S/V Rutea Sails Around the World: September 2014

Thursday, September 11, 2014

What I Missed About Thailand

Don’t get me wrong! I loved every teeny tiny minute of my visit back to North America. I got to spend lots of quality time gardening with Corie, cooking with Caity, and watching baseball with Danny! We had many wonderful family dinners from Cotijas in front of the Padre game on TV! We even took in a couple of games ourselves and Caity and I cheered at the ever so lively Bobby Sox slow pitch games that both Corie and Danny play for. Six weeks at home also allowed me to fly to Vancouver and to Denver and stay in the magnificent new homes of Mark & Wendy and Ken & Taylor as well as do some hiking in some of the most spectacular mountains of the world! Lots of extended family visiting, BBQs, beach time, sweet visits with friends and that ever so satisfying task….shopping for boat parts! The quintessential Perfect Summer!

I wasn’t really ready to say good-bye as Corie dropped me off at SAN for my 30 hour flight back to Phuket, but you know, when you stay with family (even if it’s in your own house) it’s better to leave a day too early than a day too late! Also, Neal had been a real prince about me going off by myself to get my dose of home, family and friends and I didn’t want him to completely forget about me! I heaved up my two 50-lb bags full of boat parts and took a step from one world into another.

It’s pretty amazing how adaptable is the human species. Grumble as we might about change, when it comes- we deal. My advantage here is that after already living in Thailand I have begun to know some of the ropes. You never know ALL of the ropes because it’s very different and well…they change a lot! However, after descending off my Air Korea flight and entering the packed shoulder to shoulder, chaotic, full of Korean tour groups Thai Immigration room, I knew that there would be somewhere…..a very short line! Five minutes later, after skirting the back wall, stepping over piles of carry-ons and ducking behind a sign behind a potted plant, I paid my baksheesh and my visa was stamped! Oh yeah….I remember now…..

From there on and over the following week the unusual things that I had missed about Thailand came flooding back to me. Good or bad, this is the way things are: Four young kids in school uniforms zipping home on one motor bike. Chirping geckos on the walls of the open air restaurants. The sweet, moist smell of the jungle at night. Traffic (motor bikes and small delivery trucks) driving the wrong way down the highway. Knowing when the current is slack because the fish swim in circles instead of up current. Buying pineapples at the stands on the side of the highway. Piles of flip flops outside of every restaurant and shop, including the chandlery. Eating dinner family style at Coconut’s with a kid who grew up in Sri Lanka and a Kiwi who told a story about spending the night in a thermal pool while lost one New Zealand winter night. Not being able to buy booze between the hours of eleven am and five pm, unless you are buying a lot (cases). And lastly, living on a boat in Phang Nga Bay- always in motion, knowing when the tide is high or low, being awakened by the long tail fishing boats, feeling connected to the sea.

A friend recently asked me what I have learned while traveling. Fair enough, I said while trying to come up with a meaningful answer. In thinking about this question since, I think the answer comes in what I have unlearned. I have unlearned that there is only one way to do things, only one way to measure success, only one way to define values. I have unlearned that bigger is always better and that busy is always fulfilling. I have unlearned that the small things are not as important as the big things. What I have learned though, is that relationships span time and distance. That people everywhere love their children. That no matter where you travel, you can always find a kindred spirit. That the world is full of good food and good company. That “different” holds no value judgment. And that whenever you leave any place behind, there will always be something you will miss.

R of Rutea

September 10, 2014

Phuket, Thailand

About Rutea

Rutea was built in 1984 by Conyplex in Mendemblik, Holland. A small brass plaque says that she's hull Number 9 but on the Conyplex website www.contestyachts.com there's no mention of them building that many. She's designed by Dick Zaal, who designed most of Conyplex's earlier boats. The brochure says that she's 48' overall with a 14'6" beam and she draws 6'. Her cast iron bolted-on fin keel weighs 12,000 pounds and she is supposed to displace slightly over 37,000 pounds but she's never been one to watch her weight and, ahem, she's gained more than a few pounds since we bought her in 1996. Her ketch rig sports Profurl furlers for the jib/genoa and the staysail. The main has a very tall aspect as does the mizzen. All of her winches are made by Enkes although I did add a Harken self-tailing for the main halyard. She uses an unusual reel winch that's equipped with Spectra rope for furling the genoa. There's a running backstay on the mizzen mast and there are no forward lowers on the main mast. The head stay is Dyform.

I replaced the original Volvo MD40A six-cylinder diesel with a Beta Marine 90 and I've been very happy with it although it puts out nowhere near 90 HP - probably 70 is more like it. Regardless, it's adequate and very economical on fuel. I also replaced the original Westerbeke 6kw genset with a single-cylinder Kubota diesel that drives a 150-amp alternator. Since we switched over to 12-volt refrigeration, we no longer have any 110-volt appliances on board, other than the water heater. Since the new Beta Marine engine has two big alternators (one is 100 amps and the other 175), we have our Victron inverter/charger power the water heater when we're under power (we don't have engine coolant circulate through the water heater).

Rutea's layout down below is different from many boats of her size. Aft of her water-tight forward bulkhead is a 'wet' head, complete with two sinks. Aft of that are two cabins, both with bunk beds on either side of the boat and each has a door to the forward head. This was perfect when we cruised with our family as our 3 children had their own quarters. The main saloon occupies the area aft of the forward cabins and her dinette and settees are large enough to seat 10 people (we've had many a memorable meal here!). Under the cabin sole are two 90-gallon stainless steel fuel tanks. Under the settee seats on either side is a 120-gallon water tank, also made of stainless steel. On the starboard side, aft of the dinette is the foward-facing nav station and on the port side is the galley where we have a 7 cubic foot refrigerator and a 5 cubic foot freezer. Aft of the nav station, on the starboard side is my work shop. This was originally designed to be another stateroom but the original owner had Conyplex convert it into a work shop, complete with a heavy-duty work bench and a massive 6" vise. I sometimes spend days at a time in there. Many a visiting cruiser has eyed with envy, drooled with desire and blatantly coveted my work shop! I have access to the engines from there. On the port side, aft of the galley, is another 'wet' head. Aft of that is the aft cabin, which has a settee as well as a full double-size berth. Aft of the aft cabin or 'owner's stateroom' as it's called on many boats, is her spacious lazarette, which is where the water heater and diesel-fired boiler are located. Bolted to the back of the aft deck and overhanging the transom are her Simpson davits (I sometimes tell people that the boat was built around those davits - they're very substantial with a capacity of 250 Kgs). Resting on top of the davits are Ruthie's roto-molded kayak and above that are two 215-watt solar panels. Hanging off the davits is our Aqua Pro dinghy and it's 15-horsepower Honda outboard.

On deck, starting at the bow, is Rutea's primary anchor, a Bruce 30 kilogram that's connected to the 350' of 3/8" Hi-Test chain with a Wasi Powerball. The anchor and chain are deployed and retrieved by a Lofrans Progress II windlass. In the anchor locker lives another Bruce 20kg anchor that's connected to 50' of 3/8" Hi-Test chain and 150' of 1" MegaBraid rope. Also in the anchor locker, amongst many other things, is the 18' Para-Tech sea anchor with it's dedicated 100' of 1" single-braid rope. Moving aft is Rutea's main mast, which has double spreaders, four Enkes winches and one Harken self-tailing winch. The mast is made by Selden as are the two heavy spinnaker poles. The tracks for the staysail and the genoa are stainless steel. In the cockpit are five more Enke winches and a Harken mechanical backstay adjuster. The mizzen mast is also quite substantial and has three Enkes winches on it. The turning blocks are stainless steel. The steering system on Rutea is the Whitlock Mamba system using a torque tube and a push-pull rod. The compass in the binnacle is made by Sestrel.

Even though we try to keep up on Rutea's appearance, she's still starting to show her age. I replaced her portlights (all twelve of them) and Ruthie has taken over the job of varnishing her brightwork. In 2000 we removed her teak decks and replaced it with painted fiberglass. Much less maintenance! She's what I call a 200-foot boat: She looks great from 200 feet!

Regardless, the best part of Rutea is the way she handles. While she's not the fastest filly in the fleet, she can cover a respectable amount of distance in a day. Her sail plan allows her to be easily balanced to the point where the autopilot has very little correcting to do. Her sails are all made by North except her spinnakers are Dutch-made.

Rutea’s electronics package includes radar, chartplotter, AIS, sounder and sailing instruments - all made by Garmin. Her radios are all old but they work well. Her Icom M802 SSB has been modified to use ham frequencies.