Being that three months have gone flying past, I am sure I am going to forget some things, but will try to keep this to a minimum and not bore you all.
Toward the end of February we borrowed a spinnaker (a sail for light wind conditions) from Chrissy and Alan of Sirocco and gave it a try. What fun. Beat out into the wind for probably 2 hours and turned, put the spinnaker up and were back at the entrance to the bay within 20 minutes. The debate still rages between spinnaker and parasail, but the spinnaker is much more within our price range, in fact we could probably get three of them for the price of one parasail, kinda makes them disposable.
Then I had a fantastic cooking lesson from Alan, he is a superb chef and makes really yummy food. Over Christmas he made a boneless chicken (which he deboned himself) stuffed with spinach, cheese and anchovies. It was deeelicious!! One night I mentioned that I would like him to show me how to debone a chicken and two days later I was hacking away at the inside of a chicken with a really sharp knife. We did one each and it only took 1.5 hours, I was impressed, thought it would take half the day. Once you understand the concept - remove the bones whilst keeping the skin intact and you can keep your fingers away from the very sharp knife -
I only needed one plaster, yet another miracle! it is great fun and a real sense of achievement at the end.
We then stuffed the poor floppy birds with spinach, anchovies and cheese and cooked them.
We ate one for lunch with Chrissy and Kevin and I brought one home which we proceeded to consume over the next couple of days. Another one off the bucket list.
The end of February saw us, the Westons and the Hooles off to Coral Divers Lodge in Sodwana for 5 days 4 nights. We did some fabulous dives, so good to know that you really don't forget how, although Kevin and I did a little practice the week before, donned all our gear and got under the boat and scrubbed off the majority of the growth, amazing how fast that stuff re-grows! The dive sites lived up to our expectations with so much to see, so vibrant and colourful and the Lodge was a great place to relax afterward with a nice cold drink next to the pool. Their restaurant makes a killer calamari salad and nachos. A visit to Sodwana wouldn't be complete without a visit to the local hangouts, lunch at Maak a Jol, drinks at Visagie's Fishing Lodge and an interview, with drinks of course, for Kevin at the Drunken Tree.  |
| The Chess Set @ The Drunken Tree |
There was an international company that were wanting to do a Skype interview with Kevin and the only place with really good signal was the Drunken Tree, a really rustic bar with wooden benches and chairs and stools outside. Graeme and I discussed Easter and other holidays over a couple of cold beers while Kevin sat under a tree with his cold one for an hour on skype on his phone. Modern technology, when it works, is fantastic. On their way back from Sodwana the Landrover broke down, requiring a tow to Richards Bay so we had a wonderful surprise as Graeme and Michelle and Andrew and Sandra came and spent the night with us on the boat. They were off again early the next morning, despite our best attempts to make them stay, look forward to them coming again. |
| Making friends with new phone |
Then my mom came to visit, also been trying hard to convince her to come, only threatening her with getting going down the coast soon seemed to make a difference and she arrived for two weeks. She had to make an unscheduled visit to the dentist that ended in root canal and abscess treatment for a tooth that had been worked on unsuccessfully years ago. With the public holidays in the middle of it all she was going to have to stay an extra half a week. We had fun, polished trophies for the club,
celebrated St Patricks Day at the Monday night braai, they decorated and had Irish music and food (potatoes and cabbage and pork apparently). Good fun anyway. Kevin unfortunately missed out as he was in Switzerland for a day for an interview, a flying visit indeed. 
We went to the Game Reserve and saw loads of lovely animals, quite a few rhino which was very nice but unfortunately no elephants this time.
We also managed a trip to the Cheese Farm, what a treat that was, milked a goat for the first time and tasted the milk, tastes like cows milk.
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| Lunch at the Cheese Farm |
Learnt a lot about making cheese too, fascinating stuff as they have a little cold room that they work in with home made implements, yet produce some amazing goat and cow cheese. With all the preserves and sauces and gifts in the shop and the cheeses etc, I spent a fortune, but worth every cent, will go back again and again.Christine and Raff, my moms friends from Hibberdene came to visit for the weekend and we ended up doing a great harbour cruise and a little sail out on the Sunday. On Saturday morning Kevin and I were doing our usual walk around Naval Island when we heard the yowling of a little kitty. We stopped and called and out of the bush shot this little ginger ball to sit on my takkie. Needless to say there was no way I was going to leave him behind - he was way too tame to be a feral kitty like the others on the Island - so we think he might have been dumped.
Turns out he was around 2.5 weeks old and what a cutie. Did everything right first time, used the sand box, milk in a syringe, took to sailing no problem, awesome little chap with a huge personality. He just grew straight into the hearts of everyone that met him. We were trying desperately to figure out how we could keep him, knowing it was impossible, so sadly we decided to try to find him a home. Eventually he went all the way to Hibberdene and back in the car when we dropped my mom off, no hassle and was just growing in leaps and bounds. We knew we needed a baby sitter while we were in Inhaca and had three offers...
The Inhaca trip was absolutely
awesome. We went, as planned, for two weeks. Crew were Kevin, myself, Graeme from Pretoria and Janet from Nelspruit, they were really keen! At the last minute Richards Bay's racing yacht, Zeus, had a irreparable rudder issue and their crew were left hanging. We got hold of Steve and asked if he would like to come with and after a bit of negotiating with his wife and his company he became the 5th crew member. Worked out really well as his wife baby sat the little kitty while we were away and now they are the proud new owners of a gorgeous little bundle of ginger joy (still un-named as yet).
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| Us racing past the wreck of the Smart |
We left on Sunday 6 April in what was supposed to be a stiff South-Wester, 20 - 25 knots, as usual the weather guru's got it wrong and we high-tailed it out of here in a 31 knot plus wind but fortunately the swell, whilst huge, was gentle and slow. It was amusing to hear Janet every now and then say "don't look back" to which we all did and there would be a wave as tall as our yacht following us. We never had any hassles or felt out of control or in trouble at all, our yacht did us proud again by delivering us to Mozambique safely and all intact and we were pleased to discover that we arrived at Inhaca 18 hours faster than we did last year!! The wind going up was so good, strong at times, but we never had to use the motors so we were rather surprised as we were approaching Portugese Island, to find that one of the engines would not start. On inspection there was a problem with the starter motor, a problem as we would need both motors to safely maneuver to anchor off Inhaca for the night. Eventually Kevin figured out how to push start the motor - clever chap my husband - and it worked just fine. That done, we left that motor on all night so that it would work again in the morning.
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| Maxscene on anchor at Santa Maria |
At first light the anchor was up and we were off to Santa Maria, a bay just behind Inhaca, the shallow water and sand banks make this a difficult bay to enter, fortunately we have co-ordinates taken by Zeus on their many bumpy entries and exits so could confidently motor straight to our chosen spot to anchor. We were the only yacht there, contentment that lasted for over a week.  |
| The view from the bathroom window |
We (well mostly Graeme) had caught three huge tuna - four if you count the one that got away - on the way up and we ate tuna sashimi, grilled, braaied, smoked, sashimi, curry... for three days, we were spoiled.
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| Anything can be transported by Dhow, here it is a John Deere Tractor |
We spent a morning finding and photographing the resident flamingo's, spent a day snorkelling the local reef close by and we spent a lot of time at the Dhow.
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| Surf board, paddle, bucket & cell |
The Dhow is a bar on the beach, an old Dhow that they have planted in the beach sand and made into a bar at a resort in Santa Maria. It also has a fresh water pool which we put to loads of good use. We made good friends with the barman, Nando, and Hetta, the lady who runs the resort. A good thing as they were our prime source of ice, important for keeping beers at the right temperature apparently. Eventually Nando had the beers at the right temperature for when we got there - high tide every day - and Hetta would organise anything we needed, we just had to sms her in the morning, she was the main reason we were able to stay on line as we were buying data bundles from her every second day.
One day we asked if the next day Hetta could get us some fresh pauw - local bread that is delicious when freshly baked but can be used for building houses the next day. Downwind Flyer arrived the same day with excess fish and gave us some more fresh tuna, no complaints. Kevin smoked it and gave some back to them, easier for them to store. We took ours with lettuce, tomato and mayonaise to the Dhow and had it on those lovely fresh pauw's and Hetta had lain a table for us with rocking deck chairs and serviettes and even sweets, we felt so spoiled, what a brilliant day.
The town of Santa Maria is very small, we paid it a visit one day as we had been told there was a really good restaurant there. There was a spaza shop, the obligatory market selling tomatoes, onions and potatoes and one lone stall selling pauw. A walk up the main road brought us out at the restaurant, a lovely place with as much ambiance as can be mustered in rural Mozambique. A basic menu of fish samoosa or prawn rissoles (not available) as starters and for mains - half Portugese chicken, full Portugese chicken, Prawns, Calamari, Fish. The food was brilliant, very tasty, in fact the chicken was a real winner. Service was slow but we didn't really give a damn there were cold 2M's and it was cool, spoiled!!!
Somewhere along the line we realised that our second motor's starter motor also had an issue and a new one was not an option, ridiculously expensive and logistically hard to get to us so Kevin and Graeme took them apart, fixed one enough to work and the other to the point that with the persuasion of a hammer it would pay attention. This was sufficient to get us out of Santa Maria and round to Inhaca on the 16th.
The race administration and the clearing in and out of Mozambique took place on a floating Dhow, a huge boat that can seat 85 people.
After the official stuff we hit Inhaca Island and after a quick tour of the shops and some curio purchasing we were off to Lucas' restaurant for fish samoosas and cold 2M's. Dinner was lovely but no great partying as we were sailing back the next day. An early start saw us anchor on the start line and make breakfast while getting the boat ready for the trip back to Richards Bay. Steve was to do the start of the race, making us the official start boat. 10am and we were all off. The wind, whilst blowing in the right direction, was not really blowing at all. 
As we were not racing we started up the motors and proceeded to use them all the way to Richards Bay. Fishing along the way we caught a lovely Baracuda, another Tuna, a Dorado which unfortunately got away just as it got to the boat, escaping with Graeme's Ruthless Zulu lure - the one that had caught all the fish up to now, so we were heart broken. Anyway out came the tub and others were tried.
A rather frondy blue and white one proceeded to catch a sail fish, a fight that lasted just over an hour between Kevin and Graeme and got the beautiful fish to the boat. We have always maintained that we will not keep reef fish or sailfish/marlin. That is well and good, but how were we to take the hook out of the mouth of a sailfish with a huge sword on the end of its nose - we were all panicky and flapping. Fortunately Kevin threw a towel over its head and in the shaking to get the towel off the hook came out and off it went. 
Next was a marlin that Kevin fought for a while but it was a big fish and eventually it won and left with the lure, giving us a little tail walk as it left. Since we have been back we have been getting advice from all the fishermen about how to release a sailfish and we have been to Sodwana to get more Ruthless Zulu lures.
We were the second boat home, arriving to air horn hoots and champagne and shouts and hugs from friends and family, just special. The next day was official paperwork at the club, a day of lazing around eating more fish and catching up with people. The prize giving that night was a little disappointing, none of the cruising yachts got a prize as a last minute rule change basically put all of us into retirement.
We also got the carrot, a prize given by the boat that received it last year to whomever they think worthy for whatever reason this year. As the previous holders of the carrot were not there the organisers chose and gave it to us for "not racing in a perfectly good racing boat". Janets kids were over the moon, they had been wanting to win the carrot for years. Gave us a chuckle, but we still won't race our boat, its our home. Something Kevin put on Facebook but which I feel just says it all :
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| Dolphins on the bow while sailing |
"S/V MaXScene and crew arriving safely in Zululand yacht club after a really great trip to Mozambique. Special thanks to Chrissy Crichton and Alan N Crichton for all the support given before, during and upon return - you guys are really great . Thanks to our ships Engineer and chief fishing adviser Graeme Weston, our communications and media liaison and team spirit Janet Kruger , the Ice man Steve Martin - thanks Zeus for lending him to us for the trip, Donna Dawson for logistics provisioning and being my right hand, together we had a ball all round. Thanks to all."
Since we have been back we have had one starter motor fixed, the other needs a bit more attention so is still in and we need a new battery for the motors. Also on the way back one of our toilets flushing mechanisms packed in so we replaced that with the "rolls royce" of toilet pumps, tired of messing with the imitation stuff. We had to go to Pretoria - Kevin had meetings with Nissan for two days, we took Kevins mom back to Pretoria with us, she had spent two nights with us on the yacht after visiting with Angie, Hans and the kids.
We spent quality time at the Westons, helped Gaynor with a proposal she is putting together for a new business venture, got everything crossed for her, it looks fantastic, hope they realise her potential. Dashed back on Wednesday in time to vote, in and out of the voting station in 10mins, cool. Now we are back in the Bay and getting back to normal. Our lives are heading in a couple of different directions right now, firstly Kevin was head-hunted by a Swiss company called Proaxia, a specialist SAP company with a division dedicated to SAP VMS which is Kevins field of expertise. Basically he has been offered and accepted a permanent position with them. He will be based wherever the boat is and they will fly him in and out of wherever they need him from wherever we are. The general understanding is that it is on a three week in two week home basis which will work fine for us as we move down the coast with the boat. Also, if it is a long project I will join Kevin in and out on some of his trips. His first assignment is in America for two weeks from 18 May, we are heading for the embassy in Durban on Wednesday for his interview for his visa. Very proud of him :-) |
| Parking after a great harbour cruise |
We have also decided that we are moving, as soon as its feasible, we want to be in either Mosselbay or Knysna for Christmas. There is a sailing event in Durban in June, the MSC sailing event. We are aiming to be there to take part and then get a water maker fitted. The plan is that this will also serve as the first leg of our trip down the coast.
In the meantime, life here is really good, its so much warmer than Pretoria, even though its winter and tonight our neighbours brought us 8 huge fresh mussels in white wine, garlic, onion and cream sauce. I love this life.......
