February 2026
With it being a Sunday on the 1st, there were no workers around in the boatyard and it was a quieter day for Ally and Shawn, although Shawn ( with a little bit of help from Ally) did sand, fill and sand again the area that had been exposed when the bumper strip was removed from the outside of the starboard hull a couple of days ago. It was taken off as water was seeping in through the screws holes where the sealant had come away, so they were well and truly “glooped” up just before putting the strip back in place. Monday 2nd, Saliem was back to continue sanding the hulls and the newly welded fresh water tank was finally done by lunchtime rather than the day before as had been the original plan. The rest of the day was spent fighting it back into it’s tight space in the port side forward cabin and then plumbing it in…sounds easy, but the ridiculously tight spaces made it an almost impossible task to line all the pipes up to re-join them and having tried to resolve one leak after the other on trial fillings, at the end of the day it was discovered that the washer on the main outlet was damaged. Both Ally and Shawn were feeling positive that the 3rd was going to be a productive day and the first job on the list was to replace the washer having been to the hardware store for a replacement first thing. It meant moving the tank around again, which then put everything out of alignment…again, and it turned out to be an exceedingly frustrating day with leaks appearing in a different place at every attempt to refill having put everything back together time after time after time. The entire day was spent trying to sort it out and by late afternoon, it seemed that they had finally done it. They were both so shattered, they went out for fish and chips after clearing up and showering. On the morning of the 4th, Shawn rebuilt the wardrobe and put the panelling back up in the cabin where the water tank had been taken out and put back in and Ally went to start refilling the water tank a little so that they didn’t have to use the hose pipe anymore to wash up….and…..more leaks!! Aaaahhhhh! Another half day was spent taking out a length of inflexible hose and replacing it with a flexible one so that it was easier to work with. The ends of hoses had to be heated with a heat gun to make them soft enough to push onto connectors and then everything was circlipped into place and, hurrah….no more leaks! The tank was partially filled without any further issues.
On the 5th, Ally and Shawn cleared the decks of the second dinghy, new mainsail, mainsail batons and jackstays so that Saliem would be able to start spray painting the hulls as soon as he was ready, but he didn’t turn up. He later messaged to say he was in the hospital being checked over as the ladder blew over onto his shoulder as he was getting ready to leave yesterday. He was ok, but had taken strong pain relief so asked if it was ok if he didn’t come until tomorrow so Shawn told him “no”, he must come immediately….joking!! Shawn got stuck into doing the rest of engine installations while Ally set to work deep cleaning the port forward cabin and port corridor. Imagination was fully wrapped in plastic by Saliem, who was feeling much more comfortable on the 6th, and late afternoon the undercoat was applied. Ally thoroughly cleaned the Saloon and then the port aft cabin and Shawn continued with engine installation. That evening, they decided to go across to the yacht club for a couple of drinks after dinner as it seemed pretty lively over there and within 10 minutes of being there, as one guy went to walk by he caught Shawn’s eye and they both looked at each other and recognised each other. He was one of the sailing instructors Shawn had when he was here in 2008 and the rest of the evening was spent in his company.
It was an easy start to Saturday 7th and first on the agenda was walking the short distance to the store for provisions and they couldn’t resist taking advantage of a coffee shop offering a scone and cappuccino for 59 rand ( just under £3!). They returned to Imagination to continue with cleaning and engines, but as per usual, it wasn’t to be straight forward and a gear cable had to be replaced which meant running a cable through behind the wardrobe in the starboard aft cabin followed by throttle tests to make sure all was well. The 8th was very windy and so the hull spraying was cancelled for the day, but it was Shawn’s birthday and after a relaxed first half of the morning going trough messages etc, he decided to do a final clean of both engine rooms while Ally did a deep clean in the starboard aft cabin. After a late lunch of bacon and egg sarnies, they then visited the Submarine Museum situated right next door to the marina. It’s a small place with various interesting objects, pictures and models on display and they also have a retired Daphné-class submarine out on the hard for visitors to see ( SAS Assegaai, formerly SAS Johanna van der Merwe). It has been modified to make entry and exit for tourists easier, but everything else remains “as it was” and the tour was excellent. The guide, Arne, was a retired Rear Admiral who had served on her a couple of times and his affection and knowledge of her was evident during the interesting and enthusiastic tour which was made even better by the telling of stories of life onboard. It’s incredible to think that up to 60 men would live and work in such a confined space for the 28 day tour, working 4 hours on, 8 hours off. With no real privacy for ablutions, and with very limited fresh water available showers were not regular, if taken at all. Eating, sleeping and trying to relax between shifts all went on in the same space. Ally was especially amazed by the galley – the size was similar to the galley on Imagination but more enclosed and the cook and his helper had to prepare and provide breakfast, lunch, 3 course dinners and clean up afterwards for all 60 men onboard over 2 sittings! Having spent much more time than they thought they would in the museum, they returned to Imagination for a short video chat with friends Andy and Jane in Carriacou, Grenada. Following that they went out for a very tasty dinner at nearby Bertha’s Restaurant where the staff were busy fending off baboons who had come to see what they could grab when they arrived.
Overnight into the 9th, the wind became horribly strong and by morning much of the plastic sheeting was in tatters as the rain and then thunder started. It was the most rain Ally and Shawn have seen in the Western Cape so far and it continued all day so it was rather an unproductive time. On the 10th, the weather had settled a bit so Saliem arrived to resand and reapply the sheeting with help from Shawn. He left earlier than usual saying he would continue spraying the following morning. Ally deep cleaned the starboard forward cabin and Shawn spent much of the day researching and planning the route through the Caribbean through 2026/27. The 11th started drizzly wet as Simons Town was shrouded in thick mist but the sun managed to burn through by late morning when Saliem showed up to continue spraying – it’s been slower progress than everyone thought due to the notorious winds here. Late afternoon, the newly made saloon seating was delivered and the new colour gave the whole area an immediate facelift, however the workmanship was not all that great and not quite what Ally wanted, but they are more comfortable at least..
Overnight and into the 12th was once again very windy and it continued all day, even with clear blue skies it also meant hull spraying was impossible again. Ally spent the day online updating the Caribbean itinerary on the website and then finalised the January blog, while Shawn contacted people that had put their names down to join them in the Caribbean to give them first refusal before putting an ad out on their Facebook page. Finally, the hull spraying could go ahead on the 13th, and towards the end of the day the dark blue boot stripes had also been painted. Ally and Shawn were able to go round and remove most of the plastic sheeting and masking tape and Shawn made the most of the tall ladders to tighten up the trampoline along the front edge as it had become very slack. That evening, they met up with Adie for another relaxed dinner at Berthas which was enjoyed by all. On the 14th Saliem was able to finish the final touches on the hull respray and Imagination had her name put on again. Ally and Shawn put the side bumper strips back on and she looked wonderful……so satisfying to see her looking so shiny after such a major job. Mid afternoon, there was time for a bit of a tidy up onboard, although a fair bit of stuff couldn’t be put away as it belongs in the engine rooms which they don’t want to fill up before the sea trial and 50 hour run in had been done, so that all had to stay out for now. Slowly, they were getting their “home” back again. The day was rounded off with a fabulous dinner at the yacht club to celebrate Valentines Day.
With most of the big jobs done now, Sunday 15th was a more sedate day with admin and odd jobs being completed before a “no work” afternoon. They were hoping to go back into water on Monday the 16th, but the Manageress had put them on the Wednesday list despite knowing that all the work was going to be completed over the weekend. In Ally and Shawn’s opinion, she’s not exactly a “people person” nor a good communicator ( never responded to emails once the haul out booking was confirmed). For as long as they were in the boatyard, she never once greeted them as she walked to and from her office next door to Imagination, and even seemed to deliberately look the other way/ ignore smiles and waves from Ally. On the whole though, their experience in the boat yard was not a bad one, all things considered. The temperatures and humidity were far easier to work in than Grenada ( apart from the very strong winds ) and living onboard was fairly comfortable in that respect. Unlike most other yards they’d been in, it’s on concrete so when it rained it didn’t become a quagmire and as it’s a small yard, the bathroom facilities were close by. Most of the staff and Yacht Club members were super friendly, cheerful, helpful and interested in Imagination and her overhaul. One downside was that even though most workshops were on site, the jobs required for Imagination seemed to be pushed back further and further as other outside local jobs came in and took precedence, so there was a need for constant “chasing up”, especially the rigging guy who had Imagination on his list since before Christmas! The other shocking thing was the bill they were presented with. The manageress told Shawn how much 2 weeks on the hard would cost along with the haul out, but failed to answer when he asked how much it would cost if they were out of water for longer. Everywhere else they have hauled out, the longer you stay, the cheaper it gets, but not in Simons Town ( and maybe the whole of SA?) AND foreigners are charged between 3 and 5 times more than residents! Exorbitant? Definitely. Discrimination? Maybe. A business wouldn’t get away with that in the UK, that’s for sure.
The 17th was mostly a “day of rest” with only a couple of small jobs being done as both Shawn and Ally had upset stomachs and were feeling rather under the weather, which was made more uncomfortable by the fact that they were unable to use the bathrooms onboard. They were grateful that there wasn’t really too much to be done before relaunching. At 14.30 on the 18th, Imagination was on the trailer being slowly manoeuvred into the slip and once she was floating she was towed and then pushed by the yard foreman in a dinghy onto the nearby dock with everything going as smoothly as it could go. With the engines being brand new, they were unable to turn them on until the Yanmar engineers had been onboard to inspect the installation.
The 19th was another day of cleaning and tidying up before two Yanmar engineers came onboard on Friday 20th at around 10.25 for engine inspections and initial start up. They were onboard for around 1.5 hours and explained everything very fully and left with just a couple of minor things that needed sorting ( eg tidying cables and shortening exhaust hoses) before sea trials could be done the following Monday. Once they had gone, Ally and Shawn walked 40 minutes or so to a small shopping mall where they had a celebratory lunch in a lovely restaurant before doing some shopping.
Saturday the 22nd was a “pottering” kind of day and during the 23rd, the decks were cleaned and the interior floors were given a thorough clean too Everything was coated in blue and white dust that gets everywhere while hauled out in a boat yard with bottoms and hulls being sanded all around. An advert for the Caribbean legs went up on their Facebook page and having, over the last week or so, given those who had previously expressed an interest in joining the boat during that time first refusal, the response was immense and immediate. A great deal of time that afternoon was spent responding to everyone that got in touch and that evening, Adie came onboard for dinner. It was nice to be able to host him onboard, on what would be the final opportunity to spend time with him before departing Simons Town later in the week.
On the 23rd, 2 Yanmar guys came to Imagination again at just after 10am. They checked that Shawn had made the necessary changes to the exhaust and wiring before leaving the dock, finding out the hard way that the throttles did the opposite of what they were meant to do and so Imagination glanced the dock on the starboard nose as Shawn tried to figure out why he was going forward rather than backwards! One of the engineers knew immediately what the issue was and once out in the open water, the other guy went into the engine rooms and reversed a plate on the sail drives to resolve the issue. Thankfully it was a beautiful, clear sunny and warm day with just a gentle breeze – perfect for doing the engine sea trials on their first run out and with the company of several seals and penguins, too . All went well and the 2 guys were dropped back on dock at 12.30 and after lunch, Shawn and Ally went out again for a couple of hours. Tuesday 24th, they were off the dock again at 10am to do another 4 hours of engine run in and this time they had dolphins playing alongside for a while and on the way back to Simons Town, they motored past Seal Island ( up wind, having smelt it several miles downwind on the way out!!) where hundreds of seals were basking in the sun. The rest of the afternoon was spent responding to the many messages sent from prospective crew – the response to an ad put up on Sunday for the Caribbean legs had been phenomenal and those 7 legs look like they are going to be an awesome mix of returning crew, friends and new crew members. What a way to end their adventure that’ll be! It was a little more windy on Wednesday 25th, so Ally and Shawn did two fuel runs, putting all the jerry cans into a boat yard trolley and wheeling them up to the filling station and back and then they got on with replacing seals in 3 side hatches during the afternoon.
On the 26th, there was a fair bit of water in the bottom of the starboard engine room and after pumping it out it was discovered that 2 bolts were missing from the saildrive base. How on earth that happened, they will never know! They went out into the bay again for another couple of hours and for the first time ever, the autopilot didn’t work at all….there had been intermittent issues over the last couple of months, but it always worked after half an hour or so. Another thing to add to the job list! That afternoon, they visited the SA Naval Museum which was very interesting but they had to leave before they had seen everything as they were closing. They strolled down the pier to look at the Charles Darwin sculpture and the statue of the Standby Diver, put there in honour of all SA Navy divers past, present and future before sitting in the sunshine at the Yacht Club to enjoy one last beer. At 06.20 on the 27th, they were away from the dock and bidding Simons Town a fond farewell having been there for over 2 months. The sunrise was colourful and still and the colours on the mountains behind the town were gorgeous. It was a perfect day for rounding The Cape Of Good Hope – light winds and calm seas and the scenery was breath taking with photos not doing any of it justice. They were, of course, motoring to continue the required run in procedure, but they wouldn’t have been able to sail anyway due to the lack of wind and so they sat back, with the auto pilot deciding to work again, and enjoyed the 8 hour trip to The Royal Cape Yacht Club, Cape Town during which the saw many seals, 2 whales and a sunfish.
Unfortunately, the leak in the starboard engine room was as bad as ever, with the bilge pump emptying it every 10 minutes, which was very frustrating as Shawn was struggling to figure out where it was coming from. On arrival to the yacht club, they were assisted to tie up by 3 willing marina staff who jumped off another yacht they were working on and ran around the dock to help. Ally and Shawn went to the office to “check in” and received a very warm and cheerful welcome from the office staff as well as a bottle of red wine – so unexpected and lovely. That evening, it became evident that some Cape Fur Seals ( a type of sea lion) use the docks as a resting place…and one of them in particular was huge and they can all get pretty vocal. They can be a little intimidating as people try to navigate around them particularly as they can have rabies!
On the 28th, they headed into the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town after lunch, which in hindsight wasn’t the greatest thing to do while on a shopping mission…it was Saturday so absolutely heaving and the rain that came later in the day made their Uber ride back to the Yacht Club even longer than the ride in, with the congestion worsening as everyone tried to get home and avoid getting wet! That night, the massive seal/sea lion decided to use their pontoon to sleep on.
