Come And Have A Look Around...

 Welcome to our home... please excuse some of the photos as we are still unpacking - however here we are...

Our Scullery and Galley .  Below the third planter box in the fold down cupboard is my dishwasher.  The picture beneath is our Saloon.  The table has three heights and folds out to a full dining table

Guest Cabin... we have put in a TV, DVD and Fusion Docking Station with Surround Sound, so you can have time out from us when you come and stay...

This is your bathroom.  It has a seperate shower, you can just see the door into it.

 This is the third Cabin, sorry about the mess, but we are still unpacking.  Underneath all the bags is a lovely seat, which is also a single bed, however it can fold out to be a double bed.  In the cupboard, which is out of the photo as the near end of the seat/bed, as shown is my washing machine.

 Forward of this, behind the closed door is my dry store area, as shown below.  Then looking back toward the Guest Cabin is our Chart Storage

This is the Nav Station 

Our Cabin, again with Fusion Surround Sound and Air Conditioning.  Four Wardrobes

Our Office - sorry about the mess, still unpacking

Our Bathroom, doesnt show the toilet, but we have one on our side too.  Note the size of the shower, it is actually a bath too.  We had our first bath on Friday after arriving back from testing the sails.  We were very wet and very cold.  We decided we would run only hot water to see when we would run out.  Well, we didn't!  We had to turn off the hot to add cold.  Behind the door at the end of the shower is our generator and behind the shower nozzle is our watermaker.  We can make over 144 litres an hour

Our Darling Friends from New Zealand, whom we miss so very much, gave us this lovely plaque just before we left.  It has pride of place in our Saloon so that we can see it every day

Thank you for coming to visit our home - please, please please come and see us soon!!!

Tulbagh and Jens Garden...

While Our Rose was out of the water we took the opportunity to go to the charming historical town of Talbagh, in the winelands of the Boland about 120km from Cape Town.  The valley was first discovered by European settlers in 1658 - with beautiful Cape Dutch architecture.  The is a place we went to for wine tasting, it also has the most beautiful church on the property, set amongst the vines

We stayed at a lovely place called "Vindoux" Tree Houses.  We had a lovely "Braii (BBQ) one night, which was given to us in this lovely hamper  - heres the master at work, along with the very friendly little doggie, who we found was very receptive to cupboard love (left overs!)

 On our way back to Our Rose, we went and collected our plants from Bridget whom I had hunted down www.herb-nursery.co.za  She is such a ball of energy and was so helpful (also introducing us to some great comedy!)  She will definatly visit for a wine or two before we leave and maybe somewhere in the world also...
So, when we arrived back to Our Rose, who was waiting for us back at the V & A Waterfront, with her bottom all fresh and fixed, it was time to start planting.  We had just unloaded the plants onto the dock (with quite a few un-usual glances from people), when a couple came up to us, and in the most unmistakable "Kiwi" accent said "so where in NZ are you from" - lovely to meet others from home.  Brian and Jill have been cruising for 7 years or so.  Needless to say, we offered them a wine (or two) and I proceeded to start gardening...

We had a lovely time chatting and drinking while I kept getting the hands into the soil and planting - It felt fantastic!
The next day, Friday, Rudi arrived - our watermaker was commissioned, it is producing more than 144 litres an hour - yahooooooo.  Joe from North Sails arrived, along with Mark, Neil, Rudi and ourselves, went out to test the sails - from full sail, reducing gradually to third reef.  Perfect day to be doing this as it was blowing, and pouring with rain!
Then, when we arrived back, Rudi's son Chris met us at the dock and he had the Pajero loaded with our things we had sent from New Zealand.  The plastic has come off the upholstery and we are now unpacking, surrounding ourselves with "home"...

The next update will have the interior photos!

What Next???

Saturday was the anniversary of our Hannah Robinson leaving us... we bought these roses for her...

We finally received our "Screecher" on Friday, with the beautiful rose on it.

Rudi had asked us if we would take Deslynn, Himself and Phil Southwell (the Maverick designer) out for an afternoon on Our Rose, so we also asked Mark (our delivery captain) to join us, along with Francois from Raymarine.

 Building Our Rose has been a real journey.  It has had a lot of happenings, with the latest being that our Anti-Fouling, after only three weeks is coming off.  We could not believe our eyes!  Rudi had used International as the base, however had been approached about using another product for the top coat - he had been told that it was the "best" thing, however it was overlooked that there needed to be another bonding agent used.  Long and short of this, Our Rose, after less than a month is now out of the water.

We have moved off her (we didn't think we would be doing that for a long time) and have gone away for 3 nights whilst this recent event is being rectified and Our Rose is being completed - she is still not yet finished, however we are hoping that all will be finished by the end of the week.  We are trying to stay positive, after so many issues.

Our Very First Sail!!!!!

Since Our Rose was launched, she has been crawling with Contractors, we have been wondering if we would ever go for the "First" sail?

Yesterday, Mark, (the Captain who has agreed to join us for our crossing from South Africa to the Caribbean) offered to come and sail with us for the first time - what a wonderful day we had...

We still have no helm seat (who needs a seat to sail!), we still have no pots, no bbq, finishing inside yet to be completed, watermaker yet to be installed, systems yet to be learned and tested, BUT, that still didn't stop us from taking Our Rose for the "First" sail... and she performed beautifully for us.  We only had about 12 knots of wind and we were getting along at 7 to 8.5 knots (not bad for her first run out!).  She was also pointing higher than the mono-hulls out there (we didn't tell her that was unusual)...

Shacks...

We have been asked a few times if there is poverty in New Zealand...

You can imagine our answer to this when you think of what it is like here in South Africa - the unemployment rate here is over 50%, there are no social benefits and these photos show how many people live.  These "shacks" as they are known here, go on for miles and miles, as far as the eye can see...

These photos I took as we were driving on a freeway here in Cape Town

A Lovely Afternoon...

Last Sunday our friend Claire asked if we would like to go to Hout Bay and listen to a band, we decided to make the most of the afternoon and went wine tasting at two vineyards on our way there...

We had a really lovely afternoon, ending up at "The Lookout" at Hout Bay the view straight out the window is lovely...

The band were great, playing all the oldies that we know - and danced to - yes, a few wines were had by all!

Our Rose - Journey to the Water...

Thursday 31 January we were at the factory when the truck turned up for Our Rose, ready for her journey very early the next morning to the water...  You can imagine our speechlessness when we received the phone call from the Royal Cape Yacht Club - the crane had broken and we would not be launching Friday.

Monday morning, we got up at 2am and drove down to Cape Town, and followed Our Rose from the factory to the Port - "What an Emotional Experience!"

We waited for everyone to arrive, to find that the crane had not passed the tests and we would not be launching that day - back up to our course (Ocean Yachtmaster Coastal).  So, the next morning we were up early again and back to Cape Town - we had decided to hire another crane and launch at a different location.  Then the wind blew - up to 45km.  We couldn't believe it - however after a very tense wait, the wind dropped long enough for Our Rose to be lifted in...

We motored around for an hour, while they launched another two boats, then went back in for our mast

 An old tradition when a mast is stepped is that you place a coin underneath it.  We placed under the mast 2 coins.  A New Zealand coin and a South African coin, which had been given to us by Luca and Gia, the children of Adrian and Hayley Atlantic Sailing.  They had presented us the coin one morning, in a lovely bag with hearts on it - they were just gorgeous!  We then motored Our Rose to her 1st berth, where we left her to be commissioned knowing we were moving onto her by the end of the weekend.

These seals are right beside our boat

Strandloper

A couple of weeks ago we went to Strandloper (www.strandloper.com) - a very different Restaurant... it is located on the beach and all of the food is cooked over fires or in fire ovens - there is no kitchen  - it is very rustic.  The lunch was over a 3 1/2 hour period - all seafood (except the bread baked in the fire oven, with the homemade jams)  These photos are just a few examples, Curried Mussels and Steamed Mussels, Crayfish, Fish... in total there were 10 different courses.

 The tables are bench tables and bench seats, set in the sand.  We met a lovely couple who were from London (South Africans living in London)... we had quite a few wines with them over the course of the afternoon and enjoyed their stories and the wonderful food and gorgeous setting

Quick Update

We arrived back to Cape Town after our six weeks in France.  Met with Rudi and many suppliers the next day, then headed an hour or so away to Langebaan where we are doing our sailing certificates with http://atlanticyachting.co.za

We have completed our Dayskipper Theory and are now one day away from completing our Day Skipper Practical.

We have had 30+ knot winds, that has made the sailing fun and challenging.  We have 3 young men on the boat with us - they are an absolute delight to be sailing with... they are all learning and are completing a 13 week course, enabling them to work in the "Superyacht" industry.

Our instructors at Atlantic Yachting have been exceptional and we can only say that if anyone was ever considering doing marine courses, no matter which part of the world they lived in, then come to South Africa and do the course (or courses) with Adrian, Hayley and the team from Atlantic Yachting.

Christmas, New Years Eve

Two days before Christmas, we headed off again to the market at Chagny.  We purchased most of the gorgeous produce we needed for our Christmas Menu.

So, on Christmas Day, Richard woke me with a glass of Champagne, a lit candle and a chocolate Santa!  We then started our preparations for our Wine and Food matching long lunch...  Richard had already made the Smoked Salmon Blinis, which we had with Strawberries and Champagne while we skyped our darling friends and family we were missing so much...  our lunch consisted of many courses (and wine), some of these included Tiger Prawns and Snails in Garlic Butter, Chantral and mixed Mushrooms in Thyme butter with crunchy Baguette, Aged Beef with Bernaise Sauce on creamed Spinich and Mash - it goes on and on.  Obviously all of the wine was French and from the region we are staying in - Champagne, Luberon 2010 Rose, Rully 1st Cru Chardonnay, Rully 1st Cru Pinot Noir etc etc

New Years Eve we went to lunch at Beaune to a Restaurant called  Le Cheval Noir.  We had a 6 course wine and food match - the food and the service was excellent.  The photos show my entrée of Tempura Prawns and Richards Dessert of Citrus Chocolate