tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5879280953713998472024-02-07T01:35:08.545-05:00On AiniAWe live on board a Bristol 45.5 sailboat and are cruising as the seasons allow and our interests suggest. We are June Wan and Bruce Clark. June is an IT person who 'retired' when the economy went sour and her company in Jersey City cut staff. Bruce is a retired high school teacher and sometime author of geography textbooks. This blog will chronicle their lifestyle and will also include general observations on life, politics, international development, and geography (broadly defined of course!).Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-72240306432415989662013-10-15T20:53:00.001-04:002013-10-15T20:53:17.163-04:00Getting Back Into ActionHello to anyone who has been following our travels. It is time to catch you up on what is happening and what our schedule will be. For those who might not have read earlier posts a quick summary is that our circumnavigation came to a halt in Mossel Bay, South Africa in early January when I (Bruce) got my hand caught between the boat and a dock - actually a huge tire attached to a commercial dock. The damage was substantial and I spent five nights in hospital and had an operation to sew my hand back together - the doc said he lost track after 50 stitches. The time in hospital had two main purposes - to start therapy to increase the possibility of full recovery of hand function, and to make sure that infection did not happen since the injury exposed a lot of underlying tissue.<br />
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After the time in hospital, I hopped on a plane to return to Toronto for the long rehab that was to come. The trip was 33 hours and included stops in Johannesburg, Doha (Qatar), and Washington. The good part was that we discovered Qatar Airways which not only was very cheap but is the top-ranked airline in the world the last few years. It was very comfortable, but I was on enough painkillers that perhaps it did not matter. The bad part was the NSA guy in Washington who insisted that I had to take my sling off so he could x-ray it. Duh!<br />
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Meanwhile June had moved Ainia, with the help of some very nice locals, onto a dock at the local yacht club marina. The people were great, moving boats around to get a spot open for us. The bad news was that the dock was very small, much better suited for a 30 footer than a 45. Also, the harbour is quite open to swells and winter was coming. It was obvious that a better solution was needed. So, June got two friends, Lou and Ann who we had toured with while at Richards Bay to help her take the boat around the fabled Cape Agulhas (the southernmost point in Africa - there really is no such thing as the Cape of Good Hope on the charts) to False Bay YC in Simon's Town which is also the location of the largest naval base in South Africa. Things went very well until they were just off the entrance to the yacht harbour where they were hit by katabatic winds (on top of the normal winds) (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katabatic_wind">More about katabatic winds</a>) of over 50 knots. In the end there was no damage done and June can say she doubled Cape Agulhas (and I can't!).<br />
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Meanwhile back home, I was involved with a continuous serious of visits to the Hand Program at Toronto Western Hospital. This is part of the University Health Network which is associated with the University of Toronto medical school. This program focusses on hand issues (OK, they do the odd foot, so perhaps it should be called the Paw Program) and has three surgeons and nine therapists. I was very fortunate to be looked after by these folks. I suspect they are among the best in the world at what they do. I ended up having two additional surgeries and twice a week visits with my therapist. The therapy was very strenuous and was done with open wounds, from the various surgeries until the end of April. It has turned out very well. The hand looks not very nice with lots and lots of scarring but I have pretty good function. The main problem seems to be in doing things that require a bit of force and a bit of precision at the same time. It still seems to be slowly improving after nine months.<br />
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<b>Now to our plans </b><br />
We are leaving on October 25th (have to avoid winter you know) and travelling via Rome. There are many ways to get to South Africa - none of them at all direct. We did some research and figured out we got stop in Italy for a time and the air fare will be the same as going in one long trip. We will spend some time in Venice, Bologna, Florence and Rome and get to go to Abu Dhabi (Etihad this time) and Johannesburg on the way. We will arrive at the boat very late on Nov. 5th.<br />
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We plan to spend about a month working on the boat - want to check everything and we are installing a new radar and electric autopilot. As time allows we will do a little more touring in the vineyards area near Cape Town. We also will bring the boat around to Cape Town which is only 45 miles but can be rugged as you get more katabatics. The photo below (not ours) shows the 'Table cloth' coming down from Table Mountain behind and to the south of Cape Town. Apparently when you see this, you can expect 40 to 50 knots not very far offshore.<br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Cape_Town,_Table_Mountain,_Table_Cloth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Cape_Town,_Table_Mountain,_Table_Cloth.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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We hope to leave Cape Town by the middle of December since the Pilot Charts suggest that the winds are good and waves along the coast are smaller than in January. Our intended route is shown below. We will go north along the coast to stops in:</div>
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<li>Namibia (Luderitz and/or Walvis Bay) - a total of 730 nautical miles</li>
<li>St Helena I (where they sent Napoleon after Waterloo when he became too much of a nuisance) - 1200 miles</li>
<li>Ascension I (British military base in case the Argentines get frisky over the Falklands) - 700 miles</li>
<li>Barbados - 2500 miles (this will be the longest trip of the whole trip)</li>
<li>Grenada - 200 miles (getting here will complete the circumnavigation)</li>
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As you can see, this is long trip, 5300+ miles, with few stops.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-88855830435972015242013-03-22T16:59:00.002-04:002013-03-22T17:10:32.632-04:00An update from Ainia's temporary non-sailorsHello, just a couple of updates from Canada. Spring is coming very slowly this year. It has been interesting to see spring happen after being in the tropics for several winters. So far though the signs of spring have been few with quite a bit of snow.<br />
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About the paw, there is steady, but quite slow progress. The emphasis has been on regaining range of motion. This means doing about six sets of exercises for about 30 to 45 minutes a time. Picture bending and stretching every joint in the hand and wrist in every direction possible and you get the idea. I had surgery to remove two wires where there was a fracture at the base of the pinky and the wound there is still open and the exercises slow down the healing, but the doctor and hand therapist just say that it will bleed and not to worry about it. I would imagine that it will be two months more so our decision to put everything a year makes sense.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><b>Your China 101: Things About China That You Don't Know and Probably Should has been published.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130;">This is a project that June and I have working on for the last couple of years. It is </span><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">a sort of 'China for Dummies' book. We tried to get it electronically published when we in Australia but there were computer issues that were greater than we could handle there with the access we had. Well, it is now done. </span><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"> When we got back to Canada we did some updating and June sorted out the technical problems.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">I did most of the writing from the perspective of someone who wants to know more about this fascinating and complex country. June, who is a Beijing girl, provided a lot of interesting information and did the technical, epublishing stuff. There is even a photo of June in front of the Goddess of Liberty statue in Tianamen Square during the famous 1989 protests.</span></span><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); text-align: -webkit-auto;">It is available on the iBookstore for $3.99 and really should be read on an iPad rather than an iPhone since there are more than 200 illustrations included. </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">If you go to the iBookstore you can see a full table of contents, but the book contains a wide range of topics including history, geography, culture, travel, films and books about China, and, importantly, an examination of the issues that the country faces.</span><br style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><br style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">BTW #1, we chose to produce this book for the iBookstore because their ePub format does a better job of handling images, of which we have 200+. If you read the book and like it, thank you. Please do a review on the iBookstore. In this modern world of electronic publishing, writing the book is almost the easiest part. The challenge is to promote the book. Any help in spreading the word is most appreciated.</span><br style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><br style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">BTW #2, I am now working on a book about bluewater cruising based on our experiences and those of other cruisers we have shared a beer or two with. I was going to say it was the experience from one million miles, but in reality it is much more than two million miles.</span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-89705727212765553602013-01-27T08:35:00.000-05:002013-01-27T08:35:29.365-05:00OUCH!!! --- Plans Change<br />
We were very much enjoying our stay in Mossel Bay and getting things ready to go to Cape Town and beyond and, in an instant, all of our plans changed. It was a typically windy night when we heard a loud crack - like a shotgun going off right next to us. We went on deck and could not figure out immediately what the loud noise had been, but we could see that we had a serious problem. We were tied to a large concrete, commercial pier that had large (earthmover?) tires along it. The problem was that the tide was particularly low and our fenders and fender board were below the bottom tire. The sound actually was the 2" x 4" fender board snapping as the surge in the harbour made Ainia move in and out and up and down. The movement had also damaged the teak rub rail, with its stainless steel edge, that extends out from the hull. Part of the metal band had been bent and was threatening to damage the hull. While June held a flashlight I saw that the boat seemed to be moving in and out. I reached for the metal to pull it out of danger and within an instant I was sitting on the cabin top with a lot of pain and a lot of blood. It all happened so fast that June did not even know that anything had happened. I did not know exactly what happened, just that it was bad. In fact, what happened was that Ainia had gone inward and forward, trapping my hand between the rub rail and tire for just an instant.<br />
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June got dressings to stop the bleeding and a coat because we realized that shock was likely. She then rushed off to call for an ambulance, I got a blanket and tried to stay calm and warm. The first problem was going to be getting onto the dock since we were 2+ m below the dock. I was able to stop shivering (shock) long enough to climb up two tires with the help of the two cops who arrived first with the ambulance close behind. Pretty much as soon as I got up, the shivering returned but the EMTs hooked up an IV and wrapped me in blankets they took us to the Provincial Hospital which is free, but the ER doctor there suggested that we should go to the nearby private hospital which has better facilities and staff. The ambulance crew were still there and within a few minutes we were at the Bay View Private Hospital which is a very spiffy place indeed, but not cheap - $7000 was our bill for five days and the surgery.<br />
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Over the next few days we discovered the good news and bad news of the injury. We could tell it was serious from the facial reactions of the nurses who saw it. Before it was sewed back together, one sweet, young nurse let slip, "Its very flat isn't it." There was only one broken bone, at the base of the little finger, but no one was concerned about that, it was other damage that was the worry. Dr. Potgieter, the orthopedic surgeon who fortunately has a particular interest in hands, cleaned up the wounds to the front and back of the hand very carefully - infection was a particularly large concern. He said he lost track of the number of stitches at around 50. He, and us, were pleased to learn that there had been no nerve or ligament damage. In consultation with a plastic surgeon, he did think that skin grafts would be needed since the skin on both sides had been 'degloved' (horrible doctor speak, along with 'necrotic' skin). The doctor also had me start therapy the day after the accident to help my fingers recover full range of motion. They kept me in the hospital for five days in all.<br />
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We decided that best place for my recovery was at home and that the sooner I got there the better. The problem was that the commercial dock in Mossel Bay harbour was just not suitable for leaving Ainia long-term. The members of the local yacht club were great, moving their boats to free up a space for Ainia and making sure the engine was working properly. This meant that I would have to fly home by myself while June looked after Ainia. We found a cheap flight (after a costly short one to Jo'burg) on Qatar Airways via Doha and Washington, but it was still 26 hours in the air plus terminal time on three continents. BTW, this was my first flight on Qatar, which was chosen as the top airline in the world in 2011 and 2012, and I was impressed. Makes one realize how mediocre North American Airlines are. Oh, and the Qatar fare was $500 less than anyone else's, so a great combo of price and quality.<br />
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When I arrived in Toronto I decided to go directly to the hospital since I figured I would not feel any better the next day. I had asked family and friends who in the Toronto might be best at fixing hands. Hence my son had me at Toronto Western hospital at midnight. Western is the home of the University Health Centres Hand Program. By 4am, I had seen a plastic surgery resident and, more importantly, had an appointment with Dr. Graham, a plastic surgeon and the head of the Hand Program, for 9 am on Monday, less than 48 hours after I returned to Canada. Can't complain about that.<br />
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Dr. Graham's take was that I may not need skin grafts after all but that the recovery will be slow and that I would need therapy at the hospital and lots of exercise at home., which is the situation I am in now, doing my finger exercises ten times a day and visiting Western hospital. This gave us a serious schedule problem since I was looking at at least 4 to 6 weeks recovery. This meant that we could not leave Mossel Bay until early March, and perhaps much later. This would push us too much into the fall and that was not on in South African waters, at least for June and I, who tend to be sucky sailors - OK, I am the sucky sailor and June trusts my judgement which makes her an honorary sucky sailor. Ainia would have to stay in SA over the winter, with a possible departure in November.<br />
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The big problem, of course, was that if Mossel Bay was not secure in the summer, in the winter it might be terrible. The next harbours to the west were in the Cape Town area. The first of these was False Bay which is a large bay (not false at all) around the corner to the south of Cape Town. Oh, and getting to False Bay means that you have to go around Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point in Africa - one of sailing's great capes and second only to Cape Horn in fame. June, who is not a sucky sailor at all, was able to recruit Lew and Ann who had already taken Serannity to False Bay. They had a fine sail in very nice conditions (S to SE winds 15 to 25 around the Cape but problems came when they approached the False Bay YC. This area is famous for the winds that get focussed between two heights of land. The harbour is not large and the docks are close together so it looked like they could not try to dock. They tried to pick up a mooring just outside the harbour without success, but were able to anchor - let's here if for the mighty Manson. June was in contact with both the yacht club and the local marine rescue unit and they (along with June, Lew, and Ann) were not happy with being anchored off a lee shore in strong winds. BTW, at the yacht club they recorded gusts to 56 knots. June said they were too busy on Ainia to see the wind speed. The marine unit came out with their powerful boat and helped get the anchor up and Ainia into the club's fuel dock. Since that time June has gotten Ainia ready to leave, including arranging for a boat custodian and has flown home.<br />
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Some important notes.<br />
People in South Africa have been incredibly caring and helpful. They seem genuinely pleased that you are visiting their country and they want you to be safe and to enjoy their beautiful country.<br />
I will continue doing blog posts in the months to come, although the sailing/travel stuff will not resume for some time.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-76233849525340737312013-01-07T14:41:00.001-05:002013-01-07T14:41:22.023-05:00Diving with great white sharksSince we have lots of time in Mossel Bay we decided to do a cage dive with great white sharks. There are a number of companies that offer this activity along this coast. It was great fun, but June wondered why there were no other people on the boat over about 35 - perhaps they are just more sensible than we are.<br /><br /><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq1jjnp3aBF9bCz9D3AFa6pWR3Lks16NDyWa8UH_OCb3c-A631osI1ObsCGRF0CVTpVDyqQPmKdVblF6rBC13Zx21YfQxjo1TRYtadp_nEjb4Qv8UwTZFolvB1-rq3vi1HqRD9ivnelo8/s1600/MB+-+SW+cage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq1jjnp3aBF9bCz9D3AFa6pWR3Lks16NDyWa8UH_OCb3c-A631osI1ObsCGRF0CVTpVDyqQPmKdVblF6rBC13Zx21YfQxjo1TRYtadp_nEjb4Qv8UwTZFolvB1-rq3vi1HqRD9ivnelo8/s640/MB+-+SW+cage.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">LEFT The shark cage goes in the water. If you look closely you can see that it is pretty battered with most of the bars bent. We were about to find out why. The cage is set up with boat fenders so it floats with 18 inches or so air at the top. You stay above the water until the guy who is attracting the sharks with a couple of big fish heads on a line yells, 'Down', or 'Left'. Then you duck under to see the sharks. The best action happens above the water when the fish grabs the bait and holds on.<br />RIGHT That is June at the extreme left of the cage getting ready for action. You can see how the cage is attached to the side of the boat.<br /><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Some of the action shots. It was really hard to get the best pictures with a point and shoot since there is always a delay between when you push the button and when the image is captured. On a number of occasions, primarily when June was in the cage, a shark would crash into the cage, creating a few more bent pipes. The sharks we saw, about six in total, were in the 3 to 4 m range which does not sound like much until you are really close to them. They are incredibly powerful and impressive beasts. Many of them have scars and even raw wounds on them. I assume that they must bite each other, I can't imagine that anything else could attack them. At this time of year, great whites spread out along the coast and the biggest fish are away from Mossel Bay in search of food. In the winter, all the big ones congregate near a small island that has hundreds of seals on it.<br /><br /></td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-17533480721345810592013-01-07T14:07:00.000-05:002013-01-07T14:07:23.077-05:00Down the South African Coast #2<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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Sometimes things go really well, and sometimes they go OK, and then there are other times, and this is one of those. We left Port Elizabeth with what was described as, 'not a great window, but a window nonetheless'. The forecast suggested that we would have to motor for about 10 hours into a 10 to 15 knot westerly (we were going almost directly into it) and that the swells would be two to three metres which is fairly large for bashing into, although the period was something like 12 seconds growing to 17 seconds which meant that the waves would be very far apart. The wind was then to shift towards south at about the same speed which would be ideal. Our goal was to go to Knysna, a lovely resort town with a long lagoon that can only be entered just before high tide. We had about 26 hours to get there which seemed ample.</div>
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As they say about the best laid plans .. The wind did not switch and we ended up bashing for more than 27 hours and could not make the tide at Knynsna. Also we had to run the engine faster than normal, about 2300 rpm to make any decent progress. It was not nice. We decided to go into Plettenberg Bay which is a protected (from the west and southwest) spot behind a small but tall island. We got into the bay and dropped the anchor, but when we went to set it by reversing strongly, we got a nasty squeal from the engine. A quick inspection revealed that the raw water pump had croaked and was leaking into the bilge. We closed the engine water intake and decided to sail to the next real town, Mossel Bay since Plettenberg would be uncomfortable at best when the wind eventually swung east of south. Plus there was no way to do a repair there. We sailed off the anchor and were on our way just as it was getting dark. Winds were still from the west and only about 8 to 10 knots. Our first challenge was to get out of the bay. On starboard tack we were almost heading back towards PE, but when we tacked onto port, ie in the general direction we wanted to go, a nasty current kept wanting to take us back into the bay or even worse, onto the reef that extended out from the island. It took us about two hours to get a little distance away from the island and headed generally west north west which meant that every few hours we had to tack offshore again to get some searoom and still the switch to the south did not happen. By this point it was more than a day behind schedule and we wondered if it would ever happen - even though the forecast we got at Plettenberg said it was still coming.</div>
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While we were at Plettenberg and in cell phone range we called the port control and rescue unit at Mossel ceptBay and thought we had arranged a tow into the fairly small harbour there. We thought we would be there in the afternoon sometime since it was only 60 miles or so. Finally on New Year's Day we got our southerly wind, not strong but at least in a good direction. We decided to put up the asymmetric to help us get to Mossel Bay before dark. We have two spinnaker halyards and when I went to unsnap the starboard one the snap shackle, a big old one from symmetric spinnaker days came apart in my hand except for the part that fell in the water. OK, I thought, it was old and perhaps just in need of replacement, so I used the port halyard instead. We had a nice sail for a time but then the wind started getting stronger so we thought it a good idea to drop the chute. Drop it we did, the halyard had chafed on something (have to go up the mast to see on what, we have not had this problem before) and broke as were trying to get it down. It quickly became a great long purse seine beside us. Even the snuffer sock that goes over the sail reversed itself so the whole thing was well over 100 feet long and had to be pulled back on deck.</div>
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Next problem was that we had tried the engine to make sure we could use it briefly when we got to Mossel Bay and it would not start, think it is fuel blockage but can't really work on that until we get a new water pump. Next problem, we call port control and they say that tows cannot be done at night so we will have to anchor next to the harbour entrance and wait for the morning. Also the tow will not be by the rescue squad, which is sort of like the coast guard auxiliary, but by one of the official port vessels at considerable cost. Anyway, this meant coming into an unfamiliar harbour area after dark under sail with the wind behind and lots of lights in front of us to anchor. There were also a number of moorings and other floats off the beach to worry about. Fortunately, the anchoring went fine (yay for the Manson for grabbing so hard on the fist go since we might not have had a second one) and we spent a miserable night anchored off a leeshore in 25 knots and considerable swells all night. In the morning a tow launch came out to get us and at cost of not much more than $400 for half an hour's work we were tied up at a dock in the harbour.</div>
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Now comes the challenge of getting everything sorted out. The Westerbeke distributor in Cape Town does not have the pump and Westerbeke in the US was closed until January 7th so the part has not even been ordered yet. At least it is a nice place to be stuck if you have to be stuck. It is a very pretty resort town for Afrikaaners that seems entirely safe and pleasant. We will get lots of time to get little projects done and to rest up before we head towards Cape Town and the Atlantic.</div>
<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsvuF43A60mLj3W-GQrAbAEGOLxzGWellT1KyJTA3XpKnhEjysx6akpvwsqyeudQcICYZzu-BuiIev0K4ITHqTtaWff0u_HP-LdAvKYfig0aXNNSal6K0KFQnKj0yGmv5Mfeq_YFljE_Q/s1600/MB+-+Being+pushed+to+dock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsvuF43A60mLj3W-GQrAbAEGOLxzGWellT1KyJTA3XpKnhEjysx6akpvwsqyeudQcICYZzu-BuiIev0K4ITHqTtaWff0u_HP-LdAvKYfig0aXNNSal6K0KFQnKj0yGmv5Mfeq_YFljE_Q/s640/MB+-+Being+pushed+to+dock.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We were towed into the dock at Mossel Bay by the Snipe, the harbour/s launch. The tow rope was about 3 inches in diameter. The crew were very professional.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUpo7VW5izIrTa7qsWQpGsgkobd-_c0ncYbx5OsPkFF5ojD9W07fMJnlv0xTdoZFJl37jMWr7O4AFskAIVCSYiVH316uCxy0j-KqWpikcjugEkp5oysHJp7fK1AhpQVWu5REYHleYG3xY/s1600/MB+-+At+fishing+dock+with+Mare+Liberum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUpo7VW5izIrTa7qsWQpGsgkobd-_c0ncYbx5OsPkFF5ojD9W07fMJnlv0xTdoZFJl37jMWr7O4AFskAIVCSYiVH316uCxy0j-KqWpikcjugEkp5oysHJp7fK1AhpQVWu5REYHleYG3xY/s640/MB+-+At+fishing+dock+with+Mare+Liberum.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here we are with Mare Liberum rafted next to us. She is a Vega27, built in Sweden. Its displacement is about 5000 pounds or about 1/8th of ours. Most have a one cylinder diesel although this one has an outboard. More than 3000 Vegas were built and they have proven to be very successful bluewater cruisers for those on limited budgets or for those wanting to keep it simple. Martin and Maria, who own Mare Liberum are young, which helps.<br /><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg64kUIXbwVoQyrWkTc9oXpieABsqLXuutZykuI_qmAQzBMM4TRQCYx_Iu9qZKD4k-b_oI7rD7yf2uQq80LoMeGQlCQzO8mPKruV5k9sgzR33NdRYJuu8LfYgYVddYsmIX3jFn_Sdt41eY/s1600/vega_drawing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg64kUIXbwVoQyrWkTc9oXpieABsqLXuutZykuI_qmAQzBMM4TRQCYx_Iu9qZKD4k-b_oI7rD7yf2uQq80LoMeGQlCQzO8mPKruV5k9sgzR33NdRYJuu8LfYgYVddYsmIX3jFn_Sdt41eY/s640/vega_drawing.jpg" width="344" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">If you want to go cruising on a budget, here is the boat for you, the Vega 27. I almost bought one of these in about 1973 but the head in a closet did not win favour with all of the crew. You basically just shoved your bum into the cupboard. Mark and Maria had two small surfboards and two wakeboards on deck and a small dinghy tucked away somewhere.<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkEDQu0UA0jM_kNv54fqyWYHIUQJR-mHkONNJYO1F5O5fBGvuP9LyPl96E5UL5Cij2oKOnWRdIlPWSjZE9dgfK_uFoMMS0sppUqtSFoYa5UuoDbbE7MXLqMdlCq8uBVn0GdTCYqBlt9KY/s1600/MB+-+Barbecue+night.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkEDQu0UA0jM_kNv54fqyWYHIUQJR-mHkONNJYO1F5O5fBGvuP9LyPl96E5UL5Cij2oKOnWRdIlPWSjZE9dgfK_uFoMMS0sppUqtSFoYa5UuoDbbE7MXLqMdlCq8uBVn0GdTCYqBlt9KY/s640/MB+-+Barbecue+night.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">We had a braai (bbq) at the Mossel Bay YC one night with the crews of the four boats that were in Mossel Bay - Swedish, American, Spanish, and Canadian. What made this grouping interesting was that I was old enough to be the father of everyone there (except for June of course). One of the 'youngsters' made a very cogent point. Once we started crossing the Indian Ocean the percentage of younger cruisers on quite modest boats increased substantially. Many of the bigger boats, typically with older crews, are staying in SE Asia to see what happens with the pirate threat or are even having their boats shipped on freighters to the Med. For a boat similar to ours the cost is something like $24,000. BTW, that is Maria and Mark in the middle. with Spanish and American singlehanders on the outside, although one of them had found crew from Reunion to Cape Town.<br /></td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-67678038570759269762013-01-07T12:36:00.000-05:002013-01-07T12:36:07.417-05:00A few more animals - - Port Elizabeth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
While we were in Port Elizabeth we had the chance to go for a day trip to Addo Elephant National Park and a cheetah breeding centre. This was done with the crews of three other boats. In typical fashion they were from all over the world: Brazilian, Welsh, and American, sort of along with the resident Canucks. All of these folks have much more interesting stories than we do. The Brazilian is running the affairs of two companies from his boat using email and phone. The Welsh couple did not set off to sail any great distance. They were bored and decided to sail to France for a change. When they there it was quite cold so they decided to go a bit further south to Portugal which was still cold so they went to the Canaries, Senegal, and the Cape Verdes. From there it seemed logical to go to go the Caribbean and the rest is history. They paid for their adult children to fly to the Canaries since they had not said goodbye. They tend to sail where the wind will take them on their Moody 33, rather than to a particular destination. Their longest passage was 95 days from Panama to French Polynesia. When they came to South Africa they did not bother stopping in Richards Bay or Durban, PE was their first stop. The American, sort of, is most interesting. It is a relatively young man(early 30s) and his 12 year old daughter and they are now on their second circumnavigation on a pretty basic Morgan Out Island 41 (eg no furling for the jibs). Dino makes documentaries for various travel channels around the world; we were interviewed for his next one about crossing the Indian Ocean. He is a dual US/Mexican citizen and said he really feels like a citizen of the world. He has no idea what he will do when he completes this RTW, especially as Sasha is getting older and is starting to feel the need to settle down in one place.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioupSAp-afz_TeAsLI4GhmAJUOW7dXppWwJBaE5nZuTsv13OyrINDPjxSwjjat0f3j2aSIvjm7VLLVGonHTaBj13m1u9NgbB5X1HYa-Vom8-sShc3L3l5ZgMglVWLoFH1biO0Q7zvNWwk/s1600/PE+-+Elephants.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioupSAp-afz_TeAsLI4GhmAJUOW7dXppWwJBaE5nZuTsv13OyrINDPjxSwjjat0f3j2aSIvjm7VLLVGonHTaBj13m1u9NgbB5X1HYa-Vom8-sShc3L3l5ZgMglVWLoFH1biO0Q7zvNWwk/s640/PE+-+Elephants.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Addo is, of course, famous for its elephants. There were close to 60 at or very near this water hole. The group included both males and females which is unusual. Addo females are unique in SA in that they do not have tusks.</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSC6zIaEw_LToWrTvgu04ornXTCYeF1869bCZDEn_6MiNZ164onYCwhwTZ9EaCV6IU_H3I3ZEPfRk50jc6I-sQ9RIp3vO4pov8dWXxiGO1nJF6WGy3ME07Hzw5_Z_ZGycK5Zfmbbaol0M/s1600/PE+-+Buffalo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="502" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSC6zIaEw_LToWrTvgu04ornXTCYeF1869bCZDEn_6MiNZ164onYCwhwTZ9EaCV6IU_H3I3ZEPfRk50jc6I-sQ9RIp3vO4pov8dWXxiGO1nJF6WGy3ME07Hzw5_Z_ZGycK5Zfmbbaol0M/s640/PE+-+Buffalo.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">We found this buffalo wallowing in a mud bath. He was much bigger, almost rhino size, than any we saw in the other parks.<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlnO8IkAQO6Ad5fdb2NyzhaIP5dAuV59RRkVHwwgZksAXAR8ECqvRWHV9zI7eMUcYlytwpmwIfVYWVkw2Zk6bfxaLp2X4wxgzs_r75-KDt8EfLqSWaJnUn4-fQl69ZY325wEBta-twRGk/s1600/PE+-+Cheetah+licking+June.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlnO8IkAQO6Ad5fdb2NyzhaIP5dAuV59RRkVHwwgZksAXAR8ECqvRWHV9zI7eMUcYlytwpmwIfVYWVkw2Zk6bfxaLp2X4wxgzs_r75-KDt8EfLqSWaJnUn4-fQl69ZY325wEBta-twRGk/s640/PE+-+Cheetah+licking+June.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The main business of the cheetah reserve is to produce new cheetahs for release into the wild in national parks and private game reserves. Ola seemed to be the place's star. She is a six year old female and remarkably comfortable with humans. She loved to be stroked and purred. She licked your arm for salt and her tongue felt like about 70 grit sandpaper.</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVPwMaFitr-PAfqTb43oSM96abNagkuCjEDwyTPv1bcqjFXAQnThLSZQzBD5qforeJecSOzb00g1vDa2jTu5wvONW4cp5S-Ax1IfkIb6PvaVa3NyMSIvp0yII0D2DnTkxx92H6X-fdfGE/s1600/PE+-+Cheetah+standing+up.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="470" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVPwMaFitr-PAfqTb43oSM96abNagkuCjEDwyTPv1bcqjFXAQnThLSZQzBD5qforeJecSOzb00g1vDa2jTu5wvONW4cp5S-Ax1IfkIb6PvaVa3NyMSIvp0yII0D2DnTkxx92H6X-fdfGE/s640/PE+-+Cheetah+standing+up.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">I did not realize how large cheetahs are. They are actually a bit taller than leopards but much lighter, although I think Ola enjoys a pretty good life and may have a few extra pounds. For an extra 150 rand you can take a cheetah for a walk on a leash. I think this is a way that they can get people to pay to do a chore that needs to be done in any case.<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgegz0HlKTMpXKtisp2M0-Fgo5QZ55wuO3fyyxHai9IdCy3R1S2glZJ-zWEvzO1TYj0NnVp0vpvv9Nrcc0b7kVKABRkCRez9fZ6TTW5GF6XnRzRtc7qwL-u2D2aIokRj81Y4nXyZTnBdw/s1600/PE+-+Leopard+playing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgegz0HlKTMpXKtisp2M0-Fgo5QZ55wuO3fyyxHai9IdCy3R1S2glZJ-zWEvzO1TYj0NnVp0vpvv9Nrcc0b7kVKABRkCRez9fZ6TTW5GF6XnRzRtc7qwL-u2D2aIokRj81Y4nXyZTnBdw/s640/PE+-+Leopard+playing.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The reserve also has a pair of leopards that were orphaned when their mother died. They will breed leopards for release when they get older. You used to be able to go into the leopard enclosure but now only the guide does because the animals are just too big and strong, but still friendly.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX89zUR1nw9Nea_Q44lSyzGcim8pu0ok-1aoYkKoUp-m3YefCUcxEOznXFRvBP1myQCRF-Akrdc3Wzv0ZXJ4IT5leeTAxdHCOcRYbVg2Y_LZ2Pj-sen822py9NMIY1S4BeWuqhMYy5VRc/s1600/PE+-+Lion+yawning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="488" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX89zUR1nw9Nea_Q44lSyzGcim8pu0ok-1aoYkKoUp-m3YefCUcxEOznXFRvBP1myQCRF-Akrdc3Wzv0ZXJ4IT5leeTAxdHCOcRYbVg2Y_LZ2Pj-sen822py9NMIY1S4BeWuqhMYy5VRc/s640/PE+-+Lion+yawning.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">They also a pair of seven month old male lion twins, again as a result of the mother dying. The lions will not be bread because lions are not endangered in South Africa. In fact there is something of an oversupply. If you look at this guy's paws you get a sense that he is going to be very big. It was incredible to get so close to these great cats. They all are quite wonderful to see.</td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-30056082637898885912012-12-28T05:55:00.001-05:002012-12-28T05:56:18.637-05:00Down the South African coast - #1I know, this is supposed to be a sailing blog, so it is time to get back to talking about actually, well, sailing. From Richards Bay the steps along the coast are to Durban (90 miles), East London (260 miles - this is the toughest one since there is absolutely no shelter anywhere; the coast is essentially a straight beach), and Port Elizabeth (130 miles). The secret of going along the coast is to wait for a weather window and then get as far as you can before the dreaded southwest 'buster' appears - which is tied most often to what are called 'coastal lows' which spin off from the really big lows (sometimes in the 960 mb range which is what hurricanes have) in the Roaring Forties. An extra wrinkle is that as the lows approach, the northeasterlies (the direction you want and are using) build, often to the 30 to 35 knot range and cause quite big, short seas, which may contain swells from the southwest as well. It can be confusing, at least until you start to see the patterns. A local said the NE winds are called the 'beastly northeasterly', because they can be uncomfortable, but at least they are not dangerous as the busters can be once they get to 20 knots or so. There is also a useful radio net, Peri-peri radio which gives weather reports, forecasts and advice.<br />
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We got a good forecast and left Richards Bay one lovely morning. There was almost no wind in the harbour and the forecast was for slowly building winds from useful directions (moving to northeast). The only problem was that the weather had not read the forecast and there were still SW winds in the 15 knot range. These followed the 30+ knot squall we got just as we left the harbour. In any case, after making very slow progress into the swell and wind (motoring) we decided that discretion is the better part of whatever and had a very nice sail back for an hour or so.<br />
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Next morning, we tried again and the conditions were right for heading SW. It looked like the weather window would be long enough to skip Durban and go all the way to East London. After a few hours we found the Agulhas Current which you try to ride southwest. Our highest speed was 12.4 knots and we averaged more than 10 knots for four hours at one point when we probably sailing about 7 knots. All<br />
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<tr><td><a href="http://www.buoyweather.com/servlet/hycomMeteo1?zoom=10&grb=nww3&gs=hycomCurrent&tau=1&lat=-29.5&lon=31.5&units=m&lev=null" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="512" src="http://www.buoyweather.com/servlet/hycomMeteo1?zoom=10&grb=nww3&gs=hycomCurrent&tau=1&lat=-29.5&lon=31.5&units=m&lev=null" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Here is a typical current chart for the eastern part of the South African coast. The Mozambique border is at the top and East London at the bottom. The brighter the colour the faster the current. There are areas with currents greater than 3.5 knots in the area between Richards Bay and Durban. What you want to do is stay in an area of fast current but not be too far away from the coast so you can close to shore if the winds swing to the southwest since in these conditions you can get enormous, dangerous waves - the guides talk about 20 m. In general, the suggestion is to follow the 200 m depth contour, although we found that good currents seemed to start at around 100 m. Note that the current pattern is constantly changing.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Once we got opposite Durban our joy dissipated when we got a new forecast that closed the weather window about 12 hours sooner than we expected and we were going to be about 70 miles from East London when the winds switched (in our limited experience it seems that the forecasts over-estimate the length of windows). No problem, we would just have to go to Durban until the next window. Unfortunately we were about 24 miles offshore at this point and had a long way to go in.</span></div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhJtGpIil4ma3L1sN2BbvCRhVNEdmc34uJ5ZgyYSMr4HE0G05wFApzYK-PiEiXGI8DNQeGANjYD-3nas5Dsq0EAmNjHgwEZZsl_oPOsK9pmwNUkkUkZx3UnaioO5vugkPDJvLRY9xkIyc/s1600/Durban+busy+harbor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhJtGpIil4ma3L1sN2BbvCRhVNEdmc34uJ5ZgyYSMr4HE0G05wFApzYK-PiEiXGI8DNQeGANjYD-3nas5Dsq0EAmNjHgwEZZsl_oPOsK9pmwNUkkUkZx3UnaioO5vugkPDJvLRY9xkIyc/s640/Durban+busy+harbor.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Durban harbour is extremely busy as was Richards Bay. This is the AIS display on the chartplotter with us leaving the harbour (the second time). There are many freighters in the harbour and about two dozen ships anchored outside waiting for their turn.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Our stay in Durban, at the Point Yacht Club, turned out to be much longer than we expected as you shall see. At first it seemed like a short stop and we left as the weather window was opening. We were only about two miles from the harbour entrance in 25 to 30 knots from the SE with a nasty left over job when the fitting that held our lower shrouds to the mast sheared off and it, along with the two lower shrouds fell onto the deck. Needless to say this focussed our attention since my first thought was that we could lose the mast. We quickly tacked to put the load on the shrouds on the other side and rigged the two running backstays (strong, hi-tech lines that are attached to the mast above the shrouds) to provide extra support for the mast and headed back. To be fair, the mast did brilliantly and even at the worst moment it did not appear like it was going to fail. Hail to Ted Hood and Bristol. It is like a stout tree. I think a lot of boats would have lost their rig with this failure. On the way back into the harbour we called a 1000 foot container ship and explained the problem and asked if we could go in first. The pilot was most helpful, told us to cross his bows and enter down the north side of the channel with him coming a bit to the south in the narrow channel.</span><br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaJBRF_sZvbTQ5n7QTevHd-cQfeKngOCDauo8MDxnLlsTOIIpzRd7gp4ICdoz_eiEI6LNsSfJQvMUJ5PlHLqxg2Jq5g58mz0hWwqFBY1W7akqnvLRtnfhysjwGPDSamSiu8iIgdgkD0CU/s1600/Broken+rigging.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="494" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaJBRF_sZvbTQ5n7QTevHd-cQfeKngOCDauo8MDxnLlsTOIIpzRd7gp4ICdoz_eiEI6LNsSfJQvMUJ5PlHLqxg2Jq5g58mz0hWwqFBY1W7akqnvLRtnfhysjwGPDSamSiu8iIgdgkD0CU/s640/Broken+rigging.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Broken mast fitting. The two stainless plates sheared across the holes through which a large pin goes to a similar fitting on the other side of the mast. This is back of the fitting which was against the mast.</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkeEumHpOJPFOrSb0mtRqKsecDHS7sc5aqFmCa3q8522of-goIjQWh9QtHl-8S7E5FZ-0YI7YbD3VzIPsJ9Rww-gfZAM3B77SRVAQew9uUSSQCYiKqy3M8HU8_FOCKl2k5Zt5eWq8Kdkg/s1600/Durban+Point+Yacht+Club.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="446" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkeEumHpOJPFOrSb0mtRqKsecDHS7sc5aqFmCa3q8522of-goIjQWh9QtHl-8S7E5FZ-0YI7YbD3VzIPsJ9Rww-gfZAM3B77SRVAQew9uUSSQCYiKqy3M8HU8_FOCKl2k5Zt5eWq8Kdkg/s640/Durban+Point+Yacht+Club.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">This is the Point Yacht Club in Durban. The Royal Natal Yacht Club (founded in 1856) is next door. The RNYC is a much more modest affair than its grand name would suggest. South African yacht clubs do not seem to own the docks where their boats are. The docks seem to be privately (individually) owned and are managed by a separate company. Dockage was fairly inexpensive, 160 Rands, which is less than $20 a night. When we first arrived we had to anchor since all the docks were full. They charged 50 Rands (~$6) for this. The yacht clubs give free temporary memberships to visitors which allows you to use their facilities.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">We had a number of repairs to do somewhere and decided to do them in Durban rather than later since we had to fix the mast fitting in any case . This turned out to be a good idea since we found out that many businesses in SA close a week or so before Christmas and stay closed for three weeks or more. The mmast fitting turned out to be the easiest thing of all. There is a small store near the harbour called Cruising Connections run by Tony Herrick. He sells mainly used stuff including charts and various boat fittings. Included is a 'junk box' of stainless fittings that he sells by weight. In this box was a fitting exactly as we needed. In this one, the two plates had been welded together at the top which seems like a good idea. With the old one the two plates were loose and just held together by the nuts on the threaded rod through the mast. The only problem was that the two lower holes had to be drilled out a bit to fit our shrouds, the large top hole was already the right size.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">We got the local rigger to make up a new shroud to replace one with a broken wire strand in it (the number of boats that arrive in SA with one or more broken shrouds is very large indeed) and to drill out the two holes. That was fine except he only drilled out one hole and was just heading off on holiday to Mozambique and closed his shop for the holidays. He arranged for a very helpful guy who ran the boatyard at the marina to drill it, but he did not have the right drill. Finally he got one and did the drilling which took about one minute. We took our outboard and inflatable to get serviced on Wednesday (after calling and being told they could do the work within a couple of days) and they assured us that they would be fixed no problem. BTW, we had to rent a car and drive almost an hour to find these guys in the hills north of the city. We called Friday and they said they were working Saturday and it would be ready for Tuesday (Monday was a holiday - these guys have almost as many holidays as the Aussies). We rented a car and went to pick them up on Tuesday and they had not even looked at them and did not know when they could get to them.The owner did not even have the courtesy to talk to us and sent one of his underlings who seemed like a very nice guy, but far too willing to promise what he could not deliver. We loaded everything up and headed back to the city. If you are in Durban and name 'Gary's Water Sports' comes into the discussion - run away. I think what it comes down to is that Gary knew that we would only every be there once and he wanted to focus on the local customers before the holiday - which he could and should have told us in the first place. Note for cruisers, I sent an email to Noonsite suggesting that this guy's company be delisted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">We also took our SSB radio in to a company called Imtech which is part of Holland Radio. They provide electronic servicing for ships all over the world. I wanted to get the HAM frequencies on the radio unblocked since I got my HAM license when I was last in Canada (VE3 CCV) and also have the radio reprogrammed so I can transmit on marine data channels. They said they had the manuals to do this and it would not be a problem. Two hours of expensive labour later, nothing had changed and they did not know what else to try, so the radio went back on the boat unchanged. Do I appear happy with getting things fixed in Durban? I doubt it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">While we were in Durban we went to a Christmas concert in the Botanic Garden featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo. They are most famous for their collaboration with Paul Simon the Graceland album that was the top album in the world 27 years ago (hard to believe its been that long). Since then they have remained prominent and have won three Grammy awards and performed at the soccer world cup and at the ceremonies when Nelson Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. They and their opening group only did a couple of Christmas songs, but that was irrelevant in the enjoyment of the evening. There were about a thousand people at the concert and we were sitting on the grass about 5 m from the stage so we could see and here everything. Most agreeable evening</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Here is the first audio link on the blog. It is to an interesting song and video. <i>Shosholoza </i>seems to be like an informal second national anthem . It was performed as the encore to the performance we saw </span><span style="font-size: small;">and certainly got a lot of people up and dancing. The video ties together the song, the national rugby team and its symbol, the Springbok which is a type of antelope that lives in dry areas of the country. At the end of the video there is a statement about losing the Springbok as a symbol - no idea what that is all about. There have been a lot of politics associated with rugby. (Background with a bit of a simplification but here goes), traditionally rugby has been associated most with the Afrikaans population, while cricket has been the English game, and soccer the black game. Black South Africans had traditionally not cheered for the Springboks because they were a major symbol of their oppressors. Among the Afrikaaners in particular, the game is almost like a religion. Games between the Springboks and the Kiwis and Springboks and Aussies are incredibly important. There is even a 'super' rugby league that has teams in the three countries. Think hockey in Canada for a comparison. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">In 1995, shortly after the end of Apartheid, South Africa hosted and participated in its first world cup (they were banned from previous world cups because of Apartheid). Nelson Mandela, being Nelson Mandela. made a big point out going to the games and rallying all the people behind their almost entirely white team (with one black player). Hosting and winning this tournament made a major contribution to the growth of the new, 'rainbow' nation, although there is still much, much more to do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhxxEf29FLM&list=PL60483B9DC564527A">Shosholoza by Ladysmith Black Mambazo</a></span><br />
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<tr><td><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/05/Invictus-poster.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/05/Invictus-poster.png" width="268" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><i style="font-size: 13px;">Invictus </i>is a very good film about the role that the 1995 Rugby World Cup played in uniting the new South Africa. Directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Morgan Freeman as Mandela and Matt Damon as Francis Pienaar, the captain of the Springboks. It is apparently quite faithful to the real events. Freeman and Damon were both nominated for Oscars. This film and the <i>Shosholoza </i>video make an interesting pairing.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile back to sailing, we finally got out of Durban and headed for Port Elizabeth we hoped, or at least to East London. Again the weather window was shortened and we ended up going into EL. We had a terrific sail, again with lots of current helping us. With the current and a bit of surfing down a wave, June actually had 15+ knots showing on the GPS briefly. When we altered course towards East London we noticed that Morley was not steering well. When we went back to look at it (her?), we noticed the rudder was floating behind us tied to the boat by its safety line. When we got it on board we found that the 'safety tube' had fractured. This tube is a piece of stainless tubing that is purposely of lighter construction than the rest of the rudder assembly. The idea is that this tube will break first if you hit something and the rudder itself will be safe. We put the spare on in East London and hope we don't break another since the company that makes these is closed over Christmas.</span></div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQ_LPkqlqs5gDvrRn6_NIndMAx8q5XFInbEuMnKns3X6Dg7PY2kpT2XmoYoSZ6ZJeDigrKqzYaQ45nyCKo75Tm-s_sj0MR28YA-8aexfSdFUxShnu3xQLThNTDMygGFMt96H00VqLtfI/s1600/Morley+broken.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQ_LPkqlqs5gDvrRn6_NIndMAx8q5XFInbEuMnKns3X6Dg7PY2kpT2XmoYoSZ6ZJeDigrKqzYaQ45nyCKo75Tm-s_sj0MR28YA-8aexfSdFUxShnu3xQLThNTDMygGFMt96H00VqLtfI/s640/Morley+broken.jpg" width="350" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">The break in the 'safety tube' of Morley's rudder - the picture might make more sense if it was turned upside down with rudder downward. The spare safety tube is to the right. It is hard to see in this photo, but you can see the reinforcement we had done to the hole that the main pivot pin goes through - it is at the bottom left of the assembly. Over the years the hole had become oval-shaped and it meant that Morley was not as precise. The wobble in the rudder blade also increased the strain on the hole and made it worse. I had two thick washers welded to the housing and a longer, thicker pin made. This would be an easy fix for the Monitor people and seems like a common problem from talks with other cruisers.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">One of the fascinating things with the Agulhas is the temperture. On the way to EL we were experiencing water temperatures as high as 34C (our sensor may be about 2 degrees high, but no more). When we started heading in toward the port we noticed the temperature steadily dropping as we moved into shallower water, in particular where the water was less than 100 m. By the time we got near the harbour the water was only 17C and it felt like we were standing next to the door of a large freezer. It also got a bit foggy as the warm air from the land spread over the cool water.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The port of East London is actually in a river, the only one in South Africa. We were only there for about 27 hours at anchor. We got a forecast that suggested we could get to Port Elizabeth overnight, but that we would have to motor since winds would be light. Accordingly we left the harbour at about 7 pm and had to deal with quite a bit of fog until we reached warmer waters offshore. I am sure that there are nice mathematical solutions to the problem but it was never entirely clear at what angle you should leave the shore to get into the current in the most effective manner. Do you go straight out to reach the current as soon as possible or do you go at an angle so you are moving towards your destination at the same time you are heading out. We sort of went at a 45 to 55 degree angle. A second question is how far out to go. If you are at a point where you are getting 2.5 knots of help is it worth going offshore for another hour to try to get 3.5? We used satisficing behaviour (yes, there is such a word, I was thinking about doing a doctoral dissertation on satisficing wrt school textbooks), rather than optimizing and followed the 100 m contour pretty much and generally were going between 8 and 9 knots. It was an interesting experience. You had to keep an eye on the boat speed, the water depth and the water temperature. At one point the water temp dropped 0.5C and the depth went from just over 100 m to about 90 m and boat slowed by about a knot. We angled out for about five minutes and recovered speed,, depth, and temperature. We left EL with another boat that could motor faster than we can, but they stayed within four miles of shore while we were 8 to 10 miles off. We arrived in PE an hour before they did even though we went further.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">We saw lots of interesting wildlife on the way to PE with several whales, a large shark on the surface, some seals, a lot of large sea birds and even many African penguins.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgii9GYGrQ13WUwRCLY40IFq1UU7bv0xBcATq8vC9Dr7QOQykr7RCg12MhFUTLhobu6YEFTGXfIXuvwSZkaEl991gxMySnomySiaVLMLKos8YIDi-64J_Inld1DqLietFJD7PgvJoo86Dc/s1600/PE+-+Whale+back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgii9GYGrQ13WUwRCLY40IFq1UU7bv0xBcATq8vC9Dr7QOQykr7RCg12MhFUTLhobu6YEFTGXfIXuvwSZkaEl991gxMySnomySiaVLMLKos8YIDi-64J_Inld1DqLietFJD7PgvJoo86Dc/s640/PE+-+Whale+back.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">We saw several whales on the way to Port Elizabeth including one (too) up close and personal in the dark and fog so you know it was close. At first they look like logs and are motionless, but when you get close they move away slowly. It is not impossible that Morley's safety tube was broken by a whale but we have no evidence of it. We have seen no large logs or other flotsam.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuRD62Uv9_m5rw6VDkY8RWoCScD-Zm86Nvc6CQBt0i2SwZnXF0p01aJrkcG3LFV7bYkzKq9bgiqiJryA4Opef9dgjeq1b0sGsgAuGWfzqHVNuD8t4zUZ6FOcKCiMijJ9i5YfoSSDtAaE4/s1600/PE+-+Whale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuRD62Uv9_m5rw6VDkY8RWoCScD-Zm86Nvc6CQBt0i2SwZnXF0p01aJrkcG3LFV7bYkzKq9bgiqiJryA4Opef9dgjeq1b0sGsgAuGWfzqHVNuD8t4zUZ6FOcKCiMijJ9i5YfoSSDtAaE4/s640/PE+-+Whale.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Does anyone recognize what type of whale this is? Humpback?</td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-1327516608480548992012-12-17T00:56:00.001-05:002012-12-17T09:34:17.603-05:00Southern Africa Land Cruise 3 - Lesotho<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRIJIH2EfH4HXdmmNbA0NQqahlmDlFD9WDheXvqfBxFe-JZ8GFsiJ7STdmP4JjRrwbdc-ew28JQOp9dWRJImjY5wDiAzoDCjcuvS4sFVDh_OyLkIuKTbsMWJ4bqcSqynaMjPjK1LCEMTM/s1600/mlesotho.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRIJIH2EfH4HXdmmNbA0NQqahlmDlFD9WDheXvqfBxFe-JZ8GFsiJ7STdmP4JjRrwbdc-ew28JQOp9dWRJImjY5wDiAzoDCjcuvS4sFVDh_OyLkIuKTbsMWJ4bqcSqynaMjPjK1LCEMTM/s640/mlesotho.gif" width="566" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For those who need a map to understand where things are. Richards Bay is northeast of Durban along the coast in inset map. On the big map, Sani Pass is in the southeast corner of Lesotho near the "g" in Mokotlong. Maliba lodge is near Mahobong in the north. Mamohau, Mahlefekane, and Katse are north of Thaba Tseka. Semonkong is shown.</td></tr>
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After our visits to the game parks and battlefields we returned to our boats in Richards Bay to do some boat work and relax and then it was off to Lesotho for our second 'land cruise'. Lesotho is a tiny country that is completely surrounded by South Africa. It is sometimes called the 'kingdom in the sky' because the lowest point in the country is about 3200 feet above sea level and most of the country is mountainous with some areas over 10,000 feet. It is a very beautiful and very poor country with a huge AIDS problem, with more than 20% of adults HIV Positive. After I retired from teaching in 2006 I went to Lesotho to volunteer so to some extent is was a chance to revisit an old stomping ground.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lesotho's lowland area is on the northern side of the country and accordingly that is where most of the border crossings are. We decided to enter on the south side over Sani Pass. Our first day took us near the border in the Drakensberg range of mountains. We stayed at this self-catering spot on a farm near Underberg. We had this entire house with two large bedrooms and a huge living area in-between that even had a ping pong table. Accommodation in South Africa tends to be pretty cheap and quite high quality.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The South African police do not allow you to enter Sani Pass unless you have a 4 x 4. Here we are in our Mitsubishi Crew Cab on a fairly typical part of the Pass. We even used the low range of the 4 x 4 in a couple of places. It was a real stump puller. Soon after starting up Sani Pass we were into the clouds. We rose above them just before we got to the Lesotho border at around 10,000'</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">You never know what is around the next bend of the road in Lesotho.<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGkROHQjLoQL37tafc-y85Ma47Hgos16JXF3kKuC7dIrMnAWsMeosG5AevbX4BtO_8-C6UzvJzqo9tS0haQClPhQejuqp_RYiVgASbog4fAa-tbNec-t7x09eOQvPltvE3SekEfN7IQZU/s1600/Sheep+close+up.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGkROHQjLoQL37tafc-y85Ma47Hgos16JXF3kKuC7dIrMnAWsMeosG5AevbX4BtO_8-C6UzvJzqo9tS0haQClPhQejuqp_RYiVgASbog4fAa-tbNec-t7x09eOQvPltvE3SekEfN7IQZU/s640/Sheep+close+up.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">This guy was much more curious than most sheep. June keeps telling me about the lovely white sheep in Wales. He would not qualify. It was sheering season and we saw a lot of bald sheep too.<br /><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik34wzSH3hCypti8QbpIJNxnoZXPuq5plKTJkKwrLeRxgoPW8apdMjwOIMNvHob447l_LorlkV4u7btNhoYN2ZX1wyUWrGdccQeLEWa4r_nlVCN02ZyBC-pclyOBxGCfZZ3K1VLuTtGmc/s1600/Maliba+lodge+deck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik34wzSH3hCypti8QbpIJNxnoZXPuq5plKTJkKwrLeRxgoPW8apdMjwOIMNvHob447l_LorlkV4u7btNhoYN2ZX1wyUWrGdccQeLEWa4r_nlVCN02ZyBC-pclyOBxGCfZZ3K1VLuTtGmc/s640/Maliba+lodge+deck.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">What you don't expect in Lesotho, a five-star hotel. Maliba Mountrain Lodge is located in a national park and has a new paved road with 30 speed bumps in about 15 km. They meet you in the parking lot with hot towels which is a nice touch when you have been driving on some pretty crummy, dusty roads.<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt34tsJT623Yp2u0HN1toZx7gbKLDABGwfwBCHeJRQXLqsuNncB-4C1oYg0llBkSIh-vYDRl8DlfzGUzx6jmLvHaerwNV9HceqjaEexJwJpZMEQiDwGb_p1pvYRCZqqwg_HnPr5hbgzr0/s1600/Maliba+our+house.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt34tsJT623Yp2u0HN1toZx7gbKLDABGwfwBCHeJRQXLqsuNncB-4C1oYg0llBkSIh-vYDRl8DlfzGUzx6jmLvHaerwNV9HceqjaEexJwJpZMEQiDwGb_p1pvYRCZqqwg_HnPr5hbgzr0/s640/Maliba+our+house.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">We did not stay in the main part of the lodge which was a bit pricey for our budget, if not our tastes. Instead we had this chalet which had four bedrooms, three baths and two decks over the river right behind the house. The price for the four of us was less than $100 and it was self-catering which saved us the cost of restaurant meals. Lonely Planet consider Lesotho to be one of the best value destinations in the world.<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS9m_70y1bgn47jOz9LqwceOzqtUXIAN-JbmJwsLk6l-pL07WNKKO_QEKag1xXRDqh6vMdI1l0tnOIa4YmzMzFdLiboXFdLOaNZs8NDfa5MIkf-Ypmkrpu8yHSs2OfCYFYuQTmd9cStLg/s1600/Mamahaaou+students.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS9m_70y1bgn47jOz9LqwceOzqtUXIAN-JbmJwsLk6l-pL07WNKKO_QEKag1xXRDqh6vMdI1l0tnOIa4YmzMzFdLiboXFdLOaNZs8NDfa5MIkf-Ypmkrpu8yHSs2OfCYFYuQTmd9cStLg/s640/Mamahaaou+students.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These girls are students at Mamohau High School, the residential school I taught at in the Highlands. The school was not in good shape with many broken windows that still had broken glass on the ground. When I was there the principal was rarely present since he was busy running his private businesses. It appeared that things had gotten worse, at least in the repair of the buildings.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJZt8LiI31fcVQq8_mpzO4OpVvwXNvwJPhbpWaSp6jNhsaza9BRQ6FxENQaT7ORQq0vWDlyiwhGEcib34deQlOg2Iqv8aFfu6VYIQjgGce3nHZAiKfqRk9tTfDPiBWdf72lxKEZL28bGA/s1600/Mamahaou.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJZt8LiI31fcVQq8_mpzO4OpVvwXNvwJPhbpWaSp6jNhsaza9BRQ6FxENQaT7ORQq0vWDlyiwhGEcib34deQlOg2Iqv8aFfu6VYIQjgGce3nHZAiKfqRk9tTfDPiBWdf72lxKEZL28bGA/s640/Mamahaou.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thee are the two classrooms that I taught in most often at Mamohau. The vice-principal disappeared for two weeks and he taught the Form E (like grade 12) English classes, so I had two of those. The Form E math teacher was away sick (not a good thing to hear in Lesotho) the entire time I was there so I taught those two classes. At the end of Form E the kids write the Cambridge overseas exams at the English CSE level. If they pass they can go to the country's university or its college and the government pays. Most students do not pass, with math being the killer subject. Remarkably, the country spends more on education as a percent of its GDP than any other country. They are really trying but there is much room for improvement in teaching.</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH2sIdfhi6LsElmqvVJ-aqg7ZMWLwkMGFRVXi_rw48tsc5I7RASztlejxZKYscNbx-iBI2cXp2i4CPJfeSCiEX75p2b_cXdJV3EdhgWxzlwV8zXNbDeqSoRuQDyDGOtSjp7sO48sZfKes/s1600/Mahlekefane+building.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH2sIdfhi6LsElmqvVJ-aqg7ZMWLwkMGFRVXi_rw48tsc5I7RASztlejxZKYscNbx-iBI2cXp2i4CPJfeSCiEX75p2b_cXdJV3EdhgWxzlwV8zXNbDeqSoRuQDyDGOtSjp7sO48sZfKes/s640/Mahlekefane+building.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">I was really looking forward to seeing this building at Makelefane Primary School which was even higher in the mountains along a 4 x 4 road to a diamond mine. When I was there, two classes were held in a tent (think wedding reception tent) even though it snows up here pretty often. The local people decided to do something about it and started building using only a shovel, a long steel rod to dig rocks out of the ground, a hammer for shaping the rocks, and a long string, made of woven grass, that they used for the layout. The problem was that they had no money for doors, windows, or roof. Our charity, Help Lesotho, agreed to buy these and it was my job to figure exactly what to buy (at a good price) and get it delivered to the mountains. Here is the result (we did not buy the blue paint).<br />In contrast to Mamahau, Makelefane showed real civic pride. Everything was impeccably clean and in good repair and since my time there, a new kitchen building (kids are given breakfast and lunch) and new latrines had been built as had a water line from a nearby spring. The principal of this school was a real force of nature and demanded the best from her teachers. Unfortunately she was killed in a car accident a few years ago, but her legacy appears to be in good shape.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsJthBfYm3FHlgk9PbR1U8BqDoer_Dg0l6Bq_niLZSQRlpY_K4Tik8LdEznJHRMR3cRHqJH3vBPsfdAjO1wbDTHtAinR_BtZxQ_mvoncboJhLraasZGEFUoxkDGDwJ79UxvPrJ6OBXtw8/s1600/Mahlefekance+indoor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsJthBfYm3FHlgk9PbR1U8BqDoer_Dg0l6Bq_niLZSQRlpY_K4Tik8LdEznJHRMR3cRHqJH3vBPsfdAjO1wbDTHtAinR_BtZxQ_mvoncboJhLraasZGEFUoxkDGDwJ79UxvPrJ6OBXtw8/s640/Mahlefekance+indoor.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Inside the school building. My innovation was the purchase of some fibreglass panels for the roof. They have the same profile as the corrugated metal sheets and make the interior much brighter. Walls are plastered with mud. Don't know who gave them the Canadian flag.<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8RIgjEpn-WlkkAB2GzrbTxwl2NS0KyiHy2p63H16a_NroLeDXNVSNThkiPwaAydSgTUhyphenhyphenmy85gEYCR4VFC9bJaaT9pCBUZdqm9byBdWtSHNh_sYX70n7ioJ_WDeroHBWc0OHC1JKAxRc/s1600/Katse+dam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8RIgjEpn-WlkkAB2GzrbTxwl2NS0KyiHy2p63H16a_NroLeDXNVSNThkiPwaAydSgTUhyphenhyphenmy85gEYCR4VFC9bJaaT9pCBUZdqm9byBdWtSHNh_sYX70n7ioJ_WDeroHBWc0OHC1JKAxRc/s640/Katse+dam.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">This is the Katse Dam, the second largest dam in Africa (185 m high). It is the centre of the enormous Highland Water Project which diverts water to South Africa and generates most of Lesotho's hydro power. So far there are two dams and three diversion tunnels. A third dam and another tunnel have been agreed on and there could be more in the future. The next picture was taken along the little platform to the left of where the water is coming out.<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9dPfTW_KMINahS7hwjowrsmdgPkBGju3HWeApI3xqsEMjjGetSl5NKSJkyn2qjZVwE6g19UE6I8Vv5f5bzi7ZlXOlGF5kGWYrz9SJ_xyi_U4sZ3h0aVZ9D8T2U-EPB6eBwtBK6bFMa48/s1600/Katse+closeup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9dPfTW_KMINahS7hwjowrsmdgPkBGju3HWeApI3xqsEMjjGetSl5NKSJkyn2qjZVwE6g19UE6I8Vv5f5bzi7ZlXOlGF5kGWYrz9SJ_xyi_U4sZ3h0aVZ9D8T2U-EPB6eBwtBK6bFMa48/s640/Katse+closeup.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Hard to take this picture since the dam overwhelms your perspective and it curves in two directions. We were lucky enough to get a tour inside the dam wall. There is a lot more to it than just a concrete wall with many walkways, stairways, control structures and a laser survey system to determine if the structure is shifting in any direction. Unfortunately they do not allow photos inside.<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjolOs0GpcgGpjBXFrm-nIiJvTwNOwi3BLPB2MdHQuQl11Yqb6rcn12LIzOOEflddoWjPRMJaoOmBwZlnD40H2qOxks5TbftqdxNVB1lqzU2mQWV3_Uu_f-AOxWRfeOzlH1wW_HSirA_Cg/s1600/Water+diversion+tower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjolOs0GpcgGpjBXFrm-nIiJvTwNOwi3BLPB2MdHQuQl11Yqb6rcn12LIzOOEflddoWjPRMJaoOmBwZlnD40H2qOxks5TbftqdxNVB1lqzU2mQWV3_Uu_f-AOxWRfeOzlH1wW_HSirA_Cg/s640/Water+diversion+tower.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">This is the water diversion tunnel for the Highlands Water Project. From here a 12 m diameter tunnel goes 48 km to the north to a hydro-electric plant. From there another long tunnel takes the water into South Africa. Eventually the water is used in the rapidly growing Gauteng (Johannesburg) area.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgva_mQf9ZSOQOg22YIsy3545tok8G8byIWw-9Q795W49fPwVnu3ENJb5mUWdr5c9a8exSVp40QB2jejRVTuyXi-Qruq8OCCsfEr70Zao6aNqF__IKmNp66GH3QGvJZcsvGoF4FVfgST2I/s1600/Katse+highway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgva_mQf9ZSOQOg22YIsy3545tok8G8byIWw-9Q795W49fPwVnu3ENJb5mUWdr5c9a8exSVp40QB2jejRVTuyXi-Qruq8OCCsfEr70Zao6aNqF__IKmNp66GH3QGvJZcsvGoF4FVfgST2I/s640/Katse+highway.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">This is the Katse highway just where it starts its descent from the Highlands toward the lowlands and South Africa to the north. You can see the road in the lower right corner and snaking back and forth along the right side of the photo. A good highway was needed for the dam construction because trucks with ready-mix concrete came on average every 40 minutes for several years. Once the concrete pour started it could not be stopped until it was done. The whole project was most impressive. It generates quite a lot of money for Lesotho but unfortunately not many jobs.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9A1pzhxiWb0pBwDtz_FKe5za8XIviPA98M6R8zARnL1QbHVFm61p4RmyG0mNWjax6eSGy_qJkvVe69UK6Xkc3prlG8JjpGlWNrSZ1ESF-7Zn5V2T64fHYaIkRki_uQKascheosx3NVrs/s1600/Semonkong+rondavels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9A1pzhxiWb0pBwDtz_FKe5za8XIviPA98M6R8zARnL1QbHVFm61p4RmyG0mNWjax6eSGy_qJkvVe69UK6Xkc3prlG8JjpGlWNrSZ1ESF-7Zn5V2T64fHYaIkRki_uQKascheosx3NVrs/s640/Semonkong+rondavels.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">We stayed in these 'rondavels' at Semonkong Lodge south of Maseru, the capital city. These are modern versions of traditional houses. The people of Lesotho are wonderful stone masons. The road to Semonkong was very much under construction as a new, fully-paved road was being built. A much needed paved road is also going to be built between here and Katse. This is much needed as east-west travel in the Highlands is very hard. If the architecture makes you think of the Lord of the Rings, it should/ Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein which is not far away.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNH0PxvvaYrcPGlPDFJCLmgI7M1GQJ4ImZEwPxt8xlOcbXnSUH_AP1BTXXtTIMmjNHrN6nwp_abne60JRg57dTRiDzVIr0hQoiQPzrfQbXSMKY4M9wiTZLN_WhlZXCBpL9OJJJQ8GHt9E/s1600/Semonking+rondavel+inside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNH0PxvvaYrcPGlPDFJCLmgI7M1GQJ4ImZEwPxt8xlOcbXnSUH_AP1BTXXtTIMmjNHrN6nwp_abne60JRg57dTRiDzVIr0hQoiQPzrfQbXSMKY4M9wiTZLN_WhlZXCBpL9OJJJQ8GHt9E/s640/Semonking+rondavel+inside.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Inside our rondavel. The fireplace was much appreciated since the nights were chilly.<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3wzFmlafFje8ATvjWBbDNs1eL9N_gQDJU7dvCFm8YG3kJY-7d58qHP0XYyPp8JrySaXsmaPBv3FKDWRtUVjtAEeYNkizC-eu9IgCH34YEbamwpqJVxZ3cioEz1AXYW6rY6t4skwocPxc/s1600/Seomkong+shopping+day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3wzFmlafFje8ATvjWBbDNs1eL9N_gQDJU7dvCFm8YG3kJY-7d58qHP0XYyPp8JrySaXsmaPBv3FKDWRtUVjtAEeYNkizC-eu9IgCH34YEbamwpqJVxZ3cioEz1AXYW6rY6t4skwocPxc/s640/Seomkong+shopping+day.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">We visited Semonkong on the busy shopping day of the week. People ride their horses or lead their donkeys for as long as 4 hours each way to do their shopping and meet their friends. Most are shepherds who sell their wool to Chinese buyers.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7uN3GYfoH1rCltifQbwG5VtcLTIs_5XFrY0mq7-YD15Fx-FCGbnRcIdTSa6l5Wps3MnrPvkFbq600dDczBlFCwQECDIcwp0IER1f6vW88sggK43LCM-1i1FHMOGYkCJzOVgjwzGhflQU/s1600/Semonkong+picture+showing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="526" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7uN3GYfoH1rCltifQbwG5VtcLTIs_5XFrY0mq7-YD15Fx-FCGbnRcIdTSa6l5Wps3MnrPvkFbq600dDczBlFCwQECDIcwp0IER1f6vW88sggK43LCM-1i1FHMOGYkCJzOVgjwzGhflQU/s640/Semonkong+picture+showing.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Lew showing a picture in Semonkong. He is not that big. Most Basuto people, and especially men, are quite slight. The wearing of blankets is traditional although today they tend to be polyester rather than homespun wool.<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihoLQ-2f032wY1kjS0rzAranMkEV1kmTSdY5FF53YH2VwW4LqG0fJyb_Zh2ANLZpQvb3Mhj91diHXx1Hp8DE6wXtH_-B8LLxI0no3FG5BsCyMqDm6sJxs0YsFG2oZ_my_wkRAvbNDIkNA/s1600/Seomkong+Chinese+shopkeepers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihoLQ-2f032wY1kjS0rzAranMkEV1kmTSdY5FF53YH2VwW4LqG0fJyb_Zh2ANLZpQvb3Mhj91diHXx1Hp8DE6wXtH_-B8LLxI0no3FG5BsCyMqDm6sJxs0YsFG2oZ_my_wkRAvbNDIkNA/s640/Seomkong+Chinese+shopkeepers.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Many, many stores in Lesotho are owned by Chinese people who come here to make some money with every intention of going back to China. I bought 99 pairs of school shoes for kids at Makelefane from a woman from Beijing. The store is still there, but has been sold to new owners. The older man here owns quite a large, mainly food store in Semonkong. The other store, which is more of a general store is also Chinese-owned. He told June that he would like to hand the store on to family members at some point and retire to China, or he may just sell the store. The younger fellow is his nephew. He came to Lesotho for some adventure and has no interest in staying very long.<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6RuEC2prV9CgTSQ1SCQeWXbgepjFhhJ4ZwbiqdW8M6LRXBIWzFZJBgDbVauAHKmq-6F5PqizTOifnrvW5d-sUgbgFfrl0BCOQQHFoxhWA3nekUM2zSi39d18gxwIehnw06vJZ55rWOcw/s1600/June+on+horse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6RuEC2prV9CgTSQ1SCQeWXbgepjFhhJ4ZwbiqdW8M6LRXBIWzFZJBgDbVauAHKmq-6F5PqizTOifnrvW5d-sUgbgFfrl0BCOQQHFoxhWA3nekUM2zSi39d18gxwIehnw06vJZ55rWOcw/s640/June+on+horse.jpg" width="534" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We rented horses and went for a trail ride at Semonkong. Lesotho 'ponies' are famous for their stamina and sure-footedness over difficult terrain. June had a very nice horse. Mine only had one (slow) speed. I asked the guide if mine was old and he said, no, just lazy.</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_h-anLB81oO-AqT2ZMbBDfhBQfwoQjdFBYdTmWPqzQ2pcNkuRSJvoTbaxxKgUHysxHHc6mtAfCQorrc_H5577B3zxWRTxbAEBQ7nEqkPhj_rpS6fDOtsZYUkWye9iLdC4eMWuJ4ZW6PM/s1600/waterfall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_h-anLB81oO-AqT2ZMbBDfhBQfwoQjdFBYdTmWPqzQ2pcNkuRSJvoTbaxxKgUHysxHHc6mtAfCQorrc_H5577B3zxWRTxbAEBQ7nEqkPhj_rpS6fDOtsZYUkWye9iLdC4eMWuJ4ZW6PM/s640/waterfall.jpg" width="570" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">We rode our horses to this, the tallest waterfall in southern Africa. You can rapel down the cliff to the left of the waterfall. It is supposed to be the highest commercial rapel in the world (204 m)<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4UK1rCdFIbvE28EYe5YnW_ohQRgNUZNeEj3EHnyikWNQF1R5Jr_0iEtuyb7lkCJOZQnEbC-rjuC2tN6_-OF51wmqoOEbD3Jr2FrS52Nbv7uurAlO-7yvYQW7GQ1K_V_LEPqSgjtv6KTI/s1600/June+with+cheesies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="462" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4UK1rCdFIbvE28EYe5YnW_ohQRgNUZNeEj3EHnyikWNQF1R5Jr_0iEtuyb7lkCJOZQnEbC-rjuC2tN6_-OF51wmqoOEbD3Jr2FrS52Nbv7uurAlO-7yvYQW7GQ1K_V_LEPqSgjtv6KTI/s640/June+with+cheesies.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">June was fascinated by the women carrying things on their heads - in some cases even their purses. When we bought a large bag of cheesies at the store in Semonkong she had her chance and did very well walking about a half mile on a rough road and down a big hill with only a couple hand corrections. She wasn't interested in trying a bucket full of water for some reason. By the way, South African cheesies are much superior to those in North America - good flavour and some substance to them. You can actually chew them.<br /></td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-30295334670023849782012-12-08T14:51:00.000-05:002012-12-08T15:06:04.986-05:00Land Cruising in SA 2 - Returning from Kruger<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Our return from Kruger to Richards Bay was further west through lower parts of the Drakensburg mountains and the Battlefields region of Kwazulu-Natal. The scenery of the former is lovely with beautiful sweeping forested hills, while the history of the battlefields was intriguing and critical to the history of South Africa. In quite a small area between the mountains that mark the border with Lesotho and the sea there were literally a few dozen significant battlefields from a period of not much more than 60 years. Zulus, Boers,and British - pick all of the possible combinations and you will find where they fought. We only had time to visit a couple of these but a history buff could lose himself here for weeks.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Part of the Blyde River Canyon. The drive from Kruger southward was often quite gorgeous</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This delightful lady was selling various kinds of nuts on the streets of Grakskop near the Blyde River Canyon. This small tourist town has a restaurant, called Harrie's that has raised the making of pancakes, sweet and savoury, to an art form. You could drop this restaurant into any great Western city and it would be a big success.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Boer - Zulu War, Battle of Blood River, 1838</span></b></div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP-7kPYI44OYlXcsNrYsnGcmrAY4GGUt0Xt_AoY7hAe-R_qR5KlBLMJcYbx5VB1Jrbs6dGqQpcpkZHV2i4zMh5KJWBj_Ky_puNgmIkN6qlhILFL1-2rxjKPFgNt8ndOFe6651Wcg0dfwQ/s1600/Blood+River+monument.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP-7kPYI44OYlXcsNrYsnGcmrAY4GGUt0Xt_AoY7hAe-R_qR5KlBLMJcYbx5VB1Jrbs6dGqQpcpkZHV2i4zMh5KJWBj_Ky_puNgmIkN6qlhILFL1-2rxjKPFgNt8ndOFe6651Wcg0dfwQ/s640/Blood+River+monument.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This monument is at the scene of the Battle of Blood River where a party of 470 very well-armed Boers destroyed an attacking army of between 12,000 and 15,000 Zulus who bravely, but suicidally attacked a heavily fortified ring of wagons. This monument is almost a religious shrine for South Africa's Afrikaner population who are descended from Boers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">A little bit of the back story is needed to understand this battle. The Boers (Dutch-German .mainly) were the original white settlers of South Africa. When the British took control of the colony they decided that they would leave the areas where they had lived to the south and west and head into was is now KZN and Free State provinces. They went in epic wagon train journeys in what are now called <i>voortreks</i>. In this part of KZN their leader, Piet Retief arranged for the purchase of land from the Zulu leader Dingane. At the end of the successful negotations, Dingane had Retief and his party murdered BTW, Dingane was not a nice guy. Earlier he had killed his half-brother, the legendary Shaka. The Zulus then attacked Boer farms and killed about 500 farmers, their families and servants.The Boers responded to this outrage by sending a 'commando' to attack the Zulus. The commando even had two (or perhaps three) small cannons with them along with many rifles and much ammunition.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicBVjAzFUy5hwy9509SZuQsJlXvS3H5Bo67eXHBivyctXF2w8Emj2CvJoGs99Liy1EydJkv6iGatkmeEJhe9DdkAguxAUrd75TDKbkbprRK2jz5oZb1OBPnJ7andpktbefFVtG51a1H5A/s1600/300px-Laager.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicBVjAzFUy5hwy9509SZuQsJlXvS3H5Bo67eXHBivyctXF2w8Emj2CvJoGs99Liy1EydJkv6iGatkmeEJhe9DdkAguxAUrd75TDKbkbprRK2jz5oZb1OBPnJ7andpktbefFVtG51a1H5A/s640/300px-Laager.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">At Blood River, the Boers chose the place of battle very carefully with a river on one side and a deep ravine (donga) on another. The Zulus always used the same battle tactics with a battle formation like a buffalo's horns with two encircling elements surrounding a powerful central force. Because of the terrain, the could only attack from one side. This illustration shows Boer cavalry leaving the <i>laager</i> late in the action to chase fleeing Zulus, killing so many trying to cross the river that the water went red. Something like 3000 Zulu were killed while the Boers had none killed and only a few wounded. Note that inside the <i>laager </i>are the many oxen used to pull the wagons, along with horses.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwkPXUp3ljwH5Qcl5OVfY-DmH2mA3IU9z16zfjlXBUwHSG0VO88EVgUWnMZI1RfXwv22as0wY36POe5Rcjc8F2I0yu3KVT8H-BPRjmL9iP3Aze9VEalgFOctViy8n4HFrk1JxXmXtECNU/s1600/Bronze+wagons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwkPXUp3ljwH5Qcl5OVfY-DmH2mA3IU9z16zfjlXBUwHSG0VO88EVgUWnMZI1RfXwv22as0wY36POe5Rcjc8F2I0yu3KVT8H-BPRjmL9iP3Aze9VEalgFOctViy8n4HFrk1JxXmXtECNU/s640/Bronze+wagons.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This pile of rocks marks the centre of the Boer's <i>laager</i>. Around it, during the time of Boers, a life-size ring of bronze wagons along with the fencing used to connect the wagons was built as a monument to the battle which became a centre-point in Boer nationalism and the belief that there was a covenant between God and the Boer people that gave South Africa to the Boers. The SA government have now built a museum across the river to memorialise the Zulus who were killed here.We tried to drive there but the road was just too rough for our heavily loaded Hyundai. BTW, James Mitchener's novel, "The Covenant" is highly recommended if you would like to know more about South Africa's history including the story of the Boers.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">British-Zulu War 1877, Battle of Rorke's Drift</span></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlmA8ILjOdqUp1Bqt61RZvSIv1SX5NNU5yVa2FzKGfILfrThWprrkTO8K8duigyyULuEUIa10PAVS-UroaaA-VGcfn-B1g-qyU2Exx4YldJgd6xgCUescTaS0mapRyWRzfgI2vpclF2Ww/s1600/400px-Rorke's.Drift.Post.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlmA8ILjOdqUp1Bqt61RZvSIv1SX5NNU5yVa2FzKGfILfrThWprrkTO8K8duigyyULuEUIa10PAVS-UroaaA-VGcfn-B1g-qyU2Exx4YldJgd6xgCUescTaS0mapRyWRzfgI2vpclF2Ww/s640/400px-Rorke's.Drift.Post.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The British seemed not to have learned the lesson of the Boer's incredible victory in 1838, that is to keep your forces massed in one place and let the Zulus attack you. They sent a force into Zululand in 1879 to put down a Zulu revolt but allowed their forces to get spread over a large area near Islandlwana. This meant that the Zulus were able to attack small elements individually. The result was one of the worst British defeats ever. Meanwhile, about 10 km away a tiny British garrison of only 140 were left to defend a field hospital and supply base after a few hundred native soldiers left. The force here was led by a military engineer and included the commissary department, and the wounded from the hospital. One thing they did have was lots of supplies so they built defensive walls from the hospital to the store using mealie (corn meal) bags. In case they could not defend this perimeter they built a second wall from biscuit tins that would allow them to only have to defend about a third of their small area. Finally, they built a tiny circular redoubt (perhaps 3 m in diameter) if the inner wall fell;. They did this because they knew that the Zulus did not take prisoners.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Between 3,000 and 4,000 Zulus attacked Rorke's Drift over two days, but the bastion did not fall. By the time that the Zulus withdrew, the garrison was almost out of ammunition for the modern Martini-Henry rifles that were their salvation. The army gave out a remarkable 11 Victoria Crosses to the defenders. A British general thought this was excessive since the defenders were fighting for their lives and really had no choice but to be courageous and hence did not deserve such an exalted medal - an interesting perspective to be sure. Some observers say that the large number of VCs was to draw attention away from the disaster at Isandlwana just a few miles away on the same day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This is what Rorke's Drift looks like today. The buildings were not there during the battle. The stone trench marks one of the mealie bag walls. It is hard to reconcile this peaceful setting with the savagery of the battle that took place here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This is the poster for the 1964 movie, <b>Zulu</b>, which is based (more or less) on the Battle of Rorke's Drift. It was Michael Caine's first big role - he was a remarkably handsome young man btw, June notes. Zulu was a big commercial success. <b>Zulu Dawn</b>, released in 1979 told the story of the Battle of Islandlwana. In spite of a first-rate cast including Peter O'Toole, Burt Lancaster, John Mills and Bob Hoskins it was not very successful - going to show that audiences want to see victories more than defeats.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">And a footnote to the last posting about animals ...</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">We got this picture from our friend Lew. This is the hippo that is reputed to be the one that bit off a man's leg in St Lucia. The guide who told us that said that they killed a hippo after the attack, but it was the wrong one. The now dead hippo was a quiet sort who had been in the town at night for more than 15 years. We saw this guy on our way home from dinner one night (we drove even though it was not far). The next night he was right outside our guest house driveway. And I thought that the raccoons that frequent the streets of Toronto at night were a problem.</span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-27234004672169807632012-12-04T00:07:00.002-05:002012-12-08T00:57:35.865-05:00Land Cruising in Southern Africa I - Animals South Africa and its neighbours are fascinating destinations and many (most?) cruisers take the opportunity to rent a car and head inland. You get a taste of what is to come in Richards Bay. There are lots of monkeys wandering around and there are even hippo crossing signs on the highway between the harbour and the town. We did two trips inland sharing our vehicles with an American couple, Lew and Ann who remarkably are also from Lake Ontario. They are members of Henderson Harbor YC on the eastern shore of the lake. They are very experienced cruisers having been on their boat for 16 years. From here they are going to Europe and want to spend the summer in Scotland. The following summer (2014) they plan to go down the Danube to the Black Sea.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Lew and Ann Tucker along with Bruce and June at a restaurant that served things like a shish-ka-bob on a hangar.</td></tr>
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We went to three parks for a total of 7 days of animal viewing. You really only need to go to Kruger National Park since you can see all of the animals there. I can't recommend a visit to this park too highly. It is a remarkable place to visit and a highlight of our cruise.<br />
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Don't go any further unless you want to see a lot of animal pictures...</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">This was our first encounter with large African wildlife. This white rhino was slowly wandering down the main road of iSimangaliso park right towards us. He got very close to us before realizing that we were there (they have terrible eyesight). They also don't seem terribly bright since it took him several seconds to figure out that we were also pretty large and that one of us would have to change course. He then veered to his left and passed us no more than 4 m away.</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqgf0lDEYsWGX0Aw3e94HgYR3grj7Zr0c_wDcjxa0PQV4KHIczoSLxJe3hPk56BbYJZBdaS_9EY56t3WuuxGtFUMPfaAubaRgs2o6cnZhjHMWT_e_T_72g5i4WrXM9pHI79vhpaIDAHlk/s1600/SA+-+Rhinos+meeting+us+on+narrow+road.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqgf0lDEYsWGX0Aw3e94HgYR3grj7Zr0c_wDcjxa0PQV4KHIczoSLxJe3hPk56BbYJZBdaS_9EY56t3WuuxGtFUMPfaAubaRgs2o6cnZhjHMWT_e_T_72g5i4WrXM9pHI79vhpaIDAHlk/s640/SA+-+Rhinos+meeting+us+on+narrow+road.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">We also met these rhinos on a road, in this case quite a narrow one. You could almost imagine their thought processes as they went from, 'Hey, we wanted to go that way' to 'Well, I guess we will go this way instead.' The fight against rhino poachers is a very serious one as a few hundred rhinos are poached every year (the wild population of white rhinos is less than 20,000 while there are less than 5,000 black rhinos in the wild). To indicate the seriousness of the problem, one of the South African papers had the headline, "Poacher shot in ambush". We were lucky enough to see both although our good pictures are only of white rhinos.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">These African wild dogs that we saw in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi park are quite rare and considered endangered. There are only 3000 to 5500 of these animals in the world. We saw this pack of seven resting in the sun next to a waterhole. They have huge ears that they turn toward any sound that they hear.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This guy is reputed to have the longest tusks of any elephant in Kruger NP. We managed to bump into him (well not literally) on one of our drives.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Large groups of elephants contain only females and children of various ages. You have to be very careful around such groups since the Moms are very protective. The park makes a point of displaying photos of cars that have been attacked by elephants.- a large elephant with its front legs on your roof will do more than damage the paintwork. Solitary males in heat are also dangerous - sort of like some guys I have known. We had one close encounter on a narrow road with an apparently agitated elephant and ended up leaving in a hurry.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kruger has an excellent elephant museum. This display shows the result of a fight between elephants. The winner's tusk broke off after it got stuck in the skull of the loser who apparently was on the ground at the time. Elephants are not always the gentle creatures they appear to be.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">This is a sable antelope. We could not find him in our animal guide and when we showed the picture to one of the rangers he wanted to know if we had seem him inside Kruger since they are quite rare this far south.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Hippos spend most of the day in the water, but this group was resting on the shore.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">We stayed in a lovely tourist town named St Lucia. It has one problem (or fascinating feature depending on your perspective). Hippos come out of the nearby estuary at night to eat the lawns in town and they can be very dangerous. A month before our arrival a man went out of his house because his dog was barking. He did not see the hippo in his backyard. The hippo was frightened by the dog and man and bit the man taking off his leg. More people are killed by hippos in Africa than by any other species.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">You never know who you will be sharing the road with.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Widebeest are related to buffaloes and have the reputation for being quite stupid. For no particular reason they will start running (and they run very well) and are just as likely to run toward a lion as away.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Any time you see many cars stopped in one place chances are good that there will be lions. These two chose to mate right beside Kruger's main road.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiVQngpcNR5JByXjXH1O05jCWF1gGabrG-TkMCZbdSq2ejlklMw2A1cRATtuFxXvcS3wlRYY7c42Q6dnsAmQ4tsMp5zHt0F4inBRieZt2vdRjrQrk5zLpcQYfaajs7-x9lfOkiLb4U5nU/s1600/KNP+-+Lion+King+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiVQngpcNR5JByXjXH1O05jCWF1gGabrG-TkMCZbdSq2ejlklMw2A1cRATtuFxXvcS3wlRYY7c42Q6dnsAmQ4tsMp5zHt0F4inBRieZt2vdRjrQrk5zLpcQYfaajs7-x9lfOkiLb4U5nU/s640/KNP+-+Lion+King+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">We called this solitary old male the Lion King. He had a very sad-looking face.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIJJ4xeDpKlqxN2pDc_32vdZwIt_l8NA4MEFrX6qoK2r6rQMY-ZquFEKuK2M0KS978pD6svekkwRbFRYmO6S92mv4sLfIPccfFQsonYTCauKCnvDX2vUU2qTK88PSz1_07A18LHVf-pVQ/s1600/SA+-+Buffalo+staring.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIJJ4xeDpKlqxN2pDc_32vdZwIt_l8NA4MEFrX6qoK2r6rQMY-ZquFEKuK2M0KS978pD6svekkwRbFRYmO6S92mv4sLfIPccfFQsonYTCauKCnvDX2vUU2qTK88PSz1_07A18LHVf-pVQ/s640/SA+-+Buffalo+staring.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">The Cape Buffalo is one of the 'Big Five' species (along with lions, leopards, elephants, and rhinos) that trophy hunters wanted to kill, likely because of their great horns. They can be dangerous. If you haven't seen Battle at Kruger on youtube you should<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM">Battle at Kruger</a><br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOC-ypOTE3xuPeYYggstcZdDBaVaiJ_DpAGprz7Gx_5z670uKgmNP1LV2xZLBO2wH06cFdnNftEd6LYMUB0V07N2aoDqh2jLavFpSYLsUtkQaheXGgmyKW2DTi5OnOwh1yMLlh9qui9_E/s1600/SA+-+Buffalos+crossing+road.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOC-ypOTE3xuPeYYggstcZdDBaVaiJ_DpAGprz7Gx_5z670uKgmNP1LV2xZLBO2wH06cFdnNftEd6LYMUB0V07N2aoDqh2jLavFpSYLsUtkQaheXGgmyKW2DTi5OnOwh1yMLlh9qui9_E/s640/SA+-+Buffalos+crossing+road.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">We saw a herd of about 1000 buffaloes cross the road. Fortunately there was a break in the herd and we did not have to wait until all of them crossed.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis5WprLYdzLKckiZ5HWoa6WwHFZsshZ4Apeea7SFcd4M88qf9GbYc64xYzCJdLNkJa03B_3FF2bjL01L2fp_EQD9Nx_CGl_zEKAOSKjzZCRNq7viSLeUuSlNyvV5HxkuCPZGdGzEDjuvc/s1600/SA+-+Masked+weavers+weaving.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis5WprLYdzLKckiZ5HWoa6WwHFZsshZ4Apeea7SFcd4M88qf9GbYc64xYzCJdLNkJa03B_3FF2bjL01L2fp_EQD9Nx_CGl_zEKAOSKjzZCRNq7viSLeUuSlNyvV5HxkuCPZGdGzEDjuvc/s640/SA+-+Masked+weavers+weaving.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">You can see one masked weaver bird building a nest among many other nests. The males build the nests from pieces of grass. After it is done, the female comes along to check the construction. If she approves it is a match made in heaven. If not, she pulls at the grass that attaches the nest to the tree until the nest falls to the ground. Then it is back to work for the male.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV08dQ_1UmYm_QUOxee3rKEluWFVEhpOC36S3D5aG2TrXV6WcGYG-fSdGkEBy-lA2_PKGYs4tAmOTKGR3nSL_bvY7yvkWboeKKs1p3SYPkv6tNtQVCUe-XbFLWd59E2c3zoz5-anyIjBQ/s1600/SA+-+Giraf+head+portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV08dQ_1UmYm_QUOxee3rKEluWFVEhpOC36S3D5aG2TrXV6WcGYG-fSdGkEBy-lA2_PKGYs4tAmOTKGR3nSL_bvY7yvkWboeKKs1p3SYPkv6tNtQVCUe-XbFLWd59E2c3zoz5-anyIjBQ/s400/SA+-+Giraf+head+portrait.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"> Most animals just ignored the cars in the parks. Giraffes did seem a bit curious.</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1UfX1paTRCoESiaiPMbNEzSsJB67n9c2yjWZG2Otvww1QKX3EalpfMHpC-mTVubursAEGfhRRm1dcXOr7ENAW2uoqZ1V0NtaGWfAoCWr5v3o0_IGSug9vj4XcCzKPNr7DhFNhG_UH504/s1600/SA+-+Giraf+standing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1UfX1paTRCoESiaiPMbNEzSsJB67n9c2yjWZG2Otvww1QKX3EalpfMHpC-mTVubursAEGfhRRm1dcXOr7ENAW2uoqZ1V0NtaGWfAoCWr5v3o0_IGSug9vj4XcCzKPNr7DhFNhG_UH504/s640/SA+-+Giraf+standing.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Giraffes are extremely beautiful animals and move incredibly gracefully.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtYpMo3PvtO32NivCV885uoBt0B3_UY_TvP-hc_l-T65vaEL3PZw_VzfVm7gTNSBcjkzFJre8xnZic58M56RN9KkdvZEvSZbOPyubrpBLCkaNV1cOuB9kXeUWkbrDy7rSyXXPKKfuG3hk/s1600/SA+-+Owl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtYpMo3PvtO32NivCV885uoBt0B3_UY_TvP-hc_l-T65vaEL3PZw_VzfVm7gTNSBcjkzFJre8xnZic58M56RN9KkdvZEvSZbOPyubrpBLCkaNV1cOuB9kXeUWkbrDy7rSyXXPKKfuG3hk/s640/SA+-+Owl.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">This little owl lives in a bush next to a busy washroom entrance at a rest camp in Kruger. Dozens, if not hundreds of pictures of him are taken daily.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6IrMBxUhIHwcWMtJ2xWoA3zI9iits2AKA6rqrftyq3wF6iIis2lizNV2sN-AbR0y21eFH29U1hnwLtyH1fPAiG63KlHiGUoEnMASYmfiL-Qn3kFBsIAEmpOmipg3jvEx80PYR_7sxdRY/s1600/SA+-+Hyena+walking+by.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6IrMBxUhIHwcWMtJ2xWoA3zI9iits2AKA6rqrftyq3wF6iIis2lizNV2sN-AbR0y21eFH29U1hnwLtyH1fPAiG63KlHiGUoEnMASYmfiL-Qn3kFBsIAEmpOmipg3jvEx80PYR_7sxdRY/s640/SA+-+Hyena+walking+by.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">This spotted hyena was just outside the compound in which we were living. All of the accommodations are inside electric fences. Outside these areas you are not allowed to be out of your car unless you are accompanied by an armed ranger.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlHPmbmsOqccrZWljjYWBLOpvC3Ssj1dJXXXHiLaLA1-KHj_tWRnZX77tSUkSqxt-u9lLuNMpa8deN92E4ixBU1JbjDezHR9sShmKM3Xe-PWeTig3Uvs-QqsVWYtPxGsxhDbheeI_cgh0/s1600/SA+-+Stork.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlHPmbmsOqccrZWljjYWBLOpvC3Ssj1dJXXXHiLaLA1-KHj_tWRnZX77tSUkSqxt-u9lLuNMpa8deN92E4ixBU1JbjDezHR9sShmKM3Xe-PWeTig3Uvs-QqsVWYtPxGsxhDbheeI_cgh0/s640/SA+-+Stork.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">The marabou stork is in the running to be considered the largest bird in the world. They stand up to 5 feet tall and have wingspans to 12 feet. They are also a bit on the ugly side.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipj6er3wUKBeauwNbdGlTe8016VIEYMySrRivzJjA7P7v7n-GY_507NTEwLQZhp18LzPK1qtmj1O3_aKhXmUQzGJ-Eti37ByI3Hnc2Ie34aswWkZ5bTen2Uyfq0uxvzzGulCZtxWNp3W0/s1600/SA+-+Impala+male.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipj6er3wUKBeauwNbdGlTe8016VIEYMySrRivzJjA7P7v7n-GY_507NTEwLQZhp18LzPK1qtmj1O3_aKhXmUQzGJ-Eti37ByI3Hnc2Ie34aswWkZ5bTen2Uyfq0uxvzzGulCZtxWNp3W0/s640/SA+-+Impala+male.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">There are tens of thousands of impalas in Kruger and the other parks. In addition there are many other types of antelopes both smaller (some are not much larger than an average dog) and larger.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8HGccrAzrpqxb2Er836sO1gy2-yTNyU1_gF9V9KxgDZr_5esF0O94CTgryH2Zp57uL0i1ReuiXRWUAKyDL0KVPmCkeqzMCq6LjcCqywAxo-ebI8vNzIdQkpIi6b8bm7bhRQo57NwtmDs/s1600/SA+-+Impalas+male+fight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="441" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8HGccrAzrpqxb2Er836sO1gy2-yTNyU1_gF9V9KxgDZr_5esF0O94CTgryH2Zp57uL0i1ReuiXRWUAKyDL0KVPmCkeqzMCq6LjcCqywAxo-ebI8vNzIdQkpIi6b8bm7bhRQo57NwtmDs/s640/SA+-+Impalas+male+fight.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Powerful male impalas have harems with ten or more females. Meanwhile the rest of the boys hang out together and practise the skills needed to challenge one of the dominant males.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9SVujcobjOcGuvsua2L-76UGn_JtOVtQlBXBIoH2G2t1pwBQRoLWko7h_HOivvXOEnTn_sjOxWbcJy10153hV9WnRuMqQCFFFsgTprFb4J-ULysLdC0ADXdNsp7SSIk3uDNuiGHkLA7M/s1600/Sagittarius_serpentarius_Sekret%C3%A4r.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9SVujcobjOcGuvsua2L-76UGn_JtOVtQlBXBIoH2G2t1pwBQRoLWko7h_HOivvXOEnTn_sjOxWbcJy10153hV9WnRuMqQCFFFsgTprFb4J-ULysLdC0ADXdNsp7SSIk3uDNuiGHkLA7M/s640/Sagittarius_serpentarius_Sekret%C3%A4r.JPG" width="464" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Saw a Secretary Bird but did not get a good picture so had to borrow this one. These birds-of-prey are iconic in Africa. They are the national symbol of Sudan and are on the South African coat-or-arms<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglnJNg3_HTJJklo-pXaD5H-TtLSHEXayl7dUe0BdPvVO40u5Ael9FlEIGeBvX1WoG9phyUzTmyKmMGAIek0KxdKT62lzgBkbGdzixmYl7arnEyx6fh96DhbURQ60436vSbY4Qaflu8GFQ/s1600/SA+-+Dung+Beatles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="524" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglnJNg3_HTJJklo-pXaD5H-TtLSHEXayl7dUe0BdPvVO40u5Ael9FlEIGeBvX1WoG9phyUzTmyKmMGAIek0KxdKT62lzgBkbGdzixmYl7arnEyx6fh96DhbURQ60436vSbY4Qaflu8GFQ/s640/SA+-+Dung+Beatles.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Not all of the interesting animals are mammals or even very large. These are dung beetles. They make a large ball of poop that they roll to their nest (a hole in the ground that they have dug). They put their eggs in the dung ball and roll into the hole. Because roads are convenient spots for rolling, many vehicles have bumper stickers that proclaim, "Dung beetles have right-of-way".<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNp83MpN5DpRZog6pOa8y-qB5rxGHUIbBBeKcbB6WZ-f5ILagl1_7qym_rlrL5IgP_i8fNWK0SQpEvKv1vAFgXYXesIZgdbb6EulaKgjoMd69A_hwi9e4tr9kscMH6sksXaU4oT42gzHc/s1600/SA+-+Kudo2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNp83MpN5DpRZog6pOa8y-qB5rxGHUIbBBeKcbB6WZ-f5ILagl1_7qym_rlrL5IgP_i8fNWK0SQpEvKv1vAFgXYXesIZgdbb6EulaKgjoMd69A_hwi9e4tr9kscMH6sksXaU4oT42gzHc/s640/SA+-+Kudo2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Kudus are one of the larger antelopes. The great horns made them attractive to hunters, although it would not be hard to shoot one - they just stand around eating and watching for lions.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6EUw5FL22Af5BfRd3KTZQkTCm_6Fu6I8Q2pleoiphtRShuIoObRhrnMRNpCA4HoR8j6QOP6lW3nBUFkON9BpVYhvuWLFaBu1lxGEmRE4-mpSFqmqDhQiYkZGS7a86yIvOF93ILQAQEs/s1600/SA+-+Warthog+eating.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6EUw5FL22Af5BfRd3KTZQkTCm_6Fu6I8Q2pleoiphtRShuIoObRhrnMRNpCA4HoR8j6QOP6lW3nBUFkON9BpVYhvuWLFaBu1lxGEmRE4-mpSFqmqDhQiYkZGS7a86yIvOF93ILQAQEs/s640/SA+-+Warthog+eating.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Warthogs have to be one of the ugliest animals in the world.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm4l7xjaYXDjWfJEGZpFlio1KjXDx94jrNo4K5NYDufbFczdsWOK81cEse25uH9DHCI_1CSTNroa1cubNXQa8SWslfB4p7xLkRMz_zuqwkIS1YIA7VhyphenhyphenM-nHG-nXMOKEyZMEnRF3Cfgf8/s1600/SA+-+Monkey+family.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm4l7xjaYXDjWfJEGZpFlio1KjXDx94jrNo4K5NYDufbFczdsWOK81cEse25uH9DHCI_1CSTNroa1cubNXQa8SWslfB4p7xLkRMz_zuqwkIS1YIA7VhyphenhyphenM-nHG-nXMOKEyZMEnRF3Cfgf8/s640/SA+-+Monkey+family.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">These vervet monkeys look gentle and cute (note the tiny baby between the others) but where they are used to people they become sneaky robbers. We had one steal a 1 kg bag of peanuts off our picnic table. Later, after we were aware of the risk, another stole some cheese. In both cases they wait very patiently a few meters away from you and then strike,, in both cases going between the people sitting at the table.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">We came to quite like zebras. They are quite elegant beasts and live quietly on the veldt in great numbers often near other grazers. If someone could domesticate them there would be a revolution in the horse market because they are beautiful animals. Each animals particular stripe pattern is unique.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-38559332364798405832012-12-01T10:52:00.001-05:002012-12-03T00:45:38.978-05:00Crossing to South Africa from MauritiusAs I mentioned in the last posting, our brush with Cyclone Anais turned out to be a non-event, but just about when we were no longer worrying about that we were starting to approach the southern tip of Madagascar and head to start thinking about the complications of getting to Richards Bay, South Africa. While you can get a pasting anywhere from Mauritius to South Africa, the really dangerous part of the passage is just off the coast of SA where you have to cross the south-flowing Agulhas Current which is the most powerful ocean current in the world. When frontal systems pass over the area of the current they bring a day or two of strong south westerly winds, called 'busters' that tend to produce huge, steep, often breaking waves, which as the cruising guide says reach 20 m and more. These waves are not just uncomfortable they can be deadly so at all costs you must stay out of the current when there is a buster. The problem is timing your passage from Madagascar so that you arrive near the SA coast at the right time (the period between low pressure areas passing ranges from 2 days to a week or so.<br />
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A secondary problem is how close to pass the southern tip of Madagascar since there are seamounts there that can cause nasty waves when the winds get up. Some books say you should stay 200 miles offshore, others 100 miles, while others just say you should avoid the seamounts. We started aiming 150 miles south and gradually crept closer we found ourselves in a foul current that was close to three knots - and this in a location that should have had a favourable current of about a knot according to the Pilot Chart.. The Peri-Peri Net was suggesting that the timing was not right for getting near the coast and we considered anchoring in a bay in SE Madagascar to await developments, but the system coming looked to have southerly winds rather than SW and the bay look open to the south so we kept going. Similarly we considered heading to a bay in SW Madagascar where about a dozen boats went to anchor, but the conditions did not look bad at all so again we kept going. Some of the anchored boats waited for almost two weeks for a weather window and still ended up with 40 knots plus on their crossing of the Mozambique Channel.<br />
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Our plan was to head at least half way across the Channel and then either go for coast or kill time (perhaps by heaving-to) to await a wind change. It turned out to be the former as the PPNet was suggesting that there was a window if we could average something like 6.5 knots for 48 hours - although the window turned out to be shorter than expected - but that was OK because we were able to go faster than that.<br />
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Our tactic of keeping going worked out just fine. We had a lot of winds in the 25 to 35 knots range but only a few hours with gusts higher than that. For this part of the ocean that is considered good going since most boats had winds over 40 knots and we talked to one catamaran that laid to its sea anchor for two days with waves breaking onto the foredeck. I can't imagine what this coast must be like in the winter.<br />
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The last 11 hours of our passage are worthy of mention. I came on watch at 0300 when it was blowing in the low 30s and as dark as the inside of a cow. About three minutes into the watch a wave landed in my lap (have I mentioned that my foulies leak?) which certainly finished the waking up process. Shortly after this it started to pour which at least replaced the salt water with fresh. About 0530 the wind came up with gusts to more than 40 and steady winds in the 35 to 38 knot range. We had to reef even more and this was harder than normal since our furling line was badly chafed so only the core was there. As a result we had tied off the drums at the bow with another line. Kristian went forward to release and retie this line after we furled down to about 60% with virtually no main on a broad reach. Needless to say he had an opportunity to get fully awake with waves landing on him. Through all this I am thinking - is this really fun? Then it all changed, the sun came up and we could see the coast of Africa (the coast of Africa, how cool is that?) as we had aimed well north of Richards Bay because we had been told not to miss to the south and the weather window would not have lasted until we got to Durban 80 miles to the SW. We had probably the nicest sail I have ever had (40+ years).. IT was still blowing in the high 20s and he had a good current helping us. Our speed over the ground was 8+ to 9+ and we saw whales (see pics below) and lovely seabirds. It was magical.<br />
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BTW, in preparation for this part of the trip we made our heavy weather preps. We had the inner stay set with its staysail. Also, we had our storm trysail in a bag on deck ready to go in its own mast track. Below, we had our parachute anchor and all its gear set up as per the Pardey's storm tactics book ready to go. We were happy to say that it stayed where it started on the cabin floor behind the dining table.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6gx0JQfYJraRk85-etcODtiM1s17TZlFzQFof6e-mFnJJyz-AQeJXTB-gw14LRBnuAmE9WseYFuSfdMolpYdHF5I2oPqTPuAuV2FlAJxAzbn7zt7t53rve0NhiwQ1OUNPG1G6cGiAp3Q/s1600/SA+-+meeting+cargo+ship.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6gx0JQfYJraRk85-etcODtiM1s17TZlFzQFof6e-mFnJJyz-AQeJXTB-gw14LRBnuAmE9WseYFuSfdMolpYdHF5I2oPqTPuAuV2FlAJxAzbn7zt7t53rve0NhiwQ1OUNPG1G6cGiAp3Q/s640/SA+-+meeting+cargo+ship.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There is a lot of traffic in the waters between Mauritius and Richards Bay. Some is going from Asia around the Cape of Good Hope, but a surprising amount is going to and from Richards Bay which is South Africa's most important port for bulk cargoes. This photo was taken SE of Madagascar before the wind picked up. Later on we certainly did not need the asymmetric. This bulk carrier was more than 1000 feet long. Such immense ships are becoming pretty common in some parts of the ocean.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpq1GEbd-1bjh15P6lB0p_TrUEb_bc31izNL5muZh3grilxZ00JeWRn3KeNAarQ7rVWz1AfcGgCAwBxexNEzlcih0S8Z0HCRNh2FVF1zgxFxifSPdzS6JNXJSK80gYZ0l4A9Ck2fyy3vE/s1600/SA+-+Morley+radar+repair+at+sea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpq1GEbd-1bjh15P6lB0p_TrUEb_bc31izNL5muZh3grilxZ00JeWRn3KeNAarQ7rVWz1AfcGgCAwBxexNEzlcih0S8Z0HCRNh2FVF1zgxFxifSPdzS6JNXJSK80gYZ0l4A9Ck2fyy3vE/s640/SA+-+Morley+radar+repair+at+sea.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Back over the stern for another Morley repair. We noticed we were not steering very well and when we checked we found that the rudder blade on the Monitor had fallen off and was being towed along by the line used to pivot it up when the Monitor is not in use. The pivot pin had broken, likely because the holes on either side of its mounting had worn over the years and rudder could move back and forth a bit putting great stress on the pin. It was easier to install a new pin with extra hands available although it would be doable with just one person. The Monitor bits are now being reinforced in South Africa and I will talk to the Monitor people in California because I checked with other owners and they have had similar issues.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSXF-hWLa0Js2g9iLhjxvWUIeOoIODd7Q5rOVQNEXg6pkZD7dmwJqr_MYQRi_Wd0m61aUEczqI8XNP5KCEyZ_bBOVam3FEBtidvXNzUDJFZzX-anDUm1YrAtxcMcfdhB3Wy1epnc5XxMw/s1600/SA+-+Wales+at+sea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSXF-hWLa0Js2g9iLhjxvWUIeOoIODd7Q5rOVQNEXg6pkZD7dmwJqr_MYQRi_Wd0m61aUEczqI8XNP5KCEyZ_bBOVam3FEBtidvXNzUDJFZzX-anDUm1YrAtxcMcfdhB3Wy1epnc5XxMw/s640/SA+-+Wales+at+sea.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On our last morning before arriving in Richards Bay we passed two pods of whales. These are humpbacks who were playing (or mating) on the surface. It was incredible to watch.</td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-67421648006030113122012-11-30T15:17:00.000-05:002012-11-30T15:17:30.309-05:00On to Mauritius and a Brush With Anais<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Mauritius is only about 400 miles from Rodrigues, but is very different. It is much larger and has a population of more than 1.3 million. It has a busy economy with an emphasis on sugar cane, tourism, and being a transshipment point for goods to and from eastern and southern Africa. Our passage was quite pleasant although we ran into the same problem of having to slow down so as not to arrive too early.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Port Louis is the capital of Mauritius and a bustling city of 150,000.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Port Louis has a small yacht basin in a lovely harbourfront development but it was reserved for the arrival of 23 boats that were part of the World ARC rally, an event that has its participants sail around the world in only two years. Because of the ARC, other cruisers were allowed to tie up in the centre of downtown. This was pretty good except that you became a major tourist attraction, it was a bit dirty and there was a surge in the harbour that was hard on docklines - we had one part in the night even though we had chafe gear on it..</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Port Louis has the best market we have seen anywhere with excellent quality food at very good prices. The sellers took great pride in presenting their food attractively. There were also interesting snacks and drinks to be had. A tasty lunch was less than a dollar including a fruit drink.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mauritius is also a very beautiful island. It is not a surprise that it is becoming a major tourism destination.</td></tr>
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We really enjoyed Mauritius and would have liked to stay longer, but ended up there for only two nights because of a lady named Anais. Tropical cyclonic storms can happen in any month in the south-western Indian Ocean, but they are rare in November with an average of three every ten years. In fact, this is one reason why we crossed the Indian Ocean when we did, in early November. </div>
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We were listening to the Peri-Peri Net which is a terrific, twice-daily weather net from South Africa, when we heard that a tropical storm was forming well to the northeast of Mauritius. At the time it was regarded as an interesting curiosity. The next day it seemed that the storm might die out before developing any real intensity. But then it all changed as the disturbance became a strong tropical storm .. and then continued to strengthen. We were left with a series of choices. First was whether to stay in Mauritius or not. The dock we were at was exposed and a bit rough in normal conditions. The storm was to pass well to the north, but such predictions can be wrong of course. If it stayed north the wind would be from the land side, but if it slipped south we would be in a very exposed spot with few alternatives close at hand. It seemed best to leave Mauritius post-haste. The next question was whether to stop at Reunion (about 100 miles to the west). Reunion's harbour is entirely artificial and the yacht basin looked to be wonderfully protected from all directions. Then word came through that the harbour was already jammed with boats and we would have to just keep going towards South Africa.</div>
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The tropical storm became a cyclone (72 knots) and was named Anais, and then a category 3 cyclone (130 knots). It was the first time that there had been such a powerful storm this early in the year - yes, we are 'special'. It basically completes our natural hazards set for the trip with a volcanic eruption, a tsunami, earthquakes, and bush fires. Guess we haven't had a blizzard yet.</div>
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I don't want to suggest that we were in any life-and-death race with the storm. We started with a 500 mile head-start and it was only doing 10 knots to the west while we could do 7+ to the southwest. Indeed we did not even notice any swells from the storm which was odd. It does complete our natural hazards portfolio though since we could now add tropical cyclone to volcanic eruption (Montserrat), torrential rains and flooding (Panama), tsunami (from Japan in Galapagos), earthquakes (Vanuatu), bush fires (northern Australia). Guess we haven't had a blizzard yet</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anais at its finest. It caused no harm since it had pretty much died out before reaching the coast of Madagascar. Note that southern hemisphere cyclonic storms rotate clockwise unlike those in the north.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A prediction of the path of Anais. Mauritius is called 'Maurice' on this French map. We left Mauritius shortly after the 15/10h date and time shown on the map so the situation we were in is shown quite accurately. By the 19th of November, we would be more than 600 miles south and west of Mauritius. Note that this is the distance between 20S and 30S.</td></tr>
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An aside that has nothing to do with Anais. When you get into this area and start talking about Mauritius, Madagascar, the Mozambique Channel, etc,, you really realize that you are a very long way from home.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-28367455160716537852012-11-30T13:16:00.001-05:002012-11-30T14:13:56.793-05:00An Ocean Behind #3 (to Rodrigues)This post should have been called, "An Ocean Behind #3 (to Madagascar) because that is where we we originally going, but we are nothing if not flexible ... Anyway, when we left Cocos we had two routes to South Africa - either north of Madagascar or south of it. The classical, and shorter, route is to go south, with stops at one or more of the islands along the way - Rodrigues, Mauritius, and/or Reunion. This route does expose you to some pretty nasty connections, in particular west of Reunion. Going north of Madagascar and down the Mozambique Channel <i>should </i>give you lighter winds but it is a longer passage. Until that last several years few yachts went this way because the government of Madagascar was not welcoming and corruption among the officials you had to deal with was rampant. Both situations have improved with the government encouraging tourism and (most) officials not expecting or asking for 'gifts'.<br />
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When we left Cocos our intention was to go about 2800 miles to the northern tip of Madagascar. This turned out to be exactly downwind and we mostly used just a poled out jib. In spite of a bit of helping current and good winds (15 to 25 knots), our progress was not wonderful (112 to 140 mile days) and we had an uncomfortable roll most of the time. We (the captain tends to employ the royal we at times) decided to change our strategy and head south. The change in course was only seven degrees but it made a huge difference to our speed and comfort. Our next nine days ranged from 150 to 174 miles and ride was much more comfortable, even with swells building to the 12 to 15 foot range at times. For the entire passage (2016 miles) we motored for a total of 4 hours - 2 hours getting out and away from Cocos and 2 hours getting into the harbour at Rodrigues. We really have to give the Indian Ocean credit, it is a wonderful place if you like to sail.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKwmrhilhi8kMSt7JdcnfZced_e7B1VWmdTUhK72nWsvljtHfqEuugSG12Cej6PRZQBofJhZQ_4_8I5rD7nFUWFtabMQcW2VByHo06x7f2Ip0St-YFOOkec0TxPSA8bACVFdDVm0LrAUU/s1600/Rodrigues+-+chart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="510" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKwmrhilhi8kMSt7JdcnfZced_e7B1VWmdTUhK72nWsvljtHfqEuugSG12Cej6PRZQBofJhZQ_4_8I5rD7nFUWFtabMQcW2VByHo06x7f2Ip0St-YFOOkec0TxPSA8bACVFdDVm0LrAUU/s640/Rodrigues+-+chart.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 'X' marks on the chart are our daily posiotions on the way to Rodrigues (where the boat icon is - Mauritius and Reunion lie to the west as shown). You can see that we started out heading further north for the first four days before veering about 7 degrees to the south. Note that for long passages like this that are basically east to west the shortest distance, the 'great circle route' does not appear as a straight line. Even though we going almost directly westward along 12S we would have gone almost to 13S before heading back to 12S.</td></tr>
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Rodrigues Island is a semi-autonomous territory within Mauritius. It has a population of about 37,000 and basically no source of income other than that that flows from its wealthier neighbour. This is actually a bit amusing because there is a strong independence sentiment on the island - people feel that they would do better if they were not part of Mauritius. Indeed, when the referendum was held over whether to become independent or stay a British colony, Rodrigues voted to remain a colony while those on Mauritius, which has many more people wanted to be independent - and it was an all or nothing vote, so Rodrigians (or whatever they are called) became reluctant citizens of Mauritius. One shop owner we talked to, who has relatives on the very rich island of Reunion (overseas French department), said that if they were independent<span style="text-align: center;"> they could join France, "because the French really like us".</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">Speaking of France and Britain, Mauritius and Rodrigues were French until 1814 when they became British (earlier they had been Portugese (the name Rodrigues is Portugese) and Dutch (Mauritius comes from the Dutch). There were African slaves here to work the cane fields and after slavery ended huge numbers of Indian indentured workers arrived. As a result the population is very diverse.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">In spite of two centuries of Britishness and the fact that English is the official language, most people speak a type of French Creole. In schools, the language of instruction is French, but written work is done in English - go figure. Hence many people do not speak English well, but can read and write it fluently. In any case, the baguettes here are cheap and tasty, although shorter and wider than Napoleon's original.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTlkon0o52hwmap8kmLN6lDR_jaWJ7xTTcs7NgfNVB733fQKlcO-_YnkglzUhFTlj75cN2b38ebA5dGTJ-vR4xC9vzhD0Id_ANtxkziOdLIoyTxfEnBw4XMkm81lzcuGWp-z9YDu9a-a8/s1600/IMG_2996.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTlkon0o52hwmap8kmLN6lDR_jaWJ7xTTcs7NgfNVB733fQKlcO-_YnkglzUhFTlj75cN2b38ebA5dGTJ-vR4xC9vzhD0Id_ANtxkziOdLIoyTxfEnBw4XMkm81lzcuGWp-z9YDu9a-a8/s640/IMG_2996.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rodrigues is a very pleasant, somewhat sleepy place. This is a major street at a busy time fo the year.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKqi1OwCj2KmEJJHCQbXkCt0ES2HobbauhxTCHc5I1wooKWCdFziDl47h9hbHYjyx3pvnlHtD2VMfjcuHEH-XiTdAyEL_UBLXPPXN5jvEmCioS70hwpDZB6tNqfvTurPmbkvqOcnThBCU/s1600/Rodrigues+-+gib+repair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKqi1OwCj2KmEJJHCQbXkCt0ES2HobbauhxTCHc5I1wooKWCdFziDl47h9hbHYjyx3pvnlHtD2VMfjcuHEH-XiTdAyEL_UBLXPPXN5jvEmCioS70hwpDZB6tNqfvTurPmbkvqOcnThBCU/s640/Rodrigues+-+gib+repair.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At Rodrigues we had to do some sail repairs to the jib as stitching along the foot had just worn away. Here Kristian and Wynne take their turn at it. It is a slow process to replace hundreds of tiny stitches by hand. We have a sewing machine onboard but it is not up to penetrating several layers of cloth. Have to give North Sails a lot of credit for this sail. It has been up for more than 20,000 miles, often in winds stronger than it was designed for. The cloth is still strong and the sail shape is not bad. There have just been wear and tear issues, for example, chafe of stitching when the sail is partly furled. It was repaired in Brisbane and again in South Africa. Touch wood, it should complete the circumnavigation still in decent shape.</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-59333162003337136712012-11-29T12:11:00.001-05:002012-11-30T13:13:49.628-05:00Mea culpa, mea culpa - an ocean behind #2 (to Cocos I)From Christmas to Cocos-Keeling Island is about the same distance as Bali to Christmas. In total it is about 1100 miles from Bali to Cocos Island, which is actually an atoll with several islands around a very shallow lagoon. The sailing was lovely although we ran into the same problem of going too fast so we would arrive at night - and you really, really don't want to try to enter here in the dark.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Wq78EkKMZX8fD5Awh4NhWerxrdgdZLgq3Ey8kIaeFZVKIogNfLwXCdv7IbkkUGc3I-lX2Xwn0qW3xsKlPybejAoSahTuD5a8zrfxwGC-Wm8PLm0tgviNNSPOFi-mlfXXp1mPTd4F1Ac/s1600/Cocos+-+Morley+repair+on+the+way.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Wq78EkKMZX8fD5Awh4NhWerxrdgdZLgq3Ey8kIaeFZVKIogNfLwXCdv7IbkkUGc3I-lX2Xwn0qW3xsKlPybejAoSahTuD5a8zrfxwGC-Wm8PLm0tgviNNSPOFi-mlfXXp1mPTd4F1Ac/s640/Cocos+-+Morley+repair+on+the+way.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And the crowd says action shot. Every so often you have to fix something in an awkward location. One of 'Morley's' (the Monitor vane) control lines snapped on the way to Cocos so it meant climbing down to attach new ones. The point of attachment is about mid-calf with my feet dragging in the lovely water that was almost 30C. Harness is attached because it is a long swim to anywhere. Note the fishing line with rubber snubber behind the vane. We enjoyed five mahi-mahi on the trip across the Indian Ocean - Kristian was a very keen fisherman.</td></tr>
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Cocos is also Australia territory, but has little practical value except for its strategic location well out into the Indian Ocean. There was action here in WWII and even WWI when a German raider was sunk by an Australian cruiser. It was also a refuelling stop for military aircraft in WWII and for early airliners going between Australia and Africa. Today it extends Aussie sovereignty far to the west. Other than that it is only a drain on the Australian economy. The only jobs for the population of 600 are with the government and most people receive some form of welfare or unemployment insurance. There is a minor tourist industry but it is very costly place to get to, so few tourists come. But it is loverly!<br />
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Cocos is also a significant destination for refugee boats although these ones come from Sri Lanka which is much further away and hence a more dangerous trip in the crappy old boats they use, with no trained or experienced crew. There is a small naval vessel on watch here and while we there they took several boats that been seized out to sea to burn.<br />
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For most of its history, Cocos-Keeling was owned by a Scottish family who imported labour to produce copra (dried coconut). As such it was part of the British Empire. After the family business went belly-up, the islands were British. A referendum was held to decide if they should become part of Indonesia or part of Australia. In spite of proximity and cultural links, the people chose to be part of the rich, democratic country rather than the poorer, autocratic (at the time) one.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhie6VAwfd8mJXYoWRy9e6yyQATRl0GgSl3qm2ySRgxZwGKm63hWqiZw-uPyXqjy-H6TexQE1InFOSRWd5ICAQW0O88R-Oh_fLIH-Cwi1h_CQBuuCwO0CmvKB-MMutszaa43Jq8tivWNig/s1600/Cocos+-+Direction+Island+beach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhie6VAwfd8mJXYoWRy9e6yyQATRl0GgSl3qm2ySRgxZwGKm63hWqiZw-uPyXqjy-H6TexQE1InFOSRWd5ICAQW0O88R-Oh_fLIH-Cwi1h_CQBuuCwO0CmvKB-MMutszaa43Jq8tivWNig/s640/Cocos+-+Direction+Island+beach.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The beach at Direction Island is stunning.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5qu_qnypGrztdOF2OLThF8m9e6WGLLFDNBjAX6CvOmfDuYKx5s6hUqle3By-3saexPbvTv7zmzBFVxqk2D2U-2MZrxviepif-pcTkyPZQjXHSSJt0CG8vE_5iS16pjWR1F_h3sV6cHF0/s1600/Cocos+-+UW+-+fish+and+corals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5qu_qnypGrztdOF2OLThF8m9e6WGLLFDNBjAX6CvOmfDuYKx5s6hUqle3By-3saexPbvTv7zmzBFVxqk2D2U-2MZrxviepif-pcTkyPZQjXHSSJt0CG8vE_5iS16pjWR1F_h3sV6cHF0/s640/Cocos+-+UW+-+fish+and+corals.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cocos has excellent snorkelling including through 'The Race' a pasage next to Direction Island. You drift through here with the current and see what there is to see. These pictures were taken with our new underwater camera. It is built into a diving mask so you just point your head and reach up and push the button.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1b-KPoTYkWPT3nL_rHp10Yqf3SQgf-sW0bJEKOHEpGJBVJPAiV7jgeXhVSFAt_xSZySRXmZQhQJQ8AGFb8rhxQ8gVlKxtIzSjy906psd4RdcRQuT3edgys1N18H7YxduVNpORJf-lgY0/s1600/Cocos+-+Cyclone+shelter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1b-KPoTYkWPT3nL_rHp10Yqf3SQgf-sW0bJEKOHEpGJBVJPAiV7jgeXhVSFAt_xSZySRXmZQhQJQ8AGFb8rhxQ8gVlKxtIzSjy906psd4RdcRQuT3edgys1N18H7YxduVNpORJf-lgY0/s640/Cocos+-+Cyclone+shelter.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Cocos is very susceptible to cyclones (hurricanes, typhoons - call them what you will). Also the entire island is only a few feet above sea level at most. Storm surge would easily cover the entire island. They have a robust cyclone shelter on Home Island just in case.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu-IiUf8YJrvT4A3l6FwwMFxOIGJrteclxZ3bPzaqQ1vy1YoVSd6CdsNFP3OthzI6KppUHFwXg89-LigE0EbFIy9LPnnrZKoRhLZQCY1tH6pVmb7CjBX5WS_Zr7A_kdF88jzyGM8tfurM/s1600/Cocos+-+sharks+around.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu-IiUf8YJrvT4A3l6FwwMFxOIGJrteclxZ3bPzaqQ1vy1YoVSd6CdsNFP3OthzI6KppUHFwXg89-LigE0EbFIy9LPnnrZKoRhLZQCY1tH6pVmb7CjBX5WS_Zr7A_kdF88jzyGM8tfurM/s640/Cocos+-+sharks+around.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Memories of Suwarrow in the Pacific. The lagoon in Cocos is well-populated with sharks. The ones in the lagoon are black-tipped reef sharks which we have swum with before and are now used to. You don't have to go very far to find tiger sharks though and they are an entirely different thing.</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-61863023655741237732012-11-29T11:30:00.000-05:002012-11-30T13:09:01.017-05:00Mea culpa, mea culpa - an ocean behind #1 (to Christmas I)I do apologize for not keep this up-to-date but between being very busy and often being in places that do not offer good (or affordable) internet I have fallen an entire ocean+ behind. We are now in Richards Bay, South Africa but I will tell the story in chronological order because that is easiest for my simple mind.<br />
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The last posting got us as far as Bali but did not really cover the island at all. A few Bali comments are in order. First, it is not at all like the romanticized image we have of it. The island itself is quite beautiful with high mountains and even a smoking volcano. Secondly, it is not like the rest of Indonesia. The population is largely of Indian ancestry and hence Hindu. Add to this the fact that there are still many Moslems and a big expat and tourist presence and it is a very busy, interesting place. Traffic can be terrible with many cars and trucks and an incredible number of small motorcycles There are dozens of large hotels and it surely must rank as one of the world's largest tourist destinations with huge numbers of Aussies and Europeans - when you wander down the street of the tourist area there are restaurants advertising Foster's beer and 'great tucker', that have satellite TV showing foreign sports. Perhaps it would be best to describe it as an interesting place - if not an entirely pleasant one.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0VWsljHlsoOjZ6rzoFHqeZGqczmRZSJRdCOzmLztV2qfHcPcW2hh7xfAJVgc56zvOhwHCQWtHeiDA6O93eWlMJYG9-dOqX4NmiiqQswcIZ7iPGacFTuafIULbsgAOr0dILF_BsbrlLSE/s1600/SI+-+Bali+Volcano.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0VWsljHlsoOjZ6rzoFHqeZGqczmRZSJRdCOzmLztV2qfHcPcW2hh7xfAJVgc56zvOhwHCQWtHeiDA6O93eWlMJYG9-dOqX4NmiiqQswcIZ7iPGacFTuafIULbsgAOr0dILF_BsbrlLSE/s640/SI+-+Bali+Volcano.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">To get to the harbour in Bali you have to pass through the strait between Bali and Lombok. Currents can be strong, although they tend to be favourable if you are heading south and there are lots of big ships, including supertankers. Smoking volcano is in the back. </td></tr>
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For our Indian Ocean crossing we had, for the first time, crew. Wynne is American and Kristian is German and they turned out to be competent crew and pleasant companions. They had experience on tall ships in the US and had crewed across the Pacific. Before joining us they had been volunteering in a remote village in Laos. After reaching South Africa they plan to find a sailboat (perhaps a delivery) to Europe, before settling down to a more 'normal' existence in the US. Wynne was waiting to hear about acceptance for a PhD program while Kristian would be finishing the editting of his second novel (first draft completed on the voyage) and looking at job and educational options.<br />
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From Bali our first stop was to be at Christmas Island which is an Australian possession about 530 miles away. The Aussies have demonstrated some common sense here by not having the ridiculous $330 quarantine fee that they have on the mainland. All you need is a visa (ours had run out and we were able to get one online in Indonesia. You also have to send them an email at least 96 hours before arrival to say you are coming.<br />
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This short passage went very well. We had an unusual second day. We picked up a terrific current and were moving at 8.5 to 9.5 knots. The problem was that this pace was going to get us there in the early part of the night, and I am never comfortable going into a strange harbour (or anchorage) in the dark - although in this case we could have done so. Anyway, I decided that we needed to slow down which was a bummer because we were going so fast and comfortably. Even with 11 hours of slowing down we still did 183 miles for the day. Without slowing down I suspect we would have had about a 210 mile day which is 17 miles more than our best ever. Oh well. We managed to get to the island at about 7 am which is what we wanted. The bottom there is very rocky and deep and the government have banned anchoring to protect the coral. Instead they have installed about six very good moorings which was helpful.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Jw31noSx64VmCbcEf6lQJrryczRRPRQDClNGBOTy50DYvfMvFN_DFhVQV2xn_n3kqK75DTujwGNmf60AbiIkHO3KrxFcAgXXWOVcZyUBGYURgCcU1nXbG6ZSMpLi1kAWDktmlKNqerc/s1600/Christmas+Island+-+Mooring.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Jw31noSx64VmCbcEf6lQJrryczRRPRQDClNGBOTy50DYvfMvFN_DFhVQV2xn_n3kqK75DTujwGNmf60AbiIkHO3KrxFcAgXXWOVcZyUBGYURgCcU1nXbG6ZSMpLi1kAWDktmlKNqerc/s640/Christmas+Island+-+Mooring.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">This is the anchorage (actually mooring field) at Christmas Island. We are on the right with Beach House, an American catamaran next to us.</td></tr>
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The economy of Christmas seems to be based on two industries. The first is the mining of phosphate rock. During our time there two relatively small freighters loaded. The process took less than a day. The other 'industry' is dealing with illegal immigrants, largely from Indonesia, although others are from countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. The immigration officer we talked to said that it is not unusual for some of these people to have first class stickers on their luggage from their flight from home to Indonesia. There is a large detention camp on Christmas that holds a couple of thousand asylum seekers, although just when we were there the government passed a new law that would have most of these people held in camps in Malaysia and Niue (a now mined-out phosphate rock island in the Pacific). Most refugees are granted admission to Australia but it can take several years for the processing.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc0QB1jW2GmnT_tmlUAAe0RG3lL8Ea0zaIh5dZbzYo8F5HwTpmJlbRYGAGavH_sPN65S4adijrhF4KrDVEfxqizQ7b0pTy2B7L8oYEbIzuyTDSTQrH2UuFKd-zHUVcEa_zWzewjp0RQbw/s1600/Christmas+Island+-+Phosphate+loading+dock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc0QB1jW2GmnT_tmlUAAe0RG3lL8Ea0zaIh5dZbzYo8F5HwTpmJlbRYGAGavH_sPN65S4adijrhF4KrDVEfxqizQ7b0pTy2B7L8oYEbIzuyTDSTQrH2UuFKd-zHUVcEa_zWzewjp0RQbw/s640/Christmas+Island+-+Phosphate+loading+dock.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The phosphate loading dock is critical to the economic health of Christmas Island. There is no dock as such. Freighters merely tie to a series of large mooring buoys. They have done a very nice job hiding the mining infrastructure, except for this dock of course.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin8k_mVPB3I24DSPCTfyRHB81ihLEKSUOMu0IG0jzv-KN_QgABGjvzWKLMkHBZm0UoZzN40cRbC5gytQQPSfDXsZsIQBSyFAQP_LKcXfJOQbxtzuAFvOXwZOKOFaqBwk_EgiGZgZ8S0sc/s1600/Christmas+Island+-+Human+snakes+taken+ashore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin8k_mVPB3I24DSPCTfyRHB81ihLEKSUOMu0IG0jzv-KN_QgABGjvzWKLMkHBZm0UoZzN40cRbC5gytQQPSfDXsZsIQBSyFAQP_LKcXfJOQbxtzuAFvOXwZOKOFaqBwk_EgiGZgZ8S0sc/s640/Christmas+Island+-+Human+snakes+taken+ashore.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When we were at Christmas the Australian navy 'caught' an asylum-seekers boat. I say 'caught' with tongue firmly in cheek because they want to get caught and will often call on the radio to give their location. This boat had about 60 people on it who were taken ashore on a couple of the local boats (one seen here). There is no crew on these vessels. The smugglers buy a cheap vessel in Indonesia, show the people on board how the engines work and how to use a handheld GPS and send them on the their way. Last year one of these vessels ran into the rocks around the island and 100 people drowned. The navy burn the smuggling ships after removing fuel and other dangerous materials.</td></tr>
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Christmas Island had a very nice community feel, although judging by the size of the liquor department at all of the grocery stores, I suspect it might get a little boring. Prices are very high though since most things are flown in. A nice Chinese cabbage, for example, was $12!! Our inner stay arrived by air and cost $200 for shipping from Perth (it weighed something like 7 pounds).. They have a permanent outdoor movie theatre that shows a newish film every Saturday night.We went and saw the most recent Batman film. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf7g6VO_X9SK6oRrRTaW4Ls13t7Zb7EiaM_iYGzxFX-MYMdivzn3BIAjHmR2tpmoqtPJXBakc5H-B1vbY3VbIonMFU_Oh0wtXk-PaiiVFcTFCkoJBz4dnAwPm1jMxeGj-qCgcjcaV0BkY/s1600/Christmas+Island+-+Street+ads.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf7g6VO_X9SK6oRrRTaW4Ls13t7Zb7EiaM_iYGzxFX-MYMdivzn3BIAjHmR2tpmoqtPJXBakc5H-B1vbY3VbIonMFU_Oh0wtXk-PaiiVFcTFCkoJBz4dnAwPm1jMxeGj-qCgcjcaV0BkY/s640/Christmas+Island+-+Street+ads.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There are a couple of sets of blackboards like this in the centre of Christmas. They had everything on them from what movie was showing on Saturday to what the specials were in the restaurants and who had a house to rent. There also was an island radio station. Pretty good for an island of 1400 people. We had a chat with the owner of the hardware store whose daughter was running in the New York marathon. The whole family was going to cheer her on and the island got behind her since she was raising money for cancer research. Not sure what happened when the race was called off because of Hurricane Sandy.</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-15606087143613848062012-09-03T19:35:00.001-04:002012-09-04T09:22:57.689-04:00Indonesia – Part Dua (2 in Indonesian)<br />
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In theory we have had internet while cruising through some
of the poorer parts of Indonesia. In reality, we could often connect but could
not even open Hotmail the connection was so slow. This country has followed the
route of many developing countries and just skipped the entire idea of wired
telephones. Instead, everyone (except us) has a cell phone. It is quite bizarre
to see someone in a dugout canoe with a cell phone – says something about
convergence of cultures and technologies, but too complicated for me to figure
out. Anyway, as you cruise along the coast you will see red and white painted radio
towers that combine both microwave transmissions and cell antennas. One tower
means quite a small village and four or more, quite a sizeable town. The only problem
is that the signals are better-suited for phones than data. There is an
additional problem in that you buy time but have to register it using a series
of SMS messages – all in Indonesian. Now we are in Bali and the cell signal is
very strong.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We have now gotten well ahead of the Sail Indonesia schedule
since we need to leave for South Africa soon. It appears we have not missed
much. We went to the first three Sail Indonesia stops and quite enjoyed the
festivities. We now have been to five events that featured traditional dancing
which sounds like it should be boring and repetitive but nothing could be
further from the truth. The range of dances has been incredible and there is
always something different to see. Turns out that at the next two stops in the
route the planned activities did not happen since the local governments did not
approve the needed budget. In a way this does not bother me since the money
could be more usefully spent meeting the needs of the local people rather than
those of rich boaters. The whole process is supposed to promoting tourism but I
don’t see how this actually happens to any significant degree.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWGZp_Em3izJFQ7rDgVKA0eHMMn0kfFVSju2qyxeMQnjdfQUm7i14N4F4jTVcLVhMW7on6u2HghQUjaHrhOB4f2Yl1EtrIZu9wrhqg_Hks8_XwECA7mX5yOzuNI7mUUABdX9T5Tv2eEdg/s1600/SI+-+Lembata+Sunset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWGZp_Em3izJFQ7rDgVKA0eHMMn0kfFVSju2qyxeMQnjdfQUm7i14N4F4jTVcLVhMW7on6u2HghQUjaHrhOB4f2Yl1EtrIZu9wrhqg_Hks8_XwECA7mX5yOzuNI7mUUABdX9T5Tv2eEdg/s400/SI+-+Lembata+Sunset.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the anchorage in Lembata, Flores. There is never a shortage of wonderful scenery.</td></tr>
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Sailing along the coast from Alor has both its pluses and
its minuses. On the positive side of the ledger there is a great deal to see.
All of the islands are quite mountainous (to more than 3000 m) and its not rare
to see smoking volcanoes. The villages are interesting as are the local
watercraft which range from very small dugouts to elaborate fishing vessels and
tourist boats that look like the trading boats of a generation ago. The people
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5xugaYPzYtykYgj9CpOk3WZlegTGlPwe1M44McEZ4WpveSfJ7QZSpq3uDc_29_6piOGMnQwrFz8MxQb7jDDvKONuDq9BF6QcqpFIc_-bEVLKK06hpC5KZtHWtqD0x2X648jscGs_BV10/s1600/SI+-+Lembata+school+kids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5xugaYPzYtykYgj9CpOk3WZlegTGlPwe1M44McEZ4WpveSfJ7QZSpq3uDc_29_6piOGMnQwrFz8MxQb7jDDvKONuDq9BF6QcqpFIc_-bEVLKK06hpC5KZtHWtqD0x2X648jscGs_BV10/s400/SI+-+Lembata+school+kids.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">On the way to the market in Lembata we were passed by several trucks and buses filled with kids in different uniforms. Later we passed a field where all these groups had congregated. We thought it might be a soccer tournament so went to look. Turns out it was an effort to pick up trash in the entire community so it would cleaner before for the National Day holiday that was coming. This was much needed as the country (and often the water) is pretty dirty. The ability to produce trash in a developing country seems to come long before the ability to deal with it. When we appeared we were swarmed by kids who wanted to know where we were from, etc. They all wanted shake hands and be in a picture with us. I got this picture when they these girls were too busy with June to notice that I was taking their picture.We also talked at some length with one of the teachers who was organizing the venture.<br />
June's Aussie straw hat was later lost at sea which was a bit of a tragedy.</td></tr>
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Shopping is great fun. In
Lombok we walked to quite a large market and returned home in a pony cart.
There are dozens of these that play the role of taxis. June is remarkably adept
at communicating with the merchants and managing to bargain for a decent price.
You really need to do this otherwise you end up paying way more than market.
For example, one of the pony cart drivers wanted 50,000 rupiah for the
relatively short trip back to the boat. June asked a merchant who did speak
good English how much it should be – 10,000 and this is what we paid. It was
such fun that we added a 5,000 rupiah tip (about 60 cents). Told the driver it
was for a treat for the little horse but we don’t think he understood.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggCJucY9XDV7M5NbH-fqNGmpio6ojJKxizVx414ff48e0qe111nl3MB8huocc1SQPERdJHBlglmJe3MRFiKFhyphenhyphenNuLGeGnchpKkNP4QuRvU30dtHvOmFulmZoh8xmUN5V4oY3py0vaZefc/s1600/SI+-+Lembata+market+Muslin+woman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggCJucY9XDV7M5NbH-fqNGmpio6ojJKxizVx414ff48e0qe111nl3MB8huocc1SQPERdJHBlglmJe3MRFiKFhyphenhyphenNuLGeGnchpKkNP4QuRvU30dtHvOmFulmZoh8xmUN5V4oY3py0vaZefc/s400/SI+-+Lembata+market+Muslin+woman.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">In the market. Many of the market areas have sun awnings but they are not tall enough for me to walk through without bending over. June does not have a problem though. June has learned enough Indonesian to do most bargaining, but shoppers who know English are very helpful and want to make sure that you are paying a fair price.</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDZgGGzeM5729E9WXnrV5UgmEchDDWCrWQK_yvyJ9mqy9QqF7ql0Hhi_oCvGhb5FV8AUGT54a1TwM0QD513h0tP2jo1QiiSo41GZM52zkPj0BRZtDGaGZ_oEzHwuY1htX8adMCsdWCE00/s1600/SI+-+Lembata+motor+bike+whole+family.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDZgGGzeM5729E9WXnrV5UgmEchDDWCrWQK_yvyJ9mqy9QqF7ql0Hhi_oCvGhb5FV8AUGT54a1TwM0QD513h0tP2jo1QiiSo41GZM52zkPj0BRZtDGaGZ_oEzHwuY1htX8adMCsdWCE00/s400/SI+-+Lembata+motor+bike+whole+family.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Indonesia is a country of scooters and small motorcycles. This is the family car.</td></tr>
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On the negative side of the ledger … we have been motoring
way too much here. The winds tend to be weak and not at all reliable. If you
end up sailing more than motoring (or motor-sailing,) on a given day that is
good, but not common. The exception to this is when you cross the straits that
exist between islands. Here you often will have 25+ knots. Some of these
straits are quite wide and it can take several hours to cross, during which you
may have currents helping (or hurting) your progress.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The other problem in many areas is finding a decent
anchorage in many places. Particularly more to the east, the islands are very
steep right to the water’s edge and there is little if any shelf next to the
island. Often, in shallower areas, the bottom is covered in coral, which is a
good thing except when you are trying to anchor. Near the eastern end of Flores
island we happened to be with about 8 other boats as it was getting onto
anchoring time. It verged on the humorous as boats ducked into (and out of)
every little indentation in the coast looking for somewhere to drop the hook.
After about an hour of this, all but one boat had found something, but with
water depths to 30 m and still very close to shore. We found a spot in about 15
m but were very close to shore – 25 m or so. I slept in the cockpit with the
anchor alarm on in case the wind came up. Needless to say I got very little
sleep. In some places you cannot avoid coral. In one anchorage I was horrified to
bring up a piece of coral on the anchor. We could not see since the water was
20+ m deep and not all that clear. Further west it was much better since there
were areas of land that were flatter and this meant that there was a decent
amount of shallow water (<10 bottoms.="bottoms." m="m" mud="mud" or="or" sand="sand" with="with"></10><br />
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Also it is hard to keep the boat clean. Most people cook on
open fires and there is a lot of soot in the air at times that ends up on the
deck. Finally there are the prayer chants. Some are quite melodic, others just
loud. But it would be nice if the first one was a little later than 4 am. When
we visited large Islamic cities like Cairo and Amman there was one chant that
came from high—quality PA systems. Here, each mosque does its own chant often all
at the same time. Even smallish towns will have multiple mosques/chants. Our record
was five going at one time.<o:p></o:p><br />
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One of the neat things we got to do was see Komodo dragons.
They are only found on four islands and most are on only two: Komodo and Rindja. These two islands are in
the strait between Flores and Sembawa. We could have taken our boats to them,
but the usual problems of currents and poor anchorages encouraged us to go on a
local tour boat. We started with crews
from four sailboats, but a half hour or so out there were large clouds of smoke
coming out of the engine room of our boat (everyone had brought their life
jackets with them since the local boats do not have such luxuries). After a few
minutes another tour boat that was passing took us on board. One couple who are
cruising with an 11 month old baby decided that they did not trust the local
boats and asked to be taken back to their boat. This was perfectly
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBA5hFWplUkmL79CXMzrY6GmujG7olUxLdVtc3ovICvZ53PWxxGsAUc8JQhiViSnEDuqW3I4vQVe7y0RfbapQdDXO8CbkqhZPE0sBC1PiWuRuTg_inanv5q5354G0vHCBYyYDhAQs-GP0/s1600/SI+-+Labuan+Bajo+Tourboat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBA5hFWplUkmL79CXMzrY6GmujG7olUxLdVtc3ovICvZ53PWxxGsAUc8JQhiViSnEDuqW3I4vQVe7y0RfbapQdDXO8CbkqhZPE0sBC1PiWuRuTg_inanv5q5354G0vHCBYyYDhAQs-GP0/s400/SI+-+Labuan+Bajo+Tourboat.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">We were picked up at our boats for the tour to Rindja. This is the tour boat that caught fire. the replacement one was not as large or fancy.</td></tr>
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The rest of us, along with three English tourists who were
already on board, had a great day. We went to the national park on Rindja and
saw a dozen or so dragons, and they are nasty looking beasts. The males can be
3.7 m long. There was a list of ‘incidents’ on a bulletin board in the park.
Since 1987, 17 people have been bitten in the park and three have died. When
you are in the park you are accompanied by a ranger with a long (2+ m) forked
stick if one of the dragons should prove too aggressive. A real problem is that
they are camouflaged very effectively and if their tongues are not flicking
around, the only thing that is moving are their eyes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7EdeeFiEtYDElDG8WOMaw-y6ok6MVZeBR0AmhFSM9C8lVp2Ny_kQd7pPwZRSGIsKJbGWsj4J1N8ual8fEaRBHPeQI36JIO9Lkl3-pde3YRyt4pwN2MVovabWGSUdfDAkBDhoeuA71wYs/s1600/Si+-+Komoto+dragon1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7EdeeFiEtYDElDG8WOMaw-y6ok6MVZeBR0AmhFSM9C8lVp2Ny_kQd7pPwZRSGIsKJbGWsj4J1N8ual8fEaRBHPeQI36JIO9Lkl3-pde3YRyt4pwN2MVovabWGSUdfDAkBDhoeuA71wYs/s400/Si+-+Komoto+dragon1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Komodo dragons on Rindja island. These ones are attracted to the smells at the kitchen in the national park. The park staff live there with their families in buildings on stilts but the dragons on occasion will go up stairs. The biggest one in this group was about 2.5 m long. Nasty looking beasts.</td></tr>
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We are now in Bali which has a small marina that is not
particularly nice but the only option in the area. It is also quite expensive
by regional standards – as is Bali in general. Getting to the marina was
chaotic. The channel in is not all that wide and very shallow on either side
and very busy. As we came in, there were ferry boats (mainly fast catamaran
type), tugs, and many recreational boats coming and going. These include
numerous jet skis, boats pulling tourists on floats, people fishing, and
parasail boats. We passed one small boat with two guys fishing while wearing
motorcycle helmets. Couldn’t quite figure that one out but it was a fitting
commentary on the chaos.<o:p></o:p><br />
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We originally planned to stay in Bali to Sept. 15<sup>th</sup>
but it turns out there is a race coming from Australia and we have to leave on
the 10<sup>th</sup>. Our Indian Ocean crew were able to change their schedule
so we can leave then. This is actually a plus since it gives us more
flexibility down the line. We have been very busy doing every kind of
maintenance we can think of on the boat in preparation for the passage. We have
also remade the boat as a cutter by setting up the inner stay and putting the
sail on it. As well, we will have the storm trysail lying on deck on its track.
Our route to Richards Bay, just east of Durban, South Africa will include stops
at Christmas I, Cocos-Keeling I (these are both Aussie territory so we had to
get new visas), Rodriquez I and Mauritius, then north around Madagascar and
down to South Africa. It will be more than 5000 miles through some windy, rough
ocean so we want everything working well.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<i>An addendum to this post. Did an inspection of the rig today and was most annoyed to find that one of the lower shrouds has a broken wire. This should not happen since the rigging was replaced only three years ago. There are no riggers in Indonesia and I checked with DHL who are the best couriers here and it would take a week for delivery and would cost almost $400. At this point I am considering hopping on a plane to Perth, Australia to get the needed wire and fittings. Darwin is much closer but at least three airlines fly to Perth so the fares are much cheaper. I should be able to do it for about the DHL cost. The joys of cruising in areas that are not the home to many sailboats.</i><br />
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In answer to the questions posted in the comments to our
last posting. The security situation in Indonesia is much improved. The
problems used to be near Singapore and in northern Sumatra and there has been
more policing. Apparently the great tsunami that ravaged Sumatra contributed to
a major reduction in piracy since so many people were killed and so many boats
destroyed. We have found Indonesia to be a very honest country with the
exception of merchants who try to charge foreigners a ‘special’ price – which does
not bother me at all. In one place I left my Crocs on the dock by accident when
I was getting in the dinghy (they were very sandy). Next morning they were
still there in spite of many people wandering by.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We have a Northern Lights 5 kW generator and it seems to
have worked very well for us overall. We had to have it rebuilt when we bought
the boat because the previous owners had not used it enough. It had barely 300
hours in something like 12 years. Apparently the secret is to use a genset
regularly and when you do, make sure there is a good load on it. The newer
generators seem to have fancy, solid-state controls that monitor and report on
everything and we have run into more than a couple of boats who have had
problems with the control units. It may pay to keep things simple.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-63308782761910670332012-08-09T09:15:00.003-04:002012-09-03T20:12:36.680-04:00Less Than 500 Miles ... But a World of Difference<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">From Darwin to Kupang in Indonesia is only 460 miles and
most of that is heading westward rather than directly northward where the
distance from Oz to Indonesia is less than 150 miles, but in terms of the
economic and cultural differences between the countries it should be an immense
distance. It is easy to see why the Australian government spends so much time
and effort trying to stop ‘boat people’ from sneaking into the country from
Indonesia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A few words about the start of the rally and the passage.
Technically, the rally was to begin at 11 am with all of the boats crossing a
starting gun after a starting sequence just like a race. In actual fact, boats
started leaving just after dawn to take advantage of an excellent, favourable
wind. Wwe were anchored pretty much on the starting line after leaving the
marina the previous day and had the anchor up just before 9 am and could not
resist the lure of the wind, so started heading towards Kupang.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It would be hard to imagine an easier, more pleasant
passage. The first day the winds moved around a bit and quit for a couple of
hours (we motored for 1 ½ hr) before settling in just about perfectly behind
us, where they stayed for the next three days. We ended up wing and wing (main
on one side and genoa straight course in
these conditions. The passage took us 3 days and 3 hours and we arrived at
Kupang with a group of boats that were in the 47 to 52 foot range which was
nice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Next was our introduction to Indonesia bureaucracy – which
is legendary. Three officials, all extremely pleasant and very young came on
board to start the process. Then we went ashore to a room that had been set up
for the rally to finish the entry process. There were twenty (20!) more
pleasant young people there that you worked your way through as you went from
department to department – customs, immigration, quarantine, health, and port
authority. All of them were busily filling in forms and stamping and stapling.
We handed in many copies of our passport with the visas and the boat
registration, and the CAIT (cruising permit) – and we got to use our boat
stamp, which he purchased in Toronto and had only used once, in Ecuador. Here
it go a workout as we filled in forms, signed them, and stamped them. Most
boats did not have a stamp and went out to get one made in Kupang for $5 with
the stamp pad and ink each costing 60 cents. One boat had both a stamp and an
embosser like a lawyer would have. The officials were most impressed with this
and all wanted to feel the raised stamp on the paper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Our introduction to Indonesia proved two things: things here
are much, much cheaper than in Oz (not surprisingly) and the people here are
remarkably friendly and accommodating, although efficiency is not a word found
in the language. An aside, during our briefing in Darwin, the Indonesian man
behind the rally commented that in Mexico there is the concept of <i>manana</i>, which in Jamaica would be
expressed as “soon come”. He said in Indonesian there is no such word to
express such a level of urgency. He said that many people wear wristwatches,
but these are for decorative, not functional reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We also began our lives as celebrities here. There was a
dinner sponsored by the governor with folk dances and Indonesian
interpretations of Western music (some quite good). Two nights later there was
a dinner put on by the mayor of Kupang, again with entertainment. A few hours
before that we were on a tour and stopped at a festival put on the district
mayor and there was more dancing and a ‘snack’, the tbag, meet the local
officials, and get your picture taken with them. I have no idea what they do
with all the pictures.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1VWVUwPW2C7_crDA_vJF8MSp053CZ-fuoboT2NOeSwbeWekGLfXOReN4Lo07stcaguBGg_Vw5sgFELvNJYfyt9bd3yNWunJAakRc0zpaEV-jl_8PzEBgg91-eKGI7_ROe-HfiwmH7WDQ/s1600/KP+-+Girls+in+traditional+dresses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1VWVUwPW2C7_crDA_vJF8MSp053CZ-fuoboT2NOeSwbeWekGLfXOReN4Lo07stcaguBGg_Vw5sgFELvNJYfyt9bd3yNWunJAakRc0zpaEV-jl_8PzEBgg91-eKGI7_ROe-HfiwmH7WDQ/s640/KP+-+Girls+in+traditional+dresses.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">One of the many dance groups we have seen. They are most often remarkably elegant-looking dancers.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The tour we did was most interesting, thought-provoking,
inspirational, and a bit sad – all at the same time. It was led by a young man
named Alfredo who is part of a unique and special family. About 20 years ago
his parents who are farmers started to take in orphans. Over time, a few became
many and the family now support 92 children ranging from infants to university
age, and with no official status as a charity or as an orphanage. The rally
indirectly supports the orphanage by providing for an optional $25 fee that
goes to a scholarship so the best kids can go to university (so far about 10
have gone to university or are going). Many cruisers also chip in more money
when they get a chance to visit the children who seem very happy and well
looked-after. The parents have two hectares (4.4 acres) of first-rate rice
paddies that have enough water to allow two crops a year – this provides the
bulk of the food. Alfredo works during the week and looks after the orphanage
from Friday to Sunday so the parents get a break. He also teaches the kids
English (he is self-taught and quite skilled) in the evening and gives academic
help as well. Apparently he is quite good at this since one of the girls who
graduated from high school this year had the highest exam results of any
student in Timor – which has a couple hundred thousand people. She is going to
university sponsored by Sail Indonesia and wants to be a math teacher. Alfredo’s
sister works as a nurse and donates most of her salary to the kids. An uncle
and aunt also help out (he is also a minister and leads services for the
children). The older children also look after the younger ones. A remarkable story that makes you want to
question how you have spent your life.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj80_a7uflP59wBVBqg0vcZCqVmZ0bQPJoUj5UGypIRoNxNU87TcBzx7w_tBPkJgs-9jsuaKw4rmQNizNRlYj3nIvL6_gzjDekPcRTrbFlHTg4tF-6ta8Z603qQBf72GnznwjhxGDQ37eM/s1600/KP+-+Rice+patty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj80_a7uflP59wBVBqg0vcZCqVmZ0bQPJoUj5UGypIRoNxNU87TcBzx7w_tBPkJgs-9jsuaKw4rmQNizNRlYj3nIvL6_gzjDekPcRTrbFlHTg4tF-6ta8Z603qQBf72GnznwjhxGDQ37eM/s640/KP+-+Rice+patty.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Rice being transplanted. There are very few such areas in the eastern part of the area we visited. The family who run the orphanage own 2 hectares (4.4 acres) of this land. It provides most of the food to support almost one hundred people.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG57X-swvBewt4B3TsuAY75n3iQk8xSUNkY_vKXCIRjhcNGoSoAT4Yv9ygSyWAov_6A1aUqzfW4mDxSAOduWbvaoGt4WoF2ERAnpMmnqDSsq_Yv_CFxDyP7ZyZbq3_wCXxUmJ6EBNG2oQ/s1600/KP+-+Bruce+with+kids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG57X-swvBewt4B3TsuAY75n3iQk8xSUNkY_vKXCIRjhcNGoSoAT4Yv9ygSyWAov_6A1aUqzfW4mDxSAOduWbvaoGt4WoF2ERAnpMmnqDSsq_Yv_CFxDyP7ZyZbq3_wCXxUmJ6EBNG2oQ/s640/KP+-+Bruce+with+kids.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Two of the orphans who have lived in the orphanage since around age 7. They are going to university in a few months and both want to be math teachers. The water in the background comes from a spring and is a critical part of the rich rice paddies in this area.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">During the tour we visited the children and saw where they
live. Remarkably, 42 boys sleep in one room that was not all that big. Up to 4
kids sleep in one, largish bunk. The 50 girls sleep in slightly more space.
They also grow food around the orphanage. We visited Alfredo’s home and met his
parents and toured the rice paddies and saw the spring where the water comes
from. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">If anyone reading
this has some spare change and would like to help some delightful children and
an admirable family, post a comment and we will get in touch. I have contact
info for Alfredo and we can figure out how to get the money to him.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrBT48whC703hL0zoG5vGjmJhjiJWnbF99_FK97JR4iMbkXGDwmcvfLEP_V2RSK-kL85vgwWGloF9MJ1Jo5aW9dHdkvgvivcJ8d4MfinhAVcW-GBdeqwAzg5c7HnM1Q1A5Sgt2Qdpimp8/s1600/KP+-+Monkey+bullying.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrBT48whC703hL0zoG5vGjmJhjiJWnbF99_FK97JR4iMbkXGDwmcvfLEP_V2RSK-kL85vgwWGloF9MJ1Jo5aW9dHdkvgvivcJ8d4MfinhAVcW-GBdeqwAzg5c7HnM1Q1A5Sgt2Qdpimp8/s400/KP+-+Monkey+bullying.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">A visit to a monkey sanctuary in Kupang.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUw6-JcBHlhyBcWihVLig0MdkeYHKx25-0lF_s6KiY20nUoi5l6KCy_Y1GckQkKE8L9BkvDwsywGgWMjwhXAn19WWjdWX8AqDSxzwGWNByY1g2HXcwsLJuD25NO5ffzpqv-IrTI578uI/s1600/KP+-+Bellows+boy+with+cellphone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUw6-JcBHlhyBcWihVLig0MdkeYHKx25-0lF_s6KiY20nUoi5l6KCy_Y1GckQkKE8L9BkvDwsywGgWMjwhXAn19WWjdWX8AqDSxzwGWNByY1g2HXcwsLJuD25NO5ffzpqv-IrTI578uI/s400/KP+-+Bellows+boy+with+cellphone.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">This was taken at a forge next to the road in Alor where they make knives and machetes. This guy's job is to power the bellows which he is doing with his right hand. It does not require any attention so he can use his other hand and eyes to keep in touch with friends with text messages.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">After a few days in Kupang it was time to move on and we
were ready for a change as it is a pretty hectic, dirty place. The next
scheduled Sail Indonesia stop was in Kalahabi, Alor which is about 135 miles NE
of Kupang. Less than half of the boats in Kupang actually came here as it was
going east and everyone has spent so much time getting west that it seemed (and
was) like going the wrong way. Also it was our introduction to the strong
currents that exist between islands in Indonesia. When we left Kupang our
original plan was to make this a two day trip with an anchorage somewhere on
the north coast of Timor. Anchoring here is complicated by the fact that the
water gets very deep quite close to shore and you are very near the border with
East Timor which is not one of the happiest border regions in the world (Google
it for more info). At least the wind was good for going there – and then it
changed and we ended up with NE winds (should have been E to S quadrant and it
started that way). I thought this would mean an exposed anchorage so we kept going
and ended up hard on the, not very strong, wind. We ended up with our shortest
24 hour run ever – 104 miles and this included a few hours motoring. The fun
had just begun though. Once we got close to the strait between Alor and the
neighbouring island the currents started. We did as slow as 1.9 knots in spite
of motorsailing because of the strong and swirling currents. At times we were
doing 7 knots as we hit patches of counter currents. To top it off, when we
were about 10 miles from the anchorage the engine alarm came on. Turned out we
had had a complete failure of the impeller that circulates cooling water to the
engine. To those not familiar with these little beasts, it consists of a wheel
with eight rubber lobes sticking out that push up against the pump housing.
They wear out gradually as the lobes break off. When this happens you notice
that you do not has as much coolant flow are normal. This was not the case here
though. It turned out that the rubber part of the impeller and pulled away from
the metal hub inside so we went from lots of cooling to none at all. On some
engines you can replace the impeller fairly easily, but not on the mighty
Westerbeke 58. The impeller housing is turned in such a way that it is not very
accessible (you have to take the drive belt off and turn the whole pump). Also
the engine was very hot. It was not a great time as we had about 4 knots of
apparent wind behind us and a few knots of good current but the tide was
scheduled to change against us. Also, the water was very deep, right up to
shore so we could not anchor. Fortunately another rally boat was coming up and
they towed us into the anchorage where we were able to replace the impeller
after the engine cooled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Alor is quite lovely and we like it much better than Kupang.
It is not so busy and much cleaner. They teach English in the schools and lots
of the young people want to talk to you. Again the people are incredibly
friendly and helpful whether you are trying to figure out where a mini-bus
(‘bemo’) is going or how much the bananas are in the market. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNvureucRgxd0SEp4jRP-SXzGL4K2CrHYt14lvRovBe_sqS-pFnjchlsTVsWOd5Y0l1b82VvfRPopl72erbgZvFja59NZhXWkWt-m7VKFIfs-3PQhO2roIDgO8Rw3oK7mrK2EQuvTccXo/s1600/SI+-+Alor+bemo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNvureucRgxd0SEp4jRP-SXzGL4K2CrHYt14lvRovBe_sqS-pFnjchlsTVsWOd5Y0l1b82VvfRPopl72erbgZvFja59NZhXWkWt-m7VKFIfs-3PQhO2roIDgO8Rw3oK7mrK2EQuvTccXo/s400/SI+-+Alor+bemo.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">This is a 'bemo', the staple public transport of the region. They are very low inside and barely adequate for most Indonesians - who are not large people.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><span style="font-family: inherit;">We shared the cost
of a bemo rental for a day with a Dutch couple and had a great time exploring
this end of the island. We could have gone on the tour organized for the
cruisers, but ours was much more fun and also much cheaper. We visited a
‘traditional village’ well up in the hills – actually very nice up there as it
was cool – which is the major tourist attraction. The people in this village
look quite different – much darker skin and different facial features. Apparently
cannibalism still happened in this area until the 1950s, but today the
‘warriors’ have cell phones and may live in the city and drive up to work on
their motorbikes. We bought some handicrafts there that were quite nice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9GV-i8sK1jMw5jwEdW06R4J0TSHsjfD8ACjYNcfCodNHgnhUSCAnc93CjNOAcp1quN1IYBO9K8-Gha4cLN9s9tY8GznX18YQNCK6V_L-aKobkxPK9Ss2WihDuxiBL7_AFRMC3_tKfrdM/s1600/SI+-+Alor+Takpala+photo+with+dancer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9GV-i8sK1jMw5jwEdW06R4J0TSHsjfD8ACjYNcfCodNHgnhUSCAnc93CjNOAcp1quN1IYBO9K8-Gha4cLN9s9tY8GznX18YQNCK6V_L-aKobkxPK9Ss2WihDuxiBL7_AFRMC3_tKfrdM/s640/SI+-+Alor+Takpala+photo+with+dancer.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">We went to a 'traditional village' in Alor where the locals danced and sold handicrafts. This is one of the dancers. He only looks like he is 150 years old. He is 50. We bought a bow and two arrows. Not sure how many people live in the village now. It is up in the hills and not as hot as near the ocean. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The local rally organizers have done a terrific job here. We
had our dinner with the regent – a regency is bigger than a district, but
smaller than a province with terrific entertainers. They arranged a good price
for diesel delivered to the dock and had built a dinghy dock as well. There
always were people at the dock to take your lines and answer questions. They
even had a couple of buses organized to take us to the Regent’s dinner even
though it was only about 400 m away. Overall a great job.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Indonesia is the most populous Islamic country in the world
but there are sections that are majority Christian, like the parts we have
visited so far. Even so, there is still a significant Moslem population. This,
of course, means prayer chants from the mosque (there is one in the background
as I type this). We had experienced these in Egypt and Jordan a number of years
ago and quite like them – they tend to be quite soothing. There was one mosque,
or at least one with chants, in Kupang and that chants there were particularly
pleasant. This is a good thing since the first one is at 4 am and it does not
completely wake you up but you are aware of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It has been fun getting used to Indonesian money. The
exchange rate locally is something like US$1 = 7000 rupiah so when you cash in
a few hundred dollars you are suddenly a millionaire and you have bills in your
wallet up to 100,000 rupiah. Apparently there has been a large amount of
inflation at some point since 1 rupiah is divided into 100 sens. The smallest
denomination we have seen is 500 rupiah which was enough for a deep-fried
banana on the street (around 6 cents). BTW, the bananas were so good we went
back for seconds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Have to mention this – we have had our three fancy dinners
and at each the Elvis song that starts, “Wise men say …” was performed, twice
with a reggae beat. We are wondering if this is like a second national anthem
or something. At one of the performances there was a blues singer who could
have walked directly onto a stage in Vegas. She was fabulous. The joys of
globalization.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-67085503509335961722012-07-20T02:29:00.004-04:002012-07-24T10:29:25.682-04:00On to DarwinThe last blog entry went as far north as Port Douglas which was an elegant small town with many nice restaurants and places to stay. It was also the end of civilization for the next several weeks as we moved into extreme northern Queensland and area with only Aboriginal reserves, national parks and some of the giant, legendary cattle stations (ranches). It is an area that combines sameness with variety and is very lonely. The only village we stopped at, Portland Roads, had a population of a few dozen. There are also a few Aboriginal villages but you can only stop there if you have made previous arrangements. In general it was a very interesting journey to a part of the world not well-known.
The weather also was pretty consistent. There would be a few days of light winds from the SE, followed by a few days of heavy winds (25 to 35 knots) also from the SE. Since we were going generally NW it meant lots of broad reaching and running (genoa only, the assymetric did not get up) and more than a few gybes (only a few that were not planned and since the main was not up often, not a problem.
For the most part, I will tell the story from the perspective of pictures. The first one is of the anchorage at Lizard Island (there are quite a few lizards wandering around that are in the 3 to 6 foot size range). It is very tall island and apparently the northern terminus of some Aussie cruisers. They come here and wait until the wind switches at the beginning of summer. They go south with the northerly winds that develop. We went to Lizard after a short (9 mile) run from the mainland in winds in the 30 to 35 range. The protection was quite good but the winds still were blowing like this for the couple of days we stayed. The picture was taken from the trail to the top of the island, which was a pretty challenging walk.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZvrjrTVMBrgclCItnhDAmxgkay3Z2cSX3ZAMIFPbzlj3HGqPXVxuefyUxoIYf-w3uy-8XNtkgqI8CEv_zJobbozJSKYmZnYFcMhlAl5IcsIreorF4Z46ejLfYEIkZAtYMVnhs_54i0Eo/s1600/Sailing+-+Lizard+Island+anchorage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZvrjrTVMBrgclCItnhDAmxgkay3Z2cSX3ZAMIFPbzlj3HGqPXVxuefyUxoIYf-w3uy-8XNtkgqI8CEv_zJobbozJSKYmZnYFcMhlAl5IcsIreorF4Z46ejLfYEIkZAtYMVnhs_54i0Eo/s320/Sailing+-+Lizard+Island+anchorage.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This picture was taken from the top of Lizard looking out toward the outside of the Great Barrier Reef. The spot is called Cook's lookout because he came here in 1770. The Great Barrier Reef gets closer and closer to the mainland the further north you go so that in some places it is less than 10 miles away. Cook did surveys as we went north and realized this fact and was very much afraid he might get embayed if the reef closed completely to the land (he did not know about the wind switching later in the year). He came to the top of Lizard and looked out toward the open ocean and could see a passage that he used to escape from the reef. BTW, a few months earlier his ship hit a reef (now called Endeavour Reef after his vessel) and was very fortunate to escape. He only got off the reef by throwing his cannon and many other heavy items over the side. Having come up through the reef with accurate charts (first survey by Cook), GPS, an engine, and depth sounder you stand in awe of people like Cook who had none of these.
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One of the realities of sailing this area are saltwater crocodiles. They were hunted almost to extinction in the past, but for the last 20+ years they have been protected and they are expanding their range. There were even some in Cairns harbour. This is lovely, tiny island that is part of the Reef. At low tide there was a long sandbar to the north that was probably half a mile long. Lovely spot for a walk, you say? Could be except for the croc that lives on the beach.
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More croc evidence. We spent a couple of nights in an excellent anchorage in the mouth of the Escape River, just south of Cape York at the northernmost point of Queensland. This boat was there about the same time. If you look at the Canadian flag you can see that most of the outer red stripe is gone. About 1 am, a croc jumped out of the water at the flag (they have a very small brain, but great killer instincts and physical power). He (she?) jumped again and bit the swim platform on the boat, breaking through the gelcoat and leaving tooth scratches on the bottom of the platform. The couple were sleeping in the aft cabin very close to the action and thought they had been hit by another boat.
A very friendly couple run a pearl farm in the Escape River (they invited us to visit, which lasted for about 5 hours. When we talked to the woman on the radio she said that the crocs in the river were well-fed and we should be fine as long as we kept moving in our dinghies - Oh, Mr Mercury Motor, don't fail us now. They have lovely place to live on a point at the entrance to the river, but there were small crocs on the beach there.
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There are warning signs like this all over northern Australia and they mean it. You can't even stand near the edge of the water since this is prime hunting area for the beasts. As we headed to Darwin water temps went above 30°C and there were lovely beaches, but you coule not go swimming. In Kakadu National Park (mentioned later) they say that the only save place to swim is the pool in the village.
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When one looks at a map of Australia and neighbouring countries it appears that there is a big piece of ocean between Cape York and Papua-New Guinea. Turns out that this area (Torres Strait) is actually an extension of the Great Barrier Reef and is full of islands, shoals, and is all quite shallow - even extending out westward towards Darwin. There was one spot that was 50 m deep right at Cape York but that was the deepest place we saw since north of Bundaberg.
Our crossing of the top of the Gulf of Carpenteria (4 days) was not too bad. Our last day was blowing (the usual 30 to 35 knots) but at least the water was a bit deeper so the waves were not too bad. Boats that were a couple of days behind us had quite unpleasant conditons. THe highlight of our crossing was catching a 52" barracuda that weighed between 25 and 30 pounds. Quite a handful with only a handline. After finally getting him aboard I realized that we should hav bought a gaff rather than the big fishing net we have. We tried to lift him up with the net but only about half of him fit in and he did not like the idea. We finally just lifted him with the line. I thinked we ended up with 8 meals. Sorry the picture is the wrong way, it is vertical in the albumn but got turned here and I can't figure out how to turn it.
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When we got to Darwin we took the opportunity to head into the interior of the country in a rented campervan ($49 a night with unlimited mileage - one of the few bargains in the country other than the 30 cent ice cream cones at Mickey D's). We ended up driving more than 4000 km in a week. To be fair, there is not much else to do but drive. The distances are large and the towns are few. The third biggest city in the Northern Territory is Katherine which has a population of only 11,000. Alice Springs is not a whole lot bigger, but we had to go there after June read "A Town Like Alice".
These are some of the rock paintings in Kakadu National Park. It is a World Heritage Site, likely because of the paintings that range from 26,000 years old to less than 30.
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This is the famous rock called either Uluru or Ayer's Rock depending on your level of political correctness. It is quite remarkable at sunset, when this pic was taken. The colours are indeed accurate. We also got up before dawn, along with a few hundred other people, to see the sunrise on it - not worth disturbing the sleep. There is something quite odd happening here. The rock is a sacred place for the local people and they do not want people to climb it. The national park people ask that you don't climb it, but don't actually stop you from climbing and have installed a rope handrail to help you with the climb (it is very steep). Why they don't just forbid climbing (which they do if it is too windy or wet) is beyond me?
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Driving down the 'Stuart Highway' which goes about 3000 km south to Adelaide is not like the long distance highways at home. It is only two lanes and that makes sense because there is really not that much traffic. Most common, about equal numbers, are rental campervans and small motorhomes. Next would the locals' vehicles which are, in the countryside, overwhelmingly small diesel trucks (not pickups) with snorkels for the air intakes. These reach up to the top of the roof and allow the vehicles to go through quite deep water when the road floods - which is very, very common in the wet season. Back to crocs, we were told that you have to be very careful when you drive through flooded bits not to get stuck since you can't really get out run a cable ashore or to get help because the crocs really spread out in the wet season.
Anyway, back to the highways. This picture is of a couple of 'road trains'. These are a tractor with either three or four tralers behind. The length limit is 53.5 m! We saw one carrying dry cement (4 trailers) and it was and 82-wheeler. If you want to pass one of these monsters in a gutless Mitsubishi campervan with over 200k on the odometer you want to be able to see a long way ahead.
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This was an interesting spot along the highway called the Devil's Marbles. It is a large area of eroded granite. This was about the most extreme of all. You wonder how many years (or centuries) it will be until the little join breaks away.
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We did see kangaroos. These are in a zoo in Alice Springs where they let you wander through the 'roo enclosure. Later we saw a mother and baby (joey?) right next to the road just after dawn. When we got quite close (20 m) the baby decided he had had enough of the scary world and dove into the pouch.
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We did not go on this road because our rental agreement only allowed us on 'sealed' roads. The picture is good for showing a) how red the soil is in the 'Red Centre' and the kind of secondary roads there are in the country, with no gas (or settlement other than cattle stations) for 500 km). BTW, the redness of the soil is the result of tremendous amounts of leaching of nutrients for many thousands of years. All that is left in the soil are the insoluble minerals like iron and aluminum - so what we end up seeing is really a lot of 'rust' in the soil as the iron oxidizes.
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Just so you don't think we were only concerned about crocs, at the zoo in Alice Spring we saw a fairly small snake called the 'Desert Death Adder'. The guide said that it was on the list of the 10 deadliest snakes in the world but not near the top. She did say that if you were bitten you better have the anti-venom with you because you would never make it to the hospital. You mentioned that the deadliest of all is called the Great Brown. The problem with these guys is that they are very aggressive and will chase you (nice thought). She said that if you see any small to medium-sized snakes in Oz you should back away from them but if the snake is large it should be Ok, except that we saw a python that was 19 feet long and looked like it could look after itself.
A few comments about the city of Darwin. It is a lovely spot and would be a great place to live - for about 5 months of the year. This is the dead of winter here and every day the high as been about 30C with bright sun. You can tell it is winter because some of the locals wear a woolen sweater (jumper) over their longsleeved shirts, even at midday. The problem here is the other 7 months. In midsummer it often reaches 43°C with high humidity and lots of rain.
Darwin and the adjacent parts of the Northern Territory (the residents are called 'Territorians') have a fairly brief history that is dominated by two events - World War
II and Cyclone Tracy. If you have ever wondered what the Japanese fleet did after Pearl Harbor, they came to waters north of here and bombed Darwin in Feb., 1942. In fact, more than four times as many bombs were dropped here than in Hawaii and hundreds of people were killed (many women and children had already been evacuated or the toll might have been much worse. Many people thought that an invasion would follow and there certainly was nothing here to stop them. Apparently the Japanese navy wanted an invasion and the army thought that they would be spread too thinly. The Australian government took the threat seriously and had a secret plan to pull back to a line at the latitude of Brisbane. As we drove south we past signs pointing to the locations of many WWII airports stretching quite far south.
Tracy hit Darwin on Christmas Day in 1974 and is the largest natural disaster in Australian history. It was a Category 4 hurricane and one of the most compact hurricanes ever recorded. More than 60% of the buildings and 80% of the homes were destroyed and dozens were killed. The result is a very modern-looking city since few homes predate the storm and many of the surviving buildings have been modernized at some point in the past 30+ years.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-30536376424358394422012-06-14T06:31:00.000-04:002012-07-20T02:23:47.103-04:00Go North -- Then Turn Left<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We are now actually back to being cruisers and heading north up the coast of Australia towards Cape York. We are now anchored in the river upstream from Port Douglas which is just north of Cairns. Can't imagine we will have internet much longer as north of here there are very few people and lots of wide open spaces. We will be back in contact with the world when we get to Darwin but that is still more than a thousand miles away. Lots of things to cover so ...
In the last post about Oz, I said we were going to get a diver to clean the bottom and we did Thought we would take advantage of the opportunity to change our centerboard cable (a just in case kind of thing and we have a spare). Anyway, after he scraped vigorously for about $200 worth we started on the cable and it was a horros show. We got him to come at high tide so there would be room to lower the board and get the cable slack. When we took the cable off the winch it sorted of exploded in tangles (I guess being around the winch for many years does that). When we go the cable back under control we could not move the board up or down. My feeling was that the loose cable had come off one of the two pulleys (hidden inside a fiberglass sleeve) that lead from the winch to the board. Tide was starting to drop and there was 7 vertical feet of board sticking out with end resting just into the mud. I got the diver to but a rope around the board end that I took to winches on either side of the cockpit and waited for the tide to come back - with high tide to come at 0115. Every hour or so I went out and cranked the winches as tight as I could - just a few inches each time until about 0030 when it came out of the mud and I was able to get the board up almost the whole way.
The result was that we had to get hauled, which meant we could antifoul the bottom as well as figuring out what the hoisting problem was. It turned out that it was not the cable off the pulley (after we hired a fiberglass guy to cut open the glass around one of the pulleys. The cable was on the pulleys and it turned out the problem was a barnacle of something (probably loosened but not removed by the diver who was working by feel in the cloudy water). Anyway we got the bottom done very completely. The yard crew were great and hoisted the boat up so high in the travelift for the night that we were able to have the board almost all the way down. We used a 20 foot extension ladder to get on and off the boat - tried not to have to go in the middle of the night but without success. Probably the only time in the boat's history that such a thorough job could be done on the board. I also took the opportunity to measure the board. When it is down our draft is 12 feet.
This work, together with working on the mast slowed us down quite a bit so we left Brisbane a couple of weeks after we hoped. A final word on getting work done by pros. The quality varies enormously as does the workmanship. At one extreme there was Ian who is a cruiser and lives on his boat in the marina. He owns a precision engineering shop and did incredibly good work for very fair prices. He did not charge for one job (making bushes for the gooseneck fitting which had gotten quite sloppy) because June translated the parts list for a piece of Chinese machinery that he had to fix for someone. At the other extreme is Stan who is a marine electrician and refrigeration guy. His prices were very high and his work not reliable. We have had an intermittent problem with starting the engine from the cockpit (we have a secondary start switch inside the boat that works just fine). It took me a very long time to convince him that the problem was not the starter or its solenoid - he wanted me to take this out to get it serviced. Then he decided that it was actual starter switch so he ordered one that I installed (it was quite different configuation from the old one but the only one available with four terminals. This seemed to work for a time (the problem has always been intermittent). He charged $200 for 'consulation' which mainly involved me checking things he told me to check. I don't think I used anywhere near an hour of his time in total and the problem is not the switch. I think it is the glow plus solenoid but we can live with it. Anyway, end of rant.
After our late start from Brisbane we had to make up some time so we have done one overnight trip and one two night trip and we fine ourselves actually ahead of some boats going in the rally. The coast of Eastern Oz is very pretty but the weather has been cool and the winds not very reliable - nor are the weather guessers. The standard forecast has been SE 10 to 15 and we have had good winds as forecast but about 10 am the wind quits until dinner time. Now we are at around 16°S the trades are pretty predictable but south of 20 or so, the weather further south (say Tasmania) could alter the winds where we were and we could get variations on west and north for a time and also strong winds at times. In the last 48 hours there has been a gale warning for the Brisbane and southerly area (34 to 40 knots) and we had little wind at all. As we move towards 10°S we should see a lot of 20 to 30 knot trades which will be a nice change.
The sailing conditions are actually quite nice as the Great Barrier Reef to the east blocks any ocean swells so you are only dealing with local wind waves and they are rarely more than a foot or so. The Reef gets closer and closer to land the further north you go. Tomorrow, if it goes according to plans, we will be anchoring behind a reef but only something like 7 miles from shore. I did not realize it until I looked at the chart but the Torres Straits that separates Oz from Papua-new Guinea is actually filled by the Reef which extends to New Guinea. Water depths at most are something like 10 m and the Strait is full of shoal areas. It is also only 76 miles wide. Every so often something reminds me that I am a long way from home and being less than 75 miles from New Guinea is one of them.
If anyone is looking for a nice place to live there are some beautiful towns and cities in this area. Cairns is great with a a wonderful waterfront area. Mackay and Bundaberg are 'real', working towns without all the tourists. Mackay is the hub for coal mining and is a very rich, booming spot. If you had the right skills (heavy equipment operator, mechanic, etc), you could go into town and hit one of the many employment agencies everywhere and have a job at high pay by lunch time. 'Bundy' is a big sugar cane growing service center and has the stores and services you would expect. Not a fancy place, but honest. BTW, when we were in Bundaberg a singlehander from NZ ended up on the rocks right beside the harbour entrance. Apparently he fell asleep and his vane steering and navigation were almost dead on. It was way up on the rocks and have needed to be retrieved by a crane on land.
The place where we are now is the last fancy spot we shall see - it has many lovely restaurants and stores, but we were also told that the spot where we are anchored is home to a 4.5 m croc that we are going to try to see with the spotlight in a few minutes. It is a reminder that we are at the border between the parts of Oz dominated by people and parts dominated by nature. Not many people live between here and Darwin. There are cattle stations, a few mines (the largest bauxite mine in the world for example), and many aboriginal reserves, but none of these have many people. The few big towns have populations of a few hundred at most. Looking forward to it.
Pics to come in Darwin.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-62549611803617880072012-06-11T06:18:00.002-04:002012-07-24T08:33:24.504-04:00A brief look at New Zealand<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<pictures come="" to="">
We spent 17 days in New Zealand and would go back anytime. What a great country to visit and, i suspect, to live in. We flew from Brisbane to Dunedin which near the south end of the South Island. Remarkably there was a direct flight to this city of 130,000 people and it was full. Dunedin set the tone for our visit. There was lots to see and lots to do and it turned out to be great fun, if a little expensive. Dunedin is a university town (20,000 students) and someone described it as a perfect university town - 3 breweries and a chocolate factory. It is also incredibly hilly. Its downtown road pattern was created by an urban designer in Edinborough who had never been to New Zealand and it did not know about the terrain. BTW, the South Island is more Scottish and the North Island more English in heritage.
While in the Dunedin area we got a chance to visit an albatross reserve and see these great birds soaring above the cliffs. Quite wonderful to watch.
We started off travelling by bus but soon found that renting a car was much cheaper. Probably if we were to do it again we would rent a campervan because they were very cheap and you could sleep in the van most nights and only go to a hotel or backpackers every third or fourth night.
We decided that we might never be back to NZ so were a little freer with the money to pay for activities than we normally might be. We did not do any of the activities that involve jumping out of perfectly good airplanes or off high bridges, although they were available everywhere. Some of the activities we did do:
-- Took a helicopter to the top of the Franz Josef glacier. This killed two bucket list birds with one stone since I had never been in a helicopter and had never been on a glacier (other than at the snout of one in the Rockies). Incredible scenery and a terrific experience.
-- Made a knife from a hunk of steel and a bit of wood. A man on the west coast of the south island has created a very nice business for himself and his wife with this one. There were about a dozen of us there at NZ$130 a person for the day. You start with a length of ordinary steel and put it into the hearth and shape it with a hammer on an anvil. Once you are happy with the rough shape you do fine finishing including adding a hardwood handle and end up with something remarkable at the end of the day. Each person's knife is a little different.
-- Went caving which meant abseling 27 m into the cave and climbing through narrow spots (you could always walk around) and floating down a river in the cave on inner tubes. A highlight was seeing glowworms that lived in the cave that produced enough light that you could actually see.
-- Went sailing on an America's Cup sailboat - one of the more recent 80 footers. Quite something to see what it is like to sail such a boat. Incredible upwind performance and relatively easy to sail since it was so precise.
-- Spent a night a kiwifruit farm owned by a man we met at a boatyard in Connecticut. He was nice enough to invite us to visit and see the farm.
Some general comments about NZ
It is fascinating to visit a place that has a robust and successful economy based on farming. NZ is not getting out of the sheep business but they now have 32 million instead of 60 million sheep. This is because the market for beef and dairy products is much healthier than for lamb and wool. The economy is doing very well which as meant that the kiwi dollar is now worth about 85 cents US instead of the 45 cents as it was a few years ago. Minimum wage is $13 so everyone seems to be doing very well. The high local dollar is hurting the tourism industry since NZ is no longer a cheap place to visit. There were still lots of backpackers there, but that is because it is easier to getg work permits to help on farms or in other jobs, but the middle class travellers are staying away. Most of the activities we did were in the $130 to $200 range per person and it adds up in a hurry.
There are some incredible good hostels in NZ. Our fave was one called Global Village in Greymouth. It was beautifully setup and run. The decorations were incredible with folk art from Africa and Asia everywhere - even carvings of snakes and lizards in the rafters of the rooms. Even the dishes in the kitchen all matched. In Picton, at Tombstones (across the street from the graveyard) they upgraded us to a little apartment with a kitchen. In Christchurch the hostel was in the old jail and the rooms were very quiet with thick stone walls and heavy iron doors.
The country seems entirely civilized. People go at a slower rate than in Oz or North America and just seem to enjoy life. On the main highway between Wellington (the capital) and Auckland (the largest city) there is one section which has a 25 km/h turn and many 40 km/h turns and people just accept that that is the way it is. There are many
universities, wonderful museums (the marine museum in Auckland and the national museum in Wellington are incredible), public art galleries are common. They seem to have their priorities straight - work enough to pay the bills but be sure you have time for the things you love - outdoors activities, the local rugby team or the farmers' market.
It is a beautiful country with incredible variety. We drove from the west coast of south island to the north end of the island and started in glacier country, then drove along the ocean for a time (think Pacfic Coast Highway except you are closer to the water and the coastline reminded me of Oregon), then into an interior plateau area with thousands of cattle of and sheep and finally through a major vineyard area. A fun drive in the el-cheapo, gutless rental car we hadd, it would have been incredible in something like a Mini. In the mountainous part I estimated that there were probably 2000 curves with the slowest being 15 km/h - my arms were tired.</pictures>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-48757780892494937712012-04-28T04:17:00.002-04:002012-04-28T04:19:01.536-04:00Australia PrepsWe are back in Brisbane after a few weeks in New Zealand - by airplane, not boat. A posting on New Zealand will follow shortly. Loved NZ, but more on that later. In any case, we are preparing Ainia for a departure in about 10 days time (~May 8th?), after all the work is done. We are treating our time here as a mid-circumnavigation refit, a time to fix both major problems and minor ones that the last 11,000 miles have produced.
The things we are doing include:
• The big one is taking the mast down to do several things. We replaced the standing rigging in Florida, mostly at anchor, and the change went very well, until we got to the final upper shroud. Could not get the spreader cap off and dangling in a bosun's chair and then pulling out to the end of the spreader did not allow much torque to be produced, so it stayed up. The rigging replacement was really precautionary since I could not determine when it had last been done. The one old shroud is still OK, but it will be nice to get it done. Also there is an aluminum wiring conduit in the mast that has come partly loose which has meant that all of the wiring inside the mast has been damaged. We will get the conduit reattached and replace all the wiring - not a bad idea since I think it is all original. Bristol's approach to wiring was not to use the modern-style, tinned wire, but to use wire that is much bigger diameter than is the norm today, so it is a reasonable compromise, but wiring does wear out in a marine environment so it is a good thing to get it done.
• We have had normal sort of repairs and maintenance. The liferaft had to go for its every three years' servicing ($715AUD even after the sales tax exemption for foreign boats), the dinghy needed a couple of holes patched and a replacement towing ring on the bow ($390), the sails needed attention for various wear issues ($490). Don't know what the mast work will be but it will be pricey since we have to pay for a large crane to come to the marina twice. They don't take masts down here very often and they haul from about 1 meter below the masthead so the crane needs a long boom. In any case, we are doing our bit to help the Aussie economy.
• We are also doing many smaller, less costly jobs - like repairs and re-waterproofing the bimini and dodger, engine maintenance, head maintenance, trying to stop a few leaks in ports and hatches, getting the electric autopilot to work better (we don't use if very often at all but it would be nice to have when we are putting up the whisker pole whenn a second set of hands would help a lot. We were going to get hauled but have decided to use a diver instead to clean the bottom (it is very bad), install zinc on shaft, and cleanout the throughulls that seem to have picked up barnacles. Can't do these things ourselves since the harbour is loaded with jellyfish and even if they are not the poisonous ones they are still not nice. Let the diver do it since he has full body coverage. We may get the diver to replace the cable on the centerboard as well (again this is preventative, not essential right now.
Not getting much done today as it started to rain yesterday afternoon and by 9 am there had been 81 mm of rain (>3 inches) and it has poured all day today as well and will not stop until morning. This is supposed to be dry season too. The marine forecast was for 34 to 40 knots so glad we are here rather than outside.
<b>Routing</b>
There was a question asked about going to Chagos. There are a couple of places you can visit and you must arrange a permit beforehand with the British Colonial Office in London. The cost is 50 pounds sterling per week. We are only going to be staying there a week for a break along the way.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-500645987240296122012-03-08T10:01:00.002-05:002012-03-08T10:14:03.663-05:00Version 1.1 of our route<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">More research and more thinking and we have decided to modify our route a bit. Originally we planned on going from Darwin, Australia into Indonesia and then stopping at Christmas Island and Cocos-Keeling Islands, which are Aussie territory, on the way to Mauritius and South Africa. There is a problem with this however. First, our Oz multi-entry visa would expire while we were in Indonesia so we would need to get another visa (don't get me started on wondering why Australis requires visas for Canadians). More importantly, when we arrived at Christmas Island we would be subject to the draconian quarantine laws again. Whatever food we bought in Indonesia - where I assume the food would be terrific and cheap, would be seized. We would have to provision again in CK, where apparently the cost is about 2x that of mainland Oz - which is not cheap to start at. The quarantine fee is $355 AUD or around $370 Canadian or US + the cost of the costly food, so it would be easy to see this being an extra $1000. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">SO, the new plan is to go from Indonesia directly to Chagos Archipelago which is due south of India at around 5°S. The islands are uninhabited British territories after the Brits kicked all the people off so they could make a major military base at Diego Garcia Island (you are not allowed anywhere near there). There is another possible advantage here - you are crossing the Indian Ocean a bit further north so the winds might be a little less. Although the trip from Chagos to Mauritius would be a bit more rugged - a bit more on the beam than running. We have to decide to go either north of Java or south from Bali. Not much difference in distance. Bali to Chagos is 2565 nm, while Chagos to Mauritius is 1145.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-15236661621114825442012-02-05T17:03:00.002-05:002012-02-05T17:14:57.194-05:00Plan for the next sailing seasonSorry for not keeping the blog up, but have not had much to say. I have been spending a lot of time working on my China book, it is going pretty well so far - about 75% done I would say. Have to start spending more time on the epublishing part of it now I think.<div><br /></div><div>Below you will see our plan for the year+ following leaving Brisbane, likely in late April or early May. We have given a lot of thought to whether we should spend more time away or not, possibly going to Malaysia/Thailand or even to China, but we have decided to go a little faster since any alternate destination means at least one year more of travel. </div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, here it is is:<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Planning for Brisbane Onward v 1.0<div><div><br /></div><div>1. Brisbane to Cape Henrietta Maria - taking our time for Great Barrier Reef and Whitsundays</div><span></span><br /><span>2. Cape Henrietta Maria to Darwin - go relatively quickly, eg directly across the Gulf of Carpenteria</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>3. Darwin Rally - Starts <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://1" detectors="true" result="1">Jul 28th</a>, but should arrive in Darwin by <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://2" detectors="true" result="2">Jul 14th</a></span><br /><span> -Darwin to Bali (multiple stops) 950 nm</span><br /><span> - First stop is Kupang on Timor which is 420 nm</span><br /><span> - Bali stop is <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://3" detectors="true" result="3">Sept 23 -7</a></span><br /><span></span><br /><span>4. Bali to Christmas Island (may go directly to CK?)</span><br /><span> - Bali to Christmas - 570 nm</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>5. Christmas to Cocos-Keeling</span><br /><span> - Christmas to CK - 520 nm</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>5. Cocos Keeling to Mauritius </span><br /><span> - stop in Rodriques?</span><br /><span> - CK to M 2382nm</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>7. Mauritius to Durban (possible stop in Reunion) M to Reunion 128 nm; R to D <a href="tel:1446" detectors="true" result="4">1446</a> nm; try to arrive in mid-November</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>8. Coastwise to Cape Town</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>9. Cape Town to St Helena go to Namibia? CT to St H <a href="tel:1693" detectors="true" result="5">1693</a> nm</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>10. St Helena to Ascension and or Salvador/ Fernando de Noronha, Brazil</span><br /><span> - St H to Ascension 697 nm</span><br /><span> - St H to Salvador 1907 nm </span><br /><span> - would want to arrive in Salvador for Carnival; note: Salvador Carnival 2013 starts <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://6" detectors="true" result="6">Feb 7th</a> for about 5 days</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>11. Brazil to Grenada - with various stops along the way; arrive late March?</span><br /><span> - stops in Caribbean where we have not been or where we would like to go again e.g. Saba, Barbuda</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>12. in Caribbean - April/May</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>13. Caribbean to Bermuda late May to early June</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>14. Bermuda to NYC or Newport or Halifax - depart mid-June</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>15. to Nova Scotia (or stay in NYC for winter)</span><br /><span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">16. to Newfoundland</span></div><div><div><br /></div><div>17. up the St Lawrence</div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-77063598750900806872011-09-23T16:40:00.003-04:002011-10-06T22:51:34.756-04:00To the Land of Oz(tralia)<span style="font-style: italic;">Many nights we would get flying fish onboard. Our record was 11 but most were quite short and skinny. This is a different species that we only got a few times. They ended up in the frying pan for breakfast and were quite tasty.</span><br /> <p class="MsoNormal"> We had a very good passage to Brisbane from Port Vila. It is about 1050 miles in total to the entrance to the shipping channel that leads to Brisbane (more on that later) and it took us 8 days so not too bad. The first seven days were beam reaching in 10 to 15 knots so it was just about ideal. The only problem was that it was really chilly, especially at night. I assumed that as we got closer to the coast of Australia the temps should go up as there is a south-flowing current along the coast – and, silly me, I thought this meant that warm water would be moved from the tropics to the north. Silly me! The closer we got the colder the water got until around the entrance to Moreton Bay where Brisbane is located, water temps were less than 20°C. At night June looked like the Michelin Man, except I don’t think he wears a toque.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0O9KRyQghWvEIyoDZekCFivKfKhSAq80ZcwoofKtSLg-l1OWWBFBJAlhFTle5xdQDrq0xVrv5q7rJ-PbLhCjXyiPbGgrL6JVkyrfdx_tc2pKVhGx8rvFKQs46AJdlMWFpgpsBUi2WIks/s1600/Vanuatu+-+cold+weather+sailing.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 294px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0O9KRyQghWvEIyoDZekCFivKfKhSAq80ZcwoofKtSLg-l1OWWBFBJAlhFTle5xdQDrq0xVrv5q7rJ-PbLhCjXyiPbGgrL6JVkyrfdx_tc2pKVhGx8rvFKQs46AJdlMWFpgpsBUi2WIks/s400/Vanuatu+-+cold+weather+sailing.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5660575442912442674" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style: italic;">And this was daytime. At night June really got dressed for the cold weather.</span><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The last 30 hours or so, we had more wind, in the 20 to 30 knot range, but the direction was still good so it was not a problem. Then the wind quit – it was about 5 pm and we were 30 miles or so from the channel entrance. We thought, “Its been a good run, we’ll motor in”. Started the Westerbeke and the alarm sounded (it is a pretty feeble sound to be sure). Shut down and opened the engine compartment and there was smoke all over. Turned out that the pipe nipple that joins the engine flange to the exhaust elbow had failed and the exhaust was no longer connected to the engine. I knew that exhaust elbows were prone to failure but this nipple had looked pretty good. Another opportunity for problem solving (which is a critical part of cruising for sure). The solution was was fiberglass-reinforced JB Weld. The latter is a two part epoxy with metal filler that is quite wonderful for fixing metal things that are exposed to heat. I added a band of fiberglass tape and we waited for a few hours while it all hardened. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">It worked beautifully (JB Weld is a very good thing to have onboard!) and we got to the shipping channel at midnight, just as two ships were arriving to make it interesting. The tide had also turned against us, it was raining and pitch-black. Other than that, just fine. This long, winding shipping channel has been dredged to allow ships to access the busy port of Brisbane through a large area of sand banks. I imagine they have to keep dredging because of the shape of the coast here and materials being carried into the bay from the Brisbane and other rivers.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">We got to the Customs dock about 11 am and had to be cleared by Customs/Immigration and Quarantine officials. Aussie officials have a terrible reputation among cruisers for the strict rules they have, costly entry, and strict enforcement. We certainly cannot agree with this at all. We found them to be professional, knowledgeable, friendly (like all Aussies we have met), and helpful. They do have strict quarantine regs and will seize, meats, dairy, and fruits and vegetables. We knew about this beforehand and made sure not to have much of these things on board – and they do charge A$325 to take away your food and any garbage onboard. Customs is free although you must have visas arranged before arrival. The ones we got allow multiple entries for one year and cost A$105/person. So, altogether it was A$535 with the Australian dollar worth about 5 cents more than the US buck.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">From the customs dock we were about 2 hours away from Scarborough Marina where Ainia will be staying for the<span style=""> </span>next several months while the cyclone season passes to the north of us. This marina is very nice with excellent docks and showers, and good facilities on site (terrific marine store, stainless steel, refrigeration repairs, etc). It is a fair hike by bus/train into downtown Brisbane (which we have only done to get to the intercity train station).</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Our first impressions of Australia are very positive. Scarborough and adjacent areas are very attractive and clean. The people are great and you can find basically everything you want – as you would expect in such an advanced country. The economy is going like gang-busters compared to North America and Europe with unemployment less than 5% and considerable inflation worries. Prices are very high for most things, especially at the grocery store. Worst example, bananas are more than A$11/kg and limes A$1.25 each. Even things like Coca-Cola are bad at A$3.50 for 2 litres. Almost nothing is as cheap as in Canada and apparently wages are similar here and there. Real estate in Brisbane is not too bad, perhaps a bit cheaper than Toronto but Sydney is much higher.</p><p class="MsoNormal">The marina is pricey, at least partially because of how it is structured financially. The waterlot (and perhaps the land) are owned by the Queensland department of transportation. They have leased it to the marina company until 2034. The docks are owned by individuals - either for their own use or for investment. The dock we are on would cost A$44,000 to buy today (there is a market for such things) plus A$2000 a year for a maintenance fee. So the money we are paying (around A$600 a month (there is also a liveaboard fee)) goes to the owner of the dock - minus some sort of management fee for the marina I assume. On top of this, you pay A$22/week/person for living aboard the boat. This goes to the marina and pays for electricity, washrooms, etc. In total, the cost is similar to what we were paying in Jersey City, within a mile or so of downtown Manhattan.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Oz seemed like an interesting hybrid of the US and England. As much as Aussies pretend to hate the ‘pommie bastards’ of their homeland, they seem very English in many ways, much more so than in English Canada. They also seem less global in their thinking than most Canadians. For example, when we talked about the high cost of fruits and vegetable, several people indicated that they had to support Aussie farmers even if prices were higher. People also said that they should be doing more processing of the mining products they send off to China, India, and elsewhere. These were the sort of sentiments you heard commonly in Canada 20 years ago, but not so much now as we have gotten used to how a globalized economy works. This is not to say that Australia is not globalized – their booming economy relies on the export of their abundant mining products to Asia. I checked and Australia ended the ‘White Australia Policy’ 40 years ago, but with the exception of Sydney, it still seems to be a very white country. (To be fair we have not seen that much of the country yet.)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">We are now in Canada for a month or so (for Ian and Ariane’s wedding primarily). We took the train from Brisbane to Sydney to see something of the country. A pleasant 14 hours but even slower than Via Rail in Canada. From Sydney we flew on Air Canada back to the Great White North. From here June is going to go to Beijing to visit her parents so we booked tickets separately. Hers included a flight that went to Toronto with a stop in Vancouver. I tried to book the same flight and it was $200 more than taking the same plane to Vancouver and then transferring to a different Air Canada flight to Toronto. Being cheap I took the latter option of course and arrived in Toronto within 15 minutes of her flight. I will be returning to Brisbane on October 19<sup>th</sup> (going west you lose a day, so I will be leaving here on the 17<sup>th</sup>). </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The weather here is not nearly as nice, but it is pleasant to experience a Canadian autumn which is the nicest time of the year in many ways. Bananas here are are C$1.47/kg – the only problem is that they lack the wonderful flavour of bananas eaten within a few miles of where they were grown. Similar problem with all tropical fruits and veg. You can buy them here, but they are not the same.</p><p class="MsoNormal">***</p><p style="font-weight: bold;" class="MsoNormal">Q and A</p><p class="MsoNormal">Richard asked about setting up to dump sewage overboard, starting with a boat setup for the Great Lakes i.e. holding tank only. We have a holding tank on our aft head only, but you could do the same for both. You need to have two Y-valves, a T fitting, and a bilge pump (Whale 10 or Henderson). One goes on the head discharge hose on the downhill side. This allows you to send stuff to the holding tank or directly overboard. The other goes on discharge hose from the holding tank and allows you to direct stuff to the deck fitting if you ever find a pumpout (haven't seen one since Chesapeake Bay) or to the overboard discharge, the one direct from the head, where you connect the T. The bilge pump goes on the discharge line from the holding tank Y-valve to the T fitting. Ours is attached to the bottom of the plywood that makes up the aft berth with a slot cut so that the handle sticks up above the berth for use. HINT: (which we have not followed as we should) Work these valves regularly, especially when you leave them in the position for direct discharge overboard (which is most of the time). Otherwise you will have to disassemble to switch them. Ask me how I know.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-587928095371399847.post-47307891048617234992011-08-26T05:39:00.003-04:002011-08-26T05:44:53.707-04:00Questions about water and sewageSome comments/questions from Rhys aka Marc are worth a reply.
<br /><ul><li>Marc mentioned squalls in 2009. He crewed with us from the Chesapeake to the USVI in November and we had more than a week of strong winds and fast sailing. While our knockdown this year is unique in our experience we have had quite a few experiences with winds above 35 knots, but not for days on end. We had more than 30 knots for perhaps 8 hours just before our arrival here for example. We are leaving for Australia in a couple of days and Passageweather.com who are brave enough to predict a week away are suggesting winds around 25 knots in a week’s time. The passage is more than 1000 miles so we will not be in before this particular system and it could be much stronger before we get there.</li><li>He also mentioned that he expects to have 3 tanks for potable water and 1 tank for utility water. A couple of thoughts about this … you have little control over the water quality you can get. Some times you will have 4 tanks of the good stuff; other times, the only drinking water you will have will give from your watermaker and you can make it as you need it so one tank for this purpose is ample and you can use the other three for lesser quality water. Also, of course, the amount of water you need for drinking and cooking is really not very much so be flexible in the allocation of tanks.</li></ul><ul><li>We have two water filters. One is a Home Depot GE unit and it is right after the pressure pump so all the water we use goes through it. The other is a Seagull filter which provides a high standard of filtration. It is mounted below the galley counter and only feeds one faucet there. This water we use for cooking and drinking. The Seagull filter is a great unit but ridiculously pricey. The smallest unit, which we have, is around $500 and the cartridges are almost $100 but it is worth it I think. We have a foot pump in the galley, along with a sea water pump, but never use either. With a watermaker and rainfall collection you don’t have to be as careful with the water as the Hiscocks were 30 years ago. In fact, one ongoing concern I have is that the water can sit too long in the tanks. I wonder how pristine it is after a month or so?</li></ul><ul><li><b>Overboard discharge</b> – We have a holding tank on one toilet but not the other. In the Eastern Caribbean last year we tended to use one head for peeing and the other for more serious affairs. We would pump out when we left harbour to go somewhere but never had to make a special trip. The reality though is that almost no boats have holding tanks (I would guess less than 5%) and everyone just dumps. Makes one not want to go for a morning swim in many locales when people are just getting up. The worst case scenario is Georgetown in the Bahamas where there are as many as 600 boats anchored in mid-winter and you are told not to swim in the harbour. And this is in a very large harbour that is open at both ends and with a good tidal flow happening. In the Pacific no one seems to use or have holding tanks. Here the anchorages are not as crowded as in the Bahamas or Caribbean and are much deeper (most are >35’)</li></ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2