It is human that one tends to reflect back on the past year and past times at the beginning of a new year. And as I thought about this update and what to write, I paged back in my diary, since our journey began. I was surprised to discover, I am not very good at remembering dates, that it is actually to the day, that we have left Durban, without Deon, on this voyage. The years since then have been memorable and highlights know no bounds.

Sailing down the African coast to Cape Town, wild and unpredictable and with the exciting unknown ahead of us, was a huge boost to our confidence and was the confirmation for our decision to actually try and circumnavigate. It was a huge hurdle for me to overcome, now sailing without Deon and for the start of my new life without him and having just completed one of the most notorious passages during a circumnavigation. I will not forget the immense thrill I experienced whilst sailing into False Bay, with the beautiful Simons Town enclosed by the Cape Mountains.

When we started the voyage I felt that I would use crew to help us along, if it is the right crew. How does one know that? I did not, but I relied on my gut feeling and a fierce belief that Nature would be looking after me and the kids during the years to come. In Simons Town we befriended the crew onboard "StarGap", a yacht from Durban that was also heading to the Caribbean. Riaan became good friends with Shayne, his dad Claude Hall and friend Dennis and they spent a lot of time seeing and doing things together. We cleared out together, with Brian, the owner/skipper of "StarGap" firmly planning to buddy boat with us to the Caribbean in order to lend each other a hand if we need it during the passage. As it turned out, the morning after we cleared out of Cape Town, he became ill and on doctor's advise decided to postpone the crossing until the following season. With my gut feeling, Riaan being so insistent and Brian asking me to take on his disappointed crew, I made the decision to take on Claude and Shayne as crew on this crossing.
I always said that if the right crew came along, I would take on that crew for any crossing or passage. This decision led to late minute extra shopping as I had not provisioned for crew, let alone two extra crew members! Poor Prrrfection was now seriously overloaded and I watched in horror as they came onboard with all their bags and surfboards and toolboxes and fishing rods...and the waterline sinking deeper and deeper...At one stage I thought we will be doing the crossing, not as a sailing vessel but more in the line of a submarine!

It was wonderful having them onboard and I realised that Riaan felt a huge relief with having them onboard, as he did feel solely responsible for us, without his Dad. A huge responsibility for a 15 year old. The crossing to St Helena was fun and also the start of a relationship slowly starting to form between Claude and I. The friendship turned into something deeper and special as we sailed the miles away and this year we will have been together for 2 years. Shayne returned to Cape Town from St Helena, as he had a job offer.

Sailing through the Caribbean, anchoring in exotic places like Guadelope, Martenique (my favourite), Tobago Cays was a dream come true. I sometimes (well, most of the times) had to pinch myself that we were really there and living it.

Venezuela was initially just a seldom mentioned group of islands, that we had to pass through in order to get to our destination, Panama City. Reading back through my notes I realise that I have found and have named most of our destinations as paradise. Venezuela is the place that has really surprised me most of all and I am sorry that we did not spend at least a season in the offshore islands.

We have met wonderful people and made lots of new friends during the past two years. It was however also a time of loss. Claude's mom, Olga Hall, passed away on 11 September and I am really grateful that I was privileged to have met her during our visit to S.A. during April 2003. It is difficult to be far away from one's loved ones and especially trying if something tragic like this happens. We were on passage at the time and only received an email on the day that her memorial service was being held in S.A.

I have been a yuppie city girl, from Johannesburg that is 600 km from the nearest coast, when we bought our catamaran. I have experienced and learned so much since then. I did not realise that the wind blew from different directions, that clouds could tell one about an upcoming front (I thought you watch the weatherman on the telly for that kind of info), I only knew waves as something to swim and frolic in during holidays and about sailboats..to be quite honest, I never knew that they could have an oven in them let alone a bathroom or fully equipped kitchen and that these places ............