Friday 31 March 2017
The beginning....
Due Course Now
5 March
Due Course Now
You've just got to
do what you really want to do. And you've got to start now. And if
you persist then things will fall into place in due course.
And what I most want
to do is simply to hang out in clear calm warm water teaming with
colourful life while Marcelle's dream is to visit endless idyllic
tropical islands with sunny beaches with coconut palms. So we're
off. We're going to Australia to buy an old yacht and slowly sail up
the Great Barrier Reef and onwards into the coral seas of South East
Asia.
Flying to Sydney on
1st April.
.................................................
16 March
Jo-jo my 10-year-old
Labrador-cross has just arrived at his new home. He's going to stay
with the Baxters on a farm near Stanford for the next six months.
He'll be sad tomorrow when I leave without him. So will I.
Dog delivered.
Check. Another item to scratch off the to do list.
It's a peaceful
relaxing place this farm, as good a place as any to sit on the stoep
while I indulge in my pleasant hobby of online window-shopping for
yachts and reading up on sailing routes, anchorages and destinations
in the Coral Sea. As one does.
Next I'll drive to
George, collect Marcelle, and meet more of the Casalvolone family.
That'll be another blog. Or maybe not. Maybe What happens in George,
stays in George.
What kind of boat
should I get?
Firstly, it has to
be a sail-boat. Power boats , even slow trawlers, require insane
amounts of fuel to travel long distances. It has to be big enough to
live on for months on end. And we're not going to rough it. We want a
fridge, a stove with at least two burners and an oven, a separate
bathroom with toilet and shower, a decent sized bed, or two, and lots
of space to put things, and comfortable seating around a table. I'm
less likely to get seasick on a big boat than on a small one. But it
mustn't be so big that it becomes too difficult to manage. And of
course it must be affordable. And so from what I've been reading it
appears that 36 to 38 feet is ideal.
Like most boats in
this size range it will probably be ordinary fibreglass. I won't
reject a boat made from epoxy based composite, or Aluminum. But
planked wood and ferro-cement are off the menu - too much risk of
failure and potential maintenance nightmares. Epoxy coated plywood is
fine. Polyester resin costed plywood is not. Steel is a maybe, not
ideal for the tropics because it gets hot, apparently, and older
steel boats might have hidden rust spots.
On many many other
aspects of boat design I don't have enough experience or knowledge to
hold strong opinions. Mono-hull's or multi-hulls, diesel or petrol,
sloop, cutter or ketch, I'm willing to consider them all. Lots of
boats will be suitable. None will be perfect.
How much will it
cost? The budget is six or seven hundred thousand Rand. (60 000 to
70 000 AUD). Exchange controls limit me to one million Rand, and my
unfortunate lack of excessive wealth limits me more. And I should be
able to get something good enough for that amount of money.
Brand new boat? As
if! Probably about 30 years old. Boats age quite well .... mostly.
And I should mention
here that we looking for a coastal cruiser not a blue-water boat. We
going to hug the coastlines, seldom if ever out of sight of land. We
plan to anchor at night and sail during daylight hours. We'll always
be able to get a weather forecast and so we should never have to
endure storms. This means the boat doesn't have to be very robust or
perfectly seaworthy.
So with these
criteria I have a short-list of a dozen or so boats around Brisbane
that I'd like to look at. Here's a few favorites ...
Boat short-list
drawn up. Check.
.......................................
31 March
Today is D-Day,
Departure day. We leave home in a few hours .... all terribly
exciting.
Also D-Day for our
poor currency. Destruction day. Zuma has just fired Gordhan and sent
the Rand into free-fall. Looks like we'll be getting a smaller
cheaper older boat. Grrrr
Our cruising
destination has also had a few destruction days. Cyclone Debbie has
just ripped up much of Queensland.
These before and after pics are from the Brisbane Times ....
Anyway, today we fly
to Joburg and spend the night with Davide, Marcelle's brother. One
day at a time. All will be good.
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