Between cruises: Summer in South Africa

Since returning to South Africa life has simply gone on:

The following purchases have been made:

- A new NASA depth sounder as I could not source new carbon brushes and NASA were most unhelpful in this regard. I'm still hoping that I will be able to get some so that the old one can be repaired but at least we will have a working sounder again.

- New matching cabin lights to replace the tacky plastic ones in the galley, master cabin and forepeak have been ordered from SVB. LED globes are coming from South Africa as SVB were out of stock of that version of the light - all the existing incandescent globes will also be changed to LED saving a lot of battery. Also, a tri-colour (white/red/yellow) LED downlighter for the galley to replace the existing fluorescent tube - I like 170 lumens and only using 0.4 amps.

- A smallish (in size) 1,500W/3,000W pure sine wave inverter to replace the 300W fixture.

- A radio/CD player capable of taking an iPod and memory sticks.

- We have had new seat covers made for the saloon - hope they fit!

- Lynn made new curtains for all the windows. 26 of them!

- Early in March the port gearbox was removed and replaced with a reconditioned one from Drinkwaard Motoren BV in Holland.

We have also done some travelling in SA:

- Another two trips to the Tembe Elephant Park on the SA/Mozambique border.

- A 5,000 kilometre trip around South Africa.

Desert road to Richtersveld

Richtersveld National Park

- A long weekend of trails with the Land Cruiser Club - Southern Africa. Some pretty hectic stuff!

Just can't stay out of the water!

Spot the vehicles.

- And still to come at the end of April is a week's fishing trip to the scenically magnificent Transkei Wild Coast.

Long stay visas have been granted and the suitcases are out and are rapidly filling up - and in precisely four weeks time we will be on our way to France!