Just Cruizin On Bluemoon

Welcome!

We hope you enjoy browsing around, and finding something helpful or of interest.

We are a family of five : John, Jenny, Justine, Jessica and Jonathan Danks.

We are a close bunch and have a zest for living life to the fullest! We are a down to earth Christian family who try to see the good in all things. We love the outdoors, camping, music, travel and just so much more!

And most important, we love adventure! 

John and I started our business in 1994, in Durban, South Africa, and with lots of hard work, long hours, blood, sweat and tears, it grew into a flourishing business.

We started home-schooling our kids in 2001 with the ACE curriculum. 

We even built a classroom in our factory so we could do the home-schooling and work...

We restructured our business in order to move forward with our new lifestyle of sailing.

The kids were very active and enjoyed a variety of things ... they did karate for many years where they proudly reached their goal - Justine and Jonathan got awarded their black belts and Jessica was awarded her brown belt. Their hobbies also included horse riding, dancing, modeling, nippers, art, pottery, home-cell and youth... among other things

 We look forward to the freedom of open waters, to destinations and friends that the sailing world brings ...

We went on a sailing course to see if our dream could be a reality ... 

 This is our family during our Ocean Sailing course we did in March 2006 with Instructors Chris and Nigel

We went for our first aid course with Douglas our instructor and we all passed, with me getting a distinction!

We all passed and got our Certificates!

John also did a second course and passed the navigation!

We are club members at the RNYC in Durban  

Royal Natal Yacht Club Durban

 Now came the decisions as to which boat, size, safety, radio licenses, first aid, and restructuring our business, selling our home, finishing up on the year for the kids homeschooling... The list seemed endless! Yet we were determined to break free from the unnecessary battles and trials everyday life brought and set sail to exotic destinations... The pros for us far outweighed all the negatives and so we started with the list...

Funny how we seem to hang onto our " Stuff "! It is a ball and chain! Throwing out all the stuff was the best thing we ever did, even if we were not going sailing!  

We already started getting things in order as we planned on going to Canada, and decided to fit the sailing in-between...

So we planned, organized,  agonized, yet managed to get through the list. We even went to visit family in Somerset West in the Cape early December! Talk about speedy Gonzales!!!

Then after some months of searching for our yacht, we found her in July 2006 yet only bought her, BLUEMOON, November 2006.

Her name 'BLUEMOON' was coined due to here hull deck and bulkheads being completed on a bluemoon, then she was launched on a bluemoon! 

Coincidentally - we sailed out of Durban just after a bluemoon!   

She is a 44' St Francis Catamaran.  She certainly is the perfect yacht with everything we were looking for, also she won the cape to Rio race! 

   Top View Of Bluemoon                         Antifouling                          Bluemoon sailing

    Anchored off Tanga                           Wilson's Wharf                   Anchored off Zanzibar

     Galley down                                              S/B midships                            Head with knee bath         Navigation panel                Jenny and Justine                              Saloon           

 Justine and instructor                         Jono bandaged up                       Jess, mouth to mouth        Douglas

                 Bandaged up                    John also bandaged up                Mouth to Mouth again

  We thoroughly enjoyed our course! Had the best instructor  - Douglas! 

 John and I also passed our Radio License and got the certificates!

Meme Grant spent a lot of time teaching us navigation! She also spent hours drilling us with reality's! We were blessed to have her show us the ropes ...  Then we took a trip to Richards Bay where we had 40 knots of wind and clocked 19.7 knots on the speed log!! What an amazing, exhilarating experience. 

   On route Richards Bay                        Justine at the helm                   Jessica at the helm
                                                                                      Was great having Ian along!

   5 to 6 meter swell                               and they grew larger                John at the helm with Ian

     Jenny at the helm                      Meme helming us happily into Richards Bay harbour

    We have enjoyed learning about sailing and the nice thing is there will always be things to learn!  

   Dave Cox with John at the Helm             Ian and Justine chatting