17 Nov. 12
We have been toying with the idea of working part time to try refill the
rapidly depleting cruising kitty. Well, today it became official. Two of our
tenants are in the process of eviction for non payment. This and a few other
financial issues have removed our choices and forced us to make a decision. Our
original plan of sailing to New
Zealand , resettling and finding work there,
has basically been destroyed by a number of events in succession. So left with
no other alternative, this morning we made an offer on a cheap car. Over the
next few weeks I will seek out employment agencies, and hopefully find some or
other gainful employment. I am not quite sure how long we will have to work,
possibly a year or two, but I suppose it depends on the amount we earn.
When Lola first said, “Yes, we can work our way slowly down the
coastline”. I was under the impression she meant sail slowly down the coast and
stop at all the ports, maybe even do a little sight seeing. Well, was I wrong
or what!
17 Nov. 12
It’s about nine at night. Lola went to bed a few minutes ago and I am
sitting outside drinking a cup of coffee. It never quite gets dark here, just
too many lights in the container yards surrounding the club. The lights are
fairly far away so they serve only to keep the horizon lit, almost like sunrise
in the morning just before the sun finally shows its face, but with a much more
artificial glow. A bit like a badly made, low budget, movie background.
It has been raining almost non stop since we arrived here on Friday just
a bit more than a week ago and a cold breeze is blowing gently through our
cockpit. The chain mooring we are on is well protected from the southerly winds
and I watch as it blows ripples across the water behind our boat and listen as
it gives the occasional whistle through the rigging wires of the boats on the
other side of the estuary. I also hear the periodic clanging of stray halyards
as the wind knocks them against the masts of the many lonely unoccupied boats
that surround us.
To my right I can see the never ending stream of trucks crossing the bridge
over the estuary all carrying large heavy containers towards the waiting ships
in the harbour. The sound of the truck diesel engines droning on throughout the
night becomes just another big city sound that fades into the back of my mind. The
sounds are almost hypnotic in their consistency with the occasional clang as
one of the chains used to secure their loads goes into revolt and smashes onto
its tormentor.
The rows of trucks remind me of a line of ants moving large sticks and
grains of sand from one hole in the ground to another one. We are quite similar
to these ants just on a larger and more destructive scale. In one part of the
world we are building dykes and retaining walls in an attempt to reclaim land
from the sea. In another part we are dredging harbours and digging out soil to
make the harbours bigger so that we can move more of our sticks and grains of
sand from one place to another.
19 Nov. 12
This morning is turning out to be a true blue Monday. I woke up to find
my computer had developed a mind of its own and would no longer listen to any
of my instructions. The kids toilet decided to join in the strike action and
refused to flush. I could feel my blood reaching boiling point and thought of
tying the toilet together with the laptop and then tossing them both overboard
to sink to the bottom, never to be seen again. After a while I calmed down and
restored my laptop settings to a previous setting. This fixed the problem, but
only for a while, then it went on strike yet again. Maybe I haven’t fed it
enough power or something.
The toilet, well lets just say it started working again after flushing
it for about fifteen minutes. In my mind I know that it is not actually fixed,
boat toilets are never actually fixed.
To add to all of this I also realised that soon I will be returning to
pleb ville. In case you are wondering where this pleb ville is, I will give
clear directions. It can be anywhere and everywhere all at the same time. It is
a place in your mind but not in your heart. Yes, you guessed it. Pleb ville is
the reality of going to work everyday. Waking up in the morning and realising
that your day no longer belongs to you but has been sold to someone else.
Welcome to pleb ville. Please don’t forget to brush your teeth in the
morning so that you can add a minty freshness to your bosses rear whilst you
land up kissing his butt.
Hopefully no future boss reads that.
20 Nov. 12
Yesterday I wanted to sell the boat and buy a camper instead. Today I
went up to the bow and sat on one of the seats we made. Whilst sitting on the
bow looking down at the water, my mind started wandering and dreaming about far
away places. The stupid boat captures your imagination, making you believe
things that are not realistic, then you become an unwitting slave to your own
illusions.
23 Nov. 12
We have been in Durban
for two weeks today. Last night we were invited to a braai with all the
cruisers that are here at the moment. They are quite a mixed bunch coming from
all different parts of the world. We have a couple from Australia with two kids, a French couple from Canada with, I
don’t quite know how many but it looked like a lot of kids. Then we have a
couple from New Zealand and
another couple from France .
The French couple also have a kid. So even though it was short notice and we
didn’t have anything prepared for the braai, except of course some alcohol, we
decided to go to shore and join in the festivities. It has been a long time
since I last seen so many kids in one place so Rauen and Kyle made some new
friends. I didn’t realise how difficult this life would be on the kids. They
don’t get much social activity with other kids because there usually aren’t any
other kids. At least they got to meet other kids last night and I watched as
they quickly found the ones that suited them, separating those ones from the
rest of the pack and spending time with their new found friends. I of course
drank a bit to much again and don’t feel very fresh this morning. Will I ever
learn? Somehow I just don’t think so.
25 Nov. 12
Our new second hand car eventually arrived on Friday and I wasn’t sure
if I was excited or depressed. My mind was leaning more towards the depressed
side. Getting the car meant that a decision was actually made and final. We had
planted our first tap root and are now starting to grow back onto the land. The
freedom that I felt before, freedom to just leave whenever I felt like it, was
now gone. I know that the feeling of freedom is not a reality and is purely a
state of mind, but now that it is gone, I find myself wishing it back.
The sad reality is that we don’t really have any choice. Okay I suppose
we do have some choice, but it is limited and based on a few factors that are
partially out of our control. Lola and I discussed the subject of finances and
the reality is that the cost of the life on the boat isn’t as cheap as it is
advertised to be. We also had a finite plan, with a finite amount of money.
Sadly the repairs and everything else that happened stole almost all of our
allocated time and most of our budget. If all went according to plan, by now we
would have been in the south pacific well on our way to our final destination
of New Zealand . But, …reality has set in and now we had to
make some hard decisions. We are no longer sure anymore if we want to end our
journey in New Zealand
or continue on from there.
So at the moment our choices are as follows. Sell Yrumoar and go back to
normal life. No, I don’t really consider that an option, rather a punishment.
Or, find work here in Durban for a year or two,
then move down to East London and find work
there for a while, and so on down the coast. Whilst working, squirrel away as
much of our income as possible and do the necessary upgrades on Yrumoar to make
sure she is completely ready. Our living expenses decrease as each of our kids
complete their education and we thus need less money at various stages in the
future. Our current investment portfolio isn’t quite enough but we hope to
build it up a bit along the SA coast line. We also hope that Lola manages to
get some TEFL work somewhere along the way after we leave SA. So that seems to be the plan, at the moment.
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