Four Days

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 The complicated arrangements of moving boat to Richards Bay suddenly fell into place.  We were told by the transport company that the boat will be loaded on Wednesday, go back to their yard, and leave early Thursday to Richards Bay.  The off-loading at the boatyard was booked for 3pm Friday.  Sounded good.  Abnormal trucks can only drive during daylight hours and not on weekends.  We were planning on following the truck to keep an eye on our precious cargo the entire way.

Day 1.  

9am Crane arrived and much discussion followed on how the boat would be lifted into position.  

10.30am  The low-bed truck arrived, taking down our gate post on entering.  The loading of the boat went very smoothly.  There were enough hands to simply carry the two masts and secure them to the truck bed.  

12.30pm  Truck loaded and the driver announced that he was going to start driving to Richards Bay.  And so the chaos began.

We had the driver's and the manager's numbers and they promised to keep in touch.  We would catch up to the truck the next day as we were not ready to leave and we had a gate post to fix.  If the truck drives under 80km per hour we can catch up easily, right!






Day 2.  

It was freezing the next morning and our Landy had no aircon.  The car was loaded with the Halcat on the roof-rack.  Bundled up in blankets we began our journey eyes peeled on the road ahead for a boat on a truck.  Rain had been forecasted and it got quite miserable at Van Reenens;  mist and rain.  

We saw endless trucks struggling up and down the pass worried about how our truck was handling the awful weather.  No sighting and no updates.  It was a stressful drive and on reaching Richards Bay we went immediately to the boat yard to see if the truck had arrived.  Nope.  

We eventually found out that the truck was still at Van Reenens due to bad weather.

Day 3.

By the afternoon it became clear that the truck would not arrive in time for the 3pm off-load.  As abnormal load trucks cannot drive at night and on weekends, we were told by the boatyard manager that it would all have to wait until Monday. The boatyard staff do not work on weekends too.  

Reluctantly we agreed to leave the off-load to the manager for the following week and go home earlier as we had only planned to be away for a few days.  There was so much work to be done at home as we were still packing up.  

At 6pm John managed to speak to the driver and was told that he was at the gate!  What gate, where are you?  In Richards Bay?  It gets dark in RB after 5pm so how did the driver get to RB.  We rushed back to the boat yard's closed gate.  No truck.  

Where are you?  At the gate, the second gate.  But we are here and we cannot see you.  What road are you on?  Can you send us a pin?  No.  Then John wondered if he was perhaps at the coal port gate, where the big ships are docked.  Yes indeed.

Day 4.

Frantic arrangements to get the boatyard staff to come in on Saturday and work overtime to offload the truck.  Slowly and steadily our boat was transferred onto a gantry and pushed into her parking spot for the next few months.  Home.

Time for a beer.



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