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American Spirit II - Day 314; A BIG Storm Crashes Thru our Marina & We Visit the Mall; Saturday, November 15, 2014



Up at 4:54 AM. Its already light out as we're on the edge of a time zone. Jeremy gets up at 5:50 AM and heads for the restroom on shore. On the way back he comes across a 'troop' of velvet monkeys, 15 or so in number, with each mother carrying a tiny baby on its chest, and the babies are looking around as they nurse. When he gets to the boat he tells me where to look on the shoreline to see the monkeys. I do so, then get my camera and walk across the bridge to the shore and take pictures of the monkeys. Cool. On safari in our marina.

Joel gets up at 7:45 AM, only because I had boiled water for his coffee.

Breakfast at 8:30 AM consists of bacon, potato, eggs, chilled pineapple pieces and 'banana' bread. Like yesterday the banana bread is bread with butter and jelly on it along with cut pieces of banana. Jeremy's culinary creation. I try it again, as its not bad.

After breakfast we empty out the hidden storage area so I can have more freeze dried food for our trip to Cape Town; and to find my foul weather boots. Jeremy continue to pack his bag and I continue to pack an extra bag for him to take back with him for me to Florida. We then watered the boat. We determine that the water tank leaks when we do this. Joel says we need a new O ring to stop the leak. One we'll have to get from Beneteau. I'll order it.

At 10:30 AM a huge storm crashes thru the marina. A BIG low pressure system followed later by a high pressure system. The barometer drops like a rock. The winds, according to Passage Weather, are 50+ knots. Edward from Adela says that he heard a report in the marina office that the winds were blowing at 75 knots (or 86 miles per hour) in the harbor; and that a pilot couldn't board a ship due to the high winds. That's above hurricane strength. This is why the coastline where we're at is called the 'Wild Coast.' And why we can only travel south to Cape Town when we have a 'weather window.'

Joel and I showered at 12:20 PM; then we're off to the shopping mall at 12:45 PM. Its raining; heavily overcast; very windy; and cold.

Once we get to the mall we head to the pizza restaurant and order 2 escargots, some garlic bread and then Joel has a greek salad with chicken and I have spaghetti with meat balls. Jeremy orders an exotic item with noodles. After lunch we have one scoop of ice cream called 'super vanilla' at an ice cream booth. After that Joel buys some wash clothes because he has lost 3 of them overboard during our trip; I buy a large luggage piece for Jeremy to carry stuff home with him for me; Jeremy buys some more clothes; and then we finish off our trip with me buying groceries. We contemplate going to a movie in the mall but the start times are all wrong.

Something common overseas is the custom of having to pay to use a bathroom in a mall. In Richards Bay the cost is 20 Rand or $.18. The bathroom is super clean and well stocked with appropriate paper products. The price is worth it.

We're back at the boat by 5:30 PM after waiting for our taxi for 50 minutes. Joel then takes a nap while Jeremy reads and I transfer stuff from the old, broken suitcase to the new one I purchased.

At 7:00 PM Joel and I watch a couple of movies, the latter one being 'This Means War.' I'm hesitant to mention the name of the first movie, so it will remain anonymous. Jeanine stops by for the boat for a visit with Edward from Adela. Jon from Boingo Alive also stops by and says that one of the crew members (the Italian) woke up this morning with a terrible back pain, so bad that he needed to be taken by ambulance to a hospital. As such, Jon said he is looking for another crew member as there are just two of them now for the trip south. I tell him I'll make that announcement during the 9:00 AM broadcast tomorrow.

I'm in bed by 10:30 PM while Joel and Jeanine are still watching the second movie.

Brian Fox




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