I have absolutely no excuses to give as to the reason this blog was abandoned for such long time… I cannot believe time has passed this fast… the only excuse I may attempt to give is that we have not done much in nautical terms since we got back to South Africa therefore I kind of didn’t have much to say about Moonwalker… although I could write a bible about our new crew member whom completed 7 super duper months two days ago… My mind, my body, my entire being revolves around this little creature called Brisa.
So in order to fulfill my intense desire to share everything to do with Brisa I need, for my own sanity and sake to tell you all that she is doing incredibly well at the height of her 68cm, 8.6kg and 4 (yes, four) teeth. She is pretty much crawling already, although it looks more of a hop/dive forward, but she is getting there. Don’t even let me start about walking… that’s all she wants to do to my desperation as I kind of hoped she would be one of those real slow walkers you know? We are about to move to the boat and she is incredibly fast and mobile, I can feel the nightmares moments we will have. However I am impossibly/terribly/utterly proud of my sprout.
You would all be if you could see her. She is a social monster. Shopping with her is a marathon as she thinks the supermarket is a great place to make new friends and insists on not only smiling but having a full blown chat with everyone around, specially all the grannies and grandpas whom love to babble to her in Afrikaans. Mind you she has the same reaction if you talk to her in Xhosa – no actually she loves hearing Xhosa because of all the clicks they do with their tongue while talking – or Portuguese or even English! Yes, she enjoys even good old boring English! As long as you are talking to her, she is “all good” as Nanna Jan would say.
Now that I have taken all that off my chest, I can talk about Moonwalker and us…
We are officially moving back on board next Monday, 31st of January. We now have a brand new hard top, with an amazing water catchment system, LED lighting, tinted glass sail viewer right above the captain’s chair and fantastic speakers! We will still have the zip up side and front plastic covers as they are in good shape, unlike the old canvas cover. Russ had the full support of the amazing crew at TAG Yachts whom gave him full access to their state of the art facilities.
Another very important modification was the replacement of the Perspex windows in the cockpit for tinted glass. They are now fixed, and water tight, which they weren’t before causing dampness in the cockpit and rotting of the window frames. It looks a treat and we finally got rid of the annoying noise the windows made whilst sailing. Whoever done a crossing on Moonwalker and tried to sleep on the cockpit knows what I am talking about.
Plan at this stage is to move on board, get the final touches, and some sea trials before heading to Cape Town to get the main in order to sail to Knysna, 100 miles West of Port St Francis. In Knysna we will be one the first catamarans to use the brand new trailer the yacht club built. At the amazing, incomparable price of R2500 (NZ$500) for hauling in and out plus 4 days on the hard we are the happiest chaps around. This price beats even Bundaberg (Australia) our best price/benefit hauling out to date. The icing in the cake in this case is being in the heart of Knysna which is probably one the nicest harbors in South Africa.
Once on board I will certainly have plenty more to report specially regarding the much anticipated new main being built by Quantum Sails in Cape Town.
More to come, with photos I promise!
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