Trip to Malaysia

As I was in Philippines for a short time I decided to go visit my Malaysian friends in Lumut area. The trip started a bit roughly with us spending a day in Singapore and in evening taking the overnight bus to Sitiawan. It was not bad but the AC in the bus was freezing and I hadn't packed any long-sleeved clothes so ended up huddling all night whilst dog-napping. Whilst in Lumut we got taken around all the nice restaurants serving different Chinese cuisine as well other ethnic groups. Always nice to visit Malaysia for food. Below are some pictures from the few days spent there.

911 MB, not Porsche ;)

Vacation in Philippines p1

Helsinki-Vantaa airport, getting out just in time

Vacation in Finland

Last look down the valley before heading to Nice and my flight to Finland

M/t Tobias - the greatest tanker in the world

Many times in the beginning of my career the old hands talked about the American (“Yankee-tank”) supertanker “Tobias”, the world’s largest tanker. It was carrying elephant-snot from India…

M/t Tobias

Seafaring culture

An old colleague of mine, Lauri Vuorinen, published his musings in Finnish that I have freely translated into English. On the subject, the pictures are all courtesy from another colleague Hannu Vartiainen from 70's-80's.

Delivery Djibouti to Cyprus

Having been awhile at home I was contacted by my ex Ch Mate to do a short delivery of m/y Kalizma from Djibouti to Turkey and as I thought I have time I agreed on it readily and as I had been on her several years ago, last time back in 2012, I knew the yacht and her flaws. She had since 2012 been refitted and undergone survey to become a commercial yacht under Cook Island and successfully chartered in Indian Ocean the past years.

Said and done I received my flight tickets a few weeks later after the initial contact and flew down to Djibouti via Istanbul. Arrived more or less on time and exited the plane to go through the formalities I got the 1st indications of being in Africa.

Had to shell out bribes to get my arrival stamp, of course no receipt was given but got the stamp. Same was for the other seafarers behind me in same line, totally open and accepted. At the Customs I was made to open the bag and it was rooted around in, luckily nothing illegal was found and I could continue out of the terminal and find my ride.

Planned voyage Djibouti to Turkey, possibly Bodrum

S/y Fanny revisited

Suddenly a year had gone by since I had done the delivery of Fanny from Thailand to France. Time goes so fast these days. The Owner called me up and asked to help to renew cover and find better berthing as well as think of charters and/ or selling the vessel as he needed funds for his next project to sail single handed around the world on a trimaran.

Fanny at the temporary jetty

Lilibet

Having once again signed on I had an eventful month getting the show on the road with the least amount of time and we had headed for Singapore with just enough to make it to Singapore roads. The start was a bit rough with winds from our stern-quarters and as we approached Singapore I snagged a fishing net in the darkness just at the approaches of the Strait. The engine started vibrating and would not get up in revolutions so I shut it off and continued with 3 engines online. 

Singapore roads

Sail training ship Fennia

Having visited Falklands I came over the information by accident in a pub that a Finnish sailing vessel, FENNIA, had in early 1900's limped into Port Stanley jury rigged after having been partly demasted in a severe storm. 

Poster of shipwrecks around Falklands

Falklands Islands

Never having visited Falklands before it was an exciting prospect having only wondered about it as a kid watching the World chart on top of my bed that was gifted by my uncle. It used to be my pastime to look at funny foreign names on foreign continents before falling asleep. Well, now looking at Falklands map closer it was all English names interspersed with an occasional Spanish name.

Article from local newspaper about us

South Atlantic sojourn

As we had left Tristan da Cunha we set course for South Georgia with an aim to go do some PR for the locals there as well as to see the grave of Ernest Shackleton. 

Some humour along the trip was required, orginal Asterix album cover modified

Captain Arthur A Soderlund

As I was visiting Tristan da Cunha a colleague of mine had told me there is a Finn buried over there. Before the port was the local cemetery so I requested to stop there to have a look.

Eventually I found the grave after some walking about the graves and the stone said Arthur A Soderlund had been buried there after an accident working on the South African fishing vessel Frances Repetto.

 

Lawhill print by robertcarter.com

Tristan da Cunha

Having left Cape Town we planned to go East until we reached Tristan da Cunha before turning on a southerly heading in order to avoid the low pressures feeding up from Cape Horn and Pacific ocean. I had already been in contact with local fisheries officer there and he asked us to keep an eye out for anyone in their EEZ. As we were plodding on the weather was rather good and we eventually made good way. For those that do not know, TDC, is the remotest piece of land inhabited by people on earth, the territory is British under the St Helena administration, the Island was discovered by a Portuguese sailor back in 1506 and since then the name stuck. In 1961 the volcano erupted and the population was evacuated to Calshot, UK but eventually everyone returned in 1963 because of homesickness.

Tristan da Cunha, coat of arms