Blog

"One night the moths gathered together, tormented by the desire to unite themselves with the candle. All of them said: ‘We must find one who can give us some news of that for which we seek so earnestly."

"One of the moths went to a candle afar off and saw within the light of a candle. He came back and told the others what he had seen, and began to describe the candle as intelligently as he was able to do. But the wise moth, who was chief of their assembly, observed: 'He has no real information to give us of the candle.'"

"Another moth visited the candle. He passed close to the light and drew near to it. With his wings, he touched the flames of that which he desired; the heat of the candle drove him back and he was vanquished. He also returned, and revealed something of the mystery, in explaining a little of what union with the candle meant, but the wise moth said to him: 'Your explanation is of no more real worth than that of your comrade.'"

"A third moth rose up, intoxicated with love, to hurl himself violently into the flame of the candle. He threw himself forward and stretched out his antennae toward the flame. As he entered completely into its embrace, his members became red like the flame itself. When the wise moth saw from afar that the candle had identified the moth with itself, and had given to it its own light, he said: 'This moth has accomplished his desire; but he alone comprehends that to which he has attained. None others knows it, and that is all.'"

After considering may issues, we finally decided on a departure date for our world cruise (weather depending). For years no, we have perpetually postponed our world cruise for the one reason or another. At first, our dogs (read children) were still alive and there was no way in hell we would ever give them away, have somebody else look after them or have them put to sleep - kill them with other words.After the passing our our beloved Meatloaf, we were free to start planning our world cruise. But then, we decided to build the company back to it's full glory after taking serious strain due to the world economic crises. At the time, my thoughts were that we could achieve this with a 12 month period but for every 10 steps forward, we also took 9 steps back in some other area. So another almost 3 years went wasted! Still the economy has not fully recovered and now with hindsight, it will probably take another 3-5 years to return to it's former position.

So, we decided to hell with everything else! We are starting our world cruise on 1 January 2015 - come hell or high water.

Let me complete the picture......Wiets went to theater for the 2 implants, he got his pre-med and that's when the fun started. Once the giggles wore off Wiets got quiet, either the meds or the nerves kicked in. After about an hour or so, he woke up ........ not so funny anymore, he felt like shit. The anesthetic did not react well with him. The next day we left for Cape Town. Unable to have his normal Wimpy breakfast at the airport, he was quiet and noticeable puffy in the facial area. By the time we landed, got the rental car, drove to Houtbay, we made it to the boat. By this time, his face doubled in size......hehehehe. Feeling sick, sore and hungry, he was not a happy chappy. Wiets swore to never go for anesthetic if he can help it. Eventually the swelling went down, the anesthetic worked it's way out, the pain eased and he could function again. I replaced the soup with solid food again and 2 weeks later the Doctor gave the thumbs for a successful procedure. I got some pics to share my moments and proof my claims.

{gallery}2014Jan/Cyborg{/gallery}

{gallery}2014Jan/Implants{/gallery}In my teenager days (many decades ago), if you had a tooth ache you would go to the dentist with two options - have it filled or pulled. Either option was a painful and psychological nightmare enough to make a grown man cringe and break out in a sweat. The dental butchers of my day caused you to fear them more than the devil itself. Going to the dentist was days of trauma, anxiety and tension. It was a true "bloed, kak and hare" affair (Afrikaans expression similar but more crude than "blood, sweat and tears"). So voluntary going to the dentist was the absolute last resort. Instead, you sweated it out and endured the tooth pain for weeks or months on end. This is what proper "men" did in my day as the tooth pain was a better option than visiting the blood thirsty dentist. When your face swelled up, looking like a distorted Michelin man, your girlfriend wanting nothing to do with you and your parents stamping down their authority - only then did you finally agree to visit the dentist. But by this time the tooth is beyond salvage and the dentist had no choice but to pull the tooth. This of course further entrenches his butcher like reputation and so the mental cycle continued.

I lost two of my lower teeth in this way. But, how things have changed! So I decided to partly go cyborg and reclaim my long lost teeth by having two implants done. Beyond flashing a full deck of clappers, I guess I will also be able to properly chew my food instead of wolfing it down. But then, this will most likely also change my Flintstone image to that of a partly groomed gentleman. Hmmm, Sue will obviously enjoy that but I'm still not to sure about this gentleman thing. Science and technology will no doubt continue, so there is still hope for me to become a cyborg or even a smaller version of the Terminator.

In my teenager days (many decades ago), if you had a tooth ache you would go to the dentist with two options - have it filled or pulled. Either option was a painful and psychological nightmare enough to make a grown man cringe and break out in a sweat. The dental butchers of my day caused you to fear them more than the devil itself. Going to the dentist was days of trauma, anxiety and tension. It was a true "bloed, kak and hare" affair (Afrikaans expression similar but more crude than "blood, sweat and tears"). So voluntary going to the dentist was the absolute last resort. Instead, you sweated it out and endured the tooth pain for weeks or months on end. This is what proper "men" did in my day as the tooth pain was a better option than visiting the blood thirsty dentist. When your face swelled up, looking like a distorted Michelin man, your girlfriend wanting nothing to do with you and your parents stamping down their authority - only then did you finally agree to visit the dentist. But by this time the tooth is beyond salvage and the dentist had no choice but to pull the tooth. This of course further entrenches his butcher like reputation and so the mental cycle continued.

I lost two of my lower teeth in this way. But, how things have changed! So I decided to partly go cyborg and reclaim my long lost teeth by having two implants done. Beyond flashing a full deck of clappers, I guess I will also be able to properly chew my food instead of wolfing it down. But then, this will most likely also change my Flintstone image to that of a partly groomed gentleman. Hmmm, Sue will obviously enjoy that but I'm still not to sure about this gentleman thing. Science and technology will no doubt continue, so there is still hope for me to become a cyborg or even a smaller version of the Terminator.

Occasionally, especially during the month of December high winds in the 40 to 70 knot range hit HoutBay Yacht Club, Cape Town, South Africa. This December was no exception and some yachts once again suffered damages. Some years ago, Revelations itself sustained extensive damages during one such storm. We have since added tick rubber snubbers to most of our mooring lines and these snubbers have once again done a fantastic job. In HoutBay, the yachts in the outer moorings are more at risk. A mono hull almost destroyed her own bow by repeatedly banging up against the mooring. This is normally caused when mooring lines are too slack and allows for too much forward and backward movement  inside the mooring. It is also possible that some mooring lines snapped as is evident from the picture. Another catamaran was partly submerged and obviously sustained some damage. One of Revelations' front window louvres blew off. Fortunately for us, somebody found the louvre and it is not damaged - we only have to Sikaflex it back in position Phew! Lucky escape for us!

All the time I thought that the hardest part will be to build our yacht, getting all the required money we need to go sailing and lastly, learning how to safely sail the oceans. Well, this was actually the easy part! What proves to be exceptionally difficult is to break away! To cut our ties means we have to sell our company, sell our properties and finalising all outstanding issues so that we can go sailing. Selling the company proves to be a much more difficult task we thought. Following the 2008 to 2010 world economic crash is a very depressed market where most people do not have any money - neither do they seem to have access to any money. The properties have been in the market for the past 2 months with very little activity. Investors do not have confidence and are reluctant to invest into a business although it is profitable. So we have no choice but to wait! Frustrating! When will we be able to go?

All the work on Revelations has been done and it's almost time to go back to Houtbay. We are waiting for calmer seas and weather so we need to hang out somewhere in Langebaan until then. Besides anchoring, there are a couple of places one can moor in Langebaan - YachtPort, Club Mykonos, Saldanha Yacht Club and Langebaan Yacht Club. We have never been to Langebaan Yacht Club and we will need a dinghy to get to shore. This was not an option as our inflatable dinghy overstayed it welcome wand was thrown overboard. We are still busy building our new dinghy and therefor had no means to reach shore. We know Saldanha Yacht Club and have previously anchored there, but we also need a dinghy to reach shore.

This left keeping the yacht at YachtPort or moving it to Club Mykonos. Looking at the rates, facilities and services available from YachtPort, Saldanha and comparing it to Club Mykonos - there is a big difference. For mooring requirements, Yachtport offers very little in facilities, no conveniences, are miles away from anywhere, over the top prices in addition to dodgy pricing policies. Club Mykonos offered everything in YachtPort did but also many other conveniences and facilities. Club Mykonos is a fairly new marina, well maintained, customer friendly and no funny emotional policies. Finally, Club Mykonos beat the crap out of YachtPort overflated prices. So we left YachtPort this morning and secured a mooring in Club Mykonos.

... we hardly left YachtPort and we received another email from YachtPort demanding more money. Similar to some of those incredibly sour sweets, sugar coated on the outside but so very sour on the inside - one cannot help but sense this from the people at YachtPort.

When we got to YachtPort, Saldanha we were given a contract of R6000 something to sign. This was for taking out the yacht by crane, high pressure hose the hulls and putting her back in the water once done. This contract allowed for 2 nights of mooring, lifting crane and 2 days on the hard. After cleaning the hulls with their high pressure water machine, the anti-foul paint was also removed in large sections.

It therefor became necessary to apply new anti-foul paint. YachtPort previously gave me a quote for this job and it was ridiculously high at R34,000! I then decided that it would be much cheaper if we do the work ourselves. The next day after flying back to Johannesburg, I heard that they were extremely pissed off at me for not getting them to do the work. I received this email from them;

Good day Wiets

Please find attached the invoice for the Hardstand and High pressure. Please take note that the hardstand fees are more due to doing own work. The rates for that are different than when we do the work. Please provide the proof of payment to that we can put Revelations back in the water.

Kindest Regards,

Cindy Thomson
General Manager
for Yachtport SA (Pty) Ltd
Tel: ++27 22 714 4064
Fax: ++27 22 714 4525
Cell:++27 73 420 2836
www.yachtport.co.za

Attached to this email was an invoice of R15,153!!! They must surely be in deep shit to charge these kind of fees! Or perhaps they want to get rich on one job only!? It took 1 hour to take the yacht out of the water and another hour to put it back, they cleaned the hulls which took 4 hours, Revelations stood in their yard for 7 days - this for the ridiculous sum of R15,153! People considering taking their boats to YachtPort should think twice about these rip off pricing policies (and sour grapes).

Business must surely be bad and the policy of simply keep loading the price to cover overheads is simply not sustainable. In addition, this sour grapes situation when not using their services (due to prices) and then the punitive change in prices is morally highly questionable if not indeed against South African consumer laws. There is a certain tolerance for how much people are willing to pay for things and if companies know what is good for them, they will remain competitive.

"You need powerful batteries which can run down flat with no damage. These batteries will last you 10 years plus!" the salesman tells me.

"These are aircraft batteries, not your normal yacht stuff! They even work upside down." he continued.

"Think about it, do you really want to replace batteries every 4 years and end up costing you twice the price of these high tech batteries." he debated.

By this time I was sold! This made perfect sense! Over the long term, I will save a small fortune and as a bonus, these batteries will not let me down soon. So I bought 16 x 110 amp hour batteries and happily paid a small fortune (1.5 x more than your typical yacht gel batteries).

3 years later
This boat stinks worse than a sewerage farm!" Sue tells me as if I could not smell.

Obligated, urged by her disgust and the embarrassing smell of shit all over the boat, I attack the bilges with a vengeance. Checking the bilges - dry. Emptied the blackwater tank by electrical pump and then by hand pump, checking pipes, checking the blackwater tanks, refastening every heads pipe in sight, checking the vents, checking the head pumps for leaks ... nothing!

"You must have missed something, it still stinks!" she tells my now sweaty, tired and de-motivated body.

"I'm no damn sniffer dog and I cannot find anything wrong!" I lamely reply.

"Everybody who walks pass the boat can smell this stinkhole - what must they be thinking? You better do something or I am going home!" she continues. Seemingly forgetting that it is also her shit we are smelling, I now get the 'don't mess with me' look. So back to the bilges I go!

Two days later, we eventually find the problem. It is my fantastic "best deal" aircraft batteries giving off the most pungent clone sewerage smell. The batteries were getting cooked. I tell you, the smell was pure sewerage which will fool the best trained sewerage sniffer dog. The smell was pungent and powerful which came in waves. It would ease up for awhile and then come back with a vengeance knocking your senses again and again.

The batteries are swollen, bulging quite badly and went for testing. We now need new batteries as my fantastic dry cell “fly upside down” aircraft batteries reached the end of their lives. My slick salesman recalls no such conversation ever. According to him, I simply walk in and told him what I wanted.

After struggling with so many workers, professionals and suppliers in the boat building fraternity in Cape Town, South Africa - one cannot help but have a sceptic and dim view when dealing with these people. However, it was refreshing dealing with Mr. Simon Botes, Harken, Cape Town, South Africa. We went to their offices in Paarden Island with a problem we had with the Harken batt car system. He listened to our difficulties and undertook to visit Revelations to assess the situation.

Judging him by typical Cape Town standards, we expected that he would only visit the yacht at his leisure some 2 or 4 weeks later after repeated pleas from us. To our suprise, he came around to our yacht literally first thing the very next morning! This was great service compared to the usual treatment one normally receives.
Indeed a breath of fresh air!

The saying, "Nobody cares about your goods" holds true when dealing with Johann Adler and his company Granger Bay Slipway CC. These people are based in  Granger Bay, Cape Town, South Africa and is probably the most unreliable and useless imaginable! There surely cannot be anybody worse than this.

Revelations was scheduled to go on the slipway in Granger Bay, Cape Town, South Africa on 11 May 2011. After motoring about 20 Km from Houtbay, the yacht was tied up in a mooring at Granger Bay on 10 May 2011. Johann Adler then postponed the slipway date and a new date was given. He again postponed to another date, then yet again postponed and if this is not enough, he did so on ELEVEN more occassions! The result was that Revelations was moored in Granger Bay for almost 4 weeks. During this time, a storm came through creating huge surge and waves. Eight of the ten mooring lines were broken resulting in the yacht banging against the mooring thrughout the night. If Johann Sadler acted professionally and kept to the dates he provided, Revelations would have been in Granger Bay for three days only and be safely moored in HoutBay at the time of the storm.

Needless to say, Johann Adless nor his Company is willing to take any responsibility for the estimated R180,000 of damage. The man must be as thick as pig shit for he cannot even comprehend that his continuous delays are the main reason why the yacht was in Granger Bay at the time of the storm. His reaction is to lie about the delays, deny he caused the delays - indeed he denies any responsibility. Instead of being a man - he is nothing but a deceitful whimp.