SAMSA

22 Mar. 12


Managed to tick off quite a few of the smaller jobs from the list today. We also received a phone call from SAS informing us that we have eventually, after only six months, been issued with our MMSI number for our EPIRP. Now we can book our final SAMSA safety inspection. We still have a few bigger jobs and one or two small ones to complete but today I feel a bit more positive that we may be able to get finished in time for the race. I also miss my kids a lot today.

27 Mar. 12

The boys got themselves into trouble last night by not washing the dishes yesterday when they where told to do so. They have been slowly slacking off and getting them to do anything has become more and more difficult as they seem to be to tired and disinterested in anything but playing. They also get up when they feel like it and don’t put in much effort at schooling. I find that I have to beg them for three days in a row and on the fourth day they will decide to listen after I almost lose my temper. With all the repairs going on it has become their task to wash the dishes. There haven’t been many dishes since we haven’t had much time to cook and have had a lot of take outs haven’t got a clean glass or spoon to use. This forms only part of the problem the other half is that the dirty dishes are left all over the place leaving me with no work surface and attracting all sorts of insects.

We have one or maybe even two leaks in the starboard hull under the waterline. I have been trying to establish where they are but haven’t found them yet. The one appears to be in the engine compartment under the engine. The other one somewhere around the keel.

29 Mar. 12

Today we will put back our sails and do the last few small jobs on the list. Then from our side Yrumoar is ready to tackle the race from Inhaca Island in Mozambique. We waited yesterday afternoon for Mike from SAMSA to arrive for our final safety inspection, but he never came. The SAMSA registration may be the biggest obstacle that lies ahead of us and may still prevent us from leaving the country.

30 Mar. 12

I phoned the SAMSA inspector yesterday morning and asked him if he forgot about us. He insisted that he came down to our boat and knocked but we were not on the boat. I then asked him if he went to the correct boat because we were sitting on the boat waiting for him. He again insisted that he had the correct boat and was here. Well, he must be invisible and on another plain that the normal human eye cannot see or hear. Something like a dog whistle that only dogs can hear. I gave up arguing with him after a while and we made a new appointment for yesterday afternoon at four thirty. You will never guess but just before four we received a phone call from someone else telling us that he is unable to make our appointment. Now we have a third appointment for ten this morning. Lets wait and see if he arrives for a change and is in his human visible form.

The whole SAMSA dealing with the beaurocracy thing has been a pain in my butt and has pretty much halted any plans we had of leaving for the Inhaca race. So all our preparations and the mad rush comes to a grinding halt while we wait for these twats to own our lives once more. It seems to me that there is no real escape from the forced requirements of society and the dream of having complete freedom and sailing into the sunset is very different from the reality.

31 Mar. 12

Mike from SAMSA eventually arrived for our ten o clock appointment at half past eleven after I had phoned him three times. I made the first call at ten fifteen and he told me he is about a half an hour away. The next call was at eleven when he told me he is just outside the gate. The third call I made in my mind when I imagined telling him how I was going to attach an anchor to his leg, toss him overboard and set his head on fire if he managed to break the surface. We passed the inspection with him picking around his list up and down a few times to try find fault with our equipment. Once he eventually left we hurried on to the office and e-mailed our documents to Runa at SAS. She made some promises and jumped into action trying to arrange all the necessary or unnecessary paper work with SAMSA. We sat down to some T-Bone steaks whilst Lola ran into the office and back a few times making phone calls and internet payments allowing the flies to eat half her steak and eventually eating the cold leftovers after the flies had finished..



I forgot to mention previously but the very same day we had our EPIRP recoded the yacht club held a memorial service for Barry and Allison on Tiana that went missing at sea. The coincidence of this amazes me and reminded me of the twilight zone since we bought our EPIRP from Allison.