Have cushions will travel

Life is good here on Marcy. Our last big contracted project was boat cushions and we got our new cushions yesterday (Monday) so as soon as we have food on board and our Brazil visas we'll be ready to travel. It's always exciting to untie the dock lines and head to sea and we're getting excited to go.

There was no rest for Ginger when she returned from Seattle because we had to complete some projects and get the boat moved from the Royal Cape Yacht Club. We pulled our spare chain out of the bilge and marked and stowed it in the chain locker. Though Peter had finished most of the woodwork projects in the cabin there were still tools out for the jobs to be completed and with most of the cushions thrown away in preparation for the new ones things were pretty rough for a while. The windlass had to be bolted on to the repaired foredeck, the propane solenoid had to be replaced (that spare came just in time from Seattle!), the stove battery holder had to be replaced and bolted in... the list was long but it's hard to remember all the jobs now. We moved the boat on Friday, Feb 20, to Granger Bay where we'll be able to finish a few jobs and get ready to leave the country. We tied up just in time to leave the boat and hike across town to the dentist. It's a great country for reasonable medical care.

We also had a busy social schedule. A plane passenger, Wendy, from Ginger's trip came by to visit and brought her friends Beverly and Georgina and we had a nice evening with them at the RCYC. Beverly was kind enough to offer to help out with errands and she also happens to sell wine! Beverly dropped off a case of wine for us and took Ginger on her first round of boat errands. What a help!
We first met Kate at the immigration office and she and her family took us on a fantastic afternoon to a fruit farm, lunch and a very personal tour of the Stellenzicht winery. Thursday Viqui, a friend from the RCYC took Ginger on another round of boat errands. Friday Ginger had to get her hair cut again - making up for all those missed hair cuts between OZ and SA. We've been very comfortable in South Africa!

The boat projects continue. We're struggling to get parts for the roller furler. We thought we could replace the bearings but it turns out that's not true. After spending a full day pulling the furler apart it became apparent that a sub-assembly would be destroyed taking it apart. We contacted Schaefer and they told us to order a replacement assembly from their supplier here. We found out yesterday that the $100 part plus the $100 shipping fees were assessed $200 in import fees to come into the country! We're still waiting to hear if those fees can be negotiated as we're a yacht in transit and shouldn't pay any import fees. Whatever the result we can't go to sea without our furler so we're anxious to get it installed and re-hoist the jib.

The hot fall weather has brought out the mozzies and we've had our share on board every night. The mosquitoes here are smaller and faster than the variety in Seattle. They are very hard to hunt down. We've been alternating between getting no sleep while we hunt skeeters and spraying the whole boat with bug killer to steal some sleep in a poison induced haze. OK, it's not quite that bad but our boat is not very mosquito proof and here in the marina they're tenacious bugs.

It's another beautiful morning, time for yoga on deck and then back to work.