Hope you all had a nice start to the New Year, despite the doom and gloom that seems to be radiating from every corner of the globe. Our highlight over the past few weeks was that my parents came over to see us - they were supposed to have waved us off on the 29th December as part of the Governor’s Cup Race to St Helena, but obviously that did not happen. On Christmas day I went with Saoirse and my parents to hear the Malawian choir sing during mass. JC and Dad made a crayfish barbeque (or braai as it is called here) accompanied by my Mam’s excellent roast potatoes and crumble for dessert. It was a slow paced and unusual Christmas meal and we did not even have a tree, Christmas crackers or even exchange gifts (except for some that my brother sent Saoirse - thanks Dave and family!). Saoirse did get a teddy bear from my parent’s stop over at Heathrow airport and she spent hours hugging Teddy (although it looked more like wrestling to me).

Saoirse adored my parents and spent most of the days hanging out of one or both of them! My mother especially spent hours reading the same books to her. After being fed her milk in the morning she would run into my parent’s room and jump all over them in bed. She loved to copy my mother putting on her creams and brushing her tooth and would sit with them when they had breakfast, making them sing Frère Jacques! Our new house has a pool, which is great, but is about 4 KMs from Hout Bay, which is not so great, but this did not stop my parents from walking there and back with Saoirse in the pram on a regular basis.

My father was put to work and is now an accomplished miller, carpenter and our official pool cleaner. He was a great help to JC. They put up all the headliners (vinyl-like covers for the ceiling of the boat) only to find that they sagged in various places. JC called the guy and it ends up that he had used a new adhesive (the vinyl is stuck to foam which is stuck to plywood to make it rigid) and this adhesive was obviously sub standard. The guy said he was too busy to fix it till the end of January. JC was so pissed off, as we cannot move onto the boat till they are up as there are wires and cables hanging down and no lights working till that is all put in. Let down again. It looks like we will have to extend the rent on this current house by another 2 weeks. It is all so frustrating as each time we are let down by someone, our leave date slips by another few days. It is also now costing us way more money than we had budgeted for so JC and I are both feeling the pressure.

Our friend Yasir was on holidays in Cape Town and we hooked up a few times with him. He joined us for our Christmas barbeque and we all went out for dinner one night and spent a lovely afternoon in the Kirstenbosch botanic gardens where in the summer on a Sunday they have afternoon concerts. It is a gorgeous venue and a real family day out. Every one brings a picnic and wine and chills to the sounds of South Africa’s best bands with the most amazing back drop imaginable. That’s the way to hook up with old friends

New Year’s Eve was a non affair - none of us felt like heading out, so Mam and I were sent to get a DVD. So we chose Mama Mia! Both Dad and JC enjoyed it immensely despite all the protests and their best efforts to NOT enjoy it. My parents left on Monday 5th January and we were all very sad to see them go. Especially Saoirse. She has become quite clingy now - I think after Barry and then my parent’s leaving, she must think that we too are just going to disappear on her!

The next 2 weeks will see a huge amount done to the boat. JC is waiting for all the factories to open again after Christmas on 12th and then he can varnish all the drawers, trim work and cabin soles that he has finished. Our aim is to have the boat completely finished in about 3 weeks and hopefully have taken a few test sails too by that time- that way all that will be missing is the headliners and we will be able to start living on board. At the moment, our anticipated leave date is early February, but there are so many variables at play that all we can do is cross our fingers and toes.

I know most of you have not seen the boat before and are more than curious to see what our future home actually looks like. I have already written a posting describing the boat but have no photos yet to ad, so thought I would wait with that one for another 2 weeks or so, so please have patience. In the meantime, this is a photo my father took of “Taniwha” - more on her to follow…