27th July
It is Saturday morning and for whatever reason it seems to
be the day I just can’t manage to sleep late, not that the day of the week
really matters in this lifestyle, but my body clock deems Saturday the early
morning wake-up call where I get to rise before the sun and watch as it slowly
comes over the horizon.
Today we are heading to the local flea market, just for
interest sake, but we have no other definitive plans. I have spent some of the
morning researching the various marketing techniques for book promotion but I
will have to wait for the actual print copy before we can launch the various
campaigns I have listed and started researching. This waiting game is probably
the hardest part of the whole book writing, editing, publishing process. Once
we have the copy in our hands we can move ahead but until then I am regularly
adding ideas and marketing campaigns to our ever growing list…to make a living
from writing is harder than it looks!
28th July
Yesterday we headed out to the Bluff Flea Market. I was not
sure what to expect but having been to loads of markets before I thought I was
prepared. This market however was exactly not the average market. No cheap
Chinese imports for sale rather loads of 2nd hand household items,
clothes and electrical and car spares. A market as I would have imagined before
the commercialisation of Flea markets.
We spent an hour browsing through the various stalls, then
decided to buy a bite to eat. Kyle chose a vetkoek and mince and Barry and I
had boerewors rolls. We headed over to the seating area to munch when we
unexpectedly bumped into some ex clients come friends from Joburg. We haven’t
seen them in many years and this was the last place we expected to see them
again…but there they were, seated having some lunch and a beer. So we spent the
rest of a lazy Saturday catching up.
They have moved down here and stay a few blocks from the
flea market area so if the weather holds we plan to head over to their place
for a braai and some more casual conversation. This reminds me how small the
world is and how you never know who you will meet where and when…the joy of
travelling I suppose.
On a sadder note a friend of ours from yacht Spirit of
Adventure in Richards Bay passed away on Friday, he leaves behind his wife and
3 daughters. We are very saddened by the news as he was still young and fit
with a zest for life. It brings to the forefront of our minds that you should
live everyday to the fullest and enjoy the small things as they may become the
big things later on. To Janet we pray that God will carry you and your family
in this time and keep the memories of Jaco close to your hearts.
2 August
We woke up on Monday to a barometer reading of 1025. Now
this doesn’t sound like anything to most to people but to anyone who has sailed
the South African coastline, the wild coast in particular this number appears
magical. Why? Well the rule of thumb along the wild coast is that if the
barometer hits 1020, make a dash from Durban along the wild coast as the weather
will most likely hold for the duration of your trip. I did a double check on
the weather sites the whole way down the coast and viola…the weather opened
like magic!
We had successfully repaired the port motor the week before,
we were collecting Rauen at the airport on Monday…why were we waiting?
Barry and I had a quick discussion that went something
like….
Lola: “There is a weather window from Wednesday to get to
East London.”
Barry: “ So should we go?”
Lola: “ I don’t know, do you want to go?”
Barry: “ I don’t know, why are we here?”
Lola: “ Well, we have a wedding in Moz in Oct, and my sister
is holidaying here at the end of August, and …”
Barry: “So, no valid reason then?”
Lola: “ Not really…”
We promptly left the discussion and headed to the airport to
fetch Rauen.
Getting Rauen back on a flight was more complicated than
usual.
I got the first frantic phone call: Mom they need your
credit card here in Joburg to confirm the flight was paid for with your ID
Book. What kind of a stupid system is that, I normally drop Rauen at the
airport where we are and my credit card gets confirmed at the check-in desk,
then I make sure it will work for the return flight. But since he travelled to
Joburg by bus this time, I had not confirmed my credit card. So I took a photo
of my ID and Credit card, all while driving towards the airport, which happens
to be at least an hours drive in traffic free conditions. I MMSed it to Rauen
to show at the check-in counter. That did the trick. Just before boarding time
I called to make sure he was getting on board to hear a frantic voice, ‘ They
won’t let me carry-on my skateboard. Back at the check-in counter, trying to
check it as baggage now. I’m running cause the flight is already boarding.” So
I hung up the call quickly. When he arrived…Rauen was fuming…I could almost see
the smoke rising from his ears…his skateboard was lost. So we went to Mango
baggage counter and there is was…in shining lights…his beloved skateboard!
Once home we looked at each other again…”Are we going?” and
started preparing the boat.
Tuesday morning we filed a flight plan and Wednesday morning
8am we dropped the lines. Yip, that’s how we roll, no plans…just action.
Things went off without a hitch and we headed for the
harbour mouth. We got clearance to leave and headed out towards the 200m depth
contour hoping to find the current. It was slow progress at first and after 4
hours the wind filed in and the waves picked up a bit making a bouncy ride.
Barry and I looked at each other and asked if we should just go back and give
this whole thing a miss. The disappointed look on Rauen’s face made us stick to
the original plan and we continued on our merry way. We were making slow
progress and expected to only reach East London by Friday night at the speed
for the first 5 hours. Then after dark we hit the current and started flying,
registering a maximum of 9.9 knots meaning 5 knots of current! Wow hectic
stuff, although strangely in the current the speed is not uncomfortable.
I was feeling seasick and started talking to George, which
continued throughout the night, I was wishing we had turned around as sea sick
is a terrible thing! But Barry stayed up all night with me up for an hour then
an hour or so sleep and up again. Barry said he would sleep the next morning
when Rauen and I could stand watch.
The night sky was absolutely amazing though, not a hundred
stars or even a million but a hundred million, we could clearly see the milky
way and words cannot describe how stunning the night sky is. The phosphoresce
in the water was also fantastical.
Thursday morning sunrise was beautiful and Barry tried to
sleep on the saloon floor, he managed about 4 hours of on-off sleep before
giving up and getting back up. Before he went to bed we were down to 5.5 knots,
but by the time he got back up we were screaming along at 8 knots making good
time again. We decided to hoist some sail and get a bit more speed and managed
a respectable 9 knots for the afternoon.
Barry and Rauen went up to the foredeck to get a few diesel
containers and fill the diesel on route and found a flying fish, he was already
dead so we just threw him off, but we caught our first flying fish!
Barry threw in his rod for the afternoon with no success and
we were nearing the harbour when dark fell, still screaming along at over 8
knots we pulled in the sails to try slow down, to no avail and even dropped the
motor to idle but still managed just under 6 knots with the current pushing us
onwards to the port. Changing course was uncomfortable so we pointed our nose
to the harbour mouth and hoped our charts were accurate enough to get us in.
We finally lost the current about 7 miles out of the mouth
and just motored on in, to tie up and get some much needed sleep. Now with a
bit of sleep behind us, something in our stomachs, I didn’t eat most of the
trip, although Rauen and I managed to cook some pies and make some sandwiches,
we will be heading off looking for the showers and then it’s exploring galore.
