Month: February 2017

It’s Thursday evening now, internet is poor and writing this blog is affecting our reception of BBC 6 music live, via the net. Life can be so tough at times. We are at anchor on the NE end of Ko Phanak. We left the Marina on Tuesday morning about 11 am. No problem leaving the pontoon, until I tried to motor out and the vibration was a bit much and the speed very slow. I concluded the prop was fouled worse than I thought. We motored slowly around to the fuel dock but the tide was quite low, the fuel dock is right in the shallow area. I would have to approach it from the wrong angle and do the boaty equivalent of a handbrake turn in order to go alongside without going aground, as we approached and the depth dropped to 3 metres with another 50 metres to go, I bottled out. I wasn’t sure how the boat would handle with such a fouled prop, anyway, we have half a tank of fuel, should be good enough for a while.
So off to Ko Phanak, an island with lots of Hongs (big caves with no roof and beaches sort of thing, hong means ‘room’ in Thai), Kathy is going to write more about these, and as we haven’t seen one yet, I wont say anything, but they’re supposed to be amazing.
We stopped for lunch just a little way out from the marina and I dived on the prop, I have a garden hoe like tool which I scrape the prop with, it takes a bit of time as the prop is just a little too far down for me and my snorkel, I’m practicing holding my breath. Once that was done, and we had a little lunch we pushed on. Not much wind so we continued to motor.

You can see our planned route, the black line, and our corner cutting course in yellow. Only a short journey, but it took us into a whole new landscape, we anchored for two nights at the bottom of the island and today we moved to the top on the other side. We haven’t launched the dinghy yet, mostly relaxing and enjoying not being tied to a dock and that routine. This is my favourite part I think, no need to do anything, and nobody is going to bother you, so you really can just swing on the anchor, day in , day out, watching the sun rise and set, followed by a big, nearly full moon right now. A fisherman motored past today in his longtail and waved a fish at me, I shouted no thanks back, as he caught me off guard, and my instinctive british ways have me saying no before I thought it through. Kathy added insult to injury by saying I should have bought it as it was the only way I would get one! So when a few hours later another fisherman waved a fish at me, I called him over and a deal was struck. £6 for a large fish like thing that will make 2 meals, no idea what it was, it looked rather angry, but tasted great.

That’s the moon, special effect caused by Kathy keeping a spare stock of greasy cream on her iPhone lens!

After saying all of that, I have been getting up early and working till late writing software. I took on some data processing and analysis work a few days ago, I’m talking (well my software is) to 3 big wind turbines in Eastern Europe and trying to predict how much electricity they will generate from an amalgam of various weather forecasts available. So basically I’m pulling in 4 different weather forecasts every 2 hours, and predicting the generation by the turbines and providing that data to the Electric grid so they can forward plan. I’m then pulling back the actual power generated and comparing that with the various forecasts to see the errors and trying to work out how to get the forecasts more accurate.
I did ask myself why on earth am I doing work, the answer is mostly that it pays quite well, I did a little bit of work over the Christmas period and so far I have earned enough to pay for the new sails, and all my marina fees for the last 3 months, Also I’m keen to see how practical it is to sit at anchor on a boat in Phang Nga bay, writing software and working with remote data servers and turbines. Quite practical it would appear, assuming you don’t mind paying high 4g data fees, (well £1/day, mustn’t grumble). So it might mean I have to spend a few months extra in this paradise before we move on, as I said, it’s a tough life. 😉

Entertainment has revolved around twitter of late, I’m captivated by POTUS and his tweets, each one, seemingly crazier than the last, being followed by a dissection from the NY Times and others, #FASCINATING, 🙂

Tomorrow we are up early and will launch the dinghy, and explore some hongs before the tour boats arrive and disgorge their scores of day trippers with their kayaks. Later I want to learn how to do some OPC data transfers, any of you techies out there good at this?

Paul Collister

Some time ago now, I read a book which contained a description of a woman who woke up to find that her hair had turned completely white while she slept.  She wasn’t old, she’d experienced a shocking event (I can’t remember what) and that was how her body had reacted to it. It wouldn’t have surprised me if my hair had turned white the morning following Paul’s tousle with the trolley last week. Ok, maybe that’s a bit melodramatic but it was traumatic nevertheless.  Paul’s very fond of saying ‘what could possibly go wrong’ in a kind of nose-thumbing gesture to tempting fate.  As I looked at the mass of shopping and ‘stuff’ that was gathering in the car on our provisioning trip last Monday, I mentioned a few times that it would be a mammoth task getting it all from the car park and on to the boat. Although he didn’t tempt fate with the phrase above, Paul did state that it had ‘all gone very well’ as we parked up and prepared to unload our huge haul. This haul included ropes, sails and tools as well as provisions for a month at sea, because some of the islands we planned to visit didn’t have shops.  We’d driven through the village of Ban Koh En on our way home, thinking it would probably be the last time we saw it.  As we drove over the speed bumps on the road, the bottles in the boot rattled, and I heard thuds and rustles each time the car went over one, despite Paul driving very slowly.  More speed bumps on the slip road leading to the marina car park meant the trays of glass bottles of soda water got a further shaking. Paul opened the boot and straightaway a tray of soda bottles fell to the ground with the sickening sound of smashing glass.  This caused a group of people chatting on the pontoon to groan in sympathy and someone said ‘bummer’. I think they assumed it must have been beer because they all resumed their conversation when I told them it was water. Clearing up as best we could, we loaded the first trolley and got it down the steep slope from the gate to the pontoon. An item from one of the bags fell out as the trolley bumped on the bottom of the slope and rolled into the water. It turned out to be a plastic bottle of water which floated off before I could get to it, but we stopped to secure the other bags to prevent losing anything else! At the boat, we decided Paul should go back to the car and brush up any broken glass and load another trolley while I got on with stowing the shopping. I was absorbed in doing this and beginning to prepare something to eat when I heard Paul shout for me to come back to the car as quickly as possible. It sounded urgent and by the time I got out of the boat he was already running well ahead of me. I ran as fast as I could, keen to know what had happened. I saw him with three other people at the bottom of the sloping pontoon and I could tell from their body language that someone was hurt. I thought that was why he’d called me, to assist in some way but as I got nearer I saw Paul with his face covered in blood, and our friend Jack was urging him to get to a hospital. Then I caught sight of the trolley in the water and put together what must have happened. Still concerned about the shopping, Paul jumped back into the water to carry on pulling out bags before any of us could suggest it might not be a good idea to do that. It was a surreal experience watching him grab the wet bags and lunge them onto the pontoon, with his head dripping blood, and I was uncertain how badly he was injured. He told me how it happened while he was in the water and when I heard he’d been calling for help and nobody heard him I became very upset and subsequently useless in any practical way, especially when I got a closer look at the huge gash on top of his head. Jack’s wife and son helped get the trolley out and took it, laden with soggy carrier bags, to our boat while Jack and Paul went to see if a nurse that Jack knew was around. Paul had told me to go to the car and turn the lights off and when I’d done that, I realised I had no key to get back in so had to wait for Jack’s wife to come and open it.

I can only confirm what Paul related in his post about how great the staff at the hospital were. They were efficient and calm and so friendly and reassuring, despite the language barrier. We were in there for a couple of hours and once I knew Paul was going to be ok I sat in the treatment room watching the all-female staff treat a succession of people while we waited for Paul’s blood pressure to come down. Tomorrow we go back there to get the stitches removed, another blood pressure check, and then we can carry on with our trip. Despite the circumstances, this week of taking it easy has been a good chance to catch up on lighter jobs and to research the routes and the places we’re going to. After the hospital, we’re going to shop for more provisions and this time the trolley (and Paul) will remain on the pontoon. What could possibly go wrong!

Koh Racha and Koh Rang Yai, November 2016                                        

Had we not already experienced the sublime beauty and delights of Rebak Island in October, I’m sure we would have declared Koh Racha the best island paradise we had visited so far, which is heartening in a way because of all the other places we’ll visit which may surpass those we’ve seen before. It’s a great motivation for moving on and is why I’ve come to love this nomadic lifestyle.  Walking on the soft white sand of the beach on Racha after securing the dinghy to the jetty, we noticed that the beachfront was dominated by a huge luxury resort complete with an inviting-looking beach bar. A refreshing drink while looking out to sea was not to be, however. A resort employee stopped us on our way up the boardwalk that led to the bar to check if we were guests of the resort. As we weren’t we would have to wait until 6 to use the bar. Since that was a couple of hours away, we took a walk further inland to explore the village. Predictably tiny, it consisted of a few small shops, holiday bungalows, coffee shops and outdoor eateries. We also passed stagnant lakes, dilapidated shacks and a wooded area where water buffalo were grazing.

We stopped near a narrow stream for a while to watch a monitor lizard (or an alligator!) lumber along in the swampy undergrowth. Not many people were around and I felt the place lacked atmosphere so we headed back to the waterfront to seek out a place to eat. At the other end of the beach we could see what looked like a small bar or café set high in the rocks and thought we could get a drink there if nothing else. We walked up the roped pathway and came upon a delightful restaurant overlooking the sea. It was just beginning to get dark, and the lights (some of them Christmassy), the view across the bay and the warm sea breeze all combined to create a gloriously enchanting setting. Our table was right next to a beach with several rock pools, so as we ate we could watch crabs and other sea creatures going about their business. Definitely one of the most aesthetically pleasing restaurants I’ve ever dined at, and the food wasn’t bad either.

Next morning, Paul was keen for us to get away fairly early in order to avoid some predicted bad weather that afternoon. We were away by 7 30, drinking coffee and enjoying the early morning breeze in the cockpit.  Again, there wasn’t a lot of wind so we used the engine for the four hour journey to Koh Rang Yai. Before settling on a spot to anchor, we spent an hour doing a circumference of the island, both to have a look and to decide on the best place to drop the anchor.  The smaller island next to Rang Yai is called Koh Rang Noi, and we saw some intriguing looking buildings on it for such a tiny island. They looked like a resort complex that had either just been completed or had not long gone out of business – totally deserted and no sign of life anywhere, although we did spot some jet skis on its small beach.

All the action was clearly on Rang Yai which has considerably fewer buildings.  From 1pm, when we anchored near its shore, we watched a succession of day tripper boats disgorging or collecting visitors sporting bright orange life vests. We waited until later in the afternoon to go ashore to avoid the hottest part of the day but it was still very humid which made us wary of biting insects around the freshwater ponds near the pathways. There is a pearl farm in operation which can be seen from the beach, and a rather incongruous swanky shop which doubles as a museum and sells products and jewellery made from the harvested pearls.

After browsing the pretty but pricey items in there for a while, we went for a walk along the beach and noticed that it had quite a lot of debris on it, most of which consisted of small brown, glass bottles- similar to the kind that are used for cough medicine! They littered the sand, and the sea was washing up more all the time – very strange. Before heading back to the boat we stopped for a drink at a beach bar and were entertained by a couple of the staff members dancing around to some ‘clubby’ music. Before long, some guys who’d been sitting drinking beers at tables further along had joined in and it looked as if a party might be about to kick off…except that the bar closed at 5pm and by 5 30 all was quiet again. I couldn’t help thinking how different it was to the beach bars along Barcelona’s coast.  Here, you get the best of both worlds it seems because the tranquility on the beaches from early evening onwards is a definite bonus.

 

The tide had gone out quite a way by the time we reached the dinghy – so much so that it was almost possible to walk all the way to Sister Midnight. We carried the dinghy between us for some of the way which became tricky as the water got deeper and we struggled to maintain our balance, but it was good fun. I had to wait by it and keep it steady while Paul returned to the beach to retrieve our bags.  Koh Rang Yai was our final destination before returning to Yacht Haven Marina the following day to prepare for the trip back to the UK for Christmas, so we spent the evening musing about where we might go when we returned in January. Phang Nga Bay has lots of great things going for it and Giles had enthused about ’The Hongs’ there during our conversations with him.  As we made plans I reflected how I had never even heard of these places a year ago, and how pre and post-Christmas months had habitually been cold, dark and busy with work, commuting and looking forward to warmer, longer days. This life couldn’t be more different. I love it.

 

 

 

Up early today, it was a very hot night and difficult to sleep, so I took advantage of the cooler morning breeze at 07:30 to get the mainsail on and up, it took over three hours. The bag / lazy jack system had to be installed as I had removed it for repairs, this is a system that provides a big bag arrangement on the boom, so that if I drop the sail quickly, as I might need to if a squall appears from nowhere, then the sail falls into the bag, guided in by thin ropes on each side of the sail. Without this system, the sail might end up all over the deck, and could get blown over the side, worst case.

Also, despite trying hard to get the battens pockets the same size, the new sail had smaller pockets, so the battens had to be trimmed. There are five battens, made of long fiberglass strips, about 1″ * 1/4″ in cross section and run the full width of the sail at various points. The idea is to keep the sail flat and the correct shape, even if there isn’t that much wind, and when there is a lot of wind, they reduce the flogging in the sail and hence increase its longevity.

I have luff lines, leech lines, cunninghams and maybe other bits of rope hanging out the corners of the sail. I’m supposed to be able to pull , or loosen these little ropes, that act like the string on your swimming trunks, to make small adjustments to the sail shape. Im not a performance sailer, so will have to work these out as we go along.

 

M5 ( ex Mirabella) is still here, who is rich enough to have a big yacht just sitting there week in week out not earning its keep!
I took this picture today where you can see the plane they keep on board, many big superyachts have a helicopter platform, for the chopper, which makes sense, as how else is the customer going to get from the airport to the boat! but an airplane, really. I’m assuming it’s one that takes off on water, otherwise, it’s a bit of a daft idea without a runway. I suppose it could use harrier vertical takeoff technology.
I read that no decent superyacht is seen out without its own submarine these days, I don’t need one of those, as I keep proving 😉

Paul Collister.

Kathy thought I should post something to let you all now everything is going ok. Firstly thanks to those who have sent their good wishes to me, I am making an effort to be more careful, but my Ego is already kicking in and it’s becoming obvious that the pontoon was the one at fault 😉

Actually, having gone over the incident a lot, it’s clear to me, that all that happened was I was walking backwards pulling the trolley, when the pontoon got narrower, I was at the edge and so fell in, I couldn’t see that far behind me, and didn’t expect the pontoon to narrow, in fact it’s the only bit of pontoon, in the many hundreds of yards of pontoon here, where there is a narrowing. Regardless I think I have learnt that making assumptions like that are ill advised, especially when walking backwards pulling a trolley.

Yesterday was relaxing, although a few bruises started to surface, however today I’m back to normal, assuming I don’t knock the top of my head, I had an unpleasant encounter with a sweet potato earlier that was protruding from the hanging basket of veg in the cabin.

Today we hired a car as I needed to get my blood pressure checked, it’s back to normal now. I found out that you can go into most chemists and they do it for free. We are going to buy one of the basic electronic testers for the boat, they are only £20 and could be useful when trying to get medical help over the SSB (long range radio), I also bought a load of bandages and bits and bobs, so all in all we are better prepared for any future trolley attacks or pontoon uprisings.

I had two great battery backup devices for the iThings, sadly they are toast now, Sorry Tim and Isaac. Note to self, “there’s really no need to take both out on a shopping trip”.

After the shopping we took a drive down to the coast at Ao Po and saw zillions of tourists disembarking the various day trip boats that had taken them to the islands, on the way there I saw this monkey crossing the road, He didn’t like me stopping at all and stared me out the whole time I was there. This was the first monkey we had seen here, but I gather there are a few around the island.

Just thought I would add this picture of some long-tail boats we saw today, the engine is quite big, probably the same size of most family car engines, and is counter-balanced by the prop and prop shaft and pivots somehow on the block you can see.  I think they must have evolved as a cheap way to add an engine to wooden sail/row boats, plus it has the advantage of being easy to manage in shallow waters, which abound round here.

Apologies for the pasty pictures, I have had to fall back to my iPhone 5s, which has a camera problem, I think I replaced it myself a few years back, and the quality of the replacement is rubbish. So much for ‘Genuine Apple Part’.

Heading back to the marina we stopped off at a local market setup in a roadside field, Kathy has a new book of Thai vegetarian recipes which needed some unknown ingredients. e.g. Galangal, which looks like ginger, but has enough of a difference to require us to seek it out. We did well, and now have a stack of unusual veg ready for the pot. I’m  looking forward to trying these out.

Tomorrow (Friday) I’m going to fit the new mainsail and make sure the battens fit and it goes up ok. will also start to get the boat tidied up, ready for our slightly delayed ‘off’ on Tuesday.

Paul Collister

The title should be spoken in a broad Liverpudlian accent.

I expect that got your attention, hot runners up for the title were:
a) Marinas – 2, Paul’s body – 0
b) Time to look for a quiet office Job
c) Just how difficult can you make ‘getting the shopping home’

We went shopping on Monday, a big shop, as we were leaving Tuesday morning, and would be away, mostly at anchor for 4 weeks. I also picked up the new mainsail and the repaired old sails, ropes, chandlery, tools etc. Quite a load and by the time we got back to the marina it was dark and we had three trolley loads of stuff to get onboard. ( I expect you have guessed the rest by now..)
The tide was out and as it’s spring tides now, the ramp down to the pontoons was very steep, in fact too steep for me to get a trolley down in the normal way, so I went down backwards, so I was pushing the trolley back up the ramp as it was trying to race down. This way I had more control.

The first trolley came down, and at the bottom we took it off to the boat where Kathy and I unloaded, Kathy started stowing the food and kit while I took the trolley back to the car for the second load, it was hard work pushing the empty trolley up the ramp, they are big substantial steel things.That went fine and it was as I reached the bottom on the way back with the full trolley that I tried to do a 3 point turn, and was going a bit fast, I hadn’t remembered or noticed that the pontoon narrows at that point, just behind me so I stepped back into nothingness, yet again!! This time I wasn’t so lucky.
As I hit the water, I realised straight away what I had done, I have form in this area 😉 , what surprised me though was the trolley decided to join me and tipped upside down, smashed me on the head and then pushed me underwater. I tried to swim up for air, but my head hit something hard, and I couldn’t go up, I quickly realised what had happened, the trolley was on my head, and I was inside the trolley cage/frame, so I pushed away and down, swam back a bit and resurfaced, only to find myself still under the trolley. Not so good I thought.
Actually, the next bit was my favourite part, because this scenario is one of the nightmares I used to have about being trapped underwater, and here I was, yet I didn’t feel the slightest bit of panic, I thought, the trolley’s not that big, it’s going to be simple to find the end and get out, which is what I did, another push down and sideways and I surfaced. I must say, that gulp of air I took was lovely. A quick pat on my pocket showed me that I need a new iPhone, and looking around me bags of shopping were floating away. The upturned trolley was floating, it had a buoyancy box underneath it, and lots of bags of shopping were trapped inside. It was dark, so I couldn’t see everything, but I spotted the repaired rolled up Genoa just below the surface next to me, but sinking fast. I grabbed it with one hand and held onto the pontoon with the other. At this point I wasn’t too bothered as it was just material stuff at risk, but I wasn’t going to let it get away easy, being the stingy person I am. I called out for help a few times, hoping the security guard at the pontoon gate would hear me, but no response.
There was a RIB close by, so I swam over to that dragging the genoa through the water, there was enough slack on his painter (tying up rope) for me to pull the end into the water and tie it to the genoa, this is where the ability to do a decent knot with one hand comes in useful, although in retrospect, staying on the pontoon would probably be a better skill I should work on.
I swam back to the trolley, and rested a few seconds, then I got my iPhone out of my pocket and threw it onto the pontoon, not sure why, but it seemed the most respectful thing to do, perhaps, just maybe there was a chance… Really I knew it was over, still it had had a good run. Next my money belt, which had a very soggy passport and a few Baht in it, these dry well, based on past experience 🙂 I then started getting bags ashore that were trying to escape. Finally I thought I need help with the rest so I climbed out and ran back to the boat shouting at Kathy to come quickly. I didn’t tell her why, as I ran right back to the scene, I was worried some passers by would stumble across the submerged trolley and shopping and think perhaps the owner was in the water. As it turns out, just as I turned the corner back towards the ramp, I spotted a family staring into the water. By fluke, it was Jack, Jackie and their son, on their way to dinner. We had made friends with Jack during our time here and he had been very helpful with information about the area. I explained it was my mess and asked for help getting the trolley and sail out, but Jack insisted on inspecting my head, I told him I was OK, but unlike him, I hadn’t noticed all the blood I was covered in. Jack found a hose and washed my head for me, pronouncing that I had a big gash and stitches would be needed. Bugger I thought, it didn’t feel that bad at all. Kathy then arrived, and I think was very shocked at the turn of events. I unpacked some kitchen roll from one of the recovered shopping bags, packaging is so good these days, and made a compress on my head, then I jumped back into the water and pushed the trolley up as Jack & co pulled from the pontoon, next I passed up a few remaining floating bags and we all worked to get the Genoa ashore.
Kathy took care of the trolley while Jack ferried me out to an anchored boat in his dinghy, just a few minutes away, where his friend, who is a nurse lives. Sadly she wasn’t there. Once back ashore, I sent Jack & co on their way and went back to the boat to get cleaned up.
Kathy helped me tie a bandage over the wound, I put some dry clothes on, then we drove down to the local hospital to get the wound looked at.
The Bangkok Hospital, Thalong branch is just great, they had me fixed up without any delay, 7 stitches were needed, along with a tetanus jab and a course of antibiotics. they made me stay for an hour while they monitored my blood pressure, which was a bit high for their liking, but came down over the hour. They charged about £50 for all of that, including a weeks supply of medicine.
We drove back to the boat, finished unloading the car, the ramp was a more gentle slope by now, and decided to have an early night and put the shopping away in the morning.

Two days later
My head is a bit sore now, as you might expect, but I don’t seem to have any other injuries, (self esteem took the biggest hit), most of the shopping survived, I lost about £100 worth of chandlery, and £50 of groceries, we will replace these when I go back to have the stitches removed next week.
I’m going to have to re-assess my risk taking stance, Marinas are dangerous places, I was very fortunate that this happened at slack water when there was no tide, 2 hours earlier or later I would have been swept under the pontoon, or out into the bay. I’m worried that it might be an age thing, Kathy and I think it more likely that I have too much of a ‘Gung Ho’ attitude to risk, it’s a tough one, I am much more careful/risk averse  at sea. Falling off a pontoon, is not something that really rated as such a dangerous thing in my mind before, as kids we loved jumping off them, so perhaps I didn’t take enough care, however this incident has shown me how wrong I was.

I’m taking it easy this week, and hoping we can pick up where we left off next Tuesday, just a week delayed.

On a more positive front, I have started buying fruit & veg I don’t recognise, for example this thing here revealed no clues in its name as to what it might be, until I cut it open and found it to be a sweet grapefruit.
I bought a load of Passion fruits as well, as they taste great in drinks but I have never tried eating one before.

And finally, recent events in America have persuaded me that I won’t be taking the boat there this year. The final decider was that one of Mr Trump’s executive orders removes all my privacy rights as a foreigner, and allows any US official to have the same powers as border guards to investigate/interrogate/detain? me. I hope things change and we are able to visit one day, as nearly all the Americans I know are wonderful good people, and I’d love to meet up with them at some point.

Paul Collister