The Journey Begins

The day has arrived - we're leaving today. The past few days have been filled with a mixture of nerves and excitement and the added visits from all of our families have made them an emotional few too. Two years after deciding to take on this journey we are finally ready to leave. The feelings are difficult to convey. Let the exciting times begin!

We plan on heading slightly north for a the first few days and then we'll veer off into the trade winds. We expect to arrive in St Helena in about two weeks. We are fortunate enough to have a Sat phone for emergencies and for weather updates. The added bonus is that you can send us 160 characters sms/text messages from the Inmarsat website (http://www.isatphonelive.com/), free of charge. Click on the button that says "send free message" on the top right hand side of the page, insert our number +870776411804, write a message and press send. It will be great to hear from you. We plan on doing updates to our twitter account during the crossing, so please follow us @off_the_line

Viv

First published on offtheline.co.za

Family Farewell

This is our final week in South Africa (for serious!) and so our families have been visiting to say their farewells. I cannot tell a lie: this whole goodbye thing is quite emotional. I'm not a big crier but man have I balled my eyes out, not just when my family said goodbye but for Rufus and Vivian's family too.

You have to remember that with a project like this it's not just us four team members that work hard to realise the dream, our families play such a huge role; with emotional support, guidance, supplies etc, and saying goodbye is like leaving part of our team behind.

On Saturday Rufus' mom, dad and sister Cherie came to the yacht club and, as always, Mamma Brand dazzled us with her spread. Rufus' parents (Boris & Rynette) are legendary for their entertaining (some people would call them "feeders") and you can always be guaranteed exceptionally good food and a lot of it, cheesy jokes and alot of laughs when you kuier with them!

xxx

Kate

First published on offtheline.co.za

Saldanha Days

Having been in Saldanha Bay for nearly a week we have had plenty of time to get into chill mode, while still fitting in the odd chore. Last week was pretty chilly but the arrival of spectacular summer weather this weekend definitely made up for it. We spent Saturday alongside the pontoon at the club, allowing us to do the last few things that require a decent amount of electricity and fresh water. Kate and I spent the whole day doing two weeks worth of washing using the clubs scaryingly temperamental twin tub washing machine, an experience and a half! We have been doing a fair amount of reading, eating and planning for the first part of our journey. The great weather inspired the boys to hookup a towing system to our tender, in preparation for our future surfing adventures, and braved the freezing West Coast water to test it out. It was very entertaining to watch but I'll wait for the warm water in the tropics to give that a go.

The predicted weather has been fickle but we're hoping that things will line up for a departure on Friday, lets hope. In the meantime we have set up our chores schedule which entails four categories: Cleaning of the Heads, Cooking, Surface cleaning and Dishes. Each day we rotate the tasks, all in the hope of keeping our home a clean and happy one :). In the next few days we will somehow make a plan to get to the Vredenberg Mall to buy our fresh goods (life without a car is something to get use to), add a few more lighter sockets to the saloon area and do the final water top ups while we wait.

Viv

First published on offtheline.co.za

Back Into The Water

After loads of hard work Melody's plump hull was gleaming and she was ready to go back into the water. We gently lowered her down and our spirits where lifted when she gracefully entered the misty bay and kept afloat. We motored her across to the Saldanha Bay Yacht club where she would stay until we were able to bring her down to Cape Town and around to Gordon's Bay.

Viv

First published on offtheline.co.za

Mini Melody

As mentioned in a previous post, in between all the hardstand work on Melody's hull, we managed to queeze in some fun and a little bit of sailing on our tiny tender. We had very relaxed New Year's Eve "celebration" (mostly sleeping from exhaustion from all the work) in Yachtport's yacht club, which e had all to ourselves because aparently no one else in their right mind works in a shipyard over the Christmas/New Year holiday season ;)

Thank you to Yachtport for trusting us with their brand new beautiful facility. It made for a welcome retreat from the chaotic boat work!

Photos first published on offtheline.co.za