Sailor Tom Phuket 2009 Pictures

Phuket January 2009


Learning the Trics


And indeed it is hard work.....







Fresh White Meat (in Thai fishermen pants )

Surin Islands

9 degree 25N 97 degree 53E The Surin Islands are to the NW of Phuket. Well known for fish and bird life, after all it is a National Park. Alishan arrived here yesterday after an other Champagne Sail, 30 miles beam reach. Perfect. The only minus was no fish on the line;-(( Ha, and don't you see and smell it? We had the first rain in 6 weeks so we all skinny dipped and washed and washed! Tom is becoming a Great Sailor, now here we hope to find a scuba school for him. And of course we will try to upload some pictures. After all we do have a new phone on board that sometimes is able to make a small and slow Internet connection..... Salute for now.

Moving North

Do we have a great time with Sailor Tom on board. The first few days it was talk, talk, eat, snorkel and sleep. All in and around Nai Harn Bay. And we had wheels for 2 days so we did do some sightseeing. Now Alishan is moving North, heading for the Surin Islands. First day was champagne sailing until 4 PM when the wind sifted on the nose. Ah well, it took us only a small hour by YANMAR to find a reasonable comfy anchorage. The sunset was superb! And after a good meal of Marijke's Thai Cooking we all slept soundly. Now we are just south of Koh Pra Thong where we hope to find a good spot to: Celebrate Marijke's Birthday, Start the Chinese New Year. On the Move position: 8 degree 45.2 N 98 degree 12.8 E Cabin temp. is 32 C, calm seas, unfortunately not enough wind for sailing. Salute for now.

Getting ready for Sailor Tom

Well, Wednesday the 21st is STD.
Sailor Tom Day.
Yes Alishan will have an extra crew member for the next 4 weeks... Nephew Tom will learn the ropes and maybe some Patong trics;-)

Last week was veryvery windy, too windy to enjoy any sailing. Nai Harn was just THE good hidy-ho with 60 meters of anchor chain! By the weekend the weather improved +++ and many boats left to cross the Indian Ocean. One guy was in such a hurry to leave ( he even left on a Friday, what we think is a NoNo) and forgot his passport at the bike rental shop.... Hmm, wonder what the officials will say when he makes landfall in the Maldives.
Salute for now.

25 Years afloat.

River Rhine, Arnhem, Holland.
Position:
51 degree 58 N
05 degree 50 E
It was a cold snowy Sunday, early January, 1984.
We decided to move on board of our sailing yacht Jan Haring.
For more than 19 years and 50.000 miles Jan Haring was our home.
In 2003 we moved on board of Alishan.
So now we are counting a whopping 25 years living afloat!
And we still love that feeling of the rising and falling tides.

The radio announced a red alarm warning due to unusual low temperatures here in Thailand. Well, here at the bottom of Phuket we too can feel the drop in the mercury: early morning it is only 25 C, the wind is NE 25+ knots here in the bay! What happened to the Global Warming?
Salute.

Psssst.....

In case you haven't noticed it yet: The New Q4 Report 2008 is on-line!!!! Mind you, it is still under construction, but for sure it is loaded with pictures.
Meanwhile Alishan is enjoying the good Phuket weather:Nice Breeze and Not Hot!! This morning we went for a jog here in Nai Harn and of course for a swim afterwards. Boats left and right are sailing away into the sunset, byebye. Then again others are still here, so not a boring moment.
Salute for now.

Time Flies...

And so it is already a few days into the New Year!
Indeed we had a great start! On Dec 30 Alishan moved to Patong Bay but when we turned the corner we saw the enormous swell rock-and-rolling the boats around. So instead of dropping the anchor just in front of the "famous" beach, we headed for the NW corner of the bay AND had a great viewing point of Patong skyline. It was really something to see all those fireworks and the thousands and thousands "candle" balloons drifting into the sky. Friends Michael and Em from sy Sound of Music joined us with the countdown.
The next days we sailed back to Nai Harn Bay. There was still an enormous swell running, good fun for the surfers and/but the nice thing about this bay is that there is a safe (= no swell) place to land the dinghy to go ashore. sy Lady Ann showed up yesterday, so..: Marijke and Kari took of this morning with their cameras, while Aslaugh and Jaap made it to the top of the hill on running shoes.
Cruising is Fun.
And how did your New Year start?
Salute for now.