Day 6, Year 6 Happy Oma and Granddad
Date: Saturday, October 30, 2010
Weather: Sunny; Light Winds E
Latitude: 28 47.670 S
Longitude: 032 04.764 E
Location: Tuzi Gazi Marina, Richards Bay, South Africa

Video Skype calls are once again a staple in our diet. We can see our children and grandchildren and watch the grandchildren play as we talk. It has been a long time since we were in India with a not-so-great connection, so it is great to once again be connected. We talked with Heather, Jed, Sam, and Jonah late in our afternoon which was early morning on Cape Cod. And then a couple of hours later we talked to Justin, Jo, and Ziggy during their morning in New Mexico. We learned all about who is dressing as what for Halloween-Jonah is a pumpkin, Ziggy is a lion, and Sam is a ‘monster truck’ driver. Jonah and Ziggy are both into the climbing stage and driving their parents crazy watching that they don’t fall. All three are blondies and are beautiful (this comes from a non-biased source). Jonah has curly blonde hair, Ziggy has white hair with no curl, and Sam is still a blonde with a little curl. Sam knows us but Jonah and Ziggy just stare at the computer screen trying to figure out who these two people are talking to them. Hopefully we will get to talk to them often and they will eventually start to recognize us. Seeing them play via Skype is so wonderful–it was a great day for grandparents.

The other big event in our lives today was that we found a car rental company that was affordable. We are going to rent a car with Ed and Lynne of Constance for the next month. It will cost each of us about $500US with the full load of insurance coverage and unlimited mileage. We will still have to pay for fuel, but having a car will allow us to fully take in the beauty of this part of South Africa. We will begin with a trip to our first game park on Tuesday and we can’t wait.

This morning we walked to Zululand Yacht Club to the chandlery, stopping on the way at a once-a-month flea market run by the local SPCA. I bought a few birding magazines with great information about birds in the parks we will be visiting and at the chandlery we bought a much needed light for our engine room. I spent the afternoon doing laundry, baking bread, and just generally getting ready for our first trip in the wild. The gash on Mark’s head is starting to heal, so that is good. Late today while we were on Skype with our kids, we were listening to screams of joy from the local bars as the Kwazulu-Natal rugby team, the Sharks, defeated the Western Province team by a score of 30-10 in the final game of the season. It is obvious that people here really get into their rugby.