Meeting Novice Thine, Luangprabang, Laos

At the end of my trip through Asia in 2007, I met a Novice Monk named Thine (pronounced Tin) in Luangprabang, Laos. We spent an afternoon together and he invited me back for the evening chanting. We took a walk up to the temple on the hill overlooking the city together, and by the end of our day together, I had agreed to sponsor him to go to University in the Fall of '08. He would also need money in March of '08 so he could graduate from being a Novice. He would need clothes and shoes, a Gov't ID and a bus ticket to Vientiane, the capital of Laos where he would attend University.

The University is three terms at $200/term. This weekend I received email that he is in Vientiane but needs living expenses of $100/month. Thine wants to become an English teacher -- He wants to go back to his village in Northern Laos to teach the poor children there. I can't afford to put an American kid through college, but can make a huge difference in a country like Laos by helping a motivated and enthusiastic youth become someone who helps others.

Backwater Cruising in Kerala

Well, it isn't a sailboat, but much larger and more comfortable. Ori and Ricci (Australian) had met Jess and Tom (Canadian) earlier in their India adventures, and had made plans to meet in Allepey to rent a houseboat together. Sarah and I joined them for the two-day motor-assisted drift. The boat slowly cruised the backwaters of Kerala, one of the finer tourist opportunities in Southern India. Lonely Planet says it will be the most expensive thing you do, but well worth the money. I agree. We all trudged through about 40 boats before choosing one, and Ori led the bargaining. We'd get all meals and 48 hours on the water for about $20 each. Instead of getting a 3 room boat for 6 people, we decided to have a slumber party and get a two room which we liked better. With a mattress on the floor of each room, it worked out well. There was a deck on top along with the huge main deck. At night we watched the Drama in the Desert DVD on Tom's laptop, and the crew quietly watched from behind us. They were mesmerized with the spectacle of Burning Man. Most of the gang jumped into the river for a dip, and Ori, Tom and Sarah leaped from the roof into the murkey water.

Chillin' in Varkala

After a week at the Ashram, Sarah and I along with our new gang of Aussies and English decided to become Yoga School Dropouts and head to the beach, instead. After a few days at the Ashram, a session of Teacher's Training School began and the Ashram went from about 50 to 250 people. It was busy and somewhat crowded at mealtimes, and we decided we were up for less structure and more fun.

I think after working for 6 weeks on the boat, I should have gone to the beach first to unwind, then to the Ashram.

Anyway, for 10 days we all lounged, read, ate at the restaurants, and Sarah and I replaced our sailing wardrobe with traveller clothes. We bought baggy, comfy clothes made by tailors on the beach that covered our shoulders and legs, at least to the knees.

Yoga School Dropouts: Colin, Tom, Ori, Ricci, Sarah and Holly

Strappy tank tops and shorts are ok on the beach, but not really appropriate in the rest of India. Most places you go you'll see Western travellers wearing them, but they are ignoring Indian custom. I prefer to respect the places I visit by adhering to their cultural rules and suggestions. We both loved seeing the Kashmiri and Tibetan jewelry, and we both made some interesting additions to our collections. Sarah made some particularly good purchases of beautiful sets of jewelry. By this time, I had pretty much decided to spend the month in India then when Sarah left I would leave for Bali to meet my friends Rene and Eric who are on a year-long world adventure.

Sarah and I needed to lighten our loads of cumbersome sailing gear we wouldn't need, so spent a day in Varkala handling this important errand. Finding boxes was the biggest challenge. It took about an hour of asking at every store, finally an expensive sari store dug some up for us. After securing the boxes, we needed to take them to a tailor who helped us pack them, then sewed a muslin fabric cover for the whole box. We then took the package to the post office. Overall it went much smoother than when I did it seven years ago. I will hopefully see my package arrive in July.


At this point Sarah and I still discussed and processed the sailing trip quite a bit. Both of us had been planning for it for about a year, and I think might have still been in shock over the change in plans. It was great having her around to work through the feelings. We were both disappointed that it hadn't worked out, but handling it all pretty well. It helped a lot to be in a new and exciting place to explore. I think if I had gone home right away it would have been devastating. I'm writing this in May from Bali, and I'm still dealing with some of it. Some days I'm angry, others just sad. I wonder if I'll ever be able to experience cruising with all its ups and downs in a way that works for me.

Yoga in India

Sarah and I flew to Trivandrum, India on March 14th, 2007. Our first destination was the Shivananda Yoga Ashram for a week or two of retreat from the world of yachting.

We needed to decide what we were going to do for the rest of our planned trips, and spend some quality time with mind, body and spirit.

We were only about 100 yards from the airport when an elephant lumbered passed carrying cargo. I've been thinking of India since I last travelled this amazing country 7 years ago, and have wanted to get back. From the back of the taxi piled high with our gear, Sarah absorbed the new sights and smells. I took a deep breath and sucked in the smokey and dusty air--It was just as I remembered, and it felt great.

A solitary volunteer prepares the dining hall for dinner. For both meals served each day, we sat on the floor, were served on a metal plate and ate with our right hand only.



We arrived to the Yoga Ashram 2 days before a 14-day Yoga Vacation was supposed to start. We ate our first meal before unpacking our bags in the dormitory where we would stay.




Our first day we joined the last beginning class of the previous session. I was really sore for several days after after jumping right in instead of working up to the final of 14 days.





Our first night there was a meditation walk to the Lake by the dam. We were to walk there two other times during our stay, once at dawn.

Workin' in the Maldives

Now we were in paradise. The Maldives is where the rich and famous come to pay up to $5000 per night to stay at amazing 7-star resorts. Almost all the islands near Male' are private resorts, and the diving and snorkeling is world famous.











We start working immediately. The Captain and Diny have a successful first day and find a canvas furniture maker to repair the sail. They find a business that will build the stainless steel diesel tank, as well. Unfortunately, at this point I feel The Captain makes a crucial decision. He doesn't even look into getting skilled (but cheap) labor to cut out the old diesel tank, instead he has CJ and Sarah do the dirty, nasty and toxic job. For 5 days, they crawl in the bilge and burn through 3 grinders cutting it out. The boat was a disaster and we all had to live with the mess and fumes. By now we were so used to having the bilge exposed, that the boat became a constant building project.

Around this time Susie begins to act mysterious. She is talking on the cell phone, allegedly coordinating a dive trip for CJ, Diny, Sarah and I.

After a week of working on the boat, we all take a break by paying to go to a resort for the day.


Holly does "crunches" at the beach and snorkels, and Sarah gets a much deserved rest from boat work. Below: Our day room at the resort.


We leave on an 8:00am boat and leave the resort island at 5:00pm. We each paid $35 for the privilege of laying on a beach which included lunch and a room where we took showers and washed our clothes. We lounged and snorkeled, but the day of relaxation flashed by. It was disappointing to have to pay extra for what we thought we were going to experience on this trip whenever we wanted it. We had been aboard now for one month, and not had one beach day or day off. We were desperate for some of what we all had been saving for and looking forward to for over a year. At the resort, I overheard Susie making an appointment for the next day. Sarah and I asked her outright if she was looking for a job, and she told us she was leaving the boat as soon as she received an answer on two prospects. She knew midway across the India Ocean that things were not going to get better. Her boyfriend and another friend told her back in Phuket that she shouldn't go...they saw the projects we were working on and the general condition of the boats' systems, and predicted a voyage very different from what Susie had been expecting.

The diesel tank took longer than expected to be built of course, but when it was finally finished, all of us took the ferry into Male' to pick it up and get it onto the ferry then onto a dingy then onto BOAT X. It was quite an operation and we literally winged it without much of a plan, but it worked. We got the tank onto the boat, through the hatch, but, well, of course it didn't fit into the bilge where it needed to go. Apparently The Captain didn't measure correctly. He was mostly worried about getting it through the hatch onto the boat, and thought it would just slide right into the spot. But they built the boat around the tanks, originally. To make a long story shorter, it took about another week to get it in (after cutting planks out of the sole) then had to work for about 4 days trying to get the fittings on. There wasn't enough room above the tank to get the intake hose on, so poor CJ was behind the tank for days trying to make it work.

Neighbors from a dive boat help us get the tank from the ferry dock to BOAT X in their hard and large dingy

They finally got it to work, but by this time Sarah and I had decided to leave the boat. At first we were going to get off in India, but things only got worse and we decided to cut our losses and get off as soon as possible.

We moved off the boat into Male' and went diving for the next two days. We made friends, shopped, read, relaxed, and made arrangements to fly to India to go to a Yoga Ashram, then to explore Southern India.




CJ Helps Sarah and Holly move off the boat in the dark. Holly diving in amazingly clear water with TONS of fish and cool stuff to see.

The Maldives (pronounced Maldeeves by the locals)

On 2/22/07 we were towed into the port of Male', The Maldives. The water was a gorgeous emerald color, the atolls obvious to the eye. Palm and banana trees covered the shore of nearby islands, but the island of Male' was a concrete jungle, according to the hip young people we later met. The buildings looked surprisingly modern, colored glass commercial buildings lining the shore with minarets and gold domes towering behind.

We were left in deep water by the tow boat, and we were concerned that we wouldn't have enough anchor chain and rode to hold us for the night until we could get into town the next morning for a new starter battery. We were all feeling a bit anxious to be without engine in a harbor filled with commercial fishing vessels, private dive boats and worst of all, a permanent structure very close to us that housed a small tourist submarine. All night we kept watch to make sure we weren't dragging anchor out towards the sub, though we didn't really know what we'd do if we did. Without an engine, we were helpless except to call the Coast Guard and hope that they'd be able to stop us before we did any damage or were sent back out to sea.

That night we were boarded by about 6 men in military uniform and maybe four others-- customs agents and our agent. I stayed in the cockpit with the military guys, most about 20 years old and very sweet. They were curious, polite and helpful, and I felt very comfortable around them. They all took turns asking The Captain for papers and having him complete forms, then the boat picked them up and they were off. Before they left, one man pushed through the crowd toward the stern and said to me, "sick" before I heard him feeding the fish. Later I realized that was our agent, Abdoulah, who was amazing. Later he helped us get the boat re-checked in after The Captain prematurely checked us out. Sarah and I needed to have our passports stamped "signed off of Boat X" before we could fly out of the country, since our passports had exit stamps in them two weeks before Boat X was to have actually left The Maldives).

Luckily, the next morning we met Jack Ford. He is an American from Long Beach, CA who has been out sailing for many years. He was a ship builder and re-built his boat from the hull up. Jack really knew his stuff, and came aboard to help. He loaned us a starter battery so we could get the engine running. Jack also told some of us crew that with a 20+ year old mainsail, electrical problems and an old engine, he wouldn't tackle the Red Sea. He looked at our electrical system and commented that they were patched together over the years and needed a complete overhaul.

Once the engine finally started, we were able to move to the shallow water at Hulhumale Island, a man-made island that will be the future home to Male' overflow residents. Hulhumale was being constructed because of severe overcrowding on Male', the largest city in the Maldives. Some of the largest dredgers in the world were brought in to crunch up the reef that ringed a small patch of "land" near Male' and pile it up to create the island. It was also constructed two meters above the high tide in order to avoid another wipe out from a Tsunami. The Tsunami of 2005 destroyed the entire waterfront of Male', but was rebuilt very quickly and the architecture is modern and clean. About 80 people throughout the Maldives died in the Tsunami.

From the safe anchorage at Hulhumale we would begin our projects -- buying new house batteries and a starter battery, having a new diesel tank built, getting the mainsail repaired, buying a new generator, filling up with gasoline, and all the other re-provisioning details for the next leg to India. We took the 20-minute ferry to Male' almost everyday, sometimes twice a day for almost everything we needed. It ran every 30 minutes from right next to our dingy dock. At night a giant Manta Ray would pace the ferry building, either attracted to the lights on the ferry building or attracted to the fish that were attracted to the lights.


The view from one of the first buildings on Hulhumale, The Male' Ferry terminal at night, a kid's track meet. The dock we used to get back and forth from Reflections in our dingy.

The Voyage From Thailand to The Maldives, Part II

On the morning of 2/17/07 a US Navy Warship announced on the VHF radio that they would be conducting live fire drills for the next couple hours, and asked all vessels to clear the area for 5 Nautical Miles from their location. We were about are 8 miles away, and slowly passed about 5 huge US warships from a safe distance.

Holly filming the sunset, photo by Diny

About 1/2 hour later, another announcement was made, asking all vessels to clear for 15 miles. We called them to say we were only 8 miles away. The female radio operator told The Captain they would shoot away from us, after The Captain asked them not to shoot us since it was so early in the morning. She kinda laughed.

That night the batteries died again on Sarah's watch, so she lost the autopilot but at least still had the chart plotter and the other navigation instruments. The fridge was also off for most of the day. Our power issues were chronic, and were becoming very frustrating.

There was lots of boat traffic on 2/18/07. We were luckily sailing between two lines of huge cargo ships, possibly coming from the East coast of India and were heading south to Indonesia and points beyond. Breakaway must have been right in their path, because they were constantly having to navigate around the ships. Somehow we got lucky and didn't even change course once.


After most of us had our afternoon swim (hanging onto the lines from the boat), the swim step broke. The Captain spent some time fixing it before going back to trying to figure out why our house batteries weren't charging. CJ said to him, "didn't you only replace 2 of the four batteries in Australia in 2003?". The Captain ceded that it was possible, therefore two of the batteries could be as old as 8 years old, and the "new ones" were probably 4 years old. Susie thought that there must have also been wiring/shorting issues, but The Captain didn't agree.

On this day the halyard broke off the whisker pole, the generator choked on and off, and Susie and CJ had no instruments from 2:00am to 6:00am because of the lack of power. Trying to steer without instruments meant Susie needed to go by the compass. The Captain was holding a magnet-powered flashlight near the compass, and was yelling at Susie to stay on course as the compass whirled round and round. Duh. This was one of the moments that crew morale started to slip. Despite all the equipment failures, we were trying to have fun. We enjoyed each other, the meals we were cooking and being far out to sea.

On 2/19/07 At night during CJ's 4am-6am watch, the track for the jib car ripped off the deck. It took a few minutes to figure out what all the mayhem was about, but luckily the car was hanging on the sheet and we didn't lose it. The Captain tacked the broken track back on the deck the next day, the screws had been rusted through. Some of the deck hardware has seen better days.

On 2/20/07 we took the day to fully clean the boat. I got a bit seasick cleaning the head. Between the good sized seas and being in an enclosed space with fumes from cleaning fluids, I lost it. That was the only incident of sea-sickness for the crew, though, so not too bad.

2/21/07 the seas got pretty big. We later got a report from Breakaway that wind further north was reaching 30 knots. Our wind was still pretty steady at 15-20 knots, though the wind indicator didn't really work too well. The sea swelled up and we were coasting down 10-12 foot waves that were cresting behind us. The autopilot was having a difficult time keeping us on course, and sometimes would swing us around in the wrong direction causing us to be sideways to the waves and heel considerably. This caused the pitch angle alarm to go off, which was a bit unnerving. It was pretty exciting, but not very good for the boat or our nerves. The Captain took the helm after one of these occurrences and was carefully steering Boat X while one of us called the waves behind. If one was to break right under us, he needed to know.

CJ on the deck taking down the torn main sail.

I went below to get my video camera when I heard a bunch of ruckus, and the source was a tear in the main sail. The Captain had noticed a day or two earlier that he thought the topping lift was not set correctly, but didn't do anything about it. He now claims that is why the main sail ripped, though the sail is 25 years old. Now we were without a main sail but were still conserving diesel in case we really needed it. We set an old canvas tri-sail that he had never used before. It worked reasonable well, but the boat felt less stable. We still made pretty good way, though. With a strong current and favorable winds we were still making about 6 knots.

Because of our continuous power problems, we didn't use the cabin lights, only our headlamps, even to cook. We even needed to be very stingy with our running lights. Sometimes we'd wait in the evening until we saw another boat before we'd turn on the minimum of lights, and usually not the masthead light. The instruments and autopilot continued to leave our services at the most inopportune of times.

On 2/22/07, we were ready to motor into Male', the main city of The Maldives. Most of the crew had showers that morning, feeling free to use the water and power since we had almost reached our destination. We were excited to get our feet on land and make phone calls to friends and family after our 12 day voyage of mishaps. The Captain went to turn on the engine, and it wouldn't start. He tried for awhile before giving up in disgust. The engine hadn't been started in about 5 days, and it seemed the starter battery was dead. I still think Susie was right and we had a short somewhere in the system. The Captain says the starter battery was new, bought in the summer of 2006.

We sailed back and forth past the harbor entrance and contacted our agent who we had spoken with on the radio a couple hours before. We told him of our predicament, and he told us he would get working to find a tow boat to get us in. While we waited, the crew enjoyed tacking and jibing and working together, the first time we'd done it on the trip so far. The Captain was impatient with us, but we had had no training on his boat to sail it, and some of us were pretty inexperienced sailors in the first place. I think we did a pretty good job considering. This is a very smart, competent and quick learning crew. We aim to please and get along well, so we felt fortunate that the opportunity arose for us to practice without it being too much of a difficult situation. Well, we thought it wasn't a difficult situation. CJ noticed that we were gaining on a reef, and we needed to tack. Also, there was a strong current that was pushing us away from Male', and the winds were not in our favor. We were not able to sail into the harbor without going around the island and coming around again. I assume a good sailor would have been able to get us in without an engine, but for us it turned into a panic situation, though the crew did not feel panicked. It was daylight, we had enough food and water for weeks, and could have easily sailed for another day or two if necessary.

The Captain started giving orders but wouldn't tell us what we were doing. He had me help him get the outboard off the stern of the boat and carry it to the foredeck where the dingy was. The only other time the dingy had been in the water had been in Chalong Bay before we left Thailand, and not only did it leak pretty badly, but the outboard engine died on our way back to the boat. We had to paddle with our shoes for about 100 yards in the dark. That was my first time in the dingy and was our first time at anchor. Sarah called this foreshadowing of the difficult times ahead, and I think she was right.

I tried to ask The Captain what we were doing so we could be of better help. He barked that he would not tell us and that we needed to just follow instructions. He gave one order at a time with us often not understanding what he was asking us to do. Finally we attached the engine to the dingy and lowered it into the water. The Captain dropped into the dingy, started the engine and held onto Boat X while standing in the dingy. Then he screamed at us to tack. We jumped to the task, and it went pretty well. Now The Captain was trying to propel Boat X, a 17-ton boat, with the dingy and a 15 hp engine against a 2 knot current. We made no headway at all, stopped dead and even slipped back. After about 15 minutes of The Captain getting abused by the wind and spray and battered from trying to hold onto the boat like a cowboy on a bull, he climbed back aboard Boat X and we brought the dingy back on deck.

All the while the crew stared at each other in disbelief, rolling our eyes and shrugging our shoulders. It wasn't a life-and-death situation, why was he reacting like it was?

Soon after his fruitless and exhausting effort, we got the call that a tow-boat was on its way to rescue us from the perils of the Indian Ocean. The Captain proceeded to drink 2 beers before CJ told him that he would have no crew if he drank another and dumped the third down the drain. (btw, this was my private beer stash). I had never seen The Captain drink a beer, but we had the occasional cocktail in the evening. This was not much of a drinking crew, by far. Besides the fact that he doesn't really drink much, we were entering a Muslim country and alcohol is not permitted. We weren't even supposed to bring it into the country. The day before, the crew was discussing stashing the small collection of rum and vodka we had bought in Thailand so it wouldn't be confiscated in case they searched the boat. The Captain refused to let us hide it, stating that it could cause him penalty if they found it after we had hid it. Now he was somewhat drunk and talking about strange philosophical things like "if you jump from a bridge, where are you?". He said about 3 strange things and we were worried. He'd better get a grip before we had to deal with the authorities to check into the country. The tow boat finally came but The Captain hadn't gotten anything ready. He started yelling at CJ to get line, etc. Once again, I was flabbergasted at his lack of thinking ahead.

By this time I can't even describe how the crew felt. We were demoralized and incredibly disappointed in The Captain. I was ready to get off the boat, but hadn't made a final decision. I needed to think about it before any decision could be made. I decided to wait until India, our next stop. There was no way I was going to sail through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea with a captain who had lost my trust and confidence.

The Voyage from Thailand to The Maldives Part I

Leaving Chalong Bay, Phuket, Thailand 2/11/07

The voyage from Thailand to India (We ended up in The Maldives instead of India) started out pretty uneventful. About 1 hour into the sail the winds died to nothing and we sadly turned on the engine. The sea was quiet, but we motored away from Thailand hoping to see nice winds and fair seas in the near future.

My first night-watch we had a dolphin visit. I could hear him spouting and splashing, and then saw the unmistakable shape through the bio-luminescence. He was cruising alongside the boat and was jumping out of the water. He kept me entertained for most of my watch.

During watch, our job is to scan the horizon for boats and to carefully watch the gauges, especially the engine gauge to watch for overheating. My first night I saw a boat approaching. We couldn't tell what it was doing, so The Captain got on the radio and made a "phantom call" using navy-speak. Then CJ got on the other radio and replied with a mock position. This is a way to make suspicious vessels think we are not alone out here. The boat flashed his bright light at us to let us know he was there, then changed course.

On the second evening during my 8pm-10pm watch, the motor suddenly stopped. The Captain was in the cockpit in seconds, with the whole crew wondering what could have caused the engine to quit. We asked The Captain about fuel, and he said he had filled up last August before he went back to the states. We were a bit surprised to hear that they hadn't been topped off or even checked before we left. The starboard tank must have been only about 1/2 full, and was therefore already empty. We were only 8 hours past The Nicobar islands (Indian) and we had wanted to stop to visit, but they are off-limits to visitors. We put up the sails and slowly made way towards India and Sri Lanka.

Our plan was to sail to Sri Lanka because it was the closest land from Thailand.

The next day, we inspected the tanks to find the port tank leaking considerably, but the starboard tank not leaking at all. CJ and The Captain spent the next 2-3 days draining the full port tank into the almost empty starboard tank, using all available liquid recepticles. Good thing Diny and The Captain drink a lot of soda, for we already had a plethora of 2 liter bottles on board.

On our first day at sea we noticed another sailboat making way towards Thailand. We used the VHF radio to contact them, and made fast friends with the English boat Break Away. Every morning and evening we checked in with Break Away to see how they were and to exchange sea and wind conditions. On notice of our diesel fuel problems, they contacted a man in Thailand who operates a cruiser net on the SSB radio network. (short wave). Our SSB radio isn't working properly, we get interference from something on board so it is pretty useless. This is a concern to me, not having proper communications in case of trouble.

The guy in Thailand, Richard, recommended that we go to Male', Maldives for our diesel tank needs. The crew was ecstatic, for we were pushing to get to The Maldives but having some resistance from The Captain. Richard said Sri Lanka is having great political difficulty right now and shouldn't be approached. Apparently a sailboat was attacked by fisherman recently near the port city of Galle, where we had hoped to land. Here in the Maldives, there is a catamaran (Moonshadow) that is sans propeller after visiting Galle. Apparently it was stolen during the night. Moonshadow came to Male', Maldives to await delivery of a new one from the states, I think.

We continued to use sails in very light winds, making slow progress for several days, but wanting to conserve diesel fuel. If we had to use much more diesel this early in the voyage, we could have big trouble if we hit rough seas or other unforseen problems and needed the engine to get us out of a predicament. The Captain was crawling out of his skin. He always motors in light winds, and likes to make faster progress. Most of the crew was pretty ok with it all. We had lots and lots of food, enjoyed each other and the routine of the watch schedule was pretty pleasant.

Diny 6-8AM
Holly 8-10AM
Sarah 10-12PM
The Captain 12-2PM
Susie 2-4PM
CJ 4-6PM
Diny 6-8PM
Holly 8-10PM
Sarah 10-12AM
The Captain 12-2AM
Susie 2-4AM
CJ 4-6AM

Everyone was very happy with their watch hours. Diny enjoyed early mornings and got both sunrise and sunset while on duty. I was pretty happy with my times...not too early, not too late.

Now that we wouldn't be running the engine regularly to conserve fuel, we started having power issues. The batteries needed to be charged from the engine or the portable Honda generator The Captain had on board. The autopilot lost power for the first time on Sarah's night watch, so she had to steer for the whole time. As we continued to lose instruments, The Captain realized he needed to do something, so in the middle of the night dug out the small red generator and tried to get it going. I listened for hours it seemed, to the droning and stopping of the generator. I heard frustration cussing and late-night in-the-dark shuffling and huffing, but it never stayed on for more than a few minutes. In the morning when I saw the set-up, I said it needed to hang from the railing. The Captain laughed at my suggestion, saying it would fly all over the place. I spent the next three hours quietly giving examples -- "like your hammock! We could use something like the vegetable hammock. The Captain, we really need to hang it so it gimbles. Like the stove". Finally around 11:30am CJ and The Captain hung it up with rope to the railing, and it has run ever since. The Captain says he also cleaned the spark plugs and did a few other things to the engine to make it run.

So now we had about 6 gallons of gasoline for the generator, hopefully it would be enough to charge the batteries for the duration of the journey.



By this time, we were a bit frustrated, but still enjoying the routine and most of the food. Diny and Susie cooked especially great meals. Diny made an Indonesian meal and Susie created a Mexican Fiesta. It was pretty tricky trying to find the ingredients for it, but it was well worth the effort.

Diny cooked a several-course Indonesian meal. Unfortunately, it was Holly's turn to wash the dishes and Diny used every pot on board. (Susie actually took over and kicked the dishes out in record time. We called her Superwoman and she lived up to the name time and time again).






Below: Holly handling the difficult task of thawing meat. Right: Susie, Superwoman.




Sarah, CJ and Holly are very satisfied after Susie's Mexican meal.

On Day 6 we had an amazing dolphin experience with probably 15 dolphins swimming with the boat at our bow. It was incredible. Most of the crew layed on the deck trying to touch then, while I filmed the experience. They finally went away when CJ threw a line in the water to see if they'd play with it. I think he mixed dolphins up with cats.

That night on my watch, I heard a "bump" and the plastic cover to the autopilot crashed down scaring the crap out of me. I sat there wondering how it could have fallen when I got a whiff. I smelled fish. Icky fish. I started checking the deck with my flashlight, and Sarah comes up behind me and says BOO. Ahhh! I jumped. She laughed. Hard. Then Susie came up, and we started looking for the smell. A flying fish was under the pillow I was sitting on. Susie threw it overboard and the next day I saw fish scales on the inside of the cabin about 6 inches from where my head had been. It was the first of about 12 times the boat was hit by flying fish. Later in the journey one poor fish flew into The Captain's berth. He smelled it but didn't find it for days. Uggg.

On day eight, the winds picked up. We were thrilled to fly and surf. This was what it was supposed to be all about!

Sarah's Blog

Sarah is also keeping a blog, check it out:

http://www.sarah-healey.blogspot.com/

Made It To Chalong Bay

We left the marina yesterday right on time --- 2:30 in the afternoon at the highest tide, and the last high tide that our boat could clear for another 10 days. Phew.

Diny and I drove the car to help Leigh find a hotel and to do the huge provisioning, so weren't on the boat for the first sail to Chalong Bay. (About a 3 hour sail). We spent 4 hours in the grocery store, and when we finally called the boat to have someone pick us up in the dingy, the wind had picked up, it was dark, and the seas were a bit rough for the first dingy adventure. The Captain told us he couldn't come and get us, so we drove to Diny's friend Lisa's house for the night. She has a lovely place near Chalong Bay, and directed us to an international grocery store where this morning we found the last items on our shopping list that we hadn't found at the Big C Supermarket. Pickles, salsa, instant oatmeal, tortillas, tortilla chips, tonic water, wasabi-- it was a very successful trip.

CJ met us with the dingy this morning for two full runs to the boat. We are going to clear customs today and leave Thailand at dawn tomorrow. That is the plan right now, anyway.

We'll leave Thailand for about a 12-day sail to Cochin, India. The next time you will hear from me, I'll most likely be in the land of tea and spices. I spent a week in Cochin in 2000 when I was in India, and really enjoyed it. I read an article in the NY Times about it a couple months ago, and I didn't recognize the things they were writing about. It might be a very different place than the sleepy mellow place I remember.

Started Interviews

One of my ideas for the video is to interview cruisers about themselves and also about their perceptions of the dangers of sailing. I first did a casual interview with David from Australia, who will be sailing through the Red Sea next month. Another man, a solo sailer, has been working on his boat the whole time we've been here. He's a Frenchman named Michel. I interviewed him on his boat and took some pictures. Very interesting to hear the different opinions and stories.

Leaving Royal Phuket Marina

Sarah, The Captain, CJ, Holly, Susie and Diny ready to get started.

We're leaving today, we got the engine started yesterday afternoon thanks to some hired help. The boat is scrubbed, polished and ready to go. This morning we need to put on some final touches, but should be ready to go. I probably should not be here posting to blogger, but this might be the last time I'll be able to use free wireless so easily, so I'm taking advantage of the power and wireless to archive my photos to the external drive I brought and get one last post written. Managing my camera and computer equipment has been a challenge already...making sure things are charging when I get the opportunity. It is only going to get more difficult, but I'll have to let it go and just BE HERE, wherever HERE, is.

BOAT X ready to depart Phuket.












Holly uses her most technical of expertise.






Marina Crew

Still Working on the Boat

Boats "on the hard" at night.

We've been here in Phuket now for about 11 days, and are still working on the boat. This is very typical with boats, so at this point we still have a pretty good attitude about it.

The Captain and CJ work on the anchor chain.


When we arrived to Phuket the boat was out of the water "on the hard". We needed a few days before putting into the water to clean and paint the hull and install a feathering propeller. The prop was rebuilt 5 times before it finally feathered correctly. We weren't yet ready the second day here to be put in the water, so we stayed on the hard over the first weekend. This was kind of a pain, because we had to climb a ladder to get on the boat, which just wasn't convenient. Monday morning the crane came to lower us the 15 feet or so into the water. The whole crew was enjoying the cool morning at the marina cafe. One of us went back to the boat to get shower supplies but returned quickly to say that The Captain is alone and the boat is ready to be put into the water. We all ran to the boat and barely jumped on in time to help with the lines. Once in the water, the engine didn't start. According to The Captain, this is the first time ever that it didn't start right up. It is now 7 days later, and we still don't have a working engine. The Captain is working on it right now, seems there is air in the line somewhere. We stayed at the service dock for a few days, then were towed and pushed expertly into a slip much closer to the bathrooms:) We need to leave the marina by the 8th of February because the channel is shallow, and we need the highest tide of the month to get out.



In the meantime, we've been installing a new windlass (equipment that lowers and raises the anchor), a new autopilot, wiring for a new chart plotter that we'll install after India, doing some provisioning, cleaning, taking inventory of supplies already on the boat, and getting to know each other. So far so good, we really enjoy each other's company.

Susie making grilled cheese.

Week One in Phuket

The Captain and Sarah at dinner.

Beautiful brand-new marina at night.

We've been in Phuket for a week now, and the boat projects are finally progressing.


I arrived at SFO 3 hours before the flight to meet the captain of BOAT X, a 50-foot Perry Sailboat. We are embarking on an open-ended sailing excursion which for me is only open until my savings runs dry. My worldly possessions are in storage and I left my job. My really nice life in Berkeley/Emeryville has been suspended for a life of cruising on the high seas.

We had an "orders to report" document in case the airline gave us trouble for only having a one-way ticket to Thailand. On my arrival I met Janice, an internet friend of The Captain that he'd first met in person at the airport, who would be joining us. Another woman he had never met, Leigh, had come along to help out, and was hoping to convince us that she would be a great addition (she offered to be cook). She was hoping to fulfill a life-long dream to go cruising. The problem is, the ideal number of people for this trip would be 5, and we already had six: The Captain, CJ, Diny, Holly, Susie and Sarah. The six of us had been in email contact for at least 6 months and were very excited to meet in person to start our adventure together. We decided 6 is the biggest crew we want, so Leigh won't be making the trip with us. She is still here on the boat but is searching for another boat going East or West from Phuket. I hope she is able to go cruising. What a shame to have travelled all this way and not leave the dock.

The China Airlines flight was suprisingly uneventful and actually a bit enjoyable. They showed The Queen which I had wanted to see on the silver screen but hadn't gotten to see, and they gave us chocolate cake. I really can't complain about a flight where I receive chocolate cake and see a good movie. I think the most memorably bad movie I saw on a plane was Bird on a Wire with Goldy Hawn. 15 years later I still regret not sleeping through it on a trip to Istanbul.

Rolling our multitude of carts to the currency exchange counter I saw a guy searching faces who appeared to match pictures of CJ whom I had only met through email and late-night chat sessions. He works for the UN and has been in Juba, Sudan, making maps. He was there to meet us at the airport after arriving in Bangkok a few days earlier. We piled our bags high into a minivan cab and directed the driver to the bus station. We were to meet Sarah and Susie there to take the 4:30pm bus to Phuket. The trip would take 14 hours.

Janice is gone. Not meeting before the trip was probably a bad idea, and it ended the other night with a US Customs official threatening to take the boat from Max. Diny, Sarah, Susie and The Captain were all sitting on the marina office steps with their laptops using the wireless internet connection when a Phuket Police Car approached them. They stared at the guy stunned when he told them about a "complaint filed with the US Embasy against the owner of Boat X". When Janice stepped out of the car dressed in a red dress with a fresh hair "set", manicure and pedicure, it all came very clear what was going on.

Janice misrepresented herself to The Captain, sending him a picture that must have been 20 years old--she was not in the physical shape to be on a boat, and the chemistry between her and The Captain wasn't there at all. She lives in Atlantic City, NJ, and had nothing in common with any one of us. She talked loud, interrupted our informative discussions, and told outragous stories at night. We didn't know if she was a con-artist, a compulsive liar, or just sadly pathetic. The Captain showed her the door, and she was pissed. As she was packing, she said things like, "Don't feel bad, what comes around goes around" which sounded darnright vengeful. She submitted the formal complaint to the US Embassy after not having enough money for the plane ticket home. I was surprised to hear this after her constant boasting of owning several properties and having led a very "classy lifestyle". She claimed to have been in a car accident in the Bahamas that had left her in a coma for two years. It was all a very sureal experience. I had gone to bed very early that night and was woken up to talk to the Embassy man.

Where This Craziness Began: From Thailand to ?

The Marina at night -- condos are for sale for $300,000 and the downstairs shops are still almost all empty. Gorgeous place, and the restaurant is fabulous.

I was in a relationship where the main goal was to go sailing for a very long time, maybe even for the rest of our lives, if we were lucky. We were shopping for a boat, paring down our possessions and only buying things that would be kept on the boat. Our life consisted of cruising research, work on the houseboat where we lived, and moving stuff around.

Then we broke up.



I realized I still wanted to pursue cruising, so submitted an ad to Latitude38, the San Francisco Bay Sailing Magazine. I received hundreds of offers for trips, from sailing the Pacific Coast to Alaska, to cruising in Australia, to day sails on the SF Bay.

I accepted two early offers. One was a trip in August '06 from Mallorca, Spain to Lagos, Portugal. That trip ended up mostly to be working on the brand new Bavaria 46 for 20 days in Palma, Mallorca, then a quick motor (10 days) through the Mediterranean to Portugal. I had a week to myself on the boat in Southern Portugal where I toured around the area and spent a few days preparing the boat to be left for a few months.

The second trip is cruising on a 50-foot Perry that is presently in Phuket, Thailand. The owner and Captain placed his own ad as well as answered ads himself. He chose 5 others to accompany him from Thailand to Greece, and I am lucky enough to be one of them. Ideally the cruise will include stops in The Maldives, Sri Lanka, India, Salaleh (Oman), Egypt, Isreal and Turkey. Some of the stops may be missed because there is really only a couple months that the Red Sea is bearable. Winds pound from the North making the trip very uncomfortable for most months of the year except January through March. Unfortunately, we have to move quickly through Southeast Asia in order the beat the winds. Once in the Mediterranean, we can slow down, though diving and snorkling in the Red Sea is a high priority.

Besides acting as crew, I intend to film the adventure. 6 relative strangers on a boat for 6 months or so should make for some interesting footage that I can play with for years to come.

Several of us fly out together on January 23rd, 2007.