Our
lives are so unpredictable making time seem to just whizz past – Kevin is
becoming so busy working on projects remotely that he is almost back to an 8 to
5, 5 day working week again. This has
put a grinding halt to our carefree lifestyle, leaving weekends for social and
boat work related activities. Also, he
will still be required to travel internationally, making it so difficult to
commit to anything, as short notice seems to be the order of the day, resulting
in imaginative planning and travelling, not to mention socialising. Can’t complain though, the money and
opportunities afforded to both of us right now are fabulous, we just need
management.
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| Chauffer to Vietnamese Consulate |
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| Surprise visit on way back to airport with Visa |
On
the subject of short notice, Kevin was scheduled to take part in a presentation
to Vietnam, via Skype, from Cape Town, when the decision was made, 5 days
before departure, that he should rather be there in person, this required a
flash visit by Kevin to Pretoria to the Vietnamese Consulate (the only one in
South Africa) to obtain his visa on Thursday,
then followed lunch at RCYC with
the de Beers, a fun “Christmas in July” function at Royal Cape Yacht Club on
Saturday night (in hindsight, had we known of the Vietnam trip we wouldn’t have
booked for this) and an early morning departure for the airport on Sunday,
still suffering from a little too much “Christmas cheer”.  |
| Christmas in July cheer |
We had a great “Christmas in July” party
though, received some interesting gifts – we had to purchase a gift to the
value of R30 for a lady and a gent, a real test in inventive shopping, amazing
how difficult it is to keep the cost of a gift from escalating. Kevin got a bottle of gluwein and I a pair of
gardening gloves which I happily donated, and a sewing kit, including needles
for sail sewing – handy stuff!! The fire
was warm, the wine and food delicious and company great, super evening. The next morning as Kevin flew off to
Vietnam, via Singapore, a 26 hour trip, I also flew off in search of warmer
weather, to Durban and eventually Hibberdene.
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Had
a really entertaining, fun time with my mom and the wrinklies in Hibberdene,
such a motivated interesting bunch of “older” people, always so busy with
something and always on the go.
fun day at the bowling
club and support of the Club’s team in a coastal competition it was a busy two
weeks.
We even treated ourselves to a
pedicure at the new spa/beauty salon, great experience and really reasonably
priced.
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| Who knew scooter side-saddle was possible? |
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| Apparently a lot like Minions |
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| Sidewalk Cafe |
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| Beer good in Vietnam |
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| Scooters Scooters everywhere |
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| Reminiscent of Mozambique |
Kevin arrived back from a
productive but exhausting trip to Vietnam with some hilarious videos of traffic
chaos and interesting photos and stories.
Can’t wait for the next trip so that I can go too.
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| GnT sundowners - perfect |
Next
stop was Richards Bay, time to visit our friends Chrissy and Alan and catch up
with a couple of other people on our old stomping ground. We were privileged to make their lovely
catamaran, Sundowner Rose, our temporary home for 5 days, so comfy and none of
the howling wind we have become used to here in the Cape – braai’s yay. We were so very spoiled and had such an
amazing time, the weather was brilliant, still maintain even when it rains in
KZN its warm, although we only
had rain on the last day, almost as if getting
us ready for our return to the Cape. We
had dinner at the new Gimbals restaurant, beautiful venue and view, great food,
sure to be hit for a long time.
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| Andrea Helena |
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| Brekkie in the Bush - awesome |
We also
visited Porkys, our friend Ully on the awesome Andrea Helena, had breakfast and
a catch up with Dave and heaven only knows how but a yummy braai, made in the
pouring rain with Steve, Elva and Bryan and Mark from Kwella, another beautiful
Island Spirit Catamaran, now the only one left in Richards Bay. Great company and food made up for the
soaking received. A trip to Richards Bay
wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the Hluhluwe/Imfolozi Game Reserve, what
an amazing time, we were so happy at seeing so many rhino, elephants, zebra,
buck, but the highlight had to be mommy and little tiny junior rhino, just as
we were preparing to leave. 
Then all of
a sudden it was time to get back to home and work.
One
of the things we have decided we need to take care of before leaving South
Africa are any health issues and Kevin has been needing some dentistry
done. We found a lovely specialist
dentist here and Kevin has, in two sessions, undergone some severe work
including extractions and post implants, he is so brave, smiling around the
stitches and not complaining at all.
There is still some work to be done in the future once the posts have
knitted together with the jaw bone but one more thing to cross off the list.
We
popped in to False Bay Yacht Club in Simons Town to settle our account and
check up on Ethereal, who wont be alone much longer as Bernhard and Ulricke are
due back early in September. I was
amazed to hear how many queries and attempted bearth bookings are being made by
internationals, only to realize with horror that it is indeed almost “silly
season” again and soon we will be meeting and greeting international sailors
passing through as well as some returning ones, exciting!! A trip to Simons Town wouldn’t be complete
without a dinner at “Cap Classique” Eileen’s beautiful home, where a catch up
with red wine and a fire were just what the doctor ordered.
After
yet another night of being kept awake by the switching on and off of the water
pump – this is caused by a drop in pressure in the system, indicating a leak of
some sort – we traced and checked every possible point of issue and everything
was dry, resulting in the conclusion that there might be an issue with the
return valve on the water pump so replacement seemed the answer. The one on the starboard side was replaced,
being the suspected offender, together with the pipes and so far so good, no
pump noise and brilliant water pressure, means the port side pump will now also
need to be replaced.
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| Blue Peter |
Leanne
was lucky enough to end up at Arabella Golf Estate, between Klein Mond and
Hermanus, for a work conference Wednesday to Friday and Grant flew down on
Friday so they both spent the weekend with us.
We had dinner at Quay 4 to celebrate Grant’s birthday, a fun
evening. In the short time
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| Camps Bay breakfast cruise |
we had, we managed
to fit in a breakfast cruise on Maxscene along the coast and were lucky enough
to see Porpoises and
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| JC le Roux champagne tasting |
seals and a surprisingly large number of penguins, a visit
to the Hout Bay Market, sundowners at the Blue Peter in Blaauwberg,
dinner at
the Yacht Club and a visit to the JC le Roux and Blaauwklippen Wine Estates,
enjoying the market and live entertainment at the latter, before dropping them
off at the airport again, once more Cape Town never fails to entertain.
We
are winging our way to Pretoria again on Friday, Gaynor and Johnny are moving
home, they have found a place closer to work for both of them, so we will go view
and help if possible and Kylie is competing in the Pick n Pay Masterchef
competition on Friday 4 September, a great honour and we look forward to
supporting her.
Some
food for thought - Sunday night 23 August 2015 there was a feature
on the Carte Blanche television show regarding the arrest and interview of a
South African activist Rosie Kunneke of Sea Shepherds https://www.facebook.com/SeaShepherdUSA . Sea
Shepherds are involved in non-violent protest of any cruelty to sea animals,
such as the clubbing to death of baby seals in Namibia, the slaughter of Taiji dolphins
and protection of turtles and their hatchlings on the beaches in Florida and
the current major issue being the horrific slaughter of Pilot Whales in the
Faroese Islands. Rosie was arrested and
deported for attempting to chase the whales that had been herded on to the
beach for slaughter back into the sea.
Rosie together with a couple of other people from Sea Shepherd (who we
had been privileged to meet a year or so ago, while we were in Richards Bay) and
one of the co-ordinators of the “Save the Rhino” campaign were actually at RCYC
to view the footage, talk on the issue and explain a little more of what they
do. What amazing and motivating people
these are, my admiration for them is massive, they see so much horror and
disgusting human behavior and somehow manage to stay sane and continue their
quest and to top it all they are all volunteers. All I can say is, if nothing else, they
absolutely deserve our support!!! The
environment as a whole needs our help and being that we keep messing it up, the
responsibility for fixing it lies squarely on our shoulders. The most important thing I came away from
that Sunday night with was the adage “Be the change that YOU want to see
happen” don’t sit around waiting for someone else to make things better, get up
and do it yourself, everything helps, no matter how small – well I for one
certainly intend to try, watch this space…..
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