No Papers, No go. And That's Official.

And Sir,

Tell me, do you have a license?

No license, no sailing.
We had the SAMSA category A survey done this week. A bit late, I hope not.

Gordon came from PE to do it. He is one of the Algoa Bay Yacht Club members who does this for the club fleet. I have known Gordon since 1979 when I first joined ABYC. Having this piece of government bureaucracy done by a fellow sailor and not a government official, is a great help.

Anyway, all went well and it was nice catching up with news from my old stomping grounds, ABYC.

You see that weird object in the background? It's a money tree. A little wire-craft tree with some brass coins tied into it. A financial guy gave me some years ago. Look carefully, there are not many coins on it.
It's a good reflection of my back pocket after the SAMSA survey.

Liferaft service, about R4 000. EPIRB another R4 000. Flares, lights on lifejackets, charts, upgraded First Aid Kit another R5 000 odd Rands.
So far most of the spend has been on making the boat safe. Hopefully we can now get onto making the boat fast. Except that money tree is bearing no fruit!

We must still order the spinnaker. THE spinnaker. The ONLY ONE!

And pay for the family's passage on the mail ship, and the insurance, and some antifouling and some, and some and another few Rands here and there.

Having empty pockets makes boat preparation easy. You can't buy it, therefore you don't have to install it.