Peace & Quiet, plus Gongs & Knives

Coming back to the Tulai River we're reminded of the environmental noise we live with. There is very little human background noise here, so every insect, bird, reptile and animal makes its own contribution to the symphony as we wake each morning.

That all changed last week, as the sound of discordant gongs and drums floated across the paddy fields to wake us. Our friends were practicing for the wedding of a local girl, taking place the next day. It was a big thing - hundreds of Iban guests arrived by lorry from the groom's longhouse. Whilst nominally a Christian ceremony, when the two longhouse groups met, they shared a slurp of whisky and then with gongs and drums playing they slaughtered a pig at the entrance to the longhouse. The guests then paraded the length of the long house, with gongs and drums accompanying. Eventually the pig was cut up (very interesting video, see the photo top right) and then things went quiet for a while. Makai (dinner) was served to all, though we were invited into Jampie's house for dinner with the extended family - probably 30 of us. A real feast, huge river prawns, many vegetable dishes, chicken cooked in bamboo, rice in bamboo and of course no Iban feast would be complete without "babi" - the pork!

After makai the bride and groom arrived in modern dress, white long bridal gown, white long bridesmaid dress and the groom in full suit, collar and tie, but only socks - no shoes. The bride, bridesmaid and the best man were bare-foot, like the rest of us. We were the official photographers - took lots of stills and video.

Then the speeches, ceremony and music happened. An Iban gong band played constantly, with Neil's new Bali drum included. Another 80 feet down the long house was a live Malay band - playing music at the same time . It was noisy! One end had people doing the traditional Najat Iban dances, the other doing the modern Malay male shuffle (so boring).

Lots of fun, lots of tuak (rice wine) and a good time was had. We left at 2am, but they went on until dawn, when peace and quiet eventually returned. We didn't hear the roosters at dawn, but the kids swimming after breakfast eventually woke us .... we really do love this river.

The river tides are big at the moment, ranging around 3.5 metres. We try to be on board for the swing as the tide changes, just in case any wind should push us close to the bank. We sit here with 50 metres of chain out in a river that's only 40 metres wide - but the current always wins, and centres us in the stream.

Tradition Survives, Despite The Fire

Despite the proximity to town (only 20 minutes by fast boat), and the influence of the missionary churches, this long house group is still a repository of Iban tradition. Some of that disappeared when Rumah Suring burned, with the loss of many artifacts including valuable long swords, many that had taken heads in the past. Locals still say that if you have a rash on your body, then you wipe the blade of an "experienced" long sword across the skin and the rash will be cured. Fortunately other long blades survive here, so we don't see too many rashes....

Last week we delivered some photographs to Rumah Labang and watched a traditional medicine man examine and probe every rib, muscle and intestinal bump of his patient, who was lying prone on the floor. He then applied a special white paste, finger painting the patient's body in half-moon swirls. Try claiming that on Medicare ...

Two nights ago we watched the yellow/white lights of an aircraft seemingly hover low above the river, as it approached Sibu airport (30km away). Our friend Jampie, sitting with us on the transom steps at sunset, said that many of the old people here still believe the lights are the eyes of the Antu (ghosts). Its taken a little time for these traditional practices and observations to be shared with us - we saw and heard little on our first few visits.

We're very pleased to see traditional music now being played by the younger children, something we've been encouraging for the past two years. During the wedding I was able to play in a spirited gong band, made up entirely of young teenagers, both girls and boys. This would have been impossible two years ago - its a joy and privilege to see it happening now.

Santubong - Kuching Cruising Information

We know that many boats plan to cruise in Sarawak this year - we hope this information assists.

Santubong River Entrance

The river entrance here has shallowed somewhat over recent years. There are two (2) bars to cross on the way in - the first is well out to sea, where we saw 4.7 metres on a 3.0 metre tide. The inner bar is crossed after you've turned to port, heading east into the river. Here we saw 3.9 metres on a 3.3 metre tide - thats 0.6 metres on a zero tide, using the installed leads as the entrance guide. Locals tend to wander south of those leads, and they say there is more water there, but I have never tested it.

The top image shows the display from our electronic charting system (Tsunamis Navigator Pro) on the way in, with our ships track in red. Note that we stay deliberately to the east of the lead line on the long southward leg, purely because thats the way the tugs and barges do it - I can take a hint. Then we turn to the east and come on to the river leads proper,though severe charting error shows us well south of the lead line. Don't worry, use the white triangular leads at the river mouth, then start to move north again once you've crossed the shallow section.

As you make that turn to the east you must stay clear (north) of the yellow floating buoy... this marks the northern end of a reef off the mainland to the south. It used to be a big green pole with flashing light, but a barge took it out recently. I've shown the buoy, at its GPS derived (approx) location, in the chartlet above. If you're on the leads you'll pass within 150 metres of it.

The anchorage is not far in. Datuk Lingi's staff have asked that visiting yachts anchor on the north side of the river (about 1/3 of the way out from the bank), starting at Lingi's dock and then working eastwards. They strongly suggest you don't anchor off the village, as you'll intefere with the drift netting that happens there most evenings. Barge and boat traffic on the river occurs on the southern side, so keep to the north of the centre line. This Google Earth image of the river shows the docks, plus anchoring positions, bus stop, shops etc. Click on the image to enlarge, and save it if you like.

Crocodile Update

The big croc (see the story here) seems to have disappeared from the poorly fenced pond where they dumped it, in the car park behind Palm Garden restaurant. Its probably back in the river (damn). The little croc (2.5m), which also escaped from the restaurant's ponds, continued to hang around the boat ramp. Great ... so the restaurant owner then decided to start feeding it right there, hanging dead chickens on rope to attract it, as a "drawcard" for tourists. Go figure. Last Thursday many people launched and retrieved boats at that ramp, up to their waist in water, while the croc watched from maybe 10 metres away. Unreal. That night we saw it on the mudflat below the restaurant, with patrons hanging out the windows to photograph it.

Fortunately, the local Malay community have now taken matters into their own hands. On Friday morning a hooked line was set, baited with dead chicken. The creature was captured, trussed and taken to the local crocodile farm. So the current situation is that the smaller escapee has been detained and relocated, but the bigger one is probably hanging around. No swimming !

Proboscis Monkeys

There is a colony of proboscis monkeys living in the Kuching Wetlands National Park, not far from the Santubong anchorage. We took the dinghy across the estuary and into the
Jebong River (Sungai Jebong), and saw them up close on the southern bank as we approached Kampong Salak. A basic map of the national park, with the river and kampong marked, can be downloaded here.

Irrawaddy Dolphins

The lower reaches of the Santubong and Rajang rivers carry populations of Irrawaddy Dolphin. These rare and beautiful creatures are very shy, but will swim close to your boat when at anchor. We often see them in the mornings. More information is available at the "Dolphins Of Sarawak" website here.

Travel & Provisioning In Kuching

Use our Services guide (download from the web). The best supermarkets are Ting & Ting in Tabuan road (right down town) and Choice Daily, some way out of town but worth the drive. A Kuching city map, marked up with useful locations, can be downloaded here, along with the Santubong - Kuching bus timetable here. While there are many buses travelling that route, the timetable is for the air conditioned resort bus. They're cool and clean. We rent cars or motor cycles from Tek Hua Motors, also in Tabuan Road, just up the hill from Ting & Ting. Speak to Winnie there - contact details are in the services guide. Once you're mobile you might like to call into Kampong Buntal, close to Santubong, a Malay village with several chinese seafood restaurants, a fish market and basic supplies available.

Rainforest World Music Festival Transport

Getting to the festival site can be a pain (though we used a motor bike last year and it was great). Datuk Lingi's staff are trying to organise some mini vans for the visiting yachts - but they need to know how many people will be coming. If a group of boats is interested, a representative should call Dolah or Pendi on 014-881-9455 or 013-804-5210. We're told that Datuk Lingi is happy for the visiting boats to use his dock for dinghy access again this year - but please treat it with respect.

Have fun in Santubong/Kuching, and make sure you book your music festival tickets early. We departed Santubong on Saturday morning, and are now anchored on Sungai Tulai with our friends at longhouse Rumah Lidam. The prawns are plentiful this season, and we've been given half a kilo each day since arriving. We hope to see you up here after the music festival.

Work & Play In Singapore

Crystal Blues arrived in Singapore on April 27. The voyage south was predictable - we motored all the way (no wind) and picked up net tangles TWICE in our propeller. We also had a large fish (1 metre +) land on deck and then travel half way down the boat before flipping himself over the side. Fortunately he missed the open forward hatch, or we'd have had one messy bedroom.

One Degree 15 Marina is our Singapore home, providing us with a great base to socialise, relax and tackle the never ending boat jobs. We were delighted to find our good friends Janet & Joe of SV Tegan here, as well as the Stonham family on SV Tui Tai and Robert & Elaine on SV Sunrise. That's Janet and Joe in the picture at right, doing it tough in the pool.

It hasn't been all fun. Our Lifeline AGM house batteries finally died after 7 years of sterling service. Unable to source suitable replacement batteries in Phuket or Langkawi, we ordered a new set of Trojan AGMs from the Singapore distributor. Two days after our arrival they were delivered to the dock at 2pm and were installed that afternoon. Final tweaking and fixing the locking bars was completed the following morning. Neil's body was bruised and scratched from manoeuvring the batteries into the box, which is not located for easy access, being under the cockpit floor and surrounded by other equipment.

Our wind instrument has been lying to us for about 6 months. At first it was intermittent and then it just refused to acknowledge reality. Ley went to the top of the mast to rotate the vane whilst Neil measured the voltage returns at the display head - no change in voltage confirmed that the transducer needed to be replaced. Fortunately OceanTalk had just received their first delivery of Raymarine stock into Singapore so a replacement unit was available.

Over sundowners one night we were invited to join local expats Rod, Angie and Mike at the
Singapore Gun Club. Mike (SV Greensleeves) is a pilot with Qatar airlines, and a member of the gun club here.

The choice of weapons for the morning's practice were pistols. Both of us had fired rifles and shotguns before, and Neil had fired a pistol on a target range years ago. The targets were set up, and detailed safety and handling instructions were noted. Clips were loaded and the fun began. For pistol novices we scored quite well, with Ley scoring the only bullseye.

We cleared with immigration and port authority this morning, and will depart Singapore this afternoon, bound for Kuching. We should arrive in the Santubong anchorage on Monday afternoon.

More Borneo Cruising

BIYC Date Change

The BIYC organising committee has changed the dates for this year's event. The race has been brought forward to run from August 24 to 29. The change was needed to avoid conflicting with the Ramadan period in the following weeks. Enquiries to Capt. Fin at Miri Marina (fin@asianyachting.com).

Latest news at the Borneo Race Website here.

Rumah Suring Burns ...

One of the beautiful Iban longhouses on the Tulai river has burned down. Rumah Suring, constructed of timber with 37 doors, caught fire last month while the residents were away voting in government elections. We learned of the fire via SMS message from our friends at nearby Rumah Lidam. The district officer, Mohamad Junaidi Mohidin, has emailed to tell us that no one was killed, though some were injured, and that all the people are being cared for by relatives and friends in nearby longhouses. 37 families lost their homes and all their possessions, save what they were wearing and carrying on election day.

To help those people (see the kids in the photo at right) we're collecting donations and goods to carry up river. Thanks to the Stonham family on SV Tui Tai for kicking things off with a great bag of goodies. If you're travelling to Borneo this year, you can leave donations in Kuching with Ian Robertson & Mona Woodford at Mona Medical Supplies in Kuching. Ian & Mona own the yacht Kumang, moored in the anchorage at Santubong. They have kindly offered to store things for us until we can transport them to Sungai Tulai. Call Ian & Mona on 082-240-744.

We'll accept anything from books to tools, clothing, utensils, crockery, hardware etc. Children's English language books are fine. Got some T-Shirts you haven't worn yet ? Pass them on please. Crystal Blues will be in Santubong anchorage from around May 14 for 10 days or so. If you arrive after we've departed, please leave things with Ian & Mona.

River Travel

River travel in Sarawak is a delight. The photo at right shows young Jack Scott (SV Stong Legs) with Alistair & Vivian (SV Largo Star) with yours truly, heading for trouble on the Rajang River in 2006.

In our last entry on this topic (review it here), we recommended several charts for travelling on the Rajang. Some people have asked if they are really necessary .... my answer is that I wouldn't travel without them, though I know it has been done.

Other people have heard of strong currents and debris making life difficult on the rivers. Our advice is to move upstream, away from the lower delta region, where the currents are strongest and debris is more common. We try to anchor out of the main stream, usually in a tributary or side river. In Sarikei and Bintangor there are wide and deep side streams that are perfect. In other places we read the tide and pick a spot that is out of the ebbing current, which is always the faster of the two. The dry season is approaching, and with reduced rain the Rajang runs fairly clean in our experience.

Outboard Motor Security

Back in July last year we had our Tohatsu outboard motor stolen, despite the stainless steel strop and padlock securing it to the boat (original story here). The thieves had simply smashed off the alloy transom screw toggles, eliminating our supposedly secure fixings.

Some weeks later, our friends Joe & Janet of SV Tegan showed us a simple tube that can be padlocked over the transom screws, to eliminate the weak point. Whilst the tube can be purchased commercially, it sure wasn't available in Sarawak. So we had one made by a local stainless steel fabrication shop in Miri, from square section tube that is commonly used for legs on stainless steel kitchen furniture. The first one cost about $12 and worked really well, so we had a second one made for our smaller outboard. One slot, two holes, its really very simple. The slot was cut with a plasma cutter.

A lot of people have since asked for the dimensions and details, so here they are. A detailed drawing is available here as a .pdf download. Click on the photo's at right to enlarge the view.

The padlock is a stainless steel Abus Mariner, which we've found to be bomb proof in a saltwater environment, though we needed a slightly longer shackle to go through both the tube and the stainless strop. The installed photo is at right. The rubber surround on the padlock stops it rattling against the boat - nice.

Refitting And Provisioning, Plus A Cruising Award

Since our return to Thailand we've spent some weeks completing negotiations and arrangements with contractors for our refit and painting work, to be carried out later this year. Lots of documentation and negotiations, and we're pleased to say that we've appointed Pro Yachting ("Jill & Pro") to do the work at Boat Lagoon, Phuket. The rig will be removed and painted, along with the hull, and we plan some improvements and stainless steel work. Jotun primers and epoxies will be used exclusively, with Awlgrip Linear Polyurethane topcoats. As we'll have to move off the boat and empty the contents, finding reasonable accomodation has been a priority. Days of driving around the area have proved useful, and we've found some promising places. Our plan is to rent a 2 or 3 bedroom house for the five or six months that we'll be there. Whilst we'll be working on the boat most days, visitors will certainly be welcome! Phuket is a delightful holiday spot. Check your frequent flyer points....we expect to be living and working in Phuket from late August 2008 to late January 2009.

Private and rental villas are big business in Phuket, and we've also been working hard recording two villas on video, using DV.Cam format, as a trial for a new video enabled web site. The pictures look good, and will be edited when we get to Singapore next week. More news on that one later in the year.

Before the haulout we're making another visit to Sarawak, to spend more time with our friends at the longhouse Rumah Lidam. Last week in Langkawi we provisioned extensively for the journey, adding some 800 litres of diesel and about 200 litres of beer, wine and spirits to the payload. The diesel came by jerry can from shore, 100 litres per trip, and we were very glad when it was over. Here in Penang we've added more Aussie beef to the freezer, and ticked off the usual range of boat jobs. We should be in Singapore by April 26, for about 2 weeks.

Our 1st Weblog Birthday, Celebrated With The Ocean Cruising Club

This weblog is 1 year old this month, and it seems that many people are enjoying the content. The site has been visited around 5000 times in the twelve months. Some of the video content has been hit more than that, thanks to U-Tube. Even our simple life raft servicing video (link here) has been viewed over 1400 times(I'm amazed). Back in early January we received a delightful email from Eric Vischer, on behalf of the Ocean Cruising Club in the UK.

In his words, "I am very pleased to inform you that the Committee of The Club has decided to award you the 2007 Water Music Trophy for providing excellent cruising information to The Club. Through your website, you have provided very full cruising information on Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Borneo, Indonesia and Australia and New Caledonia. Your site contains downloadable customs and immigration documentation for ports in many of those countries, comprehensive marine service directories for Asia and Australia and a section for your favourite recipes for the gourmet cruiser. We have said that anyone contemplating cruising those parts should not fail to browse your site! This is now all available through a link from the OCC web site for the rest of us to use." Thank you Eric !

The Water Music Trophy is for a member "who has contributed most to the Club by way of providing cruising information, navigation and pilotage", and is one of several awards given annually by the OCC. Another award winner this year was Sir Robin Knox Johnson. Naturally we're honoured and delighted, but were unable to attend the presentation in London earlier this month. However Neil's cousins Sue Wreford and Simon Heap attended the dinner on our behalf, on April 4th at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in Knightsbridge, London. That is cousin Sue in the photo, receiving the trophy from Admiral Mary Barton. Sue now has temporary possession of a medallion that will eventually find its way home to Crystal Blues. Our sincere thanks go to the Committee of the OCC for considering us. Read the official citation here.

The web is an amazing tool - in recent weeks this site has been linked to the Tourist Click web site (see the graphic in the right hand column), and to several marine and cruising oriented news feeds, so we'll try to keep it interesting and relevant.

Creepy Crawly

Earlier today the boat behind us here in the Tanjong City Marina in Penang had a new guest on board - a baby monitor lizard. That's Ainsley Skye from Airlie Beach (Australia) getting friendly with the lizard, along with Vongsaporn Sornsamnet, Thai captain of a local charter boat. The reptile is now being entertained by the crew, happily munching small fish in a recycled oil drum, while awaiting transportation to a wildlife refuge.

On a slightly different scale, the local people at Santubong village (near Kuching, Sarawak) found an unwelcome visitor in their front yard recently. This is the village we anchor near when visiting Kuching, and we have heard of crocodile attacks in the area in recent years. No, we don't swim there. See the full story here.

Long Range WiFi In Malaysia

mssRecently we wrote aboute the Senao high power wi-fi adapter that is so effective on a cruising boat. Over the weekend we visited the Penang PC Show and found that Senao products are now available in Malaysia from Advancenet Technology Sdn Bhd. Price for the EUB.362EXT is MR 270.00 for the unit, plus about MR 60.00 for a 7dbi antenna. This is excellent value. You can download the contact details here.

Cruising Borneo In 2008

We're returning to Borneo this year, with plans to spend most of our time "up river". Crystal Blues will be on the beautiful Tulai River, a tributary of the Rajang River, where we'll participate in the Gawai festivities at the longhouse Rumah Lidam. Besides the Gawai festival, there are many activities that make a trip to Sarawak worthwhile :

Gawai Dayak / June 1 - 30
Main festivities are on June 1, at most traditional longhouses in Sarawak (see our comments below regarding Gawai Antu).
Borneo Culture Festival / June 27 - July 5
In the town square at Sibu. Anchor in the Rajang River opposite the ferry terminal.
Rainforest World Music Festival / July 11 - 13
A world class musical feast, at Sarawak Cultural Village, Santubong. Book early ! Anchorage in the river at Santubong, or easy access from Kuching. More info here.
Kuching Festival & Sarawak Regatta / August 1 - 3
The Kuching street parade is on August 2. Anchorage in the Santubong River. The traditional longboat races are held each day.
Baram River Regatta / August 22 - 24
Traditional longboat races on the Baram River at Marudi. Access via regional air service or ferry from Miri.
Borneo International Yachting Challenge / September 7 - 13
Labuan Harbour and Miri Marina. Info here.

Remember - internal air travel in Sarawak and Sabah is inexpensive, and accomodation is very reasonable. You can move around very easily, and local people are helpful and friendly. More informatin is available from the Sarawak Tourism Board here.

2008 Is Gawai Antu

The Gawai Dayak festival is held each year between June 1 and June 30. To the local people it's a celebration of unity, aspiration and hope that marks the end of rice harvest and ushers in another year of bountiful goodness. Traditional music, dance and tuak (rice wine) are all used in abundance. This year Gawai takes on a special role - it is Gawai Antu, meaning festival of the dead. The ceremony and celebrations are, we are told, more substantial and special. We hope to arrive in Kuching, Sarawak (Santubong River anchorage) in early May, and to depart for the Rajang river by May 20.

If you're travelling north east along the coast of Sarawak, you can enjoy the Gawai celebration up river and then return to Santubong anchorage for the Rainforest World Music Festival, or (as we did last year), move on to Miri marina and fly back to Kuching for the music festival. Its only two days travel by boat in either direction, and flights from Miri to Kuching are generally less than fifty dollars.

Our host and friend Jampie anak Merom, a family leader at the Iban longhouse Rumah Lidam, has encouraged us to invite other vessels to visit Sungai Tulai and the Rumah Lidam longhouse this year. Access by boat is relatively straitforward, being close to Bintangor town on the Rajang River. Deep water is held all the way to the longhouse, and anchorage is in an average of 7 metres. If you'd like to visit please contact us for access details and guidance (svcrystalblues"at"gmail.com). Finally, we've compiled an updated listing of marine services and cruising resources in Sarawak, Labuan and Sabah - you can download it here.

Internet Afloat

Many people have asked us for details of the wi-fi system we use to connect to the internet, in marinas and anchorages, so here they are. As you may know, the 2.4ghz wi-fi system is intended for relatively short range network communications, and the service can be quite unreliable if you're more than 30 metres from an antenna site. To make matters worse, our steel hull acts like a Faraday cage, effectively preventing us from using the system from down below.

In Singapore we found a product that solved these problems - a high power wi-fi transceiver that connects by USB cable to the PC. This allows us to put the transceiver and antenna outside the boat, for best performance. The unit is a Senao EUB-362EXT, with removable antenna. Read the technical details here. It comes with a small high gain antenna (see the brochure at the link abaove), and will usually provide much improved performance over the antenna's that are built into the screen housing of most modern laptop computers. For even better performance, we removed the supplied antenna and connected the transceiver box to a waterproof high gain antenna mounted permanently, high on the vessels railing. Note that the cable between the antenna and the transceiver should be kept as short as possible - do not use standard RG.58 coax, instead look for a coaxial cable with low loss at 2.4ghz. We used German manufactured Bedea RG223, purchased from Coastal Electronics in Singapore (details here).

With these elements in place we can usually connect at quite extreme distances - more than a kilometer is quite common. The optimal antenna gain seems to be about 8dbi, allowing for the rock and roll of the vessel in a sloppy anchorage. Other high gain antenna systems that must be "aimed" are less useful for us, as they lose the signal if the boat swings at anchor (which it always does ....). Waterproof external antennas are made by many manufacturers - ours is a CD.2408 made by RFI, and is about 300mm long. If you're in the area, all the necessary parts can be found at Sim Lim Square in Singapore. A most helpful supplier is Media Mart -see the card at left, or click here for complete purchase details in Singapore. External waterproof antenna can be purchased from R1 Trading Pte Ltd at Sim Lim Square.

I note that some folks have had difficulty with the installation of the Senao software - make sure you use the latest drivers, and make sure your internal wi-fi is disabled before installing the Senao product. If you use Windows Vista (you're bolder than we are), the drivers can be downloaded from the Senao Networks site here.

We have many friends in Asia and the USA using this system, and we recommend it highly. Where signal is available we enjoy solid 24x7 internet access, usually at quite low cost. The computer can stay in its permanent position adjacent to the chart table. Transmission speeds on the system are often good enough for high quality Skype calls, and we have seen one or two video calls succeed, though that is asking a bit much !

Now Its Chill Out Time

After 4 weeks in Australia, Ley and I returned to Thailand yesterday. Arriving at Boat Lagoon Marina, we could not find our boat - Crystal Blues was nowhere to be seen. The marina office was (thankfully) still open, and they calmly advised that "they needed to move it". A little less calmly we suggested it would be nice to seek permission next time, and to let us know where it was. After locating our home we moved back on board and attempted to shift our brains from a speedy Aussie state to a more relaxed Thai chill-out.

The visit home was as hectic as the last - maybe more so. A major Langford family reunion set the pace, followed by the 60th wedding anniversary for Ley's parents Ray and Edie Worrall. Then came son Shaun and Sarah's wedding, which included a buck's party and hen's night. We survived those (just) and were able to spend a beautiful weekend in Hepburn Springs, where the wedding was celebrated. You can see the wedding website here, or link strait to the wedding photo albums here.

Our godson Ethan joined us for two days, which included a visit to "Rovina", the new country property of friends James and Marian Farrell. In between all this we managed a lot of boat shopping and social contact, including three days on the Clarence River in northern NSW with friends Gary, Sue, Rhys and Tyler McAulay. With only months to go to the launching of their new Beale designed cruising boat, the McAulay family is pretty happy, as you can see here. Many thanks to all those who looked after us.

Last night we were tired and very glad to be home - however the ever-quirky cruising community wasn't going to let us rest. Within 10 minutes of arriving we'd met and re-met many of the people that live here - including Bill the retired pilot who's been here for 10 years, Dorine, the lady who walks her parrot down the dock every day, and Maria from the Czech Republic who (believe it or not) designs and manufactures World War II vintage German uniforms for the film industry. You couldn't invent a more interesting crew.

We'll move out of the marina on the high tide tomorrow, and re-anchor in Nai Harn Bay, at the southern end of Phuket Island. There we'll complete the plannning for our refit later this year, re-provision the boat and service the main engine. In a week or so we hope to head south, for Langkawi, Penang and Singapore, before returning to Borneo early in May.

Andaman Islands Information

Cruising in the Andaman Islands requires a little more attention to paperwork than most of us are used to. Its taken us a little while, but we've finally uploaded and linked the Andaman Island clearance forms and letters to this blog site. Whilst we've included as many blank forms as we could obtain, if you're cruising to the Andamans you will need to prepare a range of documents yourself - courtesy letters, declarations and statements. Samples of these (basically .pdf copies of our own letters) are included in the download section in the right hand column. Also included is the excellent and detailed clearance / check-in guide prepared by Jon and Sandra Stonham, S.V Tui Tai. Download it here.

Our initial guide to cruising suppliers and services in the Andamans can be downloaded here.

Document Downloads

The marine service directories have been re-compiled into smaller documents, addressing individual countries and/or regions. This should reduce download times for those who require information for only one country. The server that was hosting our document downloads has become unreliable, so we've moved all of them to a new service, A.Drive. It seems to be working well, though we would appreciate any feedback you can provide. Our apologies to those who experienced any difficulty with the downloads - normal service should now be restored ! More information here.

Doubling Up For Ten Years

I guess we're used to doubling up on important dates. Sharing the same birthday is one (June 13 if you don't remember!) But we also share our wedding anniversary with Valentine's Day. This arose as a delightful accident 10 years ago, being the only Saturday in February that was available for our wedding celebrations at the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria in Williamstown.

So this year we celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary at Les Anges, providing fine gourmet dining at Royal Phuket Marina, Thailand. Love By Chocolate was the theme of the evening. Roses, candle light, romantic music and a fantastic eight course chocolate cuisine set the stage for a very enjoyable evening.

Peter and his team at Les Anges personalised one of our desserts with a chocolate message. They also presented us with a wonderful cake, chocolate of course, coated in chocolate and decorated with chocolate and strawberries. We took it home to the boat and shared it with our friends over the next few days.

If you're interested in how each course was themed with chocolate, just click on the menu at left to enlarge it - but try not to dribble on the keyboard....

An Island Holiday With Tui Tai, Plus Rickie & Steve Of Course ...

January 26 is Australia Day back home. Here in the Andaman Islands it is most definitely Indian Independence Day. However even that very important day is somewhat masked by the most important event of all - the Australia Day Cricket Test ! The Andaman people are Indian to the core, and cricket is their second religion. Ancient radios oozed cricket commentaries in every little market stall. People eat, sleep, gamble and live cricket. They absolutely worship Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. For the first time in my life I regretted not playing more cricket at school .... no, I couldn't discuss the batting performance of the various team members, the speed of fast bowlers, the results of the first test or anything else truly cricket. Which of course confused the locals - wasn't I an Aussie ? So we pretended to know more than we did, and watched local folks playing on parched wickets, with village teams in perfect whites, but only one bat between them all. Welcome to India.

Cruising In Company

We joined sailing buddies, Jon and Sandra Stonham, with their children Alex and Niki, on SV Tui Tai for our Andaman adventure. The two boats are well matched performance wise, and with flat seas and a 15 knot breeze just forward of the beam, we covered the 392 nm in two and a half days. The moonless nights were brightly lit by star light and the bio-luminescence in the sea.
The only down side of this passage was the failure of our water maker, which blew a seal. Cruising without a plentiful water supply was a new experience for us - fortunately Tui Tai was able to make enough for us all.

Paper Work and Procedures

Port Blair, the Andaman Islands capital, is steeped in British tradition, and the clearance procedures are a lengthy experience. Customs, Immigration, Coast Guard, Harbour Master and the Forestry Department all require written requests before providing formal written approvals. Detailed itineraries need to be planned and submitted, and twice daily radio check-ins ensure that the authorities know where we are at all times. It took us two days to clear in, including arranging with the Harbour Master to take on water at the commercial dock. Port Blair water is not potable, but is fine for washing and showering. Clearance requires lots of paperwork - we will add the full range of forms to the down-load section of this website over coming days.

Samosas, Saris and Shopping

Transport on the island is by local bus, taxi or the more popular three wheel, motor powered tri-shaws. Horns tooting, Indian music, overtaking and threading your way through the wandering herds of cows and goats, buses and cars, motorbikes and pedestrians, makes for an exciting ride. The brilliant colours and sounds of Indian life surprise you at every turn. Women in beautiful saris gracefully parade by. Smiling faces, friendly welcomes, and well stocked markets made provisioning a fun experience. The food is sensational, and Port Blair is hard to leave.

On the sail over we (Crystal Blues) lost two beautiful Mahi Mahi right off the stern - lack of practice on our part ! Fortunately for us, Jon Stonham, aka the Man with the Golden Rod, managed to bring home a wonderful selection of reef fish. We dined high on the bountiful sea.
We caught squid when at anchor, getting ink all over us and the boat. Crystal Blues seemed to specialise in catching large fish that were poor eating - Dog Tooth Tuna and Barracuda. Jon caught Polkadot Cod, Barracuda, Coral Trout, Rainbow Runner, Yellow Fin Tuna and King Trevally.

Our Favourite Andaman Anchorages

Isolation, drift diving over coral gardens, fishing at sunset, sandy beaches, gin-clear waters, friendly villages, cool nights, good sailing winds, water temperature 28deg - what more could a cruiser ask for?

We specially enjoyed isolated Rutland Island latitude 11deg 21N, longitude 92deg 39E. Most mornings we discovered fresh turtle tracks on the beach, for it was egg laying season. Each evening we'd be out in the dinghy trawling along the reef for dinner. We made day sails from here to isolated reefs where we swam with schools of large Double Headed Parrot fish, Moray Eels, crayfish hiding in rocks and millions of beautiful reef fish.

Havelock Island, beach #7, latitude 11deg 58N, longitude 92deg 57E was also a favourite. Three elephants walk briskly along the white sandy beach most days, the females occasionally splashing in the shallows, then head into the trees for their daily watering. The bull elephant stopped at the local spa and was fondly bathed by his two faithful mahouts. Ashore we discovered a great Italian restaurant. We have never seen so many hippies, some young, some not so young, but all fairly affluent. Fortunately tourism here is low key, back-packer based and easy on the pocket. The local market town on Havelock Island is a delightful experience. We brought dozens of ginger spiced samosas, enjoyed a glass of chai and stocked up on freshly grown produce picked at local market gardens that afternoon. Ley visited a local primary school, accompanied by a gaggle of dark-eyed giggling girls. She left a welcoming message on the chalk board for the teacher, who was at lunch ...

There Are Some Challenges

Havelock #7 beach often has great waves, just perfect for boogie boarding and body surfing. We swam most days, catching a few waves and chilling out before the late afternoon fishing. However arriving by dinghy on this beach was often challenging. Stripping off to minimum clothes became the norm, pull the dinghy up above the high tide mark, get dressed, spray on lotion to ward off the sand flies and only then relax! It is still our favourite anchorage.

At Inglis Island you can anchor in a stunning passage between two islands, inspect the reef by dinghy, trawling a lure as you go, catch a Polkadot Cod, oohing and ahing over the underwater delights. We were all looking forward to a beach walk and drift dive the next day. And then we spy a crocodile! Inglis Island, latitude 12deg 08n, longitude 93deg 06E, so beautiful, so dangerous.

The biggest challenge is dragging yourself away... unfortunately, visitors to the Andamans are only allowed 30 days. We had a fabulous time exploring with the Stonham family. It was a real holiday among gracious people, and we hope to return some time.

Tohatsu Service With A Smile

Look at the life we lead, and its clear that we really depend on external support at many times. So when that support is outstanding, it deseves to be recognised. With that in mind we've decided to include occasional features on the people who make our cruising life easier - and here is the first.
You may be aware that our nearly new Tohatsu outboard motor developed very serious problems early in the year, when a seal failed on the bottom of the crankshaft (see the previous post entry).

Fortunately for us, Geron Ngo of Onomichi Marine Enterprises in Penang was not far away. Geron totally rebuilt our engine in 2 days flat, including the time needed to obtain parts. All the bearings, pins, numerous other bits and pieces to make it as-new. The really nice part was that we met his family, and then (incredibly) he offered to take us out to dinner .... service like this is most unusual.

The engine has worked very hard (and reliably) throughout our time in the Andaman Islands. Our sincere thanks to Geron and the warranty support team at Tohatsu East Malaysia.

Incredibly, we've received the same outstanding support and quality service from Tony Wee at Wee's Engineering in Sibu (Sarawak). It turns out that Tony (Sibu) and Geron (Penang) are old friends, and even did Yamaha service training together in Japan, where they rated 1st and 2nd in their class. Now they work a thousand kilometers apart - but if you need outboard motor work, you should literally walk over hot coals to get to them.