Another year just about to end and new one full of adventures is about to begin. 2014 has been a busy year but what else is new for us. Next year will be full with many miles to sail. We had a very good Christmas in Knysna with new friends and new family members and were treated so well by everyone we met there.
Last New Years found us at Rebak in Malaysia having a great time with so many cruising friends. The year was busy with us heading up to Thailand traveling up as far as the Burma/Myanmar boarder. We had Doug and Thelma visit us and did a tour around Phuket Island and many anchorages with lots of good meals and conversations. We then had a holiday up to Chiang Mai and enjoyed seeing that area and riding Asian elephants which are a lot smaller that their African cousins. We had some maintenance on Kilkea II while in Phuket and finally got the crocodile bite on the transom fixed along with some other stuff. Then it was back to Rebak where we were hauled out of the water and new anti fouling paint was applied and a new set of batteries put on the boat. Next was our trip down the Malaka straits stopping at Penang, past KL and Port Dickson to Puteri marina where we left Kilkea II for three months and came home to Vancouver. We had a great time with the kids and grand kids and got to play with the other Kilkea spending a month up the coast catching up with old friends.
We left Vancouver on July 31st to Hong Kong and then Singapore and Malaysia. We spent a couple of weeks provisioning and setting the boat up moving over to One Fifteen marina in Singapore for the last few days where we could get more western branded items before leaving. August 14th we left and spent 10 days sailing down the Indonesian coast to the Sundra Straits and had some fun getting fuel. Just a note to say that the island of Sumatra is over a thousand miles long and would be more than the distance from the Canadian boarder to the Mexican boarder so this is why it is difficult to get into the Indian Ocean. From then on we have been sailing in the Indian Ocean to Cocos Keeling, Rodrigues, Mauritius, Reunion island, Richards Bay South Africa, then down to Knysna for Christmas and today have arrive in Simmons Town which is just around the corner from Cape Town.
Yesterday we passed Cape Agulhas which is the most southerly spot of land on the African continent. It marks the divide between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean so now we are back in the Atlantic. The water colour is different going from the dark blue of the Indian to the green/blue of the Atlantic with the water temperature being much cooler here hence the Jackass Penguins that live in this part of the world. We will be staying here for a couple of weeks before moving to the V&A marina in downtown Cape Town. We have some stuff we want to get for the boat while we are here so hopefully we can get it all done over the next couple of months.
Starting 2015 we will have owned Kilkea II for nine years and have sailed many many miles on her. Sometime around the end of February we will leave and set sail for either the Med or the Caribbean? It will depend on the way the wind she blows but the smart money would be sailing to the Carib before sailing over to Europe... and this all before July!! You will have to get the google earth warmed up to calculate all the mileage as we don't really want to look at that right now. This time we will have, for the first time, crew coming with us. Ray and Brenda who we met in Turkey and now live in Sydney will be leaving South Africa with us. It will be a different feel for us and we will have to learn new routines but the good news is we will have a lot more sleep. It should be a lot of fun.
The only other thing we are thinking of now is whether to keep Kilkea II or put it on the market and move back to land and home. We will make the decision once we get to the Carib or the Med.
Well that is about it for another year from us out here on the high seas of the world. We wish you all a very Happy New Year.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Merry Christmas from South Africa
Tis the night before the night before Christmas and we are now comfortably tied up at the dock in Knysna marina. This makes it much easier for us to travel around and see some of the country side around us as we don't have to worry about leaving Kilkea II at anchor and as well we are plugged into the power so no problems with refrigeration. We moved in here on Thursday and will be able to stay for ten days so will be here over Christmas.
We rented a car for ten days so have been able to travel. We spent a couple of days driving up to Prince Albert through some fantastic countryside. The roads are good but we did take a drive over the mountains up to an elevation of 1888 meters on a dirt road with no guard rails and lots of bumps but wonderful views. We spent the night at a B&B called Mai's in Prince Albert. She is from Dublin originally and we had a great room and a breakfast that was hard to beat. After that we needed no lunch!! On our way back here we stopped at George to the immigration office to see if we can get our visa extended. They have just switched to an online way of doing it so we will try that and see what happens otherwise we will have to exit the country and reenter to get a new visa. We will see how this all works out. At least we don't have to worry about that until the end of January. We then did a drive to Mossel Bay. We found Pete who helped us with weather updates on the sail from Reunion Island to Richards Bay and enjoyed an afternoon with him. He has a 65 foot sailboat and works for the oceanoagraphic commission, which is an offshoot of NOAA and NASSA and is placing offshore weather buoys in the southern ocean so is going way south to the ice doing his scientific work. Very interesting all the work being done around the world connected to global warming and climate change.
Christmas eve will be spent with John and Lynn and their family who are from Calgary and will shortly be moving to Vancouver. They have two children aged three and five so we should have a good evening with them all. Small world isin't it!! On Christmas we are going to Marian's new found second cousins and will spend the night with them and their family's and are looking forward to that very much. They have a property out of town where they breed race horses and love to ride them as well. Amazing that Marian has so many relations all over the world that we are getting to meet. We have enjoyed meeting all of them over the years and being made feel so welcome.
We will very much miss not being with our family at home again this year but promise to be there next year. To all of our friends we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy new year.
We rented a car for ten days so have been able to travel. We spent a couple of days driving up to Prince Albert through some fantastic countryside. The roads are good but we did take a drive over the mountains up to an elevation of 1888 meters on a dirt road with no guard rails and lots of bumps but wonderful views. We spent the night at a B&B called Mai's in Prince Albert. She is from Dublin originally and we had a great room and a breakfast that was hard to beat. After that we needed no lunch!! On our way back here we stopped at George to the immigration office to see if we can get our visa extended. They have just switched to an online way of doing it so we will try that and see what happens otherwise we will have to exit the country and reenter to get a new visa. We will see how this all works out. At least we don't have to worry about that until the end of January. We then did a drive to Mossel Bay. We found Pete who helped us with weather updates on the sail from Reunion Island to Richards Bay and enjoyed an afternoon with him. He has a 65 foot sailboat and works for the oceanoagraphic commission, which is an offshoot of NOAA and NASSA and is placing offshore weather buoys in the southern ocean so is going way south to the ice doing his scientific work. Very interesting all the work being done around the world connected to global warming and climate change.
Christmas eve will be spent with John and Lynn and their family who are from Calgary and will shortly be moving to Vancouver. They have two children aged three and five so we should have a good evening with them all. Small world isin't it!! On Christmas we are going to Marian's new found second cousins and will spend the night with them and their family's and are looking forward to that very much. They have a property out of town where they breed race horses and love to ride them as well. Amazing that Marian has so many relations all over the world that we are getting to meet. We have enjoyed meeting all of them over the years and being made feel so welcome.
We will very much miss not being with our family at home again this year but promise to be there next year. To all of our friends we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy new year.
pictures of Knysna heads and our side trip to Prince Albert
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| arriving in Knysna through the heads |
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| looking out at the heads from shore |
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| Marian and Karen enjoying a walk |
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| strange looking bird |
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| ostrich eggs that you can actually walk on... |
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| views going over the pass to Prince Albert |
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| mini grand canyon |
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| looking up to some spectacular views |
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| Marian getting blown off the table |
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| Water fall in the canyon |
Monday, December 15, 2014
Enjoying Knysna
We have been in Kynsna for a week and a half now and have been busy everyday with being toured around the area for walks in the forest to outings at craft fairs where we bought a Christmas cake. In the evenings we have had the fortune of being asked out for a BBQ dinner with ostrich steaks and local South African sausage which I still am trying to pronounce. We are very fortunate to have been meeting such friendly people. It sure makes a good impression of the country and its people.
While here we have been at anchor most of the time but have been coming in to the yacht club dock when the wind is down and have been able to get an electrician on board to fix our charging problems that we encountered on the way down here from Richards Bay. We don't know what caused the problem but we had both engine driven alternators not working as well as the controller or brain of the system broken all at the same time. We are not sure if it was a lightning strike to close to the boat or an electrical surge when we were plugged into the power supply in Richards Bay? It seems unlikely that all three components would fail at the same time but they did. Today we came over to the dock and have had the alternators fixed and put back on as well as are now installing a new brain to run the system. It is all now working and just needs some adjustments and cleaning up the wiring bundles. Once this is finished I will sleep much better as we will be able to go without having to worry about batteries being charged or lack of. There is always something with boats to fix but overall Kilkea II has been terrific and we have never had a problem that has stopped us from moving on.
We now have invites out for most of the rest of this week and with limited moorage in the Cape Town area we are now planning to stay here for Christmas as it is so much fun meeting the locals and learning so much about the country that we would never get anywhere else.
While here we have been at anchor most of the time but have been coming in to the yacht club dock when the wind is down and have been able to get an electrician on board to fix our charging problems that we encountered on the way down here from Richards Bay. We don't know what caused the problem but we had both engine driven alternators not working as well as the controller or brain of the system broken all at the same time. We are not sure if it was a lightning strike to close to the boat or an electrical surge when we were plugged into the power supply in Richards Bay? It seems unlikely that all three components would fail at the same time but they did. Today we came over to the dock and have had the alternators fixed and put back on as well as are now installing a new brain to run the system. It is all now working and just needs some adjustments and cleaning up the wiring bundles. Once this is finished I will sleep much better as we will be able to go without having to worry about batteries being charged or lack of. There is always something with boats to fix but overall Kilkea II has been terrific and we have never had a problem that has stopped us from moving on.
We now have invites out for most of the rest of this week and with limited moorage in the Cape Town area we are now planning to stay here for Christmas as it is so much fun meeting the locals and learning so much about the country that we would never get anywhere else.
Monday, December 8, 2014
Back to sailing
We have had a great time up at Richards Bay having spent many days at the game parks and reserves enjoying seeing all the animals as well as treating ourselves to a four day safari at a private game lodge in Kruger Park. It was a fun time and was nice to be pampered for a few days. We did see a lot of the country side with big farms to rough escarpment terrain and even had a day with wicked thunder storms that left the ground white with hail stones with some parts of the road being six inches deep in ice. A lot of the locals including the police were all stopped and taking pictures as this was a very rare experience.
Our arrival back to Kilkea II was on Saturday evening so Sunday and Monday were setting the boat up and clearing out with five different officials in different parts of the town!! No idea why but those are the rules here. On Tuesday morning early we left with a good weather window and set off for Knysna which was 630 miles away. There is a current called the Agulas current which flows up to four knots so with that behind us as well as 25k winds for the first twenty four hours we clocked up 237 miles which is the most we have ever done in Kilkea II. The next two days the current slackened and the winds dropped and for a few hours even came at us head on but very light they were. The long and short of it is we arrived on Friday morning after actually slowing down for the tide so we could enter the very narrow gap through the heads into Knysna. Inside is a lagoon and the town with very shallow waters and lots of sand bars. The yacht club send out a boat to show us the way and in it were two men one of which was dressed as Santa Claus. They had just finished a party for the children and came as they were to help us out. We were met by a number of members, as we tied initially to their dock, who were all very excited to meet us and give us advice on the club and town. We had invites to dinners and champagne breakfasts the next morning so just a wonderful welcome to Knysna.
Our plans are as always fluid but as we hear the marinas are all full in the Cape Town area for the Christmas period that we may just spend the next few weeks here and enjoy all of our new friends. We have looked at flying home for the holidays but it is such a long way and we do not want to leave Kilkea II on anchor so for now plan to stay here.
Our arrival back to Kilkea II was on Saturday evening so Sunday and Monday were setting the boat up and clearing out with five different officials in different parts of the town!! No idea why but those are the rules here. On Tuesday morning early we left with a good weather window and set off for Knysna which was 630 miles away. There is a current called the Agulas current which flows up to four knots so with that behind us as well as 25k winds for the first twenty four hours we clocked up 237 miles which is the most we have ever done in Kilkea II. The next two days the current slackened and the winds dropped and for a few hours even came at us head on but very light they were. The long and short of it is we arrived on Friday morning after actually slowing down for the tide so we could enter the very narrow gap through the heads into Knysna. Inside is a lagoon and the town with very shallow waters and lots of sand bars. The yacht club send out a boat to show us the way and in it were two men one of which was dressed as Santa Claus. They had just finished a party for the children and came as they were to help us out. We were met by a number of members, as we tied initially to their dock, who were all very excited to meet us and give us advice on the club and town. We had invites to dinners and champagne breakfasts the next morning so just a wonderful welcome to Knysna.
Our plans are as always fluid but as we hear the marinas are all full in the Cape Town area for the Christmas period that we may just spend the next few weeks here and enjoy all of our new friends. We have looked at flying home for the holidays but it is such a long way and we do not want to leave Kilkea II on anchor so for now plan to stay here.
Monday, December 1, 2014
Pictures on our Safari
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| This lion was watching us as we were sitting at the swimming pool |
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| we got up close and personal with these guys |
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| out for a walk |
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| beautiful leopard |
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| looking at us |
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| we got very close to this guy |
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| an interesting stork |
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| baby nursing |
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| Cape buffalo |
I will update this in a few days but just wanted to get something out now. Tomorrow morning we are off sailing down south towards Knysna which is about 600 miles from here.
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