My New "Job"

12 Oct. 13

I just want to thank all those people who took the time to read my first novel “Undercurrents” I want to give a special thanks to Sam for the constructive criticism she gave coupled with the great advice. It gave me inspiration and helped me decide to write a second novel. The book sales are slowly trickling in but from a financial point of view I haven’t even reached the first pay-out threshold. Hopefully it gets there one day and I actually get paid for the work although it never felt like I was working.  

14 Oct. 13

A huge 63 knot south westerly wind blew through East London on Saturday. It whipped at the water and sea spray was blowing everywhere even here in the harbour. The wind was so strong that the large Autoliner across from us had to call the tug boats to keep him pushed against the docks to prevent his lines from snapping. Yrumoar bounced and squealed as the tyres we used to protect her from the jetty got squashed and scraped against the wall. I was glad we were in port and not out at sea.

That mist on the water is the gusts of over 40 knots whipping spray from the ocean.

Yesterday John, the owner of the jetty came by and asked me for some assistance. I said no problem and got off the boat to help him. He handed me his car keys and some money and asked me to go to town to fill his jerry cans with fuel. Again I said no problem and drove off to the petrol station. When I came back he asked me to go with him on his “superduck”. “Superduck” is not a real name of a boat but I think it suites this boat perfectly. It seats about ten people very close next to each other and has two huge 200 horsepower motors. He named it “adrenalin”. Quite appropriate I think. Anyway I put on a jacket and my life jacket and got on “adrenalin” along with some German tourists. We left the harbour about a minute later at breakneck speed and headed out into a still very confused sea caused by the 63 knots of wind that had blown it into confusion the day before. About two hours later we returned to the harbour drenched in salt water and shivering cold. I have not been at sea on a rubber duck before so it was a new exciting experience for me.       

 15 Oct. 13

So this guy whose jetty we are on offered me temporary employment while we wait for a weather window. The money isn’t very much but at this point every cent counts. When he told me about the job I believed I was going to fix his yacht but yesterday morning I went with him on the rubber duck to pull a long orange inflatable boom across the harbour. The exercise formed part of an operation to contain an oil spill and this was a practice run to test the equipment. When that was done we went and had a look at his yacht. Then he left and I went back to Yrumoar to have lunch. At about 3 he called me and we went on the duck again to pull the orange tube back onto the dock. The exercise was very badly planned and the people in charge had no idea what to do and all the wrong equipment to do the job but it got done anyway in typical African style using whatever they could find, in this case all John’s equipment. He didn’t form part of the team but they had sub contracted him since they didn’t have a boat. Again African style, get a contract to do a job but you don’t have any of the required equipment however you obviously know someone in the tender department so it doesn’t matter. When the thin ski rope they supplied tied to the end of the boom finally snapped our job was done and we left to collect some German tourists waiting on the dockside to go whale watching. Again I got to go out to sea on a rubber duck and watch whales. The sea swell was huge about four metres but the ride was incredible and I am still crusted with salt from the sea spray. We got back just as the sun was setting and then John gave me R400 for the days “work.” Wow, and this is the job he wants to pay me for, I would do it for free without a second thought.