sailing pictures

For some great pictures of the Africa Mercy sailing out of Durban taken by a helicoptor crew see:

http://schwebelfamily.blogspot.com/2011/02/photos-of-africa-mercy-leaving-durban.html

what happened in Shipyard?

Well quite a lot it would seem (taken from Olly's blog as I couldn't find this info anywhere and then he happened to blog it so I just copied it here :-) )

Replacement of 6 old, noisy, unreliable and dirty generators with 4 super efficient, more economical and environmentally friendly brand new MAN generators;

Replacement of 2 old and unreliable air conditioning SABRO units with 2 shiny new and reliable Carrier units;

New engine room piping for cooling salt water, fire mains, heavy fuel, diesel fuel, fresh water, etc;

Replacement of engine controls in engine room and bridge;

7km of new cables between engines and bridge;

Modification of electrical switchboard;

New shelving in Deck 6 and Deck 2 food stores;

All lifeboats, life-rafts, and lifeboat davits serviced and all cables renewed;

All fire-fighting and SCUBA equipment repaired/serviced;

New Mercy Ships logo on funnel and along side;

Pool modified with installation of wave catchers;

More sprinklers installed in cargo hold;

Damaged windows replaced with new ones;

Main engines overhauled;

Tons and tons of provisions loaded;

All Land Rovers and Nissans repaired and serviced;

Elevator converted from manual to electronic, with fancy new controls.
Thanks Olly (and yeh for generators and A/C that work!)

Goodbye Durban!!

 Leaving our dock, Southern African Shipyard

 Being turned around by the tugs. You can see the Durban skyline in the distance.

 We get closer to the Durban skyline and notice that there are people standing fishing just a little way from us inside the Port waters!

 The tugs job is done and they leave us to make our way out of the Port

So begins our lovey sail, time to enjoy the sunshine :-)

green hen and chickens help childbirth (apparantly)

 As found in the botanical gardens in Pietermaritzburg - a green hen and chickens plant claiming it's roots help childbirth...

...and another plant claiming its leaves help childbirth. In fact whatever ailment you might suffer there was probably a plant to help, stomach problems, skin conditions, sexual dysfunction all included!!!

we survived the bosch

Our limited edition, no you can't have one unless you survived it with us T'shirts say so....

(The Bosch AKA Appelsbosch College, our home for the last five months)