ratCATcher Cruises: January 2014

Those of you following our blog probably think we sailed or flew into the proverbial Bermuda Triangle! Well the Bermuda Triangle it was not, it was a South African Reality Triangle.

Horror of horrors!! Especially for us wandering cruisers, at least the Bermuda Triangle has an explorer type romanticized hint of the unknown! The Reality Triangle has no such charm or intrigue! Away from our home on the sea we felt more adrift than we ever have at sea!

How did we find ourselves voluntary inmates of reality? It started like this:

Hurricane season arrived in June 2012, Rat Catcher was hauled out and on the hard (standing on the land) at Bobby's Megayard in Sint Maarten! The run up to settling her in for the season had not been totally uneventful! Cruisers beware!

We had decided we would like to haul out in Sint Maarten, as it is in the Hurricane no-go zone, we contacted our insurers, "Mutual and Federal" in South Africa and asked if it would be possible? We explained we would be willing to pay an additional premium and take any precautions they might require. If it was not allowed we would run back to Trinidad, BUT we had to know in time so we could plan to sail down waiting for weather windows etc. In the right weather it would take about four days sailing to get there.

We were delighted, we got a prompt response back by email saying that we were welcome to haul out in Sint Maarten, there would be no extra premiums or precautions. We asked them to send it to us in writing on an official addendum to our policy. They assured us they would. So time went by and we kept asking for the confirmation. Two weeks before we were due to fly out we received an addendum assuring us we were NOT covered at all if we stayed in Sint Maarten! DISASTER!!!

We had already cancelled our spot in Trinidad and boatyards are full at this time of year! Not only that but the weather windows were now few and far between. We were stuck! Running around we found Nagico, a local insurer who took over the cover!

This should have been some sort of indication that the hurricane season was not to be a smooth one and would bring in some hurricane styled changes for us in the year.

So with Rat Catcher well tied down and ready for a short 5 month stay on the hard we set off for St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada for our annual sojourn of work and earn.

The plan was in Andre's off time we were going to 'pop home' to South Africa to say hello to the family and sort out the few things that needed our personal attention, then we would both head back to Canada before returning to Rat Catcher!

While there we decided that Andre would head back and I would stay and finalize everything while he did his next 3 week stint in Canada!

We decided with almost 9 weeks available I would send out my CV and see if I could get a temporary position to be able to become current again and then register to be able to nurse in Canada!

Well to cut a long story short this is what we managed in the 18 months away from Rat Catcher:

We sold Trawlers, our Seafood restaurant, much to the relief of my folks who had gamely taken care of it the last two years. Thanks Des and Pam!

I went back to nursing after 22 years out of the industry and learned to 'scrub'. Also known as assist the Doctors during an operation. I confess I loved it and confided to Andre we might have to stay longer than 1 year, but the reality of the staff in control got to me and nothing is worth the total misery of working in those conditions, no matter how much you love what you doing. The average miserable stay in that department is between 3 and 6 months. I saw 10 excellent staff members leave in my 12 months; none because they didn't like the job, all because of the management of the department. I can't say I wasn't warned, three doctor friends told me I was heading into hell and boy were they right! But I achieved my goal of becoming current after 22 years away!

We hopefully settled the parents, both sets, where they are safe and happy despite missing their brats!

We found a dream home for our beloved 'Billy Boy' aka Kabila the African Grey! Who we also found out is actually a girl. No wonder she was confused. She now has a new brother called Comic, he is a huge Cockatoo and makes her look like the dainty girl she is.

And one of the biggest decisions was to take Lulu our precious princess and make a bush cat into a princess pirate!

We rented out our house and put all our goods in storage!

So 18 moths after leaving the boat for four months we returned. Well in all honesty Andre returned first as he had to ready the boat for Lulu to move aboard. Meaning the boat had to be on the water for minimum escape opportunities and minimum stress. We need not have worried. Check out her blog page for her adventures!

Rat Catcher splashed on the 13th December and I swear I could hear her sizzle with pleasure all the way to South Africa!

Much of her did not enjoy the 18 months on land especially the electronics. So since we arrived it's been fixing fixing repairing and replacing, we can't wait for it to all be done so we can sail off and cruise instead of sitting at anchor!

'Island Time' is the Caribbean equivalent to African Time and so we wait for things to get done. It seems each time we are able to tick a job off the list another appears. We were about to put the genoa back up today only to discover the stitching is all rotten and coming apart so first it all has to be re stitched. First job for our new walking foot machine.

We will keep up to date as to where the next stop it as soon as we have decided!

Happy New year to one and all. May 2014 be full of health, opportunity and dreams made true!