I am sure that most of our readers know that Alec and Cherry met on the internet and got married in 2004. Many people thought that we were a bit crazy as we really did not know each other at all, apart from reams of emails and so many international telephone calls between Nigeria and South Africa.
Anyway, we did the deed and it has worked out incredibly well. We are h ealthy and happy and very fulfilled. Our lives are a perpetual "hard work" holiday which is very good for us. We keep fit and are having a wonderful time.
Retirement is a challenge to DO something!
We have always felt that one must do something constructive when retired...not just sit in God's waiting room.
Our "something" happened to be cruising. This website will chronicle our journey from absolute beginners to (hopefully) reasonably able seamen. I will try to tell it like it is.
What it is NOT is travel poster perfect with white sands and palm trees! Obviously there is some of that, that is why people go sailing after all, but there is also a lot of hard work, seasickness and HUGE learning curves. . .. .
When we met we found we were both aspiring sailors/cruisers, which was a huge bonus. Very often one partner is keen to follow the winds and currents while the other prefers terra firma.
We fell in love with our beautiful “Rainbow Gypsy” at first sight. She is a 36.5 ft Deancat 365, about 16 years old, solid and beautifully built. She was moored at Zululand Yacht Club in Richards Bay, 200km from our home in Kloof, near Durban, and we spent the next 18 months shuttling back and forth to spend our weekends aboard. We finally decided to sail her down to Durban to the Bluff Yacht club where we spent the following 18 months fitting her out for blue water cruising (new rigging, instrumentation, etc) and getting in some much needed sailing practice.
We fell in love with our beautiful “Rainbow Gypsy” at first sight. She is a 36.5 ft Deancat 365, about 16 years old, solid and beautifully built. She was moored at Zululand Yacht Club in Richards Bay, 200km from our home in Kloof, near Durban, and we spent the next 18 months shuttling back and forth to spend our weekends aboard. We finally decided to sail her down to Durban to the Bluff Yacht club where we spent the following 18 months fitting her out for blue water cruising (new rigging, instrumentation, etc) and getting in some much needed sailing practice.
Alec signed on with SAS for lessons and has qualified as a Coastal Skipper, without which piece of paper, we would not be allowed to leave a South African Harbour. The rules here are VERY strict indeed.
Finally, after a lot of hard work, we decided the time was right and we set a sailing date. All of a sudden, there was so much to be more to be done, that we thought that we would never meet our deadline.Visas, inoculations, provisioning, preserving, stowing,the list is endless. If I had not had a copy of Beth Leonard’s “The Voyager’s Handbook” I would have drowned in the mass of stuff to be done. This book is an absolute MUST for all aspiring cruisers.
Our date arrived and went……………….we had to wait for a suitable weather “window” as the South African coast is not friendly to cruisers. There are no handy anchorages or bolt holes should the weather turn nasty, so one waits for the wind to be in the right quarter and settled there for as long as you estimate it will take to reach your first port of call.
Finally, 30th May dawned, everything was done (we thought) and the wind was from the southwest at last. Our friends Hennie and Yvonne joined us at midday and would sail with us until 26th July. We sailed to a rousing sendoff from our Bluff YC friends and others at 5.00 p.m. and set course for Maputo (mocambique).
Anyway, we did the deed and it has worked out incredibly well. We are h ealthy and happy and very fulfilled. Our lives are a perpetual "hard work" holiday which is very good for us. We keep fit and are having a wonderful time.
Retirement is a challenge to DO something!
We have always felt that one must do something constructive when retired...not just sit in God's waiting room.
Our "something" happened to be cruising. This website will chronicle our journey from absolute beginners to (hopefully) reasonably able seamen. I will try to tell it like it is.
What it is NOT is travel poster perfect with white sands and palm trees! Obviously there is some of that, that is why people go sailing after all, but there is also a lot of hard work, seasickness and HUGE learning curves. . .. .
When we met we found we were both aspiring sailors/cruisers, which was a huge bonus. Very often one partner is keen to follow the winds and currents while the other prefers terra firma.
We fell in love with our beautiful “Rainbow Gypsy” at first sight. She is a 36.5 ft Deancat 365, about 16 years old, solid and beautifully built. She was moored at Zululand Yacht Club in Richards Bay, 200km from our home in Kloof, near Durban, and we spent the next 18 months shuttling back and forth to spend our weekends aboard. We finally decided to sail her down to Durban to the Bluff Yacht club where we spent the following 18 months fitting her out for blue water cruising (new rigging, instrumentation, etc) and getting in some much needed sailing practice.
We fell in love with our beautiful “Rainbow Gypsy” at first sight. She is a 36.5 ft Deancat 365, about 16 years old, solid and beautifully built. She was moored at Zululand Yacht Club in Richards Bay, 200km from our home in Kloof, near Durban, and we spent the next 18 months shuttling back and forth to spend our weekends aboard. We finally decided to sail her down to Durban to the Bluff Yacht club where we spent the following 18 months fitting her out for blue water cruising (new rigging, instrumentation, etc) and getting in some much needed sailing practice.
Alec signed on with SAS for lessons and has qualified as a Coastal Skipper, without which piece of paper, we would not be allowed to leave a South African Harbour. The rules here are VERY strict indeed.
Finally, after a lot of hard work, we decided the time was right and we set a sailing date. All of a sudden, there was so much to be more to be done, that we thought that we would never meet our deadline.Visas, inoculations, provisioning, preserving, stowing,the list is endless. If I had not had a copy of Beth Leonard’s “The Voyager’s Handbook” I would have drowned in the mass of stuff to be done. This book is an absolute MUST for all aspiring cruisers.
Our date arrived and went……………….we had to wait for a suitable weather “window” as the South African coast is not friendly to cruisers. There are no handy anchorages or bolt holes should the weather turn nasty, so one waits for the wind to be in the right quarter and settled there for as long as you estimate it will take to reach your first port of call.
Finally, 30th May dawned, everything was done (we thought) and the wind was from the southwest at last. Our friends Hennie and Yvonne joined us at midday and would sail with us until 26th July. We sailed to a rousing sendoff from our Bluff YC friends and others at 5.00 p.m. and set course for Maputo (mocambique).
SADLY WE ARE NOW SELLING OUR LOVELY HOME; FOR FULL DETAILS CLICK HERE
https://yarrowgypsies.wixsite.com/gypsygirl
