30 Apr. 13
I haven’t written anything on my blog this month because I have been so
busy trying to get my book finished. I am not sure when I will get it done but
I am going to guess that it should take about another two weeks or so. Dave and
his brother Jan came for a quick visit over the weekend. They stayed with us on
Friday night and again on Sunday night. On Saturday they went to Margate. There
was a bike rally on for the weekend and they wanted to go and see. Having
waited a bit too long to decide, all the accommodation in Margate was booked up
and they landed up sleeping on the pavement like homeless street children. They
had a lot of fun anyway and enjoyed their trip. We enjoyed their visit and told
them that they are welcome to come again. Maybe next time they could bring
their wives along and we could go out sailing.
01 May 2013
Yesterday morning we were sitting in the cockpit when I noticed a line
of some oily looking stuff floating down the river towards Yrumoar. We watched
it floating closer and closer till it eventually reached us. The air became
misty as it passed by and it left a foul smell. The water around the boat
started to bubble as it obviously reacted with our antifoul paint. This was not
good. Someone at the yacht club had told us previously that we should report
this to Transnet and they would send someone to do an investigation. We did not
think about this at first so I only managed to take a water sample once the
bulk of the stuff had passed us. But then about an hour later another line
appeared across the water and this time we were ready so I managed to get a
good water sample. Another hour passed and again it floated down the river,
again I took a sample. Today Lola will send an e-mail to Transnet and then we
will wait and see if they will actually do something about it.
06 May 2013
Today I finished writing my first fiction novel. The characters have
been living in my head and I finally managed to help them escape onto paper. It
has been a long and hard slog to get to the end. More than once I thought about
giving up but…..with the help of Lola and the kids I pushed through to the end.
Now Lola’s work begins when she takes on the mammoth task of editing.
When she is done and I have corrected and changed the mistakes and she has
re-edited it three or four times becoming really sick of me and my creation.
Well, then…. who knows. I will let you all know when it has been published.
Please buy a copy and help us continue sailing. Oh,… and to all those English
teachers out there that told me I would never amount to anything. Ha ha. You
were wrong. (thank goodness for spell check.)
07 May 2013
Now that the book is finished I can get back to my blog for a while.
Yesterday afternoon I was on a high. I had finished the book and felt like a
million dollars while we walked around the Spar buying a few groceries. Our
stocks were running low and we were out of coke. Running out of coke is
normally the sign that tells us it is time to go to town. Lola turns into a
four headed monster if she has no coke and none of the heads are friendly so we
normally try to prevent this from happening. It’s just safer that way. Those of
you that know her will know what I mean.
Anyway I was joking pretending to be a famous author and telling people
to move out of my way. Rauen joined in the game and we wreaked havoc in the
store. While all this is happening and we are having the time of our life, Lola
and Kyle are doing their normal thing of course. Lola walks around with her
list checking prices on the specials and buying five of everything on special
that we may be running short off, completely ignoring my stupid game, and Kyle
keeps making comments that I am no longer related to him and that he is going
to kill me with some or other death ray gun that he has invented.
Leaving the store we went down marine drive and bought a Pizza. Then we
came back home to Yrumoar. At the yacht club we discovered that Lola’s article
that she submitted to SA Sailing more than a year ago was finally published and
is in this month’s magazine. Peeeeeuuuuuuyyyy. Deflated. And just like that. My
fifteen minutes of fame comes to an end.
08 May 2013
Some feedback on our “scientific research.” The environmental guy from
transnet replied to our E-mail. He sent us two replies. In his first reply he
seemed excited and told us that he would come down and collect the sample,
thanking us for taking the effort and recording the times. However, a few minutes
later in his second E-mail things had changed. Somehow our sample wasn’t going
to be good enough and had to have been taken by a lab technician within five
minutes of blah blah blah. Now I don’t know what happened between his first and
second reply but I can only guess that he spoke to the powers that be and was
shut down. Shame, at least he tried. He was probably given the position on the
pretext that he would be able to make a difference. The reality seems a bit
different. From our side. We did what we could and will just have to accept
that the oceans have become man’s dumping ground and are slowly being poisoned
to death.
Today I will get back onto the list, starting with the starboard motor
that I stripped about a week ago. It still overheats and I am no closer to
finding out what the problem is. I have narrowed it down though and will use
parts from the port engine to try establish which part is faulty. Hopefully it
isn’t one of the expensive ones like the insert on the heat exchanger.
A few days ago our dingy pump snapped in half while Lola was using it.
Fortunately we have a spare so we won’t be left stranded and unable to get to
shore.
As the sun continues with its journey into the northern hemisphere we
have less and less charge in our batteries. We used to switch the fridge off at
night when we go to sleep and turn it back on in the morning when we get up.
Now however we have to wait until the sun is already up. Sometimes we have to
alternate between the fridge and the freezer switching the one off when we
switch the other one on. I never even had to consider this while we still lived
in our house.
