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| Passages alongside the dock, in Stuart, Florida. |
Firstly Happy 2024 to each one of you. May this
new year be a happy, healthy, enjoyable, and fun filled year for you all.
So……What has been happening since last we made a
blog entry. We returned home to Australia, and I enjoyed every minute of my
time there. Mel, fortunately or unfortunately, was offered a contract. He
thought why not. In the back of his mind, I know he was thinking of the sailing
kitty which always needs propping up as I am sure you can imagine. The focus was
the chain plates, so on the mornings when Mel didn’t feel like going to work,
especially on the cold winter mornings, I just needed to say ‘New chain plates
for Passages’ and up he got with very little motivation.
Many people have asked us what is so special
about the chain plates, well basically they hold up the main rigging – the mast
and sails, so if they failed, we basically wouldn’t be able to sail the boat.
It was more a case of, prevention is better than cure as we would be in a very
difficult and precarious situation, if the chain plates broke.
We knew
all of this before leaving Passages at St Mary’s boatyard in July 2023. She spent the hurricane season in St Mary’s,
Georgia and just missed Hurricane Idalia, which was the only U.S.
landfalling hurricane in 2023. It made landfall as a category-3 hurricane on
August 30.
The plan was for Mel to fly to Passages at the
beginning of November 2023, sail her south to Stuart, where the chain plates
would be replaced. This is a HUGE operation (and expensive one as well). Mel
spent a week, clearing Passages out and storing everything in a storage unit at
the boatyard in Stuart. It would take 6 – 8 weeks for the chain plates to be
redone. So, in the meantime, Mel flew to Cape Town and met me there. We thought
we would spend the Christmas and New Year period in Cape Town with my dear Dad
and Mel’s two brothers. One of his brothers, Clint, travelled down to Cape Town
from Namibia, for two weeks while we were there. We had some great family get
togethers. Unfortunately like most things in life, everything doesn’t always go
according to plan as my dear Dad, passed away peaceful the day after I arrived
in Cape Town. Thankfully, I saw him before he passed away, even if it was for a
very short time. We spent a vast majority of our time, sorting out my Dad’s
belongings and paperwork. Despite feeling a bit lost while in Cape Town,
adjusting to my Dad not being around, we had a wonderful time with our lovely
friends in Cape Town, who always make us feel so welcome.
We left Cape Town for Miami on Sunday 14 January
2024. My goodness it’s a long way – 30 hours!
We flew to Doha – 10 hours, a 3 hour wait, then
16.5 hours to Miami. To make our flight even more challenging, dear Mel
starting to feel unwell.
A great YouTube clip by Trevor Noah (a South
African comedian who is popular in the States) gives you a very funny yet
realistic insight into arriving in the States “Things Are Different In
America" Throwback! - TREVOR NOAH (African American special) (youtube.com)
Eventually we arrived in Miami and made our way
to the hotel we had booked for our first night. We knew we would not feel like
travelling through to Stuart which would have been a 2.5 hours’ drive
(approx.).
On Tuesday 16 January 2024, after a great night’s
sleep, we collected the car and drove to Stuart via Fort Lauderdale to collect our
wind generator, which Mel took to be serviced at a company in Fort Lauderdale.
We were eager to see Passages but were advised to
visit the boatyard on Wednesday morning as the people working on her, would not
be available. So – Wednesday morning off Mel went to see Passages.
While we were in Cape Town, we were told that she
should be ready by Friday 19 January 2024. However, Mel and I know things don’t
always go according to plan.
Basically, two of the people working on Passages
were unavailable, one due to a death in the family and two, they had Covid.
PLUS – anyone who has done any form of renovations of any kind knows perfectly
well that once you start renovating/ renewing one area, other areas that need
work or some form of repair, becomes evident. While the chain plates were being
worked on, it became apparent that our hot water cylinder/tank was not looking
good. It was fine but…. We thought since Passages ‘inners’ were being taken
out; it would be prudent to put a new hot water cylinder in. It was ordered but
unfortunately, it had not arrived by Friday 19 January, so we had to wait.
While we have been in Stuart, we enjoyed walking up and down the many aisles of the Weekend Flea Market. Like the majority of the USA, everything is bigger than what you would find in other parts of the world. While I was admiring the variety of many stalls, I could not help but feel a little bit of sadness as many of the beautiful items on sale, were once somebody’s treasures and how sad it is that ‘we’ as a first world society don’t put much value into quality now days. If it breaks, well we just go and buy a new one – consumerism at it’s best. The beautiful crystal glasses and bone China dinner services that were on sale was so sad to see. Mel enjoyed looking at the many tools and went down memory lane.
We are hoping – fingers crossed to take
possession of Passages on Monday (22nd) or Tuesday (23rd),
put everything back onto her, not necessarily in the correct place, and head up
to Fort Pierce, where we will start cleaning and sorting Passages in preparing
her for when we eventually leave the USA. (We are aiming for the end of
February).
So, until next time…. Take care, Keep well.
Best wishes, always
Mel and Caryn
P.S. I am not sure how often I should submit a
blog entry – any thoughts? In the past, I have done the following:
2014 - an entry almost every week.
2018 /2023 – when we arrived at a new place or
destination – this means irregular times.
2024 – idea – every two weeks, regardless of
where we are and what we have done or are doing????
Those of you, my dear friends, who know my
WhatsApp contact details and who read our blog, your opinion is important to
me/us. THANK YOU!
