A Brand New Life

— never a dull moment —
  • General
    Melody For Sale
  • Belize
    Sailing Magazine
  • Mexico
    Sayulita: surfing, shopping and where we stayed
  • Mexico
    Sayulita
  • Panama
    Back In Bocas
  • South Africa
    With a Sailing Yacht – Ambassadeur Joernaal

    • The Work Commences

    The Work Commences

    When arriving at Harbour Island the hard work of refitting the old lady for our journey quickly began.  The unfortunate event of a nearby boat yard burning down bought us a number of hatches which could be salvaged to create 3 perfect hatches, one for each cabin. These were installed and the old leaky wooden hatches where happily discarded. The stripping of the back cabin began and decaying dog house was removed, which greatly improved her appearance, all in time for a visit from Joe and Vivian’s parents, David and Marlis.  First published on offtheline.co.za

    View Post

    Back Into The Water

    Back Into The Water

    After loads of hard work Melody’s plump hull was gleaming and she was ready to go back into the water. We gently lowered her down and our spirits where lifted when she gracefully entered the misty bay and kept afloat. We motored her across to the Saldanha Bay Yacht club where she would stay until we were able to bring her down to Cape Town and around to Gordon’s Bay. Viv First published on offtheline.co.za  

    View Post

    Paint at Last

    Paint at Last

    Finally the Jotun Marine paint started being applied, layer by painstaking layer. The summer Saldanha heat was almost unbearable but again, thankfully, our blind determination helped override the strong desire to hide in the shade and drink ice cold beer. So we pushed through and were rewarded with a sexy “new” Melody as a result! Photos first published on offtheline.co.za

    View Post

    Mini Melody

    Mini Melody

    As mentioned in a previous post, in between all the hardstand work on Melody’s hull, we managed to queeze in some fun and a little bit of sailing on our tiny tender. We had very relaxed New Year’s Eve “celebration” (mostly sleeping from exhaustion from all the work) in Yachtport’s yacht club, which e had all to ourselves because aparently no one else in their right mind works in a shipyard over the Christmas/New Year holiday season 😉 Thank you to Yachtport for trusting us with their brand new beautiful facility. It made for a welcome retreat from the chaotic…

    View Post

    New Hull

    New Hull

    A few shots of the gritblasting process, to take all the old crusty paint layers off and start fresh on clean steel, with all the correct primers and commercial shipping grade paints. Photos first published on offtheline.co.za

    View Post

    Bottom Lift

    Bottom Lift

    The next step was to lift old Melodious out of the water and have her grid blasted and repainted. A gruelling task and living on the hard for two weeks was a blow to everyone’s morale. The Yacht Port SA in Saldanha Bay, however, definitely made our stay far more bearable for which we are grateful. In between all the hard work there were plenty of memorable moments,  we managed to have a sunset sail on Mini Melody, our tender boat – Carla’s first sailing experience! As well as celebrating the arrival of 2011, well at least we tried. All of…

    View Post

    Melodious Discovery

    Melodious Discovery

    Somehow our dream was beginning to fall into place. After losing Drifter, the first yacht we wanted to buy, we managed to find another old yacht within our budget in Port Owen. The four of us jumped in our car and drove up to the small West Coast town and discovered our Melody. Old and weary she still seemed to have a spark in her weathering paint job. The boys managed to sail her down to Saldanha Bay at the beginning of December to have her examined by a hull specialist. She was approved and on the 20th of December,…

    View Post

    How it Began

    How it Began

    Our journey began with a simple question from Rufus: “If we could organize a yacht would you go sailing with us?”  On a cold August winter’s evening around the braai, as we celebrated Kate’s 27th Birthday, and after a few glasses of wine, we enthusiastically replied that we would. The dream was in motion!

    View Post