Our first post of the 2011-12 sailing season is not a happy one.
This lifestyle of ours makes us perhaps more exposed to dangers than people living in houses that stay in a permanent place – earthquake areas excluded (although we certainly have experienced them also). Surprisingly though, we appear to have encountered more difficulties ashore than afloat.
This story includes several photos, please read more here …
We are presently anchored at Koh Rang Yai, an island off the east coast of Phuket. Tomorrow we will move to Boat Lagoon Marina, just a couple of miles from here. Our 21st season of global cruising is now coming to an end.
This is only the second time during all these years that we are returning to a familiar place for our 3 months haul-out. The only time it has happened before was in 2004 when we returned to Deltaville in Virginia.
At the beginning of this season our plan was to end it in Turkey in the Mediterranean, where we started our international cruising in 1991, but the escalation of Somali piracy crashed that plan.
However, we are quite happy to be back in Phuket and, best of all, we know by previous experience most of the players in the shipyard and about things to do and not to do in Phuket in general. It is easy to return to a familiar place, see a previous blog.
We will now undertake the two major boat projects that we didn’t do last year: lay a new teak deck and pull out both masts for service.
Time for a vacation back home in Finland.
All of a sudden, we are finding ourselves in a tricky situation. I feel a bit like the guy who was painting the floor and found himself in a corner without escape routes.
This map shows reported attacks by pirates in the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea during January 2011.
Click on photos for large versions
We got caught right in the middle of it all. No, it’s not the riots in Bangkok starting again. This is a scene today in the centre of Phuket during the annual Vegetarian festival.
The festival is a 150 year old tradition of refraining from eating meat, drinking alcoholic drinks, engaging in sex, quarreling, telling lies or killing. The procession walks trough the city and several persons pierce their tongues, cheeks, and other parts of the anatomy with sharp implements. Apparently they feel no pain, and show little sign of real injury, although we saw a lot of blood on their clothes.
Unfortunately I had a problem with my camera, so the photo of the man with both a sword and a garden scissor through his cheek is not sharp.
If you are not one of the faint-hearted, take a look at photos from last year’s festival in Session Magazine.
In an attempt to educate and amuse my cruising friends all over the world I sometimes write posts about Finnish events. A couple of weeks ago I wrote my first bit about bizarre Finnish sporting contests, and I didn’t even mention the obvious one: who can withstand a hot sauna the longest.
Yesterday, the annual World Sauna Championships in Finland ended with the death of one of the finalists, a Russian. The other finalist, a Finn who has won the last 5 World Championships , was taken to hospital after collapsing.
The Russian on the left, the Finn on the right.
All competitors need to sign in to the competition with a doctor’s certificate. At the start the temperature is 110C. Then half a litre of water is poured on the stove every 30 seconds, last man in the sauna is champion.
(Source: news.bbc.co.uk)
The championships have been held in Heinola (138km north of Helsinki) since 1999. This year they had over 130 participants from 15 countries. According to the organisers there will be no more championships in the future – this was the last time. However, I do not believe that the sauna championships are over. The Finns are unable to resist this kind of events and the sauna is almost a national symbol.
Until somebody starts the World Sauna Championships again, we have to make do with other crazy “sports”, why not try the sitting naked on an ant’s nest?
The tropical weather in Finland this summer is astonishing. After my previous log post we were hit by a second storm. The first one was called Asta and a few days later arrived Veera. And a third one is predicted to hit the republic in a couple of days.
The Finnish Meteorological Institute reports that there was 23,000 cloud-to-earth lightnings during the Veera-storm. They have some kind of lightning detector network for counting. This number of lightnings is not unique, but extremely rare.
During the past 19 years we have been cruising almost all over the tropics aboard Scorpio. Avoiding certain areas when they are potentially exposed to tropical storms, hurricanes, cyclones, taifuns etc. has been our main guide-line when planning our routes. Look at the photo above, it is of a camper field in Pirkanmaa, Finland, where 50 of 100 camper wagons were completely destroyed. The destruction is quite similar to what we have been used to see in photos from marinas in places like like the Caribbean and Florida after a hurricane has passed. In Florida, however, people should know from experience that those disasters occur every now and then. The folks in the forests of Finland were taken by complete surprise – this was unthinkable.
(Click on chart for a blow up)
On the chart above you can see the path of the two storms, Asta and Veera. Asta hit from the southeast and passed very close to our summer place (between Mikkeli and Imatra on the map), but we didn’t have any problems. Just a few days later Veera-storm entered from the southwest and crossed the country in a northeasterly direction.
It is interesting that the traffic on our web site trippled after my previous blog. Apparently these climate issues are fascinating.
On 3rd August, when my previous post was published we had 3 times the normal traffic on this site.
Sometimes when abroad we hear stories of polar bears roaming the streets in Finland. There’s no truth in these tales of course, but the winters can be very cold indeed. Last winter’s lowest temperature was below -40C (-40F). This is why we prefer to spend our winters in the tropics, where we have been accustomed to temperatures around 40C (104F) – a difference of 80C (176F)! The lowest temperature we had any night aboard Scorpio in South East Asia was 29C (84.2F).
This summer, the weather has been extraordinary warm and dry in Finland. Because of the low humidity we have found it very pleasant although some people complain that it has been too hot. Maybe our blood has thinned after more than a decade in the tropics.
Our summer place is located in Puumala, which was on average the warmest spot in the country in July, with several days of highest-recorded temperatures, around 33C (91.4F). An all time high of 37.2C (99F) was recorded in Liperi not far away (as a comparison, the all time low -51.5C (-60.7F) was recorded in northern Finland in 1999). We found 27C in the water, which is almost the same as in Thailand were we last went swimming from the yacht.
(Source:Lehtikuva)
Also the tropical storms seem to be heading this way now. A week ago a violent windstorm, blowing up to 30m/s (almost 60 knots), produced by a band of fast-moving thunderstorms, crossed the country causing devastating damages, chopping thousands of hectares of forest, that crushed houses and cars and broke power-lines, leaving tens of thousands of homes without electricity, water and phone connections.
Canis lupus lupus
It isn’t just the weather that has been exotic. The wildlife has been exiting too. There has been several cases with wolf packs killing dozens of sheep even in densely populated areas in southwestern Finland. In the north and along the Russian border there has been several sightings of bears, although not polar bears.
Ursus arctos arctos
Yesterday radio programs were interrupted by an announcement from the police: People in and around Rovaniemi, the largest city in northern Finland, were warned that a bear had been sighted and folks were advised to stay inside.
The bear is ever present in Finland, however, and in many ways. The Russian Bear is a national personification for Russia, used in cartoons and articles at least since the 17th century, usually in a less flattering context – often implying that Russia is “big, brutal and clumsy”.
The Russian bear threatening Georgia,
(source: www.rendevouswiththedestiny.blogspot.com)
A cartoon, illustrating the world around 1900.
(Remember to click on it for a blow up)
And indeed, Finland has several hundred years of unhappy experiences with her big neighbour.
Finland itself, in it’s coat of arms, is illustrated as a lion defending the West against the East. The right fore-paw is replaced with an armoured hand brandishing a (western, straight) sword, while trampling on an (oriental, crescent shaped) saber with the hind-paws.
During this long hot summer we have been refreshing ourselves with larger quantities than usual of my favourite beverage, beer. One of the most popular beers is called Karhu, which is Finnish for bear. This fact brings us back to the polar bear, or actually the Polar Beer, which we found in an unlikely place, namely Venezuela – a rather tropical country as well.
(Source: www.popartuk.com)
The beer market for the thirsty in southern Finland has long been Tallin in Estonia, only a couple of hour’s ferry ride away. With Estonia’s entry in the European Union and increase of their economy the difference in prices is decreasing, but is still substantial if you are buying quantities. It is common to go there to stock up with beer and booze ahead of weddings and other big parties.
The word Bear Market, of course, has little to do with the mammal or with beer, and is usually used to describe a general decline in the stock market over a period of time.
A perfect description of a lurking bear market
(Source: www.cityunslicker.blogspot.com)
Graphic of two bear markets
(Remember: click for a blow up)
Let’s hope that the most recent bear market, that started in late 2007 is now behind us. The beer market is doing well, however.
This year we are enjoying a longer than usual vacation away from messing about in a sailing yacht in the Tropics. We have the good fortune to spend 5 months in Finland. The Nordic weather is presently showing it’s best face, with temperatures rising to 34C in the air and 26C below the surface.
Finland has a glorious past in the world of sports, with probably more olympic medals per capita than any other nation. Unfortunately those days are long gone now, the only events where Finland can expect to succeed, on a good day, is the javelin in athletics, and occasionally perhaps also in some sailing events. In order to remedy this decline the Finns have invented some bizarre sports where they can excel. As an example, we have swamp soccer.
The exotic sport of Swamp Soccer originated in the swamps of Finland. It was started by some cross country skiers who were training in the swamps during the summer months. One of them was Olympic gold medalist Mika Myllylä, seen in the photo below.
(Photo by Hannes Heikura, chosen Best Sports Picture in Finland 1997)
Finland held its first tournament in 1997 with 13 teams. Held every year, this competition was upgraded in 2000 to the World Championships. Now this event has become a massive football competition with 325 teams and more than 5000 players registered for the 2010 World Championships, taking place this week-end at Hyrynsalmi 600km north of Helsinki. In 2009, after a few years’ break, Finnish teams managed to get away with the championships of both competitive series.
As an off-shot of swamp soccer, the Deep Snow Soccer Championship, is held every winter in the same place.
[Photo sources: www.suopotkupallo.fi and www.swampsoccer.co.uk]
The Finns are very competitive and some mad brainstorming during the years have produced other bizarre activities. If more than one Finn does something, they are bound to organize world championships sooner or later. Here is a list of some events that you may want to put on your list, if you visit Finland:
Wife-carrying (Eukonkanto)
Old Geezer Carting (Äijänkärräys)
Booth Throwing (with an off-shot, Mobile Phone Throwing)
Iron Bar Walking, an off-shot of Nordic (Pole) Walking
Ice-hole Swimming
Air Guitar Championships
I will try to explain some of these activities in a later post.
A 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.
We didn’t visit all the 300 temples, only a dozen or so – guess that our temple quota is full by now. But they really are quite amazing.
Chiang Mai is a cool place, despite the heat and a population of 1,5 million (according to Lonely Planet) – it is Thailand’s second largest city. It has been a major centre on ancient trading routes, where caravans stopped between Simao (in China) and and Mawlamyine (on Burmas Indian Ocean coast), and it is still today the Silk-Capital of Siam. Chiang Mai’s leading tourist attraction appears to be the Night Bazaar, which is one of the largest we have experienced.
Chiang Mai is also where our tour of Indocina/Siam ends, two weeks from it’s beginning. Because of the political unreast in Bangkok, we decided to return to our yacht in Langkawi. As there are no direct flights, we will first fly to Kuala Lumpur and then to Langkawi.
A full report of the tour will be posted at the Scorpiosail website in due course.
Mobile meditation?
