10-1-13

Well we did not get to use our newly learned navigation skills. When we sailed back it got dark pretty quickly so we got to see what it is like to sail at night. We learned what our markers look like at night and what all the different lights mean and what a boat looks like and where all our different colored lights are. Then it started to rain. Grrr. It was not scary it was just really annoying because the wind and rain blow in your face and it’s hard to see. And its FREEZING!!! When we got back the dock was not lit up very well so we had to be extra careful in tying up the lines and such. We did great though! We came back and shut the hatches and put on dry clothes. Warmed up after a bit and hung out and then went to bed about 12:30.

We got to sleep in till 9 the next morning which was nice! The bay there is so calm so I slept like a baby! We went out and practiced man over board and what to do. We all took the helm twice and practiced picking up the danboy (the danboy is a pole you keep on the back of the boat to drop in the water when you have a man overboard to mark the spot where he is. Makes it easier to spot him) that we dropped. When it came time for me to do it again the other team swooped in and picked up my danboy!!! NOT cool!!! They have a bigger and faster boat and they were just showing off a bit. We got it back eventually haha. We sailed back to Mykonos after practicing and that was wonderful until we got here and realized our engine would not start! We had to stay out in the bay with semi-strong winds and take down the main sail. Otto, our fearless instructor, called in to see if the fuel dock was open and sailed us in using the genoa which is the little sail up in the front. Even with the waves he maneuvered us in so perfectly we just slipped right in and parallel to the dock. So perfect and made it look so easy, what a rock star lol.

The captain of the other boat which is Rudi from Star Spirit came over and fixed our engine so it is good for now…hopefully. We ended early so we all went up and had a few beers at the café. Everyone ordered food but Ty and I had some steaks waiting for us in the boat. We made some steaks, hung out and then went to bed. Ty was out like a light as always while I had to try to ignore all the noise of the wind and try to fall asleep.

Today we go out in the ocean for the first time and then we will come back and have a big lunch and we get to spring clean the boat from bow to stern..yay… but then we are done for the week and we get a couple days off so time to enjoy Langebaan J

9-1-13

Well I am learning that Americans are all kinds of backwards…LOL…hence the date. We had our orientation and met the owner of the school. He gave us our rules for the time we are here. A lot of the normal no drugs, no drinking on the actual boat, no fighting with mates and no discussions of politics, religion or racism. We began class on Monday January 7^th and we had on average 30 knots of wind which is way too windy for a first day of sailing with people who have NO clue what they are doing...haha..We practiced raising and lowering the main sail and we learned all of our terminology for the parts of the boat. That was a blast! Actually. We have two different boats to learn on and we are on the “oldest” one. Yes we will just say it’s the oldest. We will learn the most on this boat since the engine has to be started manually every time and there are a couple of things that need to be fixed on it. Once we finished we just went up to the restaurant and got something to eat. Well everyone else did anyway. I was down with a little bit of land sickness. I had to go back to the boat to feel better. I am still getting used to going back and forth. I am so much more comfortable on the boat. Ty has absolutely no problem what so ever with that. We also learned some basic knots. We learned 5 of them and honestly I did have to help Ty a bit J just kidding we both got all the knots down and we know when and how to apply them so far.

Tuesday was much better for me since I was able to get much better sleep last night. Not as sick but it happens mostly when I am indoors. So I just stay outside! It’s not hard because everything is outside and open here. The weather is amazing. Tuesday we went out on the water for the first time. The winds were perfect and blowing about 15 to 20 knots all day so we had some major heeling and getting used to the boat and the way it sails and heels over. We take turns on the helm and tightening and loosening lines and we tacked and jibed a lot which means we basically would get the sails perfect and then turn around so we can switch side and get both sails on the other side of the boat…lol…it is a lot of work but it is fun and it beats any day in the office for sure!!!

We pulled up in Saldanha and we jumped from the boat to the dock and tied up the boat quickly so not to hit anyone else pretty much. First time jumping from the boat to the dock was pretty exhilarating for me!! Lol I was shaking! Anyway we bought groceries for a few days earlier this day and we had a bbq but they call it a Braai here. They have a wall made of brick with about 6 cubby holes in it and you put in your wood and start burning. For a proper braai you keep adding wood and burn it for about 8 hours! Everyone hangs out, drinks beer and sits around and talks. It was a lot of fun and interesting to see how they do it here. The boys had steaks and they made some kind of white mushroom sauce that looked freakin awesome with mashed potatoes. We had some kind of sausage in bun type thing and caramelized onions and it was all pretty interesting. Not my favorite but we have our kebobs and chops going on the grill today and steaks tomorrow.

Today we got up early and had a theory class! We learned how to read a chart and tell longitude and latitude. We learned what all the numbers mean and what the different signs on it. We did a little math and leaned how to read the compass and how to navigate so we will be practicing more of that today. We left and sailed over to Langebaan which took about an hour and a half because we had NO wind today. It was supposed to be the same as yesterday but we only had like 4-5 knots. We are now docked in Langebaan and making dinner. We will sail back at night and use our sweet new nav skills to get back to Saldanha and hang out there again tonight.

1-6-13

Slept pretty great for being in a new place last night. But let me back up just a bit. Since we sold all of our possessions in the garage sales Tyrone and I busted our butts at work to save as much money as possible to come to Langebaan South Africa. We worked and worked and I put in my notice about a month before our departure. I gave my boss  1 month notice just in case so she had plenty of time to replace me and it turned out she was able to find someone about 2 ½ weeks later! Tyrone and I quit pretty much the same day so we were able to spend a couple weeks with family and friends which was much needed. We had a blast spending time with everyone and saying our good byes. It was really hard to say good bye but we had to keep reminding ourselves it is not good bye, it’s see yam later. After many tears we said our final “see you soon” January 3^rd and left Houston on our Emirates flight to Dubai.

This plane is the only way to go when you have to be in the air for 14 hours! Lol it was amazing! It was a 380 and we were not in first class or anything but it was pretty spacious and we had chargers built into the private screen on the seat in front of you. I watched about 4 movies in a row before I finally forced myself to go to bed. The chairs recline quite a bit but the coolest thing was the camera on the front of the plane so you can watch the takeoff and the landing. I did record that when we landed in Dubai because of course Dubai had the runway lit up like a Christmas tree. They served us a couple of meals that weren’t too shabby and the selection of movies was huge! So that was a really nice flight and it did not feel like we were on a plane for 14 hours.

When we got to Dubai we tried to find a united club since we had passes to go in and get freshened up a bit but guess what, they don’t have one!!! L So we checked out the airport for a bit and found a Wi-Fi spot and emailed and checked in with everyone via Facebook. Facebook is becoming really convenient by the way. I never really posted much in the past but I probably posted 16 times between the 3^rd and now. It is just easy to let everyone we know what’s going on because everyone has it and lets just admit it we are all obsessed with it. Lol …We had our first international meal at McD’s since we were too chicken to try anything that might embarrass us on our next flight. We took a couple of naps, we had a beer to celebrate Ty’s birthdayJ my honey is 35 now. 8 hours later we were on a plane to Cape Town!

This plane…a 340..was like flying United but you had a screen that played a few random movies but it did not tell you what you were watching or when it started and you could not restart the movie. It was like flipping TV channels. Ugh…it was so cramped and the 9 ½ hour flight could not be over soon enough. The good thing was that the whole family of people surrounding us slept the whole way so we didn’t have the kids kicking our seats or anything like that so at least that was a good thing. They served a couple of meals but I wasn’t that hungry. I would say in that 2 day period I probably slept a total of 8 hours so we have been super sleep deprived but when we landed we got our excitement back so we were able to stay up and go to bed in Cape Town time and get on track easily.

We landed in Cape Town and it was so easy to get into the country. We went straight to passport check ins and showed our passports, the guy said one American woman and one American man, stamped our passports and sent us on our way. Yeah that easy. We grabbed our luggage and met the shuttle driver who was holding up a sign with our name on it. He drove us 2 hours up the coast to Mykonos club and here we are. There was a little confusion on where to go but the class, the flats, and the marina are all in one area and within walking distance. We borrowed his phone to call the school manager Tracey and she said she was going to have us stay in the flat for the night. Thank you Jesus! We were able to have a room with a bed and a hot shower as soon as we got in. The airport did not have Wi-Fi like in Dubai and our phones were dead because this plane did not have charger plug ins like the first one. We have a little mall where the school is located called the Pic and Pack and were able to find a Wi-Fi spot and log on just long enough to let everyone know we made it safely.

We came back and showered after buying a few supplies at the pic and pack and Tracey showed up with our roommate Christo. He is a nice kid all of 19 today. He is doing what we are doing pretty much but he is taking the class one step further and getting his ocean certification. We are stopping at offshore certification. We all have to meet at the school today at noon to go through orientation and move onto our boat. We are sharing a boat with 3 other people it turns out…lol…we will see how that goes…could be fun! So we decided to go down to the marina and have a nice little sit down dinner, have a few beers, and watch the sunset. We changed and put on some pants because it is FREEZING at night! Was not expecting it to be that cold but geeeez. Luckily the pick and pack has something similar to our Old Navy and I can pick up some yoga pants and another pair of linen pants or something. The price was about $20 U.S I think for the linen pants. We walked down and they have a few spots at the marina where you can eat and listen to music so we plopped down and dove right into the menu. Ty had the lamb skewers which were pretty good! I don’t normally like lamb but it’s not like the lamb at the Greek festival. Yeah we were hoping to have more South African food to choose from but this Mykonos Resort marina that we are staying at is of course Greek so they have a Greek menu and a pizzeria. I did go out of my comfort zone and try the prawn curry and oh ma gah it was so good! I can’t wait to try more new things! We did notice the crowd of captains all being loud and joking and drinking in the bar. You can tell they were out all day and are having a few drinks before heading home. I did notice that they did not eat there and I’m wondering where they go to eat around here. I would definitely like to try all the different places there are but I think we are sort of limited to the marina. The club Mykonos is a gated resort here so MOM that should make you feel better. We are staying in a gated resort with security and you have to have an access card to actually go down to the marina which is right off the bar deck where we had dinner.

We woke up at the crack of dawn to the rooster just up the road (that has still not stopped and the sun has been up for quite a while). The birds here are hilarious! They don’t sound like ca-caw seagulls back home. They sound like the game Angry Birds! They sound like chimps at the zoo actually…lol. Ok well time to get up get ready to go to orientation.

The 33 hour flight...

1-6-13

Slept pretty great for being in a new place last night. But let me back up just a bit. Since we sold all of our possessions in the garage sales Tyrone and I busted our butts at work to save as much money as possible to come to Langebaan South Africa. We worked and worked and I put in my notice about a month before our departure. I gave my boss  1 month notice just in case so she had plenty of time to replace me and it turned out she was able to find someone about 2 ½ weeks later! Tyrone and I quit pretty much the same day so we were able to spend a couple weeks with family and friends which was much needed. We had a blast spending time with everyone and saying our good byes. It was really hard to say good bye but we had to keep reminding ourselves it is not good bye, its see ya later. After many tears we said our final “see you soon” January 3^rd and left Houston on our Emirates flight to Dubai.

This plane is the only way to go when you have to be in the air for 14 hours! Lol it was amazing! It was a 380 and we were not in first class or anything but it was pretty spacious and we had chargers built into the private screen on the seat in front of you. I watched about 4 movies in a row before I finally forced myself to go to bed. The chairs recline quite a bit but the coolest thing was the camera on the front of the plane so you can watch the takeoff and the landing. I did record that when we landed in Dubai because of course Dubai had the runway lit up like a Christmas tree. They served us a couple of meals that weren’t too shabby and the selection of movies was huge! So that was a really nice flight and it did not feel like we were on a plane for 14 hours.

When we got to Dubai we tried to find a united club since we had passes to go in and get freshened up a bit but guess what, they don’t have one!!! L so we checked out the airport for a bit and found a wifi spot and emailed and checked in with everyone via Facebook. Facebook is becoming really convenient by the way. I never really posted much in the past but I probably posted 16 times between the 3^rd and now. It is just easy to let everyone we know whats going on because everyone has it and lets just admit it we are all obsessed with it. Lol …We had our first international meal at McD’s since we were too chicken to try anything that might embarrass us on our next flight. We took a couple of naps, we had a beer to celebrate Ty’s birthdayJ my honey is 35 now. 8 hours later we were on a plane to Cape Town!

This plane…a 340..was like flying United but you had a screen that played a few random movies but it did not tell you what you were watching or when it started and you could not restart the movie. It was like flipping tv channels. Ugh…it was so cramped and the 9 ½ hour flight could not be over soon enough. The good thing was that the whole family of people surrounding us slept the whole way so we didn’t have the kids kicking our seats or anything like that so at least that was a good thing. They served a couple of meals but I wasn’t that hungry. I would say in that 2 day period I probably slept a total of 8 hours so we have been super sleep deprived but when we landed we got our excitement back so we were able to stay up and go to bed in Cape Town time and get on track easily.

We landed in Cape Town and it was so easy to get into the country. We went straight to passport check ins and showed our passports, the guy said one American woman and one American man, stamped our passports and sent us on our way. Yeah that easy. We grabbed our luggage and met the shuttle driver who was holding up a sign with our name on it. He drove us 2 hours up the coast to Mykanos club and here we are. There was a little confusion on where to go but the class, the flats, and the marina are all in one area and within walking distance. We borrowed his phone to call the school manager Tracey and she said she was going to have us stay in the flat for the night. Thank you Jesus! We were able to have a room with a bed and a hot shower as soon as we got in. The airport did not have wifi like in Dubai and our phones were dead because this plane did not have charger plug ins like the first one. We have a little mall where the school is located called the Pic and Pack and were able to find a wifi spot and log on just long enough to let everyone know we made it safely.

We came back and showered after buying a few supplies at the pic and pack and Tracey showed up with our roommate Christo. He is a nice kid all of 19 today. He is doing what we are doing pretty much but he is taking the class one step further and getting his ocean certification. We are stopping at offshore certification. We all have to meet at the school today at noon to go through orientation and move onto our boat. We are sharing a boat with 3 other people it turns out…lol…we will see how that goes…could be fun! So we decided to go down to the marina and have a nice little sit down dinner, have a few beers, and watch the sunset. We changed and put on some pants because it is FREEZING at night! Was not expecting it to be that cold but geeeez. Luckily the pick and pack has something similar to our Old Navy and I can pick up some yoga pants and another pair of linen pants or something. The price was about $20 U.S I think for the linen pants. We walked down and they have a few spots at the marina where you can eat and listen to music so we plopped down and dove right into the menu. Ty had the lamb skewers which were pretty good! I don’t normally like lamb but its not like the lamb at the Greek festival. Yeah we were hoping to have more South African food to choose from but this Mykanos Resort marina that we are staying at is of course Greek so they have a greek menu and a pizzeria. I did go out of my comfort zone and try the prawn curry and oh ma gah it was so good! I cant wait to try more new things! We did notice the crowd of captains all being loud and joking and drinking in the bar. You can tell they were out all day and are having a few drinks before heading home. I did notice that they did not eat there and Im wondering where they go to eat around here. I would definitely like to try all the different places there are but I think we are sort of limited to the marina. The club Mykanos is a gated resort here so MOM that should make you feel better. We are staying in a gated resort with security and you have to have an access card to actually go down to the marina which is right off the bar deck where we had dinner.

We woke up at the crack of dawn to the rooster just up the road (that has still not stopped and the sun has been up for quite a while). The birds here are hilarious! They don’t sound like ca-caw seagulls back home. They sound like the game Angry Birds! They sound like chimps at the zoo actually…lol. Ok well time to get up get ready to go to orientation.

How it began...: )

     Hi everyone! Just to update you on The Adventure and how it all started....Tyrone and I decided to become Skippers! We decided a little over a month ago that we want a different life and we want to start living it as soon as possible. We made the decision and here is where we are so far.


I contacted the school in South Africa and have been emailing the owner of the school pretty much weekly for a couple months now. We are taking a 3 month course for our Yacht-master Offshore certification. We will arrive in Cape Town and then take a bus to Langebaan. We will then be living on the boat for the duration of the class. After class we will try to find jobs delivering sailboats to their destinations. This is how we will get our sea time and experience. We won't be captaining right away but after getting a certain amount of experience we should be able to find a job as captain and/or first mate!


First I had my passport updated with my new last name. I had to renew it which was about $100 but it came back in just a couple of weeks. 


After that I spoke with the landlord and they agreed to let us out of our lease if we found someone to take over. That was easy! We talked to our neighbors who recommended their friends so they came and looked at it and decided they wanted it. They moved in a month later. We moved all of our stuff out and sold it all to family and friends. We also had a garage sale and sold most of our little things like shoes, clothes, decor, kitchen items and basically everything we cannot take with us! We sold a lot and still have quite a bit left over. We are planning another garage sale in a few months to try to sell the remaining items. 


So that was the biggest step so far. Now we just continue paying off all debts and save every penny for 6 months and then off we go!