Yacht Delivery Blog

We're down to about 70 miles to go, but it's looking unlikely we'll make the marina before sunset. Normally that wouldn't bother me too much, but this is Southeast Asia. Trying to pick your way into an unfamiliar harbour after dark, with fish traps, unlit obstacles and local traffic doing its own thing, is generally a poor choice. So another night at sea is looking more and more likely. There's an old sailor's saying: "All the wrecks are on the rocks." The point being that if you don't put yourself close to the rocks in the first place, you're already a long way towards avoiding becoming one of the wrecks. Another night at sea has very rarely been the thing that caused the accident. We'll make the call later today. The route into Phuket is littered with fish traps and other hazards, and I'd much rather arrive with the sun high enough to actually see what I'm trying to avoid. Last night provided another reminder of why. Many of the ...

We're definitely on the homeward leg now with less than 200 miles to go. If you've been looking at our track over the last 24 hours, you might be wondering what on earth we were doing. I was thinking yesterday after we left the TSS it might be worth heading back and sticking close to the unofficial shipping lanes would probably offer a bit of protection from fishing boats and the more creative navigation styles you encounter out here. It didn't. So we made a course change direct to Phuket. We ended up making several further course changes to avoid large concentrations of fishing boats and then, just as things were settling down, a cable-laying ship called us on the VHF and asked if we'd alter 20 degrees to port and give them a wide berth. Fair enough—it's easier for us to move than them—but it added another little kink to the track. The biggest surprise of the day, though, was seeing some of the worst FADs I've ever come across. Most of the Indonesian ones at le...

 At about 3 am last night we officially exited the structured anarchy of the Malacca Strait Traffic Separation Scheme and entered the marine equivalent of the Wild West, where might is right and the law of tonnage is king. The TSS at least had rules. Sure, not everyone followed them, and there were plenty of times I found myself shaking my head wondering what the heck they were thinking. One ship of about 600 feet decided he'd drive the wrong way between the streams of traffic, managing to be port-to-port with one ship while simultaneously starboard-to-starboard with another. Surely it would have been easier to cross over to the correct side and drive the right way, but apparently that was asking too much. Now we've left all that behind. Out here there are no nice orderly lanes. Ships are going in every conceivable direction and the rules don't so much get ignored as simply not turn up. We've got about another 300 miles of this before we reach the relative safety of Phu...

Ships, rain, fishing boats and ships. It's a bit busy to try and write in the rain. So pics - starting from the most recent. 

All is well on board but there is a lot of traffic. 

Yesterday was actually a pretty decent day. We had enough wind to keep the mainsail up for a good part of it and, although we were sailing a little off course, the VMG was good enough that it made sense to leave it up. It's nice when the engine gets a bit of a rest for a change. Plus there was less than 10 fishing boats over the whole 24 hrs! As usual though, the wind started giving up just before sunset. We dropped the main, furled the headsail, and pointed the bow where we actually wanted to go and carried on under engine. The plan was to get into Nongsa on Friday so we can start the checkout process before heading up the Malcca Strait to Phuket. I've been emailing the marina over the last day or so, and they sent me the list of documents they needed. It was one of those moments where you wonder if they're checking a yacht in or applying for a mortgage. By the time I'd replied there were fifteen attachments on the email. Hopefully someone enjoys reading PDFs. Just as ...