Today, we head out on our big adventure. We are not too worried about pirates, fishnets or submerged containers sinking the boat nor are we that concerned about the chances of being thrown into either a Thai or Malaysian prison. We carried a bag into Thailand for Craig that we did not pack ourselves, saving him a fortune in excess baggage. Despite him calling me
Schapelle, we made it through so no Thai jail for us!
As we are taking the boat from Thailand into Malaysia, we had to get clearance to do so. This involved most of the day on Thursday running between Immigration, to clear the crew, Harbour Master, to clear Popeye and Customs with huge amounts of paperwork. We circled Krabi many times, getting lost on several occasions, as these authorities are not located in one handy location but scattered around the town. Bu eventually, Craig had signed at least 40 documents, we had stamps in all the right places and the boat and crew were cleared to leave Thailand. Asian administration at its finest.
As Popeye has undergone a major refit, we had to get everything back on from sails to seat cushions. She also needed to be taken out for a sea trial to make sure everything works, instruments are calibrated etc. We had a time crunch so I headed off alone to do the shopping for the provisioning whilst the others worked on the boat. So after driving into Krabi (and managing not to get lost, hit a motor bike, run over a goat or fall into a pothole), winding my way around and around the massive supermarkets of Big C and Tesco, trying to figure out what was what by the pictures, filling trolley after trolley and ferrying things back to the car, and even more remarkably, finding my way back to the boat harbour, I drive in to find Popeye on the hard! Not what one expects when we are setting sail the next day.
A problem with the steering had been discovered and Craig used all his negotiating skill to get Popeye out of the water. A couple of other items where found once she was out so all hands on deck (or under the deck, up the mast, under the hull and in the wiggle space above the steering). All went well and she is due back in the water this morning and our departure from the harbour (and thus Thailand) by noon is on schedule.
Then we are looking forward to a fabulous time cruising and racing in gorgeous tropical waters. We are heading south slowly exploring the area. This is where
the James Bond movie 'Man with the Golden Gun' was filmed. We will stop at Ko Phi Phi for swimming and Langkawi for immigration into Malaysia before running sound to Port Klang in Kuala Lumpur.
We are racing The Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta (
http://www.rmsir.com/cms5/) on a Class 3 yacht called SY Popeye - the SY stands for sailing yacht. We have an MMSI number - 503025310 - which you can enter into
www.marinetraffic.com and track us! We are not coming up just at the moment but this is being worked on so keep trying if you cannot find us at first.
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| In the minivan, negotiating Thai bureaucracy |
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| Mainsail heads for the boat |
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| Provisions! Hooray! |
As we are taking the boat from Thailand into Malaysia, we had to get clearance to do so. This involved most of the day on Thursday running between Immigration, to clear the crew, Harbour Master, to clear Popeye and Customs with huge amounts of paperwork. We circled Krabi many times, getting lost on several occasions, as these authorities are not located in one handy location but scattered around the town. Bu eventually, Craig had signed at least 40 documents, we had stamps in all the right places and the boat and crew were cleared to leave Thailand. Asian administration at its finest.
Green with envy!
ReplyDeleteAre you going to be able to get up to James Bond Island? As I recall the water is very shallow up there and with tides most of the time it is not accessible to most sail boats.
I remember anchoring at Ko Phi Phi overnight. It was quite crowded so we were a bit nervous on the hook with minimal swing room. Didn't sleep anyway as it was very hot that night. If we opened the hatches to get some air in we got eaten alive by mossies and if we closed them it was like a sauna in the boat. Also remember manually weighing anchor in about 150 feet of water and seeing the anchor on the bottom. Later that day we discovered the switch for the electric windlass. We were on the left side of the harbor near the cliffs.
Be very green, it is gorgeous. No we did not get up to James Bond Island. It is a little north of Krabi and we were venturing south.
ReplyDeleteWe were also left side near the cliffs - in the channel as we discovered in the morning!