Trincomalee
Trinco – a town of some 60,000 people with a generous mix of Sinhalese, Christain, Muslim and Buddhist. In the early morning hours, like 0430hrs, the call to various religious prayers begin. I am not sure who starts it off but I think it’s the howling of the dogs that announces the beginning. Truly the dogs howl then the amplified call to muslim prayers begin. After a few minutes the bells and horns from the hindu temple sneaks its way in, then the chants from the Buddhast temple and to finalize it all the weak bells ring from the Christian church. And we thought Malaysia’s anchorages were a little over assaulted by the call to prayer.
So, I guess it’s the Christains who are the lazy ones as they are last to announce morning prayer. Soon though all these sounds get drowned out by the movement of traffic along the waterfront. The buses belch out their exhaust while the tuk-tuks roar along at high revs trying to pass the cyclists. All of this, of course, is accompanied by the honking of horns and still the barking/howling dogs.
Believe it or not this is a major roundabout but like all dogs in this town they are saying they don’t care we will lie where we want to. Yes, they have a big dog problem here.
At least here we don’t have power boats roaring around us as in Thailand.
So the day has begun. There isn’t much commerce in Trinco. The natural harbour is huge and in any other locale it would be bustling with maritime traffic both local and international. There are two large container ship wharves; one for flour, and the other for cement. There is the navy. It appears from our vantage point there are no large naval ships. We have only seen hi-speed commando style rigid inflatables interspersed with the occasional typical military personnel carrier transporting people from one area to another. There is also one commercial ferry carrying upwards of 50 people from one side of the harbour to the other. We, being anchored in Town Bay, get to see almost everything in terms of water traffic.
The only other commercial activity in the harbour is the local fishing scene. There are fishing weirs set up in a variety of locations and in the evening the harbour is dotted with local manually propelled fishing craft that have a very unique Sri Lankan design not seen anywhere else in SE Asia, but maybe in south Asia.
And here is a VERY special fish boat that our friend, Evelyn, found in Galle when she so missed me she went looking for a reminder
Other than the harbour activity and the navy there is little other sign of economic activity other than the three main streets selling various goods with 30 shops selling plastic wear, 40 shops selling shoes, 25 shops selling fabrics, a couple of banks, a bus station, a central market, 2 small grocery stores and 2 hallal restaurants.
Umm, where’s the cricket ground. Ah yes, there it is, next to the bus station. Phew.
If you ever want to visit Trinco and are looking for supplies Connie has made up a sketch map for where to buy a few supplies. There are no local tourist maps but with a combination of Connie’s sketch map and Google maps one gets by.
And last but not forgotten for long are the rutting deer to be found at the local market. Appears Sri Lankans
haven’t developed a taste for deer meat. Pity there aren’t more Canadians here. We could have a wonderful BBQ!
Sunset in Town Bay, Trincomalee
Cleared in and running wild
Wow, land at last. We had a dramatic entry to Trincomalee that started with a night entry and being stopped by an unlit, black commando (navy seal) type fast boat and ended with being assigned a supertanker berth for the night.
We were moved the next morning as an incoming bulk concrete cargo ship wanted to tie up to unload. How rude! We ended up tied to a barge and haven’t budged since.
At least if we have to have the mast taken out there is a crane onboard the barge that can easily accommodate us. However, that is not something we are planning on doing.
We did escape from Trinco. We had torn apart our drifter on the sail over to Sri Lanka. There is a sailmaker, UK Sails, in Galle. We packed up the sail and travelling by bus we traversed Sri Lanka starting out on a local, non AC’d bus making our first stop in Kandy, the home of the beginning of tea in Sri Lanka.
View from Sandhu and Anita’s home looking over Kandy
The bus trip wasn’t so bad but it did involve trying to remain in the seat while the driver wildly swerved in and out of the traffic. Luckily we had a large sail to buffer our foreheads from the steel bar in front of us when the driver had to brake suddenly..
Kandy was a great spot to break the journey. We spent two nights at the home of Anita and Sandhu.
Sandhu and Anita
It was a great place situated high on one of the hills overlooking Kandy. They were wonderful hosts treating us to Sri Lankan breakfasts and dinner. We also toured around to tea factories, tea museums and a spectacular botanical garden called Peradeniya.video slide show from youtube
All the different types of Sri Lankan tea
Sri Lankan breakfast at Lily Rosa’s guesthouse http://www.lillyrosa.com
Next part of the journey involved taking the train, Rajadhani express, from Kandy to Colombo. We booked the trip on the Rajadhani express. Don’t be mistaken. This is not an express but rather an A/C coach that’s added on to the regular train. Definitely not an express. Just like everyone else on the other train cars it makes its way along long neglected tracks badly in need of repairs to the roadbed. There were times when even the Rajadhani express train car bottomed out on its springs! That is a little frightening when you are going around a corner.
By the time we got to Colombo it was dusk. We wanted to get to Galle. We arrived at 1750hrs and there was a connecting train leaving for Galle at 1800hrs. We managed to rush off and buy a ticket, get to the platform and waited till 1820hrs when the train arrived and then the ‘Sri Lankan Squeeze’ started. Oh my god. I am sure you have seen pictures of trains in South Asia where people are hanging out the windows and sitting on top of the train. This was a no reserved seat special and was the ‘express’ to Galle.
We managed to get on the train but only just. We were just inside the door to the train. Packed like sardines and desperately trying to remove my nose from someone’s armpit we shunted off down the tracks. 20 minutes later, soaked from sweat, gasping for air and a little traumatized we stopped at a station. ‘What’, you can’t put more people on! Oh yes we can. Connie wanted to get off but we couldn’t move. People were kind and told us that at the next stop a lot of people would get off. Several stops later we were able to move into the carriage and eventually got a seat for the remainder of the 2.5 hour train journey.
It was a shame it wasn’t daylight. The train goes along the coast. Third class train travel means all the windows are open. The evening’s tropical breeze is forced in the window and the smells of Sri Lankan food being cooked in the homes waft through the railway car windows and the evening lights go by in a blur. It was a 2.5hr trip to Galle passing by stations proudly displaying beautifully potted tropical plants and freshly painted station buildings. If it wasn’t for the tropical breeze blowing through the train one would think you were passing through a quaint english train station.
Galle, an alternate harbour for yachts. It’s not a natural harbour and as such, over the centuries, sailing ships have been caught out and sank in the harbour. The Marine Archaeology Museum has some wonderful artifacts on display taken from sunken ships in the harbour. Despite the dangers there was a fort built here by the Europeans in the 1600s and today the walled fort is undergoing a renaissance albeit one driven by international tourist. It’s a UNESCO world heritage site and reminds me most of old Havana but on a much smaller scale. The renovations are ongoing but it is not only attracting foreign tourist but also acts as a haven for wedding photography.
Enchanting
what a special day
After getting our sail repaired we are getting ready to return to Trincomalee
Phuket to Trincomalee
Departure from Thailand was bittersweet. On the one hand we were looking forward to exploring new shorelines but on the other hand we were reluctant to leave new-found friends. From the graciousness and kindness of Greg and Liz, the owners of the home we housesat, to the crazy Swede, Pel onboard Suntess, who kept us laughing and was kind enough to host an American thanksgiving. There were so many others I cannot mention them all but there is Diane and Rob, onboard The Doctor, who painted our wind vane cover; Mark who showed us some of the best of local Thai food restaurants in Khao Lak; Darrell and Loretta who were brave enough to cut the proverbial sailing rope and settle in Thailand; and then the numerous others too many to mention.
We loved our time in Asia. It’ a very different experience than cruising south pacific islands or exploring the haunts of the Mediterranean. We are looking forward to a new continent, Africa, as well as the numerous islands and nation states between Thailand and Capetown.
Who knows what this adventure will entail. To start it off here is a day to day blog of our sail between Phuket and Trincomalee, Sri Lanka.
*To see more pictures of our trip come back to view when I get a better internet connection!
Day One
1200hrs – January 10th
Latitude: 7 46.75
Longitude : 98 08.46
Miles
Departure today was 1000hrs from Nai Harn, an anchorage on the south-west coast of Phuket island.k
Beautiful day with a nice easterly wind pushed us out of the anchorage under sail. Always one of my favourite ways to leave or enter a harbour.
Amazing that we are actually departing after almost 3 years in SE Asia having arrived in the Philippines March 2012. It seems like yesterday that Marcello made Connie a pizza for her birthday while we were anchored in our respective sailboats right where Cyclone Huinan trampled its way through one year later.
Now we are on our way to South Asia and on to the coral atolls of the Maldives and Chagos. We are going to miss our Thai food. There is hardly a place in Thailand where you get a bad meal. Their ancient knowledge of spice mixtures, plant life and fruit make for a tireless cuisine. I don’t know what we are headed towards but am sure we will find pleasure in a new cuisine.
We will miss SE Asia and leave with few regrets. I think the only regret being we didn’t do more land travelling. SE Asia is not a great sailing place but offers numerous places to leave the boat to explore inland. The coastal areas are overfished, overpopulated and over subscribed by tourists. Gems still exist but they require more resources to reach but are rewarding. There are only just a few that I have covered in my blog here.
Day Two
1200hrs – January 11th
Latitude N8 25.2
Longitude E096 27.2
Miles
A night in a washing machine and the day on rinse cycle pretty much sums up the last 24 hours.
The washing machine relates to the times at which we cross current barriers. These are unpredictable and quite violent. The waves suddenly come from all directions and rise to over 1.5 metres throwing Sage around like she’s in a pinball machine or washing machine. We haven’t figured out why these upwellings occur as we are not going over seamounts or sudden changes in water depth. We can only surmise they are caused by large volumes of water transferring from the Indian Ocean into the Andaman Sea and the Malacca Straits.
Connie changing the card in the Garmin. This card will now guide us on the chart plotter from the Andaman Islands to Chagos where we will switch to a new card for East Africa
Then there are the squalls. We just had one tear our drifter apart. The drifter is our light weather sail and we got caught out with the result it tore from leech to luff along a seam. It’s a great loss as we use it a lot but we might be able to repair once ashore.
Sailing with double headsails before we tore apart the drifter i.e. The colourful sail
Day three
1200hrs – January 12th
Latitude N08 53.5
Longitude E094 14.3
Miles
Well, if yesterdays it was the washing machine today is in a barrel going over Niagara Falls. Rain started at 0900hrs as I passed the watch to Connie and the rain did not stop till 1800hrs. Water everywhere but at least it was fresh water. Wind up and down but generally stayed in the southerly quadrant.
Morale not great and it is taking a great deal of effort for even the most mundane task. Snacking continues and a desire to just put ones head down and wish it all away is strong.
Night comes with a bit of relief. The wind stabalizes, the seas are becoming more rhythmic and the sails remain full. Only one period of panic as I realize we are doing upwards of 10knots as we surf along a wave. I think it’s time to reef so call Marcello on deck to assist. I steer while he winds in the genoa and relief is almost instant. We are now doing a sedate 8 knots, less than I go when cycling!
Day Four
1200hrs – January 13th
Latitude N08 58.1
Longitude E093 13.1
Miles
What a change. Morning brought sunshine and a chance to dry out. Towels, cushions, underwear and various sundry items were spread across the deck and in the rigging to dry. Seas calmed down and the wind steadied from the SE allowing for comfortable sailing and a chance to make something good to eat.
Lost a fishing lure to a strike in the early morning. However, on deck, was our breakfast
Well, not exactly. Has to be the smallest flying fish we have found on deck.
Having lost one lure we affixed another and by 1700hrs we had us a tuna. Unfortunately Connie had already prepared a massaman curry for dinner so fish awaits another meal and some for drying and sashimi
Day Five
1200hrs – January 14th
Latitude 09 04.5
Longitude 091 27.1
Miles – 129 nm
A very pleasant night spent at sea with a southerly wind, gentle rollers and a waning moon that rose at 0130hrs and outlined all the clouds. The night was marred by only one squall which thankfully was not on my watch! Poor Connie had to endure a torrential downpour for 30 minutes then on off drizzle for the remainder of her 0300-0600hrs watch.
By late morning conditions improved and we were moving towards our destination and already talking over lunch about what we would do once arrived. Lunch of course was sashimi, cabbage salad and rice. All cooked by our Italian chef, Marcello!
tuna drying in the sunshine. All that was left after straks and sashimi
Sorry did not think of taking a photo until after we finished!
Day Six
1200hrs – January 15th
Latitude 09 28.5
Longitude 090 41.4
Miles 78 nm
What a night. Dark black threatening clouds all around and no wind to help us escape. Six hours we were becalmed with the boat slapping from side to side. We took down all sails as the motion was murderous on equipment all round and most on sails. One other casuality was our self steering.
No easy trick. The boat is moving and someone has to go over the back and fix the self steering. Ended up we both had to go over!
I surmise that when I put it all back together I neglected to tighten everything really well. As a result we had to dismantle a few things before putting it all back together again. I guess the real challenge came in working off the stern of the boat while we were moving. Neither Marcello nor I wanted to be left behind in the Indian Ocean.
The wind came back at 0730hrs but not with a lot of vigor. We are moving at a snail’s pace of about 2 knots. What makes the day though is that we are 30 miles from our halfway point!
Day Seven
1200hrs – January 16th
Latitude 09 30.5
Longitude 089 34.5
Miles 67nm
Okay we are no rocket. Yes it is slow going but that happens. Not often but on this trip seems to be the norm.
Best part of the last 24hrs is that Connie made bread and nothing broke. It’s comfortable sailing with a gentle NE swell and wind around 5-6 knots. Yes, the sails slat around, the mainsail gets put up and down depending on the wind and life onboard goes on. Laundry, washing, swimming, fishing, long conversations and best of all laughter.
Oh yes, then there are hours of reading. Connie is reading Patricia Cornwell’s Dust and I am reading The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell. We are obviously miles apart on our literary choices. Marcello is watching movies! Apparently he downloaded 12 into his I pad before leaving Phuket. He’s going to run out of ones to watch though as I think our original estimate of 10 days for the crossing is way off. Marcello is also consuming huge quantities of Japanese soduku.
Day Eight
1200hrs – January 17th
Latitude
Longitude
Miles 108
What an incredible night. Sky packed with stars and in the distance the flashing strobes of planes carrying people back and forth to and from Asia to Europe. Pencil thin strokes in the sky made from meteors entering earth’s atmosphere scattering angel dust over the oceans. Ships travelling across the Bay of Bengal to and from Singapore and Kolkata. Gentle breeze from the north rocking the boat like a cradle with a cool tropical breeze entering all the open hatches. One can’t ask for better sailing conditions.
To top it all off it’s Marcello’s birthday! Started off slowly with fresh-baked bread and expresso coffee making way, later in the morning, for sausages and eggs. A good start for a special day.
The admiral and crew relaxing at sea while the captain swabs the deck and takes photos
Day Nine
1200hrs – January 18th
Latitude N09 44.2
Longitude E 08 35.2
Miles 130
Marcello’s birthday celebrations continue as the day progresses with telephone calls to Italy followed by scotch served in crystal glasses followed by an italian red wine accompanied by pizza. How Italian could we make it? Dinner ended with chocolate cake but I forgot the brandy so will just have to serve that in the morning.
Nighttime brings a new challenge but also signs of getting closer to Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan fishboats start to appear. They do not have regulation navigation lights but rather just run bright white working lights. This makes it difficult to determine the direction they are going. They did scare Marcello. He was on watch and one boat came roaring up to the side of the boat with all its crew gesticulating wildly trying to get us to stop. Marcello called me up and I said just keep going and the fishboat fell in behind us cutting our fishing line and eventually gave up and off they went much to Marcello’s relief.
Ah well, it was another lovely night and the wind started to pick up a little giving a more boisterous ride.
Day Ten
1200hrs – January 19th
Latitude N 09 36.0
Longitude E 083 36.5
Miles 125
Boisterous seas and a stiff breeze until 2400hrs pushed us along at 7-8 knots. Wind slowly died off finally picking up at 0800hrs.
No special events, no celebrations, no astounding revelations…
1 lonely petrel seen with no mate and no other competitors for food. Lonely ocean. There does seem to be an abundance of fish. We are finding numerous flying fish onboard and of a reasonable size. True to their name as we found one high up in a furled sail when we unfurled in lighter winds.
Ah, only 147 miles to go.
Day Eleven
January 20th
1200hrs
Latitude
Longitude
Miles 125
Wow, only 35 miles to go and the sea is flat, the wind gentle and speed not so great. Would love to arrive before dark but no go. We did try running wing and wing but the current took us south faster than the boat was sailing. We are now steering a course of 272 and we are making 233. That’s quite the impact from the south setting current. Great for the next leg as we head south and west to the Maldives.
Setting the Sri Lankan and courtesy flag ready for arrival
2100hrs
Exhausted and hungry we finally tied the docklines. What an evening. We tried to arrive in the outer harbour before nightfall and anchor in s small cove outside the harbour limits. But we were thwarted. A Sri Lankan commando boat roared up to ask if we had permission to enter. Thus began a long sequence of events that saw us being escorted to a remote dock designed for tankers and left for the night miles from nowhere and no clearance from immigration nor customs. All that is supposed to happen tomorrow morning.
What do sailors do on Christmas Day?
I guess sailors do just the same as everyone else on Christmas Day:
Drink
Italian wine courtesy of Marcello to the delights of Connie
Cook
Taste testing
A vegetarian dinner special – Marcia’s speciality
Eat
The Christmas dinner table – Detlef, Evelyn, Darrell and Loretta
Talk
More consultation – Dave and Marcello
Playing with the new toy – Connie and Evelyn
Dave, Marcia, Richard and Lee
Talk on the phone to friends, families and lovers in faraway places
John on the phone to Suzy probably
Joanne on the phone to ….?
Be amorous
An amorous Christmas – Evelyn and Herve
Play with Christmas toys
Richard, Dave, Marcia, Patrick and Marcello hard on work route planning with a new app
And after it’s all over head to the temple
Minding our own business?
So, here we are house sitting minding our own business and relaxing around the pool.
Not us but Joanne and Craig from Invictus Reward relaxing by the pool Christmas Day
The two dogs start shifting and moving away from the garage door growling vociferously. And what slithers in through the garage door but a python!
I’m only joking but the newspaper article from the English language weekly does tell a story of a python being captured in someone’s backyard only a few kilometres from our place.
Phuket News December 24, 2014
Please note the size of the python – 6M long and weighs 80kg! That would make short work of our Lucky and Bluey, the two ‘soi’ (street) dogs we are babysitting.
Season’s Greetings
Work, stop, play…work, stop, play…
Our new hydrovane self steering cover
I can’t believe we are still at the dock at Yacht Haven Marina. I think it’s now been three weeks we have been tied up. At least we are in the water and the boat gently rocks to the occasional wind that kicks up the water or else a power boat goes roaring by creating a wake when I am at the top of the mast.
Talking about masts. I have now completed putting on mast steps. I guess it’s one concession to being an elderly sailor. No longer is it easy for me to lift Connie to the top of the mast and damn near impossible for Connie to get me up there. So what does one do.
There are a number of choices to make and for us I think we have made the right choice. We chose a reinforced nylon/glass step that we were originally going to secure to the mast using monel rivets. However, it turned out to be impossible to use the rivet gun and so I used stainless steel bolts which required drilling a pilot hole, then using a tap creating a thread in the aluminium and then securing each step with 5 stainless bolts. There are 33 steps in total so that means I had to drill 165 holes, tap 165 holes and then dry-fit each one. After dry-fitting I had to undo each bolt and apply Duralac; a compound to minimize the electrolytic action between the stainless steel bolt and the aluminium.
Up the mast for the fifth straight day
After endless hours up the mast in a chair it is finally completed and now we can race up and down the mast doing all the maintenance work necessary which included replacing burnt out bulbs in navigation lights, replacing spreader tip leathers and replacing the mast-head navigation light. We are delighted with the steps and the ease in which we can get to either the spreaders or the masthead.
steps to heaven
STOP
It’s time for a break. We are supposed to be enjoying ourselves but it is hard work doing all this stuff in 30+C heat and full sunshine. That is usually broken with a torrential downpour around 1600hrs that comes with a half hour of 30+knot winds, torrential rain and thunder and lightning. All very dramatic but of course everyone is scurrying around shoving their tablets, smart phones, PCs etc into their ovens to protect them should a boat get struck by lightning, which does happen occasionally.
PLAY
What do we do to enjoy ourselves. Get out teeth fixed (!), entertain visitors
Jeff, Elliott and Connie
go to a movie (The Hunger Games), head to the beach for a massage, go out to lunch or dinner with a friend or just sit on someone’s boat and have a few gin and tonics.
Lorraine and Connie in the galley of Katani getting the appies ready
Graham at rest after a hard day getting ready to leave the next day. Drinks are on the way
Katani – what a boat.
WORK
Okay another day of work – at the bottom of the page I’ve listed all the things we’ve done or have to do. It’s an extensive list and we pick away at it bit by bit without getting depressed about how many things there are still left to do. We also know, though, that the list never really disappears and we still have items that HAVE to be done before leaving Thailand. So plug away….
Connie learning the finer points of winch maintenance and doing a great job
One of the main dismantled winches
The old radar guts. Looks OK to me but…
A sad day. The old radar has bitten the dust. They say it’s too old and spare parts not available. Aaargh – fortunately, or at least for us, someone in the boatyard got hit by lightning. He is replacing all of his instrumentation whether things are working or not. He has an old radar unit that is a few years newer than our old one and which works despite the lightning. We are picking that one up and installing on Sage. Hopefully it works for the next couple of years although we really question the need for it as leaving Victoria 4 years ago there haven’t been many times we have put it into use.
Here is our list of things done over the last 2 months or that still need doing:
New throttle cable****DONE****
Check rigging
Re galvanize chain – *****DONE+****
Replace sw galley intake thru hull****DONE****
Glass over depth sounder****DONE*****
Replace self steering lower bearing, collar and sleeve ***DONE****
Remover cover on windvane and pack new cover for canada****DONE****
End for end main halyard
New cover for steering post*****DONE******
Review and renew abandon ship box DONE
Rebuild fuel injection pump****DONE****
Replace solent stay deck fitting – ******Done********
Get pulpit fixed
Install masthead light IN PROGRESS
Replace light on propane switch
Paint engine locker instrument lid********DONE**********
Replace upper lifelines****DONE*****
Get blade (sail) made
Replace radar********IN PROGRESS********
New Trojan batteries***DONE****
Install mast steps****DONE****
O/b maintenance**DONE******
Replace zincs******DONE****+
Change sump oil
Repair kit for head pump****DONE****
Inspect electronic self steering electrical connections
Install new hatch gaskets needed****IN PROGRESS*****
Service injectors
Install new Batteries – *****DONE*****
Install water shut off valve to dripless bearing*******DONE*****
Test EPIRB -*****DONE****
Install new motor lift*****DONE*****
New kayak cover****DONE*****
Repair fuel injector pump***+DONE****
Repair water pump on engine****DONE****
Paint cockpit locker*****IN PROGRESS*****
Check navigation lights*****IN PROGRESS******
Install new light in galley
Install rope clutch for jib halyard ON ORDER
Renew wire on pulpit navigation light-*****DONE*****
Paint design on new hydrovane cover ***********DONE********
Work is continuing and will be posting more about the ongoing activities.
I do want to thank our special artist who worked on putting the sunflower on our self steering gear. Diana Naggo is the artist and we are so pleased we ran into Diana and her partner, Rob, in Yacht Haven. I think she did a great job of putting the sunflower on.
Rob and Diana by their boat The Doctor
Seabird of the Year
Work, work, work….
From this
What a mess – anti-fouling removed and down to previously done barrier coat
And this
Rudder coverings removed completely
To this
Waxed, barrier coated, primed and anti-fouled. Almost ready for the water
Our workshop. We learnt one of the benefits of a catamaran – makes a great garage – dry, shaded and lots of space
Workshop was under the catamaran next to us until the owners returned
More work…
Yes, a large hole in the bottom of the boat. Was our old, non-functional depth transducer. One more hole in the bottom closed off. Back to the lead line.
Same hole but from the inside of the boat. At this time I have plugged it from the inside but still have to do the outside before Monday
The centreboard pin before cleaning and replacing the wire for lifting and lowering.
New wire for the centreboard
And from this
Was tempted to take with us
To this
Oh, how I love pork.
Oooops – don’t know how this slipped in but it sure ain’t boat stuff
Back to work….
From this
Installing a new solent stay chainplate
and this
Some stainless steel boats rust. The head of this bolt turned separately from the shaft. So what was supposed to be a 30 minute job turns out to be a two hour job!
To this
Ah much better. Rust stains gone and new fittings to make us feel safer at sea
Bau – what a worker. I decided doing the bottom was best left to someone younger!
Bau worked tirelessly for days both taking off and putting on our new bottom.
And from this
I tried to find a picture of our small dodger over the main entrance to Sage. It’s a small dodger that in inclement weather one has the ability to push it forward as it’s mounted with shock cord to allow one to push it forward and slip down below. After 4 years of heavy use and lots of dirty hands pushing it around we found a place here to replace it. Below is a picture of the replacement with many improvements on the old one including an eyebrow to prevent drips into the open hatch if it’s raining and we used bolt rope to hold it down instead of snaps. That’s so when the waves crash into the the beam under sail the water won’t find it’s way under the cover and down below.
To this
A new mini dodger which was replaced a tattered one that was not really that successful. This one looks great and corrects some problems we had with the old one
And then there is the engine. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of our engine before Connie started work on it. Needless to say she’s looking a little shabby before she sets to with the paint. At least now we are proud to show her off. But does she work – stay tuned as we launch on Monday.
Connie’s hand-painted engine> Someone said we should paint the flywheel ‘pink’!
And this is where we like to spend money
Lee and Connie at Rolly Taskers sail loft
And more money…
Connie and Lee at the chandlery
Rolly Taskers is a candy store for sailors. It has one of the largest sail lofts in the world, a rigging shop and a chandlery for all the baubles sailors like to drop thousands of dollars on. Us? We got off lucky this time. We only spent $100. That was for 20 metres of 4mm wire!
From This
The old rusty chain
To This
Newly galvanized chain flaked out for measuring and loading back onboard before launching
There’s always the unexpected. One day before launch day and we go to try the throttle cable. It’s frozen solid. Rush around trying to figure out where can we buy one, how to install, how to get out the old one etc etc
Reeving a new throttle cable
And why am I so happy looking? Well everything worked with out a glitch. That is unusual. We must be learning patience or something but now we have a throttle cable that smoothly runs. I still have to put it all back together but this time we won!
LAUNCH DAY
It’s pouring with rain but nothing will dampen our spirits. Freedom is just a shot away! We are excited and keen to splash. One glitch – we launched the dinghy the day before and the engine cooling wasn’t working properly. No time to fix so with minimum cooling water making its way thru the system we move forward. Perhaps we won’t need the dinghy but it’s on standby in case the main engine doesn’t work.
Cleopatra rules the waves
So how did it go. Well we got Sage into the water. She floated! Held taught with 4 lines to shore the moment came to test out the engine. Amazing, it started. After 7 months of being idle the batteries helped make the engine roar. That was good but what didn’t work was one pulley on the belt was jammed. The boat filled with smoke, the engine compartment was removed, the smoke billowed out, the belt snap and the order given to stop all engines! In 15 minutes we had a new belt on, the frozen pulley unjammed and we were on our way.
I guess what is the downer in all this is when I looked at the picture of Sage coming out of the water she looked no different from going in! It’s true. All the work done was either below the waterline or inside the boat. For us though we feel better. There are a few new or replaced items as well as maintenance items completed. We feel we are getting closer to moving across the Indian Ocean.
But – work hasn’t stopped. We are now at a dock, tearing apart the engine, installing mast steps, cleaning 7 months of dirt off everything, making sure the rat shit is washed off the deck (yes, lots of rats but none inside), regular maintenance on various equipment, getting my tooth fixed (gum surgery and crown) etc etc
But we’re getting close…
But why are these Thais laughing at us?
Why are all these Thais laughing at us?
Return to Thailand
Getting back to Thailand wasn’t so easy. Or it wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be.
First was a flight from Toulouse to Munich. It got diverted to Stuttgart. We missed our flight to Singapore. Wait a few hours then fly to Frankfurt. Wait another 9 hours and catch the last flight out to Singapore.
Arrive Singapore to find we missed our ongoing non refundable flight to Phuket. Book on Tiger Air but fail to realize that in order to have 20kg each I have to push the button twice. Pay $160 in overweight baggage fees but get into Phuket only 4 hours past our original arrival time. Not bad – the hotel reservation is still good and the rental car is still waiting.
So what’s it like to fly all that way. Well, when I put shaving cream on my toothbrush, lock the key in the room and panic when I can’t find something then everything is normal! I realize I need to slow down and let the jet lag pass by.
However, we want to see Sage. We get a good nights sleep and head off the next morning to see Sage.
Sage on sail 