Passage Planning

In between socialising I worked though the to-do list on Sadiqi. Having a boat I have come to the conclusion that there will always be a list of things to do. As soon as you come to the understanding that you will never ever come to the end of the list harmony will prevail. What normally happens is while working on one item in the to-do list more items will be added to the list. The other alternative is not to keep a list hmmm. Then, somewhere in the middle of an ocean a realisation asserts itself with the thought “I wish I had fixed that”!

The passage planning for the continuing adventure is very time consuming. Permissions and visas from the countries being visited have to be acquired etc. Also, to make for a good trip the weather charts are deeply investigated. One does not want to mess with Mother Nature and cyclones, if at all possible. Ron and Juliet on “Que Pasa” have been the vicinity of three cyclones and survived to tell the tale. The picture along side tells the story – avoid the purple bits, if in the vicinity and its possible head for the equator.  Fortunately, I have the ability to download and view weather forecasts at sea using HF radio and computer.

The other really great tool for passage planning is Google Earth. None of this Captain Cook stuff and going where no western man has gone before. While internet access is available bring up the planned destinations and view the photographs and get a lot of very useful information. The other extremely useful tool on the computer is Visual Passage Planner (VPP). By plugging in the intended route and the dates the probable impact of the wind, waves and currents are displayed. VPP can provide an estimate of trip duration based on historic wind, wave and current patterns.

Thailand, Phuket

Checked into Thailand Tuesday January 10 – some 20 days since checking out of Langkawi. I anticipated the question from the Thai immigration as to my whereabouts since checking out of Malaysia saying; small boat and bad weather over Christmas. I had been given the tip by Juliet from Que Pasa to log into the new Thai check program. The navigation was a little difficult at first. I’d have to say it saved me a great deal of time filling a heap of paper work when it came to checking in.

After checking in at Ao Chalong I returned to Ban Nit being a quieter, or so I thought, anchorage in the north east monsoon. .

I met the people from the following boats and it was not necessarily quieter – it was great fun though. I hope my liver will forgive me if it survives the experience.

• Jonathan – "Lady Sara" (aka. Crime Scene) – South Africa - Dubai
• Dave – "Bluegate" – Australia
• Alex and Jenny – "Moggie" – Kenya - Australia
• Ian and Lyn – "Cloud Nine" – England.
• John and Sue – "Susan Margaret" – South Africa – Dubai
• Ron and Juliet "Que Pasa"– South Africa – Dubai
• Horizon – Ray and Marilyn – New York, USA
• Simpristi – Chris and Trish – Durban, South Africa
• Richard – Aida - Fremantle

New Years

The first day of 2012 was very unremarkable in that it rained/drizzled all day. It was a good day to sort out my charts, do passage planning, prepare for the adventures in the New Year and update the blog.

The following day I headed slowly north under motor and sails – there not being much wind. I passed Ko Pethra and saw fish farms or yacht traps for the unwary sailor. I arrived at the southern end of Ko Kradan and picked up a mooring buoy, another quaint little island.

Ko Kraden with Ko Mouk in the background

 Paradise islands – have a gander at the following blog for beach holiday destinations:

http://tezzasthaiinfo.blogspot.com/ This was given to me by Luca and family from Tasmania staying on Ko Kraden.

After spending two very pleasant nights at Ko Kraden I headed for Ko Mouk an hours sail away when the winds picked up and the boat started to roll around again. There is not much shelter at Ko Kraden from the North easterly monsoon winds.

Ko Mouk beach

 At Ko Mouk I met up with Ron, Juliet and family on Que Pasa.

Sadiqi and Que Pasa at Ko Mouk

Rubber Tree Ko Mouk

I decided on a night sail to Phuket – there being more wind at night, generally, in the north easterly monsoon. I hauled anchor with the new anchor windlass at 20.00, hoisted the the sails and headed north west to Phuket – some 60 miles away. Out of the wind shadow of Ko Mouk the winds soon picked up to 15 knots from the north east – right on the beam - just how Sadiqi likes it. The wind varied between 10 and 20 knots all night. In between avoiding the Thai fishing trawlers and brightly lit squid boats at anchor I managed to snatch a bit of sleep. Back to the setting the alarm for 20 or 30 minutes depending in the number of fishing boats around. The moon was just over half with the vast canopy of stars on a crystal clear night. There was just the noise of the wind, the water rushing and burbling against the hull. An hour or so before sunrise the moon set making the stars even brighter against the black back drop. I Dropped anchor at Ban Nit in Ao Chalong bay at 07.30. Average boat speed over 11.5 hours for a distance of 60 miles – over 5 knots. It was a very good sail.