AND SO THE WORK BEGAN..!

Having taken the plunge, and being 550 km away, with a business to run, we had to find contractors to help us with the repairs and rebuild. we asked around and were given the names of Keith Wilcox and his good wife Yvette, who were prepared to tackle the task, together with Stewart , a very able carpenter and Keith's brother Jeff, to sort out the plumbing issues.

Keith assembled a workforce of casual labourers and the wheels were set in motion. The first job was to strip the hull to check it's condition and then to patch, where necessary and refinish it. This proved to be a big task and took several weeks of scraping down, cleaning, resurfacing, scraping down and resurfacing again. And then there was the rest of the boat.........

A lot of work has been done by everyone over the past few months and when we arrived in East London on
21st May, she was a different boat. She was taking shape, albeit much too slowly. We were really keen to get her in the water, and tackle the unfamiliar rig and conduct our sea trials, but everything seemed to be thwarting our best efforts.

We arrived with a completely laden car, with no room for an extra chocolate bar. We had loaded the car the night before in Plett, emptying our daughter Casey's bedroom of all the "Boundless" paraphenalia which had filled the room over the past few months. Had we arranged everything? Had we packed it all? We were going to be away for three months, after all! The morning that we left, the dogs were all very bleak. Rosie, our nine year old Jack Russell,  had been following us around since the night before, terrified to let us out of her sight, lest, we slip away and leave her behind. she didn't know that, for better or worse, she was coming with us. Spud, Rosie's half witted son, was sure that something was about to happen, but had no idea what and Gulliver, my fifteen year old greyhound cross, was very distressed and followed my every move with his eyes.

And of course Polar, our very loud and very independent sixteen year old cat was marching around the house, screaming obscenities.

Having said our tearful goodbyes to the family, we set off. Rosie was so excited to be coming with us and settled down for the long journey to East London on my feet.- the only place available!

CHERYL