Category Archives: Asia

Tour of Phuket – Massages, Viewpoints and Elephant Rides

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The first duty of the day was to get checked in. The ride to shore on the dinghy was OK since we were going with the 20 knots of wind. We decided to beach the dinghy instead of tying it to the pier. Since, technically, Ron wasn’t supposed to be on board, he scrambled as soon as we pulled up to the pier. All three departments are in one building at the base of the pier. While the check in process was definitely easy, Thailand is the new winner in the “most number of forms needing to be filled out and signed” contest. All in all, check in took about an hour.

We were going to go walk around a little bit and get lunch. Eric just glanced at the dinghy to make sure it was OK. It wasn’t. The tide had come in big time, and the dinghy was now floating, being bumped into the pole it was tied to with every incoming wave. Sigh. We needed to tie it to the pier, and unfortunately, we had forgotten the second rope back on Kosmos. The ride back was against the wind and Continue reading →

Welcome to Phuket Island, Phuket Province, Thailand

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We untied from the mooring at 1000, just as a long line of tourists boats came chugging into the bay. Not only was our timing good going in, it was good going out, too. If there weren’t so many tourists around we probably would have stayed in the Phi Phi islands another day or two, but all the ridiculously heavy boat traffic made for very uncomfortable and rolly anchorages. Besides, we haven’t checked into the country yet, so it was probably time to get officialdom out of the way. Technically we weren’t supposed to have stopped in Ko Muk or the Phi Phis, but we had been told that the Thai government gives you a week between checking out of Malaysia and checking into Phuket before they become suspicious that you may have made an illegal stop along the way. Also, there is no real coast guard checking for illegal boats, so getting caught stopping someplace is unlikely.

Our trip to Phuket was almost identical to our trip to Phi Phi. The seas were smooth, calm and pleasant, there were some pretty islands along the way, and there were lots of fishing flags to weave in and out of, requiring constant hand steering. We understand fully why people out here prefer to day hop versus take overnight trips. Trying to avoid these little flags at night is very stressful. And like on the trip to Phi Phi, we had an equipment problem. Eric turned on the Continue reading →

From Don to Li

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We got up and went to shore for brunch. We walked through the grouping of haphazard buildings over to the other side of the isthmus, called Maya Bay. The cruising guide had said that Lo Dalam Bay wasn’t a very good place to anchor, but it looked a whole lot better to us than Ton Sai bay. There were only a handful of boats in there, as opposed to the non-stop boat traffic in Ton Sai bay.

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We walked along the shore of Lo Dalam bay until we saw a restaurant on the beach that looked good. The food was OK. There was more diversity in the age groups out this morning than there had been last night. The restaurant is part of a resort and there were some women tanning topless at the nearby pool. We wonder what the local Muslims think of that. Ron had told us that the pool was full of ocean fish last time he was there and that the water had risen to almost the very tip of the high peaked building next to the pool during the flood. It is hard to imagine.

The plan was head over to the neighboring island, Phi Phi Li in a few hours. Phi Phi Li is where Continue reading →

Ko Phi Phi Don, Krabi Province, Thailand

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Ko Muk was another place where we would have liked to go diving, but Christi still had some congestion and a cough, so we decided to skip diving. Other than diving, laying out at the beach and going to the cave, there isn’t much to do at Ko Muk. Besides, we really needed to get some money. We pulled up anchor this morning at 0945, bound for Ko Phi Phi Don (pronounced Pee Pee — the “h” is silent. No laughing, this is a serious name!). The ride was short, taking only 5 hours.

We are happy to report it was pleasant and very smooth on the way there, though Eric needed to be vigilant about avoiding the fishing lines. There were small islands all along the way, making for a scenic drive. The bad news is that Eric turned on our spare auto pilot to give it some exercise and it did not work. That is probably not a good thing.

From the distance, the Phi Phi islands looks similar to Langkawi, with tall vertical cliffs jutting up out of the water, except these islands have more unique shapes in the peaks of the cliffs. Phi Phi Don is in the first picture, actually two separate islands connected by a small isthmus of sand between them. Next to Phi Phi Don is the smaller Phi Phi Lee, the second picture, and there are a few tiny rock islands near the larger Phi Phi islands.

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We pulled into Ton Sai bay on the southern end of the isthmus at about 1500 (3:00 pm). There were tons of Continue reading →

Kosmos Submarine

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Well it has been almost 1 year since we left. We have realized two things. One, we have really enjoyed looking at underwater landscapes. Two, we really do not like rough passages. This got us thinking. A perfect upgrade to Kosmos would be to turn her into a submarine. We contacted some people here in Asia and surprisingly the retrofit/conversion was within budget and pretty reasonable. Kosmos is already quite watertight in many places. The main trouble was we are too buoyant. We need to gain some weight. First there is considerable weight to gain from all the electric batteries to run our underwater electric drive. We found a dealer Thailand that had just what we needed: Ninety 8D batteries on sale. We went from about 1000 amp hours to almost 23000 amp hours. The batteries we spread out mostly in the lazarette and in the forward stateroom. But the real addition of weight is with two ballast tanks, which can be filled and emptied to give us variable buoyancy control. Sadly the forward stateroom is now taken up by the batteries and tanks, so no more guests aboard.

We took out the wing engine and replaced it with a 45 hp electric motor and coupled it to the main shaft. It is amazing how well it fit! And since we have the entire battery backup, why bother with a wing engine anymore? We also added two 240 amp alternators to the main engine to help charge our massive battery bank. It will take some planning to use the electric propulsion, because it takes a long time to charge. But we figure when it is rough we go down and still make way, saving us time in the long run.

We got some water tight covers made for the vents to the engine room. It takes roughly 10 minutes to put them on, but then we are watertight. Well watertight to a degree. The real caveat to this conversion is our maximum depth. We can only go down safely about 25 feet below the top of the pilot house, and that is probably pushing it. If we spend more time and money we could probably get down to 45 feet. To go deeper than that would be a major hull upgrade. But hey, 25 feet deep is not bad for a boat designed for the surface. It is another testament to the heavy duty construction to our Nordhavn.

Now there are many more technical details, but we do not want to bore you with them. So, on to the sea trial. Well dock trial first. It was only 13 feet to the bottom, but the goal was to lightly touch bottom and then surface again. It is pretty disconcerting to watch Kosmos sink deeper and deeper in the water. We watched all the portholes closely but they held quite nicely. Slowly we went down. We touched just as the pilot house was covered with water. Some minor leaks, but they were easy to fix. Time to find some deeper water!

We found a nice patch of 50 foot deep water, near a reef. We engaged the ballast tank pumps and down we went to about 20 feet. This time we would be moving. We turned on the electric motor and we started moving. We kept the top of the mast above water and did the speed check. Hmmm, only 3.9 knots. That was a bit less than we hoped, but figured it would do. We progressed for about 2 miles underwater. The electric drive is wonderfully quiet. We kept the top of the mast and paravane poles above water with tiny cameras on top to look out for other boats. An actual old fashion optical periscope was out of the question. It is way too expensive and bulky. A slim electric wire and a few small water tight cameras is all you need these days. Below water we got some pretty good pictures of fish.

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One interesting side effect of the modifications is we can sit in the water lower, which makes anchoring more comfortable. Here is Kosmos in the distance set at just the right level for a more comfortable anchorage yet still get in air for the generator.

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Most of the time we still plan to voyage above the surface. Surface mode gives us more speed and much better range. Submarine mode is really for special occasions. For example, getting some rest from rough seas, taking a look at some near by reefs, and for special days. Days like April 1st.