids and husband. I would love to meet this husband, he sounds like a cool guy.

For me it is the fact that your life is no longer ruled by a clock or a calendar. It’s a feeling of freedom, even though it isn’t really freedom. That word is a fallacy and should be scrapped from the English language completely.

10 Feb. 13

Went onto facebook today to find out if Amy ended up safely in Scotland. She left about a week ago on her gap year having a short stopover in Amsterdam. She doesn’t have a new phone number yet and has to get a bank account before she can get a sim card so I can’t call her to find out if she is enjoying herself. Hopefully she manages to get some form of work there and gets herself sorted soon.

 From our side nothing much has changed and we are still sitting here in Durban. We ripped the rotten steps that lead onto the coach roof off and started making new ones. It was a tough messy job on the foredeck. I missed my table that I had made when Yrumoar was on the hard in Richards bay. Working on your knees on the deck is back breaking and a table would make things a lot easier.

 

 

Our starboard engine alternator has also packed up and overcharges the batteries. We drove around from spare shop to spare shop hoping to find a replacement but eventually had to admit defeat and ordered one from Volvo. It is fascinating how ridiculously priced boat parts are. A standard alternator for a fancy car like a Mercedes is under a thousand rand. Even a Volvo alternator for a Volvo car is under a thousand rand. But for the boat, no, suddenly the price jumps from one to seven and a half thousand rand. Ridiculous and ludicrous that’s all I can say.

We are getting tired of Durban now and I haven’t had any joy in the job department.