Deja vu...all over again

“The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley...” Everyone's familiar with this line from Robert Burns' poem “To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough”. Sometimes things just don't work out the way you plan them.  You get turned up by the plough, as it were. Aboard Nine of Cups, this plays true more often than we'd like sometimes, but it's how it is.

Yes, we were all provisioned and all checked out and ready to go. The weather window was iffy, but possible. Then a pressing matter occurred at home and whoosh … fast as you can say “Book us a flight”, things changed. We canceled our float plan and made a flight plan. We gave away all the freshies we'd just bought, arranged to have someone watch over Cups and headed to King Shaka International Airport.

Nine of Cups will wait patiently in Durban as we head back home for a couple of weeks. Come on, don't feel badly. Pack your bags and come along. It's all part of the life we live.

Durban Mornings

I'm a morning person. I love mornings … always have. Here in South Africa, where there's no Daylight Savings Time, morning still comes especially early although it's edging a few minutes later and later each day as winter approaches. I usually wake around 0500-0530 with the morning light. I climb into the cockpit and take a look around. If I'm lucky, the sky glows with pink and orange and purple and reflects off the water.

I appreciate the quiet of the morning. I remember when our kids were little, I'd rise especially early just to have a few minutes of “me” time with my morning coffee, before the kids got up and the frenzy of a new day began. Now, I still appreciate “me” time in the morning when the marina is quiet and calm. David sleeps in a little later. No workers are around. The water is flat calm (sometimes). There's not even the lap of water against the hull. The birds are waking up, but they're even quiet this early. The cooing of the doves, the screech of the ibis and the honking Egyptian geese don't start till a bit later. I've got the day all to myself and I relish it. Of course, at the end of the day I'm ready for bed by 9pm. David is a night person and enjoys his “me” time then.

It's a good time to write, plan my day and just daydream. I sometimes wander down the dock with my camera. The city is just waking up. It's this time of day that photographers call the magic hour or the golden hour, when the light is soft and perfect.

On a totally different topic, today is the beginning of the Chinese New Year … the Year of the Sheep. Last year we celebrated the Year of the Horse in Adelaide's Chinatown, watching parades, traditional lion dances and eating Chinese sweets. The Year of the Sheep is not considered a particularly lucky year to be born. Sheep symbolize “caring and compassion … (but) many are afraid those born under the  sheep will prove too weak for a cruel, unforgiving world.”

Unfortunately, Durban does not seem to have a specific area known as Chinatown and I could find no celebrations to attend. We'll just have Chinese food aboard, I guess, and count sheep before we fall asleep.

Taking a Boat Day

Sometimes it's nice to just stay on the boat for no reason at all. We had a great inland travel trip. We've been keeping up pretty well with our chores and no longer feel overwhelmed. All the A-list, must-do-before-we-leave repairs that can be done, are done. David's even tackled several of the B-list chores … like refinishing and re-gilding the nameboards. I've cleaned, baked, cooked, written, washed and scrubbed. I even got a head start on our 2014 IRS tax returns. Our new staysail and repaired genoa were delivered yesterday, but it's been too windy to hoist them. It's tolerably warm and humid, grey and overcast with intermittent showers. Today, we decided would be a good day for a boat day. About a week ago, while we were still traveling, we got word from our oldest son that he and his wife had a couple of weeks hiatus and they wanted to visit us in South Africa. Really? Outstanding! They arrive next week and want to do some traveling with us. We've made some plans. We need to prepare for their visit and we're excited about their arrival. Yes, they're bringing more boat parts. (Duh!) They'll be work to do after they leave to prepare for our passage to Cape Town ... but that's then and this is now.

Today  is a chill-out, no boat chores, read if you want, write a little, chat, play cards, watch a movie, go out to dinner kind of day. No muss; no fuss; no scheds; no pix.

It's good to catch our collective breaths once in awhile, sigh contentedly and just be. That's us today.