Adventure of a Lifetime

We had planned to sail away today but..... we're still here. Everything is now completed though except for fueling the boat which is always done duty free just before you leave We are getting up at 6AM, having breakfast and heading to the fuel dock to try and be the first boat there when they open at 8AM. We have cleared customs, immigration and applied for our refund on VAT (value added tax). If you are a foreigner and exporting goods you have bought in South Africa you get a refund of 14% if you save your receipts. We had a pile 4 inches thick! Can't wait to get that check. Anyway this is probably the last set of pictures for awhile. We will be sending e-mail notes via our satellite phone from sea. Transmission is slow and we can only upload/download at 15kb/min. If you send us an e-mail, please start a new mail instead of just replying. It shortens the duration of the download.

OK OK, maybe tomorrow. We had more delays today, now we will try to get out at 8:am.
Dave
9.8.04
The catamaran that Kim and Greg have bought is a Voyage 580. It is only the fourth to be built. The attached e-mail is from the third of these boats built (see note below from owners of this boat). Had we been on schedule we would have also been caught in Ivan. Sometimes bad things happen for a reason.
Now we can leave.
Dave
(Grenada and the yachting community here are devastated. We are in the mangroves with no major damage and are still dry inside. The majority of other boats have not been so lucky.)

Here is a map of our projected route. We are heading up to Saldanha Bay Africa for a "shake out" sail our first day. We should have fast 25-30 knot winds. The next morning we are heading out into the big blue water. The first stop is St Helena Island, then Ascension Island, then Fernando de Noronha of Brazil, then Devil's Island of French Guyana, then Barbados, Then island hopping to the British Virgin Islands-our new home. We will let you know of our progress. It should take 10-12 days to get to St Helena. Kim and Greg

We are just hours away from departure. Our next stop is north of Cape Town in Saldona Bay. The plan is to stop for the night there and take care of any equipment problems/adjustments. Thursday we will be doing drills (tacking, jibing, raising and lowering all sails and man over board drills) in the bay. Then Friday early in the morning we will put all land behind us heading for St. Helena, nine days without seeing land.
We are all giddy with excitement, but deep inside very concerned about our journey. We have worked very hard to get to this point and as recently as a few days ago thought that it might all fall apart.
Now it looks like the time has come.
We have a Southeaster at 30 knots with 15ft. seas. This means that the wind will be at our backs.
Did I mention that I am nervous?
The adventure begins.
Shoving off for now,
EHDave

Kim and Teresa returning from a shopping trip (notice the big smile on Kim, the happy shopper). This is the second day of shopping for our provisions. The store sent two employees because they bought so much. The first trip they delivered in a truck.

Table Mountain/Cape Town, I’d like to get one of these to put behind St. Louis.

Update 9.6.04
Since so many of you have asked me about safety issues I decided to address it now. Kim and Greg have taken many precautions with safety equipment purchases. We have an EPIRB system (Emergency Positioning Indicating Radio Beacon). When they bought this system they registered the boat to this specific signal which gives them a full description of the boat, who is on it and where it is. This is an automatic system that activates and sends a radio beacon out via satellite to a safety organization that will dispatch the proper authorities. They can zero in on your signal within one square mile. The beacon lives inside a metal box that is mounted on the boat in such a way that if it is submerged the latch will disengage allowing the beacon to escape and float while transmitting. You can also open the box and engage the beacon manually. The idea is that the beacon will float along with the debris and survivors. Each life raft is also equipped with an EPIRB system.
Of course we have life jackets, each one equipped with a whistle and a strobe light. Kim and Greg have personal EPERBs on each of their life jackets as well.
When the weather gets a bit dicey we will have a lifeline that runs down the center of the boat. Everyone will wear a safety harness with two straps that have clips on the end. These will be used to move around the boat in big seas to help from being washed overboard by a large wave.
This boat is equipped with two inflatable life rafts and a dingy with a 60 hp outboard, however the dingy would be the last place to go in high seas. It is just not as stable as the life rafts. The general rule of thumb is that you never step down into a life raft, only up, and since this boat should never sink we expect only to use the life raft in case of a catastrophic fire. We have two grab bags filled with emergency supplies like flares VHF radios, food rations, passports, medications, fishing line and hooks and first aid kits.
This catamaran is designed not to sink even if it turtles, for you non sailors that means if the boat turns completely over so that the mast is pointing toward the ocean bottom. If this happens we have a hatch that is in the main cabin that opens to what would then be the top of the boat and we climb up. If someone is in any of the cabins they will have to utilize an escape route to the main cabin.
In case of a man/woman overboard we have two horse shoe type life rings that have an automatic strobe light that activates when it gets wet.
While on the subject of safety: two days ago we had an international terrorism alert that closed down the entire Cape Town harbor. This bomb threat came five years to the day when some Islamic PAGAD terrorists (Parents Against Drugs) bombed the Waterfront Planet Hollywood Restaurant and bar. Seems like an unusual way for this group to send a message, but this is the method that they choose. We are staying in the Waterfront area. When they closed this harbor it meant that we had no incoming or outgoing foot, vehicle, ship or boat movement. It was a complete shut down of an international harbor.
Naturally we hope that all of these efforts, exercises in safety and equipment won’t have to be utilized.
The boat finally officially belongs to Kim and Greg. Now we can go through customs and immigrations. We are zeroing in on a departure of Wed. or Thursday.
We have now spent about $3000 on groceries for five people for five weeks. I have never seen so many groceries in one spot outside of a grocery store.
You may remember that when we took the boat out in high winds and seas so that the designer could put the boat through some stress tests that we had failure of the slide clips that hold the tramps in place. Research has told us that the failure was caused by the tramps being to loose. Sooooo, I taped into my experience of the many times that I installed Hobie 16 tramps and tightened both tramps. They are not tight enough to curve the side rails but they are much better than they were.
Later,
Dave

Departure at last.
9.5.04
It looks like we may have a plan to depart Cape Town this Wed. or Thurs.
If the weather window holds and we can achieve a few last minute details we will get out of here and actually start the big adventure.
We are now in our sixth week of living together on a 58ft. catamaran with four adults who all have lived long enough to have established our own personal habits and life styles. With out a doubt we have had our moments of frustration with each other, but most of all the added pressure of dealing with the manufacturer of this boat. It has created a pressure cooker type of situation. We all have cabin fever and just want to get moving. What concerns me is that we haven’t even started our trip yet. The BIG water is calling; we look out every day and wonder what we have in store for us. Yesterday we started provisioning the boat. Ray and I went to the local grocery store (Pick N Pay) and ordered the meat, cheese and bread to be frozen and delivered to the boat. We are lucky to have Kim with us for this process as she has actually figured out how much of what food we will need. If it were up to me I would probably just go to the store with a makeshift list and start tossing stuff in the cart and run out of food half way into the trip. Kim, Ray and Teresa spent seven hours shopping for groceries at a cost of $2000. This is for five people for five weeks. Speaking of the cart, the shopping carts here are the size of our plastic carrying carts in our grocery stores. They have a metal frame on wheels and the plastic cart sits into that and that is the total cart. Imagine going to Sam’s and you only have a little carrying basket. It is no wonder that the South Africans think Americans are gluttons. The food here doesn’t last the way ours does, so that people have to go to the store a lot more often. A loaf of bread for example might last four or five days before it turns green with mold. They just don’t use the same preservatives that we are used to. Imagine the dilemma that we face when we are trying to provision the boat. The next problem is that even though we will be stopping 10 days into the trip at St. Helena we are told not to expect much in the way of food. It is a small island in the middle of the Atlantic and everything is brought by boat. Our other limitation is that we have one freezer, a small chest type and three refrigerators that are apartment size. This boat is very well equipped for a one week trip but we are maxing its capacity trying to stock it for five or six weeks.
I will be trying to send out our GPS coordinates as often as possible so that those who want to keep track of our progress will be able to look at a chart or globe and see where we are.
We have been tracking a 45’ cat that left here about a week ago. Every night we are in contact with them by marine band radio and get their coordinates. It is interesting that some days they have traveled as many as 150 miles and others as little as 70. What is more interesting is that it is the windier days that they are making less progress because they have to drop the spinnaker. Wait a minute; did I just say “as little as 70”? Imagine sailing 70 miles in one day? I normally would consider that a huge sailing day and I now am saying that that would be a bad day of minimum acceptability, like we can do anything about it.
Gotta go pack meat. More later.
Dave

Hi everyone, We had a delightful day at a local winery which included tribal face painting, feeding ducks and a walk along a babbling brook with picturesque majestic mountains in the background. We went back later in the week for a fabulous gourmet buffet which also included a tribal dance show. The dinner setting was set under Saharan desert type tents with colored blankets supplied for both decoration and warmth. They started dinner with costumed waitresses walking around with a pitcher of warm water and a wash basin bowl to cleanse your hands. The wine glasses were kept full and a good time was had by all. We bought wine and had another evening enjoying it on board with our new lighted wine glasses brought all the way from St Louis by Dave as a house warming gift. Perfect!!! The wine glasses came from Webster Groves from Patty's store Apple of Your Eye.
The attorneys are still battling it out but maybe the end of the tunnel is in sight. Lets hope so!!

This is Kim and Greg's new boat during heavy seas just outside Cape Town. The waves were about 15 to 20 feet and wind screaming at about 40 mph. This is Greg trimming the head sail during a sea trial.
Dave

We traveled at 60 MPH for twenty five minutes passing these Townships. These "houses go as far as the eye can see from the highway in most places. Notice the electric lines. S. Africa is the leader in the world in developing prepaid electric meters. You can go to a ATM machine and buy time on your meter and then go to your pole and plug in your code for the amount of electric that you bought. Maybe this explains why America is still considered The Land of opportunity. Even our poor have it better this.

One of the forms of transportation in Cape Town is called a Rikki. A Rikki is a small van that is narrow and is driven as if it is a fine race car. They jam as many as 10 people into it and drive like Hell, sometimes it feels like two wheel turns. I hiked up to an area called Signal Hill where the Navy has an operation whose job it is to shoot off a cannon at Noon every day. They have two cannons in case of a misfire so that the second cannon will fire. I got to load the cannon, Yahoo, but the navy mate asked me not to tell anyone, so hush hush. The only other mission that they perform is that they fire a 21 gun salute whenever a Navy vessel comes into the harbor. They use four cannons for the salute. I had a very unusual lunch at the Noon Day Restaurant. The food was all stuff that I couldn’t pronounce except for the rice.

I went to Robin Island about 9 miles from Cape Town. Robin Island is the island that houses the Prison where Nelson Mandela was held captive for seventeen years. All of the tour guides are ex-prisoners who all had many dramatic stories to tell. One of them told us that in his 5^th year of his six year term, the prison official came to him and said that he would allow his father to visit him for the first time and that the prison guards would even go pick up his father and bring him to the prison for the visit. So the prisoner gave him the address of his father. On the day of the visit the guards escorted the prisoner to the visiting area only to be told that his father would not be there because the guards that went to pick him up shot him 8 times and left him for dead. The guards are the same four guards that broke three of his ribs, punctured one of his eardrums and used his private parts for an ash tray for years. His dad is still alive today, however he is wheel chair bound, paralyzed from the waist down and lost one eye in the shooting. The four guards are also still alive and all have businesses and are doing business in South Africa.


Rikki and the driver Steve	Noon Day Cannon	Yahooo, I got to load the cannon	Cannon going off at noon with my load	Sign for the cannon

Four big guns used for the 21 gun salutes	Mandela's cell, notice the matt on the floor called a bed	Mandela's garden. The crops tasted bad, they only had salt water to use	Ship Wreck on Robin Island	Water system on every building on the island

Beggar with an original presentation

Seven 18s that is great (for Muddy Waters?) Who are they? I will miss my first Muddy Waters in twelve years. I have been wondering if our score keeper would be willing to count my sail trip as an out of town regatta since I will be sailing 1478 times the length of Carlyle lake? What do you think Mike?
Our preparation are zeroing in on completion. We hope to be sailing by mid week.
Dave L.

8.24.04
Today on the race committee boat that they call "The Bridge", as the Navy mates dropped anchor they really dropped anchor. The anchor, chain and winch yanked out of the deck and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. The Race Chair made some quick phone and radio calls and found another boat to use (A 22ft. motor boat, pic. coming).

We had to make the transfer at sea. Two of our committee refused to do it, so only three of us ran the race committee. It worked out fine since we all knew what we were doing. We had 35 knot winds and very choppy seas. Our club would not have gone out. Cancellation never even crossed the minds of these people. On this small boat we really earned our pay as the boat bobbed and bucked all day. We had to stand on hand rails to work the flags. The water was in the low fifties and we felt it quite often. At about 9:30am I noticed that the cook had thrown out a bag of chicken in the sun to let it thaw out. I made a comment to one of the navy mates about them getting chicken for lunch and he said, oh no that is for supper. I wonder if this fits the FDA guidelines for handling chicken?

The Southeasterly breeze brings the clouds in from the sea and when they hit the mountain they come up over and roll over the top.

This is one of the crash boats that the South African Navy is using for the Lipton Cup. One of the mates on the committee boat told me to beware on the crossing that boats similar to this one may approach us on the crossing with guns drawn. The trick is deciphering the difference between the local navy/police and the bad guys looking for loot. Notice that even the S.A. Navy has NO markings on the boats.

This is the 55ft. Trawler that the Navy is supplying with crew of 14 for the event. Today after setting the anchor we noticed smoke pouring out of one of the engine hatches. They had a all hands on deck alarm and the men flowed into all four of the engine hatches filled with smoke yelling commands in a Dutch language for a few minutes. Then the smoke stopped and they all come up and went back to at tease state while we went on with the race preparations. These people are used to perfect wind. Today we postponed for 55 minutes while the wind oscillated only 6 degrees.
Part of the junior program here includes these two boats and crew. They are at the back of the pack but at least get to compete.
The mate in the sun glasses used to sail Hobies with Carlton Tucker in L.A. They came to Cape Town for a competition once and he loved the sailing here so much that he sold everything he owned and has lived here ever since.


crash boat	crash boat	Committee boat	Committee boat	One of the competitors lightening the load on his boat before the race

Jr. Sailing competitors	Jr. Sailing competitors	Hobie sailor previously from L.A.	Competitors	Competitors

More 8.23.04
I realized that I am in a very different country tonight when Kim, Greg, Ray and I attended the regatta dinner and entertainment for the evening. After dinner was served they had dancing girls come on stage and proceeded to dance in a most provocative manor and ended up striping to the waist, and not much below that. Yahoo obedient women at a regatta. I asked Ray how he was enjoying his first regatta experience and he said, "I think I'm going to get into sailing more".
I'm thinking of a new form of entertainment for next years Muddy Waters.
Oh yea they had a male stripper for the women, but he got boooed off of the stage before he could finish. Even the women were booing him. Poor guy.
DO NOT expect me to send pictures of this event.

We finally got a chance to fly our spinnaker-she is beautiful! The designer of our boat, Alex Simonis, joined us another day when we had 30-40 knot winds. He wanted to see how the boat would handle in higher winds. She performed well-we were all impressed as it only felt like we were in aprox 20 knot winds. Toucan Play is a very strong and stable boat. We are all getting antsy to start our journey. We have had to get an attorney(UGH!!) to get them moving faster and it looks like it might work-keep your fingers crossed, Kim and Greg

8.22.04
South Africa started the Lipton Cup competition today. This the same as our Americas Cup is to us. In this event 25 clubs send a representative that has had a series of wins to qualify. Each club sends one boat. They will sail Sunday through Friday. No throw-outs. The Navy provided a 55ft. ship and crew for the committee boat and a smaller boat for the crash boat. The committee boat was parked at our dock and I stuck up a conversation with the Race Chair about the rules that sail by and he turned it into an invite to work on the race committee with them. So Ray and I grabbed a few essentials and headed out. WOW did you catch that, we worked the race committee of the MOST prestigious sailing event in South Africa. WOW how cool is that? The boats are all L26' boats and the teams have been practicing for this event for a long time. All boats are sponsored. Today they sailed one race on a rectangular course utilizing four marks and they did three laps. The race took the leader three hours. Although Ray has sailing experience, he doesn't have racing experience. So I sounded like I really knew something about this as I filled him in on what was going on and what to watch for. I t actually helped me realize that I do know quit a bit about racing rules and that I have gained this knowledge from my friends at CSA. This was a fantastic experience that I would not not have had if I had not been here at this particular moment. The delays that we have had here have been painful because I want to get on with the crossing, but today helped. I truly miss my friends in the Midwest.
EHDave
(Whose Birthday happens to be July 29th.)

8.21.04 Sat.
We are trying to get the hell out of Dodge (A phrase that no one here understands) on Tues morning at 8:am. If we are successful it will mean that we will be on the dark side of the moon as far as communication is concerned for about 10 days with the slight possibility of contact from St. Helena Island where we will stay for one night in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
I would be lying if told you that I am not concerned about this trip. I have many conversations with professional sailors who come in from sea after months who are talking about storms of Force 10 winds (50 to 60 MPH) one 55 ft. monohull got knocked down and lost its dingy, life raft, many supplies and ripped the main sail forcing it to return 2 days to Durban South Africa. I expect to see some of these winds during our adventure.
Dave

YAHOOOOOOO, WE FINALLY SAILED THE 58ft. catamaran.
A mate (south African slang) called the boat manufacturer early this morning and said that he wanted to take this boat out out in near Gale winds and that today would be a good day to do it. This particular mate has some pull with the manufacturer because he is the engineer that designed the boat. Alex said that he wanted to put the boat to the test.
So we scrambled to stow every loose item and we set sail. This boat is big and powerful, we reefed the main and raised the head sail and the main. After we were out for about an hour I pointed out a squall to skipper (Alex) to our port side. He said, I see it thank You. Then not to long after that we tacked straight for it. Once again I pointed out the the squall was coming straight for us. Now we were already sailing in 30 knot wind and 10ft. seas and Alex said that he was disappointed in the moderate wind conditions and was hoping that under the squall we would see increased conditions. And that we did, With consistent wind at 40 knots and 10 to 15 foot seas we managed to break some brackets that hold the forward port tramp and some other pieces on the front of the boat as we drove the beast straight into the wave for the sake of the test. When all was said and done he was happy with what he learned from the day of sailing and were happy to be put the test as well. It was a little hairy trying to learn a brand new boat for the first time in these conditions.
It is mind boggling to me to think that this just a small sampling of what we will encounter when we are days away from any land. The CSA race committee would never have had us leave the shore today.
All in all, I have to say that it was one Hell of a ride.
Dave

South Africa Report
8.15.04
I am loosing track of the days, I have to think extra hard or ask as to what day of the week it is. Not sure if this is good or bad but it is a way of life now. What I do feel is that I have not sailed for weeks. That is especially strange being in this sailing Mecca. I have visited the Royal Cape Yacht Club (Very Prestigious Joint) the members wear the traditional Blue Blazers with gold buttons. This place has two bars, restaurant, gift shop, a huge harbor with big big boats and beyond that they have water that is clear and never stops as far as the eye can see. The bulletin board in this place has notices of crew available, crew wanted and boats for sail just like our bulletin board at CSA. Some of the differences however:
• Crew jobs posted are for trips like from Cape Town to Vietnam or a race to Ireland.
• Opportunities to crew for months. Sometimes we have trouble finding crew for a Sunday, imagine looking for crew for months.
• Big boats for sale listed by the ton not the foot.
• Regatta notices for races for thousands of miles.
Since this is a sailing Mecca there is much more competition for parts. I have found shackles for $6 that I have paid $35 for in the mid west.
When we visited table Mountain we were waiting to get on the cable car and met a couple that lives less than a quarter mile from Linda Moore in Kirkwood, MO, USA. Yes, it feels very weird to have to say USA, but if you just say St. Louis, MO, they just don’t have a clue. Everyone seems to know before we even speak that we are from the USA. In there minds if you are from the USA you must be very wealthy.
Because the winters here are relatively mild and unemployment rate is so high they have a lot of vagrants here that get right in your face panhandling. The police look the other way while people set up cardboard home in bus stop shelters. We have seen whole communities of make shift homes made of rusty corrugated aluminum just a block away from brand new multi million dollar malls and homes.
We drove through a well to do neighborhood where baboons had come down out of the mountains and were running through the yards, and over the tops of houses. We saw one woman chasing them away with a broom and a man was chasing them off with a big club. So what seemed cute to us must be a real pain to the homeowners. These animals where going wherever they wanted and getting into trash cans and bar b q pits and who knows what else. No fence can keep them out.
Kim and I went for a camel ride while Ray and Greg cheered us on. Those things really bolt you around while riding and throw you way forward when they stand up and then again when they lay down. It was way cool to ride these things, maybe we could get a few of these things to keep at the lake instead of bikes.

Ray and I went for a little climb yesterday to the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. From this vantage point we were able to scope out the course for our sail. Even from from the top I couldn't see the other shore. We are estimating a 10,000 mile sail. That is the length of Carlyle Lake 1428 times. Pinch me, did I just say 1428?

hey Gang,
We are drying out today after a storm rolled through with Gale force winds of 55Knots and 30' seas. We were safe in the harbor, but could see out to the big BIG water. It helped to prepare us for what we will probably be sailing in at some time. Help me Mr. Wizard, Beam me up Scotty and all that crap. Suddenly a 58' foot boat doesn't look so big. I watched a huge ocean liner come in to the harbor and before it got the protected water it was rolling and pitching big time. And this was after the seas died down to about 10'.
We are still not sure when we will be able to leave the harbor and make a run for St. Helena, 8 to 14 days away.
EHDave
(Whose Birthday happens to be July 29th.)

Kim & Greg's boat, home for the next two months 24. KoDo DoDo Cape of Good Hope Park, ostrich, Penguin Park, S.Africa, Penguins, and an Extremely Handsome fellow at the helm of a 60ft. power boat. Dave

Fellow Adventure Buddies
Most of you know that I am on the adventure of a life time, at least that is what many of you have told me, and I agree. The Adventure/Mission: To sail a brand new 58â€™ Voyager Catamaran from South Africa to the British Virgin Islands in a two month period. I will be sending e-mails when I am able to find an E-Cafe and can get an e-mail out. I will use the subject lines "Adventure of a lifetime 8.6.04", etc.. Linda Cheri and Latham will be forwarding them to my sailing buddies and Linda Moore will send them to some of our non-sailing buddies. Many people have asked me to send them updates and I realize that some of you will get this twice and I am sorry about that. I hope that you will find these updates interesting and enjoy them, if not, hit "Delete".

The Adventure began on July 30, 2004 (Far Day) when a friend/fellow crew, Ray Devine and I left St. Louis at 10:40am on a flight to Minneapolis/St. Paul to Amsterdam, Netherlands to Cape Town, South Africa. This flight took us 28 hours with a few hours in layovers. Long long painfully long flight. The most intriguing part was flying over the Sahara desert for hours at 560MPH and seeing nothing but bright white sand.
In South Africa these people drive on the wrong side of the street all in little cars and like maniacs, swerving, weaving, accelerating and braking without warning. To make matters worse they speak eleven different languages. So that when they are screaming at each other they first have to figure out what language to use. Ad to that unusual terminology. We asked for directions and a fellow told us to go to the "robot" and make a right. What is a robot? Traffic light. Bathrooms are toilets, Greg tried to find a pawn shop asking everyone and found that they wouldn't even talk to him until someone finally told him that is a porn shop. Pawn shops are Pawn Brokers.

About the Boat:
This boat has been custom built to Kim and Greg's specifications over the past year. I arrived in South Africa six days ago and have been witnessing the extreme amount of detail required to bring such a huge project together.
The final invoice for this boat will come in over one million dollars.
Length: 57.5ft.
Beam:31ft.
Draft: 5.5ft.
Mast height off of waterline: 85ft.
Weight: 42,000lbs.
No one seems to know the square footage of the sails. I will let you know when I find out. We have a Main, Head Sail, Screacher and a Spinnaker and they all seem HUGE.
As of today we expect our launch date to be Aug. 12, 2004. Our first stop will be St. Helena Island
Hey, a seal just swam by the boat within 15 ft. What away to start the day.
More to come later,
Dave Leimbach (Whose B.D. is a long way away).