JUNE to Mid JULY (Durban)

Hello all from Durban Harbour.

The view and cleanliness of the water is decidedly different, but "they" are right, a change is definitely as good as a holiday.

Durban's Coast Line

Life in Durban is different, we are in essence in the harbour area which is never pretty anywhere, certainly not here.  There are two yacht clubs here - Royal Natal and Point Yacht Club.  They are and have been at loggerheads with each other for many years, a pity as both have great things to offer.  There are a laundromat and shops within walking distance, not the nicest, but you can get the essentials.  Having a car here is a huge benefit.  There is a restaurant at each club and a couple at Wilsons Wharf, a short trip down the road.  We walk to the beach quite often, the first 15 minutes are through town and it is so sad to see the derelict, dirty and smelly buildings that once used to be grand holiday accommodation.  There is a large amount of homeless people here of all nationalities and ages, so very sad to see.  Once on the beach front however the scenery becomes more beautiful again, so lovely to walk next to the sea.  We still miss the lovely gardens and scenery of Zululand Yacht Club though.

The beginning of June saw Kevin in New Bremmen, a tiny little town in Ohio, for two weeks. He settled pretty well after a really long flight and seems to have had a successful tour of duty there in his new job...  It had its advantages as mail order and delivery in America is fantastic and he came back with a new starter motor for the boat, t-shirts and a new camera for me and winch service kits for Steve.  Luckily he went with almost empty suitcases!!  

I had a pretty busy time back home, thanks to Chrissy and Alan, Elva and a few others I never felt lonely.  It was Kevin's mom's 80th birthday and my sister's birthday on Sunday 8 June so I fetched my mom and her friend Jill and drove them up to Pretoria on the Wednesday before.
  

Managed a visit with Carel, spent some quality time with Gaynor and Kylie and the Westons and the Hooles and even got to catch up with Ella and Andrew - what a fun evening.  We had a great party for Marge on Sunday, about 50 of her friends came even though the weather had turned really nasty and we had a dreadful cold spell, we had a great remedy for that - lots of Sherry :-)  Angie had put in a lot of effort in catering and the spread was impressive, no one went hungry.  Gaynor made a lovely speech on behalf of Kevin and the family in America, a celebration in style :-)

The next day I drove us back to Hibberdene, we were ever so grateful to get back to warmer weather, amazing how quickly you acclimatize to a climate!!  Then it was off to the airport to fetch Kevin who arrived at 8pm, quite a days driving, was great to eventually get home.

We now had work to do as we had a mere two weeks before we were leaving for Durban and a load of tasks that had to be completed before we could go.  One of those was that the anti-fouling around the bottom of our yacht (special paint applied to inhibit growth of coral and barnacles which slow the yacht down quite drastically) had been a little compromised by the amount of scrubbing we had done on our hull and whilst it was only due for reapplication in December we knew we would be spending a bit of time in Durban, where growth is more prolific due to the state of the water, as well as other ports along the Coast, we decided it would be best to apply a quick coat of anti-foul to keep us going until December/January when we are planning to haul out the boat in Cape Town and can do a proper job anyway.

The boat needs to be out of the water in order to apply the paint and the hull has to be cleaned before hand, best done with a high pressure cleaner and a scouring pad and elbow grease.  We put it on the beach to be able to get at the hull, but we only had the time between the tide going out and the tide returning to clean/scrub the hull, apply the anti-foul and float again.  We had been scrubbing and hosing for an hour when we realised we were never going to make it before high tide, then along came our good friend Chris from Catonvac and with his help we managed to clean off and repaint our hull, good and ready to go.  Poor Kevin ended up with a lump on his head from bashing it on the bottom of the boat every time he stood up, ouch.

My favourite people, Taunee and
Phillip

The last week was spent on goodbyes - something we are so bad at.  Monday night was farewell to all the usual faces at the braai, then happy hour on Wednesday to say cheers to anyone there and finally what was supposed to be a nice quiet dinner at Mariners on Thursday night with the Crichtons and the Martins.  
At the end of dinner we were hearded into the bar to a nice little surprise farewell organised by the staff and owners of Mariners and Porky's restaurants, snacks and drinks and music, a great night which left a couple of headaches the next day.  Thanks guys, it made us feel really special :-)

Saturday 21 June we left Tuzi Gazi to a huge send off by the friends we had made there, can't believe how sad we felt, then round to Zululand Yacht Club to fetch our other crew member Steve, who had volunteered to sail with us.  We were escorted out by Sirocco, a wonderful send off.  Elva and Brian had kindly offered to bring our car to Durban when they collected Steve the next day, a huge help to us.  The trip was great, motor sailing as the wind was very light, so many stars in the sky, beautiful.  Unfortunately no whales and only a couple of dolphins off Umhlanga.  No fish either, not for lack of trying!!  Our allocated mooring was at the end of a VERRRRY LOOONNNGG walk-on but this had its advantages as it was good exercise, quite private and the water down there is very much cleaner.  Disadvantage - no electricity, in Durban moorings with power are limited, especially when it is a catamaran you are trying to park.  Anyway, as we were participating in the MSC Regatta Kevin organised that we moved to the International Moorings where there is power and water - and fascinated spectators lol.

We arrived in Durban 1/2 an hour before Nomad, one of two Richards Bay entries in the Vasco da Gama race - Maputo to Durban.  Unfortunately they had been forced to retire and arrived quite a while after the cut off, we gave them a warm welcome anyway :-)  

Thursday we popped back to Richards Bay as one of our most favourite restaurants, the Thai Wok, was closing and as regular clients we had been invited to their farewell to their clients.  They put on a humongous spread of many courses of good food, would really miss them a lot if we were still there.  





Chrissy and Alan were kind enough to let us spend the night on their lovely boat Sirocco and the next morning we were up long before the sparrows, heading for the Hluhluwe/Umfolozi Game Reserve.  We had booked into Mpila Camp in an en suite safari tent for the night. 
 Murphy was in his element and along came a really cold front with rain!!!  We, as usual, had the most amazing time, saw loads of animals, in fact on this trip we were really spoiled on the bird front, saw a Secretary bird, two eagles, two vultures and some horn bills catching ants.  We saw everything except Leopard and Elephant.  We finally saw a Cheetah although it was quite far off and sleeping, Lions, Wild dogs hunting buck, a herd of around 300 Buffalo,a family of Warthogs that posed specifically, finally got a good photo of a Blue Wildebeest, just great.                

En Suite Bathroom

Our Tent & Kitchen

Inside - bedroom

Braai in the Rain

Spotted Hyena Eyeing the braai

Arrived at camp in the afternoon and were warned on checking in to remain vigilant over braai meat as the Hyena's come in and steal the meat off the fire.  At Mpila camp where we were staying, the only electric fencing they have is to keep Elephants out, would probably work for Giraffes as well, but anything slightly shorter could walk around inside the camp at will.  Well they weren't kidding, as we were braaiing in the rain, under an umbrella, there were two spotted Hyena barely a couple of meters away eyeing our chops, at one stage I even had the lid from the meat container in my hand ready to bop one of them on the head!!

We were back Saturday evening and on Sunday it was the Point Yacht Club "Barrel Race" with proceeds going to the NSRI.  We volunteered to take anyone looking for a ride and ended up with two lovely American students Rachel and Laura.  

We did the sail past and decided to head out to sea and do a gentle sail up and down the coast rather than partake in the round the cans race in the harbour, too hectic for us.  It was lovely and we were back in good time to catch Sirocco's lines as she arrived in the afternoon, bearing yummy tuna sashimi, their fishing exploits were far more fruitful than ours.








On Tuesday night we went to Moyo's with the Crichtons, what a fabulous restaurant.  Ethnic, good African food in a restaurant made from recycled products.  All I can say is wow, what an amazing evening.

Wednesday was the start of the MSC Regatta.  Kevin had been bugging Dallen of Ullman sails to organise him a demo spinnaker sail that we could use during the 4 days of racing to decide whether he wanted to buy one.  Dallen is a much better sails (sales) man than that and by the time we set out on Wednesday we were the proud new owners of a lovely new spinnaker sail with Dallen along to show us how it works.  

Us with our new Spinnaker up

Isn't it funny how things always work right when the sales person shows you how?????


Wednesday afternoon Graeme arrived and Thursday we had a very pleasant but long race, as the wind died and we only finished sailing at around 16H00, back in the harbour by around 17H00.  Every night there was a meal and entertainment, included in the entry fee, as well as a t-shirt, such a well organised event.  

The MC getting help to get on the bull

Bright and Tight

Bright and Tight

Bright and Tight

The food was good and fun was had every evening, opening night was gorgeous dancing girls, Wednesday was "A Minute to Win It" competition, Thursday "Bright and Tight" theme and a Mechanical bull - what a laugh followed by a shaving foam party, Friday was Karaoke and Saturday prize giving.  There were rounds of drinks sponsored by different sponsors and everyone that participated was recognised with an MSC towel.  


On Thursday Kevin and Graeme deployed and retrieved the spinnaker most successfully while I steered us on the correct course.  On Friday Graeme was on the helm when we put the spinnaker up, then after rounding the marker in-shore we were steaming up when we realised we were just about on the shark nets.  Chaos ensued, Kevin started the motors and had to do an emergency turn into the wind, not the perfect situation to bring the spinnaker down in, meanwhile Graeme and I started pulling the spinnaker down, it has a cute little hat that drags a sock down over the sail and douses it, but when Graeme pulled the ropes that bring the snuffer/hat down, the halyard rope that was lying on the deck instead of being coiled up (I forgot to do that) got caught in it and up it went twisting and knotting as it went, this resulted in the sail not being completely snuffed and we couldn't drop it to the deck and into its bag as there was now a knot 4 meters in the air.  Eventually Graeme was lying on the trampoline, in the spinnaker bag, hanging onto the flapping sail while I twirled and spun the ropes around to eventually get the knot and twists out.  We were then able to drop the spinnaker, take a deep breath, retire from the race - would have been disqualified anyway for starting the motors and consume a couple of beers to steady the nerves.

Racing in itself is always scary and we are one of the most nervous teams around having been involved in an incident once before.  One yacht, Off Cut, was most fascinating as the Captain actually sailed every day with a Captains hat on, we know because he spent so much time so close to us we could almost count his nose hairs!!  Every day we got back without incident we considered a good racing day, we had four of those.  Saturday Samantha, Marius and Crystal joined us, again a day without wind and the organisers cancelled the event at 2pm when we had around 2 knots of wind and all the boats were almost standing still in the water.  A good call as the reason for the drop in wind was a swing in the wind direction and within an hour it was blowing at 30 - 40 knots from the South West.  Made putting the boat on the mooring pretty tricky but Kevin managed it like a star.  

Nomad & Maxscene @ Prize giving

Prize giving

After prize giving we invited one or two people back to the boat for a drink, ended up with extras and whiskey consumption was on in earnest.  I just couldn't believe that we could get 10 people comfortably in our saloon (lounge) as it was raining and cold outside.  Sunday and Graeme and family left and it rained all day, giving us the perfect excuse to just stay indoors and do as little as possible.

We have a diesel leak that we need to fix and one or two new filters/pumps that we need to replace.  Work is never done on a boat!!  Next will be the boat show and this year it is looking to have a couple of yachts again, will be really nice for a change.

Peter at my 40th Birthday Party @
Triton Divers

Saturday 5 July, was a sadly 
memorable occasion.  A huge tribute was held in Sodwana Bay for a great man, Peter Timm of Triton Divers who sadly passed away in a tragic diving accident a short while ago.  Peter was a friend and a legend in the underwater fraternity and will be missed by everyone whose lives he touched, of whom there are many.  Farewell Peter, Rest In Peace...

How we will remember him....

March, April and May (Richards Bay)

SURPRISE!!!  Nope, we haven't disappeared into the great unknown yet....

Being that three months have gone flying past, I am sure I am going to forget some things, but will try to keep this to a minimum and not bore you all.

Toward the end of February we borrowed a spinnaker (a sail for light wind conditions) from Chrissy and Alan of Sirocco and gave it a try.  What fun.  Beat out into the wind for probably 2 hours and turned, put the spinnaker up and were back at the entrance to the bay within 20 minutes.  The debate still rages between spinnaker and parasail, but the spinnaker is much more within our price range, in fact we could probably get three of them for the price of one parasail, kinda makes them disposable.





Then I had a fantastic cooking lesson from Alan, he is a superb chef and makes really yummy food.  Over Christmas he made a boneless chicken (which he deboned himself) stuffed with spinach, cheese and anchovies.  It was deeelicious!!  One night I mentioned that I would like him to show me how to debone a chicken and two days later I was hacking away at the inside of a chicken with a really sharp knife.  We did one each and it only took 1.5 hours, I was impressed, thought it would take half the day.  Once you understand the concept - remove the bones whilst keeping the skin intact and you can keep your fingers away from the very sharp knife - 

I only needed one plaster, yet another miracle! it is great fun and a real sense of achievement at the end.  
We then stuffed the poor floppy birds with spinach, anchovies and cheese and cooked them.  
We ate one for lunch with Chrissy and Kevin and I brought one home which we proceeded to consume over the next couple of days.  Another one off the bucket list.






The end of February saw us, the Westons and the Hooles off to Coral Divers Lodge in Sodwana for 5 days 4 nights.  We did some fabulous dives, so good to know that you really don't forget how, although Kevin and I did a little practice the week before, donned all our gear and got under the boat and scrubbed off the majority of the growth, amazing how fast that stuff re-grows!  The dive sites lived up to our expectations with so much to see, so vibrant and colourful and the Lodge was a great place to relax afterward with a nice cold drink next to the pool.  Their restaurant makes a killer calamari salad and nachos.  A visit to Sodwana wouldn't be complete without a visit to the local hangouts, lunch at Maak a Jol, drinks at Visagie's Fishing Lodge and an interview, with drinks of course, for Kevin at the Drunken Tree.  

The Chess Set @ The Drunken Tree

There was an international company that were wanting to do a Skype interview with Kevin and the only place with really good signal was the Drunken Tree, a really rustic bar with wooden benches and chairs and stools outside.  Graeme and I discussed Easter and other holidays over a couple of cold beers while Kevin sat under a tree with his cold one for an hour on skype on his phone.  Modern technology, when it works, is fantastic.  On their way back from Sodwana the Landrover broke down, requiring a tow to Richards Bay so we had a wonderful surprise as Graeme and Michelle and Andrew and Sandra came and spent the night with us on the boat.  They were off again early the next morning, despite our best attempts to make them stay, look forward to them coming again.

Making friends with new phone

Then my mom came to visit, also been trying hard to convince her to come, only threatening her with getting going down the coast soon seemed to make a difference and she arrived for two weeks.  She had to make an unscheduled visit to the dentist that ended in root canal and abscess treatment for a tooth that had been worked on unsuccessfully years ago.  With the public holidays in the middle of it all she was going to have to stay an extra half a week.  We had fun, polished trophies for the club, 

celebrated St Patricks Day at the Monday night braai, they decorated and had Irish music and food (potatoes and cabbage and pork apparently).  Good fun anyway.  Kevin unfortunately missed out as he was in Switzerland for a day for an interview, a flying visit indeed.  



We went to the Game Reserve and saw loads of lovely animals, quite a few rhino which was very nice but unfortunately no elephants this time.  




We also managed a trip to the Cheese Farm, what a treat that was, milked a goat for the first time and tasted the milk, tastes like cows milk.  

Lunch at the Cheese Farm

Learnt a lot about making cheese too, fascinating stuff as they have a little cold room that they work in with home made implements, yet produce some amazing goat and cow cheese.  With all the preserves and sauces and gifts in the shop and the cheeses etc, I spent a fortune, but worth every cent, will go back again and again.

Christine and Raff, my moms friends from Hibberdene came to visit for the weekend and we ended up doing a great harbour cruise and a little sail out on the Sunday.  On Saturday morning Kevin and I were doing our usual walk around Naval Island when we heard the yowling of a little kitty.  We stopped and called and out of the bush shot this little ginger ball to sit on my takkie.  Needless to say there was no way I was going to leave him behind - he was way too tame to be a feral kitty like the others on the Island - so we think he might have been dumped.  
Turns out he was around 2.5 weeks old and what a cutie.  Did everything right first time, used the sand box, milk in a syringe, took to sailing no problem, awesome little chap with a huge personality.  He just grew straight into the hearts of everyone that met him.  We were trying desperately to figure out how we could keep him, knowing it was impossible, so sadly we decided to try to find him a home.  Eventually he went all the way to Hibberdene and back in the car when we dropped my mom off, no hassle and was just growing in leaps and bounds.  We knew we needed a baby sitter while we were in Inhaca and had three offers...

The Inhaca trip was absolutely 
awesome.  We went, as planned, for two weeks.  Crew were Kevin, myself, Graeme from Pretoria and Janet from Nelspruit, they were really keen!  At the last minute Richards Bay's racing yacht, Zeus, had a irreparable rudder issue and their crew were left hanging.  We got hold of Steve and asked if he would like to come with and after a bit of negotiating with his wife and his company he became the 5th crew member.  Worked out really well as his wife baby sat the little kitty while we were away and now they are the proud new owners of a gorgeous little bundle of ginger joy (still un-named as yet).   

Us racing past the wreck of the Smart

We left on Sunday 6 April in what was supposed to be a stiff South-Wester, 20 - 25 knots, as usual the weather guru's got it wrong and we high-tailed it out of here in a 31 knot plus wind but fortunately the swell, whilst huge, was gentle and slow.  It was amusing to hear Janet every now and then say "don't look back" to which we all did and there would be a wave as tall as our yacht following us.  We never had any hassles or felt out of control or in trouble at all, our yacht did us proud again by delivering us to Mozambique safely and all intact and we were pleased to discover that we arrived at Inhaca 18 hours faster than we did last year!!  The wind going up was so good, strong at times, but we never had to use the motors so we were rather surprised as we were approaching Portugese Island, to find that one of the engines would not start.  On inspection there was a problem with the starter motor, a problem as we would need both motors to safely maneuver to anchor off Inhaca for the night.  Eventually Kevin figured out how to push start the motor - clever chap my husband - and it worked just fine.  That done, we left that motor on all night so that it would work again in the morning.

Maxscene on anchor at Santa Maria

At first light the anchor was up and we were off to Santa Maria, a bay just behind Inhaca, the shallow water and sand banks make this a difficult bay to enter, fortunately we have co-ordinates taken by Zeus on their many bumpy entries and exits so could confidently motor straight to our chosen spot to anchor.  We were the only yacht there, contentment that lasted for over a week.  

The view from the bathroom window

The week and a half that we were there was just the best.  A great bunch of friends with like interests and no fusses made for loads of fun and laughter.  

We (well mostly Graeme)  had caught three huge tuna - four if you count the one that got away - on the way up and we ate tuna sashimi, grilled, braaied, smoked, sashimi, curry...  for three days, we were spoiled.  

Anything can be transported by Dhow,
here it is a John Deere Tractor

We still don't have a water maker so water was in short supply - there is no useable fresh water there.  Salt water baths with a fresh water rinse off were the order of the day, but the water was so warm it was a pleasure.  


We spent a morning finding and photographing the resident flamingo's, spent a day snorkelling the local reef close by and we spent a lot of time at the Dhow.  

Surf board, paddle, bucket & cell

The Dhow is a bar on the beach, an old Dhow that they have planted in the beach sand and made into a bar at a resort in Santa Maria.  It also has a fresh water pool which we put to loads of good use.  We made good friends with the barman, Nando, and Hetta, the lady who runs the resort.  A good thing as they were our prime source of ice, important for keeping beers at the right temperature apparently.  Eventually Nando had the beers at the right temperature for when we got there - high tide every day - and Hetta would organise anything we needed, we just had to sms her in the morning, she was the main reason we were able to stay on line as we were buying data bundles from her every second day.
One day we asked if the next day Hetta could get us some fresh pauw - local bread that is delicious when freshly baked but can be used for building houses the next day. Downwind Flyer arrived the same day with excess fish and gave us some more fresh tuna, no complaints.  Kevin smoked it and gave some back to them, easier for them to store.  We took ours with lettuce, tomato and mayonaise to the Dhow and had it on those lovely fresh pauw's and Hetta had lain a table for us with rocking deck chairs and serviettes and even sweets, we felt so spoiled, what a brilliant day.

The town of Santa Maria is very small, we paid it a visit one day as we had been told there was a really good restaurant there. There was a spaza shop, the obligatory market selling tomatoes, onions and potatoes and one lone stall selling pauw. A walk up the main road brought us out at the restaurant, a lovely place with as much ambiance as can be mustered in rural Mozambique. A basic menu of fish samoosa or prawn rissoles (not available) as starters and for mains - half Portugese chicken, full Portugese chicken, Prawns, Calamari, Fish. The food was brilliant, very tasty, in fact the chicken was a real winner. Service was slow but we didn't really give a damn there were cold 2M's and it was cool, spoiled!!!

Garuda, another Catamaran, a 40 ft Admiral owned by Doc Naidu arrived the day after Downwind Flyer.  Doc Naidu arrived smartly at our boat and informed us that we were all to dine with them that night.  The curry he had promised us for nearly two years.  We got there to a feast, he had brought his uncle, a chef, along as a crew member so genuine lamb curry, rice, antidote (I cannot remember the correct name for it) and I made salad, impressed them all as we still had salad stuff AND - AVO's lol.  They served litchis and ice cream for pudding, seems they had an excess of ice cream and no space in the freezer for fish, a situation they were remedying fast as the trip back and fishing opportunity was in two days time.  We ended up taking a container of ice cream home for dom pedro's, big grins on our boat.  

Somewhere along the line we realised that our second motor's starter motor also had an issue and a new one was not an option, ridiculously expensive and logistically hard to get to us so Kevin and Graeme took them apart, fixed one enough to work and the other to the point that with the persuasion of a hammer it would pay attention.  This was sufficient to get us out of Santa Maria and round to Inhaca on the 16th.

The race administration and the clearing in and out of Mozambique took place on a floating Dhow, a huge boat that can seat 85 people. 
After the official stuff we hit Inhaca Island and after a quick tour of the shops and some curio purchasing we were off to Lucas' restaurant for fish samoosas and cold 2M's.   Dinner was lovely but no great partying as we were sailing back the next day.  An early start saw us anchor on the start line and make breakfast while getting the boat ready for the trip back to Richards Bay.  Steve was to do the start of the race, making us the official start boat.  10am and we were all off.  The wind, whilst blowing in the right direction, was not really blowing at all.  

As we were not racing we started up the motors and proceeded to use them all the way to Richards Bay.  Fishing along the way we caught a lovely Baracuda, another Tuna, a Dorado which unfortunately got away just as it got to the boat, escaping with Graeme's Ruthless Zulu lure - the one that had caught all the fish up to now, so we were heart broken.  Anyway out came the tub and others were tried.  
A rather frondy blue and white one proceeded to catch a sail fish, a fight that lasted just over an hour between Kevin and Graeme and got the beautiful fish to the boat.  We have always maintained that we will not keep reef fish or sailfish/marlin.  That is well and good, but how were we to take the hook out of the mouth of a sailfish with a huge sword on the end of its nose - we were all panicky and flapping.  Fortunately Kevin threw a towel over its head and in the shaking to get the towel off the hook came out and off it went.  

Next was a marlin that Kevin fought for a while but it was a big fish and eventually it won and left with the lure, giving us a little tail walk as it left.  Since we have been back we have been getting advice from all the fishermen about how to release a sailfish and we have been to Sodwana to get more Ruthless Zulu lures.

We were the second boat home, arriving to air horn hoots and champagne and shouts and hugs from friends and family, just special.  The next day was official paperwork at the club, a day of lazing around eating more fish and catching up with people.  The prize giving that night was a little disappointing, none of the cruising yachts got a prize as a last minute rule change basically put all of us into retirement.  
We also got the carrot, a prize given by the boat that received it last year to whomever they think worthy for whatever reason this year.  As the previous holders of the carrot were not there the organisers chose and gave it to us for "not racing in a perfectly good racing boat".  Janets kids were over the moon, they had been wanting to win the carrot for years.  Gave us a chuckle, but we still won't race our boat, its our home.  

Something Kevin put on Facebook but which I feel just says it all :

Dolphins on the bow while sailing

"S/V MaXScene and crew arriving safely in Zululand yacht club after a really great trip to Mozambique. Special thanks to Chrissy Crichton and Alan N Crichton for all the support given before, during and upon return - you guys are really great . Thanks to our ships Engineer and chief fishing adviser Graeme Weston, our communications and media liaison and team spirit Janet Kruger , the Ice man Steve Martin - thanks Zeus for lending him to us for the trip, Donna Dawson for logistics provisioning and being my right hand, together we had a ball all round. Thanks to all."

Since we have been back we have had one starter motor fixed, the other needs a bit more attention so is still in and we need a new battery for the motors.  Also on the way back one of our toilets flushing mechanisms packed in so we replaced that with the "rolls royce" of toilet pumps, tired of messing with the imitation stuff.  

We had to go to Pretoria - Kevin had meetings with Nissan for two days, we took Kevins mom back to Pretoria with us, she had spent two nights with us on the yacht after visiting with Angie, Hans and the kids.
  We spent quality time at the Westons, helped Gaynor with a proposal she is putting together for a new business venture, got everything crossed for her, it looks fantastic, hope they realise her potential.  Dashed back on Wednesday in time to vote, in and out of the voting station in 10mins, cool.  Now we are back in the Bay and getting back to normal.  Our lives are heading in a couple of different directions right now, firstly Kevin was head-hunted by a Swiss company called Proaxia, a specialist SAP company with a division dedicated to SAP VMS which is Kevins field of expertise.  Basically he has been offered and accepted a permanent position with them.  He will be based wherever the boat is and they will fly him in and out of wherever they need him from wherever we are.  The general understanding is that it is on a three week in two week home basis which will work fine for us as we move down the coast with the boat.  Also, if it is a long project I will join Kevin in and out on some of his trips.  His first assignment is in America for two weeks from 18 May, we are heading for the embassy in Durban on Wednesday for his interview for his visa.  Very proud of him :-)

Parking after a great harbour cruise

We have also decided that we are moving, as soon as its feasible, we want to be in either Mosselbay or Knysna for Christmas.  There is a sailing event in Durban in June, the MSC sailing event.  We are aiming to be there to take part and then get a water maker fitted.  The plan is that this will also serve as the first leg of our trip down the coast.  


In the meantime, life here is really good, its so much warmer than Pretoria, even though its winter and tonight our neighbours brought us 8 huge fresh mussels in white wine, garlic, onion and cream sauce.  I love this life.......