Looking at photos from the early 1990s, when we first visited the West Indies, I detect a clear change in the way people dress. Particularly when you look at the footwear! Below is a photo of our family and our very good friends, the Lindqvists, in Philipsburg Sint Maarten. Everybody wears proper sailor’s shoes. No cheap plastic crocs, frogs or flippers in those days (remember, you can click on the image to see a larger version).
Archive for the ‘Cruising locations’ Category
No Crocs, Frogs or Flippers
Sunday, November 24th, 2013Cruiser’s Paradise Lost? – The Maldives
Saturday, February 26th, 20111,200 tropical islands – 1,000 of them uninhabited, crystal clear water, abundant marine life, great weather and very friendly people.
A cruiser’s paradise, you may think? Not entirely so, unfortunately –the government of the Maldives does not encourage private cruising in their archipelago.
Read more ..
Hired Guns and the Shipping of Yachts
Sunday, February 13th, 2011– If you are serious about sailing across the Arabian Sea, you should hire a group of armed security guards.
I received this message by e-mail from the commander of one of the Coalition warships. Could it be more plainly expressed; ordinary sailing yachts cannot expect any assistance from the Coalition Forces, who are patrolling the area by 30 warships from a dozen of nations of NATO, EU and others.
Landlubbers, imagine calling the police on 911 for protection from robbers on your door step and they advise you to employ your own armed security guards instead. We are not irresponsibly cruising here in this area because of a whim; many of us are on our way home on a long journey, which in our case has lasted for more than a decade.
Read more ..
Our Seven Seas
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010The expression “Seven Seas” is probably one of the best-known maritime idioms. But which are these 7 bodies of water really, and what is the origin of the phrase? According to Wikipedia, there are several definitions of the phrase Seven Seas, starting as far back as the Sumer civilization in Mesopotamia in 2,300 BC.
I think the expression Seven Seas demonstrates “all seas you have to cross to get far away, and return”, and will vary depending on the home port and the time in question. Therefore it will be different for, say, a 9th century Viking, on one hand, and a 12th century Polynesian on the other.
The number seven does not necessary indicate that there are as many (or as few) as 7 seas involved; this number has mysterious meanings, particularly in many religions. There are numerous tales and phrases built around the number seven: 7 Sins, 7 Wonders of the World, 7 Dwarfs, 7 Brothers (the name of a great Finnish novel by Alexis Kivi). Not to mention that according to the Bible, the world was created in six days and on the seventh, God rested. Those 7 days were the first week.
The Clipper Ship Tea Route from China to England was the longest trade route in the world. It took navigators through seven seas near the Dutch East Indies: the Banda Sea, the Celebes Sea, the Flores Sea, the Java Sea, the South China Sea, the Sulu Sea, and the Timor Sea. Therefore, if someone had sailed the Seven Seas it meant he had sailed to, and returned from, the other side of the world. (We actually sailed across all these seas last season).
In Medieval Arabian literature the Seven Seas also demonstrate the passage to China: the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Khambhat, the Bay of Bengal, the Strait of Malacca, the Singapore Strait, the Gulf of Thailand, and the South China Sea.
Consequently, fore me the Seven Seas are represented by, in chronological order: the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Caribbean Sea, the Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean.
Some modern geographical classification schemes count seven oceans in the world: The North Pacific Ocean, the South Pacific Ocean, the North Atlantic Ocean, the South Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean.
For us aboard Scorpio, on the last leg of our circumnavigation – and having already experienced Our Seven Seas, as indicated above – there will, unfortunately, remain an additional Eight Sea: the Pirate Sea, which (in modern times) is the area between India and the Red Sea, and even as far north as Egypt.
We trust that the number will remain safely at seven, with no pirates involved.
Earthquake 7.5 in the Nicobar Islands
Sunday, June 13th, 2010A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck under the seabed in the Nicobar islands, causing tremors that were felt a thousand kilometres away on the Indian mainland, where many were shaken awake in the dead of the night causing some to flee their homes in panic. The quake hit early Sunday morning local time, with the epicentre less than 350 nautical miles from Phuket in Thailand.
Distance from epicentre to Phuket is 350nm
Click map for larger version
Our yacht Scorpio is presently in Phuket, but fortunately hauled out high on dry land. I am in Finland myself, trying to check various sources on the Internet to determine the risk for tsunamis in the area.
The Pacific Tsunami Center in Hawaii and the Indian Ocean Information Centre have issued tsunami warnings and watches, but the alerts were later cancelled. Only a mild surge in sea levels of around 50 centimetres were expected.
This area was badly hit by the 2004 tsunami which was triggered by an earthquake off Sumatra and sent giant waves crushing across the region. 220,000 people were killed, most of them in the Indonesian province of Aceh on Sumatra. Thousands were killed also in Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar and Thailand.
The Andaman Sea witnesses frequent eartquakes caused by the meeting of the Indian tectonic plate with the Burmese micro plate along an area known as the Andaman Trench.
Return to Thailand
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010[Back to Scorpiosail Home Page]
Hello from Koh Lipe, an island in Thailand only 30NM NW of Malaysia’s Langkawi @ 06°29′ N, 099°18′ E. We are presently under way from Langkawi to Phuket in Thailand.
A well kept secret among the cruising community is the presence of an immigration office at Koh Lipe. We didn’t clear in here as they do not have any customs clearance and we have to clear in the yacht in Phuket anyway. But in case one has consumed all the time of one’s Malaysian visa it is convenient to just “drive over” to Koh Lipe from Langkawi and then return the next day.
Apparently the immigration office at Koh Lipe is open only during the high season, which is around December to April, so check ahead first.
Prices are right, weather perfect …
Monday, March 8th, 2010We have spent the past eight months in countries where we’re getting a lot for our bucks: Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
Singapore wasn’t particularly cheap, but reasonable and in Indonesia, supply wasn’t great. On the other hand, prices in Thailand and especially Malaysia are out of this world, and you can find almost any item you might need.
Let me give you a few every-day examples. A local sim-card for your mobile phone costs €1.83, a subscription for mobile broadband (3G) for one week is €4.16 and a taxi ride starts at €1.28. A meal at the food stalls and street markets is around €1 and even in the restaurants you can have a several course lunch or diner for less than €4.
The prices are so good, we use to joke, that you can’t afford to eat at home.
A case of beer (Skool) can be found below €6, which is an incredible 25 cents per can, while the bests price I have seen on a bottle of Gordons gin is €5.42. Even in the bars a beer is usually around 75 cents.
We haven’t experienced prices like these since the four months we spent in Ecuador and the availability of goods wasn’t as good there as here.
Even boating gear and services, which usually get a “reverse discount” on the price tag are relatively affordable in Langkawi, which is a tax free area. From Nongsa Point, our last stop in Indonesia, through Singapore to Malaysia we visited five star marinas and paid less than €10 per day for our 43ft ketch (and much less if you stay longer). More than 10 years ago we usually had to pay €40-50 in Spain and the same in the USA. The major exception concerning prices is the cost for storage on land, which I will comment in a later post.
Malaysia also knows how to make it easy for us yachties. There’s no restriction for importing your vessel, it can remain here for ever. Travelers get a 90 days visa when entering and you can briefly walk over the border and re-enter with a new 90 days visa when the previous has expired. Thailand is more difficult, you only get 30 days for yourself (60 if you have a visa acquired abroad) and 6 months for the boat. In addition, you cannot leave the boat in Thailand if you want to leave the country for a re-entry (without paying a bond).
Last but not least, the weather is perfect (some say too hot, but I guess they haven’t heard of shades and fans) and everybody is incredibly friendly.
We are planning to leave the boat here in Langkawi for 5 months while we take a vacation back home in Finland. I’m afraid that it is going to be an incredibly expensive trip.
Helsinki is 7th on the list of the world’s most expensive capitals compared to Kuala Lumpur, which is 70th, last on the list at level with Delhi and Mumbai (although it really is a first world city). Hope that at least the snow is gone before we get there;)
Piracy alert in the Malacca Straits
Saturday, March 6th, 2010Jemaah Islamijah (JI) is believed to be the terrorist group planning to attack oil tankers transiting the Straits of Malacca. National security authorities of the littoral states of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand have raised the security level to High Alert after receiving intelligence reports on the threat.
Here in Malaysia, police have assigned seven patrol boats and two airplanes to patrol the straits. The pirates are expected to be acting as fishermen and the incidents are expected to take place in areas were fishing activity is high.
The map above, indicating potential piracy hotspots, is from The Straits Times. The map below shows Scorpio’s track in October 2009. Click maps for larger versions.
Pirate activity has been quite low i the Malacca Straits for several years due to increased patrols and surveillance. The world’s focus in this business has dramatically changed to the east coast of Africa and the “Pirate Alley” along the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden. Although the main targets of the pirates, here as in the NW Indian Ocean always will be valuable the cargo ships, there’s nothing stopping the thugs from trying to get some petty cash from transiting yachts. Better staying alert at all times.
Shopping in the islands
Sunday, January 17th, 2010On our way back to Phuket from our cruise in Phang Nga Bay we went to Rang Yai Island and visited the Phuket Pearl Farm.
It was time for some shopping – Malla picked up a necklace and a bracelet of black pearls.
Next on her shopping list is a gown for our son Tomas’s wedding. Dressmakers should not be hard to find in Thailand.
A visit to James Bond island
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010We will soon update the web site with a report of our cruise in Phang-Nga Bay, Thailand. In the mean time we shall provide a preview.
On Thailand’s Andaman coast, in Phang-Nga Bay, spectacular limestone islands with sheer cliffs up to 400 metres high, emerge like giant scattered teeth from calm waters. The most famous, thanks to its prominent role in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun, is Koh Tapu, behind my back on this photo. It stands in the lagoon of Koh Phing Kan, today also known as James Bond Island.
There’s too much back light on the photo, but we have some better ones also, such as the one below, shot only a minute later. Unfortunately I’m not in front of the lens anymore.
On this beach Scaramanga’s dwarf servant Nick Nack served champagne and later Bond and Scaramanga entered the duel. The rock can actually be recognized between their heads.