Location: 21° 33.6 S, 39° 47.7 E
Tuesday 12:00, 10.31.2006

Happy Halloween! It seems impossible that exactly a year ago I was wandering the streets of Halifax dressed as a dead Napoleonic Wars Naval Lieutenant. Probably no costumes tonight.

The Schooner Maggie B was at 21° 33.6 S, 39° 47.7 E at noon today. We are undersail, underway from Bassas d’India to Nose Be in Madagascar. It is about 690 NM to Nose Be. We are about 100 NM off the coast of Madagascar, angling in towards the westerly hump of the island. The wind is about 12 knots on the nose and dying out so we will be motoring soon. We have gone 1623 NM since Cape Town.

Last night we had a lovely party on board the Maggie B together with the crew of the Aerandir (from the Lord of the Rings?). They are doing shark research. Chris and Monique, who own the boat, work out of Simons Town in False Bay, the White Shark Capital of the World, taking tourists out to see the Great Whites eat baby seals, while they do serious research on the side. Their web site is Apex Predators. Chris and Monique stayed on Aerandir, but sent over their crew of five, together with a present of five kilos of just caught sushi grade tuna.

Their crew included: Reiner (”I am not a German, I am Namibian”), who is an ecologist researching Hawksbill turtles; Kim, his girlfriend and another researcher; Guy, a big South African Dutchman, who is Captain of the ship; Greg, a rocket scientist from San Diego (his company is building a plasma engine for the manned trip to Mars) who is the acting ship’s engineer; and Shamus, an Irish cameraman documenting their work.

We had such a fine evening, perfect weather for sitting outside in the cockpit. It was by far the best party for miles around. In fact, we were the only people for a hundred miles, except for Chris and Monique, who turned in early. The crew of the Aerandir was thrilled to be on the Maggie B because their boat is dry and they had been out for three weeks. We were well supplied, which was good because the crowd was thirsty.

Some glimpses of the fine evening: Hannah starting the singing off by leading us in Barrett’s Privateers (”I’m a broken man on a Halifax pier”). Shamus, an uncharacteristically shy non-singing Irishman, though not so shy that he didn’t (unsuccessfully) proposition Bori and Hannah — and they argued over the question of who he asked first. Guy singing a sad Dutch song, repeatedly, but with a different translation each time. Reiner telling me how we can get into Aldabra, the UNESCO World Heritage site with 100,000 Giant Indian Ocean Tortoises, where he used to work. Guy telling the tale of the Santiago, one of the many ships to run aground on Bassas d’India, and how it has been documented that over 2000 people have died on the reefs that were producing huge breakers only 600 feet away. Me forgetting the last verse of Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” (I got it now — “Oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town, I’m counting on you, Lord, please don’t let me down. Prove that you love me and buy the first round, etc.).

We should be in Hellville, the capital of Nose Be, November 4th or 5th. Hellville is named after a French Admiral, not the after effects of the local rum. The main street was named Cours de Hell (Highway to Hell), and a street sign is still up, painted on the side of the Catholic Church.

All is well.

News from an atoll in the Indian ocean

As I write to you, dear friends, three sharks are circling around our boat. Frank is out there kayaking and for now, I choose to stay down below, listen to a violin concerto, drink coffee and write. My head has been filled with poetry ever since we got here. Where? Not so sure. Technically, we are at Bassas da India, an atoll in the middle of the Mozambique channel, but truly, with the senses of a simple mortal human being, it feels like another world, in the middle of nowhere. It feels like a place where anything could be possible.

I feel like being in a dream and being given a pen, and told, “now, write something beautiful.” I don’t even know where to start. My senses are overwhelmed. It feels like touching the bottom of the ocean or reaching the top of the sky, a breathless moment with no more relativity, nothing to measure things against, only our memories and the surrounding objects. We have started taking malaria pills since we’ll soon be in Madagascar. I don’t think I’ve had hallucinations yet, as one of the side effects of the pill along with other types of mental disorder, nonetheless, I find it hard to wrap my mind around our current experience. I keep on imagining the planet Earth and seeing us, like a little dot in the big blue somewhere on the southwestern hemisphere, but to be sincere, geography, physics and most hard sciences partially escape me in this situation and somehow I trust more my senses or my imagination that make me think of the starry night as a warm blanket enveloping us and making us feel safe in the darkness and our smallness floating on these waters.

Our time in Durban was well spent. The city has slowly filled up with meaning. It didn’t mean anything more than a big South African city, a place we would go to and look forward to receiving mail. I am so glad we made this last stop in Africa and through new friends, my appreciation for and understanding of the continent grew in a way I can hardly describe with words. We saw markets with half-dried bones and skeletons and once used-to-be animals and bark and rocks and exotic flora and fauna we’ve never encountered before. The people in this market wore white or dark terracotta face paint derived from a wetted soft stone. It all looked magical but smelled quite scary. We did not buy our fruits and vegetables there. We got the chance to have many great conversations with our new friends from this part of the world and gained a more real image of life here, and finally, I think for some moments, we crossed over the borders of being just tourists and we became a little more. After all, we spent over a month in South Africa. My heart is full of unforgettable moments: my first rowing lesson in a double scull in the harbour is one of them as are the many images, sounds and smells now carved into my memory that will always remind me of “Africa in the summer” as a friend of ours said one night with a smile that is impossible to forget. Needless to say, standing in the bow, I cried as we sailed out of Durban, a little like when we left Lunenburg harbour on March 28th. But isn’t life about being in the moment?

Still, I just can’t forget so many things and here and now, everything is possible. Maybe time travel? Certainly a place from which to reflect, to linger in moments that have moved us, moments that emerge from dreams made in the middle of the ocean. Maybe in five or six days we will be in Nosy Be, an island off the northwestern coast of Madagascar. I am learning Malagasy and can’t wait to see the nature there and meet people. I’ll be in touch and will write more if I can focus my mind that is now overflowing. I hope these words still make sense to you. This is how I am living this experience. At night I watch the shooting stars.

Location: 21° 31.7 S, 39° 40 E
Monday 12:00, 10.30.2006

Well we moved today, but not far. We are on the other side of the atoll, at 21° 31.7S, 39° 40.0E. When we woke up this morning we found that the wind had picked up to about 15 knots from the NE and was kicking up a bit of a sea and pushing us uncomfortably close to the reef, where the 2-3 meter waves were breaking with much ado.

As seems to happen sometimes, we made a bit of a thrash of it. I always anchor with a float attached to the front of the anchor to mark the anchor’s position, and to aid in its retrieval if it gets stuck under coral or whatever. The tide had come in and the anchor buoy was hidden underwater. As the anchor came up, we searched for the buoy. The prop found it first, immobilizing the engine just as we needed it most to avoid going ashore. The anchor, of course, was also immobilized by the retrieval line tightly attached to the prop. Willis immediately jumped in, knife in teeth and cut the line free of the anchor. I rushed up to set the anchor before we went ashore. As I was about to drop it, I notice that Willis was attempting to reboard the Maggie B by climbing the anchor chain. I believe that I said something relatively emphatically impolite, to suggest that he use the midships ladder as I had something else to use the chain for.

We re-anchored promptly and then Willis and I took turns pulling and cutting the turns off the prop, which was accomplished with some difficulty due to Maggie’s stern working hard to bash our heads in when we came up for air.

After all that excitement, we had a peaceful motor around the island to rejoin the shark researchers in their catamaran, Aerandir, on the peaceful leeward side of the island. This is a lovely spot with the breeze off the atoll. The anchor is in 35 feet of water and we are only 200 feet of chain away in 70 feet of water. We do have the sound and fury of 3-4 meter Southerly swells lifting us up and breaking on the reef which is only about 500-600 feet away. We are going to stand anchor watches tonight because a wind shift could have us in the surf zone, which would be a bad idea.

Once we set the anchor, I jumped in to check it. I have never jumped out of the water faster as a 10-12 foot White Tip shark cruised by just beneath me. We then had a peaceful lunch (Salad Nicoise) and Hannah decided to go for a swim afterwards. She had a religious experience — Walking on Water — as three sharks showed up to check her out (Father, Son and Holy Ghost?). So no more swimming. I then decided to try out the new surf kayak “Strika.” I felt perfectly confident. Then I dumped. Then Hannah’s sharks came to see what the fuss was about. I got back in, but was pretty shaky, which I’m sure was the Malaria medicine. I decided to paddle over to the other boat, with the three sharks as escort. As I was about half way over I noticed that they were actively chumming their sharks, and it just seemed to be a better idea to go back to the Maggie B and curl up in the cabin with a good book.

Off to Nose Be tomorrow.

All is well.

Location: 21° 28.2 S, 39° 44.4 E
Sunday 12:00, 10.29.2006

The Schooner Maggie B is safely anchored at Bassas d’India at 21° 28.2 S, 39° 44.4 E. Do not be alarmed if this appears to put us aground on the Google Map. The charts here are about two miles off (details, details). No wonder there are so many wrecks along the reef.

This is an atoll totally out in the middle of nowhere. At high tide it is all underwater (except for the wrecks). The water is incredibly clear. We anchored in 50 feet of water and could clearly see the bottom.

As we came around we were hailed by another boat. It turns out they are shark researchers and film crew. Gulp, wonder why they are here? As we were feeling our way around to perhaps try the entrance, Hannah (high up in the rigging with Polaroid glasses) saw two big sea turtles and then a nice little Hammerhead shark, who came over to check us out. We found the entrance, or at least an entrance, but the water was so clear that it looked about 10 inches deep. We passed it by. Perhaps we will explore tomorrow in the Reep, carrying portable GPS so that we can send in better positions.

Last night was marvelous for all watches. The moon as a guide for the early watches, then Orion for me and Sirius, the Dog Star, to guide Hannah. Lots of shooting stars.

We saw some very strange Humpback whale behavior. Two whales were motionless vertically with their tails sticking out of the water, but the tails were bent back 90 degrees so that the white underside was facing straight up. They stayed in that position for five minutes or so, and only stopped because they were perhaps disturbed by us. A singing position?

We will probably stay here for all of tomorrow and then be off for Madagascar on Monday the 30th.

All is well.

Location: 23° 23.9 S, 37° 00 E
Saturday 12:00, 10.28.2006

The Schooner Maggie B was at 23° 23.9 S, 37° 00 E at noon on October 28th. We are booming along at a boat speed of 9 kts, with a speed over the ground of 9.4. This is the perfect point of sail for the Maggie B — 20 knots of wind on the beam. We will be at Bassas d’India at about dawn tomorrow.

We did 195 NM from noon yesterday, not bad for “going the wrong way” up the Mozambique Channel.

It is warm again, with the sea water up to 78 degrees (25C) and the air is warm enough for bathing suits on watch during the day.
It is about 880 NM to Nose Be. We have gone 1398 since Cape Town.

The patterns on a boat sailing 24/7 are very interesting. We all have two three hour watches a day: Frank 12-3; Hannah 3-6; Willis 6-9; and Bori 9-12. It seems as if each thinks that their watch is the easiest, but in any case three on and nine off is pretty light duty. Of course everybody’s sleep patterns are different. At any given time one to three of us (hopefully never four!) are asleep. We all make a big effort to be up together for the mid-day meal. With this schedule, it is easy to get eight hours of sleep a day - just not all at the same time. It seems to take one’s body two to three days to accept the change, but then there is plenty of energy all around.

Off duty time is for ship work: cleaning, polishing, vacuuming, food prep, stitching, making fancy work, repairs, systems maintenance, and planning. Plus personal work: emails, reading, letter writing, watching videos (our laptops play DVD’s very well). Half the books we are reading are closely ship related such as The East African Pilot, or Brandt’s Madagascar, or Pilote Cotier des Seychelles.

Where we are headed is definitely navigationally complicated. You would think that with GPS and radar all would be easy, but every storm reconfigures sand banks which stretch up to 30 miles off the Madagascar coast. Buoys are non-existent. Even the position of Bassas d’India varies by two miles on different charts and reference books. Somewhat tough with it only six miles across and the highest point two meters (except for the, gulp, ship wrecks).

Hopefully we will be playing in the lagoon tomorrow (plus doing ship repairs that can only be done in calm water).

All is well.

Location: 25° 23.3 S, 34° 12.9 E
Friday 12:00, 10.27.2006

The Schooner Maggie B’s noon position on 27 October was 25° 23.3S 34° 12.9E. The wind is currently 190 degrees at 10 and we are making boat speed of 6.1 knots and 6.7 knots over the ground with a favorable back current.

Bassas d’India is 383 NM, Nose Be is 1110. We ahve come 1203 since Cape Town. We are about 25 miles off the coast at Xai-Xai, Mozambique.

The wind has been up and down, with small rain squalls marching through. As I write this (1500), we are doing hull speed (10 knots) with a half knot of favorable current. Excellent!

Last night we started out towards Bassas d’India, but got about 35 miles off shore and the wind and waves were making up a bit and a big electrical storm we lighting up the sky to the South, so we did the prudent thing and jibed in towards Inhaca and Maputo. Now we are tracking along at full speed towards Bassas d’India. We round the corner near Inhambane in 70 miles, when we will fully enter the Mozambique Channel.

This unsettled weather apparently is typical of the time between the end of the SE Trades and the start of the NE Trades. We will do our best to exploit every change and then anchor in somewhere if it is too tough.

We are getting ready to start on our malaria meds in preparation for Nose Be. Supposedly they produce strange psychiatric effects in some people. I hope that the crew will not have to tie me to the mast like Odysseus’s crew.

Hannah is making apple crisp for us this afternoon! Yum!! It will more than make up for her spilling powder all over the floor of the bathroom, which tracked up the boat worse that a scene from CSI with ultraviolet light.

All is well.

Location: 27° 44.7 S, 32° 38.2 E
Thursday 12:00, 10.26.2006

The Schooner Maggie B’s noon position on October 26th was 27° 44.7S, 32° 38.2 E. At noon we were motorsailing in a light southerly, along the wild coast of Swaziland, in the St. Lucia Marine Reserve. We have gone 1009 NM since Cape Town and have 1317 to go to Nose Be, Madagascar.

The plan had been to work our way close in to the coast, up until we were able to make a dash across. Things have changed a bit. We now have a smart SW’er, 220 degrees M at 23-30 knots. This is perfect weather to cross. We now (1600) are on a beam reach for Bassas d’India, which is about two days or 500 NM away. With luck, we will be able to ride this low, first a SW’erly and then from the SE, as it passes us to the East, before the NE’erly returns. We are doing 9-10 knots. Adverse current is only 1/2-3/4 of a knot, just the same as inshore. While this sets up the possibility of big waves with wind against current, the current is relatively modest at this point and the SW’erly has not had enough time to blow up much in the way of waves. We are closely watching the wind speed and direction as well as the barometric pressure.

Bassas d’India is at 21° 27S, 39° 42E. A large reef encloses a shallow lagoon full of coral heads making for a six-miles-across translucent green pool in the bright blue ocean. The diving is reported to be fantastic, if you like sharks, which are prolific. The lagoon is also famous for the number of ancient and modern shipwrecks! The names along the coast have changed from Anglo or Portuguese to fully African. So no more Simon’s Town or Port Elizabeth or Richards Bay. Now it is Maputo and Inhambane and Sihangwana.

While Hannah is the champion for whale breaching, Bori has maxed out in a new category: moths. Last night during Bori’s watch (2100-midnight) we were totally swarmed by moths. They looked rather like Monarch butterflies, but acted like moths. We have photos to uplink. There were not hundreds, not thousands, but tens of thousands. Everywhere. To turn a headlamp on was to get mobbed, to turn this computer on was to lose the screen.

All is well.

Off to Nose Be, Wednesday 12:00, 10.25.2006

Just about exactly at noon on 25 October, the Schooner Maggie B cast off her lines from the Durban Marina Fuel Dock, underway for Nose Be, Madagascar. We have a light SE’erly and the prospect of rain. We are headed about NE, going up the coast, trying to take advantage of any favorable back current.

Our current goal is Nose Be on the NW tip of Madagascar. We hope also to stop by Bassas d’India on the way. The NE’erlies are just coming in, so we may have to wait them out from time to time at anchor somewhere along the coast, though once we get past Inhambane in Mozambique, the coast is North/South so a NE’er that had only a bit extra East in it would be fine.

South Africa has managed to edge out Brazil in a tough race to have the most difficult and stupid port clearance system. To be fair, it did only take three hours, but it was stuff that could have been done in 15 minutes without sacrificing anything except for a few excess, useless bureaucrats. Here are the steps:

1. Pay your marina bill
2. Get letter from marina, having them ask that you might leave
3. Get receipt for money paid
4. Go to Port Control (two miles) and fill out “flight plan” — three pages which include questions like “What frequencies can you receive on your Single Side Band Radio?”
5. Get Clearance Certificate from Port Control
6. Go to Immigration (15 miles — all crew must come) Submit Crew List
7. Passports reviewed and stamped
8. Fill out Request to Leave
9. Fill out Departure Report
10. Get Immigration Clearance Certificate
11. Go to Customs (12 miles). Fill out another Departure Report. Questions include “State name of Approved Container handler.”
12. Fill out “Report Outbound”
13. Get asked for Safety Certificate and Skipper’s Competency Certificate, but point out that it does not apply to foreign vessels (yet!).
14. Get Customs Certificate of Clearance.
15. Return to Port Control (two miles). Everything is stamped and get permission to leave.
16. Return to Marina. You have 36 hours to leave or you get to do it again.

We have a new addition to our equipment, a lovely little single surf kayak. It is made by a Durban company named Stealth (www.stealthpp.co.za). It is about 22 feet long and 1 1/2 wide. It should be quite fun. Reepicheep sniffed a bit when it came on board, but hopefully they will be friends.

We filled up with diesel for the first time since Salvador. We took about 250 gallons while covering 4800 miles, for both main engine and genset. We carry a total of 325 gallons. Seamarine Services, the fuel dock at the Durban Marina, proved that there are still pirates active in South Africa. They managed to put 216 gallons in a tank that only holds 200, they added 5% to the already high price when I used a credit card and they refused to sell gas without VAT (14%), even though I had all my clearance papers, claiming that it couldn’t be done, though it is routinely done in Cape Town, Simonstown, Knysna and Richards Bay. Grrrr.

All is well.

Sunday in Durban
10.22.2006

The Maggie B is still taking up the International Pier. We have the usual pattern of repairs and resupply going on. We all are conscious that while we probably will not be a long time at sea on the next leg, that there isn’t the prospect of First World resupply until Australia.

Our current plans are to leave with the next Westerly, which should come through on Wednesday. The winds are shifting now and the Northeasterly is coming in, which would make it very hard to get up to the Seychelles. It also will bring Typhoons to this area of the world, so we really need to get moving. The Seychelles are north of the typhoon tracks for the last 40 years, so we should be safe there. This is the end of the typhoon season for the Northern Indian Ocean and the start for the Southern Indian Ocean.

We plan to stay close to the African continent as we go north until we get about even with Southwestern Madagascar, then cross over when we get a favorable breeze. The cycles seem to be every four or five days. If we get a big NE’erly against us, we’ll just anchor along the coast. The West Coast of Madagascar has the positives of being out of the current and being very beautiful. It has the disadvantage of being poorly charted, unbuoyed and full of reefs. We plan to stop at Nose Be (Big Island) on the NW tip of the island for a bit, and then head for the Seychelles.

One stop we also hope to make is Bassas d’India. It is out in the middle of the Mozambique Channel — a deserted atoll with perfect diving and fishing. It is associated with Europa Island, also “owned” by France, which has a two man weather station.

We are rigging the Maggie B with a forward-looking sonar to help us find our way around places like Bassas d’India and the West Coast of Madagascar. It is by a company called Interphase and is undoubtedly a civilian knock-off of military technology. It will supposedly show you the contour of the ocean bottom up to 1000 feet ahead of you. It will be cool if it works. We are getting a mounting built so that we can drop it in when we get into sketchy water.

It has been fascinating comparing Cape Town with Durban.

They are both about the same size and have lovely, active harbors. But they are very much at different stages of development. Durban’s city center has essentially been abandoned by most whites and most of the money. The city center is deserted and dangerous at night. The yacht clubs and a tiny strip of land is OK. Redevelopment is taking place slowly out towards the beaches, but “fun place to stroll at night like the Cape Town Waterfront?” Forget it.

Yesterday was lovely.

We took an all-crew surf school with a marvelous instructor. John was maybe 50-60 but hadn’t aged a day since he was 19. The surf was terrible (trashy 2-3 meter shore breaks due to an Easterly wind) but he got almost all of us up on long boards with no more damage than nasal salt water douches. That evening we hit the Gateway Mall (biggest in Africa) and saw the iMax film called “Roar” about a pride of lions in Botswana. The girls cried when the old king was driven out. Then dinner at our new favorite restaurant, Bean Bag Bingo, which is right next to a boutique hotel called, quaintly (?), La Bordello. Then to bed/bunk early so as to be fresh for today when the wind was to shift to the west and the low tide was at 9:30 AM, the time for the best surf. We are considering adding a surf kayak to the Maggie B’s equipment. I’m sure that the Reepicheep’s feelings will not be hurt.

All is well.

Life in Durban

It is a Sunday morning and I am taking it easy: writing, reading and preparing for our new departure in a couple of days. Now, the plan is that we will be sailing out towards Noisey Be in northwestern Madagascar around Wednesday, October 25th, if the winds agree with our desire. Sometimes Frank says that if we don’t get the right winds, we will just go straight to Australia but I think we will still try to go to Madagascar and to the Seychelles…but nothing is for sure in this adventure. So, for all those who want to write real letters, Frank will probably post an address for the Seychelles, but we might only be there before Christmas. Snail mail is really slow coming to and from this part of the world: at least two weeks in both directions, but please don’t give up if you feel like writing. The other day, I was a little disheartened to find out how long mail took and a nice lady at the Point Yacht Club reception told me: “sweatheart, this is Africa”… For the least, I do hope that many of you have been or will soon be getting my cards and letters!
Durban is quite an interesting city with the highest Indian population outside of India, mostly blacks (Zulu), Afrikaners, and some white people, definitely the minority. Signs are written in English, Afrikaans and Zulu. In Cape Town and Knysna, the black people mostly spoke Xhosa. I am glad to be able to differentiate Xhosa, Zulu and Afrikaans, but I haven’t learned much of either language yet, it would be nice. It is not easy though to go up to people since there is a certain factor of danger… the poor people always check out my shoes when I run, so I try to run faster, but some neighborhoods are not at all safe here. We don’t go there.

Besides meeting some really welcoming and interesting people at both the Royal Natal and the Point Yacht Club, we’ve done some fascinating things in the city. The Indian market full of spices and colours was an eye-opener to the varieties of spices and roots and foods we didn’t even know existed. The Zulu art is beautiful, I especially like all the joyful bead necklaces and bracelets. We saw a beautiful Imax movie on life in the Kalahari desert in Botswana about lions, elephants, zebras and springboks, went to Ushaka Marine World with a nice aquarium and a fun dolphin show, and the best of all, for me at least, was surfing school. I’ve never surfed before and did manage to get up twice on the board: what an amazing feeling it is to be sliding on top of a wave! Now, I really want to learn.

As always, we’ve checked out some wonderful restaurants and bars and tasted local specialities and we also had a cocktail party onboard that was quite fun. Monday and Tuesday, we will be busy getting the boat ready, buying provisions and saying goodbye to our new friends. If we do go to Noisey Be, it should be a trip of about 10 days, but I will try to be writing underway and I am sure, Frank will, too. I think starting from now until Australia, we will be in small places, which I prefer, but internet access will surely be scarce. I will just write into my blog and send you postcards and letters.
Thinking of all of you, feel free to write back through the website, ask questions if you want to. Tell me about life where you are! Help me stay connected!

Location: 29° 51.8 S, 31° 01.3 E
Wednesday 12:00, 10.18.2006

The Schooner Maggie B is safely docked at the International Pier in Durban, at the Victoria Esplanade, 29° 51.8 S 31° 01.3 E. This is the first time we have been north of 30° South since August 9th.

Arriving at Durban last night was quite intimidating.

Durban is the biggest port in South Africa, and the ninth biggest in the world. The entrance is fairly narrow and you must have clearance to enter. After motoring most all the way up from Knysna, we arrived here in a proper squall, with lightning and 40 knot winds. Once we got the sails wrestled down, Durban Harbor Control put us #4 in line for entry, behind three huge ships. I felt like Air Blair Flight #211 in the “daisy chain” for approach to Chicago O’Hare.

The Harbor itself wasn’t too complicated, with excellent mapping from the Furuno with C-Map and a clear description in the South Africa Coastal Pilot. But the “International Pier,” while very grand sounding, turned out to be a slip about 70 feet long in a incredibly cramped spot right up against the wall. It was not visible until we were a boat length away (at night in 25 knots of wind….), and we would not have found it if there had not been helpful voices from ashore encouraging us to come further in. It did cross my mind at the time that they might have a local tradition of wrecking foreign yachts for profit.

We celebrated our arrival…

At the local fish restaurant we celebrated our arrival with four different kinds of calamari: cajun, wok fried, deep fried and grilled. Plus a bottle of “Southern Right” Sauvignon Blanc which was not as good as the sight of the whales.

Durban is slightly smaller than Cape Town (2.5 million vs. 2.9 million) but right now is seems bigger and somewhat tougher. We look forward to discovering it.

All is well.

Location: 32° 32.2 S, 30° 37 E
Tuesday 12:00, 10.17.2006

The Schooner Maggie B was at 30° 32.2S 30° 37E at noon on October 17th. We are about 46 NM to Durban and should arrive in time for a late dinner, tying up at the International Wharf on the Victoria Embankment. We will check into the Point Yacht Club tomorrow, which is right nearby. We have gone 792 NM since Cape Town. We have all sails up but are getting very little help from the wind as it is 050 at five knots.

I don’t mean to complain about having to motor most of the way here. We could have had a much worse time. Right now there is a strong gale back between Table Bay and Cape Angulas. It is much nicer to be here. Coming up the coast we have stayed within the 100 foot depth contour, within 1/2 to a mile offshore. Our currents (we have a display set up on the B&G monitor comparing speed through the water to speed over ground) have varied from plus two knots to negative two knots.

Humpbacks and Giant Rays

Hannah has continued to see the most humpbacks flying through the air. There have been whales around us, sometimes very, very close, all the way since rounding the Cape. Today Willis upped the ante some by spotting a number of giant rays on the surface.

The current coastline, as we approach Durban, is called The Hibiscus Coast. It really looks like South Florida, with endless summer homes, condos and high end destination resorts. The contrast to the empty Transkai Coast with its occasional Zulu hut couldn’t be more glaring.

A Teachable Moment

As we came along the coast this morning, we ran one of our two diesel tanks dry. It should have been totally routine, but we didn’t really have any sails up (just the two stabilizing storm staysails) and we were a bit less than 1/2 mile from huge breakers on a starkly unforgiving coast, with a light breeze blowing us ashore. We ran around like the Marx Brothers for a bit, but eventually got things sorted out, sailed offshore, drained gunk out of the filters and got the engine started again. A Teachable Moment.

Which reminds me that we don’t have a proper name yet for the engine. The autopilot is Jorge, the storm sails are Kathy and Susan, the espresso machine is Maximo, but the engine is nameless. It is Japanese, a Yanmar, 98 horsepower, a “JH Turbo,” and generally very reliable. My favorite Japanese actor is Toshiro Mifune, but this is an engine, not a famous samurai warrior. Suggestions are encouraged. JH = Juliette Hotel?

In Knysna we made a bunch of friends at the Yacht Club, as we had at False Bay. Many were former residents of Zimbabwe, who had been driven out and lost property and possessions to the new government because they were white. They are still nervous here in South Africa, not trusting how things will play out. Who could blame them when one reads of Zuma and contemplates the possibility that he could become President? That makes Yacht Clubs and big Blue Water boats more attractive. One couple that we met have a very salty sailboat, that has a motoring range of 4000 NM (!) They keep it stocked and with full tanks. Others prefer to put money into their boat rather than a house and land, because you can (hopefully) take the boat with you.

We are busy reading guides to Durban and making plans. It looks as if some rain is coming, but we have happily watched the temperature of the sea water rise from 61 degrees at the Cape to 75 here. We are planning to take at least one Surf School class. If you don’t surf in Durban, you just aren’t really there!

All is well.

Between Knysna and Durban

We are now on our way to Durban, there are only 170 nm left. We may arrive there tomorrow before sunset if we can pick up some speed but on this trip so far we’ve been motoring, there is barely any wind.

We try to stay close to the shore to reduce the adverse current, we are within half a mile from the land on an average. We’ve seen several shipwrecks on the rocks, mysteriously telling their stories through the fog.

This weather reminds me of Nova Scotia. As I stood on my watch in the rain looking out from under the beak of my cap that framed everything, I imagined this journey as a movie. I watched the genets with fascination. I find them both elegant with their long white bodies and black wing tips and tails and funny with their yellow heads as if they had been fishing in split pea soup. I can’t keep myself from smiling when I see them. Then, in my movie under my cap and in the fog, a mother humpback whale swam by our boat with her calf. They were only two boat lengths away and surely as big as our boat. They gently surfaced and dove again. They reminded me of my mother and myself as a little girl.

As sailing feels timeless and days melt into one another, motoring feels like riding the train and counting the miles, looking at the villages through the windows. Non-numerical vs. numerical, floating in timelessness vs. being aware of the constant movement, just being vs. traveling.

I look forward to watching the sun rise in Durban on Wednesday morning. We will be in a new port again; we are like snails, carrying our house with us… or I should correct myself and say that our house carries us. Most things are different in this movie… and even the four of us onboard are filming this journey from a different perspective. This is just mine. I like watching the birds fly above the ocean.

Location: 32° 30 S, 28° 39 E
Monday 12:00, 10.16.2006

The Schooner Maggie B was at 32° 30.0S 28° 39.0E today at noon. We are about 1/2 mile off the beach (Big Surf!) along the Transkai Coast in Kwa-Zulu Natal, about 201 NM from Durban and 633 from Cape Town. We are motoring at 7.3 knots on a course of ENE, with the wind behind us from the West at 10-12 knots.

Normally we could sail fine is 10-12 knots, but here we have to carefully pick our way along close to the coast to keep out of the strong adverse Agulhas Current. Even the big container ships are within three miles of the coast, roaring past us like express trains.

After lunch today, we put up our two storm sails (named Kathy and Susan for the people who made them — see photos on the web site). Not because we expected any storms, but to put up some simple sails to slow the rolling in the 2-3 meter swells and chop. It also was a good exercise so that we would know what to do in a big blow.

I was just interrupted from writing this by a call from Hannah when a humpback whale breached alongside, perhaps 50 feet away. I came on deck and saw it breach another 20 times as it got behind us and disappeared in a small rain shower. In the last two days I have seen perhaps 200-300 humpback breaches, ten times what I have seen in the rest of my life.

The Transkai Coast is part of the Kwa-Zulu Natal area, another part of the failed apartheid effort. It was “given” to the Zulu nation with the thought it could operate successfully, independently, essentially without any government support or infrastructure. Without any work, the men left for work wherever they could find it, leaving the women and old behind in very hard times. But from here it looks green and lovely, with many classic Zulu round houses and many, many cattle.

The Maggie B runs on computers, and not just those in the GPS, plotter and autopilot systems. Last night it was amusingly clear when I was on one computer watching the TV series “House,” Bori was on another burning songs from CD’s onto her new iPod and Hannah was on a third, doing her email. Willis? He was on watch using the three other ship’s computers to steer and navigate. Must have been rough in the old days.

We expect to arrive Durban tomorrow afternoon.

All is well.

Location: 33° 59.5 S, 25° 57.7 E
Sunday 12:00, 10.15.2006

The Schooner Maggie B was at 33° 59.5S 025° 57.7E. Knysna is 131 miles behind, Durban is 356 ahead. We are motor sailing, mostly motoring, with 5-10 knots of wind from the south. Right now it is lovely, but last night it was cool, foggy and drizzly. The fog didn’t burn off until about 1100. We have averaged about 1/2 knot adverse current — not enough to make the effort to duck into bays for the hope of backwash from the Agulhas Current. As we get further down the coast, though, we will be really hugging the inshore.

We are just past Port Elizabeth, cutting inside via the Bird Island Passage. The shore is very dramatic with huge sand dunes mixed with deep green vegetation. We have seen tens of thousands of Black and White Gannets (Bird Island….), some Humpback whales, and a number of penguins fishing. The sea is long 2-3 meter swells. The barometer has been steady, but we are watching the start of a cloud system drawing in from the south.

Lunch today was a hearty tomato and beef soup with yesterday’s rice in it and a cold chicken salad with avocado, tomato, and shaved carrots, topped with a garlic (always!) vinaigrette. We finished yesterday’s Sparkling, eating outside in the sun.

Durban in two days?

All is well.

Location: 34° 14 S, 23° 16.5 E
Saturday 12:00, 10.14.2006

The Schooner Maggie B is underway again! Our noon position on October 14th was 34° 14S, 23° 16.5E. We are making 6 knots with full main and The Bird G2 gennaker, in 12-15 knots of wind from 310 degrees. We are about 8 NM off of Cape Seal, at the entrance of Plettenburg Bay. So far we have only 2/10 knot of adverse current, with little swell.

Knysna was very kind to us. Such a lovely place! Quite hard to leave. We made good friends at the Knysna Yacht Club and three boats accompanied us out the Heads to make sure we were safe. The heads looked quite fearsome but we hit the bar right at high tide and had plenty of depth and no breaking waves. Whew!

To celebrate the Captain’s Birthday, we are underway with Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones singing their hearts out over the ship’s Bose system. The boat is rocking!

Durban is about 500 NM away. The weather forecast is basically so variable that we will just have to take what comes and do the best with it. We will need to progressively stick closer and closer to the coast, with Old Hands at the Yacht Club recommending not straying more than 1/2 mile as we get around to the Transkaii Coast after East London.

Lunch is just on — chicken breasts poached in white wine with garlic, onions and peppers, rice on the side. Plus a lovely bottle of South African “Cap Classic” sparkling. The wine is called “buitenverwachting” which means “better than expected” in Afrikaans.

I was just about to type “all is well” when the gennaker block (@#$%^& Lewmar) failed and The Bird had to be recovered from the water. We had just checked all the rigging in False Bay. It appears to have separated and spat out the center core. 15 knots of wind!

All is….now…well.

In the Swartberg mountains

A lizard sunbathes resting between black and orange rocks with yellow and light purple flowers in the arid landscape. A butterfly dances in the vast blue sky, its movements contrasting the sharp edges of the mountains. A river runs down in the valley, its trickling water bringing life to all things dry. This simplicity is beautiful.

Looking down from the top makes my blood rush through my body faster; I drink in the sky and eat the clouds until my feet grow roots down into the mountain upon which I stand. Far, at the foot of the mountains, the fields are green. I take it all in before setting sail again into the blue tomorrow.

Hanging Out in Knysna

This is a relaxing sunny afternoon in South Africa and I listen to Tchaikovsky as I write to you. We’ve been in Knysna for a couple of days now and we might stay a couple more, waiting for the right sea conditions to sail out towards Durban. It doesn’t make sense to sail out in 35 knots of wind that would be right on our nose, so we just hang out, do work on the boat, visit the region and enjoy its wonderful gastronomy.

Yesterday, we went to a Monkey Park as you can see on the photos Frank has posted. There is one of me, looking scared and scared I was… a spider monkey approached me making strange noises and looking at me with a bad eye. I didn’t know if I should move or pretend I didn’t hear, or even worse, see him. I tried to make myself as small as possible as you can see from my posture but it didn’t work… I am still in one piece though. The other monkeys were nice, I liked the ones with the zebra tails.

For two days, we had another sailboat next to us with 14 people from the Royal Corps of Signals from the UK. They were attached alongside our boat and they have just sailed out towards Perth, Australia in the setting sun. I cried as I waved to them. My heart was tugged even though I don’t know them. It was just a little sailboat setting out to cross the Indian ocean with 14 people on it… there is something breathtaking in it… they got smaller and smaller as they headed out towards the big waves. My heart goes out to them.

I like Knysna, and being tied to the town dock is nice. We can get on and off whenever we want to. This has given me a chance to go for long morning runs and take walks around the small waterfront full of restaurants and cafes. My favorite place is Mario’s cafe, facing the Knysna Bay, just next to a bridge for a canal that enters the city. Sitting there reminds me in some way of being in Venice. In my free time, I go there to write and to read on the sunny terrace. Like on night watches, there is time to think about life when a sailor waits for good weather in a harbor far from home.
I haven’t quite been here for two weeks yet, but now, I am feeling much better, I feel adjusted to being at 34′ South and 21′ East. I have not expected so much wealth though, being in Africa. Granted, we are in nice harbors full of tourists, but the infrastructure seems quite advanced. Though it hurts to see that most of the people working in the restaurants are black and all the people enjoying themselves, are white. The world seems to be an unjust place. I am getting itchy to start working and try to do something against these injustices in the world. It just doesn’t feel right.

What I really like in South Africa are the mountains. They are beautiful against the sky. There is something about their forms that takes me away. Wonderful wines grow on them as the sun warms them and the rain feeds them. They invite me to climb them and to follow their ridges with my eyes, feeling them like a sculptor would touch a material “to be transformed.” I already feel transformed and transforming constantly. It takes courage to be away.

Location: 34° 2.5 S, 23° 2.7 E
Sunday 12:00, 10.08.2006

The Schooner Maggie B is tucked safely in Knysna at 34° 02.5 S, 23° 02.7 E.

Last night the weather rather closed in with gusts to 42 knots and a major electrical storm. The barometer dropped seven millibars in three hours. We arrived at the headlands at dusk and fortunately had the Sea Rescue boat come out to guide us in. The current out was 7.5 knots, so we just barely had the power to get in. After the entrance it was a long torturous route to a safe spot on the waterfront pier, with lots of very tight turns made somewhat difficult with the high wind. Knysna has the questionable reputation of being listed by the Royal Navy as the toughest harbor entrance in the world. We don’t have their experience, but from last night, I’m sure they are right.

Happily the Yacht Club was hopping with the Commodore’s birthday party, and we did our best to support the celebration.

We may be stuck here for a bit as the SW’erly swell is coming in and the expectation is that the harbor will be closed with surf across the headlands. We could be stuck in worse places.

Today we were joined at the pier by a English Royal Signal Corps world sailing boat called Adventure. She is on her way to Australia and stopped in here on the way. We make a handsome pair in the tight harbor.

All is well.

Sailing Under Rainbows

Last time I’ve written to you was on Thursday afternoon in Simon’s Town and now it is Saturday night and we are again in a harbour, in Knysna, earlier than I am expected to be on shore. I am sure Frank will describe the technical details of our tricky entry into this harbour so I will write about other things.

Before we took off for the sea, Thursday night we saw a penguin walking down the sidewalk in Simon’s Town, it was very funny. These little creatures live close to town in a place called “the boulders” and they can just walk into town. We laughed thinking whether one would come onto the Main street… there are even “penguin crossing” signs around.

These two days at sea were very pleasant, I didn’t even get slightly seasick and I am very glad about it. Besides sailing the boat, I was able to eat and write and read as I normally would. Today it rained and the wind that accompanied the rain was quite unbelievably warm: about 20 degrees warmer than the air before the rain. I’ve never experienced anything like this. We saw a full rainbow and we sailed right underneath it. The rain was full of sand and it smelled like animals from the savannah… I am sure I smelled the lions and the zebras in the air, quite a striking experience out at sea. The moon was full and beautiful last night, we could have read in its light. Willis and I had upbeat political discussions on our night watch as we consumed lots of chocolate. The Hungarian chocolate is almost totally gone.

We will probably stay here tomorrow and then sail out towards Durban on Monday. It is fun to be able to discover another corner of South Africa and we are by a dock downtown, not on a mooring, which will make it easier for me to go for a nice long Sunday run tomorrow. I can’t say I’ve gotten used to the four hours on, four hours off watch schedule just yet, so I will have no problems sleeping tonight. Still, I am looking forward to longer legs at sea: I like the mystery of not seeing land around us… we could be just anywhere, it is the perfect place to dream.

Bori

Location: 34° 20 S, 22° 14 E
Saturday 12:00, 10.07.2006

At noon today, Schooner Maggie B was at 34° 20 S, 22° 14 E. Last night Hannah and I saw one of the most magnificent sights imaginable. We were on the 1800-2200 watch (we have doubled up watches, 4 on, 4 off, for this difficult section of the coast). The full moon had recently risen and the path of the moonlight was bright silver against the deep black of the ocean. One of us had just commented about the beauty of the light when a huge humpback whale breached three times in succession right in the path of the moonlight about 300 yards away. My heart almost stopped. It then came right alongside to breathe once or twice before taking off. It was astounding.

At noon the wind was 125 degrees at 10-12 and we are motorsailing towards Knysna. The barometer is dropping rapidly and a full NW’erly gale is forecast for the Table Bay to Cape Argulas area behind us, with seas above five meters. Our area should get less, but it is still a fair blow coming. Knysna is very interesting. The British Navy has long described it as the most difficult harbor entrance in the world. If the swells are up much, waves break across the entrance. We are going to take it very safe and only enter if it is recommended by Knysna Control, which has an active Sea Rescue Station on the Headland. We will be fine otherwise running down the coast ahead of the NW’er, though we will have to stay tight inshore to keep out of the Argulas current (one to four knots SW bound). The SW gales are the dangerous ones that produce the huge waves.

Yesterday was also lovely when we were smoking along at hull speed and we had porpoise playing in our wake as well as the bow, jumping full out of the water in twos and threes. Also, as we came around Cape Argulas, it was fascinating to watch the 10 foot SW swells from the South Atlantic meet the 10 foot Easterly swells from the South Indian Ocean. Sometimes they proved that 2+2=6.

Last night and early this morning it was foggy and cold — more like Maine than my concept of South Africa. It burned off by ten, but we were quite chilled.

Saturday night in Knysna? 50/50 chance.

All is well.

Location: 34° 26.3 S, 18° 52.0 E
Friday 12:00, 10.06.2006

The Schooner Maggie B’s Noon Position on October 6th was 34° 26.3S, 018° 52.0E. We have just passed the beautiful Kaap Hangklip, en route to Durban. We are making 8 knots on a course of 150 degrees for Danger Point (really!) and then on to Cape Argulas, which is about 60 miles. We have gone 25 miles since leaving Simons Town this morning and 81 since Cape Town. Durban is about 700 miles away. The wind is a perfect 270 at 12-15.

We were almost unable to leave Simons Town this morning because the Southern Right Whales had come in to play. There are strict rules to keep at least 300 meters away. The whales were so thick that there was almost no way to get past. We had a significant part of the SA Navy watching us leave as well as houses full of whale lovers with telescopes. We slipped through.

False Bay and Simons Town are also famed for their Great White Sharks. Seal Island is in the middle and is the sight of the usual seal whelping carnage each spring. Many of the National Geographic photos of Great Whites breaching are taken here. We thought that it might be some exaggeration until we met a local sailor who came over to talk to us about the Maggie B, but had a funny handshake, which he explained was due to having BOTH HIS ARMS IN A GREAT WHITE’S MOUTH! His arms were quite scarred but somehow still attached. He had been catching lobsters and was attacked and put his arms up in defense. Yike.

Yesterday we did a lot of preventative rigging work. We also found that the genset wasn’t pumping raw water for cooling any more and changed the impeller with some help. There is a “before and after” impeller shot up on the web site. Not sure how long they are supposed to last, but this one made it to 335 hours.

All the loveliness of Simons Town was somewhat marred by a very bad case of Red Tide. But, perhaps associated with the Red Tide, there was incredibly lovely phosphorescence at night.

The False Bay Yacht Club was incredibly welcoming, with lots of interest and appreciation for both the Maggie B and the Reep. Besides mostly hot showers and a very active sailing program, the Club had the marvelous institution of offering huge glasses of great cold beer for only 7 Rand (@$0.90) during happy hour. The Vice Commodore of FBYC, Colonel Lionel Dyck and his wife Clair, had the whole crew up to their lovely house for apple pie and lively conversation.

We are pushing to get around the corner of Cape Angulas before dark. It is supposed to get very lumpy in all conditions. We have been advised, depending on conditions, to stay inside the 100 foot depth line and within 1/2 to 3 miles from shore. We should be there right at dusk, at current speed.

All is well.

Simon’s Town, South Africa

Here is just a little hello from Simon’s Town where we sailed in two days ago passing by the Cape of Good Hope, a wonderful view indeed… So, now, I am writing to you from the Indian ocean, full of great white sharks… I really like Simon’s Town, it is small and calm and has a nice relaxed ambiance, it feels good to me after Cape Town. As I stand on the boat, it feels as though I can touch the mountains around me. The phosphorescence in the water was so beautiful last night as we rowed back on the Reepicheep… these moments really stay in our memories.

This morning when we got up, a seal was playing and fishing around our boat for over an hour. We’ll soon post the photos we took. Now, we are getting ready to sail out tomorrow, early Friday morning towards Durban, probably a 4-5 day trip if the weather lets us go directly. I will be in touch and will try to write underway, if not, you’ll hear from me at the beginning of next week. Right now, we are busy going up and down the mast, so this message will be short, just wanted to update you.

:o) Bori

Location: 34° 11.3 S, 18° 25.9 E
Wednesday 16:00, 10.04.2006

The Schooner Maggie B is currently moored in Simons Town, South Africa at 34° 11.3S, 18° 25.9E at the False Bay Yacht Club. We “doubled the Cape” yesterday, covering about 55NM along some of the most “interesting” water on the planet.

Simons Town has been a naval center since 1741, when the English Navy set up here after being blown out of Cape Town. This was their base for operations against the Dutch. Today it is the Headquarters of the South African Navy. Many of the buildings remind us of English Harbor in Antigua.

The False Bay Yacht Club is very organized and active. As I write this, 17 boats are slamming around for the Wednesday Night Beer Races, a great showing.

One of the fun things to do here is go a few kilometers to The Boulders to see a colony of 2000 Jackass Penguins.

Avoiding an international “incident”

As we came around the Cape of Good Hope (AKA the Cape of Storms), we heard a routine “Securite” call on Channel 16, announcing that a South African Navy ship was conducting a Live Fire exercise at Lat/Long whatever. It then dawned on us that the numbers we amazingly close to our current position and we soon had to alter course to admire a very spankingly new “stealth” Frigate shooting up something. We passed that interesting sight, and were most of the way into the harbor when another ship hailed us on Channel 16 to announce that they were conducting flight operations and were restricted in their ability to maneuver, and that we had to keep clear. On that note we noticed a very fast ship coming at us out of the twilight with a buzzing hoard of helicopters around it, and we did a smart jibe to avoid causing an international incident.

Speaking of international incidents…

Don’t tell anybody, but under current South African regulations, foreign ships can only enter Ports of Entry, except in emergencies. So we had to clear out of Cape Town (Customs, Immigration, etc.) and are only supposed to stop at Durban, where we have to go through the same rigmarole to check in. Even worse than Brazil! Apparently honored in the breach. I do feel a bit nervous having most of the Maritime Power of South Africa only a few hundred meters away. No flying of the US flag here…

We have the usual minor breakdowns — a jammed block, overheating genset and some craziness with the GPS. Hopefully all sorted out tomorrow.

We are going to wait here until Friday, when a front is suppose to blow through and bring nice NW’erly to blow us down the coast. We have been repeatedly advised to stay within the 100 foot depth line to minimize adverse current and monster waves. We didn’t have to be told twice.

All is well.

Back on board The Maggie B

After a couple of months of silence, here is a new entry into my blog. I will try to write more regularly now since this electronic way of communication seems to get to you faster than my letters or postcards.

I am glad to rejoin the Maggie B again and to be in South Africa but these five days spent here have not been quite enough yet to embrace all the changes that come with such a geographical and cultural jump from the heart of Central Eastern Europe to the southern tip of Africa. I also left my country in a heated state of revolution that certainly revived my national feelings so it also makes it a little harder to adjust to being a sailor and a tourist in South Africa, knowing what is going on at home. Some sea salt and wind will surely help me adjust… I’ll keep you updated on the process.

On the way here, I flew over the Sahara and saw one of the most striking sunsets of my life: a sky bright red and orange. I felt small. Then I saw fires lit in the desert and imagined people around it, warming hands: a colorful start to a new adventure… life must be about something like this… I looked far out into the horizon, down onto the desert, endless like the ocean.

Here in Cape Town, Frank, Hannah and Willis welcomed me as well as a sea lion that kept on waving from the ocean. We’ve been getting the boat ready to sail out in a couple of days following the coast of South Africa and then heading towards Madagascar. We are planning to stop in Simonstown and then in Durban. At night, we’ve been discovering the city and making new friends. I went for a run to the beach at sunset one day to a place the locals call “where the two oceans meet,” the Atlantic and the Indian ocean. I felt intimidated by the power of the waves crashing against the wharf and flying up to 20 meters high. We will be out in it soon. We will sail by the Cape of Good Hope on Tuesday.

There is a beautiful view onto Table Mountain from Cape Grace Marina where we are. Now, the mountain is mysteriously covered by fog but this morning, it was the playground for fluffy white clouds in the blue sky. The leaves on the trees are very thick, full of life juice, it seems. We oiled the deck and other wooden surfaces on the boat and it felt like watering flowers or breastfeeding babies: very satisfying and beautiful. I think the Maggie B is happy. We try to take care of her with as much attention as she was built.

I encourage all of you to keep in touch through this website and if you wish to write to me or to all of us, you can do so easily through this site. Sometimes, especially so while at sea, it can feel very good to know about life on land. Frank will also post soon our mailing address in Durban where we will be in about ten days, so it is time to mail real letters if you wish to.

I’ll be in touch. :o) Thinking of all of you,

Bori