Jeez, today (rather yesterday) was really hectic, it almost 02H30 as I write this message and I still have things to do before I can go to sleep - I'm quite exhausted! I knew it was going to be a rough day and we rushed like mad to get to town to start the long list of things we had to do. First stop was Central Boating where we bought anti chafe patches, odd bolts and nuts, more shackles, binding wire and a couple of other things. Then we went to Associated Rigging and ordered shorter cables for the bowsprit. The bowsprit is suppose to be horizontal but was point upwards as the existing cables were too long. We caught them just in time but there was a problem! They did not have stock of the required fittings and did not have time before closing for the festive season to do the job. Once again, good fortune came our way as a worker had spares in his van and everybody jumped on the job to get it done. We went to Associated Rigging no less than 3 times during the day for various things and finally to collect the finished goods.
After this, it was off to Southern Ropes to buy a new Dyneema spinaker/screetcher halyard as the existing halyard made all sort of kak due to twisting as it went up the mast. 72 meters of 12 mm Dyneema and R4700 odd lighter in the wallet, we once again jumped in the car. This time it was to Dive Action in Paarden Island to FINALLY pay and collect the BC and regulators we ordered - this was a sweet R29,000.00. Next was TopFast but they did not have what we were looking for so we went to SeaPort. There we bought a big orange float for our sea anchor trip line and a couple of minor stuff. Then a fruitless visit to Builders Warehouse and then drove to Maitland to collect our dinghy mast from Jacque.
Promises from Joe of catching huge fish, led us to another fishing tackle shop out there somewhere on Voortrekker Road. We wasted quite a bit of time due to the sales people leading us around the bush, In the end, Joe had to dig through all the rod and reels himself until he was satisfied with the combinations. Fishing rod, reel and lures in hand, close to R7000.00 light in the pocket, we left in a rush. This time to buy more leather from Woodhead to protect the Dyneema halyard against chafe - Sue will have to do her hard work all over again! In the interim, we also visited Harken, two more visits to Associated Rigging, Manex Marine and yet another one to SeaPort.
By now we were hot, bothered and quite irritable - I'm sure there are a bunch of speeding fines on it's way. Just not sure who is going to pay them!? Certainly not me!