14th July Rebac

14th July 2011

Rebac Marina, Langkawi

Malaysia

At last! a little bit of action on my 130sq. meter patch of ocean!

The night sky has darkened with a leaden cloud bringing gusty winds which push and pull Susan Margaret on her creaking tethers and lift and flap the tarpaulin covering us. No doubt a small chapter of the Monsoon will soon be expressed in the tropical downpour and flash of lighning, maybe?

Yes, it's certainly different being in harbour, so to speak, but my senses still respond to the call of what's possible at sea and I have been on deck just watching and listening because SM will tell me if something is wrong.

I do miss it... being at sea.... having John around, even if we are in different parts of the boat doing what we do.... I feel quite uncomfortable having our home "decommissioned", in that the genoa lines are stored, safety lines removed, engine sea-cock closed, engine battery disconnected etc. In other words we are not sea-ready. For the first time ever. Hey, in an emergency, I could get her going and out of here but still, it feels like I'm rooted to land!!

I keep looking at the waterline and below, expecting great forests of algae and barnicles to be growing but our fancy white antifoul looks good and still clean. We developed a green blush above the waterline on the bow where the constant bow waves enabled algae to take hold. We are moored a bit too far from the pontoon to reach from there so I can see myself defying gravity as I lie beneath the bowsprit with long handled brush..... but that's a job for another day.

For now my tasks are to attack the rust that 5 months at sea without spare fresh water has left it's pervasive orange streaks and spots to bespoil our lovely white hull and deck. Our swim ladder has given up the ghost, lost a rung, rusted away being constantly swamped by following seas. (new one on order)

Other casualties to sun and sea have been 12 diesel containers (their screw tops disintigrated despite being covered) but they too are being replaced when friends return from Thailand. We have also replaced our old Kadac gas bottles with 5 sparkling aluminium containers. I certainly missed John as I lugged them on board, and the old ones onto the pontoon, then slotted them into their tiny niches in the cockpit lockers. Definately should be a blue job!

While poor John is adjusting to a new city and new job, poor Sue is adjusting to a masculine new world of carrying all the heavy stuff, fixing her own bicycle, learning about electric drills, spanner sizes (metric and imperial!), cleaning toilets and cat litter boxes AND washing the same amount of pots when I cook dinner! No wonder solo sailors only eat pot noodles, don't have cats and use the rail as toilets. The rest they learned at kindergarden.

It's quite a lot of fun actually and I'm enjoying learning how the other half of SM lives. I'm going to have to stop myself rearranging John's tools like the infamous time he rearranged my galley! :-)

If you are wondering whether I'm lonely, don't. Everyone, cruisers, hotel guests and staff, is so very friendly and helpful. One could be busy every night and I have to duck beneath my tarpaulin which is carefully curtained so I only see the island and waterway (not the boats nearby), and protect the precious moments of solitude which made us go to sea in the first place. I certainly miss John though and it is a difficult adjustment being part of a team with a very important member missing. Baby, Susan Margaret and I are carrying the flag, so to speak, and are steadily preparing for our next voyage all together...... which ever direction that may take........

Love to you, thoughts and hugs to you xxx

Telaga anchorage

20th June 2011
 
With all the excitement of arrival, I forgot to send this yesterday. Here we are, safe and sound experiencing the strong humidity of being close to land. All our fans are on and it's cool enough.
 
We were motoring up to our preferred anchor spot when a green covered dinghy came racing towards us with arms waving and a hooter from a nearby catamaran blared a welcome. It was Ron and Juliet Koopman on Que Pasa- very dear friends we last waved off our pontoon at DOSC in 2007 as they headed out on their third circumnavigation. At long last, we have caught up with them. They had arrived 1 week ago from Australia and actually met up with Matt on Skye Rose in Papua New Guinney I think. Their two catamarans sailed into the same anchorage within hours of each other! All three of us shared the hammerhead at the end of B pontoon so it is amazing to think that connections have been made again in such disparit places.
 
After a long libation filled afternoon catching up with Que Pasa, John and I dinghied across to Alex's tapas restuarant for a good steak, salad and chips-luxuries we have done without being 5 months at sea. Our fridges are already stocked with fresh fruit, juices, steak and chicken as I dinghied to the shop earlier this morning. We are still fluid with our plans and may spend a few more days here before going across to Rebac marina. One thing at a time, one day at a time.........
 
Love and all the best from the 3 crew on SM
xxx and meeows
Baby
John & Sue

19th June

Last day of passage Chagos to Langkawi, Malaysia. We have done 2008miles over the ground and more like 2300 seamiles due to currents. Apart from 2 days at the beginning of the trip when we needed the motor, we have sailed the whole way.
 
It's 0500 local time and we are 26miles from dropping anchor in Telaga. This passage will have been a few hours short of 18days on the ocean and I think we can count it as one of our most enjoyable passages so far, in that we have had very good weather and wind for the most part.
 
Chagos has already resumed her number one position in my favourite memories. She is my gestalt hideaway. A place to go to when otherworld stresses become too much. This year, her colour and beauty seemed even more vivid and uplifting. I'm glad to have spent so much time drawing and painting as her details have become ingrained now.
 
In stark contrast, we had a peculiar experience yesterday.
A 120m tanker called Feng Hai 21, destination Haldia, India (details given by AIS)was seen approaching and then passing our port quarter about 1.4miles away. Instead of holding her course she inexplicably made a sharp turn to port crossing our stern a mere mile  away. Then she kept turning until she was heading our way! What could we make of that? Radio silence and no doubt we were the focus of her attention. We took the obvious avoiding reaction by turning towards her so we were sailing the opposite direction from her, we hoisted more sail and put on the engine and got away easily being that much more manouverable. I will post a photo of our screen showing you what she did, a full circle around us.
We were right in the middle of the Mallaca Straights where there is piracy but only on big ships. It was odd that a big ship should be acting like that to little us!
 
But here we are. Entering the "otherworld" again. We are passing the Thai Butan islands 5 miles to port. The fullish moon is lighting the thin blanket of clouds and the sea is glowing in the half light of the silvery moon. Soon the sun will rise and the mountains of Langkawi island will come into view  and another era begins as John heads off to Cairo and I adjust to life alone onboard Susan Margaret for a while. Lots of good challenges ahead for both of us........
 
Our huge thanks go to Keith Mutch and Skenny for being our weathermen. You have no idea how good it has been to be in regular contact and to know people are looking out for you.
 
And to our school of spinner dolphins who surfed our bow wave repeatedly over 750miles and our ever-present "Orpheus", who flies nearer and nearer the boat each passage, thanks for being wonderful companions.
 
And thankyou Susan Margaret. You are a good girl ..........

16th June Near Sumatera

16th June 2011
On passage Chagos to Langkawi
Nearing the turn at top of Sumatera.
 
Hi everyone, friends and family,
 
I haven't written for a while as the wind and sea picked up days ago and we had our hands full. There were certainly times when one felt there were not enough hands!
 
One moment remains a bit frozen on my retina; that was seeing a huge wave raise itself much higher than our guardrail on the side, showed me a disconcerting view of blue water, and promptly broke into the cockpit. Our cockpit drains are super clean as John had used the suction stick earlier in the passage and cleared great big wads of Baby hair!
 
Another dodgy moment was in the middle of the night. I had woken up because one can feel when things are getting a bit hectic outside. We had been sailing through squall after squall that night. There was rain, thunder, lightning..(you get the picture) pitch dark as well. We were almost broaching in 40 knots etc and John said he had lost control of the boat ie she wasn't responding to his steering. He decided that we should turn into the wind and drop sails (we had a third reef in the main for a long while already). I took the helm and did my best to get her where the skipper wanted it and I too found her hard to control (so unlike our trusty SM).
That's when John spotted we were pulling a drogue in the form of one of our yellow lifebuoys. We lost two that night when they were washed overboard. Problem was solved once he hauled it in (not as easy as it sounds)and all was well but we have been so pooped by that period of bad weather, we have opted to sail with the genoa only (in various, easy-to-single-handedly-do degrees of furling).
 
Our port nav light must have been damaged by a wave but John went forward to lash an emergency port light which is battery run. Our autopilot and GPS instruments went on the blink yesterday and we wondered if we would have to hand steer the whole way back !!! but John started logically problem-solving and found that electric cables had disconnected. So it was out with the welding gun - no small feat sitting on the saloon floor with a pitching boat.
 
Things always go wrong and things go wrong in threes on a boat, so we have had them now (ok? Neptune??)
 
The sun is shining between the large cumulus above us, we have 18 to 20 knots wind almost directly behind us so our genoa is pretending to be an assymetric, SM is galloping along happily and we are both relaxed, happy (John is happier as he is off duty and having an "almost there" celebratory beer), we have done 1653 miles and have 345nm before we can hit our favourite tapas restuarant and enjoy that steak and salad and, and.........
 
Love as always from the happy boat Susan Margaret xxx
 
John & Sue
SV Susan Margaret

10th June 2011

At 0700hours UTC we were at 01deg20.881'N and 082deg54.829'E, heading due E
Wind 220deg 12 to 16knots (was up to 20knots yesterday)
Our milage has been 121nm daily so we are averaging 5knots boat speed.
 
10th June 2011
Mid Indean Ocean
 
Day 8 at sea and all is going well for us.
The winds were light for the most part but they picked up to 20knots yesterday giving the watch captain lots to keep their eye on. The sea has quite a varied swell direction so every now and then we do a bit of a rolly poly as a wave wacks us on the beam. Being cruisers we always opt for comfort and an upright boat so have reefed the sails to give stability. One feels a bit of a nerd when the wind drops to 12knots but while we are going due East we will probably leave them in. Once we turn more NE with the sea and wind behind us we can afford more sail and remain comfortable.
 
A few days back we had a run in with a fishing boat. Not quite the correct word but there was a lot of running involved. We were happily sailing along when a fishing boat appeared about 4 miles to our starboard bow. I watched it motoring steady past us and when I saw it's stern I took my eye off it for a while, thinking it was on it's way. Next I see it about 2.5 miles away coming fast towards our projected path. We turned off our radar reflector and started motoring to assist our sails and they, having lost our track on their own radar, turned towards our stern. There was no doubt that they had diverted and had the intention of coming alongside.
They stayed 0.5miles behind us for a while but I suppose they also had to worry about wasting diesel chasing us at about 8 to 9 knots, so thankfully they stopped and we were able to put the miles between us. What a shame that the seas have become such that one has to get away from fellow seafarers in case they intend harm. One just can't stop if you have a chance to get away.
Well, this certainly had the adrenalin running through me like no bad weather has managed to do so far!
 
Apart from that contact we see a ship passing every other day and the odd fishingboat minding it's own business. Dolphins have visited twice and Orpheus flies alongside every day. Lots of time to read whodunnits and even more time to just BE. Neither John nor I have been hungry so we have to remember to eat. It's very easy to lose lots of weight at sea as we are using muscles all the time just keeping balanced (even when in bed).
The herbs in their hanging baskets beneath the sprayhood are in a growth spurt and much happier there than hanging off the stern in the Chagos breezes. Ahh, Chagos.......
 
Love from John and me and Baby, who is wishing for another kamakazi flying fish xxx
John & Sue