Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Hope you are faring well and that 2012 will be a good year for you!
DHARMA BUM III is now in Richards Bay, South Africa after we almost lost our rig just three days before we got here. When a strong wind blows against the Mozambique Current, the waves build quickly to a considerable height. Our port shroud parted, Aurora Ulani was talking about wires and cables, pointed - and I almost got a heart attack when I realized what was going on. Three times lucky now: First the toggle in Kiribati, then the chainplate in Singapore and now the shroud itself. All on the port side. And this after we had completely changed our standing rigging in Chaguaramas, Trinidad in 2006.
Well, here we are now and people are going out of their way to be friendly and helpful. Here at the "wall" in Tuzi Gazi at the "International Moorings" (where you clear in) we don't even have to pay a cent! And since we got access to shorepower and tap-water, Liping has been washing all our stuff in the cheapo washing machine we bought in Thailand. We are looking forward to a visit in the game park which isn't far from here. Lions, leopards, cheetahs, rhinos, elephants, gnu, warthogs and many other animals can be seen there. And, this is the first time I am eligible to a senior citizen discount. I haven't quite decided whether I should be pleased about that or not.
The sail from Madagascar was pleasant all the way to Bazaruto Island in Mozambique. After that the weather turned capricious and the weather forecasts as well. Madagascar itself was a bit of a culture shock with us, but since I wrote about that in my blog, I am not going to go into details here. Mauritius was good & we made quite a few new friends there. We spent a lot of time with Elie, Marie-Laure & Jules of OBERON from New Caledonia and feel sad that we can't spend any more time with them. Our plans are just too different.
As far as Asia is concerned: We prefer to be on land there instead of living on a boat. As there is almost no wind at all, most people use the engine all the time. I really hate doing that for various reasons. Also, I want to sail around the world instead of motoring! But still, Asia felt very much like home. You can eat out as often as you like, things are comparatively inexpensive and you can buy all the essentials.
After our numerous repairs, we will slowly inch our way around the coast of South Africa to Cape Town. Weather permitting of course. The next step will be Brazil (if we get the visa for Liping) and then Bequia in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean, where we will have completed our circumnavigation. We'll put DHARMA BUM III up for sale and fly to Germany to put Ulani to school there. Our intention is to give it two years. If we have settled in, have found work and all that, fine. If not, we'll move back to Taiwan and stay there.
We have noticed that Aurora's English is way better than her German or Chinese. A lot of the credit goes to Calvert School, a truly excellent homeschooling program. It is also a fact, that we meet a lot more English-speaking children than any others. So she lacks practice in both languages, although we do reading & writing in both of them every day before we even start with Calvert. So it goes... :-/
The highlights this year were of two different kinds. Chagos was a place that I would rank at the top anywhere, even including the Pacific. Truly wonderful! Hopefully it will be accessible in the future. And for me personally, it was so great to finally see my novel "Double Trouble at Sea" at "Barnes & Noble" and similar outfits. I had started it 14 years, 3 months and 15 days before it finally got published. Kind of daunting, but I have every intention to go for another book, hopefully a novel again. Should have enough material <grin>.
Right, that's all for now. Have to go on with repairs!
Cheers!
Holger, Liping & Aurora Ulani
Catamaran DHARMA BUM III
Richards Bay, South Africa
28°47.69'S 032°04.71'E
