Gone Sailing

The time has finally come for Patrick and myself to set sail. Tomorrow morning will be the big day when we start our 50 (more or less) day voyage to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.
All the legalities have been taken care of and as of 1pm this afternoon, according to Immigration, we are no longer in South Africa. WhoooooHooo! All that we need to do now is fill up with water and diesel and sail out of CT Harbour. Too excited!!!

(It'll be much simpler and make more sense to check out Google Earth to see the locations of our route) Once we leave CT our first port of call will be in St. Helena, 12 days into the trip. We'll have a 48 hour stop-over which give us enough time to take a tour of the famous exile island. We keep heading NW towards the Brazilian coastline where we keep a close eye on the weather systems to avoid any pesky hurricanes. If all is clear, we'll keep sailing along the coast til we get to the Caribbean where our first planned stop will be in St. Lucia. The skipper knows someone who can hook us up with diving gear for a little 3 day holiday. When duty calls once more we'll be heading towards St. Maarten and then directly to Fort Lauderdale via the Virgin Islands and Bahamas.

This is the plan so far and it is very difficult to say when we're going to cross the Equator and what the skipper and Mate have in store for us! Nevertheless, a huge learning curve awaits and I am excited, relieved and ready to get this trip underway. It's been a long time coming and it seems daunting to some, yet we have discovered a new way of life that we'll make work for us.

So, ciao for now. Please keep us posted too!

Preparations!

Once we were "hired" by our skipper we needed to get the yacht into tip-top shape for us to set sail. However, we hadn't even seen the boat yet and were getting quite anxious to get a feeling of which kind of vessel we'd be sailing across the Atlantic Ocean on.

The boat still had to be handed over to our skipper and was undergoing a few minor repairs, such as fixing the sliding door and a window. Therefore, we weren't allowed to get police clearance to that area of the marina in the RCYC. Nevertheless, Patrick and I were curious and decided to get in a sneak peek and this was our first viewing:

Two days later, the yacht was moved to the Elliot Basin where TUI Marine’s offices are based. We stepped onboard and were giggly with excitement; what a beautiful, luxurious vessel! There are three cabins with en-suite heads (bathrooms), an open plan saloon (lounge) with galley (kitchen) and navigation area. Above deck are more couches, benches and the cockpit (helm/steering). Patrick's parents (who came to visit) and Gisela also came onboard to check it out...

However, because we’re delivering a yacht that will be sold to a private owner, everything needs to be kept spotless and as if it’s unused. So we set about covering all the surfaces with clear sticky-wrap paper and masking tape to prevent any scratches or damage. Also, we can’t use the showers as we have to be very sparing with our fresh water supply. Hence, washing with saltwater on the deck will take some getting used to.

There is so much storage space onboard that our massive supply of food will not cramp our living spaces. Our skipper is a big fan of food so we won’t be starving or suffer from a lack of variety. We’ll have enough meat to last us 40 days, fresh fruit, veg, bread etc will be acquired along the way as we stop off at various islands and we have plenty tinned and long life provisions. Patrick and our first mate will take care of all the fishing duties and we’re all looking forward to our first tuna for some fresh sushi! Njummmmy!

After we made the yacht people-proof all that was left to do was wait for our equipment and set sail. We’re still waiting. We were meant to set sail 10 days ago. Now it seems that we’re leaving on Monday morning. The hold-up lies with the satellite phone. There are only a certain number of them in circulation between the various delivery skippers. As each skipper returns from a delivery, they bring the phone back for the next skipper. Our satellite phone is delayed with the skipper who’s only arriving next week Tuesday. Because we can’t keep waiting for another week our skipper has decided to depart on Monday and pick up the sat phone en-route (More about the route in another post).This means that we’ll have more stop-overs in more ports i.o.t. report back on our journey; i.e. fresh food throughout the entire trip plus more fresh water!

In the meantime, we've moved all our possessions onboard and made the cabin our own. The first night on the yacht was beautiful; it made everything more real... Now we just want to set sail and get going on our first delivery. Til then!