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Ketoro travels: April 2013
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Tuesday, April 9, 2013. Almost up: a month in the Maldives. We reminisce and say: wonderful – the Maldives' exceptional beauty, different geography (and the fascinating way it functions as a result of that) make it a great place to visit.Here is our month…. Male: capital city, vibrant, busy, noisy, colourful; huge green trees left in place to shade busy streets and the myriad motorbikes and pedestrians. Rolf and Sandy exploring the congested city. Transport around the Maldives. So, if watersports, marine...
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Ketoro travels: October 2013
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Tuesday, October 22, 2013. Passage-making: Reunion to South Africa. Weather, weather, weather. That is all yachties talk and think about before they set off across the ocean. You plan your trip as best you can (wish-list: gentle long-period rollers, no adverse current, maybe a little current in our favour, please? Winds from a consistent direction, consistent strength… maybe 20knots just forward of the beam, please? And set off on the day most likely to give you a good start…. See that great flat sea?
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Ketoro travels: November 2013
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Saturday, November 30, 2013. Flying the home flag. Well, Ketoro has been flying her home flag in Richards Bay, but we have not been there to see it, as we have almost permanently been elsewhere! Ketoro (far left) at Zululand (Richards Bay) Yacht Club marina. But from the moment we landed, we had a great welcoming by lots of family -. Grand-dads take grandsons for walks to the hard stand – an outing both enjoy! Family visit: Livi (the day's chef) and Irene with Ingi and Caz. Cruising has put us in touch w...
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Ketoro travels: September 2012
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Monday, September 17, 2012. Boat life was abandoned late June for 10 weeks, as we set off to meet two brand new and very special people - our first two grandchildren, born within two weeks of each other. Freya (Barry and Kay’s wonderful daughter, born in London) and Blake (gorgeous son of Mark and Livi in Cape Town). Frequent questions were: ‘are you missing the boat? And ‘where do you consider home? They put hooks under your skin as soft as feathers and strong as steel and you know that your heart has b...
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Ketoro travels: Passage to Cape Town – Part 2: Got there!
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Wednesday, December 18, 2013. Passage to Cape Town – Part 2: Got there! It was midnight, the sky mottled dark grey, the sea black - but for two hours we witnessed an extraordinary light-show under the boat. The sea around us was filled with an incredible number of bioluminescent creatures and in this way Nature illuminated an amazing spectacle: Ketoro was in the centre of a huge fish bait-ball, which was using us as shelter from the dozens of dolphins seeking to eat their fill. This was a ‘small...
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Ketoro travels: June 2013
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Tuesday, June 18, 2013. Rodrigues Island, a great stop. Tranquil, unstressed, friendly, welcoming. and easy to get lost! Rodrigues Island was a lovely, surprising stop-over on the journey from Chagos to Mauritius. View from Ketoro in Rodrigues harbour: fishermen poling, as the tide drops. With this island geography, the Creole islanders (of mixed African and French descent) have a difficult task feeding their population of 36000, but wherever they can the locals manage small market gardens,. Local specia...
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Ketoro travels: January 2013
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Tuesday, January 29, 2013. Cape Town just cannot be beaten. Cape Town, December 2012: WOW. The Cape hosted the happiest of family reunions, with focus being on the first “meeting” of our two almost-6-month grandchildren. Such incredible joy for the new grandparents. Obliging babies that they are, they did not hold us back as we sampled many Cape highlights: spectacular scenery,. Old towns with fascinating history, coffee and craft shops,. The sea was quite big and Nai Harn bay, our anchorage, is notoriou...
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Ketoro travels: March 2013
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Monday, March 25, 2013. The Maldives: A tale of two days (OR: Maldives is not about the land: or is it? Two weeks at sea reminded us how much of our planet is water and sky, the latter taking on a presence that demanded attention and always provided scenes of extraordinary colour and varied cloud shapes: the beauty was often incredible. Sometimes an island strip reveals the water-sky interface. Sometimes it adds another focus to beauty already there. The Maldives is made up of 26 atolls spread out N to S...
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Ketoro travels: September 2013
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Monday, September 23, 2013. Mauritius 4 - last month. In a week we will be gone from Mauritius, taking with us some wonderful memories…. An old Dutch fort lies under these French military ruins at Old Grand Port, Mahebourg. The Dutch first landed here about 1638 (calling the island after Prins Maurits van Nassaueiland). But the Old Port at Mahebourg proved disastrous, being on the SE side of the island which is exposed to the worst weather and their time here was characterised by hardship and failure.