Sarah's Blog

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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.