November in perspective

Let’s get this straight – when there is nothing left to say – I normally say F**K!

Robtek is not a quiet business – in fact chaotic is an understatement of enormous proportions.

Everything done so far has happened with Robtek hurtling on like a locomotive on a downhill, Kax in the UK trying to be a financial whiz, Gill trying to get the last of the reports out, Ricky trying to get his architectural house sufficiently in order to finally pass something serious at Wits, Brennan in Durban finishing off the practical work he should have done years ago, instead of sailing, Bradley desperately trying to ward off the spectre of a sup in his first year and Ryan and Michaela trying to play their way through the entire universal library of computer games.

Ciao Bella came out at Mantens exactly a week behind schedule – but that was cool, because it gave us a chance to do a couple more shake down sails – and with each sail, we felt more and more confidant that Mark had lent us an absolutely fabulous boat. Dirk Manten did a whole lot of the maintenance that was needed, and gave us the boat back in almost pristine condition.

Manuel Mendes (That’s Manuel with an ‘e’, as opposed to the one with an ‘a’, which refers to the gearbox of a car) has been tasked with the repair of the rudder. This means that once the boat arrives in the Cape, it will not go into the water immediately, but will need to have the repaired rudder fitted first.  We needed to replace the rudder bearings, but, believe it or not, Harken don’t make these any more. F**K!

And Trevor Spilhaus is going to service the mast, and get it all set up and safe. We have found a crack on the boom – so it’s not just a “routine service”.

So there is a lot to be done in Cape Town…..

And with time running out, Derek was finishing off the modifications to one of our trailers to make it suitable to transport the boat, while trying to get the revenue producing work done at the same time. The permits were arranged, based on measurements that I had done……(you can guess where this is going – I am sure – I hate humble pie!)

Loading was set for Friday, but the trailer was not done in time, so we got Dickie Manten away from his Sunday lunch, and the boat was on the trailer and tied down by early Sunday afternoon. We dropped a tape from the pulpit to the ground – just as a final check, and found that the load was 360mm higher than the permits allowed for!

F**K!

We contacted our permit organizing lady, and she said we needed to revise the permits, and with the revised permits came a revised route, and a whole day’s delay.

Right now, as I am typing this, Bradley in the company of Kirk (as co-escourt) and the driver Danny Boy are approaching Bloemfontein, having travelled the whole day at 60 km/h.

Tomorrow morning, they have to wait until 09h00 to be escourted through Bloemfontein by the Traffic Police, and then they are on their way again.

Interesting thing – Gina and her sister needed a lift down to the inter varsity regatta at Theewaterskloof, and are travelling with Bradley. At Brad’s 18^th birthday, (you may recall if you were there) we arranged for him to be kissed by an older woman (turned out to be Gina).

Should anything be read into this? And anyway, what do you call the escourt’s escourt?

M

30.11.2010