Joshua and Juley fetched Emil and I from the bus stop. I was so excited to see Salty Cow with the sails on. Finally she looked like a sailing yacht should. We had no idea though how she would handle on the sail from East London to Durban. There was no one we could chat to that had sailed on her either. We checked the weather forecast for the coming days, we knew it should take us around 3 or 4 days, depending on weather.
While Emil and Joshua got busy with the final prep work, changing the oil in the main engine etc., Juley and I started doing fuel runs. There isn’t a fuel dock at the Buffalo River Yacht Club so we had to go into town with fuel cans and fill at the local truck stop. The diesel is cheaper there. We hit a bonus also because the truck stop has a laundromat. The guys there were amazing, while we were running from the boat and back they checked on our clothes and put them into the tumble drier for us. It was super cheap also.
Our boat has a 400l fuel tank so yes it took us awhile to fill it. Emil and Joshua filled the 400l water tank. Then it was time to get provisions so off to the local supermarket went Juley and I. Now we have been on plenty camping trips that we had to provision for, but this was rather daunting knowing that if we ran out of anything really important it would be a big problem as we can’t just pop into the local town and replenish stocks. I don’t think I have ever taken this long to shop, and I had a list!!
Right so the boat was packed, we were preparing ourselves mentally for what lay ahead. We had enjoyed our stay at the Buffalo River Yacht Club, the people were awesome. While we were in Umkomaas during the time that the boat was moored there we dragged in a heavy storm, they were quick to get out to her and put on extra ropes etc.
Emil caught fish right off the back of the boat and we had an awesome fish braai (barbecue) at the yacht club. All in all it was great meeting everyone. We were very excited to leave though and get to Durban.
Post #6 coming soon!
Salty Travellers 