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.