Our long sail to nowhere

19 September 2013

Here we are sitting peacefully at anchor. Not sure how we ended up here. It all happened so fast. It started yesterday morning:

We all got up and felt dirty because we hadn't showered in 2 days. So we packed a shower bag and we headed to the yacht club. We all showered and got back to the boat.

We were running low on groceries, so we decided to go to town. We called a taxi. For the first time using Eagle Taxis we felt safe. We finally found a driver who can drive at the speed limit.

In the shops, I found out that my dad and I behave ourselves and everyone else is reckless. We were walking up and down the aisle and there was this lady who kept trying to crash into us. I hope she knows she can't claim road accident fund.

Then we had this old lady attack us. My mom went to get some deodorant, this lady must of thought we were trying to kill her or something, because she started throwing the deodorants everywhere. We were ducking and diving behind the lady who crashed into us.

After our life threatening shopping excursion, we headed to our safe boat. We packed away the groceries and decided to relax. About an hour later a guy arrived and told us to move. It is unsafe. So much for a safe boat. I guess we like living on the edge.

We phoned port control and asked what this was all about. They told us the dock is unsafe and we have to move. So my mom checked the weather and saw that there was a weather window for PE. We thought we should move all the way to PE.

We spent the next hour trying to get the boat ready. At about 4 we left. We were heading to PE. Kyle and I sat watching tv shows on the computer.

I headed to bed early so that I could be up for a part of the night and the rest of the day. My mom woke me up to tell me that we are turning around. But not on purpose. The wind was getting to violent and in the wrong direction.

The next morning we got back to East London harbour and anchored our boat. So from the wall to the anchorage, which is about 800 meters took us a whole night to get to. Shows you how slow boats are, or it could be that GPS' don't work properly and lead you astray.

20 September 2013

We have tied up to the wall again. John, he is the guy who runs the harbour charters, told us we can park here, it belongs to him. We could have moved yesterday but we liked being anchored.

During the night, just after I got to bed, I'm sure they did it on purpose, another boat here dragged anchor. I had to get out of bed and get dressed again and we rowed there to let them know.

This morning they came and thanked us. They also decided to park again the wall behind us. With the planks here and the tide change, we went from anchor watch to fendor watch.

Superstitions

 

13 September 2013

Friday the 13th. A day everyone fears. So may dad decided to take us for a walk to the beach. On this walk I decided to push my luck, I looked for black cats, ladders and any other bad luck superstitions we may come across.

Is started off all good, but it seemed that the bad luck caught up to us, as we tried to stop at a restaurant for food and drinks. They told us they are not open yet.

Luckily we planned ahead and brought along glasses and just bought a 2l coke and shared. The bad luck hadn't won yet.

We looked around at all the different restaurants that were around. We decided to look at a monument first of a German family. My dad and I made a joke that I should grab the German women's ass. It was kind of stiff, so she must work out a lot.

We looked at the time as saw that the seal show would be starting soon at the aquarium. We bought a ticket and went in. The only people there was us, so it was our own private show. The one seal was still training so didn't know all the tricks and we sat laughing as he attempted try.

 

The other seals knew exactly what to do and put on a good show of jumping swimming and even taking out the trash. Yes, they taught the seal to throw away rubbish, so if you want a pet that cleans up after you, get a seal.

After the show we saw them feed penguins, pelicans and sharks. We also saw other types of fish like parana, turtles and even star fish.

 

By the time we were done we were all starving and decided to go to the restaurant next door, La Vida. We all sat down and my parents when out for a smoke, it wasn't even 10 seconds when they got back and said we are leaving. I knew exactly why. During those 10 seconds I looked at the menu, the price tags were more then the price of our whole net worth. The prices were outrageous.

Then we sat debating what restaurant to go to next. We ended up at a family restaurant that only had one waiter. We ordered 2 Cokes and one glass of tap water. We got the 2 Cokes about half an hour before the water. But I can understand, it is easier to get coke than water, its not like water comes out of a tap or anything. It is a long process that takes time to make, water is very rare, I was even surprised that they served water.

We all ordered a different meal and decided to have a little of each, my dad's pizza was the best. They didn't put much sauce on my rib burger. So wasn't the best meal in the world, but they did have a fun play ground for little kids. They have playstation, X-box, jungle gym and movies. So if you want to entertain your kid, that's where you should go.

We had a pleasant walk back where we stopped at a place that could print my dad's book. The lady there, Tammy, was very nice. My dad and I sat teasing her and keeping her giggling for the entire time we were there. I'm sure we made her Friday and her entire weekend.

Free Lunch?

 

1 September 2013

We had guests over for this weekend. It typical that we chose this weekend for guests to come over, because this was the same weekend that the sail past happened.

The weekend started off with cleaning the boat so that it looks half presentable for our guests. We never clean our boat, as far as we go to cleaning our boat is washing the dishes once a day. Yes, we sound like messy people. The one disadvantage of being a messy person is that you have a lot of cleaning to do when you have guests.

The first day was fun, we sat talking rubbish in the cockpit whilst my parents had a couple of drinks. The second day, Kenny, one of our guests, tried so hard to catch a fish. He finally got a bite just before lunch. As he struggled for half an hour trying to catch what seemed like a whale, his line snapped. Well I guess we aren't having fish for lunch, luckily my mom made a back up roast.

Now as I said, the sail past happened this weekend, and they included us in this game. Throwing water balloons at unarmed people. I ran up and down the decks trying to catch the water balloons to throw back. The other people found it amusing that I decided to be a hero and save our boat from the deadly balloons.

9 September 2013

Yesterday we when to visit Doreen and Nick. They invited us for lunch, its a free lunch so we went. We had fun talking rubbish and having a couple of drinks. And they do make a really good potjie.

We also said our farewells to Marimba. They had sailed here from Cape Town and were headed for Dar Es Salam. They were very nice people and we got a long really well with them. A good thing about the sailing community is that they never forget you, and when you meet up with them again, they are always more then happy to see you.

The dark depths of Lust!

 

26 August 2013

We have been waiting for weeks for my dad's first copy of his first book. Today we got a phone call. As my mom answered it I saw a massive smile on her face. Which meant one of two things, either we won the lotto, or my dad's book was here. We didn't play the lotto this week, so it had to be my dad's book.

We sprang into action and got ready to go showering. Now showering at East London....not sure if it is better than the bluff or not. It is a lot cleaner, there is more privacy, but there is less hot water. So we rotate on who gets to shower first, that way we each get hot water every 3rd time we shower.

After our cold showers, we got back to the boat and headed for town. Last time we went to the post office we decided to walk back, it wasn't too bad so we decided to walk there. My parents made one mistake in their calculation. They didn't take into account that we were walking up a cliff drop.

On our mountain hike to the post office there was a little tuck shop which had a special on a giant burger. We stopped here for lunch and had one of the best burgers ever! And there was this really friendly guy who just wanted to talk to us for no reason.

 

The little shop had a good sense of humour. They had a sign saying "Don't fall asleep. You might get robbed" my only question is, what happens if you get robbed whilst awake?

After our short hike, well according to everyone else in East London it is long, we reached our destination. Within minutes my dad was holding his book in his hands. All of us were so excited to have the book, but too exhausted to move so we went for an ice-cream at KFC.

We decided to do some grocery shopping whilst we were there. Now when we do grocery shopping it's more of "my dad and I cause chaos and pretend to do nothing" when my mom looks and packs the trolleys. We crash the trolleys, we push each other into other people, we make jokes of people who walk past.

I have said this before, my mom is a shopaholic. So we ended up with 5 trolleys of groceries. The lady at the till was shocked at the amount of groceries we had, and we ended up getting a free chocolate.

We waited outside the liquor store and were about to call a taxi when a random guy in a pick 'n pay uniform asked us how we getting home. We told him we will be walking home, then laughed and told him we will be calling a taxi. He protested and told us he'll sort us out. He came back with the store manager and told us he will be taking us home.

When we got home we offered to show him the boat, as we gets on the boat we saw the look. Everyone gets the look when seeing the boat, the look of, I want this lifestyle. The mainstay dream, it kills everyone. Lesson in life, don't look inside the honeycomb. Once you are hooked you now are in the dark depths of lust.