Well this is it, Christmas is almost upon us, the decorations are up and despite yourself you just can't help getting excited :-) School holidays have started and our not so large shopping mall is packed daily with people of all ages and sizes and even nationalities as our International visitors have increased as well - Silly Season indeed!!
Last month, while fixing the fitting on our deck for the main halyard, it has a really large spring that required being re-fitted to a large u-bolt, Kevin made the fatal mistake of sitting on the front of the boat - not in the cockpit or even inside, to re-thread the spring - and voila, one bounce and over the side it went. He immediately dropped a rope down exactly where it went over to be able to mark the spot, then jumped into his wetsuit and dive gear and after it he went. Fortunately the water is much clearer in the Marina than it was at the yacht club, but there is still a lot of silt at the bottom that, when disturbed, makes visibility dreadful. Well it was his lucky day, he found the spring immediately and whilst down there took a plastic scourer and brush to the bottom of the boat and rid us of our growth. Together with the seaweed and little barnacles that grow on the boat there are little living organisms that become dislodged and swim around, one of which ended up in Kevin's ear, was really funny when out popped this little wriggling creature - well it was from the outside anyway....
We have made a breakthrough in the showering on the boat. We modified the water capture tray in the bathroom and installed a float switch and Whale gulper pump on the outlet so that the water now shoots out of the side of the boat when you are showering instead of gathering in the bilge and being pumped overboard by the bilge pump. For those that understand you will know how much better this is, for those that don't, it is brilliant not to have the water stagnating in the bilges and having to sponge it out once a week, soap scum and all!! Now that we know it works we will do the other side. |
| Juanita & Lucas with the Ambassador |
The 9th of November was Gaynor's birthday and Andy and Juanita were in South Africa, from France, for Juanita's brothers wedding the week before, so we took the opportunity and combined a visit with them both. We had a great braai with them and Juanita's family on the 5th, Juanita's birthday, great to catch up with everyone, then Andy, Juanita and I went to de Wildt Cheetah Centre, close to Hartbeesport. Lucas, Juanita's nephew works there, and what an interesting place it is. They actually rehabilitate Cheetah, Wild dog, Vultures and Caracal and have specific Cheetah that they train as "Ambassadors" - these are the ones they use for interactive sessions, we paid the extra and got to stroke one, though doing so on a table in a conference room just felt incredibly false.
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| Albino Honey Badger |
We stopped along the way at two of the Wild Dog camps, as we were the bearers of food we were very popular, guess thats how they keep interest. The Cheetah's took a bit of encouragement but they eventually paid us some attention before being shooed into their night camp and being fed.
Then we meandered back past the Wild dogs, past the two Hyena, really old poor things, stopping to feed the King Cheetah and friend, King Cheetah's are rare and their markings make them incredibly beautiful, past the Vultures, so sad to see how many are disabled either by power lines, being shot, etc, but these Vultures breed and their young are re-introduced back into the wild. Then past the Caracal's who were not in the least interested in us, then into the last Cheetah camp, again dinner was a popular event.
The Centre runs various projects working in conjunction with farmers to help keep Cheetah's alive in the wild and it was a really worthwhile visit. Hopefully we were able to contribute in some small way too.
We had a braai for Gaynor's birthday with a couple of friends and Leanne, Kylie and Grant, got to meet Grants other daughter Audrey-Lee and Kylie's new boyfriend Dylan. We also saw the Browns one last time as they flew out on Sunday, think next time we see them will be when we sail to wherever they are. Sunday saw us packing our bags and heading for Sandton - Doll. We were scheduled to head back to Richards Bay on Sunday but Toyota needed Kevin to stay on until Wednesday, logistically this was a bit of a problem as Graeme and Michelle had other guests arriving on Sunday, poor things, they make everyone so welcome sometimes they end up like a guest house. Well Toyota did not see any problem with this and booked us into the Garden Court Sandton, just up the road from the Gautrain station and their offices. Kevin used the train two days running to commute to Sandton from Centurion, what an absolute pleasure, no traffic, speedy and comfortable traveling, wow!!!
Sandton City is quite an amazing place. The Square with its huge Statue of Nelson Mandela never ceases to buzz. All types of people, from all walks of life, in various forms of dress, speaking in many languages, mill around shopping or dining or just, like us, wandering and wondering. We were not in a self catering hotel so dining out was mandatory. There is no end to the choices of restaurants and types of cuisine, but there is something about the word Sandton that seems to add a rather large percentage extra onto the cost of the food and most especially the wine!! We just pretended we were on holiday, well mostly me as Kevin had to work, poor thing. I hopped onto the train on Tuesday and met Gaynor at the Centurion station, had lunch with her, then back on the train, still can't get over how easy this impressive, state of the art train makes traveling. WELL DONE South Africa.
Kevin had committed, earlier in the year, to getting his Coastal Skippers qualification under his belt by October. This means that we will be able to sail 40Nm off shore on the African Coast, negating the need for us to have someone with the same qualification on board whenever we want to sail somewhere over night, basically giving us our independence. A couple of people showed interest in joining Kevin as it was a self study thing and as the year went by and Kevin got busy work wise, the studying fell by the wayside a bit. Then out of the blue, while we were in Pretoria, Dave, who had made an appointment with the convener, convinced Kevin to join them in the exam. This was a little problem as we had none of the study material with us. Fortunately Kevin is a natural at this sailing thing so the navigation was not really an issue, the Colregs (Collision Regulations for prevention of collision at sea) were a different kettle of fish though. This is parrot fashion learning of lights, sounds, shapes, buoys and rules of the road. Modern technology is a wonderful thing and I was able to download them off the internet and read them to Kevin as we were driving to Richards Bay, nearly had us both asleep!!
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| Money Penny |
On our way back from Sandton we made a stop in Pietermaritzburg to visit Aunty Min who had just been admitted to ICU as she had had a heart attack. She was so surprised and happy to see us and we were glad to have been able to spend a little time with her. Sadly, Aunty Min passed away on Sunday 17 November at 95 and all our hearts broke a little, what an amazing lady who touched the life of everyone she met in some way...
The next week we were in Hibberdene and had to leave on Wednesday as Thursday was the practical day of the Coastal Skippers course. As we were leaving Duban we saw an interesting phenomenon, a rolling cloud in the sky with seriously stronger than predicted winds (apparently this is very rare). We raced the winds back to Richards Bay and arrived just before it hit, winds of over 50knots in the harbor, saw moorings bend and buck and one of the boats on the chain moorings at the club came loose, fortunately not too much damage done, but wild it sure was. The next day it rained the whole day. The practical was pretty miserable, they ended up out in the bay for four hours in the pouring rain. At least they passed. Now Craig, Kevin and Dave are all Coastal Skippers, woo hoo.
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| African Wild Cat |
Graeme and Nicole came to visit for a week, what fun. Nicole and I went to the Emdoneni Cat rehabilitation centre on Saturday, they have Cheetah, African Wild cat, Serval and Caracal. Again we were there at feeding time, only their cages are so small and close together you walk a couple of paces from one to another. We watched the animals being fed - chickens this time, at de Wildt it was cubes and things, looked a bit like swill. We got to stroke and fondle the Cheetah in the enclosure without paying extra, that was quite nice, got some awesome photos of the cats as we were on foot with them, not in a vehicle.
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| A blurry shot of the offending finger biter |
There were two cages of Serval, two teenagers and some older. The young ones are obviously quite playful and the guide removed his watch to use as a tug toy to play with one. He asked Nicole if she would like to hold the watch which she did and - yup, it bit her finger. Resulted in a tetanus injection and antibiotics, eish.
Graeme came down armed to the hilt with fishing gear, determined to catch something. We left early Sunday and sailed up to Cape Vidal and back. Saw dolphins and a big whale on the way up and nearly had a collision with a baby whale on return. On the way back Graeme finally got a big bite, which, after some fighting, snapped the twine and swam off with the lure!! We spent the night on anchor at the club, they had a party with live music on the go and it was lovely to listen to from across the water. We went fishing again on Wednesday, this time Kevin had his new rod and reel Christmas present and we took Alan and Chrissy with, Alan being the secret fish catching weapon. Well, sad to report that between 4 rods and loads of chum, no bites whatsoever!! Maybe its our boat?
This Saturday, being cloudy and a little rainy we spent the day in the Hluhluwe/Umfolozi Game Reserve. Picnic breakfast, lunch at Hilltop Restaurant - bit weird as we were really high up and so were surrounded by cloud - lunch in a cloud :-) Amongst the ellies and rhino and impala and giraffe etc that we saw, we were privileged to twice see a spotted hyena, that made our day. Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and messages, I was truly spoiled.
Well its almost the middle of December, that time when those that haven't already gone on holiday, go on holiday. To everyone, have a blessed, safe and peaceful Christmas and a really Happy New Year. If you are traveling, please go safely.
Hope everyone gets what they wanted for Christmas :-) - We're hoping for some sunshine!!
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