Some more pictures of sailing and the PraiaShow

Weekends are kinda quiet times for us while we have been here. Usually the girls sleep in and then come and pester me into doing something - shopping, picnic, or beach or bike riding/j-boarding before we go over to the sailing center across the road for the afternoon.

I finally got to go sailing myself and Mari did a great job of blasting around the harbour.

After the sailing we went back to the show - where we found a new section with bouncy castles....

Face painting.....

and goats, ducks and donkeys.

Daily rythyms of SeaJade in the Azores

Henda has been away from us for a month now. Hard to believe it has been so long, but at the same time it feels like forever. We are just taking it one day at a time and that makes the time apart bearable. Of course there is plenty here to keep my mind busy, so I guess I am the lucky one. Henda is stuck with too much time and not enough to do. Every now and then that sounds pretty fantastic to me - usually when I look at my job list and see that I am not getting anywhere with it, or with my Portugese, or with the ....... (add anything here, feels like). But in reality it is better to be busy, with not too much time to think.

Is it a bomb? Nope - just airing out the lockers to prevent mildew.

So what have we been up to here for the last few weeks? Well we went to see a tourada da corda (bullfight on a rope). They cordon of a few streets and then let a bull loose with a rope around its neck and around twelve guys on the other end. The bull charges around trying to gore people and they tease it and run away. Pretty exciting stuff hey?

Are you SURE the bull can't get to us up here?

It's like a barracuda in a school of fish says Mari!

Well it made an impression on the girls - for a few days one or the other was the bull on the way to school and back and the other (and me) had to jump out of the way as we were charged. At least it made the walk to and from school more fun!



Other than that we have been to the beach, sailing, school, more school, laudry, more laundry, picnics, and right now there is a show on in the big tents next to the marina. It is kinda like the Rand Show or the Goodwood show, only much much smaller and no thrill rides or stalls where you can shoot to win a prize, etc. The girls love it and we have gone two days in a row with Lori and Neil from the little red boat. Mari had a chance to dance, big speakers, pumping music, traditional Terceira songs that only Mari could ever dance to.

Lori and Neil and the girls get out there.

Going for a ride on a horse cart with spotty the dog

The baby calf washed Mari's hands for her.

 

Going to see 'Kung Fu Panda II in Portugese - Mari says she only understood the words Ola Pai - any guess what that means?

Pizza for the first time in a long, long time (and it wasn't very good)

I am a bad sport! (Get's it from her dad I think)

Yipee -? It's the weekend!

An Imperio (kind of shrine) in Praia.

HOMEWORK!!!

Teatime after school in Hanlie's class wshile we wait for her to finish her Girraffe picture.

So long good friends

This week we had to say good bye to Cees, who returns to Windhoek after visiting us here for 10 days.

Also to the Strauss family who are off to South Africa. Mari will miss her best friend since starting sailing and Hanlie will miss Momma Ann. We will all miss J, but not as much as the boys on the Irish boat next door!

And last but not least to Mike and Jeanette from the yacht Dutchlink who are sailing to Ponta Delgada today (or maybe just going to anchor in the bay and wait for some wind!)

A few weeks in Praia da Votoria

 The marina is a wonderful playground and there's plenty to do below decks too!

There have been plenty of friends for playing and tea parties

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mari made appelgebak with Mike from the boat Dutchlink, while Hanlie entartained us,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And even a bit of sailing!

 

 

School for Mari and Hanlie

Seajade sails from Hout Bay to Walvis Bay 12/4 – 19/4/2011

After a beautiful day and evening with our families – Willemien, Susan, Thys and my folks we had a good nights rest and left the dock early. A nice relaxed start, coiling away the dock lines, stowing fenders and generally getting the last few things shipshape as we left the bay. The dolphins came to say goodbye off the Sentinel and then we were heading north. It seemed like a repeat of our seatrials a few weeks before… light winds and calm seas.

We took the opportunity to practice man overboard drills. For this trip we were lucky – our old faithful Liza was coming with. She has been a star, spending two months last year with us helping to get the boat ready. It was good to have an extra person on board to help out, we had no illusions there was a lot to learn and having some help was important. Without her help we would be not nearly as organised and there would be too much going on for us to handle. It turned out to be a great decision, one we were not the least sorry about.

The trip to Walvis Bay passed in a bit of a blur – we split into two watches. Henda and Liza were together and I did a watch on my own. 4 hours on watch 4 hours off, 24 hours a day in theory, but actually we were casual during the day. Who ever needed more rest took it when they could during the day. In between the sailing, keeping watch, the kids and meals this was not as easy as it seems. Although you are together in a small space for a long time you end up not spending much time with each other!

The whole trip was a learning experience – how the boat sailed, what worked with different wind strengths and directions, battery management and electrical systems, navigation systems, autopilot settings, crew comfort, food prep, seasickness, and on and on. The girls young and older were great – struggled with seasickness but never complained or made a fuss. It was a hard trip for them. I think mostly they were in ‘survival mode’ for the first 3-4 days.

We crossed into Namibian waters on the 14/4 at around 6pm and from then on we started to run out of wind…. Most on the trip was either overcast of foggy, and around 450 nautical miles from Hout Bay we were becalmed for 2 days. Mostly in the fog, this was the time that we started to enjoy ourselves. I guess it was a blessing – Henda and Liza had gotten their sea legs. Since there was really no wind there was not much to do from a sailing standpoint, so we could all relax a bit. The fog kept me on edge a bit – no sun meant the solar panels couldn’t charge the batteries and the radar draws a lot of current. So we drifted around and kept an ear out (not an eye out) for ships.

After two days of that we decided to start up the engine and motor into Walvis Bay – we might still have been there otherwise!

What a sense of achievement we all felt when we were safely moored in Walvis Bay. The first leg was under the belt and we had done it! With style too – Mari and Hanlie went through the trip as though it was nothing. Henda and Liza were fantastic – still pulling their weight despite not being themselves for most of the trip. And as for me – I loved to see the deep blue of the water under the boat and had learned so much. From the standpoint of getting away and starting our ‘cruising’life the trip was a milestone. A very, very significant milestone. I think it is easy to get stuck and never leave… we definitely weren’t fully prepared. But waiting until we were would mean we would never leave, I think.