It's been a few days since I started writing this post and they've been hectic, but we did manage to join Liz for lunch at her place. As usual, by the time lunch was over, we made our way back to the boat in the dark with a heavy fog adding a kind of romance to the evening.
People who've been here for a long time invariably have quite a collection of interesting rocks and minerals, and Sandy was delighted to come home with not one but 2 desert roses.
We've got to know Luderitz a fair bit more than we intended. When we got back from Australia we had a few jobs to do in preperation for our Atlantic crossing and they're now pretty well all done.
The big one was the alternator on the main engine and we've ended up with a new one as well as the old one as a spare. Our reluctant generator now has new sensors and a leaking fuel filter has been replaced. It's running sweetly too. I'd bore you to tears if I listed all the work but we've plodded steadily through it and are now just about ready. We were delayed waiting for some stuff from South Africa so could pace ourselves with the workload.
Today we're being blown all over the place again, but we have had a few good days with virtually no wind at all. On those days it's hard to believe the really windy ones.
Port control has been wonderful and hasn't charged us for our stay here. Before we leave we need to take on about 800 liters of diesel. We also want to leave with full water tanks so we figured we'd top everything up from the dock just before leaving. It sounds simple enough as long as we can find a day when the wind has stayed away.
Well, it's not that simple at all. If we leave our mooring and go into the main harbour berths there are port charges that have been waived so far. But that is where we have to go to get diesel if we don't want to buy it at the local service station and cart it out to the boat in jerry cans. The plus side is if we've cleared customs and immigration we can get it duty free for about half price.
So, Evaldene in port control will let us shoot in for not more than an hour, free of charges to get our diesel. Great! And top up water? No way. That triggers the fee stream and whether we take 10 liters or 10,000 liters the fee is the same, for us or for a container ship. Then there is the garbage removal fee which is the same for us or a ship, even if we don't have any. And of course there is the port fee itself which won't be able to be waived.
Ordinarily we'd just run the watermaker and over a few days fill the tanks. Not in Luderitz. The water is so full of dust and plancton that the filters clog in an hour or so.
I have no idea how many trips to the jetty I've done, but the water tanks are full. From the jetty there's a 3 or 4 minute walk to the waterfront area where the tap lives. We have one 20 liter jerry can for water but fortunately I was able to borrow another one for a day. It must be like getting 49 lashes. Eventually you lose count and just continue through the pain knowing it has to end eventually.
Now 2 or 3 trips a day keeps the tanks topped up and bodies and dishes clean!
I've got to know Heiko quite well. He's a bit of a character and I guess, a local legend. He was one of the early diamond divers when vaccuming the seabed got started as an industry. He did it for about 10 years and made good money. Then he set sail with his young family and did a circumnavigation over the next 11 years. When he got back he just couldn't face the prospect of diamond diving again. It's 2-3 weeks away from home working in cold water, and quite frankly, the pickings aren't as easy as they were. They get paid according the diamonds they bring in, so sometimes the money is good and sometimes they work for nothing.
As it happened a catamaran sailor arrived here with his boat breaking up in heavy weather from the Cape. He paid Heiko to do some repairs while he fought the insurance company. He turned up one day and told Heiko the insurance company had paid out so they now owned the 'wreck' and were writing it off. Heiko offered to get rid of it for them which they were happy to accept. After months of hard work reinforcing the weak and damaged parts etc, he is now the local charter boat guy. On mornings that aren't windy he takes tourists out for a couple of hours. Not a bad retirement job and it keeps the piggy bank happy.
One of the jobs on our list was to get a diver to clean the bottom. This area is nutrient rich and sitting here for nearly 4 months with a hull that is due to get a coat of antifoul paint gave us a veritable reef below the water line. Our problem is that not many places can lift 30 tons so we'll be getting it done when we get to Trinidad. In the mean time we need a clean hull because we have a lot of miles ahead and dragging a reef along slows us down enormously.
Heiko's son, Stefan is now a diamond diver and keen for extra cash. He also knows the cruising life having grown up with it so we felt he'd do a good job, and he did.
They came out to the boat a couple of days ago and we had a chance to chat about diamond diving once the job was done. The more experience you get the more you get to recognise crevices and gullies in the seabed that could hold diamonds. The divers move rocks and direct the nozzle sucking gravel up to about fist size. On the boat it goes through a 9mm mesh sieve to discard the bigger stuff. The sieved gravel is bagged and brought back for sorting on land. There are 4 cameras on board that run 24/7 so De Beers is watching!
While Stefan was working on this last trip, he spotted a diamond that would not fit through the sieve mesh and would be automatically dumped back with the rubble! He picked it up and tucked it in his wetsuit sleeve. When they measured it, it was 1.4cms across. He is an instant legend, having found the biggest diamond since seabed mining began. At a guess they think it would be worth over $200,000 uncut. Now all the other operators are wondering how many big diamonds they've thrown back with the rubble and talking of increasing thir mesh size.
We asked Stefan if he was tempted to try to pocket it. "Not really. Nobody would know you found the biggest diamond, and if you got caught, and it's almost certain you would, you'd lose your job, and the diamond, and serve a jail term." In this part of the world, murder would get 10 years in jail and out on parole in 2. Steal a diamond and you'd probably get 20 years!
As mentioned above a few more days have passed and the sun is low on the horizon with our departure tomorrow. No matter how much we plan ahead the last few days are always hectic and this time with the added chore of water ferrying.
But as usual Sandy has the provisioning done and stowed, I'm just the pack horse.
All that's left to do is final tiedowns, a trip in tomorrow to clear customs and immigration and pay for the diesel. Then back out to the boat and lift and secure the dinghy, get lines and fenders ready for the run into the harbour for the diesel, and head for the open sea.
We expect light wind until we get about 100 miles offshore, then the forecast looks like 10 to 15 knots for the next week which should get us half way to St Helena.
We really are looking forward to this voyage.
Until next time...