Photos of The Maldives

At anchor Uligamu, North Maldives

Hi folks

Position 7.04n 72.55e at anchor in a big wide lagoon off the island of Uligamu among a string of low white sand encircled islands that make up the northern most islands of the Maldives, south west of India.

Getting here from Sri Lanka took us a tad over 2.5 days but would have been faster had Musketelles auto pilot not been inadvertently switched off in the dark of the wee small hours 50 miles off the Maldives. B was on watch and noticed a ship approach from the right and then tracked it with # 1 radar system (eyes) and noticed that went in a big circle around Musketelle. At which point she established that it was Musketelle that was doing the turning not the ship.
After a few frantic moments in the pitch black getting her bearings she worked out that the autopilot was not operating and then on checking the chart track plotter established we had been going seriously off course for some time. So maybe we lost a few hours with that malfunction.

This has been a tough little sail for the Navigator. On top of the aforementioned glitch she has had a bout of mal de mer caused by some very big seas that were not anticipated on this leg in the predominantly NE monsoon winds which had a touch of NW in them after we passed below India which meant forward of the beam headwinds for us. We continually saw 30 plus knots with a touches of 41knots. Coupled with this we had big seas with up to 6 metre troughs some of which pooped us right into the cockpit...how rude we thought, Cook Strait yes but not the tropical Indian Ocean. The hydraulic driven autopilot decided the seas were too big and would cut out which necessitated we steer by hand for 10 hours. B was out to it so P was on deck for 22 hours straight, 12 noon to 10am the next morning keeping Muskie on course. The stoic B raised herself from the bunk and relieved him of the helm in these huge swells steering for an hour to prove her worth and then luckily the winds receded and the seas too.

Lesson learned...be prepared for the worst at anytime. But in reality this was only strong wind not a gale, storm or cylcone. We are now challenging ourselves to how we will handle a 3 or 4 day blow. Lying a hull to the wind is the most viable option for two handed sailors because you simply cannot stay up on deck sailing and making way for 72 or 96 hours. Even lying a hull getting food and fluids into the system and keeping them there is a major challenge for not only B. This is why we source multiple weather forecasts when we are in notorious volatile regions.

We arrived in the Maldives to a friendly welcoming party of officaldom from Customs, Immigration, Quarantine and 2 Army officers plus boatman. They clambered aboard and did their thing all for no cost and then we spent the rest of Sunday 22 Feb relaxing. Sunday the day of rest....no this is a Muslim country and Thursdays and Fridays are their Sat and Sun. So don't rock up on those days. This place is real paradise with some of the best snorkelling in sublime waters with a multitude of colurful fish including huge manta rays.
We had a chuckle the other day when a French cruiser came alongside in his dink for a chat....B was swimming and pointed out a funny fish with a Rhino like horn that she said she thought was an Emperor fish and the Frenchman said no,no,no thats a Napoleon fish. We chortled about that one after he departed. Turns out it is a Unicorn fish, according to another cruiser.

Fast forward to Thr 26 Feb and we cleared with officaldom to sail for Oman and departed at dusk on the 1255 mile voyage up the Arabian Sea to Salalah Oman only to turn around after 4 miles and return to paradise.... because we have an engine overheating problem which is not something we need in these latitudes.
Slept on the problem and now its pm Fri 27 Feb having spent the day assessing the situation.... changing saltwater cooling intake impeller, alternator/waterpump fan belt and still running too hot. Tomorrow will remove thermostat from radiator and if necessary heat exchanger (even though P serviced this in Phuket). Tropical waters are renowned for playing havoc with mechanical gear. We will prevail but we are going to be a few days behind sched.
B has spent the day researching information we have sourced on the forthcoming transit through 'Pirate Alley' on the leg between Salalah and Aden. We will share some of that very interesting data with you in a future blog. We hope to depart from the Maldives for the second time tomorrow Sat 28 Feb.

All at Anchor
B&P

More Sri Lanka Pics

Misc Photos from Sri Lanka

Photos from Sri Lanka Road Trip

At anchor Galle Harbour, Sri Lanka

Tea growing in steep hill country

The question has been asked why we go weeks without a blog then all of a sudden they come thick and fast. Well when we are ashore we are busy doing things just like anyone and sometimes it all morphs into normality seemingly not worthy of comment, particularly if we are in the standard cruiser mode of fixing things.

When at sea, depending on sailing conditions and degrees of tiredness, we have time on our hands, although there may not be a lot to report....another day of blue skys, blue sea.....

Now to the present.

We arrived of Galle at 3am local time on 11 Feb and anchored in the bay noted in our cruising guide. Immediately we finished anchoring a boat appeared out of the dark, materialising as a small seriously armed  RIB with 2 navy seals, they did not introduce, no this is lieutenant ... of the SL Navy or whatever. Just hand signalled we were anchored in a dangerous place (?? Tamils or waves?) and to follow them.

So we up anchor and re-anchor closer in to the harbour wall to await morning and daylight clearance to actually enter the harbour.

In the morning we called the harbourmaster who said we had to get cleared by the Navy before entering the harbour. We then would clear cusoms immigration, port control etc. To do this we have to have an agent and shortly after one of the two agents called up on the VHF and we "engaged" him to arrange our clearance in
for the horrific amount of USD225 !!!!! - the going rate including customs clearance and port dues. So far so good. That was 9 am. By 1400 nothing had happened. As P says "these buggers are seemingly not interested in welcoming us to splash the cash". Really, for USD225 the least they could do is turn up
promptly - but we are talking navy here so presumably no point in getting excited about it.  However we came close to leaving for Cochin instead.

We finally got cleared in and moored stern-to to a plastic floating pontoon with a couple of other boats. More yachts are tied up to the wall.

It is now Wednesday 18 Feb and we have just returned to Musketelle after a 4 day 1000k road trip that must go down as variously the most fascinating, entertaining, dangerous and scenic trip we have done on this voyage to date. After some days here we are left scratching our crania asking where Sri Lanka is headed because it is in a total state of chaos with no sign of direction to extricate itself from its unenviable position in no small way affected by its internal war with the Tamils. Taking each element in turn:

1) Fascinating:

The general public infrastructure (and the tourism infrastructure) is sadly in tatters/non existent after 20 years of internal strife with the Tamil fight for an independent state. Something that a country this size cannot justify. It would be like the tribes of the East Coast seeking independence for the area in a line from Opotiki to Gisborne and northeast. The Tamil scrap is in the northeast of Sri Lanka but the effects are felt throughout as evidenced by road blocks everywhere and armed soldiers lurking around villages, railway lines, intersections, road bridges and major buildings and industrial sites. This is a country on a war footing and nowhere is more evident than the port fortress we are anchored in. Each night floating pontoons are drawn across the harbour
entrance and the place is closed for the night. We enter the facility through patrolled gates where we show our passes to get in and out and once inside there are army and navy personnel everywhere. Within 150 metres of where we are anchored there are three armed sentry posts with sandbags and camouflage. The
individual military are very pleasant if one says hello to them and we do not feel personally intimidated.

Then of course there was the Boxing Day 2004 Tsunami, affecting the south and lower east Coasts, including Galle where we are now. There is evidence of the disaster in places but there has cetainly been significant aid programmes to rebuild housing and infrastrucure (still ongoing eg. the EU is currently funding road improvements along the coast).

The other issue is population, simply to many people, everywhere one looks. We have had to attune for some of the most aggresive and dishonest people we have come across, making our stay rather  uncomfortable. We do not mean the classic pickpocket model (no doubt they exist as in most countries) - no, the Sri Lankan model is much more robust - these guys are masters at cheating you face to face without blinking and its everyhere except seemingly in the really top international hotels of which there are a limited number located primarily in Colombo. Its your money they are after and they use that hardy old strategy.... parallel pricing with all tourists being targeted with special price....the super loaded tourist price. Everywhere and everyone seems to be duty bound to rip you off from governent agencies through to the shopkeeper.   We regretably have concluded that individual Sri Lanakans are hard wired to fleece. We cannot work out whether its just tourists or if it happens between the locals too, albeit at a different level. Some amusing examples we experienced......
* Govt Port Authority USD 225 for privilege of entering country, dearest so far.
* Customs officer taking B aside and demanding a bottle of scotch "for customs". When this was refused, after over five minutes of continual pressure,he summoned P and tried it on with him. P the softie gave him 4 cans of beer. We heard afterwards that some Americans had handed over whiskey and others wine, whilst most of the Europeans refused outright.
* Train Fare 180 Rupees each (we had enquired the day before) but on the day charged 200 each - so 40 rupees to the pocket of the man behind the counter -only about 80 cents but sooo typical! We had to laugh.
* Tuk Tuk (three wheeler taxi) - as far as we can make out the standard tourist rate is at least 4-5 times the going rate for locals - with some opportunistic types try for 8 times!
* Rental Car - told we would have a choice of price range but when we got there (thats a story in itself) only the more expensive cars were suddenly available. Furthermore we noticed (fortunately before signing) that the contract was based on days not 24hour periods so our 4 day hire had reduced to 3 days 4 hours having regard to our pick up time. When we pointed it out it was changed without to much of astruggle - just a try on. Car provided completely empty of petrol - barely made it to gas station - as a policy they siphon any remaining petrol from the cars on their return - hirers of course seldom take the risk of running out of gas so the cars are never returned empty.
* National Park 5000 rupee NZ$100 to drive 30km through a park which spans a public road - we were only transiting and not stopping but still the charge - and no signage or information to tell you that the road suddenly turns into a toll road at 3000 metres above sea level having climbed a road disguised as a goat track to find, at the top of the hill, a barrier and man wanting money. Locals are charged 250 rupees NZ$5!!
*Game Reserve National Park - 9500 rupees NZ$190 for entrance and a 2.5hr viewing with a driver in a jeep - not so bad perhaps but the "but" is that the gate is about 200 metres before the ranger station and is manned by the ever present touts who determine the cost - there is no signage or any official presence whatsoever to indicate what the park costs are and one cannot get into the park, not even to the ranger station, without dealing with the touts first.  Just creates an uncomfortable feeling of yet again being rippedoff.
* Locals wanting money for P taking photo on public beach. Thought this was really cute.

Hotels and Eateries

Well ... basically unless you stay in the Hilton or the small group of similar international hotels (and pay accordingly) it is dificult to find accommodation that is bearable and finding cafes or restaurants one felt capable of eating in nigh on impossible. The first night we stayed in Hatton at a mid range hotel - up in the hill country - cold, wearing polar fleece jackets as no heating. The room had a rock hard bed with only a bottom sheet. We had to ask for a top sheet and blankets. Do the locals bring their own? Hot water was available for the morning shower via a tiny elecric cylinder - had to reheat the water between soaping up and washing off but that was ok. Management was very pleasant and the waiter a lovely chap but the closest we have ever come to Manuel of Fawlty Towers, scurrying up and down the steep driveway to their roadside cafe below to get our food and drinks. In the morning we ate in the cafe to save him the trouble.
We were the only foreign guests, with only 2 other rooms out of 20 occupied, the neighbouring one by a hoiker who nauseated us before he went to bed and when he got up in the morning with the sounds of his ablutions.

Second night we stayed at the 30 room Olympus Plaza Hotel at Haputale - is trying very hard to be a classy hotel - very clean, heated, very pleasant people, great view, great shower with lots of hot water. Bed also hard but we suspect inner spung mattresses are not common and probably very expensive. Apart from one other guest, a German lady we think with her driver/guide, no one was there. This is the story of tourisim in Sri lanka - there are no tourists. Very sad. It also explains the poor accommodation and lack of eateries - no tourists now to support what clearly had been a reasonable tourism infrastructure 20+ years ago.

Cannot leave this section without mentioning the dogs, thousands of dogs, clearly not pets, more like displaced wildlife.  Hungry, mange ridden dogs wandering around scavenging and lying around on the roads and adding no value to Sri Lankan life.  We had difficulty determining which of the dogs lying on the road as we approached was dead or just sleeping. They even roam this port base in large packs, continually mating.

You could say this is good training for what is to come in the Middle East and Egypt but it sure takes some getting used to. We now think fondly of Indonesia and realise it is sophisticated compared with this lot and much friendlier to boot. Indonesians always smiled and said hello, sadly few Sri Lankans do.

2) Entertaining:
See Facinating above and Driving Miss Daisy and Scenic below.

3) Driving Miss Daisy....not likely:
Road Code ? what road code ? and what antics!. This is the land of road users with a death wish, drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, scooter and tuk tuk riders, cows and dogs and the roads themselves. These are the components that make up the lethal mix that vie to outsmart each other every day and night and make Thai
drivers look like ederly Brits out for a Sunday drive on country roads.

The Rules of Battle
- Never break

- Always Drive Aggresively be it in village, city or open road
- Create Multiple Lanes regardless of side of the centre line that puts you on
- Always Pass on bends or the inside
- Always Drive On or Over the Centerline even when a passing lane exists
- Leave Indicator Flashing, not to indicate turning, but rather that you will at
some stage pass the guy in front, either on the inside or the outside.
- Flash Headlights not as a courtesy but to indicate you are committed to a
passing manouvre irrespective of oncoming traffic (which must move off the road)
- Use your air horn continuously to announce your pending arrival to anyone and

everything in front of you with the biggest having precedence (again irrespective of

oncoming traffic)
- All Following Vehicles must overtake at every opportunity and if opportunity not

obvious create one.

-  in an endeavour to see beyond the vehicle in front one should travel to the right

of the vehicle in front, regardless of what lane that puts one in, this results in a line

of vehicles moving crablike down the road, weaving left as oncoming traffic

(which is doing the same thing) passes.

Learner Drivers seemingly learn to drive at 10kph with  the instructor at the wheel in a van filled with say 10 learner drivers as passaengers. We saw several of these vans. Iimagine the scene in the van... Instructor tells the class "now we are all going to turn left from this side road onto the main road, all pretend to put on your indicator and pull out immediately so that the traffic on the road has to stop or swerve around you - good class ...."

Cyclists are everywhere on these big black bikes with single sprocket gearing that makes start up speed slow and wobbily and uphill work wobbily and exhausting. These guys double and triple others on the crossbar and a big sack of rice or bundle of wood can be transported no problem.

Pedestrians out number vehicles in most areas and walk on the road as there are no footpaths (not even on the new EU funded roads which is plain stupid). Since the road is also the footpath the pedestrians walk 2 or 3 wide resulting in vehicles swerving to avoid them and adding to the general mayhem.

Bus Drivers come in for the worst rap of all. They are the 'ultimate road ragers' competing with each other in a race for passengers and to get there first. We kept asking ourselves "what drugs is he on" as yet another bus performed a kamikaze move in front of us. Of all the passing manouvres we saw these guys take the cake (even driving us off the road yesterday between Colombo and Galle). Classic behaviours include high speed, weaving, overtaking directly into oncoming traffic and on bends, stopping suddenly to pick up passengers with no indication and without pulling over, overtaking and THEN immediately stopping for passengers causing the vehicle just overtaken to go up the backside. Having seen the driving there was no way we were going to catch a bus from Colombo to Galle even though the locals said it was more comfortable than the train.

Tuk Tuk Drivers are the local heroes, driving the little 3 wheelers everywhere from coast road to mountain top but they hug the centre line beyond their speed capability and tend to zig and zag upredictably. However they pull over when blasted by the horn, mesh into the flow of traffic with aplomb and provide a lot of colour. Saw one carrying two passegers and a tractor tyre.

Drivers in general we concluded lack peripheral vision - straight ahead fast as possible is the most efficient use of energy. P decided to educate the locals by demonstrating safe driving practices. B pointed out that was the quickest way to get us killed - eg. P would overtake then pull over to the left as far as possible to demonstrate to the overtakee that it was not necessary to hug the centreline - trouble was P would then run up against a pedestrian, cyclist, dog, cow or provide an opportunity for the overtakee and the hordes behind to squeeze past us again. B insisted he drive like a local - full noise, sitting on the horn.

The Roads themselves 

Well these are based on tracks probably forged in the late 1800's and mostly a collection of bitumen patches to make a cobbled surface that gives the car a musical resonance. Thank goodness it was a rental. Some roads are more pothole than bitumen. The engineering in forging these roads in the steep hill country is a credit to their forebears, no doubt funded by the tea growing industry.

Several times we got lost or thought we had got lost as we would be on an A road which suddenly took on all the appearance of a Z road. But no it was still the A road - just going through a bad patch.

4) Scenic:
The island of Sri Lankan has some magnificent scenery all within a close driveable area. It beats NZ in many aspects. Lovely sandy beaches, crashing surf beaches, lowland forest, padi fields, stunning hill country resplendant with manicured tea plantations and cropping fields, safari parks. Even a fledgling dairy industry including a huge farm named 'New Zealand'.

Cropping is conducted on heavily terraced hllsides, all manual cultivation. The vegetables are first class. The people work very hard and walk long distances. People who have houses generally keep them very tidy with swept yards and neat gardens. Rubbish is piled on the roadside or down banks and burnt from time to time. Flip side is the shacks/hovels crammed between road and rail or rail and beach or road and river. Small towns are pretty horrendous - we felt quite happywalking in the small towns in Indonesia and Malaysia but we were not enthused about getting out of the car in Sri Lankan towns. It was not a personal safety
issue as such, just plain dirty, crammed, traffic chaos. Nowhere to park safely.

We stopped at the Tea Castle, a brand new magnificant structure owned by a local tea magnate, Mr Mlsesn, had a cuppa and bought lots of tea bags of different types. Very nice place. We could not find Mr Dilmah's plantations which was a bit disappointing. However Mr Mlesna's tea is very good.

We have had a great time in Sri Lanka, laughed alot, wondered alot, and achieved our objectives, visited the tea plantations and saw elephants and other wildlife. We are now putting the boat into sailing order and hope to clear out on Thursday morning (no doubt another entertaining session with officialdom and Mr Customs man having a final crack for the whiskey when he comes back to remove the bonded sticker he put on our hard liquor). Next stop the Northern Maldives for some rest and relaxation and some swimming, and to recover.

Phew....All for now
P&B

Indian Ocean at 05.47N 80.40E

Well the decision is to stop over for a few days at Galle, Sri Lanka because we need some tea and Ceylon Tea is the best. No seriously we have had a really good run these last 5 days averaging 177 miles per day at an average speed of 7.40 knots which is like driving up state highway one from Wellington to Auckland averaging 150kph all the way with no traffic on the road and without being pulled over by the law.

The primary reason for stopping in Sri Lanka is this is the last opportunity to take on fresh fruit and vege before the 1500 mile sail via the Maldives to Oman.  Reading up on the border officaldom hassles entering Cochin even when have gone to the trouble and expense of getting the Indian visa in Bangkok was enough to
sway it and B has read of the colonial tea houses and the prospect of elephant riding, so deal done.

We are currently peering through the binos for our first glimpse of Sri Lanka around Cape Dondra but being late afternoon Monday there is a bit of haze about. We were a bit concerned about the Tamil Tiger business but that is hopefully more in the NorthEast. In saying that the port of Galle is a naval port and to deter Tamil frogmen from scuttling naval vessels the Sir Lankan Navy used to drop depth charges (gelignite) around the harbour most nights to put them off. We shall see if they still do.

Given we were not planning to stop here B is hurriedly making a Sri Lankan flag carving bits of fabric the base of which is an old Steinlager flag from the halcyon days aboard Lion. The problem is it needs a tiger in the centre which P is going to sketch then paint with fabric paint. We started out with 30 country
flags and have purchased a few en route but getting some obscure countries in advance is impossible or expensive hence the production challenge. B has already made the Maldives, India (which we now won't go) and Oman.

Just did a visual scan and a ship the size of Soames Is is approaching at 25knots and a few others around too. There is a traffic separation system (like Mallacca Straits) across the bottom of Sri Lanka and at this stage we are going traverse it in the dark to get into Galle. B will be below monitoring the radar screen which gives us the vectors for up to 6 vessels at a time and P will be at the helm changing direction to avoid collision, which should be a breeze after driving in Thailand.

Later tonight when we close to within 5 miles of coast to then enter Galle Harbour B will be on the radar with the C Map Electronic charts overlayed on the one screen, (a big colour screen) so we can see exactly where we are in relation to the land. P will be up top at the helm with the same data on the smaller all weather (mono) helm screen. In this way we can guarantee accuracy because theradar does not lie but there could be an error in the chart side, so we will both see it.  Like most cruisers we use C Map Electronic Charts which are produced by a Boeing subsidiary and also used in aeronautical systems. C Maps are essentially electronic copies of British Admiralty or US Navy charts.

Whilst we have upwards of 400 paper charts aboard Musketelle, to cover the world you would need to caryy thousands of which are impossible to carry and at say NZ$25 per chart also untenable. So we purchase sectors of the world we are transitting on little SD discs similar to digital cameras discs. We carry about 10 discs at any one time and every so often we order 2 new discs as required and send 2 no longer required back and pay what we consider to be a very reasonable cost to ensure we have the latest updated C Maps for the region we are navigating.  For example in Malaysia C-Map sent from the USA 2 new discs to take us across the Indian Ocean up the Red Sea and into the Eastern Med and Turkey. 

Surprisingly most cruisers rely on pirated copies of C Map on a CD rom and play it on their onboard laptop connected to a GPS. They do this to to save money, but most of these charts may be up to 10 years old and we cannot believe it is worth the risk if some unknown copier has got a chart or two out of sync you may be on the rocks. So in situations like tonight entering Galle we feel a little more comfortable in the knowledge our latest CMap should be pretty accurate.

Out here the only entertainment is listening to deck officers talking to each other over the VHF radio. All these big ships have AIS (Automatic Identification System) which brings up their ship data on a screen on each other's system. The procedure is about 20 miles apart they see each other approaching and if on a likely collision course one calls the other and they conflab about which side to pass, either port to port or starboard to starboard at say 1 mile distance.  Easy, yeah right. English is the formal language in commercial shipping and you have the world of nations is on the bridges of these ships.
In broken English making each other understood is the first challenge as variously Russian, Korean,Phillipino, Indo and others try to communicate. If all goes well sometimes right little chit chat sessions develop. The classic last night was a Korean who had obviously just been told his position was being terminated at the end of his current voyage (due to global economics) and he was asking about a position with the Singaporean ship he was talking to. That then led to the Singaporean confirming the state of international shipping and how recruitment with his company was now only open for tankers but not container ships or bulk carriers. But when the Singaporean asked what nationality the guy on the other ship and the answer was Korean the conversation mororless terminated. Clearly Singaporeans are selective when it comes to who they want on their ships ?  So there you have it...the state of global shipping in the current economic crevass and an insight into inter Asian relations.

On the natural side of life, a big pod of dolphins crossed our bow at great speed this afternoon, all clearly on an important mission somewhere,  because none stopped to bow ride play as they are usually apt to do.

Thats it for now.

All at sea B&P

At Sea Bay of Bengal - 05.19S 86.50E

We are 700 nautical miles into our 1500 mile passage from Thailand to India with our actual next stop either Galle Sri Lanka 350 miles ahead, Cochin, India or an atoll in the North Maldives.  Hows that for being fluid. B likes things to be planned and formal whereas P takes the suck it and see approach. In this case the
Skipper is coming out ahead of the Navigator as the reality is our next stop is largely dependent on how the winds pan out for us over the next few days.

On departing Phuket we had no wind in the Andaman Sea until we reached the Great Channel that separates the Nicobar Islands governed by India to the north and Indonesia's Sumatra to the south. We then got good winds 15/25knots out of the north for two full days which allowed us to fly our big blue and white coloured
Reacher headsail and clock up a couple of 200 mile days before this morning we lost it again.

Now sitting at the nav writing this blog with all ports open to ventilate the ship (34C at moment) its come back in again at 15 knots and we are once again blasting along at 8+knots which gives us those magic 200 mile days.

Barbara reckons its all relative and when the wind sees us flopping around going nowhere asks why we are doing it this way when we could be on a 'kerosene canary' at 500 miles per hour covering 12000 miles in 24 hours! She reasons it would be more comfortable and much cheaper. But P answers 'been there done that' and that both have their place and the very reason we are sailing is it puts everything into perspective, as we have time to think and have discussions like this.

For example why shouldn't we be receiving carbon credits for sailing ? We use wind for propulsion, we have solar panels and a wind turbine to generate power, led lights, satellites for communications, a rainwater catching system (under development), saltwater delsalinator, gas for cooking, waste treatment toilets etc
etc. In fact systems that shore lubbers will be moving toward in the years to come and you can guarantee they will demand and recieve credits for installation.

Our trouble is as sailors we are a transient lot without formal representation, the downside of which is we do not speak with a strong voice. If countries can have parsimonious portfolios for activities like Horse Racing why not a portfolio for Carbon Crediting Yachties. Alternatively maybe a seat at the UN as planet savers, or some other august body might see our calls for recognition answered. 

Enough of the jest before you think we have really gone off the edge.

Preparing for a major ocean crossing creates a bit of pressure aboard. Its not like packing the car for the annual holiday at the beach because there's always a corner shop and a pub at the beach, and a supermarket, pharmacy, hairdresser, doctor and dentist at the town nearby. Gearing up for Musketelle and her 2 person crew takes a lot of planning with us breaking the shopping list down into boat, food and beverage and personal.

The boat stuff covers the basic consumables; diesel, oils, lpg gas and spare filters for not only the primary engine which is a 90hp Ford Lehman but also our 7.6kv generator. The multiple systems require spare parts for the hydraulic system, winches, freshwater system, pumps (14 in use), toilet rebuild kits, replacement plastic and rubber hoses for everything etc etc Sourcing some of these things is a story in itself with multiple circles being clocked in rental cars following well intentioned instructions from individuals who probably did not understand your request, as a result sending you to businesses that may or may not exist and if they do are staffed by personnel that seeingly know little about anything and simply smile. Which is all very well but you still need those specific metric nuts and bolts or that few metres of suncover fabric.

Food shopping is another major both time wise, cost wise and is hard work - just finding the right shops, trying to decipher and read labels. Taking risks some local products can lead to some exciting discoveries (or failures).  Right now we have vaccum packed pickled radish in the fridge plus pickled mango (the mind boggles) and a whole pickled or possibly fermented fish which will not be opened in Barbara's presence if she can help it. Yes we realise this item is odd when we should be catching the fresh stuff. However despite Alf's best efforts to equip us with a full set of fishing gear we have shown a spectacular inability to catch anything.

These last comments about the difficulty of shopping could be a reflection of the most recent country, Thailand, where the written language bears no resemblence to the English language, no phone books or yellow pages seemingly exist (although they probably do).  The tonal aspects of the Thai language make it  very difficult to pronounce in a recognisable way even when written in phonetic English.

Nor surprisingly the one language that is clearly understood is Sex where a whole government sanctioned (blind eye) industry is thriving ahead of all else, on the island of Phuket at least.  The sight of mostly middle aged plus (rather tatty according to B) Western males strutting around with 20 and 30 something Thai damsels on arm is a sight to behold.  This clearly is an industry that works for Thailand and there seems no shortage of participants in the programme now or into the future as far as we could see.  The situation was explained to us by a retired North of Englander who worked as a Thai consular representative as follows: Most of the women who end up marrying a westerner will already have been married to a Thai man and have children that are being looked after by extended family. She makes a concious decision to snare a westerner and move overseas with him to begin then remitting hard currency back to Thailand to support the original family. Then when this relationship fails she will hopefully be into a big settlement and return home to Thailand very well off.  Its clearly a well understood business model that appeals to Thai girls.

One other sector that shines a beacon of success is Medical Tourism with three major hospitals in Phuket specialising in everything from heart and dental surgery to personal vanity operations all at costs reputedly way below western systems whilst providing a tropical holiday.  The jury is out on the quality, but everything points to the latest technology and specialist backup. It appeared plastic surgery, facelifts, botox treatment, breast enhancement and penile reconstruction were services most in demand.  We know this from multiple visits to the Bangkok Phuket Hospital where we both had nothing else but dental work done and from reading the local tourist mags.

On that note its time to close up and get back on deck as we are closing on our rhumb line which is on a major shipping route and a good lookout will be required again. Rotation watches 3 hours on 3 hours off as we trundle westward mean tiring days and nights, luckily tonight is a full moon.  Nearly forgot to mention of a milestone passed, that of crossing through the 90 degree East longitude line which means we are now over one quarter of the way around the big blue globe.

All at Sea B&P

 

On Eve of departure Phuket

Last week we collected our Indian visas which were issued in Bangkok so technically we have been ready to go for a week but for rapping up the reaining things on our "must do" list. We have had a rental car for the last few days and to town and around, fill the food lockers and refrigeration with fresh stores,top up the lpg, buy ice. The diesel barge has visted and we have topped the tanks with h2o.

A new moon is on the way...Indian Ocean here we come. Next stop either Sri Lanka, India or the Maldives  ....the wind will decide. Thats what cruising is all about. Until next time.