Family Sailing Adventure: And the weather turns good...for a while

15 Dec 11

Yesterday was possibly the hottest and most humid day of this season. We struggled to work with buckets of sweat pouring out of every pore in our bodies as we moved about. At about eleven Lola and I decided that we could no longer stand the heat so we took a walk to the swimming pool for a quick dip to cool down. The water was so refreshing and the pool temperature was just perfect. There was a couple of people at the pool and I had a small moment of embarrassment when my new swimming shorts came off as I dived under the water making me lose concentration and forcing me to surface immediately after.. I hoped that no one had noticed but when I came back up Lola and Kyle where giggling away. The other people said nothing but I could feel that they had noticed so I tried to avoid eye contact with everyone for a while. Fortunately the most they could have seen would have been a brief glimpse of my very white un-tanned butt. The humidity persisted and by the time we came back to the boat from the pool we where dripping perspiration and wanted to go back almost immediately.

We cut out a small piece of the coach roof and replaced the rotten wet wood with foam core. Besides the fairing sanding and painting that is required on the boat this repair is our second to last one that is required for now. Okay possibly our third to last. The port bow has some wood rot and still needs to be done as we did the starboard one already then we can start fitting solar panels a water maker and be on our way. All other repairs could be done on route or so we hope.

There is a new boat parked next to us at the moment and this morning I was woken up at four by the new neighbour’s cat jumping into our bedroom hatch and landing on our bed. Fortunately I like cats so wasn’t to perturbed by it.

Today being the 15th would have been the day we would have to pay salaries to our staff. Oh how things have changed without this huge responsibility hanging over our shoulders. I still feel stressed out just thinking about it. Now that stress is gone but has been replaced by another, are we going to survive financially? Owning and managing your own small business has many stresses and pitfalls but money used to come in on a regular basis and even though it was never quite enough it did keep us afloat for the most part. Now every cent that we spend is gone forever, never to be replaced. The thought of that fact gives me cold shivers down my spine.

16 Dec. 11

Today is a public holiday here in South Africa and also my mother’s birthday. The public holiday and her birthday are not related but conveniently help me to remember her birthday. Raining again today and yesterday so I am limited to indoor work on the boat. I managed to sand the fairing compound that I stuck on with a trowel a few days ago on the bottom of the bridge deck yesterday but cannot continue adding more since the products are very weather dependant. It’s a long and tedious operation since you trowel the stuff on then sand most of it off just to trowel more on then sand most of it off again. This cycle can be repeated a few times dependant on how experienced you are with the stuff and how fussy you are about the finished product. My neighbour here on the hard, also called Barry, told me that someone told him, and I quote his words “if a man galloping past on a horse looks at the boat and thinks it is fair, then it is fair.”

20 Dec. 11

Only five more days till Christmas and six till my Daughter arrives. Christmas is great but I am way more excited about the arrival of my oldest child as she is by far my favourite daughter. I can say this because it is true and because she is technically my only daughter.

We started painting over some of the repairs that we have completed using 2K automotive paint. The paint gives a nice finish even though it makes any and all imperfections visible. Fortunately my eye sight isn’t what it used to be and neither Lola or I are very fussy about perfection, we are more about how well it works, so it doesn’t matter. The durability of the paint will have to be judged in time. Taking the decision not to bother fairing some of the repairs may allow us to stick to the plan and still be on our way by the end of January which means we will still be able to leave within this sailing season all be it on the tail end of the season.