new year...

Well..it has been an eventful 3 weeks, with Thomas and family... 9 people on board most of the time...so the watermaker and generator got a good workout... we did a full circuit of phuket, west coast then around Phang Nga and then down to Koh Muk where the emerald cave is located...

Was thinking over the boat fittings, and I am going to replace all the lights (all 53 of them) with a special LED fitting that takes 20% of the power of the current halogen lights (.1 amp instead of .5 amps). Then I have to fix my bedroom large hatch which is leaking when it rains...and then there are all the toilet pipes to replace...

Anyway, back moored off Patong Beach, where I have good wifi access AND 3G, so I can work on my latest internet project (miskio.com). I shall be leaving yacht in a week to go up to CHiang Rai and Bangkok for a week, then back to sailing and working later in January.

Happy new year to everyone!

back in Phuket...

So after leaving the boat for a while in Langkawi, in the very capable hands of Paul and Sheila at Nautical Bits, I took off for Phuket on my own. I was going to go directly to Koh Lipe which is about 4 hours form Langkawi, but I changed my mind since the sea was calm and headed to Koh Rok Nai and got there at midnight and just dropped anchor. I've done this a couple of times before, as I normally do't like to arrive somewhere in the middle of the night if I don't know it. I'm used to the hundreds of fishing boats out there on the trip up, but still have to be constantly aware of the large fishing buoys that I get to see at the last second and avoid. Sometimes they show up on radar so that helps a bit..:)

On to Ao Chalong, and found on checkin the day was a public holiday although not sure what holiday (10 Dec), so had to pay over time of about 1,000 baht (about $35), for immigration and customs.

Ao Chalong hasn't change much..although I've noticed a trend for bars to have a massage shop at the back for those little backrubs. Villa Market is probably the only reason I stick around there to get my European food shopping done. Expensive but good cheeses, fish and meat and a large selection of wine from all over the place.

I'm with Ae, a friend from Bangkok for the next few days and then Thomas and family arrive for Christmas from Australia...so there will 8 on the boat. Should be fun.

Right now tho, I am stuck in the marina for a couple of days, due to a fried starter motor. Always something to fix..:-) - Getting into the Boat Lagoon marina is difficult...very shallow, and only at high tide...and even so I still got stuck and had to be pulled off using the pilot boat...he was my second engine since that engine was out.

back in Langkawi and the boat is for sale...

I am back in Langkawi now, and the boat is up for sale for $500k if anyone is interested..:-)...I'm here for a couple more days then onto Phuket to help open a new massage salon, and then onto Philippines to set up a call centre...should be fun..:-)

sailing around Phuket

Hope everyone had a good time over Christmas and New Year...I spent Christmas day on "The Beach"...the same one that was in the film... and then sailed up to Yacht Haven and left the boat there for a week while I went to Patong for New Years Eve and the fireworks..

Now about to head around the islands of Phang Nga. I hope the 7 inch tear I just repaired in the dinghy holds up...I shall be back next Monday to pick up my refurbished dinner table and then spend the next couple of weeks slowly wending my way back down to Langkawi...

Maverick Dream sleeping in Langkawi

MD is now in the marina at Langkawi, looked after by Paul and Sheila who do that sort of thing from a small shop there. It's up for sale, although don't mind of it does not sell...will keep on sailing..:-)

I'm back in Australia for a while, so no one is living on board right now..Louis has gone back to Europe to sort out his life, and the girls are in Australia looking for work to save money to travel around Europe next year.

I'll probably be back on board in late December or early January, for high season sailing around Thailand and Langkawi...

Thailand

We're back in Thailand..or at least the boat is. I've taken the 2 girls on a tour of Phuket and Bangkok and currently in Chiang Mai. It's Stephanie's job is to update the blog, but I'd thought I would give an update to let all know where we are and what's up. I'm writing this from the hotel, the girls are off today trekking, bamboo rafting and elephant riding...I am sure some pictures will surface here at some point..:-)

Plan is to head back down to the boat next week and get some sailing done around the islands - hope weather is going to improve - far too much rain..:-)

Penang

29th August

It is definitely cooler up here in Penang, Malaysia…In fact so much cooler that I actually wore jeans the other day! However, it has been raining for a few days which has *forced* Lyssa and me to spend most of our time in various shopping malls. It’s a hard life. The rain has stopped for now so we are going to take this opportunity to explore Penang a little more, although we will probably just stick to the area around the marina as Penang is much bigger that I expected!
Last night Lyssa and I went out for the first time to the QEII bar on the marina side where we watched the semi-finals of Mr Penang, Hottest Hunk! Wow it was great. Watching about 40 local guys parading around in their (small) underwear and posing oh so seriously really did make my night. Uh huh. We hung around until the party finally started and even then it was slow to get going! Lyssa found some fellow Ozzys dancing on the stage so there were only about 8 of us dancing on the stage until the booze started to kick in and more people joined us. I can safely say that Lyssa and I were the most sober people there as there were a few strange drinking games going on…We finally got back to the boat at about 3.30 with sore feet and yucky hair but it was all good. Today is a lazy day with washing and showering and chilling in the boaters lounge on the marina. Exploring comes later when it cools down a bit! And then out again at about 9! If Uncle Mark is feeling better I’m sure that he will be joining us to show us (or me anyway!) how ‘it’ is done.
love to all
Steph xxx