Return to home page Last updated August 18, 2010

NEWS PAGE

Click on the section you want to read:

Did we get your email? – Please read

2005 to 2007

2008

2009

2010 so far

CanKata getting painted – new

Leaving For Good

September 2005: We have left Canada for good. All our land-based possessions have been sold, we have cancelled our health care, cell phone, library card, subscriptions and memberships, and now we have very few links with the land of maple syrup, beaver-tails and Mounties.

We have been preparing for this moment for 8 years. We are more than ready. How long will we be sailing? – For as long as we are able. As long as our health, finances, and spirits hold up, and as long as CanKata remains safe and sound, we will not plan on returning.

Adventures 2005, 2006 and 2007

We have archived the stories from these years. If you are new to our web site and want the full story, let us know in an email to cankata@hotmail.com and we’d be happy to send you the archived page. Our “Where We’re Headed” page still has information on the places we visited in 2005-2007.

Did We Get Your Email?

Once or twice a month, CanKata’s miscommunications officer tries to get to an Internet café to check out what emails have been received and to update CanKata’s website. All emails are responded to, even if it’s just a quick “Thanks!” to acknowledge a friendly greeting.

If you haven’t heard back from us between website updates (sometimes a month or longer), it could be that we didn’t get your message. If you are not on our “favourites” list, your message may have been automatically deleted after 5 days. Also, I get some junk mail that I quickly delete, so maybe I accidentally deleted your message. As a matter of fact, I lost the rights to our domain name CanKata.ca for a few days because the provider’s address is something like “auto_renew.com” and I thought it was for automobile insurance. Well, I was wrong and didn’t get the invoice until I finally caught on that it was a legitimate email, and have since renewed the domain name for nine years.

So don’t give up on us! Please send us another greeting with a meaningful subject line (not just “hello” or “have we got a deal for you” or “having trouble keeping it up?”). We love to hear from you at cankata@hotmail.com.

Bureaucrazies

By Darrel

Please note the names and places have not been changed to protect the innocent.

As much as I hate ranting I have to share our most recent experience with Australian bureaucracy. But to be fair and before beginning the rant I want to praise the Australian Customs. While cruising we were often warned of how difficult our entry would be once we arrived at Australia. We were warned that they would not allow most of our provisions and they would use underwater cameras to inspect our boat and if so decided they would force us to haul CanKata and have our bottom scrubbed to remove any undesirables. If we did not follow all entry instructions we could be faced with fines, or turned away immediately. Well as stated in our last update the entry went very smoothly and both customs and quarantine departments were extremely courteous and professional. There was only one hitch and that was that our “tourist visa” which we had to apply for before arriving in Australia was for twelve months, but had to be renewed every three months. Because of this, Customs could only issue us a three-month cruising permit. They told us that once we extend our immigration visa they would be able to extend their cruising permit.

Our “tourist visa” was to expire on January 22, 2008 and we had already visited the Immigration Office to obtain the necessary forms to apply for the extension, which we were to submit prior to the expiry date. On January 15^th we completed the forms and took the necessary accompanying documentation and went to visit Immigration. We stood in line for less than 15 minutes to get a number so we could sit and wait for another 30 minutes to meet with Jill one of their immigration officers. We didn’t anticipate any problems to have our tourist visa extended but just in case I wore a clean shirt, groomed my hair, and removed my ball cap before greeting Jill and telling her what a beautiful country she lives in. We passed her our forms, which were neatly hand lettered, and our accompanying documentation, e.g. passports, and proof of our financial status, which included a print out of our bank investments and chequing account and a declaration form to reconfirm our financial status.

Jill was very receptive and it was going very well right up to the point where she reviewed our financial status documents. She told us the documents we provided were not sufficient since they did not include our name on the print out. Loretta explained the reason they do not include our name is because she printed them out from our banks website and once you have entered the website the names and some of the account numbers have been omitted for security reasons. This was not good enough for Jill. I asked her how much money we would have to have to obtain the extension. She said we should be able to prove that we have $3000 between us. I told her I had $900 in traveller cheques with me and I could go and obtain the balance in cash. She said this would not do since it would be possible that I could go out and borrow the remaining $2100 from someone. Okay how about if we show you a blank cheque, our Visa card, debit card. Nope, that won’t do since all the numbers are not indicated on the printouts. I then asked would it be possible for Loretta to sign on to our bank through Jill’s computer to verify the printouts. No can do, this is a government computer and she can’t let anyone else use it.

Jill said she will issue a “bridging visa” that will allow us to stay in Australia for another two weeks to obtain proof that we can scrounge up $3000 (not her words). So we gave her our Visa card and she processed our application fee of $430 and said we can go. We told her our Visa limit was over $3000 and the balance was $0 so could she submit a slip for $3000 and once it gets approved she could cancel it. No, can’t do that either.

We then asked if we had of submitted this application for an extension online how would we have proven our financial status. Jill said it would not have been necessary they would trust our information by ticking a box.

We ran out of ideas so we decided to leave and try to think of a way to resolve this issue. But before leaving I suggested to Jill as a government employee she should report this issue to her supervisors and come up with a solution for future cases. She pointed to a small brochure on her desk that we could fill in to issue praise or a complaint. We then asked if we had to stand in line and wait again to see her once we obtain better proof. Without a smile she said yes.

We immediately went to an Internet café and went back to our bank’s website to see if we could associate our name with any of the bank statements. The closest we could get was by printing our Visa statement which showed all but 4 numbers that were on our Visa card. Back we went to Immigration and after standing 20 minutes in line to get a number and sitting for another 1 ½ hours we got back to see Jill. Perhaps Jill was satisfied because she had put us through enough hoops and that she was able to leave for lunch while we were waiting to see her, and after examining our new printout and closely verifying our credit card number, she processed our application. We left without thanking her or reminding her how happy we were to be visiting this wonderful country.

Now that we were allowed to stay for another three months, our next challenge was to get our cruising permit extended by Customs. I told Loretta that we may have to sail back to Brisbane which is about 40 miles north since there is no Customs office here in the Gold Coast – not to mention what other hoops they may force upon us. Well when I called they pulled up our file and informed us the extension would be “no worries mate” all we have to do is see you to verify the visa extension and provide you with the new permit. I told him where we were located and he said “no worries” I can drive down there later this week or the next. Two days later Customs called us and I dinghied to shore and without any hassles or costs had our extended cruising permit in hand. Talk about two extremes in bureaucracies.

Further to the article in the last update, Land of Ies, I think I could add to the Australian parlance – bitchies.

Bum’s Bay – February 2008

Bum’s Bay, Australia, cannot be found on any charts. It’s not a secret hideout – it simply goes by another name: Marine Stadium. We’ve never anchored in a “stadium” before. We’ve been told that it’s called a stadium because there often are special water events held here. Mostly, however, it is the home of Aussies who live on their boats, ergo Bum’s Bay.

CanKata has become a bum. She has made this bay her temporary home.

Specifically, Bum’s Bay is located at 27°56.38’S, 153°25.22’E, on the Gold Coast near Southport, south of Brisbane. If you enter Australia’s inland waterways at the Gold Coast Seaway, just a few left-hand turns and a few minutes later, you will be snug as a bum in Bum’s Bay.

Location, location, location

If you have ever met a real estate agent, you know that for some people, location is really the only thing that matters in life. If this is so, then Bum’s Bay has everything going for it that it needs: just minutes from the seaside, a short dinghy ride to Sea World, close to Australia Fair shopping plaza, a short sail to Runaway Bay, close to The Spit and the Seaway Tower, just a day trip to Tipplers (where there’s a bar), and, of course, it is on the Gold Coast – Australia’s Miami.

If you know us, you know that Bum’s Bay is not really our kind of bay. Malls, theme parks and civilization aren’t what we’re after. In fact, the Ferris wheel at Sea World was recently dismantled. While most of the bum’s here wept, Darrel and I cheered. But when the wind blows in the right direction, our cockpit faces the sea. On a calm night, we can hear the ocean’s surf. Regularly, dolphins glide through and a couple of horses swim by. And now that we have met many of our neighbours, we are surrounded by friends.

The Occupants of Bum’s Bay

We have not seen any other foreign boats in Bum’s Bay, although there have been a couple of New Zealand boats and technically they are foreigners. During the week, the occupants are live-aboard Aussies. On the weekend, the live-aboards are outnumbered by the weekenders. Vessels vary: catamarans similar to CanKata; monohulls in a variety of sizes; trawlers big and small; houseboats old and new; runaway dinghies (these only on occasion, usually after a Saturday-night bash). There is a fair bit of room in the bay, but on the weekend there are sometimes collisions when currents and winds pick up and boats start swinging on their anchor chains. CanKata (knock wood) has never been bumped here.

In this bay, we have become friends with wonderful people: Diane and Kerry of Nemo, Sylvia and Gerd of Daedalus, Helena and Peter of Oceandeep, Peter of Medusa, Carol and John of Windsong. We wave frequently to Happy Hour, Cassimi, Mirabel, and Soul.

Bum’s Bay is also the home of the Ship Shop – a big houseboat converted to a floating grocery store that sells liquor. It comes with a little runabout that sells ice cream at an exorbitant price that is well worth it on a hot muggy day in the bay.

Helicopters love to fly past our bay, showing off its calm beauty to Asian tourists. Dogs and their owners love to run along its lengthy beach. Fishermen cast from the shore or troll by on their little boats. Pelicans, gulls, eagles and swallows and noisy crows also call this home. It’s a happening place.

The Rules of Bum’s Bay

The Gold Coast officials do not want this to become a bay of bums. Therefore, they have posted numerous signs that say, to quote exactly: “Vessel owners are advised that anchoring and mooring in this area is restricted to a maximum of seven days in any sixty-day period. Maximum penalty – 40 penalty units. During aquatic events, vessels are required to vacate the area.” This very specific rule has been interpreted by the bums of the bay as follows:

“Vessels shall not remain in this bay for more than six days. On the seventh day, move to another bay to spend the night. Then vessels are permitted to return to this bay for another six days, after which this cycle will be repeated continually”.

This Golden Coast Rule has been followed to the letter by CanKata (except for one very windy two-week period where no one was moving anywhere except if their anchor dragged). So once a week we haul anchor and motor to either Australia Fair anchorage where we can dinghy to shore and shop till we drop, or to Wave Break Island where we can dinghy to Runaway Mall and buy cheap boxed wine. The latter is our preference. The Gold Coast officials have never bothered us. No “penalty units” have been slapped against us. However, we were once surrounded by two Customs boats and were boarded by one official who was wearing a flak vest. He gave us a key chain and pen with their 1-800 number and asked us to call them if we saw anything “suspicious”. He checked our passports and papers and went off with a friendly wave. He’s about the only suspicious character we have met.

The Games of Bum’s Bay

As usual, CanKata has become the party boat. Not only do we have a big, comfy cockpit, but we also are the only boat that has a set of double-twelve dominoes and a set of Farkle dice. If you are a cruiser, you know the importance of both. We also have plenty of decks of cards and a hand-painted game of Barricade from Sylvia and Gerd (S/V Daedalus) and an unending supply of cheap rum from Panama. We also have an open-door policy from 3:00 p.m. onwards. We are thankful that all our friends go to bed early, so we usually are able to close our doors before 8:00 p.m. Game time on CanKata even attracts regular visits from Lynn and Nicholas of S/V Trius which is moored at the Southport Yacht Club – a ten minute dinghy ride away. CanKata also organized Bum’s Bay first dinghy drift! Eight dinghies participated, enjoying food, drink, singing and jokes while drifting together in the bay.

Visitors to Bum’s Bay

This is where CanKata will be when our “friends from away” come to visit. We are expecting Jim and Freddy on February 17, while Sue Ann, Nancy and Lenore are coming on March 2. A short while ago, cyclones were threatening our safety and we tried to move further south. However, the winds were on our nose and kept us here. We are happy to report that, so far, no cyclones have visited Bum’s Bay. The weather seems to be stabilizing (let’s knock wood again) and although the northerlies look like they are kicking in, we don’t think we will go south after all. It appears we’ve become bums.

Beaching CanKata

By Darrel

When we arrived in Australia our first order of business was to go to a full service marina so we could replace our two Yanmar engines. The cost for the travel-lift and wash down was $570 USD plus we had to pay an additional $60 USD per day for being on the hard. Once this work was completed and CanKata was returned to the water we tried not to think that after 50 hours of use we would have to return to this marina for another expensive haul-out so we could undertake the 50 hour check-up which included changing the sail drive gear oil.

Fortunately, we discovered that Bum’s Bay was a suitable spot to beach houseboats and catamarans during the right tide conditions – a much cheaper option than a haul-out.

The location, tide and weather conditions were perfect for our first beaching. We crossed over a sand bar at 0630 and dropped our CQR anchor and backed into position so there were 8” (200 mm) under CanKata’s keels. We checked how level the bottom was by taking soundings along side of the two keels. Once satisfied with our position we placed our stern anchor to hold CanKata in place until the tide dropped. The bottom in this area consisted of firm sand with a nice gradual slope up to the sandy beach. The sand bar enclosing this area stopped any waves or wakes from moving or displacing CanKata as it softly set down onto its stubby keels.

As we waited for the tide to recede Loretta and I took advantage of the time and cleaned CanKata’s hulls and polished the area above the water line. We also prepared ourselves and CanKata for the period when the water would drop below the level of its through-hulls which meant that the heads would no longer take in sea water for flushing, and that the water-cooled refrigeration system would have to be shut down. Loretta also had to avoid using our single-sideband radio since the grounding plate would be out of the water.

By noon I was able to drain the gear oil from our sail drives and do other minor work such as cleaning of our speedometer wheel and out sail drive water intakes. By the time the tide turned we were finished our work and enjoying happy hour in our cockpit. We also had time to visit with the friendly local Aussies who stopped by to see what we were up to.

We were up early the next morning and as soon as CanKata was afloat we raised our two anchors with the help of Gerd, an Aussie cruiser friend from S/V Daedalus, and sailed back to the anchorage area.

That evening, after we had our dips and with CanKata and her crew all with clean bottoms, we toasted our boat and ourselves for our first beaching and look forward to the next time.

Additions to CanKata

You would think that after the expense of two new engines, CanKata’s owners would curtail spending. However, chandleries and hardware stores keep tempting us, and we have now added the following to CanKata’s inventory:

v new trampoline lines

v a wash-down pump in the anchor locker

v a replacement for our malfunctioning Northstar GPS

v another propane tank which meets Aussie standards

v stacks of $2.00 DVDs – originals, B movies, cheap entertainment

v a “Barricade” game from S/V Daedalus

v a crab trap which has caught plenty of nice-sized sand crabs - yum

v a new cooler – aka fish coffin

v 30 flags – evidence that our journey has just begun

Full Circle

Sunset, February 6 provided CanKata and her friends in Bum’s Bay one of the most spectacular works of nature we have ever seen. After a very rainy afternoon, the sun decided to show its face just before it slipped below the horizon. The whole bay turned golden, and then the most brilliant rainbow appeared in the east. It was a triple treat: a full bow, a full reflection in the sky, and a full reflection in the water, giving it the appearance of a full double circle.

No matter where we looked, the sight was breathtaking. It was fun to watch all the other boats in the anchorage – everyone was out on deck, and everywhere there were cameras flashing, but no one could really capture the full beauty of it.

Banking on Bankers – February 2008

Darrel and I have had trouble with our bank cards from time to time. We are happy to advise that our problems are always handled with speed and grace by Kathy Smith (love her last name) of Scotiabank. Kathy has been a godsend. She responds quickly to our emails, always has a solution to our problems, and even provides us with weather reports from Canada: “Horrible day of freezing rain turning to rain then snow then deep freeze tonight. Parts of Saskatchewan were minus 56 with the wind chill yesterday”. Her weather reports help to make our banking problems seem very insignificant.

Kathy has taken care of wire transfers, address changes, mailing us new bank cards, and all the other banking stuff that we can’t do ourselves from the boat. Between her and our son Dylan, who has control of our cheque book, we have managed to stay afloat.

So we’d like to take this opportunity to give a BIG THANK YOU to Kathy for her great service. We can always bank on her.

Dune Tobogganing – February 2008

“We should go for a wagon ride along the beach”, suggested our friend Peter from S/Y Oceandeep. He and Helena had gone once before and found that it was cheap and fun. So ten of us went: Peter and Helena; Darrel and I; our visitors Jim and Freddy; Carol and John of Windsong; and Sylvia and Gerd of Daedalus. We were given a special surprise: dune tobogganing. What a riot! The climb up the dunes was a little hot and hard, but the ride down on the boogie boards was fast and fun. There were no spills or injuries, but we were all eating sand for a couple of hours afterwards. The average age of the group was probably around mid-fifties … and this was a first for all of us. It was the best weather we’ve ever had for tobogganing.

More Australian Abbreviations – March 2008

We love this language! Further to Darrel’s story on Land of Ies (December 2007), here are some more new words:

Arvo – afternoon … as in “have a good arvo!”

Lippy – lipstick

Mackies – MacDonald’s restaurant (also saw an add calling it Maccas)

Reggo – (hard g) vehicle registration

Reggo – (soft g) regulation

Rellies – relatives

Salvo – Salvation Army

Stuffed – screwed up

Sunnies - sunglasses

Ute – utility vehicle … something like an El Camino

CanKata’s Co-captain Rises Above Her Fears

By Darrel

As previously mentioned in one of our web postings, Loretta has become a much braver and more adventurous person since leaving Canada in 2004. For those of you who do not know Loretta well, one of her greatest phobias was acrophobia. Actually it wasn’t really a fear of height but rather a fear of falling or dropping something from a height. When we lived on the 28^th floor of the Riviera in Ottawa, Loretta was able to mitigate this fear by standing on our balcony and looking out over the Rideau River. However she still did not relish the idea of standing or being near a sharp drop-off.

Every so often it is necessary for someone to go aloft CanKata’s mast to inspect the rigging or perform maintenance on one of the instruments at the top of the mast. Since my greatest fear is nudophobia and not acrophobia it is usually, nope, always me who gets the opportunity of strapping into the uncomfortable bosun’s chair and putting my life in Loretta’s hands as she winches me up and down the mast.

Each time that I go up the mast, or when one of our visitors requests to be put up the mast, Loretta says to herself - only out loud, that someday she would like to try going up the mast. Knowing Loretta’s phobia and having experienced the situation where someone climbed up a ladder but was not able to come down, I never acknowledged her request.

During our travels we have met a few women who have gone up their mast and this inspired Loretta to make a real request to go aloft the next time we had to inspect our rigging. This task showed up on maintenance schedule for March so when we prepared for it Loretta climbed into the bosun’s chair and after making a few minor adjustments she said she was ready to go. I was concerned that once Loretta got up there she would panic when it came time to having to look down during the descent. So as I winched her up every few feet I would ask her to look down and let me know if she wanted to go higher. I was astounded at how relaxed Loretta was as she was elevated up above the spreaders. What can I say - she makes me proud.

A New Tool/Toy for CanKata

By Darrel

Thanks to our dear friends John and Fran Harding from Ottawa we were provided with a new Dremel TOOL to replace the one that I inherited from my dad a few years ago but that unfortunately broke down recently when making a new gaff hook. Anyone who has a Dremel knows what a valuable and versatile tool it is especially with the variety of bits that are available. For example, I have used it aboard CanKata for cutting of wood work and plastic, sharpening our pole spears, grinding fibreglass and removing rust from metal.

Unfortunately, from Loretta’s perspective we have received a new TOY. Loretta is a very keen beachcomber and she constantly has a nice collection of shells aboard CanKata which she transforms into a number of functional items, e.g. chop stick holders, abacuses, center pieces, dishes and jewellery. I made the mistake one day when Loretta asked me what she could use to drill a small hole in a shell. She also asked how she could remove a blemished portion of a shell or the calcium build-up on the outer portion of the shell. I told her that my Dremel could have been used for both purposes but that it was broken.

Little did I know how excited Loretta was in anticipation of me receiving my new Dremel TOOL. As soon as we received it she began listing all the uses she has for it. She thinks of it as her shell TOY and has kindly offered to let me use it when needed but warns me not to break it.

Acquisitions and Repairs

The Captain and Crew are pleased to announce the following additions to CanKata:

- two bean chairs (for comfy seating on the front deck);

- one MP3 player (no more crying over salt-damaged CDs);

- one new stereo (to play the MP3 through our boat speakers);

- a new Plastimo compass to replace our broken one, mounted at the helm; and

- a tighter budget for April, May, and June.

It hasn’t been all play on CanKata. Here are some of the repairs that have kept the Captain busy recently:

- replaced broken compass

- cleaned and lubricated all winches and the windlass

- fixed leaky shower head on starboard scoop

- cleaned the standing rigging

- refastened the head liner where it was letting go

- cleaned main circuit breaker switch (showing signs of corrosion)

- installed new stereo

- dove to clean hulls and sail drives (and got all covered in tiny biting crustaceans!)

But we’ll admit that it has been mostly play.

Perpetual Summer

By Darrel

Over the past 3 years Loretta and I have been trying to follow our number one guiding principle, even though it contravenes the natural flow of energy, i.e. movement from hot to cold. As the weather turns cooler Loretta and I soon agree that it’s time to start moving, either north or south depending which hemisphere we are in at the time.

Even though the weather in Australia was not hot this past summer, we have recently begun to notice the differences in the air and water temperature. There was one evening when we both dug out our fleece jackets and pants to contend with the cool evening while sitting in our cockpit. Not only that, we dug out the fleece blanket and put in on our bed where it has since remained (one night it dipped to 18 C). Our dips in the water have certainly become briefer and less frequent (water temp has dropped to 23 C).

We quickly remembered how cool it was when we left Canada in September 2004, and then how cold it was when we left the Chesapeake Bay the following November. It was so cold in Norfolk (one night dropped to 5 C) that following the nightly social event we would huddle around a fire and then invite a small group of fellow cruisers over to CanKata for a nightcap - inside the salon. We would close up the doors and hatches and within a few moments CanKata’s interior would be toasty warm due to everyone’s body-heat. We would then shoo our guests out and quickly jump into bed under our blankets and comforter. We do not want to get caught in cool climes like that again.

Since that time we have been fortunate enough to always be able to duck up and down the latitudes in order to find warmer climates.

So now that the weather here is cooling off we have pointed our bows northward hunting for summer.

Darwin here we come!

Shark Attack – April 2008

Just before we left Bum’s Bay, we heard the horrifying news of a shark attack on a beach just down from us. A young surfer, out enjoying the waves with a friend at about 8:00 in the morning, was brutally mauled on the leg by a bull shark, so badly that he bled to death. His buddy swam out to him and hauled him back in on his board, a very brave move, but by the time help arrived, it was too late.

This incident served as a reminder of how careful we have to be in Australia waters. Swimming early in the morning, at dusk, or any time during the night is not wise because it’s “feeding time”, and everything looks tasty to a hungry shark. Eight in the morning isn’t that early, so perhaps that bull shark was simply frantic because he was caught inside the shark net. All along the Gold Coast, a net has been erected just offshore from beaches to keep the sharks out. It doesn’t always work.

As CanKata heads north, we are entering even less safe waters … more sharks and the beginning of crocodile country. Just the other day, at Kingfisher Park on Fraser Island (the largest sand island in the world), just as I was about to jump in for a dip, another cruiser kayaked past and yelled, “Hey, I just saw a shark! But it was just a little one”. I still went for my dip, but it was a quick one.

So we thought we would play it safe and go ashore the next day to enjoy a nice hike around Kingfisher Park. The first sign that greeted us was a warning about dingoes. We saw a couple of them running along the beach, but outside of the protective fence that they had erected around the park.

We knew Australia had some peculiar dangers to watch out for. Lately, they seem to be in our face. But we’re happy to report that all is well, we stay inside the fences, and we’ll only snorkel when there are other people in the water … reduces the chances, you know.

Romeo and Roger – April 2008

Most readers of this web site are familiar with the term “roger” which, in radio language, means “your message has been received and understood”. Aussies love to stray from the usual, especially if they think the usual stems from either the USA or Great Britain. So here in the land down under, the radio term used instead of “roger” is “Romeo”, which is also the word used in the international alphabet for the letter “r”. When we announced to the Coast Guard our safe passage over a tricky bar, the response was “Romeo, CanKata, and have a good sail up the strait”.

We haven’t been to a Shakespeare production here. I shudder to think of the scene …

“Roger, Roger, wherefore art thou Roger?”

Going to the bar – April 2008

By Darrel

I remember when I was young, and perhaps a bit before the legal drinking age, how anxious I was before heading to the local tavern for the first time. I don’t know if the mascara moustache helped convince the waiter that I was old enough to drink but it certainly gave me a bit of confidence.

On our way northward from Mooloolaba towards the Great Barrier Reef we had two choices to travel. One which took us offshore during which we would have to do an overnighter, or one which took us inside the sandy straits between Fraser Island (which is the largest sand island in the world) and the mainland. The later route would give us a more scenic route which we could break up into a number of short day trips so this is the one we opted for. Also, we were buddy-boating with Daedalus who have never sailed at night so we thought it would be better for them until they have a bit more experience under their keel.

Anyone who asked us which route we were taking quickly let us know about the Wide Bay bar. At first I thought it was a common watering hole where we could get a nice cold beer, but I soon realized that it was a sand bar which crossed the entry into the Sandy Straits. From time to time we would hear a story from someone who knew or saw a boat broach (turn sideways) or worse yet pitch-pole (go head over heels) during this somewhat tricky passage of the bar.

We had anchored about seven miles from the entry the night before so that we would be able to cross the bar at high tide, which is the recommended time for passage. On our way to the entry the following morning there were three boats ahead of us, all monohulls, who took a look at the breakers going over the bar and then aborted their entry. One of them reported that the conditions were great provided you were on a surf board, but not a boat.

This made us, well okay me, more anxious so I discussed our options with Loretta and then Daedalus. Everyone was willing to go in a take a closer look. CanKata took the lead and was quickly committed (or should be committed) to going over. We were picked up by a breaking ten foot wave and then surfed down its backside. I was ready to take over from Otto (our Autohelm) just in case it was not able to handle the waves resulting in CanKata going broadside to the waves. But as expected Otto performed right up to par, just as it did during the thirty-foot waves we survived during our leg in the North Atlantic Ocean on our way to the British Virgin Islands back in 2004. We rode out a couple more waves and then were safely across the bar. Daedalus crossed behind us just like a pro and we all agreed that we would be celebrating our successful and safe crossing as soon as we found our anchorage. Daedalus told us later that we got a phone call from some of our other cruising friends who are a day or two behind us to congratulate us. They had heard us report our safe crossing on our VHF to the local Coast Guard.

In hindsight I think I preferred the anxiety of crossing the threshold of a bar illegally than the Wide Bay bar.

Fraser Island – April 2008

Here are some facts (from the Fraser Island Fact Sheet) that we found interesting, over and above the fact that it is the largest sand island in the world:

v it was listed by UNESCO in 1992 as a “protected special place”

v it has over 250 km of sandy beaches

v species on and around the island include dingoes, rare frogs, dugongs, turtles, blue butterflies, wallabies, possums, and 350 species of birds

v some of the sand has travelled for thousands of kilometres and millions of years from Antarctic, starting the journey before Australia and Antarctica split from each other

v the island supports over 100 freshwater rain-fed lakes, most being “perched dune lakes” that sit upon a layer of humus impregnated sand or “coffee rock” formed from accumulating organic matter and sand cementing together into a largely impervious seal

v In 1770, James Cook called it “Great Sandy Peninsula” because he didn’t know it was an island

v In 1799, Matthew Flinders discovered it was an island. The aboriginals knew long before that.

Not wanting to spend $158 for “the tour”, we walked a short circuit then lazed around the pool.

Show Me the Beef

By Darrel

Every place that we have visited has offered us new adventures and cultural differences. One of Australia’s cultural differences is the way they dress – I don’t mean the way they dress themselves, but the way they dress their hamburgers. A typical all dressed hamburger will come with the burger of course and all the regular condiments such as relish, tomato paste (not called ketchup here) and mustard. But also it will come with a thick slab of beet root and a fried egg.

The other day we were doing a rushed provisioning stop and wanted to grab a quick bite. Loretta ordered a club sandwich and I ordered a burger. The listings on the menu board under burgers were: Minced burger; Minced burger with the works; Bacon burger; and others which I cannot recall. I checked with Loretta what she thought they meant by minced burger and she confirmed what I thought and that was ground beef. Well this last sentence doesn’t have anything to do with what I am about to tell you since I decided to order the bacon burger. I also asked if they could put a slice of cheese on it.

When the waitress brought us our food I quickly noticed that the sesame covered bun looked nice and fresh but it seemed a bit thin overall. I lifted up the bun and noticed the cheese, tomato paste and a few thick strips of bacon – but no beef burger. Before the lady who served us (in a non-demeaning way) left our table I asked her if there was not to be a hamburger included. She gave me a strange look so I clarified my question by asking where was the minced burger. She quickly replied that what I ordered was a bacon burger and not a minced burger. I didn’t want to make a scene so I just nodded and thanked her for reminding me.

I asked our two Australian friends who witnessed the entire event and they too were surprised that the bacon burger did not come with a beef burger with bacon on top.

I am glad that I didn’t order a cheese burger.

Cruizheimers is Spreading

By Darrel

One of my most anxious moments occurs when I am clearing CanKata, Loretta and me in at Customs and Immigration offices in the countries that we visit. One of the first questions that they ask me is “what was our last port of call”. I don’t know why but as soon as I am faced with that question my mind goes blank and I can’t even be sure where it is I have just arrived, or for that matter what the day, month, or year is. Surprisingly, when I have mentioned this to other cruisers they too have the same problem. We all immediately discount the cause being Cruizheimers (Alzheimer’s for yachties) and tend to agree that it is due to us visiting so many different ports and countries that we tend to misplace where we are currently residing.

I was reminded of this affliction the other day when Gerd from our buddy boat Daedalus was called on the VHF by Round Hill Volunteer Marine Rescue (VMR) just as we were anchoring. There is a network of VMR groups who track cruisers along the coast and while it is not mandatory, the system allows you to log in with them when you leave a harbour or anchorage and they document where you are going, your ETA, and the number of persons on board – I guess that is so you can be sure you don’t lose anybody along the way. When you arrive at your destination you are supposed to call the local VMR and they will then take you off of their log. The crew on CanKata have avoided using this system since it requires us to remember to call in once anchored. Anyway what was I trying to tell you? Oh yah, we were running late on this particular day, due to light fickle winds and we were an hour or two behind the ETA that Gerd had told the VMR when he logged onto their system that morning. So when the local VMR called they asked Daedalus what their current position was. There was a fairly lengthy pause from Daedalus and then Gerd replied “we are just arriving at our destination”. The VMR wouldn’t let him off the hook that easy, they again asked “what is your location?” Another long pause, and then Gerd came back “we are where we are supposed to be”. If it wasn’t for the laughter on CanKata I am sure we would have heard chuckles coming from the other cruisers who were monitoring the same frequency. VMR simply responded, “Romeo, Daedalus, you are off the log”.

Over the next few days we heard a number of other cruisers get caught in the same predicament as Daedalus. CanKata’s crew reconfirmed that they would not log in to the VMR tracking system – no need to take up their resources.

Surviving Yeppoon – May 2008

Here is what the guide book says: Yeppoon shopping centre is the most comprehensive in the region, and is the last chance to “victual” before MacKay. The creek dries at low tide and is suitable only for local craft whose mud berths line the banks.

So CanKata and Daedalus agreed that Yeppoon would be a good stop. It would not be an easy stop; the stores were a good distance away from shore, the service station was even further, and there was not a good dinghy landing. But at least we would be able to stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables and top up the diesel tanks. The latter would have to be done via jerry cans, so two dinghies would be required. As it turns out, this stop would be a lot harder than we thought.

The two captains, in their respective dinghies, went ashore to get diesel while their respective and respectable crew swabbed the deck and tended to other items on the “to do” lists. Shopping would come later. The surf made for a dangerous dinghy landing, so the captains checked out the creek, even though the guide book didn’t recommend it. It was high tide so navigation was easy, but a few things made them uncomfortable: the “Report Any Crocodile Sightings” sign, the huge bats hanging from the trees, the smell, and the local craft which looked like all had been abandoned for decades. Plus, there wasn’t much water and low tide was just a few hours away, so it definitely wasn’t an option.

The captains found a calm landing just at the mouth of the creek, pulled the dinghies up the beach, loaded the jerry cans on dollies, and went in search of the service station. They found it without much trouble, but were dismayed when the attendant announced, “We’re out of diesel”. But in that wacky wonderful way that Aussies have, she handed over the keys of her truck (after charging $20 towards gas and wear-and-tear) and pointed the captains down the road to where another service station was. Quick-thinking Captain Gerd then asked if it was okay if they made a stop at the dinghies on the way back, to drop off the heavy jerry cans. “No worries, mate”, she smiled. “That’ll be another five dollars though”.

Twenty-five dollars lighter and an hour later, Captain Darrel was back at the boats to unload the diesel and pick up the crew for the “victual” adventure. Captain Gerd stayed ashore to return the truck and then meet us at Coles (grocery store, not book store). We pulled CanKata’s dinghy ashore beside Daedalus’s dinghy, then walked the long walk to Coles.

Let me tell you a bit about Yeppoon. It reminded Darrel and me of Smiths Falls, which is not a compliment. By that I mean it was like a spooky little town out of a Stephen King novel: there was a weird smell in the air; the concrete walks and asphalt roads reflected the heat of the midday sun, and there was no breeze to provide any relief; people moved at a furtive speed; there was a whisper in the air, like everyone was talking about you; and no one looked normal. Well, we certainly didn’t look normal. We stood out, with wind-blown and sun-damaged hair, tanned and weathered skin, wearing bright coloured Crocs, backpacks and salty clothes, trailing our dollies behind us and sweating heavily.

We shuddered when we entered the mall, partly because the air conditioning was going full blast, but also because the people in the mall seemed less normal than the people in the street, and all were staring at us suspiciously. (This was where Darrel got his bacon burger).

But we got everything we needed, from fresh fruit and vegetables to beer and wine and even a couple of fishing lures. We loaded up the dollies and hurried back to the dinghies. By this time, it was low tide.

Low, low tide, and still dropping. We groaned when we saw the dinghies, nice and dry on the beach and about a mile from the water’s edge. Not only does Yeppoon’s creek dry at low tide, its whole coast dries! I guess it was only about 300 feet, but when you have two heavy dinghies and lots of beer and wine along with all your groceries to haul, 300 feet can seem like at least a mile.

We couldn’t wait for high tide. It was already 3:00, we needed to get to our second anchorage before sunset (there was no way we were staying anchored at Yeppoon), and high tide was seven hours away. So we tugged and groaned and tugged and moaned and tugged and cursed. We developed a strategy whereby we loaded everything into one dinghy, tugged the other a good number of feet, then switched the load, then tugged the other dinghy, switched loads again, etcetera. It was very, very hard. We saw many locals on shore, watching us, whispering, probably laughing. It was embarrassing, frustrating, backbreaking, and not funny unless, of course, you were a spectator. It took us nearly an hour to get the dinghies in the water. With much relief, we got back to our boats in time to make the next anchorage, but we were worse for wear: calluses on our hands, sore feet from walking on jagged rocks, aching muscles from all the strain, and Daedalus’s dinghy had a big hole.

We enjoyed our beer and wine that we got from Yeppoon (although it did seem to disappear rather quickly), and we managed to mend the dinghy hole with no problem at the next anchorage, but all in all we have to say that our visit to Yeppoon was very much like a journey through a Stephen King novel. But we all survived, no one has had nightmares about it, and we’ve learned to pay special heed to warnings in guide books that say “dries at low tide”.

Tropic of Capricorn – May 2008

The Tropic of Capricorn lies at 23 degrees, 27 minutes south of the equator, while the Tropic of Cancer lies at 23 degrees, 27 minutes north of the equator. These two lines are the boundaries of the central belt of the earth called the Torrid Zone, of which I knew nothing until I checked on Encarta, our trusty computerized encyclopaedia. I now know that there is such a zone, but that’s all I know.

When CanKata spent her many months on the Gold Coast of Australia, she was below the Tropic of Capricorn, at 27 degrees 56 minutes south. We had passed the T of C on our way from New Caledonia to Australia around lunchtime on October 16, 2007, a cold day when both Darrel and I had to take medication to ward off seasickness. We didn’t celebrate in any way – no champagne, no toasting the gods, no drunk and disorderly behaviour … nothing.

On the night of May 3, 2008, CanKata was anchored at Cape Capricorn, just a few degrees south of the Tropic of the same name. I didn’t even realize it. So once again, we passed a momentous occasion without any hoopla or drunk and disorderly behaviour. How do we let these moments slip through our hands?

We will probably never again pass the Tropic of Capricorn. That doesn’t mean that we no longer plan to circumnavigate again, but it means that we would like to stay within the Torrid Zone. Ah – torrid – what a hot, passionate word. It suits drunk and disorderly behaviour to a tee.

Rock around the croc

By Darrel

A few nights ago while Loretta and I were sitting watching the sunset, Loretta asked me “Darrel, why is it that recently I have noticed that whenever we go onto land you always gravitate to the little old ladies, especially those with mobility problems?”. “Well”, I responded, “it began a number of days ago when I noticed a sign that stated Crocodile Sightings – Call … “

I knew we would eventually run into crocodile country and I was actually looking forward to seeing the beasts. We have seen them before, in movies such as Crocodile Dundee, as well as in their natural environment in the Florida Everglades. But they were always observed from a safe distance and with a guide. We even had a chance to taste one – tastes like chicken.

But after seeing the sign, we began to receive a number of warnings from other cruisers and guidebooks. At our last anchorage, our friends on Nemo mentioned that this would likely be our last time that we will be able to snorkel as we head north due to crocodiles. This took me by surprise since I thought we would only have to worry about crocs when anchored along the mainland near creeks and mangroves, not out on tiny islands and reefs where most of our anchorages would be.

But when I was planning our route I started to see cautionary notes in the guidebooks pertaining to the anchorages that I was plotting. One guidebook states that crocodiles have no fear of man since they are “protected” here in Australia and have not been hunted for more than 20 years. It goes on to say that if common-sense rules are followed then crocodiles should not be a problem. Yikes, what the hell does he mean by common-sense rules? The guidebook continues by stating that crocodiles can jump and run more than 26 KPH. Yikes, how fast can I run? It also states that crocodiles have an affinity with outboard motors and dinghies, especially the inflatable ones. Yikes, that pretty much describes CanKitty. At one of our planned anchorages there is a cautionary note stating “There is also a crocodile in the creek at the southern end of Margaret Bay. This one has taken one person and attacked another person in a kayak and sunk a float plane.” Yikes, CanKata is not much bigger than a float plane, and from a crocodile’s perspective CanKata quite likely resembles a float plane from below.

The other day my speedo quit working – and no I do not mean the one that I wear, or at least am supposed to wear. I mean the one that provides us with our boat speed over water. This is a reoccurring problem caused by sea growth on the bottom when we have been anchored out a lot. To solve the problem is quite easy: all I have to do is don my snorkel gear and dive under the hull and clean the sea growth off the impeller. Yikes, did I say dive – not a chance. The other way to solve this problem is by removing the transducer from the inside of the hull and cleaning the impeller inside the boat. The only problem with this is that it takes a lot longer and it is inevitable that some water gets into the bilge that I need to clean up. Needless to say, I used the latter method.

After explaining all this to Loretta, she said, “I still don’t understand why you are always spending so much time with the little old ladies on shore.” I quickly retorted “As I mentioned earlier crocodiles can run 26 KPH and I know that I can’t. I always want to be close to someone that I know I can run faster than!”

UPDATE to above article – June 9, 2008

You know the myth that claims if you are driving down a road and you keep telling yourself that you will hit the next telephone poll, you will. Well today we were anchored at the anchorage where the guide warned that a crocodile had killed one person, attacked another and sunk a float plane. We were told by some other cruisers that the boat next to us had a 9 foot croc residing underneath it. So my mantra was “don’t fall in, don’t fall in, don’t fall in”.

It was a nice calm day so I decided to take advantage of the flat seas and top up our fuel tanks. I was carrying the fuel filter and hose to the cockpit when I dropped the filter in the water but luckily it landed upright and floated. I quickly ran to the rear sugar scoop and grabbed our twelve foot fishing gaff to snag the filter before it drifted out of reach. Unfortunately my foot slipped and because I was leaning overboard I went head over heals into the water. I grabbed the filter and hung onto the gaff and tried to swim back to the boat as fast as I could. With crocs on my mind it sure didn’t take long for me to climb up onto the sugar scoop even though the swim ladder was not down.

Log Entry – June 10

Escape River, 10°58.26 S, 142°40.50 E:

Today we had a long journey so we were going to leave Margaret Bay anchorage at 2:00 a.m. to ensure we arrived at the next anchorage before sunset. Darrel was tossing and turning in bed and doing what he could to awaken me. Finally I woke up. “Are you awake”, he asked. “No”, I answered. So he left me alone but started tossing and turning again. I woke up enough to turn on the reading light and check the clock: midnight. Ah, two more hours sleep. I snuggled up with my pillow.

Darrel continued to toss and turn. About five minutes later he asked if I was still awake. “No”, I answered. “Well”, he went on to say, “if we're still awake in half an hour, how about we head off?” Knowing I would be sound asleep by then, I agreed to his plan.

Five minutes later, after much tossing and turning, Darrel asked if I was still awake. I answered in the negative. “Well”, he said, “if we can't sleep, we may as well get going!”

So up we got. With both engines running, the wind generator howling and the anchor chain rumbling into the anchor locker, we quietly slipped away just before 1:00, an hour before schedule. We had plenty of light when we arrived at this anchorage. I expect to get a good night sleep tonight, but one never knows.

Kakadu, Northern Territory – July 10, 2008

What a great tour! We left CanKata in our dinghy at 0530, picked up our friends from Katanne, arrived ashore in time to be picked up by the bus at 0605, and got back to CanKata at 2030 … a long day, but it was worth it. The only item left on our Australia wish list was to see crocodiles in the wild, and we saw scads of them at Kakadu.

Kakadu National Park is a world heritage area and home to many Aboriginal people. It contains eucalypts woodlands, a sandstone escarpment, floodplains and billabongs, and a remarkable abundance of plants and animals. While there, we saw rock art that they say is 5000 years old, a cultural centre that demonstrated how the aboriginals lived before the white man changed everything, giant termite mounds, water lilies and birds galore. And we saw crocs on the beach, crocs sunning in the mud, crocs swimming, and crocs sneaking up on other creatures, none of them human.

While driving home through the outback, the bus stopped at a “Window on the Wetlands” so we could have wine and cheese while enjoying a spectacular view of water buffalo grazing as the sun set over the wetlands.

It was a great way to end our visit to Australia. After the hustle and bustle and civilized living on the Gold Coast, it was nice to get a taste of the simple life of the Aboriginals and to get a little closer to nature, even though we were seat-belted in an air conditioned bus.

Now we are saying good-bye to Australia – a great temporary home for the past nine months – and we’re looking forward to the next stage of our adventures: Indonesia.

CanKata for Sale! – July 2008

By Darrel

When Loretta and I found CanKata, previously named Camcat, we immediately fell in love with her and knew she was the purrfect boat of our dreams. Our criteria we used for narrowing down our search for a catamaran, starting with the highest were; affordability, safety, comfort, quality, easily handled by two potential octogenarians, layout, number of berths and heads (less is best), location of helm station, condition, age, storage capacity, range (fuel and water capacity), equipment, and lastly how fast she could sail.

Having owned and sailed CanKata since 2002 has assured us that she has fulfilled all of our requirements completely. However she is a very slow catamaran. This is without doubt partially due to the fact that we have loaded her up beyond her designed payload carrying abilities. Even though catamarans have lots of storage space, we knew that it was important to not overload her. We also knew that when we left Panama it would be a long time before we could buy cheap wine and spirits, so instead we raised CanKata’s waterline and let her settle 75mm lower in the water.

We also knew that since we were doing a westerly circumnavigation our winds would be predominantly from the stern. In sailing terms this meant that CanKata would most often be running with the wind or on a broad reach. After zipping across the Pacific Ocean, i.e. 36 days to cover 4100 nautical miles, we realized that CanKata’s worst point of sail was when she was running or broad reaching. In defence of CanKata I have to admit that she loves sailing with the wind from her side or from an angle from the front, especially in strong winds, i.e. 25 knots or more.

During one of our 36 magnificent days in Pacific, when we were bobbing along at 2 ½ knots, we discussed the possibility of purchasing a downwind sail to help us through the remainder of our circumnavigation. Unfortunately that is not an easy decision to make since there are a number of options to choose from, i.e. screachers, chutes, symmetrical spinnakers, asymmetrical spinnakers, code zeros, multipurpose sails (MPS), and others that I can’t remember. Most of these sails are designed for a specific wind orientation and depending on who you talk to one is better than the other. I was also reluctant to make a decision because if we did get one, we would then be obligated to use it. This may seem like a ridiculous statement but let me explain. When Loretta and I took sailing lessons, we took almost every course we could and every opportunity to sail with others. The only course we did not take was the one on how to sail with a spinnaker. Also every time I talked to another cruiser who has a spinnaker, they would always share their worst experience which involved not being able to douse the spinnaker in building winds or close quarters. Another reason not to make a decision. I know what you are all thinking - to avoid having to decide on which down wind sail we should buy why not just list CanKata for Sale and buy a lighter, less comfortable and less safe catamaran that can sail faster downwind.

When we were preparing for our next leg to and through Indonesia we quickly became aware that we were heading into an area with extremely light following winds. Neither one of us mentioned that we should have bought a downwind sail while we waited out cyclone season in the Gold Coast area knowing that it was to late to do anything about it now. However, fortuitously, just a week prior to leaving Darwin, a fellow cruiser mentioned over the VHF on the local net that he had a cruising chute (aka an asymmetrical spinnaker) for sale. We contacted him and later that day he brought it over to us and helped us raise it at anchor to see if it fit. CanKata was all rigged for a spinnaker so it was easy to install it and once it was up we verified that it would do so we agreed to purchase it.

So now CanKata has a total of four sails to select from; mainsail, genoa, storm sail, and a blue, white and red asymmetrical spinnaker.

Adventures in Indonesia – August 2008

We arrived in Kupang on July 30 after sailing through very light winds and calm seas. We used our new chute a lot.

OFFICIALS: It seemed every day in Kupang the fleet had new problems with officials. At some point we were all "impounded" by Customs and then had to pay a fine (= $5 each) and had to put big stickers on our boats that said that we were impounded but then all the problems were worked out and Customs officials came back to each boat to fill out exactly the same form they filled out the first time (all in Indonesian) but which, this time, meant "you can remove your sticker". We all just played along with the bureaucratic games and everyone got away when they needed to.

DRAGGING: The anchorage in Kupang was over-crowded and not well-protected. While we were there it was windy, and nearly every day a few boats would drag, and they would usually be boats that were unattended at the time. On July 31, nine boats dragged. We were on CanKata, so Darrel was part of the team that would rescue and re-anchor the dragging boats. No boats were badly damaged, and no one was injured. The Customs boat dragged the most - three times - until they finally decided to move elsewhere.

BOOBY HATCH: I had some bad luck. I was busy tidying up a line, trying to stop it from chafing the solar screen on our window, when I got distracted and stepped back into a hatch. I grabbed onto the life-lines, which probably saved me from breaking my leg, but got badly bruised. I've had many bruises, but the one on my butt was a dandy which prompted Darrel to take a photo. We now no longer open that hatch all the way, a smart safety measure that we should have implemented in 2002.

FRIENDLY WELCOMES: We had a wonderful day-tour on August 3. At one village, about 1000 people were there to greet us. There were banners along the road for ten miles. We were two small tour busses (about 40 people) with a flashing-light car escort. The villagers sang and danced for us, gave us weaving demonstrations, shook our hands, took photos, served us a delicious buffet lunch with buffalo meat (not bison), gave welcoming speeches, and generally treated us like royalty. What an experience! Their general message was "Tell all your friends and family that Kupang is a good place to visit". It is.

That night, upon our return to the anchorage, the Mayor of the city treated us to an outdoor gala dinner with entertainment, dancing, music, a woven scarf for each of us, and a BBQ buffet. We are being spoiled here.

We had lunch in town one day - a huge serving of chicken fried rice with a fried egg on top and sliced cucumber on the side and a coke. Total cost for two: $2.20.

DINGHY TOSS: We had a bad experience on the evening of August 1. We were supposed to go ashore for the Governor's gala dinner (yes, we're spoiled) but there was a huge swell and Darrel was worried about landing our dinghy on the beach. We waited and watched for quite a while, and the wind did die down but the swell continued. We decided to get in our dinghy and get a closer look. There were a number of dinghies hovering around, trying to decide if it was safe to surf onto the beach. Our dinghy got caught in a large wave that pushed us closer to shore. Worst luck: there was a monster wave on its tail. The second wave washed both Darrel and me out of the dinghy. Darrel had the "kill" switch strapped to his arm so when he went over, the engine stopped immediately, although the dinghy was still barreling along in the wave. He did manage to get back on board pretty quickly. When I was washed over, I was clinging tightly to the "painter" (the line we use to tie the dinghy to docks or CanKata). I was tossed and turned in the waves, then I was whipped back ... under the dinghy! I had a terrible collision with the dinghy motor, but I was concentrating on holding my breath, so didn't cry out in pain. I desperately wanted air, so let go of the painter and was swimming with all my might to get out from under the dinghy, when I realized my t-shirt (an oversized one that was provided to us by Sail Indonesia) was caught on the prop. I tugged and tugged but couldn't get free. I then tried to get the shirt off me, but it was pulled too snuggly around the prop. My lungs were near bursting, but all I could think was "What do I try next?" Best luck: my answer was provided to me. Just then, my feet touched the ground. I stretched straight and just managed to get my face above water. I could hear Darrel frantically yelling for me. I answered "Back here at the motor", and then was sunk again as the dinghy bopped up on another wave. Darrel grabbed me and tried to pull me aboard, but the t-shirt just wouldn't give. My face kept bobbing in and out of the water, but I was getting enough air. Quick-thinking Darrel then pulled up the motor, and I came with it. In this position, I was able to slip out of my t-shirt. At that point, I was out of energy and Darrel had to drag me into the dinghy. He then gave me his t-shirt to put on. We got into shore and received lots of attention from the dinghy boys, who eventually got us new dry t-shirts, guarded our boat as we went away to inspect my wounds (nothing cut!) and then helped us get the dinghy back in the water (careful timing with all that big surf) so that we could go back to CanKata to recover.

We missed the gala dinner and the free gifts, but we are so thankful that the dinghy event didn't end more seriously. The motor didn't get wet, we didn't lose anything, my bruises are great photographic material, and the swelling is slowly but surely going down.

IT’S A DRAG: On our last day in Kupang, we went ashore for a quick trip to buy a few fruits and vegetables, and then went back to CanKata to prepare for departure and have some quiet time. It was another very windy day. Shortly after lunch, Darrel was doing his usual look-around when he yelled to me "We're dragging!" Five days in the same spot and then CanKata decided to drag. The Customs sticker had just been removed, so maybe she was thinking "Let's get the heck out of here!" We were so thankful that we were on the boat. So we re-anchored far from the beach, far from the noise, in calmer water with good holding. We watched carefully for a number of hours before we were able to get a good night's sleep, and left early the next morning.

ALOR WELCOME: We had a wonderful stay in Kalabahi, Alor Island. The anchorage was too crowded, but we managed to escape without dragging or hitting anyone. The dinghy landing was much better than Kupang: they had built a little dock for us and there were lots of dinghy boys to help us. Lots of kids paddled to our boats so we were busy giving away note pads. Later on shore, we were autographing those same note pads - just like rock stars. I drew Bugs Bunny in the books so I was very popular. Our first night there, we had the usual chicken-fried rice for $.60 a serving at a hut along the shore. The lights failed a couple of times and the locals yelled "Oh my gawd" in English and then laughed heartily. That was the only English they knew.

The next morning we had the tradition "welcome" - speeches, drumming and dancing, free woven scarves, snacks and water. First, though, a decorated dug-out canoe came and picked up our "king" (the captain of the first boat to arrive), then we all joined the parade in our dinghies. A band was in the lead canoe, and it was quite a festive little parade. After all the ceremonies, one of the guides asked Darrel and me if we wanted to visit a school. We went with him by bus to his old school - 377 kids with 12 teachers - a Muslim school - and we did a question and answer and photo session with two classrooms. Then we had a visit with the head mistress and teachers and were served cake and ice water. We gave small donation to the school, had another photo session, and then signed autographs. Our guide had to drag us away. That night, we had a free gala dinner - delicious food with a yummy BBQ fish, entertainment, speeches, and lots of fun. Like I said, we are being spoiled.

LOCAL CRAFTS?: On August 8 we took a private tour with some friends and a guide to a traditional village - about twenty 3-story thatch huts, paths with short stone walls, a wonderful view of the sea, timid children, and lots of crafts for sale. We were invited into one of the huts - a remarkable piece of workmanship – sturdy, shady and airy. When we left, our tour guide’s "boss" asked us for a ride. With her, she brought a number of sacks of crafts ... it turns out that the "local" crafts had been imported from the main town. Who knows where they were made.

That evening, we went ashore for strawberry smoothies (artificial flavoring) - 20 cents each - and then for the usual 60-cent chicken-fried rice. The beer is the killer - $2 each.

PEACE AND QUIET: We left Alor on August 9, bucking strong currents and then suffering light winds once the current stopped. We motored most the way to a little reef that offered protection from the surge and had good holding. We had a good sleep and left early the next morning, then enjoyed a wonderful sail in perfect winds, passing volcanoes and scenic villages. We then anchored in a protected reef, surrounded by breathtaking scenery, above crystal-clear water, visited occasionally by local fishermen looking for hooks. We have lots to spare. We snorkeled and saw lots of little Nemos. We then decided not to go to the next town where the ceremonies were taking place because we heard on the radio that the anchorage was windy and crowded. We’re tired of that scene. Paradise seemed the right place to stay for a few days.

We then spent a number of days at an island called Pulau Besar and did a lot of snorkeling. We even dove under the boat and gave her a good bottom-cleaning. From time-to-time other members of the fleet would pass through, so we did get some visiting in too. We met some Buddhists on "Calypso Magic" - he is French-speaking Swiss and she is from Thailand - but we still managed to have some meaningful discussions about Buddhism, although we have not converted. I found time to do some baking – a cake and bread – which thrilled Darrel. We saw a lunar eclipse while we where here.

BACK WITH THE FLEET AT MAUMERE: We joined the fleet again at Sea World - a nice resort near the town of Maumere on the island of Flores. Just as we arrived, there was a whirlwind right by our boat. It nearly knocked our neighbor's boat right over, and we just caught our cushions in time before the wind sucked them away. We threw all the cockpit stuff into the cabin and closed the doors, and then the whirlwind disappeared. Another weaker one visited us again a few hours later, but that was the last of them. Sea World had nice dinners in the evenings - $8.50 for the buffet and $9.50 for the BBQ. We nearly didn't go because the price seemed outrageous, but revisited the situation and, considering there was live entertainment and free rice wine, decided it wasn't such a bad deal. It was very delicious, and the entertainment was superb.

We were within walking distance of a fruit and vegetable market, so were able to fill our larder again. The locals were very helpful and friendly. Still no sign of pirates (although a young lad on a canoe stole my crystal from the galley port while we were busy giving away books and pens to his friends. This happened a couple of anchorages earlier). The street was full of small motorcycles - nobody drives a car. We got a good look at the homes and the yards, and while they are very simple, they appear clean and well maintained.

CRATER LAKES: On August 19 we took a tour up to three crater lakes. Breathtaking! One was a brilliant aqua color with veins of yellow sulfur running through it. The surroundings looked like another planet, and the long pathway to the top of the mountain reminded us of the Great Wall of China. We were there at the same time as a Grade 10 class, and again we felt like rock stars - everyone wanted to have their picture taken with us. We were taken to a lovely little restaurant in a little village for lunch - a nice soup and stir-fry. The toilets were interesting: a concrete hole in the ground with a cistern of water with a scoop to flush. Toilet paper and soap were not provided. The long ride there and back (seven hours total) held many views of local life: children carrying their own buckets of water to school (for drinking, washing, flushing), women carrying large loads on their heads, colorful clothes, tidy little huts, millions of motorcycles, a lot of road work - especially bridge-building, rice paddies, crowded local busses with passengers riding on the top, and lots of children waving at us and yelling "Hello Mister". The evening after our tour, we found another great little restaurant on the beach and had fried chicken and potatoes and coke for $9.20 for two. It was by candlelight, with two other couples, long and leisurely and lovely. We had been to a hamburger joint earlier but they ran out of meat, which turned out best for us.

MAUMERE WELCOME: August 20 was the official welcome. We were once again treated to brilliant entertainment, a nice meal, plenty of speeches, and a big party afterwards. The Kiwis put on a show for us two - a Maori war dance - which was very entertaining. Another cruiser put on a bit of a show when a woman spanked his badly-behaving 2-year-old. There was a scuffle between him and her and her husband, all the while the 2-year-old screaming in the background. I'm sure the locals were impressed. At this same event, I sang some harmony on stage with a Japanese cruiser (a lovely gentleman named Aki who has sung with me on our boat) - "Amazing Grace" and "You are My Sunshine". No one threw rotten vegetables or threatened to spank us.

Next day, Darrel made us a pancake breakfast, and then we had a leisurely day ashore, watching canoe races, swimming in the resort pool, visiting with locals and some tourism students who wanted to practice their English, taking dance lessons from some village women, and trying to give reading glasses to a very kind gentleman with poor eyesight. They didn't help him, much to our regret. That night, the locals put on another show for us but no one had thought to tell the fleet, so no one went. Such a shame. We were on the boat enjoying some BBQ Aussie steak, making an effort to empty our deep freezer so we can shut it off and save battery power.

SHORT STAY AT MUASAMBI: We missed the rally welcome and free meal in Muasambi (Flores Island). The anchorage was very rolly, lots of surge, and there wasn't a good dinghy landing, so we left after two nights. Many others attended the events but we have decided to avoid possible dinghy tosses.

LINGEH BAY: Our anchorage on August 25 was full of kids! Canoe after canoe visited CanKata and the nine other boats with her. I got them to sing their national anthem and it was wonderful hearing their sweet little voices proudly singing the song that sounds a little bit like the theme song to Star Wars. We were kept busy giving away treats, but they were very good when we asked them to go away so we could eat and shower. No little thieves. And it was an extremely calm spot - a nice change from Muasambi. But the constant stream of visitors did get tiring after a while, and so we only spent one night there.

PULAU SABABI (Gili Bodo): We stayed at this anchorage for a number of days, because this is the type of spot that we dreamed of when we first considered cruising … calm, remote, great snorkeling, with monkeys on the beach, a few other yachties, peace and quiet, and perfect weather.

IN GENERAL: We have had zero luck fishing. We have had superb weather - no rain except for a bit of mist when we visited the crater lakes. Sailing has been pretty good - we've had to do a fair bit of motoring in calm seas, but have also had some good winds with fair seas.

So it has been pretty eventful in Indonesia so far. Despite everything, or maybe because of everything, we have not lost our enthusiasm.

Paper Rock Scissors – Rules of the Road

By Darrel

After having been in Indonesia now for more than two months and having utilized a number of different modes of transportation, i.e., cars, busses (large and small), bemos (modified passenger vans), motorcycles, scooters, and becaks (cycle driven rickshaws), I think I have finally figured out Indonesian road rules. If I wanted to confirm my belief I could ask some of the 11 year old scooter drivers that we have seen. If the driver could not answer my question, perhaps one of the other four passengers on the scooter could answer. In actual fact we have seen five people on one motorcycle, two adults and three children.

But what is really amazing about road traffic here is that the rules are quite different from other countries we have traveled. Some of the roads have white dotted lines but I am not sure the purpose of those lines. For certain it is not the same purpose as what we are used to in Canada. Here is a typical scenario that you can frequently come across. You may be traveling down a two lane highway, and I use that term loosely since it is a very narrow, but well paved road, without any shoulders. For most part everyone keeps to the left side of the road but when you come to an intersection or a connecting laneway there may be motorcycles coming out from the left intersecting road directly into the right hand side of the right lane, until such time they find a safe opening to cross over into the left lane. Another common situation is a vehicle moving into the center lane at which time the driver gives a short tap of the horn, thereby making the narrow two lane highway into a three lane highway. In this case the smaller vehicles move over to the outside of their lanes and the larger vehicle slides through the gap. If the vehicles will not fit three across then the smallest one will adjust its speed accordingly. All of this is done smoothly without any signs of road rage, honking or stress – totally unheard of elsewhere. By the way this last scenario can take place at any time or location. We have been passengers on a large bus where the driver did this just as he was reaching a curve in the highway blinding his vision from what was coming from the other direction.

Now because there are approximately 179,999,999 motorcycles to serve the 180 million Indonesians, or so it seems, there is also a hierarchy for motorcycles. For example if you are on a motorcycle which is carrying crates of eggs, chickens, firewood, or long lengths of timbers (all of which we have seen), then you will be treated like the next largest vehicle and given the right of way by other motorcycles. I imagine this would also apply if the driver is still of the age where they could be wearing diapers although that is something that I have not yet seen.

So as best as I can make out, driver education here must be based on the Paper, Rock and Scissors philosophy and, on the Indonesian roadways, you really have to know how to play the game.

The most amazing part of this system is how well it works. I was not able to determine the road accident rate but in all of our travels we never saw any close calls or accidents.

ADVENTURES IN INDONESIA PART II – Sept.-Oct. 2008

LABUHAN BAJO: After our rejuvenating stay at Gili Bodo, we continued on to Labuhan Bajo. This was an interesting city with great restaurants, interesting little shops, an ATM, internet, a friendly and efficient harbor master, and a wonderful boat boy who got us beer, Coke, diesel and our laundry done. When I went grocery shopping, one clerk took my list and tried to find the items for me (nearly impossible since the list included non-Indonesian things like olives, butter, cheese and mayonnaise) and another clerk pushed the cart for me. The two were thrilled when they were able to find honey, sardines, flour and sugar for me. They also tempted me with rice crackers and banana chips, which I happily added to the cart. It’s the best service I’ve ever received in a grocery store, and we didn’t even speak each other’s languages.

We spent one night in the city’s harbor and then joined up with the rest of the fleet at a nice anchorage in front of a pretty “eco” resort that had a cozy lounge and dining room and a swimming pool that they let us use. This was also the vicinity of the official welcome ceremony.

WHIP DANCING AT LABUHAN BAJO: The official welcome included a demonstration of the Indonesian “whip dance”. It was actually a traditional fight. It lasted for hours, and there was a lot of posturing going on ... Mohammed Ali type dancing and blabbering and tormenting of opponents. A number of fighters took turns - one on one. The whipper got one chance only to whip his opponent, who was carrying a shield and pole for protection. Most whips were stopped, but the odd one got through, either creating a horrible welt or, a couple of times, breaking the skin. The latter is seen as a good thing ... it means that the harvest will be good. Apparently, men with scars from the whip dances are regarded as heroes. We stayed and watched the whole show, which was put on especially for the rally boats, but we have mixed feelings about how much we enjoyed it. Afterwards, we strolled around and met the students who were going to put on a song-and-dance show for us. I asked them if they would sing me the Indonesian national anthem, which they did, and I still get goose bumps remembering it: such beautiful voices, such beautiful harmony. They then put on their show, and the meal that followed was wonderful, and again the locals were very friendly and hospitable. "Tell your friends to come here" was their final plea. You should go there.

KOMODO DRAGONS: From Labuhan Bajo, we visited the Komodo National Park on Rinca Island and saw Komodo Dragons, which are large lizards up to nine feet in length and 220 pounds in weight. They are meat-eaters so we had to keep a good distance from them especially knowing they can run 18 Km per hour. Of the nine we saw, two were mating. Talk about stamina: the male can last up to three hours. Once the kiddies are hatched they run for the trees where they live for the first five years of their lives to avoid being eaten by an adult dragon. We saw no youngsters being eaten, but fellow-cruisers witnessed a buffalo getting gobbled up.

After that we had a number of day trips, staying at anchorages that were very varied: some with fantastic snorkeling, some with pesky youths who actually stole things off a boat or two (not ours), some with beaches that we could swim to, some that were deserted and quiet, some that had a few other yachties that we partied with, and some with hundreds and hundreds of "flying foxes" (fruit bats) flying overhead at sunrise and sunset. At some of the anchorages, we could hear chanting from shore: it was Ramadan and there are many Muslims in Indonesia. During Ramadan, Muslims fast during the day, and pray loudly at night.

GILI AIR – September 11: On the journey to Gili Air, we ate the last of our Australian meat but caught a Dorado, which saved us from having to fast along with the Muslims.

Gili Air was one of our favorite spots: we spent five days there and fit in snorkeling, scuba diving (Darrel), three very cheap meals ashore, replenishment of diesel, jelly fish stings (Darrel), a tour of Lombok, and the official Sail Indonesia welcome ceremony (very modest because of Ramadan).

Sunsets at Gili Air were spectacular.

LOMBOK ISLAND: The tour of Lombok Island (we got there by water taxi and then six of us hired a car, driver and tour guide) included a visit to the jungle where the grey monkeys were - so sweet! Our friends fed them peanuts, and the monkeys (moms, babies, dads, grandpas, teens) were very polite - gently taking the peanuts out of our friends' hands. I squatted down so I was at their level, and a few came and sat around me. I held out my hand and one gently stroked it with his fingers. I handed one a leaf, but he just looked at it and threw it down with disgust. I handed another a stick, and he started brushing his teeth with it. They were peaceful until a couple of young local lads started approaching. The monkeys immediately started screaming, and the lads backed off. The monkeys were at peace again, until the lads started approaching again. More screaming. The lads stayed away, and then everything was fine. We suspect the lads were probably bullies, but I dare say the monkeys would win any scuffle with them.

We were taken to a wood carving store, where of course we spent some money, then to a temple where we had to pay for a temple guide. Our friends also paid for a visit to the "holy eel" (we have seen plenty of eels, all seemed holy enough) which included an egg to feed it and a priest to pray to it. They never saw the eel ("maybe because it is Ramadan" said the priest) and never got their money back. The temple was run down and unspectacular so we cancelled our visit to the second one. We did go to the "water palace" which was also run down and unspectacular, but we had learned our lesson and did not pay for a special guide or food for holy eels.

We also visited a village where they weaved special cloth. The weaver got a couple of our friends, Tom and Nicolette of S/Y Katanne, to model some fancy dress, and they ended up looking like an Indonesian king and queen. Then we were off to the local market where we got a kilo of tomatoes for 50 cents and eight mangoes for 70 cents. After that, our driver took us to "The Mall" where all the eateries were closed because of Ramadan, except for McDonalds! Yes, we managed to get a Big Mac but no shakes, but they did have chocolate sundaes. Then we stocked up on groceries, took the water taxi back to our boat, and enjoyed tomatoes and mangoes in CanKata's cockpit while watching the sun set.

LOVINA BEACH, BALI: Canada represented Sail Indonesia at this location, and Darrel was selected to give the speech at the welcome dinner on September 18 (which was delicious, incidentally). He did a great job and got lots of laughs and is now best friends with Gede, the director of tourism. His name is pronounced "G'day". So when we asked him his name, he said "G'day" and shook our hands. We shook his hand back and said "G'day, but what is your name?" He replied "G'day" and we said more slowly, "G'day, but what is your name?" He answered in perfect English, "My name is Gede" and let out a big chuckle because he knows that we've all sailed from Australia and that we’re accustomed to "G'day mate". He was a tease. Darrel was presented with a big wooden statue for his efforts, and it is lovely but BIG.

Once again, I asked the tourism students to sing the national anthem, and again got goose bumps from their wonderful rendition.

What a wonderful island Bali is, and what a special place Lovina is. Restaurants and the local beer are plentiful and cheap. We ate our main meal ashore everyday. There were stalls everywhere with cheap fruit, batik clothing, wood carvings, shell and silver jewelry and a million other things ... it was hard to convince the sellers that we didn’t need it all. The area that we were in was far from city hustle and bustle, and very relaxing. We took a one-day island tour and had our breath taken away by the spectacular scenery -- so lush and mountainous. We saw many more monkeys, water falls, a water temple, twin lakes, botanic gardens, a coffee plantation, clove trees, hot springs, and a pretty amazing Buddhist temple. That night there was some local entertainment on the beach at the anchorage, but when they started getting cruisers up to dance we made a quick getaway.

NOW ABOUT JAVA: What a trip! We left from Lovina on September 21 … 18 hours on the bus (and a ferry) each way, but lots to look at even in the dark. We stayed in Yogyakarta in a nice little hotel ($12 a night) with a swimming pool, breakfast and afternoon snack included. We had friends in the anchorage watch CanKata for us, and four other couples came with us.

The hotel was close to city sites, so we took rickshaws (the tricycle kind) to the museums, palaces, markets, puppet-making demonstrations, batik demonstrations, and a bird market. Our driver was an older man, the weather was extremely hot, and he couldn't drink water because it was Ramadan. We gave him a big tip.

For the two main attractions a couple of hours away, we hired a driver and 12-person van. We saw a huge ninth-century Buddhist temple (Borobudur) that had been buried in volcanic ash until a short while ago, and a huge ninth-century Hindu temple (Prambanan) that has been badly damaged by earthquakes, the latest being 2006. Both temples are awesome, but we had to climb a lot of steps! The intricate stone carvings are surprisingly sharp and detailed for their age. We then went to an outdoor garden for a buffet dinner with traditional Indonesian food, then to an outdoor theater for the Ramayana Ballet which tells the story of a prince and his kidnapped princess and the war to win her back. Everyone, including Darrel, loved the show and was impressed with the music and dancing, especially when they burned down the village that they had set up on the stage. It was a long day and the hotel greeted us with hot tea, cold beer and snacks. It was a longer bus ride back to Lovina, and we were happy to see CanKata safe and sound in the anchorage.

ORANGUTANS: After a pleasant sail from Bali to the Kumai River in Borneo, we had an incredibly memorable trip up the Sekonyer River October 2-4 to see the orangutans. The first station we went to - Camp Leakey - was founded in 1971 by a Canadian woman.

We had a 3-hour ride on a motorized river boat - 3 of us and the 4 crew - Guide Eddy, Captain Azis, Chef Yuni and Helper Anang. The meals were superb, and poor Yuni couldn't even stand up straight in her little galley down below. We 3 slept on the covered top deck under mosquito nets and the crew slept down below. We didn't get any rain, which is a little lucky since the wet season has started. The river was narrow and beautiful, although very brown. When we went off on a small tributary, its water was tea red, and where the two met up the water swirled and made interesting patterns with the two colors. The shore was mostly nipa or pandanus (palms).

Day One we visited Camp Leakey after lunch and were entertained by a number of female orangutans and their babies and the odd male. They are shorter than us but with much longer limbs, and 8 times stronger. No tails. They swing along the tops of the trees with amazing grace, precision and strength. We were supposed to keep our distance, but when I was sitting on a bench, a female with her baby came right up next to me. A man next to me touched the hand of the baby (he said it was very soft) but I didn't want to annoy the mom. It was pretty awesome. The "rangers" who fed the orangutans (we weren't allowed) didn't look much like rangers ... they looked more like young rough-necks looking for trouble. They were polite in an unfriendly sort of way, and a few of them tormented the orangutans. I had to reprimand one who offered a cigarette - lit end first - to one of the females. Not appropriate ranger behavior.

That night we taught the Captain and Guide how to play cards and had a great time with them, although at one point, as a loser, I had to stand on my head while singing Dixie.

The next day was jam-packed: noodles for breakfast; another camp with a few more orangutans (and a chipmunk and a breed of cats with no tails), a reforestation spot (iron and rubber trees) that was deserted that day so Darrel and I bathed in the creek; a once-luxurious tourist lodge that is now very worn out; a strange village with incredible infrastructure consisting of canals and sidewalks of inter-locking pavers but no roads and just a few run down shacks but a nice community hall; another camp with scads of mosquitoes and just one more orangutan who was the best tree-traveler we saw; a pack of dozens of acrobatic proboscis monkeys of which the males have the ugliest noses and who all quarreled very much over their places in the tree tops; and, while we were travelling down river in the dark finding a good place to tie up for the night, a number of trees absolutely loaded with fireflies. It was like a trip down Christmas Lane.

Next morning we returned to our boat, which had been guarded round-the-clock by a local lad who stayed in the cockpit and did some boat polishing for us. The crew of our river boat asked for a tour of CanKata, so we invited them all aboard and found a few gifts for them. They really treated us like royalty during our tour and we will remember them forever.

Orangutans are found only on Borneo and Sumatra, and proboscis monkeys are only on Borneo, so we're glad we visited.

TOUR OF PANGKALAN BUN, BORNEO: This was a city tour that took place just after our orangutan tour. It was pretty typical except for a run up the city river on motorized canoes (three yachties per boat). It was amazing to see how the people lived on the muddy brown water of the river - using it to bathe, as a toilet, for cooking, for growing vegetables, for fishing, etc. Most of their shacks were suspended over the water. What was surprising about the tour was the number of people who were lined up along the river to greet us. Some little children attempted to swim out to touch us. One little girl, maybe 10 - it's hard to tell because they are so petite - nearly made it to my boat, and I stretched out and managed to touch her hand. She squealed with delight and made it safely back to shore, thank goodness. That night we were treated to a superb buffet and entertainment at the Yellow Palace, which wasn't like a palace at all, but was at least comfortable and airy. We were also treated to a slide show of murky underwater shots of the fish in the river, during which most of us fell asleep.

BELITUNG: We had a good sail to Belitung. The spot where we anchored is breathtakingly beautiful - a bit like Virgin Gorda in the BVIs. Very little is written anywhere about this amazing spot, but if they did a bit of advertising I'm sure they would have their hands full of tourists. We know they could use the economic lift, but we truly hope they don't lose their peaceful ways, their beautiful beach front, or their wonderful innocence.

The first night we went with friends to a great little beach restaurant run by Rusdi and his family. They served, for very modest prices, crabs, squid, chicken, noodles, water spinach, chips and a variety of rice dishes. Delicious! We went there every day. We became good friends and ended up leaving a lot of gifts behind for them. Friends asked why we didn’t “share the wealth” and eat at some of the other restaurants on the beach, but we seldom have a chance of becoming “regulars” as we sail around the world, so it was nice to eat at a place where the staff and their children gave us hugs. We were there when they got their first big rainfall of the season, and what a joy it was to see them celebrate it.

The welcoming ceremony at Belitung was, like the others, very special: we were treated to a delicious buffet and great local entertainment. As usual, they invited some of us up to sing. I got the yachties to sing Waltzing Matilda and got lots of hugs from the locals for my efforts. That afternoon we had "Miss and Mr. Belitung" (two distinguished young representatives of Tourism Indonesia), their two alternates, and a tour guide visit CanKata. It was a bit rolly and two of the five got a bit green around the gills, so it was a short visit. It was their first time on a yacht like ours and they were thrilled to have visited.

We went on a typical city tour here - Tanjung Pandan - and were taken to a museum/zoo with a captured and very sad orangutan which was a disturbing sight. There were also large birds and crocodiles and, after seeing these magnificent creatures in the wild, it was so sad to see them all caged.

We were also taken to a kite festival where we saw an extremely large kite - it took a few men to handle it, and also another whipping dance where some of the yachties were invited to whip the dancers. Imagine! A friend took part and she lightly whipped a dancer four times and is now regretting it. Even though she didn't hurt him, she wishes she hadn’t let herself be talked into it.

We went to a very peaceful Full Moon Festival in a Hindu village - no whipping there. All the locals where offering up their latest harvest (bananas, oranges, apples, grapes, etc.) to the temple, but saved enough to share with us (their generosity is often overwhelming). The dancing and drumming was sweet - mostly young adolescents - and the costumes were amazing. This event wasn't on our official itinerary, but the locals had begged Sail Indonesia to bring us ... we were the first whites to visit there. We had a police escort, sirens blaring, and once again felt like royalty or rock stars - receiving treatment that we truly do not deserve and are very much humbled by.

TANJUNG KELAYANG BEACH: The special treatment continued back at the anchorage. We had beach dances every night, where local men, women and children constantly asked us up to dance and have photo shoots with them. Our final buffet banquet on the beach was especially delicious, and that night we yachties put on a show for the locals (with help of a translator). We played trumpets, sang songs, read poems, had a flag parade - Darrel carried the Maple Leaf - and did much hugging and crying. I led us all in a couple of rounds of Auld Lang Syne, and through the translator told our hosts that it meant that we would remember the Indonesian People forever in our hearts. And that’s the truth.

One of our US friends, a young man travelling with his dad, is a fireworks maniac, which is expensive for him but great fun for us. They put on a huge show for our final ceremony (we all pitched in money) and the locals seemed to get a big bang out of it. It was a GRAND finale.

Now we have crossed the equator and are back in the Northern Hemisphere, in Malaysia. We are suffering a bit of culture shock, and will tell you all about it in our next updated.

IN SUMMARY: Our trip through Indonesia was incredible ... the Indonesian people are wonderful, warm, generous, more peaceful than any other culture we have met, and we will miss their hospitality and their sweet children. The tours were indelibly memorable, and we hope you got an inkling of what the country is like through our stories. We are glad we joined the Sail Indonesia Rally. There were more than 230 of us in over 115 boats representing Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, the USA, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The size and representation of our fleet meant that the local governments, anxious to promote tourism, felt it was worthwhile to extend an effort to make us feel safe and welcome and to get an impression of their country that we would want to share with the world. And we were impressed. And we would encourage all you world travelers out there to give Indonesia a thought as a vacation spot. We certainly plan to return.

ODE TO THE ORANGUTANS

By our friends Rob and Sue from S/Y Moon Mist (their card says “you have been robbed and sued”).

Written while they were in the Kumai River.

Intrepid sailors that came from the sea

To arrive in the land of the famous monkey

When they got there what did they see

But orangutans climbing the huge native tree.

Upward they climbed to the great canopy

Where they foraged and laughed and swung from the trees

Although they swung and messed around

And finally dropped back to the ground.

With staring eyes the sailors they saw

Those big round eyes, they looked in awe.

These sailors were different they weren’t the same

As the ones with the tractors and the saws with the chains.

For a long time they remembered the people that came

With tools of destruction to kill their domain.

They slowly came closer very timid to see

These sailors like them had a spirit that’s free

They looked and they grinned and held out their paw

And greeted the sailors without a sharp claw.

It seemed as though they knew you see

These people would go and tell their story

It was awesome to sit on the canopy floor

To be accepted by these apes once more.

So all you sailors that do abound

You know you must spread this story around

From north to south and east to west

They must understand conservation is best.

So back on your ships and out to sea

Go tell the story of the great orange monkey.

Adventures in Malaysia – November 2008

DANGA BAY: What a culture shock after Indonesia. On October 26 we anchored beside "Danga World" (just north of Johor Bahru) which has roller coasters, bumper cars, candy floss, a petting zoo, and all the ice cream we could ever want. It’s very safe and convenient: it has an ATM, scads of good restaurants with international cuisine, a free shuttle bus to downtown (with a schedule that the drivers take great pains to ignore), and friendly and helpful security guards. The food is great and affordable. We eat our main meal out all the time and usually have a hard time trying to decide which type of food to eat – Thai, Malaysian, Indian, Chinese, Szechuan, Italian or McDonalds. We have to admit that the golden arches won a few times. A tourist brochure says “you can do it all at Danga Bay as the place literally never sleeps, seriously!” We found that it actually does sleep: from 3:00 a.m. until just before noon. We didn’t go ashore for breakfast.

Danga Bay is pretty dirty, so there was no swimming and no making water, so we caught lots of rain water. The winds were calm and the skies cloudy, so we didn’t generate much electricity either. That’s why eating out all the time seemed like such a good idea.

A NEW CITY: When we arrived, nearby Puteri Harbor Marina sent out a boat to collect us (seven boats arrived on the same day) then deliver us to Customs and Immigration, and they helped us clear in. Then they gave us a tour of their marina, which is still under construction, and which is part of a brand new city that is being built. The money is coming from oil-rich Dubai. It's pretty amazing to see the beginnings of a city. It will contain the government buildings for the state, a university, state-of-the-art medical facilities, a theme park, a number of marinas, parks, a high-rise commercial district, and pretty residential areas, but the developers have sadly discovered that just across the strait, in Singapore, there is a military zone where explosives are set off regularly (maybe more regularly than they used to be). They're not too sure where they should go from here. The economic downturn isn’t helping, either. It would be a shame to see it go bust.

CITY CENTER: It's a short bus ride from Danga Bay to downtown Johor Bahru and to over-air-conditioned shopping malls. The malls look like all the other malls in the commercialized world. The clothing is different (though maybe not - we have no idea what today's fashions are) but everything else is the same. There is no shortage of goods for sale – cosmetics, watches, shoes, more shoes, electronic gadgets, mobile phones, jewelry, did I say shoes?, and two stories of over-air-conditioned cinemas selling caramel popcorn and showing the latest James Bond movie in eight of the theatres. In early November, the Christmas decorations went up and they are playing carols over the loud speakers. It’s ironic: at our government offices in Ottawa we didn’t overtly celebrate Christmas; we celebrated what was called the “Festive Season”. Yet here in a Muslim country, they are playing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” in the malls. And the banners say “Merry Christmas”, not “Festive Greetings”. Strange but true.

THE PEOPLE: Malaysia is more multi-cultural than Indonesia, with influence from India, China, Indonesia and left-over stuff from the Portuguese, Dutch and British. You see more obesity here than in Indonesia, and much more variety is skin color. There are a number of dialects, and many Malaysians speak three languages, English being one of them. Tourism is an important part of the economy, so we were not unique like we were in many parts of Indonesia. But the people were, for the most part, friendly and helpful. We sometimes got grumpy bus drivers but when you read the following scenario, you’ll understand why they didn’t smile at us.

BUS RIDES: We took a lot of busses. We never knew for sure where we were going, and we never know how much to pay on the “exact change only” busses. We usually traveled at peak hours, when Malaysians are in a hurry to get where they are going. The regular commuters quickly hop on the bus, scan their bus passes at one of the many scanners installed in strategic locations on the bus to ensure quick entry, and then grab a handhold to prepare for the bus’s lurch forward into the fast-moving traffic. But then we get on board. “Is this the bus to Larkin Terminal?” we ask. The driver gives us a quizzical look. “Do you go to Larkin Terminal?” we repeat. Another quizzical look. “Larkeen?” we try with the proper pronunciation. “Ah, yes”, says the driver, his foot hovering over the gas pedal, anxious to get his commuters to work on time. “How much?” we ask. “One ringitt twenty”, he says as he does a shoulder check, looking for his opportunity to squeeze into the traffic. We dig into our pockets. We ask our buddies, “Do you have any ones?” They check their pockets. “Yup” they answer and pass us a couple. “Do you have any loose change?” they ask us. We check our pockets and exchange some coins. In the meantime, many of the passengers have fallen asleep and the bus driver has started to read the newspaper, having given up on keeping to his schedule. No doubt they think, by our accents, that we are American. Otherwise, I’m sure they would have thrown us off the bus. The world is very happy that Obama will be the next president, and we are reaping the benefits. Busses still stop for us.

THE SULTAN’S MUSEUM: On November 2 we toured the Sultan's Museum and were dismayed to see his ashtrays made out of elephant legs. There was a lot of gold, silver, porcelain, crystal and other beautiful and exotic valuables locked in glass cabinets; but what we will remember is the stuffed animals … elephants and tigers that no longer roam through the jungles that once existed here before they planted every available acre with palm trees for the palm oil industry. We were actually not allowed to take photographs in the hunting gallery, but we managed to sneak a few before the guard came and shooed us away. He carried a big gun, so we didn’t argue.

SINGAPORE: We left on November 3 at 6:00 a.m. to catch a bus downtown to catch another bus to the Republic of Singapore. It is an island just south of Malaysia, joined by a causeway. In the early 1800s Singapore was basically a swamp with a few fishing villages. Then Britain developed it into a major international trade center and seaport, and now it is Southeast Asia’s most important seaport, financial center, and manufacturing hub, and has one of the world’s highest standards of living, so we decided to pay it a visit.

Our bus ride across the border had two stops - Malaysia and Singapore Immigration - and by 9:00 we were in the heart of Singapore taking a scenic river cruise. It's an impressive city - very clean and orderly with wonderful architecture. It used to be illegal to chew gum and for men to have a pony tail. It has been described as “a fine city … they’ll fine you for just about anything”. The government is very concerned with the behavior of its citizens, and is not afraid to punish when the rules aren’t followed. It claims that its strict laws and sentences have made the nation one of the safest places in the world.

We found it expensive. After the costly river cruise, we walked around town trying to find an affordable hotel, and finally found one in China Town for $100, breakfast included. Then we paid a good deal of money to go on the Singapore Flyer - not quite a Ferris wheel, more like a circular cable car – that went 165 meters high. We got a great view of the city. Next day we took the MRT (rapid transit system) and visited Changi - a WWII Japanese prison turned museum, then toured China Town and Little India and the city center, and then caught a surprisingly affordable cab back to Malaysia and did drive-by immigration ... very convenient. The cab took us right to our dinghies. While it was a costly two days, we’re glad we went. Just seeing and using their impressive and efficient MRT made it worthwhile.

OBAMA: We listened to the BBC news coverage of the US election. It was very exciting to hear history in the making. We're amazed at the world’s response. People who mistake us for Americans give us the thumbs up and congratulate us. The news coverage here was extensive. I think it will be talked about for a long time.

LIGHTENING: On November 5, Sail Malaysia organized a press conference where we yachties were treated to a free lunch and then a tour of a fish farm. While this was going on, lightening struck one of our buddy boats and he lost all his electronics. It'll probably cost him about $20,000 US to replace what he lost. Now we're all pretty nervous whenever there's an electrical storm. When we hear any thunder, we shut off our main switch for electrics, and then pop the computer in the oven and our handheld electronics into the microwave. We have wrapped foil around a number of electronic gadgets but mostly we rely on keeping our fingers crossed and knocking wood – two methods we use regularly to ward off a number of evils.

KUALA LUMPUR – November 7: We decided to visit Kuala Lumpur (KL), the capital of Malaysia, while we were waiting for the rally events to start in Danga Bay. We went with another couple and took a 4-hour bus ride ($10 per person each way) so that we could see the world’s largest twin tower building. The eighty-eight storey Petronas Towers each measure 1,483 feet and are noteworthy for their modern materials, including bands of stainless steel, and for how they echo traditional Malaysian architecture. They have a great interpretive centre that even includes a lightening display, although we’ve had plenty of true-life displays. Visitors can go up to the skywalk on the 40^th floor, but we got there too late to get tickets. Instead, we went up the KL Communication Tower - just a little shorter than Toronto's CN tower – to get a 360 degree view of all the beautiful buildings in KL and a striking view of the Petronas Towers. We also had an Indian lunch and went for a walk through a city forest which seemed a little silly after being out in real jungles. We got back to the boat at midnight and only had to bail out a bit of rain water from the dinghy. We were in a very safe anchorage so felt comfortable leaving our boats behind.

MOVIE TIME: Something we don’t do very often is go to movies. But friends wanted to see the latest James Bond movie and it sounded like fun, so we took the bus from Danga Bay into Johor Bahru and nearly froze to death in the over-air-conditioned cinema. We were happy to see they had popcorn, but it had caramel on it. It was a very modern establishment – about 15 theatres on two floors. The price was reasonable – less than what we would pay in Canada for a matinee – and the seats were very cozy. But we should have worn jackets. We had bought the earlier James Bond movie on DVD, so were able to follow the story. Although not 007 fans, we did enjoy the new versions.

SAIL MALAYSIA RALLY: The rally organizers treated us very well during the official events on November 14-16. We paid $50 to join, and received a free luncheon, a rally flag, two t-shirts, two ball caps, lots of information, a free tour of the area that included free snacks at a couple of spots, and a big dinner with speeches, entertainment and dancing, and lots of free beer. And that was just the first of four stops!

MELAKA: On our way to Lumut, we stopped at Malaysia’s first city – Melaka. It was once the most vital port on South-East Asia, and is now a touristy spot full of interesting architecture, traces of Dutch presence, monuments and antiques. We filled our day with a double-deck bus tour, a river tour (where the entertaining guide said thank you in fifty-eight different languages, including Canadian, eh), a walking tour, Church visits and a look in the maritime museum. Probably, and unfortunately, the most memorable part of the day was landing our dinghy at the police dock (very courteous of them) just as the toilet was flushed right into the river, close to us, at low tide.

LUMUT: We had eight day sails (average seven-hour days) up to Lumut, the second stop. It was okay there, but without a nice beach for swimming. We only swam once on our trip to Lumut ... these aren't nice cruising grounds like Indonesia. We managed to have one beach barbecue on a smelly beach with a bunch of cow dung and millions of sand fleas. No swimming. We'll be scratching our bites for a while.

The rally dinner was exceptionally good and we got gift bags with more ball caps and some sun visors and snacks, and the tour included a trip through mangroves filled with monkeys, so I was thrilled. We also saw some monitor lizards at a snorkeling park (it was pretty bad - no one snorkeled) and were treated to a wonderful Malaysian lunch that included some delicious Thai dishes. Food seems to be a theme here. We went to a turtle sanctuary and actually got to release some of a new hatch into the ocean. Everyone fears that we have simply released the little gaffers to their death, but I’m pretty sure mine survived.

A TWO-HOUR TOUR: While in Lumut, we took the ferry to nearby Pangkor Island. There were six of us, and we had planned to rent motorcycles. When we got there, there were big black clouds overhead, so we thought maybe hiring a taxi for the day would be better.

We negotiated with one driver and agreed on 80 Ringgit (RM) for the day (about $27C) but then decided to go for a coffee first. When we were done, we couldn't find our original driver and couldn't negotiate the same deal. The drivers we talked to didn't want to negotiate anything more than two hours for a cost of 60RM. "Is small island, no need more than two hours!" they would argue. We had a number of them huddled around us, and they all agreed. Two hours was enough. "But we want to spend the whole day touring the island", we tried to explain. "Two hours plenty!!" was the answer.

Then our German friend Rosie said, "I think the clouds are blowing the other way. Why don't we hire motorcycles?" But our Aussie friend Tim disagreed. "No mate, I think they're coming this way. We better hire a taxi". Then we went back to arguing with the drivers. Them: "Two hours enough!" Us: "All day!" They won. We figured that if, after the two-hour taxi tour, we wanted to see more, we could go back to our original plan and hire motorcycles, as long as it wasn't raining.

Our first stop was the Dutch fort. There wasn't much to look at, but we met an interesting bunch of university students who we chatted with. We also had a photo shoot with them, and I got them to sing their national anthem. Noting how much time we were taking, I whispered to my friend Barb, "The taxi driver just doesn't understand what kind of tourists we are". We ambled back to the taxi and asked the driver to take us to Tiger Rock. He misunderstood and took us to Tiger Rock Inn, which was a private little villa up in the jungle with loudly barking guard dogs, but we thought we were at the right place and were wondering around looking for some sort of sacred rock, when the owner comes to us and asks us what the heck are we doing on his grounds and don't we know these are vicious guard dogs, but then he relaxed and laughed when we told him what we were looking for. He let us tour around the place, which had beautiful little ancient lane ways dating back to the

time the Dutch were on the island. The grounds were incredibly lush and the swimming pool very tempting. We also saw our first hornbills there. All in all, we spent a good deal of time on an unplanned stop. The six of us smiled knowingly at each other. “The taxi driver just doesn’t understand” was our mantra.

We did find Tiger Rock and spent a bit of time taking photos of it. Barb told us the story: a Dutch girl went missing; the Dutch believed the locals kidnapped her but the locals said a tiger must have eaten her. So the Dutch dedicated a large rock to her and engraved it with a tiger and a child.

Next stop - Foo Lin Kong Temple - a Buddhist temple with lots to look at - giant gold fish, a look out, the temple itself, a miniature Great Wall of China, and a caged monkey. ("Don't look at it Loretta", our friend Mike warned. But I went to look anyway and the poor monkey looked so sad and listless ... of course: all his buddies are swinging free in the nearby trees). We spent extra moments trying to find the giant gold fish in the murky pond, and knew for certain at this point that two hours wasn't going to be near enough.

The driver then took us to the beach. We had brought our swim suits but the water wasn't very inviting. We noticed friends anchored out in the bay, so Tim gave them a call on his hand-held VHF radio and had a little chat. We noticed the taxi driver looking at his watch. We ambled back to the taxi, climbed in, and then enjoyed a drive around the rest of the little island. There wasn't much else to see, except for a short stop at a ship building plant. Before we knew it, we were back at the taxi stand. Total time lapsed: two hours. And it didn't rain. But we had seen everything we wanted, so we stopped for lunch, bought some fruit and veggies, and then took the ferry back, all the while laughing at ourselves. It was a wonderful two-hour morning on Pangkor Island.

But we're a determined bunch. The same day, we sailed our boats over to a pretty little bay at Pangkor Island. The next morning, we went ashore, hired motor cycles, and spent the day touring. We revisited all the spots (we had a number of other friends with us) and spent extra time watching a ship being built, then revisited it after it had been launched. I did not visit the monkey again. Other than a flat tire and one small spill (neither happening to us), it was a wonderful tour. We topped it off with a huge feast at an outdoor Chinese restaurant where the food bill was about $3C per person. We love Pangkor.

GEORGE TOWN, PENANG: It was a long sail from Pangkor to Penang Island – 12 hours – and we had light winds so had to motor-sail most of the way. Most boats went into the marina, but CanKata and a couple of others anchored out. It was a good anchorage, and we were allowed to use the marina facilities (including dinghy dock) for a small fee. We stayed in Penang for over two weeks and did lots of touring - the National Park, a lighthouse (the most difficult to access by land), the war museum, temples, a culture festival, restaurants, and shops. Penang is called the “Pearl of the Orient” but we were disappointed with the beaches and didn’t swim there. However, it is a beautiful spot with lots of history and culture, so every day we would spend a few hours wandering the streets of George Town, enjoying the exotic sounds and aromas of Little India and the interesting shops in Chinatown. Eating ashore was a daily event for us, with tasty meals with a couple of iced-lemon-teas costing the two of us roughly $5 Canadian total.

NOT TANDOORI: We went to an Indian restaurant one afternoon for tandoori chicken, but it wasn't available until supper time. So we ordered something else, name now forgotten, and when we got it we thoroughly enjoyed it (although it was only one dish ... we supposed we were to share). Then the waiter brought us two big dishes of food. "What's this?" we asked. "It is what you ordered", we were told. "Well, who ordered this then?" we asked as we pointed to the nearly empty plate we had been eating from. "I do not know" was the answer. But it was all smiles as he took back one of our plates, and we enjoyed sharing the second dish, although we had to admit the other unfortunate person's order was better than ours.

The Penang rally tour and dinner were great, and we now have a few more ball caps and t-shirts to add to our collection.

LIGHTHOUSE ENTRANCE: When we toured the National Park in Penang, we undertook the long trek up to see the lighthouse, but we were slightly dismayed to discover that is was fenced and locked. “Open 9:00 until 2:00” the sign said. It was 11:30 but no sign of any caretaker. Just at the bottom of the path, we had noticed a man taking a bath in his front yard. We discretely ignored him, but perhaps we should have greeted him. It turns out he was the caretaker. But no worries mate. We sat on the entrance steps and had a light lunch, and just as we were finishing, the freshly-bathed caretaker arrived with his two children and a hammer. The hammer was to break the lock on the gate, but unfortunately he broke the hammer rather than the lock. He climbed the barbed-wire fence, entered the lighthouse and came back with a bigger hammer, which he handed to Darrel. Darrel then proceeded to break into the grounds under the supervision of the caretaker. We had a lovely tour, guided by a clean man and his two children, none of whom could speak English.

THE LANGUAGE: English has worked its way into the Malaysian language. But the clever Malaysians have changed the spelling to make more sense. Here are some foreign words that we are sure you will understand (note the “i” has an “ee” sound and the “c” has a “ch” sound):

Zukini Brokoli Tiket Butik

Basikal Besbol Bir botol Teksi

Cek Ceri Farmasi Sos

Fotokopi Jus Kualiti

Mekanik Minit Muzik

Porselin Sosej Hoki ais (which every Canadian should guess)

OVERALL: Our Malaysia experience has been different from Indonesia - we've been visiting cities rather than villages. Swimming and beach combing were virtually non-existent for us. Malaysia is much more modern and multi-cultural (Malay Muslims, Chinese Buddhists, Indian Hindus) with a lot of English being spoken and a few Christian churches sprinkled around. Christmas is widely celebrated. Although the Japanese occupied Malaysia during WWII (with their treatment of the Allied prisoners of war notoriously brutal), there are few of them around now. There are lots of tourists, so we don’t stand out like we did in Indonesia. Malaysia is pretty laid back and this is unfortunately sometimes evident in maintenance of buildings and infrastructure, although transportation by land or air or ferry is very up-to-date and convenient. Medical care is very good according to other cruisers. Customs and Immigration was a breeze – what a nice change from Australia and Indonesia. Sailing was difficult – winds were generally not in our favor and there was often debris and fish traps to watch for. Anchorages provided good protection and holding, but the beaches and water were unappealing. We are expecting better in Langkawi.

An Interesting Question

An Australian friend told us of a conversation she had with a well-traveled Indonesian. He wanted to know how she and her husband were enjoying their travels through his country. She told him that they were thoroughly enjoying the sights and food and anchorages, and then she said that mostly it was the heart-warming welcome from the people that touched them the most. She went on to describe how all of us yachties have been deeply moved by the hospitality of the Indonesian people. “That’s very interesting”, he replied. Then he paused for a few moments. “It is wonderful that my people have been so welcoming. But I have a question. When I visit your country, why am I greeted with such hostility?”

Our friend was stunned. But she knew his question was relevant. With tears in her eyes, she answered that she could not provide any excuse for her countrymen. “I’ll make you a promise, though”, she said. “I promise that when I am back in Australia, if I ever meet Indonesia visitors, I will do everything in my power to ensure they feel welcome”. He smiled and thanked her. May we all learn a lesson from his question.

Mosquito Diseases

While we were in Malaysia, we stopped at a pretty island called Besar and went ashore for a walkabout. It was an unusual place: lots of people were camping in tents – something we haven’t seen too much of in these parts; there was a large Hindu temple that was very busy with visitors; there were two deserted resorts, both of which looked fairly new and extravagant; and there was a well-maintained golf course that nobody was using. As we were walking along a path through one of the abandoned resorts, our friend Bill noted that I had a number of mosquito bites on my back. His wife Lida quickly slathered me with mosquito repellent.

Four days later our friend Bill was extremely ill, and had to head to a major centre for medical attention. It turns out that he had Dengue Fever – a viral infection from mosquito bites characterized by fever, headache, extreme pain in the joints and muscles, and a skin rash. It took him a number of days in the hospital and a long rest on his boat before he was back to normal. He figures he got it in Besar – the place where I was badly bitten - so I consider myself very lucky.

Another cruiser we know contracted malaria. These incidents have served as reminders to protect ourselves against those pesky little mosquitoes and to drink lots of tonic water with quinine (and maybe a bit of gin).

Langkawi – January 2009

Langkawi was the spot of our farewell dinner for the Sail Malaysia Rally. It was a lovely affair with great entertainment and delicious food, but of course it had the potential to be very sad … the time to say good-bye to all our rally friends who we’ve been travelling with since leaving Darwin. But what’s this … another rally in the works? It turns out that another event was being organized in Thailand – a chance for a one-day tour of the marinas in Phuket and a free lunch and dinner. The cost: zero dollars. Our obligation: just be there. We signed up right away and were awarded with a free book, “The Bangkok Survivor’s Handbook”. Many of the boats signed up, so our final dinner wasn’t nearly as sad as we thought it would be.

In Langkawi, we found the “nearly perfect” anchorage at Telaga Harbour: breathtaking scenery, lovely beach, protected anchorage with decent holding, quiet, a couple of good restaurants ashore, a cable car ride just a short hike away, a duty-free liquor store, internet, marina showers, a gas station (where we could get fresh yoghurt), and a car rental place.

On two separate occasions we rented a car – once with Rubicon Star and once with Pure Chance. With Rubi, we mostly toured and did a bit of shopping. With Pure Chance, it was strictly business – loading up our boats with cases of beer, coke, toothpaste and fresh fruit, vegetables and meat – getting ready for our passage to Thailand.

When we were touring with Rubi, we visited some waterfalls, beaches, a crafts fair, and a couple of restaurants. At our first restaurant stop, we asked for some iced lemon tea. We are particular about our iced tea … we don’t settle for the canned variety. So when the waitress opened up the fridge door instead of reaching for the tea pot, Darrel, Tim and I emphatically and in unison said “No”, thinking she was reaching for cans. She stopped, bewildered, not knowing what to do next. We said, “Not canned iced tea, please”. She didn’t speak much English, and stood there with the fridge door open, wondering what the fuss was. I pointed to a can of pop and said, “No canned tea, please”. Still bewildered, she reached into the fridge, pulled out a chunk of ice, and said, “Okay?” Of course it was okay and we all felt pretty silly. But our silliness “broke the ice” and we had great fun laughing with our waitress about it.

2008 Additions to CanKata

At our Annual Staff party at the beginning of 2009, we welcomed all the new members that joined the CanKata team in 2008. The best news was that, even with all the new additions, we were able to stay under budget! A big “thank you” to all the cheap but delicious eateries in Indonesia and Malaysia that helped keep our finances under control.

The additions:

MP3 player (now with 4000 songs) Stereo (replacement, can plug in MP3)

Computer External Hard Drives (2) GPS Mouse (2^nd)

Bean bag chairs (very comfy) Camera (replacement)

AIS (for spotting big ships) Wind vane (replacement)

Pillows (replacements) Walking sticks (collapsible)

Set of pots (replacements) Propane Tank

Crab pot Cooler (replacement)

Wash down system for anchor Mosquito screen for guest berth

Dremel (thanks John and Fran) Electronic Sudoku player (thanks Sue Ann)

Head lamp (for working in engine rooms) Headphones (1 additional set for watching movies)

Compass (replacement) Spinnaker (bought from Katanne)

USB stick (2^nd) Micro SD Card (for MP3 player but used in camera)

Beaching CanKata – January 2009

We were in some murky waters in Malaysia, especially Danga Bay and Penang where we spent quite a bit of time. CanKata’s bottom suffered terribly with barnacles and slime galore. It was a relief to get to Langkawi where the water was quite a bit better (still not crystal clear) and where there were favourable beach and tide conditions to allow us to beach the boat. We gently rammed CanKata onto the beach at high but dropping tide at 0600 and then as the tide dropped, we scoured the hulls and applied a coat of polish above the water line. “The Southern Cross”, a catamaran from Australia, beached beside us and did the same. Buddies from “Pied A Mer” stopped by with drinks and muffins for morning coffee break. By noon, we were done and by 1300 we were off the beach, with CanKata’s bottom clean as a whistle. Thailand’s water is very clean, so she shouldn’t get so bad now, and we will be able to get into the water to give her a wipe from time to time. She sails much faster now without all that stuff creating friction in the water, but we’re still in no hurry.

Thailand and Captain Bianca – January 2009

An American woman named Bianca Hein, who now lives in Thailand, decided that she would create an event to tack onto the Sail Indonesia and Sail Malaysia rallies. At first she tried to arrange a New Year’s Eve sailing event but most of us had party plans. She talked with a few of us and from our feedback created an event that was our cup of cha: a tour of Phuket marinas and chandleries. She met us on January 9 in Ao Chalong and had a big, air-conditioned bus waiting for us and a goody bag with t-shirts and reference material. She brought along a Thai tour guide who filled us in on the local culture, hot spots and on what to eat. We visited four marinas and met many professionals from the boating industry, and even had a chance to shop in a chandlery. The first stop was the most memorable – lunch at Yacht Haven restaurant. What a spread – definitely the best ever. We were served two delicious dishes and were very impressed, when along came another and another until we had SEVEN incredible Thai dishes to eat from … prawn, squid, fish, curries, vegetables galore, flavourful rice dishes, noodles, and fruit. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) paid for it all … they paid for the whole event, in fact. They paid for delicious chocolate cakes and drinks and sandwiches at our next stop. They paid for a delicious buffet dinner at a seaside restaurant at Ao Chalong. It was only a one-day event, but “Sail Thailand” was memorable, tasty and practical. Thank you, Captain Bianca and TAT!

Tsunami Reminder

From our Berlitz Thailand pocket guide: “On 26 December 2004, giant waves triggered by a powerful undersea earthquake just west off Sumatra crashed into coastal communities around the Indian Ocean. In southern Thailand, around 8,000 people perished, up to half of whom were foreign tourists, and many more were seriously injured. Some of the worst hit resort areas were Phuket beaches, but numerous fishing villages were also engulfed, creating an uncertain future for survivors whose livelihood depends on the sea.” The island has recovered significantly, and the only visible reminders are the signs “Tsunami danger zone” or “Tsunami evacuation route” or “Tsunami evacuation site”.

There are many web sites with sad and horrible stories of the Boxing Day tsunami. If you ever find the time to search for them and read them, they will give you an idea of what a strange, frightening and massive event it was. Besides Thailand, the tsunami hit eleven other countries and over one hundred thousand people, including tourists from many countries, were killed.

We met a man who had been vacationing here in Thailand with his teenage son. On that morning (the tsunami struck early), his son slept in where as usually the two of them would have been on the beach. “I don’t hassle my son about sleeping in anymore”, he told us. If they had been on the beach, their chance for survival would have been slim. “We’re good swimmers”, he said, “but the debris - cars, corrugated metal, trees – probably would have killed us”. As it was, the main floor of their hotel was flooded and they were slightly inconvenienced. They were much luckier than most.

He went on to explain how some of the tourists and locals, not having ever experienced a tsunami before, reacted the wrong way. The first sign of the tsunami was for all the water to be sucked out of the bays, leaving anchored boats grounded. People rushed to the shore to get a first-hand look at this strange occurrence, not realizing the danger they were in. They should have been running for high ground instead. The second sign of the tsunami was the monster wave that then came crashing ashore, drowning 8,000 people in total. With proper warning systems in place now, it is unlikely that another tsunami will take as many lives. If you are wondering what we would do, we would take CanKata out to sea. The large swell would not knock CanKata over, but it would be quite a roller-coaster ride. We are thankful that there are large sirens ashore that will give us plenty of warning.

ELEPHANT FACTS – supplied by Barbara of “Rubicon Star”

The elephant is the symbol of Thailand

Elephants have the same life span as humans

Elephants are the largest living mammal, and once roamed the entire world except for Australia and Antarctica

There are two main species of elephant - the Indian and the African

The African elephant is bigger than the Indian elephant and has larger ears, more wrinkled skin, a smooth forehead and both males and females have tusks

The Indian elephant has two humps on its forehead and the tusks on the female are not usually visible

Their trunk is actually their top lip and nose and is used to carry grass, leaves, roots, fruit and water to the mouth. They can rip out trees with their trunks

Although they can trumpet call with their trunks they communicate mainly by touch, smell and posture. They make rumbling sounds that other elephants can hear over great distances but humans cannot hear at all

They use their trunks to suck up dust for dust-bathing to keep their skin in good condition

The trunk has finger-like probes at the tip which means this huge animal can pick up very small objects

An adult Indian elephant will be about 10 foot high (3m) and weigh 11,000 lbs (5,000kg) and will need 441lbs (200kg) of food and 150 gallons (190 litres) of water each day

(For more on elephants, visit our “For Tehja and Taylor” page).

Thailand Highlights – February 2009

We should have encouraged people to come visit us in Thailand this winter. There are probably still travel warnings out because of what happened at Bangkok airport, but the country is actually a very peaceful place, especially around Phuket.

We have yet to explore mainland Thailand, yet already we have been awed by the country, the people and their culture. Visitors have no trouble finding decent and affordable lodging. Thai food is superb, the arts and crafts are wonderful, the sights are breathtaking, and the sounds are subdued. The west coast of Phuket has some of the best beaches we have seen. The weather right now, in the dry cooler season, is perfect.

Phang Nga Bay, between Phuket and the mainland, is a treasure trove, a “dreamscape of mad mountain tops” according to our pocket guide. The rock formations and odd-shaped islands combine to provide some of the most interesting cruising grounds we have been in. This bay is also the home of many caves and lagoons. We took a ride on a “long tail” – a long narrow wooden boat with a large car engine on the stern and a long drive shaft with a propeller - through the mangroves, under a tunnel beneath a limestone island eroded by the tides, and to see some ancient rock drawings. We visited Ko Panyi (or Pan Yee) – a Muslim village on stilts above the sea – where we could buy locally made jewellery, dresses, glass ornaments, wooden carvings, fresh fish, delicious meals, and all sorts of other stuff. We toured around and saw the school, the mosque, the health centre, and the Tsunami evacuation route. The villagers were very friendly, and one woman chatted with us for a while, explaining that the first settlers of the village came from Indonesia about 200 years ago. I hope they weren’t looking for privacy, because the village attracts thousands of tourists each year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Right now, on the west coast of the island of Phuket, life is about as perfect as it can get. Goldilocks would call it “just right”. We are no longer in any rally, so our itinerary is our own. We are in crystal clear water. The weather is perfect. At two in the morning, we can see both the Big Dipper and the Southern Cross. The beaches, made of clean and firm sand, are not too busy. There are restaurants galore, and most of them are affordable. We eat ashore nearly every day. There are markets and bakeries nearby, so we can eat on CanKata if we so choose (not likely). We can get ice cream. We will eventually catch a bus or rent a motorcycle to go find boat parts and other things not found on a beach, but not just yet.

Mid-April, when our visas expire and the winds become unfavourable, we will head back to Malaysia to a protected anchorage and to arrange for another Thai visa for our return in October, when the winds become favourable again. We’ll likely have CanKata hauled out of the water in September and have her bottom painted again. I would tell you more, but Darrel is getting impatient. “Chum, it’s time to swim ashore for lunch”. Got to go.

A Motorcycle Ride – February 2009

In order to stay in Thailand until mid-April, we had to extend our visas at the Immigration Office in Phuket Town. With passports, boat documentation, additional passport photos, money and photocopies of everything in hand, we caught the bus from Nai Harn Beach which took us to the terminal in Phuket Town. It was early morning and we had some time to shop around, finding stainless steel screws, anchor chain, fishing lures and cashews. We had planned to walk to the Immigration Office and mentioned this to the clerk at the anchor chain store. “Too far! Take taxi!” Everyone in the store was quite alarmed that we intended to walk. A wonderful and elegant Thai lady behind the desk wrote out the word “immigration” in Thai script on a slip of paper, handed us the paper and said, “It won’t cost much for a taxi”.

As it happens, we had just talked to a cruiser who had hitched a ride on a motorcycle. With her husband! Three adults on a bike. But we had often seen more than that on bikes in Indonesia, so we really shouldn’t have been shocked. The concept intrigued us, so instead of taking a taxi, we thumbed down a fellow on a motorcycle, showed him the slip of paper, agreed on a price much less than a taxi, and off we went, with Darrel’s legs dangling awkwardly and me snug as a bug in the middle. Our driver waited for us to get through immigration, and gave us a ride back to the bus terminal. All very unsafe, I’m sure, but loads of fun.

Wrong Bus – February 2009

After our Immigration Office adventure, we caught the local open-air bus back to Nai Harn Beach. While waiting for the departure time, we started chatting with a young American couple waiting with us. In the few minutes that we chatted, we learned the following:

- they had been travelling around the area for nine months

- the were flying back to the USA that night

- they wanted to spend their last day on the beach

- they would walk from the beach to the nearby airport

- they were on the wrong bus!

They were on the Nai Harn Beach bus, but they should have been on the Nai Yang Beach bus. When Darrel had heard that they were planning on walking from the beach to the airport, he mentioned that it was an awfully long way and asked them, “Why don’t you go to Nai Yang Beach instead?” He pulled out the map and showed them where it is, nice and close to the airport. “But that is where we’re going” was the response. We broke them the bad news: “Um, no it isn’t”. Nai Yang, Nai Harn – all sounds so much the same. They quickly gathered their luggage, jumped off our bus, and were quickly led to the Nai Yang bus, catching it just in time. They waved gleefully at us, no doubt very happy that they had struck up conversation with us. Or maybe, deep down, they really didn’t want to leave Thailand. We didn’t.

Yes, We Have No Bananas – March 2009

The lovely people of Thailand don’t like to say “no”. We discovered this fact almost immediately upon our arrival in January. Our first conversation with a local went something like this:

Us: “Do you speak English?”

Local: “Yes.”

Us: “Great! Does the bus stop here?”

Local: “Yes.”

Us: “What time does it come?”

Local: “Yes.”

We have yet to find someone who will answer “no” to our “do you speak English” question, yet we have found many locals who do not

speak English. We have stopped asking “Is this the way to such-and-such-a-place?” because we know that always the answer will be “yes”.

Therefore, we were surprised the other day when we went for lunch to a little local restaurant for a repeat of the noodles and prawn dish that I had the day before, and were told “No prawn”.

“No prawn?” I repeated in surprise.

The manager, who had been hovering nearby, confirmed what the waitress said. “No prawn. Finished.” Darrel recommended the chicken, which he had the day before and said was delicious and was going to order again.

“Okay”, I said. “Two noodles with chicken”. As we waited for our meals, we commented on how unusual it was to finally hear the word “no” coming from a Thai’s mouth. But we had become regular customers, and maybe they finally felt like treating us like locals. We clinked our cokes together to celebrate the momentous occasion.

And then our meals arrived … two dishes of noodles and prawn.

Marina Visit – March 2009

CanKata seldom visits marinas. The last time we were in one was in Australia last May when we stopped at Bowen Marina to fuel up and provision before heading on to Darwin, and where we had our farewell dinner with Sylvia and Gerd of S/Y Daedalus, two great boating buddies who we will always remember fondly.

But we had two reasons to visit Ao Po Grand Marina in Thailand: we needed to load new anchor chain onto the boat, and our headsail furler system needed repairs.

We are not marina people and shudder when the time comes, thinking of creaky docks, smelly water, noisy neighbours, stale air and big bills. So we were thrilled to discover that Ao Po Grand Marina had none of the above.

To get the anchor chain, Darrel struck a deal with the manager of the local restaurant we ate at (the “no prawn” guy). He drove Darrel to Phuket Town in his truck, an hour drive away, waited while Darrel made the deal with the lovely lady behind the desk (the “take a taxi” lady), and then delivered Darrel and the chain back to the marina, all for a very reasonable price. The marina had a strong dolly for us to use, and one of the marina guys helped Darrel load the chain into CanKata’s locker.

The furler repairs didn’t go quite as smoothly. An earlier rigging “improvement” made it nearly impossible to install the new parts and the hourly bill was five times larger than it should have been. It seems that no matter how hard we try to be frugal, the money still finds a way to slip from our hands.

But in the end, we accomplished all we needed, and would like to say “thanks” to Simon Grant and his marina staff for superb and friendly service.

Redemption – Two years later

By Darrel

Over the last couple of years there have been a number of visitors and fellow cruisers who have had a good laugh over an event which took place during a passage from Curaçao to the San Blas Islands on the East coast of Panama.

It was a dark summer night and the sky was clear with the stars out in full force. We were sailing about 50 nautical miles off the Columbian coast to avoid piracy and getting mixed up in any drug operations and it was around 0230 close to the completion of my 3-hour watch. During one of my 360 degree observations, to ensure that there were no ships or squalls around, I caught a glimpse of an aircraft located somewhere between us and Columbia. I never gave it much consideration until 15 minutes later when I repeated the 360 degree observation and noticed the aircraft in the exact location as before.

Now I was curious so I took a closer look at the aircraft and could clearly see the pulsating red and green navigation lights. I even verified this by looking through our binoculars. Indubitably it was an aircraft of some type, quite likely a helicopter due to it being stationary high in the sky. As I kept my eye on this aircraft I noticed a boat coming towards CanKata on a reciprocal course and was going to be passing by less than a mile away. Having another boat nearby was a bit peculiar given our location so I began to postulate as to what was happening: We were about to be approached by this boat thinking that we were part of a drug transfer operation. The helicopter was watching over us ready to pounce down on us and make the bust. I kept my eyes posted on the aircraft and the approaching boat without changing course. As the boat got closer and was abeam of us I could see that it was only a fishing trawler and we just passed by each other as two ships in the night. I glanced up at the aircraft and noticed that it stayed in position even though CanKata and the fishing trawler were heading away from each other.

The end of my watch arrived so I called John Black, who we had joined us as crew for this leg and told him of the events which had just taken place. I showed him the aircraft with the flashing red and green lights and then headed off to bed. John was too polite to say anything so instead he just said “have a good rest Darrel”. The next morning I again told the story for Loretta’s benefit. Loretta and John rolled their eyes upwards knowing that it was probably a star and my imagination seeing the colours. They politely suggested that I should try to take a nap during my off-watch periods.

Well, a little over two years later I was reading one of our star books and noticed that some stars appear to have colours due to the composition of the surrounding gasses and that different elements appear in the star’s spectrum at different temperatures. For example, Arcturus is classified as orange and Betelgeuse is red.

During our pre- bedtime star gazing period the other night I saw Arcturus which was fairly close to the horizon and pointed it out to Loretta. She looked carefully at the star and said she thought it was an airplane because she could see the flashing red and green lights. I smiled and told her that no it was a star which we can verify by watching how it will stay stationary.

The story of my supposed sleep deprivation has now become a little more interesting.

Lots of other tourists – April 2009

By Loretta

Tourist season in Thailand is supposed to be over. Well maybe it is for the Americans, Swiss, Swedes, Germans, Russians, and countless other Europeans, but not for the Asians! Long tails and speed boats are still racing past us, packed to the gunnels with Asian tourists, hurrying to the next great snorkelling spot. Every cave we enter is filled to shrieking with men, women and children who are as excited as we are with the fabulous attractions of Thailand.

We enjoy their company. We particularly enjoyed their presence when we had to manoeuvre through a long dark cave to get to the Hong at Ko Muk. We swam in, so didn’t take our non-water-proof camera, thus all we have to offer is the apt description from the guide book: "a completely enclosed circular, cathedral-like Hong, with a diameter of 60 meters.

The walls (about 80 meters high) are draped in lush foliage above a tiny patch of grey silica sand beach and an ethereal glow makes it seem as if you were encased inside an emerald, looking out." Hongs, while complete enclosed on all sides, are open to the sky. They’re amazing.

We entered the cave leading to the hong behind a string of tourists who were all wearing life jackets. Most of them weren’t swimming; they were being towed by their flashlight-wielding tour guide, who was encouraging them to chant some kind of Asian “heave-ho”, probably to distract them from their fear of drowning or bats or getting lost in a pitch-black cave. I was a little spooked myself, and was comforted by their boisterous presence. But the cave was pretty crowded, and we were there near the end of the day – the “quieter” time. I wonder what it’s like during peak hours, at peak season. If only the bats could talk.

Watch what you eat – April 2009

We read an interesting article in a Thailand newspaper the other day. The title of the article was Crispy critters can give you the jitters. Here’s the opening sentence:

“A Public Health Ministry spokesman has warned allergy and asthma sufferers to avoid eating fried silkworms, grasshoppers and other insects as they have been found to contain a higher-than-standard level of histamine that could trigger a fatal allergic reaction in some patients.”

Sure enough, a few days later in Krabi, we came across appetizing displays of crispy critters – grasshoppers, maggots, worms and beetles. Remembering the article, we declined experimentation. Truth be told, even if we had not read the article, I don’t know if we would have been tempted.

Maybe some other time, when we are a little hungrier …

Mr. Bean – April 2009

One day, when we were entering Ao Chalong to set anchor and then head into town to shop, we noticed a British sail boat named “Mr. Bean”. We found the name amusing, as we did the British television show when we saw it on the odd occasion, and wondered how the boat came to be named after that funny wordless fellow.

We were wordless ourselves when we finally did come to find out the origins of the boat’s name; not because of the explanation, which was that the owner’s business was coffee beans, but because something terrible had happened.

It was a number of weeks after we had first been in Ao Chalong, and everyone was talking about Mr. Bean the boat. It’s every cruiser’s worse nightmare – being attacked and robbed by pirates. The captain of Mr. Bean had met with the worst fate – robbed, beaten and killed.

The captain/owner and his wife were making their way from Thailand to Malaysia, travelling alone (such as CanKata did) and were peacefully at anchor when three young desperate Burmese men stole their dinghy and, in the process, beat the captain to death with his own hammer and also beat his wife. She survived and was rescued by a combination of fishing and police vessels, and the three killers were caught (and subsequently mobbed by angry Thais on shore) and now probably face execution.

It is such a sad story. It brings to mind the terrible stories we hear about young Burmese men who are enlisted as helpers on fishing boats, and then reportedly drugged and held captive until they are no longer useful. Who knows what happens to them then. These three young killers were, so the story goes, absolutely desperate to find a way to escape their situation and get back home to Burma. We can’t help but wonder if maybe the captain of Mr. Bean hadn’t been so desperate to save his dinghy, maybe he could have saved his life. The Thai people are extremely angered by the event … foreigners terrorizing other foreigners and maybe causing a (further) downturn in tourism. And it is a scary story. It reminds us cruisers how vulnerable we are. The likelihood of a repeat event is slim to nil, but it is still a cruel reminder that we need to be careful.

We feel so badly for the captain’s wife. And we feel so badly for the three Burmese men who were looking for an escape and have now landed in hell; and for all the Burmese lads who might be held captive on a fishing boat; and for the Thai fishermen who work so hard and may have to resort to extreme measures to eke out a living.

On April 18, when CanKata was following in the wake of Mr. Bean on the way back to Malaysia, a fishing boat passed us. The fishermen whistled and hollered their greetings, took off their shirts and waved them at us. It was an unusually boisterous greeting. We wondered if they were trying to say “You’re safe”, or “We’re friendly”, or some such comforting message. We are comforted, and we will return.

Sole Mates

By Darrel

Since leaving Canada Loretta and I have been moderately successful at catching fish. We do this through a variety of techniques including; trolling, casting, spearing, netting and purchasing. Actually once we even caught a large fresh fillet of Dorado from another cruiser while we were both under sail. That was exciting. We have avoided using explosives thus far.

Soon after getting our catch securely on board we usually heat up the pan, unless we are eating sashimi, and savour the scrumptious fresh fish. We have never felt guilty since the varieties of fish that we catch or spear are usually quite bountiful and you really don’t know what the situation was like. However, when spearing fish you get a better idea of what a fish’s habitat is really like. Usually they are swimming in schools or on their own and you select the one that will fit your dinner plate and fill your appetite.

When we were snorkelling on our way back to Malaysia, and our fridge was void of chicken, fish or meat, we came across two large snappers. We were in a remote anchorage off the beaten trail and you could tell by the actions of the fish here that they were not afraid of us two UFO’s (unidentified floating objects) a few feet above them. The large snapper, for the sake of this story I will assume that it was the male, came out from under his protection and actually swam close to us to get a good look no doubt wanting to fill his curiosity. His soul mate followed closely behind.

Now if we had been on CanKata casting, or even trolling from the dinghy, and were lucky enough to have had either one of these two snappers snap on and join us for dinner we would never have had any feelings of guilt. But knowing that either one of these two snappers were a sure and simple catch by spearing, neither one of us could be responsible for splitting this couple apart.

We have had canned beans before and I am sure we will have it again.

Cambodia & Vietnam Adventures – May/June 2009

Our Travelling Companions

By Loretta

We shared our adventures with Barb and Tim of “Rubicon Star” and Craig and Sara of “Crasara Cruzin” – fellow cruisers whom we met when we joined the Sail Indonesia rally last August. What great backpacking buddies! While sometimes we went our separate ways, usually we ate together, found accommodation together, celebrated birthdays together, toured together, took sleeper busses together, and once we even shared a room with Barb and Tim. Thanks, guys, for helping us find our way through Cambodia and Vietnam.

Starting off on the wrong foot

By Loretta

It wasn’t so bad that our rest at Kuala Lumpur airport (between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.) was disrupted by pesticide fog being applied both indoors and outdoors, or that everyone was wearing masks to ward off the H1N1 virus, or that the recommended guest house in Siem Reap was without electricity … what got me on the wrong foot was the quick introduction to war stuff. A quick glance at the start of our itinerary goes something like this:

May 22 – Cambodian Killing Fields Shrine

May 23 – Land Mine Museum

May 25 – Genocide Museum, Killing Fields,

May 29 – Vietnam’s Cu Chi Tunnels, War Remnants Museum, War Room in Presidential Palace

And that was enough; I couldn’t take any more war stuff. Once that was behind us, the adventure became much more enjoyable.

Angkor Wat

By Loretta

For me, the highlight of our trip was the 12^th Century Hindu temple complex, Angkor Wat (which means capital or “royal monastery city”) in Siem Reap, Cambodia. From the guide book:

“There are hundreds of monuments within the Angkor Wat World Heritage Site and seeing all of them is impractical.”

“Angkor Wat is not simply a temple; it is the symbol at the very heart of the Khmer people’s pride in their culture and heritage.”

“The temple is regarded by many as the single, finest aesthetic achievement in the history of mankind. It remains one of the largest religious buildings in the world and should be at the top of any tour itinerary.”

Angkor Wat was amazing, and I’m glad that it was at the top of our tour itinerary.

CanKata’s Top Ten – Bizarre Motorcycle Sightings in Cambodia & Vietnam

By Darrel

To help put the following observations in perspective you should know that a city such as Ho Chi Minh which has a population of eight million has six million motorcycles registered. Needless to say that the roads are thick with motorcycles, with only inches of spatial separation, and all of the drivers closely following the non-existent road rules.

Number Ten: A motorcycle driver who looks to be eight or nine years of age

Number Nine: A motorcycle pulling a trailer loaded with twenty foot lengths of rebar

Number Eight: A motorcycle with about twenty live chickens hanging off the back seat, likely on their way to market

Number Seven: A mom driving a motorcycle with a very young baby in her lap and holding a cell phone in one hand whilst driving with the other

Number Six: A motorcycle with five persons on board

Number Five: A motorcycle with the driver holding onto another vehicle, i.e. car, truck or another motorcycle to hitch a ride to the nearest fuel stop

Number Four: A motorcycle with three live pigs strapped over the rear seat

Number Three: A motorcycle with a mid-sized dog sitting without the aid of a leash or harness on the rear seat facing backwards

Number Two: A motorcycle with a large cardboard box (approximately five feet high and three feet square) containing a small sized refrigerator propped on the rear portion of the seat. The box was not tied down and was only held in place by the arm of the driver which extended behind him and only partially to the side of the carton.

And now for CanKata’s most bizarre motorcycle sighting: A motorcycle with two persons on board, i.e. the driver and his passenger who was holding an intravenous drip upright for the driver. We don’t know what drug was being injected but the driver was sporting a large smile. Actually we did not only see this once, we saw it twice on two different days. (The camera wasn’t handy).

100% Silk

By Loretta

We now have three sleeping bags that say “100% Silk”, made in Vietnam, plus a pretty top and a gorgeous scarf made of the same. However, we could also have brought home a $7 Rolex and $3 Gucci sunglasses, so we’re not too sure of the “100%” bit. We did tour two silk worm farms and have felt the real product, but are still confused. “Yes, real silk”, promised the vendor. “I think this might have polyester in it”, said the woman at the silk factory. Her sleeping bags felt different, but of course were much more expensive.

We felt pretty confident that almost no name-brand goods in Vietnam were authentic. But that didn’t matter. The sleeping bags were comfy, were easily washed and dried, and were cheap. And the people were authentic (vendors and tour operators excluded). And the food was good (lots of pork – not easily found in Muslim Malaysia). And we love our new Diesel polarized sunglasses that are surely the real thing – for just $9.

Travelling Cheaply

By Loretta

On the subject of prices, we were presently surprised by how affordable our trip was. To give you an indication of what we paid, here is a sampling of costs: (in Canadian dollars)

$ 250 - for airline tickets, one person, both ways

$ 9 - the average price of a room (a/c, TV, ensuite toilet, toilet paper, towels, sheets, maybe hot water, maybe a window)

$ .75 - the average price of a beer

$ 9 - the average cost of a meal for two, including drinks

$ .50 - the cost of a strawberry smoothy – an indulgence

$ 80 - the cost of a 3-day 4-night trip to Sa Pa, including train, rooms, meals, tours (for one)

$ 7 - the cost of 100% silk sleeping bag – double size … great for the cheap rooms with questionable linens

The most expensive part of the trip was the marina fees for CanKata ($500), but she was worth every penny spent on keeping her safe.

Before importing rice wine from Vietnam you may want to read this!

By Darrel

When Loretta and I lived in PEI and Ottawa we made homemade wine, sometimes at our home and other times at brew and wine outlets. In all cases having sterile equipment and a sterile environment with strict temperature control was of utmost importance. We have never been to a wine making factory so when we found we could visit one at one of our stops in Vietnam we quickly jumped at the opportunity. Our level of enthusiasm may have been raised knowing that we would not only see how rice wine was made but also would have a sample or two to taste.

When we arrived at the “wine factory” we were somewhat surprised as to how – let’s say rustic – the outside looked. However once we stepped inside, and having said that, I am not certain that we did actually step inside. I think the inside and outside was more or less synonymous. Our guide led us to the end of the building which took us past three large pens each containing a large sow and what ever else accompanies a happy sow and within fifteen feet of the sows was the winery. As we stood on the earth floor swatting flies the guide explained to us the rice wine process. In short, there is a lady who cooks rice over a wood-fired stove and the condensation rises up along a hose of assorted sizes which exits the building but later returning to drip out a short spigot into a plastic jug sitting in the corner on the dirt floor. Once the jug is full the wine is then siphoned off into smaller and hopefully cleaner containers. I could not really hear the guide’s explanation too well over the grunting of the pigs so I may have missed a step or two.

After the explanation was finished we were given not one but two different wines to test. One was 40% and the other was 60%. We quickly declined having a glass each and told them we would share the one glass amongst the four of us. There was no fighting over who drank the most!

As we departed the winery staff gave us a two litre water bottle full of rice wine to take with us. We graciously accepted the gift and thanked them for their tour. Unfortunately at the end of our full day tour and we were dropped off at our favourite fruit shake place not one of us remembered the gift that was carefully tucked away under the rear seat of the taxi.

Candid Camera

By Loretta

Tim, Barb, Darrel and I were walking around the inner-city lake in Hanoi when we came upon a man in coveralls who was talking on his mobile phone. His hands were covered in something black and gooey, and he was holding his phone between his ear and his shoulder, in a “hands-free” fashion. He caught Darrel’s attention and indicated that he was done his call and wanted his phone placed in his coveralls hip pocket. Darrel took the phone, shut it off, and placed it in the man’s pocket.

But it slid right through and fell to the ground. Darrel picked it up and the man indicated that he wanted Darrel to turn it on to test it. It wouldn’t turn on. “Uh-oh”, said Darrel with a concerned look on his face. At this point in the journey (June 16) I was at my limit with liars and cheats, and suspected the man as such, so I took the phone from Darrel and stuck it in the man’s chest pocket. The man just smiled. “I think it was a scam”, I complained to Darrel.

Well, it was a scam, but it was a friendly one. Tim and Barb noticed a number of cameras around, one being a large movie camera. We were on Candid Camera, Vietnam version!

Worth Repeating

By Loretta

Phrases heard during our Cambodia/Vietnam adventure:

v “They’re plastic”, said a 10-yeard old vendor selling bamboo bracelets, thinking we were bamboo-taboo Australians.

v “Oh – you’re from Canada – then they are bamboo”, said the same young vendor.

v “Do you sell strawberry smoothies?” – A question that we asked nearly every restaurant.

v “Okay - bye-bye - no come back”, said our sampan-rower letting us know we had to get off.

v “No way!” our new friend Shoco would cry out every time we bumped into each other in surprising places.

v “Vietnam is the number two coffee-producer in the world”, a surprising fact that a tour guide told us.

v “Ah-choo!” Most of us caught colds while on our trip, but no one caught H1N1.

v “The B-Boys are amazing!” we all said after seeing Korea’s top break-dancing group perform in Nha Trang.

v “Which way to the Water Puppet Show?” – A question we asked dozens of people, always getting the wrong answer.

v “Pork chops and green vegetables, please”, is what we asked for in Danang but got soup, sprouts and fried rice too.

v “Fill her up”, which is what Darrel DIDN’T say at the service station just before his motorcycle ran out of gas.

v “Oh my gawd – it’s a diamond”, Loretta said when she picked up a sparkly object in a dark cave. It cuts glass.

v “These frog legs are delicious”, Tim, Barb, Darrel and Loretta all said after eating them in Hue. The squid was good, too.

v “You have to sign up for Facebook”, said Loretta to absolutely everyone after being invited by Sara to join the club.

v “These really are the best shakes”, said Darrel to new friends Kevin and Idalis while at “The Best Shakes in Vietnam”.

v “Another kebab, please”, said almost everyone who had one in Hanoi at a road-side eatery. Yummy and cheap.

v “Another beer, please”, said almost everyone, more than once, who had a cheap home brew at the Bia Café.

v “Hey, Tim, you could use those as Foreign Currency Wallets”, said Loretta to convince him to buy something he didn’t need.

v “I’ll take two”, said Darrel, convinced that the Foreign Currency Wallet was a good idea.

v “Do you serve smoothies here?” “Yes”, answered the hostess, then ran quickly to the restaurant down the street to get them.

v “Would Aunty like some tea?” respectfully asked a young Vietnamese woman who invited us into her home.

v “We’ll have pork”, said Barb, Tim, Darrel and Loretta for one of their last meals in non-Muslim Vietnam.

v “For you – my best price - $5. Wait, wait, $3! (as we walked away). Don’t go, don’t go - $2!” – The way they all did business.

v “I paid $9.” “I paid $12.” “I paid $10”. We had taken a survey to see what price everyone paid for the bus ticket to Saigon.

v “No – you said 14 thousand”, our first line in a dispute with a gas vendor who decided us white guys should really pay 40 thousand, but who didn’t get any money from us. We had them drain the gas out of our motorbike, and then got gas down the street for 13 thousand.

v “Yes, you get off here”, said our river boat driver after pulling up to a weedy shore enclosed by a fence. We got wet feet and had to hop the fence, but managed to find a place that sold smoothies.

v “Sorry, taxi is broke”, said our tour operator who had promised us a free taxi to the airport.

v “I’m tired of being ripped off”, said just about every traveller we met in the Hanoi airport.

But despite the rip-off artists, the non-authentic goods, the seedy hotels and the slippery tour operators, our adventures in Cambodia and Vietnam were mostly pleasant and certainly memorable, and we hope the stories and photos give you an indication of what a great trip it was.

More from Malaysia

TANJUNG RHU – August 8, 2009

Let me tell you about the wonderful anchorage that we are staying in. It is called “Tanjung Rhu” and is a river mouth at the north-east corner of the island of Langkawi. It is a bit tricky entering the anchorage, but once you know the waypoints, it’s a breeze.

Four other cruisers share the anchorage with us: Rubicon Star (aka Rubi, AU), Been-A-Long (AU), Fat Annie (UK), and Maeva (FR). There are also fishing shacks, a fishing farm, and a floating restaurant. Tanjung Rhu is a tourist spot; there is a Four Season Resort around the corner and boats are often zipping around taking tourists through the mangroves to bat caves, eagle feedings, otter nests, and past five lovely sailing yachts anchored in the river’s mouth. Right now the tourists come from the middle-east to escape the heat, so roughly half the tourists are head-to-toe black, with just a lovely pair of eyes to behold through the burkas.

Even though this is a hot tourist spot, it is a quiet little anchorage. There is no town nearby, so no noise but for the fishing boats, tourist boats and the generator of the floating restaurant. In the evening, you can hear the eagles cry and the geckos going “gecko” and sometimes the monkeys arguing, but other than that it is peaceful. We are protected on three sides by a tall range of hills, but there is still a lot of sky to enjoy. These days we are enjoying watching Jupiter rise around eight o’clock.

The floating restaurant is busy, but sometimes the group of us book a table and enjoy their seafood menu, except they never seem to have crab or squid. We usually end up getting chicken.

There are also restaurants at the beach, and they are a little cheaper so we tend to go to them more often. One serves deep-fried bananas for dessert (a huge plate for 65¢ Canadian), so it has become our favourite spot.

The five boats like to get together occasionally to party. We take turns being the hosts, but everyone always takes their own drinks and snacks to share. CanKata hosted a dinghy drift, where we tied up our dinghies together and floated in the bay, but it was pretty shallow and we kept running aground so it hasn’t been repeated.

Two of the boats have arranged a long-term car rental, and any of us can borrow the car, if it is available, for a small fee. Every Friday the women hop in the car and head to Telaga Harbour, a half-hour away, to meet the “Fruit and Veggie Man”. This fellow operates out of his van, and every Friday stops at anchorages to sell fruits and vegetables and meat and dairy products and bread (I’m sure I’ve forgotten something) to cruisers. Tanjung Rhu isn’t busy enough for him to come to us, so we go to him at Telaga, every Friday.

We don’t have to go to the F&V man. There are plenty of grocery stores in Langkawi, but none of them sell the quality of food that the F&V man does. And he always has avocados, which the grocery stores never have.

ON AVOCADOS

Ah, avocados. It is something we look forward to, every Friday. Unfortunately, a number of Fridays ago when I was looking for some, they were all gone. I noticed one woman with EIGHT in her basket, greedy little thing. I sighed and went back to CanKata avocado-less, but still well stocked with fresh coriander, lean ground beef, smoked salmon, and lots more.

Two weeks ago, the four of us Tanjung Rhu ladies hopped in the rental car, stopped to get $3 worth of gas, then met the F&V man at Telaga. His system works quite well: he opens the van doors, then all the cruisers (usually about 30 of us) help him unload and set up the boxes and Styrofoam crates of goods, then we each grab a little basket and fill them up. The F&V man sits in the back of the van with his weigh-scale and change box. When you approach him with your little basket, he weighs everything, writes down the price, nods to let you know that you can put the goods in your personal shopping bag, totals the sum, and then money changes hands.

Like I said, the system works well, EXCEPT when the greedy avocado lady doesn’t help with the setting up of boxes, but instead grabs the avocado box and quickly loads her little basket with ALL the avocados. This happened two weeks ago (and apparently the week before, when I hadn’t been there, and obviously the time before when I had seen her with EIGHT in her basket).

So two weeks ago, the four Tanjung Rhu ladies went home avocado-less.

Last week we tried to come up with a plan. We hopped in the rental car, stopped to get $3 worth of gas, then brainstormed on how we could get our hands on some avocados. “Maybe we could link hands, form a barricade around the van doors and help ourselves to avocados before she does”, was one suggestion. It was dismissed as being a bit confrontational. “May we should just talk to her and tell her that it would be nice if she shared”, was another suggestion. It was dismissed with the sure knowledge that she wouldn’t be the type to agree to share.

So we arrived at the F&V man without a plan. But we were in luck. For some reason, the avocado lady wasn’t there.

That afternoon, on CanKata, we had avocado salad with fresh cucumber, tomatoes, green onions, feta cheese and coriander. Life doesn’t get much better in Tanjung Rhu.

ON JUPITER

The sky is clear on most nights in Tanjung Rhu, so we are often able to watch Jupiter rise. Because this brilliant largest planet has become an important part of our evenings, we decided to check out the Microsoft Encarta Reference Library.

Things you may not have known about Jupiter:

v It is the fourth brightest object in the sky, after the Sun, the Moon, and Venus.

v It is a ball of dense gas with no solid surface.

v It has a number of satellites orbiting it – a few of which you can see with binoculars!

Something you probably had no idea about:

Jupiter has been called “Earth’s guardian angel”. With its mass and gravitational pull, it is able to gather up comets in our solar system and spit them out before they collide with Earth. According to Encarta, in systems lacking Jupiter-size planets the small inner worlds are relentlessly bombarded with comets. Without Jupiter, scientists estimate that Earth would have been struck by comets at least 1,000 times more often, and catastrophic impacts of the kind that probably exterminated the dinosaurs would have occurred every 100,000 years or so instead of every 100 million. So we probably wouldn’t be here today. Hurray Jupiter.

EXPIRATION

by Darrel

Loretta and I recently celebrated our fifth anniversary of having departed from Canada. The celebration however was short lived because we also had to deal with expiry dates. I don’t mean expiry dates, or best before dates, of our provisions but rather expiry dates of my driver’s licence, our passports, and our Malaysian visas.

The Malaysian visas expire on September 25^th which means by that date we have to check out of the country. We tried to take advantage of a seat sale to Hong Kong in mid September but the sale was booked before we were able to sign up. We could fly to Singapore or up to Bangkok quite cheaply but nothing was pulling us back to Singapore and we were trying to avoid big cities for a while. We could take a fast ferry to Thailand and return the next day but this reminded us too much of our past lives and swift business trips. So the solution we opted for was to take a four or five day leisurely cruise, in CanKata, up to Phuket Thailand. We have some boat stuff to buy up there, e.g., new water maker membrane, refrigeration circulation pump, and popcorn (okay it may not all be boat stuff). We will do our business and visit friends in Thailand for a few weeks and then we will take two weeks or so to come back to Malaysia in time for my Mom and nephew’s visit. So the visa’s expiration was not insurmountable.

The expiration of our passports on the other hand caused a bit more grief. So much in fact I have dedicated a separate article below.

The last expiration date was to do with my driver’s licence. Actually, my driver’s licence expired on my last birthday which was last May but with the assistance of our son and a dear colleague of mine I was able to get a six month extension. So now it expires at the end of this November.

When we left Canada I knew that this date would eventually arrive but I was not going to worry about having a driver’s licence since I have seldom been asked to show it when we have rented cars or motorbikes. However when I looked at the application form for renewing our passports, one of the pieces of evidence that I had to submit was a driver’s licence.

I don’t know if I can get another temporary extension so unless something magical happened before the end of November I may have been without a licence.

Well something magical did happen. We met Ravi.

It started one morning when Loretta and I were taking a leisurely stroll through Kuah, Langkawi and we met a local who was quite curious and fired off a number of questions to us about who we were, where we were from, etc. Once he was done I decided to ask him a few questions, one of which was whether he knew how I would go about getting a Malaysian driver’s licence and where would I go to apply. He told us that he thought I could get a licence but that the test would be in Malay and to apply we go to the government buildings beside the fire hall which was on our way back home. So off we went. When we arrived at the government buildings there was no one at the reception area and all the signage was in Malay so we did not know where to head. After a short wait a local, who we found out later was named Ravi, came down the stairs and as he was opening the door to leave the building I said “excuse me, can you speak English?” He replied that he could speak a little English so I then asked him if he could tell me which office I would go to to apply for a Malaysian driver’s licence. Ravi began by telling me that I would need to go to a driving school, take the test, in Malay, and then they would apply for my licence. But then he asked me if I already had a licence and if so why did I not just get an international driver’s licence. I confirmed that I did have one but that it was about to expire. I had already considered getting an international driver’s licence but because you have to have a current driver’s licence I would not be able to renew it in a year’s time.

Now that he understood my predicament he said that I should just go to the Malaysian equivalent of our motor vehicle department and ask for a conversion from my current Canadian licence to a Malaysian licence. This seemed a reasonable solution so I asked Ravi for directions to the office. He told me that it was quite a ways away so he offered to drive us there. He said he had an hour to kill before a meeting he was about to attend. On the way there we found out that Ravi was a construction manager and so I told him of my background and he became quite interested and asked me if I could do material take-offs. I quickly responded yes that I could but without taking a breath told him that he would be dreaming if he thought he could put me to work.

When we arrived at the motor vehicle department we began to thank Ravi for the lift but he quickly interjected that he would come in to ensure that I was able to communicate my request. Ravi took control and after speaking to a few people he was handed a couple of forms that I needed to complete, with his assistance since they were all in Malay. I then need to submit two copies of my old driver’s licence (which was going to expire next month) and my Malaysian visa (which was about to expire in a couple of weeks) and my Canadian passport (which was also soon to expire), and lastly two photos (which should have expired already since my hair is considerably shorter now). I told Ravi that I would have to submit the application tomorrow since I would need to gather and copy these attachments.

Ravi drove Loretta and I back to where CanKata was anchored and we invited him on board for an ice tea. Unfortunately he had to go to his meeting so he said later perhaps. He then informed us that he would be here tomorrow morning at 0900 to pick us up so we could take our completed application and attachments to the motor vehicle department. We told him it was very kind but not necessary but he insisted on seeing this through.

The next morning, at 0900 on the dot, Ravi arrived to pick us up and we proceeded to the motor vehicle department to submit my application. When we go there we were directed to the proper person and were informed, in Malay, that they would not be able to process my application today because the boss was not in. Ravi, in a very kind and gentle – but perhaps convincing voice – suggested that they at least process all the paper work while he was there and then I could return for the licence later. Immediately three people began working on my application and within fifteen minutes they asked me for 50 Malaysian Ringgit (which is about $17 CAD) and they in turn handed me a Malaysian driver’s licence which allows me to drive cars and motorbikes. The licence is only good for one year, but can be easily renewed for ever without having a need for a current Canadian driver’s licence.

Without the invaluable assistance of Ravi I may have been able to obtain a Malaysian licence but indubitably it would have taken a lot more trips and time. Thank you thank you thank you Ravi. It is so wonderful knowing that there are people out there who are willing to help.

PASSPORT RENEWAL

By Darrel

I know that I should not rant about Passport Canada until Loretta and I have submitted and received our renewed passports but I just can’t hold off.

When we lived in Canada and our passports came up for renewal we did it without thinking about it. It was relatively easy, the form could be downloaded from Passport Canada’s web site and photos could be taken at a number of nearby businesses. To get a guarantor to sign off on the application and the back of the photo was a snap because we worked with a number of lawyers and engineers who were more than willing to do it for us. The completion of the form was a bit tedious but if you have not moved house or jobs it was again quite easy. Gathering originals of our proof of Canadian Citizenship (e.g., birth certificate) and making copies of documents to support our identities (e.g., driver’s licence) was again easy since we had photocopy machines at work (and no I don’t feel guilty since we both needed current Canadian passports for business travel purposes).

However now that we are abroad this relatively easy task of renewing our passports has become a humongous challenge. Not only that, now we have the time to sit back and ask why the process is as antiquated as it is. This is only exacerbated due to the fact that we can talk to other cruisers and find out how easy and different their passport renewal process is. Some countries, for instance the UK and Australia, issues passports with a ten year life. Not five as is done by Canada. To make the renewal process easy Australia sends the passport renewal form out in the mail to remind the holder that their passport is about to expire and all they have to do to review it is complete and then sign the renewal form and return it in order for a new passport to show up in the mail a few weeks later. How easy is that! And remember this is all being done in a country that was settled originally as a penal colony. In Canada, the onus is on you to remember when your passport expires and to renew it you have to go through the exact same process that you had to do to get the first passport, which is the same process that a brand new immigrant would have to do once they become Canadian citizens. In other words after five years you not only have to submit your current passport, but you also have to submit proof of Canadian Citizenship and documents to support our identities again. You also have to get another guarantor to declare that you are who you say you are. Why the submission of the current passport is not enough I will never know.

When you are abroad, the process is made more complex since you must use a guarantor who has known you for at least two years. The guarantor can be a lawyer, dentist or engineer but they must work in the area from which you are submitting your application. So even though we know professionals who fall into this category here in Malaysia we can not use them since they are not working here. To get around this we can complete yet another form Statutory Declaration in Lieu of Guarantor and pay an authorized individual, who we have never met before, a certain sum of money so they can declare that we are who we state we are and then send this in with our passport application, photos, proof of citizenship, documents to support our identity, current passport and of course $100 CAD and then hopefully upon a thorough review of some bureaucrat in Ottawa some weeks later receive a renewed passport.

We have been in touch with the Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and are happy to find that our contact is very friendly and responsive. We hope that’s a good sign.

Dentists

When we left Ottawa, a couple of friends expressed their concerns about the sort of medical and dental care that would be available to us in the tropics. Both Darrel and I have now had enough experience to enable us to say, “No worries, Mate”.

First let me say that we have not had any serious medical emergencies, although a number of other yachties have. The medical attention received has always been top-notch and affordable. Most of us yachties don’t have medical insurance, but now that we have been to pharmacies, doctors and emergency clinics, we feel fairly confident that we can afford to live without insurance (yes, I have knocked wood on that).

But both Darrel and I have had to visit the dentist. Darrel has had a couple of extractions and is going to investigate tooth implants in Thailand. I hate visiting the dentist, but recently a rogue wisdom tooth had been creating cleaning problems for me, so I was giving some thought to having it pulled.

While anchored outside the city of Kuah, Langkawi, Malaysia, Darrel and I took advantage of the great shops and services there and even ordered a new battery for our Toshiba computer. We had to wait a number of days for delivery, so I decided, at Darrel's suggestion, to get my wisdom tooth pulled in Kuah.

We stopped into "Dr. Chew's" - no kidding - a lovely little Chinese woman with a very professional outfit. At 11:00 we were able to make a same-day appointment for 5:00. By 5:30 my tooth was out ... for the cost of $20 Canadian and including a packet of pain killers. Turns out I only needed one pill. She had suggested ice packs to keep the swelling down, but we have no ice on CanKata so Darrel suggested a cold can of beer, something we always have on CanKata, and it worked. I used two cans.

As I said, I usually hate going to the dentist, but who wouldn’t feel confident going to a “Dr. Chew”.

Waiting out the storm

Email from Darrel to our son Dylan on September 30, 2009:

We left Langkawi on Sept. 22 expecting to arrive in Phuket on Sept. 29. Our third day out was quite windy, i.e. gusts up to 38 knots (about 80 KPH) and we were heading directly into 10 foot seas. The boat that we were sailing with shredded their main sail so we were quite glad to finally reach our next anchorage. We have been holed up here - in Ko Rok Nok - for the past 5 days and we don't expect to get out of here for another couple of days. Fortunately this is the absolute best anchorage in this whole area. It has crystal clear water and the snorkeling is about as good as it gets.

We are in good company with two other sailing yachts and about 30 commercial fishing vessels. Last night brought some excitement when jenny (our wind generator) woke us up when the wind gusted up to 40 knots. We went out to the cockpit just in time to see a raft of 10 of these large fishing vessels start to drag and they had to quickly untie from each other and take control of their vessels before they came drifting down onto us yachts. Thankfully there was no rain and the visibility was good. The captains all did a great job of avoiding hitting any of us although there were some pretty anxious moments.

After all the fishing vessels that were up wind of us left and re-anchored behind us Loretta and I went back to bed. We did not sleep all that well since one of the yachts was on a mooring ball located quite close behind us. We knew that if the mooring that we were secured to let go, which they sometimes do, we would have little time to react.

Loretta did prepare CanKata for a quick exit in case we did begin to drift. Once daylight broke I noticed that the yacht behind us was no longer there. Just before daybreak they broke free from their mooring and began to drift down on the fishing vessels. Luckily the captain was awake and in the cockpit when it happened so they were able to take control quickly and go to another nearby mooring. Aliens from above who were watching us probably thought we were playing a game of boat hopscotch.

October 2: We have left Ko Rok Nok after waiting for seven days for seas and winds to calm. That week was wonderful - lots of snorkeling, odd boat jobs, visiting with our buddy boat, and watching movies. Today is a perfect day for sailing. We even caught a fish - a 15 pound barracuda! We plan to get to Phuket on Monday to avoid weekend check-in rates and to eventually get this update posted.

Another Dentist Story

By Darrel

Try to imagine this. You have recently had some dental work completed while traveling in another country, province or state and you need to get your stitches removed upon your return home. Instead of using your regular dentist you pop your head into a dentist’s office whom you have never used before. You tell the dental receptionist that you are there to have some stitches removed that were put in by another dentist from another state, province or country and you think the procedure should only cost $1.75 CAD. You take one of the last remaining empty chairs and prepare yourself for a lengthy wait due to the number of people seated in the waiting room. Before you dig out your specs and open a magazine that you can’t read since it is written in Thai script a dental assistant comes and calls your name – although it was pronounced somewhat differently than what you are used to hearing. You enter the room and there waiting is the dentist who you tell your story to and she immediately sits you down, opens your mouth, takes a gander and asks the dental assistant for the necessary instrument. The dentist removes the three stitches while the assistant holds the suction hose and after a few minutes the dentist sits you up straight and tells you to rinse and at the same time gives instructions for follow-up treatment.

Unbelievable as it seems this is based on a true story. The only difference is that I did not tell the receptionist that I only expected to pay MR 5 (or $1.75 CAD).

Passport update

By Darrel

Further to my last story I received a note from my favorite son – Dylan who told me that Passport Canada has made some improvements lately and to renew a passport you no longer have to prove to the government that you are the same person who you were five years ago. I was pleased to hear this news and immediately sent an email off to the Canadian Embassy in Malaysia who we had previously communicated with about our passport renewal asking them if the recent changes would also apply to Loretta and me. The way the process works when you are abroad is that you complete all the forms and submit all the necessary documents, proof of identity and funds to the local Canadian Embassy who review the application and then send it off to Ottawa for processing the new passport. Given this process I naturally assumed that the improvements would also apply to us, which meant we would not have to run around and find a Commissioner for oaths, lawyer or notary public – or pay the additional cost for this service. Well by the time we had to submit our renewal application we had still not heard back from the Embassy so we decided to bite the bullet and follow the procedures as we were previously told. We had gathered all the necessary documents, completed the forms, had our photos taken, visited an ATM, and purchased a bank draft so now all we had to do was find a commissioner for oaths, as per the Passport Canada instructions, to sign our Statutory Declaration in Lieu of Guarantor form, photos, copies of our proof of identity etc. After following a few misled instructions as to where we would find this commissioner we finally found him sitting up in a small very disorganized and smoky office. After verifying that he was in fact a commissioner for oaths, we politely introduced ourselves and told him that we were there to have him sign off on our Canadian Passport application. He took a big drag on his cigarette and while exhaling he looked at us and said how can I sign off your application without knowing you are who you say you are. We told him that that is what our government has told us what we need to do but that we totally agreed and politely thanked him and excused ourselves. We then decided to go to a Malaysian Lawyer who may cost a bit more but would hopefully be in a more professional environment. So off we went in search of a lawyer who we found not more than a block away. The lawyer had a nice clean office and she invited us in without having to make an appointment. Without any questions she signed off on all of our forms etc, charged us a reasonable fee and we then headed directly to the post office so we could send off our application to the Embassy. As we dropped the package in the box we both felt a sense of trepidation. It is a bit worrisome being in a foreign country without a passport. For those of you still working it would be like sitting in a meeting without having any pants on – not that there is anything wrong with that.

Once we sent off the applications we decided to celebrate and to do that we raised anchor and headed off to a nice secluded anchorage a few hours away from Kuah. We planned on staying at this anchorage for six days but on the second day we received an email from the Malaysian Embassy and they informed us that the passport application fee has gone up MR20 (which is less than $7.00 CAD for the two of us). Not only that but because we are applying from abroad we have to send in two more references for a total of four. Don’t ask me why. So our celebration came to an abrupt end as we raised anchor and headed back to Kuah so we could send off the additional fee by express mail.

After sending the cash in the mail we thought we would hold off on celebrating and decided to stay put for a day or two. Lucky that we did because the next day we received another email stating that we forgot to send in our birth certificates along with our application. I immediately realized that I had completely forgotten to send in the original birth certificates because I was sending in photocopies of our other proof of identification which Passport Canada allowed provided the lawyer signs off on them stating they are the same as the originals. This was my mistake so without a lot of grumbling and cursing off we went to the post office for the third time to send another express mail off to the Malaysian Embassy.

It has now been a week since we have heard from the embassy so we are hoping that everything is in order and the application has been sent off to Ottawa for processing. We are already wondering where we will be in four and a half years when we will have to repeat this tedious task.

(Note: we received our new passports within the timeframe promised. L.)

Pay it forward

By Darrel

The other night we were socializing with some friends who we had not seen for almost a year and we were discussing our land tours to Cambodia and Vietnam. One of the topics that came up was poverty amongst the people. Our friends told us how they handled their guilt by setting a monthly budget for charitable donations to the needy. Loretta and I found that a great idea so we discussed it later and agreed that we too would set aside a monthly budget for helping the poor.

The day following this discussing and agreement Loretta and I were checking out of Malaysia so we could head off to Thailand. To avoid carrying a bunch of loose change, we headed to the counter to pay for one of our last purchases which was a loaf of bread and as we were standing in line we were carefully counting out our change. As we got to the till and placed our change on the counter in an organized fashion the man who was standing ahead of us turned and looked at us and asked us if we had enough money for the bread. He gestured an offering of money in case we were short. We thanked him for his offering and told him that we were only trying to get rid of our change. Perhaps he and his wife also had a budget set aside for the needy.

Another CanKata policy

By Darrel

Since we have been cruising Loretta and I have continually set rules to improve our lifestyle and to learn from our mistakes. We don’t mind making a mistake once but we hate repeating them. We have rules such as; no smoking permitted, only drink alcohol on weekends, eating our main meal at lunch time, dressing or undressing as you feel comfortable, work in the morning and play and relax in the afternoon, etc.

Our most recent policy is to take our handheld GPS to bed with us when we are tied up to a mooring ball instead of using our own anchor.

Recently we were tied up to a Thailand National Park mooring ball at Ko Rok Nok and we had settled down to watch a movie. As we were watching the movie we noticed the wind picked up and with it a bit of a surge started coming into our anchorage. This didn’t cause us any concern since this is where we were during our last passage to Thailand during a huge blow and we safely rode it out on one of these moorings. When the movie ended I sat up and looked around at our location and knew immediately that we were dragging. Not only were we dragging but also we were very close to being blown up onto the reef and rocky lined shore. Our mooring line had snapped and we were not dragging but moving along at a fairly good speed.

We both reacted quickly and got CanKata out of harms way and found another mooring ball to tie up to for the remainder of the night.

That night, as we will repeat again when we are tied up to a mooring ball, we set our GPS to anchor watch so that if we broke or dragged this mooring an alarm would go off and wake us up.

Best wishes for 2010!

Darrel and I would like to wish you all the best for 2010. We’re curious: do people mostly say twenty-ten or is it two-thousand-and-ten?

We had a wonderful potluck Christmas on the beach with twenty other yachties from Britain, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Columbia, and Canada. We had met up on Christmas Eve at a sweet little restaurant and then in the evening tied our dinghies together to snack and drink together and make a feeble attempt at singing Christmas carols. Even without snow, gifts and pine trees, Christmas can be pretty special.

CanKata brought in the New Year by also celebrating the Blue Moon. We had recently decided that we would declare CanKata a Kingdom on every blue moon (which only happens once in a blue moon), so this New Year’s Eve was truly a royal event. Our friends Jill and Robert from S/Y Fat Annie joined us, as well as my cousin Elaine from England. Elaine had brought the girls tiaras, Darrel and I wore faux-velvet robes, Robert made his crown from a silver wine bag, and Darrel made his from a cereal box and seashells. We had wine, champagne and mudslides. We ate olives straight from Greece, cheese, sushi and Thai spring rolls. We were the only people on the water in Kamala bay (all the other yachties had gone ashore to celebrate). It seemed very magical and mystical under the big full moon. There were hours of fireworks all around the bay. The Thais have a custom of setting off big fire lanterns as “offerings” – they glow beautifully and float up in the air like a hot-air balloon. On New Year’s Eve, hundreds were in the sky – absolutely beautiful. We raised our Kingdom of CanKata flag, made our Royal Proclamations, which stated that on every blue moon, all our children, their children, and their children, etc. for perpetuity, become Royal Family. Next one is 2012.

We swam at 0300, trying to stay up to watch the moon set (which would be the closing of the Kingdom) but gave up at 0430.

We have also recently celebrated our “Annual Staff Party” with just the two of us and all of our employees (you know them: Jenny the wind generator, Otto the auto pilot, etc.). We welcomed our newest employees: the Cover Girls (new exterior upholstery), Charlie Chain (for the anchor), Tubby Twins (my amazing $80 washer-spin dryer that weighs 22 pounds and takes just 90 watts of electricity at 220 volts), Battery Boys (new starter and house batteries), and last but not least, Buzz Head (our fabulous electric toilet). We ate chicken with stuffing and all the fixings, had speeches, did a review of the year (log books and photos) and had some silly fun. It took us two days to complete all the formalities, and have thus declared that henceforth, all our annual staff parties will be a two-day affair.

I think its pretty evident that we like to party.

Trip to the Surin Islands – January 2010

In January, we spent a couple of weeks in Thailand’s Surin Islands – northwest of the island of Phuket. We traveled with our good friends Robert and Jill of Fat Annie.

The Surins were remote and beautiful, but the beaches were nasty at low tide – full of ragged coral. There was a great canteen at our main anchorage, with good food and cheap prices, so we managed to make our way to shore every day. Sometimes we swam partway, sometimes we wore our beach shoes and walked carefully over the coral, and sometimes the tide cooperated and we were able to dinghy all the way in to shore.

The snorkeling – a daily activity - was amazing. Twice we booked tours on long-tail boats to get us to distant sites, and were treated to “drift snorkels” where they dropped us off at one spot, let us get dragged in the strong current, then picked us up further down to where we had drifted. I tried once to swim against the current. Even with fins on, it was nearly impossible.

The skies were also amazing, with few lights from civilization to ruin the view. Mars was just starting to rise at sunset, close to Darrel’s constellation, Gemini, and opposite the setting Jupiter in the west sky – something fun to watch for each night.

A fishing boat sunk while we were there. It was a sad sight, knowing that at least one family would be devastated by the loss. Darrel dinghied over to lend a hand, and ferried the captain of the rescue vessel ashore so that he could check out the beach as a possible landing site – it wasn’t. We also left the captain of the sunken vessel a small donation, hoping it would help soften the blow of his loss, but knowing it wouldn’t make much difference at all.

We had time to do some deep cleaning of CanKata while in the Surins, and made two wonderful discoveries: martini glasses in the forward hold, and five bottles of Pinot Noir under the shoe locker. It occurred to me later that we should have had the first bottle out of our martini glasses.

When leaving the Surins, we saw a whale. It was a nice farewell.

Clapping for Crab

I have a favourite restaurant on the beach at Nai Yang in Phuket. Darrel isn’t terribly fond of it, but I enjoy their excellent seafood. The menu has a variety of “Carb” dishes – which are actually CRAB dishes, but we never criticize the Thais for their spelling because they do such a good job of speaking and writing English, while all we know are a few words of Thai (and forget about ever writing in their script).

One day I ordered a steamed crab. The owner was happy with my choice, because he had just caught the crab that morning. It was a very messy meal, and I went to the kitchen to ask if I could wash my hands. The owner pointed me to the tub of water they would be using for washing the dishes. I was reluctant to dump my messy hands in the clean water, and looked to the owner’s wife for assistance. She grabbed a small scoop and started pouring water over my hands.

“You clap”, she said.

So I clapped, guessing that it must be a method of economising on water while cleaning your hands, and, as a result, splashed water over the two of us. We both giggled. Then I looked for clarification. “Clap?” because it all seemed a bit silly.

“Yes”, she said, “you had clap”.

“Oh, yes”, I said as I stopped clapping, finally understanding. “I had the crab”. She wiped off her splashed face and gave me a big smile. “Good?”

Yes, it was very, very good. Worth clapping for.

A cruising coincidence – March 2010

By Darrel

About two years ago as we were cruising through the Isles des Pines which lie to the south of New Caledonia Loretta and I found a beautiful remote anchorage in a very well protected bay which was almost completely surrounded by land. It was one of the most beautiful anchorages that we have come across and so we remained there for about a week.

About two days following our arrival two other boats, New Dawn and Monkey’s Business, found there way into this tricky anchorage and shortly after anchoring they came over and invited us to their boat for sundowners (probably to avoid feeling guilty about stealing our seclusion). We joined them and had a lot of fun playing a new game that they taught us, i.e., Asshole, which we have renamed Winners and Losers. The next night we reciprocated by having them on board CanKata for sundowners. At some point during the evening we asked our visitors if they would be so kind as to write in our visitor logbook, which we try to remember to have our new acquaintances sign but often forget.

The two boats left the next day and we said goodbye and said we hope to see you somewhere down the line.

During our recent trip to the Surin Islands we met another boat, Nereid, who we had briefly met earlier this year. We shared time together with Ray and Judy and during one of the evenings on CanKata we remembered to ask them to sign our visitor logbook. Unfortunately the evening went on and the book got ignored until it was time for our new friends to return to their boat. Judy was quite eager to put an entry into our book so she asked if she could take the book home with her and return it in the morning. After subjecting her to a sobriety test and a strip search to ensure that was all she was taking we decided to trust her with our valuable book, which we have never let off the boat before.

The next morning Loretta went over to Nereid to give them some assistance with their computer and while she was there Judy said, “Our son was on your boat”. Loretta, a bit puzzled by Judy’s statement, replied, “I am sorry Judy but I don’t understand what you are saying”. Judy reiterated, “My son was on your boat”. Loretta was still not getting it so Judy explained that when she went to fill in their entry into our visitor’s book she decided to glance through some of the previous entries, something that most people do not get the opportunity to do since they are usually trying to get the task done as quickly as possible. As Judy was flipping through the pages she noticed a sketch, which a few visitors do to accompany their entry, which appeared to be similar to a logo that her son made up for their boat New Dawn. Upon closer examination she saw that her son in fact wrote the entry during our time we spent together in the Isles des Pines.

We spent a few more evenings with Ray and Judy before heading different ways and during one of the evenings we taught them how to play Winners and Losers.

Turning Water into Wine – April 2010

We were anchored at Ko Rang Yai with just a few other boats. Our friend John was visiting us, and we were enjoying a quiet round of sundowners, having had our late-afternoon swim and baths and shampoos. We were at the front of the boat, making the most of a cool breeze on the bow.

We noticed a dinghy coming our way. It had been launched from a large charter catamaran, and contained three people. It was evident that they were on some sort of a mission, and the mission involved a rendezvous with CanKata.

“Hello, do you speak English?” asked the driver of the dinghy in a German accent. Getting a positive response, he explained the mandate of the mission. “We need drinking water. We have wine to trade. Do you have drinking water to spare?”

“Of course”, we answered. Who wouldn’t give up their drinking water for some wine? But, as luck would have it, they were looking for mineral water in bottles. We were offering water from our tank – reverse-osmosis water – water that didn’t come in bottles.

But, as luck would have it, they (or at least one member of the crew) were desperate. First they had to return to their mother ship, collect some empty water bottles, confirm with the thirsty member of the crew that reverse-osmosis water was acceptable, and then return to CanKata for the exchange. As our friend John put it, we turned water into wine.

It was lovely South African wine – red, rich, warm, smooth, and not watery at all.

And we shared it with the diplomatic envoy. Three of them, three of us – Germans and Canadians in Thailand enjoying South African wine.

Cracked CanKata – April 2010

We were hoping to get a mooring ball at Ko Racha Yai, but they were all taken, so we had to drop the anchor.

We found a lovely sandy spot – clearly visible in 45 feet - and then Darrel let out the required scope (5 to 1 which means he let out over 200 feet). We pulled back on the anchor to make sure it had a good hold, and then shut off the engines after both of us agreed that we were snug.

John was visiting with us when we stopped at Racha Yai. We went ashore for a nice but too-expensive Thai meal, did some snorkelling and beach combing on the north side of the island, and then returned to the south side to refresh ourselves on CanKata and then do some more snorkelling around the boat before happy hour.

When we snorkelled around CanKata, Darrel and I noticed that our chain was sitting on a “bommy”, which is what the Aussies call a coral head. We had a conference and decided that after our snorkel, we would move CanKata to avoid getting the chain caught on that pesky bommy. The three of us snorkelled for quite a while. It wasn’t the best spot we’d seen, but the water was refreshing and the day was hot (actually, hot to very hot), so we weren’t in a rush for happy hour.

But we should have been in more of a hurry. While we were snorkelling, the tide shifted and our anchor chain did in fact get wrapped around the bommy. Bummer. With Darrel in the water, Loretta at the helm and John at the anchor controls, we twisted and turned and made CanKata do some spectacular gymnastics to get that chain free. We succeeded, but in doing so we pulled too hard on the chain and crunched the fibreglass on our bowsprit. Oops. It wasn’t too serious in the short run, but CanKata’s strength had been compromised and we didn’t want her to stay that way for long.

A couple of weeks later we were in Ao Po Grand Marina – a visit we had planned for some welding that needed doing on our dinghy davits. Darrel found a fibreglass worker on the docks and made arrangements for the repairs. We are happy to announce that CanKata’s bowsprit is better than ever – strong and shiny and ready to take on the next bommy.

BBQ overboard – April 2010

We arrived at Ao Po Grand Marina in Phuket, Thailand on April 9, the day before our visitor John had to fly back to Canada. Darrel had called ahead to arrange for some welding repairs: one of the stainless steel bars that our dinghy hangs from was showing signs of cracking, and therefore needed to be fixed and reinforced.

The welders arrived on time with all the necessary tools. Darrel had prepped the site, and disconnected that barbeque from the gas tank so that the hose wouldn’t be in the way of the welder.

Unfortunately, the welder used the barbeque to lean on, broke it off its base and knocked it into the brink. If Darrel hadn’t been thoughtful and disconnected it, it would have hung by the hose and wouldn’t have sunk. But it was disconnected and it sunk.

We weren’t alarmed at all. In fact, we chuckled at the misfortune. The barbeque hadn’t been working very well for a long time, and we were planning on getting a new one in the near future, so the accident meant that we were finally forced to get our act together and get a new barbeque.

So we told the welder not to worry, it was no big deal, and continued with all the other phrases we hoped a Thai would understand in order to get across the message that we were glad the barbeque was in the brink.

But the Thais are special people, and not likely to knock a barbeque in the brink and leave it there.

So the welder fished and fished for the barbeque with no luck, and then finally found someone with the ability to dive in 25-feet-deep murky marina water. The diver retrieved our barbeque, cleaned it thoroughly, and returned it to us with a huge smile.

But for a barbeque on its last leg, the dunk in the brink was the last straw. No amount of coaxing was going to get that barbeque lit again. We waited until the welders had been off-site for a few days, and then left our 18-year-old barbeque at the garbage-pick-up spot beside our boat. “Madame”, called the dock attendant who was picking up the garbage, “is this garbage?”

“Yes!” I replied.

“Yes? Garbage? But can be fixed!”

“No. No can fix. Garbage!”

After this discussion, laughter follows. I laugh because I know the dock attendant thinks we’re crazy for throwing away the lovely little Force10 stainless steel nearly-working barbeque. He laughs because we’re crazy and as a result he now owns a lovely little stainless steel barbeque that simply needs some rust remover, polish, TLC and clever modifications to make it just like new.

Darrel spent three days, not laughing, on the Internet before he found an affordable good-quality barbeque to replace our old Force10.

A Thai 5-year-old – April 2010

We met Nam Wawn at “Happy Hut” – a delightful Thai restaurant just a short walk from Ao Po Marina. We are guessing at the spelling of her name, because if we had asked her mother to write it, she would have written it in Thai script.

Her mother, Ying, is the cook at Happy Hut. We ate there nearly every day that we were at Ao Po Marina – which turned out to be nearly two weeks because the Water Festival Holiday, known as Songkran in Thailand, delayed the making of our shade canopy.

We had some wonderful meals at the Happy Hut – green curry, sweet and sour chicken, lemon soup, Phad Thai, noodles and vegetables in gravy, and sometimes, as a special treat, “French-fried”.

When we first saw Nam Wawn, we thought she was a little unsociable. She ignored us and was strictly focussed on her faux-laptop. She must have read our minds and decided to prove us wrong, for on April 18 she was extremely sociable.

Little Nam Wawn (with face as pretty and hair as black as Snow White’s, as one could see when inspecting her Snow White flip-flops) decided to join us for lunch on April 18. Dressed in a sweet “Barbie” outfit (it’s amazing what brands are global), she plunked herself down at our table and became the boss of our lunch.

And, yes, she was bossy. She shook her head in dismay when Darrel salted his French-fried. She actually spoon-fed me my green curry soup. She wrote us out a bogus bill. She made us wipe up our little spills. She powdered out faces with her mom’s makeup brush. She made certain that she was the centre of attention.

But she was delightful. We were hoping to learn a few Thai words from her, but quickly gave up on that idea. She knew many English words, and wanted to demonstrate her huge grasp of our language. As she spoon-fed me my soup, she found a carrot, delicately centred it on the spoon, carefully lifted it to my mouth, and announced, “carrot”. She sifted around in the soup, but maybe didn’t know the word for cauliflower, mint leaf, prawn or green bean, because she kept digging out the carrots. “Carrot”, she would announce as she gave me another mouthful.

We wanted her to count for us in Thai. But that just wasn’t going to happen. “One, two, three, four, five”, she counted in English as she laid out the toothpicks from our toothpick holder. Then she went to the next table, gathered up the toothpicks from it’s holder, brought them back to our table, laid them out, and proudly counted to twelve. I wondered if she knew the ABCs in English. So I started singing the song. She quickly covered my mouth with her hand, shook her head “no”, and then used the same toothpicks to count out the alphabet. ABCDEFGHIJKL. We know that if we had more toothpicks, she would have made it all the way to Z.

Then she found some paper and a pen, and wrote us our bogus bill. Darrel borrowed her paper and pen and drew an elephant. “Elephant”, Nam Wawn declared with delight. Then Darrel drew an airplane. “Airplane”, she said, not to be stumped. Then she drew a number of clouds around the plane. “Can you draw a flower?” Darrel asked. She drew a flower, a delicate and spiked variety that a visitor to Thailand would recognize. Then she fed me a couple of more spoonfuls of my soup. “Carrot”, she pointed out as she slid another one into my mouth. When I finally finished my soup, she handed us her bogus bill.

Darrel discreetly paid the real bill, and we gave our new Thai friend a “high-five” good-bye.

Lightening Show – April 2010

On April 18, the same day we met Man Wawn, the day was more than very hot. It was VERY VERY hot. After lunch at the Happy Hut, we returned to CanKata and sprayed down, rested in the shade, and then I decided to walk up to the marina office for some ice. I noticed on the long walk that there were huge clouds building to the north. “Uhoh”, I said to myself.

Back at CanKata, I put some of the ice in a bucket, added a bit of water, soaked a washcloth, and then mopped my face and neck with the cold cloth. “Try this!” I said to Darrel, and for the next couple of minutes we were deliriously happy as we cooled ourselves down with the ice water. Then we got serious and mixed ourselves a couple of gin and tonics. With ice and lime. Yum.

By this time the sun was setting, so we plunked ourselves down in our bean bags at the front of CanKata, enjoying the superb colours of a Thai sunset, our “GnT’s”, the cooling afternoon, and the amazing clouds on the northern horizon.

“Are we going to watch a movie tonight”, I ask Darrel. Today is an even day, so Darrel has to make any decisions required. I have to be the decision-maker on the odd days. We balance this responsibility with the perk of getting to play our favourite music on our days.

“Yes, let’s watch a movie. But what’s the weather going to do?” Darrel ponders.

We decide that we’ll watch the movie in the cockpit rather than up front on the bow, so that it will be easy to move everything indoors if it starts to rain.

I make the popcorn, Darrel sets up the computer and headphones and beanbags, and we move to the cockpit to watch a Nicholas Cage movie to see if we enjoy his acting. We have recently decided that maybe he isn’t quite as good as we once thought (after watching the dreadful “Wicker Man”). This will be a test.

But as soon as we enter the cockpit, the wind begins to howl. It is so strong that a canvas side panel rips. We quickly move everything inside CanKata and slam the doors shut. We turn on the wind gauge and clock the maximum gusts at 40 knots. The docks of the marina creak and groan, but CanKata is securely tied and we’re safe. But the winds are blowing at the back of CanKata and creating enormous strain on her canvas. If we were at anchor, the boat would turn to windward and CanKata would be an airfoil … the wind would glide over her.

The wind stops after 45 minutes. The strongest gusts didn’t last long at all. When the wind dies, Darrel and I go back into the cockpit, but have given up on the movie. Instead, we use the remaining ice for mud slides (Kahlua + Bailey’s + rum) and watch the light show.

We have never in our lives seen such magnificent lightening.

How do we describe what we have seen? Star bursts, atomic bombs, multi-fingered bolts, lightening that started on the horizon then shot upwards, lightening that played around the few brave airplanes in the sky (we’re very near an airport), bright white bursts, deep yellow forks, rat-a-tat-tat bolts, and now I’m out of words. There was one burst that had us sucking in our breaths and it continued for so long that we nearly burst our lungs. Darrel suggested that Thailand should promote its lightening as a tourist attraction. It was truly that amazing.

Then the power went out in the marina. But CanKata has her own power, so I am happy to advise that the ice didn’t melt.

CanKata goes undercover

By Darrel

Over the past six months CanKata has had a number of new, or refurbished, covers tended to. It all started during our trip to Thailand last October where we found a nice local shop handy to our anchorage where they do canvas and sail repairs. We took our very weathered, but still completely functional, horseshoe life buoy in and asked Dum the manager if it could be recovered. She said “no problem”. When we got it back, Loretta and I were very impressed so we took in our emergency life sling and had it recovered. Again, Dum and her staff amazed us. So then we went on a search to see what else needed to be recovered. Our cockpit cushions were scheduled to be recovered in Turkey, after transiting the sand blown Red Sea, however we thought this was too good an opportunity to pass up. We also noticed that our trolling rod was wearing on the bottom from reeling in those huge fish that we invited on board for dinner. We also thought it would be a good idea to have a cover made up to protect the reel and line from the salt and ultra-violet rays. So we made up a pattern for the rod condom and the reel cover, collected the cockpit cushions and made yet another visit to see Dum and her gals. Before leaving that anchorage we took in some of our canopy components and had some minor repairs made to them as well. We were sure glad to have met Dum.

About two months ago we were back in the same Thailand anchorage and we took CanKitty in to have a dinghy cover made. The fabric was showing signs of deterioration due to acid rain from our time spent in Lake Ontario, so to prolong the life of the dinghy we had a new tightly fitting cover made that makes it look like new.

About two weeks ago we had to enter a marina in Thailand to get some welding work done so we took this opportunity to have a guy who specializes in rain/shade covers come to visit CanKata so we could see what could be done to give us a cooler and dryer cockpit. With the wet season being imminent we knew this was something we really had to do even though we had already blown our budget for this year. However, as luck would have it we filed our income tax on-line the day we arrived in the marina and before leaving the marina two weeks later we received a tax refund that was the same amount as the cost of our new rain/shade cover. You have probably already guessed what name we have given to this new item: Tax shelter.

Just a word of warning to all CanKata’s crew and visitors; if you sit too long in one spot, you just may end up with a custom fit cover.

Our Canada Trip: May 13 – 25 2010

What a journey! Too many hours in an airplane, too many hours in airports, and not enough hours in Canada … but like a good friend once said: After four days, fish and company should be tossed out. We send huge thanks to our welcoming hosts who spoiled us rotten, provided comfortable beds, delicious meals, and scads of fun. We were so busy, we often forgot to take photographs, but there were still photo shoots galore. Some of the special events:

- Being greeted at airports by family and friends

- Seeing and hugging family and friends

- Hospitality galore

- Meeting the Fourth Generation – the kids of our nieces and nephews

- Lounging in the Langford backyard

- Lounging on the deck at Blackstrap lake

- A steak and prawn feast at the Langfords

- A turkey feast at Blackstrap

- A barbecue and two very special lunches in Moose Jaw

- The Snowbird flypast

- A Prairie Safari

- Pancake breakfast at the citizen centre

- Hugging Gus

- Seeing Dylan, Laura, Tehja and Taylor again

- Playing with Dylan, Laura, Tehja and Taylor

- PEI lobster and clam chowder

- Reunion with PEI friends

- Touring PEI

- Being with Dylan, Laura, Tehja and Taylor

Hong Kong – May 27 & 28 2010

On our way back to Malaysia, we stopped in Hong Kong for a few days to tour the city. And what a city: huge, tall buildings galore and people everywhere. We took advantage of the hop-on hop-off bus and travelled up and down the routes, stopping here and there and everywhere to see what was to be seen: an Opera House, Madame Tussaud’s wax museum, antique dealers, a tram car, shops, more shops, restaurants, more restaurants, parks, locals practicing Tai Chi, green markets and art markets. We had some great Chinese soups and noodle dishes. We slept soundly in our cheap but spotlessly clean guesthouse right in the heart of town. We used the rapid transit system. We seldom got lost. We got sore necks from looking up at all the tall buildings. We had a great time.

Loretta’s Dad

On June 12 2010, after 92 years of living a wonderful life, my Dad – August Louis Sagal - passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by loved ones. He had suffered from cancer for over a year and was at a point where he could no longer swallow even liquids, so it is a good thing that he is no longer suffering. I am so thankful that he was laughing and happy when we visited him in Canada.

My Dad was an upbeat and considerate man. When anyone asked him how he was doing, it was always “110%!” He was a family man, loving the time he got to spend with his kids and 16 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. He was an inspiration to me. When I was just a kid, he and a couple of his buddies built a houseboat so we could spend many a wild weekend on Buffalo Pound Lake. I fell in love with life on the water, and now find myself living on the water. My Dad taught me how to fish and hunt, how to respect nature, and how to think and live independently. When I think of my Dad, my heart is full of good memories, loads of love and immense gratitude.

CanKata Getting Painted – July 2010

The first four years of CanKata’s life were spent in charter service, and the wear and tear on her from the constant use of non-owners is visible. We haven’t helped: while we had her in North America, we had to have her hauled every winter and have her mast removed. When we sailed through the rivers and canals to New York, we also had to have her mast removed so we could navigate under the many bridges. As a result of all this, CanKata’s sides, mast and boom are in need of a paint job.

So we are now in Boat Lagoon Marina on the island of Phuket, Thailand. Darrel and I are staying in a cheap hotel room and CanKata is enjoying a solid stay “on the hard” as she gets primed and primped and tended to. We are taking advantage of the services of the marina and getting fridge repairs, welding (for our new barbeque), the propellers balanced and refinished, and other stuff like that. (Photo: getting the mast ready for removal).

KEEPING BUSY:

Darrel visits CanKata every day. Our contractor, Mr. Oh (we call his four painters the O Team), talks with Darrel on a regular basis so there are no surprises. I visit CanKata about once a week and find more things I would like painted, like bathroom taps, doors, and toilet seats. I polish all the stainless steel hardware that was removed for the painting and do general cleaning. Darrel has a “to do” list a mile long. His current job is painting the bilges.

He comes back to the room very smelly, so we have moved our mini washer-spinner to the room so I can keep on top of the smelly laundry. We really miss jumping into the sea to freshen up and catching rainwater for rinsing our clothes.

We bought a couple of cheap bikes and have had a few long rides to the shopping mall (takes us 35 minutes one-way) and a few shorter tours in the neighbourhood. The roads are very busy with traffic so it’s a little hairy, but the drivers are pretty considerate.

For lunch, which is our main meal, we head to a local spot here in the marina year (informally known as Mama’s – there is no sign posted nor any name on the menu) that serves up the best Thai food on the island. Here’s what we have, with each of our favourites heading the list:

- Fried cashew nut with chicken and vegetables

- Sweet & sour chicken and vegetables

- Phad Thai (with chicken or prawn)

- Green curry (with chicken or prawn)

- Masaman curry – comes with potatoes (the only dish that does)

- Tom yam soup (with chicken or prawn)

- Papaya salad

There is always a jug of water on the table and we are provided with glasses of ice – for free. The dishes cost 40, 50 or 60 baht. A plate of steamed rice costs 10 baht. The total bill for our lunch is usually 100 baht. That’s $3.50. And that’s our main meal. And the service is so friendly. The clientele is regular, mostly local workers, so it’s quite homey. Most the locals help themselves to lunch from a buffet assortment of dishes that we can’t recognize. We order from the menu except when the masaman curry is part of the buffet. The eatery is out-doors, under a canopy, so there are flies and noise and smells, but large fans keep us cool and we are protected from the rain. It’s really quite wonderful.

We brought back some Logic Problem puzzle books from Canada, and tackle one a day. We were thinking this might keep our minds sharp but mostly have proven that our minds can be pretty dim. Sometimes we just give up and watch a National Geographic show on the television, such as “Air Crash Investigation” which makes us wonder if we should ever fly again.

We read at bedtime. In the cruising community, one can always find a book exchange or another cruiser with books to exchange, so we always have a good (and eclectic) supply of books. Our latest favourites have been the Stieg Larsson series.

We are learning Thai, including reading and writing the Thai script. We didn’t set any specific goal, except that we would spend one hour a day on our lessons. I also spend time on lesson planning, so am getting quite good at the script. If only I knew how to put it all together to mean something. We’re both doing well, each with our different strengths that make for a good team. But we are VERY far from being able to have meaningful conversations in Thai. But we enjoy our lessons, and the Thais seem to appreciate our efforts.

ABOUT TWO WEEKS TO GO

We hope to be back in the water by mid September. The monsoon season will be over shortly after that, and then we can get back to the west side of Phuket, back to the beaches, back to the beautiful water, back to the life that we love. But as we watch CanKata transform into a shining beauty, we know that life on the hard has been worth it.

Until next time,

Best Regards,

Loretta and Darrel,

S/Y CanKata