Update from December 2012 to mid-February 2013 (Richards Bay)

Hello all,

Well finally I am here, blogging.  We tried a couple of different options for building a website and eventually this is the result.  This blog will now replace the old news letters and will hopefully be updated a little more regularly.

Finally we are starting to feel like we have reached the summit and begun heading downhill at speed as far as getting our boat ready to go sailing.  One of the main targets was December holidays as we were going to be inundated with family and friends and the boat needed to be looking and working ship shape.  

We hauled the boat out of the water to redo the anti-fouling paint on the hull, usually needs replacing every two to three years, we replaced all the through hull fittings, serviced the sail drive and ended up replacing the rudder bushes.  We managed to get it all done in record time and were back in the water within 5 days, 2 day delay due to rudder bush manufacture!  Also passed our hull and safety inspection so we officially have our category A now which means our yacht is now certified to cross oceans.



Pikkie made a trip down for a week and it was wonderful to see him and to be able to show him what we are up to, unfortunately for him it was the same week that Graeme arrived with his "Tim the Toolman" hat on, ready to help make everything work or new or fixed, so welcome to a working holiday!  

Portable fridge installed

Kylie also arrived and was a huge help, still trying to convince her to come live with us but apparently school is too much fun :-)  To date we have installed blinds in the saloon, installed a new Isotherm fridge and freezer (my year was made with this), 

Freezer

Fridge

we have replaced another 3 port lights and all the hatches, fitted the portable fridge into the cabinet, installed new Raymarine instruments (E7D Chartplotter and I7 display for anyone who might be interested), found and fixed the problem with the autopilot - we now have a third helmsman and apparently it is customary to give it a South African name so ours is now called Bongani (Sipho and Philemon were already taken) and many little things that seem to take up so much time.  In between we managed to get some sailing and cruising in....


Once Michelle and the girls arrived all work stopped and the holiday began in earnest.  Kevin and Graeme experimented with the new fishing tackle - bungie and rod, successfully catching a small tuna which made awesome rolls for lunch.  Vernon and Vanessa and the boys came to visit for a day and we did a nice harbor cruise and swim in the sea,

Crystal seemed to really enjoy herself in her own private pool in the cockpit area.  Then the Westons left for a cruise on a much bigger boat, to Mauritius and back for 11 days and my mom, Leanne and Kylie (again) arrived.  








The heat was sweltering, Richards Bay is apparently about 4 degrees hotter than Durban and we really suffered, up to 40 degrees of humid heat, wow.  Lots of sailing and swimming in the sea and pool definitely helped, we managed a lovely trip up to St Lucia and on the way back Kevin caught a big Dorado on his bungie.  That fed all of us for two days and wow was it scrumptious, Kevin sure knows how to cook fresh fish.  We mistakenly attempted the game reserve on the 30th of December, turned out to be one of the hottest days of the year.  After 3 hours we decided we had tortured ourselves enough and we turned to leave.  On the way out of the park Kevin spotted an elephant in the trees, we stopped to look and the next thing Kylie was out of the car running across the road and throwing up into the bushes, never seen that kind of reaction to an elephant before, glad it didn't take exception and charge!

New Years ended up being blown and rained out, causing a very quiet affair, at least the fireworks were also hampered by the weather.  By 4 January we were on our own again and back to working on the boat.  Our next focus is Inhaca, there is an annual race that takes place from Inhaca to Richards Bay over Easter and we have been trying to take part for the last 3 years, this time we will make it, probably in the Rally section tho.  Our plans were drawn up as to what we were going to achieve before 21/22 March 2013 which is when we would leave Richards Bay to head to Inhaca and all of a sudden we were handed a penalty.  During a Wednesday night inter-club race we were t-boned by another yacht, causing quite a bit of damage to our mid-port hull, two holes and a crack, fortunately all above the water line and double fortunately no one was injured in the incident which could have been so much worse in so many ways.  The other yacht was completely to blame and have agreed to cover the costs for the damage, which we have had repaired, but unfortunately our yacht just doesn't quite look the same anymore :-(  

Damage to outside

Damage to outside

Damage on inside

As a result, we no longer partake in Wednesday night racing at the club and unfortunately we are now two weeks behind on our schedule for the Inhaca trip so one or two things will not be done before we go.  This incident has however given us a baptism of fire into fibreglass work and we seem to have a bit of a clue now which is most helpful as we are busy modifying a fibreglass roof to install over our cockpit to replace the old and fast deteriorating canvas one that is currently there.  

Sam starting the repairs

Repaired outside

Repaired inside need to paint

Shortly after this we were asked to be the bridge boat for the Optimist Sailing Regatta, so after putting black plastic bandaids over the holes we spent two days anchored in the bay watching kids of all ages sailing boats of different sizes.  We had a great time and learnt a lot from Steve Martin who was the Race Officiator.

We have also ended up with a little stow away, a two year old ginger cat called Lady.  Unfortunately for her, her lowlife owners departed the yacht club on their yacht nearly three weeks ago, leaving her on the shore to fend for herself.  She has basically moved in on our boat but sadly she is more a boat yard cat than a boat cat, she is very social, loves to help the fishermen fish, but as soon as the boat moves or the motors start she heads for the hills so we will not be able to take her with us.  I am trying desperately to find her a home, so difficult as she is really bad with other cats, dogs and sometimes kids, hasn't had the best upbringing and she needs space, so tall order indeed.

I have officially had my first experience with fire coral - this apparently has the same effect on people as jelly fish stings, oooowwwwww.  Karl took his boat, Destiny, out to do the anti-fouling, don't think his had been done for years as he had an entire reef growing on the bottom of it.  I helped him scraping off the barnacles and coral and old anti fouling and for my sins that night I sat up all night with the most intense itching, like chicken pox, and when I scratched it it burned terribly.  Nothing fixed it, not vinegar, water, skin calm cream, aqueous cream, you name it I tried it all, eventually anti-histamines brought a little relief from the itching.  On reading up about it, it appears that washing with fresh water makes it worse, seems sea water is the best cure!  Karl also had no sleep that night, he even wrapped himself in wet towels, poor thing.  I guess if we had known we would have spent the night floating in the sea comparing welts.  Fortunately it didn't last long by the next night we were itch free.

I think this pretty much brings you all up to date on our doings thus far