2007 - 1 ; Sail trip from Thailand to Maldives.

SAILING FROM THAILAND TO THE MALDIVES.
Sailing on the big ocean was something I had dreamt about for a long time. Now here I am in the Maldives in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
It all began in May of 2006 after my return to the States from Asia. I had decided that sailing was going to be my next adventure. Then I found this ad on the internet:
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User Click here to send a message to maxsail47@aol.com
Created 21 April 2006 20:32:36
Country United States of America
Number wanted 3
Sailing destination Thailand to Med
Boat Type sailboat
Boat Location Thailand
Type of Position Yacht Cruising
Position Sought Amateur Sailing Crew
Normal Water Type Offshore,Ocean Passage
Skipper's Qualifications Yacht master Offshore
Summary of the position The boat is a 50’ Perry Cutter, not fast but not slow either. Very comfortable inside and out.

January 2007 I will be retiring start cruising full time again. Going to leave Thailand and head for the Med where I plan to stay for 3 to 5 years. This is going to be quite the trip; will be stopping at Sri Lanka, India, Oman, Djibouti, Eritrea, Red Sea, Egypt then the Med.

Costs; all I expect is for the crew to cover their food cost and their expenses, if they want to help out on other cost that is fine but not expected. I have a beautiful boat I do expect the crew to help with upkeep, varnishing etc.
If you are interested in a picture of my boat, please let me know.
Fair winds, following sea,
Max Young


***********************************************************************I I wrote Max, he wrote me back and the rest is history as they say. Besides me, Max collected 4 other people to join us on this trip. Let me tell you about my ship mates:

First of course: Our captain Max Young. He is from Sacramento, California. He is a capable, knowledgeable and nice person and he has traveled all over the world. In 2000 he sailed the boat from San Francisco to Hawaii through the South Pacific to Australia, where he stayed for 3 years. Then he took it to Malaysia and later to Thailand, where my voyage started.



Our first mate is C.J. Hendrix. He is from Tennessee, we won’t hold that against him though. For the last several years he has worked off and on for the U.N. as a map maker for the foreign aid workers in disaster areas . This job has placed him in Pakistan (after the disastrous earthquake), Eritrea and he just returned from working in Sudan. C.J. sailed with Max from Australia to Malaysia and then did some sailing with another boat from Eritrea to Egypt. He is a super nice and very interesting fellow. C.J. has his story of the trip on line as well, the address is: www.cjhendrix.blogspot.com if you're interested in hearing his view of our adventures.


Susie is a marine biologist and a scuba dive instructor from Wisconsin. She has spent most of her time outside of the USA in the last years and she has been a fair amount of time around sail boats. We call her super-girl, nothing seems to be out of her reach. She is our go-getter and information gatherer and she has been entertaining us with great planetary stories.



Holly is from San Francisco, she is very nice and personable, always willing to help with whatever is needed. She plans to make a video of our trip. The theme: 6 complete strangers on a large ocean voyage in a small boat. Will it be a survivor-like story?


Last but not least is Sarah from Sacramento, California, our youngest at 26 years old. She is athletic, adventurous and the all-American girl next door. I have adopted her as my daughter. She has a degree in psychology and so she can give great insight in the various personalities. As she is the smallest and the most limber of the group, she gets to do the jobs in tight and high places.

We ended up spending more than 6 weeks together in a pretty small area and we all got along just great.


Now the trip:


We all met on January 26, 2007 on Phuket Island in Thailand. The boat “Reflections’ was at the Royal Phuket Marina “on the hard” (meaning: out of the water)


The plan was to go at it for a few days and to get her ready for the ocean voyage. Max had figured out, what all needed to be done. He had bought a new propeller, a new windlass (a system to electrically lower and raise the anchor), a new automatic pilot and a new chart plotter. We were going to install these items, do a good cleaning and overall check-up, some painting. Get her into the water and start sailing into the wide blue yonder ............

Right! The boat had different ideas. Getting the propeller and the windlass installed was an epic adventure, that took 5 days.

None of the jobs went as easy as planned, everything took longer than expected and we were not even able to place the boat into the water until January 29.






After we were placed in the water the diesel engine refused to start, so the boat had to be pulled into her slip. Figuring out what was wrong with the engine and getting it fixed took several days.


All these delays caused additional problems. First the immigration. The boat legally should have left Thailand on Feb. 2. When Max went to the immigration on that day and explained our difficulties, the officer was initially very cooperative. He told us to come back the next day with proof of the engine not running. The next day a different officer created problems about us being there a day late, told us that there would be a large fine, but he wanted to help us. He needed to discuss it with his boss and we had to come back the next day. To make a long story short, they made us come back 5 days in a roll. Obviously they were trying to get a bribe out of us, but eventually Max got fed up with the whole charade and told them that he would go to Bangkok to get it straight and to report them. This changed the whole picture. All of a sudden there was no need for a fine and the next day the officer had all the paperwork ready.

The other problem caused by the delay was the depth of the marina. It is a very shallow harbor and with the size of her keel, Reflections can only get in and out of the harbor during very high tides. We were nearing the time that the tides would start running lower. It was amazing, we finally had the boat ready to go on February 9, the last day that the tide would be high enough.

If not, we would have had to wait an extra 10 days before we could go. A small tugboat pulled Reflections out, while scraping her keel over the mud.

But out she was and she motored to another harbor at Chalong Bay, where the immigration had to finalize our exit. While the others went by boat, Holly and I took the rental car and we went shopping for our trip supplies and food, a huge undertaking. Especially in a country where you can not read the labels on most of the products. It took us much longer than expected and by the time we were done it was dark. Reflections had anchored off-shore, the weather had become rough and we were told that the dingy that evening could not come to pick us up.
Luckily my fellow tsunami volunteer Lies has a house in the area and we were able to spend the night there. As an added bonus she was able to direct us to a store that had all the final items we had not been able to find yet.

The next day we dealt with the immigration, did last minute shopping, sent out the last e.mails and we all got our last Thai massages. On February 11 we sailed from Thailand into the Andaman Sea.

The weather was gorgeous, we had a 7 knot wind filling the sails and we were all excited about the start of our journey. A few hours later the winds died completely, but luckily, the diesel engine was fixed and performed admirably. Max and C.J. had calculated our diesel fuel needs, even if we would have no more wind, we should have enough fuel to make it to Sri Lanka. There was no more land in sight. On the 2^nd morning we passed through the Nicobar islands. We saw 4 of the islands from a distance, but sailboats are not allowed to stop here. Apparently boats that tried have been shot at.



Each of us would be “on watch” twice a day for 2 hours periods. Everyone choose their favorite times. Amazingly none of them conflicted with anyone else’s. My watch times became 06:00 – 08:00 and 18:00 – 20:00. Excellent times, I got to enjoy sunrise AND sunset every day.



Life on board was idyllic with plenty to keep us busy. We saw large schools of flying fish, which occasionally flew right into the boat. Dolphins were riding our bow frequently.

Other times we threw long lines off the stern and swam behind the boat, while holding on to the lines in order to keep up with the boat.

Occasionally we saw other boats, mostly freighters, but on the 2^nd day there was a sailboat on the horizon. We got in radio contact with them; it was called “the Break-away”, a 47 ft. British yacht. They were going the same direction as us, and we agreed to communicate twice a day.

We all took turns cooking, which meant that some nights we eat very well and other nights the meals were somewhat simpler. But overall the food has been good.




Then on the 3^rd night all of a sudden the engine quit. Oh, no, what happened?? Max and C.J. searched and finally found that one of the two fuel tanks was bone dry. Some more searching revealed that the tank had sprung a leak. There was still no wind, we were drifting helplessy and we were surrounded by 2 large freighters.

They had to manoever a bit to get out of our way. We switched to the other tank and we were again on our way. But now we had a problem. No wind and only half the fuel we thought we would have. Prayers were send out to the wind gods and new calculations made. We informed “Break-away” about our dilemma and we figured that we would stop in Sri Lanka to fix the tank and get more fuel. The next day we had light winds and we decided to raise the spinnaker sail. The boat has 2 spinakers, a small one which is only connected by lines and a large one, which uses a “whisker pole”.

We raised the large one, turned off the engine and we were able to sail all day along nicely at about 4 knots. In the middle of the night Max was urgently awakened by the night watch. A support piece of the “whisker pole” had broken off and C.J. was using all his might keeping the sail from falling into the water. All hands on deck, we were able to take the sail in without further damage and to raise the small spinnaker.



The following day the winds died again completely and we had no choice but to run the engine. “Break-Away” had some information for us. Boats were advised not to stop at Sri Lanka. Apparently the civil war there has intensified and the country is under martial law. Furthermore a sailboat had been attacked by local fishermen and on top of that, Galle, the port we planned to go to did not have much by way of repair facilities. We were advised to go to the Maldives instead, a message that was happily received by the crew. We had all done our best trying to convince Max to go to the Maldives.

For the first 7 days even though we had no wind, we always had some sort of adventure. Like the American war ship that notified us by radio, that they were going to conduct live shooting exercises. Initially they advised boats to stay 2 miles away, o.k. no problem. Next we received the message that we had to stay 16 miles away. Now there was a problem because we were only 8 miles away. Max radioed them and told them our position. O.k. not to worry, they promised not to shoot at us. Puffff.

Other problems kept popping up however. The floor of the dingy was coming apart and its outboard motor was balky. So the floor was repaired and the outboard just needed a new spark plug.

There was a charging problem for the big batteries, which then caused power to run too low to run the GPS and the automatic pilot. Oh, well, use the hand held GPS’s and steer manually. And Max had a generator to recharge the batteries. Oh, but the generator keeps stopping. Took a while, but it seemed that the major problem was when a big wave came up and the thing would not get fuel. Solution, hang the generator so it swings and the fuel won’t run dry. That was it, o.k. we had power again for the time being.

On the 8^th day the wind gods decided to pay attention to our prayers. The winds picked up nicely accompanied by big swells. It was a gorgeous following wind and so we could set up the main and jib sails. What a delight! After all we were on a sail boat, who wants to hear the noise of a diesel engine all day?

During the night however, the wind picked up too much and we had a bit too much sail out. Again C.J. had to deal with trying to take in the sail and it broke a piece of equipment. The following day Max decided that it was repairable and fixed it. We kept having a nice breeze for the next several days and we were covering some nice distance. Then on day 11 the wind became quite strong and the waves quite big. All of a sudden the main sail ripped. Again it was a mad house for a while trying to take this sail down, but it was done without mishaps.

But now, no main sail. Max had a very small storm sail that then was rigged off the main mast. Things actually worked quite well and we continued to sail with not too much loss of speed.

On Day 12 there was a yell, “Land Ho”, the islands of the Maldives were in sight. They are a group of a 1190, very low, coral islands, bound by reefs into various atolls. Only about 25 are inhabited by 300.000 people. The main island is Male, 2 km (1.5 mile) in size, which has a small town on it, where 80.000 people live.

About 20 of the islands have been made into very exclusive and pricy resorts, where a room can go as high as US $ 3000 per night. Locals do not live on these resort islands. As it is an Islamic society, Western money is welcome, but western morals are not.

The island and town of Male is about in the center of these islands. We arrived nearby at 1:00 p.m., and per radio we were told where to anchor. We tried to turn on the diesel engine to motor into the harbor and lo and behold: the engine did not start. There was not enough power in the battery (accu). In the meanwhile, the boat was caught into a very strong current, which pulled us further and further away from the island. We kept tacking back and forth, but with the loss of our main sail, the current was stronger than the wind and it kept pulling us more and more south, into the wrong direction and closer and closer to a nasty reef. Max decided to call for a towboat to take us in. We still had to wait several hours, but then one did arrive.


It was after dark by the time we finally reached our temporary anchor spot. Here the water was so deep, 135 ft (45 meter) that the anchorage felt very insecure. Therefore we still had to do our watches that night to make sure that the anchor would not drag and put the boat onto a reef. About an hour after arrival a boat pulled up with 8 men in various official uniforms. They were immigration, port police and who knows what else. It seemed like an invasion, but once on board they were friendly and polite. Our passports and boat papers had to be checked in and we had to give them all the information that they wanted to allow us to visit their country. A few hours later they left, and we could have a good night’s sleep, except for the crew on watch.
The next day we tried to figure out how to get the engine started, but every single battery was so weak, that it was just impossible.Then an angel, in the form of a solo sailor by the name of Jack, showed miraculously up by our boat. He was looking for an anchor spot and soon came by with a starter battery and lots of boat knowledge to help Max diagnose the problems. We finally got the engine started, but the conclusion was, that all our batteries were basically bad. So our visit to this paradise had 3 major goals: get the main sail repaired, replace the leaky diesel tank and replace all the batteries (5 altogether).

It has now been 3 weeks since our arrival at the Maldives. It has been a very busy time. We moved to another island near Male {Hulhumale} with much better and shallower anchorage. A ferry goes from here every 30 minutes so we can do our shopping in Male. We were able to get the main sail repaired, we replaced all the batteries (accu’s) and we even have a new diesel tank. It took over 10 days to get a new tank made in the town, but then took us even longer to take out the old one and place the new one in. Apparently when the boat was built, the tank was placed first and then the rest of the boat built around it. So that meant that there was no opening big enough take to it out and to place it back in. Being the skinniest, it was up to C.J. and Sarah to take turns cutting the old tank out with a grinder.

Which took 4 days to do, placing the new tank in and getting the fittings on it, took even longer, 6 days. The water line, some electrical connections and part of the floor had to be cut out for it, which had then to be repaired as well. Just a few days ago we finally had the tank installed. After that we have been working on the repairs and cleaning the boat. Now we can start buying the trip food and get the boat ready for the next part of the voyage.
I learned a new sailing truth. "Cruising is about visiting exotic ports to work on your boat". But if you have to be stuck in a place, you could do way worse than HAVING to spend 3 weeks in the Maldives. The weather has been gorgeous. The ocean has perfect colors and where ever you look you're surrounded by small islands. Male is a busy little town, but the people are absolutely great. Everybody is super friendly and helpful.

And all has not been just work though, we have also taken time out to have fun and explore the area.

One day we made arrangements with the island resort of Embudu.
We were provided with boat transport, a room and lunch.
The room was gorgeous; it sat over the water with a window built into the floor, so you could see fish swim below us. It had a great bath tub, where we all took a long soak (badly needed) and some of us even used it to do some laundry. Everyone spent the day in their own favorite way.

Most of us went snorkeling on the reef that surrounded the island and saw lots of colorful fish, turtles and sharks.


The island was small, it took me only 10 minutes to walk clear around it. It is surrounded by a reef, nice beaches and covered with palm trees.

On another day Sarah and I went boat diving on a coral reef wall with some caves.
The coral is not the best I’ve seen, but we saw an amazing number of gorgeous colorful fish, including several beautiful lion fish.

We have also been able to do some snorkeling on reefs nearby the boat. Again, the underwater life is amazing. Nearby the boat we have been watching a huge manta ray feeding.

We celebrated C.J.’s birthday with a nice dinner in Male and this happened to be the last time that the whole group was together.

The number of crew for the next leg of the trip has shrunk in half. Susie found a job as a dive master on one of the resort islands. Holly and Sarah have flown to India and will continue to travel overland.

So for the next section it will be just Max, C.J. and I. We will probably on Monday March 19. We plan to sail north through the islands, a trip I am looking forward to. We have decided to skip India, the wind and current will be against us going there. We will be heading west to Oman, Yemen and then the African coast. I am not sure how long the trip will take, probably about 2,5 to 3 weeks.
I have no idea when I will be able to place the next blog on line, but when I do I will let you know. We are just hoping now that all our mechanical problems are behind us and that the next part will be just a "cruise".