6 May 2012
The day before yesterday we decided to take the dingy for a long ride all along the channel leading from the bluff, across the Durban harbour, ending at Wilsons wharf. The trip took around one hour. Wayne, a guy we met in Richards Bay, collected us in his Bakkie at Budget Marine and took us for what is reputed to be “Durban’s best bunny chow”. This is of course according to Wayne himself. He drove us through the back streets of Durban’s industrial sector and stopped outside one of the factories. The neighbourhood looked very dodgy and Lola had a look of stress on her face as she clasped Kyle’s hand pulling him closer. We walked into the large factory doors across a workshop floor and around a corner. To our surprise we entered a large canteen with plastic furniture and a serving counter. The canteen seated about fifty people and the whole place had a surreal feeling to it. We looked around in wonderment at this strange restaurant with its factory feel and only after we had been sitting for a while did Lola’s stressed look start to fade. It had the appearance of a place where drug dealers would meet for lunch. Once we settled in Wayne ordered Bunny chow’s but Kyle and Lola decided not to have those but chose something else instead. Kyle had a toasted cheese and Lola a pork roast.
The bunnies were as Wayne had predicted, awesome, and I had a feast. I enjoy curries and sometimes I think I should have married an Indian.
Andre from Richards bay arrived yesterday and collected Ryun taking him up to Maritsburg and then back to Richards Bay where his family is waiting for him. We enjoyed our time spent with him and will miss him. The problem with this type of life choice is that you never know if you will see someone again, and there are lots of goodbyes.
Today we decided to treat ourselves to a beef roast with hot veggies at the Yacht club. We haven’t got any meat on the boat at the moment due to our power problems. I bought a cheap tester and have started testing the solar panels etc. I think we have established what we need, but we will only be able to afford some of it and will just have to learn to live with what we have.
08 May 2012
Yesterday the part of Barry was played by Bob the diesel mechanic. Bob spent the day replacing the raw water pump just to discover that it isn’t fixed and still leaks raw water into the bilge. So Bob cursed Malcolm under his breath because Malcolm’s silver solder solution that he attempted on the shaft didn’t work. Malcolm had charged Bob seven hundred rand for this solution and now Bob will have to buy a new raw water pump in any case. Bob feels that he may as well have tossed that seven hundred rand into the depths of the ocean. This made Bob quite angry. I don’t really like Bob with his dirty finger nails and diesel smelling clothes. I also don’t like the way he looks at my wife and cosies up to her. I think I will toss Bob overboard.
Sandy the sail maker came by yesterday to collect our main sail. She has to fix the stack pack that she made for us and change the reefing points on the sail. I hope she doesn’t take to long. I would like to take Yrumoar out on a few test sails once the sails are back to make sure that they work this time.
We decided that the bluff yacht club isn’t a convenient place to be and that we would like to move over to point yacht club in the harbour. I will call them today to see if they have any available mooring buoys.
11 May 2012
Point doesn’t have any buoys available so we will have to look at plan b. Not that we have any idea what plan b could be, but plan b it will have to be. Lola and I discussed the option of looking for some casual work to try assisting the rapidly depleting budget. Everything on a boat is just so damn expensive and we didn’t quite budget for such a large repair so had to eat into the cruising budget for this. We did plan for some upgrades to get the boat cruise ready, and not just capable of the odd weekend sailing, but the bridge deck repair took a large chunk of that money. Now we are trying to get by with what we have but even this isn’t working. We need more solar panels and now it seems we also need a new autopilot. The raw water pump kit that comes without the shaft forcing us to buy a new complete pump just adds to our dismay. Perhaps twenty years ago this was a cheap form of travel. I don’t believe this to be applicable anymore.
14 May 2012
Over the past few days Lola and I have found ourselves in a bit of a predicament. Before we left Lola had spent a large amount of time researching and planning our budget for the trip. Her calculations were very comprehensive and extremely accurate. The problem with our planning didn’t lay on the budgeting side but on where the money came from. Some of our income comes from our property that we rent out. This has been received on a hap hazardous basis but seems to still arrive on occasion. We get statements from the managing agent and payments are due but for some or other unknown reason these payments don’t get paid across to us regularly, but rather spontaneously. The other part of our budget relies upon payments from someone that owes us for assets sold to them. These payments were regular but have also become irregular and these two facts are making us feel stressed out.
In order to get the boat ready we still have some things to purchase. Unfortunately boat things are not cheap. In our planning we discussed a water maker. This costs between forty and fifty thousand rand. Our autopilot that has packed up will cost between thirty and forty to replace. Our navigation electronics has various options. The first option is to buy electronic charts for our existing chartplotter. These charts are in the region of about four thousand rand each. We will require about six charts for the trip. For this we have employed the services of Ryun, our local computer boffin. He is going to set up a navigation system using an android tablet or laptop and a GPS receiver. This should work out much cheaper than the charts. We decided that the navigation was our most important priority. Next would be the autopilot followed by the watermaker. If we cannot afford the autopilot and watermaker we will just have to hand steer and find water on our land falls.
The issues mentioned previously still don’t include our power problems and the raw water pump that still have to be fixed.
Lola and I have discussed finding some or other kind of work whilst we are stuck here in Durban. Hopefully we manage to find something. Any kind of income will help at this point. Giving up the rest of the trip when we have only just started isn’t an option.
According to the pilot guide and just about everyone we have spoken to, this is the wrong time of the year to sail down the South African coast line. We discussed our options and pretty much decided that we would wait in Durban until the kids have been here for their school holidays in June. After the kids leave in July we would wait for a weather window. If one doesn’t arrive we will just have to wait until one does. We require a window of about seventy five hours. I am not sure if this place is completely sheltered from the weather because we are quite far inland and are surrounded by trees, hills and containers stacked six or seven high, or if the weather has been stable. The barometer has been quite stable too and the south westerly winds haven’t been strong when they have arrived. However the weather windows between south westerly winds hasn’t been longer than about three days at a time. This is all the window we need but the boat hasn’t been ready to leave.
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