This morning we awoke to a beautiful day. By 7:30 Barry was itching to go down to the boat. We woke our 3 boys and prepared to leave. After a quick stop at the Heidelberg Pick n Pay, our new half way stock up store (partially for the good looking women, partially because Barry is still mad with our local Spar), we arrived at the marina at 10:30am.
Our first stop was at the WSM store next door; we have been looking for life jackets for a few weeks now but have not been able to find the type we want. Due to the new laws the only life jackets available are heavily padded with no zip. We already have the required orange life jackets on board and were looking for a comfortable item for Kyle and Rauen to wear on the boat. Especially for Kyle, I would prefer he wore it even when walking on the marina, just in case. We have been to every boat store within a 100km radius with no success so this was our last hope.
We were in luck today, we bought 2 front zipping life jackets which are perfect for our needs. Christmas present problem solved!
As we were going aboard we gave the kids the life jackets to wear and test. Kyle was much more comfortable and was even less scared on the boat.
The sail itself was wonderful, best sail in months! We sailed using only the main sail across the dam towards BP Bay. Once there we dropped our new Danforth anchor for the first time and used 3x depth for scope. The anchor took almost immediately and we looked around to line up 2 items ashore in 3 different directions to check we weren’t dragging. We were stuck.
Keagan, Rauen and myself quickly entered the water for a cool down swim and tried and tested the different life jackets in the water, all preferring the new ones. Kyle and Barry stayed aboard. Half an hour later, I got back on board and made hotdogs for lunch. Barry took a quick dip while I was cooking and was back by the time lunch was served.
Whilst eating we noticed the clouds building and darkening and decided we would head back immediately after lunch so as to avoid being caught in the rain again. We hoisted the main sail and Barry went to the bow to retrieve the anchor. I must admit I was a little worried as I have heard a Danforth can get stuck fast in mud but we did not even have to sail or motor towards the anchor. It came up easily with a quick tug and Barry lifted it onboard.
To get moving away from the stormy looking weather Barry returned to the cockpit immediately and tried to tack to get us headed back while I fixed the rope and chain of the anchor. Unable to tack (no water over the rudder) he changed tactic and gybed. We easily turned and started to pick up speed. We were travelling at 1 knot and decided that in order to outrun this weather we would need at least the headsail to, so out that came and we were on our way. Our speed now reached 3,5 knots on a beam reach, double this morning’s speed. We headed back towards the marina and we were faster than the approaching rain.
We beat the rain by a long shot and decided to take a quick swim in the pool before leaving. Rauen was feeling tired so opted to stay aboard and take a nap. The rest of us headed to the pool, Kyle still wearing his new life jacket.
Once in the pool Barry and I took Kyle and forced him to float on his back in the jacket. We then let go of him and he kept saying, “help me”, “help me” I replied, “put your feet down for yourself”. He tried and as soon as he realised he could float with the jacket on, no matter which way he turned, he wanted to try to swim.
I have been worried for months about trying to get him to swim, he panics whenever he gets in the pool, crying and fighting, refusing to get in further than the steps and crying even while we hold him and walk around the pool with him. Today he progressed faster than my wildest dreams, trying doggy paddle and breaststroke, swimming across the pool from shallow end to deep end and playing swimming games with Keagan. Already buying the life jacket has paid for itself! Kyle feeling confident in the water will make all the difference. I am so proud of him today!
As the rain darkened the sky we headed back to the boat to pack up and returned home.
It is twelve days to Christmas and we are going to put up the tree now, don’t forget to do yours too!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Talking Kle through it
Wow, the year is honestly drawing to a close and even my youngest is saying, “This year went so quickly”. It really did….
When I reflect on the year I can’t believe that a year ago we stepped onto a sailing yacht for the 1st time ever, learnt how to sail and took a 9day Skippers licence in the Indian Ocean.
By the time the course was done we had decided to sail around the world and by March we had purchased a small 24-foot Vivacity sailing yacht Bluefin at the local dam (The Vaal) to keep practising for our planned trip.
We consciously changed our minds regarding our finances and started to spend more wisely and less often, concentrating on paying down debts and saving more. We started working on a new income stream by designing and building a website and writing in numerous blogs.
Barry managed to stop smoking, a success still in progress for as he puts it: ”Every day is still a struggle and a conscious decision” while I managed to lose 12kg(Click Here!), still not quite enough to fit into that bikini but on my way.
Amy completed High School, Rauen was chosen as a prefect and we managed to gain my mom’s approval for our trip on her short visit with an awesome day sail. Not to mention the decrease in our unused worldly possessions, the increase in our homemade recipe book and the constant reading, planning and of course dreaming.
In order to keep this dream alive as well as our motivation high, regular visits to Bluefin are required and we only just managed to get to the boat this weekend after nearly a month away.
I was starting to feel as if the forces were trying to stop us when we arrived home on Friday afternoon to a blocked drain and sewerage spilling out onto our back lawn, not to mention Rauen’s swelling cheek from an abscess in his mouth.
We called the plumber and while waiting I packed, took Rauen with his antibiotics and pain pills off to sleep at his now 3 month long girlfriend’s house for the weekend and did the weekly washing. By the time the plumber had left it was after 6pm and we decided to spend the night at home.
We departed Saturday morning, made a couple of stops, first at the local Spar and then in Heidelberg to purchase some salads and baked goods. Reaching the boat by 11H30 we quickly unpacked and ate lunch while charging up the near flat battery.
We cast off at 13H00 and had a pleasant 3hour sail using only the main sail and reaching a maximum 3knot speed. We were all feeling a little nervous, Kyle was closer to terrified but we managed to use our weight to keep the boat on an even keel and talked Kyle through the wind and direction changes, swapping sides with each tack. By the time we completed our downwind run back to the marina we were feeling more confident. Kyle even stopped panicking with every weight shift, moving up to the bow of the boat alone and working the bowlines during docking.
No sooner had we tied up to the marina than a violent storm hit. Winds were at a consistent 30 knots and the rain came down in sheets. The squall past within 10 minutes but by then hail stones covered our cockpit, the marina water was filled with boat debris not yet stowed including suntan lotions, fenders and lose ropes from neighbouring yachts and tenders were water laden and near sinking point.
I commented to Barry that if we had been caught out in this bad weather again, considering my apprehension from our last few excursions; we would be planning a Campervan trip rather than a sailing trip! Luckily we had anticipated the weather and taken action early this time.
We set out early Sunday morning for another sail but with wind speeds below 1 knot and the heat rising with the sun we opted to return to the marina under motor and strip and refit the leaking window.
We were sure we had all the necessary tools and spare parts so we stripped the window and spent 2 hours removing silicon and cleaning and prepping the window to be refitted. We were feeling great at this point, successful almost and then things started to head south so to speak when we realised we did not have a silicon gun with us.
Application of the “Bond seal” window sealant without a gun was most frustrating. After several attempts Barry headed into town to find a hardware store, being Sunday and after 12pm all stores were closed. We could not leave the window out for the next 2 weeks so were in a predicament and had to finish the job. He managed to get a broken gun from the Jet Ski shop next door and returned to sukkle (South Africanism meaning – suffer) for another hour and a half.
During this time we managed to get ourselves, our clothes and thankfully the window covered in "Bond seal". Kyle learnt a dictionary of words “never to be repeated” and finally the window was refitted. Not the prettiest looking window, but once completely dry we will be able to remove the excess “Bond seal” and clean and buff the area and hopefully have a perfect looking window. We will know for sure on our next visit…will keep you posted.
By 2:30pm we were finished with the day’s job and as the temperature had reached a high of 34°C Barry suggested a swim in the clubhouse pool. I did not have my swimming costume but as the heat was stifling I decided to jump in fully clothed and walked around wet and dripping, but cool, until we left for home just after 4pm.
Next time I will remember my costume and maybe you can join me for a Splash!
When I reflect on the year I can’t believe that a year ago we stepped onto a sailing yacht for the 1st time ever, learnt how to sail and took a 9day Skippers licence in the Indian Ocean.
By the time the course was done we had decided to sail around the world and by March we had purchased a small 24-foot Vivacity sailing yacht Bluefin at the local dam (The Vaal) to keep practising for our planned trip.
We consciously changed our minds regarding our finances and started to spend more wisely and less often, concentrating on paying down debts and saving more. We started working on a new income stream by designing and building a website and writing in numerous blogs.
Barry managed to stop smoking, a success still in progress for as he puts it: ”Every day is still a struggle and a conscious decision” while I managed to lose 12kg(Click Here!), still not quite enough to fit into that bikini but on my way.
Amy completed High School, Rauen was chosen as a prefect and we managed to gain my mom’s approval for our trip on her short visit with an awesome day sail. Not to mention the decrease in our unused worldly possessions, the increase in our homemade recipe book and the constant reading, planning and of course dreaming.
In order to keep this dream alive as well as our motivation high, regular visits to Bluefin are required and we only just managed to get to the boat this weekend after nearly a month away.
I was starting to feel as if the forces were trying to stop us when we arrived home on Friday afternoon to a blocked drain and sewerage spilling out onto our back lawn, not to mention Rauen’s swelling cheek from an abscess in his mouth.
We called the plumber and while waiting I packed, took Rauen with his antibiotics and pain pills off to sleep at his now 3 month long girlfriend’s house for the weekend and did the weekly washing. By the time the plumber had left it was after 6pm and we decided to spend the night at home.
We departed Saturday morning, made a couple of stops, first at the local Spar and then in Heidelberg to purchase some salads and baked goods. Reaching the boat by 11H30 we quickly unpacked and ate lunch while charging up the near flat battery.
We cast off at 13H00 and had a pleasant 3hour sail using only the main sail and reaching a maximum 3knot speed. We were all feeling a little nervous, Kyle was closer to terrified but we managed to use our weight to keep the boat on an even keel and talked Kyle through the wind and direction changes, swapping sides with each tack. By the time we completed our downwind run back to the marina we were feeling more confident. Kyle even stopped panicking with every weight shift, moving up to the bow of the boat alone and working the bowlines during docking.
No sooner had we tied up to the marina than a violent storm hit. Winds were at a consistent 30 knots and the rain came down in sheets. The squall past within 10 minutes but by then hail stones covered our cockpit, the marina water was filled with boat debris not yet stowed including suntan lotions, fenders and lose ropes from neighbouring yachts and tenders were water laden and near sinking point.
I commented to Barry that if we had been caught out in this bad weather again, considering my apprehension from our last few excursions; we would be planning a Campervan trip rather than a sailing trip! Luckily we had anticipated the weather and taken action early this time.
We set out early Sunday morning for another sail but with wind speeds below 1 knot and the heat rising with the sun we opted to return to the marina under motor and strip and refit the leaking window.
We were sure we had all the necessary tools and spare parts so we stripped the window and spent 2 hours removing silicon and cleaning and prepping the window to be refitted. We were feeling great at this point, successful almost and then things started to head south so to speak when we realised we did not have a silicon gun with us.
Application of the “Bond seal” window sealant without a gun was most frustrating. After several attempts Barry headed into town to find a hardware store, being Sunday and after 12pm all stores were closed. We could not leave the window out for the next 2 weeks so were in a predicament and had to finish the job. He managed to get a broken gun from the Jet Ski shop next door and returned to sukkle (South Africanism meaning – suffer) for another hour and a half.
During this time we managed to get ourselves, our clothes and thankfully the window covered in "Bond seal". Kyle learnt a dictionary of words “never to be repeated” and finally the window was refitted. Not the prettiest looking window, but once completely dry we will be able to remove the excess “Bond seal” and clean and buff the area and hopefully have a perfect looking window. We will know for sure on our next visit…will keep you posted.
By 2:30pm we were finished with the day’s job and as the temperature had reached a high of 34°C Barry suggested a swim in the clubhouse pool. I did not have my swimming costume but as the heat was stifling I decided to jump in fully clothed and walked around wet and dripping, but cool, until we left for home just after 4pm.
Next time I will remember my costume and maybe you can join me for a Splash!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
House Building
It has been 2 weeks already and we haven’t managed to go to the boat at all.
It has been raining and freezing and although we said we would go no matter the weather, we could definitely not go out so whether we were sitting in the marina or sitting at home made no difference. We picked home so we could watch movies and read books and snuggle under our blankets.
A high of 12°C (a cold 12) for an African summer. Global Warming seems more like global cooling to me!
For my birthday we went to Standard bank and paid off an account. Seems like a sad birthday “gift” but it means we are a step closer to going on the boat so it is perfect for me! Beside I already got the dinghy as my real present!
We have been feeling really despondent for the last 2 weeks, a combination of the bad weather, problems at work and not going to the boat…. We are still on track for our leaving date but it seems as if we will never get there.
I was speaking to Barry about this and said that I remember when we were building our house. It took 10 years to build and we had many times where we thought it would just never happen. Where we thought we would never actually move into it and that we would never really finish it. But look at us now. Living in our house.
We moved in on Christmas Eve 2006 so it has been 3 years already. So much for never getting it done.
In 1996 we bought an empty stand from Barry’s brother and stepfather and decided we would build a house. We were both unable to get financing so our choices were renting or building for cash. We did not want to make someone else rich so we decided to build.
In order to stop paying rent immediately we built a 27 square meter thatched lapa (outside room) in the back left hand corner of the property and bricked it closed. Added the basic necessities, bath, toilet, basin and single sink and moved in.
We lived with 4 kids in that cottage for the entire time it took to build the house (10 long years). 2 Sets of bunk beds were placed along the walls and Barry and I slept on the floor in the middle. There was a curtain for the door of the bathroom and we ate sitting on the floor between the beds where Barry and I slept. At first there was no stove only an electric frying pan given as a present from Barry’s mom. After 4 years we bought an electric stove and it felt like heaven! We built a garage next (2 years later) because they kept breaking into our car. We lost the radio, wheels and tyres and replaced the locks about 10 times before we managed to get the garage up with no roof. Once we finally got the roof we started the “house in kit form” purchases.
Most of our family and friends didn’t think we would finish it either, we did not have very much money and in order to start building we needed building materials. So our basic plan for 4 years was to buy each other house parts for presents. Barry got sliding doors 1 year and I got the front door, window frames the next and door frames for me and so it went on until we “had a house in kit form” in our garage.
There were stages with “mountains” when we dug the foundations. The kids played “war games” in the holes hiding among the mounds. There was great bicycle riding once the floor was thrown and tennis and ball games against the walls as they started to go up.
The 3 boys have great memories of building a clubhouse inside one of the bedrooms using bricks. They had armchairs and tables and it was their duelling den.
Our friends thought we were slightly balmy. I remember our visitors sitting under a shade cloth in the “garden” watching as Barry and I flatted and stamped the mounds before throwing the floor or watching us cart wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of tiles around the house and pass them up onto the roof before placing them.
It became the norm that if you visited Barry and Lola you were bound to be roped into something, whether helping with the plumbing or holding up ceiling boards. I became an expert cement mixer, Barry the brick layer and upon near completion we held a painting party for my birthday.
Anyway we basically built our house with our own hands over a 10 year period and now live in this amazing 5 bedroom, 2 bathroom palace. Well it seems that way after the years in the cottage. Along the way we also made a beautiful garden with loads of trees and colourful flowers.
I’ll tell you more about our house building experiences as we go along. But yes after that, I believe we can do this easily!
It has been raining and freezing and although we said we would go no matter the weather, we could definitely not go out so whether we were sitting in the marina or sitting at home made no difference. We picked home so we could watch movies and read books and snuggle under our blankets.
A high of 12°C (a cold 12) for an African summer. Global Warming seems more like global cooling to me!
For my birthday we went to Standard bank and paid off an account. Seems like a sad birthday “gift” but it means we are a step closer to going on the boat so it is perfect for me! Beside I already got the dinghy as my real present!
We have been feeling really despondent for the last 2 weeks, a combination of the bad weather, problems at work and not going to the boat…. We are still on track for our leaving date but it seems as if we will never get there.
I was speaking to Barry about this and said that I remember when we were building our house. It took 10 years to build and we had many times where we thought it would just never happen. Where we thought we would never actually move into it and that we would never really finish it. But look at us now. Living in our house.
We moved in on Christmas Eve 2006 so it has been 3 years already. So much for never getting it done.
In 1996 we bought an empty stand from Barry’s brother and stepfather and decided we would build a house. We were both unable to get financing so our choices were renting or building for cash. We did not want to make someone else rich so we decided to build.
In order to stop paying rent immediately we built a 27 square meter thatched lapa (outside room) in the back left hand corner of the property and bricked it closed. Added the basic necessities, bath, toilet, basin and single sink and moved in.
We lived with 4 kids in that cottage for the entire time it took to build the house (10 long years). 2 Sets of bunk beds were placed along the walls and Barry and I slept on the floor in the middle. There was a curtain for the door of the bathroom and we ate sitting on the floor between the beds where Barry and I slept. At first there was no stove only an electric frying pan given as a present from Barry’s mom. After 4 years we bought an electric stove and it felt like heaven! We built a garage next (2 years later) because they kept breaking into our car. We lost the radio, wheels and tyres and replaced the locks about 10 times before we managed to get the garage up with no roof. Once we finally got the roof we started the “house in kit form” purchases.
Most of our family and friends didn’t think we would finish it either, we did not have very much money and in order to start building we needed building materials. So our basic plan for 4 years was to buy each other house parts for presents. Barry got sliding doors 1 year and I got the front door, window frames the next and door frames for me and so it went on until we “had a house in kit form” in our garage.
There were stages with “mountains” when we dug the foundations. The kids played “war games” in the holes hiding among the mounds. There was great bicycle riding once the floor was thrown and tennis and ball games against the walls as they started to go up.
The 3 boys have great memories of building a clubhouse inside one of the bedrooms using bricks. They had armchairs and tables and it was their duelling den.
Our friends thought we were slightly balmy. I remember our visitors sitting under a shade cloth in the “garden” watching as Barry and I flatted and stamped the mounds before throwing the floor or watching us cart wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of tiles around the house and pass them up onto the roof before placing them.
It became the norm that if you visited Barry and Lola you were bound to be roped into something, whether helping with the plumbing or holding up ceiling boards. I became an expert cement mixer, Barry the brick layer and upon near completion we held a painting party for my birthday.
Anyway we basically built our house with our own hands over a 10 year period and now live in this amazing 5 bedroom, 2 bathroom palace. Well it seems that way after the years in the cottage. Along the way we also made a beautiful garden with loads of trees and colourful flowers.
I’ll tell you more about our house building experiences as we go along. But yes after that, I believe we can do this easily!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Techno stuff
I know this has absolutely nothing to do with sailing or planning, but can you imagine the future?
This has got to be the most interesting, fascinating and futuristic video I have ever seen.
My mom would probably freak about this but imagine the possibilities...
Okay so now you have literally seen it all! The future our kids will live in when technology has surpassed any of us who were both pre 80's.
Does this not just lend itself to the idea of everything being controlled by a computer chip inside the brain! Sci fi stuff
This has got to be the most interesting, fascinating and futuristic video I have ever seen.
My mom would probably freak about this but imagine the possibilities...
Okay so now you have literally seen it all! The future our kids will live in when technology has surpassed any of us who were both pre 80's.
Does this not just lend itself to the idea of everything being controlled by a computer chip inside the brain! Sci fi stuff
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Boat work
Had a great weekend on the boat, even if we only poked our nose out of the marina once before heading back in.
Last week I started amassing some of the required items on our boat list. This list gets longer and longer even though we check off items all the time. Every time we visit the boat we find more things to add, but we are learning about maintenance and repairs and we have a sense of achievement every time we manage to get something fixed.
On Wednesday we met Axel and Peta at Villa Funchal, we normally meet on a Thursday but it was Axel’s birthday so we switched the days. It turned out we switched all our other regular Wednesday things to Thursday and did all the Thursday things on Wednesday. This led to much confusion with a mixed up week. Friday did seem to come quicker though, so no complaints!
Axel brought a new air filter for our inboard motor with him, seems Brendon had managed to find one after much searching. So thank you Brendon!
We visited Pick ‘n Pay and bought 4 blue pool noodles. We planned on putting these over the edges of the dinghy so that it would not damage the boat when pulled up along side. This worked out better than expected and we have to get 1 more to complete the task on our next visit. I will post pics then!
We headed to the boat on Friday, Barry was feeling under the weather, but we reasoned he could lie in bed there just as easily as at home. The weather was beautiful when we arrived but with the clouds building on the horizon we were in for a rolling and windy night.
We unloaded all our goodies and on boarding Bluefin found that Greg had finally left the other mooring cushion on board. Another task to be done. We unpacked and hooked up the computer for the kids to play games. We went for a walk and had an early night as Barry was not feeling any better.
On Saturday morning we took a drive to Deneysville. We went to “Star Marine” to get some spares for Bluefin. Some things are only available at the chandlery. We walked around looking through the treasure trove of goodies. We eventually bought only what we came for and headed back. On the way, Barry spotted a sign saying: ”History of Motorcycles Museum”….
We turned around, stopped at the newly set up museum and paid our entrance fee (at R20 per person we found it a little pricey). There were however, plenty of bikes, a few rarities all with comments on the history and ownership. We read up about a ship found near the Suez Canal, sunk in WWII, with 100 motorcycles on board. A great dive site today!
We headed outside and watched, much to Kyle’s excitement, a helicopter take off. There was a learner pilot on board, so it was interesting and not just a little nerve wrecking as he almost hit the windsock. “Hope he misses the masts on the yachts” Barry commented as he headed towards the water and we headed back to the museum to complete our tour.
We stopped at “Stoppies” a new restaurant/coffee shop in Vaal Marina and had burgers and toasted sandwiches for lunch. We looked at the Iguana’s, bearded dragons and Macaw parrots in the nursery outside before returning to Bluefin to begin our boat work.
By the time we got back it had started to rain. Barry and I headed up to the garages and stuck the pool noodles around the dinghy, opting to work indoors during the downpour. We returned to the boat and started our in depth wire tracing for our non-functional depth finder. We checked wires and connections, cleaned the transducer and played with the buttons until it seemed that it had started to show true depth rather than display in simulator mode.
Sunday morning had us up early, hoping to test the depth finder. We motored out and into the small bay at Sunset Cove. We headed close to shore and watched anxiously as the depth decreased on the screen. It started decreasing slowly then suddenly fell from 5m to 0.5m. We turned sharply to avoid running aground, but the depth did not increase. We headed deeper into the water, still nothing. I switched the system off and on…nothing. Off and on again, finally back to 5m. It stayed there for 60 seconds before returning to simulator mode. Guess it is still not working properly. I made a note to find the manual on the Internet and have a look at what the problem could be.
Upon re-entering the marina, Barry asked me to take the tiller and “park”. Rauen got ready to jump, Barry went to the bow and I docked the boat. We packed up our toys and returned home to do our chores and prepare the wrenched workweek ahead.
Hey, Tuesday is my Birthday – so it can’t be all that bad!
Last week I started amassing some of the required items on our boat list. This list gets longer and longer even though we check off items all the time. Every time we visit the boat we find more things to add, but we are learning about maintenance and repairs and we have a sense of achievement every time we manage to get something fixed.
On Wednesday we met Axel and Peta at Villa Funchal, we normally meet on a Thursday but it was Axel’s birthday so we switched the days. It turned out we switched all our other regular Wednesday things to Thursday and did all the Thursday things on Wednesday. This led to much confusion with a mixed up week. Friday did seem to come quicker though, so no complaints!
Axel brought a new air filter for our inboard motor with him, seems Brendon had managed to find one after much searching. So thank you Brendon!
We visited Pick ‘n Pay and bought 4 blue pool noodles. We planned on putting these over the edges of the dinghy so that it would not damage the boat when pulled up along side. This worked out better than expected and we have to get 1 more to complete the task on our next visit. I will post pics then!
We headed to the boat on Friday, Barry was feeling under the weather, but we reasoned he could lie in bed there just as easily as at home. The weather was beautiful when we arrived but with the clouds building on the horizon we were in for a rolling and windy night.
We unloaded all our goodies and on boarding Bluefin found that Greg had finally left the other mooring cushion on board. Another task to be done. We unpacked and hooked up the computer for the kids to play games. We went for a walk and had an early night as Barry was not feeling any better.
On Saturday morning we took a drive to Deneysville. We went to “Star Marine” to get some spares for Bluefin. Some things are only available at the chandlery. We walked around looking through the treasure trove of goodies. We eventually bought only what we came for and headed back. On the way, Barry spotted a sign saying: ”History of Motorcycles Museum”….
We turned around, stopped at the newly set up museum and paid our entrance fee (at R20 per person we found it a little pricey). There were however, plenty of bikes, a few rarities all with comments on the history and ownership. We read up about a ship found near the Suez Canal, sunk in WWII, with 100 motorcycles on board. A great dive site today!
We headed outside and watched, much to Kyle’s excitement, a helicopter take off. There was a learner pilot on board, so it was interesting and not just a little nerve wrecking as he almost hit the windsock. “Hope he misses the masts on the yachts” Barry commented as he headed towards the water and we headed back to the museum to complete our tour.
We stopped at “Stoppies” a new restaurant/coffee shop in Vaal Marina and had burgers and toasted sandwiches for lunch. We looked at the Iguana’s, bearded dragons and Macaw parrots in the nursery outside before returning to Bluefin to begin our boat work.
By the time we got back it had started to rain. Barry and I headed up to the garages and stuck the pool noodles around the dinghy, opting to work indoors during the downpour. We returned to the boat and started our in depth wire tracing for our non-functional depth finder. We checked wires and connections, cleaned the transducer and played with the buttons until it seemed that it had started to show true depth rather than display in simulator mode.
Sunday morning had us up early, hoping to test the depth finder. We motored out and into the small bay at Sunset Cove. We headed close to shore and watched anxiously as the depth decreased on the screen. It started decreasing slowly then suddenly fell from 5m to 0.5m. We turned sharply to avoid running aground, but the depth did not increase. We headed deeper into the water, still nothing. I switched the system off and on…nothing. Off and on again, finally back to 5m. It stayed there for 60 seconds before returning to simulator mode. Guess it is still not working properly. I made a note to find the manual on the Internet and have a look at what the problem could be.
Upon re-entering the marina, Barry asked me to take the tiller and “park”. Rauen got ready to jump, Barry went to the bow and I docked the boat. We packed up our toys and returned home to do our chores and prepare the wrenched workweek ahead.
Hey, Tuesday is my Birthday – so it can’t be all that bad!
Sailing a calm sport?
We spent the last 2 weeks waiting for the moment we could get back to the boat for the weekend. Amazing how time stands sill when you are in a hurry, I guess a watched pot never does boil! It finally began boiling at 12 o’clock on Friday. The boys were finishing school early so we were able to leave earlier than expected and arrived at the boat before 2pm.
During the previous 2 weeks we had purchased a 5kg Danforth anchor, 3m chain and 50m nylon braided rope. We had high hopes of anchoring out but these were soon to be dismissed as you will see.
We had also mounted our World and Africa maps on our dining room wall to keep the motivation alive. It seems to dwindle when things don’t move as fast as we would like them too. We now spend every meal talking about places we want to see, distances we will travel and people we will meet. Our new book “Still Cruising” arrived in the post, the sequel to the book we just completed “Just Cruising” by Liza Copeland. Fantastic reading for us as it tells the tale of a family with 3 small boys travelling around the world on their yacht. This new instalment completes the circumnavigation.
On arrival on Friday, the weather seems good – a few rain clouds in the distance, but we would surely be back before them if we went for a little sail. Perhaps we would be anchored before they hit and we could enjoy the rain from our new vantage point? We were high spirited by this prospect and we stowed our supplies below deck, started the motor at 14h40 and pulled out of the marina. We headed south, with the wind from behind hoping to anchor close to Vaal Marina near the Pennant Nine Yacht Club. We were just past Misty bay when the wind died completely and it started to drizzle. Barry and I donned our rain jackets and were just discussing if we should anchor in the little bay ahead (we could easily motor there) when we saw the wind coming along the water from the south. We waited, it caught the sails and we were off. That’s when the problems started….
We picked up speed, reading 5.4knots on the GPS (our highest speed yet) when a huge gust of wind from the north (wrong direction) hit us, spun the boat around, we had all sails up and it started to pour. I quickly moved the electronic equipment below. The boat started to heel, further and further as the wind built steadily, not giving us a seconds gap to get the head sail in. Barry pulled hard on the tiller shouting to me to get the headsail in, to no avail, I just could not get it in with the force of the wind on the sails. Looking back I should have let it fly (lesson learned).
He dropped the boom, hoping to get some of the pressure off the sails before we tipped completely. The boom swung towards the water, dunking under and swinging the boat around. With the main sail partially under water at this point and spinning ever closer to the water, I felt complete panic. What if we capsized? How would I get the life jackets out of the lazarette whose side I was standing on? Would I be able to get the kids out of the boat in time? Kyle can’t swim and I could hear his panic and shouting above the howling wind. Barry pulled on the main sheet and brought the boom back in, righting the boat slightly. He told me to hold it and the tiller as he attempted to roll in the genoa. Finally we had a little success. We had less sail out and the boat came closer to a normal heel.
At this point our adrenaline had pumped through us so fast and so much we were both weak and shaking. Kyle was crying and Rauen was laughing. We could not face the prospect of anchoring now and turned towards the marina, travelling with only the main sail we had far better control. As we entered the bay outside our marina I climbed up to the mast dropped the main, flaking it would have to be done later, and we motored back into the marina at 16H32. It had been just under 2 hours since we left the marina but it felt like days. It was truly the first time I have felt we could not handle the sailing trip we were planning. Barry was saying – he now believes the boat will never capsize and we can handle anything – he can speak for himself, Kyle and I just wanted to stay on land at that point.
We left the boys to play computer in the marina and took a walk to Axel and Peta down the road, stopping at the bottle store on the way, and having a few “stiff ones” when we got there. We walked back to the marina after dark and had a few more drinks with Clint and Michelle on their catamaran Oyster Thief, getting up to mischief and discussing the storm from earlier that day.
On Saturday morning, Kira and Brendon came over to the boat. Brendon is a diesel mechanic and had come to take a look at our motor, see what spares were needed to
do a service, change the impeller and set the valves. He will return in two weeks time to service the motor, but it is already a lot improved with the replacement impeller. It had not been pumping water since we bought her and now was, much to Barry’s excitement.
At 12h36 we again headed out of the marina to find an anchor spot for the night. This time there were no ominous clouds on the horizon as we thought we were safe….
We hoisted both the sails and had a great sail getting up to 4.5knots. The clouds were slowly building on the horizon behind us but were headed the other direction down wind and expected to reach out chosen anchor spot in Cruisers Cove before the clouds and rain. As we reached fool’s point, just 0.5nm from our anchorage, the wind changed direction. (We now know that this means trouble on the dam – minutes after a direction change the full fury of the wind unleashes) We were about to be in trouble once again. We were now at the point in the dam where the two rivers feeding the dam, the Vaal and the Wilge meet. We were open to the weather on 3 sides, after a sudden wind direction change it’s not the place I want to be.
Barry spotted the wind on the water, bringing white caps, rough water and steadily increasing gusting wind. We immediately dropped the Genoa, not wanting a repeat of yesterday. We were however, both a little on edge and decided we would rather return to the marina and anchor when the weather is calmer, perhaps closer to our marina to start. October is the windiest month on the dam and we are not the most experienced sailors, especially with our confidence shattered.
On our way back to the marina, we passed through the confluence and the wind speed increased further. We made the decision to start the motor and go bare poles. I climbed up and dropped the main, again planning on flaking it at the marina and place the sail cover over it to avoid it dropping into the water. We reached the marina just in time, as we secured the last mooring line, the cloud burst and we were forced to wait downstairs, reading, until it eased up an hour later.
At around 4pm Greg, the previous harbour master, called Barry. Barry had left a message for him the previous week, hoping to find out if he had any second hand dinghies for sale. He immediately said he did have one. Fully rigid at a bargain price and since it is my birthday soon, we decided an early birthday present would go down well, took the plunge and bought it. We went into town to draw money and finally got the dinghy with trailer at the launching area by 7pm.
We woke up early Sunday morning, had a quick cereal breakfast, took some cloths, a bucket and some dishwashing liquid and headed up to the dinghy. Barry and I started washing while Rauen and Kyle started removing the stickers with the previous boat name on. Rauen and I swopped places because he has no nails. Soon all was done. Rauen walked back to the boat, dropped of the cleaning items and collected a life jacket for Kyle. Barry and I launched the dinghy, deciding to row over to Axel to wish Peta a happy birthday.
After putting a life jacket on Kyle we all climbed into the dinghy, which is very unstable and since we have never been on a dinghy before, a little apprehension was felt by all. Except Kyle, who once again felt complete terror. He kept saying we are going to sink, we are going to die, we are going to drown etc until I actually had to tell him enough was enough and he needs to stop crying and relax, we have everything under control. We pulled the dinghy up onto the “beach” and walked over to their unit, wished Peta a Happy Birthday and returned to row back to the marina.
Quite a bit of exercise there. For me way more than Barry, as he only had to paddle once for every 10 stokes of mine. I basically rowed all the way there and back, with him making sure we did not turn by doing one stroke when necessary. Oh to be strong and powerful! Rauen also gave it a whirl but found we were not even moving. After complaining he had not realised it was so hard to do, he gave it back to me to complete the job.
We decided we would not yet try and get from the dinghy to the jetty in water of more than 20m deep so returned to the launching area and took her completely out of the water. Max (our new harbour master) had kindly offered us place to store her and the trailer in a garage at the marina. Safe and out of the weather, all we could ever ask for.
Back at the boat, we were busy with lunch when we had a few visitors. Kira and Brendon had walked round to visit. We were discussing boats, and our sailing plans and we took a walk to the end of the dock where the catamarans are parked in the wider berths. We met Kevin, the owner of an Ocean Spirit 34’ (the boat we like from Coplan – see out boat page) which he is building himself. We asked if we could come aboard and have a look. He showed us around and I had an in depth conversation with him regarding how much work there still was to be done, how he had taken delivery, how the boat sailed, what his plans were when it was finished and how long he expected it to take to complete building. He liked that he could enjoy sailing her while at the same time do all the finishing himself allowing him to know exactly how to fix everything. We left and walked back to our yacht after watching Clint catch a catfish on the marina.
A few minutes later Axel arrived by boat. We chatted for a few minutes and Kira and Brendon climbed aboard his boat and left. After eating lunch we packed up and headed home, arriving at around 4pm.
What an adrenaline pumping weekend. I thought sailing was a calm sport or hobby. Boy was I mistaken!
During the previous 2 weeks we had purchased a 5kg Danforth anchor, 3m chain and 50m nylon braided rope. We had high hopes of anchoring out but these were soon to be dismissed as you will see.
We had also mounted our World and Africa maps on our dining room wall to keep the motivation alive. It seems to dwindle when things don’t move as fast as we would like them too. We now spend every meal talking about places we want to see, distances we will travel and people we will meet. Our new book “Still Cruising” arrived in the post, the sequel to the book we just completed “Just Cruising” by Liza Copeland. Fantastic reading for us as it tells the tale of a family with 3 small boys travelling around the world on their yacht. This new instalment completes the circumnavigation.
On arrival on Friday, the weather seems good – a few rain clouds in the distance, but we would surely be back before them if we went for a little sail. Perhaps we would be anchored before they hit and we could enjoy the rain from our new vantage point? We were high spirited by this prospect and we stowed our supplies below deck, started the motor at 14h40 and pulled out of the marina. We headed south, with the wind from behind hoping to anchor close to Vaal Marina near the Pennant Nine Yacht Club. We were just past Misty bay when the wind died completely and it started to drizzle. Barry and I donned our rain jackets and were just discussing if we should anchor in the little bay ahead (we could easily motor there) when we saw the wind coming along the water from the south. We waited, it caught the sails and we were off. That’s when the problems started….
We picked up speed, reading 5.4knots on the GPS (our highest speed yet) when a huge gust of wind from the north (wrong direction) hit us, spun the boat around, we had all sails up and it started to pour. I quickly moved the electronic equipment below. The boat started to heel, further and further as the wind built steadily, not giving us a seconds gap to get the head sail in. Barry pulled hard on the tiller shouting to me to get the headsail in, to no avail, I just could not get it in with the force of the wind on the sails. Looking back I should have let it fly (lesson learned).
He dropped the boom, hoping to get some of the pressure off the sails before we tipped completely. The boom swung towards the water, dunking under and swinging the boat around. With the main sail partially under water at this point and spinning ever closer to the water, I felt complete panic. What if we capsized? How would I get the life jackets out of the lazarette whose side I was standing on? Would I be able to get the kids out of the boat in time? Kyle can’t swim and I could hear his panic and shouting above the howling wind. Barry pulled on the main sheet and brought the boom back in, righting the boat slightly. He told me to hold it and the tiller as he attempted to roll in the genoa. Finally we had a little success. We had less sail out and the boat came closer to a normal heel.
At this point our adrenaline had pumped through us so fast and so much we were both weak and shaking. Kyle was crying and Rauen was laughing. We could not face the prospect of anchoring now and turned towards the marina, travelling with only the main sail we had far better control. As we entered the bay outside our marina I climbed up to the mast dropped the main, flaking it would have to be done later, and we motored back into the marina at 16H32. It had been just under 2 hours since we left the marina but it felt like days. It was truly the first time I have felt we could not handle the sailing trip we were planning. Barry was saying – he now believes the boat will never capsize and we can handle anything – he can speak for himself, Kyle and I just wanted to stay on land at that point.
We left the boys to play computer in the marina and took a walk to Axel and Peta down the road, stopping at the bottle store on the way, and having a few “stiff ones” when we got there. We walked back to the marina after dark and had a few more drinks with Clint and Michelle on their catamaran Oyster Thief, getting up to mischief and discussing the storm from earlier that day.
On Saturday morning, Kira and Brendon came over to the boat. Brendon is a diesel mechanic and had come to take a look at our motor, see what spares were needed to
do a service, change the impeller and set the valves. He will return in two weeks time to service the motor, but it is already a lot improved with the replacement impeller. It had not been pumping water since we bought her and now was, much to Barry’s excitement.
At 12h36 we again headed out of the marina to find an anchor spot for the night. This time there were no ominous clouds on the horizon as we thought we were safe….
We hoisted both the sails and had a great sail getting up to 4.5knots. The clouds were slowly building on the horizon behind us but were headed the other direction down wind and expected to reach out chosen anchor spot in Cruisers Cove before the clouds and rain. As we reached fool’s point, just 0.5nm from our anchorage, the wind changed direction. (We now know that this means trouble on the dam – minutes after a direction change the full fury of the wind unleashes) We were about to be in trouble once again. We were now at the point in the dam where the two rivers feeding the dam, the Vaal and the Wilge meet. We were open to the weather on 3 sides, after a sudden wind direction change it’s not the place I want to be.
Barry spotted the wind on the water, bringing white caps, rough water and steadily increasing gusting wind. We immediately dropped the Genoa, not wanting a repeat of yesterday. We were however, both a little on edge and decided we would rather return to the marina and anchor when the weather is calmer, perhaps closer to our marina to start. October is the windiest month on the dam and we are not the most experienced sailors, especially with our confidence shattered.
On our way back to the marina, we passed through the confluence and the wind speed increased further. We made the decision to start the motor and go bare poles. I climbed up and dropped the main, again planning on flaking it at the marina and place the sail cover over it to avoid it dropping into the water. We reached the marina just in time, as we secured the last mooring line, the cloud burst and we were forced to wait downstairs, reading, until it eased up an hour later.
At around 4pm Greg, the previous harbour master, called Barry. Barry had left a message for him the previous week, hoping to find out if he had any second hand dinghies for sale. He immediately said he did have one. Fully rigid at a bargain price and since it is my birthday soon, we decided an early birthday present would go down well, took the plunge and bought it. We went into town to draw money and finally got the dinghy with trailer at the launching area by 7pm.
We woke up early Sunday morning, had a quick cereal breakfast, took some cloths, a bucket and some dishwashing liquid and headed up to the dinghy. Barry and I started washing while Rauen and Kyle started removing the stickers with the previous boat name on. Rauen and I swopped places because he has no nails. Soon all was done. Rauen walked back to the boat, dropped of the cleaning items and collected a life jacket for Kyle. Barry and I launched the dinghy, deciding to row over to Axel to wish Peta a happy birthday.
After putting a life jacket on Kyle we all climbed into the dinghy, which is very unstable and since we have never been on a dinghy before, a little apprehension was felt by all. Except Kyle, who once again felt complete terror. He kept saying we are going to sink, we are going to die, we are going to drown etc until I actually had to tell him enough was enough and he needs to stop crying and relax, we have everything under control. We pulled the dinghy up onto the “beach” and walked over to their unit, wished Peta a Happy Birthday and returned to row back to the marina.
Quite a bit of exercise there. For me way more than Barry, as he only had to paddle once for every 10 stokes of mine. I basically rowed all the way there and back, with him making sure we did not turn by doing one stroke when necessary. Oh to be strong and powerful! Rauen also gave it a whirl but found we were not even moving. After complaining he had not realised it was so hard to do, he gave it back to me to complete the job.
We decided we would not yet try and get from the dinghy to the jetty in water of more than 20m deep so returned to the launching area and took her completely out of the water. Max (our new harbour master) had kindly offered us place to store her and the trailer in a garage at the marina. Safe and out of the weather, all we could ever ask for.
Back at the boat, we were busy with lunch when we had a few visitors. Kira and Brendon had walked round to visit. We were discussing boats, and our sailing plans and we took a walk to the end of the dock where the catamarans are parked in the wider berths. We met Kevin, the owner of an Ocean Spirit 34’ (the boat we like from Coplan – see out boat page) which he is building himself. We asked if we could come aboard and have a look. He showed us around and I had an in depth conversation with him regarding how much work there still was to be done, how he had taken delivery, how the boat sailed, what his plans were when it was finished and how long he expected it to take to complete building. He liked that he could enjoy sailing her while at the same time do all the finishing himself allowing him to know exactly how to fix everything. We left and walked back to our yacht after watching Clint catch a catfish on the marina.
A few minutes later Axel arrived by boat. We chatted for a few minutes and Kira and Brendon climbed aboard his boat and left. After eating lunch we packed up and headed home, arriving at around 4pm.
What an adrenaline pumping weekend. I thought sailing was a calm sport or hobby. Boy was I mistaken!
Trip to the Vaal Dam
Barry and I made a deal that we will be heading to the boat every other weekend for the duration of spring, summer and autumn, which included this weekend just past. We made this arrangement to accommodate all our other life happenings, seeing other friends and family, any school things the boys want or need to do and we timed it so that we only have 2 kids on the weekends we go to the boat. Not that this rules out going on the other weekend for a day sail, which we always hope to fit in somewhere!
Friday afternoon finally rolled around and we were off. The weather started to look ominous as we neared the stop street just before the dam. It seemed to be raining over the dam but not on the road running along side. We still had 20km to go running alongside the dam to our marina, we watched the water from the right hand windows as the lighting flashed and the wind whistled through the trees, bending them to breaking point.
We reached the marina. The wind was blowing at gale force in a westerly direction (which meant it blew straight into the harbour mouth) causing large breaking waves to enter the marina and made the pontoon look like a roller coaster. We decided it was not a good idea for Kyle to carry anything, as his balance is not brilliant. I took his hand and headed to the boat to unlock. He sat downstairs helping unpack while Barry and Rauen did the 3 trips to the car to carry the weekend’s goods to the boat.
2 Cooler boxes (1 for drinks and 1 for food)
1 Kitbag (with all our clothes)
2 Packets (with some crisps, treats and 2 pots)
2 Pillows
4 Extra blankets in case it got cold (which it did)
1 Laptop – for the kids to play whilst it rained)
Not 2 minutes after the last of the stocks were on the boat it started to pour with rain. The wind howled and the boat rocked. Barry spotted the boat next to us, Lazy Days, on the opposite side of the pontoon finger, break loose from the pontoon and turn sharply towards his neighbour About time. We jumped from our boat and pulled it in using the spring line and made a makeshift bow line in the torrential rain to keep it in place and avoid an “in marina collision”. 25 minutes later it was over and the rain calmed, an hour later the wind calmed and out came the rainbows. Yes there were 2!
We wiped down the boat as the other boaters arrived for the weekend, we had a few drinks on the docks with them while the boys played games with a new friend they made across the way (the grandson of our opposite neighbours) and by 11pm we called it a night.
We woke at 7am, brushed teeth and headed out into the dam for a bit of light sailing before the following storm made its appearance. Using the GPS (we got new batteries) we noted our highest recorded speed at 4 knots and travelled a mere 2.1 nm before returning to the marina after 2 ½ hours of sailing. We got to work immediately on our return to erect our marina fender to stop the boat hitting the dock in the storm we expected in a few hours time (we had cringed the night before while we listened to the banging sound as the boat struck the wooden pontoon).
We opened the engine and had a look around, we will be servicing it shortly, that should be an interesting event. We found the deck pump and traced the connecting pipes to a deck shower. Replaced the latches on the engine covers and got the bilge pump working again. Not to mention the cleaning, cleaning and cleaning again.
Boat work out the way we took a walk up to the little store in Misty bay about 1km away with the boys. We played a rhyming game on the way because Rauen had told us in the week he can’t rhyme, we had a great time and giggled and laughed the whole way there and back. On the way back (eating ice-creams) we saw the dark clouds building. So fast we thought we wouldn’t make it in time. We walked more and more briskly hoping to make it back to our open boat before the rain, which threatened to wet all our bedding, the computer and our cellphones if we were too late.
We entered the marina grounds and I told Rauen and Kyle to make a run for the boat and close the hatches so I could make a stop at the toilet on my way down. They got to the boat and closed the hatches as the first drops fell, Kyle getting hit by a few up front closing the hatch over our bed. Barry and I walked out of the toilets to the start of the rain, we ran along the pontoon getting soaked (me of course in white) and climbed aboard – too late for wet weather clothing. It rained on and off the whole night with the wind staying above 15 knots and causing the clinging sound of the halyards hitting the mast to continue all night and into the morning.
We woke to overcast and dismal looking weather. We made an egg roll breakfast and cleaned the dishes and boat before packing up and leaving at around 10am, heading for home and a DVD on the couch.
We spoke about starting a book for the boat, to note the sailing hours, engine hours, speed, distance sailed, wind speed, weather conditions etc as well as any items we need for maintenance and repair. I started the book today – gonna have loads of info and stats to look at over a period of time.
Friday afternoon finally rolled around and we were off. The weather started to look ominous as we neared the stop street just before the dam. It seemed to be raining over the dam but not on the road running along side. We still had 20km to go running alongside the dam to our marina, we watched the water from the right hand windows as the lighting flashed and the wind whistled through the trees, bending them to breaking point.
We reached the marina. The wind was blowing at gale force in a westerly direction (which meant it blew straight into the harbour mouth) causing large breaking waves to enter the marina and made the pontoon look like a roller coaster. We decided it was not a good idea for Kyle to carry anything, as his balance is not brilliant. I took his hand and headed to the boat to unlock. He sat downstairs helping unpack while Barry and Rauen did the 3 trips to the car to carry the weekend’s goods to the boat.
2 Cooler boxes (1 for drinks and 1 for food)
1 Kitbag (with all our clothes)
2 Packets (with some crisps, treats and 2 pots)
2 Pillows
4 Extra blankets in case it got cold (which it did)
1 Laptop – for the kids to play whilst it rained)
Not 2 minutes after the last of the stocks were on the boat it started to pour with rain. The wind howled and the boat rocked. Barry spotted the boat next to us, Lazy Days, on the opposite side of the pontoon finger, break loose from the pontoon and turn sharply towards his neighbour About time. We jumped from our boat and pulled it in using the spring line and made a makeshift bow line in the torrential rain to keep it in place and avoid an “in marina collision”. 25 minutes later it was over and the rain calmed, an hour later the wind calmed and out came the rainbows. Yes there were 2!
We wiped down the boat as the other boaters arrived for the weekend, we had a few drinks on the docks with them while the boys played games with a new friend they made across the way (the grandson of our opposite neighbours) and by 11pm we called it a night.
We woke at 7am, brushed teeth and headed out into the dam for a bit of light sailing before the following storm made its appearance. Using the GPS (we got new batteries) we noted our highest recorded speed at 4 knots and travelled a mere 2.1 nm before returning to the marina after 2 ½ hours of sailing. We got to work immediately on our return to erect our marina fender to stop the boat hitting the dock in the storm we expected in a few hours time (we had cringed the night before while we listened to the banging sound as the boat struck the wooden pontoon).
We opened the engine and had a look around, we will be servicing it shortly, that should be an interesting event. We found the deck pump and traced the connecting pipes to a deck shower. Replaced the latches on the engine covers and got the bilge pump working again. Not to mention the cleaning, cleaning and cleaning again.
Boat work out the way we took a walk up to the little store in Misty bay about 1km away with the boys. We played a rhyming game on the way because Rauen had told us in the week he can’t rhyme, we had a great time and giggled and laughed the whole way there and back. On the way back (eating ice-creams) we saw the dark clouds building. So fast we thought we wouldn’t make it in time. We walked more and more briskly hoping to make it back to our open boat before the rain, which threatened to wet all our bedding, the computer and our cellphones if we were too late.
We entered the marina grounds and I told Rauen and Kyle to make a run for the boat and close the hatches so I could make a stop at the toilet on my way down. They got to the boat and closed the hatches as the first drops fell, Kyle getting hit by a few up front closing the hatch over our bed. Barry and I walked out of the toilets to the start of the rain, we ran along the pontoon getting soaked (me of course in white) and climbed aboard – too late for wet weather clothing. It rained on and off the whole night with the wind staying above 15 knots and causing the clinging sound of the halyards hitting the mast to continue all night and into the morning.
We woke to overcast and dismal looking weather. We made an egg roll breakfast and cleaned the dishes and boat before packing up and leaving at around 10am, heading for home and a DVD on the couch.
We spoke about starting a book for the boat, to note the sailing hours, engine hours, speed, distance sailed, wind speed, weather conditions etc as well as any items we need for maintenance and repair. I started the book today – gonna have loads of info and stats to look at over a period of time.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Rough weather sailing
School broke up on Wednesday so we headed to the boat for 5 nights. We arrived at 5 o’clock on Wednesday and unpacked the car. It took 4 trips from the car to the boat with all our goodies for the week, including 2 cooler boxes, 2 bags of clothing and 6 Pick ‘n Pay “Green bags” of food. (We still had to buy more Coke’s whilst there)
On Thursday we took a walk around to Axel and Peta and had boerewors rolls for lunch (It was national Braai day after all!) As we started the fire the wind picked up and boy did it pick up…40 knots gusting at 60! We could hardly stand let alone sail. We took a walk back to our boat to spend an awesomely rocky, rainy night in the marina.
Friday started out with some hot showers and as the wind continued to blow at gale force we stayed in the marina for the day, spending the time doing some boat work. There seems to be a never-ending list of tasks we want to get completed. We expect this to continue when we move onto the cat, it will probably fill our days whilst we take our trip. We managed to get the following ticked off the list:
We also spent some quality time with the boys reading some bible passages, playing cards and reading “Just Cruising” (to keep the dream alive). By the time we headed for bed the wind was starting to calm down.
We woke on Saturday to absolute calm, not a breathe of wind and the marina filling up as people arrived to enjoy a warm weekend on their respective boats. We took a walk to the shop about 2km’s down the road and ordered take away burgers for lunch finished off with an ice-cream for the walk home.
Whilst walking past Sunset Cove Barry phoned Axel and we headed in for a quick visit. We spent the afternoon watching Axel play chef and make meatballs and “HOT STUFF” yes it was flaming hot! We took a walk back to the marina just before sunset and motored out into the dam with a very light breeze to hoist both the main and roller furler and watch the sun set. I took some amazing pictures in the peaceful surroundings. I always love it when we are under sail in a light breeze with no motor. Just after sunset the wind was gone again and we motored back in.
We sat on the boat and had a few drinks, when we looked up Marcelle had come back in after his 3 day trip up to Frankfort, lowering the mast in Oranjeville and re-hoisting it and doing the same on the return trip. He was very excited (and who wouldn’t be) it is a trip few, if any, have managed.Click here to read his full story Barry later went over to Ken’s boat and enjoyed more drinks with them whilst I slept.
We woke early on Sunday, hot showers again and a trip to town to buy some meat as we were expecting Tammy and Jason on Sunday afternoon. They finally arrived at about 4pm after a huge 47km trip from their hotel (which they thought was on the dam) and spent a few hours enjoying their company, the kids enjoying having 5 others to play with too. Tammy pretended to be the paparazzi and took about 100 pictures of the boats at the dock. By the time they left at around 8pm the marina was quiet. We were alone again.
As we had not managed to get any real sailing done yet we made a deal that the next morning we were going out…definitely. We woke to a very windy morning….
As promised we started the motor and Rauen released the lines and we were off…but the wind blew harder than the boat could move and Rauen and I found ourselves pushing us off both the dock and other boats before we managed to get out of the marina. Together with Kyle’s comments this should have been a sign that we should have stayed put but we had promised so….
We rolled only the head sail out, reefed at five turns and sailed with 1 nautical mile of the marina (we know this because we had a GPS on board…until the batteries died as the wind picked up further) we tacked and gybed and practised in the heavy wind. We started to gain confidence and turned the boat downwind for a fast sail past Villains point towards Deneysville. Just after Misty point the wind picked up and became ferocious, we decided to tack and head back to the marina, it was 10am.
We were beating into the wind and waves under motor and sail with no success. We were not making any ground travelling at 0.00 knots over the water and getting pooped with water every 10 seconds. We tacked round and sailed up the lee side of the island hoping to get across at the other end, I also put life jackets on both the boys and turned on the VHF to channel 16 (just in case) at this point as I was not feeling very comfortable. As we approached we realised the wind was just as bad as on the other side and we would be pushed even further from home that way so we tacked round again and sailed back from where we came. As we neared the end of the island it seemed we would make it past Villains point and be able to tack back to the marina but Baltic Sea was on the water and we were on a collision course. We were on a port tack, them on Starboard, which meant they had right of way and we had to turn to a beam reach to pass to their stern, putting us completely off course to pass Villains point. We tacked back again towards the island and once in the lee we turned and headed again for Villains point….we finally made it past!
Just after passing Villains point the dam got rougher, the waves were hitting us on the port side and turning the boat, broaching us with every wave. Kyle looked a little scared sitting holding onto the handrail with Rauen at his side. I asked “Are you scared boy?” The reply…”No….I am Terrified!” just before the tears started streaming down his face. I went inside and gave him a hug bravely saying it will all be fine, don’t worry, until he calmed down. (It helped that I was soaking wet and we had a good laugh about that). Barry kept hold of the tiller and we tacked 3 more times before managing to get to our marina. It took all of us to get the boat tied back up.
As I packed up everything I spotted the only casualty of the very rough sail…my handbag, soaking wet and covered in mud. It had been on the forward bunk and water had come in through the forward port hatch and dripped down…a sure sign we had been tipped far over whilst sailing.
We managed to get the luggage back up to the car in just 1 trip and headed home in a thunderstorm that had luckily held out long enough for us to get off the water – or we would have been rained on too!
On Thursday we took a walk around to Axel and Peta and had boerewors rolls for lunch (It was national Braai day after all!) As we started the fire the wind picked up and boy did it pick up…40 knots gusting at 60! We could hardly stand let alone sail. We took a walk back to our boat to spend an awesomely rocky, rainy night in the marina.
Friday started out with some hot showers and as the wind continued to blow at gale force we stayed in the marina for the day, spending the time doing some boat work. There seems to be a never-ending list of tasks we want to get completed. We expect this to continue when we move onto the cat, it will probably fill our days whilst we take our trip. We managed to get the following ticked off the list:
- Making mooring lines (which includes cutting to length and sealing) to tie up to other docks.
- Replacing some shackles, including the one for the main sail clue, the topping lift and the main sail tack. Some of these were rusted, others were the wrong sizes etc.
- Readjusting the main sail to make the sail flatter.
- Tying new knots to the main sail attachments.
We also spent some quality time with the boys reading some bible passages, playing cards and reading “Just Cruising” (to keep the dream alive). By the time we headed for bed the wind was starting to calm down.
We woke on Saturday to absolute calm, not a breathe of wind and the marina filling up as people arrived to enjoy a warm weekend on their respective boats. We took a walk to the shop about 2km’s down the road and ordered take away burgers for lunch finished off with an ice-cream for the walk home.
Whilst walking past Sunset Cove Barry phoned Axel and we headed in for a quick visit. We spent the afternoon watching Axel play chef and make meatballs and “HOT STUFF” yes it was flaming hot! We took a walk back to the marina just before sunset and motored out into the dam with a very light breeze to hoist both the main and roller furler and watch the sun set. I took some amazing pictures in the peaceful surroundings. I always love it when we are under sail in a light breeze with no motor. Just after sunset the wind was gone again and we motored back in.
We sat on the boat and had a few drinks, when we looked up Marcelle had come back in after his 3 day trip up to Frankfort, lowering the mast in Oranjeville and re-hoisting it and doing the same on the return trip. He was very excited (and who wouldn’t be) it is a trip few, if any, have managed.Click here to read his full story Barry later went over to Ken’s boat and enjoyed more drinks with them whilst I slept.
We woke early on Sunday, hot showers again and a trip to town to buy some meat as we were expecting Tammy and Jason on Sunday afternoon. They finally arrived at about 4pm after a huge 47km trip from their hotel (which they thought was on the dam) and spent a few hours enjoying their company, the kids enjoying having 5 others to play with too. Tammy pretended to be the paparazzi and took about 100 pictures of the boats at the dock. By the time they left at around 8pm the marina was quiet. We were alone again.
As we had not managed to get any real sailing done yet we made a deal that the next morning we were going out…definitely. We woke to a very windy morning….
As promised we started the motor and Rauen released the lines and we were off…but the wind blew harder than the boat could move and Rauen and I found ourselves pushing us off both the dock and other boats before we managed to get out of the marina. Together with Kyle’s comments this should have been a sign that we should have stayed put but we had promised so….
We rolled only the head sail out, reefed at five turns and sailed with 1 nautical mile of the marina (we know this because we had a GPS on board…until the batteries died as the wind picked up further) we tacked and gybed and practised in the heavy wind. We started to gain confidence and turned the boat downwind for a fast sail past Villains point towards Deneysville. Just after Misty point the wind picked up and became ferocious, we decided to tack and head back to the marina, it was 10am.
We were beating into the wind and waves under motor and sail with no success. We were not making any ground travelling at 0.00 knots over the water and getting pooped with water every 10 seconds. We tacked round and sailed up the lee side of the island hoping to get across at the other end, I also put life jackets on both the boys and turned on the VHF to channel 16 (just in case) at this point as I was not feeling very comfortable. As we approached we realised the wind was just as bad as on the other side and we would be pushed even further from home that way so we tacked round again and sailed back from where we came. As we neared the end of the island it seemed we would make it past Villains point and be able to tack back to the marina but Baltic Sea was on the water and we were on a collision course. We were on a port tack, them on Starboard, which meant they had right of way and we had to turn to a beam reach to pass to their stern, putting us completely off course to pass Villains point. We tacked back again towards the island and once in the lee we turned and headed again for Villains point….we finally made it past!
Just after passing Villains point the dam got rougher, the waves were hitting us on the port side and turning the boat, broaching us with every wave. Kyle looked a little scared sitting holding onto the handrail with Rauen at his side. I asked “Are you scared boy?” The reply…”No….I am Terrified!” just before the tears started streaming down his face. I went inside and gave him a hug bravely saying it will all be fine, don’t worry, until he calmed down. (It helped that I was soaking wet and we had a good laugh about that). Barry kept hold of the tiller and we tacked 3 more times before managing to get to our marina. It took all of us to get the boat tied back up.
As I packed up everything I spotted the only casualty of the very rough sail…my handbag, soaking wet and covered in mud. It had been on the forward bunk and water had come in through the forward port hatch and dripped down…a sure sign we had been tipped far over whilst sailing.
We managed to get the luggage back up to the car in just 1 trip and headed home in a thunderstorm that had luckily held out long enough for us to get off the water – or we would have been rained on too!
Wild sailing
We headed to the boat on Saturday afternoon, although after Friday night neither of us felt like it. We had attended Tammy’s birthday party and we had both enjoyed it just a little too much. We had slept over (which is always a great thing so we don’t have to drive drunk) and had finally risen at 10am on Saturday. We had enjoyed breakfast with Tam, Jase and all the kids at the Wimpy and headed home, knowing we were expected at the Vaal by 4pm. We had a bath and a ½ hour power nap and packed up to overnight on the boat.
We arrived at 5pm – 1 hour late but there none the less. We headed first to Axel and Peta and had an awesome braai (no alcohol) which really lifted our rather tender spirits and headed back to the boat at 8pm to change into PJ’s, jump into bed and get the real recuperation we so desperately needed.
We woke early Sunday morning, refreshed and started work immediately. We had purchased some new mooring line (12mm diameter 3 strand twisted rope with a 3,5 tonne break force) during the week because we knew our existing lines were on their last and started the process of measuring, cutting, sealing and tying bowlines into them. This took about 2 hours, all the while we watched as the wind picked up. As soon as we were done with the days work we headed out into the dam.
The wind was wild, having no wind speed instruments we were not sure how fast it was blowing or gusting at but later, back at the marina, we were told it was at around 25 knots. We first hoisted the main sail and the roller furler, but it was way to windy so we reefed the foresail by about 5 turns…it was still too rough especially with kids on board.
We made the decision to reef the main as well. We have tried this manoeuvre on our boat before without success. We managed perfectly well on the course in December but our boat does not have the same reefing lines and sheets so we had struggled and failed in the last big winds in May. This time however, we had spare shackles and other handy boat items acquired during our boat ownership.
The wind was way to strong to stand whilst dropping the main so Barry turned the boat to Heave-to (or hove to) and all was quiet. This little trick was awesome. We had done it last in Durban with an instructor on board and were not really sure it would work, but it did. When you are hove to you basically stop sailing and the boat is calm on the water – a great move for storm conditions on the open ocean.
Once Hove to Rauen and myself dropped the main sail to the reefing point and tied it. Kyle passed me a spare Shackle to create a new tack and he also passed Barry a fancy contraption (a shackle attached to a 10cm length of stainless steel rigging line with another shackle on the other end) that Barry attached to the sail and boom to form a new clue. I then hoisted the sail to stiffen it and we were off. We still sailed at the same speed, but with much less tipping and tilting and in my opinion in a much safer way. Brett our instructor in Durban had said: “If you have children on board, reef whenever in doubt”. We then spent 2 hours out in the windy conditions, both of us getting the hang of the tilting. You have this constant feeling that the boat is going to tip and capsize (we know it’s irrational) but there you have it.
Rauen thought he was over the sleeping feeling he gets on a sail boat as he had not felt tired in months, but when the water was a little rough he was back to falling asleep with the movement of the boat. When we were lowering the sails we had to wake him. He coped, still drowsy and trying to wake up, in taking the tiller and steering us into the wind whilst under motor so Barry and I had hands free to drop the sails and get back into the marina.
Once we were moored we were really glad we had made the new mooring lines as the wind was so strong it kept out boat ½ meter away from dockside with plenty pressure on the lines.
All in all a fantastic weekend and boy are we glad we headed to the dam or we would have missed a load of new experiences, a lot of new knowledge and at least a little more confidence!
We arrived at 5pm – 1 hour late but there none the less. We headed first to Axel and Peta and had an awesome braai (no alcohol) which really lifted our rather tender spirits and headed back to the boat at 8pm to change into PJ’s, jump into bed and get the real recuperation we so desperately needed.
We woke early Sunday morning, refreshed and started work immediately. We had purchased some new mooring line (12mm diameter 3 strand twisted rope with a 3,5 tonne break force) during the week because we knew our existing lines were on their last and started the process of measuring, cutting, sealing and tying bowlines into them. This took about 2 hours, all the while we watched as the wind picked up. As soon as we were done with the days work we headed out into the dam.
The wind was wild, having no wind speed instruments we were not sure how fast it was blowing or gusting at but later, back at the marina, we were told it was at around 25 knots. We first hoisted the main sail and the roller furler, but it was way to windy so we reefed the foresail by about 5 turns…it was still too rough especially with kids on board.
We made the decision to reef the main as well. We have tried this manoeuvre on our boat before without success. We managed perfectly well on the course in December but our boat does not have the same reefing lines and sheets so we had struggled and failed in the last big winds in May. This time however, we had spare shackles and other handy boat items acquired during our boat ownership.
The wind was way to strong to stand whilst dropping the main so Barry turned the boat to Heave-to (or hove to) and all was quiet. This little trick was awesome. We had done it last in Durban with an instructor on board and were not really sure it would work, but it did. When you are hove to you basically stop sailing and the boat is calm on the water – a great move for storm conditions on the open ocean.
Once Hove to Rauen and myself dropped the main sail to the reefing point and tied it. Kyle passed me a spare Shackle to create a new tack and he also passed Barry a fancy contraption (a shackle attached to a 10cm length of stainless steel rigging line with another shackle on the other end) that Barry attached to the sail and boom to form a new clue. I then hoisted the sail to stiffen it and we were off. We still sailed at the same speed, but with much less tipping and tilting and in my opinion in a much safer way. Brett our instructor in Durban had said: “If you have children on board, reef whenever in doubt”. We then spent 2 hours out in the windy conditions, both of us getting the hang of the tilting. You have this constant feeling that the boat is going to tip and capsize (we know it’s irrational) but there you have it.
Rauen thought he was over the sleeping feeling he gets on a sail boat as he had not felt tired in months, but when the water was a little rough he was back to falling asleep with the movement of the boat. When we were lowering the sails we had to wake him. He coped, still drowsy and trying to wake up, in taking the tiller and steering us into the wind whilst under motor so Barry and I had hands free to drop the sails and get back into the marina.
Once we were moored we were really glad we had made the new mooring lines as the wind was so strong it kept out boat ½ meter away from dockside with plenty pressure on the lines.
All in all a fantastic weekend and boy are we glad we headed to the dam or we would have missed a load of new experiences, a lot of new knowledge and at least a little more confidence!
Back on the water!
It’s been a whole month since I last updated, my bad! But I’m back and hopefully back to weekly updates again!
We have sailed 5 days in the last 2 weeks and loved every minute of it. We managed to sneak away from work last Tuesday and take a couple of staff members out to the boat for the day. We also slept over on the boat for 2 nights and grabbed a day sail with the kids including Rauen’s new girlfriend on Saturday.
Last weekend, we went away for the whole weekend. We took only Rauen and Kyle along and boy did we have fun. We spent the whole day Saturday drifting and sailing whenever the wind picked up. We managed to get around the island, finally, by motoring back to the marina after dark on Saturday evening with both boys taking turns at the tiller. In the afternoon, I introduced a memory game to everyone and we spent a good few hours laughing, playing and having a whale of a time. The game works like this:
Pick a topic: Example:Sailing
We had four players, but you can play from 2 people to as many as you can gather.
The 1st player says a word relating to sailing eg mast
The 2nd player says Mast and adds their own word eg: sail
The 3rd player says Mast, Sail and adds their own word eg: Winch
The 4th player says, Mast, Sail, Winch and adds their own word etc.
This carries on in a circle until someone can’t remember and falls out. The last man standing wins.
We used topics like: Countries we want to visit, Sailing, Boats, Clothing, Numbers (which is definitely the hardest), Fruits, Vegetables etc.
This is a great learning game for the whole family!
On Tuesday we took two of our managers from the office to the boat and had a fantastic sail. The wind was perfect and we managed to sail on a dead run with the sails goose winged moving at a fantastic pace. On the way back we had to tack several times to get back to the marina without any loss of wind or speed. Neither of our guests had ever been on a sailboat before. They enjoyed it and made comments like, “when we leave we can’t sell the boat, rather leave it there for them to enjoy on the weekends”.
Saturday had a build up of excitement as Rauen was taking his new girlfriend along. Rauen has this ability to feel and display genuine excitement that you can see on his face, he literally looks like he is going to “jump out of his skin”, his whole body trembles and shakes, amazing. He was ready and waiting from earlier than I care to remember. We collected Nikki and took the long drive to the dam. We left the marina and sailed straight out towards the dam wall. We had beautiful wind and for the first time I actually managed to sail alone without turning off course, loosing the wind or getting the sails and sheets tangled. I am pretty sure this is due to the new Windex we have installed at the top of the mast. We reached the dam wall, turned south and sailed past Anchor Creek and Manten Marina and then…the wind died. I was a little worried because I had told Nikki’s mom we would have her home by 6pm and time was ticking.
So Barry started up the engine and we motored for 20 minutes before finding sporadic gusts which we caught and sailed. As we reached the tip of the island we regained full wind and sped along towards our marina doing record speeds (for our little boat anyway). Back on dock we packed and headed home. Nikki had a great time and I’m sure she will want to do it again and again.
Speaking of having the Windex installed….
We have very little boat maintenance experience and this little instrument, which gives the direction from which the wind is coming as well as indicating the point of sail you are on, has to be mounted at the very top of our mast. We decided we would employ Greg, a boat repairman at our marina, to install this so we could watch and learn how to be hoisted to the top. He arrived on the Friday afternoon and hooked himself up to the winch situated at the foot of our mast and we hoisted him up. All his tools were placed inside a bucket and using the topping lift we hoisted the bucket so he had the tools and parts at the top of the mast. He proceeded to drill a couple of holes and mount the bracket to which he attached the Windex. Installation complete. Next time….Barry up the mast….watch this space!
We have now removed the old wind direction indicator (which only measured apparent wind) and feel really proud of our new instrument, especially me who needs it to sail!
We have sailed 5 days in the last 2 weeks and loved every minute of it. We managed to sneak away from work last Tuesday and take a couple of staff members out to the boat for the day. We also slept over on the boat for 2 nights and grabbed a day sail with the kids including Rauen’s new girlfriend on Saturday.
Last weekend, we went away for the whole weekend. We took only Rauen and Kyle along and boy did we have fun. We spent the whole day Saturday drifting and sailing whenever the wind picked up. We managed to get around the island, finally, by motoring back to the marina after dark on Saturday evening with both boys taking turns at the tiller. In the afternoon, I introduced a memory game to everyone and we spent a good few hours laughing, playing and having a whale of a time. The game works like this:
Pick a topic: Example:Sailing
We had four players, but you can play from 2 people to as many as you can gather.
The 1st player says a word relating to sailing eg mast
The 2nd player says Mast and adds their own word eg: sail
The 3rd player says Mast, Sail and adds their own word eg: Winch
The 4th player says, Mast, Sail, Winch and adds their own word etc.
This carries on in a circle until someone can’t remember and falls out. The last man standing wins.
We used topics like: Countries we want to visit, Sailing, Boats, Clothing, Numbers (which is definitely the hardest), Fruits, Vegetables etc.
This is a great learning game for the whole family!
On Tuesday we took two of our managers from the office to the boat and had a fantastic sail. The wind was perfect and we managed to sail on a dead run with the sails goose winged moving at a fantastic pace. On the way back we had to tack several times to get back to the marina without any loss of wind or speed. Neither of our guests had ever been on a sailboat before. They enjoyed it and made comments like, “when we leave we can’t sell the boat, rather leave it there for them to enjoy on the weekends”.
Saturday had a build up of excitement as Rauen was taking his new girlfriend along. Rauen has this ability to feel and display genuine excitement that you can see on his face, he literally looks like he is going to “jump out of his skin”, his whole body trembles and shakes, amazing. He was ready and waiting from earlier than I care to remember. We collected Nikki and took the long drive to the dam. We left the marina and sailed straight out towards the dam wall. We had beautiful wind and for the first time I actually managed to sail alone without turning off course, loosing the wind or getting the sails and sheets tangled. I am pretty sure this is due to the new Windex we have installed at the top of the mast. We reached the dam wall, turned south and sailed past Anchor Creek and Manten Marina and then…the wind died. I was a little worried because I had told Nikki’s mom we would have her home by 6pm and time was ticking.
So Barry started up the engine and we motored for 20 minutes before finding sporadic gusts which we caught and sailed. As we reached the tip of the island we regained full wind and sped along towards our marina doing record speeds (for our little boat anyway). Back on dock we packed and headed home. Nikki had a great time and I’m sure she will want to do it again and again.
Speaking of having the Windex installed….
We have very little boat maintenance experience and this little instrument, which gives the direction from which the wind is coming as well as indicating the point of sail you are on, has to be mounted at the very top of our mast. We decided we would employ Greg, a boat repairman at our marina, to install this so we could watch and learn how to be hoisted to the top. He arrived on the Friday afternoon and hooked himself up to the winch situated at the foot of our mast and we hoisted him up. All his tools were placed inside a bucket and using the topping lift we hoisted the bucket so he had the tools and parts at the top of the mast. He proceeded to drill a couple of holes and mount the bracket to which he attached the Windex. Installation complete. Next time….Barry up the mast….watch this space!
We have now removed the old wind direction indicator (which only measured apparent wind) and feel really proud of our new instrument, especially me who needs it to sail!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Nothing Moves Fast Enough
I am feeling a little despondent at the moment, not because I feel unhappy or anything, just that I feel nothing is happening fast enough. Maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s the economic crisis or maybe it’s just the wrong time of the month…..whatever it is it’s driving me crazy!
We went and had a look at the home schooling facility and it looks great! We asked the headmistress about our sailing idea and how schooling would work and she said ”We have another family who are planning on going sailing” and then explained that she would send all the exams and assignments via e-mail and we could send them back for them to mark and well…they will pretty much give us all the assistance we need to be successful at home schooling whilst sailing around the world! Perfect! Enrolment here we come.
Still have not got the info for the SSB exam, will have to get on to that in the morning or we will be running out of time as the exam date is next week Friday, only 9 days away and it is quite a bit to study.
On the up side we are going sailing on Saturday! Yes finally, how long has it been….at least a month. Taking a friend with so hope the boat is safely moored and hasn’t floated away or worse, sunk to the bottom.
My sister leaves for New Zealand on a “look see” on Friday. Basically 3 weeks of holiday…lucky lady. It will be great to find out all about it when she gets back as we were very interested in immigration at 1 point. Not that it is completely out now but the boat is far more exciting for us.
Otherwise had a pretty boring time lately, been hibernating with the completely crazy freezing weather, can’t wait to catch some rays on Saturday.
We went and had a look at the home schooling facility and it looks great! We asked the headmistress about our sailing idea and how schooling would work and she said ”We have another family who are planning on going sailing” and then explained that she would send all the exams and assignments via e-mail and we could send them back for them to mark and well…they will pretty much give us all the assistance we need to be successful at home schooling whilst sailing around the world! Perfect! Enrolment here we come.
Still have not got the info for the SSB exam, will have to get on to that in the morning or we will be running out of time as the exam date is next week Friday, only 9 days away and it is quite a bit to study.
On the up side we are going sailing on Saturday! Yes finally, how long has it been….at least a month. Taking a friend with so hope the boat is safely moored and hasn’t floated away or worse, sunk to the bottom.
My sister leaves for New Zealand on a “look see” on Friday. Basically 3 weeks of holiday…lucky lady. It will be great to find out all about it when she gets back as we were very interested in immigration at 1 point. Not that it is completely out now but the boat is far more exciting for us.
Otherwise had a pretty boring time lately, been hibernating with the completely crazy freezing weather, can’t wait to catch some rays on Saturday.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
F2F...
Wow, what a crazy week and this one doesn’t seem to be abating!
We have been working like mad, not usual for us. Not that we don’t work, just that we attend “formal work” in the morning and usually do other work in the afternoon. By other work I mean, work relating to being able to leave as planned, cataloguing all our belongings, listing them for sale, downloading all our CD’s onto our laptops, updating our website etc. As well as working on our investment portfolio and properties. But this week we have not even got to those other things, so I am stealing a little “formal work” time to post this today.
I managed to get hold of ICASA this morning, seems Zondra is no longer doing the licences, we must now deal with Keneilwe, she seemed very helpful this morning so lets hold thumbs :) Got a booking for the 14th August! Back to hitting the books again!
We didn’t get up to much this last weekend because we worked for most of it, once again formal work takes priority. We did however, managed to get some more pictures of the house to prep for the rental so that is a good sign. We also managed to replace the tenant in our other property and so far so good…. rentals can be pain at times.
Anyway hoping to be able to do a little sailing shortly, booked to take a friend on 8th August so that is a definite date if nothing else. We also have the Johannesburg boat show on the 15th and 16th August, which we want to attend. Hoping to get some life jackets on a “show special” and just love to look at all the cool boat gadgets on display.
Otherwise not much to tell this week, hope the crisis management at work slows coz’ I’m not sure Barry’s heart can take much more. He keeps saying he’ll be dead before we leave at this rate and I’m inclined to agree. Last night when we finally got home at 7:30pm we were talking and reaffirmed our intention to go. We picked the acronym F2F to remind ourselves and each other of our plans whenever we are faced with tricky circumstances. F2F stands for “Focused to F***off”. Gotta love that!
So here’s to us F2F as soon as possible!
We have been working like mad, not usual for us. Not that we don’t work, just that we attend “formal work” in the morning and usually do other work in the afternoon. By other work I mean, work relating to being able to leave as planned, cataloguing all our belongings, listing them for sale, downloading all our CD’s onto our laptops, updating our website etc. As well as working on our investment portfolio and properties. But this week we have not even got to those other things, so I am stealing a little “formal work” time to post this today.
I managed to get hold of ICASA this morning, seems Zondra is no longer doing the licences, we must now deal with Keneilwe, she seemed very helpful this morning so lets hold thumbs :) Got a booking for the 14th August! Back to hitting the books again!
We didn’t get up to much this last weekend because we worked for most of it, once again formal work takes priority. We did however, managed to get some more pictures of the house to prep for the rental so that is a good sign. We also managed to replace the tenant in our other property and so far so good…. rentals can be pain at times.
Anyway hoping to be able to do a little sailing shortly, booked to take a friend on 8th August so that is a definite date if nothing else. We also have the Johannesburg boat show on the 15th and 16th August, which we want to attend. Hoping to get some life jackets on a “show special” and just love to look at all the cool boat gadgets on display.
Otherwise not much to tell this week, hope the crisis management at work slows coz’ I’m not sure Barry’s heart can take much more. He keeps saying he’ll be dead before we leave at this rate and I’m inclined to agree. Last night when we finally got home at 7:30pm we were talking and reaffirmed our intention to go. We picked the acronym F2F to remind ourselves and each other of our plans whenever we are faced with tricky circumstances. F2F stands for “Focused to F***off”. Gotta love that!
So here’s to us F2F as soon as possible!
20th July
Back to school this morning, which also means back to a 5am wake up call for me. Ouch on a winter morning!
Had a great weekend, on Saturday morning early we headed for Deneysville on a search for a marine store we had seen at the “Around the island race” in January. We had no idea what the name or the address of the store was so we turned it into a searching adventure. It took all of 3 minutes to find the unnamed shop after asking at the local hardware store. Some adventure!
We entered the shop “Star Marine” which held loads of little sailing treasures. Barry commented he could spend a month’s salary there and he was not kidding, everything an avid sailor could dream of and then some. We limited ourselves to only a few items including a wind direction instrument to be mounted on the top of the mast of our current boat, a few shackles and a pair of polarised sunglasses for me. Guess we will be climbing to the top of the mast soon or paying someone else to. Either way we need to learn what happens up there. It definitely sets us up for an interesting day or days….
We were discussing our December holiday and we have decided we will be taking our boat on a 2 week sail around the dam, we will anchor out and live permanently on the boat for the whole 2 weeks, this will give us great experience towards our goals. Rauen mentioned it would be great if we could do a night sail (meaning all night) and we think that was an awesome idea, we can take turns standing watch and see how it all works out! Very exciting stuff looking forward to December even more now!
Both kids got off to school with no hiccups, after checking stationery on Sunday morning early and heading to the store for a few items to replenish the pencil cases all was well. I spent the rest of the morning reading the end of “And the wind carried us” to Barry. He was rather sad it came to an end, but I consoled him with the prospect of reading Bumfuzzle next.
I called this morning to book for an SSB radio licence. We were not informed last time we could write both licences at the same time so we only wrote the VHF, now we have to write the SSB separate. We need this licence so we can receive e-mails and telephone calls on the boat. Once again we had to call Zondra at ICASA….once again she was not at work. Will have to try next week again. Hope this doesn’t follow the same route as last time!
PS Sorry it took so long to post but it has been a hectic week!
Had a great weekend, on Saturday morning early we headed for Deneysville on a search for a marine store we had seen at the “Around the island race” in January. We had no idea what the name or the address of the store was so we turned it into a searching adventure. It took all of 3 minutes to find the unnamed shop after asking at the local hardware store. Some adventure!
We entered the shop “Star Marine” which held loads of little sailing treasures. Barry commented he could spend a month’s salary there and he was not kidding, everything an avid sailor could dream of and then some. We limited ourselves to only a few items including a wind direction instrument to be mounted on the top of the mast of our current boat, a few shackles and a pair of polarised sunglasses for me. Guess we will be climbing to the top of the mast soon or paying someone else to. Either way we need to learn what happens up there. It definitely sets us up for an interesting day or days….
We were discussing our December holiday and we have decided we will be taking our boat on a 2 week sail around the dam, we will anchor out and live permanently on the boat for the whole 2 weeks, this will give us great experience towards our goals. Rauen mentioned it would be great if we could do a night sail (meaning all night) and we think that was an awesome idea, we can take turns standing watch and see how it all works out! Very exciting stuff looking forward to December even more now!
Both kids got off to school with no hiccups, after checking stationery on Sunday morning early and heading to the store for a few items to replenish the pencil cases all was well. I spent the rest of the morning reading the end of “And the wind carried us” to Barry. He was rather sad it came to an end, but I consoled him with the prospect of reading Bumfuzzle next.
I called this morning to book for an SSB radio licence. We were not informed last time we could write both licences at the same time so we only wrote the VHF, now we have to write the SSB separate. We need this licence so we can receive e-mails and telephone calls on the boat. Once again we had to call Zondra at ICASA….once again she was not at work. Will have to try next week again. Hope this doesn’t follow the same route as last time!
PS Sorry it took so long to post but it has been a hectic week!
14th July
Last week we headed off to the bank to deposit our savings into our bonds and we discover that according to the banks system Barry has a wife in Limpopo province and also has joint accounts with her so we are not allowed to arrange the transfer of the funds. They say it will take 3 days to fix and we can then come in and transfer the funds. Finally, this morning we are told Barry is no longer married and we can move our savings. Funny, how something as simple as a transfer of funds can take time to sort out, that’s why we have started sorting things out already, if we had to wait until closer to the time, the time would never come. Our friends keep saying “Are you leaving next week?” As fast as time goes….yes, pretty much!
On Friday we decided to play hooky from work and take the 3 boys sailing for the day. We had been watching the weather all week and they predicted cold weather for the weekend. (Just a note, NEVER trust the weatherman).It had been so long since we had been to the dam we decided to take advantage and go. So at 10am on Friday morning we left work and picked up the boys from home and headed to the Vaal.
We arrived at the boat to find that our extension, which had been plugged in to charge the battery while we were away, had been unplugged and dropped into the dam. The battery was flat, the extension was wet and we were stranded in the mooring. After Barry made an irate phone call to the harbour master, dried and plugged the cable back in and I had cooked lunch we tried to start the motor again. “Viola” we were sailing…. or drifting…yes, there was absolutely no wind whatsoever and all we managed was to drift around in the bay for 4 hours with all sails up.
I spent the time reading to Barry. We have a great book called “And the wind carried us” by Gilbert Goor. The book gives a real account of the circumnavigation of a 32 foot monohull yacht solo sailed by Gilbert himself. The information is not too out of date as his circumnavigation was done between 2004 and 2006, not to mention he is a South African! This is the second time I am reading the book but we are still learning a lot, like how to catch 2 – 3 foot Tuna while trawling from a sailing boat. The most interesting thing about this particular book is that Gilbert only used 343 litres of fuel to circumnavigate – that’s how we want to do it! Go Eco friendly!
Buy the book here!
After the 4 hour “doldrums drift” we decided to head for home. Even just drifting is the most pleasurable feeling. I can’t wait to be on the ocean, drifting around and enjoying the sun and fresh air.
This week coming up we have decided to try and concentrate on completing the loading of the CD’s this has been a time consuming exercise, but well worth it. I also have to check the kids stationery and uniforms as it is back to school next week. We are also writing down our recipes to keep checking the recipes page for great food ideas!
On Friday we decided to play hooky from work and take the 3 boys sailing for the day. We had been watching the weather all week and they predicted cold weather for the weekend. (Just a note, NEVER trust the weatherman).It had been so long since we had been to the dam we decided to take advantage and go. So at 10am on Friday morning we left work and picked up the boys from home and headed to the Vaal.
We arrived at the boat to find that our extension, which had been plugged in to charge the battery while we were away, had been unplugged and dropped into the dam. The battery was flat, the extension was wet and we were stranded in the mooring. After Barry made an irate phone call to the harbour master, dried and plugged the cable back in and I had cooked lunch we tried to start the motor again. “Viola” we were sailing…. or drifting…yes, there was absolutely no wind whatsoever and all we managed was to drift around in the bay for 4 hours with all sails up.
I spent the time reading to Barry. We have a great book called “And the wind carried us” by Gilbert Goor. The book gives a real account of the circumnavigation of a 32 foot monohull yacht solo sailed by Gilbert himself. The information is not too out of date as his circumnavigation was done between 2004 and 2006, not to mention he is a South African! This is the second time I am reading the book but we are still learning a lot, like how to catch 2 – 3 foot Tuna while trawling from a sailing boat. The most interesting thing about this particular book is that Gilbert only used 343 litres of fuel to circumnavigate – that’s how we want to do it! Go Eco friendly!
Buy the book here!
After the 4 hour “doldrums drift” we decided to head for home. Even just drifting is the most pleasurable feeling. I can’t wait to be on the ocean, drifting around and enjoying the sun and fresh air.
This week coming up we have decided to try and concentrate on completing the loading of the CD’s this has been a time consuming exercise, but well worth it. I also have to check the kids stationery and uniforms as it is back to school next week. We are also writing down our recipes to keep checking the recipes page for great food ideas!
Homeschooling
This weekend we were meant to go sailing but our control room computer crashed at 1am on Saturday morning and that put paid to our sailing excursion (I could say thankfully coz’ the weather turned foul from Saturday afternoon onwards). Saturday morning was spent repairing and resetting up our system. After that rig moral we have decided to buy a second system as a backup so our control room can be reset within minutes! We are also installing a backup generator this month, leading to sms service whilst the power is out. Always good to upgrade!
We spent the weekend brainstorming about work, the yacht and the kid’s futures. Trying to strike that balance. We were able to find further ways of saving large amounts of money this weekend. Funny how I can preach to everyone how to save money but overlook basic principles in my own back yard!
I guess the lesson I learnt is that we need to be continually looking at how to save money. This saving, depositing our savings into our outstanding home loan accounts, will save us a lot of interest and in turn add cash towards our trip! Glad we spotted our error now rather than even later. Pity we did not spot it sooner!
That boost made us all the more excited that we will be able to leave on schedule if not sooner! We are currently drawing up an inventory of all our possessions and are starting to sell off the less used items. We will be keeping all the things we use daily but we agree that every week something must go! So, week before last was an outdoor heater we no longer use and last week was my textbooks from last year. We will be selling something again this week and all that money we get goes straight to savings – boat here we come!
We talked a lot about the high school decision and agree that the Home Schooling idea is probably the best taking into account our plans. We were both nervous to decide on the education thing coz’ we both feel it is important but in the end we have to think about the goal and home schooling is definitely towards that goal. Not to mention the savings towards the boat by choosing the home schooling route.
We discussed food, strange topic but one we have to look into considering we will be travelling around the world on a sailing boat. We decided we will start to move away from “box meals” or “packet meals” and rather cook from scratch. No more “cake in a box” or “lasagne mate”. Just old fashioned cooking and baking using raw ingredients. We figure raw ingredients will be more widely available not to mention the cost saving and the variety which can be achieved with fewer ingredients and less packing space. I will be adding a recipe page to the website detailing the various meals and baking goodies we experiment with and will use in future. So check them out and try them for yourself!
We came up with a few work ideas too, small changes that will make everything run smoother and things should function a little easier once we implement some of our new ideas.
Yes a great brainstorming session this weekend – great progress and great savings, not to mention better service delivery and happier clients! Seems this weekend was not a waste even if we didn’t get to go on the water!
We spent the weekend brainstorming about work, the yacht and the kid’s futures. Trying to strike that balance. We were able to find further ways of saving large amounts of money this weekend. Funny how I can preach to everyone how to save money but overlook basic principles in my own back yard!
I guess the lesson I learnt is that we need to be continually looking at how to save money. This saving, depositing our savings into our outstanding home loan accounts, will save us a lot of interest and in turn add cash towards our trip! Glad we spotted our error now rather than even later. Pity we did not spot it sooner!
That boost made us all the more excited that we will be able to leave on schedule if not sooner! We are currently drawing up an inventory of all our possessions and are starting to sell off the less used items. We will be keeping all the things we use daily but we agree that every week something must go! So, week before last was an outdoor heater we no longer use and last week was my textbooks from last year. We will be selling something again this week and all that money we get goes straight to savings – boat here we come!
We talked a lot about the high school decision and agree that the Home Schooling idea is probably the best taking into account our plans. We were both nervous to decide on the education thing coz’ we both feel it is important but in the end we have to think about the goal and home schooling is definitely towards that goal. Not to mention the savings towards the boat by choosing the home schooling route.
We discussed food, strange topic but one we have to look into considering we will be travelling around the world on a sailing boat. We decided we will start to move away from “box meals” or “packet meals” and rather cook from scratch. No more “cake in a box” or “lasagne mate”. Just old fashioned cooking and baking using raw ingredients. We figure raw ingredients will be more widely available not to mention the cost saving and the variety which can be achieved with fewer ingredients and less packing space. I will be adding a recipe page to the website detailing the various meals and baking goodies we experiment with and will use in future. So check them out and try them for yourself!
We came up with a few work ideas too, small changes that will make everything run smoother and things should function a little easier once we implement some of our new ideas.
Yes a great brainstorming session this weekend – great progress and great savings, not to mention better service delivery and happier clients! Seems this weekend was not a waste even if we didn’t get to go on the water!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
What to do?
I never thought I was the crazy lady at the end of the street, but I am slowly realising that that is exactly what I am. First we lived in a tiny cottage in the middle of the veld (really) for 8 years whilst we built our house. Now, we will be the people living at the end of the street with a huge catamaran in their front yard, building a boat! No we do not live on a plot, we live on a normal stand in an ordinary suburban area. I guess that really does categorise us as “The Crazy People”. I wonder if our neighbours tell their kids to stay away from our house haha.
Speaking of living in the veld for so long, space on the catamaran doesn’t seem to be presenting much of a problem, considering we lived in 16 square meters for 8 years with 6 people. We are moving to 67 square meters for 4 people hopefully for more than 8 years. I think we can handle that with ease!
We have managed to decide which DVD’s we are keeping and which we will be getting rid of. We have also downloaded half our CD’s onto Itunes, we will make a back up onto our external hard drive for safety sake. Shortly we will be off to Cash Converters to sell these items and then to the bank to deposit our money. This process will be continuing, slowly selling any household items we do not use until when we leave we have none and rather have cash in the bank to help fund our trip.
Over the weekend Barry and I discussed our current lives and decided we should attempt to become more social. We can build our network and get more people interested in what we are doing, we can re-establish contact with our families and friends that haven’t seen in ages. We are pretty much recluses and have been for the last few years so this will be interesting to watch as it unfolds.
We are considering taking a few days off and going to stay on the boat for a few days next weekend – watching the weather and waiting to find out what the kids plans are for the weekend. Hoping it will work out.
I have been investigating where to send Rauen to High School as this is coming on far to fast. I have at the moment narrowed it down to 3 options.
Option 1(un): Send him to Ashton International College.
Pro: Our other kids are there so we know what to expect. They also teach the Cambridge System which is a plus for me.
Con: Far to travel daily, it will increase our fuel by at least 50% Not to mention travel time.
Option 2(deux): Send him to Helderwyk Private School.
Pro: Close to home, in a complex on the way to work.
Con: New school with no History of performance Standards, big concern for me.
Option 3 (trois): Send him to a Home Schooling Centre
Pro: Get him into the home schooling swing for on the boat
Con: I am unsure of what and how they teach.
We will be visiting the schools. The Home school centre will be first on our list. It has many pro’s besides starting home schooling. The kids don’t attend school on a Friday, which gives us an extra pair of hands to build the boat every Friday, not to mention all Rauen will learn by helping to build it. We could easily continue with the same curriculum on the boat when we leave. The school is directly opposite the school Kyle is currently attending so no extra driving. But all these pro’s do not detract from the 1 major Con: Is their standard of education up to scratch, I do not want to detriment my children in any way! Education is after all the only real thing you can give them.
Helderwyk will be opening in January so we will pay them a visit then and Ashton has their open day in March. We must sign Rauen into High School by April next year so tick tock, tick tock.
Otherwise things are progressing as they should be, we are still hoping to leave sooner rather than later but time will tell how we progress in our endeavour. Our major topic of conversation at the moment seems to be how we can become more focused on our goal. How we can ensure we always choose the option in line with our goal and not get distracted and spend money on other things.
We keep trying to strike the right balance – we don’t want to live only in the future and have nothing for today!
28th June
I never thought I was the crazy lady at the end of the street, but I am slowly realising that that is exactly what I am. First we lived in a tiny cottage in the middle of the veld (really) for 8 years whilst we built our house. Now, we will be the people living at the end of the street with a huge catamaran in their front yard, building a boat! No we do not live on a plot, we live on a normal stand in an ordinary suburban area. I guess that really does categorise us as “The Crazy People”. I wonder if our neighbours tell their kids to stay away from our house haha.
Saving Electricy
Wow! Was this week fun, interesting, exciting, informative or what? Let me see if I can rub some of my enthusiasm onto you.
We pretty much decided we are buying the hull, deck and Bulkheads and are going to fit the yacht ourselves, in our own garden. We measured out the space in the front garden and what do you know – perfect fit. We decided we needed 1,5m on each side around the boat to make fitting easy – and presto! It’s like we built our house with the correct size in mind.
When do we start – next year only L But time flies so we are gonna start planning now and when it arrives we will be all set to go!
We also discussed layouts of the boat – different ways we could set it out. I even dreamt about it so much that early Sunday morning I woke up, found some paper and drew my new design. For those of you who don’t know, my art skills are somewhat lacking to put it mildly, but even I am impressed with the results. This kind of gives an indication as to my excitement level.
We went for a day sail on Saturday – wow – that words sums it up. With practically no wind we hoisted both the main and the roller furling Genoa and we were off. We sailed, all be it at a snails pace, from our dock to the island and back, although this took a good 3 – 4 hours we only travelled about 2km total and it was so peaceful you wouldn’t believe.
We took out our binoculars and looked across the water at the other boats. We looked up at the sky at the Gyrocopters, we look at the low flying birds and we chatted and relaxed in the warm sunlight. Really awesome!
Just after we left the boat, whilst still driving out of the marina, I received a very sad phonecall from Rauen’s gran saying her husband had passed away. It is very sad and I had to let Rauen know as soon as we fetched him from Dean’s house. He was very upset too. The funeral is on Friday afternoon – Barry said he will attend with Rauen and me so I am glad about that. Will keep them in my prayers for a while.
We have started to target more towards the boat, decided if we want to really do this thing we should be looking at earlier rather than later so some plans are starting to take shape.
Plan 1: We are only going to hire 1 DVD every 2nd weekend instead of the 8 a weekend we have been.
Plan 2: No take aways – we spend way too much on take aways, from now on Friday night will be hotdogs instead of Pizza. Barry and I will come home for lunch instead of grabbing something on the way. We will save a fortune!
Plan 3: We are going to be conscious of every penny, when we consciously decide not to spend it we are putting it away – every cent we save will earn more in the long run.
Plan 4: We are going to sell everything we do not use, or have not used for 6 months or more. That should be a whopper saving!
Will keep you up to date with how or where we managed to save. Like this weekend, instead of a father's day gift we put the money away!
Speaking of saving money – we had the best saving ever!!! On Wednesday I collected the post from the postbox and opened the electricity bill. I always want to see the bill coz’ we are very conscious of our power usage. They do not read the meter every month, last time was actually in November! (I pay on an average) Anyway – we got a refund in power. Our total power usage for the last 6 months was below the free KW and so we got paid for our electricity saving! Yes, bragging rights for at least a week!
Well done boys for your conscious effort!
We shouldn’t have a problem on the boat with limited power supply!
We pretty much decided we are buying the hull, deck and Bulkheads and are going to fit the yacht ourselves, in our own garden. We measured out the space in the front garden and what do you know – perfect fit. We decided we needed 1,5m on each side around the boat to make fitting easy – and presto! It’s like we built our house with the correct size in mind.
When do we start – next year only L But time flies so we are gonna start planning now and when it arrives we will be all set to go!
We also discussed layouts of the boat – different ways we could set it out. I even dreamt about it so much that early Sunday morning I woke up, found some paper and drew my new design. For those of you who don’t know, my art skills are somewhat lacking to put it mildly, but even I am impressed with the results. This kind of gives an indication as to my excitement level.
We went for a day sail on Saturday – wow – that words sums it up. With practically no wind we hoisted both the main and the roller furling Genoa and we were off. We sailed, all be it at a snails pace, from our dock to the island and back, although this took a good 3 – 4 hours we only travelled about 2km total and it was so peaceful you wouldn’t believe.
We took out our binoculars and looked across the water at the other boats. We looked up at the sky at the Gyrocopters, we look at the low flying birds and we chatted and relaxed in the warm sunlight. Really awesome!
Just after we left the boat, whilst still driving out of the marina, I received a very sad phonecall from Rauen’s gran saying her husband had passed away. It is very sad and I had to let Rauen know as soon as we fetched him from Dean’s house. He was very upset too. The funeral is on Friday afternoon – Barry said he will attend with Rauen and me so I am glad about that. Will keep them in my prayers for a while.
We have started to target more towards the boat, decided if we want to really do this thing we should be looking at earlier rather than later so some plans are starting to take shape.
Plan 1: We are only going to hire 1 DVD every 2nd weekend instead of the 8 a weekend we have been.
Plan 2: No take aways – we spend way too much on take aways, from now on Friday night will be hotdogs instead of Pizza. Barry and I will come home for lunch instead of grabbing something on the way. We will save a fortune!
Plan 3: We are going to be conscious of every penny, when we consciously decide not to spend it we are putting it away – every cent we save will earn more in the long run.
Plan 4: We are going to sell everything we do not use, or have not used for 6 months or more. That should be a whopper saving!
Will keep you up to date with how or where we managed to save. Like this weekend, instead of a father's day gift we put the money away!
Speaking of saving money – we had the best saving ever!!! On Wednesday I collected the post from the postbox and opened the electricity bill. I always want to see the bill coz’ we are very conscious of our power usage. They do not read the meter every month, last time was actually in November! (I pay on an average) Anyway – we got a refund in power. Our total power usage for the last 6 months was below the free KW and so we got paid for our electricity saving! Yes, bragging rights for at least a week!
Well done boys for your conscious effort!
We shouldn’t have a problem on the boat with limited power supply!
Solo sail
It’s been 2 weeks and I am still struggling to find something to write about. Slow times.
I went off to the boat last weekend with Rauen and Kyle while Barry was at the Paradise Rally. We did not do too much there, I chickened out of sailing alone, so I spent the whole weekend reading the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. Really excellent, I couldn’t put the books down and managed to read all four books in 1 weekend. The term bookworm would work well here. But that did not do much for my sailing weekend.
Spent 2 uneventful weeks at work even though I was not feeling very well, this put a bit of a damper on my exercise routine as I felt grotty, but back to work today – keep things going J Yes, help, I need the motivation. Not so easy to keep on track with no “buddy” but I will keep trying.
Everything else is moving along as it should be, hasn’t been month end so no deposits for savings, no more debts paid off and sadly no more weight loss either L On the up side I spent Thursday evening at school with Rauen for a Maths challenge and he got 1st prize. Very proud mamma J This Thursday I will be attending Kyle’s poetry reading, look forward to that too.
Thursday – Verdi in French, yes got to the days of the week, now trying to get them into perspective it doesn’t help if you only know them parrot fashion in order.
We had a really bad movie picking weekend, like seriously, we picked movies we could not even watch through, half an hour in the movie and you switch them off so hopefully taking the kids to see Harry Potter 6 at Cinema’s tomorrow will make up for the bad hiring choices.
One funny thing about learning a new skill is whenever you see that skill in a movie you realise how fake movies are – like when I watch people setting up to go sailing and they hoist the sail whilst still in the mooring and the boat glides easily backwards under sail with no motor. Ludicrous! I wonder if everyone else notices these things or if I am too critical.
We saw a new product for sale on Glomail. I know Glomail…but hey this one looked like it could be perfect for our boat. It helps grow plants, like tomatoes etc only it hangs from the ceiling it seems like an ideal way for us to grow a few things whilst sailing so I am hoping to get 1 and try it. It could be attached to the bimini (fibreglass roof over the cockpit area) and we could then have some fresh vegetables home grown as we travel.
Have a great holiday tomorrow – there ain’t another one for a while!
I went off to the boat last weekend with Rauen and Kyle while Barry was at the Paradise Rally. We did not do too much there, I chickened out of sailing alone, so I spent the whole weekend reading the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. Really excellent, I couldn’t put the books down and managed to read all four books in 1 weekend. The term bookworm would work well here. But that did not do much for my sailing weekend.
Spent 2 uneventful weeks at work even though I was not feeling very well, this put a bit of a damper on my exercise routine as I felt grotty, but back to work today – keep things going J Yes, help, I need the motivation. Not so easy to keep on track with no “buddy” but I will keep trying.
Everything else is moving along as it should be, hasn’t been month end so no deposits for savings, no more debts paid off and sadly no more weight loss either L On the up side I spent Thursday evening at school with Rauen for a Maths challenge and he got 1st prize. Very proud mamma J This Thursday I will be attending Kyle’s poetry reading, look forward to that too.
Thursday – Verdi in French, yes got to the days of the week, now trying to get them into perspective it doesn’t help if you only know them parrot fashion in order.
We had a really bad movie picking weekend, like seriously, we picked movies we could not even watch through, half an hour in the movie and you switch them off so hopefully taking the kids to see Harry Potter 6 at Cinema’s tomorrow will make up for the bad hiring choices.
One funny thing about learning a new skill is whenever you see that skill in a movie you realise how fake movies are – like when I watch people setting up to go sailing and they hoist the sail whilst still in the mooring and the boat glides easily backwards under sail with no motor. Ludicrous! I wonder if everyone else notices these things or if I am too critical.
We saw a new product for sale on Glomail. I know Glomail…but hey this one looked like it could be perfect for our boat. It helps grow plants, like tomatoes etc only it hangs from the ceiling it seems like an ideal way for us to grow a few things whilst sailing so I am hoping to get 1 and try it. It could be attached to the bimini (fibreglass roof over the cockpit area) and we could then have some fresh vegetables home grown as we travel.
Have a great holiday tomorrow – there ain’t another one for a while!
Website building
Monday morning, always chaos in our industry, I sometimes wonder if it wouldn’t be less problematic if we worked all weekend, but then again when would we have any fun?
Last week I was ill for most of the week, even “bunked” a day of work when Barry insisted I not come to work and locked me in the house all day Tuesday. Barry picked up the flu from me on Thursday and spent the whole weekend in bed. He said he has “MAN FLU” which it seems is far worse than woman flu and us women would never know how bad it feels coz’ we can’t contract “MAN FLU”. So it was the sickly week, doesn’t do much for the fun part of life and certainly puts any sailing time on the back burner. But hopefully it is the only sick week this winter.
I spent Tuesday morning in bed, working on my finance blog, I seem to put in hours and hours and it doesn’t seem to get anywhere. Ever have that feeling, like you’ve been doing something for ages and yet, when you look, it seems as if you haven’t done anything? I must be making progress though, so keeping my chin up.
Barry is going away this weekend, he is heading up to Graskop for the Paradise Bike Rally with Axel. I shall head down to the boat for an awesome weekend with the kids. Hope it is not too cold coz’ it can be very, very cold on the water at night. Last time I could not sleep, even with the heater on all night. Will be watching the weather closely!
I worked on the website quite a lot this week, got the FAQ started. Loaded a map with a route idea, this will probably change from time to time as we research and decide which places we want to visit. But at least the outline idea is there. Rauen has not yet added his diary, but it will come even if we must wait until the school holidays.
Glad it is the beginning of a new month, I was starting to get irritated that we could not put more money into savings or pay off more debt, but the new month has arrived and in a few days we will be adding to our savings account. This includes another month of “smoking money” as well as other saving money.
I was very excited to see there have been more than 100 hits on our site. Triple digits, awesome! We are slowly climbing on the Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines. I want to add some links to our site this week, this will not only improve our standings but if you use them, also give some insight into what the cruising life is all about. They were definitely both informative and inspirational in our decision.
So what are you waiting for start surfing!
Last week I was ill for most of the week, even “bunked” a day of work when Barry insisted I not come to work and locked me in the house all day Tuesday. Barry picked up the flu from me on Thursday and spent the whole weekend in bed. He said he has “MAN FLU” which it seems is far worse than woman flu and us women would never know how bad it feels coz’ we can’t contract “MAN FLU”. So it was the sickly week, doesn’t do much for the fun part of life and certainly puts any sailing time on the back burner. But hopefully it is the only sick week this winter.
I spent Tuesday morning in bed, working on my finance blog, I seem to put in hours and hours and it doesn’t seem to get anywhere. Ever have that feeling, like you’ve been doing something for ages and yet, when you look, it seems as if you haven’t done anything? I must be making progress though, so keeping my chin up.
Barry is going away this weekend, he is heading up to Graskop for the Paradise Bike Rally with Axel. I shall head down to the boat for an awesome weekend with the kids. Hope it is not too cold coz’ it can be very, very cold on the water at night. Last time I could not sleep, even with the heater on all night. Will be watching the weather closely!
I worked on the website quite a lot this week, got the FAQ started. Loaded a map with a route idea, this will probably change from time to time as we research and decide which places we want to visit. But at least the outline idea is there. Rauen has not yet added his diary, but it will come even if we must wait until the school holidays.
Glad it is the beginning of a new month, I was starting to get irritated that we could not put more money into savings or pay off more debt, but the new month has arrived and in a few days we will be adding to our savings account. This includes another month of “smoking money” as well as other saving money.
I was very excited to see there have been more than 100 hits on our site. Triple digits, awesome! We are slowly climbing on the Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines. I want to add some links to our site this week, this will not only improve our standings but if you use them, also give some insight into what the cruising life is all about. They were definitely both informative and inspirational in our decision.
So what are you waiting for start surfing!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Logo and website upgrading
Alors (that means “so” in French) we went to the boat for the weekend! It was absolutely great even though we did not get up too much, such a pleasure just being on the water.
On Friday evening we had a drink, we walked up the marina and had a good look at a 34’ Ocean Spirit (our 3rd choice of catamaran) it is really beautiful. I think we bumped it up to 2nd choice after our hour long inspection of the outside only. We discussed where to put solar panels and wind chargers. Where to add chairs, how high the guard rails should be, where to add grab rails, the size of the hatches, which hatches should open and which should be for light only etc. It was an excellent in depth discussion and it has deepened our desire. Pity we could not get inside to discuss that in detail too. At the moment it is the best for outside design, very spacious! (Hopefully this does not mean the inside is more cramped).
On Saturday morning it was warm, unlike here at home, so we brushed our teeth, had breakfast and started the motors. I had asked to practise manoeuvring the boat from the slip and returning it again as I needed more confidence before I would be able to sail solo. Out, in, out, in and so on and so forth for a couple of hours, mixed with a little verbal abuse launched at Barry every time things go wrong and practise was done. Barry found this verbal abuse both amusing and endearing, I mentioned if he keeps laughing at me it may escalate to physical abuse. I’m sure you can imagine the ensuing comments of “hit me baby” etc.
Then an afternoon nap for Barry, (Sudoku and crossword time for me) and a couple of leisurely walks to the local shop and back. All made for a relaxing day. On Sunday the weather was a little less pleasant although not terrible so we were back at the docking practise. I am definitely feeling a lot more confident now.
All in all, a successful weekend of docking lessons and further discussions regarding our future catamaran. I also managed to take a couple on snaps so I am loading Kyle’s pictures today, how cute is that swing picture?
I was surfing the web and found a few more families who are either sailing or have sailed with their families, load them up to the inspiration bank. We are going back to the logo designer this week for a new take on the "Yrumoar" design (see the current one below). We discussed a few changes and want to try a few new designs. We need to get the design of the logo made so we can have a few promotional items made for sale. It seems a good way to raise funds especially since I found out it is illegal to ask for donations without getting an NPO number in SA.
Also watch out for the new pages on the site, Rauen had to make a diary for school this week so he will be spending the week loading that onto his page and I’m hoping to add, FAQ this week!
On Friday evening we had a drink, we walked up the marina and had a good look at a 34’ Ocean Spirit (our 3rd choice of catamaran) it is really beautiful. I think we bumped it up to 2nd choice after our hour long inspection of the outside only. We discussed where to put solar panels and wind chargers. Where to add chairs, how high the guard rails should be, where to add grab rails, the size of the hatches, which hatches should open and which should be for light only etc. It was an excellent in depth discussion and it has deepened our desire. Pity we could not get inside to discuss that in detail too. At the moment it is the best for outside design, very spacious! (Hopefully this does not mean the inside is more cramped).
On Saturday morning it was warm, unlike here at home, so we brushed our teeth, had breakfast and started the motors. I had asked to practise manoeuvring the boat from the slip and returning it again as I needed more confidence before I would be able to sail solo. Out, in, out, in and so on and so forth for a couple of hours, mixed with a little verbal abuse launched at Barry every time things go wrong and practise was done. Barry found this verbal abuse both amusing and endearing, I mentioned if he keeps laughing at me it may escalate to physical abuse. I’m sure you can imagine the ensuing comments of “hit me baby” etc.
Then an afternoon nap for Barry, (Sudoku and crossword time for me) and a couple of leisurely walks to the local shop and back. All made for a relaxing day. On Sunday the weather was a little less pleasant although not terrible so we were back at the docking practise. I am definitely feeling a lot more confident now.
All in all, a successful weekend of docking lessons and further discussions regarding our future catamaran. I also managed to take a couple on snaps so I am loading Kyle’s pictures today, how cute is that swing picture?
I was surfing the web and found a few more families who are either sailing or have sailed with their families, load them up to the inspiration bank. We are going back to the logo designer this week for a new take on the "Yrumoar" design (see the current one below). We discussed a few changes and want to try a few new designs. We need to get the design of the logo made so we can have a few promotional items made for sale. It seems a good way to raise funds especially since I found out it is illegal to ask for donations without getting an NPO number in SA.
Also watch out for the new pages on the site, Rauen had to make a diary for school this week so he will be spending the week loading that onto his page and I’m hoping to add, FAQ this week!
Insurance Policy Payout
I contemplated writing today’s entry or not. My mother always told me “If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all”. Why so glum? Too many problems to mention at the moment, lets just say things have not been working in my favour this week.
Our little dog was poisoned at around 4am on Sunday and passed away, just 1 reason why this week has been so bad. Kyle has taken the death really hard and is still crying about it, especially at night just before bed. I guess dealing with death is a part of growing up, but it is still not easy to see your little boy so distraught. Barry was also really upset only he has the philosophy “Cowboys don’t cry!” and puts up a brave face. You know how upset he is by the things he says. Every time he goes outside to feed the cats he comes back saying “ I should have spoilt Shaggy more” or “I could have played with her more” etc. A household of sorrow it has been.
We did however get a small pay out from an insurance policy we took about 10 years ago. It was not much because when we took it we could not afford the premiums, so it became “paid-up”. I did not know we even had the policy until I received a letter from the insurance company stating the policy value. So I called them up and after completing a few forms and getting a letter from the bank we got the money paid out.
We decided to split the money in 2 and use 50% of the money for saving and 50% for debt repayment. That way we can see both the savings growing and the debt decreasing, good for fuelling the dream!
I am still practising my French, it is getting more difficult the further into the book I progress, however I am keeping at it, soon I will be able to make conversation. I was thinking about ways to practise and improve and decided a simple way would be to watch our many DVD’s in French. I need to be a little more proficient and I will start with that, looking forward to it actually.
On Friday afternoon we were at McGinty’s, Barry and Axel decided to go to the Paradise Rally on Axel’s bikes in June so I am wondering what to do with myself (I obviously don’t want to spend money as we are saving for the trip). I was thinking of going down to the yacht with the 2 boys, I might even have the courage to sail solo? Any help in bravery department would be welcome!
Speaking of sailing…
We are planning on going sailing this weekend, and since it has been 2 weekends since we were able to go, I have instructed all children that they are not to make any plans, we are going end of story! Barry mentioned we should see what the weather holds, but No! We have bought a little fan heater and can watch movies on the computer if the weather is that bad so off to the dam it is. See you on the water!
Our little dog was poisoned at around 4am on Sunday and passed away, just 1 reason why this week has been so bad. Kyle has taken the death really hard and is still crying about it, especially at night just before bed. I guess dealing with death is a part of growing up, but it is still not easy to see your little boy so distraught. Barry was also really upset only he has the philosophy “Cowboys don’t cry!” and puts up a brave face. You know how upset he is by the things he says. Every time he goes outside to feed the cats he comes back saying “ I should have spoilt Shaggy more” or “I could have played with her more” etc. A household of sorrow it has been.
We did however get a small pay out from an insurance policy we took about 10 years ago. It was not much because when we took it we could not afford the premiums, so it became “paid-up”. I did not know we even had the policy until I received a letter from the insurance company stating the policy value. So I called them up and after completing a few forms and getting a letter from the bank we got the money paid out.
We decided to split the money in 2 and use 50% of the money for saving and 50% for debt repayment. That way we can see both the savings growing and the debt decreasing, good for fuelling the dream!
I am still practising my French, it is getting more difficult the further into the book I progress, however I am keeping at it, soon I will be able to make conversation. I was thinking about ways to practise and improve and decided a simple way would be to watch our many DVD’s in French. I need to be a little more proficient and I will start with that, looking forward to it actually.
On Friday afternoon we were at McGinty’s, Barry and Axel decided to go to the Paradise Rally on Axel’s bikes in June so I am wondering what to do with myself (I obviously don’t want to spend money as we are saving for the trip). I was thinking of going down to the yacht with the 2 boys, I might even have the courage to sail solo? Any help in bravery department would be welcome!
Speaking of sailing…
We are planning on going sailing this weekend, and since it has been 2 weekends since we were able to go, I have instructed all children that they are not to make any plans, we are going end of story! Barry mentioned we should see what the weather holds, but No! We have bought a little fan heater and can watch movies on the computer if the weather is that bad so off to the dam it is. See you on the water!
Free Stuff
So last time I wrote it was a little haphazard, many topics, few developments etc. Today is a little better but not much.
We could not go sailing this weekend, it is so frustrating when you arrange your life and have it rearranged by your kids. I guess I had them…such is life. So we stayed home, watched movies, which was not really that bad, I have become way too spoilt with the going away so often.
I took some time and started my French lessons. Feeling a little inspired by the fact that I started to recall some of the French I should have remembered, and am now able to say hello, goodbye and the likes to start or end a conversation. Not to mention count to ten, say the days of the week etc. Soon I’ll be an expert! (ex being a “has been”, spurt a drip of water under pressure)
Last night was my graduation ceremony. I felt all academic walking across the stage to get “capped” and “draped” as it were. It brings an end to formal study for me, at least for now. Barry, Rauen and Kyle were there to watch. Kyle drove Barry insane as the whole ceremony took 2 hours, a long time for a little boy wanting to watch TV. Not too mention the speech which no one in the audience had any chance of understanding, the speaker may as well have spoken Greek, we would have probably understood more then. You know a speech is bad when the Vice Chancellor stands up after the speech and apologises for the speech without actually saying sorry, but simply saying the professor who gave the speech is a serious intellect and if we “laymen” could take anything from it, it would be amazing.
Went shopping again today – it is always great to shop when you don’t actually spend any money. We bought a jersey for Barry using gift vouchers from Edgars (say thanks to an Edgars cash card) and PJ’s for both the boys as well as 3 new DVD’s (say thanks to cellphone contract gift vouchers). Seems I am getting plenty “free” stuff this month, I got all those books and the cd last week for “free” from Ebucks.
Wish I could get a catamaran free next!
I also started taking photo’s for the website of Kyle, Rauen and myself doing the things we like so I can make up the collage for each of our blogs. Still working on the website seems to be coming along slowly but I haven’t put it on the back burner, just have to do research and information gathering to continue.
A bientoe! (See you soon!)
We could not go sailing this weekend, it is so frustrating when you arrange your life and have it rearranged by your kids. I guess I had them…such is life. So we stayed home, watched movies, which was not really that bad, I have become way too spoilt with the going away so often.
I took some time and started my French lessons. Feeling a little inspired by the fact that I started to recall some of the French I should have remembered, and am now able to say hello, goodbye and the likes to start or end a conversation. Not to mention count to ten, say the days of the week etc. Soon I’ll be an expert! (ex being a “has been”, spurt a drip of water under pressure)
Last night was my graduation ceremony. I felt all academic walking across the stage to get “capped” and “draped” as it were. It brings an end to formal study for me, at least for now. Barry, Rauen and Kyle were there to watch. Kyle drove Barry insane as the whole ceremony took 2 hours, a long time for a little boy wanting to watch TV. Not too mention the speech which no one in the audience had any chance of understanding, the speaker may as well have spoken Greek, we would have probably understood more then. You know a speech is bad when the Vice Chancellor stands up after the speech and apologises for the speech without actually saying sorry, but simply saying the professor who gave the speech is a serious intellect and if we “laymen” could take anything from it, it would be amazing.
Went shopping again today – it is always great to shop when you don’t actually spend any money. We bought a jersey for Barry using gift vouchers from Edgars (say thanks to an Edgars cash card) and PJ’s for both the boys as well as 3 new DVD’s (say thanks to cellphone contract gift vouchers). Seems I am getting plenty “free” stuff this month, I got all those books and the cd last week for “free” from Ebucks.
Wish I could get a catamaran free next!
I also started taking photo’s for the website of Kyle, Rauen and myself doing the things we like so I can make up the collage for each of our blogs. Still working on the website seems to be coming along slowly but I haven’t put it on the back burner, just have to do research and information gathering to continue.
A bientoe! (See you soon!)
Adding Google Ads
So this week I feel successful. I managed to get our website yrumoar up and running. It is not complete and it certainly needs a lot of work but it is coming along and I am adding to it everyday. Hopefully I get this journal loaded today. Sorry if the pictures take a few extra days but I am still learning – not an expert yet.
Also loaded some “Google ads” which could generate some income for us and will be adding a button to donate cash to our cause. Yes, these are ways to help fund this trip, every penny counts and the website is a definite added benefit. Hardly slept I was so excited about actually putting on the web.
Haven’t kept you updated but Barry is still not smoking about 2 months now so very impressed with him, it also means we can keep saving that money towards the goal.
Another exciting thing happening at the moment is that I am about to go collect 2 new books from the post office today.
Book 1 is: 15 - minute French (2 CD’s included).
I decided I needed to be able to speak a few languages to travel around the world without having too many problems. Looking at other cruisers experiences I believe (let me know if I am wrong) that English, French and Spanish are the 3 most widely spoken languages and it would be beneficial to learn these. So from today I am learning French. I did study it for 2 years in high school but who can remember that long ago? So back to the books it is.
Book 2 is called Deceptively Delicious written by Jessica Seinfeld, it is a cookbook with recipes using pureed foods (vegetables) to cook all types of meals with. This has a double use in that I can con my kids into eating more veggies (not to mention cut the calories on my favourite dishes) as well as the fact that pureed foods are easier to store on board a boat so I want to try them out, practise and use these recipes on our journey.
I also went to Pretoria yesterday to hire my graduation outfit. The ceremony is on Monday where I will be given the degree, so pretty excited about that too.
All in all life is really great at the moment. Between working hard and enjoying myself I am finding a good balance.
Just want to add a note of thanks to my mom, she is acting as editor of my work from half way across the world. Thanks!
Also loaded some “Google ads” which could generate some income for us and will be adding a button to donate cash to our cause. Yes, these are ways to help fund this trip, every penny counts and the website is a definite added benefit. Hardly slept I was so excited about actually putting on the web.
Haven’t kept you updated but Barry is still not smoking about 2 months now so very impressed with him, it also means we can keep saving that money towards the goal.
Another exciting thing happening at the moment is that I am about to go collect 2 new books from the post office today.
Book 1 is: 15 - minute French (2 CD’s included).
I decided I needed to be able to speak a few languages to travel around the world without having too many problems. Looking at other cruisers experiences I believe (let me know if I am wrong) that English, French and Spanish are the 3 most widely spoken languages and it would be beneficial to learn these. So from today I am learning French. I did study it for 2 years in high school but who can remember that long ago? So back to the books it is.
Book 2 is called Deceptively Delicious written by Jessica Seinfeld, it is a cookbook with recipes using pureed foods (vegetables) to cook all types of meals with. This has a double use in that I can con my kids into eating more veggies (not to mention cut the calories on my favourite dishes) as well as the fact that pureed foods are easier to store on board a boat so I want to try them out, practise and use these recipes on our journey.
I also went to Pretoria yesterday to hire my graduation outfit. The ceremony is on Monday where I will be given the degree, so pretty excited about that too.
All in all life is really great at the moment. Between working hard and enjoying myself I am finding a good balance.
Just want to add a note of thanks to my mom, she is acting as editor of my work from half way across the world. Thanks!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Swaziland
So we were in Swaziland this last weekend – yes you heard right – travelling before we even get our boat – how much fun is that!
We went up for Jeanine’s wedding (Barry’s niece) it was beautiful. So well organised – seems they thought of everything, like a pair of slops for each lady so we could dance the night away. Beautiful setting in the mountains.
On Sunday we took a 3km hike up to the waterfall – Phophonyane falls – on the way we came across a few animals, goats, bulls and the likes and found our way to the falls which was very pretty.
Otherwise we had an awesome time.
I want to lose weight now – it is becoming an issue – gonna start seriously next week I can’t very well go living on a yacht in a bikini when I look like a whale…so time to shape up. Should take about a year and I will start to look fantastic – wish me luck – somehow gotta keep motivated (hope the boat is enough motivation)
Also started making progress on my book – trying to fit that in with everything else – but it does seem like a good income source. And we could sure do with that.
All these things somehow have to come together. Taking time to try!
So here’s to a few weeks of hard work and loads of effort!
We went up for Jeanine’s wedding (Barry’s niece) it was beautiful. So well organised – seems they thought of everything, like a pair of slops for each lady so we could dance the night away. Beautiful setting in the mountains.
On Sunday we took a 3km hike up to the waterfall – Phophonyane falls – on the way we came across a few animals, goats, bulls and the likes and found our way to the falls which was very pretty.
Otherwise we had an awesome time.
I want to lose weight now – it is becoming an issue – gonna start seriously next week I can’t very well go living on a yacht in a bikini when I look like a whale…so time to shape up. Should take about a year and I will start to look fantastic – wish me luck – somehow gotta keep motivated (hope the boat is enough motivation)
Also started making progress on my book – trying to fit that in with everything else – but it does seem like a good income source. And we could sure do with that.
All these things somehow have to come together. Taking time to try!
So here’s to a few weeks of hard work and loads of effort!
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