December 17, 2007
Hello Everyone,"jim and susan"
We expected to have left Richard's Bay by now and be on our way to Cape Town.....however, Richard's Bay is such a warm and inviting place, we've decided to settle in and enjoy the holidays right here.
We've met a lot of really nice people and we're finding it a pretty good place to get things done on the boat.
We've moved from varnishing on the outside of the boat to varnishing on the inside and although disruptive, have to admit it's looking mighty spiffy. We had our tiller beefed up with some stainless brackets and were so happy with the work (and the price) that we are now having new stanchion bases built by the same guy, Marney. We’re installing a new autopilot and we still have our dingy to repair, the wind vane to repair, the stainless to polish, the hull sides to polish and wax and our new stanchion bases to mount, once they're done. That's only the stuff that readily comes to mind. One thing tends to lead to another, but working on the boat to keep her in shape is MOSTLY fun to do!
We took another road trip with our friends, Eugene and Lee to Durban a week or so ago. Unfortunately it was pouring rain all day so we didn't get to do as much sightseeing as we hoped. The city is huge, with buildings to rival Los Angeles, and the traffic to match. We ate breakfast on the waterfront at the Royal Natal Yacht Club, the oldest yacht club in South Africa. Then we ran across the street in the pouring rain to shop at a good boat supply store and buy some stuff, always fun. The countryside reminds us of central California. Rolling hills, puffy trees and cattle grazing here and there with a few sugar cane fields and little round native houses thrown in to remind us we're actually in Africa!
It's really not all work and no play. Every Monday night is Braai Night and the South Africans take barbecuing to a new level. Group barbecuing with two huge pits going. Not just meats, but vegetables, breads and even sandwiches being grilled. People from a nearby marina come over. It's a big crowd and lots of fun meeting both locals and cruisers who are also on their way around the cape. Some of the cruisers we've met in previous stops, some we knew from radio contact and some we're just meeting for the first time. Wednesday night is happy hour at the club and lately almost every Sunday they have someone giving a slide presentation at the club. Then on other nights, after a hard days work, it's nice to shower and head for the club for a good hot meal and a few beers as we unwind with friends. There's a pool table and library at the club and we take advantage of both. All that clubbing, at our age!
This past Monday we had the pleasure of attending a wedding. Our new friends, John and Shirley are here in the marina getting their boat, Thiswan, ready to sail around the cape and across the Atlantic Ocean. They've been engaged for some time but were unsure about where or when to have the wedding. A couple of weeks ago a huge Chinese Junk named Heraclitus sailed into Richard's Bay. It was built in San Francisco back in 1974. A very unique, cement boat. Sunday night while sharing drinks at the club with the friendly crew a plan was hatched. Next morning Shirley dug out a beautiful blouse, John wrote a beautiful poem and the crew decked Heraclitus out with flowers, lace and balloons. As the sun set, friends gathered on deck to watch the captain of the ship, Klaus, perform the first marriage ever, on board and for him personally. It was the most spontaneous, unique and beautiful wedding we've ever attended. Very moving. Afterwards, we all took our drinks and headed for the braai. Hey, it was Monday night!
The South Africans seem to be into Christmas as much as we Americans are!
Christmas trees, Christmas lights, Christmas parties and Christmas sales! Although the temperature is around 80F and summer is just beginning, the streets and malls are decked out with the usual wintry type ornaments. Snowmen and snowflakes abound, reminding us of warm, sunny Southern California. As usual, the holidays tend to make us a little more homesick. With our new little granddaughter, Casey, experiencing Christmas for the first time we expect to be even more so. Thank goodness for the internet and digital cameras! Now she'll be able to see us opening presents in our pj’s on Christmas morning. HAH!
We hope that you are all enjoying this special time of year and looking forward to 2008; just around the corner. As they say in South Africa, Laat die Kersfees vol vreugde wees en beste wense vir die Nuwe Jaar!
Take care of yourselves and we'll be in touch soon,
Jim and Barb
S/V SpanishStroll
South Africa
November 21, 2007
Hello Everyone,
We love South Africa. The people are all so friendly and it's beautiful to look at too! The weather is nice and warm. Every few days it rains. Sometimes just a little and sometimes it pours all day. The humidity, which is high, doesn't bother us as much as it used to. Guess we're adjusting.
The Zululand Yacht Club (marina) is a little isolated. There's no internet cafe and one chandlery on the grounds. They also have a restaurant and bar open everyday except Monday. Danger! About two miles away, there is another marina with a slightly less expensive chandlery and they actually have a computer hooked up to the internet. If you're lucky when you get there you might not have too long a wait to get on. Thankfully we have our ham radio email on board and most days the propagation is good. Just can't surf the web and order all those boat things we'd like! Probably just as well.
We've met South Africans here and there along the way and have wondered if they were just exceptionally nice. Now we think it's a national trait or something. Most everyone is so friendly and generous. One particular couple, Eugene and Lee on S/V Wings, have really made our visit special. They are South Africans from Port Elizabeth, which is further south, and are traveling in the opposite direction. They will leave early next year from Richard's Bay and sail to Madagascar. Eugene is Afrikaans and Lee is South African British so we're getting a fairly well rounded introduction to the country and what makes it tick. They also make sure we know when there's a braai, happy hour or anything special going on at the yacht club. They've got their truck here from Port Elizabeth and offer rides to town for groceries and such. We enjoy their company. If only they would let us win a game of pool on occasion!
A couple of weeks ago we joined them on a Safari! Well, actually it was a ride through one of South Africa's biggest game parks, Hluhluwe Imfolozi. It was awesome! It's quite different, and sometimes difficult, to see wild animals in a park like that. We drove very slowly with all four of us scanning the bush and trees to spot them. Almost like fishing or something. We saw rhinoceroses, wildebeests, buffaloes, warthogs, reedbucks, impalas, nyalas, giraffes, zebras, dung beetles and even an African lioness. One thing we couldn't find were the elephants. They have over 400 of them and they all managed to hide from us. We recently bought a bigger card for our camera. Just in time. We got some great pictures!
Work is progressing nicely on the Spanish Stroll. We've finally broken down and decided to switch to varnish on the brightwork! Ran out of the wood protection product we liked, Cetol, back in Malaysia. The subsequent miles and cement quays have taken their toll. We had to do something. Turns out that we love the look of the varnish! Just the cap rails and eyebrows need doing right now, but eventually everything will be changed over.
This coming Thursday is Thanksgiving in America! Another holiday season kicks off! We will have an untraditional feast with our new friends here in South Africa and be thinking and thankful for our family and old friends back home and those we've met along the way.
Take care of yourselves and we'll be in touch soon,
Jim and Barb
S/V SpanishStroll
South Africa
October 30, 2007
Hello Everyone,
Well, our trip to South Africa did turn out to be a lively one! It started off with a beautiful sail on fairly flat water from Cape Andre and across the Mozambique Channel. The Mozambique Current gave us a nice boost and we sailed along for quite a few days at 7 to 8 knots totally enjoying ourselves. It is a very strange thing for us two Californians to be sailing down the coast of Africa! It is just so..... well weird! One afternoon we had a very nice show put on for us by a couple of whales. They blew and fluked and looked as though they were having a good time! Even managed to get a picture or two. Jim caught a huge, forty pound, mahi mahi! The biggest ever! Another day we watched as a school of skip jack played with the boat like dolphins! The sunsets were enhanced by the dust and sand blowing from land and then with the moon and the stars taking over each night it was just awesome! We love a good crossing and this was certainly one of them!
We became becalmed about a week from our destination as the center of a high passed. We receive weather faxes and wind information on board but accurately interpreting them is another thing. And even so, once you're out there, what can you do? We heard from some friends about a weather net on the ham radio that we started listening to on our way. Everyone calls in with their position to Fred's Net and he tells them what to expect in their area. We learned that if we kept up the pace we would run into a SW Buster before we reached the safety of Richard's Bay. South West Buster!! Sounded ominous, so we made an unplanned stop at Point Barra, Mozambique. Just stayed on the boat for two days and did not check in to the country. Gave us a chance to transfer fuel, make breads and rest up after 10 days and nights of constant watches. Then our chance came to take off. As the next high passed we'd have north east winds good for downwind sailing but they would be followed by another SW Buster. The race was on!
The crossing turned pretty exciting at the end. Soon after the Mozambique Current turned into the Agulhas Current we wound up in a 24 hour race against the approaching SW Buster. With 30 plus knots of wind from the northeast and 10 foot waves the wind cups blew off the masthead! Good! Barb didn't want to see how high the wind speed was anyway. Using the strong winds and three or four knot current we were able to make close to 200 miles during that 24 hours! Our top speed was 10.5 knots and we were only flying our small staysail! We took a picture of the GPS showing the speed, it's definitely a record. Snapped our new tiller off in the heat of the action but slapped the old one on and still beat the buster in by two hours. We've read and been told that when strong south west winds blow against the 3 to 4 knot Agulhas Current huge waves can build up and the situation becomes very dangerous. That was a little too close for comfort and as we continue to move from bay to bay down the coast and around the Cape of Good Hope we'll make sure we have longer weather windows. It was hard to believe that Fred was able to pinpoint the time that the wind would switch around and hit from the southwest so accurately. Maybe a little luck involved, but we will be sure to check with him as we continue on around.
We are now in a slip at the Zululand Yacht Club, Richard's Bay. There is no place to anchor and we are really enjoying the long hot water showers and the laundramat! We went to our first braai last night. That’s Afrikaans for barbecue! The people here are all very friendly and speak English that is almost as easy to understand as the Kiwis! Hah! There are a couple of good boat shops within walking distance and the small town of Richard’s Bay is close by. We have many, many, many projects planned for the next month to make sure that the Spanish Stroll is ready to round the cape next month and cross the Atlantic early next year. She's come through like a trooper so far and we're happy to shower a little extra attention on her. We want her to look as good as she works!
Take care of yourselves and we'll be in touch soon,
Jim and Barb
S/V SpanishStroll
Madagascar
October 10, 2007
Hello Everyone,
Our first stop once we rounded Cape d'Ambre and started our sail down the west coast of Madagascar was a beautiful little island named Nosy Hara. Nosy is the Malagasy word for island. We dropped anchor in the early afternoon and kicked back on board to relax and celebrate. The cape was behind us and it had been such a comfortable passage. Our first sunset on the west coast was just awesome. Next morning we were surprised to find we had dropped our anchor in the middle of a bunch of coral heads. Thankfully the winds were calm all night and we had just hung there in between them. We are anchored a little further out. On shore we could see a small fish camp with about ten people or so. We pumped up the dingy and went to say hi, offering them most of our Cape d'Ambre wahoo. The fishing is so good in this part of the world that we always seem to have plenty to share! They were very happy with the fish, but we all tired very quickly with the poor communication so we said our au revoirs and headed off to another, deserted, beach close by. We spent the day swimming, beach combing and exploring. That afternoon, sitting on the beach, we drank an ice cold beer and watched our trash burn and the Spanish Stroll drift away. Holy Moly! By the time we hopped in the dingy and caught up with her she was almost half a mile away and headed for trouble! When we had re anchored that morning, we'd done a poor job, not taking into account the changing tides or winds. Bad seamanship that almost cost us dearly! We hopped on board and brought her back to the island and this time you can bet she was anchored securely.
Next morning is was pretty breezy, but we decided to stay one more day in hopes that the wind would die down and we could swim and beach comb again. Not in the cards. The wind continued to increase and by early afternoon we had a steady twenty-five knots with frequent gusts of forty. We were continually heeled over on our anchor. Too late to leave, we settled in with good books and took a snooze.
The sound of our dingy flying around behind the boat woke us up. Good thing we took the motor off. Bad thing we left the oars and seat in. They're gone. We were especially bummed because we had just refinished the oars a couple of weeks ago in Reunion. The dark blue seat that has been too hot to sit on all these years, we'd just painted it white at the same time. Next morning we had the assistance of the increasingly strong winds to break us loose from the coral that the anchor chain had wrapped around and we were out of there. We jammed across the bay with white caps breaking in the cockpit and wondered where the beautiful, tropical waters had gone. Within an hour, just as suddenly as they had come up the day before, the winds died and we had a great sail going. We've found that to be the case pretty much everywhere we've sailed here on the west coast of Madagascar. The wind switches around, blowing from all directions, and calms are followed by strong winds which are followed by more calms. And that's just the last hour we're talking about!
From Nosy Hara we traveled south, making a few overnight stops. Jim caught yet another nice walu! We were anxiously headed for Nosy Be, Madagascar's biggest island and the highlight of the west coast, according to our guide book. NOT! It's a hot, dusty, dirty town and most of the people are only friendly until they find out what they can't get from you. Small fishing boats continually approach in the anchorage asking for stuff and scoping out the boats. Everything on our boat had to be locked down or stored below decks, what a hassle! When we went to shore, with no oars, we had to use the outboard motor on our dingy. We wound up paying to have a guy watch it for us while we were on shore and even he took advantage by using it and most of our fuel. With no choice, we wound up leaving the dingy with him about four times and in reality, he was probably the biggest threat. What a scam.
We did some provisioning and topped up with diesel. This email already sounds a bit negative, so we won't even go there. One highlight of our visit to Nosy Be was to pull into the bay and drop our anchor next to S/V Estrela! A really nice young family that we met back in Tahiti and have run into off and on over the past few years. It was good to visit with Doug and Kyle again and catch up on their travels. Eliza and Abigail, their daughters, are growing like weeds and as always such a pleasure. They are also on their way to South Africa and suggested we check out of Madagascar at Nosy Be to simplify matters. We did and just have to say that right up to our very last contact with Malagasy officials they had their hands out. They were disappointed, however, as we had spent every last Ariary on having our dingy guarded!
From Nosy Be we sailed to Russian Bay, about twenty miles south. On the way, Jim caught another nice walu! Did we mention how great the fishing has been since we entered Madagascan waters? We didn't go to shore, we had already checked out of the country, but were able to keep cool and comfortable by swimming in the clear, clean water round the boat. Spent a day scrubbing the bottom, baking breads, washing clothes, breaking down the dingy and generally getting the Spanish Stroll and ourselves ready for passage. We left Russian Bay on Monday, the 8th of October and are headed for South Africa. It's about twelve hundred miles to our destination, Richard's Bay. If the Mozambique Channel continues to offer such a variety of winds and currents, it should prove to be a lively sail!
Take care of yourselves and we'll be in touch soon,
Jim and Barb
S/V SpanishStroll