11 Adjustments to Living Ashore

No matter how many times we've made the transition from life aboard to life ashore, it's always a major change, if only for a few days. I wonder if other cruisers have similar transition issues? Here's our top 11 list of the major adjustments to shore life. Motion. Houses and hotel rooms do not rock or roll nor does water gently (or otherwise) lap the walls outside our window.

Space. Though Cups is a relatively large boat and well laid-out, even small rooms ashore have so much more space (and moveable furniture) than Nine of Cups.

Speed. We think we're really tooling along when we're doing 8 knots (9.2 mph/15kph) on the boat. Compare that to 500+ mph on a plane or, more noticeably, 70 mph on a highway, and it takes some getting used to.

Weather. Though we watch the weatherman every evening, we're definitely less attuned to weather and wind issues than when we are aboard. Unless there's some major storm heading our way or we might need to take an umbrella, we're kind of oblivious to the weather in our everyday lives ashore. Quite honestly, it's a relief.

Transport. Getting somewhere is so easy and fast when you have a vehicle at your disposal. You don't need to launch the car from the foredeck before using it. Need to pick something up at the store? There's a well-stocked supermarket on every corner and specialty shops are just a few miles away. Just jump in the car and go. No need to call a taxi, take a bus or walk several miles lugging your purchases. Need a boat part? Oh, I forgot … we're on land. We don't need boat parts (except to bring back with us, of course), but if we did? Everything's pretty close by.

Permanent address. Cruising around the world, we've had lots of temporary addresses. This limits our ability to have things mailed and shipped to us. Our address changes constantly. If we want to wait for a shipment, it may or may not arrive on time, depending on several variables (ship time, Customs, delivery scheds). Shippers are always a bit leery of shipping overseas to non-billing addresses. On land, we have an address that's been in the system for years (even though it's my sister's address). Easy, peasy for all those Amazon Prime shipments.

Unlimited utilities. Leave the water running while brushing our teeth? Keep the computers plugged in and on all the time? Leave extra lights on? We still try not to waste water and power, but we aren't quite as diligent about it as when we have to carry or generate our own.

Fast internet. We send large files and photos in a flash versus spotty internet connections which sometimes require a long and tedious process to send even simple text e-mails.

Television. We haven't owned a TV for the past 15 years and we're so out of touch with the technology (Cable, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu). Flat screens are huge comparative to watching DVDs on our little laptop screen. In most households, watching TV is a relaxing evening ritual that we're just not used to. On the other hand, how can you have 500+ options and not find anything of interest to watch?

Appliances. Refrigerators, freezers, toasters, coffee makers, irons, grills, griddles, hairdryers, can openers, blenders, microwave ovens … all at our fingertips and we don't even have to be in a marina with access to shore power. And we have ICE!

Convenience. This is a biggie. Living ashore is so much more convenient than living on the boat. Just a few examples? Cups is currently in the marina in Durban where we usually take showers and do most of our bathroom activities ashore at the yacht club. This requires getting dressed and toting all our shower gear down a very long dock and getting through a security gate before actually arriving at the showers. How convenient it is to just jump in the shower with shampoo and soap handy and no need to bring it with you. Need a gas or diesel fill-up? Just stop at one of the hundred gas stations around and fill 'er up. There's no necessity to tote jerry jugs. Dirty laundry? No need to tote it two miles to the nearest laundromat and then hang it out on the lines. Instead, just throw it into the washer, then the dryer and voila … clean laundry in an hour.

All this said … we'd rather live aboard and be sailing. Convenience is highly overrated.

Checking Out is Hard to Do

If you think breaking up is hard to do, you've never tried checking out of a South African port. We're not leaving the country, just moving to the next port, but it's still a major undertaking. For those of you who are considering the cruising life, this is a lesson in patience, beyond waiting for weather windows or tradesmen.

We inquired  at the Durban Marina office what the procedure for check-out was. She smiled knowingly and began compiling a sheaf of papers to be completed. “Fill these out and bring them back.”

No problem, I thought, until I got back to Nine of Cups and gave them a good look. Port Authority required a float plan which included the usual boat info, crew list and last ports of call, but they also required a sketch of the boat along with many other of the boat's vital statistics (four pages worth), all radio frequencies monitored and much, much more. Mind you, we'd provided most of this information when we arrived.

The Customs form centered upon our cargo. How much were we carrying? What cargo had we dropped off and how much were we hauling out? Really? As in many countries, visiting sailboats are treated like large commercial vessels and the paperwork reflects this.

We completed all the forms and returned to the office. Adri had prepared our final marina bill, as well as a calculation of port fees … a R25.80/day charge for being in the marina beyond 30 days. We paid the marina bill and got a receipt. The port fees, however, could not be paid in cash or with a credit card at Port Authority. It needed to be deposited to the proper account at the Standard Bank in downtown Durban, which of course required us to walk downtown, wait in line and make the deposit (in cash) at the bank and obtain the receipt.

From the bank, we walked to the Port Authority. The fellow wasn't there, but we were invited to sit and wait for him. About 15 minutes later, he arrived, reviewed the receipt, stamped a couple of forms and told us to proceed to Immigration with our passports, and then to Customs and then return to his office … and we'd better hurry because all the offices close at 4pm.

Immigration asked when we had arrived … end of November. They lugged out a file box full of completed forms and sorted through them until they came across Nine of Cups' original entry paperwork. They reviewed our float plan, made a copy and then reviewed our passports … no stamps, just initials and a date on one of the pieces of paper we were hauling around. They instructed us to go to Customs.

The Customs fellow was friendly, but new. We gave him our completed form which he reviewed with another co-worker. He made several copies, then signed off on another form. We were then instructed to return to Port Authority.

We trudged back over to Port Authority who assembled all this paperwork, stapled it together and added it to the the piles on his desk. He stamped our clearance form and bid us a good afternoon. Done! The bad news? This is the procedure at every South African port we sail to … probably a few more forms and stamps will be required when we actually leave the country.

Waiting for a Weather Window

We've had several delays in leaving ports before, some much akin to our delays in leaving Durban. We had repairs to make, but South Africa closes down around the holidays for a couple of weeks, so things weren't as streamlined as we'd hoped. We planned to leave in mid-January, but our sails weren't finished, nor was our bimini or dodger … nor the saloon upholstery. David was still working on several “A-list” projects subsequent to my returning from the States with boat parts. We took off for a land trip and returned.

Then February rolled around. The new staysail was complete and the Yankee and jib were repaired, but the bimini and dodger were still not finished, although they were close to completion. Brennan and Hannah visited for a couple of days, then the bimini and dodger were done at last and we were ready to take off. Alas … no weather windows. Looking at pilots and Jimmy Cornell's World Cruising Routes, January through March are the best times of the year to make the transit from Durban to Cape Town. Patience is a virtue when it comes to waiting for weather windows. We've said it many times before and at the moment, we were practicing it … waiting for a good window to leave Durban. In fact, it seems like we've been waiting forever, but the windows that have appeared have been elusive and much too short. At last, however, our patience was rewarded with a short, but adequate window to sail from Durban as far as Port Elizabeth, about 390 nm away. We checked the forecasts religiously and waited hopefully . At last … a real window appeared and then it was high-stress rush, rush, rush.

We hurriedly provisioned. A resident cruising friend took us to Liberty Liquors and Mozzie's Butchery and the biggest Pic'n'Pay hyper-supermarket we've ever seen. We loaded up on everything we'd need and we were ready to go. We don't have much time left on our visas, so we provisioned as if we were heading across the Atlantic.

We paid up at the marina and checked out of Durban port. In South Africa, it is necessary to check out of and into every port … not so different from a few South American countries, actually. This is a saga to be told another day.

We stopped in quickly at Tony Herrick's new shop and picked up a copy of his South African Cruising Notes, something we'd planned on doing much earlier, but forgot till the last minute. Tony is a local cruising guru with lots of sailing experience and several cruising guides under his belt. He's also the SSCA Cruising Station Host, and he took the time to share his knowledge of the passage from Durban to Cape own with us.

Five boats are scheduled to leave with this window, all hoping that the window doesn't disappear with the morning's weather forecast or worse yet,  mid-route. We'll see how it goes. Tune in tomorrow for “Checking Out is Hard to Do”, a popular cruiser's lament in Durban.