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.