September and October 2013 (Richards Bay)

The end of October - wow!!  The shops are selling Christmas decorations and wrapping paper is in abundance at all till points.  Once again, my resolution to buy gifts throughout the year to avoid the onslaught on the bank account in December - most especially the 24th - has amounted to naught!!

Well September was a celebratory month indeed.  Saturday 14th was Kevin's birthday, always an excuse for a "do" and this year was no exception.  Louis of Malongane arrived the day before with a case of 2M beer, fresh from Mozambique.  Karl arrived on the day with a case of Hansa and the party was in full swing.  SARU were kind enough to organise a rugby match for the morning of the 14th televised at the club, with breakfast, easy enough.  Then a full day of beer drinking, fishing and playing with the dinghy ensued.  
This was topped off with a cocktail party that night at the club, including snacks.  Kevin and Chrissy (whose birthday was the 13th) were given a birthday present each from the Nautigals and guys, a team of volunteers at the club that get together to organise fund raisers for good causes.  This time they did a collection for Kevin and Chrissy and presented them with a voucher each for a Game Drive and breakfast/lunch at Thula Thula Game Reserve.  


We anchored our boat in the channel just outside of the club as there were no available moorings and had great fun surviving with our own means, traveling back and forth in our tender boat.


Sunday morning was the Opening Season sail and first Sunday Sailing Race of the new season.  How amazing it was to see over 30 vessels, power boats, yachts, dinghies, even one of the foreign visitors joined in with their Catamaran and Karl went out on his own on Destiny, an all time record at the club.  We did the usual spin past Rod and Michelle our new Commodore and wife, then the water fights, then the Sunday Race.  All followed up with a braai and drinks.  

Tuesday was our wedding anniversary and Kevin decided to use his gift voucher, booked and paid for an extra one (me) and we went and did a Game Drive and lunch at Thula Thula. Thula Thula (www.thulathula.com) is a Game Reserve made famous by its late owner Lawrence Anthony and the rogue herd he adopted and which he tamed and now live freely on his reserve, the novel "The Elephant Whisperer" is the story of the herd, why they were so dangerous, how they were nearly destroyed and how Lawrence brought them around.  When he died of a heart attack in 2012 the elephants came to the house for three days to pay their respects and to mourn and they came and presented his widow the new babies, just like they did when they accepted Lawrence at the beginning.  

After spending time at this wonderful Reserve I am going to buy the book, I had already bought it once for a gift and never read it, now I want to.  They have two orphan rhino on the Reserve as well and it is sad to see that they have armed guards following them around the Reserve 24/7.  These guards have twice thwarted poaching attempts, once resulting in one of the rhinos being shot in the leg.  Being so used to human company they are naturally inquisitive and not afraid of people, so they are happy to get close to have their photos taken and they wander around the restaurant where patrons sit on the balcony, amazing.  All I can say is, we are going back!!  Our friends Chrissy and Alan used their voucher last week and had the rare experience of being charged repeatedly during their game drive by Mabula, one of the male elephants, what an experience.  The video clip is on you tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxA2H0h8Jok 

At the entrance to the estate

Waterbuck on the hill,
estate in background

We promised our friend Janet a visit, she lives in Nelspruit in a huge house situated on a stunning Nature Reserve, home to Kudu, Impala, Giraffe, Zebra, Waterbuck, Duiker, etc .  We made a trip of it, arrived there on Thursday afternoon and whilst Kevin worked 






I spent a day and a half playing with the 7 puppies she was fostering, as well as their mommy, her kids two puppies and their male dog Jack - 11 in total - heaven!!  













Saturday saw Janet, Kevin and I heading for the Kruger National Park, great excitement for me as I had never stayed over night in the Park before.  


Our aim - to find Leopard.  Leanne had been there a few weeks before and had lovely photos of animals, not least of which were a couple of awesome shots of Leopards and we wanted to find them too!!  Saturday was stinking hot, the temperature outside rose to 46 deg C and the aircon was battling.  Needless to say most of the animals were hiding under trees in the shade.  We still managed to find some lovely elephants and rhino and a fish eagle (very exciting), hippo's, a leopard kill in a tree, and as we headed to our camp for the night we spotted the Sable, a rare sight causing great celebrations.  

Yes, those are crocodiles!!

A braai in the bush under the trees with good wine and laughs and the animal noises in the background made it a day to remember.  Up early the next morning we spotted the Sable again, then on rounding a corner found a male elephant who wasn't too happy with us as company, flapping his ears and stomping - rather rude - so we decided to let him have his way and quietly reversed back the way we came and took another road.  Saw more rhino, elephants, lions, buck, giraffe, baboons, but the Leopard remained elusive.  

Eventually it was time to head for the exit and we took the long way round and that proved to be the right choice, there they were, mother and teenage cub Leopard, we were so excited :-)  What a weekend, we will be back, next is Cheetah!


Back home and the face of the wrek of the M/V Smart has changed.  After having successfully removed the coal, the authorities have, after 3 days of non-stop drag by two huge tugs and ropes, managed to pry the back of the wrek loose of the sand and drag it out to deeper waters and sink it.  We are now left with the remaining front, not sure when that is going to go.

Had a giggle at Kevin, we were taking photos, in the rain, of one of the visiting yachts for the news letter.  Under pressure Kevin whips his cell phone out of his pocket to take a photo with that, forgetting that in the same pocket he had earlier stuffed two R200 notes which, as per Murphy, flew out and landed in the water.  Whilst we desperately willed them closer, Neptune was having none of it and they started to sink.  Nothing left but for Kevin to strip down to his shorts and in he jumped - money laundering at its utmost!!  Summer is pretty much here and we are able to enjoy the outdoors again, had a lovely braai at the club, overlooking the channel, life really is good...

Kevins work has been progressing with Toyota and we have been traveling up and down to Hibberdene, it is only 45mins from my mom's house to work for him, versus 2 hours from Richards Bay.  Nice as we spend a couple of days and catch up on happy hour, the CRAFT club, bingo, bowling, and Kevin generally gets to do a bit of freelance computer fixing, always a welcome break.

We have re-mounted the fitting to the deck and our sail is back in commission again.  

Two Sundays ago we woke up at 6am and decided it was perfect weather for sailing so off we went, wind of around 20 - 25knots was awesome to sail in, of course the first sip of coffee 

I took from my mug blew right up into my face!  but we had a wonderful time.  

The club sail was taking place at 11am and on our return leg to join them we were escorted by a pod of dolphins swimming in the wake and bows of our boat, so exciting and just incredible.  We saw many whales too although it is coming to the end of whale season so they will be moving off soon.  







We had an exciting morning at the club on Friday 18 October as SABC2 broadcast their morning live program from the Yacht Club.  They had organised for a couple of guys to be fishing (a challenge as the rain came in sheets and the poor guys had to keep running for shelter) and some of the Stand Up Paddlers to be out on the water and Nomad the charter catamaran to do a sail past.  


Kevin and I were there at 4.30 to help with setting up, then at 6.30 we snuck back to our boat and headed out to the channel outside the yacht club to try to appear in the background of the broadcast as well.  Not sure if we made t.v. but wasn't for lack of trying :-)


Our bakkie is finally sold.  The little Micra ended up at Nissan for a couple of weeks as the wheel bearings needed replacement and the bakkie was put back into service again, obviously wasn't meant to be sold until we didn't need it any more.  Once we had the Micra back and all in one piece again, we received an offer that was acceptable and off she went, kinda sad :-(

Poor Gaynor ended up doing a stint in hospital, she ended up with hyper-thyroidism or Gravy's disease.  Her body was basically attacking her thyroid as it was over-producing and this was causing her pulse to race, dangerously high.  The specialist admitted her straight to hospital as a precaution and gave her a radioactive iodine pill which should destroy the majority of the thyroid, then the normal functions of the thyroid will be duplicated by medication for the rest of her life.  This is apparently an almost common ailment and those that have it suffer no long term affects (not even glowing in the dark!!).  

Fishing is becoming a big thing, my freezer now has to have a specific area for "bait" - frozen prawns and squid and sardines - and we head out into the channel trying for that ever-elusive shad!! theres still lots of puffer fish lol!!  After a day of glorified fish feeding, I am sure it would be easier to just throw all the bait in the water than to keep neatly tying it onto a hook and throwing in the water, only for the hook to come back empty, but seemingly I don't appreciate the delicacies of angling!  So we get back to our mooring, empty handed, not even a bite and Kevin decides to let the fish here nibble the last bait off his hook and voila, he nabs himself a neat little bream/stumpnose.  Made him throw it back of course, but we have photographic evidence that there ARE fish in Richards Bay.

It has been 3 years since we purchased our life raft and it required servicing to remain in date for our certifications so we took it to Viking in Durban.  As we had been advised by everyone, we got them to open it in front of us so that we at least know what our liferaft will look like if we ever need it and what it has in it.  Amazing how big it is, and now we know how it opens, makes us feel a bit more confident in our equipment and also realise that those dog biscuits they supply ain't gonna impress no one so extra food better be in the grab bag.



That time of year again also means the internationals start arriving en masse.  This is the time they cross the Indian Ocean, arrive in South Africa and make their way to Cape Town ready to cross to Brazil or just hide out in South Africa til hurricane season is over, then head back to Mozambique.  Our international arrivals area is starting to fill up!!

Cheers for now, happy shopping everyone :-)

Mid July - September 2013 (Richards Bay)

94 Days to Christmas - makes you want to cry, the year has flown past.  The good thing is it is officially spring, the weavers are making nests, the trees are blooming - I really do miss the Cherry Blossoms down here, they were always the first sign of spring, and everything seems to have an excited air of anticipation, LOVE it!

We received some really sad news at the end of July that shook us to the core, our friend and fellow Sailor, Jaco Kruger, died suddenly of a massive heart attack at 41 years young.  Jaco leaves behind an amazing family Janet, Jenny, Julie, Jackie and little Jack the Jack Russel.  We learnt so much from them and trips to Mozambique will always remind us of them - RIP Jaco :-(

Its hard to believe we have been living on our yacht for 12 months now.  Wow how time flies.  August is always a busy month at the Yacht Club and this year was no exception.  The 10th of August was the Commodore's Dinner.  This is the current Commodore's last official engagement before the AGM takes place and a new committee is elected.  

The years prize giving also takes place at this dinner.  Trophies are awarded for various sailing and fishing accomplishments throughout the year, although this year the fishing ones were dismally represented - seemingly Karl and Kevin wish to change that by the next prize giving but don't think there are any prizes for catching baby sharks or puffer fish.  MaXScene won the Tantrum trophy for the most trips Richards Bay to Durban.  Whilst there were actually three of us that made the trip to Durban the deciding factor was that we had made the most journeys out to sea in the direction of Durban in our sailing efforts over the year.  
Very proud moment :-)

Sunday was the Closing of the Season Sail - the official farewell to the out-going Commodore, Kirsten Schreuder.  Those boats that had flags dressed their boats, Sirocco's crew all dressed up as pirates and water balloons, water pistols and buckets lined the decks.  We were all to exit the channel, reverse and sail backwards past the Commodore (in the middle of the channel on his own boat), pay respects and then free for all.  We had fun chasing each other, soaking each other and generally acting like kids, what a blast.  Feeling a tad tired after the huge party the night before, the festivities for the rest of the day were kept to a minimum, in fact Kevin and I had an afternoon nap!!

The next weekend was the AGM and it was, as predicted, a humdinger.  Mutiny would probably be the best way to describe it, the last couple of years had seen many of the same committee members re-elected, fraud at its ultimate best taking place in the finance office, basically a "mafia" type of situation that was strangling the club.  A couple of members saw fit to overthrow this and rejuvenate the Yacht Club, so a completely new committee has been elected and that new broom is sweeping triple sharp.  All of a sudden there is an air of excitement and enthusiasm in the club - great.  To aid the new committee - everyone has to do their bit - I have volunteered to write a monthly news letter and to help revamp the website and do basic marketing for the Club.  Keeping me out of mischief!!

Two weeks ago we got a call from our friend Alan that there was a great photo opportunity at the beach, a ship had run aground and the tug boats were busy pulling it off.  The swells that day were around 6m, on our walk in the morning we were shocked at the size of swell that was in the harbor as the swells were pushing into shore from the sea.  We watched a ship leaving the harbor and battle through the swell as it crossed the bar to sea and wondered if the authorities would close the port.  Theory has it that poor old M/V Smart was leaving harbor, fully laden with coal, heading for Singapore.  Her draft is 17.4m and the channel is dredged to 22m.  The height of the swell is measured from the middle to the top, if you do the calculations this left very little water underneath the ship in a trough and it seems that it might have bottomed out as it left the harbor, damaging the rudder and propellor, rendering it helpless to the swells that pushed it sideways on to the sand bar just off the beach.

We arrived to watch three tug boats battling the sea trying valiantly to pull the ship back out to deeper water but unfortunately nature had other ideas and after about 2 hours her back broke and the captain gave the 7 short 1 long signal to abandon ship, a really heartbreaking sound indeed.  The pilot helicopter safely removed the whole crew from the ship and we all stood watching as the sea pushed relentlessly, widening the crack more and more.  It has been a very fortunate wreck, if you can call it that, as firstly no one was injured, the ship hit a sand bank just outside the shipping channel so it does not affect the ships in and out of harbor, it narrowly avoided shark nets and is not far from the sewerage pipe.  The rear of the ship remained intact with no leakage of fuel oil or diesel and up to now the only pollution has been coal dust.  They seem to have removed the majority of the fuel and will be starting to remove the coal in the next week.  

Having our own means of sea transport has been a huge bonus, we have made three excursions to sea to take photos of the poor wreck one of which included Trevor from Contraspec and his gyro copter to which he attaches two Go-Pro cameras.  He got some amazing aerial shots and footage of the wreck and the dissipating coal dust and also this pretty amazing image of our yacht from the air.




We have been busy down-scaling our lives yet again.  We have brought our caravan back from Sodwana, where it has been on holiday for two years, and put it up for sale, looks like we might have a buyer, will know by the weekend.  At the same time we have the bakkie on the floor at a garage in town for sale and we are now the proud new owners of a reddish (cannot figure what to call the color) 2011 Nissan Micra.  Great for long trips and costs a lot less in petrol and maintenance.  Kevin has a contract with Toyota in Durban starting next week and might have to do a bit of traveling up and down.  

We have also sold our bicycles and our scooter and are clearing the last of the things out of our garage that we rent at the club so that we can give that up too.  Soon we will be left with a Micra, a Venter trailer and a Catamaran, seems really wierd.

We made a hole in our deck where the offending spring was that had loosened in the deck, allowing water into the wood between the two layers of fibreglass (not a good thing at all) and dug out all the wet wood and filled the cavity with fibreglass ready for a new spring to be installed, will soon have the main sail ready for sailing again.  The opening of the Sunday Sailing series takes place on 15 September, the day after the opening of the Season Sail and welcoming in of the new Commodore - more water fights and fun!!

We have also joined Beachcombers Photography Club, a local club that meets once a month, some really talented people who are so willing to share their knowledge and give us advice.  Photos can only improve from here :-)

Our goal since we have been back on the boat has been to leave Richards Bay by October/November to head for Cape Town and to depart from there early next year for Brazil, via St Helena.  Well as they say, life is what happens when you are making other plans and we are no exception and due to a couple of circumstances beyond our control we are going to delay our departure by another year, so for those of you that thought you were out of time to come and visit, you have another chance!!  Here is a photo taken on one of our sunset cruises in the harbor, guess you can understand why we decided to stay here...

June to mid-July (Richards Bay)

Finally we are back!

Unstepping mast and maneuvering
Esmeralda in the boat yard

As is always the case in the run up to an event, everything seems to build in intensity and panic rears its ugly head often, especially when Murphy steps in.  Well the build up to the Lipton Challenge Cup and the actual competing was no exception but is finally complete.  It was fantastic to watch many of the yacht club members join in and give assistance where ever they could, either financially or physically, prompting one of the members to remark that this is like the old club that they remember.

Sirocco towing Esmeralda 

The first support boat Sirocco was already in Durban two weeks before the Lipton Cup began, they attended the Durban Boat Show and then took part in the MSC regatta, racing their 40ft mono hull by themselves, braaiing lamb chops during one race and generally having a good time.  They almost came second in one race, but unfortunately they had to retire early as Esmeralda, the ZYC Lipton race entry, had arrived.  They did the last two legs of the race and attended the prize giving and were most surprised to be awarded a prize for the best effort put in by a yacht with the least crew, they won a 3 day cruise on the MSC Opera to
Portugese Islands.  Next year Kevin and I are doing that race!!!!


We, in the meantime had visitors, the Hooles arrived on 22 June for their first ever visit to the boat and it was such fun.  It was Sandra's birthday on Monday 24th and we had a lovely day doing a bit of shopping followed by a harbor cruise with lots of wine and snacks and dolphins and a stunning sunset, so glad she chose to spend her birthday with us.  They left on 26th and on 27th Kevin and I drove to Manguzi on the Kosi Bay Border between SA and Mozambique to fetch Kylie after her outreach program there, helping out at an orphanage, humbling I think.  


Then Leanne, Grant and Kirsten arrived on Friday 28th til 2nd July.  Unfortunately they really had to bear the brunt of the last minute organisation of the Lipton Cup and the boat and Kevins work so their trip was not as peaceful and relaxing as we hoped but at least we managed to get a great days sailing in where we saw loads of whales out at sea and dolphins in the harbor on our return.

Poor Nomad (with Andrew and Virginia as crew) left twice, attempting to get to Madagascar for a research charter but weather and boat issues saw them have to turn back and eventually abort the trip.  We took the opportunity of taking Virginia with us on the trip to Durban, we needed her qualification for insurance and she needed a break.  We left on Thursday night 4 July with Dave and his friend along as crew.  We needed to have them (Dave and friend) in Durban by 2pm on Friday in order to catch the Stallion coach back to Richards Bay (it does not run on weekends) but unfortunately the wind would not play along, in fact we had next to none and were heading into 2.8m swells head on, making our motors work really hard without really achieving anything.  



We were really privileged to be in the company of many whales on the trip and eventually found the front that was predicted just off Umhlanga and with no sails up were being pushed along at over 4 knots, but that was too much too late, got there at around 5pm.  Anyway they managed to get on the Greyhound Coach early the next morning so all was not lost and we were in Durban, with our boat, in time for the opening Ceremony on Friday night :-)  The Royal Natal Yacht Club is steeped in tradition and they pulled out all the stops for this race as it is one of South Africa's biggest.  After the mixing of the waters from each represented club and a speech or two, the cannon blast had everyone jumping a couple of feet in the air!!

Racing with Soccer Stadium
in background

The weeks racing was really exciting, we were out on the water every day with Sirocco, except for Thursday when Kevin had a meeting in Johannesburg.  Our Zululand Team were the best represented and supported team there.  I am obviously not very used to being on a mono-hull anymore, on Thursday I went to sea with Sirocco and on the way back to harbor after the racing we had a slight lull and heeled over, the box I was perched on, gin & tonic in one hand and camera in the other, slid a little then stopped, well I didn't and with Alan hanging on to my ankle I came to a sudden halt against the rail, plonked down on the deck and quietly took a sip of my drink to the cheers and laughter of all on board, apparently I didn't spill a drop!!!!  We had a full boat most days, Kirsten the Commodore and his wife and various club members, Gus and Salome and little Pickle their Jack Russel and even our old neighbors from ZYC Barry and Lola and kids of Yrumoar , great to see them again.


Our team came a very respectable 17 out of 18.  Their effort daily and their attitude whilst participating made them winners all round and very popular amongst the other teams.  Unfortunately in this class of racing the boats are so closely matched that one small error leads to dropped places and lost time which are impossible to make up.  We are sure that next year they will make a huge difference and the team are really fired up for the challenge.




We held the raffle draw at the yacht club for the bottle of Bells Whiskey and the holiday at the Elephant Lake Hotel, just before we left and they were won by Fiona and Michelle.  To everyone that bought tickets, thanks a heap your contributions went a long way to helping our team and no one is more sorry than me that we didn't win that holiday!!!

Virginia & Ully looking
out for Yacht Ingrid
traveling with us

Sunrise on our way back

Our trip back to Richards Bay was fantastic, there was an airshow on at Virginia Airport on Saturday so we headed over to float around just off shore of the airport and had a brilliant first hand view of the airshow.  We had a great braai whilst watching and at 17:30 when the show was over we just kept motoring north. 
 By early morning the wind had swung behind us and we were able to switch the motors off and enjoy a good few hours of sailing, lovely.  We were closer in shore on the way back, not nearly as many whales, but we did have the company of a lovely mom and calf early Sunday morning, blowing and diving, really great.

Weber being dragged up from the depths

Before we left the crew on Isis caused us a good giggle.  Somehow bad luck seems to be dogging them right now, firstly the two young crew members Martin and Damien, in an attempt to get rid of monumental hangovers, took the Isis tender boat out around the harbor to Zululand Yacht Club, resulting in a very stressed and speedily sobered Martin running back on foot a couple of hours later - somehow the outboard motor had come loose from the tender boat and had dropped into the channel - around 5m of water, so the more sober and in charge crew members had to don dive gear and off they went to go and fish the motor out.  An almost successful operation, unfortunately the cowling of the motor did not survive being dropped on its head and departed from the motor, never to be seen again.  But good news was that after some intense treatment it worked again.  

Fresh from the ocean

The poor abused Weber

This was not the end as during the strong south wester a couple of days later their weber braai blew into the water from the walk on.  Dive gear donned again and down they went, the braai was pretty easy to retrieve, apparently the grid was a bit more tricky, but again after a good dunking in a barrel of water and some spraying it was braaiing chops and wors in no time.  Apparently this is the third time they have had to dive this same braai out of the sea and it still works, this would surely make a great advert for Weber!!

Well, as is always the case with boating we have some hard work to do.  We have discovered quite a serious leak which is going to probably test our fibreglassing skills yet again and we are now at the point where we HAVE to reseat one of our big saloon windows, was the first one replaced by outside help and done incorrectly.  We also discovered and repaired two hot water pipe leaks - never a dull moment.  Hope you are all having as much fun....