RD's Thailand journal is located immediately after mine.
November 22-23, 2008
Bags all packed, taxi reserved…of course it’s late. By now we know the drill and allowed time for the late taxi and the traffic. By 8:40 PM we are in the plane and taking off. Unfortunately our seats were the very last row…next to the toilets…I got zero sleep as RD snored next to me (loud enough to wake himself up!) Once in Bangkok we had to go through customs, then baggage claim then check in with another airline (Bangkok Airways) and get to that gate…we had 1 ½ hours…RD forgot about customs when he was booking the flight from Bangkok to Trat. Luckily everything went smoothly and we made our flight but after minimal sleep and the stress of not knowing if we were going to make our flight we were both a bit cranky…only a minor understatement…
The airport in Trat was an open air building with elephant topiaries next to the runway…very cute, very third world tropical…I loved it. Once there a driver picked us up and we took a ferry to Ko Chang…I can’t remember the last time I was on a ferry! Our driver spoke no English and we speak no Thai. I was pretty sure he was going the wrong way to get us to our hotel (our sailboat journey starts tomorrow) but I figured he knew what he was doing…nope…took us to the Marina (the opposite end of the island). After a phone call to Gulf Charters it got straightened out and we drove an hour back to our hotel. RD wasted no time finding a Thai massage place and had a two hour massage for about $14…I ended up having one as well before we had dinner. The owner of the restaurant was a retired genetic bio-molecular engineer…he and RD had great fun talking about the woman in the news recently who had an esophagus transplant that was cultured with tissues from her own stem cells.
November 24, 2008
At 9:00 our driver picked us up and we hit three stores to get provisions for the sailboat. One was a “small” grocery store where we got some basics (peanut butter, jam, oreos…you know, the essentials), then we went to a specialty shop and got smoked salmon, cheese, lunch meat (last night we stopped at a bakery and got two loaves of bread) and our final stop was a local fruit/vegetable open air market. I saw stuff that I normally only see in dishes I order in Thai restaurants…peppercorns still on the stem, eggplants the size of peas…I’ve got to figure a way to get some of that stuff back to Qatar. At the marina the guys loaded our gear onto the boat and brought us two bags of ice. We did a navigational review of the islands and then a run through on the boat, unpacked our bags and stored our food. At that point (2:00) RD decided he HAD TO HAVE one more massage. Phil (the guy in charge) said we had to be out of the marina by 3:00 at the latest in order to make the closest anchorage with a restaurant. We left at 3:20…
We got within 3 nm of our anchorage (Ko Mak) before we turned on the motor and motor-sailed. It gets pitch black at 6:00…we dropped anchor at 5:55 with our running lights on. A little too close for my comfort (especially since this was the first time we had set an anchor by ourselves). Luckily it was a success, but we watched it on and off for about half an hour to be sure.
Once we were sure, we jumped into the dinghy and went ashore (aiming for the most brightly lit area). Sure enough, it was an outdoor restaurant, tables on the beach, big grill cooking prawns, fish, and meat. A lovely way to end our first day “at sea”.
November 25, 2008
I don’t think either one of us slept well last night…weird noises, hard mattress, low battery so fans quit blowing after 2 hours. After a “very slow to get going” morning we took the dinghy in to shore to find a scuba shop. Pretty primitive but we found one. Turns out, there’s a dive they have wanted to do on a pinnacle but since the max depth is about 27 meters they need advanced+ divers to do it. We are the only divers tomorrow (surprise, surprise) so we are going with the “owner?”/”instructor” and apparently a divemaster trainee because when I offered to help map the new site the guy was like a light bulb going off “oh yeah, I could have my DMT map it…” Should be interesting… With the current wind pattern the visibility probably won’t be great but I just like being under water.
At noon we took off for an afternoon sail. Four things were immediately apparent 1) ever since we broached that sailboat on Flathead Lake and I got drug in the water I get real uncomfortable when we are heeled way over; 2) I have a lot to learn; 3) my upper extremity weakness from my two herniated disc’s is a real problem; and 4) even though RD has “book smarts” I don’t trust his lack of experience. Bottom line…we survived a 4 hour cruise, lost a winch handle overboard, practiced tacking and jibing and anchored the boat under sail instead of with the motor…all good learning experiences.
RD went into shore for a 6:00 massage (surprise, surprise, when we are in Thailand he makes it his goal to have one massage a day) then came back out and got me to go in to dinner. On the way back out to the boat he hit a shoal and bent the prop on the dinghy…luckily not badly and something he could fix with a pair of pliers.
November 26, 2008
At 10:00 the scuba shop picked us up at the sailboat. They had two snorkelers with them so the deep dive we had planned on was out (nothing for the snorkelers to see). We did two dives, neither deeper than 15 meters with only about 5-6 meters of visibility, not great, but it was nice to get in the water anyway.
When we got back to the boat 5 hours later there was a fist size hunk of the hull surface missing. RD thinks the dive boat hit it but I don’t know, I think someone possibly could have hit us while we were gone.
We immediately got underway and sailed south to Ko Kut (Ko is island), anchoring in Ao Chek Ki (Ao is bay). It’s a pristine, beautiful, white sand beach with palm trees and a slowly fading sunset, a definite photo “op” tomorrow morning. After we cleaned up a bit we took the dinghy into shore to a place called Captain Hook’s for dinner. While paying our bill we ordered a bag of ice to pick up tomorrow morning before we take off. It was a lovely day all the way around (with the exception of the “ding” in the back of the boat).
November 27, 2008
7:00 AM and RD is yelling at me to wake up, the dinghy is gone. Now I KNOW there is no way that thing just came loose because RD tied the knots…three of them in fact…and he is the king of knots. (If I had tied them it would be a different story). We motored about a mile down shore (both the wind and the waves were pushing everything toward shore) searching for it, just to be sure. Would have been nice to have binoculars but the charter company didn’t put any on board (they said they would be on board). Saw nothing. RD remembers hearing voices in the middle of the night but thought it was people on a sailboat anchored in the same bay. We both think someone stole it.
After calling the charter company we had to motor upwind back to Ko Mak (sailing upwind would have taken us all day) to meet the charter company guys who were bringing us another dinghy. They said they would be there in 3 hours. We got there on time, they were 3 hours late…if they had called and told us they were running late we could have sailed but instead we motored and sat waiting…I am not pleased. (Actually we did sail for about a half an hour until a batten just flew out of the mainsail and sunk).
We decided a walk was in order since it had been such a crummy day and took our “new” dinghy into shore (promptly running it aground and bending another prop on a rock close to the surface but certainly not visible). Once ashore we took a short walk, stocked up on a few provisions (veggies, diet coke, ice) then came back out to the sailboat to drop it off before running back into shore for dinner (this time missing the rock because we are quick learners).
This is the third night at this particular anchorage and I have to say it is not my favorite, minimal waves but no protection from the raging wind. Our anchor line only has about 5 meters of chain and the rest is rope which means in a strong wind you get whipped around like you are on the end of a bungee cord. At 1:00 in the morning we were up on deck in a howling wind in the pitch black setting a second anchor (remember…RD is nearly deaf, add wind noise and the inability to use hand signals...you can imagine how fun that was) RD is forward dropping the anchor and tying it off while I’m manning the helm…it only took us three times to get it to set.
Today was so much fun. Happy Thanksgiving!
November 28, 2008
After a quick breakfast we took off hoping to make some time heading North. No such luck. Two meter chop and a 20 knot head wind. Waves were crashing over the bow and landing in the cockpit. All my mogul skiing training came in handy trying to stay on my feet. We motored about half way and sailed about half way (1/2 of the main up) with me at the helm and RD in charge of trim (I’m not strong enough to man the sheets when the wind is up).
Along the way we got a call from “Phil”, the guy at Gulf Charters, apparently there is some sort of political uprising and protestors have taken over all the major airports…no way to fly in or out or within the country for the foreseeable future.
We made it 10 nm to Ao Bang Bao and anchored in 3.6 meters of water (apparently we have a 1.5 meter keel which is flat) with only .81 meters of tide change expected.
We went ashore and after a wonderful dinner of Shrimp Curry, Green Papaya Salad and Fried Prawns with Thai Seasoning we walked a little further down the pier/road and had a wonderful massage. Checked the internet for news and it wasn’t good. The US Embassy was quoted saying there was nothing they could do and one woman they interviewed was supposed to fly out today and had been told that the earliest she could expect to fly was Dec. 7…and that was if it ended today. We are supposed to fly out on Dec. 8 (forget about Chaing Mai…no way to get there), we will have to start looking into other options such as crossing the border into Cambodia and flying out of there.
Once we got back to the boat it was apparent our anchor was dragging in the mud. We were about 50 meters South of where we initially anchored (we have a really bad anchor…no weight). So, in the pitch black, in 2.5 meters of water, a raging wind and boats on either side of us we pulled up anchor and reset it using the second anchor as a weight to help stabilize the first one. (I make that sound so calm but there was a lot of yelling going on and a lot of freaking out). Once again we succeeded. We have decided this boat (with the short flat keel that is horrible in high winds and the underweighted anchor line) is NOT for beginners or people who are unable to problem solve.
November 29, 2008
After a quick trip ashore to look for ice (not successful, something was lost in translation and we ended up with two plastic cups of crushed ice) we pulled up anchor and headed back to the Marina. We were out of fresh water and need to have the boat back by tomorrow morning anyway so we just decided to sail all day and sleep in the boat at the dock.
When we got back to the dock and talked with other sailors it was gratifying to hear that the winds were higher than normal and kept you on your toes. (I was thinking I was terrified for no reason at all!) This particular boat has a 150% Genoa and a 100% Main so we spent a lot of time with both the Genoa and the main reefed…I thought we just didn’t know enough to control the boat but turns out we know enough to reef when necessary!
Our evening at the dock was a bit uncomfortable…winds continue to be high and seas very choppy but we made the best of it with smoked salmon, salami, cheese, crackers and red wine.
November 30, 2008
Today we were supposed to fly from Trat to Bangkok and then on to Chaing Mai but that’s not going to happen, so after sitting down with Phil and giving him a rundown of our experience of the boat (brand new boat, only one other person has taken it out and it turns out they were the ones who put the big “ding” in the back of the boat), we took a taxi to Klong Phrao (a beach on the West side of Ko Chang) and found a cute little bungalow (very “white picket fence-ish”) on a lagoon for 1000 baht a night ($28.35). Nearby are 2 cooking schools to choose from, a dive shop and elephant riding! A short walk out to the beach gives us a spectacular view of the sunset. We need to find internet connection tonight and let the hotel and cooking school in Chaing Mai know that we are not going to be able to make it. Over the next few days we need to figure out the best way to get to Cambodia because that will probably be our only way to get out of here. Good thing we like an adventure!
December 1, 2008
This morning after having a cup of coffee we wandered out to the “main” street to look for a place to have breakfast and then hit an internet place so we could start tracking down a way out of this country. Two hours later we had talked to Qatar Airways (no help there, according to them we have to talk to the office in Bangkok and that number is busy, busy, busy), looked up train schedules for Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia (Qatar Airways no longer flies to Cambodia) and had lunch at the place I wanted to take cooking classes from (I bought the cookbook because their next class is not until the 5th). We then went back to the internet place armed with flight numbers, passport numbers and credit cards…it took us the entire afternoon to book a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Doha, cancel our hotels in Chaing Mai and Bangkok, cancel our cooking classes in Chaing Mai, rebook a hotel for one night in Bangkok, and book a train from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur (one ticket on a Thai train, one ticket on a Malaysian train…with a ferry ride in between). Once in Bangkok we have to go to the Qatar Airways office to officially cancel our flight from Bangkok to Doha (in person).
As soon as we were done I booked a scuba diving trip for tomorrow (RD will probably have four massages while I am gone) and then on the 3rd we will go for an Elephant ride into the jungle. The 4th will be spent on a bus to Bangkok and starting at 2:00 on the 5th the next 37 hours will be spent on a train to Kuala Lumpur…not looking forward to that little jaunt. We arrive at about 6:00 in the morning and then leave for Doha at about 2:00 in the morning that night. Hopefully we can find a hotel near the airport and drop off our luggage so we can explore K.L. a bit before we leave (and take a quick shower).
The sunset on the beach tonight was amazing and we got some good pictures of the moon, Jupiter and Venus all lined up (looked a bit like a smiley face).
December 2, 2008
After breakfast the dive shop picked me up and by 10:00 we were on the water heading to our first dive site (which was actually just off the coast from Bang Bao where we had our dragging anchor fiasco). The visibility was crap and I found all the cool critters (instead of the dive guide) but it was fun anyway.
When I got back RD informed me that the train from Bangkok to the Malaysian border was booked so we only had tickets for the train ride to Kuala Lumpur within Malaysia. Now what? While I was gone he had also rented a little motor scooter so we jumped on it (picture my fingernails digging into his abdominals at every turn or bump in the road) and rode up to White Sands beach to buy another backpack (with our plans so up in the air my regular rolling suitcase is just not functional…). We also stopped at an internet place and tried again to find a way to get to Kuala Lumpur…no luck. As we were driving back we passed the restaurant that we had eaten in the first night we hit Ko Chang. The owner, an Aussie (the genetic bio-molecular engineer), was sitting at a table and I said “let’s go back and see if he’s got any suggestions or connections”. Low and behold, he knew a travel agent 100 meters up the road and he hooked us up with them. We are now taking a mini-van on the 4th to Siem Reap in Cambodia (stopping at the border to get visa’s and lunch) which is where Angkor Wat is located (one of the 7 wonders of the world). We’ll spend two days there exploring the temples and then on the 7th will fly to Kuala Lumpur arriving at noon. Our flight doesn’t leave until after midnight so we’ll have 12 hours to explore K.L. a bit. This is so much better than a 37 hour train ride AND we get to see Angkor Wat!
Tomorrow we’re going to ride elephants into the jungle…I can’t wait.
December 3, 2008
Well, I had to wait, half the day anyway. We had to get passport photo’s taken so we could get our visa’s at the Cambodian border, then we had to try and cancel hotel reservations in Bangkok (again, and it was too late so we are out $75), after that we tried unsuccessfully for over an hour to try and reach Qatar Airways, Bangkok Airways and Thai Air to try and get refunds for our flights within Thailand that we were unable to take because of the airport closure. Apparently, as of this morning the ruling party has been ousted, the protestors are leaving the airport and everything is supposed to get back to normal in a week…too late for us however.
After lunch we walked over to the elephant place and took our two hour ride into the jungle to a deep pool in a stream where we could swim with “Doa” (which means Star). A 40 year old female Asian elephant (they live to be 130!) We had the most precocious 10 year old girl ride along with us (wants to be a Biologist when she grows up)...British but has lived most of her life in Portugal and New Zealand…unique accent and she talked non-stop.
Once we got to the pool the fun really began! Doa would roll over onto her side and stick a leg out so you could climb up onto her back and jump off, took me a few times to figure that one out, the first time was supremely ungraceful. Their skin feels like a leather couch with widely spaced bristles, not very comfortable to sit on bare legged.
The rest of the afternoon was spent sitting on the beach, listening to the waves and watching the sun slowly set. At about 5:30, just before sunset we decided to take the motorbike back before getting two hour massages…one hour Thai massage followed by one hour oil massage. By the time we were done it was too late to go change for dinner so we just went out with our hair all oily (not that anyone would notice…it’s a very casual, laid back kind of place).
Photo's of Thailand:
http://picasaweb.google.com/RDandLisa/ThailandNov2008#
Cambodia
December 4, 2008
I woke up this morning feeling like someone had beat me with a baseball bat. Those Thai massages get me every time. RD loves them but I think they are too aggressive. Two Aleve, a shower and a lortab later I was ready for our 7:30 AM pick-up. We were dropped off at a mini-van that was carrying three other people to the Cambodian border where we were to get our visa’s and transfer to a larger air-conditioned bus for the ride through Cambodia to Siem Reap. Should have known that sounded too good to be true.
Once we got our visa’s we were driven to a border “market” area where we had to get out and walk across the border to board our bus. The stench that assaulted my nostrils when they slid the door of the mini-van open just about made me gag. Then we had to carry our luggage to an office to fill out an arrival form, from there we went to another building to go through customs, from there we walked out into a round-about with about 9 buses parked there. We had to wait, standing in the heat and humidity, guarding our stuff for about an hour before they would let us onto a very un-air-conditioned bus. They crammed way too many people on the bus but it turned out about half of them were being transferred to another “terminal” about 20 minutes down the road. After they got off we had a bit more room to breathe.
Snapshots and first impressions of Cambodia:
Ø Blind beggar with both arms amputated just below the elbows.
Ø Children collecting cans to turn them in for money.
Ø Dirt, dirt and more dirt, garbage everywhere, abundant poverty.
Ø A man “washing” his hands in a mud puddle.
Ø Lotus blossoms in the standing water beside the road.
Ø Miles and miles of rice fields.
Ø Children waving at the bus as we went by.
Ø Rice lying out to dry on the side of the road, people shuffling through it with bare feet to “stir” it.
Ø Orchids hanging from wooden shacks on stilts.
As adventures go I was doing OK with the windows open because of the no AC thing, grit in my teeth from the 100+ kilometers of dirt road (used to that from being at the end of the pack string) until we stopped for “dinner”…the only place with food that we could see for miles around, high prices and disgustingly dirty bathrooms. We were all told when we booked the bus that we would be dropped off in a central square in the middle of Siem Reap where it would be easy to find accommodations. Unfortunately we were hijacked. A Cambodian “gentleman” got on the bus with us when we took off for the final 2 hours of our journey. He announced he was our “tour guide” and was taking us to his “office” where we could get cheap rooms for $5/night. When several people protested he yelled at them to shut up and said if anyone didn’t want to go where he was taking us they could get off the bus right there (dirt road in the middle of Cambodia). Luckily RD could not hear what was going on (deaf AND listening to a book on tape), so I waited until we were closer to town to fill him in. When we got off the bus (on a back street in a “low rent” part of town) they tried to hustle us into the “guest house” to see the rooms but we just picked up our bags and started walking…you just knew that if you were dumb enough to stay there they would rob you blind if you left anything in the room while you were out sight-seeing the next day. We were accosted by Tuk-Tuk drivers trying to get us to either, stay and look at the rooms, or they would take us to any hotel…just name it…for $1.
As an aside, the Cambodian Real is worthless, I’m told it would take two suitcases full to buy dinner, so they deal in Thai Baht and US $’s, the ATM’s even give out US $’s.
As we were coming into town RD and I had both been scanning the streets looking for a suitable place to stay. When the Tuk-tuk driver said “name it” I said fine take us to Borei…of course they didn’t know where that was even though it was just down the road. We took off walking and they continued to follow and hound us. It was a little further down the road than I remembered in my mind’s eye (hard to judge distance in the dark, in a city you don’t know, no map, with the bus driver obviously taking back roads to make sure everyone was thoroughly lost) but we finally got to it.
It’s a beautiful hotel, our room is completely wood…the floor, the walls, the ceiling…and has a view of the pool. It’s $100 a night but after the hassle we’ve been through we deserve it! I know that sounds cheap to most of you but in this neck of the woods that’s like spending $400 a night in the states.
Tomorrow we’ll tackle Angkor Wat (two football fields wide and two miles long).
December 5, 2008
Turns out if you want to go to Angkor Wat with a tour guide you have to set it up the night before and meet the guide in the lobby at 8:00 in the morning…they failed to tell us that when we arrived last night so we will go tomorrow.
Today was spent lounging around the pool, reading our books and drinking gin & tonics, cloistered within the walls of this hotel…I have no desire to venture out into the real “Cambodia” as I usually do in most countries, I saw more than enough yesterday.
December 6, 2008
Up bright and early we had breakfast and met our guide in the lobby at 8:00. His English was really good, apparently many of the guides speak several languages fluently, however, have no formal education…if you want to eat you learn…what a concept…
We did Angkor Thom in the morning and Angkor Wat in the afternoon. It was miles and miles of walking, up and down stone stairs…like an 8 hour step-aerobic course. My right ankle (the one I broke several years ago) was screaming at me and swollen like a melon. RD took hundreds of amazing pictures so I will let them do the talking.
Photo’s of Cambodia:
http://picasaweb.google.com/RDandLisa/CambodiaDec200802#
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
December 7, 2008
Another early morning, you know how much I love those…we had to be at the airport by 6:45.
We weren’t sure if we were going to make it out of Cambodia, as it turns out it is raining heavily in Kuala Lumpur and they are having massive mudslides but the flight left without a hitch. We were on a “low-budget” airline (no seat assignment, just grab a seat when you get on) so I wasn’t expecting much but it was a brand new airplane (still had that “new car” smell) and was a wonderful relaxing 2 ½ hour flight (we were on early so grabbed an exit row for the leg room).
Upon hitting the airport in Kuala Lumpur we spent about 1 ½ hours just trying to figure out what to do with our luggage and how to get into town. We had a 14 hour layover and didn’t want to spend that whole time in the airport, plus we couldn’t check our luggage until three hours before the flight so needed a place to store that so we didn’t have to lug it around. We finally found a decent hotel, reasonably priced and close to the airport with a shuttle bus every ½ hour and then signed up for a 5 hour driving tour of the city.
Our driver was Indian and spoke with a very strong accent. RD hardly understood anything he was saying and I only caught about half. He had very strong opinions about the racial mix there in KL (Malay/Chinese/Indian) and not much good to say about Muslims (they do their 5 hours of praying during their 8 hour work day so they only have to work 3 hours a day). We were 75 Km South of KL so only about 3 hours was in KL but we saw the twin towers, went to the top of the KL Tower, drove by the King’s palace, the national Mosque (really quite beautiful), the Prime Ministers home and office and my favorite The Orchid Gardens (there was a huge aviary nearby and another one just for butterflies but we didn’t have time to do those).We had dinner in Putrajaya (South of KL). A beautiful city…the street lamps look like sculptures (a different style for each street) and the bridges looked like massive sculptures as well.
Back at the hotel we relaxed for 3 hours before catching our shuttle to the airport. After an hour of standing in line we finally got our boarding passes and went to wait at the gate (our fight was at 2 AM). It’s a relief to be heading back to Qatar. After a week of “living in the unknown” I am really clear that I could never do what I saw all those backpackers in Indonesia doing…traveling without set plans, not knowing how they were going to get from one place to the next or where they were going to stay. I was miserable and frustrated the whole time. Good to know… I was thinking it might be fun to try sometime…
Photo’s of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia:
http://picasaweb.google.com/RDandLisa/KualaLumpur7Dec2008#
RD's Thailand Journal
I spent some time in Thailand in the 70’s and each return makes me enjoy it more.
I was there on R&R 3 or 4 times, and for a short two weeks had temporary duty with the Military Advisory Command. Despite being a poor, mostly rural country, the people are generally happy, carefree, and hardworking. They are exceptionally hospitable and make most of us farangs (foreigners) feel welcome.
Lisa and I returned there in late November to explore the northeast coast and the Ko Chang area by way of chartered sailboat. We had planned a week sailing and then a week up north in Chiang Mai taking cooking classes and hiking. Our sailing plans had been in the works for about 3 months with our arrangements being with Gulf Charters Thailand (www.gulfchartersthialand.com) who has operations out of both Ko Chang and Pattaya. They were a great bunch to work with in terms of getting things set up and there were much fewer hassles than I have experienced with chartering from such companies as Sunsail and Moorings.
Lisa covers the details of our travels well so I won’t talk about those much. It was remarkable how good all of our arrangements worked and how all the connections went right as scheduled.
We had chartered a brand new Catalina 30 that had a winged keel (new to me) and a very large (150%) genoa. It also had a mast furling main sail which was new to me.
We arrived to unseasonable cool weather and unusually high winds. While we have had quite a bit of time under the shadow of the sail, this was our first charter with just the two of us so the conditions gave me a bit of a pucker factor. So…I had to get a nice massage before we left the pier.
With great wind of about 20 to 25 knots right at our tail, we just rolled out the genoa and gave it a full belly to just have the wind push us along with the current to our destination for the first night. Since we were in such a broad reach, I couldn’t really get a feel for the keel. All that sail up front though made the rudder feel pretty light at times. We played with navigation skills as I explained to Lisa (or at least tried) how to determine position and speed using coast navigation skills with a compass and chart. She was not a good student and claimed we needed to be paying more attention to the boat and the GPS. While there were some reefs in the area, my confidence in knowing where they were by use of the compass was tempered by her caution and watching carefully our GPS position relative to the known hazards. While she knew that the GPS chart didn’t even show some islands, she was taking serious the shoals that were shown on the screen.
The trip to Ko Mak was uneventful and we pulled into our first anchorage just at dark. (A bit late but the massage was worth it). Anchoring went well with lots of hand signals and no yelling…not that it does any good for her to yell at me anyhow since I can’t hear her up at the bow. After getting settled and worrying a bit about the anchor holding, we headed to shore to catch supper at one of the local restaurants with tables on the beach.
While having a new boat for a charter sounds like a good deal, I found that it also has some drawbacks. The boat was not outfitted in a way that was completely appropriate.
The anchor was a bit light and only had about 25 feet of chain rode before it attached to the rope rode. As a result, there was very little weight down on the tang of the anchor to pull it down and into the bottom. So, getting it to set well was not a sure thing. As I said before, the wind was howling and even in the lee of the island, we caught a lot of wind and current that made the anchor work harder than usual. In later anchoring escapades, this poor set-up threatened our marital bliss.
Part of this same set up was the knot attaching the rope to the chain. The loop was too short putting the knot very close to the chain and whenever we pulled anchor, the knot would fowl the chain on the windless …which is the worst time since that is when you are starting to get the full weight of the chain and anchor. It was at those times that I didn’t mind the anchor being a bit light. It caused nothing more than some skinned fingers and a sore back.
We had left our binoculars at home (never again) since we were told that there were some aboard. When we realized that there were none to be found, we were well away from the marina. So, we made do with aging eyes and my telephoto lens. I would use the 200 mm zoom, take a photo and then enlarge it digitally to get a look at faraway things. That had the expected limitations with a 3cm led screen in bright sunlight. But, we managed.
Our second anchorage was a short sail away in Ko Kut. It is a perfect anchorage with good barriers around the bay for about 220 degrees. Despite that however, we still were feeling a lot of wind and were glad that we had little current. We anchored in a beautiful spot and watched a beautiful sunset as we sipped gin and tonics. There was only one other sailing yacht in the bay and a couple large fishing boats anchored a bit further out.
After a great trip to shore for supper at Captain Hook Resort’s restaurant, we motored back for a more quiet night on the hook. I awoke at about 0200 thinking that I heard voices near by and got up to look around. I didn’t go outside the cabin when I saw another fishing boat had anchored closer to us and I figured that the voices came from there. In the AM, I learned differently when I discovered that our dingy was gone. It was one of those times that I knew absolutely how I had tied it off since I was giving Lisa instructions on how to first use the loop with the bowline knot to tie off to a cleat and then use a couple of half hitches around another life line support to shorten the painter to keep the dingy in closer to the boat. And I knew that I had also showed her how to throw a final half hitch around that loose end to keep it from coming untied. That dingy was tied up like we would tie a rope chewing mule. So, while the charter company was sure that we were “knotless-headed land lubbers” I was sure that the dingy didn’t just float away but we started up the engine and took a quick run around the bay to leeward of us knowing that had it got loose it would have had to go ashore. We were at high tide and could get close to shore for a close look and it was not to be found. I had asked the folks at the charter office about theft of such things and they assured me that it wasn’t a problem in that it had never occurred. I guess there is a first time for everything.
We were just 10 km from the coast of Cambodia and many of the fisherman in the area cross back and forth from one countries water to the next. I suspect that our dingy ended up in Cambodia since that country has a very different view point on the concept of honesty.
As we headed back up wind toward the marina, we had a chance to test out the sail and keel set up. With winds hitting 30 plus knots, and very high seas with current and waves running in different directions, we learned why they call sailing like that “beating”. We sailed with both sails reefed by 60 percent and still were making 4 knots in a fairly close reach. But I was not impressed with the keel. In those rough seas and with that high wind, she just didn’t offer enough leeward resistance and it seemed too that the weight needed to be lower. I am sure part of it was my inexperienced sail trim but other boats in similar winds in my hands have handled much better.
The furling lines on the main sail were a problem. When furling rapidly such as when we needed to reef or pull the sail in quickly as we prepared to motor (a loose sail in that wind is really not a good experience), the furling line would get jammed into the winch on the mast. Then when you manually used the winch handle to get it un-jammed, I discovered that the distance between the winch and the mast was too short for the winch handle to pass through…especially with my thick hand attached. So, I lost a bit more hide from my fingers (and the winch handle) and practiced my sailor rendition of “barnyard language”.
A similar experience occurred as I tightened the genoa sheet after a tack. When the bimini was up, there was just about enough room for the winch and my fingers to pass the brace. Since pulling in the working sheet demands some speed, my winch hand and fingers were planning a rapid turn….but they got stopped short by the bimini support. Again some finger skin was sacrificed and my sailor’s cursing was perfected.
I alluded earlier to some marital stress related to anchoring. The story of that is that while we had anchored in a very protected area in Bang Bao harbor, the wind was the strongest yet at anchor…and there were more boats and other yachts close by. We found after our return from supper that our anchor had slipped and we were 15 meters or so off of our original anchorage. So, I thought I would simply set the second anchor. But alas, it had NO chain on the rode and would not set at all and it was a simple plow anchor. And after three or four attempts at having Lisa pull the boat forward to the correct location and then fall back to find it didn’t set, we had some tension building. So, then, not being able to get a second anchor, I decided we needed to reset the main. It took 2 or 3 attempts to get it to set and lots of hand signals in the dark trying to get the boat into where I thought we should be. Lisa on the other end of the boat was looking at the depth meter and worrying about putting the keel into the mud. To make a long and colorful story short, we got the main anchor to set and then I hung the second anchor about 60 meters back on the rode of the main so that it would go down and pull the rode for the main more parallel with the bottom and keep our main pulling deeper into the bottom.
While we watched our anchorage carefully for an hour, we were satisfied that it was holding and went below for a nights rest. I think each of us got up 3 or 4 times during the night to check out how things were going.
Lisa has documented well our adventures to get back home due to the Bangkok airport closure. On our plane ride to Thailand, I told Lisa that I would like to take a separate trip to Cambodia sometime. Well, our unplanned trip of 3 days into that country gave me all the experience that I needed to know that I didn’t want to spend any more time there. The country has paid a terrible cultural and emotional price from the genocide under Pol Pot. There is a stark contrast between the ambiance of Thailand and Cambodia. The survival mode is still in operation in Cambodia and it is reflected on a people who rarely smile, see every transaction as an opportunity to take you for more than they should, and who trash the countryside with abandon.
Our trip was great. I really enjoy spontaneous unplanned travel and we got that. But most of all I enjoyed the happy ambiance of Thailand. I hope that they can get through the governmental growing pains and manage to keep the country the way it is now. There is still a lot of sailing to be done and a couple of cooking classes that we need to attend…we will be back. 
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