Newbuild delivery Vietnam

After some 3 weeks of R&R following the disaster after m/y Trident I saw myself joining ship again. This time in Da Nang,  Vietnam to commission and deliver a newbuild from Damen.  I flew in via Ho Chi Minh city where I was to collect my business visa and then fly onwards to Da Nang. 

HCM, or Saigon, was packed with tourists and I queued up the best I could,  locals were not very good in it. After reporting to the booth I was told to go to "landing visa" queue for getting visa.  

Oh well,  luckily there were no people but was told by a surly clerk that I am one day early as per my letter of invitation, come back after midnight,  they said.   

I went to the airline desk to rebook my flight as I was going to miss my connection but the guy there was of the opinion I would be able to get my visa and join the flight.

Visa scrum

Visit to Philippines

Having told my previous employ to keep their show I left for the Philippines for some R&R. Flew from Singapore to Manila and spent a few days there to renew my medical, it was tough, took me 2 days of tests but finally I got 2 years. Really need to lose some weight in order to avoid this in future. After Manila went south to Calatagan and visited places nearby, Balayan town, Taal volcano lake, Batangas balisong shops and so on. Below are pictures of some highlights of the trip until I had to fly to Vietnam for my next job.

Handover completed to Capt Sean

S(h)aving the nature

Having seen on old westerns and black and white movies men shaving with straight razors I was always fascinated about it. I even faintly recall that my dad used to have one, I think I was told off having a touchy-feely look at it. I don't wonder knowing now how sharp they are. I guess he moved onto disposable ones as soon as they made their advent because I don't recall seeing it in years. 

1930's German made Solingen blade and the old broken handle

Singapore pilot exemption

As I joined my most recent command it was also requested that I do the pilot exemption for Singapore in order to save on pilotage fees going in and out of the marina as we are 499GT, in Singapore pilotage is compulsory for any vessel over 300GT. 

At the centre with the course done and dusted

Seiko 5 review

Been for a while an avid Seiko fan and have collected a few as they are mostly quite affordable and the watches don't lose value over time, in some cases they could become more valuable as fans snap them up and they become popular for one reason or the other. 

Daylight in shade

Seiko has been in business since 1881 and in the early years they cleaned the floor with all the European watch manufacturers in many exhibitions and accuracy tests taking first prizes. They still produce today a multitude of various watches ranging from about 100EUR to thousands of EUR with the same time accuracy as from the beginning. 

Short summer in Italy

Montalto

Having gotten a few days in Montalto I had to go to La Spezia to seatrial a 37' Axopar crosscabin, wonderful boat. Then I rushed off to do the sojourn to Spain and as I arrived back I was called by Burgess to join a yacht in Singapore. After a bit of thinking I accepted as I needed the income so I only had a few days to enjoy, pack my bag and off to Nice again. No rest for the wicked. 

Quick visit to Spain

The main street of La Union 

Having finished the project with s/y Fanny I had to take a quick tour to Spain to conclude an errand that had been pending for a while with my friend D.  

Project s/y Fanny Rhodes to Kalamata and La Seyne-sur-Mer

The Turkish coast again

Project s/y Fanny Port Said to Kastelorizo and Rhodos

 Before arriving Med I had been watching the weather and it looked like we had a small chance of getting weather with us. As we exited the Canal it was obvious it wasn't going to happen, sods law I guess. The wind was blowing between W and NW and if we tried to getting a WSW course it was SW and going the other tack we went NNE. As Egypt was in the way and the weather blowing from NW I thought better take the better way and escape N wards, the wind might change (fat chance!). So we tacked and were effectively heading for Cyprus. The only comfort was that we were heading for EU at least. As we progressed further N we were able to come to a heading of NNW and avoided hitting Cyprus but then we had the mainland of Turkey ahead of us. 

Sunset

Project s/y Fanny Sawakin to Suez and Port Said

As we got going from Sawakin on the 5th of June we had pretty good weather but the wind was increasing again from NW and that's where we were heading. Come evening the wind was already up, we could not sail against it so we motored. Next day we had massive rollers coming at us and winds up to 20-25kts, we were making hardly 2kts headway on engines. There was nowhere to hide and no shelter to sail in so we were totally exposed. We tried the motoring way for a day and saw it is not getting us nowhere so only one option remained, to sail.

Sudanese lighthouse

Project s/y Fanny Djibouti to Sawakin

N Djibouti, dunes in the sea, some of them Islands

As we were setting off I outlined the passage to hug the Djiboutian and Eritrean coast as the lesser evil having not heard of any incidents on the W coast of the Red Sea. I also wanted the protection of the archipelago off the Eritrean coast as the relentless NW that had been badgering us for most part of the Indian Ocean crossing I was sure would be ever present in the Red Sea too. We sailed in good weather and when we passed Bab-el-Mandeb we only met a few Djiboutian fishermen who paid us no attention, I assume they had enough sense to bring water with them before they set out. Even the wind was with us for awhile and we were surfing along a good 5-6kts. Towards the sunset the wind died and we motored once again. During the afternoon I had been in touch with the Agent in Suez who informed that there is no diesel available for small craft and he recommended to to up fuel in Sawakina, Sudan (sometimes written Sawakin or Suakin). As we had intended to go to Suez directly this put us on further delay but hey-ho, we would need the fuel so we decided to pitstop in Sudan. After all it was along the way. I got a contact for a local chap in Sawakina and I sent my documents in advance and told him my ETA and on we went. 

Spotted coaster wreck

Upon our arrival with s/y Fanny to Suakin (Sawakin) I spotted a semi submerged coaster vessel on the side of the fairway. She seemed to have been anchored or stranded on the shore possibly after having been laid up or developing a critical leak when she called port. Whatever the reason there she was sitting seemingly abandoned. 

Marzooqah K

Project s/y Fanny Maldives to Djibouti

As we left Maldives we soon got some wind we could finally use. Although direction was wrong we just had to in order to save fuel, so we headed on a SW'ly course and during following days sometimes with engines on, or engines off, depending how hard it blew. At best we did 8kts on average on a stretch of 6hrs. 

Sunrise

Project s/y Fanny Malaysia to Maldives

Having arrived Lumut safely Owner and us had some errands to tend to in Kuala Lumpur so we got a car loaned and drove up there. Turned out my errand was not needed so I got a few days off and a visit to KL. Impressive city but impossible to find a taxi unless you were booking via a dedicated app, so we rather ate from eateries close by the airbnb than taking tax to some other venue. We actually found a very nice Mexican restaurant. After 3 nights we headed back to Lumut and left Owner to tend to his own business. 

KL skyline

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

Happy New year 2022

On 25th Dec we received onboard a couple new crew members we made haste and departed Maldives as instructed late in the evening. The wind and seas was against us all the way and it all seemed to be monsoon wind. At least the Malay peninsula gave us a bit of lee from the bad weather that was raging in Gulf of Thailand and South China sea. As per my charts the seasonal current was also against us so we barely made 9 kts at times. Anyway, our ETA held for the 1st of January albeit several hours later than estimated.

Indian ocean