An Arabian Sea Tale

This morning, Eric let me sleep an extra hour, as at the end of my watch at 2am we changed sails again, from the jib to the screecher, since the winds were now more behind us.  This was about a 20 min process, and by the time we were done, I was tired.  I could not sleep before my late2am watch (Eric's watch is 6pm-10pm) so by the time 2am rolled around, I was pretty beat.  I finally hit the sack around 2:30 and with the noise cancelling headphones I was in a deep sleep.  Eric woke me at 7am instead of my scheduled 6am, and he took the noise cancelling headphones and fell into a deep sleep himself.

We had picked up some Uligan bananas before we left the Maldives, super sweet and similar to the apple bananas from Maui.  They were a little too ripe to eat so it was time to bake them.   Yum, I preheated the oven which I finally figured out that it heats to 350 degrees and before too long, it filled the cabin with the sweet aromas of baking banana bread.

While entering in the logs and catching up on my journal, I noticed something that catches my eye outside.  I stop, put my pen down, and go out to see what was there.  I spotted an albatross, a sleek, long winged grey and white bird with a narrow body and long wingspan.  I waved at him, as this is the first sign of life we've seen since leaving Maldives over 5 days ago.  I watched him for a while, he flew high, dipped his wings, then soared down fast, banking left, banking right, complete stop mid-flight, barrel roll down into the water like a torpedo.  He resurfaces, lifting off in the updrafts of the wind waves, a few strong graceful strokes of his long wings and he's airborne again.  Gaining speed, he flies along the surface of the water, just broadside to Sea Child, and waits, looking here and there, waiting patiently.  Suddenly, a school flying fish are startled by Sea Child barreling through the water, they take off away from our bow wake, and there!  The albatross changes direction, spots the flying fish, and dives for them.  As he comes back up again, he takes off again, and I almost feel like he thanks us for our help in his morning meal.

His acrobatic maneouvers have me mesmerized.  I can see how  mankind was enthralled by the flight of birds and wanted to mimic them, taking us into the heavens as well.  I have named my albatross friend, "Sean Tucker", after the famous acrobatic pilot we've seen for years at OSH.  Eric just got up from his nap, and now he is watching the antics of "Sean Tucker".  Oh, the joys of being out at sea.

We are now 214 NM from Socotra Island, sailing fast averaging 10+ knots boat speed on 15knots apparent wind. 

We are satiated by both the banana bread and by the aerobatics show this morning.  This is a glimpse of life on Sea Child.

CURRENT LOCATION:
12 DEGREES 01.244 NORTH
58 DEGREES 07.688 EAST

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The Maldives

Sea Child arrived in Uligan, Haa Alifa Atoll, Maldives on Thursday 25
February 2016. After our 1760 NM sail from Similans, Thailand, we
dropped anchor at 11:00am local Maldives time. We were met by some of
the most beautiful sights we have ever seen. The Maldives were visible
from about 6 miles out and appeared low on the horizon. They reminded
us at first of the island in San Blas, Panama, with one exception: The
Maldives are covered in more greenery that just the palm trees of San
Blas. As we sailed closer, we picked up the AIS of other vessels at the
Uligan anchorage, Taimada & Laragh. These two boats appeared as if they
were staged in the ultimate tropical landscape: Vivid turquoise waters,
bleached white sand beaches, massive breadfruit trees and the cobalt
blue waters of the Indian Ocean. The stark contrast of days of open
ocean sailing to the vivid beauty of Uligan was overwhelming. Never had
we seen such incredible beauty, not in all the 36 or so countries that
we have seen to date on Sea Child.

We were surprised at the small numbers of boats at the anchorage,
though. In years past, before the piracy incidents of 2009-2012, Uligan
was a hopping destination. Our agent, Assad of RealSeahawks Maldives,
was quite busy in those days. He has turned out to be a wonderful agent
for cruising yachts in the Maldives, acquiring sim cards for cell & data
service, arranging local dinners in Uligan ($15 per person, a cruiser
MUST) with the families of Uligan, even taking care of our need to make
a quick trip back to California and leaving Sea Child for 10 days to
meet our new granddaughter, Kaia. He assists all his clients, those who
need toarrange repairs for their damaged vessels and even acq uiring
new parts such as our need of a new starting battery which wen bad on
our sail from Thailand. Sea Child highly recommends all entering
vessels use RealSeahawks Maldives and enter in Uligan. Assad is the
very best we've worked with, and we couldn't ask for a more helpful,
kind, interesting and all around good guy.

Sailing the Maldives is exceptional! We had guests on board who needed
to fly out a few days after our arrival. A nice beam reach south to
HIdeaway Resort on Gaafushi Island, perfect flat water sailing along at
7-8 knots boat speed, full main & Jib. A short 16NM journey with
pristine waters, sailing around incredibly beautiful islands and atolls,
past an amazing reef that has waves breaking on the south end with a
lovely white sand beach in the center. The colors of the reef alone
captivated us as we sailed past the turquoise, cobalt, and white. The
waves were smooth and inviting. Trying to capture this beauty with a
camera is most difficult as a picture just doesn't give the perspective
of the beauty of the Maldives. But it does come close.

We dropped our guests off at Kulhudhuffushi Island, the largest
populated island in the northern atolls. With a Muslim population of
over 10,000, we found that the several mosques and their calls to prayer
were beautiful and in sync with each other. We passed several of the
mosques during prayer time as we went to dinner in the city and
witnessed the faithful in their standing poses. We have found the local
Muslim population to be kind hearted, interested, helpful, peaceful and
more. Our Agent, Assad, recommended that western women dress
conservatively, covering arms and legs below the knee. And it really
was more comfortable to walk around the villages and town in this
conservative attire (though it was very hot). While the local women
were dressed in full burka, their demeanor was pleasant and kind. They
were shy, especially the younger teens, who stood together and chatted
with each other as most teen girls do. They had their cell phones in
their hands, even playfully tucking the phones into their head coverings
since they didn't seem to have any pockets. Some of the wives of the
Uligan families were more talkative than others (possibly a language
barrier). We ended up buying some roti (chappatti) from one such family
who hosted our first local dinner in Uligan. These tasty rotis were a
wonderful addition to the provisions on Sea Child and we had made
arrangements to buy more for our crossing to Socotra.

The snorkeling at Maldives was colorful and amazing, several new fish
varieties we had never seen before. The massive bleaching event that
Maldives experienced previously has recovered a bit, with the blues and
purples and pinks returning to the coral reefs. We found a reef just
west of Nellaidhoo Island that captivated us again. Pristine waters,
visibility atleast 100'+, table corals and leather corals and tangs and
dorys and clowns and other new fish were everywhere. Coordinates of
this amazing reef, which we highly recommend on any visit to Maldives
are: 06 degrees 42.9 N, 072 degrees 55.1 E. Check it out. You won't
be disappointed.

Our visit to Maldives also included a night at Nellaidhoo Island, in
their guest cottage, RockSea Beach Inn. A Muslim island, Nellaidhoo is
captivating and is Uligan Island. Nellaidhoo Island has a population of
1200, compared to Uligan (500 people). Both have elected council
members, who dress in pressed white shirts and ties during the work week
(Sunday-Thursday). We were lucky to spend time with councilmember
Imaahd at Uligan, and council member Faru on Nellaidhoo. Both men
shared valuable information on their islands, from cultural practices to
schools and markets. On Nellaidhoo, we enjoyed lunch and dinner at Cafe
Oligo, an excellent outdoor cafe where seating is framed by lush
landscape with an ocean view. We talked through dinner with Faru and
Ahmed, our host from JA Manafaru. We learned much about the Muslim way
of life, and are blessed to have had the experience. If you should find
yourself in Maldives, we highly recommend a stay at the RockSea Beach
Inn. Tour Nellaidhoo. And say hello to the locals for Sea Child.

We sadly bid farewell to the Maldives on 20 Mar 2016 and are currently
underway to Socotra Island, Yemen. The winds have died on us, so we are
motor sailing. GRIB files show little to no wind for the next several
days. Wish we would have stayed in the Maldives a little longer. Oh
well, our memories of them will stay with us forever.

CURRENT LOCATION:
07 DEGREE 33 MINUTES NORTH
70 DEGREES 000 MINUTES EAST

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Bay of Bengal into Indian Ocean

+50 NM West of Great Nicobar Island

The SE waves, 6-10 seconds and 3-4', roll steady under Sea Child, occasionally banging the underside of the main salon.  The north swell the jumbled the SE waves yesterday seems to be gone for now, winds steady and light from due east at 8-10 apparent.  Our direct course to the southern tip of Sri Lanka is 267 degrees, but with the easterly winds, we are sailing a course of 230.  This course keeps Sea Child moving along around 6-8 knots, much more comfortable than yesterday, when we saw +15 knots boat speed as Sea Child surfed the +6' ESE waves on a port tack.  The skies are hazy, and the absolute remoteness of our location has us all reflecting on various emotions and excitement.  The InReach Expolorer is continuing to post our position every 20 minutes, and while we have a long way to go, its encouraging to see how far we've come.

Its been quite a while since Sea Child has done an open ocean crossing.  Looking back through the ships log, it was way back in September 2012 when Sea Child sailed from Noumea, New Caledonia to Mackay, Australia, around 1200 NM. We certainly don't discount all the miles sailed since then:  The almost 2,000 NM from Brisbane, AUS to Darwin, AUS, or the 300 NM crossing of the Gulf of Carpenteria which was one of our roughest passages.  The roughest, however, still belongs to our July 2011 crossing from Opua, North Island, New Zealand to Lautoka, Fiji.  On that crossing we saw 35 knots wind from the south as Sea Child sailed into 5 different wave patterns, from almost every direction except south! That 8 day crossing, with our good friend Karen Wyatt, takes the top honor so far of being the roughest passage to date.

The 430 NM crossing from Darwin, AUS to Kupang, Timor, Indonesia was a quick 2 night passage, as was our visit to the Andaman Islands of India from Phuket, Thailand, about the same distance, last year, 2015.  So this current crossing, +1,400 NM from Phuket, Thailand to Uligan, Maldives, is the longest passage in the open ocean that we've seen in quite a while.  Our longest open ocean passage was back in 2009, from Galapagos, Ecuador to Hiva Oa, Marquesas which was over 3,000 NM.  Sea Child covered the distance in 12 days time.  We downloaded GRIB files this morning, and learned that the wind forecast is light.  What we hoped to be a relatively fast crossing, averaging around 200NM per day, is looking a bit slower.

As with most open ocean crossings, our hopes for an event free sail has not panned out, either.  Our first night out of Similan Islands was mostly flat water, steady NE sailing along at 9-10 knots.  As the night grew longer, the half moon rose high above Sea Child, illuminating the dolphins playing in our bow wake.  After moonset around 3:30 am, a large black cloud descended upon Sea Child with a 30 degree wind shift and soon after, heavy rains pelted Sea Child.  We were sailing with a full main and our new screecher (which we love, thanks to Phil & Ingrid Auger in Langkawi!!) became overpowering.  As Eric went forward to roll up the screecher, only a few windows down below were still open.  We soaked the shelves above the fridge/freezer as well as the shelves above the binoculars.  Thank God the windows above the beds & electronics were latched as the squall opened up. As Eric went forward & I fed out the sheet, it was so black I could not see Eric at all and in the deafening, pounding rains I could barely hear him, too.  I was thankful he was wearing his safety harness and securely attached to Sea Child.  After the squall passed, we rolled out the screecher again, sailing fast in the 18 knot apparent breeze and surfing the 6' SE swells.  The rocky, rolly fast sail continued all day yesterday, our 24 hr average was 7.1 knots over 171 NM.  Todays average should be much higher as we speed sailed most of yesterday afternoon and evening, and todays projects include repairing the roller drum on the jib, repairing the broken boom vang, and repairing a broken galley fan that crashed in the rolling seas.

Last night around 11pm, we jibed as we approached Little Nicobar Island in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands of India.  I studied the coastline through binoculars during my watch, searching for 2 listed navigation lights.  A 20 NM 20 S white light at bearing 218 and a second 10 NM 10S light bearing 234.  Even as we passed Little Nicobar on port tack, no lights were ever spotted.  We got as close as 8 NM to the island, and I wondered if they were even working.  We jibed again around 2 am to avoid "Coral Banks" just north of Little Nicobar.  We have vivid memories of Spitfire Banks just north of Moreton Island, Australia, where the rough water was brutal.  At the "Coral Banks" the depths went from 2,300' to 1,030' to 321' to 61'. Plenty of room to sail over, to be sure, we just didn't want to chance the rough water at 3am.

This morning, we noticed that our Ipads and Iphones have changed time on us.  We are using Phuket, Thailand as ships time and built our watch system to that same time.  Thankfully, our wrist watches are keeping this ships time; setting an alarm on my Iphone this morning made me late to wake for my 7am watch as the GPS on my phone changed to reflect local India time!  John Conser took the extra hour for me, thank God!, with no worries.  Since John had a brain injury 20 years ago, he is unable to take a night watch and is taking an hour watch in the morning and and hour watch in the afternoon.  Geri Conser, however, is doing great, holding her 3 hr watch as scheduled.  We are all well rested, 3 hours on and 6 hours off.  With John taking his 2 hours daily, Geri & I alternate a 7 hour off pattern once per day.

We are 721 NM from the southern tip of Sri Lanka.  Uligan, Maldives is another 400NM west of Sri Lanka.  With the projected winds and swells, we are looking at another 7 days at sea.

CURRENT POSITION:
06 DEGREES 47.395 MINUTES NORTH
092 DEGREES 33.730 MINUTES EAST

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Preparing for the Maldives

After several weeks in Malaysia and Thailand, Sea Child is preparing for our departure to Uligan, Maldives on 14 Feb 2016.  The preparations include frozen meals, provision planning, topping up fuel and water, and coordinating passengers.  We have taken on John & Geri Conser, our friends who built our Paragon Sailing Charters cats, PARAGON & PARAGON II.  We are excited to share our passion for cruising with them as they have not sailed aboard a cruising catamaran before!

We contacted the Real Seahawks Agency in the Maldives to represent Sea Child during our arrival & visit.  Assad in Uligan has been very helpful to us and we look forward to meeting him in the coming weeks.

As we continue to test our systems, this blog is being posted by a new onboard tech system.  More information will follow as we continue our journey towards the Mediterranean Sea.

Current Location:  Yacht Haven Marina, Phuket, Thailand

A New Adventure Begins

As 2015 begins, we say goodbye to a 20 year adventure, the first big sailing event of our lives.  After much thought and a very long process, we found a wonderful team to take over our reins at Paragon Sailing Charters.  This change allows us to begin a new chapter in our Sea Child adventures, one that gives us the time to explore cultures completely, to savor the foods of new countries and to feel the climate more intimately.

Our return to Sea Child is now booked and we look forward to the new excitement that awaits us,  yet we leave our years at Paragon with a deep fondness.  The more west we travel on Sea Child, the further we get from Maui and the time and distance between the two prevents us from an easy hop back and forth.

The freedom that awaits us on Sea Child is our biggest life dream.  We look forward to the upcoming months in Asia with a deep relaxation and sense of adventure.  And if we are lucky, we will get a visit from www.gingertrek.com.  Sailing into 2015, Sea Child will push into new waters with a renewed spirit of adventure.  We are looking forward to the visits with old friends and family, and to meeting new friends along the way. The freedom to relax and enjoy the ride is a blessing.  We are truly thankful for this wonderful opportunity!

Hot and launched in Pangkor, Malaysia

Sea Child is currently tied up at Pangkor Marina, at the outside finger of the small marina. Shuttle ferries come and go, taking passengers across the way to Pangkor Island, the resort island due west of here. The marina facility is decent, the staff pleasant, and the local Thai and Pizza restaurants delightful. Of course, iced beers at the end of a brutally hot day are wonderful. The heat here remains a challenge, with high humidity and high heat index, working in the sun to put Sea Child back together is frustratingly hot. Covering our bodies with sun shirts that immediately drench from sweat is the daily attire, until well after sunset. Things finally cool off around here by midnight or so, and a cold shower allows our bodies to cool just enough to sleep for a few hours. We have reprovisioned Sea Child, but the idea of cooking in this heat is unbearable. Hopefully, once we are able to head north this weekend, things will get more comfortable on board. I tried to talk Eric into an ac unit for Sea Child, to no avail. We compromised on a new box fan, with helps to move the air around just enough for comfort. 

Sea Child had a 6 month dry dock, where she was totally repainted. Top sides, cockpit, name graphics, anti foul, even the dinghy received new paint. The painter here, Jimmy, did a fantastic job! He personally applied every coat of paint, adding a few areas himself that were not part of the job. As we sit in the cockpit at the end of the day enjoying a sundowner or two, we are amazed at how beautiful Sea Child looks. Jimmy did a fantastic job and we can highly recommend his painting here at Pangkor Marina. Sea Child also had new rigging to replace the old roller Furler. Chris Morgan is a rigger/repair friend of Eric's who was able to import a new system from Florida well cheaper than West Marines' price. New metal parts were made and new scuppers were fashioned out of fiberglass. All in all, Sea Child is like a brand new boat, in the 6 years we have owned her, we have never seen her look this fresh!

Our plan is to sail north to Penang this weekend, then on to Langkawi where we will find a mooring for Sea Child when we return to the states. For now, however, its wonderful to explore the surrounding area of Pangkor, busy with new construction and a giant coal sorting facility nearby. We have seen the heaviest rains since Panama, the downpours so heavy you'd think Sea Child would come out of the rains sparkling clean. However, the filmy residue left on the boat is evidence of the industry in the Pangkor area, yet still fascinating to see the local culture in their busy lives. The people are kind and helpful and willing to do just about anything for us. Its been a pleasant experience so far.

4 degrees12.42" N

100 degrees 36.2" E

Extended Visa in Indonesia

We arrived in Indonesia 8 weeks ago, and have visited dozens of anchorages and several incredible islands. The Sail Indonesia Rally 2013 just completed the visit to the island of Bali, where Sea Child was anchored for about a week. We visited Ubud, the artsy village above Kuta with its compact streets and bundles of tourists all crowding around the scenic palace and across town, the monkey forest where wild monkeys scavenge for food from the tourists. We had to watch our sunglasses and pockets, and as Eric crouched down to take a look at a monkey, it became aggressive and went for his wedding ring and took a bite out of his finger. The monkeys at the monkey forest are protected and worshipped by the Balinese people.

We were so blessed to have the kids visit for a too short 6 days in early September. Sea Child was full, minus Brittany who stayed back on Maui, and while we were able to hike Rinca Island in Komodo National Park and search for komodo dragons, we felt incomplete without her with us. Carter returned to Maui shortly after arriving, but before he left, we took the family to the welcome ceremony at Labuan Bajo. There, we were regaled by the local dancers, speeches from the local regency heads and tourism officials. A week after this welcome ceremony, the President of Indonesia arrived in Labuan Bajo for the Sail Komodo Sail Pass, a parade of sorts by various nation war vessels and the Sail Indonesia Rally boats were asked to sail past as well. As Americans, we understood the security measures that the Indonesian police force adopted during the preparations leading up to the Sail Pass. There were Navy Seals in numerous RIBs taking notes on every vessel at anchor, and several rally boats were searched as well. On Sea Child, we were invited to visit a local maritime school and with other rally participants we were given a formal escort to the school, where a festive native dance show awaited us along with a traditional lunch. We visited the school for about an hour, then invited the students out to Sea Child for a quick hour lesson on an ocean-going catamaran. We had about 24 people on board, students and faculty, and they were truly thankful at the opportunity to ask us questions and learn more about what Sea Child is capable of doing on the sea. Many of the students had never been on board any type of boat, so as we opened up about what we do, we could only wonder what they may think about crossing an ocean themselves, let alone if they would ever have the opportunity to do so in their lifetime.

We are currently on a sail from Bali to Kelimantan Island (Borneo) about 300 NM away. We will sail through the night to reach the Kumai river anchorage and make arrangements to take a river cruise up to see the orangutans. Hopefully they will be a little nicer than those pesky Ubud monkeys. The rally fleet is splitting again, with several dozen heading up to Kumai, and others heading to the largest temple in all of Indonesia on the island of Java. Our visas have been extended another 30 days, a process that took about a week in Bali, and its hard for us to believe that we have been in Indonesia for 8 weeks now. Sea Child will be leaving the rally a few weeks early, and head up to Pangkor, Malaysia.