So I've had my nose deep into boring TAX matters which literally gave me nightmares; you see I'm a cook not a bookkeeper!
Pleasurable things took a backseat for a while but I will share with you a walk we took a couple of weeks ago at the Point Ski Boat Club which overlooks the entrance to Durban Harbour.
Said club is being forced to move to new premises by the city fathers and big developers, so they will no longer have the privilege of watching ships entering and exiting Durban Harbour.
What is it about ships coming and going that holds such magic for us?
It always amazes me that these tiny tug boats are powerful enough to guide enormous cargo ships like this in and out of the harbour.
The massive vehicle carrier the Glovis Symphony was coming into the harbour that day as well. I tried finding out the number of vehicles it carries as it looked enormous but had no luck.
Her gross tonnage is 64546 and deadweight is 20056. GLOVIS SYMPHONY length overall (LOA) is 199.97 m, beam is 35 m. Stats
The Aegean Bulk, hails from a Greek shipping owner who mainly run oil and chemical tankers, but have recently also acquired dry bulk vessels.
I will throw in a fun little shipping tale - When my son was doing in-service training with a chemical company, they gave the duty of testing air quality in the ships to the newbies. This was a safety requirement before a ship is allowed to enter the harbour; he had to climb down narrow hatches to the nether-depths of ships with some gadget - if it beeped he would have to climb back up and of course no safety certificate would be issued. The crew would have to take remedial steps to clear out the toxins in the air using massive fans.
He would sometimes be hoisted from a helicopter onto a ship's deck, but being quite adventurous and very sporty, this did not faze him. Image Source
When the new rookie, a very nervous little guy, was introduced to this duty, his eyes nearly popped out as the manager exaggerated the helicopter story - it looked like he was going to make a run for it! My son never found out if he ever came back as it was his last day there, having completed his in-service training. This by the way had nothing to do with what he had been studying, but it was something that company did.
Back to our walk - small pleasure cruise boats, fishing boats and yachts coming and going; these are very popular with special celebrations.
The Millenium Tower, Military Base and Lighthouse situated on the Bluff can be seen from here as well.
The name of the area is derived from the long bluff which is formed by two ancient sand dunes. The Bluff is one of the main enclosing elements of Durban Harbour from the Indian Ocean, and forms the southern quayside of the Port of Durban.
At the end of our walk along a long jetty next to the clubhouse, we saw another smaller lighthouse. Note the massive concrete boulders on the side, known as Dolos, used as a form of coastal management. These are reinforced concrete blocks used to protect against the erosive effects of ocean waves against the jetty, as hubby explained.
A view of Durban with the impressive Moses Mabhida football stadium which was built for the 2010 Soccer World Cup in the far background.
And as always at the end of a long walk in fresh air, it was time for lunch - a shared Seafood basket and crumbed Mushrooms which went down very well indeed!
Back at home, Humpty Dumpty did not fall
Instead showed off his fancy red peak
Dying to see what he's going to do with this peak still!
