Well it's midnight in Singapore and just turning Saturday 16thy. There is a howling "Sumatra" passing over us with a following squall line and the wind has topped at around 40knots so it is a good time to sit and write. Just when you thought you could have a good sleep..............

Our steering is once again working fine. The hydraulic cylinders have been replaced and the autopilot reset so it is all sysems go once again.

We have topped up on diesel and have about 500l aboard for the motorsail down to Sunda Strait. There is no sea room for us during the first 4 days of the trip and headwinds so a motor we will go.

The canvas man delivers the new dinks cover on Monday or Tuesday so theoretically we can sail Wednesday but I am tipping Friday as we still need to hit the shops and visit the zoo. Not to mention the new Harry Potter movie at Boon Lay cinemas.

The Raffles Marina is excellent. Pool and games room for the kids. Free WiFi. A great restuarant and very cold Tiger Beer. The docks are large and you just need to hit Channel 77 and a golf cart comes to the boat with your morning paper or whatever else you may need. Marina life is not too bad and we are out of the hustle and bustle of city life but all looking forward to getting back to sea and reaching the Indian Ocean.

Talked to our good friends Ned, Khami, Liam, Lucas and Shani on Skype as well as Kerry from Queensland. It was great to hear and see you all. If you have Skype just search for BatCamp and you will find us.

Have fun, we are.......................

The Crew

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Dear all,

Well the plan was to leave Port Dickson and Malaysia today but thunderstorms and strong winds from the Southeast have prevented that. In fact thunderstorms and strong winds on the nose are all we have enjoyed so far.

We left Phuket in late June and here it is the 9th July and we are still not at Singapore as the overnight sails have been horrid. Radar for the fishing fleets, depth sounder to stay on the 10m line, AIS to keep away from large ships and towed barges, VHF and HF radios monitoring traffic and the GPS to check our position. Awfull lot of info to process but it has saved us on numerous occassions here.

All of us cannot wait to finally leave Asia. We will stop in Singapore for a week to have the hydraulic steering looked at as I fear the seals have gone as the steering is locking up every so often. We will take the opportunity to fuel up, make tube covers for the new dink and get some more food (and chocolate milk which is a bit of a hit) and visit Maccas which just so happens is on every corner there.

The plan then is to either tack our way down to Sunda Strait or just motorsail direct till we get the trades and pass Krakatoa on our way to Cocos. This means another 5 night passages through Indonesia and its fishing fleets but at least big ships are not around that part of the sea.

Everyone is well and happy, or at least until school starts but we are settling into our floating home quite well. It is great to have reliable engines for this trip and also a great new windscreen to keep the rain out. We have been collecting water if the storms have come out of the North as the rainwater from the South (Indonesia) is badly acidic so we just turn on the watermaker. Energy has not been an issue as the wind turbines work ceaselessly.

From Phuket we tracked Southeast and had a few overnight island stops before we entered Malaysia at Langkawi. We stopped at Pulau Datai on the north coast and we celebrated our anniversary there with dinner at a 5 star beach resort. We just had to step out of the dink and walk a few meters up the beach to a candlelit dinner with the kids having the obligatory french fries. Around the corner and down the coast to Telaga Hbr and finally Kuah where we checked into Malaysia. Kuah is a good anchorage but we dragged badly on our last evening with a large storm hitting us just after midnight. This prompted us to bolt for Penang where we just stayed on anchor overnight until the storms passed over.

Penang to Pangkor Laut was a good sail. In the 10 hours we sailed for only 15 minutes !! Did a 50 hour service on the diesels from Phuket if that is any indication of the wind, or lack of it, or overabundance of it in storms. Pangkor Laut is a beatiful place and it did not disappoint with fine weather and nice beach food houses for Jo. An overnight motor and motorsail then saw us arrive at Port Dickson which is a small resort town north of Malacca with a great marina where we stopped for fuel and met some great Americans on a HC38. We will see them in Singapore and also Cocos Islands and Africa and beyond. Word is out among the sailing fraternity that a new Oz kids boat will be doing the Indian Ocean and we will meet the rest of the kids at Cocos and Madagascar.

Checked out of Malaysia yesterday with the idea to sail away before sunrise but the storms have set in again so we will just have to stay here, listening to live music and enjoy another happy hour and try for tomorrow (10th) departure.

We are all well and hope that you are. Anyone want a stay at Cocos or a trip from Singapore to Cocos?

Jo, Keely Gill and Ian

The Crew

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Phi Phi to Port Dickson by Gillen

This is part of my schoolwork so beware of the spelling.......

24th June Departed Phi Phi Don sailed to Ko Lanta and it was Mum and Dads wedding anniversary but that did not stop the wind being on the nose. 30nm sail but steering playing up so dad resetting everthing
My thoughts.....At least I am not getting sea sick anymore...

25th June Lousy day so sailed for Ko Bulan Yai but settled for Ko Bulan Le.
Lovely little place and beach but resort closed for the season. Storms, storms and more storms.

26th June Motor sailed to Pulau Datai on the north coast of Langkawi and we celebrated Mum and Dads anniversary at the resort.
Lovely anchorage so we ate we played, paddled and tried to play with the monkeys on the beach. 5 star resorts but off season prices.

27th June we stayed at Datai.

28th June we left for Telaga Hbr and checked into Malaysia. Purchsed 20L diesel. and 40L petrol for the dink.

29th June Large thunderstorm so we left for Kuah but only made it to north Rebak Island as rough SW seas. Anchored there and
hung out till wind went north and we had to leave by the east channel which is very shallow. Everyone was nervous but Dad showed us how to do blind pilotage. Storms all the way to Kuah.
30th June. At Kuah and donuts and our chocolate allowance spent. Yum. Dad bought 80l diesel from the barge. In Malaysia you cannot buy too much fuel as it is cheap and they do not like to sell it.

02nd July We dragged anchor even though we had 50m of chain out but the storm was bad at 50kts so we left at sunrise for Penang with everyone tired.

03rd July we anchored at a bay in the north of Penang and stayed the night

04th July the weather improved so we left for Pangkor Laut and anchored in the same place Mum and Dad did in Kajan 20 years ago.
It has changed since then and the beach restaurants were great with lots of kids stuff to do. No other kids though.

05th July Mum liked the food so we stayed again and leave tomorrow for Port Dickson which is an overnight sail or motor. Dad serviced
our new engines while we argued about school. No one won the arguement as usual.

07th July We are in Port Dickson Marina and leave tomorrow for Singapore. The Malacca Strait is horrible and none of us ever want to do it again. Storms, storms and more storms. We are all pretty good rough weather sailors or Dad says so anyway.

Talk again in Singers.

The Crew

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Well, we dawdled out of Thailand and finally made it back down to Langkawi in Malaysia where we are parked offshore of two 5 star resorts that are not too expensive with Australia's dollar still in the clouds. The weather has not been too kind to us and we have had head winds or storms most of the way and I hope the weather improves a bit for our run to Singapore. We will probably go to Kuah on the 28th and stock up on beer and other extreme essentials.

Gill and Keely met a family of wild monkeys on the beach of a small island yesterday and the inquisitiveness was amazing. Keely was a bit scared at first but soon settled into life as a beach monkey.

School holidays in Darwin but we are trying to catch up here so no such luck for these guys. Gill keeps a written and an electronic journal after his maths and Keely does her school as well but mostly on the iPad. Her speech therapist told us about an app that we have downloaded (along with a zillion games.

Next step is to have a nice relaxing day then its is off to Kuah then a large leg into Singapore. Will post pictures this afternoon.

The Crew

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I thought darwin was hectic but we arrived here on the 2nd June to a large amount of trades people finishing engines. Touching up stainless works on the pullpit and the upholsterers finishing off the new splash screens.

We hired a car from our good mate Sak and a condo at the Boat lagoon Hotel to allow us to not have to live on a work in progress but when we went for a drive to the beaches we were hit by a small motorbike. Wonder how much that will cost.??

We have installed another anchor and chain and have the best looking windscreen on a Catana cat that I have seen. But then again I have not seen too many. All the hatches are now resealed which is ;ucky as it is the wet season.

The boat splashed in with a bit of drama on Wednesday last week (8th) as one of the engineers installing the new exhaust systems had drilled a hole into the rudder casing and the boat started to take on water. It was corrected while we were in the slings and we moved into our new berth right next to the travel lift for sea trials the next day. !500rpm and we were sitting on 6 knots so a clean bum and new engines has worked wonders. We celebrated with a drive to Nai Thon beach for a quiet swim but the wet and the NW monsoon was very active and dangerous rips quite bad keeping the lifeguard busy.

We decided as the workmanship is so good to have a full boat cover made of Sunbrella and this will be installed tomorrow (13th).

Most of the shopping is finished and we have done a heap of it as dry foods are so cheap here compared to Darwin. But then again Antarctica is cheaper than Darwin. We now have enough tucker to get us to Mauritius and will restock with fresh food here and in Singapore and hopefully a little bit at Cocos. While Jo shops Gill and I play in the arcade or look at the electronics as we are both severely allergic to shopping. Keely loves it but prefers entertaining the shoppers with the Karaoke machines !! Not too sure what she was singing as it was in Thai but I think they were all totally confused as well.

We will move onto CH Thursday and leave for Langkawi on Friday to buy the alcohol and have a bit of a break from the hectic Phuket lifestyle. I sign back onto the boat as skipper tomorrow and we are then allowed to check out.

Lifes tough............................

The Crew

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Darwin :
It is hectic. We need to have left Australia by 01st June 2011 and airfares are booked to Singapore and onto Phuket but before we can fly there are lots of things to do that will allow us to disassociate ourselves with a land based life that has been ours for too long to remember.

There is the mail to be redirected and the mail redirection service (thanks Landbase) that will look after our mail for us. There are the many and varied innoculations and vaccinations (and robbing banks to pay for them) that we feel like pin cushions. There are the scripts for Ian's tablets that are necessary and letters to convince Doctors overseas that Ian needs his medicine.

There are the telephone disconnections, the mobile disconnections, the internet disconnections, the lists at times seem overbearing but we are gradually chipping away at our over-regulated life.

We have organised our furniture and effects to be stored and given away a great deal of "stuff" that would have been better off being used than stored. We will be leaving two of the more furry members of our family behind and they are going to good homes but that will not make it any easier for anyone to part from them.

We have made passage plans, checked the climate charts, read other accounts and pored over pilot books and passage accounts and feel comfortable over our plans.

Phuket.
We cannot wait to arrive next week and see our catamaran again. We will stay in a condo until she is ready to go back into the water then there are a zillion things to do before we can leave Phuket.

We need to check to new engine(s) installation, check and fix the watermaker if required as it has not been used for months, in fact check everything and get ready to leave. The sails need to be bent on after being checked and repaired at Rolly Tasker's and the lifelines need to be replaced and netting replaced to make sure the kids stay on the dry side of the boat.

Then there is food to buy, fuel to purchase and stow and many things to unpack and find places for. It would have been easier to have left from Darwin but it is all part of the learning curve and if you cannot open your mind to accept change of plans and situations then a life at sea is not for you.

The Crew

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