Posts
One thing we forgot to mention in our recent blog is that happily Jean's son Perry was able to meet, Neil, Julie and Bailey from "Galatea" in San Jose, California. They all got together and had a meal at a spareribs restaurant.
Perry was in San Jose at a Microsoft course and when we realised this we contacted both and the meeting was organised! We first met the "Galatea" crew in Darwin and came to know them well throughout Indonesia - particularly on Lombok.
So pleased that they were all able to get together.
Cheers again from us........
Jim and Jean
s.v. Tiare Taporo III
Langkawi
Malaysia
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Monday, 25 April 2016
Fwd: Two months (so far ) in Langkawi, Malaysia
----- Original Message -----
To: "Alec" <adonald@abdonaldltd.co.nz>
Subject: Two months (so far ) in Langkawi, Malaysia
Date: 25 Apr 2016 08:01:40 -0000
From: ZMQ5985
Well folks, here we are 2 months on and we are enjoying being part of local life here in Langkawi.
Unfortunately Langkawi is not looking as lush as it normally does due to the fact that there has been NO rain for 5 months, although there have been a few showers over the past few days. From now on though there should be lots more rain as the transition between the present NE monsoon and the pending SW starts to kick in. The SW monsoon should be fully developed by the end of May but lately the seasons have been fairly atypical and anything could happen! As we discovered with the unseasonal high winds we encountered when we came down here from Krabi/Phuket.
We have been doing small jobs on the boat - varnishing the caprails along the tops of the bulwarks, Jean has been polishing the stainless steel with metal polish which is a hard dirty job, and generally cleaning and getting the old girl ready for our 2 month absence when we leave for Miami at the end of May. In addition we have both been having acupuncture which started off being mainly for the knees but which has been having all sorts of other beneficial side effects. Before we arrived here Jean had barely been able to walk upstairs but now she's bounding up and down like a 20 yr. old.
The Royal Langkawi Yacht Club is much better than we remembered it from our last visit, although to be fair, they were then about to embark on a huge rebuilding programme which is now almost complete. Our days consist of random jobs on the yacht, hiring a car twice a week to provision, have meals ashore and visit the doctor. And speaking on Skype hither and yon. Only thing about that is that we have an internet device to enable internet access as the marina Wifi is intermittent and weak at best. And of course we have to top it up just like a cellphone. On Skype the Gigs just get gobbled up!
Speaking of doctors, the acupuncturist is Indian trained and very knowledgeable in his field. He is part Malay and part Tamil Indian - his Indian ancestors having come to Malaysia some 4 generations ago. In addition we also decided that we needed more conventional medicine for checkups which we hadn't had for about 2 years. We are pleased to report that we are both reasonably healthy with Jim's blood sugar at 7.5 after a fasting blood test. Incidentally, the blood tests occupy 3 A4 pages and are a far more comprehensive test than we ever had in NZ. Jean also had a suspicious raised mole cut out of her back and it appears to be benign but it's certainly better off than on. The doctor we saw is also a dermatologist so he was ideal to deal with the minor surgery. Then Jim got quite a bad eye infection but that is now largely cleared up with antibiotic cream and drops. Probably wasn't helped by the extreme dry and dusty conditions that have prevailed since we arrived. And aircon which dries the air.
We feel much happier and at home here now than we have felt before. Langkawi is difficult to find your way around in the sense of finding specific suppliers for things but we are now almost like old hands. We are also blase about Islam, but we feel very sorry for the women who must always wear clothing that completely covers their legs to the ankles and of course the headscarves. These latter are often used as fashion statements but it must be very trying in temperatures which at times approach 40C - although normally during the day they hover just above 30C. Boats like ours which were designed in the northern hemisphere 82 years ago, and were called Gauntlets, were never designed with cruising in tropical waters in mind. So, we have a small household aircon which is installed inside the cabin where it takes up room in an already confined space. It's 800mm high, and the other measurements are 350mm. x 400mm. It sits on the saloon sole just forrard of the galley and aft of the saloon table and the hot air that it generates has to be exhausted via a 180mm flexible hose out through an opening port. Its capacity is 9000 BTU. We couldn't be without it. It's not ideal because it sucks ambient air in from outside which means that the galley temperature sits around 30C while the saloon just 2-3 metres away is in the high 20'sC. However, it's way better than having nothing at all. We also have 4 12v fans which circulate air around and, although they don't reduce the temperature, the wind chill factor is very welcome. We have an additional larger 12v fan which we use to blow the cold air up onto our bed at night. All very complicated. Another issue with the small 12v fans is that their life seems to be not much more than 12 months and they are fairly expensive to replace - the equivalent of just over NZD100 usually.
We have also been swimming on some days in the marina pool, but you need to be there before 10 otherwise it's like a warm bath. Whenever we hire a car, we ring them and then take a 10 minute walk down to the Langkawi Jeti where all these services are located. There's also a Starbucks where Jean has educated them in how to make a flat white and Jim is partial to the plastic cocktail sausages drizzled with cheese sauce! Very healthy - we don't think!
We have come to know quite a few other yachts met on our travels - "Stardancer" from NZ with Gina and Christian, "Suzie Wong" with Michael and Ae, "Tamata" - a French boat with Olivier and Francoise, "St Michel" - a German schooner with Joachim and Neng, "Natural High" - a NZ Wharram catamaran, "Before" - an American monohull from Seattle with Richard and Lee, "Reflections" - with Gene and Sheri - another American yacht from Hawaii. They were a great help to us in our tribulations at Kupang in 2013, and of course "Vega" ( Shane and Meggie), which is the 124 yr old Baltic trader now on their way to Indonesia on one of their charitable voyages. There are "Settlement" - a catamaran with Andrew and Sue and "Murrundi" (Barbara and John) - both Australian boats who we hope to see again soon. And there are others too numerous to mention here. Then there is the Canadian catamaran "Pedoja" which is a NZ St. Francis design. Don is Canadian and Tania is from NZ. They are currently in the Maldives Islands (SW of India) and are by all accounts in the middle of an unpleasant situation. They have a very small dog and took her for a walk ashore on a secluded beach. However, Islam does NOT like dogs of any sort and soon after they returned to the boat they were boarded by armed Police! They were escorted back to a commercial dock where the dog has been confined below decks so she doesn't offend any more Moslems and Don and Tania have been confined to the vessel. Absolutely unbelievable and of course this nonsensical behaviour does nothing to foster understanding between different cultures and religions. They are leaving soon for S. Africa and just how they are going to provision and fuel the boat is a bit of a mystery. We sincerely hope that everything finally is resolved in their favour. This is just one of the things that can befall a cruising yacht these days.
We've referred earlier to our upcoming trip to Miami. As you all no doubt know, Jean's family, including two small grandsons, lives in Miami and of course she can't wait to see them again. So, we are leaving here at the end of May and travelling with Turkish Airlines via Istanbul. We thought as neither of us have ever been to Istanbul, we would spend 3 days there on the way. Of course it's such an historic city, that we won't even come close to seeing everything in 3 days. Then we fly on to Miami also with Turkish Airlines. Lorraine and Alan (Tracie's mother and stepfather) will still be there when we arrive early June so it will be good to see them again. And of course there will be a joyous reunion with Carter, Nash and Jean. Sorry to Perry and Tracie for necessarily taking a back seat!!
We will be there for about a month before we fly to Medellin in Colombia. We are very interested in living permanently either in Central America or northern South America once the boat sells and recently we have been drawn to Ecuador (Cuenca). Cuenca and Medellin have very similar climates - a constant mid 20'sC all year round, and Medellin is known as "the City of Eternal Spring". So, we are enormously looking forward to visiting there; just hope that our expectations are lived up to. We were going to go to Ecuador but since then they have had a devastating earthquake off the NW Pacific coast which has killed at least 500 people so right now a visit to Ecuador would be difficult and intrusive. Never mind, we will go there in the future. Another country we have looked at with great interest is Nicaragua because it is only just being discovered and prices for real estate there are even cheaper. However, it does not offer the elevated living that Medellin or Cuenca do. Medellin is very close to 5,000' above sea level and is a very healthy place to be as a result.
Recently we did a visa run to Satun in southern Thailand. It's only just over an hour in a high speed ferry. We had to go because, although our Malaysian 3 month visas hadn't expired, they would have by the time we left for the US. And we are investigating haulout options for later in the year here, at Penang and also PSS at Chebilang, Thailand so we paid a visit to Jia at the PSS Boatyard at Chebilang - 30 kms from Satun itself. Jia is Thai Chinese and his lovely wife Julie is also Chinese but born in Mauritius so she speaks fluent French! They met us off the ferry and also lent us a car which we were able to use. We left it at the ferry the next day. They took us to dinner at a French restaurant which was very good. We wanted to pay as they had paid for us on a previous occasion but they had prepaid so it was a done deal! Never mind, there will be another opportunity we're sure. It was great to see them again and we always enjoy their company.
We stayed at On's guesthouse again and it was good to see On again too. Only thing was, we had a room on the 2nd. or top floor and it was like an oven when we walked in. No doubt insufficient roof insulation. The aircon control said 47C! Because the room was large it took an age for the overworked aircon to get the temperature under 30C but eventually it did and so we slept OK.
Courtesy of the car Jia and Julie had lent us, we paid a visit to the Big C supermarket and bought a few odds and ends including a bag of small Thai oranges which are very sweet. When we were disembarking from the ferry back at Langkawi we noticed a poster saying we can't bring in any plant material and if we try to smuggle it and get caught the fine would be 12,000 Ringitts! That's roughly NZD4,500!! Would make an expensive bag of oranges! So, we decided to declare them and were told that they would "let it go this time, but don't do it again"!! Ludicrous, considering that almost nothing is grown on Langkawi and whenever we've arrived here on the boat we've always had fruit and veges aboard. Of course arriving in NZ, it's a different matter entirely - and rightly so.
We have discovered "Mangoes" which is a restaurant near Telaga run by an ex Aussie yachtie and her German partner. Excellent food, a bit expensive but worth it. We have also discovered Wonderland here in Kuah which is a Chinese restaurant with great food. Always busy with people waiting for tables and almost exclusively Chinese clientele. A really bustling place and very efficient. Jean says it reminds her of Hong Kong. We go there twice a week when we have the car. All these eateries are much cheaper than the equivalent in NZ which by all accounts wouldn't be difficult!
Anyway, that's probably enough from us for now - we'll look forward as always to your news.
Cheers and lotsaluv from us..........
Jim and Jean
s.v. Tiare Taporo III
Royal Langkawi Yacht Club
Kuah
Langkawi
Malaysia.
----- End of Original Message -----
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
To: "Alec" <adonald@abdonaldltd.co.nz>
Subject: Two months (so far ) in Langkawi, Malaysia
Date: 25 Apr 2016 08:01:40 -0000
From: ZMQ5985
Well folks, here we are 2 months on and we are enjoying being part of local life here in Langkawi.
Unfortunately Langkawi is not looking as lush as it normally does due to the fact that there has been NO rain for 5 months, although there have been a few showers over the past few days. From now on though there should be lots more rain as the transition between the present NE monsoon and the pending SW starts to kick in. The SW monsoon should be fully developed by the end of May but lately the seasons have been fairly atypical and anything could happen! As we discovered with the unseasonal high winds we encountered when we came down here from Krabi/Phuket.
We have been doing small jobs on the boat - varnishing the caprails along the tops of the bulwarks, Jean has been polishing the stainless steel with metal polish which is a hard dirty job, and generally cleaning and getting the old girl ready for our 2 month absence when we leave for Miami at the end of May. In addition we have both been having acupuncture which started off being mainly for the knees but which has been having all sorts of other beneficial side effects. Before we arrived here Jean had barely been able to walk upstairs but now she's bounding up and down like a 20 yr. old.
The Royal Langkawi Yacht Club is much better than we remembered it from our last visit, although to be fair, they were then about to embark on a huge rebuilding programme which is now almost complete. Our days consist of random jobs on the yacht, hiring a car twice a week to provision, have meals ashore and visit the doctor. And speaking on Skype hither and yon. Only thing about that is that we have an internet device to enable internet access as the marina Wifi is intermittent and weak at best. And of course we have to top it up just like a cellphone. On Skype the Gigs just get gobbled up!
Speaking of doctors, the acupuncturist is Indian trained and very knowledgeable in his field. He is part Malay and part Tamil Indian - his Indian ancestors having come to Malaysia some 4 generations ago. In addition we also decided that we needed more conventional medicine for checkups which we hadn't had for about 2 years. We are pleased to report that we are both reasonably healthy with Jim's blood sugar at 7.5 after a fasting blood test. Incidentally, the blood tests occupy 3 A4 pages and are a far more comprehensive test than we ever had in NZ. Jean also had a suspicious raised mole cut out of her back and it appears to be benign but it's certainly better off than on. The doctor we saw is also a dermatologist so he was ideal to deal with the minor surgery. Then Jim got quite a bad eye infection but that is now largely cleared up with antibiotic cream and drops. Probably wasn't helped by the extreme dry and dusty conditions that have prevailed since we arrived. And aircon which dries the air.
We feel much happier and at home here now than we have felt before. Langkawi is difficult to find your way around in the sense of finding specific suppliers for things but we are now almost like old hands. We are also blase about Islam, but we feel very sorry for the women who must always wear clothing that completely covers their legs to the ankles and of course the headscarves. These latter are often used as fashion statements but it must be very trying in temperatures which at times approach 40C - although normally during the day they hover just above 30C. Boats like ours which were designed in the northern hemisphere 82 years ago, and were called Gauntlets, were never designed with cruising in tropical waters in mind. So, we have a small household aircon which is installed inside the cabin where it takes up room in an already confined space. It's 800mm high, and the other measurements are 350mm. x 400mm. It sits on the saloon sole just forrard of the galley and aft of the saloon table and the hot air that it generates has to be exhausted via a 180mm flexible hose out through an opening port. Its capacity is 9000 BTU. We couldn't be without it. It's not ideal because it sucks ambient air in from outside which means that the galley temperature sits around 30C while the saloon just 2-3 metres away is in the high 20'sC. However, it's way better than having nothing at all. We also have 4 12v fans which circulate air around and, although they don't reduce the temperature, the wind chill factor is very welcome. We have an additional larger 12v fan which we use to blow the cold air up onto our bed at night. All very complicated. Another issue with the small 12v fans is that their life seems to be not much more than 12 months and they are fairly expensive to replace - the equivalent of just over NZD100 usually.
We have also been swimming on some days in the marina pool, but you need to be there before 10 otherwise it's like a warm bath. Whenever we hire a car, we ring them and then take a 10 minute walk down to the Langkawi Jeti where all these services are located. There's also a Starbucks where Jean has educated them in how to make a flat white and Jim is partial to the plastic cocktail sausages drizzled with cheese sauce! Very healthy - we don't think!
We have come to know quite a few other yachts met on our travels - "Stardancer" from NZ with Gina and Christian, "Suzie Wong" with Michael and Ae, "Tamata" - a French boat with Olivier and Francoise, "St Michel" - a German schooner with Joachim and Neng, "Natural High" - a NZ Wharram catamaran, "Before" - an American monohull from Seattle with Richard and Lee, "Reflections" - with Gene and Sheri - another American yacht from Hawaii. They were a great help to us in our tribulations at Kupang in 2013, and of course "Vega" ( Shane and Meggie), which is the 124 yr old Baltic trader now on their way to Indonesia on one of their charitable voyages. There are "Settlement" - a catamaran with Andrew and Sue and "Murrundi" (Barbara and John) - both Australian boats who we hope to see again soon. And there are others too numerous to mention here. Then there is the Canadian catamaran "Pedoja" which is a NZ St. Francis design. Don is Canadian and Tania is from NZ. They are currently in the Maldives Islands (SW of India) and are by all accounts in the middle of an unpleasant situation. They have a very small dog and took her for a walk ashore on a secluded beach. However, Islam does NOT like dogs of any sort and soon after they returned to the boat they were boarded by armed Police! They were escorted back to a commercial dock where the dog has been confined below decks so she doesn't offend any more Moslems and Don and Tania have been confined to the vessel. Absolutely unbelievable and of course this nonsensical behaviour does nothing to foster understanding between different cultures and religions. They are leaving soon for S. Africa and just how they are going to provision and fuel the boat is a bit of a mystery. We sincerely hope that everything finally is resolved in their favour. This is just one of the things that can befall a cruising yacht these days.
We've referred earlier to our upcoming trip to Miami. As you all no doubt know, Jean's family, including two small grandsons, lives in Miami and of course she can't wait to see them again. So, we are leaving here at the end of May and travelling with Turkish Airlines via Istanbul. We thought as neither of us have ever been to Istanbul, we would spend 3 days there on the way. Of course it's such an historic city, that we won't even come close to seeing everything in 3 days. Then we fly on to Miami also with Turkish Airlines. Lorraine and Alan (Tracie's mother and stepfather) will still be there when we arrive early June so it will be good to see them again. And of course there will be a joyous reunion with Carter, Nash and Jean. Sorry to Perry and Tracie for necessarily taking a back seat!!
We will be there for about a month before we fly to Medellin in Colombia. We are very interested in living permanently either in Central America or northern South America once the boat sells and recently we have been drawn to Ecuador (Cuenca). Cuenca and Medellin have very similar climates - a constant mid 20'sC all year round, and Medellin is known as "the City of Eternal Spring". So, we are enormously looking forward to visiting there; just hope that our expectations are lived up to. We were going to go to Ecuador but since then they have had a devastating earthquake off the NW Pacific coast which has killed at least 500 people so right now a visit to Ecuador would be difficult and intrusive. Never mind, we will go there in the future. Another country we have looked at with great interest is Nicaragua because it is only just being discovered and prices for real estate there are even cheaper. However, it does not offer the elevated living that Medellin or Cuenca do. Medellin is very close to 5,000' above sea level and is a very healthy place to be as a result.
Recently we did a visa run to Satun in southern Thailand. It's only just over an hour in a high speed ferry. We had to go because, although our Malaysian 3 month visas hadn't expired, they would have by the time we left for the US. And we are investigating haulout options for later in the year here, at Penang and also PSS at Chebilang, Thailand so we paid a visit to Jia at the PSS Boatyard at Chebilang - 30 kms from Satun itself. Jia is Thai Chinese and his lovely wife Julie is also Chinese but born in Mauritius so she speaks fluent French! They met us off the ferry and also lent us a car which we were able to use. We left it at the ferry the next day. They took us to dinner at a French restaurant which was very good. We wanted to pay as they had paid for us on a previous occasion but they had prepaid so it was a done deal! Never mind, there will be another opportunity we're sure. It was great to see them again and we always enjoy their company.
We stayed at On's guesthouse again and it was good to see On again too. Only thing was, we had a room on the 2nd. or top floor and it was like an oven when we walked in. No doubt insufficient roof insulation. The aircon control said 47C! Because the room was large it took an age for the overworked aircon to get the temperature under 30C but eventually it did and so we slept OK.
Courtesy of the car Jia and Julie had lent us, we paid a visit to the Big C supermarket and bought a few odds and ends including a bag of small Thai oranges which are very sweet. When we were disembarking from the ferry back at Langkawi we noticed a poster saying we can't bring in any plant material and if we try to smuggle it and get caught the fine would be 12,000 Ringitts! That's roughly NZD4,500!! Would make an expensive bag of oranges! So, we decided to declare them and were told that they would "let it go this time, but don't do it again"!! Ludicrous, considering that almost nothing is grown on Langkawi and whenever we've arrived here on the boat we've always had fruit and veges aboard. Of course arriving in NZ, it's a different matter entirely - and rightly so.
We have discovered "Mangoes" which is a restaurant near Telaga run by an ex Aussie yachtie and her German partner. Excellent food, a bit expensive but worth it. We have also discovered Wonderland here in Kuah which is a Chinese restaurant with great food. Always busy with people waiting for tables and almost exclusively Chinese clientele. A really bustling place and very efficient. Jean says it reminds her of Hong Kong. We go there twice a week when we have the car. All these eateries are much cheaper than the equivalent in NZ which by all accounts wouldn't be difficult!
Anyway, that's probably enough from us for now - we'll look forward as always to your news.
Cheers and lotsaluv from us..........
Jim and Jean
s.v. Tiare Taporo III
Royal Langkawi Yacht Club
Kuah
Langkawi
Malaysia.
----- End of Original Message -----
----------
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Thursday, 25 February 2016
"Tiare Taporo III"'s return to Langkawi Is., Malaysia
Hi to all,
This blog will be in reverse as the recent passage from southern Thailand to Langkawi is truly memorable - mostly for the wrong reasons. It all started when we drove from Yacht Haven, Phuket to Krabi Town to complete checkout formalities with Customs, Immigration and the Harbour Master. We took the opportunity to stay overnight in Krabi Town in a lovely little guest house right on the river (Krabi Guest House) and owned by a NZ'er (Johnny originally from Wellington) and his delightful Thai wife - Jam. It was a very happy experience staying there. We had dinner that night in a French restaurant owned by a Frenchman and that was memorable too. There was also the obligatory visit to to the Dutch bakery where we stocked up on his bread and meat pies! Certainly we have never found bread remotely as good anywhere else.
We did this on January 19th. and travelled to Krabi (a 2 hour drive each way) in order to avoid the nonsense about AIS being insisted on in Phuket. AIS is a VHF based system whereby vessels over 300 tons are by international agreement legally required to transmit their position, course and speed. All very laudable and indeed we have made good use of it at times, most notably off the Queensland coast when we detected a ship doing 16.5 knots on a collision course with us at 3 in the morning! We have a receiver only which gives us that information. AIS transmission was only ever intended to be used by these larger vessels, but some jurisdictions (e.g. Singapore and now Phuket - but not the rest of Thailand!) are starting to require ALL foreign flagged vessels to carry AIS transponders. This unilateral action in itself is illegal as was proved some years ago when an American yacht took the NZ Government to court over the Category One nonsense - and won. Now Cat. One can only be imposed in NZ on NZ flagged vessels. However, we did not relish the thought of a fight with illogical Thai bureaucracy and so made the decision to clear out of Krabi instead where they don't ask silly questions about AIS! Incidentally to install an AIS transponder would cost us in the vicinity of NZD1300. The other point worth making is that they don't require AIS for high speed ferries doing upwards of 20 knots with around 100 passengers on board or 30' 750 h.p. speedboats carrying tourists and doing more than 20 knots or the myriad of fishing trawlers which usually don't even show correct lights. Normal safety rules are a sick joke a well. These speedboats often pass when we are at anchor within just a few metres at maximum speed. The 5 knot rule (?) - don't be silly!! More Thai logic!!
We intended to sail within 2 days at the outside. This we did, and sailed to our first anchorage some 12 miles away at Koh Nhaka Noi. We had had our salt water cooling pump rebuilt and re-installed by Luk Engineering in Phuket and they have always had a very good reputation. However, before going on the next morning Jim had a quick inspection of the pump and was concerned to discover that it had moved badly out of alignment with the engine which, apart from anything else, would cause excessive wear of the drive belt. So, back we went at reduced speed to get Luk to fix the problem. They said all was well and so off we went again. However, exactly the same thing happened and it was only a chance conversation with another yacht owner back at Yacht Haven that pinpointed the cause of the problem. The so-called engineers had not re-installed split washers under the nuts holding the pump in place and so all 4 nuts were only bearing on an estimated 10% of their surface as the pump base had slotted mounting positions to allow for adjustment to take up any slack in the drive belt. So of course it moved. However, when one is not an engineer oneself, one feels entitled to rely on the so-called expertise of so-called engineers.
We then sailed on to our next planned anchorage because we won't sail at night with unlit or incorrectly lit fishing boats, not to mention also the flags dotted all over the ocean marking fish traps or somesuch. They are hard enough to see in daylight, let alone at night and we have run over a few. The worry is that we might get the mooring rope around the propeller but thankfully that hasn't happened so far.
Then the next problem emerged in the form of more or less unpredictable high NE - E winds which many people are saying are extremely unusual and indeed in our experience of now 3 previous passages to and from Langkawi have not featured at all. They are being caused by intense high pressure systems over north Vietnam/southern China which in the northern hemisphere revolve clockwise - not anticlockwise as in NZ. This means that off their southern flank they generate these winds which show on weather maps as over 30 knots off the Vietnamese coast and a similar high strength over southern Thailand and northern Malaysia. The other highly undesirable side effect is that industrial pollution from southern China is blown south and then eastwards over us and we have worked out that one way of predicting an easing of these winds is to visually monitor this pernicious pollution and when it seems to be improving it is generally accompanied by an easing in wind strength. This of course is all occurring during the current NE monsoon which is supposed to be the premier sailing season here - but not so far for us during our planned passage. The irony is that had Luk done their job properly we would have been able to get to Langkawi in time before these often vicious winds became so established.
Anyway, we arrived at north Koh Lanta after passing Koh Pipi Don on our way. That was a total of 43 miles. We expected to continue on to Koh Muk the next day (another 25 miles) but all that night and into the morning the winds were howling. Lanta is a good anchorage in these winds but the wind generator makes an unearthly howling sound in these high winds and at 2 in the morning it always seems worse. We had the anchor alarm set to warn against dragging but there always seemed to be the necessity from time to time to visually check our position too and so not much sleep. Our Rocna has never dragged - but worse conditions were to come. This lack of sleep does nothing for the frame of mind to face going out into these winds and so we stayed put for 3 days. The decision making gets more and more difficult as time passes. We managed ashore a couple of times to get internet access and top up some provisions as there is a sizeable tourist based town there but quite uninteresting. At least it was the first time we had been there and so we could cross it off our list and have a couple of meals ashore. The tourists were mostly Europeans and quite why they would expend all that money to come to some pretty scruffy "resorts" is beyond our understanding. Some others were a little better perhaps, but it is said that tourism is well down this year, particularly in Phuket, so probably this is one of the reasons, along with the deterioration of European economies, not to mention Australia and NZ whose currencies have shown a huge decline in recent months against SE Asian currencies which are in the main loosely pegged to the USD.
After 3 days of mindless swinging around the anchor we decided to return to Krabi Boat Lagoon which is only 20 odd miles north and a more sheltered passage than going south. At least we could wait for better weather there in some comfort and access more provisions and fuel which by this time were running low! And more visits to the famous Dutch bakery. One of the main reasons why we were reluctant to face the probability of sustained high winds was Jean's knee which makes it difficult for her to keep her feet in rough conditions. She is hoping to have treatment for this in Langkawi - whenever we arrive there! One thing we felt we couldn't do was hire a car and drive ourselves. This is because if we were involved in any accident, the police would be involved and then we would have some difficulty explaining our continued presence in Thailand, having cleared out some days previously. Notwithstanding that a boat skipper's prerogative is to make decisions relating to safety of the ship and its crew - but we perhaps should have re-visited Immigration and Customs to advise what had happened. However, we knew very well what would have happened had we done that. The Thais use any excuse to prise money out of you and we would have been fined heavily, albeit for a situation not of our making.
So, we made use of Garn and her car on one occasion and a taxi driver on another. The latter situation only cost us 800 Baht (NZD34) for the whole day and was way more economical than hiring a car, driving it oneself and putting fuel in it. We actually tipped him another 300 Baht because his service was excellent and he helped us with getting all our provisions to the boat back at the marina. A thoroughly good guy.
After a week we judged the weather to be showing signs of easing so we left KBL and once more headed for Lanta, only to be held up yet again by unacceptably high winds. However, we sat it out and with the aid of a couple of weather apps which Jean had discovered on her Smartphone finally decided to head south. The weather window was going to be shortlived so we made the decision to bypass Koh Muk and go directly to Koh Tarutao which is just north of the Thai/Malay border and only 6 miles north of Langkawi. However, this is a total of 67 miles and at an average of 5.5 knots that's just over 12 hours sailing or motoring or motor sailing. We had some fairly strong winds for about 3 hours to begin with but they gave us a speed boost which all helped. Then the wind lessened but was still a significant force, albeit that we were being very conservative and sailing with only staysail and double reefed main! Then the wind fell away to almost nothing for 2-3 hours as we were approaching a small island group (Koh Bulon Le and Koh Rang Nok) 10 miles north of Tarutao. As we passed between these islands, we could see Koh Tarutao slowly looming out of the industrial haze and at the same time the wind started increasing rapidly just forward of the beam. Thank goodness for the trusty chartplotter! The wind speed settled at over 20 knots and at one stage we had a sustained gust of 38 knots. We were thankful we hadn't shaken the reefs out of the main!! We slowly beat our way down to the northern anchorage on Tarutao's west coast and were very thankful to finally get in and drop the anchor. Even that little exercise wasn't straightforward as it was blowing 25 as we dropped the anchor but at least the sea was calm. We spent a restless night but at least slept quite well after a very long day. We were thankful to have come this close to Langkawi.
We fully expected to sail to Langkawi the next day but as we approached the southern end of the island the wind suddenly increased again and once more we were experiencing almost 40 knots. Farkin' 'ell!! So we flagged Langkawi and instead dropped anchor in the southern most of Tarutao's west coast anchorages. All day the wind screamed and the wind generator was even keeping pace with the current draw from the batteries which it doesn't normally do. Later in the day we switched it off because we were worried that it might have a hernia! Then to compound another disturbed night, we had 2 local boats towing a dredge all night backwards and forwards in the gale and we were worried that they might dredge up our anchor which was 40 metres in front of us. We shone torches at them and at our anchor cable to try and make sure they understood. Koh Tarutao is all part of a National Park and how it comes about that this sort of activity is allowed is beyond our comprehension. Dredging or even towing a trawl net is dreadfully destructive of the bottom and if there was anything alive before there sure as hell would not be now. So much for the integrity of Thai National Parks. The fishermen probably bribed the park rangers.
The following day the wind continued to blow although a by now out of date weather report showed a reduction in wind occurring early afternoon. This duly happened and so we thankfully left Tarutao for the 5 mile crossing to Langkawi. This also involved crossing the border which we were thankful to do as we were now legal again. The relatively short trip was uneventful and we anchored off a resort in the bay just west of the approach to Telaga Marina. Such a release of tension to finally be here. Now we have to cope with Malaysia being an hour ahead of Thailand which in our exhausted state is the last thing we need.
The next day on the 23rd. we up anchored and motored to Kuah - another 12 miles along the west coast of Langkawi. Past Rebak and the cruise ship terminal and into the Kuah anchorage where we hailed our friends on another yacht from Krabi, had a short conversation and then made for "Vega" which is a 120 yr old Scandinavian built Baltic trader square rigged on the foremast. They do a lot of charitable work in Indonesia with taking school learning materials to the more remote areas and we had been asked before we left Phuket if we would take some Sikaflex deck caulking compound to them. That had been donated by East Marine in Boat Lagoon Phuket and we were happy to be of help - albeit about 3 weeks late!! They are coming into the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club Marina in a few days so we will be able to have a look over her. Not sure of her size but she would be around 70 - 80'. Meggie came off in their dinghy and collected the Sikaflex as we lay alongside and then we came on into the marina. We had been told "starboard side tie-up" but as we came closer they changed their mind and told us port side! That was exactly the same thing as they did to us as last year. Jean was ropeable as she has to do all the fendering and mooring line setup so it was just as well the Indian crutches were well stowed under the forrard bunk, otherwise someone would have worn them.
Anyway, we finally arrived alongside feeling very relieved. We are berthed alongside "Revel" which is a lovely NZ boat which has been sold to an English guy who lives in Russell, Bay of Islands! He is leaving to take her home in the next 2 days or so. We knew "Revel" in Blue Water Marina in Cairns when she had been owned by a South African lady - Janet, who now lives in Penang. She sailed up here through Indonesia the year after we did. Then it was a matter of hosing all the salt off the boat as she was encrusted. Then the awnings up, power and aircon on and we are here for the duration. Absolutely exhausted and the more so after "coming down" after all the tension of the last few weeks.
We walked down to the Harbour Office, Customs and Immigration at the Langkawi Jeti and half expected a grilling on why it had taken so long to travel from Phuket to Langkawi but not a peep! Must be the record for the Phuket - Langkawi crossing - 33 days for 130 miles!! Another thought occurred to us belatedly; if anyone had been observing us coming in here and then passing goods over the side to another boat they might have thought we were smuggling! But the Malays with all their pleasant ways, really couldn't organise their way out of a paper bag!!! Still, we had the 4.7 ready to mount on the fo'csle should the need have arisen.
A final word - our recent experience together with anecdotal evidence from others definitely reinforces the view that whenever and wherever one is getting work done on a boat in Thailand, you must be there to supervise. Doesn't matter where it is. This is in spite of claims of engineering expertise. In our case the end result we experienced last year will almost certainly mean that we will be forced to seek alternative haul out facilities. This makes us very sad and we hope that things may change between now and when we need to haul out again. Watch this space.
We enjoyed our time at Yacht Haven, Phuket, even though the engineering work wasn't up to scratch. Just after we arrived there was a party for all those interested in shipping their boats to the Mediterranean. It was hosted by the marina and Sevenstar Yacht Transport and was a very pleasant time. "Out of the Blue II" (Lyn and Chris) and Gina and Christian from "Stardancer" were there and on another occasion we had lunch at the new restaurant with Sue and Andrew of "Settlement". We were sorry to have missed Don and Tania from "Pedoja" who have started their oddyssey across the Indian Ocean. They haven't actually left yet - just gone down to Langkawi to get ready to leave. Unfortunately by comparison Krabi Boat Lagoon is like a dead zone. Nothing is happening and the marina and hard stand are but a shadow of the recent past in terms of past occupancy. And it certainly hasn't helped that Garn was forced to close her restaurant which hitherto had been the social hub. It is hard to understand the thinking of the owners - it's as if they have a death wish. And they are proceeding with the "Beach Club" down the creek a little way. This is only accessible by boat and will have a restaurant and pool, but little else. The beach in front is moderately attractive but the water is not clean and is no sort of anchorage with strong tidal currents and shallow water close in.
A recent article in the Phuket Gazette referred to the increasing visits by superyachts as bringing "buckets of money" to the island. Unfortunately they will find that that is not the case; superyachts are just as competitively aware as most yachties and will always seek the best deals. This attitude that yachties and their boats are made of money is simply not true but is exemplified by the increasing trend (especially in Phuket) of increasing prices of just about everything. It is a very sad trend and it will be interesting to see how it all pans out.
More provisioning this morning here at Langkawi. Now that we are back on Malaysia time it is 0715 and dawn is just breaking. Crazy. The Royal Langkawi Yacht Club has just about completed its major rebuilding and it's all very swish. But the restaurant, Charlie's Place, has completely lost its old character and the food is no better. Strange considering all the money that has been spent.
With lots of love from us...........
Jim and Jean
s.v. Tiare Taporo III
Royal Langkawi Yacht Club Marina
Kuah
Pulau Langkawi
Malaysia.
----------
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This blog will be in reverse as the recent passage from southern Thailand to Langkawi is truly memorable - mostly for the wrong reasons. It all started when we drove from Yacht Haven, Phuket to Krabi Town to complete checkout formalities with Customs, Immigration and the Harbour Master. We took the opportunity to stay overnight in Krabi Town in a lovely little guest house right on the river (Krabi Guest House) and owned by a NZ'er (Johnny originally from Wellington) and his delightful Thai wife - Jam. It was a very happy experience staying there. We had dinner that night in a French restaurant owned by a Frenchman and that was memorable too. There was also the obligatory visit to to the Dutch bakery where we stocked up on his bread and meat pies! Certainly we have never found bread remotely as good anywhere else.
We did this on January 19th. and travelled to Krabi (a 2 hour drive each way) in order to avoid the nonsense about AIS being insisted on in Phuket. AIS is a VHF based system whereby vessels over 300 tons are by international agreement legally required to transmit their position, course and speed. All very laudable and indeed we have made good use of it at times, most notably off the Queensland coast when we detected a ship doing 16.5 knots on a collision course with us at 3 in the morning! We have a receiver only which gives us that information. AIS transmission was only ever intended to be used by these larger vessels, but some jurisdictions (e.g. Singapore and now Phuket - but not the rest of Thailand!) are starting to require ALL foreign flagged vessels to carry AIS transponders. This unilateral action in itself is illegal as was proved some years ago when an American yacht took the NZ Government to court over the Category One nonsense - and won. Now Cat. One can only be imposed in NZ on NZ flagged vessels. However, we did not relish the thought of a fight with illogical Thai bureaucracy and so made the decision to clear out of Krabi instead where they don't ask silly questions about AIS! Incidentally to install an AIS transponder would cost us in the vicinity of NZD1300. The other point worth making is that they don't require AIS for high speed ferries doing upwards of 20 knots with around 100 passengers on board or 30' 750 h.p. speedboats carrying tourists and doing more than 20 knots or the myriad of fishing trawlers which usually don't even show correct lights. Normal safety rules are a sick joke a well. These speedboats often pass when we are at anchor within just a few metres at maximum speed. The 5 knot rule (?) - don't be silly!! More Thai logic!!
We intended to sail within 2 days at the outside. This we did, and sailed to our first anchorage some 12 miles away at Koh Nhaka Noi. We had had our salt water cooling pump rebuilt and re-installed by Luk Engineering in Phuket and they have always had a very good reputation. However, before going on the next morning Jim had a quick inspection of the pump and was concerned to discover that it had moved badly out of alignment with the engine which, apart from anything else, would cause excessive wear of the drive belt. So, back we went at reduced speed to get Luk to fix the problem. They said all was well and so off we went again. However, exactly the same thing happened and it was only a chance conversation with another yacht owner back at Yacht Haven that pinpointed the cause of the problem. The so-called engineers had not re-installed split washers under the nuts holding the pump in place and so all 4 nuts were only bearing on an estimated 10% of their surface as the pump base had slotted mounting positions to allow for adjustment to take up any slack in the drive belt. So of course it moved. However, when one is not an engineer oneself, one feels entitled to rely on the so-called expertise of so-called engineers.
We then sailed on to our next planned anchorage because we won't sail at night with unlit or incorrectly lit fishing boats, not to mention also the flags dotted all over the ocean marking fish traps or somesuch. They are hard enough to see in daylight, let alone at night and we have run over a few. The worry is that we might get the mooring rope around the propeller but thankfully that hasn't happened so far.
Then the next problem emerged in the form of more or less unpredictable high NE - E winds which many people are saying are extremely unusual and indeed in our experience of now 3 previous passages to and from Langkawi have not featured at all. They are being caused by intense high pressure systems over north Vietnam/southern China which in the northern hemisphere revolve clockwise - not anticlockwise as in NZ. This means that off their southern flank they generate these winds which show on weather maps as over 30 knots off the Vietnamese coast and a similar high strength over southern Thailand and northern Malaysia. The other highly undesirable side effect is that industrial pollution from southern China is blown south and then eastwards over us and we have worked out that one way of predicting an easing of these winds is to visually monitor this pernicious pollution and when it seems to be improving it is generally accompanied by an easing in wind strength. This of course is all occurring during the current NE monsoon which is supposed to be the premier sailing season here - but not so far for us during our planned passage. The irony is that had Luk done their job properly we would have been able to get to Langkawi in time before these often vicious winds became so established.
Anyway, we arrived at north Koh Lanta after passing Koh Pipi Don on our way. That was a total of 43 miles. We expected to continue on to Koh Muk the next day (another 25 miles) but all that night and into the morning the winds were howling. Lanta is a good anchorage in these winds but the wind generator makes an unearthly howling sound in these high winds and at 2 in the morning it always seems worse. We had the anchor alarm set to warn against dragging but there always seemed to be the necessity from time to time to visually check our position too and so not much sleep. Our Rocna has never dragged - but worse conditions were to come. This lack of sleep does nothing for the frame of mind to face going out into these winds and so we stayed put for 3 days. The decision making gets more and more difficult as time passes. We managed ashore a couple of times to get internet access and top up some provisions as there is a sizeable tourist based town there but quite uninteresting. At least it was the first time we had been there and so we could cross it off our list and have a couple of meals ashore. The tourists were mostly Europeans and quite why they would expend all that money to come to some pretty scruffy "resorts" is beyond our understanding. Some others were a little better perhaps, but it is said that tourism is well down this year, particularly in Phuket, so probably this is one of the reasons, along with the deterioration of European economies, not to mention Australia and NZ whose currencies have shown a huge decline in recent months against SE Asian currencies which are in the main loosely pegged to the USD.
After 3 days of mindless swinging around the anchor we decided to return to Krabi Boat Lagoon which is only 20 odd miles north and a more sheltered passage than going south. At least we could wait for better weather there in some comfort and access more provisions and fuel which by this time were running low! And more visits to the famous Dutch bakery. One of the main reasons why we were reluctant to face the probability of sustained high winds was Jean's knee which makes it difficult for her to keep her feet in rough conditions. She is hoping to have treatment for this in Langkawi - whenever we arrive there! One thing we felt we couldn't do was hire a car and drive ourselves. This is because if we were involved in any accident, the police would be involved and then we would have some difficulty explaining our continued presence in Thailand, having cleared out some days previously. Notwithstanding that a boat skipper's prerogative is to make decisions relating to safety of the ship and its crew - but we perhaps should have re-visited Immigration and Customs to advise what had happened. However, we knew very well what would have happened had we done that. The Thais use any excuse to prise money out of you and we would have been fined heavily, albeit for a situation not of our making.
So, we made use of Garn and her car on one occasion and a taxi driver on another. The latter situation only cost us 800 Baht (NZD34) for the whole day and was way more economical than hiring a car, driving it oneself and putting fuel in it. We actually tipped him another 300 Baht because his service was excellent and he helped us with getting all our provisions to the boat back at the marina. A thoroughly good guy.
After a week we judged the weather to be showing signs of easing so we left KBL and once more headed for Lanta, only to be held up yet again by unacceptably high winds. However, we sat it out and with the aid of a couple of weather apps which Jean had discovered on her Smartphone finally decided to head south. The weather window was going to be shortlived so we made the decision to bypass Koh Muk and go directly to Koh Tarutao which is just north of the Thai/Malay border and only 6 miles north of Langkawi. However, this is a total of 67 miles and at an average of 5.5 knots that's just over 12 hours sailing or motoring or motor sailing. We had some fairly strong winds for about 3 hours to begin with but they gave us a speed boost which all helped. Then the wind lessened but was still a significant force, albeit that we were being very conservative and sailing with only staysail and double reefed main! Then the wind fell away to almost nothing for 2-3 hours as we were approaching a small island group (Koh Bulon Le and Koh Rang Nok) 10 miles north of Tarutao. As we passed between these islands, we could see Koh Tarutao slowly looming out of the industrial haze and at the same time the wind started increasing rapidly just forward of the beam. Thank goodness for the trusty chartplotter! The wind speed settled at over 20 knots and at one stage we had a sustained gust of 38 knots. We were thankful we hadn't shaken the reefs out of the main!! We slowly beat our way down to the northern anchorage on Tarutao's west coast and were very thankful to finally get in and drop the anchor. Even that little exercise wasn't straightforward as it was blowing 25 as we dropped the anchor but at least the sea was calm. We spent a restless night but at least slept quite well after a very long day. We were thankful to have come this close to Langkawi.
We fully expected to sail to Langkawi the next day but as we approached the southern end of the island the wind suddenly increased again and once more we were experiencing almost 40 knots. Farkin' 'ell!! So we flagged Langkawi and instead dropped anchor in the southern most of Tarutao's west coast anchorages. All day the wind screamed and the wind generator was even keeping pace with the current draw from the batteries which it doesn't normally do. Later in the day we switched it off because we were worried that it might have a hernia! Then to compound another disturbed night, we had 2 local boats towing a dredge all night backwards and forwards in the gale and we were worried that they might dredge up our anchor which was 40 metres in front of us. We shone torches at them and at our anchor cable to try and make sure they understood. Koh Tarutao is all part of a National Park and how it comes about that this sort of activity is allowed is beyond our comprehension. Dredging or even towing a trawl net is dreadfully destructive of the bottom and if there was anything alive before there sure as hell would not be now. So much for the integrity of Thai National Parks. The fishermen probably bribed the park rangers.
The following day the wind continued to blow although a by now out of date weather report showed a reduction in wind occurring early afternoon. This duly happened and so we thankfully left Tarutao for the 5 mile crossing to Langkawi. This also involved crossing the border which we were thankful to do as we were now legal again. The relatively short trip was uneventful and we anchored off a resort in the bay just west of the approach to Telaga Marina. Such a release of tension to finally be here. Now we have to cope with Malaysia being an hour ahead of Thailand which in our exhausted state is the last thing we need.
The next day on the 23rd. we up anchored and motored to Kuah - another 12 miles along the west coast of Langkawi. Past Rebak and the cruise ship terminal and into the Kuah anchorage where we hailed our friends on another yacht from Krabi, had a short conversation and then made for "Vega" which is a 120 yr old Scandinavian built Baltic trader square rigged on the foremast. They do a lot of charitable work in Indonesia with taking school learning materials to the more remote areas and we had been asked before we left Phuket if we would take some Sikaflex deck caulking compound to them. That had been donated by East Marine in Boat Lagoon Phuket and we were happy to be of help - albeit about 3 weeks late!! They are coming into the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club Marina in a few days so we will be able to have a look over her. Not sure of her size but she would be around 70 - 80'. Meggie came off in their dinghy and collected the Sikaflex as we lay alongside and then we came on into the marina. We had been told "starboard side tie-up" but as we came closer they changed their mind and told us port side! That was exactly the same thing as they did to us as last year. Jean was ropeable as she has to do all the fendering and mooring line setup so it was just as well the Indian crutches were well stowed under the forrard bunk, otherwise someone would have worn them.
Anyway, we finally arrived alongside feeling very relieved. We are berthed alongside "Revel" which is a lovely NZ boat which has been sold to an English guy who lives in Russell, Bay of Islands! He is leaving to take her home in the next 2 days or so. We knew "Revel" in Blue Water Marina in Cairns when she had been owned by a South African lady - Janet, who now lives in Penang. She sailed up here through Indonesia the year after we did. Then it was a matter of hosing all the salt off the boat as she was encrusted. Then the awnings up, power and aircon on and we are here for the duration. Absolutely exhausted and the more so after "coming down" after all the tension of the last few weeks.
We walked down to the Harbour Office, Customs and Immigration at the Langkawi Jeti and half expected a grilling on why it had taken so long to travel from Phuket to Langkawi but not a peep! Must be the record for the Phuket - Langkawi crossing - 33 days for 130 miles!! Another thought occurred to us belatedly; if anyone had been observing us coming in here and then passing goods over the side to another boat they might have thought we were smuggling! But the Malays with all their pleasant ways, really couldn't organise their way out of a paper bag!!! Still, we had the 4.7 ready to mount on the fo'csle should the need have arisen.
A final word - our recent experience together with anecdotal evidence from others definitely reinforces the view that whenever and wherever one is getting work done on a boat in Thailand, you must be there to supervise. Doesn't matter where it is. This is in spite of claims of engineering expertise. In our case the end result we experienced last year will almost certainly mean that we will be forced to seek alternative haul out facilities. This makes us very sad and we hope that things may change between now and when we need to haul out again. Watch this space.
We enjoyed our time at Yacht Haven, Phuket, even though the engineering work wasn't up to scratch. Just after we arrived there was a party for all those interested in shipping their boats to the Mediterranean. It was hosted by the marina and Sevenstar Yacht Transport and was a very pleasant time. "Out of the Blue II" (Lyn and Chris) and Gina and Christian from "Stardancer" were there and on another occasion we had lunch at the new restaurant with Sue and Andrew of "Settlement". We were sorry to have missed Don and Tania from "Pedoja" who have started their oddyssey across the Indian Ocean. They haven't actually left yet - just gone down to Langkawi to get ready to leave. Unfortunately by comparison Krabi Boat Lagoon is like a dead zone. Nothing is happening and the marina and hard stand are but a shadow of the recent past in terms of past occupancy. And it certainly hasn't helped that Garn was forced to close her restaurant which hitherto had been the social hub. It is hard to understand the thinking of the owners - it's as if they have a death wish. And they are proceeding with the "Beach Club" down the creek a little way. This is only accessible by boat and will have a restaurant and pool, but little else. The beach in front is moderately attractive but the water is not clean and is no sort of anchorage with strong tidal currents and shallow water close in.
A recent article in the Phuket Gazette referred to the increasing visits by superyachts as bringing "buckets of money" to the island. Unfortunately they will find that that is not the case; superyachts are just as competitively aware as most yachties and will always seek the best deals. This attitude that yachties and their boats are made of money is simply not true but is exemplified by the increasing trend (especially in Phuket) of increasing prices of just about everything. It is a very sad trend and it will be interesting to see how it all pans out.
More provisioning this morning here at Langkawi. Now that we are back on Malaysia time it is 0715 and dawn is just breaking. Crazy. The Royal Langkawi Yacht Club has just about completed its major rebuilding and it's all very swish. But the restaurant, Charlie's Place, has completely lost its old character and the food is no better. Strange considering all the money that has been spent.
With lots of love from us...........
Jim and Jean
s.v. Tiare Taporo III
Royal Langkawi Yacht Club Marina
Kuah
Pulau Langkawi
Malaysia.
----------
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Wednesday, 30 December 2015
Photos
Hi,
We thought that when we put some photos of the Vietnam trip on the blogsite that the titles would appear as well, but not to be. All these things are very frustrating for us Dinosaurs........
Top to bottom:
1) French era public buildings Ho Chi Minh City - many beautiful examples
2) The gates to the Reunification Palace HCMC where north Vietnamese tanks crashed through in 1975 at the end of the American War
3) The boudoir - s.v. Tiare Taporo III - our Hephelant pillow covers!!
4) The Crazy House - Dalat
5) As above with You Know Who at the Crazy House. YKW wants one - the grandchildren would never go home!
6) American war materiel left in Vietnam in 1975
7) As above
8) Art Deco Summer Palace of the Bao Dai - Dalat, Vietnam
9) So-called sleeper bus with semi-reclining seats and YKW seated there!
10) More American war materiel left behind
Hope this helps in your deciphering of our muddled blogs!
Cheers and love from us.....
Jean and Jim
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
We thought that when we put some photos of the Vietnam trip on the blogsite that the titles would appear as well, but not to be. All these things are very frustrating for us Dinosaurs........
Top to bottom:
1) French era public buildings Ho Chi Minh City - many beautiful examples
2) The gates to the Reunification Palace HCMC where north Vietnamese tanks crashed through in 1975 at the end of the American War
3) The boudoir - s.v. Tiare Taporo III - our Hephelant pillow covers!!
4) The Crazy House - Dalat
5) As above with You Know Who at the Crazy House. YKW wants one - the grandchildren would never go home!
6) American war materiel left in Vietnam in 1975
7) As above
8) Art Deco Summer Palace of the Bao Dai - Dalat, Vietnam
9) So-called sleeper bus with semi-reclining seats and YKW seated there!
10) More American war materiel left behind
Hope this helps in your deciphering of our muddled blogs!
Cheers and love from us.....
Jean and Jim
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Wednesday, 23 December 2015
Fwd: Phuket to Krabi and almost Christmas
----- Original Message -----
To: "Alec" <adonald@abdonaldltd.co.nz>
Subject: Phuket to Krabi and almost Christmas
Date: 23 Dec 2015 13:28:08 -0000
From: ZMQ5985
Hi to all,
We arrived at Krabi early in December after a 3 day crossing of Phang Nga Bay which was uneventful, except that our windlass refused to pull up the anchor at our last anchorage and we were worried that something else had happened to it but it turned out that the engine start battery which powers it was on its last legs after 3 years and we have now replaced that so all is well again.
Phang Nga Bay is of course where the greatest concentration of limestome karst islands can be found and it is truly very spectacular. Some amazing sights and often you get the impression that a whole island is going to topple into the sea, but of course they have been there a long time. However, one day..........! so we don't get too close to in case a cliff breaks off or the whole thing does fall over. There are some fairly recent scars where bits have fallen off in recent times. The Krabi side of Phang Nga is much more attractive than the Phuket side simply because it's cleaner. The water is not totally clear but is a nice deep green colour near Krabi, whereas on the other side the water is just dirty. Such a shame and is largely due to pollution from runoff from the low lying land to the north. Navigation is a bit tricky as most of the area is quite shallow and it is necessary to stay in channels (such as they are) which can get a bit hair raising.
We had been looking forward to returning to Krabi Boat Lagoon again but were shocked to be told almost as we tied up that our friend Garn, who has been running a great restaurant here, had been given 7 days notice to quit her premises. Just like that and after spending a great amount of money equipping the kitchen, fridges, furniture etc. She has managed to get the time extended to the end of December, but it is a shocking breach of normal business ethics and is a very good example of why anyone and foreigners in particular (Farangs) should never contemplate a business venture in Thailand. Normal ethics and fairplay as we understand them are often flouted. There doesn't seem to be any such thing as security of tenure via a commercial lease for instance. It seems that Garn's husband who is an Australian and who works in the oil industry in the Middle East, complained in fairly strong terms about power charges from the marina in a marina apartment THAT THEY OWN!! Apparently the marina owner took exception to that and as a result ordered Garn out of her restaurant. The restaurant has been a focal point for people in the marina and now that focus won't exist. Thais get offended very easily and you may not even know that it had happened. They tend to withdraw without confronting the issues head on and then can behave in a completely unreasonable and unexpected way.
We have a similar situation with engineering work. After the endless saga earlier this year with our prop shaft and cutlass bearings, we said that we did not want the particular engineer on the boat again. We have been told that if we won't have him we can't have anyone, in spite of the fact that there is at least one other qualified engineer available. So, that almost certainly means we won't be hauling out at Krabi Boat Lagoon again which is indeed sad. We just cannot understand the attitude. Again it seems that they don't want to offend the guy who has been with them a long time, but they don't worry about our feelings or the inconvenience caused. The Thai mentality is very hard to follow and as we've said in the past, the words "Thai" and "logic" are very often oxymorons!!
Another thing which has recently happened is that the previous manager was given sums of money on behalf of boats on the hard to go to Customs and pay for extensions of time for the boats. This is normally quite easy to do and we have done it ourselves at least once. However, this guy never went near Customs and instead as we understand it, just pocketed 4,000 Baht per boat (10 boats). That's a total of around NZD1600. Now the owners not only have to pay again, but they also have to pay a fine of 10,000 Baht per boat. In addition some of them may have had to return to Thailand prematurely to sort out the mess if they were away in Europe or the States working or visiting families, etc. These events are unconnected as far as we know but the result is that the atmosphere around here, which used to be happy and totally pleasant is now totally changed. Everyone is looking over their shoulders as the manager has been sacked and they are wondering who might be next. It's no longer a pleasant place to be. Hopefully it will settle down in the future, but that's how it is right now.
In the meantime the swimming pool has not been clean and the marina is a cesspit as most people living on yachts are using the on board toilet facilities on their boats because the onshore toilets are too far to go to and if you have any sort of stomach upset which is not uncommon here, you'd never make it! We used to use toilets attached to the condominium buildings and they are relatively close, but some idiot evidently complained with the result that they are locked and NO-ONE uses them!! Another example of Thai logic. And we sit on the bottom at low tide with no sign of any dredging activity on the horizon.
There is another marina, Port Takola, being built nearer to Krabi Town with all tide access and when that opens later in 2016, it will give this this place a real run for their money, so they really do need to lift their game.
In the meantime we have had plastic boards shaped and inserted in our soft bottom dinghy which should finally mean we can use it with gay abandon! Well, not quite but it will be a great improvement over the original Zodiac design - 3 yrs old now.
Popeye's carpenter, Don built the dinghy boards and also rectified some issues we had with deck caulking that had been done last year here at KBL. He had also raised our cockpit sole by 120 mm last year when we were away in India getting Jean's new hips and he did an exemplary job then too. He is an artisan of the first order and he also had rebuilt the 6 metre class ("Selma" built in Norway in 1926) which easily won the classic division of the King's Cup in Phuket a fortnight ago. We might enter next year - with a huge handicap!!! We'll give "Selma" a run for their money as Gauntlets were designed in 1934 as ocean racers!! But they were were designed with winds in excess of 25 knots across the English Channel so we might be out of luck. "Tiare Taporo III", originally named "Reflections of Wellington" and built in Wellington, NZ, apparently won a Royal Port Nicholson race across Cook Strait by 7 seconds in the 1980's!
Ian from the Australian yacht "Jayden" gave us some assistance with attaching the rated shackle to our anchor Jim bought in NZ (Green Pin). After a scolding from the Marina Police about cluttering up the walkway (which we were definitely NOT doing) we managed to get all our 100 metres of chain back in the chain locker and even the dinghy on deck!!!
Since then Jean and Jim are definitely in the cruising mode where getting to the other end easily surpasses any competitive urges!! But we can still give as good as we take.
On the health front, Jean has noticed a great improvement in her ligaments/knees with her stringent exercise regime. For those who know her, that would be no surprise. Jim on the other hand is nowhere near as stringent but there has been some improvement to his knees with swimming. Then there is always the Dutch Bakery in Krabi Town where one can get meat pies almost as good as Tommy Jones's Pies in Wellsford - 45 years ago!!!!!! How time passes. Jim used to pass by Tommy's early in the early mornings (6 am.) with his Dad at the age of 17 or thereabouts on the way to the Bay of Islands with a load of fresh bread in the old Pontiac (mid 1960'sh)!! Jim wishes he had met Jean in those days - who knows what might have been?
Nostalgia - it's always to be lauded but it should not be looked back on on. The main thing is to pick up whatever remains to pick up and get on with life. That's what we are doing with sailing through the Andaman Sea.
Lots of love from us
Jim and Jean and with all best wishes to all ............
----- End of Original Message -----
----------
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To: "Alec" <adonald@abdonaldltd.co.nz>
Subject: Phuket to Krabi and almost Christmas
Date: 23 Dec 2015 13:28:08 -0000
From: ZMQ5985
Hi to all,
We arrived at Krabi early in December after a 3 day crossing of Phang Nga Bay which was uneventful, except that our windlass refused to pull up the anchor at our last anchorage and we were worried that something else had happened to it but it turned out that the engine start battery which powers it was on its last legs after 3 years and we have now replaced that so all is well again.
Phang Nga Bay is of course where the greatest concentration of limestome karst islands can be found and it is truly very spectacular. Some amazing sights and often you get the impression that a whole island is going to topple into the sea, but of course they have been there a long time. However, one day..........! so we don't get too close to in case a cliff breaks off or the whole thing does fall over. There are some fairly recent scars where bits have fallen off in recent times. The Krabi side of Phang Nga is much more attractive than the Phuket side simply because it's cleaner. The water is not totally clear but is a nice deep green colour near Krabi, whereas on the other side the water is just dirty. Such a shame and is largely due to pollution from runoff from the low lying land to the north. Navigation is a bit tricky as most of the area is quite shallow and it is necessary to stay in channels (such as they are) which can get a bit hair raising.
We had been looking forward to returning to Krabi Boat Lagoon again but were shocked to be told almost as we tied up that our friend Garn, who has been running a great restaurant here, had been given 7 days notice to quit her premises. Just like that and after spending a great amount of money equipping the kitchen, fridges, furniture etc. She has managed to get the time extended to the end of December, but it is a shocking breach of normal business ethics and is a very good example of why anyone and foreigners in particular (Farangs) should never contemplate a business venture in Thailand. Normal ethics and fairplay as we understand them are often flouted. There doesn't seem to be any such thing as security of tenure via a commercial lease for instance. It seems that Garn's husband who is an Australian and who works in the oil industry in the Middle East, complained in fairly strong terms about power charges from the marina in a marina apartment THAT THEY OWN!! Apparently the marina owner took exception to that and as a result ordered Garn out of her restaurant. The restaurant has been a focal point for people in the marina and now that focus won't exist. Thais get offended very easily and you may not even know that it had happened. They tend to withdraw without confronting the issues head on and then can behave in a completely unreasonable and unexpected way.
We have a similar situation with engineering work. After the endless saga earlier this year with our prop shaft and cutlass bearings, we said that we did not want the particular engineer on the boat again. We have been told that if we won't have him we can't have anyone, in spite of the fact that there is at least one other qualified engineer available. So, that almost certainly means we won't be hauling out at Krabi Boat Lagoon again which is indeed sad. We just cannot understand the attitude. Again it seems that they don't want to offend the guy who has been with them a long time, but they don't worry about our feelings or the inconvenience caused. The Thai mentality is very hard to follow and as we've said in the past, the words "Thai" and "logic" are very often oxymorons!!
Another thing which has recently happened is that the previous manager was given sums of money on behalf of boats on the hard to go to Customs and pay for extensions of time for the boats. This is normally quite easy to do and we have done it ourselves at least once. However, this guy never went near Customs and instead as we understand it, just pocketed 4,000 Baht per boat (10 boats). That's a total of around NZD1600. Now the owners not only have to pay again, but they also have to pay a fine of 10,000 Baht per boat. In addition some of them may have had to return to Thailand prematurely to sort out the mess if they were away in Europe or the States working or visiting families, etc. These events are unconnected as far as we know but the result is that the atmosphere around here, which used to be happy and totally pleasant is now totally changed. Everyone is looking over their shoulders as the manager has been sacked and they are wondering who might be next. It's no longer a pleasant place to be. Hopefully it will settle down in the future, but that's how it is right now.
In the meantime the swimming pool has not been clean and the marina is a cesspit as most people living on yachts are using the on board toilet facilities on their boats because the onshore toilets are too far to go to and if you have any sort of stomach upset which is not uncommon here, you'd never make it! We used to use toilets attached to the condominium buildings and they are relatively close, but some idiot evidently complained with the result that they are locked and NO-ONE uses them!! Another example of Thai logic. And we sit on the bottom at low tide with no sign of any dredging activity on the horizon.
There is another marina, Port Takola, being built nearer to Krabi Town with all tide access and when that opens later in 2016, it will give this this place a real run for their money, so they really do need to lift their game.
In the meantime we have had plastic boards shaped and inserted in our soft bottom dinghy which should finally mean we can use it with gay abandon! Well, not quite but it will be a great improvement over the original Zodiac design - 3 yrs old now.
Popeye's carpenter, Don built the dinghy boards and also rectified some issues we had with deck caulking that had been done last year here at KBL. He had also raised our cockpit sole by 120 mm last year when we were away in India getting Jean's new hips and he did an exemplary job then too. He is an artisan of the first order and he also had rebuilt the 6 metre class ("Selma" built in Norway in 1926) which easily won the classic division of the King's Cup in Phuket a fortnight ago. We might enter next year - with a huge handicap!!! We'll give "Selma" a run for their money as Gauntlets were designed in 1934 as ocean racers!! But they were were designed with winds in excess of 25 knots across the English Channel so we might be out of luck. "Tiare Taporo III", originally named "Reflections of Wellington" and built in Wellington, NZ, apparently won a Royal Port Nicholson race across Cook Strait by 7 seconds in the 1980's!
Ian from the Australian yacht "Jayden" gave us some assistance with attaching the rated shackle to our anchor Jim bought in NZ (Green Pin). After a scolding from the Marina Police about cluttering up the walkway (which we were definitely NOT doing) we managed to get all our 100 metres of chain back in the chain locker and even the dinghy on deck!!!
Since then Jean and Jim are definitely in the cruising mode where getting to the other end easily surpasses any competitive urges!! But we can still give as good as we take.
On the health front, Jean has noticed a great improvement in her ligaments/knees with her stringent exercise regime. For those who know her, that would be no surprise. Jim on the other hand is nowhere near as stringent but there has been some improvement to his knees with swimming. Then there is always the Dutch Bakery in Krabi Town where one can get meat pies almost as good as Tommy Jones's Pies in Wellsford - 45 years ago!!!!!! How time passes. Jim used to pass by Tommy's early in the early mornings (6 am.) with his Dad at the age of 17 or thereabouts on the way to the Bay of Islands with a load of fresh bread in the old Pontiac (mid 1960'sh)!! Jim wishes he had met Jean in those days - who knows what might have been?
Nostalgia - it's always to be lauded but it should not be looked back on on. The main thing is to pick up whatever remains to pick up and get on with life. That's what we are doing with sailing through the Andaman Sea.
Lots of love from us
Jim and Jean and with all best wishes to all ............
----- End of Original Message -----
----------
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Sunday, 20 December 2015
Tuesday, 1 December 2015
Phuket
Hi again to all,
Once back in Krabi we carried on with the twice daily antibiotic IV's for Jim at Krabi International Hospital. Krabi had no initiative - they simply carried on the treatment started in Hanoi which we must say in the end proved to be effective. This involved a 60 km. round trip twice a day which was a right pain - not to mention expensive with hiring a car at 1000 Baht per day. Plus the hospital costs which in Thailand are generally more expensive than other SE Asian countries - especially India!! You could be forgiven for assuming we are biased in favour of India! The IV's continued for about a week. Then with one day to go Jim had enough. He was on his own this time which was unusual; Jean was back on the boat catching up with chores. He was hooked up to the IV and then left in a room with freezing aircon and no way of calling a nurse. No-one looked in to check on progress. Because diuretics had also been prescribed in an effort to reduce the leg and foot swelling (at least partially caused by the antibiotic itself), there was a concurrent need for frequent toilet visits! Things were getting somewhat fraught with this pressing need and no-one to deal with the IV. So, it was necessary to get off the bed and fortunately the power lead together with the dripline was just long enough to open the door and yell at the 6 nurses at the nurse station who were mainly concerned with chattering and playing with their smartphones. They looked suitably abashed and one came over and disconnected the power so that the necessary visit could be made. The second time it happened Jim disconnected himself and wheeled the IV trolley past the nurse station. No-one offered to help. That was it.
They wanted payment for the morning IV plus the evening one as usual but Jim refused. This caused a furore but that didn't matter. All they seem to care about is getting paid. You can't get out of the place without being led very firmly to the cashier. The doctor who was useless and clueless about side effects of Vancomycin until we informed him, was in the end, after trying a severe lecture, only interested in getting Jim to sign an indemnity letting him off the hook! They had a plentiful supply of such forms which suggested that this was not an isolated occurrence.
Last year with Jim's Sciatica and Jean's hips (pre-op) we had had a reasonable time with Krabi International Hospital. We had both had MRI scans then and the doctor had correctly diagnosed and treated the Sciatica. Then of course we went to India where Jean received state of the art ceramic and titanium hips. Krabi IH has gone downhill since then and we deplore the money emphasis here which is in stark contrast to that of India where they are far more concerned with a patient's welfare.
Anyway, since then and since our arrival in Phuket, the Cellulitis symptoms have gone and a blood test showed that the bacteria was clear. Thank goodness for that. It's a potentially very dangerous infection and once again all thanks to Jean for recognising the problem early enough in Hanoi to enable the treatment to be effective.
While at Krabi we also came to an acceptable compromise with Popeye in regard to the engine alignment issues that we had. Popeye is incredibly busy and the comparison with last year is amazing. They had 37 boats on the go (and some were fairly major jobs) which they were struggling to cope with, but in future they will be restricting the workload that they take on. But it was good to catch up with Des and Ked again. We also were able to enjoy the new swimming pool which gave us some much needed exercise. Jean unfortunately was developing what seemed to be severe pain associated with ligaments and there is no-one capable of treating that in Krabi. What with Jim's Cellulitis and dicky knees as well we are just a couple of old crocks. This is why we do need to pass on the idea of more long ocean passages - particularly ones such as an Indian Ocean crossing. Unfortunately age and time are implacable foes. Although Jim still hankers after the idea of Borneo, Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the Aleutians (in the northern summer of course!) and the west coast of North America. A bonus would be to get the old girl (the boat!) to Seattle where there is a very strong following for classic timber built boats.
We left Krabi in mid November and had a quick trip to Phuket as it was urgent for Jean to see an Osteopath she had been in touch with. We anchored overnight and then proceeded to Yacht Haven - almost exactly 12 months since we were last here. No boat issues at least! Yacht Haven has changed radically with a totally new marina complex which is very efficient, but we have to say has an imposing appearance reminiscent of Soviet style architecture somewhat like Ho Chi Minh's tomb in Hanoi!! It has always been on a steep hillside with the carparks and services all up top. But they have a (mostly) efficient service of electric golf carts which take one hither and yon. And there is a pool up there as well but nowhere near as good as the Krabi one. You might wonder at all this obsession with pools, but we have lately become aware that there are box jellyfish (a la Australia) here as well and over the recent past few years several visitors have died from their stings. This includes Langkawi. So the thought of swimming in the sea is suddenly not so attractive. The annoying part is that the authorities never tell you about this - presumably because it is not a good look for tourism. But neither is tourists dying on beaches. This definitely is not a common occurrence but nevertheless is sufficient deterrent for us.
Jean had an appointment with Garnett Symonds (a U.K. trained Osteopath who had his own practice in London). He is located near Rawai Beach - about a 2 hour drive from here in the mad Phuket traffic. The treatment certainly alleviated the symptoms and exercise helps but still not sure what to do long term. We had some X-Rays taken at the 7th. Day Adventist Mission Hospital - they sing hymns at 8 every morning - quite soothing, especially in a hospital environment!! We've sent those to Vijay Bose in Chennai for his comments but so far haven't heard back.
Apart from all these medical woes, we've been enjoying our time here and we have found the Living Room restaurant which is far better than the marina restaurant and cheaper. It's just a sand floor under a lean to roof with lots of planting and right on the beach. This missive is being penned right here as we speak. We hire a car once a week to get provisions and any other errands that need doing. Tesco and Makro are our preferred food suppliers! Things like smoked duck and Cumberland herbed sausages are favourites not to mention fresh passion fruit in season now. They are slightly larger than the purple NZ variety. Still purple and full of pulp and so sweet! Then there are Papaya and all sorts of imported fruit as well. Aussie oranges, NZ apples, Kiwifruit and Avocados. And Chinese Nashi pears, carrots and garlic! So, we are well supplied. Norwegian salmon and Vietnamese white fish also.
In a couple of days we are looking after a miniature Schnauzer called "Cuzzie" whose owners (Lee & Richard from an American boat called "Before") have gone to Bangkok for a few days. We have remade the acquaintance of Erica and Nick from the Australian boat "Jepeda IV" and met a number of other people on boats as you do in this cruising life.
We have listed "Tiare Taporo III" with a brokerage here - Boatshed.com They are represented in 50 countries and also in all the wooden boat meccas of the world so hopefully something may eventuate. In the meantime we are enjoying our life and looking forward to exploring Phang Nga Bay on our way back to Krabi.
We will be very sad to sell Tiare but life has to move on. Time as always will tell.
With lotsaluv from us and hoping everyone is in the pink...........
Jim and Jean
s.v. Tiare Taporo III
Yacht Haven Marina
Phuket Thailand
www.tiaretaporo3@blogspot.com
----------
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Once back in Krabi we carried on with the twice daily antibiotic IV's for Jim at Krabi International Hospital. Krabi had no initiative - they simply carried on the treatment started in Hanoi which we must say in the end proved to be effective. This involved a 60 km. round trip twice a day which was a right pain - not to mention expensive with hiring a car at 1000 Baht per day. Plus the hospital costs which in Thailand are generally more expensive than other SE Asian countries - especially India!! You could be forgiven for assuming we are biased in favour of India! The IV's continued for about a week. Then with one day to go Jim had enough. He was on his own this time which was unusual; Jean was back on the boat catching up with chores. He was hooked up to the IV and then left in a room with freezing aircon and no way of calling a nurse. No-one looked in to check on progress. Because diuretics had also been prescribed in an effort to reduce the leg and foot swelling (at least partially caused by the antibiotic itself), there was a concurrent need for frequent toilet visits! Things were getting somewhat fraught with this pressing need and no-one to deal with the IV. So, it was necessary to get off the bed and fortunately the power lead together with the dripline was just long enough to open the door and yell at the 6 nurses at the nurse station who were mainly concerned with chattering and playing with their smartphones. They looked suitably abashed and one came over and disconnected the power so that the necessary visit could be made. The second time it happened Jim disconnected himself and wheeled the IV trolley past the nurse station. No-one offered to help. That was it.
They wanted payment for the morning IV plus the evening one as usual but Jim refused. This caused a furore but that didn't matter. All they seem to care about is getting paid. You can't get out of the place without being led very firmly to the cashier. The doctor who was useless and clueless about side effects of Vancomycin until we informed him, was in the end, after trying a severe lecture, only interested in getting Jim to sign an indemnity letting him off the hook! They had a plentiful supply of such forms which suggested that this was not an isolated occurrence.
Last year with Jim's Sciatica and Jean's hips (pre-op) we had had a reasonable time with Krabi International Hospital. We had both had MRI scans then and the doctor had correctly diagnosed and treated the Sciatica. Then of course we went to India where Jean received state of the art ceramic and titanium hips. Krabi IH has gone downhill since then and we deplore the money emphasis here which is in stark contrast to that of India where they are far more concerned with a patient's welfare.
Anyway, since then and since our arrival in Phuket, the Cellulitis symptoms have gone and a blood test showed that the bacteria was clear. Thank goodness for that. It's a potentially very dangerous infection and once again all thanks to Jean for recognising the problem early enough in Hanoi to enable the treatment to be effective.
While at Krabi we also came to an acceptable compromise with Popeye in regard to the engine alignment issues that we had. Popeye is incredibly busy and the comparison with last year is amazing. They had 37 boats on the go (and some were fairly major jobs) which they were struggling to cope with, but in future they will be restricting the workload that they take on. But it was good to catch up with Des and Ked again. We also were able to enjoy the new swimming pool which gave us some much needed exercise. Jean unfortunately was developing what seemed to be severe pain associated with ligaments and there is no-one capable of treating that in Krabi. What with Jim's Cellulitis and dicky knees as well we are just a couple of old crocks. This is why we do need to pass on the idea of more long ocean passages - particularly ones such as an Indian Ocean crossing. Unfortunately age and time are implacable foes. Although Jim still hankers after the idea of Borneo, Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the Aleutians (in the northern summer of course!) and the west coast of North America. A bonus would be to get the old girl (the boat!) to Seattle where there is a very strong following for classic timber built boats.
We left Krabi in mid November and had a quick trip to Phuket as it was urgent for Jean to see an Osteopath she had been in touch with. We anchored overnight and then proceeded to Yacht Haven - almost exactly 12 months since we were last here. No boat issues at least! Yacht Haven has changed radically with a totally new marina complex which is very efficient, but we have to say has an imposing appearance reminiscent of Soviet style architecture somewhat like Ho Chi Minh's tomb in Hanoi!! It has always been on a steep hillside with the carparks and services all up top. But they have a (mostly) efficient service of electric golf carts which take one hither and yon. And there is a pool up there as well but nowhere near as good as the Krabi one. You might wonder at all this obsession with pools, but we have lately become aware that there are box jellyfish (a la Australia) here as well and over the recent past few years several visitors have died from their stings. This includes Langkawi. So the thought of swimming in the sea is suddenly not so attractive. The annoying part is that the authorities never tell you about this - presumably because it is not a good look for tourism. But neither is tourists dying on beaches. This definitely is not a common occurrence but nevertheless is sufficient deterrent for us.
Jean had an appointment with Garnett Symonds (a U.K. trained Osteopath who had his own practice in London). He is located near Rawai Beach - about a 2 hour drive from here in the mad Phuket traffic. The treatment certainly alleviated the symptoms and exercise helps but still not sure what to do long term. We had some X-Rays taken at the 7th. Day Adventist Mission Hospital - they sing hymns at 8 every morning - quite soothing, especially in a hospital environment!! We've sent those to Vijay Bose in Chennai for his comments but so far haven't heard back.
Apart from all these medical woes, we've been enjoying our time here and we have found the Living Room restaurant which is far better than the marina restaurant and cheaper. It's just a sand floor under a lean to roof with lots of planting and right on the beach. This missive is being penned right here as we speak. We hire a car once a week to get provisions and any other errands that need doing. Tesco and Makro are our preferred food suppliers! Things like smoked duck and Cumberland herbed sausages are favourites not to mention fresh passion fruit in season now. They are slightly larger than the purple NZ variety. Still purple and full of pulp and so sweet! Then there are Papaya and all sorts of imported fruit as well. Aussie oranges, NZ apples, Kiwifruit and Avocados. And Chinese Nashi pears, carrots and garlic! So, we are well supplied. Norwegian salmon and Vietnamese white fish also.
In a couple of days we are looking after a miniature Schnauzer called "Cuzzie" whose owners (Lee & Richard from an American boat called "Before") have gone to Bangkok for a few days. We have remade the acquaintance of Erica and Nick from the Australian boat "Jepeda IV" and met a number of other people on boats as you do in this cruising life.
We have listed "Tiare Taporo III" with a brokerage here - Boatshed.com They are represented in 50 countries and also in all the wooden boat meccas of the world so hopefully something may eventuate. In the meantime we are enjoying our life and looking forward to exploring Phang Nga Bay on our way back to Krabi.
We will be very sad to sell Tiare but life has to move on. Time as always will tell.
With lotsaluv from us and hoping everyone is in the pink...........
Jim and Jean
s.v. Tiare Taporo III
Yacht Haven Marina
Phuket Thailand
www.tiaretaporo3@blogspot.com
----------
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