Trip to Hat Yai and Songkhla

3rd of July we loaded our entourage into our pick-up truck and headed for Hat Yai and Songkhla. Eventually the goal was to have me and Jira take a traditional tattoo by a Holy man (like a Brahmin). We reached Songkhla at noon and we enjoyed Samila beach and the Mermaid and Cat statues there. The beach peddlers were not as active and not as frequent as in Pattaya or Phuket beaches which I found pleasant. I bought the kids a set of spades and buckets and showed them how to build sand castles. The grown up Thais sitting in the shade probably thought I was another crazy farang playing in the sunshine, the kids were not of same opinion.

Cat statue of Songkhla (courtesy of Halimi Abdullah)

Processing rubber

I was given the opportunity to watch Jira’s sister’s husband processing rubber sap. In one night about 45 liters of sap is gathered by bleeding the rubber trees. This must take place daily otherwise the trees dry up like cow teats.

N. Rid cleaning up after rubber making

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

Hashing with Phuket HHH

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 as newcomers.

The star of the run...

Hot springs and Sa Morakot pools

This weekend I took Saini and Kalpana to Trang province and we visited the Klong Thom Hot Springs where one could sit in naturally formed cauldrons of ca 40°C hot water running down from a stream out of the jungle. According to a posted water analysis it did not contain much of any minerals at all and in fact the sulphurous smell that one usually gets was virtually not existing.

While sitting in the water I actually overheard a Bangkokian tourist asking another guy “Where do they boil all this hot water?”…

Enjoying all the boiled water...

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...

Trang aquarium and Le Khaokob cave

I took Richard and Jyothi out for an outing to Trang where we visited the local aquarium and sea-lion show. The aquarium exhibited some remarkable samples of filled up sharks and various big fishes as well as had a also aquariums with live fish as well. Not as flashy as aquariums in Shanghai or San Francisco but an aquarium nonetheless, well cared for and clean surroundings. The lion fish that was exhibited live were really big specimens. The sea-lion show was nice but the staff could have been as enthusiastic as the sea-lions themselves. Cheap entrance fees with 30 THB to aquarium and 20 THB for the show, not the usual double tier system.

Jira & stalactites

Captain’s blog May

Well, last month ended in our arrival to the beautiful Island of Langkawi and we arrived in good weather, slack water and tied up in an orderly manner just stern stern with m/y Sinbad at the Royal Langkawi yacht club.

Dubey & Kalpu ready for the evening

One Year anniversary 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

Mumbai - Cochin - Langkawi

So, we left Mumbai finally and were underway to Langkawi via Cochin. The reason for stopping in Cochin was to take cheaper fuel from there as in Mumbai nobody was selling tax free fuel.

Once at sea we got the waves from our stern and a strong NW'ly breeze. Everything was hunky-dory. Our Naga girls got sea-sick of course and for the 1st couple of days resembled zombies as we were trying to get them cheered up. Finally I resorted to giving them motion sickness pills so that fixed that problem.

Kalpu prepared for the worst

Leaving India

As you may know if you have followed my blogs I've been in India since December and I am soon to leave the subcontinent for Thailand as not to spend the rainseason here.

Kalizma at Victoria Docks

Captain's blog - March 2009

March was spent alongside in Mumbai only. We had a MCA commercial yacht status survey and inclination test that was concluded on the 4th. Then after this the rest of the month was spent rectifying observations done by our surveyor, Mr. Alf Cashmore. Suddenly our “to-do” list was completely full.

Alf Cashmore, our MCA surveyor

Captain's blog Feb 2009

Feb started with works related to our commercial certification and then on 1st Feb Boss came for a short visit and he probably would have liked to stay longer but unfortunately the small boat curfew was still valid so there was no landing possibility after dark. Soon enough we got orders to sail for Goa on 3rd Feb.

River Princess wreck at Candolim Beach that has eroded the beach by several meters

Cruise to Grandi Island

Boss gave orders same day early morning that he wants to cruise Grandi Is. Next morning we scrambled up all agents and navy personnel as the area is controlled by navy. Sailing took us only a couple of hours and we anchored at SE tip of Grandi Is.

We were followed by Augustine and his small fleet of jetskis out of Sinquerim and I had to go around all approach channels and pilot stations so I approached the Grandi Is from the NW.

Grandi Island

MCA on ENG1 medicals

Many foreigners who work on yachts always get confused when they are asked about their ENG1 medical cert.

Visit to brewery

We arrived the brewery at noon and was met by the various smells of fermenting grains and hops that is associated with a brewery as we were guided to Govind Tiwari’s office where we were greeted with some lunch and cold fresh glasses of Kingfisher. After a short chat we discovered that the brewery was currently churning out abt 100.000 btls a day in 2 shifts, but if demand would rise the production could be increased too.

Richard in front of the brewery

Spice Garden visit

As we entered the garden on a footpath from the ticket booth we heard group of ladies walking in a circle, clapping their hands while singing local songs and as we passed under the entrance fragrant flowers was thrown on us and everyone got a “lei” around their neck.

Crew and Augustine at reception

Cruise ship soap opera

A few weeks back I was related a true story from a cruise ship of how a personal drama evolved to remarkable proportions, read on.

Cruise ship

Captain's Blog - January 2009

So, the year of 2009 has been ushered in and a month of it has already been used up, whew, time goes by so fast when you grow older. We arrived Mumbai 22nd Dec and started some quick repairs again to get Kalizma spick'n'span for our Boss and guests.

M/y Kalizma alongside Victoria Docks

Letter of protest - waterbarge

Letter of protest from 1872

Trip to Pune

I had been invited to meet my friend Atul Gaikwad that lives close to Mumbai (at least when you look at the map) and this Saturday I decided to go on a short excursion. I bought a "Volvo" class ticket for 250 Rs on Friday.

Fire onboard

Just last saturday, 3rd Jan, I had a fire onboard, it was very small and nobody was hurt, but nevertheless could have caused a total loss in case it would not have been quickly acknowledged by the crew.

The fire started from a light fixture (20cm x 20cm) in the lower crew cabin below water level. The fixture somehow short circuited itself, started smoking and finally ignited the plastic parts in it. In less than a minute the whole cabin was smoke packed and triggered a fire alarm.

Molten plastic

Happy New Year

So it was 31/12, the last day of the year. The day started as any other day here in Mumbai. It is sunny here now in winter time and reasonably cool. Not cold though.

Me & Vivek just after New Year...

Port Blair - The cellular jail

Port Blair was a failed attempt to establish a settlement in 1789 and was largely forgotten until 1858 when a penal colony for convicts was established by the British Indian government.

   

Cellular jail (source: Flickr on Trawell )