Our circuitous route

Here is an enlarged image of of the difficult part of our track for the passage from Phuket to Sri Lanka when we were repeatedly locked inside the LOW.  The red numbers are explained below.  The shipwreck icon indicates approximate waypoint where S/V Bachas was abandoned and crew rescued by passing cargo ship Maersk Europa.  Only the degrees and minutes were reported in the distress call.  We did not get the seconds so the waypoint is not exact.  We were between points 6 and 7 at the time S/V Bachas was abandoned.

1. 

1. One day past Nicobar Islands we encountered the first squall exceeding 40 knots.  This did not force us to change course.
2. Encountered the large squall from the SW that lasted hours and forced us to begin moving NW. (Sorry; I realize that #1 and #2 are not shown on this close-up image.)
3. Hove-to for the first time and contacted Commanders Weather.
4. Point where we broke free from the LOW for the first time; then were able to tack towards SE tip of Sri Lanka.
5. Encountered strong westerly winds (40+ knots) when approximately 43 NM from SE tip of Sri Lanka; turned south hoping wind would abate.   
6. Heaved-to for less than an hour  (So frustrating to be only 35 NM from tip of Sri Lanka and not be able to get there!); then hit very hard with strong wind and forced to ride with the storm for next 10 hours. 
7. Reached the eye wall and were turned NW.  Continued several hours and broke out of the LOW for the second time.
8. Turned south as per instruction from "Dick" at Commanders Weather and soon again encountered 40+ knots of wind.  Turned around and fled north.
9. Reached calmer winds farther north and heaved-to for almost 24 hours, drifting mostly westerly while hove-to.
10.  The following afternoon as soon as winds showed a hint of NNE (5 degrees), we sailed south towards that same waypoint on the SE tip of Sri Lanka.  Reached it in calm conditions on this fourth attempt and turned west beneath the island headed to Galle.  Calm conditions all the way to port because the LOW had now moved much farther south and west to the Maldives, where it dissipated.

Here is an image of our entire track for this passage.  

Our passage through hell -- Part One

This passage turned out to be a major learning experience for us and a true test of our sailing skills, as well as a true test of our physical capabilities and emotional well-being.  It was far too rough to update this blog during most of the passage.  I am writing this posting from handwritten notes that I  updated daily.  I will attempt to adjust posting dates when finished with all postings so that the entire trip appears on the blog in consecutive day order.

Day #1 -- We departed Patong Bay on the island of Phuket, Thailand at 10:00 on Monday morning 03 January 2011.   Barometer 1008.5  The genoa was poled to starboard , mainsail midline and mizzen on preventer to starboard.  Winds were predicted to be from the NE but as soon as we cleared the coastline the wind proved to actually be coming from the SE.  Sailing conditions were great from 10:00 to 18:00; a little lively with 2-3 meter swell on 5 second from the SE on our aft port quarter causing the boat to twist and roll somewhat uncomfortably.   For our non-sailing friends, any time the swell is equal in seconds to the height of the swell in feet then it is comfortable.  For example, an 8-ft swell on 8 seconds is ideal.  And 8-ft swell on 10 seconds or higher is almost imperceptible.   An 8-ft swell on 6 seconds starts to get a little rough.  An 8-ft swell on 5 seconds is noticeably uncomfortable and it only gets rougher as the time shortens.  Having 2-3 meter swell on 5 seconds was decidedly uncomfortable.  Not dangerous in any way; just uncomfortable.  At 01:00 Tuesday morning a squall moved through.  We took in all sails and motored until 08:00.  Bill checked in with the SSB net at 09:30 (Thailand time).  We were doing 7.5 - 8 knots boat speed in 12-15 knot winds from the SE.  Total distance sailed was 135 miles, of which 124 NM were actual miles-made-good toward our destination.  Barometer 1007.3  

Day #2  Experienced continued good sailing through mid-day.  Then winds slackened and the boat started rolling.  Started the engine and motor-sailed due west several hours to lessen the rolling.  We were getting queasy and had no appetites.  I took advantage of the calm to steam almost all our fresh produce since it was already almost a week old, but we were not interested in eating any of it at this point.  Yogurt, granola bars and snack crackers were our food items of choice.  We passed through a field of debris that appeared to have resulted from a fishing boat going down recently.  There was a large solid table floating upside down (fish cutting station?); many fishing floats and flags; many jumbled bundles of floating lines; a couple of small suitcases;  several large black plastic trash bags; and other typical debris one might expect from the interior and deck of a small commercial fishing boat.  We search the area and found no people and did not know where to report this apparent ship sinking -- India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia or Myanmar?  Tuesday night was a new moon but it was obscured by heavy cloud cover.  For our second night at sea I was treated to stars that went on forever and Bill was treated to squalls again.  A small pod of tiny brown porpoises came to play with our boat; but soon lost interest, probably because we were going so slow.  The second day distance sailed (MMG) 145 NM.  Barometer 1006.7  (NOTE:  All weather information available to us thus far had been incorrect.  All GRIB files and Buoyweather indicated that winds should have been from the NE, yet all weather was coming from the SE and S.  We should have turned around right then and stopped in Indonesia until these weather inconsistencies were sorted out.  We should not have continued on this passage when we knew the GRIB files and all weather information did not match what we were actually observing.)

Day #3 --  Early this morning we passed south of the Nicobar Islands, which are administered by India and off-limits to visiting yachts.  India is doing everything possible to not intrude on the ancient jungle tribal way of life on the Nicobars.  Let these people live as they have for centuries.  Some people might remember the photo after the big tsunami in late December 2004 of a man clothed only in a loincloth aiming a spear at a rescue supply helicopter.  That happened in the Nicobar Islands.  These folks just want to be left alone and want nothing to do with modern mankind.  Closest we came to the Nicobars was 8 NM off the southernmost coast of the southernmost island.  Swell was now a full 3 meters on 4-5 seconds and coming from 2 directions, SE and S.  Conditions were very rolly; for 10 hours it was very much like the Gulf of Carpentaria on the northern side of Australia.  We each took Scopace and took turns sleeping all day.   Winds were from the SSE at 10 - 20 knots and lots of small squalls.  The clouds truly did have a silver lining with the sun setting behind as we sailed westward.  Conditions were much more comfortable and less rolling. Lunch for me was another "foreign language" experience.  The yogurt purchased in Thailand turned out to contain corn and red kidney beans.  That was a surprise I could have done without.   Obviously I should have looked at that label a little closer.  The barometer was dropping and we were watching it closely.  Miles-made-good sailed today totaled 178 NM.  Barometer 1006.3 at 15:00.  Barometer 1003.0 at 17:00.   Barometer 1004.5 at 18:20.

Day #4 -- S/V Estrellita arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday after a very uneventful fast passage.  Today we were slightly more than half way and hoped to arrive in Sri Lanka in about 3 more days.  However, a 40-knot squall soon changed that idea.  This day we sailed 158 NM, of which only 145 were MMG.   Wind and swell from from the SE and from the S; very confused and close together tumbling.  We were still able to sail westward as we passed through several 30 - 35 knot squalls.  One squall moved up from the S very suddenly at 40 knots and lasted 1 1/4 hours.  I attempted to film a short video and will try to upload it later if it worked.  This squall passed so quickly that seas flattened and did not build at all.  Afterward there were many more squalls packing 30 knots wind only; no rain.  Strange.  Don't think we have previously encountered squalls without rain.  Barometer 1007.7  That is good.  About what it was when we left Thailand.

Day #5 --  At 07:45 several dozen tiny brown porpoises came to play with our boat; stayed around a long time even though our boat speed at the time was only 4.7 knots into current, motoring, with no wind and dead-flat calm seas.  Around 09:00 we passed a very large sailing yacht motoring in the opposite direction at speed of 15 knots.  I could see from their AIS signal that we were on a direct collision course and immediately moved well out of their path.  S/V Red Dragon was 52 meters long, 10 meters beam and 4 meters draft.  Love their AIS Class A  that provided us with all this information.  We have an AIS receiver but not a transponder:  we can see them but they cannot see us on their electronic charts.  Little did we know at the time that this mega yacht was probably fleeing the approaching severe weather.  Would have been nice if they had warned us about it.

Around noon a large very dark system approached from the SW.  (Remember, absolutely nothing in any weather information we could obtain had indicated anything to come from the SW or W.)   There was no way to avoid this rapidly approaching weather system.  It hit us with sustained 35 knots, gusting in low 40s for 7 straight hours.  Winds then moderated to sustained 20 knots, gusting 28 knots, for an additional 5 hours.  I personally would classify what we were experiencing as a gale, not a simple squall.  All forced us farther NW than we wanted to go.  The seas were large and rough.  The GFS and NOGAPS weather files had been consistently wrong all week.  There were no predictions for wind from the SE, S or SW; yet that is all that we experienced.  We saw no winds from the NE; yet that is all that had been predicted.  After 18 hours the winds finally abated to consistently 20 knots, sometimes a few knots less.  Seas remained large and confused.  We sailed 158 NM this day; of which 135 were MMG.  We were tired and could not understand what the heck was going on with this strange weather.  Without knowing what was going on, how could we know where to go?  It was very frustrating.  We decided to heave-to and attempt to sort it out.  (Our non-sailing friends can Google the term "heave-to" to learn about this very valuable sailing trick.  I don't feel like explaining it now.)   We needed to rest and heaving-to provided the opportunity to sleep for 4 hours.  Barometer 1004.6 


Day #6 -- Before starting again this morning after heaving-to for 4 hours, Bill sent emails to 2 sailing friends who were safe in ports and had internet access and requested any weather info they could provide for our location.  We also sent an email to Commanders Weather.  We had set up an account with Commanders Weather in October 2008 but had not used this service.  Thank you God for sending me the memory about Commanders.   Winds were down to the 15-knot range from the SSW when we resumed this morning.  Still none of those predicted NE winds materialized.  Seas calmed substantially, but only briefly.  There were repeated 30 - 35 knot squalls all day.  In the early evening we heard back from Commanders Weather with weather routing instructions.  It was our good luck to get a weather adviser named Ken Campbell.  Ken had once participated in the Volvo Open Ocean Race and had visited this area.  It helps a lot when someone is really familiar with an area and not just sitting at a desk attempting to analyze something they really know nothing about.   Ken said there was nothing to be done except press onward to the NW.   He gave us a latitude and longitude to shoot for and said that if we could reach that waypoint then we would be able to break out of the grips of this LOW.  If we continued NW then eventually we should encounter winds from the W or NW, which when light enough should allow us to tack and turn south and sail either along the eastern shore of Sri Lanka or tack SW direct to the SE tip of Sri Lanka.  Barometer 1004.2 

Day #7  -- Weather same.  Still pinched as westerly as possible to avoid getting forced too far north into what the US Navy weather website indicated was the really severe developing LOW system.  We heard back from our sailing friends.  One was traveling and could not help.  But Michael on S/V B'Sheret came through with info from a large file he was able to download while he had good internet access.  There were multiple small LOWs forecast right in our path.  At this point we were no longer bothering to keep track of miles sailed each day.  What possible difference did it make?  All we wanted to do was break out of this horrible weather.  There was an attack of dragon flies filling the cockpit around 04:00 when way the heck out at sea.  Where did those come from?  Barometer 1004.3 

Day #8 -- Weather same.  We both were getting very tired.  The stress and lack of proper meals and dehydration were taking tolls on both  us us.  At daylight (the beginning of day 8) we were 129 NM from the closest point of eastern shore of Sri Lanka.  And we could not get there because of the SW winds!  But this day we were getting very close to that waypoint where Ken Campbell said we should be able to break out of this LOW.  We desperately hoped to encounter light westerly winds later this day.  Everything inside the boat was damp with sea air.  So many clothes were wet with rain and splashing seawater.  The boat smelled like a wet dog.  Hey, wait a minute.  Maybe that was just me!  Barometer 1003.9 

During the late afternoon we arrived at the "tacking" waypoint and it was like someone flipped a switch.  Ken Campbell had done a superb job of predicting exactly where we could break out of this storm.  About 15 miles from the waypoint the wind instantly shifted 40 degrees higher.  That did not last and soon it was back to the SW.  Ken had warned us about this -- that there might be several "false" wind shifts before we encountered the true shift of wind direction.  Sure enough; a couple of hours later the wind instantly shifted 60 degrees higher.  I corrected course to the new point of sail and several minutes later the wind again instantly shifted 60 degrees higher.  THIS WAS IT!!!!   We could now turn and head directly towards the SE tip of Sri Lanka!!!  This was much more exciting that crossing the equator for the first time or any of the other typical sailor "highs." Barometer 1006.6  We set course for the new waypoint and enjoyed calm sailing in light westerly winds for 7 hours.  And then the winds suddenly started building dramatically -- straight out of the west.  Much, much later we realized that the LOW was again building just behind us.  We got to a point 43 miles NE of our much-desired waypoint on the SE tip of Sri Lanka when the 45-kt westerly wind forced us to turn.  We had a choice.  Either turn south or turn north and go back to where we had just come from.  We opted to try south.  Not sure that was a wise decision.  Maybe we should have begun fleeing north right then.  Barometer 1003.1
 



  
 

Our passage through hell -- Part Two

Day #9 -- After turning slightly south in the very high westerly winds, we fought this mess all afternoon and overnight.  Winds were sustained 35 knots and gusting up to 45 knots the entire time.  We attempted to heave-to again before dark but could not do it.  Even hove-to the boat was "drifting" at over 8 knots!!!  We could not figure out what we could be doing wrong.  We never had problems heaving-to before this.  Never did figure out what was different; only that we could not accomplish heaving-to.  So we rode it out all night while getting further exhausted.  Winds abated ever so slightly in the pre-dawn and we were finally able to heave-to again and rest for 1 hour.  We immediately called Commanders Weather for advice.  Ken was not there, but the man we spoke with told us to go ANYWHERE except south!  Yet that was the direction that this storm was taking us.  At this time we were less than 35 miles from that much-desired waypoint on the SE tip of Sri Lanka.  It was so discouraging to be that close and yet not be able to get there!   Commanders said to get north as quickly as possible!

And while we were hove-to in the pre-dawn is when the storm really decided to build and to build instantly!  The wind hit us suddenly and nearly laid the boat over sideways.  We have no idea how high the wind was at that moment.  Thank God the backed sails did not fill with seawater when laid down suddenly like that.  Bill instantly unlashed the helm and we were off for the ride of our lives.   Later, we realized what had happened.  Commanders was predicting the LOW to relocate and intensify off the SE tip of Sri Lanka about 24 hours later.  They had hoped we could get west of this point before the LOW intensified.  We didn't.  Barometer 1002.4  The LOW relocated and strongly intensified right where we were hove-to off the SE tip of Sri Lanka.  We were caught in the strongest SW winds of the LOW system and there was nothing we could do except ride it out.

For the next 10 hours we went NNE.  We were forced to ride the LOW right to the eye wall.  We never entered the eye.  Instead we were moved around the eye wall. (Note added later:  we did not watch the barometer during this period and did not check it when near the eye wall.  We suspect barometric pressure was lower than the 1002.4 that day but did not record anything.  We were busy enough just dealing with being in the storm.  Numbers did not matter because there was nothing we could do about that.)  When we reached the eye wall coming from the SW we were catapulted around the eye and off to the NW.  Okay, great.  We had done this before and knew the drill for breaking out of the NW corner of a LOW.  We did not know where that point should be located this time, but if we continued NW then we knew conditions would eventually improve.

We have a recording barometer that automatically records every 4 hours.  When we later compared the barometer to our time of position at the eye we learned that 15 minutes after we reached the eye it recorded Barometer 1000.3   This was the lowest barometer reading that we saw during this entire ordeal, but we did not watch the barometer all the time; nor did we have a barometric data recording of the entire time.   This storm was not a cyclone or hurricane because the wind speed was not 74 mph (which would be roughly 67 knots).  But it very definitely was a counter-clockwise circulating tropical storm with an eye and eye wall.   We hope never to experience any storm stronger than this one!


After turning NW over the eye wall, it took several more hours before we began to see a lighter area in the distance.  Bill steered as hard as conditions allowed to get us to that lighter area.  You have heard how when people die, they should "walk toward the light."  Well, when caught in a nasty storm like this, sailors should "sail toward the light."  As night time closed in we reached the lighter area and conditions began to calm noticeably.  As soon as conditions allowed we again phoned Commanders Weather.  This time we got yet another guy; Ken Campbell was not working at this hour.  This latest guy I will call Dick.  I do not want to reveal his real name because someone might use Dick and value his opinions and analysis.  Neither Bill nor I do.  Dick gave us very bad advice.  We later learned why, but that is no excuse for it happening.

Dick said we should continue westward towards the eastern coast of Sri Lanka, then turn south.  WHAT!!!  ARE YOU CRAZY!!!  We just spent an entire day getting up out of that mess!  Dick the Dickhead insisted there was no bad weather south of our current location.  We explained that we had just experienced about 18 hours of sustained 45 knots winds, gusting 50 and over, and violent seas.  It was still there 6 hours ago; how could it not be there now????  Dick insisted, "I am looking at the satellite image.  It is not there now.  There is no bad weather south of you now."  (Again, we later learned why he was so wrong; but that is no excuse considering the scope of his job.)  Well, okay Dickhead; we would turn south.  It went against our better judgment but we would do what he said was the right thing to do.  We turned south.


In less than 2 hours we were entering back in 45 knot winds from the west.  Oh NO!  We were not doing this again.  Obviously Dick did not understand what he was looking at on that satellite image.  We turned around and headed as due north as possible.  We continued north the rest of the night and most of the next day.

The storm.   There is a huge difference between being in a 30-kt or higher storm for a few hours and being stuck inside one for 5 or more days.  The sound of the wind screaming through the rigging and all the constant motion of being tossed about by the high seas wear you out.  Normally when at anchor we notice the difference of noise level when winds kick up higher than 20 knots.  During this storm we now considered 20 knots to be nothing and did not even hear wind at that level.  Wind had to be higher than 30 to even hear it.  And the sound difference between 35 and 45 knots is very, very noticeable.  It just wears you out.


After being almost laid over when the winds kicked up so suddenly, we rode with the storm.  Winds were first sustained in the 35 to 40 knot range.  Soon it was solid 40-45 knots.  That eventually rose to solid 45 knots and gusting higher.  Our wind gauge maxes out at 50 knots.  As we approached the eye wall the gauge was pegged over to 50 knots repeatedly.  We have no idea how high the wind actually reached, but assume it was no higher than 55 knots.  FWIW, a Category 1 hurricane (cyclone) starts at 67 knots of wind speed (74 mph); and certainly this storm was not that high.  Waves were 6 to 7 meters high (over 20 feet) and extremely violent.  Waves at times towered over the bimini on our center cockpit boat and crashed down into the cockpit.  The first time anything like that has ever happened.  Our cockpit is normally dry regardless of how rough the seas.  The waves were the size of houses tossing in all directions at once.  The wind was so strong that it was blowing the tops off many waves and streams of foam were flying through the air.  

Near the eye wall there was a lot of lightning.  At that point, Bill, being reared in Catholic schools, began mumbling Hail Mary's beneath his breath.  I, on the other hand, was reared Southern Baptist; and my reaction was to think:  God has put this trial before me as a sign that I should examine my life.  What faults should be corrected?  Am I guilty of hubris?  Being too judgmental?  Or should the deeper thoughts be put aside.  Is this just Mother Nature being a real bitch?  I decided that this simply was not the time to think about any of that.  When conditions get that violent, one sort of separates from reality and looks around as if watching a movie.  My reaction was to analyze how the boat was reacting to the conditions.  And I very quickly decided that there was no way that our boat was going to sink in those conditions.  She was handling it beautifully.  Walls of water often were washing over the bow and deck, but the bow always rose back up and shed the water quickly.  In the highest winds the boat would lay way over to her starboard side and bury the rail deeply into the water.  A wall of water about 2-feet high would wash from the bow all the way back alongside the cockpit and shed off the stern.  Even if the boat were totally laid over, it was obvious that she would eventually turn upright again.  As long as we stayed inside the cockpit (even if the boat was totally on her side and the cockpit filled with water) then we would eventually be fine.  The biggest worry would be hypothermia, even here in the warm tropics.


We were both literally freezing!!  Our foul weather gear is tropical weight and we were thoroughly drenched and shivering.  I went below and dug out the 2 heavy blankets that friends Donna & Bruce gave us when we sailed south to cold New Zealand.  We wrapped ourselves up in the blankets, which also were soon thoroughly soaked.  Being wrapped in the wet blankets helped trap the heat generated by our bodies.  The wet blankets really helped us warm up.


Day # 10 -- After fleeing north for hours we eventually reached a point that the winds were relatively calm.  By now we had a new meaning of calm.  Sailing in 30 to 35 knots had become our new norm.  Calm was anything less than 20 knots sustained.  Around 15:00 that after we reached the calm area.  We continued to motor farther northward for another 2 hours to ensure that we were well away from this storm.   Then we hove-to for a desperately needed night of sleep.  During the day of the storm neither of us had eaten or drank anything.  We were both dehydrated.  After exiting the eye area Bill had grabbed a few bites to eat and lots to drink.  I could not face neither food nor drink.  Around midnight I managed to force down 5 Wheat Thin crackers and a cup of water.   Bill slept well while we were hove-to.  I was still on an adrenaline high and could not sleep, so I sat in the cockpit all night.  I was afraid the wind would pick up and wanted to be prepared to instantly react.  Barometer 1006.8


Day #11 -- We drifted 6 miles south and then 16 miles west overnight while hove-to.  Both directions were to our advantage when it was finally time to start south again.  Overnight the wind had slowly shifted to come from true north.  Things were looking up!!  At 13:40 Bill decided that conditions had improved sufficiently for us to again try to go south.  We used the satellite phone to call S/V Estrellita and learn what current conditions were in Galle Harbour.  We again phoned Commanders Weather and talked to a guy named Chris.  Chris said we were good to go south.  He recommended that we head SW to the spot of coastline that projects eastward on Sri Lanka; then follow closely to the coastline all the way down.  We agreed that if we encountered ANY winds from the W or SW that we would immediately flee north again.  


Sailing down the coast was a breeze this time.  There were light winds from the north on our stern most of the way; along with a 2+ knot favorable current.  The wind slowly shifted to just east of true north.  That was even better!  This was the wind direction we had been searching for since departing Phuket 11 days ago!  It was a very fast ride down -- often seeing boat speeds of 10 knots and rarely slower than 7.5 knots.  Barometer 1008.1 

Day #12 -- This morning we finally reached that waypoint on the SE tip of Sri Lanka.  We had been blown away from this spot 3 times.  Our 4th approach was in completely different conditions.  Winds were extremely light (like non-existent) and seas were flat and calm.  I did not mind running that engine even one little bit!  I really had had enough wind to last me a long time.  We turned west beneath Sri Lanka and proceeded very slowly toward Galle Harbour.  Bill calculated that we needed to average only 5.9 knots boat speed in order to arrive at Galle first thing after sunrise on Sunday morning; so that was our goal.  We ran the clothes washer and did several loads of laundry.  I was so glad to get those seawater soaked things clean and smelling nice again.  I saved the blankets and sheets and towels and heavy items to send in for laundry service once we reached Galle.  But all our clothes were clean and smelled good again.  

We put the boat into some semblance of order again.  Things had been tossed all over the place during the worst of the storm.  Nothing was damaged, but there was somewhat of a mess strewn about.   I cooked steaks, hash browns and the very last of the fresh produce -- a stir fry of green beans, finely sliced Asian cabbage, onions and topped with grape tomatoes.  It was pure heaven!


We pulled into Galle Harbour around 07:00 Sunday morning.  All safe and sound and very glad to arrive in a port we had not intended to visit.

Why such incorrect weather forecasting?   After the fact we learned why the weather GRIB files and Buoyweather and other such weather forecasting tools were so totally wrong for the Bay of Bengal right now.  All the weather forecasting is done by various computer programs utilizing data from weather satellites.  The USA has the best weather satellites.  However, the USA weather satellites for this portion of the world ceased functioning a couple of years ago.  And the United States has no plans to replace these satellites.  Nor should we, in my humble opinion.  India should step up to the plate and pay for new satellites since it directly affects their country.

Since the USA weather satellites are no longer working, now European weather satellites are being utilized.  Unfortunately, the European weather satellites are not very sophisticated and do not provide the angled images and side-angle images.  The result is that the computer model programs are not receiving the input data required for the programs to function properly.  The old saying  "garbage in; garbage out" directly applies to what is happening today with weather forecasting for the Bay of Bengal.  Man, do we wish we had known this before starting this passage!  Sailors beware!!!  DO NOT TRUST GRIBS FOR THE BAY OF BENGAL.   You are pretty much guaranteed that the GFS and NOGAPS and Buoyweather and BuoySpots are not going to be accurate 90% of the time for this particular area.  You either luck into good weather for an 1100 mile passage.  Or you don't, as exemplified by our recent passage through hell. 

What did we learn?   I cannot relate here all the things we learned on this passage, but here are a couple of highlights.  First thing is that absolutely anything that is secured to a deck cleat will become uncleated with heavy seas washing across and down the deck.  Every halyard or line that was cleated to a deck cleat came uncleated at least once.  We now know that when setting out to sea each halyard or line should be cleated and then the bitter end should be tied off to something stationary.   The second thing is that in very high winds and heavy seas a sailboat cannot be controlled using just an engine -- you must use sails.  We have a 110 hp engine and that was not large enough to maintain maneuverability during this type weather.  We absolutely had to use small bits of foresail and mainsail in order to be able to control movement of the boat. As you can see from the photo, our mainsail was blown out on one seam.  Six other boats that we know also had their mainsails blown out during this storm.

We have a chain counter.  An excellent little device that all cruising boats should have.  It completely eliminates worrying about whether you have put out the correct amount of anchor chain.  If you can multiply by 5 and 7 then you should absolutely never put out too little rode when you have a chain counter at the helm.  During this storm the bow took so much water over the anchor chain counter sensor that it started recording the chain as being pulled in.  At one point it indicated that we had brought in 231 meters of anchor chain.  That would have been a little hard to deal with that much anchor chain strewn all over the deck and filling the cockpit!  Not too worry.  If the sensor is shorted out, we do carry a spare.


With Heavy Hearts:  During the beginning of our ride to the eye of the storm last Wednesday we chanced to hear a distress call on the VHF.  The crew of S/V Bachas was abandoning ship about 20 miles from our position.  Luckily a passing cargo ship (I believe it was the Maersk Europa) rescued the crew and brought them to Port Klang in Malaysia.  S/V Bachas was abandoned with the boat filling with water, the engine still running and the lights still working.  Don't know if she sank or not.  Sure hope another yacht doesn't run into her on a dark night and get damaged.  I think the boat should have been scuttled when abandoned.


Several other boats turned around after hearing of our plight on the morning SSB net.  They were wise to return to Indonedia or Malaysia or Thailand rather than to proceed into this storm.  They were following the GRIBS and had no idea how bad it really was out there until they heard from us.  Several other boats were able to heave-to for a couple of days and let the storm run itself out or move away.  They were wise to do so.  

Our 1100 passage from Phuket to Sri Lanka covered 1600 miles.  I will post an image of our track soon so you can see the round-about way we got here.



Added later:   After arriving at Galle we learned that 29 people on the island had died during this storm.  And more than 1,000,000 people lost their homes due to flooding and mudslides.  Also learned from another sailor caught in the storm during that worst day that his instruments recorded high wind speed of 60 knots.  His wind gauge maxes out at 60 knots and it was pegged to max several times that day.   Remember, our wind gauge maxes at 50 knots; so we do not know what were the highest winds sustained.

New Years Eve in Patong

WOW!!  The fireworks in Patong Bay on New Years Eve were spectacular!  There must have been at least 50,000 rockets bursting in the sky.  Along with thousands upon thousands of floating fire lanterns.  People started releasing the lanterns around 8 p.m. and the number only increased until well past midnight.  The sky was filled with the softly glowing amber lights floating off over our heads to scatter into the Indian Ocean as they burned out.  I wish I knew more about the significance of the lighted lanterns.  It provided quite the show.  And the rocket fireworks were the largest display we have ever seen.  The beach area was filled with blasts for about 45 minutes.  And the resorts on either side of this large bay also added their fireworks, so we had rockets bursting on 3 sides of our boat.  The music from the beach bars was booming!  It was plenty loud even as far out as were were.  The loudest music I have heard since the Fishermen's Birthday celebration in Grenada.


Rather than anchor up near the town of Patong with the hundreds of other cruising boats, we opted to pick up a mooring ball off one of the outlying resorts.  We were moored about 3/4 mile out from the town.  We did this because the original intentions were to depart at 0400 Saturday morning, 1 January 2011; and we wanted to be well away from the crowded anchorage for that dark departure.  But Bill picked up the latest GRIB files on Friday afternoon and the weather forecast for the Bay of Bengal had changed yet again, and we decided to wait another day before leaving Thailand.  The US Navy weather site indicates that the monsoon should pick up in about 3 days.  The winds are slightly better now along the coast of Thailand, so we will depart Sunday morning and hope that monsoon really does pick up when we are a couple days out in the ocean.

Still not decided if we will stop in the Similan Islands.  It really is not far out of our planned route.
The Similan Islands are a Thai national park.  There are buoys all over the place and dive boats often fill the place.  The park fee is 100 baht for a visiting permit, plus 400 baht per person for a 5 day visit.  We don't have any more Thai baht and are not going ashore to get more.  The dinghy is already stowed on the mizzen deck and the outboard stowed for passage.  So if we do stop in the Similans, hopefully they will accept US dollars or Euros.  If not, then I guess they will tell us to move on.


Our friends Michael and Linda on S/V B'SHERET arrived in Phuket on 27 December.  We shared several lunches and dinners with them this week.  One day we rented a car and took their sails to Rolly Tasker.  Their genoa can be cleaned and is okay, but their mainsail needs replacing.  So they will be sitting in Phuket for a couple of weeks waiting on their new sail.  Their watermaker also was leaking and that must be repaired.  They will be a few weeks late departing Phuket.  Maybe we will see them in Cochin, but I kind of doubt it.  We will likely already be out of Cochin before they arrive.


At the moment there are several boats en route to either Sri Lanka or Cochin that are checking in twice daily to the Indian Ocean Cruising Net that Bill Betts on S/V ESTRELLITA kindly offered to run.  ESTRELLITA, SAPRISTI, ANJOLIE, MADAME and VOYAGER are out there now.  Maybe there are more, but those are the only ones we know about.  S/V EMMANUELLE and S/V MISS JODY went up to the Andamans.  They are on a very tight schedule.  I can't wait to hear how their check-in and departure clearances go.  We have heard from others who have visited there that it takes freakin' forever to handle clearance formalities in the Andaman Islands.  The officials will let you sit in front of them for several hours and then ask why you are there -- after they have already accepted your papers and left them sitting on the desk all that time.  It sounds almost like a game they play to show you just who is in charge.


Thursday night we anchored in Hai Nairn.  Or Nai Hairn.  Or whatever that little bay is called.  There is no name on our charts.  It is a very pretty bay just around the western corner from huge Ao Chalong Bay.  There were hundreds of boats in Ao Chalong; less than 2 dozen in Hai Hairn.   Hai Narn is very picturesque, with boulders lining the sides and a long white sand beach at the head of the bay and a smaller beach to the right.  Both beaches are completely filled with lounges for tourists.  Cruisers are not allowed to land their dinghies anywhere in Hai Narn, so it is pretty much a stay-on-your-boat-and-enjoy-the-scenery kind of place.  It is so much nicer than Ao Chalong, but with nothing to do.  We liked it.

In observance of leaving Thailand, here are a couple of photos of a local boat that we have admired along the beach at Ao Chalong.  Love this boat.  

In observance of the New Year I am cooking black-eye peas, ham and cornbread.  Those are the things a southerner is supposed to eat on New Year's Day for good luck.  Heading out across the Bay of Bengal, then the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden, I figure we need all the luck we can garner.

Andamans? Or no Andamans?

We have struggled deciding whether to sail up to the Andaman Islands or not.   Someone we know sailed there 2 years ago and said it was the highlight of their entire circumnavigation.  The Andamans are a pristine environment (one of the very few left if this world).  Flora and fauna supposedly flourish.  The corals are supposed to be vibrant and still alive -- not dead and brown as in so many other parts of the oceans today.  An opportunity to visit the Andaman Islands should not be missed.

As long as you have plenty of time to deal with officialdom.

And we don't 

Bill has decided that any place that requires 2 days or more to clear in, plus 2 days or more to clear out, is not a place he wishes to visit.  And, as much as I would have enjoyed snorkeling in this remote and beautiful place, I must agree with Bill.  If we could be assured of being able to complete clearance formalities in one day and to be able to clear out in a few hours so that we could depart in morning light, then we would sail to the Andaman Islands for the10 days our schedule allows.  But since we have limited time to visit that area, the thought of wasting 2-3 days on the front end and 2-3 days on the exiting end is senseless.  It only makes sense to jump through these hoops if one can say in the Andaman Islands for a full month.

Here is a list of the forms required to visit the Andaman Islands:

India visa (supposed to be a special visa for just the Andamans, but normally a regular visa for Inda will suffice)

Advance Clearance Request  (must submit minimum 48 hours prior to arrival)

Advance Crew List   (must submit minimum 48 hours prior to arrival)

General Declaration Form (Arrival) 

Crew List Form (Arrival) 

Immigration Form (Arrival) 

Customs Appraisal Form (Arrival) 

Itinerary (Arrival) (must provide a list of dates and places you wish to visit)

Customs Clearance Request (Arrival) (and they do want a list of EVERYTHING on the boat, including model and serial numbers)

Customs Inventory & Declaration (Arrival)

Forestry Dept Request Letter (Arrival)

Customs Clearance Request (Departure.)

Harbour Clearance Request (Departure)

Immigration Clearance Request (Departure)

Harbour Fees Form (Departure)

General Declaration Form (Departure) 

Crew List Form (Departure)

Most of these forms must be completed in minimum of triplicate, some as many as 6 copies.  Additionally, each boat is required to report in via VHF or SSB radio twice daily and state their position.  Every movement is monitored.  Only 30 to 40 boats per year visit the Andaman Islands.  India is doing everything possible to limit the impact of outsiders on the environment and the tribal cultures of the Andamans.  

We applaud their efforts, but will pass on the opportunity to visit this special place because of the bureaucracy involved. 

BTW, here are a couple of photos of jellyfish floating by our boat in Ao Chalong Bay.  There is at least one jellyfish every 10 square yards.  These are not small!  We have never seen so many jellyfish in one area as we have seen in the Thai waters.  This is the reason we would never willingly get into the water around here and were looking forward to the more remote (and hopefully less jellyfish filled) waters of the Andamans.  Sorry we will miss it.

Christmas in Phuket

This was our first Christmas away from family since 2006.  I was missing family and not expecting much activity that day, just Bill and I alone anchored off a pretty beach. The day turned out much better than we had imagined.  

About 1 1/2 hours before high tide we moved over to the fuel dock at the Royal Phuket Marina and filled the main fuel tank and jerry jugs with as much diesel as we could hold, plus the extra gasoline jerry jug for the dinghy outboard.  We were attempting to use up all the remaining credit from the 30 days we had to pre-pay for the marina slip.  We had to pay for 30 days in order to have a secured reservation, with the agreement that the unused days would be refunded to us if we stayed a minimum of 10 days.  We had been at the marina for 16 days and were ready to move on.  Despite our best efforts, we were unable to take on enough fuel to use up our remaining credit balance.  The marina will refund about 5,000 baht to our credit card.  At 10 minutes before high tide, we left the fuel dock and joined the procession of boats filing out the channel from Royal Phuket Marina and adjacent Boat Lagoon Marina.  We were third in line.


The first boat was a very large catamaran and he skimmed out quickly.  The smaller sloop in front of us churned up mud several times as he attempted to follow the long twisting channel out.   Our draft is supposed to be 2.1 meters.  As heavily loaded as we currently are, the draft must be at least 2.2 meters because the water rises higher on the hull -- almost to the boot stripe right now.  Those 15 cases of beer and 6 cases of wine and all the food I have stocked comprise a lot of extra weight, causing the boat to float lower in the water than optimal.  However, the tide was supposedly 3.2 meters; so all should be well.


We saw 0.0 water depth beneath our keel 3 times as we exited the channel.  But we never churned up any mud so there must have been at least a few inches of water beneath the keel at all times.  I was very relieved to be out of there!  I normally start getting nervous when we are in 10 meters of water.  At least I knew this was just a mud bottom and not coral or boulders, so it wasn't too nerve wracking.  Still, I was very glad to get out of that shallow water.


The anchorage at Ko Rang Yai was lovely on this sunny day.  There were 6 boats already anchored there, none of whom we knew.  Soon S/V ESPIRIT, S/V IMAGINE and S/V TIN SOLDIER arrived and anchored behind us.  As tide changed and boats swung around on their anchors, we soon were behind them.  Tides are very significant in this area and the currents are strong.

TIN SOLDIER and ESPIRIT aboard BeBe                  

Bill and Jane & Mark of S/V IMAGINE      

Bill had understood that the other boats wanted to get together for Christmas celebration and share appetizers, then each family would go their on way for individual dinners.  Somehow he had misunderstood the invitation.  The plan was to gather on one boat for appetizers, on a second boat for the main dinner, and move to a third boat for deserts.   As I was cooking miniature crab cakes, I quickly volunteered our boat for the appetizers.  That eliminated the logistical difficulties of transporting hot food in a dinghy.   The  5 children from the other 3 boats opted not to share appetizers with the adults.  They wisely scooted around the anchorage in a dinghy and enjoyed the beach.  I just love the self-reliant attitude of cruiser kids!  It was hot and sunny, but all 9 adults managed to fit into our cockpit and visit over drinks and assorted appetizers.   In fact, we were all enjoying talking so much that we fell an hour behind the "schedule" of progressing to the next boat.


S/V ESPIRIT had baked a turkey with all the traditional fixings -- bread stuffing, sausage dressing, green salad -- even cranberries.  S/V TIN SOLDIER also baked 2 chickens and a delicious onion & carrot dish.  S/V IMAGINE contributed mashed potatoes, another vegetable and more cranberries, plus champagne and non-alcoholic champagne for the kids.  Since we had not planned to join the group for a big meal, we had nothing prepared to share.  I quickly stir-fried a mixture of various vegetables and that was our only contribution.  I felt a little bad about not cooking much for this large gathering, but there was more than enough food to go around.  Lots of leftovers.  

Later we all moved to S/V IMAGINE for freshly baked pumpkin pie and assorted Christmas cookies.   One of the kids said this was the best progressive Christmas they had ever seen.  And it was great in our opinions also.  Heck, we even received a few small Christmas gifts -- some special coffees from S/V ESPIRIT and 2 small boxes of Belgian chocolates from Sara on S/V MOONSHIER a day earlier (one of which I unashamedly re-gifted to Chay on S/V ESPIRIT for his 60th birthday the next day).  Christmas is always best spent around children.  And, yet again, we were impressed with all these kids.  Cruising children are polite, sociable, well-behaved.  They interact with adults so much that they are often mature beyond their years, yet remain children with age-appropriate behavior when playing with other kids.  Being exposed to so many different cultures affords them a more well-rounded outlook on life than those children reared in a more traditional setting.  I think cruising and home-schooling is a wonderful experience for children.



It was a wonderful Christmas Day in Phuket.

And how would you cook this?

This is a label from a food package purchased in Thailand. (Click on the image for a larger view.)  Can you figure out how to cook it?  Can you possibly figure out what it is?  Yeah; that is what I thought.  So, here is a short story of my recent cooking adventures here in the Land of Smiles.

Shortly after we arrived in Phuket I cooked pancakes one Sunday morning, following the long-since memorized recipe from my grandmother's 1932 cookbook handed down to me from my mother since she never used it.  Bill took the first bite and literally spit it back out onto the plate.  Those pancakes tasted utterly disgusting!!!  He was convinced that I must have forgotten the recipe and added wrong ingredients.  I tossed that batch and started over; this time Bill pulled out the cookbook and called out the ingredients and quantities as I mixed the batter.

The second batch tasted just as nasty as the first.  Tossed that mess into the trash and Bill ate toast and cereal instead.  We reviewed where we had purchased each of the ingredients.  The only thing that possibly might have been different was the flour.  We had purchased it in Langkawi and the package was labeled only in Bahassa Malay.  I thought it was the same flour we have been buying during the past year, but maybe I had picked up some kind of seasoned flour intended for seafood or chicken or something.  So we tossed the entire large canister of flour.  During our next shopping trip we purchased Gold Medal flour.  Next time I made pancakes, they tasted fine -- just like normal.


On Christmas Day I made a chocolate pie using the same cookbook.  Nothing weird in the ingredients:  Hershey's semi-sweet baking chocolate, butter, flour, sugar, salt, scalded milk, vanilla and 3 egg yolks.  The mixture took 3 times longer to thicken that stated in the recipe, but it looked normal.  I poured it into the pie shell and then licked the spoon.  BEEE--YUCK!!!!!  That tasted sort of like that nasty pancakes of a few weeks earlier.  I tossed that pie into the trash and decided we didn't really need a desert on Christmas.  (Later, our Christmas plans changed and there were plenty of deserts; but that is another story.)

Fast forward to 28 December when for some reason  I decided that a cup of coffee would be really nice one morning.  We do not normally drink coffee but I do enjoy it every once in a while.  Rather than my normal black coffee, I wanted a "desert" coffee with sugar and Coffeemate.  I settled in the cockpit to enjoy the coffee while reading my latest book; took the first sip and promptly spit it overboard.  HEY!  This tasted about as nasty as those pancakes!  

All the marinas in Thailand warn that the water from the spigots is non-potable; so we have not been drinking water from our main water tank because it was filled in the marina.  We had filled large jerry jugs with water we had made prior to arriving in the marina.  But for this coffee I had used the water from the tap from our main water tank.  Figured since it was put through the drinking water filter system and then boiled that it should be okay to drink.  Apparently not true!

I made another coffee, using water from our jerry jugs this time.  I added the sugar and Coffeemate; and again sat down to enjoy coffee and reading.  Took a sip and again immediately spit it overboard.  What the heck was going on?  This stuff tasted like seawater.  I convinced Bill to taste it.  He grimaced and said it tasted like salt.

A little memory work ensued.  Sure enough, when I had cooked the last batch of pancakes I had used up the last 1/4 cup of the sugar in the small container that I keep on the spice shelf in the galley.  That was the batch of pancakes that tasted normal.  But the first 2 batches of disgusting pancakes were made using sugar from the large canister kept on a shelf behind the store.  And the chocolate pie was prepared using sugar from that large canister.  Then I had re-filled the small container on the spice shelf from that large canister and used the small container to "sweeten" my coffee. 

That large canister of sugar was really SALT!!
Actually, both the small container and the large canister were now pure salt!

Here in Thailand I had purchased a large bag of what I thought was sugar.  It looked like sugar and was on the supermarket shelf next to the flour, so I thought like an American and assumed it was sugar.  After all, at home the supermarkets usually put the flour and sugar near one another on the shelves.

Glad the mystery was solved before we ruined more food.  I had already thrown out quite a bit of flour, not to mention the pie crust and the chocolate and eggs.  I dug out our "reserve" large bag of sugar that had been vacuum-sealed in March 2008 in Panama.  I poured that excessive quantity of salt into a bag and vacuum-sealed it.  Then washed out the large canister and filled it with azucar -- which I know for certain is Spanish for sugar. 

We now have enough salt on this boat to last us however many years we might decide to continue cruising.  I would never have knowingly bought this much salt.  But we will need to buy more sugar.  And from now on I will taste the salt and taste the sugar before it is placed into our daily use small containers and the large Lock-N-Lock storage canisters.