Quick Passage Summary!

Hello everyone, sorry I don’t have time to upload the entire passage report / blog but just wanted to say that I am OK!!  After 28 days at sea I arrived safely in Madagascar at Nosy Be on Sept 8th.  It was a wet and windy passage and I arrived exhausted the first night just before dark at a small anchorage outside of the main port as I could not quite make it in before dark and did not come ashore until late afternoon Sept 9th.  Spent the first two days getting caught up on beer and food (like pizza and burgers) and just now was able to borrow a new friends Internet to send out this quick note mostly just to let everyone know I’m OK!  I’ll try to send a proper update with all my writing from the passage in the next few days but it is difficult to get online here.  So far I give Madagascar thumbs up, but expect much more writing to come.  Quick details of the passage, 28.5 days at sea, traveled and actual 3017 nautical miles, not too far from the rum line which was only 2935 miles, and averaged 4.3kts or 103 miles per day.  It blew an average of 25kts most of the time, almost all of out of the SE and would have been a lot faster trip if the 3-5 meter waves had ever let up.  That’s it for now but more to come soon, miss everyone and as always hope everyone is well!  -Kirk

Short update ,

Having a good time here in Cocos however it is a little bit of a strange place, I’ll explain later as I can’t stay online long.  Hard to decide if I should leave now as I intended because the wind is light but I think enough.   Made some new friends, good fishing and BBQ’s on the beach, cheap Australian wine but everything else is SOOOO Expensive!  Sorry I can’t write more but internet here is tough to get and expensive…  Next update in about a month, As always, miss everyone and hope everyone is OK.   -Kirk

After only about 2 months of procrastinating, I am finally sailing out of Bali Indonesia! Like many aspects of sailing, and this circumnavigation, I have some mixed feelings. On the positive side, it is actually nice to be sailing again! Conditions are very good right now and the forecast is promising fair and following winds for the foreseeable future. It’s also somewhat of relief to be underway on a passage after having Salsa ‘parked’ in Serangan, Bali, Indonesia, for nearly a year! And what a year it was. My first month in Bali was just a brief introduction that induced me to tack on another year to the originally planned 3 year circumnavigation (now 5+?) with an amazing detour all over Thailand outlined in a previous blog, and then another six months back here in Bali. It really feels like home here, and thus, it feels like I’m leaving my home, friends, and family all over again, ahh the trials of the solo sailor. But seriously, the friends I’ve made here I’m sure I will have for a life time and my promises to return to Bali someday hopefully in the near future are weighing heavily on my mind even as I am still sailing out of sight of the Island. I could and should write an entire entry about living in Bali, but that will have to wait, as this is supposed to be a sailing blog, so let’s get on with it;

July 19 1030AM, started the motor and dropped the mooring lines for the last time. A group of some close friends had prepared coffee and doughnuts early in the morning so we could say our goodbyes one last time (I think that was or third or so ‘goodbye gathering’, no wonder it’s so hard to leave!). Then to my surprise, everyone jumped onto another sailboat and followed me out of the harbour! What an amazing send off complete with an escort!! Once out of the harbour I cut the motor and started the serious business about tacking my way up wind just enough to clear the southern tip of Bali while my friends sipped beer and lazily sailed along the coast, presumably watching Salsa turn into a tiny red speck and then disappear. It only took 3 tacks over about an hour to get off shore enough to be certain to clear Bali before I could turn from South to South West and then eventually West by South West, all the way to Christmas Island or Cocos Keeling depending on how I feel when I get there.

By 1PM I started to clear the East coast of Bali and began turning South West, There were several small fishing boats, and a few larger ones, and I could see the swell and wind were both picking up as I increased my distance from land, so I put the third reef into the main and was making an easy 5kts on a broad reach.

320PM Seems I have cleared the fishing fleet, and the swell is still growing so it has gotten very rolly out here, very happy to see my batteries are topped off for the passage, and even happier not to see any boats in sight, maybe I’ll get a nap!? On a side note, the original plan was to weigh anchor at first light, around 630AM. This would hopefully get me around Bali and the headwinds before the daily breeze filled in, also it would have helped me to get further offshore before dark and therefore (in theory) further away from any fishing or shipping traffic south of Bali. Since I’ve gotten a late start I’ve opted to sail further south then needed just to get a little sea room before dark. Well not so late of a start as I set out at 10:30am, and of course it was worth it to spend a little time with my friends before heading out, oh yeah and one last shower!

As the sun set I could see more stars than I ever remember seeing, however I’m sure it’s just that it’s been so long since I’ve been offshore and the moon won’t be rising for a few more hours. This absolute darkness has also revealed the presence of the fishing fleet, I can see three or four boats (well just there very bright lights) at any given time, and of course even though these boats have huge lights are easy to spot visually, they are only around 45′ wooden boats, and don’t show up on Radar, so I guess I’ll have broken sleep tonight if any at all.

By 11:20PM the wind was getting light and I was very tired so I didn’t bother un-reefing the main, and let the jib luff just a little from the rocking of the swell, still making a respectable 4.4kts.

July 20 (DAY 2). 720 AM, only making 4kts over ground, what the heck!?!? Looks like I have about 1 kt of counter current against me, when I should have a favorable current. Not only is it slowing me down but the wind against current effect is making these 2 meter waves really stand up tall! Maybe it is an effect from the southerly current in the Bali Straight between Bali and Java, I don’t know, but it shouldn’t last and I’m still getting a little extra soothing in to escape the still lingering fishing fleet.

For lunch I had Randang, my favorite Indonesian food! For all you back in the USA, that I’m sorry to say that may never get to taste this amazing dish, basically it is a LOT of spices, like garlic, Chilies, salt, ginger, onions, and a LOT more all ground up into this dark sauce with coconut milk and then simmered with beef for hours, then served over rice, it’s amazing, and my wonderful friend Wiwn, made me a huge jar of the sauce to take with me, so my project for lunch was a modified Randang (on potatoes rather than rice) and to preserve the rest of the bottle by re-cooking it and sealing it in the pressure cooker, by the way, this has worked very well for me in the past for preserving all kinds of meets, even cheese, bacon, etc… One of the jars was getting old and didn’t quite seal, so I guess I just need to eat that one ASAP, no complaints here!! Only spotted one boat today, so I’m hopeful for more sleep tonight. These fishing boats are not so intimidating as they seem to be squid fishing which involves a LOT of light, you can see it miles over the horizon before you see the boat, plus they are mostly drifting or moving slow, so they are easy to avoid and never threaten to sail into you, however I’m just not used to this 30 minute napping between watches and I just want to sleep for a few hours! Maybe tonight…

July 21, well there were more boats last night but at times I could see none and felt it was safe to sleep an hour between watches, I just can’t rely on the radar to see these boats as they are wooden and small. I’ve been averaging about 4.5 kts, closer to 4kts at night and 5 kts in the day time, I’m so tired at night I don’t mind slowing the boat down so I don’t have to deal with reefing when the wind picks up, plus I guess it is a little safer moving slower when its dark, you’re tired, and there is a fair amount of traffic around.

July 22 1:25AM, Well I can’t sleep as another fishing boat is in my path and I need to stay awake at least until I steer clear of him as I can’t yet tell if he is moving, but I think not. There are two other boats (lights) that I can see but they seem well clear of me. Maybe I’ll get back to sleep after I’m clear, only going 4.2kts and really haven’t noticed the 0.5 to 1kt current that I was expecting out here, I even double checked the pilot charts to make sure that there is supposed to be a westerly set in the current (I was later told that there is a counter-current setting Easterly just south of the Indonesian Islands, but I never read of this anywhere but certainly seemed to experience it).

July 22 7AM (DAY 4 at sea), 9.48.5 S, 110.46.9 E, course 264 true, 4.7kts over ground, I ran my watch in 40 minute shifts last night so I’m not very well rested but I’m feeling good after two cups of coffee now. I didn’t even bother running the radar as these boats can really only be seen by eye, I guess I should just be happy they are so easy to spot. This trip has been a bit weird so far, I really thought once I was about 100 miles offshore that I wouldn’t see any traffic, and I still haven’t seen one freighter, just these little fishing boats with big lights. Occasionally I spot them during the day but they are very hard to see until it gets dark, then I can see them over 5 miles away, just a glow on the horizon until you get within a few miles and you can see the actual lights blinking between the ocean swell. Last night was a little scary. I woke up in the middle of the night, and bolted up the companion way stairs into the cockpit and was scared out of mind. What was wrong you ask?? I forgot that I was underway. This happens to me sometimes, disorientation due probably to sleep deprivation, and it’s a serious thing. Normally it takes only a few seconds to realize what was going on but I was convinced that my mooring must have broke and that I drifted out to sea! So I ran back down the steps and checked my GPS to see where I was and just before I could run back up to the front of the boat and drop the anchor (yes I was seriously thinking about this) I realized that the sails were up and ahhh… yes that’s right, I’m supposed to be sailing!! Wow, that kind of thing freaks me out. I never knew that I took so long to ‘come to’ when I’m in a deep sleep until I sailed to Thailand on my friends boat, and he told me that I really need a few minutes after waking up to have a clear head. By the way, normally this phenomenon happens the opposite way, I wake up somewhere secure on the anchor, and think that I am supposed to be at sea, then, the other boats, lights and land scare me into thinking that I’ve sailed into danger, it’s just weird but I’ve heard from several other sailors who experience the same thing. I’m a little nervous that one day I’ll do something really stupid while disorientated, but so far so good, except maybe during that 11 day passage from the Bahamas to Panama when I seriously hurt my finger and still don’t know exactly how, but I won’t go into that as it is in an older blog.

530PM, Just had my bucket shower with my 1 liter fresh water rinse. One day I’ll explain my patented shower technique that gets you 100% clean AND salt free using just 1 liter of water, it’s just a little time consuming. So I am now 228 miles from Christmas Island have been sailing just over 4 days, with 2 more to go, assuming I stop. I think I’m leaning more towards going non-stop to Cocos Keeling, another 5 days past Christmas Island. I feel I’m a little late in the season plus why deal with more Australian Bureaucracy then absolutely necessary right? I don’t want to give up my fruit and veggies quite yet either and it has been more or less smooth sailing so unless the ever present Indonesian fishing fleet keeps me up for the next two nights and I need a rest, I’ll just sail on. Besides I haven’t seen one fishing boat all day. I think I could have made Christmas in 5 days but I guess I’m becoming a more relaxed and conservative sailor. Everything just seems happier when I’m closer to 4.5kts rather than 5.5kts. Plus with this swell, even at an average speed of 4.5kts, I’m doing around 7kts down the waves, and the wind vane really struggles to keep the boat straight in those conditions, but hey I can’t complain, 4 days non-stop steering and never gibed or broached yet, this is a good run.

July 23, 9AM, 157NM to Christmas Island, and heading for a waypoint about 10 miles north of the island so I have the option to pull into the one anchorage (Flying Fish Cove) but leaning more towards just sailing past on to Cocos Keeling. I copied several sailing blogs about these two destinations and even though Christmas Island had good reviews, Cocos Keeling seems to score quite a bit higher, plus I’m thinking back to Australia prices again and just to have a beer in the pub or a meal in a restaurant can be so pricy I think I will not only make better time but help my budget as well if I just continue on. Last night only 3 or 4 fishing boats and none on my course so at least I didn’t have to avoid anyone and by late at night I was sleeping in 1 hour blocks, and to my surprise the radar alarm even went off when it caught a signal from one of the wooden fishing boats, even though it was only showing up very sporadically, and thankfully none of the very small boats (very hard to see at night) and no big ships (moving fast and more difficult to avoid). Nothing too exciting to write about here, the only thing I’ve had to do for days is a very slight tweak to the wind vane to the left or right to stay on course, and occasionally let the jib in or out just a little bit to maintain 4.5kts. Actually I don’t do anything unless I’m around 10 degrees off course, or if my speed gets under 4kts or over 5.5kts, That means I’m only making adjustments a few times a day, lots of time to relax. Plus with the very good sunlight I’ve been having and not using the radar so much, I’ve been able to watch several movies a day and the batteries are still full since leaving Bali! I’m thinking when the power starts to drop some I’ll switch from movies to books as I’m am well stocked and even a few that I’m looking forward to starting. The plan is to start fishing either today or tomorrow as well since there is little to do and I didn’t bring any meat, sorry there isn’t anything more interesting to write about!

July 24 720AM, only 50NM to CI (Christmas Island), 558NM to CK (Cocos Keeling). FINALLY A night with no ships in sight! I was able to sleep in roughly one hour blocks between quick watches as I wasn’t quite ready to sleep longer than that in case I wasn’t truly free of the Indonesian fishing fleets. I might mention at this point that It has been a pretty lonely sail, more so than I remember in the past mostly because I have NO contact on SSB radio, plus it feels weird that I cannot send my position to family via my ‘Spot Tracker’ . So basically no one knows exactly where I am, and not even I know where I’m going right now! I’ve been trying somewhat desperately or pathetically to make contact with other cruisers on the radio by scanning different frequencies and I even made a list of over one dozen different cruising and weather nets in advance that I planned to contact once underway, but not ONE of them work. I’m sure my radio is ok because I get plenty of stations coming in clearly from all over the world however I’m not licensed to talk on those frequencies and I mostly want to make contact with other yachts and get some weather (something else I’m not used to not having access to!!). At least the weather has really been Ideal so far, has never changed more than a few degrees from E/SE and has always been between 10 and 25ish NTs, mostly right between 15 and 20, so this is great downwind weather, only complaint is the large swell has got Salsa rolling around a LOT but hey, I can live with that, and now on my 6th day out I think I’m finally getting used to it, and getting a little more sleep. So the plan is pass within 5 miles of CI, maybe make radio contact with them just for fun, but probably not stop. At the same time I want to keep the option to stop open so I want to keep my speed over 5kts to arrive (or more likely pass) the island in daylight. Also, as I said yesterday I was planning on some fishing today, but this morning there were three very big flying fish on the deck! People always talk about how great they taste but I’ve never had one big enough to bother trying to cook it, plus let’s face it, it is dead fish that’s been laying on deck all night. WELL, I decided to scale and gut them, then fry them up, just oil, nothing else as I wanted to see how they tasted. They were great! And three was the perfect size breakfast. Funny how I sat outside in the cockpit eating them right out of the pan watching hundreds more fly across the water, if they only knew :-). I put the fishing line out anyway in hopes of a more substantial meal later on.

709 PM. Only about 5 miles off of Christmas Island, and 523 from Cocos Keeling. Today as I approached CI I did all the things you do when you approach a landfall after several days at sea. I did all the dishes, cleaned up the boat, took a nice shower, shaved, etc… As I was ten miles out I attempted to call the proper officials on the VHF, with no answer, I was over flown by some airplane, I mean the kind of over flown that you usually get in Australian waters where the plane makes a point to make sure you know that they know you are there by flying right over you at just a few hundred feet. Normally this kind of action is immediately followed by a call on the Radio so I got ready to tell them who I was but the call never came. Not that I really care, I wasn’t really planning to stop, more like pretending. Funny how I think I knew all along that I was going to sail straight through to CK, but I still wanted the option to stop, I was really hoping I could somehow get a weather forecast to finalize my decision, surely someone on this damn island would know the weather or the radio channel to get it right!? But nope, after several calls on the VHF directed eventually to ANYONE that could hear me, I got no answer! I wonder if I sent out a mayday if I would get a reply!? It is Sunday afternoon, maybe the missionaries have been hard at work and everyone is in church?! Anyway, doesn’t matter what the weather is now, It’s almost dark and I’m now downwind of the anchorage so there is no way I’m going to heave to or drift all night then fight the wind and current to get back in the morning, So I guess the weather is more or less irrelevant as well, whatever I get, I get. A good Aussie friend of mine, Paul once said that you don’t really need weather forecast on this route though the trade winds anyway, he was probably right as the risk of exposure to sever weather systems are very remote, besides now that I’m in the lee of CI it is so perfect out here, just sailing along but without the nasty roll from the swell of the following seas. I have noticed a BIG swell out of the south that I read all about in the guide books. It’s pretty cool, you get this little swell from the trade winds behind you then off your port beam (the left side from the south) you get these BIG swells that lift you up so high you can see everything and then slowly set you back down again. This swell so far is kind of a gentle giant, big but so slow and smooth you wouldn’t notice it if you didn’t actually see it with your own eyes. A lot of the guides say that this swell can make this passage unpleasant but as long as it doesn’t change we’ll get along just fine, I’ll keep you posted. Even though I didn’t stop it was nice to do all the pre-landfall preparations, I feel nice and clean, even shaved my head! Since losing sight of Bali about 6 days ago I’ve had only one beer, so I thought this landmark might be an appropriate time to have a few beers, especially with the batteries full I didn’t mind putting them in the fridge then a few rum and cokes and I’m feeling pretty good, hopefully not quite drunk, but just a nice buzz, something to break a bit of the monotony, and I’m watching a terrible movie, I hope this solar power doesn’t keep up so I can start reading books ha-ha.

July 25, 1230pm. I’m Soooo glad I bought an extra bottle of Kikoman Soy Sauce! So this morning, no more gifts of flying fish on the deck, well yes there was probably a dozen but mostly the size of my little finger and not so appetizing. I put out a fishing line just after sunrise, with some pink hairy looking lure, I’m not even sure if this thing was meant for trolling or casting or what but it was in my huge arsenal of fishing lures that my brother Craig (the fishing enthusiast) bought for me before I left. Actually I was running very low on my favorite lures, the pink squid. But this thing was pink and slightly squid-like. Anyway the Yellow Fin Tuna in my belly liked it :-). I was just setting up the second fishing line as I was getting serious about catching some protein when as soon as I had the bungee and clothes-pin trip line (my patented fishing method) all set up, I noticed the first line was already triggered, and viola, a perfect size little tuna! So I already had the first course of sashimi and seared a little as well, I think I’ll keep the lines out of the water for another day or two until this guy is finished up!

July 26 9AM. I haven’t written in two days mostly because there is not a lot to write about, at least not much new. I still haven’t managed any SSB contacts or even a weather report, but I’m within 48 hours of my destination and the weather has been sooooo steady. I just finished reefing the Jib slightly, even though It wasn’t really needed, this morning I woke up with Salsa rocketing along at 6kts, and doing just fine (meaning she felt under control) however I realize that assuming the weather doesn’t have a major change in the next two days I’m going to arrive at Cocos sometime in the middle of the night as long as I maintain a speed over 4kts. In order to make it tomorrow before dark tomorrow I would need to make 7kts or so (impossible) and the following day light arrival window requires an average speed between 3.5 and 4kts, so point is, running along at 6kts is a little pointless as I am relatively sure I’ll spend a portion of tomorrow night hove to waiting for daylight to enter the Atoll at Cocos Keeling, and thus I see no loss reefing down to the 5 to 5.5kts I’m doing now. Normally I try hard not to speculate arrival times this far in advance because so often after you slow the boat down, or speed up, you get a wind change that made your strategy a total waste, however in this case, these trades seem so steady that’s hard to even imagine a change.

One thing I have been doing for the last two days is eating a LOT of Tuna! I finally finished it up last night, all within with 36 hours of catching it, not bad at all but I think I’ve been deprived of fresh fish like this for a long time, so I was literally eating it for every meal, and loving it! I thought I ran out of fresh fruit a few days ago after eating the last oranges, there are some brown limes, tomatoes, onions and potatoes, garlic, but no really fruit until I finally realized that I had an entire watermelon and a green melon that I stashed away because they were too big to go into the fruit net! What a find! So after this blog entry I’m cutting one of them up for breakfast, and probably lunch as well, maybe I’ll even put some in the blender for juice!

July 29, 7AM 12’01 S, 097’06E, Just 15 miles from the anchorage at Cocos Keeling! It’s actually been a somewhat interesting the last few days but I’ve been keeping my paper ship’s log book up to date more than the blog so let me fill you in. I haven’t seen any fishing boats since passing Christmas Island which has made getting sleep a lot easier, sometimes even for a several hours at a time. Usually a few hours before sunrise the radar alarm goes off alerting me of an isolated rain storm a few miles off but they are usually small and scattered so I haven’t gotten any rain or serious weather changes at all on this trip. I was almost lulled into a false sense of security regarding ship traffic until I saw another freighter just 10 miles East of Christmas Island, and the next day the radar caught a second one heading straight for me. It was actually hard to identify it visually at 9 miles out since I could not see the hull at all (being beyond the horizon) I could only see the bridge deck and it looked strange, almost like an airplane from a straight ahead view, at about 6 miles out (only minutes later) I realized we were on a collision course and with my down-wind set up I would be a serious pain to jibe the main sail and the Jib in time so I called the ship on the Radio VHF 16 and to my surprise they not only answered but offered to change course to avoid me, The “London Courage” was a huge tanker, even at a speed of around 15kts in moderate seas he was breaking up waves on the bow that were spraying 50 to 100′ into the air! Makes me glad to be running down wind, as the the 6ft swell form the East and the 9ft swell from the south often combine to make an occasional 15ft swell, not something you want to be fighting.

My next contact with a boat was even friendlier. Early on the morning of the 28th, I saw a funny looking star on the horizon that didn’t rise up with the moon and other stars, plus I thought maybe it was a little green but I was very hesitant to identify it as a ship since a lot of lights look odd in the dark especially at far distances. I tried to tweak out the radar settings and eventually got this small boat to appear and decided it was another sailboat on the same course as me, probably heading to Cocos Keeling as well! I figured I would wait until sunrise in just a few hours to call them on radio to say hello when all the sudden for the first time in many days as I was sitting in the cockpit watching the moonrise my VHF startled me with a voice calling ‘west bound sailboat this is the “Wombat of Sydney”… Turns out the Wombat is a 48′ Bennateau underway from Christmas Island (which I just passed) and yes, underway to Cocos Keeling. It was good to chat with another cruiser finally! Not only did Mike give me an update on the weather, he gave me the frequency and times for a small cruisers net he and a few other boats (turned out I knew some of them too!) were using to stay in touch as they all were transiting the South Indian Ocean. By the way his weather forecast was for more wind and bigger seas, up to 15 foot swells, great. Sometimes it really is better not to know the weather when there is little you can do about it. Back to the present for a moment, just now starting to get enough light to see the conditions outside and the waves are BIG but not breaking too much, probably around 12’ or so, and I’m making 5kts down wind, with a triple reefed main and no jib. I’ll be anchored comfortably in Cocos in just a few hours so these seas aren’t too much of a problem as long as they don’t give me any grief when I enter the atoll, I think it should be ok.

For the last few days I confess to watching a lot of Movies and TV on the laptop since I still have plenty of power, the only reading I’ve done besides guide books is James Baldwin’s book ‘Across Islands and Oceans” which I downloaded off of his website (www.atomvoyages.com). The book has been an excellent read, but I was SO disappointed when I realized that he didn’t have the entire book uploaded, only half, so now I’ll have to wait god knows how long to finish it!! Also the Moon has gotten very very small and is not rising until the early morning so star gazing has been amazing, without even really spending much time I’ve seen half a dozen shooting starts, just from sticking my head out the hatch to check on the conditions! Seems lately the Sunrises have been more spectacular than the sunsets as well and since every day the sun rises later and later as I head west. It seems I’m always on deck at first light, and pointing my solar panels east to catch the morning sun. Oh, one last thing, I put the two fishing lines out again yesterday, and something BIG hit on one of my larger lures happened to be looking outside at the time and saw the line and bungee go so tight I thought it was going to stop the boat! Then a fraction of a second later it went slack, which doesn’t always mean the line broke, sometimes the fish is just swimming towards you so I start pulling it in and of course, the lure was bit clean in half leaving me with a rubber fish head only and no hook! Well that’s it for now, next update I’ll be anchored finally, even though I feel pretty good, I think I could carry on to Madagascar without too much trouble, but might as well take a break and see what all this fuss is about Cocos Keeling!

Finally safe and secure here in Cocos Keeling. Wombat of Sydney, the boat I spoke to on the VHF made it in the night before me just before dark and two other boats are here in pristine blue water, amazing you can easily see the bottom in up to 30’ of water, crystal clear, and there is a great beach with soft white sand, BBQ pits, toilets, even a rain-collection system so you can rinse off or fill jugs with water for you boat. Over all it took me almost exactly 10 days to get here, including nearly 8 hours of heaving to, waiting for daylight. So far having a good time and the wind has picked up a bit so I’m reluctant to leave to head west but the plan is to only stay here up to one week. Don’t expect any updates for over a month as I plan to arrive in Madagascar in about 5-6 weeks and I am not sure if I will be back online before then!

Take Care,

Life is good! –Kirk

SALSA’s ITINERARY;

Depart Bali Indonesia about July 10 for six day (585 Nautical Mile) sail to Christmas Island, hang out for about five days then depart July 20 for the five day (530 NM) sail to Cocos Keeling Islands, hang out another five days.  Depart Cocos August 1st for the 30 day (2850 NM) sail to Nosy Be Madagascar.  Then just hang out a month or more and eventually work my way down the Western Coast of Madagascar so I can depart for Durban South Africa by November 1st from the southwestern part of Madagascar before the Cyclone season.  Then it gets tricky.  According to my guide books I need to hang out in Durban for almost two months until January when the weather is prime to coast hop my way the last 800 miles around the Cape of Good Hope into the Atlantic to Cape Town South Africa. But I’m wondering if I could do that earlier in December?  Then I can hang out as long as I want (a month or two??) before sailing back to South America via St. Helena Island.  So in short the approximate arrival dates are:

Christmas Island July 15
Cocos Keeling July 25
Nosy Be Madagascar August 30
Durban (or Richards Bay) South Africa Nov 10.
Cape Town South Africa sometime in February 2012

As for the distant future I only see two options. (A) Press on home through the Caribbean to arrive on the East Coast of the USA before the Hurricane season starts in June 2012 OR..  (B) Slight detour back to Cartegena Colombia / San Blas Panama are (one of my favorite places so far) and wait till the following season to sail back to the U.S in the winter of 2013.  I should have a better idea by the time I’m ready to leave South Africa.

Besides the Itinerary there hasn’t been a lot to report since the last update, more of the same, working on the boat, playing with the locals, drinking with the expats, things like that!  I’m actually leaving Bali almost two months later than originally anticipated but the combination of finding new projects on Salsa plus invitations to all the irresistible social events around here, I’ve just been slow :-).

Salsa is VERY close to being ready to tackling the Indian Ocean.  All of the biggest issues have been resolved leaving at the moment just a few little things to finish up plus provisioning for food, water, diesel, etc.   Not really sure how much food to pack on considering that I’ll plan to stop at Christmas and Cocos Keeling Islands where I know I can re-stock but I think I need to provision for the entire 4,000 miles to Madagascar just in case I don’t stop or get lost or something :-).   The leaking transmission was very tricky.  Turned out a very small (pin hole) vent on the transmission was blocked and this was causing it to blow out every new seal I replaced, I got lucky and discovered the blocked vent, replaced one last seal, and now it’s perfect!  The engine was stalling due to a slight air leak in my ancient fuel filtration system that I could not find until I re-arranged my fuel flow so that everything after the tank was under positive pressure instead of vacuum and only then could I find the leak.  Some people say the idea on boats is to put your fuel system (filters and lines coming from the tank) under vacuum so that if you get a leak you get air in the system and the engine dies opposed to pressurizing it (by moving the pump) so that if you get a leak, you get diesel in the bilge.  I’m not sure if I’m right but I think I prefer a little diesel leak and a running engine vs air leak and engine not running, at least it’s not leaking now!…    Any thoughts here?  Anyway.  Point is it runs great went out for a few wonderful test sails with new friends here in Bali, and am really looking forward for the big trip after getting right out there in ocean for a few hours in the trade winds, downwind (as I should have nearly the entire way) was just well.. a breeze!

As far as suspicions about me remaining in Bali indefinitely everyone can relax, I’m out of here soon, (sadly!) My last delay was largely in part due to my agent misplacing my passport, good friends wedding part on July 10, and finding some corroded bolts that hold the mast step to the deck that should I plan to fix today!  I hope to keep plenty of log / blog details on my passage while underway so hopefully I can get updates posted at each of my stops but if not, my daily Spot check position reports should work until I am about half way across the Indian Ocean, then don’t freak out when I go ‘offline’ with position reports as there is a big coverage gap where I get no service in the Western Indian ocean, South Africa, and Eastern Atlantic, so once I lose coverage I do not get it back until half way to South America from Africa!   I guess that’s enough for now, as always I hope this update finds everyone well!  -Kirk

It’s been so long since I’ve written an update on here I’ve nearly forgotten how!  Once again, back in Bali and on Salsa tucked into the little harbor of Serangan.  I’ve now been back for nearly two months and have in addition to my daily quota of beers I’ve been hard at work trying to get all systems on Salsa operational.  I guess on a positive note is that after leaving her basically unattended for five months nothing got stolen and there was no major damage other than issues form just sitting here during the rainy season in all the humidity?  Of course she wasn’t in pristine shape when I left for Thailand but I’ll give you an idea as to what happens to a boat when you lock it up and leave it.  The “new” problems I found include a layer of mildew on nearly every surface, inside lockers, cabinets, ceilings, floors, clothes, fabrics, everything.  There are a few days of work with a sponge, bleach, and water to get you started.  Then after half a day of inflating the dinghy, putting on all the sails, running rigging (halyards, sheets, etc) I decided to give the motor a go. By the way the batteries were all fully charged as I left on one of the solar panels on and the only thing running on the boat was a bilge pump and that was very rare.  So, the first mechanical issue was the electric fuel pump which wouldn’t run so about 3 seconds with a hammer scared it into running again (I’m now looking for a replacement even though it seems to run ok after the hammer).  Then after failing to get the engine to fire I decided to bleed the fuel line, and that did it!  I was amazed, for some reason I was expecting more problems (but they do come later).  Next I tried to throttle up only to find that the throttle lever was completely seized and would not budge, even the old hammer trick didn’t work.  Eventually a friend on shore with a vice and bigger hammer beat it to submission somehow without breaking it.  Next the Transmission shifter cable wouldn’t budge, beyond repair I found a new one here in Bali.  Next my trusted Toughbook computer which I use for navigation wouldn’t fire up, turned out it was the hard drive, UGH!  So two weeks later and three different computer specialists and a new hard drive and it is running (Total cost $80) but the internal GPS doesn’t work, seems I need a different version of windows to get everything functional but at least I have digital charts.  One day of bottom and prop scraping to get off a one to two inch layer of growth, and those were the basic tasks just to get her ready for a cruise.

The cruise itself then revealed a new list of wonderful opportunities for me to maintain and bond with the boat!  First thing that went offline, the motor, of course!  I probably should have left the fuel tank full when I went to Thailand to prevent moisture and condensation but no, I had a bit of water in the tank and that clogged the filter, just new filsters and another quick bleeding got her going again but eventually I had to drain the tank and clean it, I love that job.  Also the jib furling line was re-installed and misaligned so I kept getting wraps off of the furling spool, basically meaning I couldn’t take the jib in until I got that worked out.  One of the bronze cars that leads the Jib sheet to the winch broke off (got it welded here).   My second Plastimo (the spare one) flexible 30gallon water tank got a leak so I installed the old one I patched that seems ok.  Oh yeah, and my new Transmission leak!  These are just the things I can remember off the top of my head, but the actual to do list I have was around two pages.  I’m thinking I’m just going to live with the transmission leak and get extra fluid as I see two other boats here that have been stuck in Bali for over 5 months due to mechanical issues and difficulties in getting skilled help and obtaining the parts.   So now the to do list is closer to one page, after two months of work, that’s HUGE progress in my mind.  Still some jobs on the list include replacing broken cleats on the mast, greasing all the winches, waterproofing the bimini and dodger, rebuilding a few pumps, and the big one, taking off the rest of the toe rail and re-bedding it to stop the leaking, at least I already finished one third of this in Australia.

Another positive note, if you want help (unskilled labor with minimal English) you can hire a local “boat boy” as they call them for about $10 to $15 a DAY.  I haven’t employed anyone yet but for some of the jobs I have left and also some of the cleaning and polishing I think I’ll get some help for a few days.   So it seems the next month or two will be sent finishing off the “to do” list with a little bit of sight-seeing in-between.

I don’t expect everyone to read all of this, but here it is if you want it!  Also keep in mind that I don’t email out all website updates to everyone every time so you might want to check the SailingSalsa.com time or now if you want to see what you missed!

Here is the Blog / Details of my three week trip starting with my departure from Phil’s boat “Happy Ours” in Phuket to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pai, Mae Hong Son, Doi Inthanon and back to Phuket to Michaels boat “Shayler”.  Not only do I want to share the great experience I had getting off of the boat and venturing inland to Northern Thailand but I want people to see how Cheap, Easy, and Rewarding this kind of a trip can be for an adventurous low-budget traveler so I’ll quote as many prices as I can remember in USD giving a very good idea of what things cost in Thailand in November 2010.

It’s worth mentioning that I was basically persuaded to take this trip (or at least a trip inland) from my good friends that have already discovered the joys of traveling to these areas in Thailand.  I was reluctant to leave the relative security of staying on a boat in Phuket where life is good to begin with and then somewhat blindly travel north into Thailand rarely knowing where I would be going, where I would sleep there, or even what transportation I would take.  I ended up taking boats, busses, trains, cars, vans, tuk-tuks, motorbikes, taxis, sky-trains, subways, and the list goes on.

The initial planning got me to Khao San Road, Bangkok.  From the boat in Ao Chalong Phil took me to shore in the Dingy and then we rented a Motorbike for 24 hours ($3.30) so he could take me 20 minutes up the road to the bus station in Phuket Town.  Then I had a VIP bus ticket to Bangkok ($30) for the first big leg, a 12 hour journey.  The VIP bus is the most expensive bus with only 24 or so seats so you have heaps of room the idea being that you can sleep most of the way to Bangkok and arrive fresh, plus since this is an overnight bus (6PM to 6AM) you save one night hotel costs, and one meal as a dinner buffet stop is included around midnight on the passage.  Once in Bangkok I fought my way through all of the touts, tuk-tuk and taxi drivers who offered me a lift to Khao San Road for around $5 until I found the local public bus terminal where I was delivered within a 10 minute walk of my destination for $.50.  I know, I know you might have just sprung for taxi but we’re doing this on the CHEAP as you will see.  In fact I could have cut the budget almost in half if I wanted to go super-cheap and not drink beer n this trip.  Khao San Road in Bangkok is famous for its cheap and plentiful backpacker-accommodations and unlike hostels where you share a room with 4 or more people, most rooms have only one bed going for about $5-$10 a night, with a shared bathroom.  I really wanted wifi in my room so I checked about 10 “Guest houses” before I found one for $6 a night, no air-conditioning but it wasn’t necessary plus it had a big fan, a big bed (rock hard mattress).  So basically a room, bed, fan, small table and bathrooms down the hall.  Good value I think, I did see dorm type beds for $3 a night.  I mostly ate Pad Thai on the street for $1 a plate made to order.  I often grabbed bags of cold fruit for about $.50, or chewed on various meats grilled on sticks right in the street and probably never spent more than $2 on a meal except for the time I bought an entire roasted chicken for $3 and was almost sick for eating it all!  The average beer was $2 but you could find them for under a dollar if you looked around enough.  One hour massages were about $7 compared to $5 in Bali and not as good so I only got one here.  So with the room, food and say 2 beers a day, you’re spending less than $15 a day.  If you want to go sightseeing the very efficient and slightly confusing public bus system will take you anywhere in Bangkok and back for $1 or for twice that price you can take the faster “sky train” or BTS rail.  Metered Taxis work out to about  $5 for a 20 minute ride or you can take a motorcycle for half the price and get there in half the time as the drivers are seriously insane.  Weaving through traffic, ignoring stop lights and if they can’t fit between the cars parked on the road they won’t hesitate moving into oncoming traffic, medians, sidewalks, etc.   Most of my time in Bangkok was spent hanging out eating and drinking with new friends, both tourists and Thais, exploring markets and just walking around.  But after 3 days I was on night train this time heading to Chiang Mai

You don’t need a plan to travel like this, I only had one medium sized backpack.  I could easily carry all my belongings with me everywhere I went making me very mobile and allowing me to stay flexible.  The night trains to Chiang Mai takes between 12 and 15 hours and mostly run at night so its highly recommended you get a sleeper car for about $25 where you can actually lay down and sleep comfortably at night and during the day it converts to a seat.  The train is great.  You can walk around and since you are in Thailand where they aren’t too big on rules just to protect ourselves you can actually hang out in the space between two cars where you are basically outside and take in the sights.  There’s also a food car with terrible overpriced food that seems more like a small night club after dark serving beer and mixed drinks at night till around 11pm.

Arriving in Chiang Mai around noon I found another single back-packer on the train and we split a tuk-tuk ($1 each) into the “Old City” where the cheap accommodations are easiest to find.   I found much better value than Bangkok.  This time I splurged a bit and got a big air-conditioned room with a refrigerator, in room hot showers, Cable TV, wifi, big bed, super clean, and a decent view for the whopping price of $7 a night.  Again I want to reiterate that you don’t have to have a plan, just hop on a bus, go somewhere and have a beer and before you know it other travelers are helping you decide where to go and stay based upon their experiences as in any town you will meet people that have just been to and coming from other places nearby.  Beer and food in Chiang Mai were cheaper than Bangkok too.  I was set on doing the “Mae Hong Son Loop” a 950km  motorbike ride with 1864 bends through the mountains.  Some people spend about $5 per leg on a bus for each of the four legs between popular towns.  But I chose to rent a 125CC manual scooter for still only $5 a day and ride this famous rural twisty turny mountainous road.  Again it took reading guides and blogs plus talking to people to get the courage to set out on a long open country road in Northern Thailand without a reservation and not even knowing for sure what town I would stay in.  This road leads to the North West extreme edges of Thailand just a few miles from Myanmar (Burma) at times.   The little Honda I had did great as you rarely get up to it’s max speed of 80 to 100km per hour.  In fact most of the mountains have you going about half that speed in the lower gears working the bike and yourself very hard.  This route has been conquered in just over one day by very experienced riders on small bikes but most people take 4+ days.  My first stop was the very popular but small town of Pai.  Pai while being interesting enough didn’t excite me too much.  It had plenty of food and bars and best of all it had a nice mix of foreign and Thai tourists but I just found it a bit lacking maybe because I wasn’t feeling up for drinking or shopping, two big activities here and tired from the nearly three hour bike ride.  In fact the best part of this little bike trip was the bike ride itself and the sights on the road.  I feel this blog entry getting long but I have to explain what riding in northern Thailand is like.  While leaving Chiang Mai you will get plenty of traffic and stop lights but once you turn off the highway and onto the two-lane roads into the mountain you seldom see another vehicle until approaching the next town.  You will see what I think is the “real Thailand” little villages that seldom see tourists except for busses flying by that never stop.  Endless valleys of corn, rice and other unidentifiable crops that start in the valley and climb all the way up the mountain, I can’t recall seeing such mountainous terrain used for farming with exception to the even more spectacular terracing in Peru around Montchupichu.

I left Pai around 9AM on the common tourist trail bound for Mae Hong Son (MHS).  I would have left earlier but I was FREEZING.  I already bought cheap shoes $6 and sweat-pants $6 in Chiang Mai for the ride, until then I had only flip-flops and shorts in my wardrobe.  131kms and less than 1 gallon of fuel from Pai I was in Mae Hong Son.  More interesting than Pai and much less of a party town, more like a real functioning town/city I even visited my first Temple (Wat Phra That) on top of a 1500meter hill, (Doi Kong Mu) the views of the city are meant to be great but all I could see looking down was clouds and fog and I was freezing again even with the old second hand jacket I Bought in Pai after fierce negotiating for $5.  Since I arrived in MHS relatively early I was able to check out the town, bars, and an amazing night market with some of the best food I’ve had in Thailand.  My hotel $5 had great views of a temple just across a small lake.  Easy walks to a few bars with overpriced beers but good company and free pool tables.  I still try to do all my eating in the streets and markets even though you can get a really nice meal for around $5-10 I just won’t spend the money when the $1 food is just as good to me and I would rather hang out on the streets people watching anyway.  Its more social and way more fun than a restaurant.  I can’t remember the exact distance but it was a long ride to the next few towns so I left early as soon as I was down from the temple on top of the mountain and showered.

This last leg of the trip turned out to be VERY long, about 300km.  I didn’t want another town just like the others so I opted for a un-recommended  route on an older but still paved road through even more rural farm area and steeper mountains also saving me a few hundred km off of the popular longer route to Mae Sariang.  Mostly because this detour would bring me past Doi Inthanon the highest peak in Thailand 2565 meters (8500 feet) above sea level.  The 9km road leading to the top was the most challenging and I often had to shift into first gear and hold the throttle wide open to make any progress up these insanely crazy inclines, going down wasn’t much better and this was the coldest I’ve been in years.  I had to put on nearly every piece of clothing I had while the 2 or 3 other motorbikes I saw at this level all with Thai people wearing winter jackets, scarves, and still freezing to death!  I didn’t stay at the peak very long at all and by now the motorbike (that was brand new, less than 2000 miles on it when I rented it) was coughing, backfiring, and even stalling maybe from the altitude, the cold, or me just pushing it so hard.   But as soon as I started rolling down hill it came back to life winding my way to the main road and warmth.  There were a few towns here and accommodations but no markets or anything of interest that I was aware of and I didn’t want to pay an extra day on the motorbike rental so I was full speed back to Chiang Mai and got in well before dark (thankfully) and checked in back to my old hotel.  I wish I could remember all of the things that made the ride so interesting like Oxen on the side of the road, little parks and great little cafes on mountain sides in the middle of nowhere serving perfect coffee for about $1 a cup.  Rivers and OH YEAH, a massive waterfall off in the distance.  It really is all about the views.  I got into riding fast as it was exciting but I also stopped a lot to take in the views so I would often pass several  of the same vehicles several times in one day as they would pass me a few times when I took in my little scenic stops then I would catch up again.

Back in Chiang Mai I found that the sleeper car trains to Bangkok were full for the next day so I stayed one extra night and explored a massive endless market in the old city just a few blocks from my room that was packed with tourists, food, local goods and the list goes on forever.  Oh, it’s worth mentioning that you can get a cheap bus instead of the train or VIP bus for considerably less but I was rightfully warned off as you’ll read about soon.

Back in Bangkok I hung out for another week or so in no hurry to get back to what is truly a much more expensive and even less interesting Phuket.  Why does anyone even go to Phuket?  Ah, for the ocean and beaches that I was thrilled to get away from after nearly 3 years living quite literally on the water.  This time in Bangkok I meandered through Chinatown checking out the street cuisine as usual and exploring one market after another.  Not to mention a few late nights in the tourist packed Khao San Road drinking the cheapest beer I could find chatting up with other backpackers about their travels.  When it was time to head back to Phuket I found the deal of the century, bus fare for only $12, less than half of my fare here.  The lonely Planet Guide (a MUST have for traveling like this) said that the government operated busses from the local bus station were reliable and fairly priced in contrast to the “tourist busses” operated out of Khao San Road where they over-promise and under deliver, not to mention just plain steal from you if they can.  The cheap bus trip took 18 hours instead of 12 on the VIP bus, I had to transfer 4 TIMES and at one point was told that I had to pay an extra $5 or I would sit in this one town all day.  They only let the people who paid the extortion fee to get on the bus and then they pulled the rest of us aside and said they would only let us on the bus if we promised to tell the others we paid too, hah, what a scam.  Then I hid $15 in my back-pack which I didn’t keep on my person just in case my pocket money was stolen, knowing better than to put all my cash and cards in the baggage compartment where they not only rooted and looted they even found my VERY well hidden cash! Wow!  Eventually I arrived in Phuket tired, but very happy to see my old friends so I did manage to put down my quota of beer before making it an early night.

I’m not going to tally up all the expenses but you get the idea that you on about $20 or $30 a day you can travel well in Thailand assuming you don’t go for any expensive tours like elephant riding, trekking, diving, etc.  Plus I want to encourage anyone ever considering doing the ‘backpacking thing’ in Thailand to totally go for it.  I’ve still got another month or two here before flying back to Bali and don’t be surprised if the next blog update is trip 2 to north Thailand, with alternate cities and towns!  Well I’m off to Circumnavigate Phuket Island on my motorbike rental, only 100CC and no electric start but what do you expect for $3 a day?    And hey, if you can here in the next month I’ll show you around!

Oh, pictures from the road trip are here; PhotoBucket.com

Well overdue and without any charts or notes to aid myself I’ll do my best to re-cap my version of the trip from Bali to Phuket on Happy Ours with Captain Phil.  As I mentioned in earlier blogs the temptation to visit Thailand was too much plus I was enjoying Bali enough to spend some extra time there so that I added yet another year to the Circumnavigation, Originally three years, now is looking more like five.  However I was warned off of crossing the equator twice and dealing with freighters in the Malacca Straights so I opted to leave poor little Salsa Moored in Sarangan, Bali, Indonesia for a few months while I take the side trip to Thailand.  The previous website entry is Phil’s log from the trip and I felt like I really should make some kind of entry myself so here it goes (as I recall it).

The days leading up to the departure from Bali were quite hectic for me.  It seems that leaving your boat to go on a journey is actually more work than preparing your boat for a journey!  For the first time ever I stripped off every sail and stowed them below, well actually I took everything off deck and put it below, removed most of the foods on board and then spent a good day rat-proofing the boat.  Even though I’m on a mooring this anchorage is known to have rats boarding boats and doing serious damage.  I put funnels on the mooring lines to make it harder for them to climb up the ropes and then put poisons and traps inside the boat, not much left to do but hope for the best.  I have a local Indonesian guy looking after her,  his only responsibility is to check the bilge, mooring lines, and battery voltage once a week but I’m told that I’ll be lucky if ever takes a single look on the boat while I’m gone.  Oh well, too late now and at least Salsa is moored within a few hundred meters of his house which is on the water so at the very least he can see her daily if he just looks in the right direction.  I also got a few emails from friends on other boats that were passing through Bali and told me Salsa was looking good so that’s been relieving but I’m still nervous about her there.

Back to the passage, so after last minute provisioning Phil did most of the prep on “Happy Ours” His boat, a 40’ Oday and we were off within a day or two of our original targeted departure date.  Things were going really well for the first 48 hours or so, but that’s not saying much when you take a 30 day voyage.  I think we left around Sept 1st, expecting a 3 week passage as we were warned about squalls and calms along the way and of course we did have to cross the equator / ITCZs or the  “Doldrums” as they are known.  After two days of steady wind, things got light.  We did a bit of sailing at 3ish knots but at least then we were still moving.  Within a few days of leaving the nights turned into squalls and rain usually mixed with dead wind so we often just hove to or drifted a good part of the night as we still had intentions of making it Thailand almost entirely under sail.  I would guess that around a week out of Bali we got restless and were out of beer and meat and feeling no pressure to make Thailand fast so we stopped at an anchorage on the South side of Java (we went outside / west of Java and Sumatra avoiding the Mallaca Straights but adding about 400 miles to the 1700 mile passage, give or take).  I won’t go into all the oddities of this anchorage that wasn’t really an anchorage but I can tell you it was a popular tourist destination for Indonesians (not foreigners) and we survived the worst beach-surf landing I‘ve ever seen with the dinghy swamped by multiple big breaking waves..   We did manage to find some cold beer and food but not the type of provisioning we are accustomed to,  I’ve seen smaller remote villages with much better provisioning, and we didn’t feel we were in real need of water and fuel so off we went after our first night.

We tried to pick up the pace a bit after this first stop as Phil finally got an email from his brother letting us know the dates he would be arriving in Thailand to visit,.  Unfortunately his schedule meant that we would either have to motor quite a bit or get lucky with the weather to arrive in time to meet him.  Well we didn’t get any luckier with the weather, after that things got plain crappy.   We had to motor most of the nights and do our best sailing through the squalls.  Most days we had a light head wind that we could actually sail into at 3 to 4 knots but night time sailing was more miss than hit, we used a lot of fuel.  Not to mention that we didn’t have a working autopilot so these rainy gloomy nights motoring were mostly done hand steering, something that I consider on par with torture most of the time.  At least when we were sailing we could let the wind vane steer, this was a serious motivation to sail when we could but no wind is no wind.  Not to mention that when we did get wind we were afraid to put up enough canvas as we were often nailed by strong winds with little warning (no warning at night as we couldn’t see the clouds).  By the time we got to Thailand we had made two more stops, both in Sumatra where we scavenged for fuel and water with varying degrees of success but of course getting at least the minimum supplies we needed to make Thailand.  The stops along the way were actually quite interesting, sailing into poorly or uncharted anchorages that are not in any of the guide books.  You meet people that don’t see a lot of  “yachties” and that always makes for a more interesting visit if you can cope with the lack of facilities.

Our only big break in the weather was as we neared the northern tip of Sumatra where we would turn east and head straight for Phuket.  By now we had the main sail blown out, completely torn and unusable, maybe repairable but we at least had a smallish spare, with the jib not looking so healthy either.  So let’s just say we needed a break.  Both the wind and the current were in our favor and were seeing speeds in the 7kt neighborhood all day, maybe longer I can’t remember.  But I do remember that as soon as we were North of Sumatra turning east the wind stopped and now we were in a major shipping area with freighters that really don’t answer the radio or yield any right-of-way.   You really had to watch out for yourself and frequently dodge massive freighters that were nearly running you down.  Without Radar or AIS this became a bit hectic.  I even remember at least one once having to wake up Phil because I couldn’t tell what a ship was doing and believe I’ve seen my fair share!

The approach to Phuket was still a bit stressful as we did not know if we could make it in before dark or if we could safely negotiate the anchorage after dark, we did NOT want to spend one more bloody day at sea so we ran the motor and motor-sailed as fast as we could making our arrival just at dusk.  Yay.  Tired, probably exhausted, we ran into Michael from Shayler who didn’t have any beer on board but showed us to the dinghy dock and nearest bar where were soon in much better spirits.  While Phil and I got along well and generally had a good time watching movies,  having the occasional beer and eating fairly well, this was still one of the worst passages I’ve been on, probably THE worst.  We expected crappy weather but I’ve never seen calms for SO long mixed with generally unassailable squalls.  Mix this with no auto-pilot and limited fuel I think the trip took almost exactly a month, and we were working hard to get there for the last three weeks.  Between the two of us we did get a reasonable amount of sleep and luckily until we rounded North of Sumatra there was little traffic but this is not a passage for a sailing purist.  It might have been tolerable in smaller doses broken up with more and longer stops along the coast but we simply didn’t have the time with Phil’s brother arriving and the changing Monsoon threatening to produce constant headwinds.

Since arriving in Thailand we mostly hung out in Ao Chalong Bay, Phuket.  Not because we like it so much but it’s easy and its one of a few all weather anchorages.  We also took a trip to Krabi and Phi Phi for a few days just to get away, and that was quite fun, Phi Phi Le is beautiful and only a day sail from Phuket.

And more recently I jumped off of the boat to take an inland trip by buses, trains and motorbike from Phuket to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pai, and Mae Hong Son., and back.  Right now I’m in my hotel in Bangkok but I’ll be back in Phuket in a few days and will try to update with a blog of my big inland adventure, especially about the 3 day 800km motorbike trip I made through the mountains of Northern Thailand and to the highest point in the country , Doi Inthannon.   I attached a few photos but all my pictures have all ready been posted to the website or at this link;

Photos

Hope this email finds everyone well, I’m really enjoying my time here in Thailand, no regrets at all in spite of the nasty passage here!

I’ll upload some pictures and my own update soon.  For the moment I have left Happy Ours and am backpacking Thailand.  I bussed to Bangkok from Phuket, spent a few nights then took a train to Chiang Mai where I am currently.  It’s been awesome, don’t worry I’ll actually blog about this inland tour as soon as I can.  From Chiang Mai I have rented another motorbike to drive a 600 too 900km Loop around the mountains in thins northern most region of Thailand.  Should take about 4 days to get back to Chiang Mai, then eventually train back to Bangkok and bus back to Phuket to hop back on a friend’s sailboat for a while.  Life is good here.  I can stay in a nice hotel, and eat very well and drink beer all for less than $15 a day.

NOW FOR PHILLS BLOG CONTINUED FROM THE LAST UPDATE

Friday, September 24, 2010

Early start as we really want to be on our way today. I must have fallen funny on my foot as I can’t bend my toes and am limping like a cripple.

We took the dinghy to shore, I threw out the stern anchor and pulled in the line, it was not tied on right and I didn’t check. Good start.

The guy at the warung who speaks some English – Toto, was woken and he helped us get what we needed – internet, ice, bread and beer. He tried to screw us on the beer big time but we were not falling for it and the price soon tumbled.

By 10am we were chugging out of this superb lagoon and through the nasty  breaking entrance and out in to the blue. After an hours motoring we got a sailable wind that lasted all day. The stormy squalls kicked in just before dark but we sailed them – abeit in the wrong direction (260) all night. Kirk tried to wire the last remaining autopilot controller I have but I think he got the wires wrong as it started smoking. That’s that then – definitely no autopilot. Read the rest of this entry

THE FOLLOWING ENTRY WAS WRITTEN BY Phil, Captain of Happy Ours, the boat I’m ‘crewing’ on to Thailand why Salsa waits for me in Bali for a few months.

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

It’s check out day but before we attempted that I wanted to repair a broken wire up the mast, best done in the morning when it’s cool and I have not eaten (I barely fit in my old harness these days). Checking out was the same ludicrous run around as checking in, running from offices that are here and there and collecting official stamps. One guy stamped my 5 forms 5 times each and then had to write on each side of all of them. I later had to photocopy them all. More paper to push. It was three o’clock when we had finished – though we did have a fantastic lunch for about two quid. And we picked up all the copied guides from a copy shop. We collected all the rich cruisers guides to Thailand (up to $120 each) and had them photo copied and bound – very impressive. And about $5 per book.

Kirk’s leaving party is taking place at the warung Ebu (Our local little hang out bar and that roughly translates to; mum’s little shop) at 5. All the cruisers were there and some brought dips and chips. The warung bought in extra beer and we all had a pretty good night. Kirk was presented with a bottle opener and a certificate for ‘fastest Darwin – Bali, fastest single hander’ etc. Read the rest of this entry

First the Itinerary change.  Rather than sailing to Thailand and then to South Africa next year I bought a mooring here in Bali where I will leave Salsa for about 4 months while I sail to Thailand on a Friends Boat.  Then I will fly back here to Bali and hang out a few months before sailing on to South Africa via Madagascar and possibly a few other stops.  This saves a few thousand miles of sailing on Salsa and gives me a better angle for crossing the Indian Ocean next year.  So basically Sept I’ll be sailing to Thailand from Bali via the west side of Java and Sumatra (off shore avoiding the Straits of Malacca).  Roughly October through January hanging out in Thailand and doing some backpacking.  Feb-April back in Bali then leave Bali heading west towards Madagascar in May.  Read the rest of this entry

For those who responded to the last email, I’ll write back soon, but don’t have internet yet, just borrowing a computer for this update here!

I’m trying something new here.  Rather than trying to remember the eventful parts of the passage I’m just going to try and keep a daily log, I hope this doesn’t get too wordy for some of you, and for those that really wonder what life is like underway this should provide a broader glimpse of life on Salsa at sail.  Maybe it will even make up for the lack of entries I made in Australia !!  If you actually read all this and like the format let me know and I’ll try to keep it up, and if you just want the Bali Approach and Marina details see the last paragraph.

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Well…  The Website blog is only about two months or so behind, that’s not SOOO bad is it!?   I really can’t give this update justice either as I’m only hours from pulling up the anchor and setting sail for Indonesia from Darwin where I‘ve been delayed first from my dinghy disappearing in the middle of the night and secondly by weather.  The next stop is probably Bali, but maybe Kupang first, I guess it just depends on how I feel once I get underway.  Read the rest of this entry

Just a very quick update from the Whitsunday Islands.  Have been of internet range quite a bit, and when in towns have been busy provisioning and tracking down the odd parts needed so I apologize for not posting a more detailed update, I’ll catch up with photos next time I’m back near the coast maybe in a week or so.  For now I just left Airle Beach heading back out to the beautiful Whitsunday Islands, contemplating a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef only 20 miles past the Island I’m heading for now, I hear the snorkeling and diving is amazing.  It’s been pretty much smooth down wind sailing since Brisbane with a bit of motoring between anchorages around the local islands here where sailing gets tricky with all the mountains around.  Anyway, having a great time and expect more detailed updates on the web site asap. For now, planning to sail further  north in a few days, next update maybe in Townsville or Cairns. -Kirk

Mooloolaba to Sandy Straits

Once again faced with the dilemma of a sail just a tad bit too long to do in one day, combined with tidal restrictions on the entrance,  I decided to Leave Mooloolaba around 3 AM in hopes to make the incoming tide to the Wide Bay Bar just south of Fraser Island to enter the Sandy Strait.  The sail itself was rather uneventful, I even managed to watch two movies underway something I usually don’t do when coastal cruising, but there was just nothing going on so I just popped my head out every 5 minutes as I sailed along wing and wing on a broad reach.  Just inside the bar my good friend Ned from Tanamara was waiting to pilot me in and had plans for me to visit him and his wife Heike at their property about 45 minutes from Tin Can Bay. Read the rest of this entry

Here are just a few Bali Tid-bits mostly from a friends blog, www.theslapdash.com , and from an email.  Jaime and Seth are circumnavigating on small catamaran and we met up in Panama and have stayed in touch via email.  So many people have been concerned about the check-in for Indonesia so I wanted to forward this info on to my cruising friends heading that way and to a few other that might be just entertained.  There is also a section about the price of things in Bali, and it sounds good.  FYI he says he has the dollars converted into Canadian dollars (its not their fault they are Canadians) but I just checked the currency conversion and it seems the USD is the same as a Canadian dollar right now, neat.  You can get a lot of good factual information on their passages plus heir website / blog www.theslapdash.com is an awesome read as they are having an amazing experience and are great writers as well!  Hope somebody finds this useful! -Kirk

(AN EMAIL SENT TO KIRK ON March 10 2010)

Bali is relatively easy to check in to. Send an email to Bali Nautical and ask for a CAIT. Tell them which islands you think you might stop in at. Costs the same if you hit one or all. Give them about 4 weeks to process it. Arrive into Benoa Harbour. Walk across the street to customs, immigration, port authority, etc. Takes all day but they are cool. If you get someone who isn’t cool, give them $2 and they will bend over backwards for you. And enjoy. CAIT is good for 3 months I think and can be renewed. Costs about $250 AUD Read the rest of this entry