Monday, May 13, 2013

Visitors and broken boat parts!


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.

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