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...

Captain's Blog - Langkawi - Singapore - Langkawi - Phuket

As in previous blog it ended when we arrived to the drydock in Langkawi, which lasted 14th Aug to 18th Sept and was a very tiring affair for the whole crew.

Kalizma got a fresh coat of paint on the bottom, new zinc anodes, overhauled overboard valves, some new shell plating, additional echosounder and a muffler on the centre engine. Now when we’re idling one can barely hear the engines any more, I need to look at the rpm meters to verify I have propulsion. It is so silent.

Well, for crew matters we received a new Stewardess from the Niladri household, Ms. Martula Walling, her profile is posted in the crew section. Richard came back full of energy after his long odyssey into the Indian bureaucracy and Jessica went for a well deserved vacation.

Finally on the 18th we we’re on the way to Singapore and major washing up took place to remove all the drydock dust and dirt. We arrived 1deg15’ marina on the 20th Sept and was met by ships agent Angie Ng. After clearance was done it was time to coordinate all efforts for Bosses visit. Flowers had to be ordered, carpets cleaned, food ordered, dayworkers arranged etc., we had 5 days on us.

Finally the weekend arrived and the F1 qualifications took place, on Saturday the time races and finally on Sunday the actual F1 race. The race was in fact very exciting with Force India team briefly at 3rd place but unfortunately was dropped down due to safety car was brought out. Then Sutil crashed his car avoiding another car and Fisichella finished 2nd to last, I suspect due to filling fuel too much.

When the weekend was over it was time again to pack everything away and feast on leftovers.

Next two weeks was spent repairing our radars that suddenly gave up on our arrival Singapore. During this time we had a Beer Festival at Fort Canning, delicious Pepper crabs up in People’s Park, Teochew dinner in Mong Hin restaurant, Mediterranean cuisine at Esmirada on Orchard, Kilkenny’s beer in Muddy Murphy’s and of course shopping at Funan, Sim Lim Square and Orchard Towers.

Eventually we left on 14th Oct for Langkawi and arrived there on the 16th, weather was excellent.

In Langkawi we picked up some chemicals and re-fuelled, our agent John took great care of us once again.

Vivek & Juergen Zimmerer

Crew went for a jungle canopy excursion. The operation was run by a German, Mr. Juergen Zimmerer, who had been on the Island for 16yrs. We started with easy rope walking and principles of abseiling as well as we “trollied” over a short expanse on a wire until we got to the highlight of the trek: A wire ~100m long suspended up to a rainforest tree 60m tall. The ride up there was adrenaline inducing and when all was up in the tree we got to abseil down to the ground 30m. The whole trek gave a very good insight of what mountain climbing is about.

In the evening agent John treated undersigned for dinner at Teo’s where we had squid, steamed snapper and wild boar washed down with Tiger.

On the 17th we bid Langkawi goodbye and headed for Thailand, in the afternoon we did a dive at the Butang’s at Hin Takon Chet, hopping in straight from the swimming ladder. We found 2 big shell’s that we ate for dinner the same evening. For the night we anchored at Phi Phi Island and next morning at 9am we continued towards Yacht haven where we arrived at 3pm.

Next day Monday was full with activities meeting old acquaintances, getting technicians onboard to sort out some electronic problems still pending, hiring storage space and making up shopping lists for provisions and interior stores. As of writing this we have settled in Phuket again for the next 3mths or more waiting for the Boss or guests…