Dave Kall – sv Elysium…

Visa Hell

I get how lucky we are. We get to travel the world in relative safety and ease. We won the sperm – egg lottery. Raised in a Western country with a strong economy and heaps of opportunity. Traveling to various cultures feeds our soul.

We love meeting people, sharing parts of their lives, laughing at how the elites of the world play their games. At times savoring some of the comfort foods they love. We don’t try everything. Dog is not on our list. But we do seek experiences out. Anyway… somewhere I read; I thought I did, that traveling Vietnam was like Malaysia, and Thailand. Complete the pre arrival visa three days before arrival. My bad! It is not like the others.

I spent all morning filling out an Vietnam electronic visa application to be stymied at every turn. I used some AI to help navigate the errors and in the end; well, hit the wall. W/ contacted our travel agent and he said “For more money he could have another company take care of it”. Ok. We paid, and while at the Airport in Langkawi; after we had landed in Kuala Lumpur (KL), the visa arrived.

Once we landed in KL the airline agent informed us we needed to print out the visa so we could board the next plane to Vietnam. We found a spot and now had a paper copy. We made it to the next plane without a hitch.

While in Vietnam we needed to apply for a Visa to Cambodia. Cambodia is part of this trip. When I had a spare hour in the am; I think a wee bit better in the morning, I started the application process. They asked for copies of our passports, our destination, and – get this – three months of bank statements. The bank statements are a first.

Ok, I open up our app to log into our bank. I changed the password recently because they make me do that on; it seems like an hourly basis. Shit! It couldn’t connect. Tried another device. No good. And the third one. That too failed. Without the statements I can’t finish the visa application. I tried the “Forgot Password” link. Dead end. Server times out. Check the connection and the bank system seems to be down. Holy hell! I don’t know if it was really down or an issue someplace in the connections. W/ sends an email to our banking contact; in the middle of the night and we don’t expect an answer for another dozen hours. Time to wait.

That afternoon I tried again. Something changed and I was able to connect with my previously changed password. Great! Downloaded three months of individual statements. I had tried to upload the three pdf’s individually that they asked for but their system would only take one pdf. So I needed to do some techie stuff and put the three important parts into one. Combined them so there was only one to upload. Done. I uploaded them all and finally, finally, go to the payment screen.

Not again! First card, the one we use the most. Payment successful; then 30 seconds later payment refused. What a cluster. It may be that our travel dates didn’t coincide with the Visa app date. Ok, luckily when back in the states we set up a Wise account. It has often helped when the main one does not work. Wise has been great in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia for purchases that our basic card is not accepted at. Success… failed. Wise. Wise sent me a text to accept payment to the Cambodian government. I said “yes”. Then within 30 seconds I received a message Wise doesn’t do transaction in Cambodia. SHIT.

One more card to try. Almost two years ago James at Pangkor Marina had told us about a Malaysian Card; AEON. How it would make our life easier in Malaysia; SE Asia and it would even work in the US. So we picked up this new card in Malaysia. It is a debit card but so what. Whenever we are near an AEON place we add money to the account. We dig out this card and I type everything in. Hit pay, get a text with confirmation number, enter it and finally, FINALLY, it says “Payment Accepted”. And 30 seconds later…. it was still accepted. Whew!

Less than a week later we had our Visa for Cambodia. Planning ahead we had asked our agent about our Visa back into Vietnam after our Cambodia trip. Oops, he said they missed that one and we only had a single entry Visa. I didn’t miss it. I had it checked but when they took over they obviously had to begin anew. So now we need to …. pay again… less however… to get a return visa to Vietnam. And we must be out of Vietnam to apply for it!

That means when we leave Vietnam we need to send a copy of our exit stamp image to our agent and then they can apply for a new Vietnam Visa. Thankfully, returning to Malaysia is a piece of cake compared to this section of the world. Thankfully.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

Gettin Ready

W/ is on cloud nine; getting ready for our land trip to Vietnam. I’m…. so… so… We decided I don’t love transitions. Actually a cruising friend pointed that characteristic out. An avid reader may remember W/ got us away from the dock in 2008. The beginning of our 1,000 day weekend ! Yep, we were leaving the dock in a yucky, overcast, rainy afternoon and travelled all of 10 nm out to the nearest anchorage. Years before, when we were heading to the Bahamas she started Principia’s engine and yelled “Get Aboard” as lines were being cast off. I leaped on.

Not much has changed in all those years. I don’t like FAST changes. And traveling by a jet to a new country is a fast change. Once I am there I’ll be ok. In all our other trips I have loved the adventure; when I am there. The food, the people, seeing what is just around the corner. I’m all in. But; packing, planning, thinking about this or that. Nope.

Now some will find this ironic. I sail the world. I seek new things, new people, new places, new food. But; I seek it going at the speed of a slow jog. I have time, a lot of time to adjust. And boat life has its own rhythm. Slow, predictable… some might say lazy. I can do that. This trip…. well… I’ll let you know how it goes. We leave in a couple days.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

What’s UP ?

Everybody wants to charge for advice; for their opinion, or to peek into their life. Join this, upgrade to that, support me, etc. Everyone wants money, money, money. If you need the money; then ok. If not it seems a wee bit “greedy”—to me.

I’ve been working on the website for most of the last month. Cleaning it up, making sure the code is correct, reducing errors: I hope! 🙂 And it is all still “free”. From cruising years ago we adopted the idea that cruisers support each other. On the site are nearly a thousand photos providing a look into a cruising yacht and the crew’s life on aboard. Over 100 product evaluations from our real world sailing experience. And of course there are dozens of picture stories about major projects we’ve worked on making the boat more comfortable. Some even with instructions. Luckily, we don’t need to charge. What would I really do with extra money? I’ve always said you can get more money but you don’t ever get more time. For me; for us, time is more valuable. It has always been.

That said other than the web site what have we been doing with our time? We We had three projects upper most on our list when we returned from our S Thailand sojourn. First: repair the dinghy. We had two leaks. Second: we needed to replace the Tank Tender pickup for measuring how much fuel was in our new port tank, and the third was to stop a smallish leak in the Lavac Head base. These were actually the priority; not the web site.

The dinghy we hauled up to the work shed planning to seal the leaks. We discovered one under the oarlock that had fallen off. It would be a problem to repair. We didn’t like it. The other leak was near a seam. We use 5200 Fast Set on the Hypalon tubes. It works great but I didn’t like using it over seams and the oarlock area was a real conundrum on how to repair it.

So we chose instead to ship it off to the Dinghy Dr. aka AllStar boats. They had it last year and did a great job on the repair. Our dinghy is getting a bit long in the tooth. We plan on getting a new dinghy next year, but one more year out of old reliable would be nice.

While we’re waiting for it to be returned to good nick again we had our new 15 hp Yamaha Enduro delivered. It is now resting gently on our aft deck waiting patiently to be put into service. All the while we still have the other for sale. Any takers? LOL

The Tank Tender needed a small new connection to the sensing tube. Either I did or the workers in Phuket broke the old connection when removing the tanks. I had called Tank Tender to get a new one; ordered 3 to have spares and they were fantastic in their response. When we returned to the Marina the items were there. With those in hand we set about running some new air lines. For a small project it ended up creating a good mess in the boat. We opened up the panel where the display was. Removed 3 drawers, one set of cabinet openings, two finished floor boards, two floor boards inside a locker and emptied a huge locker with our sewing machine, power snorkel and other gear to get to the last floor board and replace the fitting. After connected we tested the fuel level before returning everything to its correct place. With that completed and working on to the last job- for now.

The third issue was the Lavac Head Gasket. It’s weeping, sometimes more sometimes less. I’ve complained about Lavac before. They have a plastic base in which there is a rubber gasket and the ceramic toilet sits on those two. The bolts come up through the plastic and there is a nut on the base. To tighten them one needs to remove the entire assembly and position a socket on the bottom bolt head inside the base while tightening the top nut. In the past I had tightened the assembly too much and cracked the base causing… another leak. It seems over time the rubber gasket hardens a bit and is not really functioning as a gasket. And as I mentioned before Lavac has never responded to me on how much to tighten the assembly.

This time I thought, I’ll use butyl on the gasket. So I did. No leak. After two days a very small weeping occurred. Wendy lifts the toilet assembly and I tighten a wee bit more. One quarter turn on the nut. Cautious not to over do. I don’t want another cracked base. Now; no leak, again. I am thinking we will need one more slight tighten to ensure the effluent stays where it belongs.

Ah ha; we have another bright idea. Get Fredrick; the local welder to make a new base out of SS with studs coming up from the bottom so if and when I need to “snug” the bolts down on the rubber gasket it will not be a job with many four letter words.

On to new and better things. Boat work never stops. In between any play we are re-varnishing. We’re working on varnishing the exterior wood before it gets bad, bad enough that we would need to strip it back to bare wood again. All fun! All Adventures in Paradise! And yet I wouldn’t give it up to be driving down I-95 or the M-1. No life style is perfect; however cruising comes close.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

Satun – An Update

We’re back. Yeah, 30 days passes quickly the way we cruise. We like to stop and smell the flowers but 30 days barely gives us enough time to see them, yet alone to smell them.

We’ve circumnavigated Tarutao. We motored back to Satun with relatively calm seas and entered on a high tide. No issues. Great. We anchored further up the river hoping to get away from the early morning long tail traffic. We prefer to sleep past 3 am. That appeared to be when many of the long tails head out. Anchoring anywhere in the Satun canal is much like parking your motor home in the middle of a six lane highway. Constantly there is traffic.

We are not totally successful. There might be a slight decrease in the early morning traffic. I didn’t count. Throughout the day traffic appears the same. However; two other activities have replaced the lower traffic.

In this area; this Satun canal is the center of one of the fishing fleets. There is a boat yard and it is grinding away on a new wooden live aboard. Some of the larger vessels in the fishing fleet are hauled out with their corresponding pounding and welding. And… in a reminder of what Indonesia was like; we are in the audio distance of four Mosques. But; we had to come back. We’re required to check out of the port we cleared in at; so here we are.

After a few weeks away from city life we were running low on fresh supplies. Low on fresh fruits and vegetables, low on treats, drinks, and ice. We are after all Americans and we love our ice. Once settled in we looked at transportation to Satun. That and a place to dispose of our garbage. Yeah, products we buy are often wrapped in plastic, paper or metal. We collect it and do our best to properly dispose of it. The sea is plenty polluted, no need for us to add any more to it.

Using the Web we have read that we could take the dinghy up to the immigration / ferry dock and leave it there. So we tooled there and; well, leaving the dinghy there didn’t look the best. I had put the wheels on thinking we would pull it up on the ramp and tie it to a tree. It was low tide, the ramp looked slick, there was another larger local boat on it and W/ got the heebee jeebees thinking about the process. We headed back searching elsewhere.

Along the shore there appeared another dock, almost like a park dock. We call it a “Drunk Dock” as it had the blue floats. We pulled up to it and asked a local if we can leave the dinghy there. Yep. Great! I found a refuse container near by and we were able to deposit our garbage. Sweet, next step, getting a ride to Makro; a supermarket with loads of goods.

One of the locals wanted us to ride with him on a scooter. We don’t prefer to use scooters but we have. We feel a lot safer in an automobile and we didn’t know what the roads here would be like. Fifteen minutes later we had a ride and were on our way.

It was a good feeling getting fresh food and filling up our soon to be consumed stores. There was one very sad note at the time. They only had small packages of M & M Peanuts. I didn’t pick up any. I switched to Snickers. Not the worst snack but it would need to do. We didn’t find of the cereal liked. We had purchased and stored enough for this trip so… all was good.

With the cart full we paid and began the search for a return ride to Tamalang. Most everywhere in SE Asia we’ve used Grab and it has served us well. We arrived here using a Grab. I opened up the app and chose where our original point of departure. I waited. And waited. Nothing. I tried another ride share; InDrive. Nothing. Tried a third; Bolt. Nothing. By now 30 minutes had passed and we had… nothing. Makro is a bit N of Satun and there wasn’t much around. We were too far to walk. I tried all the apps going to the Bus station. At the Bus station I thought we might be able to secure a taxi. But that too was a fail. I considered offering money to shoppers for a lift back. With my size; approaching people and asking for something even if we were willing to pay just didn’t seem like a workable idea. A police vehicle showed up. I went to talk with him. He looked for minute like he might give me a lift back. But when I showed him the groceries and W/ he balked at the idea. By now people were interested. Till then we were just another set of boring tourists.

W/ thought maybe she could go in the store and see if someone spoke enough English and might assist. Another what seemed like 30 minutes went by. Out she came with some direction. Maybe ! We needed to download the app LineMan. Ok… I downloaded the app and went to register. The program wants to confirm who I am with a phone number. A Thailand phone number! Only expecting to be here for 30 days I put our Malaysian number on roaming. We didn’t have a Thailand number. This app is not going to work. W/ heads back inside.

She chats up with the female store employee and is able to explain the issue. They used Google translate with each other with some success. She comes out of the store with W/ and said she would help. She used her LineMan app and connects with a ride. She would do the negotiating when he arrived … in 10 minutes. Yeah!

Ten minutes passed, then another 10 and then as W/ was ready to check with the women assisting; out of the store she and another employee came and pointed to the vehicle. We had a ride! She spoke with him and for 500 BHT we would get back to the dinghy and the boat. W/ tried to give the her a little something but she woudn’t take it. As others had been witnessing of our dilemma; when we loaded into the vehicle they too were smiling. Glad to see that we’re on our way.

Our driver returned us to exactly where our dinghy was tied up. I had pointed out a wrong turn but we did get back on track. As W/ often says, I ought to keep quiet. 🙂 I added a bonus for him, we unloaded and thanked him with the few Thai words we know. His English was much better than our Thai and we; mostly W, had chatted him up on our return trip. We’re back. We’re back! Whoopee! Alka-selzer isn’t the only relief one can find when out cruising.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

ps By the way if any are readding this and want to pick up supplies in Satun; the much better place is Big C; still in Satun.

Do It Once

We chose S. Thailand because we’ve passed it 4 times and never stayed long enough to explore. Not that we could have; because we had not cleared into Thailand. This time is different.

We completed the paperwork in Satun. Now we could visit Ko Lipe (a hot tourist destination for Thai’s – Malay’s and many foreigners). Hot would be a good pun. Of course now we are in the hot and rainy season. So there is that. After leaving Satun we spent a little time at the S tip of Tarutao. Circumnavigated a small Swiftlet sanctuary island and dinghied a short way up a river on S. Tarotao.

From there we had a weather window (read no wind) that we could motor out to Lipe. Found an anchor spot because the one good mooring had a yacht on it. We dropped the hook. There is a newish long floating dock (aka Drunk dock) near us where we could tie the dinghy off; then fifty meters of wobble walking to shore. And it was a double float which meant that W/ had a challenge climbing up. There was an older ladder similar to what swimming pools use, but one side had broken free adding to the need for more care.

We spent a couple days at Lipe. There we met an entrepreneur; Renee, on Mico Verde told us about. She has a well respected, honest tech shop (Bumphone) on Lipe. For us we didn’t need tech we needed some fresh stuff. “Follow me” she said as she walked out of her shop and down the street showing us the best place to buy fresh produce. We had lunch at a couple of restaurants and I stopped for the required Massage where ever we go. As luck would have it; or I ought to say almost luck, the yacht on the mooring ball had moved. So we retrieved our anchor and motored over there grabbing it. The place was good for about 24 hours.

The breeze had started to turn and while winds were not an issue, the swell coming around the island was making our stay at the ball uncomfortable. The boat was bobbing randomly about. So we motored to another spot that looked to be better protected. It was and wasn’t. Again there was someone sitting on what looked like the best mooring but there was another just off the dock that looked in a good place. So we tied up to that one. That night the ranger station received a good size delivery. We had some entertainment that evening. We watched as they unloaded heaps of supplies, generator, solar panels, Aluminum building supplies and what I am guessing as heaps of concrete. We had two good calm days and then the winds; I call them that but they were more puffs of air, were shifting. With nothing setting our boat clear from the dock; again another 50 m two story dock, we were floating around. And we floated close enough to the dock that one could leap from Elysium onto it. Time to move again.

The winds were forecast to increase to 15 kts from the W through the NW. Right down the channel. We checked No Foreign Land for some protection and another comfortable anchor/mooring spot. We found one about 5 nm away, dropped off this mooring and headed to another. Three moorings were available so we grabbed the one offering the most protection. Finally this island is looking a bit better. We put the ladder down, climbed into the dinghy and went for a wee bit of walking. At the again 50 m double story drunk dock we tied up and were met by one cute cat. Anyway the cat was our guide walking between us and down the beach. The place looked deserted.

It wasn’t deserted. On our stroll back I noticed an individual lounging in a hammock. I walked over and introduced us. He confirmed he was the ranger here and I asked about walking the beach. As I didn’t have any money on me I suggested we would bring the park fee in next time. As the park was “technically” closed he said not to. But we could stroll the beach and even fly the drone. I asked the cat’s name: He said “boat”. Ok, was that easier for him to say or is it really “Boat”. Hmmm

Ok; Boat escorted us back to the dinghy and even jumped aboard to check it out. As much as I want a kitten and this one seemed pretty nice it was not ours to commandeer. A minute later Boat jumped ship and we returned to ours. The following day we took some pictures and then things became uncomfortable… again. Several fishing boats arrived and anchored up. A bad omen.

Another bad night with Elysium moving more than sleep could hide. We watched the weather. We put out a flopper stopper and that eased the boats motion some. Two days later things looked a little better and we could move to the N tip of Tarutao. I had hoped we could sail. The water seemed confused. Sailing in confused water is much preferable to motoring in it.

Yes, the water was a bit confused. Seas from two directions and wind waves from a third. However we could sail ! With a sail up (we were off the wind so the mainsail wouldn’t be much use) we were making progress towards a more comfortable anchorage. A place we had anchored before.

For half the day we hand steered. I was frustrated. W/ was determined. Frustration won out. I set up the windvane self steering and bingo, the boat was taking care of herself. And we were lucky not needing to dodge heaps of fishing flags, pots, and nets. With the wx in the toilet and the fishermen hiding there were very few out. Mother nature however was not satisfied.

I pointed out to W/ a funnel forming on the cloud behind us. It had not connected from the sky to the ocean… yet. No biggie. We saw a few more and even one behind us seemed to have connected to the water. I estimated it to be a “good distance away”. Then she pointed off our starboard bow what looked like water being whipped up off the surface of the sea. Oh SHIT!

We turned away from it and watched. A water spout had formed less than 1 km from us. The ocean at its base was rising up to meet the sky. Mist all around and I’m guessing about 10 m across more or less. We watched it move walking about on the sea like a man returning from the bar at 3 am. It appeared alive; for all of 15 minutes. And in that time the waterspout outran us. Moving in the same direction as we wished to it reached the N tip of the island and; AND, then the base walked around the N tip and moved on. What a relief. We watched more funnels form in the cloud layer but didn’t see any more come close to reaching the ocean surface.

We sailed to the N of Tarutao and there we furled the sail. In the lee of the island there was little to no wind and with the current we had we didn’t wish to turn one hour into several. We anchored where we had before. No need to try something new if what we had worked.

Time to settle in for the evening. Clean up the boat, Have a late lunch. I mean late ! 🙂 And look forward to a good night’s rest.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

To Satun – Thailand

We checked out of Malaysia and positioned the boat for a run to Satun Thailand. Found a lovely anchorage and enjoyed the evening waiting to move across the sea. It is only a 4 hour trip. But; besides the paperwork, we needed to avoid the rainy weather and catch the right tide for entering Satun. Not many yachts visit Satun. The shallows can be daunting and really, the port has little to offer the cruising yachtsman.

Our lovely pre departure anchor spot turned into an uncomfortable night. Enough of this. We moved around the corner and found a wee bit better anchor spot. Just over the mountain was Kuah but you would never know looking around Elysium. We were in the KiLiM Unesco Park. I don’t believe even the fisherman cast their hopes here. I’m not sure if commercial fishing in the park is legal. I suspect not. As fishing is their livelihood no one seems to be taking the risk. The evening was all we hoped for, cool and calm.

The following morning we rose and checked the weather. We knew the tide would be on our side if we left around 9:30 and made 5 kts the entire trip. All looks good. It is a go. We stored the dinghy engine and towed the dinghy. This is how anxious I was. There were indeed shallow, dry at low water areas and with a 2 meter tide and our draft being close to 2 meters I wanted to be able to set the dinghy up to check the depths of surrounding water; just in case Elysium kissed the bottom. In the end we stayed well away from the bottom. Considering in reality we only need an extra cm of water to stay moving and floating we were fine. However any wave or boat wake with a small margin of error can make the bottom an issue. The chart here was off a considerable amount. Markers too were ill placed on the chart. In my pre research I found one write up in visiting that helped. Helped a little bit. The Noonsite post is helpful but it was outdated.

Well, we made it. In spite of Neptune and Ma Nature throwing sticks in our path. I think they simply became bored with teasing us. With the 2 meter tide we never saw any water less than 3.5 meters. We’re anchored now! Whew!

Completing paperwork has never been my forte. Thus every country is a new adventure for me. For W/ maybe yes, maybe no; she is the better at details. We pump up the dinghy and put the engine and fuel tank on. In the midst of this we hoist the Q flag (correct etiquette) and both take quick showers. On NoForeign Land I see where the Customs house, Immigration office, and Port Captain are. This app is a god send to cruisers. I hesitate to say it makes cruising safer because one can still get into trouble. However; with this app we have the hive knowledge and experience of other cruisers.

We find the wharf where we can secure the dinghy. This place is not accustomed to cruisers. The wharf is big but we see a ladder that we can climb up. There we head to what looks like a closed immigration department. We look around. No one. I knock on a window and out the side door appears a female immigration officer. She invites us in and assists us by mostly filling out the paperwork for us. She must know that my handwriting has heaps of complaints on Handwriting advisor. LOL. Anyway; 15 minutes later and 600 BHT (300 per person) we are legal in Thailand.

Next stop the Port Captain’s office. There again we hauled out our documents, Passport, and Port Clearance from Malaysia. We waited. The officer disappeared into the air conditioned office while we hung out in the shaded antiroom. Another 15 minutes passed and he returns with paperwork to sign. We paid 500 BHT.

Customs was a bit farther way. We thought maybe of walking but Ma Nature had started to spit. So we climbed down to the dinghy and motored up the river, tying up to another old bollard with a dirty tire. At least there were some steps here, so exiting and entering the dinghy was straight forward. What wasn’t, I grabbed hold of the tire holding on for W to climb out of the dinghy. My hands came away dusted with a dirt tattoo. Here we walked around, knocked on some doors, opened one – an office but no one, and then moved onto another building with heaps of flags. There we found some staff who said they could assist us. The called another officer. Another 15 minutes later and two water bottles the officer showed up. Took our paperwork into the AC office, brought a form out for me to sign, and disappeared again. More time passed and like magic he appeared again. Finally we have the paperwork that says the boat is good for 6 months.

Customs Left Center, Port Captain and Immigration Far Right

I find it odd, the boat is good for 6 months, but both W/ I and only have visas for 1 month. As the boat is our home it too will only be here for one month.

On to exploring some of the southernmost part of Thailand. We’ve passed this way 4 times and never stopped. It is time to stop and see what we have missed.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

Up, Up, and Away

It has been a long time since I’d been up the mast. Australia was the last place. Needless to say, I was a wee bit anxious. So I strapped on a Riggers Harness and the boson’s chair. The harness didn’t seem quite right. W/ and I have forgotten the exact procedure. But; in the end, we were sure I couldn’t fall out of it. Just in case the worst happened.

Long time readers will know that a few years back we bought a Milwaukee Angle drill and a Winch bit. We purchased a powered one – not a battery one. Previous cruisers that had the battery drill reported that they always needed to charge it whenever they needed it. With the cord and our inverter, we would have plenty of power; always. With W/ at the base she could send me up the mast like in an elevator. She needed to be aware of not overheating the drill and not squishing me in any of the rigging.

Up mast in Bosun's chair — Yeah, I was a little nervous again.

She would raise me 5 m or so and I would check rigging. Let the drill cool off a bit. Next floor on the elevator and repeat. The first task was to remove the bail for the Drifter / Reacher / Spinnaker. I had the impact driver with me and a few different sizes of Phillips bits. There were 4 bolts screwed into the mast head. Remove that with the block and line, and return everything safely to land. We were looking for a soft landing; for me and the hardware.

With the fitting in hand I began to contemplate the attachment of the wind instrument. The bail at the masthead had 4 holes and the instrument had 3. None of the holes meshed. I didn’t relish the idea trying to drilling and tapping more holes in the masthead. Truly I would need to be hanging in space above the masthead to drill them properly. The bosons chair supports me to the mast head, not above it! Thus drilling more holes in the mast head was a non starter.

I came up with the idea of adding a starboard piece to the fitting. A reverse shim. I could mount it on top of the bail and then I would have a place to attach the new wind instrument. Bolts through the shim would hold the bail in place and I would then attach the anemometer to the starboard. I just hope it works.

We had purchased the anemometer almost a year ago anticipating an easy add on. LOL. I know: projects do not happen fast on Elysium. But; eventually they do happen.

This is a wireless instrument for the Raymarine MicroNet system. One of the best systems in my experience for a sailboat. The original info is here. Wireless. No holes in the boat, minimal wire runs; none to the anemometer and none to the display. The display being moveable; we can ensure no matter where we sit we can easily see the results.

We checked the anemometer before I even pulled the bail from the masthead. Connected it to the Micronet base unit. Whew, I was worried about that connection. The system setup design while functional is not user friendly. But; somehow we did get it connected. Next I mounted the unit on a block of wood and set it out in the Sun to continue to charge. It is solar. All was working good. Finally, I cut a piece of starboard the right size and fitted it to the bracket. There I discovered that if I attached the bracket I could NOT screw the starboard and fitting back on the masthead. I countersunk three of the holes and recut some of the bolts so they wouldn’t extend into the masthead and foul or chafe a halyard. Nothing is easy with any boat project.

I needed to do a couple of things, counter sink the screws in the starboard and attach the wind mount lightly so I could rotate it and reinstall the bail.

With the halyard tied to the bosuns chair, screw drivers, bracket, starboard shim, base, anemometer, and arm to the anemometer, W/ again sent me up in the elevator.

The bosuns chair has pockets but I didn’t want to break the cups that spin with the wind so I gingerly held on to it while ascending. I used my feet and free arm to avoid getting stuck in the shrouds and halyards that were attached to the mast. At the top I carefully laid out the cups on the anemometer with the wind cups so it couldn’t fall. I needed two hands to secure the bracket and shim. Carefully I put the bracket with shim on the masthead and installed one screw. Whew! All good now, it cannot fall. And W/ was as usual expected to stay away from being directly under me. Dropping any tool from that height could be deadly. A screw driver traveling at 50 km/ hour would make a mark. Bruce and Brig on Wanda loaned us a two way head set to communicate. I would have preferred to yell but W/ liked the idea of talking normal back and forth.

With one screw in I set about adding the others. All fit; Whoopee! After I snugged those four down I rotated the base of the anemometer. I had already predrilled the holes so I needed now to add the last two screws. Once they were in and set I added the extension and the anemometer. Bingo. Only a year and some later, after purchase we now have windspeed on the boat. Really, we’ve been without this for close to twenty years now anyway. But with the Indian ocean ahead and variable weather all around we felt it would be a good addition.

Wendy belayed me down the mast and we cleaned up. There is always cleanup to do. Putting tools and gear way.

The final check awaited, turn on the wind / depth base; turn on the Micronet display.

OMG… everything works. Oh happy day.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

We’re back

Yep, back at our temporary home, Rebak Island, Malaysia. It feels good and yet rather… ok. Oh… we do have some projects. However; for us, it feels like much of the world has stopped. Fuel prices up, more conflicts in the seat of civilization, disease outbreaks. So here we wait. Here it is calm. Yes, we are effected by what is happening in the outside world but the effects in Malaysia and Thailand seem minimal.

The dinghy engine. Wow! I’ve rebuilt the carburetor several times and finally I have it working. Well, close; it is about 90% correct. I’ve replaced all the old fuel with fresh, I’ve cleaned out the fuel tank, I cleaned everything with Carburetor Cleaner and boiled the jets. Not in that order but the heart of the engine is looking damn good. After we arrived here I went to connect the fuel line to the fuel tank; damn! The round brass fitting on the tank was bent. How that happened? I’ve no idea. So off to town we went. There are two Yamaha outboard dealers and we knew of one. I went and asked for a new fill connection. Nope. No one in town has them. I checked another place and nope, none, nada, zip. Ok, buy a new tank. Which we did and now I have a new fitting. While getting a new tank I asked about cleaning the carburetor. 15 RM. About 4 USD. The following day I brought the carburetor into the shop. After lunch it would be ready. I hate to say it; we had comfort food for lunch. Pizza Hut. Yes, in most countries we’ve visited there have been Pizza Huts. No need to ever worry about US culture being usurped. After lunch we returned and they located an issue; the fuel pump. It needs new gaskets and they only had one. The other would be in next week.

As for us, we need to get the dinghy engine working properly so we can sell it, we have an wind speed indicator to install at the top of the mast, and I need to replace a galley water pump.

Well… I thought I had the correct one on the boat. Yep. Another trip to town and I handed them the needed gasket. Waiting I headed off to the market for some needed food supplies. Peanut M&M’s count as food don’t they? 🙂 After the load of food I picked up the completed carburetor and headed back to the boat. With new fuel, a new tank and a rebuilt carburetor the engine started right up. Oh… it did take a couple of pulls to get the petrol up to the cylinders. But; she now purred like a kitten. Off I went for a test run. I putted out of the marina to the entrance channel and throttled up. Whew ! Instantaneously I was up on plane and flying. Just like it ought to be. I motored back to the boat and picked up W/ with a camera. A video or two and it will listed for sale. Hopefully we can sell it and pick up our newly ordered one.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

Changes…

Well…. it has been a few weeks. We’ve exited the tunnel. We launched yesterday. All went well. Hull cleaned and polished, new bottom paint; one coat. We still had good from three months ago. Fuel lines have been bled. We used the fuel pump on the generator to pull fuel into the new lines.

We launched in the afternoon and motored…slowly to our slip for two days. W/ has been busy ordering supplies for the rest of our time here and our trip back to Malaysia. Tomorrow we will add some liquid gold (diesel) to our new tanks. I’m not expecting to fill them due to the debacle in the Strait of Hormuz. We’re not interested in taking out a loan for diesel.

Once we have the fuel we’ll wind our way out this LONG channel to some deeper water. This marina is quite a ways in some shallow water. Fortunately we have our track coming in to follow out. When entering we never had less than 1 meter of water under the keel. We’ll be leaving on the same height of tide so we don’t expect any surprises. Then again we’ll anchor off the party island with 100 jet skis and crowds of Sun boiled tourists. We will anchor away from the main activity. There we’ll check out and run the water maker / generator. Adding some more good pure water to the water tanks.

And the following day we’ll motor or sail down to Chalong where we can check out. That is after one of our pharmacy orders arrives. Even as “not Sun worshipers” we receive a lot of Sun. The Physicians here recommended a hefty does of Vitamin B3. We ordered some and W/ had a wee reaction to it. The new dose has a mixture to ameliorate that reaction. And we will both use it to see if we have good results. We and especially W/ is tired of Physicians mining her skin.

Once our new ducks are lined up we’ll checkout of Chalong and head back to Langkawi. There we’ll look for new places. On the list is the Island of Sumatra Indonesia. Who knows, Cruisers plans are written in Sand at Low tide.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

We’re getting close. I’m tired of living on dirt. Tied to the ground. Tethered to an auto, the roads and traffic. Nai gave us a tentative date for completion. The tanks are in. Fuel has been cleaned and returned to them. The cabinetry has been re-installed and screws bunged. Inside varnish is nearing completion. Lockers painted. This morning the crew was washing the deck getting ready for polishing. The topsides are next and a coat of bottom paint will be the final. Launching is in sight !

We’ve one more medical visit. A complete scan of the skin. One dermatologist said to us in Malaysia “You’re the wrong color to be living in this area of the world.” Funny – not funny. She is correct. However we don’t wish to live in a freezer, we love the freedom of the boat. We find joy meeting new people and sharing in new cultures.

I do miss a few things from our dirt life. A static life it would be easier to have a pet. Oh, and our heated waterbed with a down comforter was so lovely to wiggle into at night. I’m not forgetting family and friends. That’s a given. However all have a life of their own and while there would be sharing more often than now, neither our time nor theirs is infinite. No matter where one is in life; everything is a trade off. Some good, some not so good. And so, I continue to seek experiences out of the ordinary, seek to embrace as many of the delights life has to offer. Soon we will be afloat again embracing new adventures.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

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