In Espoo

My friend Jari I have known back when we used to work in Bore Lines as deckhands both on Bore Queen. Some years later he worked as 1st Officer for me on Columbus Caravelle in Singapore and Malaysia. 

m/s Bore Queen

Since then Jari has moved out of Turku and settled down in Espoo, Haralahti with his long time wife Minna and their 5 year old daughter Olga in his own designed and built house, the typical Finnish high light of private life.

After stopping by the mall to get some food for the evening we sat down to exchange some highlights of life and recent happenings while enjoying Swedish beer, Lappland Gold. Then we started preparing the sauna and "palju" for heating up. Sauna is of course the Finnish must in a get together, but the "palju" is a new trend. Palju is a 2000 liter wooden cistern that has attached a wooden heating element. The wood is heat treated so it won't expand or shrink in atmospheric changes. Jari told me that he even uses it during winter, one only needs to wear a woollen cap to prevent the head from freezing over.

Same time Jari's daughter Olga was proving herself quite a chatterbox with opinions and stories for nearly everything. As the evening went on we stripped down and entered the palju, it was nearly 37 degrees and very comfortable. The cistern was designed in the shape of an octagon and had a bench all around inside of it so one could sit and chat while enjoying the warmth. After awhile we had to try out the sauna as well but the palju proved much more appealing in the end. I could say that one of the options is sufficient for bathing.

In the "palju"

Then it was bed time for Olga and I was designated to read the night time story for her. Soon enough she got tired of my droning and fell asleep.

I offered Jari a taste of Company wares in the form of Dalmore 12yrs old. Close to midnight Minna came from from work and it was also time for me to get some shuteye after being on the road for 24 hrs from India.

Back to work again...

So, once we arrived Phuket 6th Aug I was off the ship again on to spend my remaining vacation days, after that it would be continuous work until next May again...

I went home to Jira and just relaxed until 14th when we made a sojourn to Chumphon province to visit relatives, this time Jira's brothers mother-in-law. She has farms near Lang Suan. It was a grueling drive up north half way to Bangkok with a lunch stop in Surat Thani at a highway Co-op eatery. All and all it took us 5 1/2 hrs to get from A to B. The mother-in-law had her house high up in the hills and it was pleasantly cool in the evening, even the mozzies did not bother us too much.

After arrival though we still drove down to Lang Suan Pak Nam (Lang Suan by the Beach) and saw a huge aircraft carrier built from concrete erected on the beach. It was a memorial for King Mongkut (Rama 5th). At the market we bought seafood for dinner and also visited an aunt there. Well up in the mountains again cooking began. As it was nearing voting time some guys appeared with rice whiskey bottles and tried to get the local menfolk drunk. I guess they ended more inebriated than the guys of the house (I had no part in it).

The Kings memorial

Then saturday morning 15th we got up early and started to pick Long Kong fruit from the mother-in-law's orchard. Long Kong fruits are as sweet as Lychee's but hairless and they grow funnily straight out from the tree trunk. The fruit is very well liked by ants and the are testy too and like to bite. This discovered too when climbing up a tree and harvesting it. I was picking ants off myself for an hour afterwards.

Mother-in-law also gave concentrated Durian candy to take down South. The candy is manufactured that several Durian fruits are peeled into a wok and then put on low heat while the wok is stirred all the time. Some people also add sugar but in this case none had been added. The stirring goes on for up to 12 hrs until all liquid has been heated out and only a thick brown paste remains, this then is collected into containers and kept in a fridge. The candy can be eaten just like that and is very filling, same as the fruit in it's natural consistency.

Once we had 7 crates (abt 120kg) of Long Kong in our pick-up truck we loaded ourselves in it and headed down south again. This time we did a late lunch stop near SUrat Thani at the Phrap Pla restaurant by the sea. It had a long walkway to get to the building itself but the view was very stunning and the oysters cheap (25 THB compared to Phuket 45 THB or >). Once fed we loaded us up again and headed for the last stretch home to Trang.

Then on 19th morning it was time to travel to Phuket and sign on Kalizma. I had an handover with Avnish and he arranged a farewell party in his restaurant Kargo Curry near Laguna. The food was excellent.

Next day, 22nd Aug, it was time to cast off Phuket an head down to Lumut for our drydocking. The weather forecast looked fairly ok and what happened then, I will update you after we've completed our works in Malaysia...

Related pics here

Captain's blog June 2009

This month has gone frantically doing maintenance on the boat, carpentry, metal works, painting, varnishing, electrical jobs, flag state jobs, class jobs & preparing drydocking, F1 visit & handover. “No rest for the wicked” as they say.

G1 shipyard headoffice in Lumut, Malaysia

As for crew matters I got back Sunil and Rajaram rested from their annual vacations and I sent Vivek for his holiday.

We actually arrived from Langkawi already on the 26th May and I did not stop on the way for diving as the weather was really poor, windy and rainy all the way. We arrived at Yacht Haven 2pm with no hassles, I experienced some funny cross currents pushing us off the pier although it was slack water so my approach was a bit slow but finally we managed to tie up in an orderly fashion.

I was met by the Marina Manager Zara Tremlett on the pier after finished with all engines. Our local agents, Gordon Fernandes and Toby Koehler arrived later on in the afternoon and as we started with the official paperwork and then changing news and gossip with some Kingfisher and snacks we soon discovered it was almost midnight.

The rest of the week was spent contacting anew old contractors for planned jobs and getting worklists and quotes made up.

Next weekend 30th I visited Jira in Trang province and we did an outing to Satun and the Wang Rajan bordermarket at the Thai-Malay border. Thai nationals could wander into the Malay side and do shopping there, I could not as my visa would have been voided. Very similar to the Thai-Cambodian Aranyaprathet border market that is popular for Bangkokians to visit for shopping and gambling (in Poipet).

Near the border was the “Thaleban Nature Park” which we visited shortly on the way back. There I saw and heard mountain frogs, the noise was deafening from such small creatures.


Frog song

1st week of June we got dayworkers and contractors galore onboard and the usual maintenance hula-baloo started.

Following weekend 6th I took Richard and Jyothi out for an outing to Trang where we visited the local aquarium and sea-lion show.

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

Next week I started a detox diet and had only fruit juice for next 2 weeks just to see what the effects were. The experience was not too bad but I always felt a sting of jealousy seeing people eat and it seemed to me Richard was making an effort preparing all kind of good dishes or maybe it was just my hungry imagination.

June 20th I took Saini and Kalpana to Trang province and we visited the Klong Thom Hot Springs Sa Morakot pools.

Next week went meeting with Avnish and putting him in the picture of what is happening on the yacht workwise and re: our commercial certification status. I printed out reams of statements, lists and reports covering the handover.

On the 27th was hashing day for Phuket HHH and we decided to join. Saini and me had been running there before but Martula and Richard decided to join us.

Finally, on the 28th morning I whipped out the scale and could ascertain that I had lost abt 8kg’s during my 2 weeks juice detox combined with evening jogging with Saini.

At noon we headed for Sarasin bridge with most of our crew for a handover lunch. Just after crossing the bridge, turned left to the bridge bank, there is a seafood restaurant that serves lovely and inexpensive food while watching the tide swirl by. I also enjoyed being able to eat again after 2 weeks of chugging juice. Once the lunch was devoured I took my leave and was wished a Happy vacation for the next 30 days.

I’ll keep updating you of my holiday next, until then…

One Year onboard Kalizma

Today is the 30th April and if you have been reading my posts you realize that I have been onboard Kalizma continuously for one year.

Richard & Jira in front of the Buffalo Park

Usually I have been earlier only been doing 6-7 mths turns onboard, sometimes due to length of contract other times due to force majeure.

Anyway, the cycle is the same, every 3-4 months you go down on your mood and hardly feel like doing anything, this I call the process of being institutionalised. When you get over the feeling that you need to go somewhere and accept he inevitable that you gotta do some work too, the load lightens on your shoulder and you can live another day.

Although Kalizma have not been used that actively by her Owner I sure have been happy keeping her running. All kind of Engineering problems has been solved during the past year and hopefully this year will be a bit quieter.

I have to look forward for a drydock again and after that we will hopefully be a commercially certified yacht.

My vacation is kicking in sometimes in June and I will be relieved by Avnish, it'll be good to sit back and really relax, not needing to wake up in the morning and think about running the ship.