I don't think I shall be too sorry to leave Thailand next week! We shall have been here three weeks by then and will have seen a fair part of the island of Phuket at the height of the holiday season. Maybe a visit outside the busy season would show a better side of the place, but then the weather is supposed to be rather more unbearable.....there are already far too many particularly vicious mozzies around for me. I am beginning to wonder if they love the taste of MSG which is in most of the food and can be bought in huge sacks like sugar or rice...I nearly bought some by accident. That wouldn't have gone down well over the Weetabix!
Most of the Thai people are very friendly and polite except when in supermarkets where manners completely disappear. We found a place to buy some provisions yesterday which was the largest and most untidy, sprawling, dirty jumble of anything and everything under the sun that I have ever seen. It was choc a bloc with locals buying sacks full of (dead) chickens and (live) fish together with massive lumps of goo in varying shades of brown which was piled high in bowls on the filthy counters. Thousands of polythene bags containing "something edible?" were stacked everywhere and had swollen almost to bursting in the heat. We didn't buy! All we really wanted was milk and kitchen roll but couldn't find either...we were eventually told after walking up and down miles of aisles selling anything from polystyrene takeawayboxes to sacks of cement, that they had sold out of milk. We found a butcher's section in the middle of the chaos whose counters were piled high with bits of what I concluded might be pork as there was a baby pig's head in the middle of it all. No sale there either..... We found a few items and managed to get to the checkout, paid and left only to be stopped and have all the shopping gone through, pulled out of the bags and ticked off on the receipt. I was extremely hot and bothered by now and not in a mood to wait patiently but we're told not to get cross with the locals as they take it very badly. Grrrrrr!!
One good thing about Thailand is the ability to buy prescription only drugs over the counter at very good prices. I needed Piriton or something similar to help ease the itching from mozzie bites and was able to buy as many as I liked from a chemist. In Guernsey last year, they got very shirty with me when I said that wanted 6 months supply in one go....
It's New Year's Eve today and it looks as though it may rain for most of the day. If so, the firework display may be a bit of a damp squib. We are hoping to get to see the infamous "Ladyboys" who put on an extravaganza called the Simon Show. I saw a few of them yesterday in Phuket Town, buying material. They were outrageous!

A Buddhist temple somewhere outside Phuket Town. The gold paint looked very fresh and we found some pieces of gold leaf floating around. Their temples are much more cared for here than in Bali, Indonesia. I suppose there is more money available?

The view that everyone who gets away from Patong Beach must come to see, somewhere up in the hills in the south of the island. I have to say that it does look very nice from up there but the beaches are all actually full to bursting with oily people when you get just a little closer....

OK, I admit, I'm just not in the holiday spirit at the moment.... Hoping Sri Lanka is less noisy and crowded and cheaper too. More from some way across the Indian ocean in a couple of weeks then........

A Slightly more Colourful Batch of Photos from Thailand

A hornbill seen at Pangkor Island, Malaysia. I wish I could have heard the noise they make. It's supposed to be earthshattering.







These strange looking bamboo poles are apparently meant to lure little fish which turn lure bigger fish to prey on them which then lure the fishermen to catch them all. I have no idea how effective they are but the sea around these parts is choc a bloc with fishing boats trying to catch anything and everything that swims I think. Most fish traps are unlit making them really hazardous at night (Advice is "just don't do it!). The fishing boats can be very brightly lit, at least the ones which catch squid etc but they don't carry normal navigation lights and dash around in all directions meaning that us poor yachties don't get to doze at all on our night watches. Roll on the Indian Ocean!!

I can't help taking pictures of cats...I've got hundreds! This one looked just like a mini "Min" (my cat in Guernsey whom I miss very much) so I thought I'd publish it. Well, why not? Most of the cats in Thailand look very well fed and happy which makes a change from other places that aren't cat friendly.

We had an organised Rally party at the Phuket Yacht Haven and the Thai tourist board very kindly put on a show with their dancers and musicians. They were very good but not quite as amazing as the Balinese dancers. Sorry Thailand!

And this one I took last night in Patong which is where it all goes on..... One night was enough! The "Ladyboys" were out in force and if I'd coughed up 100Baht, I'd have had a proper photo, a full frontal no doubt but I wasn't willing to pay anything so settled for a sneaky rear view. I have to say, they are mostly incredibly ugly from the front anyhow!!

Just a few odd weather photos (I've been having a sort out of my files)

Not really weather, this one though there was ceratinly some around! A large barge being towed backwards into the Lombok Strait and also on fire, hence the smoke! Odd. I think it may have been rubbish that was alight and there was a man up in the bow observing it. No real
danger then but a bit of a shipping hazard I think!


This is just sunrise at Rok Nok, Thailand. it's quite hard to get a sunrise, not because I am always asleep of course. It's just usually too hazy to see.





This is the scene just before a squall hits, providing the weather is coming your way. The sea is an amzing misty emerald green and the sky is pewter. Not captured very well here unfortunately. Thia squall brought 40 knot gusts and rather a lot of rain for half an hour or so.




I was lucky to capture this one, a waterspout in the Java Sea behind a rather nasty squall. This one passed behind us fortunately but we certainly got wet with other squalls passing overhead.





This is an earlier photo of the strait between Flores and Rinca, Indonesia. Interesting in the sense that it is very much like the Alderney Race with up to 9 knots which we are well used to of course but some of the other Rally boats were a little apprehensive. Speeds for all of us were well into double figures for a while!

News from just a little further North

I started this blog just over two years ago before I left Guernsey and I was beginning to feel that I had very little more to write……..I’ve seen an awful lot of sea and many, many thousands of islands across three oceans. OK, I know I have also been ashore a few times but I could be just any old tourist when on dry land. These “tourists” are absolutely everywhere too, let me tell you! Oh, except Blanquilla of course but that was thirteen months ago and half a world away…………

The sea is always interesting to look at because of its ever changing colours and wave forms etc but extremely difficult to describe in words and I have yet to take a decent photo of one of its more beautiful states. Even mirror calm water is constantly on the move. I sometimes think it would be easier to paint.
I still maintain my view that one island is very much like another in the sense that they are mostly just greenish lumps emerging in the distance from the water and also impossible to photograph well unless one comes across the perfect one palm tree desert island (I did once, in the San Blas Islands but it was about 50 yards from the next island which rather spoilt it a little). They are usually better once you get ashore of course but most we have had to pass by out of necessity (speed is of the essence in this Rally). We would still be in the Grenadines if we wanted to set foot in each place I reckon.
So, I was thinking what I might write about in this posting as we left Langkawi, Malaysia which was a jolly nice place I should add. Set among a picturesque group of islands which were naturally impossible to photograph and duty free ashore to boot! But, we had to leave as time was running out to reach Phuket for our next Blue Water gathering and Moonshiner was booked into a marina there for an engine overhaul…..rather important this, to ensure that we can get through the Red Sea area safely next March.

We were about an hour’s motoring NW out of the Langkawi Archipelago and I was keeping a close watch on the numerous fishing boats and their pots which were all around us, as has been the case since we entered the Java Sea over two months ago, when I spotted a large black fin about 100 yards ahead….. “How nice” I thought, a whale. Let’s hope I get a good close up view of it this time so that I might possibly identify it positively for once. They have a habit of diving and disappearing before the boat gets remotely close. This one didn’t. Then another smaller fin appeared and disappeared. Odd. Then I saw a large black hole which I thought may be a blow hole? The boat was getting much closer and the object of my attention wasn’t going anywhere. I started to feel a little nervous. This was big!
I shouted to Dick who was down below that we had a whale very close to us. Then the boat was going right over it…..No time to move out of the way for either of us. We must surely hit each other. My voice rose an octave I’m sorry to say. I anticipated what was about to go on between us and watched over the side with horrible fascination….. A few seconds passed. Then, just beneath where I was sitting in the cockpit, I saw an unforgettable sight. About 10 feet below me, an enormous whale shark was slowly swimming at right angles underneath the boat. I had a grandstand view and I didn’t even get my feet wet! Of course I didn’t get a photograph though I could have done if I’d had my wits about me as I had enough time but the image of this once in a lifetime encounter is ingrained in my memory and I just hope that you’re all incredibly jealous!!!

So this encounter has become the subject of this posting. As I said earlier, being at sea for long periods is never boring and, just sometimes, one gets to see something really, really special. What next I wonder?

And now we are in the Royal Phuket Marina, Thailand where we shall spend Christmas. We are due to leave when the work on the engine is done, hopefully before New Year’s Eve when absolutely everyone absolutely has to be at Patong for the festivities. OK! My first impressions of Thailand weren’t great. It’s full of people who are not Thai! Well I suppose it is Christmas and they are all on holiday which I don’t begrudge them at all but they must be horrified by the prices here. The book information (out of date now!!) said 86 Baht to the pound. The reality is currently 47, nearly half the value. I now want to go back to Malaysia which is cheap, cheap, cheap, but I’m going to keep quiet about it I think!
Photos next time when the internet link is better.....Just boring ones of the sea!!

Malaysia, cheap, cheap, cheap!

How does one leave somewhere dramatically? By storming off or flouncing out or exploding I suppose. If so, then we have certainly not left anywhere in such a manner, thank goodness?! Our attempted departure from Klang last week was quite the opposite in fact. The engine refused to start at all so we couldn’t go anywhere! Angel who were leaving at the same time as us, to make the overnight passage to Pangkor, were extremely kind and agreed to delay their departure to wait for Moonshiner to be fixed. This eventually took three days and a very dedicated Malaysian engineer/mechanic (I don’t even know his name) who eventually worked until 1am in the horrid conditions down in the engine well to get the thing sorted out. It was the exhaust gasket on the manifold this time but I think this has been a problem building for some time. See? I am learning a fair bit about diesel engines

At least virtually everything is cheap in Malaysia so being stuck for a few extra days wasn’t expensive (eating out every meal is as cheap as buying and cooking the stuff….hoorah!) but the river Klang is just so dirty and smelly, we were very relieved to leave in the end.
The overnighter to Pangkor was punctuated as usual by umpteen small fishing boats and nets and a short lived but nasty squall accompanied by torrential rain and lightning, so we arrived fairly refreshed into this very new (for this, read unfinished) marina complex at Pangkor. And it has turned out to be an as yet undiscovered gem for yachts and yachties. The man “in charge” is a charming Chinese Christian Malaysian called James Khoo who has helped us enormously with all our needs varying from taxi driving to hauling Angel out of the water for minor repairs to supplying rat poison. (There is a bit of a rodent problem in Malaysia!)
The whole area is being built on reclaimed land and will eventually contain hotels, accommodation blocks, shopping malls, conference centre etc. You know the sort of thing. The marina part of it is of minor consequence and will merely provide an interesting view for the residents and visitors…...but we don’t mind this at all. We (I) really like it here! I bought a hat (Katharine’s wedding!), shoes, a dress, a large bag, 2 teeshirts, 2 tops and a purse for under £22. Unbeatable!

Angel is currently out of the water for her minor repairs which will I’m sure be very competently done and we have been staying on with her for a few extra days to enjoy the facilities a little longer.
The plan is to leave tomorrow morning (Saturday I think….time doesn’t matter out here at the moment) and head northish for Langkawi where one can buy duty free drink (fairly necessary with Christmas coming) and clear the boat out through customs etc so that we can carry on up the coast to Thailand from where the next post will probably be sent. We will be accompanied, along with Angel by a very nice Dutch built boat, Jaden now owned by an Aussie, Ian and his wife, Jam (Thai, no idea how you spell it!). The more eyes we have out there in the dark to spot the dreaded fishing nets etc, the better!

More photos from the East.

Me in a bellydancing costume shop in Kuala Lumpur. I was drawn to all the gorgeous colours...just like Trinidad's carnival shops. These photos are courtesy of Val and David on "Angel" to whom we swept all the rubbish that had accumulated around Moonshiner's hull here in Klang the other day, the photos of which I posted a couple of days ago. I'm surprised they are still speaking to us! Mind you, most of the rubbish returned upriver with the tide later on that day and an awful lot of it is still bobbing up and down around the marina.

Val took a much better photo of the Petronas towers than I did. This is the image that you see everywhere and shows how they really look.

We four had a meal in Kuala Lumpur in a reggae bar. Pictures of Bob Marley all over the place and run by a Ghanian (How do you spell that?). Anyway it was a nice honest sort of a meal and this picture makes me look less chunky than most!! Thanks again Val. I was rather underdressed. The women are mostly Muslim and wear headscarves and sleeves. I bought some traditional (very cheap...£3.00) headgear in the end but I haven't worn it yet. It may come in handy for keeping out the draughts on night watches..... Makes me look just a tad pious!

This is an earlier photo of a group of Blue water people at a Chinese restaurant in Singapore with our delightful hostesses Eunice and Guan. Angels Val and David are standing behind and seated next to me respectively.

And finally, the first Singapore sling at Raffles Long Bar. Tradition is to leave all those nutshells all over the place. They get stuck in your shoes. Ouch!

In Malaysia, Port Klang about 20 miles from Kuala Lumpur.

This "amazing" picture was taken looking up because we couldn't get one looking down not having pre purchased tickets. All I can say about the Petronas Towers is that they are very well looked after ( very shiny) ...and guarded!!



This is an old picture of me taken in June I think of me sewing in the rain. My hair was recently cut and I had real curls! It was hidden in my camera and I only just found it. You might as well see it here as anywhere.





Angel, a 42' Halberg Rassy with whom we have been sailing in company since Australia more or less. We found all this debris around Moonshiner's hull in Port Klang, Malaysia in the morning after a terrific rainstorm with high winds which broke a barrier upriver and released all this rubbish downstream which accumulated around us. We just swept it on downstream towards Angel! Goodness only knows where it is now......... The river flows fast, but then it also turns and flows back up so the debris may yet return to us....

The same overnight storm actually broke the wire between the pontoons on which we were moored and we discovered that Moonshiner was the only thing holding the pontoons together. We decided not to leave there and then because about five other boats would have found themselves somewhat adrift!

It's nice here though!! Great beer!!!

We hope to leave soon to make it further up the Malaysian Coast towards Thailand but the boat is currently undergoing yet another small engine repair so we wait........ More later.