Project s/y Fanny - Thailand to Malaysia

 After having done the rounds in Phuket I one evening met a Malaysian chap that had been refurbishing a 10yr old second hand 45' Lagoon catamaran for the purpose of world wide traveling. 

P fwd guest cabin

Vacation in Thailand

Having stepped off my last yacht for good I decided to stay for awhile as it was winter in Europe and I was in no hurry back to find another job. I also thought that maybe there would be gigs to do on some small yacht lacking a skipper. Anyway, ended up renting a scooter and rediscovering Phuket as it had been 10+ years since I was here last. Below are pictures of some locations I ended going to...

Yacht Haven marina

Project s/y Fanny in Thailand

​In January​​ having arrived with Boadicea to Thailand I was ashore one evening having a few refreshments and was standing on the street near the marina at a local watering hole. 

It literally was a hole in the wall,  a small bar where the waitress handed out drinks and customers stood on the street. 

The extended stern

Vacation

After arrival Mumbai it was time for me to take some time off and on 17th I flew to Thailand and arrived just before midnight, it was half past three in the morning before I was home.

N. Zsa Zsa - cat in the pot

18th Went to Krabi for some shopping.

19th went to Trang city.

The 3 famous monkeys

20th went to Pakmeng beach for seaside seafood dinner.

Pakmeng beach

Pakmeng beach

Pakmeng beach

21st & 23rd went to Krabi again

24th went to Trang to pick up Jira's new car, Ford Fiesta. Nice drive. It was my second time in my life that I witnessed a brand new car, it is an exhilarating feeling driving the car off shop premises with a brand new smell. Later in the afternoon the car was blessed in the southern Thai style by a local "holy man".

Car being blessed

Ford Fiesta

25th drove to Phuket and went to see Marina Managers Nick and Zara at Yacht Haven. It was quiet but it was low season too. Latest news now was that the Island resort development just north of Ao Po Marina had gone belly up. It was a pity as the marina they were building there was really spectacular.

Later on I met with K. Chatchai, my stainless steel guy who had done numerous jobs on Kalizma. He was now working on refitting local diving boats and was a happy father as he had recently gotten more family addition.

K. Chatchai & me

26th I had dinner at a new Korean restaurant in Central Festival, Sukishi, it was very delicious and spiced up for the Thai taste buds.

27th had early Thai pork lunch in Sam Kong, best shop in the area is run by a couple and it can be spotted by the large vats of pork being boiled up in front, they serve it all ways you can imagine. Three floor pork, boiled pork soup, pork in red sauce etc. etc. Then stocked up on some reading in Patong and headed back home to Trang.

Flooding in southern Thailand

28th onwards southern Thailand is hit by heavy rains and floods at many locations. Our house is spared as it is on high ground. I vegetate at home until 6th April because it is mostly raining.

At the Muslim Butcher

This guy met his maker Dec 2008 in the Port Blair Market

Last year when crew wanted some mutton I asked one muslim girl where I could find mutton as many muslims eat mutton in Thailand. So, I was introduced to a butcher that is living near the Lotus market on the way to Surin Beach. The next time I went to buy mutton he told me to buy the whole goat otherwise he would not sell. As my freezer was not working well at that time I did not buy the whole carcass as it would have spoiled rotten.

Anyway, now that my freezers were fixed in Langkawi I decided to get some mutton for the boys and we drove to the butcher after our weekly grocery shopping at Supercheap with Richard.

The butcher was still the same and when I asked for mutton he asked if I'll buy the whole thing and I said, yes. Then he asked if we wanted to choose the goat so I thought why not and off we went, he on his tricycle and we followed with our car. Near the Victory monument, before reaching it, he turned right into a small utility road and after some distance we arrived to a small coop were the goats were kept.

He asked which one we liked and I asked Richard to choose one, he chose a black small goat. The butcher grabbed his hindleg and dragged the goat out of the coop and then unceremoniusly slashed his throat with a knife. Then he let the goat bleed dry and die after which he loaded them (he killed another one I suppose for another customer) onto his tricycle and back we went to his house.

At the house the carcasses were thrown into the abattoir where the goat was first gutted and all the innards taken out. After that the goat was hung onto a metal hook and the skinning started. The butcher started from one of the front legs around the neck. Cut the ears off. Then continued to the other front leg and from there eased the skin down to the hind legs. When he reached the testicles he just plopped them out of their pouches and then cut the skin off right down to the hind hooves.

After that the carcass was taken down, the hooves cut off, the head was cut off. Then the torso was chopped into pieces so we did not have to do it onboard. Richard said he wanted the brain so then the butcher chopped open the skull and removed the brain. The head was also skinned and the tongue removed. After this the intestines were taken in a bag (brain, tongue, liver, heart, testicles and kidneys). Richard did not want the stomach so that one and the skin was discarded.

In the end we got from a 20kg goat about 10kg of meat that cost us 3000THB. That evening Richard made the most delicious mutton curry, yum-yum....

Captain's Blog January 2010

After settling down after the cruise we started on our pending works: awnings, teak dk, interior, engine, MCA, stability, interior carpentry, bridge equipment service (again, sic!), the list just went on and on.

The good news for the month was that crew got a salary raise from the Owner and Richard and Jyothi has been shortlisted to be transferred to France to take care of Owner's properties there.

I was also visited by Mr. Chan my electronics specialist from Lumut on the 7th. He asked me to arrange lodging in Patong, which I did. Eventually while picking him up from the airport he wanted me to show him around and I did that too. Anyway, when 2 hooligans get together there is no printable material to be published from that.

8th Jan NIck Coombes invited our crew to Queen of Andaman for a dockside party as the yacht is changing command. Nick had been acting Captain for QoA after she had ran aground in front of Ranong and the Captain then was flewn home.

On the 11th I left for Langkawi as our visas expired. Same day also Rajaram signed off to go home for a death in the family. I visited Penang in order to try and get all crew Thai visas but it failed miserably as Indians need permanent residence status in order to get a Thai visa in Malaysia. The visit was short and I was back in Phuket by the 15th Jan. Same day sent our tender for repairs to Cholamark as the fwd tube is leaking.

16th running to Phuket town immigration to bond out crew for sign off.

The weekend 17th I visited the Khuan Kaeng Hot Springs in Trang province that was a near "boiling" experience.

On 18th Sunil signed off to go to UK for his Y4 and Y3 Engineering competency licenses. He was sendng me emails about the agony of winter weather. Made us feel very comfy here in Thailand. Same evening s/y Yanneke Too is throwing a dockside party.

19th I got new echosounders for our tenders, this time watertight Garmins as the old Lowrances gave up the contract totally during our cruise. I also got a Garmin Etrex GPS plotter, 100% watertight, battery driven. No more equipment blackouts on tender.

On 20th K. Noi starts interior carpentry works in Owner's ensuite and corridor.

21st running errands on town. Phuket Electronics guys visited and checked our bridge equipment. Nobeltec is such garbage, it is on a par with Jim Mc Cormick's bomb detector.

22nd we got our tender back, good as new again.

On 25th there is a drama in Yacht Haven. Martula reports in the morning that a crazy woman has been throwing beer cans at her from m/y Sea Cellar. Vivek and Richard had seen the whole incident and they reported that she also threw full whisky and rum bottles too. Apparently the lady don;t have all the bulbs on at times and such things happens. The drama ended that the police removed her from the yacht and presumably took her to a hospital to get sober and on her pills again.

Same day Jyothi signs off to get married in India, all the best from the crew.

Rajaram returns from India to warm out the chill from his bones gathered in Uttar Pradesh, he told us he had not even seen the sun in 2 weeks.

I also got news that Owner might want to transfer Kalizma to Dubai so now we are researching this move. As I had many jobs opened it was somehow throwing my plans all upside down. Anyway, orders are orders so I informed my contractors and started winding down business as quickly as I could. Not looking forward to sweat and sandstorms.

27th Martula is signed off as she resigned from service. All the best for her future plans, whatever they may be.

28th Mr. Ekachai works on Owners ensuite glass shower cabinet, all fixed up nicely with new fittings and rubber seals.

On 31st I visit Holy Man Arian Phongphan in Trang province (near Khuan Kaeng Hot water springs) with Jira, Saini and Kalpu. Delightful old man that offered us a delicious lunch.


Jira & Kalpu being purified by the Holy Man

Voyage Phuket - Langkawi - Phuket

Departed Phuket on monday afternoon. The day before I did the immigration, Customs and Harbor Master clearance at Ao Chalong. It is an hours drive by car and maybe another hour to jump through all the hoops in the one stop shop. All and all the officials were very friendly and gave good advice of how to go about moving in the Kingdom and about their rules. For Rajaram that was signing off to go and attend to a death in the family I had to process at the Phuket town Immigration Bureau a so called "bonding out" of crew. It has to be followed or the crew in question can be barred entry from Thailand in the future. The Officer will type out a form that is stapled to the passport and at the airport must be presented on exit to the immigration officer and then signed in his presence.

One of Yacht Havens charter boats in the Channel

Weather was fine again when we departed on the 11th and we steamed onwards to Langkawi where we arrived 12th Jan in the morning. Marina wanted me again to moor stern to as the N-S jetty was occupied. So, I did but the anchors came down very poorly due to some twists in the chain and I did not manage to get enough length out. We heaved up the sb anchor and re-lowered it while pulling w/ the tender boat. The result was barely satisfactory and we let it be.

As usual I was met on the jetty by John Orr, our agent, and I gave him our arrival documents for processing as I was a bit busy with the anchor. After getting port clearance done I headed for Penang with Jira and arrived back 2 days later.

Once onboard again I checked what was pending and seeing all was more or less done I asked John to clear us out so we could get back to Phuket and get on with our pending jobs.

Before leaving I tied again alongside bunker barge Tuba VI and bunkered up fuel. I managed to have a chat with John and once all set we dropped John off at the jetty and set our heading for Phuket. The weather was bad due to a low pressure in the Gulf of Thailand so we were hugging the coast in order to get some sleep. Next morning we arrived outside Phuket town where I tried to anchor, and I did, but the seas were just too rough to stay there.

I landed ashore at the Rassada fishing port and picked up my hire car from the B2M guys and headed for the Ao Chalong one stop immigration shop with Jira. Meanwhile Saini heaved up anchor and started towards Yacht Haven. We did not have a berth available there so I decided to anchor there for the couple of days until the berth was supposed to be free. Luckily Zara called me and told that I could come alongside next morning so I was happy not needing to sit at anchor for the 3 days that she had told me earlier.

Once at the immigration he wanted to se us all but I explained that the boat was sailing for Yacht Haven so I could only bring everybody here next morning, that was ok. Then in turn was the Custom clearance and while I was sitting in front of him his mobile phone rang and I could hear that Jo-Jo from APS Phuket was asking him not to clear us in. The Officer replied to her that "Jo-Jo, Captain has all papers in order, I can't do what you ask for". Well, so much for mafia antics in Phuket as we managed to clear in with no pain at all. All the praise for the officials refusing to act corrupt and advancing the Thai tourism industry.

Next day we made a beeline to Ao Chalong again and did our face checks in 5minutes and were done. In the afternoon we hoisted anchor and moved alongside A-dock as usual. All is well onboard.

BIS visit to Kalizma

Earlier in November I was approached by Mr. Alistair Lawson from the British International School (BIS) if they could do a study visit onboard Kalizma. I was positively inclined for the visit and ran it past the office eventually receiving the OK, so I let BIS know that the visit was on.

The visit was to consist of abt 50 students 8-9yrs old and abt 10 accompanying adults. As the visit was 3rd, early morning at 0900hrs, we decided not to make a big deal abt refreshments as we assumed the kids had had their breakfast, but still we prepared some softdrinks and nibbles for them.

Finally, on the 4th morning all interior was setup and exterior as much we could without disturbing ongoing maintenance the first group arrived as expected with their teacher, Mr. Alistair Lawson. I greeted Alistair by the gangway and the kids lined up their shoes on the jetty. Once all were done I helped the kids onto the gangway to climb onboard.

Jyothi and Kalpana guided the kids down to the saloon where I wished them welcome onboard and explained how they were going to be divided into 2 groups and showed around the yacht and after that I would tell them a bit of thehistory of Kalizma and answer any questions. Off the kids went with accompanied exclamations "ooh", "aah", "Oh my God", "so nice", "cool", etc.

Children were shown guest rooms, tour of the outer deck, galley, crew messroom, bridge and the dining room. On the bridge Saini was explaing and demonstrating the navigation equipment. Once finished the tour, the groups ended up at the dining table, which was laden with cookies, softdrinks and chips. I admire how well disciplined they were as they kept their fingers to themselves until I gave them the "go ahead" for the goodies. Before this I told them about when and where Kalizma was built, her participation in both WW's, how Richard Burton gave her to Elizabeth Taylor and finally how she ended up with the current Owner and his measures in preserving this Classic yacht.

I also ended up teaching them marine vocabulary for galley, bulkhead, deck, porthole, capstan and windlass as well as how much is nautical mile (1.852km). Finally there were not so many questions, one recurring question was how much Kalizma was worth. I reckoned one had to give my Boss an offer he could not refuse but assured that their weekly allowance would not cover it. One girl asked "Why is she so nice?". Oh well, because the Owner likes nice and we're paid to keep her nice. Another wanted to know from where I was, Finland that is. One boy wanted to know how fast she is, well she is not fast at all, only 10 knots compared to todays modern container behemoths that race over the Oceans with 25kts speeds. One wanted to know if I been in bad weather with Kalizma, not really, I try avoiding bad weather.

Afterwards Saini told me that he had been heavily bombarded with questions so I guess the technical gadgets always win over dry facts and stories.

In the end all kids said a big "Thank you" and marched off to the jetty where they donned their shoes and marched off while waving goodbye to Kalizma. I hope they all enjoyed their visit, I know we did.

Voyage Phuket - Langkawi

Our time in the Kingdom of Smiles was up again and it was time to exit the country. Once again we were on the way to Langkawi as we also had some unfinished business to take care of.

Ko Ha Yai

On the way we had marvelous weather, hardly any wind nor swell. While passing the Ko Ha group we stopped and did a quick dive with Saini. Only later did I learn that the Island which in front we were diving was hollow and was accessible underwater. Otherwise the diving itself was not bad, lot of stone columns and nooks and crannies to explore, fish was there but quite small. At least I have an excuse to come back and do another dive inside the hollow Island. The Islands themselves look like they are put together by a bricklayer on LSD.

Kalizma at sunset

Next day we arrived early morning and I was met by Nick Coombes on the docks (having been alerted by John peering out of his crows nest) and I made stern to next to m/y Tai-Pan and m/y Amnesia. After usual procedures we settled down and started looking up contractors.

Kalpana

Captain's blog October 2009

As many you may have read my previous posts, I will just cursorily go through what we did in October (which was not much) but still in hindsight seems to me like a lot of things.

1st October we are sailing towards Phuket, finally being released from the Lumut Shipyard. John Orr is being put on vacation as he is just plain sick of the last months pressure.

Weather is getting choppy after Penang Island so I decide to scurry north and sail between Langkawi and mainland as well as Ko Tarutao and mainland, the weather is sunny but windy. I get good cover from land, but once I emerge to open seas after Tarutao Island I get same old rodeo ride as before but it only lasts a few hours until Phi Phi Island. We have avoided the worst area and also no damages are sustained as we have secured everything to the hilt due to the forecasts we got from local weatherman.

During the passage my port radar decides once again to give up, same as our both echosounders, no news on that front, seems to be usual Nobeltec quality in play again despite no obvious problems.

I sail into the "Monk's channel" (Chong Pak Phra)to Yacht Haven on radar observation and anchor at 2 am in front of the marina. After a short nap and daybreak I heave up the anchor and move alongside with the highwater.

In afternoon I get ashore and do some serious shopping for provision and a new TV to the crew messroom that broke down in Lumut.

Next day 3rd starts in earnest to prepare for our MCA survey and various maintenance works.

6th Oct I send Saini to pick up our MCA surveyor Alf Cashmore and Naval Architect Mishraji while I move the yacht to in front of Phuket commercial port. The pier itself is occupied by Star Cruises m/v Superstar Virgo, a 75000GT behemoth. Later Mr. Cashmore and Mishraji join us onboard to survey the inclination arrangements that we have arranged same as last March.

We need to change the thread of the pendulums to metal wire so while sending both distinguished gentlemen ashore we race to a local hardware store to secure some piano wire.

Next day 7th Oct we start early, I heave up anchor at 5am and move alongside Phuket commercial pier that is now vacant. It is low water. We start marking the zero point and then moving the weights (1600kg in 4 piles). As we have minimized the personnel onboard we all get a decent morning exercise by moving the weights first from p to sb, the sb to p and as the reading were not that sure we moved another time p to sb and back. By that time it was 10 am and Alf and Mishraji were content with the results and we can relax for a few hours before pulling off in order to reach the high water in Yacht Haven. It is now raining heavily.

We leave in good order but encounter bad seas and rain squalls even in the close proximity while passing Phuket Bay, Ao Tha Lua and more north. We arrive well for the HW in Yacht Haven and make fast with no hassles at our usual place at the outer corner of Dock B.

Same evening I have dinner with both gentlemen in Phuket town and hurry back onboard to get some shuteye and give Saini instructions of next days "taxi" service.

8th Oct we finish our safety survey and I do the UKLAP exam with Alf, I pass after some gruesome instruction into the mechanics of the Empire and am finally eligible for a UK CeC. At end of day Saini sends Alf back tot the hotel and onwards to the airport, this years survey is complete. Now as we are nearing fulfilment of the commercial yacht status I can see our paperwork has tenfolded and surveys increased to annual instead of every 5 yrs. That is the price of safety.

But the pressure does not stop here, on the 9th I receive onboard our Company auditor, Mr. Ashoke Roy, he comes onboard scheduled to check out our accounts and inventories. By the 11th Ashoke has gone through a years worth of accounts and even found some obvious mistakes I've made but not to my benefit, ha-ha. At noon I drive Ashoke around Phuket for some last minute sightseeing and shopping before sending him away to the airport.

By this time I have my contractors working full ahead for MCA outstanding items as well as preparing for receiving Boss in December.

Not to keep me sitting on my laurels Cmde Mongia arrived on the 14th to inspect some plots for sale as well as meet with Nick Coombes from APS Langkawi in regards of the docking disaster in Lumut.

16th we meet with Nick and come to a mutual agreement (which I suppose you read earlier) and I send the Cmde back to India on his scheduled return flight.

Thereafter follows Diwali weekend and me and Saini & Kalpu drive away on 16th with our BBQ set to Trang to meet with Jira. Vivek and Raja Ram will follow next day as they got job 2 do.

Next week was rather uneventful, we were all back onboard working full ahead and maintaining Kalizma to her splendour. On 22nd I headed off to Thap Lamu to inspect the port as an option to moor at in case we would head up north along the coast.

Thap Lamu is a naval base but also has a fishing pier available. The pier is a 90 degree contraption from shore (about 50m long), quite high and offers no fancy shore connections or fresh water as in yacht marinas. E.g. Kalizma could not land a gangway at this pier. At the end is a staircase to the waterlevel, which I think caters well for tender boats. My idea is that I will anchor off the pier and use tender for any passenger/ crew transfers.

On the 23rd Oct was Toby Koehler's 40th Birthday. He invited whole crew (among all other yacht crews too) to participate in the festivities at Nai yang beach at the Beach Club. We all came with gusto (see other post).

On 24th we take down our tender boat and discover it is not working properly despite repair works earlier. We change boats and head for Phangnga Bay for sightseeing James Bond Island etc. Whole afternoon is spent driving from Is to Is with our tender and we see very photographic vistas and views. We can only "ooh" and "aah" at the spectacular views we are presented after every turn.

A brackish water steam on an uninhabited Island

The famous "James Bond" Island

Views in Phangnga Bay

Lime stone erosion at the waterline

Same evening I go down to Sapan Hin to look at the grande finale of the Phuket Vegetarian Festival, I tell you it was a lot of rockets and crackers...

Rest of the month goes in terms of work. On the 27th Sunil Sharma comes back from his long wanderings in the UK bureaucracy and Vivek prepares to leave for his tour of vacation in order to renew his CoC.

On the 31st we cast off and depart for Langkawi to see our old agent John Orr and Nick Coombes, and what happened then, I will let you know...

Shopping at Supercheap

Screenshot of the Supercheap website

I attempted to use Supercheap's delivery service and end up going to Supercheap more times a week than I would like. Below is pasted an email I sent them after my experience:

Dear Sirs, good day,

I'm writing this email to inform you that the delivery service that you have is not working - at all.

I have been shoppping in Supercheap for more than a year now re: all my provisions and housekeeping materials are bought from your good store. Recently I heard that you also have a delivery service so I decided to try and use it and I duly applied for a membership card. In order to save my time I decided to order via the delivery service and faxed an order to you (Both in Thai and English).

A few hours later a person calls me and says my membership card is only for wet stuff so I come down to your good shop for applying another card and I re-send my fax order.

An hour later a person calls me and says again there is a problem. I ask how many cards do I need to process my order? Reply comes that order will be processed.

Next day I receive half of the stores ordered, only food items. I also get delivered chicken feet instead of legs (drumsticks).

I drive down to Supercheap again and ask if I can change the chicken feet and why not the whole order was delivered? I get reply that balance will be delivered today although I say I could go and pick up all items myself as I'm already at your shop. Reply is, "no need, we will send it to you".

An hour later I'm called and told that delivery today is not possible. I ask that why did you promise delivery when it is not happening? Now I need to get into my car again and drive down to Supercheap to pick up the remaining items.

Another hour later I get another call from you and a person is telling me that items are being delivered. Rightly so I get another delivery but the whole order is not there, so I have to rush down Supercheap again to buy my remaining items (worth 7000THB).

In conclusion instead of one weekly trip to buy my housekeeping and provisions (this week worth 14000THB) I had to come down to Supercheap 3 times as I was hoping to get my order delivered with no visits at all.

Do you call this Customer service?

Oh well, I received no reply and suspect I will never receive any. I can only conclude that I can only order basic stuff but nothing elaborate - they will never deliver it even if I have written it down in Thai for the people to easily understand. I just wonder how the hotels and resorts deal with this, I suppose they just send stooges to do the shopping.

For me it is a bit different as I can't trust a service that don't deliver stuff when and what I want when I am working on a deadline or with pax onboard.

It might be Supercheap but definitely delivery service is not Supergood...

Their website

Phuket Vegetarian Festival

Later on in the evening we get down to Phuket town to see the finale of the Phuket vegetarian festival. The possessed Mah Song are going to flog themselves with boiling oil. We arrive early to see a cauldron of oil being fed by a coal fire being stirred by assistants.



Time went by slowly but the spectators were lined up in rows, both local and foreign. Finally the first possessed came by wagging his head and went to pay his respects at the altar. One by one more followed and they all gathered around the cauldron. They were speaking all the time but I was too far away to see or hear what they were saying and I presume they were mostly speaking Chinese anyways. Soon enough all mediums were given yellow rags and they started dipping them into the cauldron and the lashing themselves over their bare backs with it. I could not see anybody getting burns on their skins. After awhile these rags was shredded and thrown to the audience, needless to say there was a scuffle where the rag landed. Later on the assistants bottled the boiled oil and sold it against a donation for the temple. At this stage we left the scene and went for a vegetarian late dinner.

Next day went busy working but on Monday 26th is the grande finale at Sapan Hin in Phuket Town for the veg fest so me and Saini decide to go. When we arrive and find some parking after long searching we are emerging to a warzone. There is a continuous thump coming down form a car stereo show, rockets and bangers being fired all the time. The air is thick from cordite smell and smoke. We walk around the car stereo show and gape at the sound systems installed in the cars, just incredible show pieces. After that we wander down to the beach and see the Chinese temple and people lined up sitting and waiting. We also see construction of several bonfires. Rockets and other incendiaries are fired off continuously. We walk around and finally decide to sit down near one of the unlit bonfires.

Just one of the rockets...

We sit and chat and wonder about all the action, Saini confirms it is more fireworks than during Diwali in India and soon enough the people gets more and more. The whole field in forn tof the Chinese temple gets filled up and one can hear fireworks going off like machine guns and the smoke is gettig more dense, soon enough one can't see the sky. The noise is deafening. Pall bearers emerge from the smoke carrying effigies of Chinese Gods on chairs, carrying them to the waters edge. They are all like demons from the underworld coming from a barrage of crackers beings thrown at their feet. Everybody is covered in rags from head to toe.

Chinese Temple at Sapan Hin

Eventually I can see there is a lull in the activity and some kind of ceremony is underway in the middle of the field, I can't see it, just a huge parasol is held up at the centre of activities. Finally it starts moving and the parasol heads for the sea. People gather around the pyre with burning torches, guards go around and wards off anybody trying to light the pyre too early. Finally the parasol reaches the waterfront and the pyre is set on fire. It quickly gathers momentum and the heat is incredible, me and people around me retreats back. This seems to be the highlight of the proceedings so after this me and Saini head back for the car and the ship.

Sending off a lantern for good luck

The traffic is same as during rush hour despite it is midnight and we try to find a circuitous route out of Phuket Town and finally manage to do it. Doing tis we discover that all roads coming from Chinese Temples are covered in red paper debris coming from the fireworks being thrown at the people walking to Sapan Hin. No wonder they all were covered in rags from top to toe and looked like Bat's out of Hell when they arrived...

More of The Nine Emperor Gods Festival

Voyage Phuket - Langkawi - Phuket

As agreed I interrupted my vacation to take Kalizma to Langkawi and back. The purpose was to get some movement on the engines and pick up stuff that I had been shipping to John over a few months time. The main issue was to get our aft emergency exit hatch so we could install it here in Phuket before we would leave for our drydocking in Lumut.

I came onboard on the 31st and had a short recap with Avnish, confirmed we were all stocked up, sent passports for clearance and so on. On the morning of 1st Aug we left in sunny weather conditions. As we got out of the channel and sailed down Ko Yao Yai the sea got more rough, not bad but it shattered all our hopes to be able to stop for a dive during the passage. We slowed down and pottered on for 7kts and reached Royal Langkawi Yacht Club early morning.

In Langkawi I was met by our usual agent, John Orr, and the morning went swapping gossip and sorting out the business at hand. Tickets for Richard and Martula had been arranged so they could leave for their annual vacation. Later on John delivered shipments and I could see that I was missing one packet. It was again off to go sending emails to the shipper. In the evening I was invited out to Pantai Cenang for a private party.

The venue was at TJ's pizza restaurant where I had had earlier I think the best pizza I ever had in Far East. I met also previous acquaintances like Brendan and Lyn and several other familiar faces whose names I can't recall (apologies).

The Hotel at Kuah waterfront, looks like a piece from Disneyland

Monday morning on 3rd our freezer contractor started work on our freezer that had been long pending. Richard and Martula was whisked off to the airport. I got reply from shipper re: our missing parcel that it should be on the Island already. I relayed the info to John who discovered it should have flew the day before but it hadn't, then after much wrangling and knocking on doors it was finally located in the Customs warehouse. Our freezer contractor hit a few snags in his installation program that we had to postpone not only for him but also for the missing shipment of our anti marine growth system.

Tuesday 4th I woke up to nice sunny weather. Things were going my way for once. the Cathelco package was found and delivered onboard and Michael, our freezer technician started the freezer late in the evening. Only in an hour the freezer went to -15 degrees, a thing that in India was told us to be impossible. In the evening I was invited by John to come to his pad for his wife, Pam's, birthday party.

Wednesday the 5th was a disappointment weather wise, from early morning a strong breeze blew from west causing us to be pinned in the RLYC marina's N-S pier. John came to pick up the passports for clearance so I could depart when I wanted. I was constantly watching the wind meter but it refused to budge, on the contrary it went up to 40kts at times. The weather forecast was not much better, it promised better weather after 2 days. Finally, in the evening when the sunb started setting the wind came down a tad so that I deemed it safe to maneuver. I chased my crew to disconnect shore power and start engines whilst also letting John know that we were leaving.

Departure went well although I had some flies in my belly. I left my forward spring at the corner of the pier and slowly eased her over the corner and turned my stern against the wind and out of the port. Once I could see that I was good to go astern I started going slowly. Guys on the pier helped the going with fenders and I used the bow thruster to keep her off the pier. Having the bow clear of the corner I had to use my bowthruster the other way so my stern would turn more towards the port exit. The current was still flooding probably due to the strong wind that had prevailed the whole day. I cleared the wave breaker and turned around to face west and for Phuket. On the way we celebrated Jyothi's birthday in the exit channel and had some cake and dinner.

Once we entered the open seas at Pantai Cenang I confirmed the weather forecast, waves 4m high was rolling in from Indian Ocean. Luckily my stewardesses and other knew what I meant with bad weather so they had prepared the ship properly for rough seas. After entering open waters part of my crew went senseless from seasickness as usual. Luckily they were not my watchkeeping crew.

Next day was not much better, same weather prevailed and it eased down a bit while going north of Phi Phi Island, then it was easy going towards yacht haven. I missed the high water but was informed that current and wind is not bad so the marina allowed me to berth a bit later. I tied up port side along side at our usual corner without any mishaps. My crew was happy to have a stable deck under their feet again. Anyway, the cleaning started for some minor items that had broken during the passage...

Laguna Marathon in Phuket

14th June was the International Marathon run at Laguna and Avnish arranged for voluntary crew to sign up.

Me, Richard, Martula and Kalpana signed up for the 10km feat and Saini signed up for the 20km half-marathon. We had wrong starting time information so we arrived abt 20minutes late from the start but it did not matter as we had electronic tags so we could be timed anyway.

After the run...

Not that it mattered, I don’t think any of us was aiming to break the world record. I was pacing myself and jogging along and soon enough the girls had ran away from me. The sun was getting hotter and hotter and at 7.5km I had to start walking and at 9.5km I forced myself to continue running, and I did until the end. Actually at the last stretch I managed to somekind of a spurt.

We all received a medal of completion. During running I saw a few runners incapacitated from sprained ankles to torn hamstrings, serious sporting can be very taxing on the body. I also saw one guy running bare feet, true to the traditional way of running the Marathon. When I was in Greece I actually met a Greek in the local hash that had done the full Marathon barefeet and did not want to repeat the feat.

The event was well organised but I and probably other runners too did not like the traffic allowed on the roads as well as the watering stations could have placed some bins afterwards where the empty water cups and sponges could have been thrown in (this was actually improvised at the last watering station). The cleaning job afterwards must’ve been enormous.

At the end runners could get free foot massage and food. The queue for the first was too long and I did not feel fot the latter so I was just tanking up on ice water and chatting with my crew while waiting for Saini to arrive from his feat. Soon enough he finished too and after awhile we headed back to Yacht Haven for a shower and and some well deserved rest.

I finished the 10.5 k's in 1.5hrs (not sure their timer tags worked correctly though?) and placed at 712th position out of 735 participants that finished their run. Interested can see the results here

Tips for yachts visiting Phuket

Below are contractors and tips I find useful for any yacht visiting Phuket:



PROVISIONING:

Supercheap - a non airconditioned superstore with practically anything you can imagine to need. I did all provisioning from there and ended up with a weekly expense for 10 crew at around 6-7000THB. Go early in the morning (~0715hrs) and you will get fresh vegetables and fish before they run out.

They also have a huge department for medicines, so any yacht looking into replenishing their medical chest, that is the place to go to. They accept credit cards.

Location: Drive along the main road towards Phuket town, pass the Patong junction, over the hill towards Phuket town, keep an eye on the right side and u-turn after u seen the sign "Super cheap", there's a gas station just before.

Central: the department store here is excellent for finding western products (ham, salami, cheese etc.)

Location: Turn towards Patong and drive to the next crossing, you will see Tesco Lotus, continue past it and U turn once you see "Central".

Master Butcher Shop, providing 1st class meat products with associated pricing, a must when you are getting stuff for the Guests.

Location: 16/14-16 Moo 3 Chaofa Nai Road, Vichit, Muang Phuket 83000

Tel: +66 76 282 039, +66 76 264 043, Fax: +66 76 263 935

Mobile: +66 81 737 6931, +66 89 648 1256

http://phuketindex.com/phuket-travel/service/butcher-shop.htm

In Tesco Lotus there is an excellent wine shop with great selection. Wine shops can also be sighted on the way to Ao Chalong or towards Ao Surin.

Phuket map

METAL WORKS:

P-S.T.L. Mr. Chatchai or "Peak"

Location: 64/47 Moo 7 Rassada Distrcit, Muang, Phuket 83000

Mobile: 08 9592 5071

I have used this guy for several steel works, plain steel and stainless. He did e.g. a swimming ladder to my tender boat and renewed plenty of piping in the engine room. Very amiable chap and honestly says whether he can take on the job or not. English speakers probably needs an interpreter as K. Chatchai is not too proficient in english. Very competitive pricing of services compared to the guys in Boat Lagoon.

AGENTS:

Asia Pacific Superyacht Services - the evolvement of SEAL to APS, run by Gordon Fernandes. Expensive.
http://www.seal-superyachts-asia.com/ for contacting any of the APS agencies.

South East Asia Liveaboards Superyachts (SEAL) is the oldest agency in Phuket
http://www.seal-superyachts.com for contacts.

International Super Yacht Services (ISYS) represented by Gareth Twist in Phuket as "Yachtsolutions".
www.yachtsolutions.net

Din (known as Dodgy Din), sometimes employed to do ship clearances. Works very cheap but can end up being more expensive when doing "dodgy" deeds.
+66840531418

MARINAS:

Yacht Haven Marina, run by Nick Wyatt and Zara Tremlett, a lovely couple that goes the extra mile to secure a berth for you. Big marina in N part of Phuket, very quiet and safe with all the trimmings that goes with a marina. Downside is that if you have depp draught then you need to wait for high tide to get in and out from the marina.

http://www.yacht-haven-phuket.com/ for contacts.

Ao Por Grand Marina

Opened this year near Ao Por pier and not tried and tested for the NE monsoon. Built on a spot that is exposed to the monsoon and also has very strong currents. Could be a bad place to moor during extreme situation (wind combined with spring tides and perhaps rain squalls). No restrictions for coming and going depthwise. More expensive than Yacht Haven but I'm sure prices can be negotiated.

http://www.aopograndmarina.com/

Berama Bay:

Being built on the Island opposite Ao Por Grand Marina. Not opened yet but marina will be very sheltered and have no restrictions tidewise. Whole project gone bankrupt and waiting to see if it ever will be developed.

Boat Lagoon and Royal Phuket Marina

Two marinas at the end of a dredged ditch going through a mangrove forest. Very swanky places, good for low draught smaller yachts.

http://www.royalphuketmarina.com

Electronics and electrics:

Electrical Marine Co Ltd, run by Damian Barrett. Very good service and gets things fixed. Price accordingly.

http://www.electrical-marine.com/ for contacts.

Maretron, run by Arto Holappa, a rambling Finn that is more interested in the sale than after sales satisfaction.

http://www.navasia.net for contacts.


SHIPCHANDLERS:

OH service & Marine Hardware run by Sarit Dechakul a.k.a. "Oh"

Location: Ban Kho Aen village adjacent to Yacht Haven marina.

Small shop that provides all small things needed to maintain a yacht, same prices as in Boat Lagoon.

Opposite Boat Lagoon entrance is a big Surapol Shipchandler, has all stuff one can imagine, but as this is the area for yachts and supplies, pricing is accordingly.

In Phuket Town there are also Shipchandlers, a bit hard to find but the one who seeks shall find. Sorry, for the vague directions.

PERSONNEL:

Agencies mentioned above, some of them provide crew in case needed. Otherwise sometimes dayworkers can be inquired from marina offices or they might approach the yacht for any work available.

I could write volumes more about what to find in Phuket, I would recommend many of the guides available, e.g. http://www.andamanseapilot.com and Phuket Gazette as well as Phuket Calendar, they are full of advice and contacts.

Appendix problems

My Darling, Jira, has a history of intermittent heartburn and indigestion and last wednesday she started complaining about stomach pain and I thought "Ohhh, here we go again". Jira is particular that she can't drink any stomach tonics nor chew any medicines for stomach, so it's difficult to suggest treatments. It is also not easy to get stomach friendly foods here in Thailand as many dishes are stir fried and has loads of chillies....

Anyways, she was getting bad and thursday morning she was a bit better but after breakfast she got worse. She called a Doctor that recommended to take Ponstan painkillers. Ok, we got some of those and the pain was relieved a bit. For those who don't know, Ponstan is a painkiller that is somewhere in the middle of aspirin and morphine, lol. Ponstan's took her through thursday.

I consulted the Shipcaptain's Medical Guide and there was all the ailments that one could suspect. I was reading abt peritonitis, appendicitis, severe indigestion etc. There was even a chart showing where the pain is and a probable diagnosis, none of them fit Jira's pain description.

Friday morning she woke up feeling better but after breakfast Jira was saying her belly hurts more and I had a look. The whole belly looked a bit swollen, but she said the pain was on the left side only. At noon I said it is better to go and see a Doctor as she was not getting any better so she called a friend to pick her up. She left for the Phuket International Hospital and after a few hours she called back and said she had been diagnosed with appendicitis.

Not surprising as I can recall the Teacher from my medical classes that appendicitis can have quite different symptoms than the "school book" example: "the pain starts at the bellybutton and moves down to the right of the abdomen". E.g. my ex-wife Tiina-Maria told me that when she got appendicitis she was having dinner at a restaurant and woke up a day later in hospital with a stitched hole in the side. She had just fainted and was taken by ambulance to hospital where they discovered her appendicitis, operated her and she woke up after anesthesia.

To get back to the story, Jira called me after an hour again and told that she has been admitted to the Phuket Mission Hospital and asked if I could come and see her. Unfortunately my work held me up late and arrived at the hospital when she was already under the knife. Her friend Ying was holding her personal belongings and we waited for abt an hour when Jira was wheeled out of ICU to the hospital room at abt 7 pm. She was totally "out" from the anesthesia and was gradually waking up and nodding off. At 9pm her mother and brother came from Trang to see her, it was not much interaction as she was still groggy from anesthesia. At abt 10pm the relatives left back for home and at shortly after she was waking up and complaining of pain and I called the nurse that shot her up with a painkiller with same strength as Morphine.

After abt six hours she was given another shot. My nights sleep was very sporadic as nurses came and went checking bloodpressure, temperature, trip and whatnot, then Jira had a call of nature, I got up and stumbled to the toilet for the bedpan and after all was done did cleanup with a moist cloth. At 5.30am saturday lights came on and a new day started, Jira was saying she is getting hunger pangs as she has nothing in her belly. Nurses warned that she can't drink anything, only nutrition was by trip, her abdomen was still swollen.

During the day Jira received several bottles of liquid penicillin. In the morning at 9.30 am the Doctor cam on his rounds and checked Jira, he said the appendix had already burst when he had operated and that she was very brave to have been able to suffer for 3 days before seeing a Doctor. I agree. However he was not letting her out yet as there was still a risk of inflammation in the abdominal cavity. In the afternoon her son Ki came from Surat Thani to see how his mother is faring and in the afternoon some of my Indian crew went to wish her well and brought a lovely flower basket. The day went and evening came and Doctor gave permission to drink water. What a relief after all those hours with an itching, dry throat and no way to cough as the abs were cut open.

At home with all the "get well" flowers

Come Sunday and Jira could already take shower by herself, the abdominal swelling had gone down and in the afternoon the Doctor let me take Jira home. The whole bill came to 41.000THB (~1000 USD). She got a whole bagful of meds to eat and a follow up check after a week. In the afternoon my Filipino stewardesses visited and brought more flowers for Jira. Today Jira is well on the road of recovery and I am so happy for that.

Captain's blog Oct - Nov

End of last month and this has gone cooped up in port. The rain season seems to give up late this year as it has been raining cats and dogs every other day it seems. As of writing this the weather is sunny but dark clouds are swirling on the horizon.

Anyways, since our return from Langkawi to Yacht Haven Phuket we started doing some serious maintenance (jobs never cease on a boat) and I hired Carpenter's, Day worker's and Welder's.

Carpentry is done on outer decks exchanging rotten wood on structures, we found a new Contractor in Boat Lagoon trying to do a name for themselves.

As I have only one Deckie I got one familiar Day worker to work with him - 2-part cleaning, sanding, teak oiling and varnishing is the order of the day for them.

Finally, our trusted welder K. Chatchai came onboard to install a new bucket strainer to our A/C plant.

All jobs are almost finished and paid off and now we're waiting for orders if we get to go and pick up guests in Andaman Islands or not. The weather being like this I don't look forward to it, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do (Clint Eastwood).

For social events we have been quite outgoing I think, on the Sun 2nd I took all crew out for visiting the Ton Sai waterfall (In Thalang going S, turn left at the crossing, continue until end of road). The waterfall had very little water cascading down which I considered odd thinking of the amounts of rain we had gotten here, I hate to think when it really cascades of how much rain that would require... The waterfall is said to have 9 floors so me and Rajaram, my Deckie, left other crew to enjoy the waterfall, clambered up the slopes and started following the stream. In the beginning the going was tough with fallen trees and dense brush covering up the trail but eventually we found a real trail and followed signs for abt 45mins and thought better to turn back. We followed another trail back and almost missed the end of the waterfall but we did some shortcuts and emerged at the parking lot. After this we all gathered in the pick-up truck and drove off to Nai Yang beach to have a late Sunday lunch at the beach. We were joined by Jessica who just landed and was back from her vacation in Philippines. The lunch was very delicious Thai seafood fare and once all had been satisfied we packed up and went back to the ship.

Lunch @ Naiyang beach

As we have been so long without guests I decided that I'll invite some friends onboard for an Indian dinner and let the girls do some serving and get some action. Eventually I managed to get together a team of 8 persons, our agent Gordon, Toby, Nong, Captain Alistair and Michael Bosch + wife Bo. On friday 7th we all, including me and C/E Vivek, gathered for sundowners around our bar, after that we went to the dining saloon.

As starters we were treated with a "soup-shot", very delicious. For main course we had paratas with 3 kind of curries and rice to those who wanted. As dessert was rice pudding Indian style. Sundowners, dinner and dessert was all watered with Company products, namely Kingfisher beer, Carano Ferrari wines and Whyte & Mackay whisky. Next monday I received "thank you" emails so apparently all went home happy and did not suffer from Delhi-belly. I must also mention that our Cook Richard was after the dinner called out from his lair and received a round of applause for the dinner he had prepared for us.

Captain's blog - end July 2008

This month Kalizma did not move from her berth, we stayed put for ongoing maintenance works. We have upgraded the deck lighting, installed a diving ladder and UV covers onto the tenderboats. All decks got a fresh coat of varnish as well as rust was chipped off on exposed metal parts and repainted, teak oil was applied to all railings. In the Engine Room various piping works related to the aircon was renewed and modified for the better.

M/y Calisto in Yacht Haven (sistership of Cousteau's Calypso)

Crew events:
Jyothi rejoined the ship on the 23rd with renewed vigour. Richard has not yet returned from his prolonged vacation and the new deckhand is still pending. Vivek left for a short sojourn in India to escort his family home.

Last weekend in Phuket (little did we know)

Saturday undersigned was invited to a BBQ evening and watch rugby at the Agents, Gordon Fernandes’ pad. Kingfisher sponsored 2 cases of beers to the cause. The game turned out very exciting as New Zealand took the lead in the beginning after being on the loss but, finally in the end, lost to Australia.

BBQ @ Gordon's pad

On Sunday morning we set off with the volunteers (some crew selected to spend time on their own) for a picnic in Phangnga which consisted of Tom Yam Kung soup, Phad Krapaow Moo and Nam Phrik Num with Khai Tom washed down with Kingfisher beer for those who wanted. We also visited a local handicrafts and snacks stall where crew bought rattan souvenirs, handmade hammocks and a Thai flute for Raja Ram.

Bungy crane

After this we drove on to Phuket Jungle bungy jump venue where Captain and Saini proved their courageousness by jumping 50 m down tied to a rubber string. What an exhilarating experience!



Next we went to Phuket Go Kart circuit where those who did not dare to jump could race to get their adrenaline levels up. After 10 minutes of go-karting on hyped up mini racing cars it was time to return towards Yacht Haven.

Refreshments @ Surin beach

We took the scenic route via Patong - Kamala and Surin beaches enjoying the scenery of the west coast of Phuket Island. At Surin beach we stopped and strolled on the beach admiring the big breakers rolling in from the Indian Ocean and a few brave youngsters body surfing the waves. Refreshments was enjoyed at a beach bar after which we headed back for Kalizma, by this time it was dinner time for those who still had energy for it.

Jyoti's birthday

On 5th August was Jyothi’s birthday. We celebrated it with all crew at Mama’s & Papa’s seafood restaurant. The sumptuous dinner was topped off with a Minnie Mouse vanilla cake and a 24k handpainted teacup was presented to Jyothi as she is an avid tea drinker. Happy birthday Jyothi, we all hope you enjoyed it!

Nai Yang beach

On the 12th of August we will head out for Langkawi and do the long planned drydocking, until then, ta-ta.