TTSA 2014: Part 4 - Cape Town

July 5, 2015 kate brand

This is actually a double throwback to January 2013, a morning in Cape Town city, with the Winterbach family. It was especially special because Lesley, Chris' sister, was in the country and we don't often get to see her as she is also based overseas now.

I had to add this in because we always have such a great time with them - lots of laughter and great conversation. This was just after we left Melody, in Tobago, to go back to Zambia to work for a year and earn more cash to fund the next leg of our sailing journey.

My favourite photo of this set is the first one, of Chris and Rufus. It makes me laugh out loud every time I look at it - no exaggeration. It perfectly sums these two up for me, when they are together. Also, Chris looks like a dassie (if a dassie would turn into a human. Click here for proof.) here, which is rather appropriate because he claims to "speak their language"... That's not at all weird if you know Chris, I promise.

This was a perfect summer day in the city. Cape Town is not a typical dirty overcrowded city, like many others in the world. It has a lot of history, beautiful heritage buildings and cobblestone streets. It is flanked by Table Mountain, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, some of the most beautiful beaches in the Southern Hemisp here and is home to a few of the world's 50 best restaurants.

It is always a treat going back to South Africa.

view of Table Mountain from Carla's balcony

vintage vibes - many beautiful vintage vehicles in Cape Town — vintage vibes - many beautiful vintage vehicles in Cape Town

"I'd rather be swimming" Always! — "I'd rather be swimming" Always!

TTSA 2014: Part 3 - Die Plaas

July 2, 2015 kate brand

We have a dream... another one. Our dream is to have a farm/piece of land one day. We discovered one particular piece of property near the area that Rufus' father's family comes from, the Sandveld. Directly translated it means "Sand Field" and that's exactly what it is - a large area of sandy ground. A lot of farming takes place in this district, mostly wheat, potatoes and livestock.

The weekend we took this trip, we went to stay on Carla's family plaas (farm) and to visit our little plaashuisie (shepherds cottage). We have an agreement with her father, Oom Karel, that we can use the house for free as long as we take care of it "en niks afbreek nie" (and not break anything down). We didn't spend much time there as we usually do though. Instead we took day trips out to see the surrounding towns and more specifically, the piece of land Rufus had set his heart on. This was the second time we had visited the property. The first was 4 years ago, before we sold our house and bought Melody to sail the world. It took me a while to be completely convinced about this specific piece of land but, in the year that has passed since our last visit, our sights have turned to Central America to settle (at this stage in our lives).

This area still holds a special place in our hearts - it's where we fell in love and where Rufus proposed, it's where special friends and family live and it holds some of our most precious memories. We will always be drawn back there, even if we never settle in South Africa again.

TTSA 2014: Part 2 - Brampton Wines

June 24, 2015 kate brand

If you didn't read my last post, and you haven't figured out the title yet, "TTSA" means "Throwback to South Africa". This one is about Brampton Wines, a restaurant/bar/wine shop in Stellenbosch.

With a name like Brampton Wines you would think we went there to drink wine, but no. We had beer. We also olives and Rufus drew on the table. That might sound odd (or pretty normal, if you know Rufus well) but they encourage table art. Each surface is covered in blackboard paint and a huge jar of colourful chalk perched on each table.

Rufus appropriately drew a sailboat called "Kettie", my name as pronounced and spelled by Zambians (the locals are not known for their spelling skills, and their national language is English...).

Obviously I cannot comment on their food (olives don't count) or wines but the place is a colourful feast for the eye and it's in a beautiful spot in the town's centre. Their beer is good, local craft brewery creations, like Wild Beast pictured below, and you can create art on their furniture. Pretty rad.

Go to there. It's fun.

Throwback to S.A. 2014 : Part 1

June 23, 2015 kate brand

We got back to Belize, from South Africa, about 3 weeks ago and during that time, every free moment in between work and travelling, I have been editing photos and drafting posts about our 3 month stay back home. I saved everything to my nice new 1TB external hard drive and, of course, the ONE item I forgot to pack in, when we took our boat Melody to Guatemala last week, was the hard drive...

So for the last few days I have been rather negative about it but then I realised I could use this opportunity to post about our trip home in April last year, (I have a backup hard drive with me, with all the photos except the ones from SA), before we returned to the Caribbean.

So here goes! This was a picnic at the beautiful Rhodes Memorial, on the slopes of Table Mountain in Cape Town. My mom, my sister and I used to picnic here all the time when we were kids. The statue of Rhodes has since been removed though. Looking back at these photos makes me cringe at how terrible my "photography skills" were back then but it also encourages me to see how I have (hopefully) improved over the last year! I had to delete most of the photos because of their poor quality, and I didn't really capture the place at all, but the ones I have included here are really special to us and we have actually printed a couple and put them up in the saloon, on Melody.

We spent the afternoon with our 2nd family, the Winterbachs. Rufus has been best friends with Chris since basically the beginning of time and his parents, Danie and Sara, practically adopted Rufus as a second son. Chris' girlfriend, Carla, has been part of the family for 10 years and when I married Rufus 7 years ago I was also unofficially adopted. This family is amazing. Lesley, Chris' sister wasn't in the country on this trip but I will post about another gathering we had, including her, soon.

We always prioritise time with these precious people, on our trips back home. They all have a brilliant sense of humour, generous hearts, adventurous spirits, a lust for life and enjoy good food and wine as much as we do. On Mother's Day this year, just after Rufus' mom's sudden death, Rufus received a message from Sara saying something along the lines of "It's mother's day, why have I not heard from my son?". That was so very special for us.

Thank you for being our family x

Cheese and Hougie, aka Chris and Carla. — Cheese and Hougie, aka Chris and Carla.

These two legends, Danie and Sara, explore SA and it's neighbouring countries on their motorbikes, something we would still like to tick off our (endless) bucket list. — These two legends, Danie and Sara, explore SA and it's neighbouring countries on their motorbikes, something we would still like to tick off our (endless) bucket list.

This was only a couple of weeks after returning from our expat work in Zambia so we still had a long way to go, to get our Caribbean tans back (more me than Rufus obviously).

I'm not a fan of being in front of the camera, especially if I know I'm being photographed... this is my awkward "take-the-picture-right-now-Rufus!" face.

I can't remember what the confusion was about but apparently Rufus was oblivious...

Boys = excited. Girls  = confused. This happens a lot when the four of us are together - Chris and Rufus live in their own unique and hilarious world when they are around one another. — Boys = excited. Girls = confused. This happens a lot when the four of us are together - Chris and Rufus live in their own unique and hilarious world when they are around one another.

l love how we unintentionally coordinated the lowest to highest wave in this one. Again, I'm not sure whats happening with Rufus here...

Chris was being boring and did not want to participate in the "double pano" - when the same person appears twice in one panorama shot. This is not a technical term, I just had to make something up for this caption.

Rufus and I on the other hand, almost had it down, if it weren't for my weird arm situation on the left. If you look carefully you can see us in the bush on the right. Clearly our "double pano" skills still needed some work.

Off The Line

July 29, 2014 kate brand

As many of you know, we started the 'Melody' chapter of our life 4 years ago and we did it with another two awesome humans. Vivian and Daniel took on this dream with us, rather spontaneously, and without them we wouldn't be where we are today.

We bought Melody together, we worked extremely hard to refit her and we all sacrificed a lot. We eventually left South Africa in September of 2012 and the four of us sailed across the Atlantic Ocean (without and autopilot!!??) to Brazil and then on to Tobago where, in December of that same year, Rufus and I left to work in Zambia.

We desperately needed to replenish our personal cash reserves and so Viv & Dan continued to sail the Caribbean for the duration of 2013. At the end of 2013 we bought out their 50% shares and became the proud full owners of S/V Melody!

Viv and Dan returned to SA to pursue their land based dreams of studies, for Viv, and a job in his field study and interest, for Daniel. They also made their love and their commitment official with a beautiful, intimate wedding earlier this year (take a look at some of the beautiful photos in their blog post). Happy day!

Our time together as a team was an epic adventure filled with serious highs and of course serious lows but, in the end, we wouldn't change it for anything. We learnt too much to tell in one sitting, and we are all better people for it.

They have done their farewell post on our team blog, www.offtheline.co.za, but they're continuing the updates on the twitter account so you can see what they are up to now - Viv is posting some beautiful shots of their SA explorations: @off_the_line

We wish them all the best for their new chapter and we're forever grateful for their part in our journey together. Big love to you both x

Fernando De Noronha - our first stop after the Atlantic crossing, off the coats of Brazil

our very first coconuts! Fernando De Noronha

our last beer together in Tobago, before Rufus and I left for Zambia