The trouble with being in civilization is that you end up spending money, whether it is for food, transport, or drinking with other cruisers, it all adds up. And don't forget diesel for the boat, petrol for the dinghy, and most importantly - WiFi. I find watching the pennies very tiresome and stressful, but if we didn't we would have no idea how much we are spending every month, probably overspend and be home pleading poverty in no time flat. So I will continue to plug every penny spent into our Trail Wallet App and keep track of expenses.
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| Morning Selfie |
We usually lock our dinghy onto the stern of the boat at night with a wire line and a lock. Some people pick up their dinghy on the side of their boat which is a bit easier than hoisting it on the struts at the back of the boat as we have to take the motor off to do that. We should really haul it out the water every evening as it gets dirty very quickly. Andrew decided to fashioned some lines so that we could do the side haul at night.
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| Dinghy side haul |
Before we left Prickly Bay to go north, we had ordered a Wi-Fi extender from Amazon. It arrived while we were away, so we had a package to pick up on our return. Laura was most excited about this as she uses the Wi-Fi the most and gets very frustrated when we can't pick any up. We still couldn't pick up any of the nearby networks so decided to pay a few bob so that we could use Cruisers Wi-Fi. It is much better with the extender although we do have to change its position on the boat at times if we are facing the wrong way.
We had a few things that needed fixing on Calypso. The crossing was hard on her and she needed some TLC. The first thing to be fixed was the Bimini and the bags that we keep the halyards in. The Bimini had torn because the boom was too low at one point and rubbed a hole in it. We had kept the winch handles in the halyard bags and the zip had parted company with the bag. We found a chap that works on canvas and he did a pretty good job fixing them.
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| Torn Bimini |
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| Broken halyard bag |
Explanation for the land lubbers:
Bimini = The cover over our heads in the cockpit
Halyard = a rope that is used to raise and lower sails
While we were having the Bimini fixed we decided to put up our other canvas covering which stretches across the cockpit, over Nick's lockers to the aft of the boat. This means that when it rains we won't need to close the hatch in our cabin, and hopefully be a bit drier in the cockpit. The blue Bimini leaks like a sieve - another things we will have to put on the job list to try and make it waterproof. Another advantage of the canvas cover is that it has side pouches with hose attachments to catch rain water. They are brilliant and we managed to fill our water Jerries on the deck when it rains.
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| Canvas cover |
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| Covering our cabin hatch |
Andrew, Laura and I joined the Beach Bootcamp group run by Brandon Jackson, which involves about 30 minutes of Tabata style exercises, ending off with a swim to the nearest boat and back to the beach, three times a week. It feels so good to be exercising again.
One Saturday morning we watched the rugby, Wales vs SA and had a braai afterwards. It was fun meeting some new people and seeing old friends again.
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| Watching rugby at Prickly Bay Marina |
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| Beach Braai |
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| Brandon in the yellow cap |
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| Boerewors and chicken |
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| Shaun and Ian having a serious discussion |
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| Dinghy parking |
The other repair that needed doing urgently was the deck which had ripped near the anchor locker. Andrew set to work, removing part of the anchor locker, epoxying it and reinforcing it with divinicel foam core which costs a fortune, but should be solid once it is finished.
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| Deck crack |
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| Repair underway |
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| Half the anchor locker |
In the picture below Andrew's drink is on a door. Yet another thing to fix. The handle of the door broke and we are struggling to find a replacement the right size. And yes, Andrew's drink is pink!
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| Andrew's Rum Punch |
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| I know, another sunset! |
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