Back on Time & Tide

We are back on our floating home!!

While I was back in South Africa visiting my family, Gary and our friend, Wayne drove the 5th wheel down to Green Cove Spring, Florida where we kept the boat for the summer.

I spent some time with my ailing mother and visited my sisters and family.

Here are some pics I took while in South Africa

My sister Marlene and her husband live on a plot near Bethlehem and this donkey is a frequent visitor

Antelope

The three sisters, Joey, Marlene and me

Not an actual family member but rather one of the monkeys that
hang around my sister, Joey's neighborhood.

The City Hall in Pietermaritzburg,  my old home town

Vossie is my brother in law.  

Marlene and her daughter Yolandie

Joey and her daughters Renel and Karin

Only in South Africa

The view from Van Reenen's pass

Blou Wildebeeste - Blue Wildebeest 

Zebra

My mother has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimers 

My last day in SA was spent with good friends and Andre took me around to show me the new Mandela
statue at the Union Buildings in Pretoria

Madiba

Andre and me

MEANWHILE..............................

Gary arrived at the boat finding it covered in mold. Never one to back down from a challenge he set about cleaning the whole boat and fixing things....Thank you to Wayne who helped!!!

Things that worked perfectly well when she was put away on the hard, now inexplicably needed fixing:
Both engines wouldn't start,the water-maker developed a leak, the macerater pump was seized , the on board water pump needed fixing, Gary's head flusher had to be replaced, bath drain pump stopped working, fuel drain for SB engine was just plain broken off.

Gary also installed a new solar panel, a new engine start battery, a new heat exchanger on the SB engine and new new zincs throughout.

All of this he did in two weeks. The man is a machine!!

So, as we are getting ready to head out tomorrow, I must say both of us are a little nervous. Our confidence in the boat is a little shaky, to say the least. Last year we had so many issues and even though we have tested and retested everything, it will probably be a while before I will relax completely not always expecting that unforeseen thing to happen that will throw a wrench into the works.

But for now, I am just going to trust that things are ok and will be ok.

Sunset at Green Cove 

Ready Set.....

May I just end by saying thank you to all of you who read our blog and follow our little life's adventure. I am constantly surprised by how many of you there are and how many of you I have not even met yet. Thank you for reading.

....................to be continued

Hello from a chilly Canada

Hello from a chilly Canada

I know it has been a while since we updated you all on our goings-on and a BIG thank you to all of you who wrote and asked where we were and what we were doing …so here you go…..

We realized last winter that we were going to have to work this summer to replenish the cruising kitty. If you are a regular reader of our blog you will know we had many issues with engines and that the cost was high.

The horse farm where we lived this summer, compliments of our friends Wayne and Pat

So we applied for a job at a RV park in Prince Edward County, not too far from where we used to live. The arrangement we made with the owners of the RV Park was that we would help with the running of the park. In return we got a site to park our 5^th wheel camper and we would have an opportunity to make some money while doing some extra jobs around the park.

As soon as we arrived I knew it was not going to work out.  Gary and I gave it a good try but after a month we just left as we just couldn't see eye to eye with the owners.

Oh no!! Now we had nowhere to live and no work.

Luckily we have great friends. Wayne and Pat live on a horse farm and we were able to set up the trailer with all the amenities. For this kindness I will be forever thankful and indebted to them.

Gary got a job with an engineering company doing surveying and I got work at a cheese factory. Then Gary’s old boss got wind that he was back in the area and offered him a contract for 3 months back at his old job, he was in heaven with his old cronies.

Pat, Christelle, Gary and Wayne

Gary with his work buddies Wayne and Deb

I was working for minimum wage scooping ice-cream and selling cheese. The best part of my job , besides the free ice-cream and discounted cheese , was the wonderful kids I met and worked with.

Sierra, Courtney and Tessa The girls I worked with at the Cheese Factory

We worked a lot this past summer but we also got to see our kids and grandchildren and for the first time in years got to spend Canadian Thanksgiving as a family. We also got to touch base with friends although not as much as we wanted to.

The County is famous for its gorgeous beaches - Sandbanks National Park

At a look off , looking towards the East - In the far distance is Lake Ontario

The local county fair Picton

Sunset at Point Traverse - Prince Edward County

Tall Hollyhocks

At the Mariners Museum

Meeting up with old friends

Gary and his son, Nick and grandson Freddie

At my brother's wedding in Nova Scotia. Vic and Iren are currently on the East Coat sailing to warmer weather on their sailboat

While in Nova Scotia I met up with some old friends of mine, Jill and David

Granddaughter Mya

Grand children

So why are we still in Canada on November 08 and not in the sunny south??

Gary’s 3 month contract doesn't expire till mid-December. We had to set up the trailer trailer for winter living and so far so good. He will leave here around the 14^th of December and with the help of our good friend Wayne will take the trailer down south. Once back in Florida he will prep the boat and get her ready for another season on the water.

I unfortunately had some bad news from home where my mother has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I am taking a few weeks in December and flying home to spend time with her and my sisters.

It is getting cooler and we are looking forward to getting south as soon as we can.

We have had many people ask us where we are going to spend winter this year. All I know is that every year we make plans and we have never been able to stick to them. Our hopes are to return back to Great Harbour Cay. We have friends who are going to Cuba and friends who are going to the Keys, all those options also sound good. We also hope to meet up with my brother Vic and his wife Iren somewhere down south. They left Nova Scotia on their sailboat, Solveig in August.

Whatever happens, we will be happy to be on the boat again. And this year we will have tons of time without the dreaded deadlines forcing us to leave the US by a certain time. And after all the hard work this summer we look forward to doing a lot of relaxing.

Hopefully we will meet up with you somewhere on the water.

Back to Canada

We left a very nice and warm Florida and started our way north. We were less than a day out of Green Cove when we realized there was something very wrong with the brakes on the 5^th wheel.

Gary has a brake control thingy in the truck which, …. Well it stopped working. So we called a local RV park and the referred us to A Camping World near Savannah.

In less than an hour they had us fixed and back on the road. Well actually NOT!!  We were 500 feet down the road when we realized it was still doing the exact same thing so  back to Camping World we went. Well, I am not going to bore you with the details of the excruciating experience we had to endure over the next 3 days all I will say is that at one time I did lose my cool.

They blatantly tried to charge us for work and parts that we not needed. Thankfully Gary knew to not take them at their word and went to check things out for himself. Work that was going to cost us $1000s would have been completely unnecessary. Ug I was so mad!!

Anyhow, three days later we were finally done and continued on our way. (PLEASE NOTE ! The wiring they fixed was done so badly that when we were in Virginia Gary had to fix it again!!!) Someone suggested I write to Camping World’s CEO, but what good would that do??)

We kept hearing that the weather up north was still cold and miserable so we decided to stay in South Carolina for a while longer. We booked into the Collerton National Park just in time for the annual Grits Festival.

The Tuskegee Airmen Memorial 

Airshow at Walterboro Airport South Carolina

Collerton National Park

Car show

Grits Festival

Grits eating competition...some of those kids looked ready to barf afterwards

With our summer jobs confirmed we had to get to Canada ! As we were travelling north we got colder and colder.  The mountains in Pennsylvania were stilled dabbled with snow and streams and water runoffs were still icy. I forgot how cold it could be up here.

After spending time with our friends in Picton we headed the RV Park where we are working this summer. Our jobs are to keep the grass short, firewood cut and Gary takes care of the water system. My job is to work in the store and take care of the bathrooms and cottages in the park.

Some pictures of the RV park we are working/staying at this summer

The closer we came north the colder it got

Air force One flying over our heads

Traffic jam as Canadians are trying to get over to the States for Easter holiday shopping

The park is beautiful and located in Prince Edward County. Some of the first guests in the park are “Birders” These are volunteers who come to the county to catch birds, band them and then record the information about migrating.

We have spent very little time with friends and family thus far, because our work schedule is all over the place. We are also in the middle of NOWHERE!  No cell phone reception and very limited internet access.

We have been here for about a month and already we feel the itch to move on and be on the road. We are committed to work here for the summer.

PS I wrote this blog entry about 3 weeks ago, with limited wifi I am only able to post it today. It is almost the end of May and we still have our little electric heater on almost every day. We have had some warm days but in general it has been COLD! Where we are, basically on Lake Ontario, it is generally 10 degrees cooler than inland. I picked up a lovely flue bug and decided there was no reason to suffer alone so I shared it with Gary.

Needless to say we both long for the warmth and sunshine of the Bahamas.

Christelle