Passage diaries, Thailand-Maldives Pt. 1

Day 1, 30th. Dec.

We've been sailing for almost six hours now and we have already made 30 miles towards the waypoint just south of the Nicobar Islands. That is the first first of three waypoints along our 1245 miles route. The other two are just south of Sri Lanka and the next one at Uligamu in the Maldives: the finishline.

The sun is shining through a layer of thin clouds, so it's not too hot. The waves are not too big and coming from the back, the wind is a comfortable 10-12 knots and also coming from behind = comfortable sailing in close to maximum speed the entire day. Yes, we have been playing perfect day by Lou Reed.

We were going to start sailing last night after fixing various things and picking up everything we forgot last time we were in Phuket, but all three of us were tired from last night's passage from Krabi. We had sailed back to Krabi to clear out and to pick up some flour and Norwegian foodstuffs that Egil's mom had sent with some extremely kind holidaymakers from back home. So, bottom line, we have sailed from Phuket back to Krabi, then back to Phuket. In Phuket we were going to meet Øyvind's friend Pål, who unfortunately didn't make it because it was snowing a little in Oslo and the planes didn't fly. So no Pål, but we did pick up Kjell's forgotten Visacard, Øyvind's forgotten netbanking password-generator and get some parts remachined after we had found out that they didn't fit because our measurements were off by 0,5 milimeter!

OK, so after doing all this we were supposed to leave in the evening, but since there were no wind and we were tired we decided to wait until the morning, and voila; got up at six this morning raised the anchor in a fair breeze and set off. Smiles all over!

As you all know we've had to invest in some new foresails (you do know, don't you? Because you DO read our blog don't you? All of it!?!) With the new sails on board we now have a double set of jibs and double set of genoas (yes, that is sailspeak and if you don't understand it it doesn't really matter, it's for the sailingeeks only). This means that we can now fly double genoas where we previously had to fly jib and genny. So that's what we been doing since leaving Phuket 5,5 hours ago; enjoying the sight of double genoas filled with wind.

Day 2, Dec. 31st. New Year's Eve

Yesterday's bliss lasted until the afternoon, when the wind died and our speed went down to about two knots and the sails started slatting. The day was spent trying to focus on our respective books and some adjustments of sailtrim.

I was just about to lose my sanity over the constant noise and lack of progress when, after about 24 hours it started blowing somewhat decent this afternoon. Now we're cruising at about 5 knots again. However as of 10 minutes ago the waves are getting bigger and we are rolling more, causing the sails to slat again. ...the joys of sailing.

Today being the last day of 2009 we have had a fairly decent dinner. The exact menu I'll keep to myself in order not to appear too miserable, but it did taste OK. ...at least not bad enough for the others to risk my fury by complaining. At least the cake I made for dessert was good! Other than mediocre dinners and good cakes we plan to mark the coming of the new year at the watch change in one hour and 15 minutes. We plan to send up a rice-paper hot-air balloon at midnight thai-time. Even though our longitude dictates us to be one hour later we will be on thai-time for a good two or three more timezones to keep things simple.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Day three, 01.01.10, 25 NM south of the Nicobar Islands

First of all; the balloon-launching was - after a lot of work and organizing (after all you don't wanna set your brand new sails, or even better; the boat you're living on) on fire - a success on the second attempt. The first ballon crashed into the waves, but the second one skimmed the ocean like a second world-war fighter-plane for about fifty metres before it gathered height and went up in to the great yonder. Our little baby! After that it was wishes of happy new year all around and everyone not on watch went to bed.

Today, the first day of the new year and the new decade has indeed been a good one. First of all we have had good winds from North-East and following seas. Speed-records all around. Twin headsails all day, double jibs from the afternoon on because the wind picked up a little.

Then it has been a good day because the youngsters and captains of the ship have had a good ab-workout on the foredeck. Todays exercises have been The Shrimp,

The Wheel

and Hanging Sidetwists.

To all who have not tried them: They burn!

Not only because we're in terrible shape at the moment, but also simply because they are damn good exercises! Try it. For additional workout of stabilizing core-muscles; do exercises on a small vessel running before twin headsails in moderate seas.

Next out on the New Years day programme was "The Return of The Dolphins". A water-ballett show for a pod of 10-15 small whales. I would personally have preferred a cabaret, but hey, you can't be too picky. The show was particularly welcome as we haven't seen dolphins since way back in the stoneage, like in eastern Indonesia or something. We have been talking about were they've gone off to and when they would be back.

Then it was time for dinner. Egil had the rice and veggies ready and was just about to dump in a can of tuna when we actually caught a fish. Incidentally about 15 seconds after Egil had claimed I would "sooner catch a bird than a fish" on my line, and Kjell, my dearest father, had nodded his approval. Me: 10 points, the others: 0.

The fish was a big bastard. No, let me rephrase; it was a big green bastard! Looked like something from Mars, but tasted delicious!It was the biggest one we ever caught, and to put this into perspective for you: We have caught three fish since New Zealand. One on my birthday, another random one and a sucking-fish that I speargunned when we were becalmed and it thought we were a whale it could attach itself to. Sucker indeed.

Eventually, to top of a great start of a new year we had a wash on the foredeck. Now we're all clean and smell nice. Nice!

Ok, now I'll listen to a audiobook and watch the boat a little. The date has turned into the second as I've been writing. I've pulled the graveyard shift tonight. Smell ya later!


Day 4, Jan. 2, 2010

The progress continues! We're still doing 6 knots or thereabouts. We have done 410 miles in a straight line the last 3,5 days. We're really happy with this, it is more than we had expected, even though we had been expecting good conditions. We are probably experiencing a bit of current pushing us in the right direction as well. ...unless the couple of hours we spent diving and cleaning the hull just before leaving Thailand has affected our speed in ways that we could only have imagined in our most manic moments.

Today we have finally abandoned the twin headsails, and have been running with the mainsail and jib. We have gone as far south as we need in order to pass clear of Sri Lanka, and now we're headed due east. Other than that we ran into a thunderstorm today. A couple of lightnings about 1000 metres away, plenty of rain (I had the chance to wash today also!) and about 30 knots of wind saw us reefing down the main to the second reef and changing into a smaller headsail. Nothing dramatic really, it was all over in 45 minutes, but it was good to run through the motions again. It has been a while since we have done any real sailing.