Day 319: East London, SA – 21/11/10

We wake up refreshed and glad to be having a day off.  There is little wind in the shelter of the river and not a mosquito in sight although the cruising notes say they are a problem in the summer.

Having had a recommendation for breakfast at the Ballyhoo Restaurant, we decide to go over although we have quite a circuitous route to get there.  First we have to cross Lady Ev VI, then another boat that she is rafted to (we are three deep).  Then it’s up a ladder to the wooden quay.  Ah yes, the quay.  If I say it has seen better days, it’s an understatement.  If I say it’s made of wood, it’s an exaggeration.  It’s a wide area of rotten planks, with holes big enough for an elephant to sink it’s leg through.  It is all cordoned off with flimsy red and white plastic to stop the unwary public killing themselves on it but if you are coming off a boat there is no other way but to cross some of it.  Then we have to clamber up a small wall, round the plastic fence (careful that you don’t fall into the strangely placed bath tub) and, hurray, along the concrete road to the restaurant.

Breakfast is worth it though.  We have a sneak preview at the meals put in front of the guys from Lady Ev and order a feast for ourselves.  Mike goes with the Skippers’ breakfast (what else?) which consists of bacon, scrambled eggs, tomato, sausage and minced beef and I have the pancake breakfast.  This is made up of three very filling pancakes layered with cheese, bacon, onions and mushrooms.  Both come with a large pile of toast.  Just what we need.  The crew from Lady Ev are going on a tour up the Buffalo River and invite us along but to be honest, I’ve had quite enough of water for a while and the view up river doesn’t look very inviting from where we are sitting so we decline.

Having taken my computer with me we find that there is no internet service to be had anywhere, not even a paid for service which is very disappointing.

Heaving our fat little bellies back with us, we run the gauntlet of the rotten quay, do our ladder and boat clambering activities, strip off and go back to bed for a little snooze.

Mike does some routine boat jobs (engine oil check and top up and fan belt tightening type stuff) while I just hang around and read. 

Photo:  Mike doing what he does in the black hole aka the engine room

Photo:  After engine room stuff comes foot soaking and scrubbing

Later in the afternoon he goes over to Lady Ev to fix Jorg’s PC again (I don’t know what he does with it but it seems to have continual problems) and one PC fix turns into three as some of the other guys produce theirs to ‘saviour’ Mike.

At 6.45 pm I start to make our curry and at 8 pm I eat mine alone as Mike is still not back.  I am tempted to shout over that his dinner is in the dog but we haven’t got one so just inform him that it’s going cold and go to bed to read.

Not a very exciting day but at least the grib files indicate that we should be able to leave in the morning although it looks like we’ll be doing a lot of motoring.

Day 318: Richards Bay to East London, SA – 20/11/10

I sleep well as the passage is smooth and wake refreshed to do my five hour stint.  At one time a large container ship comes close and Mike chooses this point to wake up so I have some advice on what to do.  Although he goes back to sleep, he gets up early and I take the opportunity of scuttling back down to bed while it is still relatively calm.  Again I sleep well although I wake up a couple of times when I can feel us going really fast and doing the slalom thing through the waves.  When I get up I find out that we are going at 10.5 knots.  It feels really smooth but that’s because we have 3 knots of current going in the same direction.

It is a lovely bright blue sunny day with large but well spaced waves and for some hours it is a very pleasant sail.

At one point we actually get to 18.7 knots with the wind gusting to 47 knots but generally we have a steady 11 to 12 knots with 4 knots of current and 35 knots of wind coming out of the north east.  By noon we have managed 211 nautical miles for the first time ever over a 24-hour period.

However, all good things come to an end and gradually during the day the wind starts to move round earlier than predicted, first coming from the north west then the west, then it starts to die and Mike takes the genoa in and puts one engine on.

It starts to get hazy then downright grey and miserable.  By 4.30 pm both engines are on as we have only 12 knots right on the nose coming from WSW and only 1 knot of current to help us.  It is so hazy that a huge container that we can see on the radar and with AIS is only visible to us when it is one and a half miles away.  Thank God for technology.

It is now obvious we can only make East London which is disappointing and won’t get even there until around midnight. 

By 7 pm there is sheet lightning in the distance ahead of us and although the wind is now back up to about 20 knots, we are only going at around 5 knots because it’s coming from the wrong direction.

We take it in turns to snooze in the salon (actually I sleep properly but only for an hour) and approach the breakwater at the mouth of the Buffalo River at East London at around half past midnight.  It’s cold and Mike and I both put on long trousers, fleeces, waterproofs and hats.

We get permission to enter the port and motor slowly up river until we can see the railway bridge crossing it – the end for us.  As Mike looks for somewhere to anchor we see two people waving at us from another boat then calling out hello.  It’s some of the guys from Lady Ev.  They had heard me on the VHF earlier talking to another ship (Jorg actually says he heard me say I insisted that the other ship change course but I didn’t – I requested it!) and have been waiting for us to arrive.  We raft up against them and they tie extra lines from our bow and stern to the harbour wall, then we go over to their boat for a beer (well Mike does, I just go over to say hello).  It seems that they had tried to leave for Port Elizabeth earlier today but the sea conditions were so bad that when they were nearly 40 miles out they had to turn around and come back in.  You really don’t want to mess with the weather here.

Cold and tiredness soon overcome us and we climb back aboard Jeannius and head for bed.  I’m glad we’re in and safe!

 

Our position is:  33 deg 01 min S, 27 deg 53 min E

Distance so far:  18164 nautical miles

Day 317: Richards Bay to East London, SA – 19/11/10

Ugh, we wake up when the phone alarm wakes us and get ready to leave.

We are heading for Durban but depending on our progress may well head straight past.  Chessie are leaving with us but definitely stopping at Durban as they are having some rigging work done there.  It would be great to get as far as Port Elizabeth before having to stop but we’ll probably only make it as far as East London.  This weather window is supposed to last about three days but that could all change and we could end up having to hole up somewhere and waiting for the next one.

We leave the Zululand Yacht Club and head out of Richards Bay towards the sea.  There are loads of tankers and container ships at anchor outside and we zigzag our way through them before putting our genoa out.  Getting into our rhythm of watches immediately, I go back to bed and sleep for a few hours.

By the time I get up we are going faster and faster even though we have a reefed in genoa.  The sea state is good and not lumpy and it is a comfortable sail.  We make such good progress that late in the afternoon, after Mike gets the latest grib files (weather files which show the wind speed and direction), we decide not to stop at Durban as it’s obvious that we can make it to East London, if not to Port Elizabeth before the weather turns.  We call Chessie on the mobile and let them know our intentions.  We’ll see them in Knysna after their rigging work has been completed.

There’s a lot of commercial traffic but none comes too close for comfort.

I fall asleep quickly when I go off around 9 pm.

 

 

Our position is:  30 deg 43 min S, 30 deg 43 min E

Distance so far:  18005 nautical miles

Day 316: Richards Bay, South Africa – 18/11/10

We both wake up early wondering when we’ll hear news of our generator parts.  At 7.30 am Mike gets an e-mail saying that the parts have left Durban and will be with the engineers during the morning.  When Mike phones the engineers they promise to be with us around noon.

Presuming that we will be on our way tomorrow, we galvanise ourselves into action and prepare the boat for leaving.  I do another load of laundry and Mike does the paperwork and organises the re-fuelling.

Of course, sod’s law dictates that immediately we start to re-fuel, the engineers will arrive and that almost happens, but the other way around.  As I go to empty the rubbish I spot a truck pull up with a bright red unit in the back.  Yippee!!  Let’s hope it’s the right part!!

Two guys carry it carefully to Jeannius and set it down in the cockpit.  To eliminate any problems, Westerbeke have sent the whole generator end of the genset, and the guys start the complex operation of removing the old one down in a very small hole.  Thank God the weather is better than yesterday’s.

The guys then turn up to re-fuel us with jerry cans (the hose from the truck can’t reach to our position at the end of the pontoon) so it’s quite a long process.

Photo:  Emptying 300 litres of diesel from jerry cans into the tank

We carefully move our generator away from this process!  It takes about three hours to remove the old generator. 

Photo:  The new generator end of the genset

Photo:  Comparing old with new – and noting the differences!

Mike and I go up to the marina office, file our ‘flight plan’ and pay our very small bill.  At 5.20 pm it’s the moment of truth.  They start the genset and it just turns over but won’t catch.  I can’t believe it.

I go over to Chessie,  After all the waiting, I can’t bear to watch.  Half an hour later, Mike comes over too.  It’s not working and the guys have no idea why.  It’s pointless staying here.  Mike will contact the SA agent and get someone to look at it in somewhere else en route.  For now we will struggle on without a genset.  At least we have the part.  Tomorrow we will head out early in the morning as planned.

We go to Porkey’s for a meal with Chessie and Brown Eyed Girl to try to cheer ourselves up.

Photo:  The mob at Porkey’s

Photo:  Mike and I

Photo:  Eline and Jutta

Photo:  Judy and me

We can’t eat all our food and end up with a doggie bag.  That’s lunch sorted out for tomorrow!  We go to bed rather dejected.  After all the excitement of the part actually arriving, we can’t believe it’s still not working.

We set the alarm for 4.45 am.  Ugh.  That’s just adding insult to injury.

Day 315: Richards Bay, South Africa – 17/11/10

Some good news at last.  Having provided the Westerbeke agent with the information about the clearing agent he contacts them immediately and at 8.30 am we get an e-mail saying that our parts are in the process of being cleared.  Mike talks to the engineer who is supposed to be fitting it and he has been told this as well and is expecting to fit the parts tomorrow.  This means that we should be able to leave Richards Bay on Friday which is the next opening in the weather window.

Feeling a bit happier with this news, Mike goes out to the mall again to buy some more credit for his phone and visit an ATM (for some curious reason, diesel for the boat has to be paid for in cash).  While he is gone I do some long overdue housework ie sweeping the floors and washing them down.  When Mike returns he comes armed with a new computer as his old one is on it’s last legs, a couple of small bottle of my wonderful truffle infused oil and another brick-heavy fruit cake.  I am also presented with my carnival leggings from Eline which are truly scary!!

We all jump into a waiting taxi with Jochem and Oisin and join Jutta and Eline who are already at Jack’s Place, a restaurant overlooking the bay and reputed to be fantastic for seafood.  They certainly do huge portions.  Mike orders eisbein, a German dish which is a cut of pork equivalent to a lamb shank but which is boiled and then deep fried.  Delicious.  I order a kilo (yes, a kilo) of garlic prawns.  OK, the kilo includes head, shell and long hairy bits, but even so.  The are absolutely delicious and I am horrified that I manage to scoff the lot.  And what tremendous value at around £8.

Photo:  Half way through my yummy prawns

While we are eating, Joe and Judy arrive to meet us.  I haven’t seen Judy since Mackay as we were late arriving in Bali and she had already left. 

Photo:  Joe and Judy

Photo:  Jutta, Judy and me

Photo:  Oisin, Eline, Joe, Jochem, me, Jutta, Judy and Mike

Photo:  Mike and Oisin

Photo:  Eline and Jochem

Lunch goes on for hours and it is very late in the afternoon when we stagger back to the marina.  We all head over to Chessie for one last little drink (yeah right Jutta) although Mike leaves early to set up his new PC and make sure it all works OK before we (hopefully) leave and to check the status of our generator parts.  Disappointingly and frustratingly there is no further news and we have no idea whether they have cleared customs and will arrive tomorrow.

How long can this fiasco continue?

Day 314: Richards Bay, South Africa – 16/11/10

We get an e-mail from the agent for Westerbeke in SA today asking if our part has arrived which leaves me somewhat amazed that he doesn’t know.  I don’t know how the system works here but something is definitely screwy with too many people involved.  We learn that the parts arrived over the weekend and are somewhere in SA but we are not sure whether this is Cape Town or Durban.  Hopefully they are in Durban as this is only 90 miles away, less than two hours by road. 

At least something works today.  My passport package gets picked up early from the marina and starts on it’s journey to the British Consulate in Pretoria.

The weather, which starts off unbelievably hot in the morning, clouds over and starts to rain in the afternoon, just as I arrive back at the boat with a load of laundry that I have decided not to dry in the machines but to hang out instead.  Typical.  The boat ends up looking like a Chinese laundry again inside, damp things hanging from every surface.

Diane, Jim’s secretary in the US continues to battle on our behalf and eventually is able to give us the name of the warranty administrator at Westerbeke and her direct dial line.  At last when Mike calls her, she is really helpful and he gets information that he can actually use.  She gives him the name of the forwarder in SA and his direct dial.  When Mike talks to him he says that they have been waiting for the SA agent to provide them with the name of the clearing agent but when Mike calls the SA agent, they have obviously left for the day.  This is the trouble with talking with people on two different continents and very different time zones.  It will now have to wait until tomorrow.

We go over to Tucanon for sundowners with Irene, Dick and their friend John, along with Jutta, Jochem and Eline from Chessie.  Eline tells me about some truly horrendous sounding shiny, silver, leopard print leggings that the girls are going to wear at carnival in Recife (Brazil) and offers to get me some too.  I’m in.

We leave Tucanon and head for the marina entrance to get a taxi to go out for dinner, but Jutta, who has been feeling unwell all day, suddenly feels much worse and we end up taking her back to the boat.  The weather is still foul and as we have food in the fridge, we decide to stay in tonight and go out tomorrow evening instead.  I force feed Mike some healthy green stuff, much to his disgust (although I allow him to have some decidedly unhealthy fruit cake as a desert) and we watch a movie

Day 313: Richards Bay, South Africa – 15/11/10

We continue to get the run-around about the generator and end up no further forward after a morning of phone calls and e-mails.  In order to do something productive, we take a trip to the mall today to get my passport photos done.  No smiling is allowed these days in the photos and so I look like a right miserable cow.  On top of that the harsh light of the shop and the very bright white background coupled with my very blonde hair actually makes it look like I have no hair at all in the picture, and this I have to carry around for the next ten years.  How embarrassing.  We get a few bits of food shopping and head back to the marina.

In the evening we go out for dinner with the crew from Brown Eyed Girl to Porkeys on the waterfront.  Although only a short distance away, we have been advised to get a taxi.  No one walks anywhere at night it would seem in South Africa.  On the way there, we pass some huge waterfront properties, all with the same high walls topped with electric fences.  I have to say I couldn’t stand living like this.

We have a lovely meal in good company.  Joe, Jared and Oisin have been cleaning the boat like mad in order to get it ready for Judy’s arrival tomorrow, but will their cleaning be up to her standards?  I offer to go over in the morning to give it a woman’s eye, but my standards have lowered so much since living on the boat (if that’s possible) that I am not sure it is a good idea!