Day 348: Knysna, SA – 20/12/10

Once again Mike goes down to the boat early in the morning.  He has managed to find someone who will dive down and clean the beard off Jeannius’ bottom (the delightful green stuff) which will sort us out until we can get hauled out in Grenada.  He also contacts the refrigeration guy who arranges to meet him there later.  Mmmm.

I potter around in the kitchen, making a sauce for the leftover pork to steep in and put the last load of washing from the boat in.  At least it’s not raining today, although it’s still quite cloudy.

Terry has a whole gang of little men in, planting about 200 shrubs, border plants and climbers around the garden.  It should look lovely when they are all established.

When Mike arrives back, it turns out that the diver was only coming to price up the job, not do it, although he promises to get it done before Christmas, and the refrigeration guy cancelled but said he had some more ideas about why the fridge and freezer keep stopping and will be there tomorrow morning.  Again I say, mmmm!

We rush out just before the supermarket closes to get a few bits.  I look for the lamb we ate the other night so that I can put it aside for Christmas but they haven’t got any.  I ask the lady on the counter and she seems quite amused that I want to order some to collect in a few days time and takes me over to the meat manager and explains what I want.  He then comes over to me and talks about my request in what I presume is Afrikaans.  I explain that I can’t understand Afrikaans and when he looks at me quizzically, I realise that he had actually been talking English to me.  How embarrassing.  God knows what I’ll be given when I go in to collect the meat on Thursday.  Probably deboned lamb delicately flavoured with barbecue rat poison.

Dinner is yesterday’s leftovers along with roasted ratatouille – yummy.  Oh, and double yummy, leftover Malva!

Day 347: Knysna, SA – 19/12/10

Once again I am awake really early (5.30 am).  This happens most mornings due to how light it is in our bedroom and also because my back, used to my lovely supportive mattress on the boat, screams out when presented with anything less than perfect and gives me a hard time.  It’s resolved by getting up and moving about, unfortunately.

The day starts wet, grey and dismal – great.

Ann and Terry’s friends, Jenny and Heine, are coming for dinner tonight and I am cooking the slow aromatic pork dish that Mike and I love so much.  I should really have put it on last night but it is smaller than the size the recipe calls for and I realised late last night that it is also leg rather than shoulder.  I hope it’s OK.

It’s in the oven by 7 am and I then prepare the vegetables before cooking a Malva pudding.  As this is an experiment, we eat about half of it to check that it’s OK.  It is so I then make another one along with the rich sauce that you pour over it when it’s cooked.  As Johanne would say, today I really have my cooking hat on.  With everything ready, I finish decorating the tree with Ann.

As the day continues, the wet, grey dismal weather continues too.  I can hardly see the trees over the road, let alone the lagoon.  Rather than it being fog, I think it’s low cloud, but the result is the same.  For most of the afternoon it absolutely throws it down.  When Terry says he’s going out for a cappuccino and asks if anyone else would like to go, we all look at him as if he is mad.  He goes alone, undeterred by our lack of enthusiasm.

By the time Jenny and Heine arrive, Terry’s Christmas song selection is in full swing – unfortunately.  We have everything from Slade to Wham to some guy singing ‘Frostie the Snowman’.  Ann flips over the worst ones thank goodness.

We have champagne then pose for a photograph in front of ‘that tree’ which I have to say now looks very lovely.  It’s a good job that it does as it might be there for a long time!!

Photo:  Me, Terry, Ann, Jenny, Heine and Mike (looking like poor old Billy-no-mates)

Dinner is a bit later than planned and I think the pork is a bit dry in places but passable.  The creamy potato gratin goes down a treat as does the Malva pudding – and both so low in calories – not!!  Why do the best things have to be so evilly calorific?

We have a lovely evening, although I do manage to lower the tone of the conversation by the end of the evening, much to Ann’s horror, although I have to point out that she starts it.  Ann and Terry load the dishwasher and Mike I and take off for bed, dragging our very full bellies along with us to cause us havoc during the night.

Day 346: Knysna, SA – 18/12/10

The weather is really strange.  Although it is a clear, bright, sunny day, strange sea fog rolls in through The Heads completely shrouding them and the area around them.  There are even patches of low lying cloud on the hills opposite us, although the sun starts to burn these off even as we stand and watch.

Photo:  Patchy low lying cloud over the hills

Mike goes down to the marina to meet the refrigeration guy but he doesn’t turn up so once he goes to pick up the outboard motor cover (now with a hole for the starter lever) he comes back for lunch then drags me down to the boat again to help him repair the chafing on the edges of the genoas where the lines have been pulling against them.  It’s important that we do this while there is no wind.  If the wind gets up we will have to take the genoas down and this will make the task much more time consuming.

He has got some off cuts of fabric from the people who made the cover for the dinghy in sort of the same blue.  The stuff we have to stick it all together is quite revolting.  He sprays a thin, cream coloured yuk all over one side of the material, waits for it to go off, sprays another layer then another one, and once this has all gone off again, we attempt to stick it over the edges of the genoa trying not to let it drip anywhere and also not to get is stuck to us.  We fail on both counts – it really is revolting stuff – but at least the patches seem to hold.  Just as we finish, the wind does start to pick up and we roll away the sails before Jeannius can start to pull the small pontoon that she is tied to away from its pilings.

I strip our bed and take all the bed linen up to Ann’s to put it in her very civilised little washing machine which sings when it has finished it’s cycle.  How pretty.

All during the afternoon, the fog has continued to drift in and by the end of the afternoon, very ominous clouds form over Knysna Heights where Ann and Terry’s house is.  The fog reaches as far as the marina and the light takes on an eerie appearance.

Photo:  The sea fog just keeps rolling in

A few spots of rain start just as we leave the marina but it doesn’t really get going.  That doesn’t stop the formation of a beautiful rainbow though and beautiful evening light as we stand on the deck and look out across the lagoon.

Photo:  Rainbow over Knysna Heights

Photo:  Terry, Ann and Mike in the golden glow of the dying sun

Photo:  Golden sunset and strange wisps of cloud

Photo:  Me and Ann

For dinner we experiment with the boned, flattened leg of lamb.  Although it’s too cold and windy to barbecue it, cooking it quickly in the oven does it to perfection.  While it is cooking, Ann and I start to decorate the tree, trying desperately not to dislodge any of the needles.  Eventually, as we can’t see what we are doing with the fiddly cotton that we are using to tie some of the ornaments on with, we give up until daylight tomorrow.

Day 345: Knysna, SA – 17/12/10

Groundhog Day for Mike again as he goes down to meet the refrigeration guy about the freezer – again.  This time he turns up and appears to fix it.

I stay in bed until midday hogging the internet which is absolutely bliss.  I haven’t had a lie in like this for months.

Eventually I get up and Ann and I decide to do something about the huge tree propping up the corner of the garage.  We drag the it out to the drive and I saw a few branches off the bottom of it so that it will fit more snugly against the wall. 

Photos:  Fighting with a tree that fights back

While Ann holds it against the garden wall to see if it works, I spot a large crab stealthily making its way towards her.  What the bloody hell is it doing here?  I try to head it off away from Ann with my foot and the plucky little fellow attempts to grab it.  Visions of the cartoon scenario (you know the ones, where a crab is seen hanging from someone’s toe and they are hopping around shrieking) to through my mind but as I have my Ugg slippers on, he fails to get a good hold.  Eventually Mike comes to see what all the fuss is about and gets him into a bucket and tips him out down in the garden.

Ann and I then drag the tree up the stairs to the front door and down the hall to the living room to check it will fit  in its allotted space.  Phew it does!  We then dump it on the balcony to await the arrival of the cement and sweep up all the loose needles.  I do hope it doesn’t shed quickly after all the effort of getting it into place.

Terry arrives with a huge bag of ready mixed cement.  It really is an enormous bag – it wouldn’t be allowed to be sold in the UK for health and safety reasons (the dangers of lifting) but here it’s not a problem.

Mike and I go into town – we had noticed a couple of days ago that there appears to be an Avis office although it isn’t advertised as being one.  We need to get me added to the car insurance so that I can drive.  This should be interesting as I haven’t driven for a year!  At least the cars and roads are just like the UK.  We are lucky with the office.  When we get there, it is all closed up and there are people standing outside who have been there for and hour and a half, making phone calls to the employee who’s buggered off.  He arrives within 5 minutes of us getting there, and because the other party are well and truly in for a row, they let us go first.

We go to the pro golf shop on Thesen Island.  If Mike is going to have a go at golf to see how his hands cope, he needs a glove to help improve his grip.  He buys one, has a little putt on their pretend green and then we for a wander around.  It’s quite attractive in a contrived sort of way.

Photo:  Mike on Thesen Island

We then go shopping and buy some meat and veg to experiment with for Christmas and then take a quick look at the boat to make sure that the freezer is still working and it has stopped again.  Not only that, but the bloody fridge has now stopped as well.  I don’t believe this.  We have nearly 4000 miles to cross soon and need to get this working.  Mike phones the guy again and arranges to see him tomorrow.  This is getting ridiculous.  We’d get someone else but this guy has already been paid as it seemed to be fixed at the beginning of the week and I am reluctant to pay someone else – even if we could find someone!!

When we get back to the house, the tree, and its ten ton of concrete, are installed in the bucket in the lounge.  Getting rid of it all will be interesting given the weight of it all!!  Until the concrete sets, the tree is tied to the door on one side and the wood burner on the other and will remain like this for 24 hours.  Ann couldn’t resist and has already put the lights on it but we will leave the rest of the decorating until we know it is well and truly stable.

In the evening, as is fitting with our usual Friday night tradition, Mike and I have Indian take away.  Now being on the insurance, I drive there an back.  I have to say it feels really weird and at first I can’t actually remember which foot goes on which pedal but when Mike tells me not to think about it but just do it, I am fine.  Ann and Terry go to Simola for an altogether different type of dinner, although I think Ann would have been better off with our take away as she orders ostrich which turns out to be as tough as old boots and has to be sent back.

Day 344: Knysna, SA – 16/12/10

Mike goes down to meet the refrigeration guy who ends up cancelling until tomorrow so Mike gets on with some other jobs instead.

The dinghy is delivered all repaired and pumped up along with the brand new cover for it and the outboard motor.  They look very smart although Mike has to return the motor cover as they had failed to leave a hole for the starting handle.  In their defence, lots of people have covers on them for storage and don’t keep them on when the thing is in use.

It’s a cold, wet and windy day – just like being back in the UK except that it’s snowing there at the moment.  It’s such a shame as the Knysna carnival is supposed to be today although as it is not due to start until the afternoon, it gets cancelled until Saturday.  Hopefully the weather will improve.

I talk to Bev about the arrangements for Christmas.  She and Moe are coming over to celebrate it with us along with Jutta, Jochem and Eline from Chessie.  It’ll be great fun with a crowd of us.

For most of the morning and into the early afternoon I catch up on five days worth of blog.  It serves me right for getting behind!

In the afternoon Terry and I go into town – he’s got some errands to run and I need to check the new shape for my earrings.  I go out wearing my foul weather sailing gear which is just right for today I think.  The jewellery has been amended and is now interpreted correctly thank goodness.

I then go around all the cheapie shops looking for a large bucket to put the enormous Christmas tree in and eventually find one that looks right.  When I meet back up with Terry I drag him back to the shop and he gets it.  It’s a bit on the bright side but will do.

We finish of by going to have a hot drink and of course, are forced into having a cake although we only share one.

Day 343: Knysna, SA – 15/12/10

Ann and I go food shopping in the morning.  Christmas rush is now starting and industry in Knysna officially shuts down at the end of the day.  As we head into town, for the first time, we hit traffic on the main road a long way out from the centre, and it’s only going to get worse from now on apparently.

First we go looking for Christmas decorations and lights for the tree.  Christmas trees are obviously not big business here and it takes us a bit of time to find a shop which sells anything tasteful and isn’t either gaudy or made of plastic.  Laden down with decorations and food shopping, we stagger back to Kloppers, the large home and electrical store, where Ann buys a blender, and we settle down to wait for Terry to give us a lift back to the house.

We’ve only just got back when the girl from the Jewellers phones to say that the setting for the earrings is ready and would I like to go down to OK them.  It’s a good job I do.  Even though I have supplied them with a photograph and all the dimensions, the jeweller’s interpretation (and I didn’t think I had left any room for ‘interpretation’) is different to mine, and I have to get him to change them.  I will probably be back there tomorrow, checking them again.

While I am the jewellers, Mike goes to the boat.  Unfortunately the freezer has stopped working again and he has arranged for the guy to come back tomorrow and have another look.  Obviously, although the gas leak was fixed, there’s another one.  There’s always something with boats!!  Mike also fails to fix the lazy jacks and needs to order some new parts for those too.  Why does nothing ever go smoothly?

Late in the afternoon, Ann, Terry and I go over to see their friend Barry, who has told them that he has chopped down a Christmas tree for them from the forest behind his house.  As we pull onto the drive, there is a spindly branch of pine and we hope that this isn’t it and is just an off cut of theirs instead.  When Barry says it’s our tree, Ann and I burst out laughing.  “Call that a tree?”  Terry is more polite.  Barry then says that if it isn’t to our liking, we can go and chop another one down and goes and gets a saw.

Ann and I pull out of this particular activity, and instead push Terry forward.  The problem is that the ‘forest’ (not actually a forest but a few trees on the hillside) is behind an electric fence (although Barry assures us it’s never switched on) and there’s only about 10 inches clearance underneath in just one spot and the land slopes sharply almost directly behind it and away up the hill.  Terry balks but Ann and I egg him on while Barry chats unhelpfully about snakes. 

Terry gets down on his back and starts to wriggle himself underneath this 10 inch gap.  Now I’m not being rude, but no one would ever describe Terry as being anything but large.  At over 6 foot and the build to match it, 10 inches isn’t much of a gap.  When he’s half way through and the wiring is at groin level, I helpfully remind him that now is not the time to get an erection!

Once through, we direct him to the first tree we like the look of, but as it’s the only one on the hill like it, he doesn’t want to cut it down, so we direct him further up to the next one.  A few minutes later and … timber!  Down it comes and Terry hauls it back down the hill to the fence.  That’s the easy bit done.  Now he has to try and lob it over an 8 foot fence.  A few yards down there’s a bit of a lump in the ground next to one of the iron fence braces and he manages to throw it over far enough for Barry to be able to hook it with the saw and pull it over to our side.

As Ann and I drag the tree across the garden and drive to the car, we hear Terry shouting in the distance that now we’ve got what we want we are leaving him in the wilderness, all alone behind an electric fence, but somehow he manages to get back underneath and we all join up in Barry’s lounge for a drink to celebrate.

Once we get it back to Ann’s, however, we’re not sure if we’ve done the right thing.  The bloody tree is enormous, both tall as well as wide.  I don’t know if we’ll ever find a bucket to put it in and if we put cement in to keep it in place, we’ll probably never be able to move it.  Terry could be up that hill again tomorrow!!!

Photo:  Terry and the monster tree in the garage

Day 342: Knysna, SA – 14/12/10

Through a friend of Ann and Terry’s, we eventually find someone who will go to Jeannius to have a look at the freezer.  Mike is in bed when he phones him and when the guy says he can be there in 10 minutes, he leaps out, jumps into the first items of clothes he lays his hands on and drives down to the marina to meet him.

A couple of hours later, he calls to say that the freezer is now working, as is the air conditioning unit in the stern cabin.  Success.  I decide to leave it a few days before starting any provisioning to make sure that it stays on.

While he is down at the boat, Mike has another go at trying to fix the starboard engine exhaust hose but has as much success as last time.  Eventually, he concedes that he’ll need to try to order some new stuff rather than fixing it.

In the meantime, Ann and I sunbathe for a while, but as usual, the weather changes and the wind starts to pick up to such an extent that it gets cold.

Mike and I into Knysna to get a few bits of food shopping and are amused very the very enthusiastic efforts of the new traffic controllers.  Let me explain.  One day last week, Mike noticed a person directing the traffic, all togged up in a new uniform (hat, dark trousers, luminous vest and sparkling white gloves), with an instructor looking on and about another 12 trainees watching his efforts.  A little later the same day, another trainee, who was obviously not very quick on the uptake, was standing in the middle of the road, directing the traffic, while the supervisor stood behind him operating his arms.  Mike was laughing so hard that he probably nearly crashed the car.

Well now all these little traffic trainees are out loose on the roads.  Apparently the traffic goes haywire in Knysna in the run up to Christmas and these little people are obviously thought to be the solution. 

We decide to drive down to The Heads as it is so windy, to see how rough the entrance is, and go past another little wannabe traffic cop.  He obviously likes his job and the little white gloves, and does his best to impersonate Michael Jackson pirouetting around in the middle of the road directing the traffic, big Cheshire cat grin spread across his face.  I wonder how many of them will be mown down during the Christmas period?

We turn off before we get to The Heads to have a drive around Leisure Isle.  There is a lovely mixture of houses here, some absolutely beautiful (and with fantastic views) and some rather more ordinary, but it has a really nice feel to the place.  Ominous clouds are starting to roll in, but we are still in the sunshine, and although the wind is cold, I manage to coax Mike out of the car and on to the beach.

Photo:  Leisure Isle looking inland

Photo:  Leisure Isle looking towards The Heads

From Leisure Isle we go to The Heads.  By the time we get there, the clouds are really nasty out to sea and looking at the waves as they hit the sand bar, I am once again glad that I am not trying to sail through them.  From The Heads, we head to Thesen Island.  This large island in the middle of the lagoon has a distinctly Cape Cod feel about it.  All the houses are build in the same sort of style, all wood clad and painted in blue, beige and shell hues.

Photo:  Low tide at Thesen Island

Back at the house, we feast on Beef Stroganoff, using up the remainder of the delicious fillet steak.  Mmmm.