Back on the yacht soon!!!!

Ahoy shipmates!!!

Well, the news is that I am flying over to Malaysia and then to Krabi in Thailand with Airasia, on Friday 12th April.  The best news is that my lovely wife, Rebecca, is coming as well. 

She has agreed to come over for about 1 month and go sailing in the Andaman Sea and the islands around Phang Nga Bay.  Next year she is coming for the whole trip for 8 months to Sumatra!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phang_Nga_Bay

Once at the Krabi Boat Lagoon Marina, we will scrape Surfmachine's hull and apply a new coat of blue antifouling paint and fill her with water and splash her back in the Ocean.

http://www.krabiboatlagoon.com/krabi-marina/marina-facilities.html

Then we will visit Phi Phi Don island and visit Maya Bay, where they filmed the Beach movie with Leo...  Hook onto a mooring for a day, go diving around the other side and watch the circus as they all come over from Phuket in speed boats!!!

Just relax and kick back on the boat and enoy the tropical weather.

Go for a few scuba dives around the island!!

Also pick up my new dingy, the old Aquapro, from Langkawi.  It has been fitted with new Hypalon tubes.  Visit Phuket for a few repairs, and pick up my crew for the sumatran voyage.  Jessica from Germany, for the first 3 months. Then Damo, from Australia, is joining surf machine in Nias, around September.  My last crew, Adam, ended up buying his own yacht in Phuket a few weeks ago, another 42' aluminium sloop, called the sound of music!!!

This is the inside of the saloon aboard Surfmachine, very comfy!!!

Fixing the fins into my new 6'10" rocket, shaped and glassed by myself!!

Captain Keith at Margaret river with his 9'6" gun!!!

 A nice anchorage in the islands!!

Coffee with my wife and friends at the beach in front of our house at Margies.

A local being towed into a wave in January near where we surf at Margaret River!!!

The dingy that will have new hypalon tubes.

Need a new flag?

Need more of these?

Getting ready to go!!

Becalmed in the MAlaccan Straits!!

Fair winds from Keith...

Katong festival in Thailand.

Avast shipmates, well...they had their Katong festival yesterday in Thailand.  Where all the Buddhists float a flower and candle, with incense and offerings onto the water, for good luck and all that!!

I floated a beautiful one off of the pier at Ao Charong bay, with candles and incense and money, set it off along with the several thousand others in the bay, looked great, all the water aglow with floating candles and smells so good from all the incense!!

They had long tail boat races in the bay, those fellas sure can move out, with very powerful motors pivoting on the stern of big canoe type boats.  They leave a long trail of black smoke behind them as they give the motors full throttle.  Endless fireworks and singing and dancing competitions on the big shore side stage.  Until well after 1am!!!

The pier at Ao Charong is all lit up with a huge array of LED lights that change colour and chase up and down the full length of the pier, they are mounted on the side so they all reflect in the glassy ocean at night and make a very impressive display.  The walkway on the pier is festooned with Christmas fairy lights for half it's length, lots of big stars etc, in yellow and white, looks incredible, they have been setting it up for 5 days now!

Visited Patong beach earlier to get my dvd player on the computer fixed under warranty and that place was going off, more live bands on the beach and absolutely packed!

Cheers from captain Keith.

Wow!!!! Back in Thailand, already !!!

Ahoy shipmates, left Banda Aceh on Monday afternoon at 1500 hrs and made it to the cape at Phuket at 1500 hours on Wednesday, 48 hours!!  A great passage, was sailing for 10 hours on Tuesday at 7 knots, had the cutter rig up!

Lots of big cargo boats in the night, strongly recommend the AIS system from standard horizon VHf radio connected to chartplotter, great value for 240 usd from westmarine!!

Checked out with immigration and port captain in Banada Aceh, very helpful, efficient and super pleasant, a good experience!!  No hassles or demands for money, great guys, NO AGENTS!!!

Watched the weather for a few weeks, from nias to aceh, via this site, very accurate..

http://www.windfinder.com/forecast/pulau_nias_mentawai
http://www.windfinder.com/forecast/banda_ache_blang_bintang

Much better than passageweather.com!!

Sunrise over the bay of Bengal

Leaving the bay of plenty

Homeward bound, Oh..life on the ocean waaaaave!!!

Just watch me cross the Malaccan Straits!!!!?

Bloody floating fish platforms, unlit at night!!!

 What a cutey...not Adam!!!!!

 The three Lagundri Bay desperados!!!!

 Budding Elvis Prestley at BAwa.

 I am too cool for my shirt??

 Flyimg home over the flying foam!!!

Sinabang anchorage on Simalue island, for refueling.

 This fellow caught an eel in the disgusting creek running through the town next to his shop!!

 Plenty of good veges and fruit in Sinabang!!!

 The local muslim school, just where we pulled alongside for 170 litres of diesel!!

 Captain Keith, resting during refueling!

 Sunsrise at our first Sumatran anchorage.

 Approaching the very NW tip of Sumatra, and 10 knots of head current!

 Giving the old mercedes full throttle and still going backwards!!  Only time we made headway was when we surfed down a standing wave about 8 foot high, very, very slow progress, one hour to cover half a mile!!!

Edging into the edge of the channel, next to the rocks, where the current is less, only 6 knots against us...


Checked in with Thai guys at Ao Chalong pier, no problems, very helpful, as always!!!  The thai immigration guy, "my old friend", gave me a special entry stamp, as I am the skipper, and crew, that enables me to fly out of Phuket for Perth whenever I want, 30 days, instead of having to lodge a thai bond of 20,000 baht!!, I gave him a smallish fee!!!

Hired a bike for 150 baht a day, now the high season, from my mate Michelle, no need to leave passport and got local sim cards for phone and broadband internet .

Now getting the cockpit covers replaced and repaired at rolly taskers sails, wonderful service!!  Weather is nice, some cool winds and huge thunderstorms at night, very spectacular lightening!!!

Will get out to the Simalin islands for some scuba diving next week and a cruise of the Phang Gna bay, then head back to Margaret River for the summer surf season.

Back to Sumatra next May, 2013, looking for a good crew, wanna come?

Fair winds from Keith.

As good as it gets?

Leaving paradise and sailing around the top of Sumatra.

At anchor in the Hinakos Islands, looking at Bawa.

Adam's first squid catch!

Two young men from Hinakos Island came aboard to charge up their start batteries for the inter island ferry, and a cuppacino and some singing!!!

The rudder of Surfmachine, taken by Adam.

Surfmachine at anchor , at sea level.

Adam, cleaning the hull!

On the East side of the bay of plenty, a big lagoon, accessed through a tidal creek through the mangroves.

Bawa, a great right hander in the Hinakos Islands, a long wave over bare coral!!

The right hander in the Bay of Plenty, Banyak Islands.

The big left hander in the Bay of Plenty, called Loock Point, I enjoy surfing this wave at thriple overhead!!!

Surfmachine with the jib up, nroute to Bankgaru, from afulu.

At anchor in Sibolga, early dawn.

Approaching the west coast of Sumatra, on the way to Bandah Aceh, from Sinabang on Simalue.

Rounding the NW cape of Sumatra, with a head current of 8 knots and a boat speed of 7knots, we were going backwards a lot of the time, but hugged the rocks at the edge of the channel and got around in 1.5 hours for 1 mile of passage!!

The sunset over Bandah Aceh, our first night at anchor, as the immigation had taken a friday holiday!

The small fishing boats go 70 miles out to sea.

Sunrise at Lagundri Bay, on the isla of Nias.

Mr Smiley comes to visit surfmachine!!

Adam enjoying lunch after a hard morning's surf at Lagundri Bay.

Dinner for captain Keith at Lagundri Bay.

Adam applying the chinese medicine to the coral cuts on his nipples, it really hurts ike hell, but heals the cuts quickly!

Nadine, an Irish backpacker was a welcome guest aboard Surfmachine, she paddled her surfbaord out for a cuppacino and a friendly chat.

Manga, Nadine and captain Keith, aboard surf machine at Lagundri BAy.

A sucker fish that was attched to a coral trout I caught when sailing to Bawa, it attached itself to me!!!

Coral trout caught at Bawa, we then surfed right handers for 3 hours and ate the fish for brunch, then a sleep, then motored back to our safe anchorage at Hinakos Island.

Adam and the trout.

The inter island ferry motor has stopped!!!

The cutter rig up and flying on the way to Sumatra from Sinanbang.

Dawn over the first anchorage on Sumatra on the way home at Batu Burung, after a 2 day non stop sail.

Dawn at Bawa.

A cute local boy at the beach in Lagundri Bay, we were anchored right out in front.

The bananas at the Teluk Dalam market, 15 kms East from Lagundri bay.

Vegetable market at Teluk Dalam.

Leaving the anchorage on sumatra for Bandah Aceh.

The spinnaker up and drawing, sailing along the West coast of Sumatra.