The Durban Prep

When I arrived back in Durban, I was not even surprised to find that two most hard-working members if this family had levelled mountains of tasks. Dad and Kathryn worked tirelessly putting fittings on, arranging the safety equipment, doing all the victualing for the delivery and so on.

First thing on Monday morning I had to write the theory exam for my SAS Coastal Skippers ticket. This meant a heap of cramming the night before, and another 4am morning to study. Straight after the exam I had to bolt to the airport to fetch Alex Ham- a friend who'd be helping with the delivery. As soon as we got back to the marina we hit the boat-work punch-list.

After rushing around on Tuesday morning for SAMSA safety certificates and such, I had my practical exam for my skippers. We were due to leave on Thursday,, so the pressure on this practical was through the roof. It went successfully

Fellow Boskopers, Andries Swart and Wentzel Coetzer arrived for delivery duty on Tuesday afternoon, and immediately got to work on the boat. It was all a mad rush, and after the umpteenth 14 hour day we were ready to go!

On the tail of a big Durban westerly, we set off for Cape Town...

Brennan out.

The Abnormal Roadtrip

Sunday 10 November was set aside for finally loading Ciao Bella onto the trailer. This was an exceptionally exciting time because it meant that all of our yard-work was over. The abnormal load permits arrived on Monday the 11th, and at 5am on Tuesday the convoy left Carletonville - one MAN truck driven by Robtek's trusted Danny-boy, followed by a step-deck trailer carrying the precious cargo, and Toyota Fortuner escort vehicle driven by yours truly.

 

 

 

 At 60km/h this was going to be a long journey, which got made slightly longer when we were made to stop in Harrismith because we didn't have the right sticker on the back of our trailer (can you say J22 nationals?). After hunting around for a short while, we found the correct stickers and got on our way again.

We were set for a 5pm arrival in Durban until we got flagged over to a weigh-bridge on Estcourt. Unfortunately we were dealt the Simon Cowell of traffic officers, who told us that some information on our permits had been filled in the wrong block. He then took the liberty of calling the KZN traffic dept and had them cancel our permits, and instructed them not to issue a new permit to us before 12.30 the next day. So we parked the truck at the weigh-bridge for the night, and I went to spend the night in Maritzburg, ready to pick up the new permits the following day. As the clock struck 12.30 the permits were issued, and we continued our journey.

 

 

We made it to Durban before nightfall, but a whole day behind schedule. Thursday we offloaded the boat at Durban Marina Yacht Lift, and fitted the keel and the rudder. Ricky and Lauren (Rick's girlfriend) we're there to help out from here. Friday we had the SAMSA hull inspection, erected the mast and launched the boat (woohoo!). Saturday we did the rigging and the remainder of the deck fitting. The had to jet back to Jozitown for the Wits Yacht Club dinner.

 

 

 

All of this stuff sounds pretty quick and easy, but we were grafting 14/15 hour days to get everything right. From sweltering Durban heat to pouring rain, the work didn't stop. In the words of every South African rugby captain: "you know, all credit to the boys", Danny and Ernesto from Robtek helped us get there and offloaded safely, but our boys Simon and Johannes have played out of their boots in getting this boat on the water and working. That's a big chunk of job done.

 

We left the rest of the family in Durbs to continue the graft. keep tuned in for more updates!

Brennan

There have been whispers...

Whispers of history repeating itself, with a bit of a twist. Whispers of an audacious feat to be undertaken again, by the same family. Whispers that Michael Robinson is going to be pouring out his retirement-fund into another Cape to Rio Race.

This is to confirm that the rumours are, in fact, true. We will be entering in the 2014 Cape to Rio Race, again as a family and again on Ciao Bella.

Where this campaign differs from the 2011 race, is that this time we own the boat, this time Ryan and Michaela will not be shying away from any big weather, this time our beloved cousin Bradley will be on a different boat (www.witscapetorio2014.com/), this time we know what to expect, and this time we intend to win.

As you all know, this game is fraught with uncertainties, hence the silence on the topic from our front. But things are looking good. We have spent the better part of a year's weekends, evenings and holidays working on the boat and getting Ciao Bella in tip-top shape. We'll post some summaries of the work that we've done in due time.


Aside from all that, we invite you all to join in this adventure with us. One of the greatest parts about the last race was the number of people we reached and connected with through the blog and the race, from new friends to old friends to total strangers. So if you know of anyone who might be interested in what we're doing, please share, and invite, and include...

Wishing you all well,

The Robinsons