We have a job!

So we got a text from a skipper with Tui this morning at about 8:30 asking to meet for coffee so we jumped up n got ready quickly. He wanted to introduce us to a captain that owns a charter boat here in the V & A Waterfront that takes people on day cruises and sunset cruises and stuff like that! We start on Wednesday at 10:30!!! We will be crewing and helping out with the charters and general boat maintenance which is awesome! It's great experience because its an older boat originally used in Navy training. The captain said we could also stay there for free if we like!! I think we will move there on Thursday which is great cuz we will be there on the water and in waterfront right by the Tui marine office!! That was great news this morning!

He also wanted to know if we would be interested in being standby crew for the delivery he is doing mid May!! There may or may not be complications with the current crew getting their B1/B2 visas and if they get denied he wants US!!!! It's a delivery going to Ft Laudedale and stopping in Caribbean along the way. It would be awesome to sail with him! I feel like we could learn so much in a short period of time and one of us would be first mate!!(ahem!) Ty and I will Rock Paper Scissors for it cuz we can't agree on who it's gonna be if we do get to go. Lol.

We also stopped by the Tui office but Louis was out or the day and Nicky said the next group of deliveries won't be out for about a month or so. All the deliveries just left and all the captains are out right now so we wait some more. But at least we have something to do in the meantime and we don't have to just wait around ya know?

So today was a great day!!! Last night we met up with an old classmate and she took us to see some bands play in Kalk Bay at the Brass Bell. That was awesome!!! New fav band!! Gonna have to download their stuff and put it up here. So we got to see another side of Cape Town and it was beautiful!!! The view on the way there, the view of the Harbor and the surf spot look amazing and soooo gorgeous! We drive thru this one area that reminded me of a cross between rice village and river oaks so it was really pretty. We stopped at a natural spring where people bring their empty bottles and fill them up with natural sprig water! I've never seen anything like that before and the area was beautiful! I think we will see the mountain and do the tourist thing tomorrow. Well now we know we have plenty of time to see everything and maybe even take a few surfing lessons!:)

Aaaaand we wait...

So Ty passed his eye test and got his ENG1 all sorted. Yay! Everything is official now. ;) we went to Tui marine and spoke with them about getting a delivery. Basically we just have to wait until the new list of deliveries comes out and they speak to the captains to see who needs what crew. Most of them are going to the Caribbean so it looks like we may end up going there or to ft lauderdale. If we do that we are hoping to jump on another delivery to the med then maybe fly back here to Cape Town for another delivery. In a perfect world right? But we will see what happens. Tomorrow we should find out if they have anything for us. Keepin our fingers crossed. I really hate just hangin out and waiting...we miss being out on the water.

Well we went out the other night with some friends for their going away party. They just left for Australia yesterday. So jealous!!!! Anyway we were out and someone swiped Ty's phone!!! Crazy!!! Gone. Just like that!!! Not happy about that at all. We had to go get him a new phone and new number and he isn't available through talkatone anymore. He still had what's app so if you are reading this and would like to contact him you will need to download what's app to your phone and his new number is +27 (078) 622-7477. And of course you can still call me through talkatone or viber if you wanna speak to him...or me! ;) his new phone had email, Facebook and what's app but that's about the extent of his social network now. Lol.

I think we are going to be tourist for a little while until we get a delivery. Maybe take a trip up the mountain and do the gondola tour or something. We hear its beautiful and I'm sure it is. I still can't get over the view!!! The mountain is so beautiful!!!

We were offered a job to help crew on a tourist charter boat. One that does sunset cruises and little charters like that. We were supposed to go today but the weather turned on us and they cancelled. :(. We were excited to get out and sail again and get more experience on another boat but they have our number for the future so no worries.

I have been bad lately about taking pics so sorry. Just not a lot going on at the moment but I will fix this starting today!

We may be switching backpackers tomorrow. Going to try to find one closer to the waterfront. Maybe even get our own private room who knows!! Haha

Green elephant

So we left Jjs house since he moved onto his boat Monday. We are now staying at the green elephant backpackers! It's a really cute place and we are staying in the dorm style room so we have about 5 roommates. Man do they snore! Had to put on my headphones and fall asleep to the black keys! Jess-1 boys-0 ;) it has plenty of showers n toilets and also has a pool but too cold to swim at the moment. That's why I want to get a delivery as soon as possible!! Too cold here now. Although it has been warm for past couple of days. Anyway it also has a big tv room, free unlimited wifi which is unheard of here, a pool table and a little bar! It's in a cute part if town with a few bars/restaurants and cafès and shops within walking distance so all in all not so bad. It's too far from the waterfront to walk tho. That would be the only downfall. Have to take a $7 cab ride to the waterfront if we wanna go. We sent in our CVs yesterday and we are going to Tui marine today just to say hello and confirm that they got the email. Ty is getting his eye test done right now so in the lobby I wait.... Wonder what this day has to bring?...:)

Fire fighting

We finished our firefighting course this week! We had a three day class and we learned about fires, extinguishers and all sorts of fire fighting stuff. We got dressed in the full thermal suit and oxygen mask and learned how to work the o2 tank. They have these cargo containers and they set a few fires in them and they have us go in full suit with a water hose and put them out. We went in a team of six people and Ty and I put out the first fire by shooting short bursts of water into it and then fully spraying till it was out. It was sooooo hot in that container. The last day we had to crawl thru a container filled with foam! It was fun but I totally inhaled bubbles...

There is a boat show in Cape Town this weekend so we came down to the marina and we were able to help crew a 58 ft leapard catamaran!! This boat is massive and it is out first cat to get in and sail so we offered to help out Saturday and Sunday for a two hr sail.

We r staying with a friend at the moment and we move to a backpackers on Monday since he is taking off to Australia on a delivery. We are going up to the Tui marine office tomorrow to see about getting a delivery since we are completely finished with everything now. Wish us luck!

Catching up

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated but we have been super busy lately! First we got back to Mykonos and then headed out on another distance trip up north to Lambert's Bay. We took our sextant sights along the way for the oceans exam. It was a fun trip except for the little flood we had on board. We pulled in and got that taken care of and sailed back to Mykonos.

We took our lil road trip to Namibia and it was SO amazing!!!! OMG the sand dunes were crazy beautiful!!! It took a full day to get there and we stopped in Windhoek which is the Capitol then proceeded to Swakopmund. Arnold has a beach house there so we stayed there a couple nights and also went to his farm. His farm is this massive piece of land about 18,000 acres and we drive alllll over it. We saw baboons...zebras...meerkats...giant rabbits... No giraffes tho :(. We went sand boarding one day and OMG it was SO fun!!! It looked crazy steep but it wasn't so bad. I'm just glad I didn't chicken out after lookin over the edge! The bad part was that they have no lifts so u have to climb the dune every time to get back up. What a view tho! After sand boarding we rented 4 wheelers and played on the dunes some more. My first time on a 4 wheeler and it was crazy fun!

We came back in the country only to find that they don't give another 90 days for the visa. They only gave us 7 days so we had to come back to Cape Town after we got back and showed them flight papers and we were in an out in 5 minutes...crazy...

We finished prep week and practiced man over boards, picking up mooring balls, docking and stuff to get ready for the exam. The examiner Russell got there Saturday morning and we took our exam. We went over the safety briefing first then he appointed me in the helm first and asked me to take us out and then dock us stern to.....STERN TO!?!?!?!? I bout crapped myself!!!!! Haha we never practiced that!!!!!!!! I was sweating it so bad but turns out its not that hard and there was no wind so I nailed it! Sort of.... We went for a sail to Saldana bay after that and I had to blind nav us there so I stayed below deck and told em what to steer and all that. I got us to our destination perfectly! Then we picked up mooring balls and had lunch then sailed to langebaan. We picked up more mooring balls over there since you use a different sail when you have current and wind. Then we anchored and had a snack before I navigated us around Jutten island in the dark. When we got back to Mykonos we made a feast of a meal and went over colregs and lights. We also showed him our sights from the sextant and my sights were really good for some reason. I think it was a fluke. They aren't supposed to be that good on the first try. Sunday morning we made him breakfast and OH I found tortillas here!!! So we made breakfast tacos!!! Yum. Anyway Ty me and JJ took the oral exam for the oceans part of it. We talked about what it means and how it works and all that. Then he asked if we feel comfortable crossing an ocean now and of course we all said yes! He said ok then at the end of the day you have to be the judge so you all pass! I do have to say the day of the exam was the absolute most fun I have had sailing yet.

So that's it we now have our yachtmaster oceans certificate!!! We went out straight away for our celebration. I can't believe it's over already. We have been waitin for this day for a year and its already come and gone...so strange... Now we just need to find a delivery that will take on 2 crew instead of one. We finish our fire fighting this week and then we are done completely and we will hang out in Cape Town and stalk captains at Tui marine until one of them gives us a chance! Haha ;)