||||Slick's Adventure

The backpacking portion of the trip has been interesting so far. This is the easiest place in the world for young people to travel, and as near as I can tell, to not have to worry one bit about attempting to integrate into the local culture. It is mindlessly safe, which might explain the number of parent-funded gap-year white people. The scenery is stunning though, and the people friendly, and if you try real hard you might meet an actual local, instead of more westerners.

I went back to Chiang Mai only to resume my linear journey. Once I found a place I had been I went straight to the bus station and grabbed a local bus to Chiang Rai. The bus ride was fun, it was the local stop-at-will collectivo style pervasive throughout the less developed back countries of the world. I was the only westerner on it, so I thought I might be going someplace special, or that the season had ended. But naturally I was wrong. When I got to Chiang Rai I found all the other westerners had taken mini-buses. The only place I found to check in was a reggae hostel, good thing this was only for one night. I headed out for some food and a massive thunderstorm rolled in. I ran to the nearest row of bars only to find they were lady-bars. Old white men beckoned me inside for cold beer. The reality though was they all had one or two Thai girls young enough to be there grand-daughters clinging to them. No! I won’t help you legitimize your behavior by having a beer with you. I ducked into another reggae bar right as the wind front came in. I had a beer with the owner and watched signs blow down, tree branches break off and the streets flood from the rain, all in less than an hour. First time this year, welcome to the rainy season. There wasn’t much else in town so I grabbed a local bus to Chang Kong, ferry landing to Laos.

The whole reason to come here was to take a boat down the mighty Mekong river. I crossed into Laos, and procured the visa at the border. Wow, what a difference from coming by boat, I mean I took a ferry, but it wasn’t my boat, so stamp stamp “Welcome to Laos.” I met only a few other travelers who were also taking the boat and we had dinner. I chanced to take something random and unreadable off the menu and luckily got a table top bar-b-que with lots of meat, much to the other traveler’s envy. The new friends would be my traveling buddies for a few days so we spent the rest of the evening getting to know each other.

In the morning it was time to catch the boat for a two day boat trip down river. We thought we would be the only westerners since we hadn’t seen any others out, but in the morning the streets were full of them. I am not even sure where they had all come from. It was overwhelming. Once on the boat, there were about three locals and 60 backpackers. The trip was nice anyway, a fast motored drift, stopping at numerous villages to get supplies, drop off villagers and the occasional animal or motorbike. We stopped the night at Pak Beng, which is really just a street with guest houses, and all the free crap-Lao whiskey you can drink. Off the next day, a large portion of the boat was hungover. I passed the time playing cards with my two Canadian travel mates making some fun of the other, very young, travelers.

Arriving in Luang Probang was a bit of a pain. See everything in Laos is designed to strip money away, all for the good of the Lao people of course. In this particular instance, we were told the boat would drop us off downtown, but instead it dropped us 6 miles out of town and then we had to catch tuk-tuks to get the rest of the way. With that out of the way, we found a guest house and set out to enjoy the town. Outside of town are some really nice waterfalls. They flow through huge limestone karsts and the water is turquoise and filled with little fish that clean you. The calcium deposits coat everything so the whole area gets a smooth rounded finish. It was a fun day of trekking and swimming. Even if it was filled with gap year kids trying not to cash in on their travel insurance, it was still a nice time.

In the morning we caught a rather excruciating (complete with puking children) bus ride down from the mountains to Veng Viang, tubing capital of Laos. To be fair, it is really beautiful here and it is no wonder why it is the most visited city in Laos. That aside the main attraction is to tube down the river, getting as drunk as possible. I felt a bit ill so I did not participate, however I don’t think I missed much. Strangely every restaurant in town plays an endless loop of either South Park or Friends to a vegetated-horizontal audience who are not inclined to stand up thanks to enjoying one too many happy-shakes. What there is also to see are tons of young Europeans flaunting the conservative Lao culture about town. So much for gaining cultural insight on your gap-year, and put some pants on.

Next stop – Don Det, all the way down on the Cambodian border. This was only a 26 hour bus ride away. Good thing I managed to get food poisoning. They have interesting night buses here, they are designed with a bed meant for one person, about five inches shorter than me. When they sell you the ticket you see pictures of the beds and think you will get a good night sleep. But then when you board the bus, you find you actually get to share the bed with a complete and random stranger. In my case, I was lucky enough to have a small English lady, but some beds had two guys my size in them. This is the strangest thing I have seen in awhile. It is even more odd considering how conservative the Lao people are.

If a man is interested in a woman for example, he won’t ask her out, that would be disrespectful, he instead would offer her some small gift, like chocolate or something. If she takes it, he can talk to her, otherwise, better take his chocolate some place else.

In the morning, we had to change buses. But we asked the conductor about it and confusion ensued. Does this bus go where we want? “Yes, yes, same, same,” but he was pointing elsewhere. He spoke English fine for a Lao, so we asked again. “Same, same.” he was still pointing, so we asked why he points to another bus – “Same, same, but different.” This is a common expression in this part of the world. Same in the sense that both are buses I guess.

I came to Don Det to see pink river dolphins. I don’t know why, since I have seen so many dolphins, but never endangered pink ones. They were not pink, so I left the next day for Siem Reap. This bus ride was a killer. First we had to catch a small ferry, but a massive rain storm rolled in. I went to the bus station, but all the other white people stayed behind. I was almost to the station when I found a shop umbrella to hide under. A very young backpacker wearing a poncho walked by and asked why I wasn’t with the rest of the group. I told him I was going to the bus station, and besides, he was not with them either, he gave me a confused look and told me he was just going to the ATM but that I should wait with everyone else. But the bus comes here, I explained, they are just afraid to walk in the rain. It was useless, so much for gaining independence in thought while traveling on your gap year, I am not sure why parents bother? When the bus finally came we made our way to the border, where we had to wait four hours. They told us it was because the second bus for the day had broken down so we had to wait for all the passengers, I think really they didn’t sell enough tickets. Crossing the border was easy, so easy. When the bus finally filled, they pulled out little plastic chairs, clearly meant for children, and put them in the aisle, this was for the remaining five passengers. Finally, after the bumpiest dustiest roads I have ever been on, we arrived in Siem Reap, at 1 am, it was pouring down rain.

The one thing that I refused not to see is the Angkor temple complex, especially Angkor Wat and Angkor Tom. It is practically the whole reason I came to South East Asia. Another traveler and I hired a tuk-tuk for the day to drive us though the massive complex of temples that were left to ruin and taken over by the jungle for several hundred years. This place is amazing, and the driver did a great job of taking us to the right temples at the right times to avoid the crowds. This city was the first metropolis on earth, it had a million residents at a time when London had only 50,000. First it was Hindu, then Buddhist and you find both in the carved sand stone temples. They are each massive in size and intricate in detail, and you can pretty much go all over and through them. The most amazing thing though, is the way the jungle has taken much of it back. Huge banyan trees grow over and through walls, bushes split vine covered ten foot heads and the forest canopy covers all but the tallest structures. I have seen many old things made by man and this is certainly one of the best. I was worried that my high expectations would lead to a let-down (they usually do) but I could not even begin to anticipate the massive nature of Angkor.

We ended up getting stuck in the tower of Angkor Wat during another huge rain storm. It was the last stop of the day, before we were to climb a small hill and watch the sun set over the temples. We went back to the hostel instead, as there would be no sunset. It was a great day though, and an ideal way to see something that I have wanted to visit for 20 years or so. The truth is, I am not even in Siem Reap right now, but Hue, Vietnam. Both are cities in South East Asian countries. It doesn’t matter though because as they say around here – “same, same, but different.”

The shipping date for the boat has become a bit like the national debt, it just keeps getting pushed off till later. But now, after nearly a month of delays the shipping company has fired the ship owners and chartered another ship. It is supposed to be here the 13th or something. But I am sick of waiting, it is incredibly hot here and I spend most my days working till it gets hot then laying in front of a fan in the shade sweating like two squirrels – OK those of you who know the ending to that phrase can laugh, the rest can wonder.

In any case, Zach went home about a week ago and since I have been cleaning. Cleaning more than I have ever had to. It is amazing the amount of stuff that accumulates on a cruising boat. There should be a special episode of “Hoarders” the sailboat edition. I think in the last week alone I have thrown away at least 250 pounds of stuff. Some of it was trash for sure and some I just didn’t need anymore. A lot of it was things I thought I would need in the Pacific where general stuff just isn’t available. But most of it was stuff accumulated along the way or more likely stuff that got broken along the way.

Along with all that being thrown away goes my concept of sentimentality. Life at sea destroys everything before you have a chance to notice. For example, I had a ton of clothes that I kept in dry bags. Most of them are mildewed so bad that I just tossed them. I really liked some of those too. That is what I get for taking the advice from Larry and Lynn Pardie to keep all your clothes in dry-bags because every boat leaks eventually. Ok, maybe that’s true, but then again, they lived in a Wetsnail (or is it Westsail?) 32. Other stuff, well, I have a prized can-opener that was an odd contention in my divorce, its now rusted, probably beyond saving. A pocket knife an old man gave me when I was 7, broke and rusted. All of Slick’s beautiful interior, pretty much trashed. The long and short of it is, nothing lasts. And if it isn’t made of high quality stainless steel, it lasts even less time. I cleaned in every space on the boat and in every space I found the entropy of the sea, evident in the destruction of things. The key, I think, is just to carry less stuff.

It has also been pretty lonely since Zach left a week ago. I have the fan to keep me company. I also got lucky and scored a ton of movies from another cruiser. Otherwise, I have made a friend who is crew on the only Gunboat 60, Moonwave, so at least I have someone to talk to. The marina is in the middle of nowhere so I eat at the same Happy Hut everyday and swat at the same mosquitoes all night. But at least Zach and I got to do a little backpacking before he left. We took a bus around the beautiful Phang Nah Bay, which is the Thailand you see in post cards. Unfortunately, it is too shallow to sail in, but it is amazing none the less. Then we took an overnight train to Bangkok. The train was OK, the only beds left where in first class, which was nice, except that their was no AC control and it got really really cold. Awaking in Bangkok we then saw some of the nicer sights. The most amazing of which, I think, was an enormous sleeping Buddha. He is probably 150 feet long, I am not sure.

Then we caught a night train to Chiang Mai, this is a pretty quaint city in the north. The train ride was made interesting by the stewardess, who was drunk, continually bringing us buckets of beer. The walled and moated city used to be the prime stopping ground on the trade routes from China to the Indian ocean so there was some good history there. The funny part though was only young white people got off the train, all with huge back-packs and a well outlined and noted Lonely Planets in hand. I was a bit ashamed of myself after so much time away from this sort of thing. Zach and I checked into the cheapest hotel we could find, $4 per person per night, and set about enjoying the town. It was a nice place with a huge outdoor market on a street that gets closed down every Sunday. I bought some mango-wood bowls. But the reality is, I paid too much, I got hustled by a ten year old Thai girl who spoke perfect English on behalf of her parents. I told her I would only buy at the price she wanted if the promised to put the money in her college fund. She said she wanted to be a doctor and that was that…

We managed to catch a Muay Thai boxing match, the final was a 6’7” American from Santa Barbara vs a very stocky Thai man. The American knocked him out in 7 seconds, which was amazing. We also saw lots of Wats (Buddhist Temples) and there were many many westerners there trying to live up their hippy dreams in Buddhist utopia. So much in fact that Simon and Garfunkel is playing everywhere and you see westerners in clothes that Thais have not worn for a hundred years. Its funny to see a frat boy trying on pants whose crotch goes down to its ankles saying “I think I can pull these off, yah, I’ll take em.” The reality is buddy, you should pull them off, and put on some normal clothes, even the monks are shaking their heads.

We headed back toward Bangkok after a few days, on another night train. This time though we were in second class, still with AC. That was OK, but what was really crazy was that after 7 PM the dinner car turned into a disco. I have never seen a train with a car full of people dancing, loud music, lights and a bar with never ending Singhas. It was definitely a first for me and I have been on a lot of trains. We dove off the train at 5 AM in a place called Eyuthera, which is the old capital of a few hundred years ago. It is full of ancient wats now in ruins. It was truly an amazing place. So peaceful, yet so destroyed. We were there early enough that none of the places were actually open so we let ourselves

in. No one seemed to care, we even tried to pay a few times and the people just looked at us like we were dumb. After seeing Ayuthera though, I can’t wait to get to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. We left Ayuthera around 1pm and headed back to Bangkok on a local train. We hung around the main train station, having deep-fried, bacon-wrapped sausage, delicious green curry and Thai iced tea for lunch (Thailand has the best food, simply amazing). And then back on a night train home. This time there was no AC but that was OK, we just had a few Tigers and passed out. The return back to Slick was uneventful, she was, thankfully, right where we left her.

With the shipping so delayed though, I have decided to leave the boat in the hands of the local agents. He will have one of his skippers drive Slick out to the ship and take care of everything. So I will leave Monday for Chiang Mai again and then backpack to Laos, down the Mekong to Cambodia and into Vietnam. Then I will head up the entire length of Vietnam and cross into China and head for Hong Kong. Hopefully I can get off the tourist trail some. About then it will be time to fly to Turkey to receive Slick. I am still working on the overland travel for Asia, visas to Russia are more difficult to get. Visas to Vietnam were easy and the Chinese didn’t want to give me one without tickets and sure dates of entry and exit, but when I explained I was trying to get all the way around the world on the ground or the sea they softened up a bit. So tomorrow, I am off, without my turtle shell of a floating home. I will certainly miss her, for Slick I am still sentimental.

We made it to Phuket without much difficulty. We have completed about half of the trip now, 18,000 miles in about 18 months. It is hard to believe that Slick won’t move again till she is on the way to be loaded on the ship. I am happy to say we made it all this way and never got struck by lightning, hit by a ship or stuck in a fish trap or net (except once a year ago). She is currently lying in the Ao Po Grand Marina, which really is just a marina that has not had the rest of the village completed, nothing particularly grand, except perhaps the amount of mosquitoes. But they charge more than any other marina I have been in since the states. It is in the middle of nowhere too, so getting to town or so costs a ton as taxi’s are very expensive. In fact everything in Thailand but food seems expensive.

On the way here we stopped at a few islands and the scenery is really incredible. We anchored every night but we only went to shore at Ko Phi Phi Don, and island of fame from the movie “The Beach”. The irony though is that there are so many tourists here that it really goes against the philosophy that made this particular island famous. We did not launch the dinghy here but instead relied on the local longtail boats. These are wooden fishing boats that have a car motor that directly drives a prop via a long shaft. The are interesting but are a real ripoff as a way to get back and forth to the boat.

We pulled in to Ao Chalong and finally checked into the country after being here about a week. They did not seem to mind, but the immigration official was incredibly rude. After check in we walked around awhile only to discover that the main attractions of Chalong are girly (or girly-boy) bars and dive tours. We hung out for awhile in the town but never really saw too much. Mostly we stayed away from the lady bars and tried to find the best dive operator. We also tried to figure out why the Thai service mentality is so rude. We had one guy literally grab my money out of my hand before I was done counting it, this after we waited half an hour for the bill. There are also tons of old white guys with young Thai girls here, but I guess that is to be expected. Phuket is overrun with expats and tourists, it is sort of sickening really. But I guess that is the way it is with travelling being much easier than it used to be. Then again, the food is absolutely incredible. Thailand by far has the best food of anywhere I have been.

We did do some diving too, 5 dives and to get the next certification. The certification is lamely named Advanced Adventurer, which is the SSI equivalent of PADI Advanced Open Water. But the name doesn’t really matter to us, the diving did. Unfortunately we are spoiled I think, as we learned in Palau, so the diving in Thailand pretty much pales in comparison. We did see a leopard shark, so that was new, but otherwise it was just tons of dead coral and low visibility. Which I guess it was probably good for us to dive in something other than the crystal clear waters of the Pacific to see how it can be. Along with the dirty water and dead coral you have a hundred people on the same site. This is maddening as you are constantly running into other groups, although it is interesting to see 35 divers fighting to catch a glimpse of one tiny sea turtle and then after the dive talk about how awesome it was.

Anyway, that is pretty much all that has been happening. We are doing some backpacking too, but I will save that for another post. Otherwise I have been meeting with the agents (mine is named Mrs. Porntip and her assistant Ms Ohh, this is not a joke, it is true) and preparing the boat for shipping. The sails are off, and all the canvas will be removed. Martin has been stowed and Jocyline, Courtney and Brook will all come off and be safety sequestered down below. Zach will be shipped home. The boat will get loaded onto a ship and off they go. I will be truly homeless at that point. I will then get to deal with the oddity that is Thai immigration policy and try to leave the country for some more back packing. This might happen next week, they say. But when it will actually happen no one really knows.

We are planning on leaving Langkawi today for Thailand, that is if the thunderstorms ever stop.

After numerous breakages, we finally managed to fix the fuel system and get the engine running again. There was one broken fuel line, which took $80 and 3 days to have made. Then when the engine still wouldn’t start or even bleed correctly, I took the Racor filter housing apart and found a ton of black goo in the check-valve. Once cleaned, and bled, and bled some more, the engine started. Hearing the sound was like sitting at the symphony, it was so beautiful. I also found out that I am contractually obligated to ship the boat and I missed the cancellation date by 12 days or so. The company has already paid for the deck space, so I guess Slick will be on her way to Turkey soon. At the time, I wanted to stay in South East Asia longer, but I have since relegated myself to shipping her.

Check out from Singapore was an all morning affair, and then off we went. One quick stop in the anchorage to clear immigration, who took my papers with a fishing net, and then into the straights once more. The engine purred nicely into two knots of counter current and it took us forever to make it out of Singaporean waters. We stayed just outside the shipping lanes for the most part. There are so many ships here, it is unbelievable. After awhile we were clear of Singapore and heading up the Malay coast. The sunset was as orange as ever, and the current still not letting up. We had about 1-1.5 miles between the shipping lanes and the 80 foot contour where all the fish traps start. The first night the wind was not so much, and we motored through, but then the lighting storms came. Massive amounts of rain, thunder and wind on the nose, of course. We were in the Straights of Malacca after all, home to the dreaded storm “Sumatra” (see above). These are thunder-squalls that move off the island of Sumatra and over the straights. They jump you pretty fast and some of them can be pretty big. I think we went through about 11 of them. I don’t like storms so terrible they name them. In addition there are also thunderstorms that form and then collapse off the Malay Peninsula. Never have I seen so much lighting, but to Mathew, it just reminded him of his last cruise off Costa Rica. The squalls would leave the sea churned up a bit and wind still on the nose. This made motoring difficult.

Having made it through the first night, I realized why the counter current was so high, there is an enormous time/distance difference here for the tides. Two tide stations may only be ten miles apart, but the difference in high tide time for them is something like 2 hours. I have never seen that before, usually it would be almost the same time. Now if it worked out in our favor we would have a few extra hours of fair tide everyday, but with the moon cycle the way it was, we had an extra two against us. If that wasn’t bad enough, the wind was steady on the nose at around 10-15 with no room to stitch up the channel, so we were left motoring slightly off the wind. Come nightfall I realized the current would be about 2.5 knots against us for 6 hours and rather than endure the night-squalls and ships in the narrowest parts of the straights, we anchored in the lee of Cape Rachado. We posted anchor watches and got underway early with the intention of heading to Penang or Lumut in one hop.

We left and made 2-3 knots of way toward our destination. This was the slowest day, I think ever. We would see a land feature and it would take us hours to pass it, literally hours. Beating our heads against the straights was getting us nowhere, and then a pretty big Sumatra showed up, and then another, and finally one more. The seas were tore up, it was ten o-clock at night, there was now very little wind.

We decided to pull into Port Klang, the closest port to KL. As we were coming in, getting thrown about in the anchorage of massive ships, Perky died, again. Shit! Last time at least we would see where we were going, but this time it was pitch black. We tried to decided if we should sail up the river or go anchor near shore. We found a little shelter from the waves behind a small point and anchored under sail, in 5 knots of wind and 2 knots of current. Luckily for us the anchor grabbed right away. The next morning we found the same problem with the fuel system. After some labor we got her started. I was especially thankful to have Matthew and Linda as extra hands through both of these casualties.

We came into Port Klang and stayed at the Royal Salengor Yacht Club, which was a dump, as was the rest of the town. When asked for the best restaurant, the taxi driver said KFC (an answer we hear a lot), so we took an outdoor Chinese place. The next day we got some supplies and Mathew and I flushed the fuel system. The tank had so much crap in it. Sludge everywhere. Maybe that cheap fuel in Brunei was not such a good deal, but we filtered that. KK, Philippines, Palau? We couldn’t figure out where the bad fuel had come from and maybe it is just a buildup over several years. In any case, we have not had any problems since. And here in Langkawi, Zach and I emptied it completely and got lots of sludge out, so hopefully this is the end. One note, to anyone coming here, I suggest you have either a fuel polishing system, or a changeable parallel filter system.

In any case, we left port Klang and had an easy overnight to Lumut, just dodge some fishing traffic. This was a nice little town, even if we had to travel far to get cleared in and out. We stayed at the Royal Lumut Yacht Club, which was pretty dilapidated. Mathew and Linda left from here on a bus to KL and then flights home. It was great having them. The next day Zach and I did an overnighter to Pinang. We waited till slack tide to leave, since fair tide would have thrown us up on a mud bank, and off we went. Naturally as soon as we got clear of land, a Sumatra came rolling in. It fell apart at the last minute though and just gave us overcast with some distant lighting after some brief heavy winds. The problem that night though was all the fishermen and fish traps. We wove our way through and came out unscathed in the morning. Pinang was a beautiful island, but the water was still dirty. The marina that we stayed in was only accessible for a couple of hours a day, and so we had to plow some mud to get in.

Pinang was a let down for me. It is supposed to have really great food. And it probably does, but we couldn’t find anything it was famous for. The food was better than average for sure, but since we were staying quite far out of town, it was tough to be there when the hawker stalls were open. No matter, we ate well anyway. The other thing I didn’t understand about Pinang is that it is a World Heritage Site. I have been to several of these all over the world and they are usually something special. But I failed to find anything special about Pinang. Anyway, we spent too much time downtown searching for the food and amazing architecture. It was nice, but I don’t think it’s World Heritage worthy. The other thing that made Pinang annoying was that there was a stage right above Slick in the Marina and they had terrible music at night and bingo and magic tricks in the morning. It made relaxing on the boat difficult. I did buy a new computer there though, as electronics were cheap, cheaper than the US even. After a few days, when high tide came, we left, plowing mud on our way out. We made 20 miles to a rolley anchorage in the lee of an island and stayed the night. I slept outside awaiting the massive thunderstorms that were growing over land, but they never came. The next day, we motor-sailed into Langkawi.

Langkawi is different than everywhere else we have been in Malaysia. It is an archipelago and has high-ish hills. It is also a duty free zone, so alcohol is reasonable here, instead of the $10/beer it is everywhere else. The town it self is just tourist shops but the scenery is really nice, and the water is clear-ish. We are staying at the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club and it has a nice atmosphere. We have been doing work on the boat, and I was hoping to have some major work done here. Unfortunately the cost and availability of things is prohibitive, still. And this is supposed to be the boat-work area of Malaysia. We went into the International Paints store to get the bottom paint I use – 4 times the cost of the US. Ugh. We shopped around for other stuff and it was either not available, or way too expensive. I hope it is better in Phuket, but I heard it won’t be, maybe Turkey. Slick really needs her bottom done due to all the blistering. We will hang out here for a week or so anyway though. Taking a break from transiting, maybe this weekend we will see more of the Island. I have a feeling it will be a great weekend never the less.

Malaysia is a confusing place. On one hand it seems poor, but on the other they air-condition the outside. The food is delicious, but seems entirely unsanitary, making you wonder about eating it. The people are not particularly friendly, unless they are, and then they really are. I have not really enjoyed my time here, but it might be due to the crowds and pollution and bad sailing. I used to think that per-capita energy density was in some way analogous to quality of life. But Malaysia has really made me question this. They would have a huge per-capita energy density if they did not have so many people to normalize against. I don’t feel the quality of life is that high and the power that is produced seems wasted all over. At least here in Langkawi the air is clean, even though there are still open sewers.

We are off to Thailand next, I have heard great things about it. I don’t want to get my expectations too high as they are always let down then. In less than a month, Slick will ship off to Turkey and Zach will fly home and I will be on my own, back-packing about. What a change that will be.

A bit of a rant – I still don’t understand why MIT-NSE censored the video I made for the national student ANS conference. Seriously, how do you guys think the fish you were eating died? And don’t tell me you have never eaten sashimi. I should have claimed some artistic credential like my work can only be shown in full or not at all.

One last thing – On the way to Langkawi, I received several sat-texts telling me the Boston Marathon had been bombed. I was shocked, as I am sure all of my friends in Boston were. I really cannot understand what sort of asshole would attack a marathon and why? Why a marathon? I am angry and confused about this. While my thoughts and prayers are for the affected families, I know that Boston is a tough city and it is definitely not a place full of cowards. Living there, one can feel Boston is a city immune to fear, more importantly, Boston is a city immutable by fear.

We fixed the Engine and are off to Malaysia today.

In the meantime Matthew has developed a mapping application that is not quite fully integrated into the website. Follow position updates via Spot here

We left Brunei without much fanfare. Straight forward out the channel and then made our way around some oil rigs. They are huge, like cities on the water. There was no wind as usual so we motored and motored. Luckily fuel was practically free in Brunei. The only one fish we caught, a small barracuda, we threw back, I guess that beats the 6 inch tuna I boated in PI. Anyway, the transit was a long and boring one so we had to find ways to entertain ourselves.

First was Matthew’s cooking. I don’t think we have ever eaten so well on Slick. Every night was something really incredible and that made it easier. Next to keep the level of fun up we took a swim call everyday. We don’t normally do this on Slick since it is just Zach and I but with Matthew and Linda along we could all do this safely. We eventually swam with Heidi the Spinnaker up and used her to tow us out away from the boat. There were also lots of dolphins here, so we eventually found our selves jumping in with them, there was really something to see the first time we tried this although the dolphins swim away very quickly. Having four watch standers was also a real bonus as everyone could get a good night sleep. We finally gave Duffy a proper Burial at Sea (there is also another new video).

Everything was easy and uneventful until we reached the shipping straights coming into Singapore. That was when the video game level like behavior our local universe started happening. The first level was pretty straight forward, just dodging ships anchored offshore at night. No big deal, I slept though most of that one. Level Two was approaching the actual straights with some very large unlit ships angling about. But then Level Three is where it got interesting. We had to cross the straights that are about 6 miles wide and have hundred of ships an hour transiting at 15-20 knots. Thanks to AIS this wasn’t so bad, but we had to time it well and really be alert spotting the ships at night and calling on the radio. We made it to Level Four, a lighting round. And by lightning I mean huge thunderstorms rolling off the Malay Peninsula. Well, we managed to take that one with out too much difficulty as the radar helped us find the hole between cells at night and also avoid the ships. Level Five was not so hard, more anchored ships at sunrise, but a lot more.

Level Six hit us by surprise though and hard and it hurt. We were in a small shipping channel between Malay and Singapore easily transiting when the engine reved up and died. What, restart, nope not happening. We pulled out the jib and sailed a bit while troubleshooting. Whatever the problem was not going to be an easy fix. Oh, and did I mention there was only 4-5 knots of wind on the nose? So we got the main up too and then started sailing against 1 knot of current for our destination. Under motor we could easily have made it by say noon, but now we would be lucky to make it by dusk. We started sailing and were making an OK 2-3 knots or so of VMG. Thanks to all those windless Wednesday night races in Boston Harbor, we know how to at least make Slick move a little in really light air. The moving wasn’t the problem as much as the ships though. They were everywhere and the anchored ones lined up with the wind but we had to tack through them, which means you have to hit the holes between them perfectly or you end up 1000 feet back from where you want. On top of this, occasionally one will decide to up anchor and run you down. All off the ships created tremendous wind shadow and tons of bad air. It was stressful. To top it all off, the radio seemed to not be working as it is tied in with the saturated AIS. Ohhhh, how can this get any better?

We made it nearly all the way when we had to cross the last lane. The route to the Singapore cargo terminal. And of course, we got there right when 2 massive ships were leaving and three more coming. We managed to get though and make it all the way to the marina entrance under sail. Something that, for all I know, is illegal in Singapore. Upon arrival we put the dinghy in the water and strapped up Mutley, the new outboard and made a little tug to take us in. Thank God for the extra horse power. When we came in though the dock hands said we had to clear immigration out at some island. What???? I explained the situation with the motor and unlocked a bonus level. The immigration allowed me to get in the dock hands skiff and then we had to go find them. This took some time as they

where hiding in there boat behind some ships. Once cleared we got Slick into a slip and cleaned up. We were totally exhausted from the days events. The entire situation with the engine dying is one of those nightmares that you only talk about in what-if seminars. No wind, busiest harbor in the world, cannot anchor, electronics are only partially working and then the motor fails. Oh, and for what little wind there is, everything is a lee-shore. But we made it, safely.

That night we met my old friend Susy, who is working here, for dinner. That seems to be one of the things you do in Singapore, go out and eat. There are tons of really good food joints and the city is a huge modern financial center. The smog though is pretty overwhelming but I guess it actually comes from burning in Thailand and Malaysia. The city also seems sort of fake sometimes. But I have gotten over that. In any case it was nice to see my friend again and have some new people to hang out with. Being in the city is weird though although it has had a few pleasant, but somewhat unexpected, surprises.

As for the engine, it seems there is air in the fuel system. We have been troubleshooting it relentlessly and have found several things wrong. First was a pressurized fuel line that was leaking. Then some loose fittings and finally some really bad gunk buildup in the filter inlet. We changed all of the filters during the sail in and tried bleeding the system but still no start. When I was cleaning the Racor filter housing I managed to break a small plastic screw so now I have to try to find one. As for the future, I am trying to cancel the shipping of the boat so that I can refit in Thailand and then sail to the Maldives. But when I tried to cancel, it turns out I might be too late, so I won’t find out if I can ship till later in the week. Ugh, the video game never ends.

The luxury of KK was just too much so we promptly left. A short day sail away brought us to the island of Tiga, where we, probably illegally, stayed the night. This was a nice little anchorage and a beautiful beach with a great sunset. The only problem is that it was the original location for the moronic TV series, Survivor.

Another one, I think this is the 4th or 5th one of these places I have been to. In any case, they had cold beer and dinner and that was all I cared about. So we enjoyed the evening and also took a short hike to one of the island’s three mud volcanoes. These are just pools of burbling grey mud. When we got to the volcano there were lots of little monkeys hanging around, but they quickly scurried off. Then I stepped in up to my shins and that was that. Back to the bar, except I had to take a walk in the sea to get the mud off. Later on the way home the locals were having a party on the dock and invited us to join. We got to have some of the local coconut alcohol. It was tasty and deceptively strong. I traded shirts with a guy who had a giant Malaysian flag for a shirt and off we went, rowing back to Slick.

Early the next morning we departed for Brunei. It was an all day motor sail and we breezed by the duty free island of Labuan where we could get all the alchohol and fuel duty free. We didn’t stop since the island is still part of Malaysia and well, we didn’t complete the check out. Then into Brunei Bay where the wind was about 20 on the nose and we could see a massive thunderstorm rolling down off the hills. We hurried to get into port and got settled in. The anchorage is about a half mile to the yacht club so it was a long row. But luckily someone gave us a tow both in and out.

The next morning we checked in and then went to town to buy an outboard. The check in process was easy but the main city is pretty far away. After a 45 minute bus ride or so, we found ourselves in downtown BSB, the capital. There were grand mosques and wide grass parks and pictures of the Sultan everywhere. Fortunately the Yamaha dealer was easy to find. Outboards are subsidized here and the prices are the cheapest I have seen anywhere. I really had my heart set on an 8 hp Enduro. When we arrived though they did not have the 8s. Only 5 hp or 15.

Well, the price was right and so I bought the 15 hp motor, 5 hp more than my dinghy is rated for. With this, Duffy has been replaced and will receive a proper burial at sea on today’s underway. The Yamaha dealer gave us a ride back to the yacht club and we took our new engine for a test drive. Wow, the dinghy is now a suicidal rocket ship. Fuel is also cheap here so we filled up on diesel, and it is a good thing since it appears that there won’t be any wind, anymore, ever. The other exciting thing is that we have picked up two new crew. Mathew and Linda flew in to meet us here. I have known Mathew for about 8 years and have just met Linda. They will stick with us for the ride to Singapore. Yesterday we went downtown and took a ride up the river. We saw some proboscis monkeys and some other wildlife. You think the river is out in the nature but then you go around a corner and end up in a new housing development. We also got to enjoy some of the museums, all of which are free. After some tiring provisioning we returned to the boat.

Brunei has been an interesting place. Everything is really far apart, especially for such a tiny country. The roads are wide and from what we have been told, everyone has 3 cars. There are cars everywhere. Happily though, we leave today for either Singapore or Malaysia just to the north. I am awaiting confirmation of a slip in Singapore to know where we are going. The sad part about this is that there is no wind forecast and the trip will be about 800 miles. Mathew seems to think that he can catch some fish but I have my doubts. There will be plenty of oil platforms to dodge though and hopefully the Indonesian fishermen don’t barrage us too close, apparently they will come as close to the front of your boat as possible to get rid of their evil spirits. This should be fun, especially at 3 in the morning.

The checkout process in Puerta Princessa was pretty straightforward. No bribes, no hassle, just do the paperwork and leave. I had some extra cash though so I bought a ton of dried mangoes. They are delicious! I also treated the tri-cylce drivers to a couple of cokes and bought them a pack of cigarettes. They were really happy with this, and on the long ride home the would stop at every road side market and say “bolat, bolat?” They were looking to treat me to a local Filipino specialty that is basically a fermented duck egg that hasn’t hatched yet. I think they wanted to surprise me but I knew what it was. Luckily though, there was none available. I would have eaten it, not to offend and to try something new, but I would rather not.

When we got back to the village we took some pictures and they were on their way. I walked down to the dock to head back and Duffy was gone. I got really concerned but then some fishermen showed me where he was. They moved him so they could get some bankas in. Nice of them to take care. The only problem was, he was in a position where he could not get out without going under some of the trimarans. I laid down in Duffy and hand-walked my way out, it is amazing how delicate these boats are. They are made with just bamboo and fishing line but they take them out to heavy seas. I reached a point though where Duffy was too tall to get under a stringer, so one of the fishermen came out and stood on the outboard to help it pass. Everyone was laughing and it was a great experience. As I was leaving, Duffy was his usual one-pull-wonder and I headed out into swell and wind waves. This was a miserable experience and then the unthinkable happened. Duffy wouldn’t do it, he just quite. I rowed awhile and then tried again, this went on and on. Finally, and luckily, all the village fishermen were heading out for a night of squid fishing and one of them gave me a tow two miles back to the anchorage. I thought this was going to destroy the small banka, but it survived the jerking. I didn’t really know how to thank them so I gave them the rest of the cigarettes I bought for the drivers and a bag of dried mangoes. They seemed happy with this and off they went. I knew that night no one would steal Duffy for sure, but I also was sick of him. I just wanted to send him to the bottom with extreme prejudice and no remorse.

We left in the morning around 10 and motored out the passage. Once we were clear we had to cross some very shoally water for about 60 miles. The problem was the charts were way off and there was plenty we could run into. It was a very nerve racking trip, especially as the sun started to set and we could no longer see the shallows. About two hours after dark we were finally off soundings and safe from the shoals. But then again, now we were in the shipping lanes. We spent the next two nights calling every ship that would come close by name (provided by the ever handy AIS) and tell them to watch out and not run us over. They always kindly obliged and changed course.

After a few days the wind died completely. Since we couldn’t get much fuel we tried every option to keep going. We ran the spinnaker, it just collapsed. We tried poling out the jib and going wing on wing, we just rolled a lot. Then we decided that we would go to Kota Kinabalu (KK) instead, since we could motor there. We would fuel up and then head for Brunei.

There was some real interesting events trying to get in. First, when we were about 100 miles off, a fishing boat started following us, right at sunset. I turned 30 degrees, they turned too, I went 50 the other direction, so did they. Uh oh, what is this? The boat didn’t have the usual fishing stuff on it either, so I thought we might be in trouble. I had Zach grab the flare gun and the spear guns, our only defense. But then through the specs I saw guys on the roof waving frantically so I thought they might be in trouble. They were going to catch us anyway and we reduced speed. When they approached they were really worried and I could barely understand them.

It turns out they just wanted directions to Kudat. I think they must have gone to Captain Ron’s school of navigation. “Don’t worry boss, if we get lost, we’ll just pull over and ask for directions.” I didn’t know exactly where Kudat was and I couldn’t find it on the chart. Not that it would have mattered as they had no compass anyway. I told them I head to KK and it is this way, and so they said oh, Kudat is over here and sped off.

That night we saw huge flaring from the oil rigs. The excess gas just gets burned off and you can see the huge flames for miles. We had to run a fairly narrow channel between two reefs and luckily the charts were accurate. When we approached I saw a red a green pair that wasn’t on the charts but thought it was nice of them to mark the passage. I headed to split them but closer to the green that I thought was way off. Not so far off, a few minutes later I lost track of it and it ran a few feet down the side of the boat, fortunately we were outside of it.

Why fortunate? Because it was actually the end of a fishing net, the other end being a boat with a red light. Why would any fishermen pick those two colors to run a net between is beyond me but we got very lucky.

The next morning another small fishing boat came up. This time I was not so worried as it was only one guy in a small boat. He motioned he was hungry and told me he had not eaten as he didn’t catch any fish. So I gave him a bag of mangoes and he was really happy. Off he went, chowing down. They really don’t mind just coming up to you on the open sea here, that is something really new for us.

We pulled in to KK Sunday morning and there was the usual no answer on the radio. So we just came into the very modern marina and parked in an available slip. The neighbors told us it was unoccupied and so we stayed. This place is palatial. Clearly the oil money is spent here to really boost the esteem of KK. The class difference is huge, you have fishermen who live in shanties, service workers and then the oil people who all have nice cars and whatever else money buys. This is also the nicest marina I think I have ever been in. There are three hotels attached, a golf course, 9 bars and three swimming pools. The nicest showers I have been in on the entire trip and an actual finger pier to tie up to, all for $25 a night.

We decided to stay two nights and moronically I tried to check in and out of the country. This took all day and was not without headache. Turns out there is special clearance from the state to be here but that sort of got brushed away as I was not staying long enough. We also wanted to go down to the Kinabatanga River and see some pigmy elephants and orangutangs but some Filipino invaders claiming to be the army of the Shah of Sula or some such thing recently came ashore nearby and the country has been on high alert since. There are historical reasons for the invasion but I think the Malay forces have taken care of it.

I also want to replace Sir Duffy Mercury Johnson III, Esquire, since outboards are relatively cheap here. I was all set to buy a Yamaha Enduro 8hp and when I went to pay, they only take cash. What? On a $1500 purchase? I couldn’t get the cash so I will give Duffy one last chance. Anyway, tomorrow we head for Tiga Island where there are supposed to be monitor lizards and then on to Brunei. The last few days have been full of luxury, accidental adventure and wracked nerves and I am loving it.

All we have done is transit transit transit. We do it so much that it is starting to feel like a job, not an adventure. We have been pushing hard to make our checkout date. It is too bad really, Philippines has a great deal of beauty and interesting things but we have been moving almost every day between 60 and 80 miles, and only once at night since you don’t want to sail at night here.

After Cebu City proper we moved up to Pepe’s Boats Yard a few hours north of town. This place is full of people who get stuck working on their boats for years. Nice group though. The first night we went out to a BBQ place with all the yachties, I guess they do it every Friday. This was a OK but the really fun part was that it was our first ride in a tri-cylce. These things are amazing. They put 6 of us on one, Zach and Tim (from Camissa) rode on the roof! I think we really overloaded it and as we would pass by groups of locals they would point and laugh and take pictures with their cell phones. And it was Zach’s first taste of the road, I think he loved it.

After two nights in the “marina” we moved on. Getting out was almost as much fun as getting in since all the boats are tied to the opposite shore with ropes. When we came in we got a rope stuck between our keel and rudder, but on the way out we were a bit better informed so this didn’t happen. We put down 60 miles to a peaceful anchorage. The next day we did another 60 to stay off the town of Batan. Getting in there was interesting as the charts were way off and there was a very shallow bar to cross. Never have I seen so many fish traps and when I went to town to buy beer the locals all came out to see me. They were all very curious. The next morning we put another 55 miles down to Boracay.

Boracay is a zoo, a real zoo. There were no less than 11 parasails in the air at any given time. One of the charter captains there had to explain to us how to get behind the reef since the charts were poor for the area. Then when we anchored there were hundred of boats going by at all speeds. I thought we were on a sort of highway. The best ones though are the traditional crab-claw trimarans. They are set up for tourists but are still made in the traditional style and they are really fast. It was a pleasure to watch them zip around. After while though we went to town and it was like a Filipino version of Cancun. I did meet another MIT grad though and it turns out he was on a submarine back in the day. First one of those I have ever met outside the navy or MIT. So we had a bit to talk about. The next day we took our only overnighter to a place called Coron.

The sail was fine, nice and slow since it was only about 100 miles. But when we approached the beauty of the new island chain was stunning. It was very arid and reminded us of the Yasawas in Fiji. The sheer cliffs rising out of the water are breathtaking. Once we got into the town though our thoughts shifted elsewhere. There are tons of uncharted shoals in there and we tried to run aground numerous times. We thought of staying the night but we anchored in a narrow area and it was somewhat unprotected so Zach stayed on the boat and I ran to town and hired a tri-cylce to run some errands. Then we left for Popotaha Island where we anchored off the Coral Bay resort. This turned out to be a miserable trip though because there were enormous pearl farms taking up all but the narrowest of navigable waterways. So we had to stand a better than average watch, especially since the wind was up, we were driving into the sun and most the pearl buoys were black. Once we got the hook set though we were welcomed at the resort and had a nice dinner. The next morning was 75 miles to El Nido.

El Nido is probably the best place we have seen here so far. The rock formations are something you might only see in movies and the town is very quaint. We anchored in what seemed like a great anchorage but every so often the wind would pick up and it turned into a wind tunnel. The holding was fantastic though so it was not really a problem. We met some other travelers at a beach bar and took them sailing the next day. The wind was up so it was maybe not the best experience, but I think they had fun. When we finished we went to a beach out of town for dinner. The first dish to come out was one of the guy’s curry and as soon as it hit the table something climbed up my leg. WTF, it was a monkey. It then jumped on the table and ran over and grabbed some cabbage out of the curry and ate it. The it jumped back on me and shook its hands off all over me. I brushed it to the ground and went to wash my hands. When I got back a dog was standing on our table licking up the rest of the curry. Ahh, what a classy place. It was a shocking yet humorous experience.

Then the next day we left at 6 am to make an 80 mile day to Ulaga Bay, opposite Puerta Princessa on Palawan. The trip down had wind coming from one direction and swell from 90 degrees off so we got tossed pretty good for 12 hours of the 14 hour trip. Then we came into the narrow Oyster Bay in the dark. This would be OK but the chart datum is off so it was hard to know where anything was. We almost ran aground on a reef but managed to get anchored safely. We used the radar to figure out how far off the chart was then drove slowly in a 600 foot per side box the make sure the depth was there. Then we anchored right in the middle of it. Later that night, it was so calm and clear that you could see all the stars reflecting in the water. I don’t think I have ever seen that before.

All in all, I wish I had more time for the Philippines and I leave with very mixed feelings. It is one of the most crowded countries on earth and you can tell, but there are places where you won’t even know there is civilization nearby, it can be so remote. There are also tons of things to see here but we missed pretty much all of them as we spent too much time in Cebu and then had to transit every day. The one thing we really wanted to see was a new natural wonder of the world, an under ground river that is navigable for 20 km or so. But you must apply a week in advance for the permit and we just learned about it, well, about a week ago. Too bad. The sailing here has been mixed, either too much wind or too calm. Only a few days were great and all of the anchorages were barely adequate for one reason or another. But we also missed some of the better places as we moved so fast. It is as everyone say – don’t have a schedule or you will miss too much. One thing about the Philippines though is that the people are very friendly, even if the ones in boats never wave.

I am in the process of checking out now. It was a very long dinghy ride to the pier and first I stopped at the navy pier. There were no signs or anything so I just assumed it was the town pier. Then I saw the guys with guns. I turned around before they saw me, as I don’t know of a single navy in the world that likes it when foreigners just show up. Anyway, it turned out to be a 1000PP ride to town. That’s like 25 bux, I thought I was getting ripped off but it takes 2 hours one way and the driver is taking me all over.

We leave for Brunei as soon as possible. This should be straightforward but there are many oil and gas fields and dangerous shoals that must be avoided. They have funny names too, one is called the Insect Putty Billiard Room. How do you get that name for a shoal? Then on to Singapore. It is hard to believe we will be in Singapore in three weeks or so and then Thailand shortly after that. Very soon we will put the boat on a ship and say good-bye for awhile. Then Zach will really get to know the road and how most people his age travel.