3rd August

We have been at home for the last week and decided to get a few things done. We have between now and December to get the house completely finished and up for rent so we can start with our plan of 2 weeks here, 2 weeks there, but not sacrifice any income we can derive from the new arrangement.

We took a trip up to Deneysville at the Vaal dam to Star Marine to purchase a few items for Yrumoar, a wind indicator at the top of the mast (our current one is very small) and a few other odds and ends we found to be way more expensive in Richards Bay.

Vaal dam wall

We also started the massive job of installing the 2nd bathroom (main en suite). We worked all day yesterday soldering copper pipes and tap fitting together to get the plumbing pipes that fit inside the walls completed, we are nearly there. Today we will complete this task and start the next one (brandering to erect the ceiling boards or testing the pipes under pressure, maybe building the bath walls or the shower floor height – we will see what follows in natural progression). We should complete this bathroom before the end of September and be able to move on to the next project (cupboard doors for the bedrooms).

We are going down to the yacht on Thursday and will receive our new membership card from the yacht club. This means that we can begin our SAS process for the renaming of Debenair to Yrumoar. The legal side needs to be done first.

Amy has asked to come with us to the SAS offices this time as last time she did not register to get her day skippers and still needs to complete that task. She visited us this weekend and gave me the new semester timetable, from this we have decided that a Monday morning would be the best time to go, so we will be doing this before the end of August. We then expect to wait a few weeks while the documents are sent to head office checked, updated and a new SAS certificate is issued with the vessel renamed and officially registered into our names.

This month Barry and I have been officially married for 10 years! That’s a pretty big number to me (at this point a 1/3 of my life) so we have decided that we will buy ourselves an anniversary present (we normally don’t). There is an EPIRB for sale in Richards Bay for a decent price, (licensing an registration will be extra) that together with a small monetary deposit into our “cruising kitty” seems like a great idea to me…we will see what the trip this weekend brings regarding the EPIRB.

Every time I look around the order and priority of each item required on the boat seems to come under scrutiny. While looking at the documents to register a ship licence we realised that we can with 1 registration fee apply for the licences for all our “radio equipment” on board. This includes an SSB radio, a VHF radio, Radar, Radar transponder, hand held VHF transceiver for our small survival craft, EPIRB and any other radio equipment.

Our current licence is on the previous owner’s name and needs to be reregistered. We have decided to wait until March when the annual haul out needs to be done. We have decided that we should prioritise the radio equipment to allow a new licence to be purchased for all the equipment at the same time thus reducing the initial registration costs. This means that items we would have placed lower on our “TO DO” list have been brought up to sooner to reduce registration costs.

I have also printed off a list of “required” items on the safety authorities CAT A list to ensure we prioritise any items we do not yet have on board to register the vessel as a CAT A (no restriction on off-shore distance) during the March haul-out. These items will also need to be prioritised and added to our “TO DO” list.

This weekend when we are down at the yacht we will be going through the yacht with a fine-tooth comb searching for all and any “Debenair” stickers, markings or writings on the yacht, this includes covers for harnesses, old logbooks, lifejackets, the actual boat stickers and any other items that contain the name. These will need to be either removed permanently or collected for the burning of the old name during the name changing ceremony.

I have also printed off a list of “required” items on the safety authorities CAT A list to ensure we prioritise any items we do not yet have on board to register the vessel as a CAT A (no restriction on off-shore distance) during the March haul-out. These items will also need to be prioritised and added to our “TO DO” list.

This weekend when we are down at the yacht we will be going through the yacht with a fine-tooth comb searching for all and any “Debenair” stickers, markings or writings on the yacht, this includes covers for harnesses, old logbooks, lifejackets, the actual boat stickers and any other items that contain the name. These will need to be either removed permanently or collected for the burning of the old name during the name changing ceremony, invites will go out to all those of you who have joined our Facebook group.

Oh well, off to carry on with the bathroom work, getting the house ready is becoming a pre-December priority!