Terese

Yesterday Terese (Miekes youngest sister) and her youngest sun Bounce arrived for a two-week vacation on board Stamper.

This morning we acted like real tourists and visited Wat A Chalong.

They were still setting off loud firecrackers whenever someone was close to the furnace, deafening!

But beautiful temples

With steep staircases

Tomorrow morning at 08:00 we will take a pilot on board to get us out of the sanded channel for 4-5 days sailing in Phang Nga bay.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

After two periods of sailing in Phang Nga bay and yesterday a trip to a national park near Krabi, Terese and Bounce have seen most of the highlights of Phuket. These included exploring caves by dinghy, seeing many of the wonderful karst islands in the bay, a floating fishing village near the famous James Bond island and a long walk over Ko Phi Phi island.

August 13, 2013

Stamper has arrived in Pangkor Marina, which will again be her base for the next half year. I am preparing her for going on the hard.

This implies checking the suspect things that turned up during the trip from Phuket. And, happily, i did find where the cable of the log and depth meter had been gnawed through by a hungry rat (about a year ago). A day of repair work and all is working fine now. Further the standard engine maintenance and routine when going on the hard (empty carburators of the outboard and generator, empty fuel cans and lay aside batteries in any equipment).

The damaged cables.

The trip from Phuket had two events. One was that the Chinese sailor in spe, Jie, learned that he has to first find good medicine to control his seasickness before he can become a famous seaman for China. I do trust he will succeed and look forward to his achievements on the oceans.

The second event was more dangerous, a fishingboat of about 20 tonnes missed my two bright anchor lights and the decklight and nearly sank Stamper. Luckily no damage on either boat. But six hours later, i had put a strobe light on the bow of the boat that was impossible to miss, another fishing boat wanted to repeat the act on purpose and passed Stamper at full speed within one meter distance, laughing. That was when i decided to lift anchor and get away from there. I heard of at least two other sailors with similar experience. If possible i will no longer go on anchor in Malaysian waters. If that means that some fishing nets might be damaged at night because i can not see them, than so be that.

South of the new bridge at Penang Stamper has a near miss with two fishing boats while at anchor.