Christmas eve

Merry Christmas to our family and friends where ever they are in the world.

For us here in Malaysia our Christmas will start hours ahead of time in Canada. It is 1400 hrs on the 24th and we will be celebrating this evening with a big dinner at the resort with three other boat crews at our table. It will be a lot of fun although we will be missing not being with our family and especially the grand children. We will have Santa here 16 hours ahead of Vancouver time so will make sure he doing ok. On Christmas day we will be having a big buffet lunch and I imagine there will be a lot of yachties there.

This is a little offering to the three other boats we are having dinner with. Apologies to the original author.

                                               CHRISTMAS 2013

 

Tis the night before Christmas and all through the marina not a yacht was stirring not even Tahina.

The yachties were all sipping beer with hopes that Saint Nicholas would soon be here.

Sea Mist was rolling in when there was such a clatter that we all jumped up to see what was the matter.

Up in the rigging it did appear, there had been a crash with a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rain deer.

Callisto and Kilkea II rushed to see what was the commotion as they knew they were not on the ocean.

There were no clouds and up in the shrouds a little elf did appear.

Tangled in all the gear he showed no fear and with a wink of his eye and a touch of his nose up the mast he arose.

All was well and seeing no swell he jumped in the hack to try another approach to Rebak.

He said “All done, had fun,” and headed west to see all the rest.

We heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

pictures of Siem Reap

                                                  Buddha

Me in front of Angkor Wat

Marian with Lion at Angkor

faces at Angkor Thom!

one of the thousands of carvings on all of the temples

Angkor Thom with its many faces of king number 7

Tuk Tuk

the many types of rice

Almost Christmas

Well it has been a long time in getting down to do this blog again. No real excuses other than just being lazy. I guess it goes with the climate here as nothing happens fast.

We did go to Cambodia in November and enjoyed a week in Siem Reap. We enjoyed seeing the old temples of Angkor Wat and many others having a driver and car for a couple of days and then using Tuk Tuks the rest of the time. The Khmer people had a rich culture back around the 1200 year mark building all these temples which are huge with motes around them that must have taken thousands of men and elephants years to complete if not generations. The countryside is just full of rice fields around every corner with some big and some very small in home gardens. The people are poor and with the genocide of the eighties the country will take a number of generations to get back on its feet. We did not go to any of the killing fields but it does seem to be a tourist attraction that we did not want to see. We had a very nice hotel to retreat to every day and enjoyed it very much along with dinners out in the most unlikely locations with our tuk tuk driver taking us down through very dilapidated areas to find a real nice fancy restaurant. It was interesting to see the temples and country side but a week was enough.

After getting back we have been just relaxing at the pool and doing boat jobs. Still trying to get the electrical problems fixed but as most things here it takes patients and it is probably best to get anything major done in Phuket Thailand. We hope we can get most done before we go up there in January. Marian had a fall last week and probably broke some ribs but is still managing well but not sleeping great. We did manage a visa run (17th-19th) to Penang and spent two nights there enjoying the bigger city with much better shopping than here in Langkawi.

Well Christmas is just around the corner and this will be the first one we will have spent away from Canada. It will be great to have a warm (hot) time here with many of our cruising friends. We have decided to stay at Rebak as it is a five star resort island with all the amenities. We will have a big Christmas eve dinner at the resort and then on Christmas day either a big brunch or dinner also done by the resort. It should be very nice but not as good as being at home with the family. I am sure that we will have a busy social time through to the New Year. Then we leave for Thailand for two plus months of cruising. About time as we have not moved Kilkea II since last April.

We wish all our friends a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Back home on Kilkea II

We finally made the move and left Vancouver for Malaysia and home to Kilkea II. We started out trying to head for Hong Kong and had checked in but they were oversold so we had to reclaim our baggage and go through Canadian Customs and Immigration then back to check in to try for the flight to Narita Japan. We made that one and spent two nights in Narita before flying to KL and on to Langkawi where we arrived back at Rebak on Thursday morning. All was well with Kilkea II having been looked after by Mary and Allen who own Langkawi yacht sales and service. We left an AC unit on a timer which came on twice a day for a couple of hours so we had no mildew or other problems associated with leaving a boat in the tropics.

Now after a week back we are just getting acclimatized and Marian is getting over a nasty cold. We have been going at a slower pace than in Vancouver which is nice and have spent some late afternoons up at the pool and out for dinner. I have a couple of boat jobs underway one of which is replacing the 30amp charger which has been acting up and not going to the float mode which causes the batteries to overcharge which is not a good thing. We have found an electrician who is a Kiwi and he is sourcing a new charger as well as going to fix the wiring for the fans to come on in the engine room when we start up the generator. That is something that we found broken just before we left in May. Yesterday I borrowed a compressor and spent three or more hours under the boat. The bottom was just fine but the propeller and the leading edges of the bow, keel, and rudder were fouled with barnacles and oysters the latter the hard ones to get off. I was rather tired after that and had a very good sleep last night.

The other thing we have been doing is spending a lot of time on the Internet organizing a trip to  Siem Reap Cambodia. We have now done this and will be leaving on the 19th until the 26th and have booked flights and hotels. We are not sure what to expect as we know little of the history of the country other than they have a lot of ruins at Angkor Wat which will be interesting to see. Not sure if we will go to Phnom Penh as all we know of the city is that is where the killing fields were and I don't really want to see that dreadful time of their history. We will spend this weekend up at the pool just relaxing and getting used to the warm temps as well as a few boat jobs that never end.

Back soon

We are in Calgary visiting our daughter and son inlaw for the weekend. Lots of fun raking leaves with the two boys aged one and three. They are expecting snow on Sunday so hope we can get out ok. Marian is just back from Ireland where she had great weather and good time with her family and friends at her 50th nursing reunion.
 All our have to do jobs are done and the other stuff will just have to wait. Our oldest son is moving into the house while he tears down and rebuilds his house which will take about a year. We plan to stop off in Hong Kong for a few days and should be back to Kilkea II the first week of November. The boat here is now all ready to go for next year. It is amazing that we have been home since mid May as we have not got as much done as we had hoped. Mind you we did not expect to have the house back so soon but it was good that we did. We really look forward getting back to Kilkea II but imagine there will be a few maintenance issues to deal with, hopefully nothing too big.

The good and the bad

I see that it has been awhile since adding any information to the blog. The good news is that Kilkea, the power boat, is fixed with the new fuel tank installed and the engine put back in place and up and running. The bad news is that the summer is over here and the rain has started to fall with cool temperatures so not too conducive to boating so we will have to content ourselves with the knowledge that we will be ready to go next summer season.

 We have had another problem that happened a couple of weeks ago. We had gone for a forty five minute walk after dinner and when we arrived back we found the alarm had been activated and the house broken into. Our neighbors had already called the police and their children had seen the robbers and identified their truck. They took Marian's wallet and our laptop. This is a real pain in the ass as we have had to cancel and redo all the cards etc. The laptop is the biggest problem as we had a lot of pictures on it as well as cruising guides and charts etc. So if anyone gets some strange email from us please disregard it and let us know. Now we are upgrading our security system but is it more like locking the barn door after the horses have all gone.

On the house front I think that we could keep busy painting and gardening for months if not years so are looking into getting back to Kilkea II for some relaxation and good times. The roof work continues and should be complete by the end of Oct. Other than that all is well enjoying old friends and our family.

Nothing new

We are still busy with the house and NO the boat is not fixed up so we have not had any fun on the water. We are now having to accept that we will have to wait until next summer to do any boating on the west coast. At least we have to sail boat to return to and enjoy SE Asia over the winter.

The outside painting and cleaning up of the house has been done and the place is getting to look respectable again. Marian has just about finished off the inside cleaning which has taken over a month to do. Now lots more gardening and logging as things are overgrown. We have  had relatives from Saskatoon and Ireland and have had two of the grandsons with us for a week now. They are 8 and 6 and tend to tire you out. I have had to take up riding a bike with them so lots of fun. They also can help to run the computers and games that they play as well as the TV. It is interesting to see the changes from our generation to theirs. It is a different world that they will inherit.

The sad news is that our friend Steve Southwood (s/v Dignity) lost his battle with cancer this month and set sail for places unknown. He was only 48 so far too young. He will be missed.

August

We are back in our house and not too sure if we are happy about that or not. It is nice to have lots of room and long showers but as you can imagine after seven years of renting, with only being back in the house for a few months between renters, there is a lot of painting and cleaning to do. We have the roofing guys doing a rather major job and the painter doing the soffits and facier boards as well as all the wood windows. We are painting some of the indoor rooms ourselves. Now we could do most all of this but it would take us too much time.  This has kept us very busy and unfortunately not left us any time for boating. I am still waiting on our engine man and friend to come down and lift the engine up into the saloon so we can cut out the old tank and install the two new ones. Hopefully this will happen soon so we can get out sometime this summer??

Our furniture and "stuff" arrived back at the house and it was fun opening boxes and finding long lost bits and pieces of our old life. It is funny now that most of the hard furniture is back in place that  everything feels so normal almost like we never left and that the sailing was just a dream. As I mentioned before it will be great to get back to it and enjoy the challenges that sailing affords us. On the dental front all has been completed and I am good to go so at least no more worries there. In the middle of doing all this stuff we have been managing to see lots of the grand kids and are managing to catch up with old friends. If we ever find a little more time I will post some more interesting news.

Too busy

Well we are still as busy as can be with one thing after another. Now we know why we like the cruising life so well as there is far too much work and stuff to do at home. We did get the new fuel tanks on July 2nd and have them in the boat house now ready to be installed. We had planned to do this asap but other things have intervened. Our renters who have sick parents have managed to move up their transfer which was a surprise to them as well as us. No problem as we wanted to get the house back sooner than later but sooner is now July 19th so we are scrambling to move back in!! Our furniture and stuff have been in storage, in containers, for the last seven years so it will be like opening a time capsule when they arrive back in the driveway at the end of the month. Our son says we should also bring in a dumpster so we can throw out half the stuff we packed away. This will give us some lead time to do some painting and having all the carpets cleaned etc. Now all this sure cuts into our plans to do some cruising this summer but we still hope to get some in. We will wait until we are out of this boat and into the house before we lift the engine and install the new fuel tanks. At least we will not be living with a big engine in our saloon while we do the work. That is the overview.

We have managed to go out a couple of times on the boat just for the day. July 1st with the Vancouver family crew for hot dogs and crabbing which was successful with the boys catching four or five keepers. Good eating, dungeness crabs, now we need to get out and set the prawn nets. Next we went out with friends John and Barb for a cruise around the bay and then anchored out and had a BBQ and watch the sun go down. That is one of the really nice things about being here in the summer as the sun does not set until well after 9 pm and is up again by 5 am so short nights unlike the tropical areas with equal day and night. Even after the sun sets it is still light for well over an hour. Other doings were going over to Calgary for five days to see our daughter and husband along with the two little grandsons. Lots of fun and the good news is that they were not affected by all the flooding in Calgary. Other things have been spending far too much time with the dentists but at least I am getting towards the end of all this?? This week Marian is going back to Calgary for a couple of days and then we are meeting in Victoria to visit my brothers.

Well not much of boating stories here but we do hope to get away for a few weeks later in the summer. It seems like we will have more house stories than boat ones for awhile.

Never enough time.

Our trip home was good and we had a nice time staying in Narita for two days. It is a beautiful little town by the airport with the old Japanese feeling to it. There is a wonderful park area full of temples both old and new. The old ones have been shipped in and reconstructed to save the history of these  building. It is a very big area with lots of lakes and walkways and one could spend the better part of the day there. We spent a day in Tokyo which is just another big city which is not really to our liking. In Narita there is a pub called Jet Lag which is where a lot of the airline crews hang out and we met up with some on my old work mates and had a couple of good evenings out for dinner.

We arrived back in Vancouver on May 11 and have been flat out busy since. Our first priority was to see the children and grand kids. We had five of the six over for Marians birthday which was a lot of fun and just what she wanted. After she went over to Calgary for four days to see Natalie and our grandsons there

On to the boat front. We developed a fuel leak about three years ago in the port two hundred gallon tank. It was just weeping and we transferred the fuel out to the other tanks at that time. So now we have to get at that which is no small feat. I found the people in Bellingham who have all the schematics of the boat and the dimensions of the fuel tank. The problem is there is no way to get to old out and a new one in with out tearing the whole boat apart. Basically cutting a huge hole in the haul. Hopefully we are able to get around the problem by splitting the tank into two one hundred gallon tanks and use a manifold to connect them together. The tanks are on order and are supposed to be ready by |July 4th. To do this I will need to lift the port engine up into the salon on an A frame so that it will move over so we can have access to the tank which is on the outboard wall of boat. We will have to cut the existing one out and then hopefully the two new ones will fit OK. Judging on how things go with boats go there will be a few issues but we will find solutions to all.

Other little problems have been replacing the fresh water pump and putting in a new hot water heater as the old one rusted through. Lots of other little projects as well as boat hate not being used. We hauled Kilkea out on Monday, we towed it to the lift as I was afraid the engine intakes would be fouled, and found the props, rudders and shafts were just one big ball of mussels, oysters, and other stuff. The hull was fine with nothing on it so the anti foul was still working. The metal parts an other story. We filled three wheel barrows with mussels etc so it was a mess and I'm glad I didn't start the engines. All other times with our boats here we have sanded and painted the bottom but this year we are having the yard do it mainly because the props and all the other metal parts need to be properly ground as we are going to use prop speed anti foulant on them. We have had great success with this produce on Kilkea II over the last five years. Anyway living on the boat and having all this done is a challenge and we will be glad when we have everything fixed which will probably take until mid July at the earliest.

 Our next project is dealing with the house as we will be finished leasing it sometime this year. The lease runs out at the end of December but the renters may want to leave sooner which is fine by us. Right now we have roofers up demossing the ceder shake roof and then after a few months they will come back and start replacing bad shakes and blowouts. This is time consuming and costly but the only other option would be to replace the roof. They will guarantee this for five years so it is a bit of a 50-50. The next thing on the house is to have all the windows, we have wood windows, facier boards and soffiting re stained. Then there is some yard work that Marian want to get at and as we have an acre of property there will be lots to do. These renters have been in the house for four years and have kept the house nice and clean and have even done some painting which is great from our point of view. Also the yard is tidy with the grass mowed and thing looked after but not up to the admirals standards with the flower beds etc. So lots to do there to keep us busy.

Well this is just a few of the bigger things we have been doing along with the medical checks etc. I have had two dental surgeries so far which is a much fun as kissing your sister even thought I don't have one. One thing that we are enjoying is the cool temperatures which makes it so much easier to do things. On the other hand we feel a little out of place being back here as we miss not being on Kilkea II and living our other life. We still do not have cruising plans for next year but do know we will be back to Rebak in October and then up to Thailand until March, past that we have a few options but don't know which way to go right now.

I will try to post some pics and hope not to be so long with the posts.

A different summer for us

We are back in Rebak Marina which is a small island just off Langkawi Island which is also a duty free area in Malaysia. This is good for all things that we might have to order abroad as there is no duty or taxes on whatever you order. For us this would be boat parts etc. Having said this there is no problems with Kilkea II at the moment. We have been back for two weeks having cleared customs, imigration, and harbour master in no time at all as well as filling the boat up with diesel all within half an hour. This was at Telaga Harbour which is just five or six miles from Rebak. When we arrived we met up with some of the old cruising friends which was a lot of fun catching up on all their travels and adventures.

The last two weeks have been busy with us putting the boat to bed so to speak. Marian has completely washed and scrubbed the insides, done tons of laundry etc. We have taken the Jib off and put it away and then put the cover back on the boat. It came off a lot easier than when we put it back on. It took nearly two days to get it right and we think next time we are up at Phuket we will get some adjustments made on it. If it was not so hot it would be much easier but with the temps in the 40's and the humidity at 100% it is not possible for us to work more than three hours in a day outside. Then we go to the swimming pool! We have purchased a box air conditioning unit and will have it run on a timer for when we are back in Canada. It will help keep the humidity out and hopefully not allow any mildew getting started. We also will leave three bleach bottles open as the chlorine that evaporates helps kill the nasties.

It has been rather interesting this year as we have done very little sailing (more motoring due to lack of wind) and are back where we started which is rather different as we seem to be going west most of the time. It has been fun just hanging out in Thailand and not having to be on any schedule. We are rather stuck here now as the pirate situation still is stopping us from going up the Red Sea but we are hopeful that maybe next year it will be safe to go that way. Otherwise the options are to ship Kilkea II to the Med or sail around South Africa or just stay here. Our plans right now are to leave tomorrow for Tokyo for a couple of days and then to Vancouver on the weekend. We will be home for about five months and it seems rather strange to be leaving our home just sitting here in the marina. I do think that for me it is the journey and challenges that make it so much fun to be doing what we do wheras Marian enjoys the destinations a little more than I do but she does enjoy the sailing just about as much!! Oh well we will have much to do and see in Vancouver as I have a least a couple of weeks to get Kilkea (the power boat) up and running and we do plan cruising up the BC coast this summer. Lots of fresh prawns and salmon to catch and eat!!! We look forward to seeing all the grand kids and have them get to know us a little better as most times we are home it is only for a short time before we are off. This summer we should be able to have lots of fun and ice cream with them all. I will keep up the blog every couple of weeks form m/v Kilkea and let you know what we are doing in that part of the world.

New cover



our new top to keep us cooler and drier

 After a couple of weeks enjoying the air conditioned comfort it was time to leave the marina and head south for Langkawi in Malaysia.

We spent the two plus weeks doing some more odd jobs to the boat one of which was replacing two of the aft shrouds on the main mast. These are stainless steel wires that hold up the mast. One of them was showing a strand of the wire that was suspect. This is rather important as the loading on these is tremendous especially in big winds and gusts.  We also replaced the jib sheet as well as having it gone over in the sail loft. We did enjoy our time at the marina with driving around Phuket and having dinners out with lots of old and new friends. The weather, last week, just before we left changed with a couple of days of high cloud and then lots of thunder storms rolled in and the winds went to the west. This is the start of the southwest monsoon and the temperatures have dropped which is just fine by us. Now my toes have stopped sweating!!

We drove too Ao Chalong and cleared out of Thailand on Friday and have about ten days before we have to check into Malaysia. This allows us to take our time going south and stop off and explore some of the islands. Our first stop was in Phi Phi Don which is infamous for the destruction that was caused by the 2004 tsunami. It is of course rebuilt and crowded with back packers and full of ticky tacky tee shirt shops and lots and lots of day tripper boats coming over from Phuket. Not a place we would want to spend much time at but worth a look. Next day we went to Ko Lanta and spent a couple of days. The first day we rented motor bikes along with Callisto and drove all around the island. It was a lot of fun and no one crashed. The next day was rather stormy with lots of squalls and rain coming through so we just stayed the days and did some reading and stuff.

The next morning we left for Ko Lipe with Callisto and are now just twenty miles from Langkawi where we will check in on Monday after spending the weekend here. It will be the last place where the water is clear and nice for swimming.

Happy Easter

Surin Island beach



Typical beach bar



Also a typical Thai restaurant

David's viewpoint from atop Sail Rock, Similan Island

Beach bar at sunset

Latex rubber sheets drying. Thailand is the worlds largest producer of latex.

Sea Eagle on huge boulder on pile of huge rocks

Thai Wat

Kilkea II

Longtail boat in Surin Islands

Sea Gypsy village, Surin Island

Large fishing boat, note size of crew on deck tending the fishing net

some pictures with more to come????



Two boat boys waxing Kilkea's masts



Big Buddha overlooking Ao Chalong Bay

Thai market



Yes these are live chics....why are they coloured...we don't know!



Yacht Haven

After four days in the Surin islands we motored 30 miles to the Similan Islands which are also marine parks. This area is much different as it is closer to the mainland and lots and lots of high speed tourist boats come every day around ten in the morning but leave by four in the afternoon leaving us and some live aboard dive boats to enjoy. The island are very nice with great big boulders along the shore with beautiful soft sand beaches. The water here is also very clear with lots of fishes but as we found out three years ago the water temperature went up over 34C for a few weeks and that killed all the coral. It is making a try at coming back but it will take a long time to recover. The water temp now is around 31C. We spent three days and then left for an anchorage by the airport on the north end of Phuket Island where we did some swimming and walks, one to a hotel behind the beach which you would not know was there from the water side that was very wonderful with lots of pools and lovely gardens, as well we enjoying dinners and lunches out as the beach restaurants. Seems that is the main event of the day for all of us cruisers out here. We worked our way around to Ao Chelong where we enjoyed a Sunday evening  enjoying a couple of singers at a beach bar who were very good so had an enjoyable evening. Then it was off to Yacht Haven to clean up and do some boat chores. After three weeks the boat was in need of a good clean up.

I have said that it is HOT here and with the coming of the south west monsoon in a few weeks it is getting even hotter. In the last month the highs and lows are both 5C higher so the highs are around 38+ and the lows 32+ so it is very nice to be at a dock where the A/C can run all day and we can sleep at night. We have taken our jib down and into the sail maker to have the u/v strip re sewn and have it all checked over. Also we are having a complete cover made for Kilkea to provide some shade as we could easily cook an egg on the deck and maybe a whole meal!!! HOT!!! It will come in three pieces so we will be able to use whatever part seems most necessary on the day as it will take awhile to put it all up. When we are at a marina or leaving the boat we will put it all up which will help keep the boat cooler and also protect it from the very harsh ultra violet rays and when the rainy season starts it will keep her drier.

We plan to be here another week then do some more cruising around. The 13th is Thai new year and one of the tradition apparently is to throw buckets of water at everyone which would not be a bad idea. One is always soaking wet here just walking around so a bucket of water would be good. Our visa is up on the 14th so not sure yet if we will get an extension or not. We will be back in Rebak around the end of April to lay up Kilkea and then head for home and some cooler weather. I know I know no one has any sympathy for us complaining about the weather but!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Oh well soon we will be upset over too much rain and cold. Never happy are we.

The best part of the day is after the sun has gone down and lots of us yachties head over to one of the local restaurants for dinner and drinks. It is hard to spend more than twenty dollars for drinks (beer) and dinner for two so pretty good. There are lots of nationalities at these get togethers so the conversation is interesting and it is an oportunity to make new friends from around the world.

Surin Islands

We have spent the last two weeks motor sailing up the west coast of Thailand doing about 35 mile hops. We have been stopping for two nights at most places and enjoy the beach restaurants that are in every village or resort area that we pass along the way. The whole coast is a beautiful white beach so it doesn't matter much where we stop. Along the Thai coast the water is a blue green colour so makes for a pleasant view but the air has a haze that limits visibility to maybe five miles. This is real tropical  jungle type weather and is still very HOT. We sailed up to Ko Phayam island which is right on the  boarder with Burma. This was a beautiful island with a great anchorage good food and easy walking. It would be nice to go further north as the charts show nothing but islands with great anchorages for the next two hundred miles up the Myramar coast but this area is closed to us at this time but I expect in the future it will open up as the political climate changes. Next we sailed offshore to the Surisn islands which are a marine park and the water is clean and clear with lots of colourful fishes. Unfortunately most of the coral is dead. I don't know if this is due to warmer water temperature of the ocean or an effect of the tsunami that had such devastating effects on this whole area in 2004. There are very few tourists here but you can rent a tent from the park and spend a few days on deserted beaches for a very inexpensive cost. They even have two canteen type restaurants where you can get basic meals that are very good. Eating in Thailand is a joy with lots of different flavours to enjoy. We will stay another two days here and then move to some more offshore islands called the Similans and see what is there. One thing will be more tourists coming out for day trips from the resorts on the mainland coast.

Off cruising tomorrow

Kilkea II is all clean and polished and looks great. We had the waxing crew hear for four days. The hardest part was the waxing of the masts which took over two days of the boat boys being up both masts. It was badly needed to be done. We went off with Callisto driving to pick up odds and ends for the boats and to do a big shopping. We stopped at a sail loft, which is a huge building called Roley Tasker, and bought a  new jib sheet line as well as a few more bits and pieces. They make rope there and have a full rigging area where the can make anything at all. We will be heading off tomorrow up the west coast of Thailand about 140 miles to the Burma (Myramar) boarder before crossing to the Similan islands where we are told the water is crystal clear. We did stop at the big Buddha on top of one of the hills and enjoyed the wonderful views. The Buddha is really big and is still under construction. It was another very hot day and really it is hard to do anything between 11am until 4 pm. All one can do is sit in the shade and read a book which is what we are looking forward to for the next few weeks. Plus just falling overboard to cool off.

Some Thailand pictures

Kilkea II in Phang Nga Bay



James Bond Island



David and Henry inside a Hong



At the marina

We had a great week with Henry motoring around the Ao Phang-Nga national park area. This is the Thailand you would see in the travel brochures. They even have an island called James Bond island where they filmed The Man with the Golden Gun. The whole area is full of phallic islands, lots with cave entrances into Hongs, which are open at the top but surrounded by vertical cliffs. It is all very spectacular. One evening we were enjoying happy hour in these beautiful surroundings and at the same time talking to Elaine who was in Afghanistan with the British army in a war zone talking to us as if all was normal. It was all rather surreal. We did not have much wind and only managed to put the sails up a couple of times and pretend we were sailing.

We are now back in Yacht Haven marina having Henry leave us yesterday morning for Australia. We have had a couple of canvas people down to measure the boat for a full cover for when we leave Kilkea II here for the summer. We will get the quotes and then decide if we want to go ahead with this project. Yesterday we had our cleaning crew, which we organized last time here, to start work waxing the whole boat. They will take about five days to do all the work. Right now we have four guys waxing away with one up the main mast waxing it and doing all the stainless fitting on the rigging. We could do this but with the heat this seems to be a much better idea. We will be here until the fourth or fifth of March and then sail up the coast towards the Myrmar (Burma) boarder. Then offshore to the Similan and Surin islands which are supposed to be very nice. There are a few boats that we know who will be in the area when we are so it should be fun. Callisto is here at the marina and we will be travelling in tandem with them for the next month or so. It will be a lot of fun. I must go and check how the waxing is going so will try to blog before we leave.

Thailand

We finally left our berth in Rebak marina on the 6th of Feb. It took us awhile as we kept enjoying everyones hospitality with dinners out and lots of pool time. Also the winds were not just perfect so why not stay another day. This is a problem that all of us cruisers have when we get too comfortable in one place. First thing we had to do was go over to Talaga Harbour to clear out of Malaysia. This Marian did as I fueled up Kilkea and we were off in an hour. The sailing was good for most of the way up to Ko Lipe where we anchored and spent three nights. It was a pleasant surprise that the waters were clear and clean. I mean really clear and as we had not been swimming for a long time we really enjoyed being able to dive overboard. We got the snorkles and masks out and checked out all the underwater parts of the boat and I'm happy to report that everything looks great.

I did mention that it is really hot here but that did not stop us from walking around the island which thankfully is not too big. Lots and lots of restaruants and bars all along the main beach and lots of back packer type hostels all about with the very white tourists trying to sunbathe themselves into something resembling a lobster. The food was great and the beer was cold and it was very hard to spend more than $15 for everything. Pretty good eh!! We would recomend it to any of our cruising friends and land ones as well, just make sure to stay in the shade.

Next we sailed up to Ko Muk island about 55 miles north where we anchored and were met by a very big turtle as we dropped the hook. Ashore was a hotel and a few beach bars with a dirt road leading over to the other side of the island. The dirt part of the road only lasted for a few hundred meters and then became a good concrete road. We walked over to the other side and out a kilometer long pier over the green waters with some of Thailands islands and hills in sight. On the way back we stopped the the Hill Top restaraunt and ended up having lunch with a south African guy and his Thai wife. It was great as she could do the ordering and we did enjoy their company and that of the owners of the place. All very good and enexpensive. The next day we took the dinghy around to a cave that goes 80 meters into a total round grotto with a beach and cliffs staight up all around you. Really neat and was used by pirates to hide their plunder. It is completly dark in the center of the cave so you need a good flashlight. Again another good meal at a resort called JJ's and a gentle breeze to keep us cool, well sort of, for the night.

Three nights and we sailed up to Ko Lanta and spent just one night as the winds became gusty up to 30k over night and the boat was bouncing around a bit. Before that came up we went to shore where they do have a five star resort but as the weather was changing we went back aboard.

We were up early and off with the thought of stopping at Phi Phi Don for the night but as we got close and with the wind from the day before the seas were lumpy and there was so many 50 plus foot power boats flying all about and making it even more uncomfortable that we just cruised by and headed for Ao Chalong which is at the south end of Phuket Island. We anchored and were greated by s/v Relapse with Mark, Catherine, and sons Ash and Cameron who are Kiwis and have been helping us out with information and their friendship since we first met them in Australia. We had moved the boat about 50 miles so ended up having dinner onboard and an early night.

Today we took the dinghy over to the town area, about 2k away from where we are anchored to do the check in proceedures with Immigration, Customs and Port Authority. Everyone was very nice and it took us less that an hour to complete all the paperwork. Their is a lot of paperwork! Then it was time for a walk past lots of bars and dive shops to the suppermarket. We did not need much but found everything we did need. It was a surprise to find that everything was much like at home and compared to Malaysia it was a big improvment with great meats including pork and lots of bacon with brand names we know well. Also lots of good cheese and a bakery that makes baguettes and even tonic water. Yea I think we are going to like it hear.

We will be making our way up to the north end of Phuket island to meet Henry, Marians nephew, who is joining us for a week. It should be a fun time as he and his wife Elaine have visited us before in New Zealand. Unfortunatly Elaine is in Afganistan with the Northern Ireland territorial army working as an operating nurse and I'm sure she will miss the sailing.

chilling by the pool in Rebak

Chilling in Rebak

After a week and a half we are over the jet lag and the grandkids colds. We have been doing next to nothing just sitting up by the pool most afternoons reading our books and just relaxing. This is a really nice marina with full use of the hotel services. The hotel is a rambling mix of two story buildings set in a park area along the beach front. Lots of garden areas with everything from tennis to archery.

We have managed to take the water taxi over to Langkawi a few times. We can rent a car for about fourteen dollars a day plus gas so impossible to spend more the twenty dollars a day. The island is all duty free and all the stores in town sell a lot of chocolate and liquor as this is a tourist island that a lot of Malays will come to for a holiday. Shopping for groceries is ok but you have to go to a few stores to get what you are looking for but we can get most everything we want. There is a gondola that takes you up to the top of one of the hills and give a great 360 degree view of the island as well as looking up to some of the islands in Thailand. A couple of night ago six of us took the water taxi over and had dinner out at a local place which was very good and very inexpensive. Otherwise we have just been hanging out enjoying the hot weather, which is fine if you are in the shade sitting by the pool, and just enjoying doing nothing.

Our plan now is to leave here in the next couple of days, depending on the winds, and spend a few days sailing around the island and anchoring here and there before checking out and sailing up to Thailand. Immigration and customs give you up to ten days to arrive in Phuket so one can enjoy some of the islands on the way as it is only ninety miles away. We now have some good information on where to go and what go see around Phuket so we are looking forward to spending a couple of month in the area.

Back to Kilkea II

We are back on Kilkea II after five weeks at home. Time really does fly as it seems we were just preparing to leave for Canada and now we are back! Our time at home was full every day with not enough time to do all the things we had planned and to see all of our friends. We rented a house for three weeks and had Natalie, Derek, and her two boys over from Calgary for two weeks. Christmas day saw us with all the family (15 of us) over for the afternoon and for a great dinner with turkey and all the trimmings. What fun it is to have the grand kids all going nuts opening presents with wide eyes and big smiles. We had a busy time with dinners out with friends and family the whole time we were home. In the new year we went over to Calgary to see Natalie and Dereks new home. We had a wonderful weekend but did come home with a cold that we are just getting over now. Poor little Declan ended up in hospital for a few days after we left Canada but is doing fine now and is at home.

We left on the 18th for Hong Kong arriving on the 19th. We spent a couple of nights and enjoyed seeing all the changes, as the last time we were there we think was 1993, so a lot of new buildings!! We did manage to find our way around to some old haunts like the tailors and the lawn bowling club and out to Stanley which used to be out in the sticks and is now yuppie ville with esplanades and upscale shops and apartments. We had dinner with Mike and Annne who also were passing through on there way back to s/v Calisto in Singapore. We hope to meet up with them in Thailand next month. On Sunday we flew down to Kaula Lumpur and then on to Langkawi Island. The flight to Langkawi was delayed by some big thunder storms in KL so we got in after eleven in the evening so just got a hotel for the night as the ferries to Rebak do not run at night. So Monday morning we arrived back on Kilkea and all was well as John on Sea Mist had done a great favour to us and had been running the a/c every so often so no problems on the inside and a quick wash outside brought us up to looking good.

After a quiet day and dinner out with John and Cheryl we had a short night then back to Lankawi and rented a car for the day to do some provisioning. We did manage to drive up to the top of the highest hill here with a fantastic view of all the islands and bays. We had lunch there and started our planning of our next places to visit. We could see the whole island of Langkawi as well as a number of Thai islands to the north. It appears that there are many wonderful anchorages to visit and we will be starting that next week. Our plan today is to spend February and March in Thailand and then come back here for April to do some land tours. Not sure where yet. Then we will leave Kilkea here for the summer and return to Canada in May and return towards the end of September and do some more touring of SE Asia. After that we will in all likelihood ship Kilkea next March back up to Marmaris in Turkey. I do not think that the pirate problem off of Somalia will have resolved itself by then but if it does we will sail that part of our journey. As we say we write our plans in the sand on the beach at low tide and each day we have a new slate to re plan our journeys.