Wind an’ the waves =) – Marike

Time to blog again . . .

Hi all =) I should have written some time ago, but anyway 😉
One thing I have become very aware of since we’ve started this adventure, (well, two things) is that we are really influenced by the weather! Whether its sunny or not, if the wind is blowing (and how strong it’s blowing) all influence our day. If it’s cloudy, the sun-panels will not produce as much electricity, but if it’s sunny, the day might get unbearably hot. Wind affects how high the waves are, and also lends a big hand in how comfortable our day will turn out to be. However, moored as we are now, we are very sheltered from any build up of big waves. (When a motor boat wizzes past, of course, we are again reminded that our home is not the most stable of dwellings.) Waking up and asking ‘how strong is the Wind?’ is not an alien notion for me =) On the crossing especially!

The other thing, is that because it’s just us, our plans can change really quickly. If the wind dies, this or that doesn’t happen today. There are backup plans for our backup plans, and then in the end we decide to do something else!

A few points I want to add to my mom’s shopping in Rio:
Any employee doing stacking/lifting/handling of merchandise, wear a strange contraption around their middle similar to a corset. The only colour I’ve seen has been black, and they sometimes wear it loose (not tied up). It has straps crisscrossing over their back, like dungarees. As far as I can find out, they are to help when carrying heavy stuff. I have never seen one before ;P Another extremely strange thing about the shopping in Rio, is that we cannot find any good frozen vegetables. Vegetables in general seem to be in less abundance than in SA. The only frozen veggies we have tracked down are sorry looking, and in tiny bags – hardly adequate for a family of six!
We have now perfected our shopping to an art. We even had a morning where we set out at 7:15, and was back before 9! (Brazilian equivalent of Boeremark 😉
If we didn’t have our handy fold-up porter trollies, we would NEVER have been able to transport all the food to the boat. We are looking at the possibility of hiring a car when we do the big shop for moving on . . .

We are getting to know some of the people in the church, and have had some fun visiting and exchanging exclamations about the different things we have experienced. I have been told to introduce myself a ‘Catharina’ to the Brazilians rather than ‘Marike’, as Catharina is a Brazilian name and will therefore be much easier to remember than the very Afrikaans ‘Marike’.

The weather has changed from a variation of hot, very hot, and sizzling to a variation of cloudy, warm, and pouring rain. Unfortunately we had to find out this week that our boat isn’t quite as water-tight as we would have liked =( Some of the portholes and windows are giving problems, and there is one specific place that seems to have water materialising from nowhere. Other than that, the main source of water intake is the great big hole in the ceiling through which our engine was spirited away. The day after was wonderfully sunny, so most of the wet blankets, cushions etc. at least had a day to dry out again. =)

On the Wednesday of the week before last . . . well, it was a Wednesday, at any rate. On a Wednesday some time ago, we went to the Sugarloaf mountain with a friend from the church we attend here. Had a wonderful view, saw the sunset, and all the lights come on. ^_^ And this past Thursday, we went to see the Christ Redeemer statue. (Tick, tick) That takes care of the major tourist attractions hereabouts ;).

I mentioned before that we had been meeting a lot of people, but Easter weekend there was an explosion! Every day, from Thursday through to Tuesday, (oh wait – every day except for Monday) we either had someone on our boat, or we were visiting! And always with different people – we have met some yacht people, with same aged kids (roughly) as Karin and Sophia. (Two separate families, both that age group kids.) We had lots of fun going from one boat to the next, getting into rhythm with the easy-going beat of the yachting life. It really fascinated me how easy-going and accommodating they were! A typical ‘Nothing is set in concrete anyway, so why not make the most of it?’ attitude.

We are getting much better at being handy as well ;P My dad and I fixed our broken stanchions last Saturday! We decided to bolt them on properly (so they are not just screwed into the deck) and to do this we had to get in from underneath. First we had to strip off the ceiling inside the boat, take out all the polystyrene (for insulation) and identify the holes. These were leaking a lot of water when it rained – another reason we had to fix it up asap! With a lot of effort, and what I just know to be double the time any normal handy people would do it, we got them up again, and hopefully sorted out.

Other stuff we went to do was go to the zoo, walk up the tiled ally at St. Teresa and visit ”the” Hippy fair. (Apparently held every Sunday from since I don’t know when.) Had lots of fun, and now we can’t wait to get our engine back! Unfortunately it seems like that is going to take a while yet . . . parts, complications, ‘dead’ weeks and time all play a part in the drama of ”no engine”. =( We know that God is in control, though, no matter how messed-up things seem down here – whatever happens is according to His plan. =D

Right! That’s going to be all for now. =)
xXx