Katrine's News Letter N°14 April 2008
How we have thought of you all these past days and wished we could have shared it all with you. Where to begin? There is so much to tell but following are just a few tales:
The charter season is over and we breathe a huge sigh. It was hard work but good and we can now go ahead and expand our little business on the island of Langkawi where we are spoiling all and sundry with the finest sausages in South East Asia. We now have a Malaysian working visa which is renewable every two years and we hope this opens a door for us to have a small nest egg while maintaining our cruising life style.
But first things first, and going back a few months……….
We had taken Katrine out of the water at Rebak Marina – a wonderful experience in many ways both socially and other. Don had wanted to extend the back steps to give the boat more balance and buoyancy both of which have been a huge success. Our latest cruise has proved that in speed we have gained a good knot and a half and the hobby-horsing has much improved. Socially we connected with a group of fun-loving and great spirited yachties and firm friendships have been forged.
It was a last minute whirlwind to get the boat” finished” and back in the water, to make enough sausage supplies to stock our outlets and to head up to Phuket to collect our first charter. Eternal thanks to our AAS associates - Aquarius, Argonauta and Shayile, who spent hours and hours filling, mixing, grinding and packing in order for us to meet our deadline. This is the spirit of yachties at its best, and we appreciate all the help and support that special people have given us.
We launched Katrine the day before Christmas, had a spanking good supper with our friends on Christmas eve, and on Christmas day, while Don took Katrine round to Telaga to our mooring, I collected the car and drove there. No sooner had he left the island of Rebak to head back “home” than our guardians of the deep - the dolphins - appeared to swim around Katrine and welcome us back in the water. Their presence never fails to leave us in wonder and yet …..
An overnighter to Thailand to stock the boat with fresh stuff and we sailed around to Patong to collect our guests. Luck would have it, and the skipper’s worst nightmare reared its head – if you’ll excuse the pun… the guest toilet blocked, so while the beautiful fireworks lit up the skies in a blaze of glory, Don wallowed in the poo trying to fit new pipes (he had hired a motorbike taxi to drive around the town looking for them.)
Fortunately just on midnight it all came together and the dastardly deed was done just a few hours before our guests arrived!.
We had two back to back charters in Phuket, then did a flying overnighter to Langkawi to collect the next crowd there. Back to Thailand for a week with a great group of Italians, a few days to replenish sausage stocks (thank you Gary and Libby) to do the laundry, clean the boat and back to Phuket to check out, provision and head for the Andaman Islands.
But it was worth it all. The Andamans are still the most awesome cruising grounds to date and the special joy of having our granddaughter Robyn fly in to join us was the cherry on top of the cake. Debby whom we had met and fallen in love with when we were traveling in India had taken up our offer to visit us on Katrine as well but before that, Ken and Linda, Dave and Marcia joined us for two weeks in our first fishing type charter. What those guys don’t know about fishing is nobodies business and we learnt so much about every aspect of drop shots, fly fishing, trawling and even how not to beach a dinghy – hey Ken?. Going to the southern Andaman Islands was new for us too, and opened a wealth of different and awesome islands that we will definitely return to next year. Our days were filled with the cruising life we love so much: swimming with Manta rays, beautiful coral and myriads of fish; the isolation of being the only ones on pristine and uninhabited beaches, the clear blue water and the amazing bird life on the islands. It was a feast and we reveled in every minute of it. The chaps caught heaps of fish, some of which we kept for the pot but many returned to the sea and we learnt anew the meaning of the word “passion”.
I always thought I liked fishing. But these guys are passionate about it. Thanks chaps – you taught us so much and we know better what to do next time. As our friend “B” says, “It was too much of lovely!”
Ravi is our taxi driver in Port Blair.
Not only is he our taxi driver but since we met him last year he has become a good and caring friend. We had finally been cleared in to the country on a Sunday after five days of waiting for customs to board. Ravi and his side-kick and dinghy minder, Mopetty were there at the dinghy dock to meet us. “Sorry Sir, that customs took so long” the head wobbled. “We been calling them, Sir, to hurry up and all”. They are so dear. Ravi bundled us in to his taxi and took us out to lunch. We had no local currency and no banks open so Ravi folded 2,000 ruppees into Don’s hand. “You pay me when you can” he said. That’s got to be a first for a taxi driver!
He ran around us and our guests sent us fresh fruit and curry puffs for breakfast, and cooked us a great spicy curry with all the trimmings which he shared with us on board. Robyn and her friend Lee arrived the afternoon before our charter guests were to leave. The plan was for Robyn and Lee to find an hotel for the night and after Ken and Dave, Marcia and Linda had been dropped off at the airport we would ask Ravi to collect them and bring them to the boat. Debby was flying in on the same morning, so as not to confuse issues, I purposely didn’t tell Ravi of the plan for Robyn. He was to collect Debby from the airport and bring her to the boat and then take Ken and co to catch their plane. Thereafter I would inform Ravi of the arrival of Robyn and send for her. But the island is well connected. When the plane bearing Robyn arrived, visa forms had to be filled in and on hers, Robyn wrote that she would be staying on Yacht Katrine with her grandparents. Word spread like wildfire and to cut a long story short, Ravi sussed out and found Robyn and Lee in the busy town of Port Blair, (How on earth did he know who Robyn was?? Don’t ask me – when I asked him, he told me she had a lovely face just like me! I said he was dear didn’t I?) He introduced himself to her as our friend (I had told Robyn about Ravi) and found them a place to stay. He then informed us by phone that all was well and the girls were taken care of.
Thereafter followed some of the happiest days of our holiday. We met up with our Aquarius and Tao friends, had barbeques on the beaches, and marveled at things as diverse as bouncing along to the village in a radio-blearing bus, watching an elephant swimming in the surf each morning on one of the islands, hunting for crayfish on the reefs during our early morning snorkels and catching ink-squirting squid over the front of the boat. We skinny dipped and tanned and ragged the skipper. We laughed and laughed and we caught fish. Lee and Robyn caught the biggest travelli of the holiday amidst whoops and squeals as they fought the monster onto the boat. But sadly nothing is forever, and we were heavy hearted when it was family parting time once more. Take care special lady. We love you sooo much.
Deb stayed on a few more days and we headed for the islands back down south to our favourite anchorage at Chiriatapu. (Bird Island) From the boat we could swim to the coral reef and we made the most of it. The water was crystal clear and our last early morning swim was one of the most special that will stay in my mind forever. A huge octopus was on the prowl and we watched him fascinated, for hours as he oozed across the coral in his search for food. He slithered onto a piece of bright blue cluster-fingered coral and in an instant became part of it with all the protuberances and exact colour, dead still in a total camouflage. Moving on he metamorphosed into a smooth mustard-coloured rock that he stopped on and as the sun filtered through the water there he mimicked the sun-streams that wavered across his body. It left me incredulous at the overwhelming wonder of nature and the sense of humility to have the privilege of being part of it all.
So as not to spoil the otherworldly mood, Don found us a hefty coral trout which we tossed on the barbeque, a few potato chips, fried tomato and in keeping with the feast…we opened a beer to have with our breakfast. Now THAT is what you call holiday!
Those two weeks were terrific. Thank you girls for spoiling Don and I, for cleaning and washing and making our days so relaxed. It was such great fun and we will remember it for the really special time it was.
We left Port Blair at 3am, following the example of our Tao friends who had gone on a few days before us. This allowed us to reach Invisible Banks in the late afternoon – a stretch of the ocean that shallows over a good few miles. In fact it was downright scary to see the sea breaking on rocks sending spumes of spray into the air in the middle of the ocean. We trawled our lines and wham bam we hooked fish left right and centre. Huge barracuda, tuna, travelli and sorry to say, Robyn and Lee a bigger Blue Fin than you caught! We threw the Dorado back as they pair for life and we wanted no weeping spouses down there, but the Rainbow Runners were our parting gift from the Banks. Still, there has to be a downside to level things off and I had two swims in that vastness to cut loose the fishnets that had snagged and another to cut off our fishing line that tangled in the props after I had reversed while Don was hauling in a fish on the other line. Not a nice experience with all those squidly pelagic dudes down there. Like most things though, they are never so scary as long as you don’t look down and don’t make eye contact.
The trip back was the usual schlep with squalls all round followed by no wind, but our new radar is such a pleasure and we skirted around the bad weather and finally snuck into Phuket for a top up of supplies and good Thai food before heading south.
Katrine wouldn’t be Katrine without a bit of spice and true to form a little disaster struck. We had stopped at Rok Nok for a few hours sleep but the officials wanted 800 baht! So we told them to go jump and left in the early hours. We weren’t making much headway because as you know we have the wind-on-the-nose button that works automatically the minute we put the sails up. So we thought to motor sail with one engine having the smell of Langkawi in our nostrils. However, about an hour out the motor spluttered and we realized too late that the dip we took in the Andamans and our estimation that there was plenty to get back home was a little incorrect. There followed a slight sense of humour failure on board and i needn’t tell you that the whole crew was thoroughly peed off. Anyway the winds were strong enough to tack and we did pretty well on the way south to Penang and then back north to Lanta, but somehow we just couldn’t make it to the Butangs which is where we needed to head. When the wind finally died as it does at mid day just when the sun is the hottest and relentlessly blaising down on this white blob in the vast ocean - it seems to hone down on the little bugger - we sat. Or rather we didn’t sit. Because the current runs at 2 knots so that these big white Styrofoam blocks attached to fish traps 60 metres down (how does that happen?)whizzed past us threatening to tangle around our props. It was quite a worry actually after four hours of drifting towards Sumatra and me counting how many tins of baked beans and how little water we had! But never again will I slander a stinky squid boat, for there over the horizon appeared this wooden smoke-belching vessel that motored towards two frantic jerry jug- waving felangs. They gave us two jugs full of diesel and were hard pressed to take the money. I could have kissed their smelly little selves.
We motor sailed all the way back to Telaga and eventually arrived at 1a.m. on the darkest night of the year. Edgeing into the main channel knowing that our mooring was gone (thats another story) amongst boats with no lights - doesnt that p you off? – we dropped the hook where we thought we would be ok. Then slept the sleep of the dead. Holy Cow! When we woke up we were surrounded by boats! Thirty something of them and we had dropped in the only hole in the bay! So someone WAS on our side after all. And on that early morning in the calm of the bay, we looked towards the beach and our family of sea otters who were scampering along the shoreline; in the sky high above two eagles soared and before us the mountain stood in all its jungled glory. There is nothing like coming home.
We are truly blessed to be living the privileged lifestyle we lead.
And now Greg and Anne arrive in a few days time. It’s been seven long, long years, but its almost family time once again and we are beside ourselves with excitement. There is going to be such a lot of catching up to do.
Take care everyone. Our love and light to you all.
Don and Jeanne