November 3, 1998, Tuzi Gazi Marina, Richards Bay, South Africa
Well, the dock lines have been made fast and the passage across the Indian Ocean is complete. I mean, sure, we still have to get to Cape Town, but we’ve finally hit a CONTINENT!

We arrived none too soon as we observed the barometer dropping rapidly and a front started to move in.  We’re all glad to have a little time to relax and get acclimated to the relative comforts of civilization. Next up for the trusty OOB crew; a safari at one of the South African National Parks! We’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures.

Now that we reached a place where you can pick up a phone and it’s not the satellite variety, we’ll be sending back the big files for Jeff to post on the site. For those that have asked, Bill’s fingers are doing fine, the dinghy did not sink, and there is a grill on the stern rail of the boat where we cooked up that big ol´ tuna...

November 12, 1998, Tuzi Gazi Marina, Richards Bay, South Africa
Things have been a little hectic since we arrived here in South Africa.  Sorry that it’s been so long since we gave everyone an update.  Here’s what’s going on:

Bill and Suzie are on safari in Tanzania for the next week or so.  Micko and Sally have set off on their own also for a bit of exploring. That leaves me to watch after the yacht and get over a bear of a cold I got while we all were on safari last week at the Phinda Game Park not far from here. I´ll be sending back a ton of pictures and some journals about our experiences.

New Stuff Added to the Site:
November Enews
Suzie’s Journal from the Seychelles
Micko’s Bio
Remainder of Alex’s Day in the Life (24 Hour Journal of Events)
RealAudio from Alex, 11/12/98, 67k

I have to tell you, sometimes all the writing gets a bit much and I have to take a break. As you can see from the web site, there’s a lot of effort that goes into keeping things up to date. It’s all worth it, of course, but fighting a cold and writing don’t seem to mix. As if Jeff was empathizing with me in NYC, he’s down with a nasty case of Bronchitis. Go figure... Anyway, more to come in the next few days.  Thanks for sticking with us. -Alex

November 19, 1998, Tuzi Gazi Marina, Richards Bay, South Africa
Regular visitors to the Out of Bounds site may have noticed a slow down in the updates. Alex, while thinking he just had a really bad cold, turns out to have come down with malaria. Obviously, that put a quick damper on writing and sending the updates that usually grace this site. Here’s an e-mail Alex managed to fire off to me:

Sorry I haven’t been able to get an update off to everyone but I've been a little preoccupied the last few days. I've been busy fighting off this little bugger that got into my blood. Yep, you guessed it.....I got malaria. Or at least that's what the doctors tell me. The blood test showed negative, but all the symptoms are consistent with the disease. The fact that I was taking Lariam not only makes it difficult to pick up the disease in the blood but also may have helped prevent a full blown attack.

It's actually a bit of a relief, as I never want to experience the feeling I had during the initial attack ever again. I can't imagine feeling much worse. The last few days I've been up and down with fever and headaches, plus brief periods of the sweats. Finally yesterday I started to feel a bit better and today I seem to be getting back to normal.

In other news, Bill and Suzie are in Australia for the next week or so while Micko and Sally are still exploring South Africa. So, if you get a chance, drop a line to Alex wishing him a speedy recovery. -Jeff

November 24, 1998, Tuzi Gazi Marina, Richards Bay, South Africa
Alex would like to thank everyone that sent him an e-mail wishing him a speedy recovery.  The good news is that the malaria medication he’s taking seems to be doing the trick. But, I´ll let Alex tell it in his own words in his latest Enewsletter.