Mid AUGUST to Mid OCTOBER (Durban, UK and Japan)

Following hot on the heels of the last blog, here it is, the latest news....

We travelled up to Pretoria in time for Samantha's 21st birthday party.  What a blast, the theme was the Mad Hatters Party, the venue was the function venue at Sutherland High School, so suitable in that it was big enough for everyone and cozy enough at the same time - it was winter after all.  Great that everyone went to some effort to dress to the theme, some with hats and some with outfits and all sorts.  

The cake was just amazing, Charmaine made it all, right down to the little flowers, caterpillar and Alice in the teacup, also the little cup cakes, she is really talented. The food was awesome, lamb, pork and beef on the spit with salads and rolls and pudding, good company and good music made it a most fun evening.

Three days later and my mom and I were winging our way to London, via Dubai (8 hour stop over at 24:00 made the trip exhausting).  Caught the coach to Bristol and made it to my grans house in Fishponds by 18:30 - a looooong trip indeed.  The reason we were there -
my gran was convalescing in a rehabilitation centre after hip replacement surgery following a fall on the day she was due to go to a Residential Home.  We needed to 
assess her situation and decide where would be best for her to go to live from the Rehabilitation Centre and to empty all her personal effects from the house - it belonged to her late husband who left her life rights and his family were to take possession once she was settled somewhere, AND we had 10 days in which to accomplish all this - didn't take long to realise that wasn't going to happen.  

It was my grans 94th birthday on 31 August and Leanne, who was attending a team building work conference in Scotland, sponsored by Chivas Regal (very lucky fish) was to fly to Bristol to help celebrate.  My cousin, Sarah, had spent much time with my gran helping her plan the whole day, 
lunch was to be at Papa's at Weston Super Mare, renowned for their fish and chips and my gran had a story that owner and staff throw mushrooms to the queue of waiting patrons to stave off hunger, fortunately we didn't need to wait.  Sarah and her niece had made cakes, one big one for sharing at the Rehab Centre and two fairy cakes, with candles, for the restaurant, so thoughtful and really made my gran feel special.  


Shopping was to be at a clothing shop where she often buys herself something, last time she was there she had Sarah running around with a full length mirror so she could check out clothes, 


then after lunch a stroll down the pier, meeting a balloon artist who made her a flower that lasted for nearly a week and then along the beach front.  She had such fun and felt really spoiled, loved her presents and cards and the fuss it meant so much to her.




So much to do, trying to make sense of the "System", finding an appropriate Residential Care Home, as we decided that my gran needed to be looked after and cared for, finally, after having done so for others all her life and making sure she was settled and happy, we decided that we needed to stay on longer, 10 days was nowhere near long enough, and extended our stay by another three weeks.  Then we got to work and chipped away and by jove, we did it.  Not without incidents, some annoying, some fun, some funny.  

View of cars parked on either
of the road, from the bus

As we were whizzing all over Bristol we hired a car, the first one for 10 days, then found another agent closer to home and cheaper and got a car from them for the remainder of the trip.  Both times a lovely Renault Clio although for the second car I had requested something small, a Hyundai Getz or similar as driving in the UK is a nightmare - in my view anyway.  The roads are narrow, were built for horse and carts after all, and cars are parked along both sides of the road - houses rarely have garages and cars duck in and out behind parked cars in tight areas to be able to pass, I recon a Smart car would have been a good choice.  

Damage :-(

Imagine my horror when I got to the second rental agency and they proudly announce they have double upgraded me and I can have an SUV - hell no.  They could not believe that I did not want it, wanted it even less when they told me it was brand new, never driven.  Eventually we settled on the Clio and I took the excess buster which drops the excess from 

Renault rental car

GBP700 to GBP100 but necessary as driving was a hit and miss affair.  First night and my fears were realised, someone side swiped the car whilst it was parked outside (hit and run), little damage but enough to have to pay the excess - most annoying but the worst that happened.

Driving in a foreign country is challenging to say the least and as I had no bearings and generally suffer from a lack of sense of direction, was most grateful for the awful foreign lady in my GPS on my phone who couldn't even pronounce Tennis Court Lane, but she did manage to get us un-lost often - not without an argument I might add.  It is quite a challenge to drive and use the GPS in the phone at the same time and this resulted in taking the wrong road often, forcing re-calculations of the journey.  That said, I never seemed to take the same wrong turn twice thus we never took the same route twice, made for interesting trips all over Bristol, even ended up on the highway to London once by accident!! Imagine my utter astonishment and frustration when I returned the car and on the way home with one of the drivers from the Rental Agent, he announces that the Renault Clio's are popular rental cars due to their built in SatNav (GPS) and upon my query he points out the little house symbol on the radio - a built in GPS - aaaarrrgghhh!!!!!

Whilst there we managed to fit in some fun things.  I spent my first weekend in Coventry with my friend Leonie, haven't seen her since she left South Africa +/- 7 years ago.  

She rents an awesome home, furnished with all her lovely South African furniture, only one neighbour and she has squirrels and red breasted robins in her back yard, which is quite substantial.  Coventry is very interesting, lots of Indian restaurants which didn't disappoint.  
We did a proper tourist walk on the Sunday, 

to Coventry Cathedral which was badly bombed during the war, 

around the wall that surrounded the city, 

past the statue of Lady Godiva, very interesting and steeped in history.  Loved my visit and was utterly spoiled.  Had been told the speed limit on the highways was 50 miles per hour so was beetling down the highway toward Coventry, cars screaming past me like I was looking for a parking space, there are NO speed signs on the highway, but eventually I decided to keep up with the traffic - around 70miles per hour, on enquiring from Leonie yes, the speed limit is in fact 70miles per hour on the highway, very funny, not!!

Royal Crescent - Bath

We also managed a very brief visit to Bath with Leanne, on the day she was leaving in fact.  Walked all around Bath, unfortunately couldn't visit the baths and there wasn't enough time for the Hop on Hop off bus, did visit the Cathedral and strolled along the river Avon and walked right through town to go see Royal Crescent, well worth it. 
We also found ourselves fascinated by a "golden" muse and his lady, it must be physically impossible to stay in the position he attained, with someone sitting on your legs, yet someone went around the back to check and there was nothing there.  Every time they got money they moved!! What a lovely town.

One afternoon my mom and I did a visit to Cheddar, somewhere my we both love.  It is the most picturesque little town and really does make genuine Cheddar Cheese and clotted cream fudge and the best shortbread in the world.  There is no shortage of different flavours of cheese and cider and sweets in the various tourist shops, amongst the usual tourist type gifts. 

 The highlight of Cheddar has 

to be Cheddar Gorge and Cheddar Caves, again, unfortunately we ran out of time - but like Arnold Schwartzeneger - I will be back!!!! We had a lovely ploughmans platter for lunch, cheese and cold meat and cider - yum.

My mom's cousin Diane offered to go visit my gran, giving us the day off to enjoy ourselves so we took a trip to Yate, a little town in the middle of the country - needed to do shopping for my gran.  The centre took all of about an hour to explore so we treated ourselves to a nice pub lunch, then decided to catch the bus to Kingswood, not far from Fishponds where we were staying.  We hopped on the appropriate bus and took off for one of the most exhilarating, terrifying, funny bus rides I have ever had.  The driver was 15 minutes late and needing to catch up so we hurtled up, down and around the narrow lanes, almost colliding with another bus and narrowly avoiding a head on with an oncoming car - who was actually in the wrong lane on a bend!! We flew past a lady walking her dogs, bit of fist shaking involved there and stops were not popular.  We whizzed through Kingswood and one look at the puzzled frown on my mothers face told me things were not good, eventually the bus driver slowed down enough to ask where we actually wanted to get off - we were the last passengers on the bus, and that was when we found out there are two Kingswoods (who knew, well my mother didn't anyway :-)) and this was the bus to the wrong one.  The only solution was to stay on board, back to Yate to collect a new driver and then onward again as this bus was then scheduled to go to the right Kingswood!!! After a good two hours on the bus and a really interesting tour of the beautiful countryside, we arrived in Kingswood just as the shops were closing, we went home giggling.

View from Cabot Tower around Bristol

View from Cabot Tower

Sarah, Mark, mom & I on boat ferry

We caught the bus into Bristol centre a couple of times, traveling on the top of the double decker bus, at the front, is an absolute treat.  We did a walk up and down the canal to the SS Great Britian, very brief, again time limits and we indulged in the double decker tour bus to see a bit more of Bristol but by far the best trip we had was when Sarah and Mark collected us from home on the last Sunday 

Suspension Bridge

River Avon under the Suspension Bridge

we were there and took us on a guided trip of Bristol not least of which included climbing the steps of Cabot Tower, the puffing and panting so worth it when we got to see the amazing view, a walk over the Suspension Bridge and high tea at Browns.How marvelous to be able to enjoy a day where someone else was in charge of everything including driving, had a wonderful time with wonderful people.

Navigating in Japan

Shopping Centre board

We landed in South Africa on Wednesday and Kevin arrived back, 4 days later from four difficult but interesting weeks in Japan, Atsugi, Kanagawa to be exact. Tokyo and even Yokohama, the closest main centres, are more geared for tourists and thus use of english is about 90% more than Atsugi. 

 It never occurred to me how difficult things like navigation and even drawing money from an ATM would be if there is no english. 

Navigating in Japan

Pizza Menu

 It took him a while but Kevin eventually managed to figure out how to navigate the transport system and to draw money, order food, etc. Sushi is beeeg in Japan :-)  





On the day Kevin arrived we celebrated with a trip to the locally made beer tasting show with the Westons and Hooles, what fun, some really nice and some really unusual beers, it seems that when it comes to brewing your own beer, a bit of imagination and the sky is the limit.  Monday saw us at the Japanese embassy getting Kevin another visa as he is flying back to Japan on 28 October again.  This time I will go with, time to go do some exploring :-)  

We arrived back to the tail end of a huge 50 knot south westerly that caused minor damage to the moorings and all the boats were well taken care of - the marina staff are vigilant and pro-active, so impressed.  Chrissy and Alan were back and had also kept an eye on Maxscene for us, our worst loss being the Weber braai cover.  

A week and a half later and we flew to Cape Town for two nights to attend the Cape Town boat show with Graeme and Michelle.  Really enjoyable, a little disappointing as it definitely didn't offer as much by way of stands or boats as the one we attended 4 years ago, guess it is a sign of the times, but we made some great contacts, people to get hold of when we get to Cape Town next year and we narrowly managed to escape without having bought a SUP (Stand Up Paddle) Board and Paddle - this time, but next year for sure.  

We did buy wine, only to realise we had cabin cases and you cannot put liquids over 100ml in them so packed it really well and put one of our bags into the hold.  Ironically, as we were catching a really early plane back we had breakfast packed for us by the hotel.  It came in polystyrene containers and we did not open them until we were through the security check and blow me down if there wasn't a 500ml bottle of cooldrink in each container that had passed through the x-ray machines without incident, recon we could have left the wine in our cabin luggage and it would have been fine.


Took MaxScene out for a sail in perfect conditions, were visited by the huge school of dolphins again and this time were brave enough to fly and lower our new spinnaker sail by ourselves, successfully, very impressed with ourselves :-).

We were so hoping to have sailed our boat to Port Elizabeth before flying to Japan, leaving her there for the three weeks and continuing our trip from there but unfortunately the weather windows have not been adequate, we need a good couple of days of North/North Easterly winds between Durban and Port Elizabeth, but it seems to be improving so by the time we are back from Japan we should be able to sail away asap.  
We will miss Durban, it has been really awesome staying here, the Marina staff are fabulous and professional, each of the clubs have something great to offer and Durban is a beautiful city which we have explored and enjoyed.

Finally, just before we left Rob brought back our stunningly refurbished Tender motor.  Took it out for a spin on Saturday, running really well.


Been really busy with the sewing 
machine the last week, for me 
thats quite something, made a 
new life raft cover, Weber Braai 
cover, 3 winch covers and 2 new
 shower curtains for the bathrooms.  















Next blog after Japan visit, should be fun.....

Mid JULY to Mid AUGUST (Durban)

What a hectic month, it feels like we haven't touched sides, but wow what fun.

Leanne, Grant, Kylie and Dylan came to visit for a few days.  We managed to get some good sailing in, got to see whales, dolphins, a turtle, a shark and Grant almost caught a fish, all in one day - spoiled :-)  

While they were here we went to the Military Tattoo, even though it was cold and an outdoor evening show, they put on a fabulous display of various National Military bands and the capabilities of our Forces as well as a lovely display by the Drummies, they came a second place in popularity to the Navy Precision Unit, according our group anyway... The show ended with a serious bang, the cannon was primed and shot many times - that noise must put the fear of whatsit into enemies, know we got a heck of a fright and we had been warned, followed by a massive fireworks display, probably the cherry on the cake for most people.

They left and the Boat Show began.  During Graeme's visit he had a look at an Admiral 38 that was for sale.  A really clean, neat and hardly used catamaran that was a really good buy.  Alan and Chrissy popped along to look just out of curiosity and fell in love.  Needless to say, Gato now has new loving owners and a new name - Sundowner Rose.

Well, they still had their mono-hull Sirocco and now sadly she needed a new home and what better place to advertise a boat for sale than on the Durban Boat Show.  There were a couple of catamarans on display, a Royal Cape Catamaran and a Maverick 440, real opulence.  There were also a couple of Rodman fishing boats and some smaller speed boats.  The Yamaha girls were a hit as usual and the Announcer/MC was brilliant, great sense of humour.  Sirocco was dressed in all her finery, scrubbed to sparkling and got a huge amount of interest but unfortunately no firm offers.  The marquees had some very interesting participants, waterproof bags - we got some of those, books, Sailing Schools, SAMSA and solar panels and batteries, motors, cars, caravans and others.  We bought a Cobb, I am so excited, have wanted one for ages and a pair of "Magic Binoculars".  The beer garden had some locally brewed beers and great food, all round a really good show - we thought.



Our walks along the beach front have become just that.  We now take the car to the parking area next to Ushaka and walk the promenade - between 8 and 9 km's along the sea front, bypassing the city centre, it just became too depressing.  The walk is never boring, joining other walkers, roller skaters, cyclists, joggers, surfers, dog walkers, etc...  even starting to recognise some regulars.  We have found a fantastic little place called Afro's, nothing more than a large yellow container that has been converted and that sells terrific bacon or bacon and egg rolls and makes really good cappuccino's (their menu is very simple, they also make chicken strips, chicken burger, tjips or coleslaw) all being enjoyed while sitting on their wooden benches watching the sea, a brilliant concept that is an absolute gold mine.

We discovered a Portugese Restaurant at Wilsons Wharf owned by a real character.  We had a really lovely dinner there only it was a bit much and I left some spinach and butternut on my plate.  Along came the owner, glared at my plate and demanded to know what was wrong with his veggies - nothing I am full was not a good enough answer apparently and next thing he was next to me with a fork full of my spinach playing aeroplanes like you do with kids til I ate it, then he told me I wasn't allowed pudding as I had not finished my meal, we were hysterical.  Just have to add the food is absolutely delish.


We went out with Alan and Chrissy on their maiden voyage on Sundowner Rose, just after we got into the bay we saw a flurry of activity churning up the water and as we got closer realised it was one of the biggest schools of dolphins any of us had ever seen.  We spent close to an hour playing with them, they absolutely loved chasing next to the boat and in the bows, what a surreal feeling being surrounded by dolphins, you never tire of them.  The rest of the trip was really enjoyable and when we eventually returned to harbour we were escorted in by some of the dolphins.

Alan was determined to take us to Rawdons in the Midlands to taste the beer they brew and on Thursday 24 July the four of us headed into the Midlands.  First stop was coffee and chocolate at Chocolate Heaven - aptly named, next the Ugly Duckling where they have all sorts of interesting goodies for sale, culture stop at the Capture Site where Nelson Mandela was originally captured before his incarceration on Robin Island.  There is a small plaque on the side of the road marking the actual spot and opposite is the new sculpture - a magnificent feat of engineering, 50 laser cut steel poles that, when viewed from a certain distance and at the right angle, depict Nelson Mandela's profile, wow.

Lunch was at Granny Mouses House, a quaint, beautifully decorated hotel with an impressive wine cellar which also doubles up as a function venue, a comfortable bar and pool, various inter-leading dining rooms, just like a warren and food to die for.  They have a little chapel outside with the most breathtaking view through the windows, weddings here must 

be phenomenal.  A stop at the Swiss Cheese farm was great but unfortunately there was no goats cheese as the goats were on maternity leave, all were very pregnant.  They had very nice cow's cheese and preserves though so we weren't hugely disappointed.

Without further ado we were off to Rawdons.  The photo opportunities were great, a lovely lake which reflected the hotel and cottage and surrounds perfectly.  This was followed by a paddle of beers, each one brewed on the premises and with their own unique names - "Tiddly Toad 


Light Lager", "Whistling Weasel Pale Ale", "Pye-Eyed Possum Pilsner" and "Pickled Pig Porter".  The Pig seemed to be the most popular in the bar, which was a wonderful place to be with its alcoves surrounded by genuine log fires.  Dinner was a merry affair and the hotel a very comfortable place to spend the night, cannot recommend it enough.  

After breakfast we made a stop at the Brewery where they were in fact busy making a batch of "Pickled Pig".  Interesting procedure explained by experienced staff and a little shop selling commemorative t-shirts, packs of beers, etc...




First stop was Old Balgowan Cheese and Wine farm.  They had some farm animals that you could feed, ponies, goats, pigs and donkeys including the cutest little baby donkey!!!  They also had geese with attitude ha ha ha.  Inside we sampled flavoured Tequila which you would never know contained Tequila, liqueurs and

wines.  We were amused at the size of the tasting glass of the lady behind the counter, who merrily tasted one for one with us.  We left with wine, sherry and liqueurs under our arms.  Then on to Heavenly Hammocks and they have them, hand painted, can't think of a better accessory for a boat!  

We went to Piggly Wiggly Centre where there are a multitude of shops in one centre selling all sorts, art, pottery, clothing, knick knacks, food, leather goods and even merchandise for some of the people running businesses from home.  Nice but we did wonder whether this would start putting some of the businesses run from home out of business - a kind of all in one stop shopping centre.  Hopefully not.


Next was lunch at Caversham Mill, steeped in history, this place has been ruined by fire, then flood and eventually after having been restored twice was the place where the concept of the Midlands Meander was initiated.  The view of the waterfall and valley was fabulous, unfortunately everything is very brown as we are desperately in need of rain, but with a little imagination you could understand how this would all look in the green of summer.

We made a pit stop at Horse Play the Old Kilgobbin Farm in Dargyle Valley, a Friesian farm and wedding venue.  They were busy gearing up for a wedding the next day and everything was looking lovely so we snuck past and headed for the paddocks to count 12 or more Friesians, a couple of who came to say hello.  They offer an experience of working with these magnificent horses for half a day providing a life lesson in leadership by getting these noble creatures to do what you want them to.  On my bucket list.....

Sundowners were at Hawklee Country House with a lovely view of the river and the sunset, a neat hotel run by an ex-Pretoria couple who absolutely love their new life as can be seen by the homely hotel.  Then it was the trip back to Durban via Hillcrest for dinner.  We were tired but absolutely stoked after this whirlwind trip, visiting the Midlands has long been a desire of mine and having accomplished it left me feeling hugely elated, grinned for days afterwards.

The Crichtons and us took part in the quiz evening at the Royal Natal Yacht Club.  What a laugh and boy did we learn a couple of things.  We now know that a Porbeagle is a shark and hedge trimming is topiary, amongst others.  We also know that we need a bigger table of people from various walks of life if we are ever going to do well at one of these.  

Next was getting Sirocco back to Richards Bay as she has a mooring there that doesn't cost what Durban Marina is happy to charge.  Chrissy popped back in the car so that we had a means of travel back to Durban and Alan, Kevin and I sailed her back.  My first long passage on a mono hull and what an experience lol.  Sirocco is a beautiful, solid, spacious 40foot mono hull but she still has the rolling and rocking that catamarans decidedly lack.  By the third time that I fell off the seat in the saloon and landed on the floor I really had to laugh.  
Going to the loo was a feat that took a very long time, wedging oneself in the doorway, being halfway through removing 3 layers of clothing (it was cold and night time) when I was popped like a cork across the room, landing in the pile of linen on the other side of the cabin, staggered back, wedged back into the door way again, got the rest of the clothes off, only to realise in frustration that the harness has a strap attached at the waist running front to back that also needed to be undone, much cursing and boy was I grateful for the linen storage space.  Getting dressed again was the same in reverse, needless to say didn't drink much!!  Just before reaching Richards Bay the conditions had eased quite a bit and I decided to make some coffee.  Never having used a gimbaled stove before (stove is hinged allowing it to swing with the motion of the boat thereby anything on it remains - does not look logical but seems to work) I ended up contorted in the strangest position to light the stove at the same time as not falling one way or the other depending on which way the boat was heeling, what a laugh!!  I have huge respect for mono hull sailors now.  The highlights of the trip were the many whales we were privileged to see and the wonderful home made soup and rolls Chrissy presented us with on arrival in Richards Bay at 12:30 at night.

Kevin and I went to the Shongweni Farmers Market in Hillcrest, held every Saturday 6 - 10am.  We thought there would be more fresh farm produce but it is in fact loads of home made goods, clothes, frames, food, pictures, wooden items, plants, etc...  it is a wonderful place but so very dusty at the moment.  After the market which is at the bottom of the Valley of 1000 Hills, we headed into the Hills.  No matter where we viewed the hills from most of them had some form of settlement or houses on them, no longer are they the mystical beautifully untouched rolling hills, rather disappointing :-(  



Driving through we got the sad news that my gran had unfortunately fallen and broken her hip, so sad as she was due to enter a Care Centre, Kift, that day and instead had to settle for an operation and a pin in the hip, a major thing at 94 years old.  After battling a bit with the after-effects of the anesthetic she is doing better now, really proud of her.  Aunty Joan sadly passed away on 29 July and whilst it was a sad occasion it was great to catch up with Kevin's Canadian cousins Cathy, Linly and Gwyn and her daughter Kimmy.  Dett and Cathy even managed a visit to us before Cathy returned home.  

Durban has a Riksha bus that does two tours per day of 2.5 hours per tour around Durban and surrounds.  The bus is a double decker bus and the top is open air.  We hopped on board for the afternoon tour.  A most pleasant experience, very informative, we learned quite a lot we didn't know about Durban and its history.  We saw many old buildings some from late 1800's to early 1900's, a couple of buildings that have been declared national 

monuments, saw that the Addington Childrens Hospital that closed down due to lack of funds has a new benefactor and is being revamped, looking great, learned that the Beach Hotel was the first hotel built along the shore, saw the King's house where the President stays when in Durban, surprisingly it is not behind walls or anything but in full view for all to see.  


We had a half hour stop at a shopping centre for loo and food and blow me down if one of the passengers didn't use the opportunity to do some clothes shopping holding us up for ages until eventually they took a decision to go without her, was quite amusing to watch her running through the parking lot after the bus with her ice cream and popcorn flapping in the wind...  (they did stop for her)

Another must for us was the Roma Revolving Restaurant which we went to last Thursday night.  Oh WOW.  The view from up there (32 floors up) is magnificent and the restaurant does a revolution every 1.5 hours and we did two and a bit revolutions.  Kevin did say it was quite disconcerting as your attention is drawn to the view 

and when you look inside the decor has changed and you become a bit disoriented.  Going to the loo is funny, I had to walk quite a way to find the table afterwards.  The food is really good and has a great Italian flair, right down to the Manager/Owner elaborately making our crepe suzettes for desert.  

Sunday saw us taking part in the Point Yacht Club's 2 handed race - crews of no more than two people per boat, well for us thats normal.  What was supposed to be a gentle breeze of 7-8 knots turned out to be gusts of up to 32 knots, weather guru's got it wrong again!  What exhilarating sailing though, we had a ball although it was hard work and we were finished at the end. 

Our attempts at cooking in the Cobb have been successful and not so successful, we made marinaded fillet with veg, very nice.  Then we made chicken on the spike, not as great, chicken a little under done and the veg a little over done, but not to be deterred we will continue to experiment....  The smoked wors and veg was great but I am starting to get a flea in the ear about the amount of veg being cooked, hmmmmmm

Well, we are about to head up to Pretoria, it is Samantha's 21st birthday - wow where has the time gone?  Then on Monday 18th my mom and I are heading to the UK for two weeks (ended up being 5 weeks).  We have parked our yacht back on the International Marina so that we have power to keep all our bits and pieces running while we are away and have enlisted the help of a nice lady to clean our yacht once a week, can't believe how dirty and dusty it is here.  Kevin ended up winging his way to Japan at the end of August for 4 weeks too - next Blog's stories.....

Cheers for now, hope the warm weather holds in the UK, will let you know.....