WEEKEND IN PARADISE

We decided to head over to Kraalbaai in the West Coast National Park for a 4 day weekend. It was supposed to be a working weekend away but after getting there and relaxing for the first evening - work pretty much fell off the radar and we spent the weekend relaxing, going for a walks and had our friend Tony and his kids visit for the day. It was when Denver took Tony and the family back to the dock in terrible conditions that we almost lost the dingy engine. A huge wave hit him from behind and it lifted the motor almost right off of the transom. We thought it was fitted securely but mother nature showed us otherwise. Luckily, we have a chain securing the motor to the boat, more for security than anything else, and that is what saved it. Denver had to stop en-route back, and battling the +/-30 knot wind gusts and hectic sea state, refit the motor in place before carrying on back to Saoirse. To say he was a little shaken when he got back is an understatement. Another job to add to the list and something we need to get sorted out so that it never happens again. Denver also braved the cold water again to give Saoirse a bit of a bottom clean. We have developed a nasty black scum around the waterline in the time that we have been at Saldanha - probably something to do with the local fish factory waste. Our antifoul is also below the waterline as we have mentioned in earlier videos, so we are getting growth between that and the waterline. 1000's of tiny barnacles are taking hold, so Denver cleared as much of that as possible. After an hour and a half in the cold water, fighting the strong current we could see a huge improvement and Denver had got a really good workout! The rest of our time there was spent walking and exploring by dinghy - we had beautiful sunrises and sunsets and really got a feel for what our cruising life might be like one day - in between doing unending boat work that is!! Unfortunately, we have had endless problems with what seems to be "possessed camera equipment" - for some odd reason we have processor issues with both our Canon and Nikon cameras and the Go Pro has taken on a life of its own. So in between all the cursing at cameras, the only usable footage was caught on my cellphone which inevitably means a lot of background wind noise. Apologies for that. Hopefully we can get our cameras sorted soon.