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.