I know, it has been ages since I have put up a posting. Sorry, but life seems now to have its pace and nothing too strange has really happened here. We are hoping to go back into the water tomorrow but the weather is supposed to be bad so the move may be delayed for a few days. What is a few days given that we have spent 2 ½ months out of the water instead of the planned 2 weeks!

The whole welding thing really knocked us back, both financially and in terms of our sailing plans, but in hindsight it was for the best. The 3 main things done were; the opening of a new hatch, much wider and only 3 steps deep (compared to a small tight opening with a steep 8 steps), the addition of the davits (the large aluminium frame at the very back of the boat) which holds the solar panels, wind generator, radar and dinghy and lastly the hard dodger, which means that the new opening (companionway) and cockpit are completely protected from the waves and most wind. This will also in time have sun shades (biminis) and mosquito netting fitted to it so that we can eat, drink and even sleep in the cockpit area without the sun, wind or midgets killing us! The changes we have now made are amazing and the boat really does look like a million dollar boat! Both the safety and comfort aspects have been radically improved and I can actually picture myself living on board. We will have a huge amount of storage space and Saoirse will have her own play area. Perfect.

Most of the heavy carpentry work is finished, left is the mundane and fiddly trimming and paint work. The upholstery will go in last and that will make the biggest visual difference. As it is nearly their winter now we probably wont get to do any major sailing, but even taking her out around the bay will tell us if there are any major or obvious flaws.

The other boat news is that we are strongly thinking of changing the boat’s name. Taniwha is a Kiwi sea god and as such is a cute name, but it has no significance to us, never having been to New Zealand (Ken, we will make it out one day to visit you-promise!). Also, given the fact that we have literally now gutted the boat, she bears no resemblance to the boat she was, so for that reason we are thinking of renaming her. We would like to incorporate the word free or freedom in Irish into it so that we get saoirse as part of it. Any ideas or suggestions are most welcome. For those superstitious readers, we will be doing a name changing ceremony so as not to upset Posiden and that particular sea god Taniwha!

Saoirse is thriving. Her firm favourite at the moment is butternut squash, followed by pear. She is not too fond of carrots unless they are mixed with pear (thanks Sinead for the tip!). I am trying to feed her 3 times a day, roughly around our eating times and I bought a cool cloth baby chair for feeding her, which she sits into and it goes over the back of any chair – the nice thing is that it folds into nothing and you can keep it in your baby bag or even hand bag. I am trying to get used to the mess that inevitably happens when she feeds (comments note Emma!), but have developed a system now which keeps her and me fairly clean! Short of putting a body condom on her, I have it down to quite a fine art.

A few months back we were at the baby doctor getting her vaccinations when a woman approached us and asked us to email her through some photos of Saoirse saying she was a baby model scout and needed some babies for a shoot. We did and heard nothing back from her. 10 days ago I threw her calling card away and the next day got a call from them saying that they wanted Saoirse for a photo call. I arrived full of anticipation, but there were babies and kids everywhere. Little hope of our dotie being picked. Nevertheless, she was dressed in a little outfit and taken outside and had various photos taken. She never smiled once, instead, looked completely bemused by it all! I was genuinely surprised but delighted when a few days later we got a call to say that they wanted to take more photos, this time it was for a clothes catalogue.

Boden is a UK clothes company but sell mainly through internet and catalogues and are now branching into the US market. Their clothes are the higher end quality ones. They come every year to South Africa for the photo shoots. She was put in a cute cardigan, jeans and white t-shirt and placed beside another cute baby and her 9 year old sister in the sand dunes by the sea. Unfortunately the other baby was obviously well used to her sister and smiled all the time while her sister held her. That baby also (innocently) kept poking Saoirse in the eye, so in the end Saoirse was sat a distance away from the other 2, which looked a little odd. She also laughed and smiled whenever the camera was NOT on her!!!! Oh well, she may or may not make it into the mini-Boden autumn catalogue out end of August. Either way, she was paid Rand 850 (Euro 75 or USD 100) for 2 hours, so I was very chuffed with her. Her first pay check at the tender age of 6 months!!!

So, many of you have asked what the story is over the coming months. This is roughly it: we leave South Africa on June 1st and arrive Dublin next day. I head over the Spain for about a week with Saoirse to work while my parents have the pleasure of seeing their granddaughter again. JC will come over for a 3 day break and then we with my parents fly back to Dublin. On 13th June we all (folks too) fly out to San Diego for JC’s sister DD’s wedding. My 40th will fall while we are there so we will celebrate that with whoever is able to make it out. We will more than likely pop up to San Francisco to see JC’s old haunts. 1st July being JC’s birthday will be spent with his family in San Diego and we fly back to Ireland on 2nd July. The plan then is for JC to work as much as possible until October/November and then we will fly back to the boat, knowing at least that she is finished and ready to sail. At that stage we will be ready for the big sail. Any Dublin readers, please keep us in mind in case you have any customised carpentry / cabinet making for him. His impressive web site is www.mgwsonline.com for examples of his work to date. Well, thanks for reading this and we look forward to seeing most of you over the coming weeks.

J