Archive for the ‘Locations’ Category

Back Aboard

Wednesday, October 29th, 2014

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Hi again folks. We are finally back aboard Scorpio after an absence of 6 months.

Scorpio appears to have taken our leave well. We didn’t find any mildew, rodents or roaches on board.

We just found this grasshopper measuring the decks. Maybe he’s been acting janitor?

Scorpio has been stored ashore at Green Cove Springs Marina, at St John’s River, just south of Jacksonville, Florida.

We will soon start updating our blog and www.scorpiosail.com again on a regular basis.

Return to Prickly Bay, Grenada

Saturday, November 9th, 2013

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Our first visit to Prickly Bay was in the early 1990’s. It was one of our favourite Caribbean anchorages and we returned there on several occasions during our time in the Windward Islands. After almost a decade we briefly returned at the end of the year 2000 on our way from Europe to the US east coast. There had been very little change during those years. It was still one of the prettiest spots in the West Indies, with usually less than a dozen yachts at anchor and a cozy little restaurant.

Today, 13 years later, the small, informal, charming marina, with fresh green lawns, dotted with palms and almond trees is gone and instead of the dozen yachts of yesterday there are probably a hundred now at anchor, with an additional two hundred on the hard. However, there is a now a modern marina, with better docks, a good dinghy dock and probably a much more efficient shipyard and better services for yachts over all.

Unfortunately, I much preferred the old days. I fear what more changes I will discover when we move further north through the islands.

Back Aboard

Friday, October 18th, 2013

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The trip from Finland to Chaguaramas in Trinidad was not our worst transfer, but uncomfortable enough. We had to change airports in London, from Heathrow to Gatwick and carry all our luggage as well, on and off the bus. That bustrip alone took 2 hours. Then we had to stay at a hotel over night and catch the plane to Port of Spain next morning. The departure of the plane was delayed by two hours because of some technical problems.

This time we had booked a hotel room at Peake’s Yacht Services, the yard where Scorpio has spent the past 6 months. Traditionally we have always lived aboard the yacht, even in the yards all over the world, but this year we decided we had earned the luxury of some service for ourselves during the first week while we were preparing Scorpio for launch. We did the same last spring after haul-out, during the last days before we flew to Finland. Obviously this is an indication of us getting older and the end of our cruising life getting closer. The only time we have been living ashore before was in Thailand during our major renovations of Scorpio, when we stayed at a hotel for a total of about 8 months.

So, although the heading is “Back Aboard”, we are living in a hotel room about 100 metres from the yacht. But mentally we are already on board. And the terrace outside our room is only 5 metres from the Caribbean Sea.

We hope to splash the yacht and move aboard again within a week.

The photos above are from Peake’s web site.

End of Silence

Sunday, October 6th, 2013

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It is almost half a year since my last post to this blog. But now the time has come, and we are preparing to return to Scorpio in Chaguaramas, on October 15. Ever since we arrived in Finland in mid April I have been very busy with the renovation project of Ferry Beach, the property we aquired last year. The weather in Finland this summer was almost perfect and we managed to get even further with the building work than planned. The beach house is almost completed and we even had time to start on some of the projects on the main villa itself.


After Scorpio is sold I will return to smaller craft

It is now time for a well deserved vacation in the Caribbean. However, the plan is to start actively selling the yacht while we are aboard. The length of our cruise will therefore depend on how well the selling project advances. We will sail north in the Windward and Leeward Islands with the goal to arrive in St Martin after Christmas. If we cannot find a buyer this winter we will have to leave the yacht again stored somewhere, as we wish to get back to Ferry Beach before the end of April 2014. The big question in that case will be: should we sail north to the east coast of the US or back to Trinidad. We do not want to leave Scorpio in the Caribbean during the 2014 hurricane season.

Above a view of Ferry Beach with the red-brick Beach House on the right (click on photo). The main villa is hidden by the trees. Below is a closer view of the Beach House.

Haul Out at Chaguaramas

Tuesday, April 9th, 2013

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The 2012-13 season is now almost over. Scorpio was hauled out today, but we will live aboard for 4 days preparing the yacht for a 6 month rest on the hard. Then we will move to a hotel room for an other 4 days during the final preparations. This year, the season ended earlier than usual, but on the other hand we covered a longer distance than usual instead, about 8,000 nm.

As I have written before, we have hauled out 21 times, and only twice at the same yard, so this must be something like our 19th shipyard. A lot of new things and people to learn to know and to evaluate.

A Wine Tour to Stellenbosch

Thursday, December 27th, 2012

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About a week ago we went on a Wine tour. It was a great success and I would like to encourage anybody visiting Cape Town to do the same, even if you only have limited time and/or local knowledge at hand. One day is enough to visit at least three vineyards and it doesn’t have to be expensive. You only need to rent a car, get a map (or a navigator) and do some minor research. Or you can skip the research and just follow our route.

I don’t pretend to know much about wine in general, and my knowledge of South African wine in particular was very limited before we went on this trip. My only preparations, the evening before, included some browsing of an old edition of Frommer’s South Africa and studying and printing of some Google maps showing driving directions.

I had chosen three vineyards in Stellenbosch, based partly on the descriptions in the guide and partly based on their location with respect to each other and the distance to downtown Cape Town – we were staying at Royal Cape Town Yacht Club. Each of these vineyards is different from the other ones, with different architecture, settings and views. All of them were worth visiting and all produce great wine.

Our first stop was at Vergenoegd, only about a 50 km drive from Cape Town, less than an hour. Their main building is a magnificent old Dutch mansion, probably built in the late 1600s. We started the day with a taste of one of their white wines and then tasted three great red wines, rounding up with a port wine and finally bought a case of assorted reds for Christmas.

Our next stop was at Rust en Vrede, in a fantastic setting at the end of Annandale road. Their red wine (they don’t make whites) was chosen by Nelson Mandela to be served at the Nobel Peace Price dinner and one of their wines was nominated as the first South African red wine in the Top 100 Wines of the World. Their restaurant has also been nominated as one of the Top 100 Restaurants.

On the way to our last vineyard we made a stop in the centre of the charming town of Stellenbosch, where we recommend a visit to Oom Sami Se Winkel, a general dealer with an amazing inventory.

We chose our last vinyard Tokara because of the views from its restaurant. Their modern architecture and art exhibition also make for an intresting experience. Tokara produces red wines, white wines, brandy and olives.

From Tokara we could have driven on to Franschhoek, said to be the prettiest valley in the Winelands, but we decided we had experienced enough vineyards for one day.

All wines at all three estates were excellent, and very reasonably priced. It was a good day indeed.

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?

The Parking Blues

Sunday, November 20th, 2011

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During the past 12 months we have lived 5 months in an apartment at Boat Lagoon Resort while Scorpio has been subject to a major refit. It is very convenient because the boat stands on the hard only 200 metres away. We decided, however, that having a car permanently is necessary because I constantly have to hunt for parts and other stuff all over Phuket.


What is this? Read on.

This is where it gets interesting. Parking here in Boat Lagoon is a difficult subject. At street level the resort’s buildings are occupied by various stores and offices. In front of these is a row of parking spots under the buildings, protected from sun and rain. Half of them are reserved for commercial use and the rest for the hotel’s guests.

Unfortunately, the shopkeepers have little respect for this arrangement. Many of them have a habit of parking in the hotel guests spots because that provides them with more spaces as they can use their own spots also. Often, if I managed to occupy a vacant guest spot, the people of the store facing that spot gave me a sour look. Sometimes they even claimed that the spot was reserved for their business – although every guest spot is clearly indicated by a sign.

Some businesses, like this tour operator (photo above), have put out chairs and tables in the guest spots outside their premises – right under the sign “Parking for hotel guests only”. Others use the spot as a work shop for carpentering, painting etc.

Having been constantly kicked in my ass because of my parking for a couple of months I went to talk to the hotel manager. She kindly decided to give me a designated spot and put up a sign with my register number indicating that this particular spot was reserved for my car only. However, I was not surprised when, during the next days, this spot was almost always taken by other cars. I tried to improve the sign by writing on it in English with a red felt pen: RESERVED – to no avail. Finally, one day when I had to find another spot some distance away, with a lot of stuff to carry, I put a note under the windshield wiper of the car that happened to be parked in my spot that day.

Are you blind, or ignorant or just plain stupid? You are parking in a reserved spot!

Next morning I found a note under my own wiper. There were no words, just a drawing. And it didn’t illustrate just the middle finger but the real thing, I guess. Whoever the poorly talented artist was, he had also torn down my parking sign and stuffed that too under my wiper.

I decided to look at the incident with humour. The resort’s manager, however, put up a new more impressive sign, including the logo and name of Boat Lagoon Resort.

The situation has now improved somewhat. Maybe word has gotten around that I am a problem, who knows, and there may be some respect for me in the area now. But at least half of the time now, my parking space is available for me.

Nonetheless, very soon we had to change the reserved-sign one more time because my rented car broke down and therefore the sign didn’t match the number of my new car.

If it is not one it is the other, said the girl bleeding from her nose.

On the other hand, having myself fined and my new car clamped in my own parking spot would have provided for an even funnier ending of this story.

Wrong Thing Happened in the Right Place

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

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♪ For your eyes only ♪♪♪

Sometimes you suddenly become aware that you have subconciously been humming on a song that, as it turns out, proves to relate to something currently going on. The song from the old James Bond movie, For Your Eyes Only, had been playing in my head all night, but I didn’t realise the connection until day break.

The evening before, I had been hospitalized because of a severe eye injury. I had been checking the lead-acid batteries aboard Scorpio when one of the batteries decided to spew sulphuric acid into my left eye.


(Not a photo of me, but it looked similar]

When the acid hit my eye I knew I immediately had to irrigate with copious amounts of water. The boat was stored ashore in a boat yard and fortunately I had a water hose connected to a tap close by. After ten minutes of irrigation I stopped to asses the situation. The eye was blood-red, but I could still see, although vision was not as clear as normal, which I didn’t think was surprising. I decided to wait for a while; maybe it wouldn’t be necessary to get to the hospital at all.

An hour later I couldn’t see much with my left eye anymore. It was as if the world had gone complely foggy.

They took good care of me at Bangkok Hospital. First they irrigated the eye for an hour using a slow running hose connected to a drip bag of Saline solution. Every hour of the night I was given Visilube eye drops and every 4 hours both Tobra dex antibiotic cream and Genteal eye gel. In the morning the eye still looked horrible, but the vision was back – although not yet to full extent.

In a recent report I noted that we curiously appear to run into accidents more often ashore than afloat. However, I consider myself fortunate, that the accident happened close to an excellent hospital. The odds for this to take place, considering our life style, out on the ocean, say on a trip from the Maldives to Thailand, like the one we did earlier this year, are much higher than here on terra firma. On a long trip in the tropics, particularly the one mentioned, when we had to use the engine a lot, I need to inspect the acid level of the batteries every now and then. If the eye had been burned by acid in the Indian Ocean a weeks journey from any hospital, the outcome would probably not have been a happy one.

The wrong thing now clearly happened in the right place. However, we have faced two mishaps in a short time and in Finnish we have a proverb, ei kahta ilman kolmatta, meaning ”no two without the third”. Not to be confused with ”all good things come in three”.

I’m looking over my shoulder and crossing my fingers.

A note about our batteries: Our Trojan-batteries have the “pop-up” type filler caps. I have always liked them because they are easier to open than the screw-on ones, and they dont get lost as they are hinged to the battery body. However, I now know they are dangerous as they act as a catapult to any acid attached to them.

Strange Rescue at Sea

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

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Recently there was a strange story in The Phuket News.

NAVY HELPS YACHT TO SAFETY

According to the article, the Royal Thai Navy has rescued a sailing vessel with a crew of two foreigners, an Italian and a South African, on the way from Langkawi to Phuket. The crew had called for help from turbulent seas in the middle of the night. They reported that their vessel was struggling in heavy waves.

The navy searched for the boat for two hours, and about six hours later the sailing vessel was towed safely to a port in Satul Province.

This article raises several questions, but I will address only a few. There is no mentioning of break-downs of the yacht or it’s equipment and no report of sickness aboard either. As far as I am aware, there was no horrible storm blowing at the time. The area in question (outside Satun province) is not an open ocean, on the contrary, the yacht was on a coastal passage, where there are several large islands along the way. Depending on the direction of the wind, it should have been possible to find relative shelter either behind the mainland or one of the islands. The waters are generally shallow all over and anchoring is possible almost anywhere.

Obviously it was pitch dark when the call was made, so maybe the problem had to do with navigation …