Doubting myself

04 Jun. 13

There have been few times in my life when I have doubted myself. Sitting waiting for replies from literary agents is one of those times. I received my first rejection this morning. Being rejected is never pleasant but the agent wrote the rejection so well that I have to respect her talents. I suppose that is why she is a literary agent. She has the skill required to tell you to go to hell and make you look forward to the trip.

I always have the option to self-publish if all the agents reject my work. I was hoping I wouldn’t need to go that route. it would make me feel I am not good enough but decided to publish anyway. Besides the economics. If an agent publishes they have contacts and I will sell thousands of copies. If I publish myself I could possibly sell two copies to my mother and another two to my kids. My wife would also buy one. This equals five copies. I know I didn’t do very well at school but even my limited knowledge of mathematics tells me I can’t survive on the R175 I made from the five pity sales.

 05 Jun. 13

Two more rejection letters today. Also well written, the trip to hell is sounding more and more exciting.

We received our first batch of sunscreen and insect repellent yesterday. Obviously the labels had to be wrong. It’s just not possible for anything to go smoothly. I suppose it is our first payment in the learning curve that comes with all new ventures.

 

06 Jun. 13

While Lola and the boys went to the spar for some groceries I stayed in the parking area and tried to sell some product. It’s been a while so I was a bit rusty but I still remember most of the requirements. Never ask a question that can prompt a negative response. For example. Do you have a minute? This question immediately allows the potential buyer to say no. Another example. Can I interest you in blah blah blah? Also allows a negative response.

 

Always have more than one product. This allows you to form an option question and eliminates a negative response question. Example. Do you use sunscreen or insect repellent? Most people would choose one. If you pass this first obstacle and they have chosen one or the other, focus on the one they choose. You ask no more questions explaining one or two benefits of your product. Then you offer a test of the product, like smell or whatever your product has to offer. If they don’t ignore you and walk away at this point you inform them your price by comparison to your nearest opposition. Example. You will save 40% on this product, but for today only. Hopefully you have your sale.

 

However, the amount of beggars in South Africa have made this job quite difficult. As soon as you are noticed people try to find an escape route. I was standing at the lift entrance and the stairs are about fifty metres away. So now they spot me and have to choose. Do I deal with the “beggar”, or walk the fifty metres to the stairs? Most people are lazy and use the lift anyway. So they look me over from a distance then avoid eye contact when they get closer and attempt to slip into the lift before I can say anything.
 

Since it was Wednesday during working hours I only had a total of nine people going into the lift. Of the ten four were old men, close to a hundred, so I didn’t stop them. I couldn’t see them going to the beech very often. One slightly younger man about eighty five, informed me he never goes outside. One more man arrived and waved me away before I said a word stating something about his mother on her death bed and how he shouldn’t even be at the spar. My first two ladies arrived in the same car and informed me they only use product x and are allergic to everything else. Finally a young mommy arrived in a fancy four wheel drive. She was almost sold when the lift door opened and some of the nearly dead came out. So no sales.

 

07 Jun. 13

We watched as a black sparrow hawk tried to hunt breakfast this morning. Someone here told me it is a black sparrow hawk so I hope he gave me the correct name. He glides silently across the sky and swoops down on his prey chasing it acrobatically until he catches his food. This morning however his prey outsmarted him and escaped. There are always birds in the sky here and I can see at least five different species at any time. When the hawk arrives however, the sky clears and all the birds disappear. Not bad considering they all have, “bird brains.”      

 

I didn’t get any go to hell responses yesterday. Not sure if it’s a good or a bad thing. I decided to give the job search another try and sent my CV to another ten places. Perhaps I am lucky this time round.

08 Jun. 13

One more go to hell yesterday. This one less tactful than the others giving me a more direct path to follow. Simple yet effective. “Not for us, thank you.” At least they said thank you. 

 

We ordered a new raw water pump for the port engine from Sweden and await its arrival. I finally completed the wood rot repair near the filler cap and will start with the rotten piece on the back step next week. Soon the entire boat will be fibreglass with foam core. Using the foam core and glass is expensive but at least it won’t rot.

 

 

Lola is busy with a course on line, hopefully it teaches her something useful. We are expecting a big blow later this afternoon so I have to pack everything away. While living in our house we never worried or even took note of the weather. Now it is everything and all our decisions are made accordingly.   

 

 

My first pickhandle baracuda

19 May 2013

Living on a boat gives new meaning to load shedding. The sun has gone even further north taking almost all our solar energy with it. We can’t even run the freezer overnight and have to switch it off when we go to bed. The fridge, well we run it for about an hour at lunch time. I suppose Eskom has a similar problem except they use coal.

 The engine problem, well we ordered some rubber boots and hope they are the solution. They had to be flown in from Sweden and should get to us next week.

Lola is still editing my book and should be finished at the end of the month. I took a few photos of Lola’s culinary delights that she prepares for us at lunch time. This should answer the frequently asked question, “so what do you eat living on a boat?”  For the recipes see http://recipes-lola.blogspot.com/

Lola's nearly famous vienna cheese rolls

Pancakes!

Homemade Pizzas!

 

A few weeks ago we removed our bathroom portlight. It was a stupid sliding thing that was installed when they first built the boat and leaked so much when it rained that we had a river flowing through our bedroom. Since the new portlight is not the same size, nothing is ever the same size on a boat, we had to build the hole closed and sand it till it was beautiful and flat. Then we had to cut a hole in it to fit the new portlight. Typical boat repair stuff. Step 1: make it perfect. Step 2: destroy it. Step 3: make it perfect again.

 

25 May 2013

I started typing my blog yesterday when the computer decided to die so I never saved and now I can’t remember what I wanted to say. Today is another day so here it goes. Lola has finished her first edit of my book and gave it back to me to do a rewrite. I started earlier today but ran out of power so couldn’t finish. Now my laptop is charged but its late and I don’t feel like doing it.

 We ran the starboard engine to charge the batteries and test it. I think we eventually found the fault but will only know for sure when we do our sea trials in the next week or so when the book is finished and we have sent it to few literary agents. Hopefully one of them decides it is good enough to publish. Again I seem to be on a down cycle and feel depressed. Staying in one place is not what we intended to do and it is getting to me. I have spent the past two years fixing the boat without going anywhere and it is bringing me down. Durban irritates me, the harbour never goes to sleep and the noise is incessant. I sometimes wonder if we are just finding excuses not to leave. The tenants haven’t paid, I have to finish my book, the starboard engine overheats, we are running out of money. All these things are true, but, I wonder if they are the actual reason we are still in Durban.     

 

30 May 2013

Lola and I finished our final edit of my book today. I have sent a copy to a friend for a proof read and an opinion. I am also working on a synopsis to send to a literary agent.

 

01 Jun. 13

Yesterday I tried to write a query letter and synopsis to send to the literary agents. It was harder to write than I expected, even harder than the book, and I eventually gave up throwing my toys out the cot. This morning I tried again. It still didn’t sound right so I gave up again.

 

02 Jun. 13

Another five attempts at the query letter. I will paste what I have, if it makes you want to read my book I have succeeded. Please make comments and help me out.

 

Falsely accused of a heinous crime, Willis a simple farm worker escapes from prison, crossing the border from Zimbabwe into South Africa. His life becomes a living nightmare as he stumbles from one unfortunate event to the next finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, every time.

Haunted by his past he discovers he is being hunted by his former employer and decides to flee even further. He manages to get a position as crew on a small sailing boat with three strangers. One of the strangers Johan, a man with a violent past and driven by dark forces, executes a plan that places all their lives in danger.

When Johan accidentally overdoses Willis his plans make an abrupt change as the skipper, Warren, a brute with a miserable home life, discovers his ploy.

The crew suddenly find themselves fighting for their lives and Lucy the only female on board finds her courage, but will it be enough to save them?

And that’s that.

 

We haven’t been able to test the repairs on the starboard motor and now the port motor has a problem with its raw water pump. It never ends.

 

03 Jun. 13

I finally tried out my new fishing tackle Lola bought me for Christmas last year. Yesterday I used a spoon, a flat piece of lead shaped like a spoon with a hook attached to the back end. My first catch was a plastic packet. The next two, also plastic packets. Then when I was about to give up, an old used underpants. Catching the things is one thing. Removing them from the hook quite another. Luckily I have gloves. Eventually the sun went to sleep and I thought I might have better luck in the dark. This time I caught a submerged rotting tree and had to row out in the dingy to retrieve my spoon. What would be next, an old shopping trolley or a dead body?

 

This morning I replaced the spoon with a pink and silver rubber lure. It is a lot lighter and stays near the top so I hoped it wouldn’t find more old underwear sitting waiting at the bottom for me. I cast it a few times without catching anything and was about to give up when I decided to cast one last time.

 

Something bit and I managed to land my first pickhandle Barracuda. Awesome! He wasn’t big enough to feed the whole family so I let him go hoping to catch him again when he is bigger. Perhaps this year’s fishing license is going to work.   

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.

A new course to steer...finally!

06 Apr. 13

After months of “begging and pleading” with many ups and downs, we have decided that looking for work is pointless. Nobody requires our expertise so they can all go to hell. Driven into a corner by fate and of course, some of our own doing, has left us with no other choice. We will have to start our own business. I promised myself that I will never go into security again and I will stick to that promise. With that in mind and loving our current lifestyle on the boat we brainstormed until we found a solution that fits our plans. We have decided we are going to start a marketing company. It’s not going to be easy considering we have very little money, but then we never had lots of money anyway. So please hold thumbs and if you can support us by buying our products, once we have products to sell, please do it, it will be appreciated.

 07 Apr. 13

It’s funny how a single phone call can change your day. This morning I spoke to Amy and she told me that she worked the whole of last week and only managed to earn 5 pounds. Now she has to give notice on her flat and if things don’t change will have to give up her gap year and come back to SA. I was just feeling happy that she managed to find work and get a flat. Her boyfriend, Dean also hasn’t found any work yet so now I will be back to worry, worry, worry.  It looks like we are all in the same boat and it is sinking fast.

And of course we continue with a mandatory boat work!

Another year older...another year wiser...or not!

12 Mar. 13

Last night we finally managed to speak to Amy on Skype. She has found a job and is settling in to her new apartment which lifted a weight from my shoulders. I have used Skype before to speak to a friend of mine but he was just down the road and I had been seeing him on a regular weekly basis. So this was different. She is my daughter and is sitting halfway around the world in another country. I also haven’t seen her for almost three months now. It’s weird how it is so different from a normal phone call where you hear a voice and can only imagine their face, not really being able to get a true feeling of their emotions. It made me feel less worried about her having seen her apartment and her demeanour. Knowing that she is well and looks healthy and still familiar is an emotional release. I thank all those computer geeks that invented the internet and Skype. Yesterday they made my day complete.

Yrumoar is a hair salon too!

 24 Mar. 13

Today I am back to feeling uninspired and deflated as I watch my dream to go sailing slowly sinking down the drain. I have had no response to any of my job applications so stopped sending my cv. Everyday Lola and I try to come up with different solutions to the our rapidly diminishing cruising kitty but none of our ideas are working.

 02 Apr. 13

Well today I turned 48 and it was a good day. I received all the obligatory phone calls from everyone that cares and a few from those that don’t really care but feel they have an obligation to call anyway so, like I said, a good day.

 We decided to go away from the boat for the day and into town. Having nowhere to go and nobody here in Durban to visit we decided that we would spend the day at home affairs and the police station. Lola needed to apply for a new passport and we didn’t have anything else to do anyway so it seemed like a good time to visit a few of our fabulous government departments. Someone at the yacht club told us that the home affairs near Amamzimtoti was never busy and that we should try it instead of the busy one in Durban town. We followed his advice and headed to Toti only to discover that everyone from Mozambique in the north, all the way to Cape town in the south of Africa was waiting in a queue about two miles long outside the office in Toti. We took one look at the queue and thanked our lucky stars that we didn’t have to fill in a leave application for the day just to be trapped standing in a queue. Deciding the queue was just too long and we didn’t want to spend our day standing in it, we left and went to the mall in toti instead. Kyle’s birthday is on the 7^th and we needed to buy him a present anyway.

After the mall we thought that we should drive past home affairs in town and see if it was busy. It wasn’t, and we applied for Lola’s passport leaving for our next destination, the SAPS, within fifteen minutes. We wanted to apply for police clearance at the SAPS but discovered that we cannot do it in Durban town and have to go to the Bluff police station since we live in the Bluff. By the time we managed to get back to the Bluff it was already late and we decided that tomorrow was another day so came back to the boat instead.

 Back on the boat I decided to have a few brandies to celebrate, or is it forget, I am never sure. Anyway Lola and I sat in the cockpit and I had a few drinks while she drank a few cokes and suddenly I decided that I hate South Africa. Not the people or the land, but the politics. The fact that I am looking for work and have sent my cv to about fifty different places without any response, pisses me off. The fact that I sold my business because I was tired of lying to my customers because the government failed to issue me with a company firearm license for five years, pisses me off. The fact that, when business was good I wanted to diversify and tried to buy a few different franchises I was told that I had to be black or have a black partner, pisses me off.  So now I am sitting on the boat, slowly running out of money to feed my kids and wondering what to do, knowing that whatever I do I cannot do it here in my country of birth because I am simply not welcome.

Sailing North...blotch up!

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.

Worried about Family...

23 Feb. 13

Somehow we lost a day or two. Yesterday morning I was typing on my laptop when Lola asked me what day it was. I told her it was Thursday. She then asked Rauen and he told her it was Wednesday. I asked her why she was asking and she told me she also thought it was Thursday. When she went onto Windfinder to check the weather it was Friday. Somehow we were all confused and a day disappeared without any of us knowing. For a while we joked that the calendar was changed and we never knew since we don’t have a television.

Whist pouring water from a jerry can into the water tank I noticed a small bubble in the paintwork near the filler cap. When I pressed on the bubble a crack appeared. I then tapped in the area around the crack. Everywhere I tapped it felt soft and spongy. And so the discovery of yet another area of wood rot begins. It never ends.

 25 Feb. 13

Yesterday I called my mother to see how they were doing. Halfway through the call she suddenly burst into tears and I don’t understand what is going on. So I wait till she calms down and ask her. She tells me I am leaving soon and she doesn’t know if she will ever see me again. I told her it doesn’t look like we will ever leave so she is worried for nothing. I also told her that if we do ever leave we won’t be gone forever and I will call her on Skype. She has no idea what Skype is so I try to explain. Eventually she calls my sisters eldest kid that has been living with her since my sister cannot look after her kids anymore. He also has no idea.

 I don’t know how to help my mother. She is getting old and has been left with the huge responsibility of looking after my sister’s three children. My sister is an addict and therefore no longer herself. Before we moved onto the boat I hardly spoke to my parents and usually tried to avoid any contact with my family members. If you ever met my brothers and sister you would understand why. But now that I finally have had the opportunity to get to know my mother again, I can’t help but worry about her.

 When I opened my e mail on Thursday it contained a scathing mail from Amy telling me that I am a bad father and don’t seem to care about my kids anymore. Her reasoning for this was that I had not bothered to contact her since she left on her gap year. At first I was mad with her for sending that mail, but then I calmed down and replied. In my reply I mentioned that she didn’t have a number, so how could I possibly contact her. I tried getting her new number from Keagan but he didn’t have it. Anyway to cut a long story short I finally managed to speak to Amy on the phone yesterday. She hasn’t managed to find any work in Scotland yet and is running out of money. So now I am worried about her too.

 

Bluff Beach in February