Before Leaving on a Trip...13 Things to Do

Before we leave Nine of Cups on her own for a few days, we have some chores to take care of and  a “leaving the boat” list to work through. We've mentioned that she's on a mooring and she's pretty much by herself in the bay midst some diamond boats and forlorn-looking, unattended sailboats. We never know what the weather and wind might bring and we need to make sure Cups is equipped to handle whatever comes up ... all by herself.

Because our memories are “challenged”, we have, of course, a list of things to do before leaving Cups.

1. Shut off the propane at the tank.

2. Shut off the fresh water pressure pump.

3. Insure bilge pump is working and make sure it's on

4. Check mooring lines and double them up

5. Notify someone that we're leaving and ask them to check on her and provide a contact number to get in touch with us, just in case.  Ian has offered to keep an eye on Cups and we've also let our friend, Andy on the trimaran, know that we'll be away for a few days.

6. Remove anything from the decks that might wander when no one is around for a few days, e.g. life ring, winch handles, canvas bucket, etc.

7. Lock up anything that can't be brought below, e.g. fuel jugs

8. Lock dinghy and engine at the dinghy dock.

9. Lock the companionway entry

10. Make sure all hatches are dogged and locked

11. Shut down any non-essential electrical devices

12. Shut off the wind generator. We've seen wind here to 40knots … not good for the wind gen. So we'll shut it down and rely on the solar to keep the batteries up.

There's more to do if we're leaving for more than a week, like pickling the head and shutting down/emptying the fridge, for instance. But for this trip of just 3-4 days, we're all set. It's not much more than you'd do if you were leaving your house for week, except your house probably wouldn't sink or float away while you were gone.

That's only 12 items on the list. I thought there was one more.

13. Oh, yeah, we've still got to pack and get our gear together!

Intricacies of Internet

Arriving in a new country always poses some communication issues. We've talked about it before. Most countries have their own telecom companies and internet providers. It's our job to figure out what provider offers the best coverage country-wide at the least expensive price. When we arrived in Lüderitz, there were two viable options: MTC and Telecom. We checked out the pricing and the options and MTC seemed the best. So we bought a wifi dongle and signed up for a pay-as-you-go program.

There were a few steps necessary to activate the program. The first required popping a SIM into our unlocked phone. We'd asked the fellow at the MTC store, Romanus, to write down the exact instructions for activation and loading airtime onto the phone … which we would subsequently need to convert to data.  Romanus advised of a special reduced price promo which provided 1Gb of data, but which required a second SIM and some scratch-off prepaid vouchers.

We got back to the boat all geared up to use the internet. The phone was already activated, so we carefully followed the instructions for loading the airtime. There were lots of numbers, *s and #s involved. Romanus had explained that even though the program cost N$30 ( about $2.50 USD), there was a VAT to be paid which was not included, so we needed to buy an additional N$5 in order to take advantage of the promo, plus the new SIM was N$7. Okay … we were following so far …. kind of. We got both vouchers loaded on the phone. In another procedure, we attempted to convert the airtime to data time, but got an error message.

No problem. A dinghy ride back to shore and a walk up the hill and we were once again standing in line at the MTC store. Romanus, sick with the flu, was there. We explained the problem. “Ah … you need to activate the SIM in the system by making a phone call before you can convert the airtime to data time.” David called Romanus and all was good. He converted the airtime to data time right in the shop and we returned to the boat.

We took the phone SIM and put it in the wifi dongle, but it wouldn't connect to the internet. It was late in the day and we went without internet till the next morning at which time we dinghied into shore, walked up the hill and waited in line at the MTC shop. Good old Romanus, who was much recovered from his flu, got on-line with the SIM. A screen popped up immediately which allowed him to activate the dongle and it worked perfectly. Hmmm ...no screen had popped up on our laptop. David copied down the IP address and we returned to the boat. With much finagling, we were finally able to access the internet. Whew!

Ah, but there's more. I want to interject that what we call a dongle is called a Wingle here. We got Quick Start Wingle instructions. “Getting to Know Your Wingle” and “Using Your Wingle” had us in stitches. “Insert your Wingle into the power slot” and “Optional accessories for your Wingle” had us rolling on the floor, as did “How to Reset Your Wingle”. We needed a little levity after the stress of getting the internet up and running.

Having been away from the internet for nearly a week (oh, my!), we caught up on e-mails and blogs and uploading photos. The iPads were busy upgrading and downloading and we gobbled through the 1Gb of data time in three days. No problem. We had extra scratch-off pre-paid vouchers ready to go. We followed the instructions carefully, entered our PIN and the voucher numbers for more airtime, but, once again, we couldn't convert to data for internet use.

Back in the dinghy to shore, up the hill, stand in line. Romanus knew us by sight and on a first-name basis at this point. He was feeling much better and he was pretty sure the flu was gone. “Aha … the 1Gb promo is only good for one week.” Well, it had only been 3 days. “Yes, but it is only good for one week and if you use it up in less than a week, you must wait till 7 days has elapsed before you can top  up.” Now what? Well, he sold us another SIM and another bunch of pre-paid vouchers and we started all over again.

Back at the boat, we put the new SIM in the phone, loaded airtime with prepaid vouchers, made a phone call to activate the SIM, converted the airtime to data, put the SIM in the Wingle, used the IP address to activate the Wingle and voila … internet. Easy peasy.

Getting on a Schedule

It's amazing how quickly we fall into a schedule whenever we're in a place for more than a couple of days. It's chilly in the early mornings and evenings here in Lüderitz, so we tend to stay aboard till it warms up a bit. It gets light about 0645 and the sunset is 1730, or so. We just found out, after being here for several days, that we're in a different time zone: West South Africa +1 hour GMT. Hmm … we gained an hour and didn't even know it. Time and dates are so irrelevant.

Anyhow, morning till about 1000  is reserved for cleaning up the galley and last night's dishes, writing, emails, blog posting, planning and general lazy type things like chatting that involve drinking copious amounts of coffee and/or tea. Around 1000, David is usually rooting around for something to go with his coffee and I get around to fixing something for breakfast. If I'm ambitious, it's eggs and toast or an omelet. If I'm not, it's yogurt with granola or maybe leftover pizza from last night. He's never fussy, God love him. During breakfast, we plan the rest of our day:  sightseeing, tackling a few chores, a trip to the grocery store for tonight's dinner and maybe a walk around town to stretch our legs and see what we can see.

We head into town around 11ish when the wind is calm and the day is warming up. A note about  Lüderitz weather: there's no rain, the sky is blue and it warms up into the 70s (20s) most every day. We tie up at the floating dock, take in our daily bag of trash and head to wherever we've planned. The security guys all say good morning. The local souvenir vendors have already laid out their wares on tarps in the big open plaza on the waterfront. Each day they ask us if we're interested in buying something and each day we decline, but they're friendly anyway.

The Seabreeze coffee shop is always open and folks are coming and going with their coffees and snacks or sitting at picnic tables enjoying the view.

The aroma of  fresh bread baking and cinnamon rolls hits us as soon as we pass near the OK Grocery. Being a German town, we expected to find several good bakeries, but so far we're struck out other than the grocery store. We'll keep looking. I wish I had a “smell chip” for the blog post, so you could get a whiff of the bread and rolls though … it's wonderful.

We do our business in town which usually takes a couple of hours. We might stop for a coffee or a snack by mid-afternoon or stick our heads into the yacht club. We head back to the boat before the afternoon wind pipes up around 1500, when the land begins cooling down. It blows 20-30 knots, which combined with all the day's solar, provides good nighttime power for Cups. We've yet to have to start the engine to top up the batteries.

We still have a couple of hours of daylight for boat chores before evening descends and we take advantage of them … if we don't need a nap. Actually, things are getting done, but there's no urgency about it. Dinner is served between 1800-1900. David picks up evening emails and does a bit of internet while I'm cooking. We decide on the evening's activity … usually a movie on the laptop and David gets it all set up. The cold creeps in when the sun goes down. We wrap up in blankets on the settee and snuggle up to eat dinner and watch our movie.

The wind calms down during the evening insuring a pleasant night's sleep. Very accommodating and courteous of the Namibian wind gods, I'd say. Around 2200, we head to bed with our iPads for before-sleep reading and perhaps a game or two (on the iPad  ;-).

That's it! One day ends and another is on its way. We're on a pleasant sched at the moment interrupted only by something we choose to do which alters it. Really … the cruising life is difficult … but you gotta do what you gotta do.