zlyc e-mails

“It was summer. We were wearing our winter woollies. Where were we? Well, the answer is: Ireland! But the weather has not spoiled this beautiful country for us. After all, good friends, good food, pubs, Guinness, and, inter alia, a visit from Steve, Kate and Little Christy are not affected by the weather.

We left the Azores, and had a grey and overcast passage. We knew we were heading for Portsmouth, U.K., but we told almost everyone that we were going to Ireland. This subterfuge was so that we could surprise Steve and Kate. This we did convincingly, and within hours of reaching England, we had a visit from them. They brought our darling Christy with them, which was actually what all this was about. The gaga grandfogeys just had to see her A.S.A.P.! What a treasure - a precious gift.

Our time in the U.K. was spent at Haslar's Marina in Gosport, per kind favour of John and Linda. They then left to do their own touring and we went upriver at Portsmouth to Porchester Castle. This anchorage is closer to Steve and Kate's home, and was very convenient.

We did two trips to the Isle of Wight and later sailed towards Ireland, calling in at Falmouth, Cornwall for a few days. From Falmouth we cycled to Gweek. It was lovely being out in the English countryside, which I love so much. As we cycle around we indulge in the blackberries, which are in fruit all over.

We overnighted to Ireland, and on 1 August made our way to Crosshaven, in Cork Bay. On entering the river, and passing a marina, we were hailed by a familiar-looking fellow. We wondered where we had met him before, but when he removed his shades, we recognised Ronnie Coss, from Richards Bay. Ronnie, Theresa and the boys lived on their yacht Enigma, and were on our walk-on at ZLYC. They gave us such a warm welcome, and we stayed for a few days.

Coastal-hopping west-wards was next. At Kinsale we were joined by Fred and Caryl Phillips, the folk who were so good to us when we passed through Cape Town over four years ago.

Glandore was pretty, as was Castletownshend. The latter had ruins, and a lived-in castle on the banks of the river, and up the steep main street, Mary-Ann's Pub and Restaurant. (Lots of Guinness and Murphys being consumed, by the way.) Then we cycled to Skibbereen - a lovely, buzzing town, with all facilities except a coin laundry.

Next stop was Baltimore and at Schull we met up with Vincent and Maureen O'Farrell who are now the proud owners of a South African cat called “Shangaan.” We have decided to leave “Vakasha” up the River Ilen, close to Skibbereen, at Donal O'Donovan's Boat Yard, when we go home for 6 months in the winter.

Leaving Schull behind, we moved on to Bantry, and then to the loveliest spot in Ireland - Glengarriff. After stark coastline scenery, we happened upon this verdant spot, which has lovely natural forest close by, with beautiful walks and cycle paths. Here Steve, Kate and Christy joined us for 6 days. They had hired a car, and Steve took us around the Beara Peninsula. Kenmare was one of the towns we visited, travelling over the Healy Pass, with its magnificent scenery.

After they had left, we returned to Schull, and now the rain and gales are making themselves felt. Time to go back to Sunny SA? Not yet, as we had two reports from friends at home about very chilly weather.

Last night we attended a gig of the band Interference. The O'Farrell's son, Fergus, is a musician and songwriter, and we had a lovely evening listening to the fiddles, guitar, cello and vocals by this really talented group of young Irishmen and women. We have had the privilege of getting to know some of them. Oh dear, if it weren't for the weather, we could easily fit in here.

It was in Glengarriff that we happened upon “Macanudo” - Russ and Gail being known to some who receive this newsletter. They have a house here, and visited us at Old Court. We first met Russ at Beaufort, North Carolina, where they were fixing things up after a lightning strike.

One cannot visit Ireland without watching a game of hurling. It is a Gaelic game played with a bat and ball. The ball is carried on the bat or by hand, can be whacked, kicked or thrown, and is very fast. We watched the All Ireland Final, between Cork and Kerry - Cork were the winners. The team players are heroes, and are still being feted, days after their victory.

We spare many thoughts for our friend in the USA who are suffering hurricanes at this time. Those who know me well will realise how being in a hurricane area bothered (!) me and I am so thankful that we took the gap this year.

On the 24th we fly from Cork to Southampton, play with the baby, and then leave for Johannesburg on the 30th September. We hope to see all our friends and family soon - let's have a few more 'Empty House' parties!” Much love

PS: We love seeing photos and reading forwards, but please do not send any more to us for the next six months. Hotmail space is limited, and in SA, where I do not have a computer, I will not be able to monitor the Inbox.

Ken and Thora Paver, from “Vakasha” (vakasha2@hotmail.com)

From: “Déjà Vu” Newsletters 2 and 3, September 2004 (Shortened)

We went to the Rainforest World of Music festival in Sarawak. The groups that had been invited to participate came from all around the world and we felt proud (and strangely homesick) when the only ‘African ‘group – ‘Black Umfolosi’ from Zimbabwe, received a standing ovation. They were the highlight of the festival, which was enjoyed by 10,000 people on the Saturday night.

In Sarawak all the local tribes lived along the rivers and each tribe shared a huge house, called a long house, which was partitioned off inside into smaller family units but shared a communal kitchen and meeting room.

In Kutching – the ‘cat [‘EdiCat’] city you find statues of cats all round as well as a ‘Cat’ Museum.

Here Colin managed to complete some of the many jobs on board that had been on the ever growing list: He replaced all the hinges on the top hatches, (14 in all!!) which had oxidized due to a manufacturing fault, plus he completed the onerous task of scrubbing and polishing the hull all from the dingy. He certainly deserves a medal for that one.

We visited the Semenggok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and were rewarded after our long walk, with the beautiful sight of a mom with baby and other teenagers coming to be fed. All the Orangutans at the centre have been confiscated from locals of Indonesia who steal them as pets or sell and then mistreat them. These Orangs live completely free in the rainforest on the outskirts of Kuching but come when called, to be fed on bananas. There was one who was so attached to the ranger that it just sat and held his hand like a little child would do to an adult, with absolutely no fear of the press of humans about it.

Kuching City also boasts a very beautiful orchid garden on the banks of the Sarawak River and of course one has to purchase an orchid or two to take home. So now we have Jackie and Sarawak living on board with us. The whole of Kuching City is full of flowers. Everyone has pots of flowers in front of their houses and shops and this coupled with the many magnificent trees make for a truly green city.

We decided to clean our anchor chain the day before we left but found that we were stuck to the bottom of the river! In three hours we only managed to lift up 10m and this only with great stress to the windlass and our nerves. Our chain was like a solid iron rod and we decided to dive on the anchor on the next low tide, to see what was wrong. Colin was decidedly unhappy about this as we had seen a saltwater crocodile next to the boat a week or so before and the water had absolutely zero visibility – but he had to dive!

When he got to the ‘thing’, he felt all sorts of spikes coming out of some type of drum and he could feel the chain wrapped around the spikes and around the drum but couldn’t see anything at all. He tried to unravel a bit of chain from the spikes but only got a few inches. Trying to pull with the windlass, only made matters worse. We eventually pulled all the loose chain from the bin onto the deck to unravel all the twists.

Finally Colin went ashore and asked the Datuk’s guys to come and help. They identified it as a 44 gallon drum, with holes punched through it through which were poked ironwood stakes at all different angles and then filled with concrete and with a chain coming out on one side. These ‘monsters’ they put out into the river to hold their fishing platforms in position ,as the spikes stop the drum from rolling away by sticking into the mud. Quite clever really! Somehow in all our twisting and turning on the 5m tides, over the six weeks, we had wrapped ourselves up so tight into this thing that we couldn’t have dragged even if we had wanted to!

The guys dived and talked and eventually found our anchor and hauled that on board and left the free end of the chain lying in the mud. Still the damn drum would not roll free. We motored forward, sideways, backwards, upwards summersaults, back flips etc. No chance it would not budge. Another day wasted and our battle cry became: “Try again tomorrow!”

On the morning of the fourth day the guys from the shore didn’t pitch and Colin went down alone but this time with a torch which gave him 2-inch visibility. By pulling a bit with the windlass and by motoring forward we somehow managed to get the drum rolling and unravelling the chain. It took 4 days to get up 40metres. But we did it! Santubong must be the River of hell – we lost our prop on arrival and nearly lost our anchor and chain when trying to leave. Is there a moral somewhere?

By this time our South African friends on ‘Senta’ and ‘Wanderlust’ had already departed and we would have to hurry to meet up with them at Labuan where we are going to collect our new propeller from Australia via DHL.

We took 4 days to get to Labuan from Kuching, dodging through all the oil wells offshore – it seemed as if there were thousands – and quite nerve wracking as our radar packed up just after we left Singapore. Unfortunately we had to beat all the way and we had to tack between the oilrigs! It was just like racing, trying to decide whether or not we would get past a rig or whether we would have to tack and, of course, this all happens at night. It was quite scary as not all are lit. Anyway the highlight of the trip was that we caught a nice Wahoo, so we had plenty of fish.

We have found Labuan the most convenient stop we have come across, anywhere, for provisioning. Booze is really cheap here as it is a duty free island e.g. beer is 30 Ringgits for a tray of 24 and diesel fuel is .79 Malaysian cents per litre. We have found everything we need in the way of food but not much in the way of clothing shops etc. However plenty of hardware, ships supplies, paint etc. The town doesn’t look like much but is actually very pretty with lots of double roads, sculptured trees, plenty of fancy lights as well as well kept grassy spots and parks.

Because of the water taxis we have been ashore AT NIGHT for meals in a really fantastic seafood restaurant. It was great to be sitting in air-conditioned luxury, scoffing huge prawns and draught beer, gazing through the window at “Déjà Vu” sitting at anchor just a few 100m from us. This has been a treat, as we normally do not go ashore after dark.

We were forewarned that the locals steal anything on deck but so far we find the locals pleasant and helpful. Unfortunately our friends on “Senta” have not been so lucky and had their two bicycles, locked to a railing near the taxi boat wharf, stolen..

Unfortunately our anchoring dramas are still with us! One night after 10:30 there was a squall and we started dragging. We let more chain out and took down the awning as it was acting as a sail. Colin started the motor and tried to stop the drifting but the motor kept stalling. Somehow we got a rope round the prop, which kept stalling the motor. We had to hurry to get the spare anchor and warp out of the lazarette and deployed this just in time to stop us about 20m from a huge steel barge. At 1am we were finally safely back at our anchorage.

We have finally completed our radar repair and much lighter in the pocket, will be clearing out tomorrow for Brunei to do our visa run.

From Glyn and Colin Craig, Yacht “Déjà Vu”