March 27, 2008 (in metric, 27/03/08)

"The real secret of patience is to find something to do in the meantime."
Doug Larson

Now for our boat update: It is not ready. Not even near ready, nor will be ready anytime soon despite all of the assurances and promises. We went to visit the factory on Tuesday, and I could see Wayne's expression of disappointment. South Africa is very similar to the Caribbean Islands in that no one is in a hurry. For Easter everyone has Friday and Monday off, so one would think on Tuesday it would be; ok let's hit it everyone. There is clearly no "hitting it" here. Wayne best quote was "don't they have overtime"? When we went on the boat to check it out, all the workers stopped and got off! We did meet with the person who is going to make our cushions (he is on vacation for 3 weeks beginning Friday but has others that will do the work, hopefully) the woman that orders things for the boat - flooring etc. had a baby last week, the flooring is unavailable but hopefully is being ordered, and we have a meeting on Monday with the sail maker.... In all I am optimistic that everything will come together and be perfect in the end whenever that may be... We are trying to post the pictures of the boat but are having a difficult time; the map is also incorrect so we will try again. We have to go to an internet caf� to get on line.

The "Chico" was too much for everyone, so it was returned for a much more comfortable car. Although Wayne was getting the hang of it, it was painful to watch him shift, turn the wheel (no power steering) and listen to all of us yelling at him to keep left for every trip we took. Our vehicle now is much more comfortable, and Wayne is clearly getting the hang of it.

Yesterday we drove to Cape Hope and the scenery was unbelievable. This country is absolutely beautiful. The mountains just coming out of the ocean are spectacular. Today we went to wine country and after a few testing "flights" we all needed a nap. We are staying at a bed and breakfast in Franschhoek which is a quaint town in the middle of wine country. In a 24 hour period we saw quite a bit of wildlife in their natural habitat. It started with penguins at boulder beach, little gopher like animals called dabbies , Ostriches, and we saw a deadly African cobra one of the most venomous snakes in the world in the vineyards today. We just had more wine.