In Preparation for the crossing

I think that this second Atlantic crossing is going to be a lot more organised. The vessel, 'Moonbeam'is equipped with every gadget imaginable and has luxuries like the ice-maker, coffee machine and geyser.

I have been shadowing the current au pair and spending ample time with the two kiddies that I will be tutoring and looking after on the crossing.

It looks like we  will be doing almost the exact same route as the previous crossing I did so I cant wait to see the amazing friends I made :)

The New Venture

It has been an extremely past few weeks. I have been back and forth between Jbay and St Francis which has involved skateboarding along the highway and hitch hiking.

I have been working at the backpackers while at the same time helping Rich with his exams and invidulating for him. I have also been doing a bit of admin for my friend's historical surf film.

But I am finaly back in my hometown after a quick detour to Kenton on the way home to see two special ladies. I am preparing myself for the next sailing adventure which is sure to provide some new and exciting stories :)

Jbay :)

After a wonderful, comfortable stay at home, it was time to head to Jbay.

Richard had bought me a rabbit. It was so adorable but we had no idea what to do with it, so it came with us for the drive to P.E. We decided to give it to my cousin, Warren, an aspiring vet. It was really good to see the rest of my family after over a year !

Jbay has been really mellow, I am enjoying my job at African Ubuntu Backpackers. In my spare time I do plenty of skating and surfing and hanging out on the beach. I get to meet a lot of very interesting people from all over the world, I am getting so inspired to travel again.

Richard visited me this weekend and we cooked a meal for 16 people at the backpackers. I wonder if they knew that a 16 year old cooked their dinner .

Rich and I also made a video to enter in the Coushurfers contest to win around the world plane tickets, its a little rough but if you dont enter you will never win. It should be up soon :)

It has been raining for the past 11 days and I am getting an intense case of cabin fever. Sun Please come out.

the Home Post

My cousin and I

In East London, South Africa, nothing really changes. Its a wonderful place to grow up and good place to go back to, every now and then. My house seemed sickingly luxorious in comparison to life on the yacht. I appreciated everything so much more, the electricity, the running water, the flushing toilet and the huge kitchen and the food! Cooking was going to be so much easier. With Florence (our maid) 3 times a week, a washing machine and dishwasher, me and Richard didnt have many chores. I couldn't believe how much my family ate, their meals seemed enourmous and I noticed all the food , water, and electricity that was going to waste. I was seeing my surroundings with new eyes. My home, which had always seemed fairly average to me growing up, now looked to me like a magnificent castle.


How we get around

It was so nice to see my family and there was plenty to catch up on. In the 6 months we hadn't seen each other, I had had limited internet access so there were plently stories to share! My dog went crazy when he saw me for the first time and didnt leave my side while I was at home. I turned 19 while I was out at sea so my parents bought me an hibiscus tree as a present, I was thrilled to see it when I got home, and it flowered for the first time the following day.


My birthday gift

Richard and I have been spending our time skating, surfing, missioning around on the motorbike and studying for his tests (which are now finished). We have been partying a bit and I am sure he feels pretty cool being surrounded by 19 year old girls all the time. My cousin, Castyn, drove down from P.E to visit and it has been so lovely having her here. She is my age and we get along really well.





Dad teaching Rich to kite

Rich and I have also been working at Jonginenge for a bit of spending money. In a week I will go to Jbay to help out in a backpackers and Rich will go home to St Francis. I can't wait for the next adventure :D

Part 6- Nearly Home ( the airport fiasco)

Bye Boat !

I quickly climbed up the ladder , onto the boat and down my hatch. I looked around for anything I may have forgotton. The simple, wooden cabin looked bare without mine and Richard's mess scattered everywhere. I became sad thinking about all the memories this tiny space held. It had kept us safe during storms out at sea, me and Richard had slept there , side by side for months. Goodbye cabin, goodbye boat...



The HOK

We got a lift to the airport with a very chatty tour guide who gave us so much interesting information about Trinidad, it made me want to stay there! Coen gave us each a hug goodbye and we were on our own. We encountered our first problem when we realised there was a R1000 fee on our surfboards, so I reluctantly drew the money from my almost depleted account ( I had invested all my cash in my parents business), knowing Coen would pay me back. We bought a few gifts and then hopped on our connecting flight to Panama. We flew with Copa airlines who we thought were very unproffessional. The plane made lots of funny noises and the air hostesses were rude.



Me with the surfboards that cost me a grand to get here

We arrived in Panama after a 5 hour flight and made our way to the gate. i got lots of funny looks, maybe it was because I was the only barefoot person in the entire airport? We got onto another horrid little Copa aeroplane and spent the 6 hour flight to Brazil, chatting and watching movies.

18 hours in Sau Paulo airport! what a long layover. We had a Big Mac meal for breakfast and then 'set up house' . We found a corner and then put our surfboards at right angles to form a 'hok' which we climbed inside and put our bags against the wall as pillows. The time was spent by watching series, singing very loudly ( I get silly on airport air), doing poi, making bangles and eating fast food. It was pretty enjoyable but by check in time I was keen for a hot bath and a normal bed.

We reach check in counter carrying a backpack, a surfboard and hand luggage bag each. The lady asks for our passports. We hand them over. She looks at Richard's Italian passport and asks if he has had a yellowfever injection. He says ...noo. She says...You may not board this flight but you can speak to the manager . She leads us to this little office and it feels like we are on Border Security!

This was such a nightmare! We got told that Richard was not allowed to board without South African identification or proof of a yellow fever injection, we had neither. His SA passport was in Trinidad with his dad, who didnt even have a phone. They suggested he stay in Brazil for another 2 weeks and have the yellowfever injection. 2 WEEKS!! Richards exams started in a few days time, we didnt have any money to stay in Brazil longer. We hadnt showered in 2 days and this was just too much. They let me call my mom to explain the situation and after balling my eyes out, I think the managers didnt want these two barefooted dirty hooligans in their country and by some miracle let us board the plane.They said we would have major problems at South African customs.

We were overjoyed! We could go back to the motherland! Running to the airport gate we screamed with ecitement and celebrated with alcoholic beverages aboard good old South African Airways. We had a wonderful 8 hour flight. Beautiful African airhostesses, delicous food and a wonderful sleep. Looking at the Atlantic from above the next morning, I grew sad thinking we just crossed the vast ocean in less than 8 hours when it had taken us 2 months in the yacht.

Travel buddies

South African Customs hardly lifted an eyelid at Richards non existing yellowfever certificate and I was so glad that for once something went smoothly. I loved being in South Africa. The Afrikaans accents, the black people, Wimpy, the airport was making me so nostalgic. The last little flight to East London went quickly and I became so excited as I saw the familiar city lights. I was excited to surf, to kitesurf, to see family, for Rich to meet my family, to see friends, to hug my dogs, for a real bed, a real shower. As the plane boomed down the little runway, I held Richard's hand, my 6 month companion, and sighed ' I'm Home ' .

Part 5- The last leg !



Watching dolphins

The sail from Salvador to Fernando de Noronha was horrendous! It was so rough and the wind kept changing so we had to continuously change and trim sails, it was a real test and i wished I was back home in a coffee shop chatting to my girlfriends. The last day however was wonderful and mild and we were escorted into the bay by a school of friendly dolphins.

Mount Pica



A Turtle I spotted

Fernando de Noronha was like nothing I had ever seen. it was an eco-friendly island that generated their own electricity and recycled almost everything. Most of it was a nature reserve so we couldnt dive without a qualified guide. The sealife was amazing and in one snorkeling session I saw a baby shark, a sting ray, a turtle and a squid, not to mention schools of colourful reef fish. We were now very close to the equator and the water was really warm. We also snorkled on a lovely old wreck where the boys swam in old tubes and through holes in the wreck. Everyone drove beach buggies and we rented one too, on the side of the road there were beautiful horses that I couldn't resist petting. The island was safe, lush, and filled with friendly locals and eco-tourists. It was 5 months since I had been home and I started getting homesick espescially being surrounded by boys all day everyday.


Beautiful Horse in Fernando

The only problem with the island was that the internet was down the entire 4 days we were there, and the boys needed to upload some schoolwork. Instead of staying there for our anticipated week long stay, we decided to head North to the Carribean.

Every night after we left Fernando was very stressful as the shipping lanes were really busy and saw a few ships every night. Everything else was going fine on our journey to the Carribean, when we encountered a major problem, we were still about a week away from Trinidad when we started running out of food and water. We were going to head to the closest country, French Guyana.

French Guyana. What a different place. We spent our first night in Cayenne, the capital. We went ashore to sign in, only to find that there wern't such procedures in French Guyana. The official at customs told us to be very careful and do a rotating night watch. That we did, armed with flairs, 2 tasers and 3 cans of pepper spray we each took a turn waiting for the pirates who never came.
The next morning we stocked up with food and fresh fruit and vegetables from the huge colourful market, there was a variety of strange exotic fruits as well as beautiful displays of fish. The population seemed to be mostly Chinese, the French speaking asians seemed a little out of place to me. Cayenne reminded me of Grahamstown a bit in the way it looked.

Isle de Salut

After we had stocked up, we did a 5 hour sail to Isle de Salut. It was really stunning and unhinhabited, we saw a child graveyard, huge spiders and the ruins of an old jail. It was quite an eerie place. We met a French man (who had a striking resemblance to Jack Sparrow ) on a little monohull. We invited him for supper. I cooked a chicken pie which was pretty stressful but turned out okay and it was a lovely evening.

It was back on the ocean and because of the doldrums it took another week to get to Trinidad. At one stage we were going so slowly we could jump off and easily out swim the boat, I think we were even going backwards for a while! One really spectacular thing happened one night. Daniel called us on deck and pointed at the water, there were dolphins that were glowing like ocean angels, dozens of them swimming around the boat like ghosts. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

Movies! what a treat

We didnt have enough fuel to motor and again were running out of food and water, fish biltong(which I had previously hated) was now a treat. On the last day, we had a tin of baked beans for lunch and were using the emergency water. Its hard being a girl out on the ocean, I felt so dirty and ugly the day we finaly arrived in Chagaramus Bay, Trinidad.

Our Home for 6 months

There were plenty of Marinas to choose from but we chose Coral Cove because it was moderately priced and had a pool. We made friends with a lovely European couple, Tonya and Pascal, who had so many stories. We also saw Chad, who we had met in St Helena. Many yachties had heard about our robbery in Brazil and were all sympathetic. I loved Coral Cove mostly because of the dogs, everyone had a dog onboard and I missed my dogs so much. There were even puppies! I also enjoyed watching the pretty pelicans. We went to the mall and the movie house which was a real treat. The heat in Trinidad was unbearable and we made trips to the pool  very often. Daniel left a few days after we arrived and me and Rich left a week after, but first the yacht needed to be dry docked.

The dry docking was extremely stressfull because of the strong current. We got pushed into a huge wooden pillar and me and Rich were desperately trying to fend off as best we could. Luckily officials at Peak Marine hopped on and helped us out. We made sure everything was closed up and went ashore while a huge crane picked up the light 6 tonne, Grazia. She got a high pressure hose spray down and then got driven to our new home, in the dry docks. We got given ladder to climb up and I felt like I was living in a flat. We had a bit of a problem as we had forgotten to ask for a bathroom key and the office had closed. I dont think you want to know how we managed that night.The next day, we got the key, showered profusely, packed our bags, dressed nicely, showered again( as we had sweated so much already) and said our goodbyes. It was time to fly back to South Africa!

Very Happy Couple

 

Part 4- Brazil

Coen watching the Mink whale

The sail from Ascension to Brazil was lovely. It was great having the autopilot working , but it packed up after only 3 days. There was definitely something wrong with it. It was back to handsteering but we quickly got into the rythm of it again. The wind was mostly from behind and we used the spinaka a lot, probably too much, as one night the halyard snapped and the sail got dragged under the boat until we rescued it. It was torn so I stiched it up with good old dental floss but we were nervous to try use it again.

We were accompanied by a mink whale for a few days, who swam playfully inbetween the hulls, showing off with giant splashes, we also were graced with prescence of agile little spinner dolphins.

The last night of the 12 day journey, we saw the glow of the huge metropolitan Salvador, it took about 20 hours after first seeing the city lights, to be moored in Termino Nautica. We were exhausted and keen to get a full nights' sleep. But the night was the worst of my life.

At about 3am I woke up and heard voices on the deck, thinking they were offiials asking Coen for money for the mooring, I went back to sleep. A while later I woke up to someone jumping into my cabin, he was in his 20s ,wearing only boardshorts and had a huge knife in his hand. A PIRATE! I screeched, trying to wake up the boys (who were already tied up in their cabins). The Brazilian closed my window and my hatch as I continued to scream and then shoved the long knife at my throat, forcing me into silence. He ransacked my cabin, throwing all my belongings on the floor, putting my netbook , cellphone and some clothes in a bag. He was very surprised and disappointed I didnt have any gold jewellry or money, he laughed at my bangles made of string and shells. He took an interest in the pictures of South Africa I had stuck on my wall. His accomplice came into my cabin and he looked a lot scarier!!! He was definitely on drugs and was very rough with me, annoyed at my lack of possesions, I wanted my old pirate back. Pirate2 tyed me up with one of our sail ropes ( I thought he was going to rape me or tye me to the anchor and throw me overboard), when I screeched in pain , Pirate 1 loosened the knots a bit , smiled at me, stuck the knife in my face one last time and disappeared like a thief in the night.

I was in tears when Coen and Richard came to untie me. I was so traumatised from the experience and would jump at the smallest noises for weeks after. We walked around the yacht and saw that they had taken labtops, the TV, speakers, the Ipod, the GoPro, wetsuits, headtorches, sailing gloves and US$20000 ( the whole year's spending money). We stayed awake until daybreak  then launched the dinghy and spent the whole day going from office to office trying to sign in and then report the incident to the tourist police. Salvador was absalutely hideous, huge high rise buildings, people trying to sell you crap at every corner, dead dogs and prostitutes scattered on the streets. This was a huge change from the peace and quiet of the Atlantic.

Fire hooping in Itaparika

We slept one more night in Salvador, but alongside. The robbery was huge news and we had instant fame in the yachting community, the security guard sat right outside our yacht to help us feel safe and the marina apologised profusely for the incident. The next day we had a leisurely 30mile sail to the island of Itaparika.

Skating with Gean

Itaparika was lovely, it was quiet and there so many yachties there. We met a rasta, Gean , who took us skateboarding in the town square. We met a yacht who had a very lively crew of young South Africans. I did a fire show for our new friends which made for a great evening of drinking and telling sailing stories. After a week we decided to head to a more lively town called 'Morro de Sau Paulo'.

Morro holds some of my dearest memories. The town doesnt have any cars, the only vechiles are 2 police motorbikes and all the supplies are delivered to shops by donkies. There is a fun little point break which me and Richard surfed almost everyday. The town is a hub for tourists so there were more english speaking people, although our Portuguese was improving rapidly.

Fish and beer with Gilson and Raul

Doing Poi in Max and Christinas garden

One day a man swam up to the yacht ( which was anchored about 600m from the shore), his name was Max and invited us to his home that evening for a meal. He turned into a dear friend and Rich and I befriended his two teenage children, Fabio and Sofia. Max always offered for us to shower and do washing at his house as well as sleep there after parties, it was our home on land. His beautiful wife , Christinha,  was very sweet and me and her taught each other our native tongues. Fabio was such a great host and would always buy us pizza at his mothers pizzaria. We stayed in Morro for 2 months, we just couldn't bring ourselves to leave. The locals treated us like travellers and not tourists, we often got invited to people's homes for traditional meals. I got a free canoe tour from our friend , Raul and had free access to SUPs. The men in Brazil are extremely forward and all seem obssessed with me and my different features. I had marriage proposals and wolf whistles every time I walked around on my own. Our craziest friend was Gilsonio. He was hilarious, he loved food and women and was always planning a party. The food was always delicous in Morro, Gilsonio treated us to Moceca ( a seafood dish) and he also took me to a non commercial little pub in the jungle where we only got one option, fried fish and beer! The fruit juice was only servede freshly squeezed, my favourite was 'laranja com limao' (orange with lime). A fond memory is of me and Rich waking up in the middle of the night at Max's house, both with unquenchable thirsts. We ran down to the closest bar ( Me in a night gown I had found in the room), and ordered a fresh orange juice while drunk men and women drank beer and cocktails, we slept peacefully . :)

Richard was however very sick for a week or two during our stay there. I remember taking a ferry to Valentia ( the nearest town witha hospital), to get Richards blood tests. It was very ditry and I was the only barefoot person besides a hobo. The nurses spoke very fast and we didnt understand a thing, upon presenting Richards Italian passport, they rushed to find the Italian doctor, who was highly annoyed when he found neither of us could speak Italian. We finaly received the blood tests and everything looked fine, thank Goodness.

During rough weather, we would moor Grazia in Gamboa. Gamboa was not as touristy as it was on the river, there were these huge pink cliffs there were therapeutic clay was in abundance. More than once me and Rich rubbed ourselves in the mud and waited for it to dry before rubbing it off, leaving our skin soft and smooth. We also went for a really fun hobie catting lesson with an German man who owned the mooring we were on.

We left Morro briefly to sail to Salvador to pick up Richards' friend , Daniel, from the airport. We stayed in a safer, fancier marina but I was still very nervous at night. We saw some of Salvadors better side when we took a taxi to the beach and mall while Coen did some repairs on the yacht.

It was back to Morro for a few more days of surfing and partying with our friends. We could finaly start doing school again as Daniel brought a labtop up from South Africa, so it was time to work hard to get all of tasks completed.

Christina and I

We planned a day sail to Barra Grande, we invited Max and Christinha to join us and they gladly accepted. The day sail was going well, Max loved being at the wheel, so we decided to have some fun. We put some lines down inbetween the hulls and would jump off and grab onto them while the boat was undersail. You would have to angle your body to get to the side and then pull yourself up. The first time I tried this it went smoothly , but the second time we had increased the speed by a few knots and I didnt have the body strength to get back on, I was getting weaker and started to panic, there were fishing lines behind me. Eventually, a very annoyed Coen lowered the boarding ramp so I get on, by which time my bikini was around my ankles from the strong force of the water.

We had supper in Barra Grande that night at a nice seafood restaurant. The next morning Max and Christinha took a bus back to Morro and we explored Barra Grande. It was breath-takingly beautiful. There was a white sandy beach that went on for kilometres, framed by tall cocnut trees and rolling waves. The place had very few people and only saw one other surfer. The  locals were friendly and a young boy offered us a ride on his bicycle. The waves were small and mellow, just my type of wave , and there were dozens of breaks along the beach.
I was chuffed when a young English couple asked me to help them translate when looking for accomadtion, I later invited them to the yacht for lunch where I made them bread, we drank beer and had a diving contest off the bow .
The anchorage was huge so we decided to try skurfing in Barra Grande, this made for lots of fun. I enjoyed driving the dinghy with its 15horsepower engine, just as much as I liked surfing behind it with the longboard.

It was time to move on again. After a quick stop in Morro, where we said our goodbyes to our lovely friends, it was back to Salvador to sign out and see the police. The Police had found the pirates who we had given detailed descriptions of. They were in jail but unfortunately, the police only recovered a watch and a wetsuit from them, it looked like we would never see our stuff again. I was just glad the criminals were in jail, in a way I was even glad we had lost all our gizmos and gadgets, I had completely lost my idenfication waith posssessions. Without TV and cellphones, me and Rich had grown really close and I knew him better than anyone.

Bye Salvador!

It was a bitter-sweet moment leaving the coast of Brazil. What a diverse place! I had never imagined myself going there, and now it was such a special place to me. Adeus Brazil! It was time for Fernando de Noronha.