Archive for December, 2011

A Reminder

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

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Once in a while I need to remind visitors that this blog is mostly about non-cruising related stuff. The cruising stories are found via other links from the Home Page, particularly in the Log & Yarns -section.

The Ark?

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

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Our visas to Thailand were expiring, so we flew to Singapore for a few days. The skyline had changed since our previous visit!

As you all have seen in the news, Thailand has recently suffered from the worst flooding in 50 years. More than 500 persons died and at least one million people became temporarily or permanently jobless and/or homeless.

Apparently the people of Singapore have learned a lesson from the ordeal of it’s neighbour and have started to prepare for the deluge. What could serve as a better launching platform for their Ark than these skyscrapers?

Maybe they will also have a lottery – who gets permission to get onboard?

Getting Proper Screwed – again

Sunday, December 11th, 2011

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When you are a long term cruiser, and regularly find yourself in a new country, with a language you don’t understand and cultures, habits, politics and religions different from your own and previous countries you have visited, it is likely that, sooner or later, you will make a fool of yourself when it comes to money stuff – no matter how smart you try to be.

This has happened to me many times in many countries. We have now been visiting more than 80 countries on our yacht during 20 years. Each time I get screwed, I tell myself: OK, they will not get me on this scam next time. And of course they won’t, because I have learned from my mistake. Problem is; there will be a new plot next time in the next country.

Last month, here in Thailand, I decided to send my old wind generator on a factory over haul to England. I was advised, by a local contractor (in good faith as far as I can determine) to use a shipping agent and go for a “repair and return” procedure. Doing so I would only have to pay import charges, on the return, based on the cost of the repair plus return shipping costs.

At the end the project turned out to be a big mistake, something that the agent must have realized from the start and she should have advised me to just ship the unit in a regular way without the “repair and return” hassle.

First, I ended up paying, in government charges and the agent’s fees an amount equal to about 130% of the value (on the repair plus TNT return shipping). I would call this confiscation!

Second, the return shipment took more than two weeks as there was so much paper work included AND the package had to be routed via Bangkok (because of the “repair and return” scheme). When I received the invoice there were 22 attachments stapled to it!

In comparison: I have ordered marine products four times to be sent here to Thailand (from both the EU and the USA), deck hardware, winches, electronics, and they arrived directly to Phuket within 3 working days and generated only 10-15% import charges.

This is only a fragment of the sad story about the wind generator in question. The whole picture will be revealed in a later story called: The World’s Most Expensive Electricity. Stay tuned.

Splash – finally

Saturday, December 3rd, 2011

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During the past 18 months Scorpio has spent 13 months in a “dry dock”, being subject to the Mother of All Refits (a slight exaggeration, as there was nothing seriously wrong with her). We started the project in May 2010, then went for a sea trial of 4,000 nm to the Maldives in January – May 2011, after which the project resumed between May and December 2011.

For this reason, between May and December this year, there has been less activity on the Scorpiosail website than usual. This is about to change soon: Scorpio was lifted back into the sea a couple of days ago.

We, the crew, have been living in a hotel for seven months during this renovation project and we will not move aboard until around mid-December. Until then we will work on the last details of the renewed interior of the yacht including electronic installations.

We hope to be sailing again before Christmas.