Crossing the Bay of Bengal

And it was all going so well……..
We had checked out of Thailand and stocked up on provisions, enough for a month or so, then, having left the Royal Phuket Marina at the earliest opportunity when there was enough tide and after a night at anchor in the lovely Nai Harn Bay on the south coast of Phuket, we headed out, under sail, westwards and a little south on the 1100 mile passage to Galle in Sri Lanka. The Blue Water Guide promised us an “exhilarating sail” with NE trade winds and I was really looking forward to a pleasant ocean passage…for a change. Ha! The guide frequently gets it wrong as we have discovered. They ask us to give them updates based on our experiences so here goes………..

OK, so the wind was actually from the East for that first day but we sailed along very well with the Yankee poled out to port and the main set with the preventer rigged to starboard making 8 knots on occasion and eventually doing over 170 miles for that day’s run. Then the wind started to veer, not a good sign, swinging around to the SW and forcing us to start the engine (which was now purring happily I should add!) Still, motoring is not a good idea so early on, on this long trip, as there has to be enough fuel to actually arrive at the other end……

The wind persisted from the SW and increased so that we were having to battle against it and could only manage about 2.5 knots for the next three days. Concern over fuel consumption was growing. We were getting nowhere fast, making about 60 miles a day by then. We had heard from other yachts that had set out a few days earlier that they had experienced strong head winds with one or two boats having sail damage and fuel shortage problems though most had made it to Galle safely (especially the bigger faster boats that usually motorsail everywhere anyway..but I won’t go into that here!

We were seriously reefed down by now( with some difficulty I might add) and had set the staysail which is tough enough to withstand a real pasting by the weather. We had a couple of very nasty squalls with black skies and 35 knot sustained winds (gale force 8) and wondered just how long this patch of inclement weather might last. In the gloom as evening approached, I saw a yacht sailing under reefed headsail only…in the opposite direction. Strange! No one sails from Sri Lanka to Thailand I thought? We couldn’t identify it but thought it might be a Rally yacht and it was quickly gone from view.

Then an email was received from “Rally control” about the cyclone. Eek!! There are not supposed to be cyclones in the Indian Ocean between December and March. Well, someone got that wrong. This was one!!

Things were beginning to look a little dodgy..the wind was still from the SW and increasing… Reports started to come in over the radio from other boats nearby who were experiencing winds of up to 50 knots and 12 foot seas. Time to leave the area! We turned southeast away from it all and motorsailed through the night and on through the next day until the sea and sky looked the right shade of blue again .We had done exactly the right thing in the circumstances but now what?
We needed up to date weather reports and quickly. Where was this cyclone headed and would it get any worse?

We established radio contact via the Rally daily net on the SSB that next day having heard various reports through the night of boats having quite a time of it but each boat was heading either north east or south east to clearer skies and hopefully safety. There were seven of us in total. One boat, a big fast cat, had goe right through the centre of the storm and experienced 60 knots plus. We were furthest SE and hadn’t had nearly such strong winds. There was no damage to any boat or person but we were all worried about how the cyclone would move or if it would get any worse. It turns out that weather reporting is this part of the world is appalling ie there is hardly any. Great! Dick made an iridium call to the weather people in Exeter for info and got some vague details. The Rally coordinator waiting for us in Sri Lanka found some expert in London who said he would value our input if we could supply him with details so that he could produce a forecast for us. Thanks for that mate!

They ended up predicting that the storm would intensify and head SW. Well, it didn’t get worse thank goodness but we were all sitting on its outer edges, hove to, waiting for reliable information so we could carry on safely to Galle. There was also the problem that some boats were going to run out of fuel as they had spent such a long time powering into the strong winds……..like us! We had turned back on our course about 100 miles which we were obviously going to have to make up.

Then one of the boats a long way to the south and west of us (about 180 miles) radioed that they had lost their engine. They had had just about the worst weather and had quite a lot of other damage to their boat. This was not good news at all. There were three of us who were about two days sail away from this boat and so two of us decided to try to motorsail across south and west to get to them so we could tow them. We made this decision because they still had plenty of fuel and wouldn’t be needing it!! We could take some of their fuel and use it to get us both safely to Galle. A sort of Catch 22? The other boat with us, Natibou, a Swedish registered cat stayed within VHF distance and called called us up every two hours to monitor progress. Hans, the owner, turned out to be a brilliant coordinator, language barrier non existent too.

So we made our way towards the engineless yacht staying in contact the whole time via radio and hearing after a day or so that they were being swept away at 4 knots (that’s fast!) by an unusual current. All these events were unusual. This meant that we had to motor extra fast just to keep up with them and we reached over 9 knots at times….but the engine didn’t let us down!!!!! It all took rather a long time though and we were seriously low on diesel by the time we reached them so we were all very relieved to see each others sails about seven miles away from each other. We motored alongside in perfect calm conditions, both being taken now at 4 knots( SW towards the Cape of Good Hope) and took several cans of diesel from them. Then we attached the tow rope without any problems and set off heading north west for Galle. Interesting to be on the right end of a tow for a change! This was a much longer trip though than any we’d been involved with before at around 150 miles.

It took us about 30 hours in the end, motorsailing as fast as we could. We had to battle back against the weird 4 knot current first of all, this time with Moonshiner pulling nearly 30 extra tons of boat…but the engine carried on working perfectly. Phew!

As we approached the harbour and Dick and I were shortening the tow rope ( an enormous effort, winching in by hand over 60 metres of heavy rope which was either trailing in the water or pulling 30 tons of yacht…a 54’ Oyster by the way), the heavens opened with the heaviest rain we’ve yet seen. This was going to be our most dramatic entrance yet!
We had to pull our tow, Moonbeam (yes, we are now called the Moonies!) alongside us, go through the harbour entrance and into the marina side by side where all the other cyclone survivors were waiting to catch our lines. All the time, the rain got heavier and heavier and lightning flashed all around. Dick managed to get us both alongside very well thank goodness and we attached ourselves to the horrible wobbly plastic pontoon. Then it started to seriously blow with horizontal rain and securing ourselves properly became quite an issue. The skippers of the other boats were all on board both our boats helping, each with their own ideas of the best way to attach lines and kedge anchors. It took a long time and there was a lot of shouting! We were all as wet as it is possible to be and leaks through the deck appeared in places I’d never seen before. Anyway, the rain and wind did eventually subside and so Dick brought out the Mount Gay special vintage rum which we shared out between 10 of us……. the whole bottle We’d earned it!

A day or so later when we had managed to catch up on sleep, we attended a general pre arranged meeting for all the Rally yachts. There was much talk about the tropical storm some of us had been through and Moonshiner was hailed as a bit of a heroine. I believe some of the snottier types among the Rally participants had thought that she wasn’t up to much, even a bit of a liability, but she has proved them wrong. Tee hee!!!!

Moonbeam’s owners are Colin and Sarah Seaman from Suffolk and we are now good friends. They had joined the Rally in Darwin and we hadn’t had much chance since to meet each other. Colin is a retired pilot and he and Dick probably bumped into each other in the past in Aberdeen. Sarah went to Blanchelande (Guernsey) College so knows Guernsey well. Small world isn’t it?

We had a day out together in and around Galle, Sri Lanka yesterday and I (with Sarah) managed a tick on my “bucket list”….. a ride on an elephant! Photos to come soon. Oh yes, I almost forgot, on the way to find Moonbeam, we saw a huge solitary male sperm whale who did a spectacular lobtail for us, and all around us on our towing into Galle, there were blue whales spouting in the distance…. No close ups unfortunately.

Sorry it's taken so long to post this blog...the internet connection here is a twenty minute walk from the pontoon and we have been too busy to make it here yet. We are due to leave tomorrow for Cochin in Kerala, India and then after a few days there we set off on the long and secret voyage across the N Indian ocean to Oman. All the talk now is about the pirate threat which is real enough, but not for yachts......so far.

A few photos that got lost in the previous post!

I would say that this is the "Royal Crescent" of Phuket Town though slightly more colourful and busy, less greenery and look at all those electric cables. They hang down near to the ground in some places.

Almost every family gets around by scooter which cost very little (no tax apparently) We saw them for sale, brand new, for around £600. I was lucky to capture this fairly typical family of 5 on board, stopped at the traffic lights, as they usually rush around like maniacs. Some carry their pet birds around too in cages.

The group photo with "the View" taken on Boxing Day as we did a tour of the south of the Island. Crews of Spirit of Nina (Gillian and John) and BionicII, (Jaime, Carmen and their daughter Nyree..not too sure of the spelling here)

And finally, the Christmas tree and the palm side by side in a corner of the Royal Phuket marina where Moonshiner is currently berthed and just visible between the two.

Happy New Year!

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!