December 2011, Back in Thailand

We are back to start our sailing in the Andaman Seas!

SeaWolff is looking good, the Marina positioned her under a tree, nicely protected from the sun. Seems this was not such a good idea as the house batteries only just kept their charge and the engine batteries are dead. The Solar panels struggled with very little sun on them! We bought new engine batteries and alls well.

Rob spent 3 days sanding and painting on the anti-fouling (he did get some local help). The new paint job looks very pretty.

We also fitted the underwater lights, cant wait to see them at night.

The tractor is pushing her into the water today.

Taken out on a hoist August 2011

We brought SeaWolff to Ao Po Marina in the North of Phuket, and she was lifted out on a dolly with wheels. They put the bars under the boat, got the diver to check and then slowly lifted and pulled her out.

We then climbed on to pack things away and put out the de-humidifying buckets.

We will return in December to do lots more exploring of these beautiful islands. For now its back to South Africa to the cold winter.

Islands and flat water

The next day we explored a few bays and islands further South East. The book said anchor in 7m deep water in front of the 'mushroom' rock. Well there it was. Great to have a guide book as there is very little info on the Marine Charts. On the other side of this island are coral heads coming up from 20m so not a good place to anchor. We walked along the beach there.

Some of the islands have upmarket resorts on them with restaurants we could visit if we wanted to.

Then moved on to another spot where we had sun downers on the beach. Swimming here is great as the water is 31C!! This is away from the muddy water and the water is clear. The calm sea makes enjoyable cruising.

'James Bond Island'

We decided to do some touring with Sea Wolff and headed north into the Phang-Nga Bay. The first attraction was 'James Bond Island' where the movie 'Man with the Golden Gun' was filmed. Its a very popular spot. From there we moved on to the Muslim Gypsy village all built on stilts. Its really a fishing village. I gets more muddy as these are wide rivers feeding into the bay. We anchored in the muddy river with the Mangrove trees along side, then went ashore by taxi, a long tail boat, for dinner. (Thats Kirsten and I waiting for dinner) Thai green curry and rice. Before dinner we walked down the 'street' between the wooden houses. Each home has a small stall selling all the normal tourist things. In the evening the long tails bring the children back from school on the mainland.

Tried to sleep on the deck but the mosquitos were very bad!

Big Buddha

There are a few musts in Phuket, one is eating on the beach and the other is a visit to Big Buddha. Buddha sits on top of a hill and is itself 45m tall so can be seen from far out at sea.

Beaches in Phuket

The West side of Phuket has many long beaches. Not always safe to swim in them, Red flags indicate danger with strong currents. In season, Dec to March, these beaches are teaming with tourists and the sea is flat calm. Rob is sitting watching the sea.

Phuket customs

Phuket is all set up for yachts with a nice customs and immigration office in Ao Chalong, at the pier. They are at present building a very modern building on the pier which will be ready at year end. It too about 40 minutes and lots of forms at both offices and then we also had to do paperwork for the harbour master. Interesting that while sailing in the Americas any friends on board were signed in as crew. Here they are signed in as passengers.

We had brunch next to the pier with all the 'long tail' boats on the shore. These wooden boats have the propeller in the water, at the end of a pole. They do represent Thailand.

Phi Phi islands

At last we are in Phi Phi, clear blue skies and water again. We drove into Phi Phi lee which is where the movie 'The Beach' was filmed. Did not go to the beach as it was too rough. Moved on to Phi Phi Don where we anchored in calm water. After a swim in the 29C water we went ashore to wander the beaches and shops (stalls). The island makes a perfect C shape which offers protection from most weather.

Thailand islands

We spent the night anchored off this beautiful island. We did not go ashore but could hear the voices of a small community that live there. The Cocks crowing in the morning awoke us. Rob and I took the opportunity to sleep out on the deck on a blowup mattress. The cool wind and lack of mosquitoes was wonderful. We still pass fishing boats. This one has the light bulbs hanging off outriggers, for night fishing.

The skies are clear of smoke at last. So nice so see blue sky again.

Smokey skies

The wind blew from the South all night last night and with it came the smoke. You cant really smell it, just makes everything foggy. Rather depressing. The info on the internet about these fires is very interesting.

We filled up at the Diesel barge in the bay. Note the smog.

Headed for Rebak Marina for the night. This is a super Marina with all the Taj resort facilities available to the yachties.

I attended the yoga class, great to stretch again.

Tomorrow we head for Phi Phi islands, Thailand, with an overnight next to one of the many islands on the way.

Duty free Langkawi

Langkawi is a Chocoholic's dream. There are whole shops dedicated to Chocolates which Kirsten loved. The alcohol is also cheap so we stocked up on the good stuff.

The family were not brave enough yet to try the local cusine so it was MacDonalds for lunch. R14.00 for a MacMeal.

The sad thing here is the smoke in the air. It comes from Sumatra in the South where they are apparently burning forests to plant Palm Trees for Palm oil production.

Langkawi, Malaysia

Our trip from Penang was again interrupted by fishing boats, but we now know what to look for. The very interesting sight was sticks in the 25m deep water. They were not moving so were well anchored. They were 'protected' by a fishing boat. What could they be harvesting?

We are now in Royal Langkawi Marina. This too is a big island with lots of smaller islands around. The attraction besides the beaches is that its duty free.

Panang, Malaysia

We took of early for Panang island and found some of the fishing boats we had encountered the previous night. This time we could see their lines and weave between them.

Penang is huge, 20km in length with an impressive skyline. At the southern approach they are building a long bridge from the main land. Amazing to see the workings, must be a huge contract. This will be the second bridge as there is a suspension bridge already.

We went into the Tanjong City Marina which is in the old part of town. Had a local diner for R120.00 for the 5 of us. Diesel here is R4,50 per L!

We wondered around the street stalls and took in the wonderful spice aromas.

While leaving the boat we were approached by a photographer who wanted to take photos of a bridal couple on our boat. We agreed and they were so happy, interesting the photos were done before the wedding ceremony.

We were amazed to see PAC Deneb loading in the port, this was the boat that took Sea Wolff across from USA to Singapore.

The Mallaca straits, very eventfull!

We left Singapore and had a nice calm drive for a few hours. We had to watch out for all the ships as this is a very busy shipping route. Then we had to cope with the fishing boats that have long lines out behind them. We slowed down to see where their fishing lines went and then passed by. That involved checking for floating buoys with binoculars and good eyes. Having all the big ships passing by was quite interesting, especially when they come from behind and are going faster than us.

The next night was fine until 2am when a storm literally hit us. From no wind to heavy pouring rain and strong wind. Rob could see the storm on the radar and while we all kept dry inside he and Harold turned the boat whichever way needed to miss the middle of it. After about 30min we were out of it and the drenched and tired men appeared.

Harold and I took over the watch and Rob retired to bed.....not long after we had to call him.

We were driving into a fleet of about 50 fishing boats. All had bright lights on and flashing red lights. Everywhere we turned there were boats and lines in the water. Some were running nets between them too. We tried to call on channel 16 but no one replied. It was like a bad dream!

We eventually turned back on our track and drove 3 hours back to Pangor Lamut. The sun was rising, what a welcome sight, and we anchored in a bay and all passed out till lunch time!!

Everyone did so well and no one was sea sick.

Once awake we went to the beach for a swim in the 30C water. It was a pretty bay with tall mountains covered in lush greenery.

Super was good comfort food, Spaghetti!

No more night driving.

Stocking up

Today we went to the local 'wet market', to buy fresh meat, fish, fruit and veg. Paid a very reasonable R70 for a kg of Beef fillet. Haven't had good beef for ages so the braai is out and lunch will by fillet and salad. Harold and Kirsten found apples in the market that were from South Africa!

Customs and immigration are coming onto our boat at 2pm to clear us out of Singapore and so after lunch we will start out trip to Langkawi, Malaysia. Should take about 48hours.

Look forward to seeing clear blue water and white beaches again.

Family arrive

Roberts brother Harold, and his children, Kirsten and Alan have arrived. We spent yesterday at Sentosa island and then China town. Sentosa is an entertainment park. The best was the ride there from Singapore island, via cable car. Great views of this very busy port.

The lion is the symbol for Singapore and there was a huge one in the park. Kirten had fun posing with the 'Prada' shop statues. A fun day but very tiring in this heat. Thank heavens for the pool!

Republic of Singapore Yacht Club

Sitting in this Marina has been pleasant especially because of the huge swimming pool they have. It is a very bumpy spot though, as right next to the marina is a busy boat taxi base. The waves from them roll through the marina and every boat bobs up and down.

Opposite us is the Greenpeace boat, 'Rainbow Warrior'. She is no longer in operation and there is a team of folk on board who are preparing her for the new owners. She must have many interesting stories to tell!?

Sea Wolff arrives in Singapore

Well at last the ship is here and we were called to come and off load on Sat afternoon, a day early!

Walking on the ship you see how close all the boats are, literally inches between them. Rob took the opportunity to replace the anodes on the props.

Once the boats are off loaded you can see all all the blocks that were used to support the hulls and the yellow straps that tied them down. SeaWolff was covered in a layer of salt which is easy to wash off. The worst were rust marks on the fibreglass caused by tiny iron fillings falling off the crane when loading. Nothing damaged at all.

And then it was our turn, we had to get off our boat and watch. As they lowered her we were able to climb on again and as soon as she was in the water we were off to the marina.

Yacht Path, the company that did the transporting, were very good and all went as planned.

We now await the arrival of Roberts brother and his children who will join us on the cruise to Phuket.

Republic of Singapore Yacht Club

Today we visited the RSYC to reserve a berth for Sunday night. This YC club is over 100 years old and used to be called the Royal Singapore YC. It has a huge swimming pool and nice restaurant, so will be a good place to clean and restock SeaWolff before our trip North.

Its situated in the very busy East Jurong channel, South of Singapore.

It poured with rain this morning, rather gloomy day, but pleasantly warm.

Getting ready to unload

Well at last the day is nearing that the PAC Deneb bulk carrier will arrive in Singapore. She is expected on Saturday 23rd and we have been told to be at the ship to unload our boat at 18h00 on Sunday.

After trying to do all the paperwork ourselves we were redirected to the ships agent as we 'cannot do the paperwork ourselves' So we are all set and just need to get a pass to enter this busy port by taxi. Very exciting!

So the next few days will be spent sightseeing in Singapore. We found this interesting place to eat dinner. The tables were real car wheels covered with glass. Behind Rob are the 10 most expensive cars in the world. Rob was happy.

Loading at last

At 12pm we got the call to come to the ship, there were lots of boats already loaded. We came along side and a diver went under the boat to check where the straps should go. An engineer came on to check that everything was safely stowed on our boat. We then climbed off onto a small boat and left her. It would take a few hours to load SeaWolff as there were other boats to load first. They lift the boats onto the deck and put metal poles with flat pads under the hulls. These are welded onto the ship. Yellow straps are then used to tie the boat to the ships deck as well.

We decided to go and leave everything in the hands of the experts. We will see the ship in Singapore on about the 21st July. I will resume the entries then.

Fueling

We put some Diesel in our boat on Saturday, we used a fuel barge on the river. He anchors his barge with hydraulic poles that go down into the river bed. Boats pull up next to it and fill up. At 5 pm he is gone to return the next day.

The loading of our boat has been delayed again, we spend Sunday night at a marina and slept on Greg and Carols boat. Our boat is all packed up and water, gas etc all switched off, so staying aboard would mean unpacking everything again. Very frustrating waiting.....apparently this is to be expected when shipping boats.

Waiting

Great excitement as we await the arrival of the ship that will take SeaWolff to Singapore. She should dock on Friday and we will be loaded on Saturday. We are busy preparing the boat, its the same as winterising again. Yachtpath, the shipping agents, have warned us to ensure that nothing can fall around during the voyage.

The ship will go straight to Singapore around Cape Town.

Downtown, Fort Lauderdale

We are back in Fort Lauderdale on the New River, it was like coming home as everything is so familiar.

The Wolffs family came for lunch, Arno and his children Denise and Howard. They helped us finish the last of the Dorado! Had a good time catching up.

There is a boat moored behind us called 'AFTICA' I have seen some very creative names but this tops them all.... 'Another F... Thing I Cant Afford'

Cat Cay

Malcolm, A family friend now living in the USA flew into Nassau to sail back with us. Its great to have company again.

From Andros we crossed to Cat Cay, south of Bimini. The charts showed a depth that we could easily manage but there were areas that were silted up which created a few tense moments.

Cat Cay is beautiful, its a privately owned island with a very modern Marina and homes on it. The owners have planted hundred of trees and Palms which really change the look from the normal barren islands.

We spent the night anchored off the island and have now arrived back in Fort Lauderdale on The New River. Had a very rewarding last fishing day, catching 3 Dorado!