Mid December 2013 - Mid February 2014 (Richards Bay)

I cannot believe how time marches past.  

It is already the middle of February, two months of 2014 have just evaporated!!!  Christmas and the whole festive season also seemed to just whizz past.  We were fortunate that Kevin needed to be at Toyota for two days just before Christmas and they put us up in a stunning B&B in Amanzimtoti - Ocean View, and they aren't kidding, it has the most magnificent balcony right on the beach, pity we were only there for one night!!  Spent a day shopping for Christmas presents, with some assistance from Kylie and Dylan, for which we were all rewarded with lunch, Christmas shopping really is hard work, but I think I got good ones this year.

We became the "Love Boat" over December, very cute, on the 24th of December Jaco popped the "will you marry me" question to Nadine, 6 months to the day after they met, on our boat, and the answer was a resounding yes, followed by some tears and washed down with champagne.  

Did my nerves a turn as Jaco had placed the ring in her glass of champagne and they were sitting on the front of the yacht by the trampolines and I had visions of her spitting the ring out and it bouncing overboard as things tend to do on the front of our boat and there we are sailing around the harbor, would never have found it again!!!  Jaco was so organised, he had arranged with us a month before, then he brought champagne and glasses, cooked omelettes for everyone for breakfast and he had convinced Nadine that they needed to do a sunrise cruise to celebrate - something - we left the mooring at 04:30 as Nadine had to be at work by 08:00.  



Then as Nomad had left to take part in the Cape to Rio yacht race, there was a problem with a bride and groom that desperately wanted to take a harbour cruise with the wedding party and take their wedding photos and it HAD to be on a catamaran.  We were asked really nicely if we would be willing to help, so on 28 December it was up and spit and shiny polish our boat ready for the show.  Somehow things just never seem to go as planned though do they?  On the phone we told the bride that we could only take 10 extra people, beside ourselves, on a harbour cruise, this is due to safety regulations such as number of life jackets, etc.  Also the cruise was weather dependent and the wind was schedule to blow a gale at 16:00 that afternoon, should have been ok as they were going to be with us 15:00 - 16:00.  We tried, unsuccessfully, to get it earlier but as per normal with weddings everything runs late, then to add insult to injury there was a power failure throughout Richards Bay so they were made even later by the lack of traffic lights.  Eventually they got to us at 15:30, the wind had already swung and was starting to howl and they started streaming onto the boat, totaling 16, it seems that kids and the photographer do not count as passengers!!!!  Kevin took a really good call and told them we would not be leaving the mooring as it was not very safe in those weather conditions so they took photos on our boat and left for the reception.  So funny to see 13 pairs of eyes large as saucers, belonging to 13 bums sitting in the cockpit at the back of the  boat, all too terrified to move, causing the back to sag quite alarmingly.  The Bride and Groom had their photo session on the front and then they headed off to the Protea Hotel for the reception.


The international boats were making a steady flow out of Richards Bay, heading for Cape Town and eventually across the Atlantic.  Our friends Phillipa and Kevin on Wanda left just before Christmas, not before Phillipa spoiled us with a beautiful show of Christmas Carols played on her violin - she used to be a violin teacher back in the UK.  We got a chefs hat and Christmas oven mitt from Chrissy and Alan which came in handy for lunch.  We got our stuff together and on Christmas morning we headed out in the direction of the Jolly Rubino wreck, determined that at some point we were going to get 

Jolly Rubino Wreck

to it, it is a wreck that sticks quite far out of the water, just south of Cape St Lucia, and every time we attempt to head up there we seem to end up turning back early for various reasons.  Christmas day was no exception, the wind and waves made it very uncomfortable to keep going so we turned about half way up and popped our chicken in the oven then headed home, getting hungrier by the minute.  (We did eventually make it all the way to the Jolly Rubino on 29 January 2014, one off the bucket list).

We dropped anchor in the bay with two other yachts from the club and enjoyed a yummy lunch of chicken and salads and were entertained by many of "Richards Bay's finest" (our fond term for the loons that seem to pop out of the woodwork over weekends) who were enjoying themselves on the banks of Naval Island, they had obviously gotten into the spirits a while before we did, most amusing :-) especially the guy who was doing his best crab impersonation, falling face first into the water then crawling out nose first in the sand...

We had a lovely week of sailing and lazing around, even put up one of our hammocks, last years Christmas presents to us.  It is as heavenly as it looks in those adverts, loved it.

We took our boat to the yacht club for New Years, had a lovely evening with friends, dreadful 2 man band that played but guess that bad music is better than none at all for a party.  The club was full, lots of families braaiing and kids running around and everyone just having fun.  Midnight was the usual horrid fireworks and flares and after a quick Cape Velvet with the Crichtons we tossed our lines and headed back to Tuzi Gazi.  Arrived here to OJ from the luxury yacht Isis's birthday celebrations so we popped over to have a quick drink with them then bed as we were leaving for Centurion on the 1st.  

Had a wonderful week, spent time with Gaynor, helped her sort out her business ventures and to get her horse, Smelly, transported to Volksrust where he is going to be in semi-retirement.  He is living on a marvelously huge farm with other retired horses, some of whom he knows from Centurion, in big paddocks with grass and shelter and trees and all things horses love.  Our very best friend and vet Gin is also the resident vet in Volksrust so we know he is in exceptionally good hands.  The switch over to the new system at Toyota went very well, only a few gliches, another feather in Kevin's cap.

When we got back we conducted our own experiment - to see how long we could survive without buying anything from the shops.  We got really inventive, made salads with tinned green beans and chick peas and mayo, fish cakes with tinned tuna and tinned potatoes, even tried soya mince which wasn't too bad.  We baked a loaf of bread which lasted two days and ate what meat we had in the freezer.  We went shopping on the fourth day as we had run out of some necessaries, but we didn't do bad at all considering it was not planned and catered for, purely a spur of the moment idea.  

We were back nearly two weeks and then Nicole and Gaynor came to visit.   What a ball, we loved having them and Bronte, our friends Ully and Vanessa's daughter was almost as excited about them being here, think she is fed up with mom and dad's company.  We did great boat trips in and out of the harbour and dropped anchor so that they could swim in the sea.  

We did half price sushi on Wednesday at Porky's - they make the best sushi - and we popped to St Lucia one day for lunch followed by a cruise on the St Lucia estuary to see hippos and crocs.  
We were not disappointed by the hippos, were able to get up close, but seems the crocs are in short supply right now.  Not too many complaints actually.  Took Gaynor and Nicole to the Protea Hotel Imvubu Lodge where they have a resident croc so that at least they got to see that Richards Bay really does have crocs.  

Somewhere in that week Mickey, a crew member from Endless Summer, needed a bit of baby sitting and Kevin happily stepped up to the plate for a couple of hours.





They also did a bit of SUPping (Stand Up Paddling),
 a favorite past time around 
here, they all did really well 
for their first time.  

 One thing that became obvious about Richards Bay is that whilst we have wonderful places of interest such as St Lucia, Cape Vidal, Hluhluwe Game Reserve, etc...., there is a distinct lack of club/disco venues.  We have awesome restaurants, a number on the water front at the Marina and one with a stunning view of the harbour.  There is a lot for active people, sailing - as crew on yachts or dinghy sailing, fishing, canoeing and kayaking, SUPping, surfing, cycling, in fact there is no end to the outdoor activities available, but there are only two nightclub type venues, one that seems to cater mainly for lang-arm/sakkie sakkie (a form of dancing that looks like a cross between ballroom and windsurfing)

and one that plays really loud music and serves drinks.  The one other place that used to be open was closed over December for trading without a liquor license, also a really loud joint but renowned for being a drug supply centre so most of us older folks are happy it is no longer.  It is a common complaint from kids just out of school that there is nothing to do - didn't seem to bother Gaynor and Nicole over much, thankfully.  Missed them as soon as they were on that bus!!!!

Richards Bay is an interesting little town indeed, real blue collar workers and as such some pretty rough and tough people.  We had a boat called Two Amigos which arrived, caused a flurry of interest as its Port of Registration is Dana Point, this is where Kevin's brother Rodney has just moved so Kevin wasted no time sending him a photo.  A couple of days later Captain Dave - the Australian skipper of the yacht Eliana returned from his brief holiday back home and just before departing for Cape Town warned us that one of the Two Amigos crew was an exceptionally loud and overbearing person, he had met them in marina's between Australia and South Africa and one of them made himself very unpopular everywhere.  

Crew from Galavanter on their way

The day after we left for Hibberdene it appears that this same chap got into an argument with some bikers at one of the waterfront restaurants, making derogatory comments about their bikes and ended up getting pummeled over the railing and into the water, causing him to spend 4 days in ICU at Ngwelezana hospital, seems the Bay Hospital would have cost too much - he only paid R40 for his stay and treatment, which apparently was very good.  
Funnily enough, we ran into the Skipper and crew of another American yacht, Galavanter, at the club who repeated that "this guy was the most obnoxious American he had ever encountered", he and crew on the other hand were a real fun crowd of guys, I think I feel really sorry for the friend and other Amigo, guess it takes all types....


While we were out sailing this weekend we got to practice a couple of things, I tacked twice just me and Bongani (the auto pilot) with Kevin watching and I hove to - a means of keeping the yacht still in the sea - basically pulling up the hand brake, and I put two reefs in the sail on my own - reducing the size of the sail when the wind gets stronger.  Our skills are improving all the time, building our confidence in our ability to manage the boat on our own.

So now we are getting ready for a brief diving trip to Sodwana at the end of February then Inhaca in April, this time we are going for two weeks.  We have had some severely hot days lately, true Jan/Feb weather in the Bay - 37.4degrees Celsius with 36% humidity.  


We have replaced the plugs on both sides of our power cable, hopefully we have the power outages under control now.  We also removed and re-seated the big front window in the saloon as it had started leaking.




The fishing attempts continue with great gusto.  Kevin finally caught a plastic bag on his new rod with his nice new lure.  In fairness there was a very tiny, dead, little fish inside the bag.  Karl managed to get a real fish off his boat in the harbour.







We also finally took the plunge and went to the Hot Rods, they take place on the last Saturday of every month.  We are very impressed that we think we have finally discovered the nest from where most of Richards Bay's finest drivers emanate!!  








Kevin finally got his Coastal Skippers card, its all official.  







The club carried out a memorial sail for Nelson Mandela with a tribute being read out on Channel 6 on the radio by Dave Savides, the local Chaplain AND editor of the Zululand Observer, our local news paper.  Somehow we ended up being in the foreground for the photos and got ourselves in the paper, we are almost famous :-).

An excerpt from one of the news letters from the
history of the club which we found amusing.

Hope everyone had a great time over Christmas too...  Bye for now :-)

Awesome shot Kevin took of our "Back yard"

November - December 2013 (Richards Bay)

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.  

Albino Honey Badger

Then it was off to the honey badgers, they have an Albino one and true to form it is really ugly, poor thing, then onto the game vehicles and up to the top camp where there were three Cheetah's.  

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!!  

Money Penny

Anyway, after a real cramming session on Thursday with Dave, they wrote the Navigation part of the exam on Thursday and the Colregs on Friday.  This was to be followed by an interview and practical.  Mike offered his 34foot monohull, Money Penny for use as the examining boat which was accepted by the examiner.  This left Kevin and Craig scrambling to sail on her in the race on Sunday as they had never sailed on her before, an interesting experience as she is a pretty quick, LITTLE racing boat, they came back exhausted.

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.

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.  

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!!