Spending a very quiet last night at anchor on board of SY "Kamu II", at a safe position in-between Ko Rang Yai and an tiny islet, saying goodbye to eight wonderful and rewarding years as liveaboards and recalling the hundreds of different anchorages from the last years in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
Experiencing the squalliest sea passage ever and learning to distinguish between two types of squalls: (i) the regular SW monsoon squalls and (ii) the “propeller squalls” - the latter ones had the 50 plus knot force to spin the propeller of our out-boarder, when in neutral, which is attached to our push pit.
Meeting fishermen from Sri Lanka in heavy seas at about N 04° 25.00' E 078° 08.00' and establishing friendly rapport with them over a distance of a couple of dozen metres.
Crossing the shipping lane between Singapore and Port Said at about N 05° 30.00' E 087° 45.00'at night under sails in very light winds with a speed over ground of only 1 - 2 knots, lighting up the sails with our powerful searchlight and thus convincing the big motor vessels to give way to our ship under sails - we never did hear their curses.
Missing the opportunity of a hot shower and a free late-night dinner at the captain’s table of one of the many big ships on the nearby shipping lane when we, only for about a few minutes long, considered the option of a Mayday call after Matt assumed a leak at an u/w welding seam when we had discovered that the bilge was filled up with saltwater and were very relieved when Konni later confessed that she had only forgotten to close one of our sea cocks before we heeled over in one of the many nasty squalls which hit us quite hard in this sleepless night.
Matt: Hallucinating visually the typical cyclone indicators for the Bay of Bengal at least three times a day until he was running out of Scotch: (i) sudden barometer drops of 3 - 5 mill bars below the mean pressure for the time of year, (ii) abrupt changes in wind direction and strength, (iii) long, low swell, with a long period, contrary to the perceived prevailing swell, and (iv) solid amounts of cirrus followed by altostratus and broken cumulus.
Being becalmed for days on end, browsing through a few old German mail-order catalogues and learning how dearly our German fellow sailors have to pay for the correct aka ganz richtige fulfilment of their cruising dreams of the perfect weltumsegelung: (i) € 225.90 or US$ 340.- for an anchor hook “Teufelskralle” with a 4-m nylon rope (on SY “Kamu II”: a piece of 16 mm mooring line as snapper attached to the anchor chain by means of a convenient rolling hitch for less than € 10.-); (ii) € 129.90 or almost US$ 200.- for a stylish fender board 1200 x 250 mm made from Kambala wood (on SY “Kamu II”: a pine plank 2500 x 300 mm for less than € 5.-); (iii) € 34.80 or over US$ 50.- for one little 30 x 45 cm South-African courtesy flag (on SY “Kamu II”: better don’t ask).
Sailing through the Great Channel from the Bay of Bengal into the Andaman Sea and passing Indira Point by about 2 nm at the southern tip of the Great Nicobar Island (devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami which hit on 26 December 2004) where the Shompen people, hunter-gatherers who have resisted integration, live (in the vicinity of an Indian naval base).
ApproachingThailand’s lee-shore and being officially welcomed to the Far East by a storm warning from Penang/Malaysia on our NASA Navtex receiver: ZCZC UB15 2008-09-09 22:59 METEOR MALAYSIA 015, SECOND CATEGORY WARNING. STRONG NORTH-WESTERLY WIND OF 50 – 60 KMPH OVER THE WATERS OFF PHUKET, PERLIS, KEDAH, PENANG AND NORTH PERAK WITH WAVE HEIGHT OF 4.5 M IS EXPECTED TO PERSIST UNTIL THURSDAY 11th SEPTEMBER 2008. THIS CONDITION OF ROUGHSEAS IS DANGEROUS TO SHIPPING ACTIVITIES INCL. FISHING, FERRY SERVICES AND COASTAL ACTIVITIES. NNNN.
Making good the total of 1,688 nm in almost 24 days (an average daily run of only 70 nm), a roller-coaster ride of having to hove-to in squalls with winds up to 60 knots (and almost knocked down flat) and with calms for up to five consecutive days, between Gan (Addo Atoll) and Ao Chalong (Phuket/Thailand), thus entering Alfred Russel Wallace’s Malay Archipelago: “Situated upon the Equator, and bathed by the tepid water of the great tropical oceans, this region enjoys a climate more uniformly hot and moist than almost any other part of the globe, and teems with natural productions which are elsewhere unknown. The richest of fruits and the most precious of spices are here indigenous. It produces the giant flowers of the Rafflesia, the great green-winged Ornithoptera (princes among the butterfly tribes), the man-like Orang-Utan, and the gorgeous Birds of Paradise. It is inhabited by a peculiar and interesting race of mankind – the Malay, found nowhere beyond the limits of this insular tract, which has hence been named the Malay Archipelago...” - Southeast Asia, here we come!
Clearing in at Ao Chalong's one-stop (immigration: marine transit permit on arrival for “skipper” Matt and visit permit on arrival for “passenger” Konni, both valid for 30 days; customs: temporarily importing SY “Kamu II” for a period of six months extendable up to 2 years; harbourmaster: filling in some idiotic forms that put SY “Kamu II” in the same class as super tankers), all free of charge, fast, friendly and painless on our side.
Click below for an interactive satellite view of the last anchorage ever of SY "Kamu II":
