Back to David and the Sunshine City

David did a credible job of putting Nine of Cups back together for my homecoming and then we unpacked the loaded duffels and poof! … poor Cups was a mess again. Piles of parts here and new gear there, all midst teak parts laying on any available flat surface in the process of being varnished. This is pretty much the norm, I reckon … always a boat project or two in progress.

Getting back into the swing of liveaboard life is always a big change for me. There's a major time change (7 hours) and temperature change … hot and sweaty versus cold and shivering. The “sunshine” city wasn't very sunshine-y on arrival. In fact, it was pretty wet. Walking down the pier in the rain to the boat, dragging the heavy duffels behind us reminded me of just how far away from the shore Cups' berth actually is. Hoisting the wet duffels aboard and then wrestling them down the companionway ladder was a chore. Unloading them and remembering exactly what we had ordered and why was a cruiser's Christmas at first, but stowing everything was near impossible. The morning walk to the club toilets seemed longer and heading to the clubhouse for showers was more of a hassle than it had been before. It's certainly less convenient than stepping a few feet into the shower in Lin's guest bathroom. The laundry was also mounting up, but tossing a quick load into Lin's washing machine wasn't an option.

David dove right in and immediately began an updated project list based upon the parts I'd brought back. His to-do agenda is still long, though he's already accomplished significant repairs during the past month since we arrived. There's a high-powered wifi antenna and router to install, a new three-line clutch to replace one in the cockpit that's seen better days, the new furler guard assembly for the jib to replace the one that got wrecked on our Mauritius to Durban passage and heaps of other hardware and parts for various projects.

My to-do list includes several sewing repairs, cleaning of the water tanks and winch servicing among other things, and then there's some writing to be done. We have, however, negotiated some time for inland travel in near future. As David has methodically been installing new parts and gear, I've been making plans for visiting game parks and other points of interest in this part of Africa. The chores are easier to handle when I know there's a trip incentive waiting at the end of the dirty work.

This Side ... That Side

While I've been busy visiting, carousing and generally enjoying family and the holiday season on this side of world (and incidentally freezing my butt off), my captain has been working hard on Nine of Cups and sweating bullets in Africa. Seems hardly fair! I spent a weekend visiting cousins and aging aunties. Here's an excerpt from one of David's emails to give you an idea of the type of weekend he's just experienced ...

“I had a trying day. Nothing seemed to go as planned. The flowcoat fumes were quite annoying with everything open, but then the clouds rolled in and it started raining, so I had to close the hatches and all the starboard ports, making the fumes quite strong. It should have kicked and cured in a few hours, but as of this morning, it is still tacky and stinky. I had written on the can how many drops of MEKP to add to a tablespoon of flowcoat, but either this flowcoat takes a different amount or what I had written was wrong. (He learned later it was 10 drops, not 3-4!).  I'm hoping I can put another coat over it and get it all to kick - if not, I will have to remove the whole mess with a scraper and acetone and start over. I'll do some research, then try a small patch and see. Meanwhile, I closed the doors to the aft cabin, put a couple fans on in there, and planned on sleeping on the settee. I thought with the headache I was getting from the fumes, I'd quit a little early before the Tradewinds Restaurant closed and have dinner out. I brought my shower bag and the computer, so I could send some pix to Gentry, and headed over in the rain. I forgot that Tradewinds closes early on Sunday. I also forgot to download the pix from the stick in the camera. I didn't feel like going over to the other yacht club, so I just showered (hardly necessary with the downpour) and went back to Cups.

When I got back, I thought that a nice cottage pie would be just the thing to cheer me up. I had some fresh mince (hamburger), which I browned with onions, boiled some potatoes, and opened a can of corn. Then I realized that Worcestershire sauce was still on the shopping list. I must say, cottage pie made with barbeque sauce just isn't the same.

What else? Oh yeah … I filled the water tank yesterday, then noticed the bilge pump was continually cycling on and off. This went on for a good half hour or so, until I finally decided it was more than what I could blame on the tank overflow. I shut it off for the day and will investigate later. Last night the wind began increasing and when I got up to check on things, I noticed the wind gen was not putting out any amps. It was spinning nicely – just no output. So I shut it down and I will need to investigate this as well.

But today is sunny and nice, and surely will be a better day.”

I think I'll call him Saint David for awhile.

Chores...Chores...Chores

How many times have we said it? Cruising is repairing your boat (and doing chores) in exotic places.  All of our ports of call while crossing the Indian Ocean have qualified as exotic and of course, we had lots of chores to accomplish in all of them. The to-do list was long when we arrived at each port, but this last passage has knocked it through the roof. We broke out a new notebook to record the to-do's and make lists of required purchases. They'll be no time for lazing around in a hammock while we're in Durban, that's for sure.

We've not left the marina since our check-in excursion the other day. Our noses have been to the grindstone. David will regale you in future posts about his progress and challenges, but suffice it to say, he won't be bored from lack of things to do here. We got the foresails down and stowed and he's already servicing the furlers.  I'm tackling the stainless at the moment, which is in an incredibly ugly state.

We were making good progress when a single-hander friend asked if we could help him move his boat to a berth. Sure!  We dinghied out with him to the anchorage and helped with lines as he adeptly maneuvered his catamaran into a rather tight spot. We headed back to Cups to resume our work.

Lots of folks stopped by to chat and then came a dockhand to tell us that the owner of our berth had unexpectedly returned and we needed to move as quickly as possible. Sigh! We were all tied up nicely, powered up and now we had to move. By the time we walked over to the other jetty to check out the new berth, walked back, got disconnected and off the dock, the wind had piped up. We made the move and got all situated again, but we lost two hours total before we were back to work again. Whole new neighborhood; lots of new neighbors. Not much accomplished. The views of downtown are good though.

We ended the evening by meeting up with friends on two Aussie cruising boats, Ocean Wanderer and Mi Corazon, who had just made the same passage as we had. We commiserated and regaled ourselves with sailor's tales over dinner. It's always nice to know that we're not the only ones who have gear failures at sea and crappy weather.