Does life return to normal?

19th November

Yesterday morning we went up to the yacht club early in order to see a car that we were interested in buying. We had a look, took it for a test drive and negotiated with the seller.

By 10am we had decided to buy the car, we will only get the car on about Wednesday once it has gone through roadworthy but we paid the deposit. We also made a list of a few small things we wanted repaired. This essentially means we will be mobile next week.

I also started working on Barry’s CV. Hopefully he can get a job by the new year and we can start getting into a more solid routine for a while.

While we were up at the yacht club, Dylan and Nicolette arrived from Richards Bay. We chatted to them for a while then they came back to the boat for a cup of coffee before heading back towards the Bay. Dylan has a boat in the boatyard here and has decided he wants to do some work on it so they will be coming to stay for a weekend early in December. Funny how we have visitors regularly, I never really thought we would…except our children of course! But yet our spare room has been put to good use on a regular occasion, makes me rather glad we have one.

20^th November

We are expecting delivery of our new used car either today or tomorrow so we are sitting in limbo at the moment. The kids have been getting on with school and we spent the afternoon yesterday playing numerous games of Uno with the kids with loads of giggles and laughter.

We also moved our boat yesterday, we were hooked onto 2 moorings and have moved across onto a single mooring right next door. It was an easy move, not doing anything except attaching 2 lines to the port side and dropping off 2 of the lines on the starboard side. Yrumoar shifted about 5 metres to port and resettled into her new spot. We didn’t even have to start the engines!

The boy’s school officially closes on Friday but we will continue into December with school work, there is little else for them to do at the moment with no children in the area so we should get through heaps of school work and with a little luck it will warm up so we can start swimming regularly too.

Barry’s mom called last night saying they will be in Toti in a week’s time, so we are also planning a short trip down there to visit. We spoke to Amy and Keagan last night as well and are looking forward to seeing them in December…seems we will have a month of visitors and visiting ahead…oh the sad life of being permanently on holiday “sigh”

25^th November

We finally got our car on Friday and Barry and I headed out to the local Spar to buy a few much needed groceries. We were expecting a big blow through here on Saturday and sure enough it arrived at 7pm last night howling and rushing over the water at ferocious speeds.

We are moored behind a row of mangrove trees and these helped block us from the onslaught, those across the way were not protected and we watched from our protected saloon as the boats rocked and rolled on the water.

We have still not had much sunshine and this is slowly becoming a problem, we have started switching the fridge off when we head for bed and on again in the morning in order to reduce power usage. We are still considering adding more solar panels but we need to first check if our current MPPT unit can cope with the increased load if we have a few days of full sunshine.

We are also considering swopping one of our electric toilets for  pump model so that when we are in power save mode we can use this one and reduce the draw on our batteries…oh the eternal power problem!

The kids have made some new friends here which is great, they should all still be here next week as they wait for a window to make East London so we are going to invite them all to shore for some birthday cake to celebrate Rauen’s 16^th! Can’t believe he is going to be 16 in only 2 days!

Anchored in Durban

11th November


The northeaster was blowing yesterday, it started calm but slowly increased during the course of the day to peak last night. Just before midday our anchor bridle came loose. Now normally, this is a minor issue, we winch the anchor up a meter or 2 and reattach the bridle and let the chain back out, however, since we are all feeling a little tender from the trip we ended up watching anchor every 10 minutes for the rest of the day.

Kim and Darren came over to visit, they brought Barry’s long awaited bunny chow.

For months he has been telling people he is stopping in Durban to see my sister and get the bunny that has his name on it. Kim was very good considering how far out we are anchored, it was a long dinghy ride with spray over the front, then from 1 unstable object onto another followed by hours of bouncing around in the ever increasing North-Easter.

A few minutes after Kim and Darren had left the pressure of the last few days, coupled with the complete lack of sleep in 50 odd hours had me in floods of tears telling Barry we are not doing this trip. I was unable to control my emotions and even the kids were worried about me, so to get my mind off everything we watched a few episodes of “How I met your mother” and then Barry and I chatted in the cockpit and finally went to another restless sleep…although much improved from the night before!

12th November

This morning I woke up feeling much better, maybe I just needed the emotional release of last night!

We didn’t do much today, just took the dinghy to PYC and Durban Marina to get tags for entrance and exit of the marina and yacht club and had a shower…typically cold as the gas had been turned off for no apparent reason.

15th November

Tuesday morning saw us, firstly giving Kyle a haircut. He decided short hair would be better as he struggles to manage it and it drive Barry and I insane. Once that was done we decided to go for a walk along the esplanade and visit the maritime museum in Durban. We spent the morning climbing over old tug boats and on steam ships and read all about the whaling industry which has been closed in South Africa since 1975.

We then headed further up to “The BAT Centre” a very quaint arty centre with art galleries displaying sculptures and paintings, a music room where we found a group of musicians jamming on various instruments and a little “coffee shop” come restaurant. We stopped there for a curry and walked back towards the city centre heading for a grocery store to buy a few things…only what we could carry.

With groceries in hand we got back to the boat for some light sleep with Barry and I up every hour to check anchor and wind speed and direction.

Yesterday morning we arranged to move to the Bluff yacht club and upped anchor at about 11am, taking the hour and a half motor along the Esplanade channel down to our mooring for the next while. We were finally hooked up with Densel’s help by 1pm and dropped the dinghy to get to shore to meet up with the mooring guy, Billy, and put some feelers out in an attempt to get a small cheap car.

Yes, get a car…we are probably going to be moored here for at least a few months earning a little money in order to do a few more things to the boat. We are wanting to buy a better autopilot, a speed transducer and a wind speed transducer all coupled with a new computer box.

Having discussed our trip, how the boat handled the weather, how we coped with the circumstances and what we would want in the future these items came up top priority and since these will come at a cost we have decided to work for a few months to restock the kitty and get the desired boat parts. The next 2 weeks will tell how this is going to work and if we actually going to follow this plan and for how long…as Kyle always tells us: Sailing involves having no plan and sticking to it…so anything can happen.

Richards Bay to Durban

11th November


The last few days went something like this. On Friday morning at 4am we left the dock in Richards Bay headed for Durban. We watched a beautiful sunrise at sea and were motorsailing in the calm conditions. At this point I want to put it out there that we had an idea the wind would fill in but expected no more 25 knot gusting at the peak of day.

We were given the most spectacular whale show, yip, whales were everywhere Rauen said: It feels like we are in National Geographic. We watched some rolling over and slapping those huge flipper arms of theirs in the water, I took out the camera to try and catch the giant leaps and ended up switching to video. Keep in mind the camera makes everything seem far away when you watch this video. We were actually steering to avoid these giant creatures.

By 11am the wind was filling in and we started flying towards Durban under sail alone. By midday we decided to start dropping sail, the seas were getting rather rough and the wind had picked up substantially. We were already under reef on the main so dropped that completely and rolled up the fuller to just a handkerchief.

We had begun handsteering at 11am already as the autopilot could not handle the conditions which were to become progressively worse as the day wore on.

By 2pm Barry was the only one who could steer the boat down the giant steep breaking waves and we had a few crash over into the cockpit. The wind was howling and we spent the rest of the afternoon whispering silent prayers that we would get into the harbour safely.

At 5pm the cloud cover turned grey and it started to rain. The lightning lit up the sky but the thunder could not be heard over the howl of the wind and the breaking waves. Each wave broke and came at us as a rushing foam high above our cockpit roof, the sea lift us and we ended with the foam over the steps, the dive platform and occasionally into the cockpit and over us.

No-one panicked luckily, Kyle wedged himself in the saloon between the saloon table and the benches where he would not roll around and Rauen turned up some loud music in an attempt to calm himself, yes, even the eternally calm Rauen was frightened, Barry steered and I navigated.

At 6pm the electronic compass decided it would no longer show us our heading and the wave action did not allow us to use the manual compass, so I stood half in the saloon half in the cockpit and used our chartplotter to keep Barry on a course for the harbour mouth while avoiding all the monster cargo ships outside and outmanoeuvring the tumbling waves. It felt as though we had changed channels from “National Geographic” to “The Deadliest Catch”, the only problem was that I had lost the remote and could not change back to the better channel.

We entered the harbour just after eight and rather than finding the anchorage in the dark took the channel down to the bluff and tied up to their wall. We felt complete relief when it was open and we could go straight onto the dockside, as what we all needed was a good night’s sleep, not the next 12 hours of anchor watches. Once in the harbour we all looked at each other and said: ‘Never again”…

Yesterday morning dawned my birthday, I was first up and as I walked up the stairs I took a look around at the chaos that was the boat. There were wet towels strewn over the floors, rain suits and wet clothing on the kitchen counters, navigation charts and equipment over both the nav station and the saloon table, I open the sliding door and faced pools of salt water, soaked through cushions, untidy ropes everywhere…to put it mildly general pandemonium. So I quickly got to work, and within half an hour it seemed a whole lot better, the wooden floors were drying out and the washlines were full. The ropes were tidy and back where they belonged and the mess was all but gone…sadly not along with the horror memory.

At half past ten we unhook the mooring lines again and headed to PYC to drop anchor. We first dropped anchor exactly where they had demarcated on the satellite image they had sent but Barry and I were not comfortable being in everyone’s way and ended up having a bicker, we decided to head a little out and anchor in water that was just deep enough for the cat so we upped anchor and started heading out when suddenly the chain just jumped off the dolly and ran…all of it. This was followed by Rauen and I taking shifts to lift it and get it out of the water rapidly.

It slowly came up covered in clay which left a rather enormous mess on the foredeck. Once up again we headed and dropped anchor for the 3rd time that day…boy I really wanted some exercise…an electric windlass is definitely on my wish list.

Slightly further out of the way we felt a lot more comfortable and spent the next few hours cleaning the clay from the decks, getting the dinghy motor out and filling it with petrol and packing up the last remnants of the previous days rough sail.

At about 4:30pm my Aunt and Uncle arrive for a few sundowners and we headed to the yacht club to pick them up, we spent the next few enjoyable hours chatting and took them back by dinghy so they could head home.

Last night we got very little sleep, the boat was being thrown around by the tug boat wakes and the numerous fishing boats passing nearby at full speed…not sure how long we intend on staying in this particular spot and we may decide to head back down to the bluff in a couple of days and pick up a mooring buoy where it is much calmer and we can get a few things done on the boat.

Still stuck until the weather changes!

13th October


Yesterday was a down day, yip I’ll just call it that because how on earth could I possible feel miserable living on a yacht knowing I don’t have to work yet those days still happen.

I woke up feeling great, we were going to beach our boat so we could reattach our saildrive boots which seem to have come loose but that was not to be, instead when high tide arrived another yacht that had been beached was drifting all over the place and we had no choice but to wait for the next day. At this point I felt so despondent I broke down, feeling like we are doomed to stay in Richards Bay forever. Not that it is not beautiful and warm here but I have itchy feet and am tired of waiting.

So I sat here on the boat feeling dreadfully sorry for myself…let’s call it a funk and cried and complained until Barry and I had it out and eventually went for a walk. We strolled along the beach checked the sand where we want to tie up and spoke to the other catamaran owners beached there until we came up with a solution to be able to get this done today. Let’s hope my mood holds and we can actually have Yrumoar up on the sand at high tide for the last job before we head to Durban.

17th October

So Yrumoar was beached, anti-fouled to a new waterline and is now ready for the trip down the coast…again. Barry explained our on the hard again experience so well in his blog I don’t think I can do it justice so here’s another angle.

We are safely back at the walk-on waiting eagerly for a weather window through the rain. We are still trying to find a home for everything on the boat…a never ending job it seems and while this process continues some of the items lying around seem to be finding their correct home. Yesterday I asked Barry to help me move some sheets of marine ply out of Rauen’s bedroom so I could clean it and we ended up cutting it to size and half completing the cosmetic side of the mast repair. A few more days like this and not only will the boat be ship shape but our list will have been dented in the process. Barry says I have a talent for making him do things he has absolutely no intention of doing.

It is raining today and expected to keep this up the rest of the week, so today is washing day…I will have to use a tumble drier but it needs to be done. We also need to get to town for the last few items over the next few days, another great rainy weather outing and if we can find a gap in between to fit the new solar panels that arrived yesterday it will all be perfect…but then this is a boat so I am tempting fate.

18th October

Yesterday was rather successful considering it rained. We managed to get the washing up to date and fill Yrumoar with Diesel. Locked and loaded we are ready to leave when the weather arrives.

I have been watching the weather closely but I can see no window, even to Durban for the next week so it looks like we will be here another week. Guess we should just get a few more jobs ticked off that long list before we head down the coast.

The hole under the mast step where we did a major repair has undergone step 1 and has made an improvement to the look of the saloon. We measured up the new solar panels and will start with that installation today. I, in the meantime, am finding spare moments to wash down every wall, roof and surface area in the boat with a bleach solution to reduce the mould build up. I am trying to complete this before we leave and have a water shortage problem.

The boys still do school in the morning and for most of the afternoon, hurrying to complete their work for the year as there will be little time whilst sailing to do this.

19th October

I spent the whole day washing walls and ceilings in Rauen’s room, going through his clothes to check what fits and what has become too small and erecting his personal belongings on his counter tops and pictures on his walls. I could not believe it but that is the first time I have organised his room since moving here 2 years ago. His selves were always covered in life rings, rain suits and other safety gear I had never stowed and is personal things were in a bag under the counter so I finally got round to doing that yesterday and he is pleased as punch.

Today I am going to continue with this task as his forward lockers need a reinvent. They currently hold our sleeping bags, kitbags, spare paper charts and the like. I need to rearrange them so they are used more efficiently and can hold some of the excess safety gear, the extra life jackets, the extra harnesses etc. We are certified to carry 10 passengers but only have 4 on board and all this extra gear is driving me crazy with the locker space it take up. I want to keep 4 of everything together and the balance can be stowed for a time when we have visitors on board for a sailing excursion.

The other thing I still need to do is sort the starboard passage lockers, they are full of tools and goodies and I need to organise them so we can find anything we need in a jiffy. It has taken this long to do this because wow, what a boring job, but I have realised a necessary one.

Going into town is also on our agenda…if the weather doesn’t turn sunny we will probably just do a town trip and forget the boat work for the day as Barry needs to work with a little epoxy to get the solar panels finally fitted into place. We do need a few things before we leave, guess we will have to take a taxi and walk our way through town like usual.

22nd October

We went for a sail on MaXscene with Kevin and Donna on Saturday afternoon to test out a Parasailor, a new type of light wind sail. On our way out of the harbour mouth we heard a monohull calling Port Control of permission to enter the harbour.

We all picked up on the name as it was Cat’s paw 4 and we all assumed it would be a catamaran. Anyway, we had a great sail and the parasailor is an awesome light wind sail, absolutely beautiful in appearance and relatively easy to resock when necessary. We would probably buy one if it wasn’t out of our price range.

Last night after the race, which MaXscene happened to win, we headed up to bar and sure enough the Canadians from Cat’s Paw 4 were there. We got to chatting and invited them back to our boat. We got along famously and we are actually looking forward to the braai this evening to meet up with them again.

We also had some news on the weather front as this morning I discovered a possible window opening up for Saturday/Sunday. So we could be out of here as soon as this weekend!

29th October

No, we won’t be out of here this weekend…I guess fate is standing in our way at the moment and ensuring we don’t leave Richards Bay until the time is right.

On Saturday morning in the pouring rain, Barry and I took a walk to the Tuzi Gazi waterfront to get our flight plan stamped. I was dressed like little yellow riding hood with my yellow rain jacket and Barry had his luminous raincoat on.

We got checked out with no problems and returned to the boat to stow the final items. Sunday morning, after a sleepless night, we rose at 2am to prepare to leave. The weather was not playing ball however, and the predicted Northeast winds did not fill in. We watched helplessly as the wind shifted from West to South west and a thunder storm brewed overhead.

We decided to wait until sunrise at about 4:30am and see what develops. By 5am we decided to leave the dock and go out to have a look if the wind would shift to the predicted direction within the next hour.

We had a group of farewell wishes on the dock as we unhooked and departed. Barry and Rauen hoisted the main sail while I steered us towards the harbour mouth. We got permission to exit and once outside, promptly decided we would return.

The wind had yet to shift, visibility was poor, the sea state was uncomfortable and we were not going to motor down to Durban in the rain. We had spoken about the sail combinations we wanted to try on the way down and without a following wind it seemed we would not even be able to accomplish our goals en route. So we turned around and headed back into the harbour with our tail between our legs.

What can I say…we will have to find another window that actually materialises and works in our favour. We have some things to try on the 1st leg before the 2nd leg of our trip along the notorious wild coast.

5th November

Once again we went out sailing yesterday on Maxscene, our neighbours. We had a great time, even though we did not win the offshore race.

We have managed to keep the boat in a state ready for sailing as soon as the weather turns, which appears to be either Friday or Saturday, so we should be heading to Durban next weekend. This window is far more pleasant than the previous one so I don’t see a problem.

I am actually looking forward to leaving at this point, a new environment will do us all some good.

Almost on our way!

5th October


We have spent the last week checking off the last immediate things we wanted to complete on the boat. Yesterday we decided to check the weather and make a date next week to leave, get our flight plan sorted out and get ready.

Well the weather disappointed us, it is raining all week, we have a wet, miserable week ahead of us so we have decided to wait yet again. Living your life according to the weather really can be frustrating, but rather safe than sorry. We will check for updated everyday now and see when the window arrives.

8th October

The weekend was filled with activity. On Friday we were once again on the rescue boat for the regatta here at Zululand. This time in a small open craft Barry and I sat in the wind and rain moving the marker buoys around for each new start. We managed to have a load of fun together and even had a ski boat race with the other rescue boat.

On Saturday Rauen went up the mast to finally install the radar reflector, a job he really wanted to do and that we have been putting off. He was glad he did it, but did comment on how high it was and how difficult it is to work, swinging from a rope like a monkey and trying to work with only 1 hand behind you.

Sunday morning dawned overcast again and we decided in the low heat and little wind it was Barry’s turn to head to the top of the mast, he had a few jobs to do, tighten the forestay, install the new masthead light and Windex, another job that has been on the list since we moved here. Once again we had success and ticked them all off by midday.

We then went up to the club for a braai and had a few drinks. Donna and Kevin came back to our boat when the rain started to fall and we continued the party here. By 9 o’clock we were all bushed and hit the sack.

Fun, action packed weekend all around, now we are back to waiting for weather…but while waiting we will probably tick a few more items off that eternal boat project list.

9th October

I woke up yesterday morning with good intentions of clearing out the boat, repacking everything so we would be ship shape and ready to go when the weather turned for us…but this was not to be.

I started by printing 3 sets of manuals, then Rauen’s past exams for the year but half way through the printer started giving me trouble and I eventually conceded. Virginia then came over to measure the clear spray dodger we are having made for the bimini front followed by Donna from Maxscene who popped past for some provisioning advice and 1 thing led to another and we spent the rest of the day having coffee, chatting about preperations and the few tips about avoiding weavils, mould and rotting food. Which stores last indefinitely and which ones need date organising. How to bake bread and general conversation…oh the life on a boat.

Today I plan to make up for the last Monday so ship shape it is!

26th September


Yesterday we actually started on the window in Kyle’s room. We have had this repair to do for a while and the material to do the task arrived the weekend after our return from Johannesburg. This coupled with a few patches is the final “To Do” item before we jump port.

It all went reasonably well, taking into consideration that we have not done fibreglass work for nearly 6 months. And we will continue the job today, we expect the window to be fitted back by Friday evening if all goes smoothly…but this is a boat…so don’t hold your breathe.

Even though everything went off so well, I felt deflated last night. Not in the mood for anything and I rubbed off on Barry, who was in a great mood. I felt really bad about that…anyway I headed to bed the moment the boys got back from scouts to avoid depressing him anymore and left Barry to finish his drink outside alone.

At least I woke up feeling much better this morning, not so sad and miserable. Today we continue with the window job…we have to finish it before the rain expected on Saturday. Oh Mark, the guy who bought our walk-on, should arrive today with is boat from Knysna. Then we can do the paperwork for that and yet another item is off that list.

We have already moved the boat from our walk-on to F-walk-on because we couldn’t start the window work in case Mark arrived and we had to move. This way, we can work we need to done, and he can go straight onto the mooring when he gets here.

This mooring is not as good as our one though, the finger is shorter, the cleats are in not quite the right place and there are wooden blocks along the edges which we have to defend ourselves from. Our fenders are permanently working here where they hardly ever touched before and we have had to put extra lines in an attempt to hold us still while we work over the water on the window…all fun and games here!

2nd October

On Sunday we went “on Safari” if you can call a day drive through a game reserve that. Living in Africa my whole life you would think it I had done this a million times but this was only my 2nd time!

Dylan and Nicolette collected us at the yacht club in the morning as we drove to Umfolozi, we spent the morning driving spotting animals, Giraffe, zebra, springbok, waterbuck and wildebeest.

At lunch time we stopped the cars near a natural dam and picnicked with a few of their friends. Rauen and Kyle flew a kite, an experience they have had surprisingly little. We had ham sandwiches and played in the natural environment where the animals roam free.

We then headed out of the game park and into the forest. Never having been on 4 x 4 trail before it was exciting and interesting, the forest was not natural but rather one of those huge plantations that span as far as the eye can see. We made our way through the forest using the firebreaks as roads and deep inside we found a section of natural forest, apparently all plantations have to keep 10% of their land natural. We followed a twisted path to a long forgotten camp site.

Once there we took a hiking trail through the dense wood and over some creeks, under some bridges and back. Made a few more stops at other picnic areas deep in the forest and back towards the main road.

On our return journey we came to a creek, with a deep crevice and put 4 x 4 mode onto the Toyota Landcruiser and went for broke trying to cross it. After 4 attempts we managed to get through the riverbed and back onto the main road.

The day would have been perfect had it not been for the migraine I acquired somewhere along the way…I had to sleep it off the moment we returned to the boat.

3rd October

Yesterday I was busy copying some photos Anne took for me at the scout investment night and discovered she had added another series of photos of a forgotten memory while Rauen was in Johannesburg.

Kyle still has many teddy bears that he insists on keeping. We have jointly decided that he will get rid of them when he is ready and we do not need to pressurise him. Unfortunately, teddy bears break, his dinosaur teddy had torn along the seam on the front and he was “nursing it” trying not to loose the stuffing and repeatedly asking me, the no sewing mother, to repair it.

He decided to take matters into his own hands and go and ask Anne, who loves to sew, to please repair it for him. She willingly took the dinosaur and fixed it. Once it was ready she phoned me and asked me to bring Kyle over and both Barry and I should come too.

She had wrapped the dinosaur’s stomach with a bandage and placed a “hospital bracelet” around his neck. She then asked Kyle to “bring him out from anaesthetic” after his operation. Here is a recount of Kyle’s face as the process unfolded. Too cute!

Back to say our final goodbyes

19th August


The regatta went off without a hitch, it was cancelled for the Thursday which worked out perfectly and allowed Barry to come with us to the airport to see Rauen off. We discovered our anchor holds, how to get our bridle to work once all the chain is out and we are using warp and that we can still manage to sail this huge yacht at 1.2 knots in as little as 2 knots of wind. Anchoring was fantastic…can’t wait for it be all the time. But lifting that huge anchor is a great deal of work. We discussed an electric windlass but decided to give our manual one a chance as we will not normally be anchored in 25m of water with 80m of scope that takes over an hour to hoist. We will normally be sitting with 3 -5m of water and 15 – 20 metres of scope and Rauen and I have lifted that in a few minutes without a problem.

We have dropped off our EPRIB at SMD in town once again, this time for a battery replacement. We had to have our brand new navigation computer tested and the BIOS updated…we had better make a plan to reboot that today and check that it is now fully functional before we have to leave in a few weeks!

Today is that special day of the year for Barry and me…our wedding anniversary. We have officially been married for 12 years today! We have never done gift exchange or major celebration, it usually ends up a trip to a restaurant that cost more than R30 a head for a quick lunch or supper with all the kids. Today we have only 1 kid with us and we have a yacht club AGM to go to so our celebration will be even more subdued than normal. Oh well, it is technically just a number…we enjoy everyday together and when Barry asks me how long we’ve been married for…he always says “That’s impossible! It’s only been a year…we are still on honeymoon!” As long as we feel like that about each other I think we are on the right path here.

Happy Anniversary Honey!

22nd September


Yes, it has been a whole month!

We took a trip to Joburg for a couple of weeks but did not manage to see everyone in that time to say goodbye. I feel really sad about not seeing Tara, my sister and Lella, Rauen’s gran, we also promised Warren we would pop past before left again and just did not make it! I’m really sorry everyone, but my itinerary did not go according to plan and the main plan was to see Amy and Keagan, so we prioritised them and went with their plans.

When I went up there I realised I never want to live there again. That is not just the rat race, that I may end up back in at some stage, hopefully somewhere else…but the scenery, the landscape, the rudeness of the people in general, the hurried way they push past you, the way they cut you off when they drive and never apologise. I don’t know all these things coupled with high crime and that nervous feeling when I try to sleep at night or have to drive at night to go out after dark…nope I don’t see me returning to Joburg again…definitely not to live!

12th July


The kids are still visiting so no actual work either school work or boat work has been done. We have received a few parts that were previously ordered and have been given Friday as a date for the last one.

We have spent the last few weeks doing holiday type things that seem to wear me out completely…we stay up late, get up early and fill the day with activities…I am not used to this so will probably need 2 weeks extra sleep once the kids head back to Joburg.

Rauen and Kyle have already agreed to long school hours to make up for 3 extra weeks of holiday…so we will be concentrating hard on getting Rauen’s next assignments in after that.

At least we have been doing some exciting things lately…playing on the Macski, making a potjie in the braai area at the club house, having Monday night braai, a murder mystery party at Nicolette’s house, movie marathon, dinghy ride through the harbour and the list continues…we are grateful that the weather has been great up to now…but it seems to have taken a turn for the worse today.

Why I love Catamarans - Keagan stands at sea and boxes don't move!

Amy and me

Hubbly at the potjie evening

The food is not yet ready...potjie takes forever...but is worth the wait.

24th June


Barry went to the doctor during the last 2 weeks and was instructed to do absolutely no activity with both his arms. He gave him some medicine and we are trying to treat his arms with special care. This actually means that no boat work is being done and we spend our days relaxing and enjoying the time together rather than work, work, work. The doctor explained that it should improve within 3 weeks, if not we are to return for some injections. So we are being very careful, following his instructions to the letter and we will see once 3 weeks have past. Hopefully by then there is a marked improvement.

This last week has flown by, we took a trip up to Amamzimtoti to see Barry’s parents and brought them back to the boat with us. While there Barry bought me a new dress and a couple of new tops.

Yesterday I wore the dress and received a heap of comments so I am very happy with the purchase…something that is relatively unusual for me.

We managed to get a lift with Anne, Ryun’s mom, up to Toti so did not have rent a car and came back down with Barry’s parents. On the way up we made a pit stop at Makro, where we purchased a few items, and then headed for Toti beach.

We stayed at the Toti Cabanas on the beach front and enjoyed our morning coffee on the balcony overlooking the ocean. Beautiful setting. We went to the Thirsty Whale for lunch and took a stroll on the beach front.

I think Barry’s mom and Charles enjoyed their visit to Richards Bay as well. Charles commented that he had never been here before and that it was absolutely beautiful! Perhaps he should sell up in Joburg and move…guess he loved the place.

On Friday night Keagan arrived and Barry and Charles went to fetch him at the Macdonalds in town. He was rather ill when he arrived and I drugged him up a bit and put him to bed almost immediately. He woke yesterday feeling much better and back to his jovial self.

Today was washing day and I have spent the morning doing hand washing yet again. It seems to be a never ending job but it beats the 9-5 grind everytime.

New port...different day

30th April


Okay…decision made, we head for East London as soon as we have repaired the motor, the reefing mechanism, the autopilot and the power problems.

We have removed the impellor unit and stripped it as we found the raw water leak in this unit. Being a series of public holidays this week we have not yet been able to arrange the spares but are working on it.

We have a navigation system technician seeing us tomorrow, even though it is a public holiday, to give us some advice and information so we can improve the systems on board and possibly add an AIS system.

In the meantime my sister Kim has been to visit and will pop past again tomorrow…it has been wonderful seeing her since it has been a long time, not to mention the fuel, cold drinks and bread rolls she brought us to tide us over . We had a great braai and took them out to the boat to see the new look Yrumoar.

Ryun will be leaving us in the next few days so we are taking it slow at the moment and spending some relaxing time with friends but come Thursday we will be in full action mode getting through our “at this port” list so we can move on.

As a whole Durban is similar to Richards Bay apart from the visiting pelicans. We sit on the yacht and watch in awe as these huge birds glide up and down and swim by ducking under the water and catching large fish only to swallow them whole. We have spent many lazy hours in the last two days just watching these fascinating birds.

Bluff Yacht club from the water

Hitting the ocean

27th April


Well…because I’m typing this we obviously arrived at the Bluff yacht club safely. But the real question is how did the trip go?

Well, we dropped the mooring lines at 12H40 and headed out into the harbour. I took the helm while Barry and Ryun tried to hoist the main sail in a reefed position so that we could keep it that way for the duration of the trip…this however, turned out to be our first obstacle. We discovered that the new stack pack did not have the reefing holes in the correct place and therefore did not work. We ended up making a jury rig…not a promising start but we stuck to our guns and after an hour we succeeded in getting the system working and headed out the harbour mouth.

The sea conditions were good even though there was a large swell running at 3.1m. The swell was stable but there were few eddies which made for a relatively comfortable ride. The wind was still blowing SE but was reducing and expected to swing before nightfall. We all sat comfortably in the cockpit until the sun set…Ryun and I were slowly becoming more and more queasy so I took a motion sickness tablet but it helped very little. Ryun took one later and had a similar experience…we should probably be taking these before we leave port next time.

Leo seeing us off in his Dinghy

At about 20H00 the wind swung around to the North and we had to change the genoa and drop the main as it was masking the wind to the genoa…this is normally a relatively simple task but while we were working with the sails we heard a beeping sound coming from the auto pilot.

Barry headed back to the helm and reset it a few times without success…we would have to hand steer the rest of the way. Kyle decided to go to sleep and headed to his room, luckily Rauen had had a nap already and was awake and ready to take shifts with the steering. Ryun slotted in occasionally when he felt up to it and I kept a look out for ships and plotted fixes on the paper charts we had laid out on the saloon table, taking naps on the saloon bench in between.

Last of the ships achored off Richards Bay

The weather stayed stable and we had a comfortable motor sail…we learned a few important things, the first being that we need to keep record of the bearing we are on as when the autopilot went down we did not know this bearing and it took almost an hour to get us back on course and heading the right direction. During this hour we only managed to make 2 miles headway which was highly frustrating.

We discovered that we should hoist more sail rather than less and cut the motors but being our first passage I was nervous and I guess we kept them on the whole way just for my sake.

Kyle on route before sunset

We discovered that we can motor at the same speed using 1 motor only and do not need to run both which would make fuel efficiency much better but we had had trouble with this in the harbour…in the ocean the swell sends you off course with every wave so the difference is negligible and we will in future only use 1 motor at the time whilst in the ocean.

This last discovery was made when about an hour out of Durban, our starboard motor warned us it was overheating and we had to shut it down…our speed was maintained even using only the port motor…lesson learned.

Rauen early morning after helming all night

Today we plan to replace the impellor on the starboard motor as we believe this is the problem, we are presently sitting in the yacht club typing and doing school work but have a few small boat projects to do…the autohelm will definitely need to be sorted out before we can head off again, if we want to head off again…I think our general consensus is that the passages are long and boring…do we want to spend all that time bored? If we changed our minds about the trip we would have to think of another mode of transport, none of us were afraid or feel we can’t do the trip the question is more if we want to do the trip? This is a discussion we will be having before spending any money but in the mean time we have a few things to do while we mull over the idea of heading to East London.

We join the Inhaca Race

9th March


This has been a crazy, wonderful week! So much has happened I am not sure where to begin. Cyclone Irina made landfall just north of us bringing torrential rain and huge winds…I was relatively calm throughout the storm and managed to sleep without panic, I am obviously getting better at this. 3 days of rain and wind made life on board a little boring…there is not much you can really do in that sort of weather.

During this terrible weather we spotted a huge amount of water inside the boat, in the kitchen cupboards and under the saloon seating. We traced the problem and found a rather serious bit of wood rot just behind the mast step. We have cut it out and left it open to dry out at the moment…we got an expert opinion from Dylan and have decided we will effect this repair on the water. Yip on the water!

So we cleared out under the boat, packed up the last of our workshop and had them place the trailer under us and lift her into the air…we are flying 2 hulls at the moment…so we could complete the work under the keels.

Yesterday we managed to epoxy that as well as sand, we are prepped for antifouling. Today we do the last bits of the antifoul, under the keels, on the props and saildrives and inside the underwater skin fittings. We will be back in the water after major repair and construction tonight! Yip, finally back on the water and getting closer to the goal of sailing. Not that the work is complete, we have a list of things that need to be done before we cast off but we are definitely heading in the right direction.

I simply can’t wait to lulled to sleep on the never still water on a floating Yrumoar…



Things never seem to work out as planned…our precious Yrumoar was injured on her passage across the land towards the water and we had to effect repairs to her starboard rudder before we could actually launch her on Saturday. We spend Friday night sleeping on a friend’s boat because she was standing in the slipway with a wet epoxied rudder at a 45 degree slope making it impossible to lie down on the beds.

Anyway by Saturday afternoon we had completed the repair and launched her into the water, we would finally sleep on our own boat in the water!

Both Barry and I have not been feeling too well and decided that once in the water we would go and see a doctor. As we only launched on Saturday we waited for Monday, doing little in the way of work. On Monday morning we hailed a taxi and headed to town to visit a doctor as well as an upholsterer.

The doctor prescribed an antibiotic for me and some steroids and REST for Barry and gave us a large list of medicines that need prescription for Yrumoar, our medicine chest is complete with general purpose antibiotics and all!

We dropped off the helm chair we had manufactured while still on land, chose the material to cover it and left it with them. Did a few grocery items and headed back to the boat.

On Tuesday we collected the trampolines we purchased from the yacht club…they do not fit Yrumoar but as they are not sewn we can cut the battons shorter and adjust them size and we will have fantastic trampolines! Wednesday saw us doing one of the two.

Ryun’s yacht Seashoes was launched early Wednesday morning and we joined them aboard for some champagne. Then headed off to make our trampolines but only managed to finish one before return to Seashoes for evening cocktails.

Yesterday saw Barry actually taking the doctor’s advice and resting. He will be doing that again today as his arms seem to be showing signs of improvement. We will probably start working again either on the weekend or Monday…then it is full steam ahead as we have just over 2 weeks to get Yrumoar ready for the Inhaca race, our official sea trial and the largest racing event from this yacht club. We will be at sea for both Barry’s and Kyle’s birthdays…and the greatest thing about entering the race is that we receive jackets with our yacht name embroidered on the front!

Nothing EVER goes according to plan!

3 February


Friday once again. Reading the list for the week we have managed to complete most of the tasks with success. The port dolphin nose is in its final stage. Barry with sand the fine fairing compound this morning and we will begin the painting. I have laid all the scuppers to completion, Barry will grind the last four this morning and we will begin painting them today.

The fire extinguishers are back from service and I have paid for the hull inspection. I will give Mike a call today to arrange time and date.

We also had a successful week on the home schooling side with Rauen completing and English assessment as well as a Maths Assessment and Kyle completing his Term 1 final assessment. Rauen is currently busy with Physics while Kyle continues to get through the syllabus at a steam train speed.

This week was also the week of dealing with the authorities and I have begun completing the paper work and gathering all the correct documents and information related to registering the yacht for international travel. This is a slightly long process but with the correct assistance and documentation it can be processed in a couple of weeks so we are well on our way.

It is slightly overcast this morning which means that when Barry heads off in a few moments to go sand he will not be in the burning hot sun…perfect day for our list of tasks.

We have not had a car for almost 2 weeks now and some friends of ours were kind enough to take me to the Spar yesterday afternoon. Not that it was urgent but the thought of running out of cigarettes got me into their car and heading off to Spar in no time. I bought a couple of cartons of smokes, a few loaves of bread and some Coca Cola, all my vices in life, and returned with a few treats for the family.

We are planning a big expedition into town on Tuesday for the last things we need. Tuesday because the boys want to watch a movie and we have “half price movies” every Tuesday. I have begun making a list of the final boat parts and grocery items and we have even been discussing the take away food we are wanting…it is still up in the air haha.

Being Friday, we should get to see our friend Dylan today, he is coming with a hoard of small item parts we ordered in Durban as well as our now serviced liferaft.

Our newly ordered 12 volt 130litre fridge should arrive on Monday and our shopping trip on Tuesday will see us obtaining the motor servicing parts…yip we really seem to closing in on completion…closer to the water and the great adventure we had expected to be having already!

5th February

Yesterday we managed to put the scuppers up, the steering wheel back on at the helm and the decals on the front of the boat. She really is starting to look good.

I am really upset about my camera. I had a load of photos from when the kids were here including Christmas and that period and the camera decided that the memory cards it was all stored on should go corrupt and need reformatting. There goes all my pictures…I am really not impressed. Why when I had a whole 10 weeks photos on it and not when they were downloaded?

It rained last night, and doesn’t look much clearer this morning…so we will see how work goes.

We did get our liferaft back yesterday but the other parts Dylan must bring are yet to arrive, they had better arrive soon as we ever so close to completion.

Speaking of completion, on Friday while relaunching another catamaran that has done some big modifications in the last few months they dropped the yacht from the trailer, flat onto the concrete. I was up on deck, we are right opposite the slip where they yachts are launched, when they dropped her the whole earth to shook. I turned aghast to see the yacht lying flat on the concrete. I had a distinct feeling of Dejevu as I recalled our last experience and the damage and trauma it caused.

We have to trust these same people when they launch our boat into the water in a few days time and quite honestly I’m scared out of my wits. Be that as it may, we have no real alternatives with regards to launching apart from this system and service so we will have to hope, pray and keep our fingers crossed that all goes well and Yrumoar is lifted and placed gently back into the water and I somehow manage not to have a heart attack with all the stress.

9th February

It is Thursday and we are nowhere near ready to launch tomorrow…luckily I have not booked it so we can wait a few more days.

This week has just flown by! On Monday we stripped the seacocks, see Barry’s blog for the ridiculous joke, and drilled the holes for the wind charger followed by a hull inspection. Tuesday saw our fridge arriving, we headed to town via taxi with a list a mile long of engine spares and groceries. Yesterday saw us removing the huge old fridge and building a fibreglass cupboard to fit the new fridge. Let me elaborate…

The hull inspection went well, Mike the inspector stated “You did a fantastic job on these rudders”. I was still feeling proud when he came upstairs to check the fibreglass work in the bilges where he said “You have done a great job here, my boat is coming out in April if you are looking work” Compliments were definitely the order of the day and since he sees almost every boat before launch I was elated at the compliments. Needless to say we passed inspection and were given permission to antifoul, which we will do this weekend.

On Tuesday morning armed with a long list we phoned for a taxi. The taxi took us from the yachtclub to the police station where we had a commissioner of oaths sign our SAMSA documents, we took a walk from there to the FNB to sort out my bank cards and a further walk to the mall, bought an ice-cream to start the day and went to the video game store for the boys, Musica for a couple of new DVD’s and next few stops saw us buying a few clothing items for both Rauen and Kyle, collecting a refund at Game stores and buying Barry a new razor and a few stationary items. We then decided to go all the way back to the other side of the mall for a Fish Aways lunch.

We relaxed and ate lunch, took a smoke break and planned our afternoon. We started by walking to the top end of town to the wholesale Cigarette shop, back down the main road, stopping at the China shop, the bathroom shop, Dickenson Marketing, the signwriter, the Auto spares shop, the Bolt Centre and then proceeding to lug our now full load back to the mall. Once there we hijacked a trolley and took a stroll through the mall to the Pick n Pay and collected all the grocery items on the list headed out of the mall to call a new taxi to get home.

The boys were fantastic, not complaining once about the long distances and the only bad part of the day was as I was loading our purchases into the taxi I slipped and sprained my ankle, it still hurts and I am glad it happened on the way home.

Yesterday saw Rauen writing a Physics assessment, all the while Barry is cutting out wood and grinding in the saloon, right next to him. We cut the boards for the fridge cupboard and epoxied them together, but we will need to add a layer to them this morning. We also started laying up a mould for a new wind charger cover and moved heavy furniture around, meaning Lola emptied the fridge and freezer carefully finding a way to pack it all into our now limited freezer space a couple of cooler boxes, then the 3 of us, Barry, Rauen and myself manoeuvring the fridge out of the galley.

This sounds like it would only take a few minutes but in reality we had to remove the handrails in the port passage to find the space to get the fridge out of it’s predetermined spot, lift the fridge over the galley counter into the saloon, note that there is no extra headroom in a yacht and that it entails turning the fridge onto its side and sliding while twisting to fit in the confined space. From the saloon over the step into the cockpit, simple enough, then over the cockpit seats between the winch, jammers, U-bolts and ropes onto our new dive platform, once again a twisting sliding manoeuvre while climbing knee high steps with a bulky object and finally lowering the fridge down nearly 1 storey to the ground…now reverse with a new one!

12th February

We are into the 3rd day of rain now and the end is not in sight…once again we wait for weather. But it has not been an entire waste of time, we have anti fouled the boat and completed the fridge’s cupboard. No the fridge is still not in as we have to paint and add some wiring but we are almost there now.

We are both silently glad it has been raining as we were both out of energy, lethargic and not really in the mood to complete this project and now we are having a well deserved break and can finish the job as soon as the rain goes away. We only have a couple of things to do and we will be back on the water. It is tempting to just put her in but we will loose our make-shift workshop the second we leave the ground and then any work will have to be done in the cockpit…rather inconvenient so we will be patient and complete the last few tasks so that once on the water we can just do some test sails and head on our way!

Today we were supposed to service the motors but in this type of weather I just don’t see it happening…we will see if clears up a little later.

15th February

We have had 2 days of no rain and once again the sky has opened and we are sitting unable to do much in windy, rainy conditions! It seems the weather is against us getting back in the water.

The fridge is finally operational but not yet completed. We had to run a cable right around the boat and I have painted the sides and new cupboard. Yesterday I covered the extra insulation we are installing in epoxy resin to stop it crumbling and Barry is grinding the high spots off as I type.

The wind charger is almost complete, we have installed the bracket onto the rear of the bimini, completed and painted the new cover and I have to paint the other side the charger before erection but it seems that can’t happen today…

The port side sugar scoops have been painted and I have put the decal on the back…todays planned painting of the starboard side sugar scoops has been put on hold until the weather passes. The progress seems painfully slow even though we have been working until dark which is at about 7:20 in the evening at the moment.

Yesterday we sent in the watermaker to be put together and set up for installation…we will have it installed when we reach Durban as it will cost us substantially less. Yes, we are still hoping to leave shortly even though we are sitting on the hard! But there are only a few smaller jobs left and we can take the plunge and head for Durban where the final work will be carried out.

The kids are doing really well at the schooling and Kyle has improved in leaps and bounds with his concentration. Rauen is submitting assessment tests and completing the work like a raging bull. I have also been helping a few of the other kids in the boat yard with their schooling, if they get stuck they pop in and I lend a hand…when I have the time of course.

The weather is genuinely miserable today and I’m not sure we get much accomplished but hey our life is weather dictated and I guess we should just get used to that…at least it no longer completely depresses us to see a little rain.