Snug In Knysna for Christmas

It may not have seemed like Christmas as a Canadian would know it, but by golly, we had Christmas lights up so it must be Christmas. No snow, no Christmas tree, no eggnog even, but Irena, at long last, had Christmas boat lights. Yes, two strings of classy white lights ran up the backstay, over the top and down the forstay to decorate Conversations where she lay alongside the town’s quayside village. She looked pretty nifty that night untill the rain started. Tragically, the lights only lasted a couple of hours before they all failed So much for outdoor lights! We took them back for a refund next day. The hunt continues for real outdoor lights…..

Since coming to Knysna, it’s been a whirlwind. The day of our arrival, Irena and I left the boat in the capable hands of Eitan and Mark to drive 1000 km round trip to Cape Town to pick up Breanna at the airport. Now we have five aboard.  Two days later, all of us piled in a rental car for a two day road trip up the coast to Addo Elephant Park, where we drove around the reserve dodging, you guessed it, great mounds of steaming elephant pooh. 486 elephants churn out a heck of a lot of it, which they seem to prefer to drop on the road. This however, only adds to the viewing experience: Armies of dung beetles carve out great balls of the stuff, and race it off into the undergrowth where they lay their eggs and bed down in comfort. And, oh yes, and we also saw lots of elephants too!

Next day we stopped at a research centre to pet a Cheeta and pair of lion cubs. Real cool, but tame. So off we went to the world’s tallest bridge bungey jump where Breanna, Mark and Eitan put down a $100 each, and jumped! Very courageous. I must say they made it look like a walk in the park. Irena and I caught the action on closed circuit TV in the bar and bought the beers for our returning heroes. Also fun.

Back in Knysna, we moved Conversations  in from the hook and tied her up in the only vacant place in town - smack dab in the middle of the town quay.  We are sort of on display here, right under the nose of the waterfront restaurants, shops and charter operators. Lots of curious vacationers stumble up to the dock with questions, people from all over world. This too is fun. Yesterday, a gentleman of 87 came up told me of his 6 year ordeal as a German prisoner-of-war in a Russian concentration camp. On a lighter note, within 10 feet of the boat is the Gelato stand, much to Breanna’s delight.

Christmas eve, we had a great Polish dinner of Borscht, Pierogi and Nalesniki prepared up by Irena, with Mark and Breanna's learned assistance. Christmas day was, of course, turkey day. Mark took over with Gertrude (what else would you name a turkey?) to see she was properly dressed for the occasion and stuffed into our pint sized oven. Yesterday, boxing day, we had a “left over party” aboard s.v, Papillion with Jim and Julia and Mike and Cathleen from s.v. Content.

A very nice weather window is shaping up tomorrow for our departure for the Cape Town suburb of Simon’s Town. Thanks to Irena we have a long term berth booked in the False Bay Yacht Club. It’s a 250 NM passage, the last passage on our voyage to Cape Town from Singapore and Indonesia. It’s hard to believe how fast the time has gone by: We left Singapore early June with Dennis and Rita, and we left Jakarta, Indonesia in early August with Eitan. By New Year’s we will have arrived and it will be over. We are glad to be here and glad to be moving into the next phase - working in South Africa!

Reflections:

At this time of year, many of  us reflect on our good fortune, a time for review if you like. Here in Africa, where most have so little, I think of my own life and I wonder more generally, where does good fortune come from? Is it purely about the circumstances of our birth, does it show up one day in a lottery draw, or is it something we work for. Is it chance or design or both?

Suppose good fortune does live at the intersection of circumstance and luck, design and choice. If that is so, then there is some chance to our fortunes about which we can do nothing. So be it. But where can we influence our good fortune beyond our good luck and bad? How do we 'get in the game' and do things to help along our good fortune?

Do the 7Cs apply here? I think so. Together they can  be a framework for pro-activity. 

There is another big question in our experience of people in Asia and now Africa - what is the link between good fortune and happiness? When I see how happy so many are who have so much less, I wonder, is happiness not much about good fortune, but more about something else, and if that is so, what?

I think a partial answer to happiness is opportunity to be pro-actively engaged in creating good fortune! To be self responsible (Captaincy), to have a Course, to have Companions, live a life of Curiosity, be building Courage and overall Capacity, and to be doing so in self Compassion is to be in the game, which itself contributes to both happiness and good fortune.

Enough! Irena and I both reflect on what  enormous good fortune we have had to live the lifestyle we wish these last 7 years since leaving Canada and look forward to whatever fortunes appear as we seek to find work in South Africa.

Stunning

South Africa is stunning. Its landscapes are bold, the people friendly.

We rented a car for a two day junket to Drakensberg Mountains. The first day we drove to Underberg and hiked a couple of hours up a meadow in the foot hills. Next morning, after a hearty 0630 breakfast at a B&B, we hiked up Sani Pass from the South African border to Lesotho. This was a 16 km round trip, climbing and descending nearly 3000 feet. Mark sprinted up in 90 minutes, Eitan in 120, and Irena and I staggered into Africa’s highest pub at the top after a 150 minute climb – it was a beast but we made it up. After the best pub chicken curry and coldest beers in the world we walked back down to the car and drove back to Durban before dark. Big enough two days for me!

After a couple of day’s recovery, a weather window cracked open for the sail from Durban down the East African Coast to East London. Its only 255 miles of coastline, but once we out of the comfort and safety of harbour, we would be committed. In this part of the world, the sea never seems to rest: Its either blowing in hell in one direction, or blowing like hell in another. The passage to East London happens between a 3 to 6 knot current down one side and an unbroken wall of coastline on the other. There is no place to duck in out of the storms that blow through every two or three days and wind against the Agulhas current conditions creates legendary monster seas.

As recommended, we left on the back of a passing system. We had about 36 hours before the next system was due to blow in from the SW and we hoped to get a head start. From 10 am until just before dark we beat into 25 knots of SW wind. It was really unpleasant sailing –  huge southerly waves were coming from ahead and a NE swell were bashing up from behind. It was, as I like to say, like sailing in a giant washing machine. After dark the wind went light and began to clock (change direction in a clockwise direction). With no time to hang around before the next system came in, we started the engine but after about an hour it choked from fuel starvation. From 1130 to 0300 I changed all three fuel filters and bleed everything living part of the fuel system I could think of. No joy. I was concerned we’d not make port before the next South Westerly. But by dawn the wind had come all the way around to NE and it started to blow. It soon hit 30 knots, but it was at our backs and we were moving with the current. We were doing 8 and 9 knots through the water and 11 and 12 knots over the bottom with genoa only. Wow, now this is sailing!

The first monster wave surprised us. We broached to wind and it pounded down over the port side, filling the cockpit, tearing the dodger, and soaking Eiton, Irena and I, leaving us open mouthed and gasping. We were more ready for the second wave when it hit, with a boom. It climbed over the transom, and tried to get into the aft cabin. Not able to get down the companionway, it re-filled the cockpit instead. Below I spilled my tea and clung to the nav station, glad I wasn’t in the cockpit to get soaked again. A few moments later, when the cockpit had drained, we hit an all-time speed record of 13 knots through the water surfing down another wave!

Under these conditions I was getting concerned we could get safely into East London harbour once we got there. It’s a river entrance facing into the NW seas. Without the engine to help bail out, we would have to sail into the narrow slot amidst breaking seas and it would be very tough to back out in 30 knots of breeze if we got in trouble.  I had visions of breaking seas overwhelming us and being tossed up on the beach or rocks beside the entrance. So near yet so far. Now that is  “instant failure”.

But by late afternoon, we had a break. The winds and seas eased back to about 15 knots and we arrived just after sunset and sailed into harbour, surfing over the entrance bar. No sweat. Well lots of sweat, but by 2000 hours we were safe alongside the dilapidated inner harbour shipping docks, tired but pleased to be safe in East London. Another passage done.

After a day’s clean up in East London, tomorrow we set off for Port Elizabeth in another weather window. Another passage, another adventure.

Reflections.

I climbed into bed soon after tying up in East London, exhausted but curiously filled by the success of a passage safely completed. It is enough for anyone to deal with the motion, the physical hardship of no sleep and the tension of conning the boat down steep seas, but as skipper, I feel the added burden of responsibility. The skipper is the one who has to make decisions (manufacture certainty) in the face of uncertainty, the one to whom the crew looks for reassurance that it will be okay, the one who takes ultimate responsibility for how it goes, the one who must make the right decisions or else.

It is no different for all the leaders of the world. Not the politicians who mascaraed as leaders, but those unsung heroes of the workplace who put themselves on the line every day for the success of others or the organisation; the silent heroes who put their own needs for reassurance second to supporting others; the people who risk themselves so others may succeed; the people who care more for creating the vision of the greater good than they care for their own comfort.

This is a great privilege in life: to be in a place where we can lead. There is something in us that calls us to this challenge, this challenge to bring not just ourselves, but those around us to a greater place, to champion others in crossing their own desert of adversity. And leadership is not reserved for those in recognized roles of leadership. Every person, everyday has a chance to champion others, to put and support the success of the greater ahead of the self. When we are response-able, we are able to make this choice.

 Captaincy is a gift that gives twice: first to the people nurtured by acts of captaincy, then to the person who practices captaincy.

Our first taste of South Africa

We have been in South Africa for 2 weeks now, and really loving it! We have done a bit of exploring in between boat jobs and various yacht club BBQs and catching up with all the cruisers. Invariably we all compare notes on how our passage was and how much wind we saw and how many days it took (we took 9 days, very respectable). We were definitely one of the lucky ones as far as the passage from Reunion goes. We made it into Richards Bay harbour before some of the high winds started. On that same passage a few boats were damaged, some even towed into port and one very unfortunate boat hit a container 500 miles offshore and sank (the name of the boat was Wizard, a South African boat with 5 crew on board - all 5 were rescued by a passing freighter). So we count our blessings and thank our captain for getting us here safe and sound.


We are slowly getting ourselves into gear - getting cell phones and internet and arranging moorage in Cape Town. But it will still take us a couple of months to ease into work. Eitan is still with us en route to Cape Town, and we have a new crew (Mark) joining us next week in Durban and Cress's daughter Breanna coming for Christmas. And we still have about 900 miles to sail the rest of the way to Cape Town. The plan is to start that trip next week as a series of 1-3 day passages as we wait for good weather to get to each port. Next stop is Durban only 85 miles down the coast.

We have managed to rent a car for a day here and a day there to get out and see some of the game parks and African terrain. All wonderful - but this is where a few pictures are worth a thousand words!

Irena and Cress

Impala - we saw tons of these

African Elephant

Very elegant Giraffe

Zebras and Giraffe; up high.... down low

Hippo yawn

Lotsa hippa... or is that hippi???

Black Rhino 

Hornbill

African Buffalo

Nyala

Can't recall his exact age.... but over 100

Zulu warrior dance

Tiny Zulu dancers

Happy Birthday to Anglin!!!

This blog post is dedicated to my grandson Anglin John Macintosh who turned 5 today - November 12th! I can hardly beleive it - 5 years old already.

For Anglin, I have 5 pictures and 5 things that remind me of him.

1. Enthusiastic; quick and bright Anglin loves to do new things. A future sailor I am sure of it!

2. Thoughful; Anglin likes to have some time to himself each day to just chill.

3. Determined; to learn to do things independently. I think his first words were "I can do it myself!"

4. Curious - wants to know how everything works and he learned a lot about how all parts of the boat work - even the head!

5. Imaginative - this is a picture of Angllin drawing in our logbook. It is a very detailed map which shows a path all the way from Orillia, Ontario to Phuket, Thailand where he was visiting us on the boat.

Anglin - We miss you like crazy and want to wish you a very happy, happy birthday filled with lots of fun and presents and cake! Sending hugs and kisses xxoxoxoxoxoxoox.

Love from Gramm and Cress

Safe and sound in South Africa!

Just a quick note to say that we arrived in South Africa at 10:30 this morning. Eitan was the first to shout 'Land ho' as we were approaching the coast. The last 48 hours were very fast sailing conditions and we are pretty exhausted after focusing all our efforts on staying exactly on course and keeping our speed up. We arrived in plenty of time - but we see the weather has already shifted - now overcast and cool and wind changing to an unfavourable direction.

So we made it! Took us 9 days and 5 hours to do the 1500 nautical miles. Not too shabby!! We are now patting ourselved on the back and trading stories with all the other cruisers who have arrived, and cheering on those who are still underway.

Irena and Cress (who is napping as we wait for customs - I don't think he slept more than a couple of hours last night and Eitan, who is sitting at the nearest bar/restaurant online!)

Q&A from the third grade.

This blog post is dedicated to my sister Barb’s (aka Mrs. Stultz’s) third grade class in Virginia Beach, Virginia. They are learning about the globe, maps and oceans, and have been following our blog to see where in the world we are sailing and traveling. The children in the class have posted some questions for us, which we are responding to here.

Dear class – thanks for sending your questions to us. Right now we are on the island called Reunion. This is a French island so we are practicing speaking French with all the people here and are enjoying all of the French bakeries and coffee! This island has a volcano which we hiked and we saw all of the old lava that had come out of it and the giant crator that was formed after the volcano blew! We will be leaving here soon for our sailing passage to South Africa – but first, here are the answers to your questions.

1.      Savannah wants to know why you sail.

We sail because it is a fun and out of the ordinary way to travel around the world and see different countries. It is also good environmentally since most of the time we use the wind and our sails to get wherever we are going instead of fuel. We love being in nature away from cities and towns where the air is clean and not polluted. And it is a cool way to meet people like other sailors and people who live in the places we visit.

2.      Lajuane wonders what you DO when you travel.

Well, when we are sailing from one place to another, we must watch for storms and other ships. So we take turns being "on watch". When we are not on watch we catch up on our sleep and cook meals and stuff like that. When we are not sailing from place to place, we visit the neat places we are in, sometimes we drive around, go hiking, swimming, kite boarding or scuba diving and then we get the boat ready for sailing again. We also make friends with other sailors and people who live in the places we visit. All of the sailors we meet are also from different countries around the world. Right now the sailors around us are from Norway, Sweden, England, South Africa and the United States.

Can you guess which one of us this is?

3.      Savanna asks where you sleep and what you eat.

We have about 8 beds that we call `berths`on the boat where we can sleep when we are sailing. We have a kitchen on the boat called a ‘galley’, and since we have a fridge and stove, we can cook just about anything we want! When it`s cold and wet we like to have things like stew or soup or chili. Also, sometimes we catch a fish and then we can have fresh fish for dinner! We also learn to cook some of the different foods we find in these countries like curry and laksa (coconut noodle soup with prawns).

4.      Thylia is wondering where you get food.

Well luckily the boat has lots of good cupboards so when we are in port, we can buy groceries just like you at home in the grocery store. We like to go to the local market for fresh fruit, vegetables and meat where the local farmers bring their food to sell. The fruit we get here is awesome – mango, papaya, pineapple and lots of coconuts! Sometimes we can be sailing for up to 4 weeks without seeing land. When we are on a long sailing passage, we will run out of fruit and vegetables, so then we have to have things like canned peas and carrots (yuck!).

5.      Braylen wants to know how long it takes to get across the Indian Ocean.

We sail about 150 nautical miles each day (it`s about the same speed as jogging). So to get all the way from Jakarta, Indonesia to Richards Bay in South Africa it will take us 30 days of sailing. But since we are stopping at many islands along the way, the whole trip will take us 4 months.

It takes about 1 month to get across the Indian Ocean, but we don’t do it all at once since it there are so many great places to visit along the way.

6.      Lila asks if you ever get sea sick on the ship.

YES! We all get sea sick once in a while. It feels awful, but luckily it only happens at the beginning of a sailing passage and then we feel better after about 2 days. We do have some medicine that helps too, but mostly we just have to lie down and sleep until we feel better. But even though we are sea sick we still need to keep sailing – and sometimes that is very hard!

We just have to get our “sea legs”!

But if we take our sea sick medicine we feel better. And it only lasts a couple of days then we feel great again for the rest of the passage.

7.      Mia wonders how long you have been traveling and whether you ever see whales.

We have been traveling and working away from Canada for 6 years so far! And yes we have seen a lot of whales. One time in a place called Tonga we got to swim with humpback whales - it was really great.  But most of the time, we just see their spray and their tails when they jump in the air.

8.      Kayden wants to know if you've seen a flock of whales (I think she means a pod).

Only once, and that was when we were in Tonga and went swimming with them. They were humpback whales. We saw a bull (the dad), a cow (the mum) and a calf (the baby).  

9.      Deshaun wonders what other animals you've seen in your travels.

My goodness, we have seen so many animals in the wild (not in the zoo)! Let`s see, we have seen elephants in Thailand, crocodiles, kangaroos and Koala bears in Australia, flying fish, eels, manta rays, tortoises, grey sharks and reef sharks in the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea, orangutans in Borneo, monkeys in Asia and whales and dolphins in all of the oceans and all kinds of birds, petrels, tropic birds, albatross, eagles. Last night we even saw oxen in a parade!

10.  He knows you're from Canada and wants to know if you lived in a teepee or a house.

We lived in a house in Vancouver, but we had a camping tent that looked kind of like a teepee!

11.  Kayden asks how many continents you've visited.

Let`s see, on this sailing trip we have visited North America, Australia, Asia and we are about to get to Africa - so that makes 4 continents. That leaves South America, Europe and Antarctica!

12.  Taylah wonders what you will do in Africa.

When we get to Africa we are going to find work to do so that we can stay for a year or so. While we are there we plan to go on a safari, and since we will be in Cape Town we will go hiking at Table Mountain. And of course we will buy a car and drive around to see what the country looks like. Cress wants to rent an airplane so he can see the country from the sky!

 13.  Emma is worried about whether you are afraid or scared that pirates might get you!

Well we are very careful to listen to the `pirate reports`and make sure that we do not go to the places where the pirates are. It is something that we think about, and read about to make sure we don`t put ourselves in danger. Although, we wouldn`t mind seeing Captain Jack Sparrow!!!

14.  Andre wants to know if you like traveling.

Yes we do love travelling and meeting new people and seeing new places. There are so many beautiful places in our world, we feel lucky to be able to see so many cool things and get to know so many different people.

We get to try different cultures too, hearing the languuges, seeing how people dress and eating their food and sharing their festivals and celebrations and also learning how people in other countries believe different things than what we do – like different religions such as Buddism, different beliefs about family – like the eldest daughter in the family is not supposed to get married, since she is to stay home to look after her parents.

15.  Sutton, Emijah and Kimiyah wonder if you ever miss your family back at home and if you like being without them.

Oh man, we really miss our family and our friends. We keep inviting them to come sailing with us, and some of them have come! Even your teacher Mrs. Stultz - (who is my big sister) - she came to visit us in Singapore! And so did our parents and 2 of our children and 2 of our grandchildren so far. We love having friends and family come to visit us, but we also go back to Canada once a year or so to visit them there. And sometimes, we like being alone too! It`s very peaceful then!!

Mrs. Stultz in Singapore!

16.  Emijah asks how long you will be out to sea.

Well, that is a million dollar question! We may end up living on our boat for a long time. We can even bring the boat back to Vancouver which is also on the Pacific Ocean, and live on it there. That way we will be closer to all of our friends and family. So, I think we will be at sea for a very long time.

17.  Thylia wants to know where you found the dolphins.

It was very early in the morning and we were in a place called Grand Baie, Mauritius - and we were having our coffee in the cockpit when we looked up, we could see them jumping and swimming a little distance away from us. So we got into our small dinghy and went out toward them and we went swimming with them. That was quite amazing! Most of the time, the dolphins find us instead of us finding them! They like playing in the bow waves.

 18.  Riley wonders how many more miles you have to go.

We have 1500 nautical miles to go to get to Richards Bay in South Africa. And another 1,000 miles to get down the coast and around the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Town. Then about 15,000 miles to get all the way back home to Vancouver!

 

Thanks for sending all of these questions! We really enjoyed answering them. Please do let us know if you have any more!

Irena and Cress