Bay of Bengal

I am not superstitious and I've never found four-leaf clover or rabbit's feet to have any benefit. But I do know many intelligent, aware people who sail the way we do who refuse to leave on a passage on a Friday, the old sailor's superstition that goes along with prohibiting bananas or whistling on board. The same superstition also bans women from ships and yet I know women sailors who won't leave port on a Friday. We left Ban Thap Lamu in Thailand yesterday, a Friday, full of excitement to have a 1,000+ blue water passage ahead of us, with a good forecast issued by nearly a dozen different weathermen.

But it seemed like Thailand wasn't quite ready to let go of us.

Things started to go wrong almost immediately. As I was pulling up the anchor, the windlass was laboring much more than usual and I soon found out why: A huge tree stump had gotten caught on our anchor chain and I had no idea how to free it. That problem was temporarily exempted when the chain filling the anchor locker got too high, jamming the chain into the wild cat. After fumbling for the right sized Allen wrench, I was able to get the windlass apart, clear the jam and concentrate on getting the tree stump removed. Something smiled on me though and the anchor came up clean, the tree stump having left of its own accord. We were finally underway.

It is a tradition in Thailand that when a boat has completed a big repair or is departing on a major journey, to light off a string of firecrackers. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to light off 1,000 firecrackers, I had bought the 2-meter long string, all coiled up in its bright red box with the Chinese dragons. Dangling the string of firecrackers from our boathook, I lit the fuse and quickly swung them over the side. Unfortunately, the quality control is lacking where those firecrackers were assembled - someone missed tying a critical knot - and the whole string dropped unceremoniously into the water. A few of the firecrackers went off anyway but just a small fraction of the total. I don't know if we were able to scare away the evil spirits or please the gods with our puny display but it doesn't matter because I'm not superstitious.

We motored out of the bay and before we raised the main, I needed to thread a new 3rd reef line for our new mainsail, the old one being too short by just a few centimeters. Mark and I fished the line through the boom, tied it off and I went to raise the sail - only to find that the new reef line was too short also. I said many bad words. But that wasn't all. After the new main was fully hoisted, Mark noticed that the luff was too slack. He was right and I went back to add some tension to the halyard but the halyard was already tight. Looking up at the top of the mast with binoculars, we could see that the main was all the way to the top - in fact, the thimble on the end was already up against the sheave, leaving us no way to get it any tighter. Having a main with a loose luff before you begin a 1,000 mile journey is like leaving San Diego for Denver knowing that your tires are under inflated.

Regardless, the day was beautiful and the seas were absolutely flat - flat because there was no wind. We motored until the late afternoon and on one of my forays down below, I stepped on the floorboard that covers our refrigeration compressors. The sole was hot. With a sigh, I lifted up the floorboard, felt the condensor coils and confirmed what I had suspected - no raw water circulation. I dove head first into the task of cleaning out the sea strainer and mopping up the bilge, not one of my favorite chores, especially while underway.

Not was all bad, though, towards late afternoon, a light wind filled in, we cut the engine and soon had every sail flying except the bed sheets. We were making good time towards our first waypoint, just south of the Nicobar Islands, where we'll veer to the right and head for Sri Lanka. All is well on board.
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At 1/24/2015 3:06 AM (utc) Rutea's position was 07°36.17'N 096°05.37'E

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Bay of Bengal (Are We Having Fun Yet?)

We made some excellent time yesterday, covering 182 nautical miles in a 24-hour period, almost a new record for Rutea. Now we have slightly more than 400nm to go to our destination and the conditions remain very good. The whitecaps spangle the sapphire-blue sea in the bright sunlight.

Our watch schedule last night was normal with no incidents to log until Mark came on watch at 0300 and a line of squalls formed right in our path. None of them were huge and (thankfully) none of them had any lightning. From my cabin, I could tell that the wind was rising so I came up on deck to offer Mark my support. Once the wind hit 25 knots, we decided to reef the genoa and as the squall increased, we furled it altogether, just leaving the staysail and the main with a single reef up. Rain poured down - which was a good thing because after four days at sea, Rutea needed a good fresh water bath. After the squall passed we unfurled the genoa and I was just about to go back to my bunk when I noticed another squall forming on the radar. This one proved just as strong as the previous one and once again we furled the genoa altogether until the squall passed. I was able to get a few minutes more sleep until it was my watch and since we've made so much westing in the last four days, the sunrise wasn't going to happen until nearly 0700, local time, as I haven't set our clocks back. While still screaming along at 8 knots, Rutea was rolled badly by a breaking whitecap and our pantry door latch couldn't hold back all the wine, milk, eggs and onions so it all spilled on the main saloon's sole. One bottle of Ruthie's Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio broke, making the cabin smell like a winery, half-a-dozen eggs broke and one of the pantry's bins had hit our newly-varnish table, taking out a good-sized bite of varnish.

Once I had the big chunks cleaned up, it was way past time for coffee. I ground the Thai beans, boiled water and as I was waiting for the water to cool slightly, I stuck my head out the hatch to give a quick 360°. Bad decision. While I was looking around, Rutea took another bad roll and spilled all the coffee grounds. A long stream of bad words came from somewhere. I saved most of the grounds in a large plastic tumbler and as I was dumping them back into the coffee cone, I smacked the bottom of the tumbler, sending it crashing into the coffee cone and spilling all the grounds once again.

Ruthie did most of the clean up when she got up. My mood is now quite good and Rutea continues to make good time. All is well on board.
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At 1/27/2015 3:10 AM (utc) Rutea's position was 07°30.30'N 087°57.00'E

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Bay of Bengal

If I had a dollar for every time I've tucked a reef in our mainsail, I wouldn't be rich but I would have a lot of dollars. The reef I had to tuck in this morning at 0300 was routine in every way with the exception of it being the first time I had tucked a reef in this particular sail. The longer kringles and the loose-foot created new issues that I hadn't dealt with before and it makes for an interesting learning curve when you're trying to perform a new task on a pitching deck. With our old main I could tuck a reef in (or shake one out) in less than a few minutes. I didn't time myself this morning but it was an exponential factor.

The wind has been very steady at 16-18 knots and the seas are less than 2 meters - nearly ideal conditions. The overcast skies help to keep it cooler but deny our solar panels the energy they need. Embarrassingly, our genset run time is stratospheric.

We are not quite to our halfway mark for this passage but we'll reach it later today. If the wind holds up - and we expect it will - we should pull into Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, sometime late Thursday.

All is well on board.
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At 1/26/2015 1:18 AM (utc) Rutea's position was 06°58.90'N 091°04.18'E

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Leaving Thailand

After living in Thailand for nearly a year, our departure from this unique country is imminent.  While we are eager to leave,  we will never forget the kindness shown to us by so many people, the spectacular beauty of the places we’ve seen or the incredible flavors of the local foods.  Obviously, the country has many issues with which it struggles – what country doesn’t? – but despite the fact that while we were here we witnessed a military coup, routinely saw people driving the wrong direction of traffic and continuously had to deal with poor repairs, people not showing up when they said they were or places of business randomly closing for no apparent reason.  The heat frequently sapped all of our energy and motivation leaving us ‘hibernating’ directly under a small window air conditioner.  On the other hand, we took advantage of the marina’s fitness room – it was air conditioned – and both of us got in better physical shape than we possibly ever had been.

Ruthie and Phen

There were a few restaurants near the marina where we parked Rutea and one of them quickly became our favorite.  It’s owned by a small Thai woman named Phen (pronounced ‘Pen’) and the name of the place is Coconut.  Phen does everything:  She takes your order, cooks the food, serves it and washes the dishes.  Her English is very good yet she always speaks in the third-person:  “Phen no have.” or “Phen can make.”  There are several long tables in this restaurant with no walls and cruisers from all over the world sit shoulder to shoulder, exchanging stories, offering experiences or talking of future destinations while enjoying very cold Thai beer.  The menu is extensive but, even so, Phen does her shopping daily so the food is always remarkably fresh.  Her Penang Curry has the bright, strong flavors of kaffir lime leaves, garlic, bird’s eye chilis, bunches of green peppercorns still on the stem plus a long list of spices.  It’s one of our favorites and Phen will make it with chicken, pork or beef but if you’re lucky and she has fresh prawns, then that’s what we order.  A large serving of that with a big bowl of steamed rice will set you back 150 Thai Baht (almost US$5.00) but it’s one of the most expensive items on the menu.

There are many things in Thailand that have made us giggle.   For example, one time when we were shopping at one of the big department stores in a mega-shopping mall, I paid for some items with a credit card.  Many years ago I read that it is unwise to actually sign the back of your credit card – if you do and your credit card get stolen, the thief has your signature as well.  Because of that, I print on the signature line:  Demand Photo ID.  The clerk at this particular store compared my signature on the paper receipt to the back of my card and said, “No same.”  I got my California driver’s license out and showed her that the signature on my license and the slip were in fact identical.  She held her ground and repeated that the writing on the back of the credit card didn’t match what I had signed.  She handed the slip back to me and I printed below my signature:  Demand Photo ID and with this she was satisfied.  It took great amounts of physical and emotional strength not to burst out laughing.

Today, for the first time in a year, we’ve sailed to a port which we haven’t visited before.  My brother, Mark, is on board with us and we’re having a great time even if there are chores and repairs to be made.  While Mark was here, our single-cylinder diesel genset blew out an exhaust elbow.  Mark mentioned this in an email to a mutual friend, saying that I was struggling with genset issues.  Unfortunately, AutoCorrect changed ‘genset’ to ‘gender’.

We leave for Sri Lanka in about a week.

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

Phang Nga Bay, Thailand

Rutea at her berth at Yacht Haven Marina

The water is so warm in Phang Nga Bay that sea life grows at an amazing rate.  If I want to keep Rutea in a ready-to-sail-at-a-moments-notice condition, I need to dive down and scrape the barnacles off her prop at least once every three weeks.  So, after one of these excursions to Rutea’s underside, I suggested that we cast off the dock lines and do some exploring of the bay that we’re anchored in.  We had slipped into a routine that was leaving us boat-bound, reluctant to leave the comfort of our air conditioning, save for daily trips to the marina’s fitness center.  Once we had our tanks full of fuel, we headed out with our first stop to be the anchorage on the north side of Ko Boi Yai, one of the many islands in Phang Nga Bay and that didn’t even show up as an anchorage in our cruising guide.  From there we headed over to Ao Po, where our friends, Bruce and Alene, are refitting their 50’ trimaran.  They joined us for a day sail and we joined them for a dinner at a local restaurant that night.

It felt so good to get away from the dock even if we did have to suffer the heat and humidity that is the lack of air conditioning.  It had been so long since we had actually be cruising and I was pleasantly surprised at how well all of Rutea’s systems performed after sitting at idle since March.

As we had left somewhat suddenly, we didn’t have a chance to provision properly so we decided to just make do with what we had on board although we were tempted to stop in Ao Chalong, a popular anchorage for cruisers with good grocery stores nearby.  But we were enjoying being away from everything too much so we decided to press on.  As we motored south, a cloud formed over Phuket Island and I watched it grow from a puffy, idyllic, lazy-looking cloud into a monster of a thunderstorm.  Its direction was the same as ours so I wasn’t too concerned – until it changed directions and started to come our way.  At first I thought we could outrun it but we later thought it would be best if we made a u-turn and headed back north.  Oops!  The thunderstorm changed its direction again and started to come right for us!  We made another u-turn and this time we had no place to run – the storm hit us squarely.  The wind gusted from a dead calm to 30+ knots in a few seconds.  A torrential rain fell that left visibility reduced to just a few feet.  Lightning filled the sky and thunder exploded in long, rolling tolls.

A Brazilian we had met told us that some spectacular snorkeling was to be had at Ko Mai Thon, a small island that’s not even in Phang Nga Bay but rather out in the Andaman Sea.  Much of the coast of the island is roped off as a marine preserve but we found a relatively-protected place to anchor and we were soon loaded in the dinghy, making our way for some promising-looking coral.  The problem is that we have been spoiled with off-the-chart places like the Tuamotus, Tonga, Fiji, Chesterfield Reef and the like – its hard to be enthusiastic about a place where the coral is brown and lifeless and there’s just a few brightly-colored fish.  We did get a great sunset, though.

Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi Li

We left Ko Mai Thon for Ko Phi Phi Li, the smaller of the two Phi Phi islands but a tourist magnet nonetheless.  Usually when we arrive at a place like that, all the moorings are taken and we’re left with few good choices, however, this time our luck was with us and we had got to pick the best mooring in all of the famous Maya Bay.  The bay is stunningly beautiful but the constant traffic of tourist boats coming and going was distracting.  Still, we got a good snorkel in and left our prized mooring as the wind was filling in, making the place uncomfortable.  We sailed around to the backside of Ko Phi Phi Li and soon ran out of adjectives to describe it’s beauty.  As evening was approaching, we found an incredible place to spend the night.  We toured around the area in the dinghy, barbequed an excellent dinner and retired early – only to be awoken at midnight as we had come too close to a sailboat that had picked up another mooring near us.  Protocol in this situation is well-understood internationally – the person who was anchored (or moored) first, has the right to stay.  The second or subsequent boat needs to move although in this case, we were concerned that if the other boat moved to the next available mooring, we still be too close together.  So we both took moorings as far apart as we could.  It took a while to let our sleepyness return and once it did, Ruthie and I headed back to our bunk.  It was only a couple hours later when we were woken again as the wind filled in to about 30 knots and was pushing us dangerously close to the cliff walls.  I stayed awake until daylight as one can never be sure how strong the moorings actually are.

This morning under grey skies we moved three miles north to Ko Phi Phi Don, a tourist destination of epic proportions.  Even though this is the ‘low’ season, the narrow sidewalks were crowded with people and all the shops were open.  We had a meal and a beer and another beer as we waited for the rain to lessen.  When it became obvious that it wasn’t going to, we launched the dinghy and drove back to Rutea in the pouring rain.

Phuket, Thailand

Long Tails at Dawn - Koh Rok Nok, Thailand

Ruthie and I were a little anxious as we went to clear out of Malaysia in Talaga Bay but we needn’t have been.  All of the government officials we had dealings with in Malaysia were very relaxed and details to them didn’t appear to be very important.  With port clearance papers in hand, we headed northwest on a fine, breezy afternoon for Ko Lipe (Ko in Thai means ‘island’), about 23 miles away.  It was late enough in the afternoon that we decided against dropping the dink and going ashore so we stayed aboard and got our first glimpse of Thailand.  Since we were only a short distance from Malaysia, we didn’t expect any differences between the two countries to be obvious but there were indications that things were different.  For one, the boat that the fishermen used were now ‘long tails’ – narrow, low-freeboard boats with a ridiculously long propeller shaft that extended well beyond the transom of the boat.  It wouldn’t take long before we’d notice much more dramatic differences but from our vantage point, nestled between two thickly covered islands, boats were about all we could see.

The wind had blown all night but we had been comfortable enough.  It continued to blow as we left early the following morning – our hopes that we could sail to our next stop were rising but were soon dashed as the wind died altogether and we wound up motoring in glassy seas all the way to Ko Rok Nok.  The heat was sweltering and we wasted little time in getting into our snorkeling gear after the anchor was down.  There was a very strong current running and even though the underwater visibility wasn’t that bad, there wasn’t much sea life to be seen.  We left at first light the next morning.

The Big Buddha on Top of the Hill Overlooks Ao Chalong

As we approached Ao Chalong on the island of Phuket, the traffic on the VHF radio increased and we started to hear familiar voices and boat names.  The bay is big and busy, with lots of yachts from all over the world and hundreds of boats used to ferry tourists around Phang Nga Bay.  The tourist boats zip through the anchorage, setting down big wakes which send everything in the cabin flying around.  We went ashore, bought a Thai SIM for our phone and wandered around a little.  The following morning we checked-in and felt more comfortable once our visas were validated.

Thai Script is Impossible to Learn.  Typical Wiring.

Thailand is different than Malaysia!  Generally speaking, the people of Thailand look much more Asian than those of Malaysia.  The language is completely different – instead of using Latin script like English or Malay, the Thai use their own alphabet that has vowels above, below or next to the squiggly letters.  We have an English-Thai app on our iPhone and even though I swear I’m pronouncing the Thai words the same as the woman in the app, no one in Thailand can understand anything I’m saying.  Since we eat out a lot – the Thai food is both delicious and inexpensive – one phrase I get to practice a lot is การตรวจสอบโปรด which means, the check, please. 

The Meals Can be Fantastic Especially When Enjoyed With Cold Thai Beer

Just after we got comfortable with the anchorage in Ao Chalong, we moved up to the Yacht Haven Marina on the northern end of Phuket Island.  Its much more isolated from the intensely tourist-oriented southern part of the island, a relatively inexpensive place to keep Rutea and a pretty good place to get work done.  It does mean we have to rent a car every time we want to go somewhere.

Its still insanely hot and we bought a used window-type air conditioner to help us cope.  The good part about it is that we can now be comfortable aboard but the bad part is that we sometimes hunker down and never leave the cool confines of the cabin.