26 Feb. 13
I think today is the third day in a row that I feel depressed. I am not
sure why I feel down but can’t seem to snap out of it. This “dream” hasn’t
turned out to be anything like I expected and I feel disillusioned by it.
27 Feb. 13
My mood seems to have lifted slightly even though nothing has changed. I
did manage to fit the new alternator and the motor has been running for the
last hour. We dropped the old one at an auto electrical repair shop and will
keep it as a spare when it is fixed. I will test the alternator for another
hour to make sure it doesn’t decide to overcharge the batteries, like the old
one did, and then tick the repair off the list. The progress on the stairs is
still going along slowly. The wood rot on the coach roof near the water filler
cap that I discovered the other day. Well, it’s on the to do list. I just haven’t
been up to doing anything about it yet.
My book is making progress and I have almost typed 50 000 words
Reaching the 50 000 milestone would make me around halfway. So definite
progress on that front.
04 Mar. 13
The last week has had a few memorable moments. We decided to sail north
back up to Richards bay, hoping that we may get work there since we haven’t had
any joy here. So about a week ago Lola and I left the boys on the boat, got
onto the dingy and made our way to the club to settle our account. The weather
experts predicted a howling Southwest wind of 30 knots, but it was only due to
arrive at about five in the afternoon. We left the boat at about nine. So it
was in a flat calm that we made our way across the channel. Whilst motoring
along on the still water, Lola made a comment saying this must be the calm
before the storm and I laughed. The dingy docks is about three hundred metres
from us, all the way on the other end of the channel and around the boats moored
in the centre of the channel. We normally take a short cut between the boats in
the centre, making our way carefully between the myriad of ropes that are used
to moor them, across the channel and onto the only walk on. Its only about
fifty or sixty metres away and saves us time. We also avoid having to compete
with the fifty other dingies tied to the dingy dock.
So as per habit we used our shortcut and landed on the walk on.
The first section of the walk is made of floating concrete segments
bolted to each other to make it as long as required and held in place with
ropes. This section is about a hundred metres long. Another section about
thirty metres is attached to it at ninety degrees. This second section leads
onto the land and is anchored to the ground more securely.
We walked down the first section, came to the ninety degree turn, turned
and walked onto land. When we arrived at the office the young lady in accounts
told us she was busy and asked if we mind waiting for about an hour. We said it
was okay and we sat around waiting for her to finish. About ten minutes had
gone by when the predicted for later, 30 knot south west wind arrived, bringing
along with it a few extra friendly knots. A huge cloud of dust covered the sky
within seconds and both Lola and I worried about the kids on the boat. So we
went outside into the howling wind and swirling dust and looked across the
water. Our boat is quite well protected from the south west wind by some large mangrove
trees and everything seemed okay. We stood blinking in the dust for a while
considering our options then decided that the kids would be fine, so went back
inside and waited for our account.
After an hour we went to ask for the account. The lady was still busy
and she asked us to wait a few more minutes. We were getting tired of waiting
and were still worried about the kids on the boat, not wanting to leave them
alone for longer than we had to so I asked her if she would e mail it to me
when she was done. She agreed and we made our way back towards the walk on. As
we left the club we noticed that the piece of the walk on that leads onto land
was twisted up on one side and the other side was under water. We stood
pondering our situation when I heard someone talking to us. It was Graham,
another guy at the club busy building his yacht. He said, “oh so you have to go
across the wall of death.” “the wall of death.” I asked and he repeated the
words pointing at the buckled walk on. He then told me it happens whenever the
south west wind blows and has happened so often that it now has a nickname.
“the wall of death.” Quite dramatic.
We had seen it happen once before but never knew it had a name so found
it quite funny.
Anyway Lola and I walked down to the buckled walk on and stood looking
at it for a while trying to find a way across. The dingy docks is next to it so
we decided to go onto the dingy docks, climb into someone’s dingy, then climb
from that dingy onto another one next to it, then push the one away from the
other one and onto the other side of the walk on that is still flat and
useable. Once we arrived on the dingy dock we could see the other side of the
“wall of death.” Seeing it from another angle I decided that I could climb
across the buckled piece and fetch our dingy. Then I would motor down to the
dingy dock and fetch Lola. Lola agreed and waited for me on the dingy dock. I
made my way back to the “wall” and managed to hold onto the side in the air
whilst climbing over. When I got to the other side I heard Lola’s excited voice
shouting, “I can do that, I can do that.” She was jumping up and down and
reminded me of a little girl that had just discovered a jungle gym for the
first time in her life. So I just laughed and waited whilst she ran skipping
and bouncing towards me. She managed to get across without any problem and we
walked down to the dingy. Getting to the dingy I filled the water bottles and
we stood discussing how we were going to get back to the boat in the howling
wind. Between us and our kids about fifty metres of water was bouncing and
whipping. Small waves had formed and white foam was flying around in the air.
Our dingy has a small motor and Lola asked me if we would be able to motor
against the wind. I told her our little motor could pull a truck through this
water, but we were going to get very wet. We did get very wet and our little
motor managed just fine.
Back on the boat our e mail arrived and we settled our account. Then we
waited till the next morning when the weather had calmed, and went to port
control to clock out and hand in our flight plan.
Since it was Friday, we had until Monday morning to leave Durban harbour
and decided we would leave on Saturday night at about eleven. The predicted
weather for the whole weekend was mild with very little wind in Durban, but
slightly more in Richards Bay. We needed a mild window not wanting the
terrifying experience of after our last trip so we were quite happy with the mild
prediction. Not wanting to leave our mooring after dark in case we managed to
tangle ourselves in the ropes again, we decided to leave during the day on
Saturday, at high tide, and sail across to point yacht club near the harbour
mouth to drop our anchor and wait. At point we planned to have lunch and get
some sleep in the afternoon so that we would be rested for the trip ahead.
Unfortunately getting the boat ready took longer than expected and we missed
the early morning high tide and had to wait until the afternoon when the tide
came back in before we could leave. The tide was only high enough again at
about three so we waited. High tide finally arrived and we managed to leave
without tangling ourselves into the ropes.
Whilst motoring towards point we decided not to anchor and headed out of
the harbour instead. Outside there was no wind with a two metre swell that came
from the east. This easterly swell made Yrumoar roll from side to side. As she
rolled from one side to the next over the swell the boom would fall across to
the one side then jerk back to the other side bouncing the blocks on the bimini
roof. The noise was irritating and I tightened the bridle ropes. The boom still
jerked from side to side but the noise was less. This side to side rolling
motion continued and became quite uncomfortable and I found myself getting
irritated after only a few minutes at sea. Lola obviously didn’t enjoy the
motion either and soon we were arguing with each other for no particular
reason. The sun was just starting to set when we established that our arguing
was caused by both of us feeling tired already. The night before we had a late
night and we had to get up early to prepare for the trip so didn’t get much
sleep. The lack of sleep had obviously caught up to us. After motoring for another
hour or so, both Lola and I decided that we weren’t up to an overnight trip and
turned Yrumoar around.
We arrived back at point at about nine in the evening and dropped our
anchor. Since we were already bushed none of us wanted to stay up to do anchor
watch. So we dug up our small handheld GPS to set an anchor alarm. When we
tried to switch it on we discovered that the batteries had leaked and no longer
worked. We looked in the spares locker but had no spare batteries so had to
give up on that idea. The weatherman predicted no wind so we figured it would
be okay, trusting our Bruce anchor not to drag we quickly fell asleep.
The anchorage is very bouncy whenever the tug boats come past and Durban
is a very busy harbour that never sleeps, so the tugs are up and down the whole
night. This also didn’t help our tired bodies and we woke up at three in the
morning after a fitful sleep still feeling exhausted. Our plan was to leave at
three but our tired bodies refused and we only left, after multiple cups of
coffee, at five.
It was beautiful outside on the ocean. Not a breath of wind was blowing
and the swell was under a metre. The sea looked like a mirror and I could see
my own reflection when I looked over the side. Since we knew this was going to
be a motoring experience we had filled the diesel tanks and would run one motor
at a time to save fuel. We started running the port motor and would change to
the starboard one after two hours.
Leaving the harbour we sailed out to sea until we found the counter
current. The counter current runs north at about one to two knots and we wanted
to use it to gain extra speed hoping to shorten the journey by a few hours. We
found the counter current at about fifty fathoms and our speed increased from
four and a half knots to almost six. The motion was pleasant and the view of
Durban and as it drifted slowly by was phenomenal. Watching a big city float by
in the distance whilst you are on the water makes you feel unattached and free
from the stress and pressure that lives in that city. It’s a good feeling and I
enjoyed the moment.
After motoring using the port motor for about two hours I switched
motors and started the starboard one. The autopilot compensated for the change
in motor and our speed stayed the same. I was just about to settle down and
have a cigarette when I noticed the temperature gauge move rapidly past the normal
mark on its way to overheat. So I quickly jumped up and cut the motor. Lola and
I looked at each other trying to read each other’s thoughts. With one motor
down and no wind we would have to rely on the port motor only. We were still in
between the large container ships anchored outside the harbour and the harbour
entrance was still faintly visible behind us. After discussing our options for
a while we decided to push on and started the port engine again.
We motored past Umhlanga lighthouse, then past Umdloti and onto
Balito. The boys settled down and watched a movie on the laptop while Lola and
I went to sit on the trampolines. We sat watching the bows as they sliced their
way through the water, occasionally rising up into the air, then plunging back
down into the water creating small upside down waterfalls as the water splashed
up against the bows then tumbled back over onto itself. We were still sitting
happily watching the water when a large line on dirt appeared to be floating
across our path. We both looked at the rubbish in the water as we passed
through it. It looked like a bit like an oil slick with some plastic packets
mixed into it. I heard Lola tell me that she hoped it doesn’t damage our motor.
Her words were still ringing in my ears when the motor changed its sound from
its normal sloshing sound to a constant blowing noise. We both jumped up and
ran to the cockpit. I checked the temperature gauge and it was rising rapidly
so I cut the motor.
Now we had no motors and no wind. We sat drifting around for a while
trying to decide what we should do. We were less than halfway to Richards bay
so decided to hoist the sails and wait for the wind. The wind arrived about an
hour later but was very light, about six knots. Again we discussed our options
and decided to turn around and make our way back to Durban. It was a slow sail
in the light wind but we managed to get our speed all the way up to four knots.
We arrived back at the harbour mouth just before sunset and sailed to
point where we dropped our anchor to wait for the morning. In the morning Rauen
dived down to check if anything was wrapped around our sail drive. After he
checked he came up and told us it was clear. We then stripped the raw water
pump to check the impellor. It was fine. Next we stripped the heat exchanger.
Some of the tiny holes in it were blocked and we cleaned them. Before replacing
it I decided to check the rubber boots that hold it in place and found hundreds
of tiny sea shells in the one. Problem solved, on the one motor at least. The
other motor seems to have more than one problem but we managed to get it to
work long enough to get us back to the bluff and safely onto the mooring lines.
