26 November


It seems all I do everyday day is complain about the weather…but it is true…I have never seen so much rain and cloud in all my life. It is officially Summer in SA in about 3 days….that means spring is over in 3 days and I am still wearing a jersey or jacket almost all of the time…we had a heater on yesterday for crying out loud! Sun where have you gone to?

Despite the bad weather and Barry’s matching mood we have made steady progress…slow but steady. Kyle is sadly not back in his room, but it is painted! We are waiting for a good weather day to some fairing on the outside of Kyle’s room so we can re-attach the cleat and back stays, the we can hook up the ceiling and we are in business…yip…half a day of sunshine since the 17th is all we have had…expecting another half a day today so maybe we can get lucky!

So all my boys are back in town! Last night we spent the evening chatting and didn’t even realise the time so ended up in bed at just before 1am! OK so it was bit on the late side but Rauen’s plane was again delayed in Joburg and instead of landing at 6pm he arrived at 8pm…last week he was also delayed instead of an 8am flight he managed to catch a 12:30 flight….he is making a habit of being delayed at an airport...better put a quick stop to that unpleasant trick.

Other than that it is 5am, I am typing this wishing I had a bigger jersey on so I’ll go get one…looking up at grey skies and hoping they pass over to reveal a sunny day where we can actually do just a small amount of boat work!

How the boards are replaced

Down come the old dive platform

Nearing the end we take out the last 3 pieces at once

Ticking off the "To Do" list

13th February


We arrived home about an hour ago to a house that no longer has refrigeration and I am patiently waiting for the geyser to heat up so I can have a bath, shave and hair wash…aha it will be pure bliss!

We managed to get a whole load of things ticked off the” to do” list… we emptied our treasure chest and managed to swop a load of unwanted items for an outboard motor for our dinghy. This works out great for us as we now don’t have to find buyers for our spare boat parts and at the same time we acquired a much needed cruising accessory.

On Wednesday our Australian friend Lindsay came over from his boat Avelore mooring in Tuzi Gazi to help us with some electronic charts, pilot guides and weather information for which are thankful. We are now set with the charts and just need a few cables to link these to our GPS system and they with be fully functional. Great!

We also managed to see 2 riggers and get a load of advice together with a couple of quotes for changes we are interested in making. We had the sail guys there and we on Friday morning Barry and I took down both the main sail and the roller furler to go in for repairs, they should be back at the end of March or so. I say that like it was a 10 minute job but in actual fact it took us the whole morning and Barry had to climb the mast twice!

We had Janie out to quote on some stainless steel work on Saturday and loaded the boat with all the items from the “treasure chest” that should be on board.

We brought home a few projects…making the helmsman’s seat (we took the sizes), buying spares we can’t readily get in Richard’s Bay and ordering the engine maintenance books.

I feel as if we are finally managing to get somewhere with the boat projects! We also had a very successful school week, concentrating on English, we managed to complete 5 week’s worth of work so it will be back to mathematics tomorrow where have almost completed the 1st terms work!

Small tasks on board

5th February


We arrived at the boat on Thursday evening to a freezer full of off meat and maggots. Yes, maggots! Someone decided they needed our plug point more than us and promptly unplugged it and left us with no power for a prolonged period of time. Barry was irritated to say the least and I had the unappealing task of cleaning this mess.

On Friday morning we woke up early and managed to tick a few projects off our list, adding the hook just outside the sliding door to hook yourself on in heavy weather, cutting the wooden plank which is to be our new bookshelf once erected tomorrow (I have been painting it with wood sealant for 2 days now), and once again sorting out the toilet that won’t flush (this time it is the boy’s one).

This morning again we were up early completing more task, moving the chartplotter to outside, sealing the sink and painting the bookcase and boards for our “washing baskets”(yes we have 2 of them). Barry is currently busy checking and replacing light bulbs around the boat. He tried 8 different bulbs to no avail then suddenly it dawned on him, he particular light in question works on a different switch – haha – it was working perfectly all along!

If you look at the few things we managed to complete you would think we hardly did any work, but you are mistaken! It seems as if every project on the boat takes 10 times as long as expected and at 1 point this week we actually looked at each other and at the same time said “Camper?” then burst out laughing. But we quickly dismissed the idea and continued with the small projects. Couple this work with home schooling and normal cooking and cleaning and you have as full schedule day after day.

We are hoping the rigger can come out next week as he did not sound too enthused when we spoke to him, if he can’t make it we will phone a few others and ensure at least 1 of them sees us before Friday. At least then we can make progress on the sail issues as it is really starting to drive us crazy that nothing happens fast enough – even the small changes everyday don’t seem to make that much difference.

Tomorrow we plan to empty our “treasure chest” and bring down all the things that are supposed to be on the boat as well as make a complete inventory of everything in there. We can then decide what we want to sell, what we can dispose of and what we will need for our trip. We decided we would bring everything that should be on the boat onboard as we need to find homes for it all and perhaps make special attachments, some shelving and a couple of cupboard doors to have “a place for everything and everything in its place”.

Mpumalanga Tour

29th January


I woke up this morning feeling a little stiff…the after effects of a 3 day whirlwind Mpumalanga tour. We certainly did have heaps of fun though!

We left on Wednesday morning 4am and drove through to the Sudwala caves and Dinosaur Park. We took a walk through the Dinosaur park at 8am, taking in the enormous size of the T-Rex and Brontosaurus and checking out the live crocodiles and newly extinct creatures. Then it was onto a cave tour at 9:10. This was Kyle’s first trip into a cave and that was his “Highlight for the day”. We learned about dolomite, limestone and rock formations, stalactites, stalagmites and flowstones, we learned about the people who once lived in the caves and had a demonstration of their basic tools .

We then headed off to Graskop, stopping in Sabie for a bite to eat and checking into our accommodation, Monia’s Place, at 12:30. At 2pm we again jumped into the car and took the waterfall route stopping at the awesome and incredible Lisbon fall and the Berlin falls, which was quite a let down after the beauty of Lisbon, followed by the Blyde River Canyon, the world’s 3rd largest canyon and Bourke’s luck potholes. These are circular formations caused by the flowing of water from the Treuer river into the Blyde river and are named after a digger, Mr Bourke, who was exceptionally unlucky.

We had planned to take a Ghost tour in Pilgrims rest on Wednesday evening but the tour guide called and said it raining there so perhaps we would rather make it for the following evening, she could also move our early morning village tour up to the afternoon and we would be able to make one trip to Pilgrim’s instead of 2, already feeling tired, we readily agreed and headed back to Graskop, buying a few things to eat at the local Spar on our way. We had a quick shower and an early night.

We were up at the crack of dawn the following day, Barry because he could no longer sleep on the uncomfortable bed, and found there was no water. We thanked our lucky stars we had decided to shower the previous evening and took a walk through Graskop in the thick mist. We had been trying to buy good quality drymacs at home and had only managed to get some for the 2 boys, we again came up empty handed for ourselves and decided if it rained that evening we would have a wet ghost tour. We stopped at Harrie’s pancakes for a pancake breakfast and a cup of coffee followed by a stroll back to our room.

At about 11:30 we took our camera and the boy’s drymacs and headed along the twisty, turny, mountainpass road towards Pilgrims rest. We headed to The Vine’s, a local restaurant and pub dating back to the 1800’s and had a snack while waiting for the tour bus to take us on a comprehensive tour of the old mining town.

At 1 o’clock we were picked up and started at the top of up-town. Our tour guide for the day was Aser and he went with us through the monument, the transport museum, the old doctor’s house, the old Newspaper and post office. We went to the old Anglican church, the Royal Hotel and the original General Dealer all the while he was spewing information on who, what, when and where everything in the town occurred. At 3 o’clock it was time to visit the old digging site and we took a look at the living conditions and the old tent world that was a digger’s life in the 1800’s. We went through the claims sites and finally down at the river we were each given a heap of soil from the river and following a demonstration we all panned for gold ending up with a few pieces each.

Once again we were dropped at The Vine’s and had a few drinks while waiting for the next tour bus to pick us up for the long awaited ghost tour. At half past 5 we drove up to the Highway man’s garage to park our car and climb aboard the tour bus again. The first stop was Alanglade house. This was the first brick house built in Pilgrims rest, for the mine manager’s wife, Mrs Gladys Barry. We had a history lesson as we walked through the house and looked at old photographs, furniture, clothing and we slowly grasped the way of life of a mine manager back in the 1800’s in a small mining village. The most fascinating fact we learned was that Pilgrims Rest had electricity, supplied by the hydroelectric power station, before London!

From there it was onto the night cemetery tour and a look at the graves of old. Whilst walking around the cemetery with lanterns we spotted a few “ghosts” higher up in the cemetery and Kyle became concerned that the ghosts were going to get him. We learned that all graves should face East to West and that there is a grave of a Robber who was left North to South in the hopes he would not go to Heaven and cause trouble like he did on earth. Once we left the cemetery grounds Kyle quickly closed the gates saying “I don’t want the ghosts to follow us”. Once back at the highway man’s garage at about 8:30pm we took the twisty, curvy road back to Graskop and hit the sack.

Friday morning dawned with all of us feeling a little washed out and tired but we were heading home, so we got up, had a breakfast of Strawberry pops and headed out. We took the scenic route stopping at the Pinnacle, God’s window and finally at Mac Mac falls before lunch at Smokey’s, a restaurant built from a train in Sabie and driving the 400km home.

A whirlwind tour of Mpumalanga, visiting the main tourist attractions and getting a geography lesson and a few History lessons in. It was sad to leave knowing we probably won’t be back there but I am happy the kids got to see this beautiful part of our own country before leaving and seeing the best of other countries.

Below is a video of the Lisbon Falls, absolutely stunning!

Fish went crazy on New Year's eve

2nd January


Yip, it’s 2011 already and my resolution was to be more consistent with my blog, so here we go…

Barry, Kyle and myself spent the evening sitting on the yacht watching the most spectacular fireworks display I have yet to see. The sky was alight in 3 directions and we sat on the foredeck, then in the cockpit watching the dazzling fireworks and numerous flares that were sent up into the air. We had two flares land within 3 meters of the boat and we imagined fire extinguishers and burning sails for a few minutes but settled back in to continue watching the sky light up. The fireworks lasted from 8pm – 1am and I doubt we would have seen as much if we had paid an entrance fee. Through all the fireworks, the thing that fascinated us the most was that every time a flare was launched into the sky the fish went crazy, leaping from the water, meters into the air, as if trying to catch the light. Considering the large number of fish in the marina this was genuinely fascinating as the water came alive, fish on the surface, leaping and even bumping into one another in their quest to “catch the flare”. Barry and I sat awestruck and mesmerised by the water every time the sky got that red glow.

Once Rauen got home from the party at the yacht club and the fireworks calmed down, we headed to catch forty winks before Kim, Darren and Devon arrived for lunch.

We had a calm 1st of January with the Bibbs, we had a braai and sat chatting and we made plans to see them again on Friday in Durban at their place, that way we get to visit the big chandlery on the Esplanade while we are there.

Today we will be reinstalling the chunk of wood we removed from the foredeck locker, doing a little hand washing, coating the inside of the two bow wet lockers with grip seal and doing a little swimming with the boys. Doesn’t sound like much but hey…we don’t really want to overwork ourselves already at the beginning of the year!