Me at the helm

Before we set off Lars had a security briefing together with us. We learned how to use all the necessary equipment and where they all are stored away. Very important is to hook on to the safety line running along deck. This was only necessary for me two times. One night in quite hard wind and rain we had to take down the main sail. It was actually no problem and felt very secure due to the safety percussions made before. But I can imagine it’s a lot harder in really hard weather. Luckily, we didn’t have that.

Lars, pointing out the impotence of sailing 

On the first night, we had fantastic bioluminescence (swedish mareld), the water glow like fire. It followed us the whole way to Thailand but was never that strong again.
The one thing you first run out of on the ocean is fresh fruits and vegetables. We had brought along quite much but the heat and moisture won at last making all fresh thing smell a bit odd and we had to turn to canned goods.

Fruit and vegetables storage

This trip was a great time for reading, this morning I finished “Hundraåringen som hoppade ut ur fönstret och försvann”. Night time, on watch, I was listening to Hypnotisören by Lars Keppler. At the end of the trip I had finished four more books.

Dolphines playing?

On the second day Dolphins visited us for the first of many times.  Funny how they enjoy to play around the boat and kind of lead the way as they jump close to the bow.

Dolphines at the bow, Andes taking a photo

This day we still had a very confused sea and I wasn’t feeling that good. Strangely though, I never got seasick in the night, perhaps concentrating on the work made me forget about it. Unfortunately the wind direction was about to change. On the third day we still could do some nice sailing but the wind got weaker and weaker and we had to, as Lars says, turn on the iron genua. The engine was to become our main forward force from now on. The waves changed and I didn’t get sea-sick any more. Instead of rolling from port to starboard Jennifer more went up and down the waves. But some time the sea was like in the Swedish archipelago, small waves and calm. We then suddenly had a free rider, a flying fish.

Flying fish

All circum navigators big nightmares is to hit something. Most of all they fear containers. There are plenty of containers drifting in the ocean because cargo ship dropped them accidentally in hard weather or so.

One giant container ship, they can carry thousand of containers.

The problem is that they float for quite a while. Other things you might hit are trees, whales (if you have a very fast sailing boat) or an oil barrow. We missed this one by 50 m. It wouldn’t have damaged Jennifer but probably made some noise and scratches.

A floating oil barrow – not something you want ta have close contact with

The days and nights with watches and off duty tine went on and suddenly a week had passed. Andes and I made a bet about what time we would arrive in Phuket. A lot of the time we were looking at the GPS which constantly recalculated the ETA, estimated time of arrival. One day with much head wind it said sixth of december. With less wind it was the fifth. You can easily understand, I think, why this was so, we were all longing for land and to use our legs. Just imaging yourself not walking more than perhaps 30 m a day for ten days. Some people even got problem with their bottoms sitting so much.

One the eights morning I sighted land again, the Nicobar Island. Just at the horizon but it felt good, I mean how else can you be sure of that all the electronic equipment was correct? For all that I know, we could have been sailing towards Australia, the ocean looks the same. Nicobar Island is forbidden land for all non-Indian citizens, we think it’s some kind of military base.

Lars at the VHF-radio

In the middle of being alone out there an oil tanker called us up on the VHF radio. The just wanted to chat a bit. Very nice, it was the  first live-voice except us three for a long time. After ending the call we were called up by two other boats. What a big family. 

A big family it was at the beginning. We were sailing along the main trade route; Malacka strait – Suez channel with all the asian goods for Europe. We had large commercial ships either overtaking us or meeting us the whole time. As Jennifer has AES and radar this was no problem. They made way for us when they had to. Quite impressive to se a 350 000 ton oil tanker change course to make way for 17 ton of Jennifer.

The bow falling from several meters hight into the ocean

The last two days we left the trade route and headed for Phuket. Now suddenly the wind built up but still was coming head on. We had waves in hight of 4 meters and Jennifer was again more like a roller coaster. We used the engine, as a matter of fact, I think the engine was on for the last four days.

Can you see land?

Around noon the tenth day we saw Thailand! What a joy. It really felt special. I kind of got a feeling for distances. You never get this feeling by using any other vehicles, especially aeroplanes. Sailing in average 5 knots is like jogging. You have enough time to experience the differences.

 
Lars looking at Thailand

Jennifer had taken us to Thailand and we were all very eager to go a shore. Andes was talking about a cool beer and I wanted to find a hotel. I was going to disembark directly. I didn’t feel to sad leaving my bunk. Don’t misunderstand me, it is very confortable with a private toilet and shower. But if you know my “size” you’ll know why I wanted a normal bed.

My bunk for eleven days, ten at high sea

Unfortunately the dingey was broken but we had no other. We all sat in this small boat, very close to the surface to get from Jennifer to the pier. It all went well but the immigration office was closed. Sigh, but we went around the small village and very soon sat in a restaurant with nice Thai food and plenty to drink.

The lighthouse bar and restaurant

This place also had some rooms. They were very comfortable and I decided to disembark at once to have a bit more comfort. Later that evening I had a shower of the century. Before that I had to get my bags from Jennifer. And that in a broken dingey – no good.

The pier at night

On the way out on the pier I was able to convince a gay to give us a lift in his small motor boat. Convince? Well money talks. Anyway, he safely brought me back with all my bags and that was my last stay on Jennifer for this time. I would meet up with Lars and Andes the following morning to do the clearance.

At the immigration

Of course the immigration didn’t open as it says on the door. We had to wait. I know this from other trips I made so I suggested we go over to the hotel for breakfast. But Lars got hold on a place for Jennifer at a Marina and wanted to get there as fast as possible so we waited by the door. Eventually the staff came along but we had to pay some extra charges because it was a holiday. It was the day AFTER the kings birthday. Customs was no problem and next was immigration. We were first in line and as we sat down at the desk I noticed a sign saying that people leaving Thailand in a different way than arriving has to pay 20 000 bht fond. (approx. $ 700). After it’s confirmed that the person has left the country the skipper then would get the money back. I explained the situation and the officer fully understood. He just nodded. After a while he asked med to follow him then I realized it was time for a new souvenir, you know what I mean if you read about my bike-trips. He took me to the room next door and said that we (Andes and I) would get the normal 30 day visa, no problem. He would make an exception for 1 000 bht each. I paid him off as i use to do, unscrupulous as I am.

Now I’ve changed hotel. I’m at the Karon beach. Here is everything very Swedish, with Swedish newspaper, signs, menues etc . I already ordered a tailor made tuxedo and will do an island speed boat trip before I go back on thursday. There is not much of interest for me to tell so I’ll sign of here. By the way, it’s very warm and confortabel here but it rains a lot.

See you all, wherever you are.

 
In a TucTuc in Sri Lanka

Oh yes, I almost forgot, I won the bet and Andes bought me a beer 🙂