Passagemaking with a Nordhavn

[Kensblog] - A very sad event to report

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

I'm saddened to report that the Grey Pearl, our friend's Tina and Braun Jones' boat, was in lost in a fire this past week. The Pearl is no more.

Below is the most recent blog entry from Grey Pearl's website, as written by Tina Jones:

It is with such a heavy heart that I write this last and final blog of the good ship Grey Pearl.

Early in December, while we were spending the winter at our home in Virginia away from our boat, we received one of life’s dreaded phone calls. Our beloved ‘Grey Pearl’ N6208 was on fire in her slip at Yacht Haven Marina in Phuket, Thailand. The fire started in the early evening of Dec. 6th, 2011, and was detected shortly thereafter. The fire quickly became uncontrollable and threatened the marina and other boats. The marina staff and some brave yachtsmen scrambled to remove her from the slip, tow her up a nearby river and run her aground where she continued to burn for almost another day. Needless to say we are devastated by this horrible tragedy.

In order to tend to this matter and our responsibilities, Braun & I immediately flew from our home in Virginia to Thailand.

Of course, the hardest and saddest moment was to see her…it is impossible to describe the heartbreak. To see the pilothouse wheel resting on the charred Lugger main engine…we were overcome. The raging fire had consumed her down to the water line. To put her to rest, we had a “viewing” on a Thursday…and her “burial” with flowers and a final good by on Friday.

Although heartbroken, we do understand how lucky we are…no one was injured! And the damage would have been more catastrophic if not for the brave souls that worked quickly to get the boat out of the slip and thereby save the surrounding yachts and dock.

We’ve had 11 ½ years of absolutely wonderful experiences on the Pearl…and happily, we’ve been able to share that on board passion with so many friends & family. Often we’d sit on our aft “Lido” deck and reminisce about where she’s taken us…Gibraltar, Jounieh, Lebanon, Jementos, Bahamas, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Elba, Italy, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Aleutian Islands, Panama Canal, Haifa, Israel, Rome, Petropavlovsk, Russia, Bar Harbor, Me., Singapore, Athens…to name just a few.

I personally have never been more challenged, fulfilled and happier doing anything in my life than the time I’ve spent on my ‘Grey Pearl’. And…more importantly, she was a passion Braun & I enjoyed together. She will live on fondly in our hearts & memories…forever ~

We are still “processing” this calamity so it’s way too soon to say what our future plans will be…but there will be an Act II. The fun is not going to stop.

We’re OK…and, we have the love of family & friends we can count on to get through this painful time…

A special thanks to our dear friends, Carol & Steven Argosy on our buddy boat N62 ‘Seabird’. They remain in Phuket and we deeply regret having to temporarily leave the “Bird and Pearl” cruising team.

Sadly…Grey Pearl…Out –

Tina & Braun

Ken Williams
N6805, Sans Souci

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[Kensblog] End of the season

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Greetings all!

I'm typing this as we are doing our final packing. Tomorrow at this time, we'll be on a plane to Seattle!

First off, I want to thank everyone who wrote to see if we were ok after the recent Turkey earthquake. Turkey is a large country, and the epicenter was nearly a thousand miles from where we are, so we never knew it occurred until I opened my email to see the flood of inquiries.

Epicenter of the recent eathquake in Turkey. A long way from Sans Souci!

The earthquake did cause Roberta and I to ask each other, "What if it had been closer?" Sadly, we know the answer to that question. A marina we were in during 2009, in Japan, was near where the tsunami hit last year. I've seen aerial photos of boats washed onto land, and the town destroyed.

Speaking of which, I've always said that bad things tend to come in threes (they don't really, but I do confess to believing in some superstitions).

So, here's the other two:

Engine room fire?

While waiting to enter the marina, anchored in front of the town of Gocek, Roberta asked me why smoke was pouring from a boat near to us. Looking over, it appeared to be an engine room fire. I phoned it in to the Coast Guard. Luckily, the fire suppression system in the engine room must have activated and put the fire out. After thirty minutes, the smoke stopped.

80' boat, with a very brave marina staffer

The third incident in the series arrived right on time, as I suspected it might. We had entered the marina and were tied to the dock. I was sitting at my computer, doing email, when I felt the boat rock strongly to the right. Had something hit us? Or, was it a large wake? How could there be a wake inside the marina? I ran to the pilothouse door, and saw the 80' boat in the picture above being pushed away from our boat by the tender you see in this photo.

Roberta came running up the stairs. "Did you see that?" she asked. "We were almost struck by that boat!" Apparently, the boat had been moving rapidly through the marina, and was turning to enter a fairway when the captain either lost control, or the engines lost power. I'm not clear which. Roberta said that she was downstairs on our boat when she saw the other boat's stern rapidly coming at us on a collision course. Amazingly, a marina employee saw the incident occurring and interjected his tender between the other boat and Sans Souci, instants before the collision. He was joined almost instantaneously by another tender, which appeared out of nowhere. What I had felt was their tenders bouncing off of our boat as they were pushed into our side.

I didn't know whether to thank the marina employees for risking their life on our behalf, or shout, "What were you thinking?????" Putting yourself, and a plastic raft, between two large heavy boats, just to save a few thousand dollars in fiberglass repairs, is not the wisest of moves. I do thank them, and their fast action did save me money, but I hope they never try a stunt like that again.

And, speaking of the amazing marina staff, here at D-Marin, in Gocek Turkey....

Sans Souci is now in a new marina. We decided to move, in hopes of finding better protection from the winter storms. This also puts us closer to the office of the company that is watching over our boat. And, best of all, we were able to find a side-tie!

One of the "joys" of entering a new marina is figuring out the shore power.

The ends of my shore power cables

[WARNING -- these next few paragraphs get a bit techie. Non boaters may wish to nap for the next five paragraphs]

I have had bad luck in Europe with each new marina having different shorepower, and different physical connectors for attaching to the shorepower. On the dock where Sans Souci is now sitting there are two kinds of shorepower, 220v single phase, 50hz, and 380v three phase, 50hz. The pedestal closest to me was of the 220v, single phase, variety.

Ordinarily I do not mess with the connectors that are attached to my shorepower cables. I keep pigtails on the boat (short pieces of shore power cable with bare wire at one end, and a female connector at the other). This allows me to put different connectors on my shore power cables, as I move from marina to marina, without physically touching my actual shorepower cables.

At some marinas I've had the office lend me the shorepower adapters that work in the marina. At others, I've had the marina sell me expensive adapters, or just shrug, and leave it as my problem. In all situations, prior to Turkey, it has been up to me to wire and test my own shorepower cables.

This is only my second marina in Turkey, but, at both marinas, the marina has sent an electrician to my boat. Here at D-Marin, the electrician was great to work with. He struggled for a couple of hours, in the heat, to get the shorepower working with my boat. Finally, I discovered the problem. There is a rotary switch inside Sans Souci which identifies which shorepower connector to use. The boat was turned to Cord B, and he was attaching Cord A. This was very embarrassing. By the time I discovered the problem he had shifted to trying the 3-phase power on the other side of the dock. I discovered the problem with the rotary dial at the same time he discovered that the 3-phase power worked for my boat. (Sans Souci has an international shorepower converter that makes it very friendly to different shorepower voltages.) I tried to explain to him that we could go back to single phase, but communications between languages are not always easy. He had convinced himself that I needed 3-phase power, and that's what I was going to have.

I only half-hearted tried to explain the confusion to him, because the truth be known, I greatly prefer the higher voltage power. With 3-phase, 380v power, and twin 50 amp cables, I can get something like 40kw of electricity into the boat. This means NO POWER MANAGEMENT! Unlimited electricity!

Hooking up my shorepower

To get my cables to the other side of the dock, without anyone tripping over them, the cable was run under the dock

A very professional job! However, if the boat ever needs to leave the dock rapidly, it will be impossible

The water in the marina is amazingly clear!

The clarity of the water in Turkey is amazing. This is the prop on the boat ahead of me on the dock. That prop is about eight feet under the water. Incredible, and even clearer when you leave the marina

So, Roberta and I decided to go to Oludeniz...

Roberta and I came to Turkey with grand plans of seeing historical sights. And we have seen a few, but really, it's just the tip of an iceberg. There is MUCH here to see. We know we are coming back next May, and wanted to save most of the sightseeing for when our friends arrive.

In any event, we decided we'd go see Oludeniz, a waterfront city about a 45 minute drive from the marina in Gocek. It looked pretty incredible in the pictures.

Oludeniz - A beautiful lagoon

At one time it was possible to anchor inside the lagoon, but now, to keep it nice, you have to anchor at the entrance. We thought about anchoring out when we passed by here with the boat, but the seas were rough, and the anchorage isn't well protected. I can see though, that on a hot summer day, this would be my kind of anchoring.

Paddle boats can be rented to explore the lake

Even though we were at Oludeniz after the season, at the end of October, we saw LOTS of tourists lining the beach. The vast majority were British.

Roberta and Coco on the beach

We have found Turkey to be amongst the best countries we've ever traveled with our dogs. Usually when taking the dogs to a restaurant we call ahead to verify that the dogs can join us for dinner. In Turkey, thus far, no restaurant has said no. Lately, we don't even think about it, or call to ask permission. Dogs are fine everywhere! More importantly, our dogs are really liked by the people we encounter. They have had their pictures taken dozens of times. American tourists are rare, and tourists with dogs are even rarer. Coco and Toundra are going to have to readjust to life outside Turkey. They have become very spoiled.

Want a genuine fake Rolex?

Both the good, and the bad, of Oludeniz, and many parts of southern Turkey, are that they are tourist towns. Oludeniz was the most touristy tourist-town we visited. Roberta and I live in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, five months a year, which is also a tourist town. T-shirt shops, lots of forgettable restaurants, and stores selling stuff no one really needs. But also, incredible beauty, beautiful beaches, and wonderfully friendly people. We felt right at home!

These are real Turkey-Turkeys. How could I not take their picture?

Sans Souci, at the D-Marin marina, Gocek Turkey

And, here's a topic that didn't seem to fit anywhere, but I thought was worth mentioning...

Last week, Roberta and I found ourselves anchored in a situation where we didn't completely trust the anchor. We were anchored deeper than we liked (122 feet), and on a gentle incline.

After dropping the anchor we always back up a bit, to verify that the anchor is set.

Looking at the anchor chain

Roberta drives the boat, as we back up gently, and I watch the chain. I stop her when the chain reaches a direct line between the boat and the anchor, and the boat stops backing. The goal is to verify that the anchor is well set, and dig it a bit deeper into the bottom, not to jerk at it until it comes free.

Recently, another cruiser commented to me that I should start paying attention to the wind, and the angle of the anchor chain. He said, "If the chain isn't taut, and at the angle you tested when you dropped it, it isn't going to drag." After a while, you get to know how much wind it takes to make the chain go taut. I've never really thought about it this way, so I can't honestly say what the magic number (where the chain is completely taut) is on Sans Souci, but the other night, when I was standing anchor watch, I took out a flashlight and watched the chain at different wind speeds. At 22 knots, the anchor chain was still hanging vertically in the water, which tells me we were no where near dragging. I'll experiment more next year...

Lastly, I would like to close out the season by mentioning that although it is usually just Roberta and I on the boat, there is really a team behind Sans Souci. I confess to being somewhat lazy when it comes to PERSONALLY doing boat maintenance. I suppose it is possible to take great pleasure from fixing the toilets, washing the boat or changing the oil, and I have done those things, and many more, at various times. However, I prefer to cherry pick the bits of boating that are the most fun, and to outsource as many maintenance and cleaning tasks as I can. Each year before arrival at the boat, and each offseason while we are gone, I have a team of people who keeps Sans Souci clean and well maintained. Much of what Roberta and I have been doing the past few days is making lists: lists of spare parts to be ordered, lists of things to be cleaned, lists of things to be fixed. [Note: Roberta said I should mention that just because I'm lazy doesn't mean she is! Over the past few days, she has been cleaning the interior virtually non-stop] We've been taking pictures of anything that looks worn or in need of repair, and as soon as we leave the boat, Sans Souci will be made new again. I'd like to thank these people who are the hidden heros behind our cruising adventures.

In Seattle -- Jeff Sanson, at Pacific Yacht Management

And, in Turkey -- Riza Cagdas Cakir, at Emek Marin

And, of course, I'd like to thank all of you, without whom the blog wouldn't be possible.

See you next season!

Ken Williams

PS As this is likely to be my last blog for several months, I thought I'd close on a personal note. I've been reading Steve Job's biography. I dealt with him a few times over the years, and as you can imagine, he has always been one of my heroes. The first few chapters of the book speak about his relationship with his father, and how his father influenced his career. Of course, that got my thinking about my own dad, our relationship, and his influence on my own career. Some of you may remember that this blog started as a way to keep my dad informed while we were away. He lost a battle with cancer, in 2008, just after accompanying me on Sans Souci for the Fubar rally (San Diego to La Paz Mexico).

I miss him, and would like to share this video that my son sent me, a few years ago when he was in Japan for college. I hope it reminds you of your own parents, and how they affected your lives...

David Williams

Note: if you don't see a video above, click THIS LINK to see the video.

(http://youtu.be/k3WhQB7Hq0Q)

[Kensblog] Tomb Bay

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Greetings all!

Most of the smaller towns we have visited do not have marinas. Instead, they each have a U-shaped central port. Boats drop anchor in the center, and Med Moor (back to the quay). Generally, the boats are a combination of gulets (for taking tourists sightseeing) and local fishing boats. I’m not sure what would happen if we tried to enter one of the these ports with Sans Souci, or who we would ask for moorage. My sense is that we would be welcomed, and it is just a matter of finding the right person to talk to, but I haven’t tried.

We generally like to anchor out, and visit town using the tender. This is partially because we prefer it, and partially because it is easier. Bringing Sans Souci into a strange port, with just Roberta and I, can be difficult. Med mooring is easiest with three people: one to work the bow lines, one to work the stern lines, and one to drive the boat. We can do it with two people, but when given the choice of anchoring out versus figuring out how to Med moor with two people in small, busy harbors, it becomes an easy decision. And, besides, anchoring out is easy and free. No paperwork, no hassle, no money, just drop the hook.

These guys provided tender service to us several times while we were at anchor at Kas

Our last few anchorages have been a fairly long tender ride into town; over a mile. During the day, this isn’t a problem, but going into town for dinner at night, or over choppy water, can be a challenge. We are cruising late in the season, and the weather is a bit unpredictable. The seas can turn nasty quickly, even in relatively sheltered bays. In Kekova Roads we got caught away from Sans Souci when, while lunching in Kalekoy -- the tender safely tied at a nearby dock -- strong winds suddenly appeared. There was no way to get back to Sans Souci safely with the huge chop that quickly built up. We called 'our guy' Turgay, who came riding to the rescue in his gulet and towed us back. So, lately, we’ve taken to venturing into town on the tender during the day, when the weather is calm, and working out a deal with a local gulet driver to provide transport if such would be needed. This has worked out amazingly well, and allows us to safely have dinner and wine and then return to the boat in the dark. However, getting on or off the transport gulet, via our tender tied to the swimstep of Sans Souci, has been a bit ‘wild and crazy.’ We’ve worked out a system where I, Roberta and the dogs get into our tender (which is tied behind Sans Souci), the 45’ gulet then backs to our tender, and then we climb onto the gulet. Once we figured out this procedure, it wasn't so bad!

Walking to dinner in Kas

We've seen these blue 'eyes' embedded in the sidewalks everywhere, as well as hanging as good-luck charms in shops, boats and trees. This symbol is used to ward off the 'evil eye.'

Wandering the streets of Kas

There is one interesting thing in Kas, of which perhaps one of the readers of my blog can enlighten me. At dinner one night, an adjacent table of three couples was clearly deaf. The couples were signing to communicate with each other, and they wanted to ask what we were having for dinner, so that they could order it. I don’t know sign language, so pointing at the menu was the best I could do. When the waiter came to their table, and realized they were deaf, he got the bartender, who was not deaf, but knew sign language, and took their order. We didn’t think anything of it, until the next morning, when at a completely different restaurant, I tried to ask the waiter for the internet password, and realized he was deaf. I showed him the password page on my iphone, and he signed to a waitress, who brought me the password. She was also deaf and they began signing to each other. Maybe there is a school for the deaf in Kas? Or just a coincidence? It doesn’t matter, though -- we were just wondering.

One more thing to mention about Kas. It’s a dive-centric town. The port wasn’t very large, yet I counted over 20 LARGE diving boats. While we were at anchor there were always dive boats around us. I’m not sure what there was to see, but it must have been good. (Roberta thinks that she heard about some old shipwreck under the water...)

One funny story about anchoring at Kas....

One of the reasons we upgraded to a larger Nordhavn, in 2007, was that we wanted space for a hot tub. Most people thought we were crazy, and it would never get used. They couldn't have been more wrong. I'm not sure which has more hours, Sans Souci's main engines, or the hot tub. We've taken to using the hot tub just about every night we're at anchor. However, on our last night in Kas, we noticed a coast guard vessel drop anchor beside us. Were we in trouble? Would we be boarded? We wanted to go out to the hot tub, but figured someone would be knocking on the door any minute. After 30 minutes of nothing happening, and us sitting in the dark, waiting to be asked for our papers, we saw the lights go out on the coast guard vessel. I said, "Let's go to bed," and Roberta said, "No way. It's hot tub time!" How many people can say they've been hot tubbing alongside a coast guard vessel at anchor in Turkey?

We would liked to have stayed longer at Kas, but could see another storm coming, and wanted to move to a location better protected from the northwest and north. So, we moved the boat to Kalkan, about a two-hour run northwest of Kas.

Our anchorage at Kalkan was amongst the prettiest I’ve seen, but with mediocre holding. Roberta and I have done a lot of anchoring, and are accustomed to dropping the anchor one time and having it hold. However, the anchorage at Kalkan is mostly mud and seaweed with occasional sand. We dropped the anchor, and when we tested, the anchor was not set. When I retrieved the anchor, it was packed in a huge ball of mud and seaweed. I couldn’t even see the anchor! We dropped again, in deeper water, and had better luck on the second try.

The correct thing to do apparently, here in Turkey, is to run a stern line to shore. With professional crew it's easy (or with a couple in a small sailboat) but with just Roberta and I, on Sans Souci, it's a little trickier. Plus, with a storm coming, we felt safer out in the middle, able to swing with the wind. Roberta and I debated whether we would be safer in the middle, or against shore.

These gulets appeared out of nowhere

This gulet dropped his anchor right at my stern

The bay at Kalkan (Yesilkoy Koyu) was small; perhaps a couple hundred yards across. When we dropped our anchor, around noon, the entire bay consisted of ourselves and one other sailboat. Suddenly, at 2:30pm, we saw what appeared to be a flotilla of gulets coming our way. Within about 20 minutes at least 20 other boats, loaded with swim-suited tourists, dropped anchor all around us. The tourists jumped in the water for a swim, and our idyllic anchorage turned into the hub of a massive beach party. As suddenly as they had arrived, two hours later, everyone disappeared, and we were alone again for the night, except for two other sailboats and one small gulet that stayed.

Taking the tender into Kalkan, Turkey. Coco doesn't have her seatbelt fastened, but Roberta is sitting on her leash.

The U-shaped port of Kalkan

A mosque on the hill overlooking Kalkan. There is a "call to prayers" five times a day, but at least in the tourist areas of town, I've never seen anyone pay attention to it.

At first, I thought this was a hang-glider, but it's a parachute. It flew overhead, and is apparently something brave tourists can sign up for. I will not be signing up.

Street scene in Kalkan

Lots to do do in Kalkan!

Wandering the streets in Kalkan

Restaurants as far as the eye can see

Street in Kalkan

Kalkan is unbelievably dog friendly. This restaurant set up a special seat for our puppies

This is just one page of many on the menu. Prices are good by European standards. To convert to US dollars, you approximately divide the price by two

Captain Ken driving the tender back to Sans Souci. We had an early dinner, so we could tender back before dark

Kalkan is a large town compared to the others we have visited, and one resident told me that the inhabitants are about 95% British expats.

Kalkan prides itself on its great restaurants. When Roberta and I asked some locals which were the good restaurants, we were told, “All of them are excellent.” We only had time to eat at a couple, but so far, we agree. It’s a 'foodie' town.

I had an interesting chat with a restaurant owner in Kalkan about taxes. He mentioned that gas was over $12 a gallon! I asked if this meant there was no income tax, and he shook his head, "No, there is also an income tax." Turkey has a 30% income tax and can be aggressive at collecting it. For instance, he said, the tax collectors would randomly visit his restaurant, and even if he had every table filled, they would immediately ask to see the tickets for every each and every table. They would check to verify that all revenues were being recorded correctly, and that the books were right. If there are any errors, he can immediately be subject to a large fine.

This boating season is short for us, and we’re just trying to get the 'lay of the land' here in Turkey; we don't have a lot of time to spare before heading home to Seattle. So after a couple of days in Kalkan, we could see that another storm was coming and decided to move the boat back toward Gocek (our home port) while we had a good weather window for travel.

Yesterday, Roberta and I moved the boat about 50 miles northwest to a pretty little bay near Gocek, called 'Tomb Bay.'

After anchoring we looked up and noticed Lycian tombs embedded in the hillside. Hence, the name 'Tomb Bay.'

We weren’t sure why it was called Tomb Bay, and were genuinely caught by surprise after we dropped anchor, and looked at the hillside, to see the tombs above us. Cool!

We selected an anchorage where the boat could swing. The chart says 65 feet, but it was wrong; I had to drop in 120 feet of water

We've hit restaurants in anchorages everywhere, but this was the first one that also offered a "Leg Shave"

How many places can you drop anchor and have tombs, swimming, hiking, a restaurant, and your legs shaved?

Unfortunately, on our second night at Tomb Bay we received some wind. Standard practice on Sans Souci is that if the wind will be above 10 knots, and we aren't 100% certain that we are set correctly, we stand anchor watch. At 4:30am this morning, the wind climbed to 15 knots, and it meant I had to get up and stand watch in the cockpit.

If you do not see a video above this comment, CLICK HERE to see it. It's not a very exciting video, and too dark to really see, but I thought people might enjoy seeing how I set things up for my anchor watch. The highest wind we saw was 23 knots, and Sans Souci's chain never dragged an inch (as far as I know).

And, on a completely different topic...

Normally, when approaching a marina or port, there is a nautical standard that says 'red-right-returning,' which means, as you approach (or 'return to') port, the entrance will usually be marked by a red and green light, and that the red light should be kept on your starboard (or, right) side.

Imagine arriving at this marina at night, and seeing these lights. If you tried to go between them, you'd have a bad day

I took the picture above as I approached the Kalkan port. Here, because it is daylight, you can see that the lights could easily mislead you if you were accustomed to 'red-right-returning.'

In turkey it's 'green-right-returning.'

Here you can see that the red light is on the left. This is backwards, but how they do it here in Turkey. In May, when Sans Souci first arrived here by freighter from Hong Kong, my first approach to Gocek was at night, and the lights to the marina are reversed, as these are. It made arrival at Gocek, 'interesting.' When first approaching, I couldn't believe the lights were really reversed, and insisted that a tender come out to guide me in.

Many restaurants in bays have docks for moorage.

Just about every anchorage we visited had one or more waterfront restaurants, and many have temporary moorage. The docks are often rickety, and I haven't seen one yet that I'd tie Sans Souci to, but for smaller boats, and sailboats, they are perfect.

And speaking of which, I'd encourage anyone interested in cruising Turkey to consider chartering a sailboat and cruising here. Most of the sailboats we see are chartered by the week. Double-check me on this, but most sailboat charter companies do not require any form of license, whereas it is virtually impossible to charter a powerboat in Europe without a license. I spoke to one charter company who said that most renters never put the sails up, and just treat the sailboat like a powerboat. For instance, a few years ago I chartered a sailboat in Mexico and know nothing about sailing, yet had a great time.

And, a technical tidbit...

One of my projects the past week has been to get my SKYMATE working. Skymate is a low-cost, low-bandwidth, satellite communications system, that is always available virtually everywhere in the world. I use it to automatically send a daily email to myself, when not on the boat, with information about what is happening on the boat.

For instance, here is the report from yesterday.

Received Tuesday October 18 2011 at 12:17 PM GMT.
Battery voltage = 26.302 volts.
Shore power is connected.
Bilge level is OK.

I have several forms of internet on the boat, but internet is not reliable for this purpose, for a variety of reasons. For instance, the 3G card seems to randomly ask for someone to insert a PIN code. With no one around to enter the code, the internet stops working. I also have VSAT satellite internet. This has shown to be reliable, although it would mean leaving the positioning unit active for the next six months. The antenna positioning unit has a lot of moving parts (motors and belts) that can wear out. I really don't want to leave it active for the next six months if I don't have to. The nice thing about Skymate is that it seems to chug along, no matter what happens.

Far more interesting than the daily stats update is its ability to immediately alert me when the power goes out. Interestingly, I'm not as concerned about when the power goes out, as when it comes back on. No shore power is ever perfect. There will always be power failures. But, if the power goes out, and doesn't come back within a few hours, then it can be a problem. If I receive notification that the power is out, and I don't get another notification that it is back on within 12 hours, I will know to call the marina and have them get the power going. Over the next six months, while we're away from the boat, it will be winter, and the air conditioning won't be running, so losing electricity really isn't a big issue. The boat won't be using much power. We have a few items left in the refrigerator/freezer, and that's about it. If the electricity goes away though, and doesn't come back, the batteries will ultimately die, which would be expensive.

Many of you may have already seen THIS as it was linked on Nordhavn Dreamers but it is an accident report about a sailing ship that sank in Brazil. It's fascinating reading, and has a great discussion on stability.

My last blog entry generated a lot of email, particularly the article about the octopus...

Everyone agrees that the octopus was being tenderized, but I like this idea for octopus hunting (you didn't hear it here):

From Pete, in Florida...
"...Having born and spent the first 18 years of my life in Greece, near the water, I found your blog memos very interesting. However, I couldn't stop laughing about the guy who was slamming the octopus. I'm sure you know by now all about the "Greek" tenderizing method for octopus, but I still had to explain to my friends - who read your blog - that the fisherman on your picture was not exposed to the hot Greek sun for too long, but instead he was working fast and hard.

Actually, I've done this myself hundreds of times as a young boy. You see, my favored fishing activity in the 60's was snorkeling and hunting for octopus using a very unique method. In about 10-15 ft of water, I would spot an octopus residence which had the uncollected garbage (sea shells, crab leftovers etc.) in the front porch. I would dive and place a small piece of acetylene rock in front of the opening and then wait on the surface for the octopus to come out. They must come out because acetylene takes the oxygen out of the water. My spear would finish the hunting and the octopus "slamming" on the near by rock would finish the job.

I wish you, Roberta and the 2 "little" ones a safe return home...."

Here's an email that succinctly summarizes why Turkey is a great place to cruise:

Donald H wrote to say...
"...Hi Ken --

My wife and I spent a month in Turkey recently (including Gocek, Kekova and Kas). We also found the Turkish people extraordinarily warm and helpful. We have since learned that there is a Turkish saying that "Guests are a gift from God." Guess that explains it! ...."

And lastly…

Roberta and I are at our last anchorage before returning to port at Gocek and ending this cruising season. I’ll probably do at least one more blog entry, but essentially, it’s over for this year. Most of the next week will be spent cleaning the boat, interior and exterior, and making lists of things to repair and items to bring back with us for next season's cruising.

If it seems like it was a short cruising season this year -- only 5 weeks -- that’s because it was. We had some personal/family issues that kept us off the boat this year, but we hope to be back next year with a full three or four month cruising season as normal!

Also, as some of you may recall, Roberta and I split off from the other two boats in our GSSR fleet. Seabird and Grey Pearl are currently en route to Thailand.

We have been nervous that our friends would ‘fall in love’ with Thailand, and not join us here in Turkey. And, although that is still possible, we have had several communications lately which are sounding more and more like the team will reunite for next season’s cruising.

For the first time, Roberta and I have allowed ourselves to think seriously about where we’ll cruise next year. It will be a group decision, and we have many options. Roberta just sent to the group a five-year plan with ideas for where we might go. Working with them to work out a plan will be fun! Although, as they say, cruising plans are best written in the sand, at low tide. It's best to keep these things loose. We do know that over the next few years we will want to visit Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Corsica, Sicily, Italy, France, Spain, and more – but, there’s no hurry. We’ll get there.

That’s it for today!

Ken Williams

[KensBlog] Kas, Turkey

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Greetings all!

Sans Souci is now sitting at anchor near Kas, Turkey, only about 20 miles from Kekova.

Kas, Turkey

As we move towards the end of the cruising season, bad weather seems to be more frequent. I mentioned in my last blog entry that we had hit sudden winds.

We really didn’t feel that we had fully exhausted all the good cruising at Kekova, but I could see that a large storm was coming, and that we should seek better protection while beginning to work our way back to Gocek. Looking at the weather report, we wanted somewhere that was protected from the South, West and East, which is exactly what we found – in Bayindr Bay, at Kas, a short two hour cruise northwest from Kekova Roads.

Sans Souci, with the town of Kas in the background

The storm began within a few hours of our dropping anchor. It really wasn’t bad, but it rained, almost non-stop for three days, with winds mostly in the 10 to 25 knot range. Essentially, this meant that we were pinned down inside the boat for three days.

Our primary reason for choosing this particular bay was that it looked, on the charts, like there would be enough room to drop anchor and ‘swing freely.’ I don’t like the idea of med-mooring to shore in high winds. Your stern is too close to shore, and if something goes wrong, there isn’t much time to correct the situation before you hit the wall.

As you can see in the picture above, we dropped the anchor in about 75 feet of water, and put out over 350 feet of chain. We verified the anchor was set, and waited for the storm to arrive, which didn’t take long.

I thought the anchorage would be flooded with other boats, for the same reason as us, wanting a safe anchorage from the storm. But, for the most part, we only had two neighbors, and we had plenty of room.

The Italian sailboat with whom we rode out the storm. He looked a lot closer in the dark, rain and wind!

However, after the rain and wind arrived, a couple more boats came, including an Italian sailboat, that anchored within about 100 feet of Sans Souci. I knew that the winds would be shifting in the days that would follow, and that the sailboat was inside my swing circle. My worry was that the sailboat and I would swing at different rates, as the wind shifted, and that at some point our boats might want to share the same physical piece of water. My boat weighs over 120 tons, and the sailboat looked like it might weigh 5 tons. I would win any territorial dispute, but still felt it might be better to alert the sailboat.

With the high-winds, and the rain, I had trouble communicating with the sailboat. I pantomimed, as best I could, my 350 feet of chain, and the circle around my boat. The Italians didn’t understand, or didn’t care. In any event, they made it clear they were not re-anchoring.

Over the three days that followed, both our boats were pushed around quite a bit, but neither of our anchors ever dragged. We came within 50 feet a few times, but never closer.

The Swing Circle

Whenever I drop anchor, I put a circle onto the chart, using Nobeltec, which is the size of my anticipated swing circle. I use Nobeltec’s tracking feature to see where the boat has been, and as a way of detecting whether or not my anchor is dragging. As long as I am in the circle, all is good.

I precompute the circle size to match the length of my chain, and put the circle on the chart where I'd like to drop anchor. I can then go onto the bow, to release the anchor, while Roberta drives to the mark. The tracings towards the outer edge of the circle show that we had the chain fully stretched at times, and the wiggly lines in the middle reflect the periods of lower winds.

Sans Souci, with the flopper stoppers out

The flopper stoppers open and close, like butterfly wings

Sans Souci is equipped with “flopper stoppers,” large aluminum plates which dangle from poles that extend about 10 feet out on each side of the boat. These plates are hinged in the middle, and open or close as the boat tilts from side to side in the water.

Normally, I can deploy the flopper stoppers in under 30 minutes. When we first arrived here, I had thought our anchorage would be protected enough that they wouldn’t be needed. This was a bad decision, and we were slammed by swell coming into the bay. Thus, Roberta and I had to deploy them; a) as it was getting dark, b) while raining heavily, c) with lightening to keep us company, and d) in high winds. This made the process longer. Adding to the challenge was that some of the shackles had welded themselves closed during the offseason. We got the job done, but it was a bit of an adventure.

The effort was worth while, though, and the other boats around us were VERY jealous, and impressed, with how calm we were while they were rolling around.

You’ll notice in the pictures above that the line seems twisted at the top of the flopper stoppers. That’s what happens would you work in the rain! I’m not completely sure what I did wrong in the rigging, but it’s on my list of projects for today to sort out.

With the weather clearing, we decided to jump a ferry for the 20 minute ride to Meis Island, Greece

Approaching Meis, Greece

I'm not sure what this octopus did to irritate this fisherman, but as we were walking along the quay, he was slamming it repeatedly onto the pavement. Someone call Peta!

We were a little worried about taking the dogs into Greece, wondering if we could get them back to Turkey, but no one ever asked for their paperwork

It is extremely unusual for Roberta and I to be out of sight of Sans Souci while it is sitting at anchor. Can you imagine how strange it felt to be in Greece while Sans Souci was sitting at anchor in Turkey? In addition to the concern about a sudden wind dragging the anchor, I was also worried about the tender, which was left tied to the stern. It's like leaving a $20,000 bill on the table, and hoping no one picks it up. I wasn't worried about Sans Souci, because we had just ridden through high winds, and I knew the anchor was solidly in place, and it was a nice calm day. And, I wasn't worried about the tender, because I believed it would be safe. Thus far, I have been amazed at how polite and honest everyone has been. On a couple of occasions I have given large tips to people who took good care of me, only to have them refused, as "Too much."

Kas is a very cool, funky town, with nightlife. We had a wonderful french dinner at Chez Evy. I'll put more pictures of Kas in my next update

Roberta and the pups back on Sans Souci

And lastly, as you may recall, in my last blog entry, I spoke about some electrical problems I’ve been fighting on Sans Souci.

I am very appreciative to those who have flooded my email with ideas.

All is fine now.

Unless you are interested in techie things, I’d recommend not reading further. The rest of this blog entry is for those who would like the geeky details…

I now believe the basis of my problems was a convergence of unstable dock power, and high start-up electrical loads on Sans Souci.

The boat was left at the dock, from May to September, with the air conditioning running, in the high summer heat of Turkey. Shore power is provided to my boat through an Atlas international shore power conversion device. This device cleans the shore power, and ‘reconstructs’ the power from the three-phase 50 cycle power that is here in Turkey, to the single-phase 60 cycle power, that my US-standard boat expects.

I’m not sure what happened on the dock during my absence, but during the time I was at the dock in September, I observed many power outages, of random durations. On some days the power went out as much as three times.

The air conditioning on Sans Souci can consume as much as 50 amps, which at 240 volts, is approximately 12 kw. When I am on the boat, I shut down the air conditioning, and any other high amperage appliances while engaging shore power, swapping generators, or plugging in shore power. I make a conscious effort to introduce loads gradually. When I’m not on the boat, if the power fails, and comes back later, there is no smoothing. All loads are instantaneous.

I’m not 100% certain, but my working theory is that during my absence there were plenty of power failures, and the sudden, and frequent on again, off again, power cycling, with major loads switched on, caused my electrical problems.

The periods without electricity alone, may have been sufficient to cause damage. August in Turkey, inside a boat, without air conditioning, can be hot and sticky. I noticed that when I was on the dock, if the power went out, a large percentage of the time, even if it came on a few minutes later, the breaker would trip at the power pedestal. In other words, what might have been a 2 minute power outage at the dock could easily have been a 24 power outage on Sans Souci, or longer. During this time, humidity would reign inside the boat.

When I was at the dock on Sans Souci, I would automatically flip to the generator when dock power failed, and if I suspected that dock power was going to be flaky for a while, such as during a storm, I stayed on the generator until the weather stabilized. Human intervention can shield the boat from potential problems, in ways that are not possible on an unattended boat.

Anyway, to make a long story short – my theory is that electrical issues at the dock combined with high loads inside the boat, caused some key electrical items inside Sans Souci to fail. As these failed, other surrounding devices were affected.

The two major items that failed were: the Atlas, and the APC Power Conditioner for the pilot house. The Atlas failure was immediately obvious. However, the power conditioner failure was difficult to spot. It passed its internal self-test, and the batteries tested fine. Also, some of the symptoms were confusing and misleading. Only when it failed completely did I bypass it, and once bypassed, the boat immediately became stable.

Here’s a summary of specifics:

Atlas – Failed completely. Replaced circuit board, and works fine now.

Power conditioner – Failed completely. New unit on its way to Turkey. Bypassed for now, and all problems have disappeared.

Hydraulic problem – I am still fighting a blown fuse in the hydraulic system. At one time, I was concerned that this was related to the other problems, but I now believe it is nothing more than a sticking actuator valve. I’m surviving fine with half my hydraulics, and will worry about it when I get back to the dock.

Loud noise – There was a random loud noise, which wasn’t of sufficient duration to hunt down, but it seemed to be coming from the electrical panel. Suspicious noises from the electrical panel are NOT to be ignored, but I couldn’t find anything that wasn’t right. Finally, the noise occurred while Roberta was in the right place, at the right time, and was able to determine that the noise was coming from the nearby expresso machine. This is indeed an indication of required maintenance to the expresso machine, and because of our Seattle roots, this is absolutely a critical part of the boat, but we shall limp along with it until repairs are made.

Davit – the connector on the remote control, that attaches to the davit, has a corroded connector. This has been identified, and power cut to the davit. This will be fairly easy to fix, but requires a new connector be sent. It has nothing to do with the other problems, and is nothing more than the result of taking lots of salt water over the bow, some of which weaseled its way into the connector.

Other problems – The failure of the Atlas and the power conditioner ‘fried’ several other devices, and tripped lots of breakers. All items have been repaired, or repairs are underway.

As to the most important: “Lessons Learned.” The lesson here is simple. If you leave large loads engaged, and are on a dock with unstable shore power, and the power cycles enough times, there will be problems. I left the boat with only a fraction of the air conditioning engaged, and with most electrical items powered off. However, many mechanics were on and off the boat, and switches on the electrical panel were shifted around. I’m not sure what was on or off, on the boat, during my absence. I noticed that some devices that are normally powered by the boat’s inverters were switched to run off shore power directly. There are two lessons here for me: 1) Minimize loads when not on the boat. And, 2) If people will be on the boat during my absence, make sure the electrical panel is somehow protected against switches being flipped. In my case, I’m planning to use tape and labels to keep switches in the proper positions.

In any event, this was a one-time event. Normally, Roberta and I are on the boat during summers. This was an unusual year for us, and we have no future plans to leave the boat unattended during the summer. This year when we leave the boat, it will be winter, and the air conditioning will not be active.

The bottom line: Nordhavns are built to take a lot of abuse. This was an occasion when a lot of problems occurred, and yet, I didn’t miss a day of cruising. Life is good on Sans Souci!

-Ken Williams
Nordhavn 68, Sans Souci
http://www.kensblog.com

PS There are a couple of recent blog entries by GSSR participants that are well worth checking out. CLICK HERE for Don Stabbert, on Starr, talking about his efforts to replace a leaking stabilizer. And, CLICK HERE for Steven and Carol Argosy’s (Seabird) account of their, and Braun and Tina Jones’ (Grey Pearl), recent run from Malaysia to Singapore. It’s great reading, and quite an adventure!

[KensBlog] Turkey's Lycian Coast

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Greetings all! 

[NOTE: the first portion of this blog entry is a bit technical. Those of you who don’t want to read a bunch of boat-geek stuff
may want to skip this section.] 

Last Saturday, I had a tough decision to make. We were preparing to leave the dock to go cruising, but I had some concerns about the boat. I had no major problems, but I had problems that I didn’t understand. 

Roberta asked why I seemed worried, and I said, “I’m thinking about packing it in and going home.” 

As mentioned in my last blog, some electrical power surge must have occurred on Sans Souci prior to our arrival. Most of the problems were minor,
but there were a lot of them,  and some, like the problem with our shorepower converter, cost thousands of dollars in repairs. 

Since my last blog, a few new problems have appeared....

A big-picture electrical diagram for my boat can be reviewed, by CLICKING HERE

As we were coming back from our test cruise last week, all monitors in the pilot
house suddenly went dark. The ship’s computers had completely shut off, as had
most of the 120v AC equipment in the pilot house. I quickly rebooted the computers while Roberta drove, only to watch it happen again. Then, it happened a third time! 

Although all the electronic items in the pilothouse were shutting down, including my VSAT unit (satellite communications), we weren’t losing power. The power was staying on, but was obviously glitching in some way. My guess is that the power was shutting off for a brief instant, just long enough to cause my electronics to shut down. 

We attributed the temporary loss of power to over-loading of the electrical system, even though I hadn’t thought we were close to the load limit. 

A day later, when attempting to lift the tender, the davit failed. After cleaning the connectors on the remote,
we got it working, but noticed that power in the pilothouse had been lost again. I was confident I hadn’t overloaded the system. I checked that I wasn’t overloading the system,
and tried the test again. Starting the davit was reproducibly killing power in the pilothouse, despite plenty of power available. Why? 

Later that evening, shorepower went out, and along with it the pilothouse power. The pilothouse is running off of inverters,
which should cut in immediately if shorepower drops, plus there is a
power
conditioner/battery backup system, just for the pilot house. Pilothouse power should not be affected by a loss of shorepower. I tripled-checked all the breakers to verify that they were set correctly. 

With a bit of experimenting, I discovered something else, which was the most disconcerting. I was running on shorepower,
and started the 20kw generator. I had not transferred the load to it, but the
electronics in the pilothouse shut down anyhow! That should be impossible! 

I checked the pilothouse power conditioner / battery backup. It wasn’t reporting any fault, and passed the self-test. The battery in it tested fine. Despite this, it seemed to me that it must be the power conditioner.

The boat’s hydraulic system was also exhibiting a strange behavior. The hydraulic pump on the port engine was not working. After a bit of digging, I discovered a blown fuse. However, once replaced with a new fuse, and
even though I could not get it to fail during testing, the fuse blew again. Was it a symptom of the same problem? Or, a new problem? This time, we dug deeper and found a chafed wire going to one of the hydraulic valves. This was replaced, and a new fuse installed. After working fine for a few hours, it blew again. 

I have two hydraulic pumps (one on each engine), and only one pump wasn’t working. With the other pump I could still get the anchor up and down, and have some limited amount of stabilizers and thrusters. So, this wasn’t a show-stopper, but what if the other pump fails? 

Thickening the plot was a new noise, which woke Roberta and I up the night before our scheduled departure. It was very loud, and sounded like a loud buzzer. Neither of us could localize the sound, but both thought it came from the electric panel. The sound only lasted a couple of seconds, and neither of us had heard anything similar before. I rushed to the electric panel, which looked, and felt, normal. Perhaps it was just the nearby expresso machine we had heard? The air handler? The refrigerator?
Something strange in the speakers overhead? The noise reoccurred a few hours later, but once again, all seemed fine. We still hear it randomly, every day.
I don't think it is coming from the electric panel, but I can’t hunt it down. 

Anyway, this is getting overly long, but I suspect you can see why I was asking myself if we should ‘go cruising.’ We have been working with a local boat maintenance company, and I did have their electrician on board, but he didn’t know where to begin looking. Sans Souci is a complicated boat. With time he could solve our problems, but we really left ourselves only a few weeks for cruising this year. I didn’t really have time to spin a new electrician up to speed, and with him only speaking Turkish, it would take longer than usual. 

After a long discussion, Roberta and I decided, “Let’s go!” The winning argument was, “There are too many unknowns. If we want this fixed, we need to give guidance to the engineers. We won’t be so far from port that they can’t come bail us out if we need it, and if we want to cruise next year, we need to get these problems resolved this year.” Even the best of electricians struggles to resolve an intermittent problem. If they can’t see it, they can’t fix it. We knew that with us on the boat,
our odds of getting the problems resolved would rise exponentionally. 

So .. we left the dock. And, our plan worked. Within a couple of days all power to the pilothouse disappeared, and
this time it didn’t come back. A quick look at the power conditioner revealed that it was now showing a fault. I bypassed the power conditioner and have a new one on order. We seem to be running fine without it. 

I’m still running on one hydraulic pump, but know I can always replace the fuse for a couple hours of hydraulic pressure if I need it. 

Life on Sans Souci is never dull! 

Anyway… on to the fun parts! 

We decided on a short run for our first day, only a couple hours away from Gocek, to a small bay called “Yavansu Koyu.” (36 38.197 N, 028 52.479 E) It’s most recognizable feature was a 20’ wide rock depiction of a seagull some artist had created on the beach. 

Roberta and I decided to make our first attempt at a stern tie. The anchorage was
well over 100 feet deep, to within about 80 feet of shore. We had no choice. Much
of the anchoring in southern Turkey is the same way, and it’s a skill we needed to have in our bag of tricks. 

To our surprise, it was no big deal. We dropped the anchor about 300 feet from shore, in 150 feet of water. The wind was pushing us towards a nearby boat, and I had no thrusters, but otherwise we were able to take our time. I gave Roberta the throttles, from in the cockpit, and had her keep the boat straight. Meanwhile I jumped in the tender and headed for shore with a 200’ line in hand. 

Conveniently, in many anchorages around here, there are bollards (posts you can tie a line to) spread around the anchorages. However, when I approached the one we were
anchored in front of, it was about eight feet high off the water. I’m sure a young deckhand would
be able to scurry up the hillside to tie the line, but my days as a young buck are long gone. After a minute of trying to climb the wall, and not particularly wanting to fall in the water, I realized that this was really
easier than I thought. I simply threw one end of the line around the bright orange bollard, and then captured the bitter end, and tied a big loop. Easy. Meanwhile, I gave the sign to Roberta, back on Sans Souci, to start reeling in the other end of the line. In
seconds she had the line hand-tight, and a few minutes later I was back on the boat to help pull it tight with a windlass. We then repeated the process for the other side of the boat, and that was it. Anyone watching would have thought we knew what we were doing. 

Most of the boats in the bay around us were flagged German, British or French. A few had American flags, but we could see the crews were Turkish. 

When a 30’ sailboat, named Antares, tied up next to us, we saw the American flag, but assumed they weren’t Americans. There was a couple on board who looked American, and as he was tying to shore, we thought we heard English. I tendered over and asked, “Do you speak English?” Back came a clear American accent, “Of course!” 

Joe and Jackie from Pennsylvania. You can see their boat, Antares,  in the background

This began a fun evening aboard Sans Souci. The couple had crossed the Atlantic in 2008, and were
making their way around the Med, cruising six months at a time. They had worked their way through the Med through the countries we will be exploring over the next few years, so Roberta and I eagerly asked all the questions about the highlights and low-lights of places they’d been. 

Typically, the best part of cruising isn’t necessarily the boats, it’s the cruising
people you meet. There aren’t a lot of boring cruisers, especially amongst those who have crossed oceans. 

The area where we are now cruising is the “Lycian coast” of Turkey, referring to the ancient Lycian people who lived here (around 5bc). …

Did you know that America’s Constitution has some Lycian roots? The original drafters of the US
Constitution studied Lycia, and borrowed some ideas. The Lycian region was unique in that it represented one of the earliest examples of a series of strong independent city-states banding together to form a union, with individual member influence proportional to their size. Twenty-three independent Lycian cities banded together to form the Lycian Federation, with distinct definition of regional and national powers. 

One of many signs enticing visitors to take a tour. Mud Baths? Ancient Tombs? Scuba? There is plenty for a tourist to do and see

The Lycian coast, from Marmaris east, about 150 miles to Kemer, is very tourist-focused, and cruiser-friendly. I asked a local where I could find an anchorage with a restaurant in front of it, and he said, “All of them.” 

Lycian King's Tombs in the city of Dalyan 

Roberta at a restaurant, with great view of the tombs, right on the river that runs through Dalyan 

Because our time here this year is short, we decided we would run 80 miles southeast, to Kekova
Roads. Our plan is to spend a few days at Kekova, over a three-week period, and work our way back to Gocek, hitting the various anchorages,
and interesting stopping points, along the way. 

This meant a long day, running to Kekova. 

On our way to Kekova, Roberta pointed out an island, along-side of us, called
Meis (or, Kastellorizo in Greek.) “That’s Greece,” she said. I didn’t understand. Greece should be
west or north of us. But, as usual, Roberta was correct. There are several small
Greek islands, which lie only a couple of miles off the coast of Turkey. 

The proximity surprised me. I’ve sensed at times that Turkey and Greece are not particularly friendly with each other, perhaps the lingering effects of four major wars over the past century. 

Roberta mentioned that there is a regular 20 minute ferry ride, from Kas, Turkey (which we were passing) and that in addition to enjoying Greece, some foreigners use the ferry to fulfill their every-90-day visa-inspired exit from Turkey. One quick ferry ride, and you are in the EU, and can return to Turkey a few hours later. It was tempting to take Sans Souci into the harbor at Meis, as I could see that it looked VERY fun. However, going to Meis via a passenger ferry is easy,
but going there with Sans Souci would mean clearing out of Turkey and into Greece. It was more hassle than I wanted. 

Kekova Roads is the site of an ancient city that was submerged by a massive earthquake in 240 AD. Many of the buildings are still visible both above and below the water.
Much of the land collapsed during this earthquake, causing many buildings and
the ancient harbor to go under the sea. Much of what is now the bay, here at
Kekova, used to be populated land.

Within the bay of Kekova Roads, the village of Kalekoy (ancient name - Simena)

Remains of Lycian town

Ruins of Lycian town at Kekova

More Lycian ruins. There are more just beneath the water!

The Lycians built many sarcophogi for their dead. This particular one was on land in ancient days

There are two towns at Kekova Roads, Ucagiz Liman and Kalekoy. This is the larger one, Ucagiz. It is a small fishing village, and very touristy.

Many restaurants use their tender docks as a way of attracting business. Whenever we would approach town, looking for a place to dock our tender, restaurant owners would run out, guiding us towards their dock to park our tender. They knew that if we were at their dock, the momentum would be towards having lunch or dinner at their restaurant. It worked. 

We did have one interesting incident. Roberta and I wanted to climb to the top of the hill,
at Kalekoy, to visit the castle. We tendered from the boat to town, about half a mile away, in rough, but manageable seas. While we were having lunch, the wind climbed, despite a good weather report to 25 knots! 

We saw one tender almost flip over trying to navigate the passage we had just run
20 minutes before. It was clear we weren’t going back to our boat anytime soon. I knew we were well-anchored, but that didn’t stop me worrying about a dragging anchor. I wanted back on the boat as quickly as I could get there, but we were stuck. 

We had no choice but to go with the original plan, of visiting the town and the
castle, and hope the wind would drop. 

View of Kekova Roads from the castle at the top of the hill

Old roman bath, below the castle

Turgay and friend helping to tow our tender back to Sans Souci

After climbing to the castle, and even eating a dish of homemade hazelnut ice cream to kill more time
(a great way to kill time!), the wind just wasn’t dropping. Luckily I had the phone number of a Turkish
water taxi driver, named Turgay, who could rescue us. We tied the tender behind his
boat, and he towed us back to Sans Souci. 

Turgay turned out to be a handy guy to know. In addition to his water taxi duties, he ran tourist gullets, and was even our dinner waiter in town
at his Uncle's restaurant a couple of nights. When I asked if he spoke English, he said “Yes. And, Turkish, French, German, and Italian!” His boat, and most of the gullets, have no stabilizers or thrusters, and are single engine. It was amazing watching the local captains maneuver. The frequent high-winds (15-25 knots) we have been seeing are typical for the region, and Turgay described them as “nothing compared to the winds in March.” The captains regularly drop their bow anchor, and can drop anchor in
seconds. They use the anchor, almost like planting a foot, to facilitate maneuvers. Want to move the stern over? Just drop the anchor and use it as a pivot. I had never seen the anchor used quite this way before, and it was fun watching how they managed the wind. 

I have been in regular communications with the other two boats in our GSSR group… 

Seabird and Grey Pearl departed Malaysia last week, for Singapore, and have arrived there safely. They plan to do some cruising in Thailand then ship their boats to Turkey. I have no idea where we’ll cruise next year, but am delighted that our group will be back together. My best guess is that we’ll cruise from May through September and head north to Istanbul, and possibly the Black Sea, but, we shall see. 

Steven Argosy (Seabird) mentioned that he had an interesting time with Malaysian customs, when they opened his suitcase and found a heat exchanger (a part for repairing the boat). It raised some eyebrows at the x-ray machine! 

And, here’s something for the computer geeks who read my blog…

There is no satellite television here, or at least none in English. We’re cruising too far from civilization for me to use a 3g internet card to stream television from at home,
using our SlingPlayer. We have a DVD juke-box player, called Kaleidescape, but, as I mentioned in my last blog entry, it fried during the offseason. 

No problem, I have a backup plan. I brought with me a small hard drive loaded with music, movies, and TV series. I also brought a media player (Western Digital Live Plus). Sans Souci has a fancy video distribution system throughout the boat, that works well, when doing what it was made to do, but when you want to add a new device, it’s a tricky system to tap into. The TVs on Sans Souci are built-in, so it’s hard to get at the backs of them to attach anything. Instead, I attached the media player to the video output from the useless satellite tv receiver, and then used a device called RedEye (www.thinkflood.com) to control the media player from anywhere on the boat, with my iphone or ipad. In minutes I had video throughout the boat, and full remote control from any room. The Redeye device works far better than expected! 

And, lastly… My last blog entry received a few comments from readers, with some great information, that I thought I’d pass along.

Milt Baker shares this tip for stern mooring: 

“…I think you'll find there are easier ways to tension Med mooring bow lines. Here's the best I've found, a procedure we've used since Chris Samuelson taught it to us at Sotogrande in 2007. Works great aboard N47s and N57s and, assuming you have a fair lead from the hawse to the capstan, ought to works aboard your N68 as well. 

1. Disengage the windlass chain wheel (gypsy) so the capstan can turn independently. 

2. Lead the line loosely through the forward hawse, directly to the capstan. 

3. Then hook the line around the after horn on the hawse, and tension the line with the capstan, all the while keeping tension of the bitter end, 

4. Once the line is properly tensioned and is being held in place by a hand on the line on the down side of the capstan, have one person (preferably the strongest one available) take tension on the line between the capstan and the hawse while another person removes the turns from the capstan. 

5. As soon as the last turn comes off the capstan, the person holding the line between the capstan and the hawse quickly secures the line to the hawse. This usually doesn't involve giving up any of the line. 

The secret to it all is that the turn around the horn of the hawse makes it easy to maintain the tension, even when the line is released from the capstan. With a little practice we've found that one person can do it all. Quick, safe, easy! 

The picture above shows the lead with the turn around the hawse horn. It's an easy move to go from what this picture shows to securing the line to the hawse. …
"

And, Dean Heathcote sent this note: 

“…In reading about your recent anchoring options, I wanted to share some experience on stern tying in Desolation Sound with deep water say, over 80 ft and 200ft from shore - usually means a "steep rise" in the bottom. As long as you have a "good uphill bite" and limited slack in the stern line, the anchor should stay set on a very short scope. I have done this several times in over 150' of water with less than a 2 to 1 ratio. Once the anchor and stern line are set, adjusting for the boat's best position is easy. Only caution is "wind". If it comes up, the weak link is the stern line. If it were to break, the anchor will loose bite as the boat swings - not a pretty thought. Unless you carry 300 – 400ft of super heavy–duty line, such as tow line, you probably will want to restrict stern tying to "well protected waters only". Other than that, stern tying can be a great way to go. …”

And, I received this response, from Wolf-Thomas, to my comments on the Schengen rules: 

“…What is the problem with the "Schengen Rules"? If you want to stay longer than 90 days in the EU you only have to ask for a visa. I thing the cost are not as high as in the US - 140 US$. 

And even the visa-free entrance is much easier than the proceedure at the US-Border. Do you thing we need a special "Lex Americanus"? 

If you are interested about US immigration rules:
https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/...”
 
I had not intended for my comments to sound like I was complaining, and I do agree that a long-term stay visa is probably the solution. The tricky part of this, as I understand it, is that each country has their own process, and rules, for applying for a long-term stay visa. And, it is not clear, at least to me, that an extended-stay visa obtained in one country is valid in another.
It would not be uncommon for a cruiser to visit many EU countries while in the
Med. When I asked my Monaco-based lawyer about obtaining a visa in France, he said that it was something that would need to be applied for at a French Embassy in the US,
prior to the trip. Whether or not this is correct, I do not know. At the present time I am just trying to understand the rules, and most people I speak with are saying, “Why bother, the rules don’t really apply to you, and aren’t enforced.” So, perhaps it is a non-issue. I can’t tell you. 

That’s it for now! Roberta and I just dropped anchor in Kas, Turkey. A storm is supposed to be coming, so I have 350’ of chain out, and we’re prepared for whatever the weather gods want to throw our way. 

Thank you, 

Ken Williams 

N6805, Sans Souci 

www.kensblog.com

[KensBlog] Our first cruising in Turkey!

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Greetings all!

Roberta and I are currently in Gocek Turkey, on the boat!

Note: Click on the pictures to make them bigger

After cruising many thousands of miles the past few years, we decided to relax this summer, and spend less time on the boat. That said, we really had no option. We had some family issues to deal with, and have two new puppies who needed to do some growing, and get through their various shots, before we could take them on the boat.

Getting to the boat was an adventure in itself...

For flying, the dogs each have a little carrier bag. We've also found that restaurants in Europe almost always let us in, with the dogs, when they are in their little suitcases

Some airlines allow dogs to travel inside the plane with you. We were able to get a Delta flight which permits dogs, from New York to Nice, France.

We spent the month of August in a rented house in France, just outside Monaco. I summarized our time in France by telling people that I believe it is physically impossible to be any lazier. It was perfection.

From France we drove through Italy, with stops in Venice, Tuscany, Sienna, Rome and Bari, and took a ferry to Greece....

Our ferry from Bari, Italy to Greece, was actually quite luxurious. Although it seemed to primarily be oriented towards moving large trucks, there were a limited number of cabins for passengers. The trip took 18 hours, and we had a sleeper cabin that allowed the dogs to stay with us. It was a very nice trip, and even had wifi!

*One of the best things about Europe is their relaxed attitude about dogs. Here we are in Italy, across form the Parthenon, with the dogs enjoying dinner.

I was curious to see Greece, partially to see the effect of their economic crisis. A cab driver told us that the official estimate of unemployment was at 16-20%, but that he believed it was much higher. We saw graffiti everywhere, and I noted on the menu that the VAT tax (their national sales tax) was rising at such a rapid space that the percentage was changing faster than menus could be printed. 23%! Ouch.

Our departure from Athens was made particularly interesting by the daily appearance of thousands of protestors, and riot police. The streets were blocked each day, and our hotel surrounded. We weren’t sure we would be able to leave to catch our ferry. The protest finished, peacefully, as we were starting to plan a departure on foot, sneaking our way through the crowd to wherever a taxi might be found.

Hopefully Greece will resolve its problems. At a minimum, hopefully ALL other countries will learn from their experience.

After coming all the way from the US, on a combination of planes, ferries, and cars, we finally hit our first issue with the dogs...

The ferry to Turkey didn’t want the dogs inside the boat. They almost refused us, which would have been a disaster. After a flurry of discussion amongst themselves, they agreed to allow Roberta to sit OUTSIDE the ferry, with the dogs, and me to sit inside. They relented after a few minutes, allowing me to accompany Roberta outside the ferry, on the tiny port stern deck. It wasn’t a big deal, and only a short 1 hour trip. Overall, the trip to Turkey was tremendous. The ferry crew was very nice and brought water for the dogs, and Snicker bars for each of us.

Our arrival to the boat was perfect. The boat was spotless clean. Roberta pointed out that it had been over a year since she had last seen the boat. I was here in Turkey, in May, to offload the boat from the freighter that delivered it here from Hong Kong, but Roberta did not accompany me.

One of the popular definitions of world cruising is, “Working on boats in exotic places,” and Sans Souci met this goal.

Although the boat was very well taken care of in the off season, boats don’t like to sit. Boats are happiest when they are being used.

In the days prior to our trip I was alerted that our shore power system (called Atlas) had stopped working. I hired a local Gocek-based boat maintenance company to watch over my boat during the off season (Emek Marin) The Atlas is critical in that without it, shorepower cannot reach the boat. It is a complicated, and expensive device. Within minutes of looking at these PDFs (Sans Souci Atlas (Part 1) , Sans Souci Atlas (Part 2)) I knew that something major was wrong, and it was time to bring in the experts. I arranged to have an Atlas expert flown in from London.

This circuit board needed replaced, and was buried deep within the Atlas

I will never know how or why, but some sort of electrical event must have occurred during our absence. My best guess is that the shore power went out, and when it came back on, a circuit board on the Atlas fried. Something sent a surge of electricity throughout the boat, killing many other electronics as it went. Perhaps it was the Atlas dying, or perhaps there was a nearby lightning strike. Something electrical happened on Sans Souci.

The list of electrical problems on Sans Souci is very long. Every GFI electrical outlet on the boat was tripped. We have a Kaleidescape media system (essentially an online video jukebox). Three of the $2,500 players are dead. Two pumps on the hot tub are fried. An uninterruptible power supply is dead. The davit remote control failed.

I doubt it was lightning, although, perhaps it was. There was a boat a few slips away that was hit by lightning...

I’ve been thinking about lightning because THREE Nordhavns were struck by lightning this year. Click here to read a report that one Nordhavn owner posted on his blog, about one of the lightning strikes.

As bad as this sounds, overall, things are in very good shape aboard Sans Souci. I asked Jeff Sanson, from Pacific Yacht Management, to fly to Turkey, in anticipation of our arrival, to make sure everything on the boat was perfect prior to our arrival. Jeff had a couple of busy days, working with Riza Cagdas, the local boat caretaker, but most repairs were already complete when we arrived.

One of the projects I gave Jeff, to have complete before we arrived, was to fuel the boat...

I had let the boat run almost dry, when in Hong Kong, at the request of the freight company, who wanted the boat as light as possible for transport. I had been advised that I could save a couple of dollars per gallon, by clearing the boat out of Turkey, and then fueling the boat, with the boat still in Turkey, but with its status changed to an international boat transiting Turkey. The boat would then need to go to Greece, and clear in, stay a few hours, and return to Turkey. Sans Souci takes a lot of fuel, so this was tempting, but I decided it was too complicated. I did this in Japan, and it created more complexity than was justified by the money it saved.

As it turned out, I’m very happy that Jeff had the pleasure of fueling the boat, not me. I was in Greece at the time, but speaking to him hourly by cell phone. After several hours of fueling had passed I said to Jeff, “If you don’t hustle you will have to return to port after dark.” In extreme frustration Jeff responded, “Ken, I can p** faster than this station can pump diesel!”

To test the systems we decided to do a small, overnight, shakedown cruise, and take Jeff along.

Leaving the dock was much simpler than expected....

In Europe boats generally Med Moor. Roberta and I have some experience with Med Mooring, from when our prior boat was based in France. However, the last time we Med Moored was over five years ago, and the technique varies from country to country, and even marina to marina.

The concept is very simple. If you’ll forgive my lack of art talent, the diagram above gives the overview. “C” and “D” on this diagram represent lines, which hold the bow of the boat, and extend to the basin of the marina. Here in Gocek, the bottom of the marina is over 80 feet down! Lines “A” and “B” extend aft to the dock. To leave the marina I backed up the boat, while someone on the dock threw us lines “A” and “B”. I was worried that I’d immediately be sling-shotted forward, but it wasn’t that bad. I crept forward, while Roberta untied the bow lines, and tossed them overboard, into the water. We were free!

We selected an anchorage only about seven miles away...

I haven’t seen enough of Turkey to make generalizations, but the American definition of an anchorage, and the Turkish definition, are quite different.

As I idled my way into different bays, I noticed that all of the boats were Med Moored (backed up to shore, rather than anchored in the middle of the bay.) The bays were deep! The first bay I entered averaged over 500 feet deep. On my chart the depth was supposed to get to 60 feet, close to shore, but as I practically touched shore, I was still in over 100 feet of water, and couldn’t find anything shallow enough to anchor. There were plenty of boats in the bay, all with their anchor dropped in over 100 feet of water, and backed to shore, and then tied. Most had a single anchor down in the front, and a single line holding them to shore at the back. The larger boats had run two or more lines to shore, and tightened the lines so tight that they were solidly locked in place.

I noticed another bay with depths of 80 to 120 feet. I knew that I should try “med mooring to shore” like everyone else, but wanted to watch others do it before trying myself.

My first reaction was, “They must know something I don’t.” But, what? I studied the charts (paper, Nobeltec and Navnet 3d). Nothing was indicated anywhere. The depth in the bay was just over 100 feet, which was deep for anchoring, but the weather forecast was clear, so I dropped the anchor.

I've seen a lot of American flags on boats in Turkey, but not a lot of Americans. For tax purposes, some Turkish flag their boats American (or, so I've been told)

No one seemed to care, and I heard no alarms, so I relaxed. It was now a waiting game. I wanted to watch other boats come and go.

We had noted that some of the boats were held in place, at the bow, by orange mooring buoys.

There are a couple of problems with Sans Souci and mooring balls; 1) Sans Souci’s bow is about 12 feet off the water. Capturing a mooring ball isn’t easy. If I use one I’ll need to put Roberta on the aft swim platform, and back up to the mooring ball, have her attach a line, then walk the ball to the front of the boat. And, 2) I’m not sure how well the mooring balls are attached to the bottom. Sans Souci weighs 120 tons, and Turkey can have strong winds. Until I see some other large boats using the mooring balls, I prefer to trust my anchor.

I had assumed that the boats were tying to shore via lines to trees. However, when I looked through binoculars, there were cleats, and mooring posts scattered around the bay! Very handy.

[Note: James and Jennifer Hamilton wrote a good article on stern tying in the Pacific NW, which can be read by CLICKING HERE.]

I watched a couple of large boats moor, and was surprised at how far out they dropped their anchor. It’s impossible (at least for me) to accurately measure distances from on a boat, but it looked like this boat, in the picture above, went at least 300 feet from shore to drop his anchor, then backed toward shore. In the picture above you see the tender being sent to shore to place the stern lines. Once placed, and windlass-tightened, this boat pulled forward so that the stern lines were tight.

I asked a local Turkish boater about why the boats don’t just anchor in the middle of the bay. His response wasn’t as interesting as his confusion about why I was even asking. He clearly felt the preferred, and ‘normal’ approach to anchoring was to attach to shore. He felt that dropping anchor without attaching to shore would mean spinning in circles, and lead to passenger seasickness, and discomfort. I asked about wind, and he responded that a boat should not be left unattended, attached to shore, for long periods, as winds can come up, and create a problem.

Once at anchor, we dropped the tender for some exploring.

I try not to form opinions on cruising grounds too quickly. It always bugs me when tourists visit a country for a few days, and think they have seen the country. Part of our cruising goal is to spend enough time in various countries to see them from the ‘inside’. So, with that caveat, I’ll say that there are already some things about cruising Turkey that are quite appealing.

Here are a few criteria for determining if a place is good to cruise (at least, this is my list):

- Access to repair facilities
- Interesting coves and bays to explore
- Warm water!
- Pretty beaches
- Clean, clear, water
- Towns with good services/facilities & grocery stores.
- Civilization nearby, if you want it, but a world away if you don’t
- Beachfront restaurants
- Long cruising season
- Minimal bureaucratic hassle (getting the boat in/out of the country, getting us in/out of the country, dog quarantine issues, visa issues, getting parts into the country)
- Safety
- Calm cruising conditions
- Friendly people
- Easy to communicate

Thus far, Turkey is scoring well on all fronts, but with one night at anchor, I am far from an expert, so, we shall see. I did like that we cruised three bays, and saw three beachfront restaurants, and felt that we were in the boondocks, while really only a tender ride from a ‘big’ city.

Several vendors dropped by the boat; someone selling fish, someone with ice cream, and this lady with breads. She didn't speak much english so we just pointed. We got some amazing freshly baked bread, and some orange-flavored cake that completely disappeared in minutes.

And, speaking of tender rides…

During our first night at anchor, after dark, as we were sitting on the aft deck having dinner, tenders kept whizzing past at maximum speed. We were passed by at least ten tenders doing over 20 knots, including one that looked to be doing 40 knots. We were in the bay at St Tropez, France, one night several years ago,when a tender smacked into the side of a boat at anchor (fatally). Given that the local boats aren’t accustomed to seeing boats anchored away from shore, and I was sitting in the center of the bay, I lit Sans Souci like a Christmas tree for the entire night. Jeff speculated that we were seeing the crews from the various boats heading into town to ‘hit the bars.’ He may have been right. I have no idea…

Sans Souci's crew, in their uniforms, ready for action

And, speaking of crew…

As is common in Europe, essentially every powerboat around us has professional crew. I’m sure there are a few other owner/operators here, somewhere, but I haven’t seen them yet.

And, speaking of warm water…

Pictures do not do justice to the water. It is absolutely perfect. Blue, and clear.

The water temperature is 83.5 degrees! Think “bath water” only cleaner.

However, Roberta’s and my first swimming experience was not perfect. Jeff said, “Let’s swim!” and dived in the water. Roberta and I went to throw on our swim suits, and by the time we reached the swim step Jeff was drying off. He said the water was great, and we should dive in. When I looked down, it was wall to wall jellyfish! They were small, only about 6 inches each. My first thought was, “I’m not going in there.” And, my second thought was, “Oh cr^p. I’ll be cleaning those out of the sea strainers later today.” Was this a problem everywhere in Turkey? I doubted it, because we had seen many swimmers. A couple of hours later, I checked the water again, and didn’t see one jellyfish. It was apparently just a school of them, who had dropped by. We were busy working on the boat, so the opportunity for a swim had passed. But, next week, when we are cruising for real, I plan to spend plenty of time in the water.

And something else nice about the warm water…

Sans Souci’s upper aft deck lockers are full of survival suits. The big bright red gumby outfits, that will save our lives if we ever have to jump overboard while at sea. In 83 degree water, a life jacket will keep us floating, so the survival suits can be stowed. They are now in the chain locker, where they can be forgotten for a few years, and valuable storage space can be reclaimed.

And speaking of bureaucracy…

Turkey is not an EU country. The currency here is the Turkish Lira, not the Euro. Turkey is in the process of becoming part of the EU, but it’s a long, complicated process, and may or may not ever complete. The EU itself is a bit of a mess, and whether it is likely to add members, or lose members, depends on who you ask.

I mention this because one topic that has been on my mind is something called “The Schengen Treaty.” It is a treaty signed by many of the countries that are part of the EU, including those countries we plan to be cruising over the next few years. I don’t want to bore you with the details, but succinctly put, Schengen limits non-EU citizens to only being within the EU to 90 days out of each 180 day period. For us, as cruisers, who want to be on our boat four to six months a year, this is a major problem. I know of several cruisers who have altered cruising plans and gone elsewhere, rather than fight Schengen. I’ve also heard of cruisers being fined because of Schengen.

We’re still a year or two from entering our first EU country (Greece), so this is not currently a problem for us. However, next year, or the year after, it will be a factor. I’ve spoken with lawyers, and other cruisers, and there is no consensus as to what a solution might be.

Amusingly, the one thing most everyone agrees on is that, “It won’t be a problem.” There is agreement as to what Schengen says, but disagreement over whether or not it is enforced. It seems to vary with the country and the official.

I’m compulsive on trying to follow the rules, and can’t imagine being in a country illegally. My current plan is to apply for a long-stay visa, and see if that works. I spoke with an attorney who was firm that this would not trigger residency for purposes of VAT tax (basically a sales tax on importing the boat). Whether or not this strategy works. I do not know. Things are changing rapidly, so hopefully this will be a non-issue, or someone else will have found the solution, by the time our boat reaches the EU.

This email excerpt from another cruiser summarizes the situation well:

“…about the dreaded Schengen. [] and I have been lucky as we both have NZ and EU passports
so have been travelling on our EU ones.

However we know heaps of 'foreign' passport holders and no one has had trouble at all. The main problem in Europe is finding someone to actually check you in if you arrive by boat,
so 99% give up after the first couple of attempts., and just float around.

I have asked boats here with us in Rabat (Australian and American) their experiences and all said no problem on the boat, the problems
occur if you leave the boat and want to fly out as you do not have an entry stamp and the airport officials do not know what to do with
you!!!

It sure is a real grey area and all countries seem to have a different interpretation of it but none really seem bothered enough to even
think about enforcing it. Still - that is now, and things change so quickly. You do need to check in to Greece, we never checked out of
there, but otherwise the only others that require checkin are non-EU anyway; Croatia, Montenegro, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia.

Good luck, and hope you can fly under the radar!!!..."

And, as Roberta and I were pulling anchor to return to port…

I noticed that the anchor windlass felt wimpy. I tested the thrusters and they were very weak. To pull the anchor I had to increase the throttle on the engines. Something didn’t feel right.

As we were running back to port, I experimented with the two different engines, independently, to see if one engine or the other was producing less hydraulic power. I noted that the stabilizers were complaining of low hydraulic pressure, and soon discovered that the hydraulic pump on the starboard engine wasn’t working at all.

An engine room check showed that there was no fluid in the bilge, and the hydraulic oil tank showed as full. I’m taking this as good news, and am certain it is nothing more than something messed up electrically. I’m pressing the button, but the hydraulic pump is not engaging on the starboard engine. No problem. I’ll figure it out. I just hope it doesn't create a delay for us.

This would mean my first return to port, and Med Mooring experience would be without thrusters. With twin engines, I knew it wouldn’t be a problem, but it certainly adds complexity.

Med Mooring was simpler than expected. A tender from the marina passed us a single bow line (which the tender had retrieved from the bottom of the marina basin.) This was attached at the bow, and kept the bow steady. We then backed to the dock and attached a couple of stern lines. The marina tender then handed up the other bow line, and we started the process of putting ourselves into position.

Sans Souci’s stern needs to be approximately six feet from the dock. Any closer, and the boat runs the risk of bumping the dock in high-winds. Any further, and the gang plank (passarelle) won’t reach the dock. The bow and the stern lines need to be taut. Because nothing is holding the boat on the sides, the boat can move in high wind. Thus, the lines need to be as tight as you make them.

To tension the lines, I used the windlasses. However, once the lines are taut, the lines should not be left on the windlass, as it can be tough on the windlass.

I’m not sure of the proper technique for removing a line from a windlass, so I’ll describe the technique I use…

The trick is to move a line, which is under heavy pressure, from a windlass, to a cleat, without allowing the line to go slack. For this, I have a special knot I use, which usually works to keep a line secure long enough to move it from one place to another. The picture above shows what I do. It only takes a minute, and a smaller piece of line, with which to wrap the larger dock line. The small line is then secured to some cleat while the larger line is untied.

Roberta and I will use the next few days to get the boat provisioned and ready for cruising. We currently have no idea where we are going, but only have three weeks, so we aren’t going far. Also, our GSSR friends (Grey Pearl and Seabird) will be joining us next year, so we want to save much of the exploration for when they arrive. [Note: Grey Pearl, and Seabird, are also getting underway this week. Watch http://www.seabirdlrc.com, and http://greypearl.talkspot.com for updates on their progress]

Lastly, please accept my apologies for the length of this blog entry. It has been a while since we've been on the boat, and I've gotten lazy about blogging. There was a lot to get caught up on. Expect more, but shorter, blog entries, in the future.

Ken Williams
Sans Souci, Nordhavn 68
http://www.kensblog.com

PS The anniversary of 9/11 was a couple of weeks ago, and I was sent a video which I had never seen, and found interesting. It shows how the New York boating community came together on 9/11 to spontaneously evacuate nearly 500,000 people (reported) in around 9 hours. In the video (narrated by Tom Hanks) they point out that the evacuation was larger than the WWII evacuation at Dunkirk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDOrzF7B2Kg

[Kensblog] A look ahead at our 2011 cruising plans

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Greetings all!

I’ve received several emails asking when Roberta and I will start this year’s cruising, and the blog will resume.

The bad news is, “Not soon.” It’s a long boring story, but for a wide variety of reasons, this is an unusual year, and we won’t be doing much cruising.

One huge issue is that we have new dogs (Toundra and Lilly). The puppies are wonderful, but because of our travel schedule, and the small size of the dogs, getting them their shots, for travel to Europe, has been difficult. Some of the shots require 90 day waiting periods, and one of our dogs, Lilly, is so tiny (2 lbs), that we've been waiting for her to get larger before we felt she could safely get her shots. It's says something about how boating-centric we are that we sought out such small dogs. We want dogs that are small enough that we can keep them in the cabin with us on international flights. Putting the dogs in cargo on long flights can be dangerous during summer months. Many airlines refuse to fly dogs in July and August.

Our current plans are to drive through Europe, spending the summer exploring France and Italy, from on land, then arrive at the boat, in Turkey, in mid-September, and then cruise for a couple of months.

Expect my blog to resume in September, with perhaps a couple of short updates between now and then.

We're not missing much by not being in Turkey now. It has been raining.

Meanwhile, I’ve been in constant contact with the other two boats in our GSSR group...

They’ve been working their way from Hong Kong to Malaysia. If you haven’t been following their blog updates, check out:

Seabird:

http://www.seabirdlrc.com/aspx/m/485656

Grey Pearl:

http://greypearl.talkspot.com/aspx/m/416338

It has been tough sitting at home reading their blog reports, and constantly wishing we were with them.

Even when Roberta and I return to the boat in September, I’m not expecting that my we’ll do anything too interesting. Our hope is that Grey Pearl and Seabird will catch up to us in Turkey in time for next season’s cruising, and we like the idea of saving anything ‘ambitious’ for after our group reunites.

Meanwhile, Sans Souci is happily sitting in Gocek Turkey...

As you might imagine, it's difficult to have the boat over ten thousands miles away. It's an expensive asset to have sitting at a dock where I can't check on it from time to time.

To help ensure that all goes well, I have put a maintenance firm in Gocek on retainer to keep an eye on the boat for me. And, because it can get warm in July and August, I have asked that they check the boat daily, to verify that the power is on, and the air conditioning running. They also need to dive under the boat periodically, to verify that all is well.

Prior to the boat's arrival in Gocek, I had extensive work done in Hong Kong, so the boat is in very good shape.

That said, there are a few projects going on...

One of many electrical panels on Sans Souci

Within days of leaving Turkey I received an email from Riza, my maintenance guy in Turkey, saying that the lights on the electrical panel were out. I immediately jumped to the conclusion that this meant the shorepower wasn't working. The boat will continue to run on batteries for twelve hours after pulling shorepower, so I assumed this was all that had happened.

This triggered a series of phone calls and emails where Riza tried to convince me that he knew the difference between a dead light bulb, or a blown fuse, and lost shorepower. After a bit of debugging, it turned out Riza was right. The issue was nothing more than a failed digital meter And, the best news of all is that he is a good "communicator." To see his report regarding the failed electrical read-out, CLICK HERE

Another project for Riza was to work with Furuno in Turkey to see if they could figure out why I couldn't seem to install the Turkey charts on my Navnet 3d plotting system. Prior to my trip to Turkey, I had purchased a memory stick with the Navnet 3d charts. It came along with another USB memory stick that was a 'firmware upgrade' I'd need to apply before I could upgrade the charts. I'm fairly good with computers, so I tried to do the firmware upgrade myself. I was particularly proud of myself when I saw the message appear that said "Firmware Upgrade Now Complete. Navnet 3d will now restart." However, ten minutes later, when I was still staring at the Navnet3d logo, I realized something had gone wrong. It was impossible to get past the logo. Ouch.

Riza sent an email saying he had pulled the brain box for my Navnet unit, and was taking it to Furuno. This worried me. Riza seems great, but having someone I just met doing surgery on my boat, while I'm 10,000 miles away, is an uncomfortable feeling. Once again, my nervousness was unfounded. Within a few days, I received an email saying everything was put back together, and the charts installed. Yay!

So, I asked Riza to take a look at my tender. Long time readers of my blog will recall that it was popped while fishing for Halibut at Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands. It was repaired in Japan, but has never been quite right. It has some sort of slow air leak, and is showing its age. Riza happily took on the challenge, and to see his report on the tender repairs, CLICK HERE [NOTE: Ignore the spelling and grammatical errors in Riza's reports. I assure you, his english is far better than my Turkish!]

And, lastly, on the topic of repairs...

I noticed, while I was on the boat, that some of the cushions were in horrible shape, particularly on the fly bridge. Although Sans Souci is still a new boat, it hasn't been sitting still! It has already seen the extreme cold of the Bering Sea, and the extreme heat and humidity of Costa Rica and Asia. The cushions inside the boat have held up, but the ones outside the boat are a disaster. If you have watched the Friday the 13th series of films, you are properly prepared to see THESE PICTURES, otherwise, prepare to be shocked. We asked Scott Cole, the boat's original decorator to get involved, and he suggested new material, CLICK HERE.

The bottom line on all of this is that I am feeling very good about the boat. I wish I were there in Turkey, but I have no doubt that it is being taken care of very well.

And, a litigation update....

Regular readers of my blog might recall that I have been in what seems like never-ending litigation with Yachtpath, a boat delivery firm.

Way back in 2007, I contracted with Yachtpath for the delivery of my boat from Costa Rica to Seattle. Unfortunately, my boat was never transported, and we wound up in litigation. This was my first experience with litigation, and despite winning at every turn, in both the US and British courts, it wasn't much fun. Nor was it profitable. My 'winnings' will not cover my damages and legal fees.

There are two sides to every story, and it wouldn't be fair to Yachtpath to just give my side of the story. Suffice it to say that I won, and Yachtpath has lost, and neither of us is happy with the outcome (although I'm sure I'm happier than they are.) It was an unfortunate event for both of us, and involved circumstances that were unique to my boat. I wouldn't say that I recommend Yachtpath, but neither would I strongly advise against them. The truth is that I have recommended them to other boaters, even during the middle of litigation, who had positive experiences. Would I use them again? Probably not, but I doubt they are in a hurry to have me at their front door either.

Which is a long preamble to saying that I am mentioning this because...

I recently I received an email from someone who gave a large sum of money to a yacht transport company, and had a terrible experience similar to my own. I don't want to mention the company because I don't know the details, and it wouldn't be appropriate to comment without hearing both sides of the story.

What I can say is that shipping boats on a freighter can be a tremendous experience, such I just had with Seven Stars, shipping my boat to Turkey, but there are lots of horror stories out there. I recommend Dockwise Yacht Transport and Seven Stars Yacht Transport, both of whom have been terrific for me, but I've also heard of shipments that went wrong with each of these venders.

In this most recent event, the person involved will probably lose all of their money, and has swapped to shipping their boat with Yachtpath. I very seriously hope that Yachtpath does a good job for this person. As to what they can do about the money lost with the first transport company, I had little advice to give them. My experience shows that there is nothing down the litigation road except pain and suffering, for everyone, except the lawyers. After discussions with other boaters, the best we could offer was "take it to small claims court," and our condolences.

Should they have known they were dealing with a disaster of a company? I looked at the transport company's website, and it looked perfect, like they were a wonderful company. I'm good at these things, and yet, it looked like a solid company to me. I also may have been fooled.

That said, I do think these kinds of problems can be avoided in the future...

As a true computer geek, I always tend to think that computers are the solution to all problems. And, sometimes, they are! There are now websites that track customer-vender relationships, and offer the best possible protection to the buying public. The right time to find out who the good boat delivery companies, delivery skippers, boat maintenance facilities, marinas, etc. are, is BEFORE you buy from them, not after they have your money.

Before I buy from anyone on eBay I look at their rating history. I won't buy from a seller who does not have many transactions, or who has anything less that a 99% score. I also take the time to read the comments from past transactions and look to see what was sold. On eBay, sellers have discovered that a perfect track record translates to increased revenue, and suddenly leaving a trail of happy customers is everything. I may only be spending $50 with a seller, but if the seller doesn't treat me right, I will leave a negative review, and they might lose a hundred grand of future-purchase revenue. In other words, I have disproportionate power over the seller. I may be a small-time customer, but I'm an important one.

Similarly, I own an apartment building. I have a management team that watches over the building, but I rarely go there. Instead, what I do is monitor www.ApartmentRatings.com, to see what my residents are saying about the building. My management knows that if a negative comment appears, I'll immediately make their life miserable. It's a win-win relationship between myself and my residents, with a critical feedback mechanism, both for me, the business owner, and my residents, the customers. And, of course, if there are renters who are trying to save money, by renting in someone else's building, that has low ratings, that's their right. At least they'll know what they are getting into.

Some consumer discussion, of who the good and bad suppliers are, does happen in the boat business, but not enough. I participate in a number of online message boards. Discussions about the quality of various suppliers do take place, but the information isn't well organized. It isn't clear how I, as someone shopping for a service, finds information about the vender I'm considering. I don't know, as someone who spends a lot of money with boat repair people, and other marine suppliers, where I can go to get up-to-date information and ratings. I've spoken with a few other well-connected boaters, and none have a great idea for me.

One service I use from time to time, that reviews local businesses, is http://www.yelp.com. I wrote to their business development group to ask what they were doing in this area. They responded, "...Some of what you have in mind is covered by Yelp - things like marinas and boat-repair shops are on the site, though admittedly not our biggest area. Yacht manufacturers fall a little outside our typical domain. Not sure exactly what you have in mind, but happy to explore ways we might be able to help. ..."

I also am lobbying http://www.activecaptain.com that they should become the focal point of user reviews of marinas, repair facilities, boat manufacturers, etc. They already have some of this information on their website.

Anyway, I can't tell you, today, that there is one place that all of us should be looking for information, but I'm comfortable that problems, such as the one I started this section talking about, are going away. Within a few years, none of us will make a purchase without having a darn good idea who we're buying from, and what their track record is.

The days of bad venders are numbered.

So, in closing....

Roberta and I can't let the summer go without being on a boat, so we have chartered a little 41' go-fast boat (Meridian), which we'll use in the San Juan Islands for July 4th weekend. I might write a blog, if anything interesting happens (which I hope it doesn't!), but the odds are that this is my last blog entry until September.

Thank you everyone for reading the blog, and have a great summer!

-Ken Williams
www.kensblog.com
Nordhavn 68, Sans Souci

PS Although I won't be blogging, I do actively participate on the Nordhavn Dreamers message board. Much of the discussion is technical, but it's also a lot of fun.

[Kensblog] Sans Souci arrives in Turkey

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Greetings all!

On April 17th I departed our home in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, bound for Marmaris, Turkey, where I would be meeting our boat, Sans Souci. It was to be a quick trip. Sans Souci would be arriving via a freighter from Hong Kong. For the past month I had been tracking its progress on the internet many times a day.

Arrival was forecast in Marmaris for April 19th. I have transported Sans Souci previously with other shippers, and there have always been delays. However, this time, I was shipping with Seven Stars, and having very good luck. They contracted to pick up my boat on March 15, and surprisingly, they beat that date by one day. The cost to ship Sans Souci wasn’t cheap; around $95,000, including freight insurance. This may sound like a lot of money, but the alternative would be to run it on its own bottom 8,000 nautical miles (nm), some of it through pirate-infested waters. Overall then, a great deal.

Throughout the flight to Turkey I agonized over my poor planning. The freighter was slated to arrive on April 19, and I would be arriving in Marmaris at nearly midnight on the 18th. What would happen if the freighter arrived early? Would my boat be tossed into the water, or kept on board until the next stop, wherever that might be? I had always assumed there would be delays, and that booking my flight to arrive at the last possible moment to our boat’s arrival was actually fairly clever. Now, I was looking at the internet, and could see that Sans Souci was sitting just a few hundred miles from Turkey, anchored at a port in Egypt. To reach Turkey I needed to change planes three times. One delay on any of the flights, and the boat would arrive before me. Argh.

Adding to my stress, as I flew to the other side of the globe, was the situation in the Middle East. I’m a software developer who has never spent much time in the Middle East, and has never been to Turkey. Friends assured me that Turkey is ‘different’ than other countries in the region, and that the violence that seems to be spreading throughout other parts would be a non-issue in Turkey. That said, explaining to a paranoid individual that there is nothing to worry about, accomplishes very little.

Roberta did not accompany me on this trip. She remained in Mexico. Instead, I was traveling with my friend, Jeff Sanson, a captain, who manages all the maintenance on my boat. Jeff had overseen the loading of Sans Souci in Hong Kong, and is the kind of versatile guy you want around if anything goes wrong. I was 99% certain all would go smoothly in Turkey, but the other 1% is why insurance companies exist. Jeff would be my insurance policy for the trip.

As I was passing through the airport in Istanbul to change flights, I noticed a Vodafone booth. In Hong Kong we were able to enjoy unlimited high-speed internet, throughout the boat, by using a Vodafone 3G USB dongle. On Sans Souci we have unlimited high-speed internet via satellite (VSAT.) I’m a major fan of VSAT, but I suspect the company who provides my VSAT service (KVH) is a little less enamored of me. In fact, a couple years ago, I phoned VSAT tech support and asked, “My contract says I have unlimited internet, but is there some maximum usage where you might kick me off?” Both Roberta and I work primarily on the internet, and because we tend to have the boat outside the US, we rely on the Internet for our news and television. I track how many gigabytes we use during an average month, and the answer is that we consume around 50 gigabytes per month. I gave this number to KVH, and they countered with their definition of ‘unlimited’ as closer to 2 gigabytes. Hmmmm. I phoned a few weeks later, and spoke with a different customer support rep, who gave a better number, of twelve gigabytes. This was better, but still left a gap. I want to maintain good relations with KVH, so I ‘fill in,’ where possible my thirst for bandwidth with Internet from a 3G dongle. I have a special router on board (a Peplink 580) which allows me to easily share this connection around the boat. Anyway, to make a long story short, I easily purchased a 3g dongle. In Hong Kong, the dongle purchase had been difficult, and in Japan it had been nearly impossible.

Driving into Marmaris, Turkey

I really didn’t know what to expect of Marmaris. I had done some googling and knew that it was a tourist town, primarily packed with British and German tourists. I also knew that it was the yachting center for Turkey.

I chose a hotel in the center of town, walking distance to the Marina. Jeff’s and my arrival was at midnight, and I had warned the hotel to expect our late arrival. The hotel was disappointing. It didn’t matter, as within eight hours I would be retrieving the boat, and setting sail (actually motoring) aboard Sans Souci for Gocek.

As Jeff and I were checking in, a tall stranger approached the desk and started speaking in Turkish. I had no idea what he was saying, other than it seemed to be interfering with my check-in. It caught me by surprise when I realized that he was discussing me. The desk clerk translated for the tall stranger, using a substantial subset of the few English words in his repertoire. “Boat papers” he said. Huh? I asked 'what boat papers?' and 'who was this stranger?' which accomplished nothing. Our desk clerk had exhausted his English vocabulary, the tall stranger had no English vocabulary, and even if I had a Turkish vocabulary, which I don’t, I was too exhausted from the thirty-one hour trip to use it. I did have an agent in Turkey, so perhaps this person was from my agent. In any event, the boat papers were on the boat, so whoever he was, he would need to go away empty-handed. “On boat,” I said. This was obviously the wrong answer, and both the desk clerk, and the tall stranger, seemed very disappointed. On the other hand, other hotel staff, who seemed to emerge from nowhere, were greatly amused by the discussion. When you work the graveyard shift at a hotel, thrills are hard to come by. We attracted quite a crowd, The tall stranger, wasn’t going to give up. “Passport?” he asked. The conversation was going downhill. I was not giving anything to anyone who I did not know, even if I suspected they were indirectly working for me. The tall stranger left unhappy, and empty-handed, while I went up the too-skinny elevator to get some sleep on my similarly skinny, and rock-hard bed.

On waking, at 7am, I immediately checked my email, and found this from my agent in Turkey:

" Dear Mr Ken

I have received a message from M/V FRAUKE agent saying ETA Marmaris is changed as follows
ETA MARMARIS OF M/V FRAUKE 21.04.2011

please be advised"

Needless to say, I was not shocked. I looked on the internet, and the freighter was still anchored off of Egypt. I had booked my flight home from Turkey for the 23rd, so the schedule delay would not be a huge issue, and I would have a couple days to explore Marmaris. No problem.

The agent did confirm that the tall stranger was indeed there, in Marmaris, on my behalf. It was this person, whose name I never did learn, who would handle the local customs clearing for my boat. I was given the local agent's email address and forwarded him my boat's registration papers, and a copy of my passport. My agent also asked that I go to a notary to produce a Power of Attorney authorizing the local agents to clear my boat into Turkey.

Riza, from Emek Marin in Gocek, who I have contracted to look after my boat when I'm not aboard, was in Marmaris. He offered to drive Jeff and I to a notary. This turned out to be a time-consuming process, but fairly painless. My agent was insisting that it was somewhat a futile effort, because my boat could not be cleared into Turkey without the original ship's registration, which was on the boat (which was on the freighter).

Marmaris, in April, is a lonely place

Marmaris is a beautiful town. Tourist season is May to October, and the town has plenty of nightlife which attracts young British tourists

Marmaris itself was both a pleasant surprise, and a big disappointment. I had heard that Marmaris was a fun town, with tourist-lined beaches, and wild nightlife. Well... the beaches were there, and the night clubs, but the sun and the tourists were not. Jeff and I felt we had the town to ourselves. The restaurants were open, to get ready for the tourists, who would start arriving May 1st, but as Jeff and I walked along the quai, past perhaps a hundred restaurants, we knew we'd be breaking 99 hearts. Only one restaurant was going to get tourist revenue, and it was up to us to decide which one. Ultimately, it didn't seem to matter. They all seemed to have the same menu. Menus were long, but concise documents, with only one line given to each dish. All bases seemed to be covered with everything from Fajitas to Curries appearing on most menus. The food was very good.

West Marine, Marmaris - One of MANY marine stores

Only my compatriots on the GSSR could understand my elation at seeing a West Marine. In Japan there were essentially no marine stores. To be fair, I'm sure they do exist, but in cruising 2,000nm through Japan, we never saw one. Marmaris is a boater's paradise, with a huge marine industry. West Marine is only one of many chandleries.

On the morning of the 20th, my agent sent this email:

" Dear Mr Ken

M/V FRAUKE Eta Marmaris 23.04.2011 saturday.
Due to weekend Holiday we have to pay overtime for customs formalities to clear your boat

Best regards"

Ouch! There went my flights home. I rebooked my flights for the 26th, knowing there was a chance this might not be there last rebooking. A look at the internet showed the freighter with my boat still at anchor in Egypt. Why? I didn't know, but I did know it was time for a new hotel, and made the swap.

The Grand Azul Marmaris. I didn't suffer while waiting for Sans Souci

Given that we had time to kill, Jeff and I decided to drive the two hours to Gocek to see where the boat would be moored.

When my quest for a place to put Sans Souci began, Turkey was a complete unknown to me. I knew what I was seeking, but I did not know what Turkey had to offer. Turkey is a reasonably large country, with a population of 85 million, the sea on three sides and over 5,000 miles of coastline. Which of the 100s of marinas to pick from would be 'right' to base our boat?

Gocek was selected because it matched well against the list of 'needs' I put together. I was seeking:

- Good electricity (plenty of available current, reliable)
- Secure
- International restaurants
- Close to the good cruising
- Charming, quiet, fun to 'hang out' in
- Upscale (not just the standard 'tourist town.')
- Good marine services
- Availability of someone to watch over my boat during the off season
- Caters to larger power boats (For instance, some marinas service primarily sail boats, so the marine stores don't really have the parts I need)
- Access to a large Costco-type store (Gocek is near Fethiye, that showed as having a Carrefour, a megastore)

My information about Gocek came primarily from the Internet. I had prepaid six months of moorage, so, whatever it was, it was, but I was very curious if I had chosen wisely.

Emek Marin, in the town of Gocek, Turkey

The town immediately felt right. I went straight to Emek Marin, to visit Riza, who will be caretaking Sans Souci, when Roberta and I aren't in Turkey. He took Jeff and I of a tour of the town, and all of the five marinas. The town itself had the charm I was seeking, and all of the core services I sought; restaurants, banks, pharmacies, groceries, gas, etc. It was small, perhaps a quarter mile from one end to the other. The number and size of the marinas felt disproportionate to the town's small size. My sense was that Gocek is a town that revolved around the summer cruising season.

The town of Gocek has five marinas

The marina I selected is about 20 minutes outside Gocek, in the boondocks. I suspect Riza wanted to sell me on swapping to a marina closer to his office. I wanted him to perform daily checks on the boat, and this wasn't going to be easy. It would be easier for him, and cheaper for me, if I'd swap to a close-in marina.

Riza strongly recommended the in-town municipal marina, which did actually have one major asset. One of the docks was a side-tie, which is quite rare in Europe. Essentially all marinas require something called 'med mooring,' which is a rather complicated way of parking the boat. Instead of having a dock to tie to a line is run from the basin of the marina to the bow of the boat, and from the back of the boat to the dock. The boat floats about six feet off the dock, and a gang plank (called a passarelle) is used to get to shore. Effectively all power boats in the Med have professional crew. Roberta and I are quite unique in running our boat ourselves. The process to med moor when you have crew is much simpler than when you don't. On a crewed boat the owner says, "Let's go into that marina." And, it happens. On Sans Souci, Roberta and I have a lot of work to do to get successfully moored. A side-tie is much simpler. The bad news was that the side-tie s already reserved for at least the next six months. Oh well.. it was a good idea.

The Gocek Exclusive Marina, where Sans Souci will be moored for the next year

Our marina, called Gocek Exclusive, is a funny-looking affair. There are only two curved docks, each holding about 50 boats, half on one side of the dock, and half on the other. The docks seemed perfect, although the med mooring looked much tougher than I remembered it. I had serious doubt that Roberta and I were going to be able to pull it off, yet I knew that we would have to find a way.

In med mooring, there are no finger docks. Boats hover, about six feet off the wall, and use gangplanks to reach the dock

In med mooring, the bow of your boat is attached to a concrete block on the marina basin

One reason I wanted to check out the marina was to see what kind of crud boats were collecting on the bottom. This boat hadn't moved in six months. As you can see, it did collect a fair amount of crud. Darn. Note how clear the water is!

One of the two docks at Gocek Exclusive seemed to have bigger boats than the other. Neither had small boats. On the 'small boat' dock the average size was probably around 80 feet, and at the large boat dock, the average size probably exceeded 100 feet. About half of the docks were empty, but Riza assured me that within a few weeks, they would be packed. I puzzled over this phenomenon. In the United States, my boat is typically considered large (Sans Souci is 68 feet long). Between the five marinas, I had seen 50 or more larger boats than mine, and this number was sure to triple when the season began. Where does all this money come from? The answer, at least to some extent, is 'Russia,' but many nationalities were represented, including other boats from America.

Having seen Sans Souci's new home, I wanted to visit the marina office to speak with the harbormaster. There were three details I wanted to work out:

1) I had been told that pumpout would be impossible at the dock. Roberta and I would need to take the boat to a pumpout station every few days, as the grey and black water tanks filled up (grey water is from showers, sinks and the washing machine. Black water is... nevermind). The med mooring process is too difficult for Roberta and I to be doing every few days. This was not going to work. Riza's family has been in Gocek for decades, and having him as my ally worked miracles. After convincing the harbormaster that my boat really is tough to med moor, and I have no crew, he relented and agreed that a pumpout boat could visit Sans Souci at the dock.

2) The electricity pedestal at Sans Souci's slip is terrific. I have my choice of 63 amp triple phase 380v electricity, or 32 amp single phase 220v electricity. Summers in the south of Turkey can be over 100 degrees. I wanted no limits on my ability to run air conditioning, so I asked if it would be possible to use TWO of the 63 amp outlets. This was a shot in the dark, and truth be known, I suspect I could run quite happily off one outlet of 63 amp service, but I'm thinking there will be days when I want maximum air conditioning, in addition to the ability to run the watermakers, and the washer/dryer. I have done years of power management, and know how to work around power limitations, but there's nothing wrong with having access to plenty of power. Having said that I am betting I have just thrown all the sailboat readers of my blog into some sort of convulsions. My apologies to sailboaters everywhere, but Sans Souci is a powerboat. Anyway, to my surprise, the marina said, "No problem."

3) Even though Sans Souci is tiny compared to many of the boats at Gocek Exclusive, Sans Souci is not a small boat. Sans Souci had been assigned to the 'small boat dock' and I wanted moved to the big boat dock. It seemed a slightly sturdier dock to me, and if Sans Souci was going to be tied to a dock, I wanted it to be as solid as possible. This made no sense to the harbormaster, but I explained that my boat is tall, with much windage, and as a trawler, it is very heavy. Most of the boats I saw at the docks were "go fast" boats. They are large, but kept as light as possible. This allows them to pop out of the water and attain high speeds. There were 100 foot boats on the docks, capable of 40 knot speeds, that weighed half what my boat weighs. Sans Souci is an ocean-going boat, made for long-distance cruising, under tough conditions. The harbormaster wasn't buying my arguments, so I summarized by saying, "I'll try it your way, but you should understand that I am more concerned about your dock than I am my boat. If we get a 50 knot wind, there could be a problem." This he understood, and Sans Souci was reassigned.

Jeff and I returned to Marmaris feeling it had been a great day, and Gocek was going to be perfect.

The ferry between Marmaris, Turkey and Rhodes, Greece

This is me on the ferry to Greece. Everyone assured me that in just a few weeks everything would be packed, but for now, we had the town to ourselves

To kill time the next day, we decided to go to Rhodes, in Greece. This sounds like a bigger deal than it was. Rhodes is a short distance from Marmaris. We took a high-speed ferry that had us on Rhodes in under an hour.

Because we were swapping countries, I had to check out of Turkey and into Greece, which wasn't supposed to be a problem. However, when at passport control in Greece, things suddenly took a nasty turn. I presented my passport, and after staring at his screen for a few moments the officer asked me to step out of line. I waited for everyone else to clear into Greece, and asked "Is there a problem?" He responded by asking if I had ever been to Germany. I said, "Not recently," and he said, "Just answer yes or no." I didn't like the look on his face and peeked over his shoulder at his monitor. I saw my name, "Kenneth Allen Williams" and a birthdate in 1954. That much was right, but I was born in October and this other 'bad' person with my name was born in February. I pointed this out to the officer, who was annoyed that I was looking at his screen. Oops. His eyes moved back and forth between my passport and his screen several times over the next few moments, and he then stamped my passport and sent me on my way. I had the feeling that this could have gone poorly.

Rhodes is an island about 65 miles long. Jeff and I rented a car and spent the day just being tourists.

Scouting for anchorages on Rhodes

One interesting note from Rhodes... I was looking for interesting bays where I might be able to 'drop the hook' for some quality anchoring for when Roberta and I are on the boat. We discovered a bay that looked perfect. It had all the elements I look for: a pretty beach, beach-side restaurants, good protection from the wind, etc. I asked a local restaurant owner if boats ever dropped anchor in the bay. He said yes, but that I should speak with the local police department to get permission. The police office happened to be connected to the back of the restaurant, so I decided to drop in. The officer was very nice, and said that he had seen boats as big as 150' in the bay. He showed me where to anchor. In reality, it will probably be at least next year before Roberta and I make it to Greece. There's a lot of Turkey to explore.

That said, we might go to Greece sooner than expected. Fuel is nearly nine dollars a gallon in Turkey!!! I haven't verified this, but was told that as a foreign boat, if I clear out of Turkey, and then get fuel, I might be able to avoid Turkish taxes. I would then make the run to Greece, and return to Turkey a few days later. Saving $3 or $4 a gallon on 3,000 gallons of fuel is real money. And, there are worse fates that having to anchor in Rhodes for a few days.

Back in Turkey, I realized that we were now down to 24 hours prior to Sans Souci's arrival, and I hadn't received notification of another delay. Perhaps something really was going to happen?

Seven Stars, my shipper, had suggested that I contact Seven Star's agents in Marmaris, to verify that all was on track with customs clearing. I wrote to Seven Star's agents, who wrote back asking for copies of all the standard paperwork, passports, crew list (Jeff and I), a list of all electronics on the boat, copies of ship's papers, etc. I've gotten very good at filling out all these forms, and responded immediately. I was surprised that my agents hadn't already provided all of this information.

That's when things went a little wacky...

Seven Star's agent called me to ask if I had given any papers or money to my local Marmaris agents. I said, "No, but I have provided electronic copies of all my papers to my agent in Istanbul, and given him $3,000 for the clearing fees." This answer seemed not to work well. The Seven Stars agent, whom I will call "A" said he needed to call me back. A few minutes later he called back and said that he thought I was paying too much, and that he could do the clearing for me. I pointed out that I already had an agent and didn't need help. I suggested he contact my agent, whom I will call "M" in Istanbul. This triggered many more phone calls, with the final result being me having two competing agents, Mr. M and Mr. A. I do not want to imply that either Mr. M or Mr. A did anything wrong. I have cause to believe that both are good people, but the evening ended with Mr. A contacting me to say that all of my paperwork had been filed, and that I should pay him $1,600. I had never asked Mr. A to do my clearing, and was caught by surprise. This prompted angry correspondence from Mr. M and a reminder that he had the Power of Attorney on my boat appointing him as my agent. I told both Mr. A and Mr. M that I would be at the docks the next morning at 8am, on April 23rd, to sort the whole mess out.

As I went to bed, on the night of the 22nd, stressed out about the whole mess, I checked my email, only to see the freighter was still at anchor in Egypt. Would it really arrive in the morning?

When I woke, and looked at the Internet, I couldn't believe my eyes. The freighter with Sans Souci was approaching Marmaris. Jeff and I headed for the docks, where I knew my two competing agents would be waiting. Everything was locked up at the commercial terminal when I arrived, so none of us could get to the freighter. We were quite a group. Mr. M had sent three people, including the tall stranger. Mr. A was there, with an associate, as well as Jeff and I. After everyone shook hands, we seemed to pretend that nothing was going on. Everyone sat a few feet apart, and between glaring at each other, we made small-talk. There's an old expression that I felt should apply, "You gotta dance with the one that brought you." Irregardless of anything, I had started the process with Mr. M. The other agent, Mr. A had interjected himself to the process. I liked Mr. A, and wanted to use him, plus there's a lot to be said for paperwork already filed. I couldn't imagine suddenly firing Mr. A (who I never hired) only to explain the mess to customs and start new paperwork with Mr. M's team. But, that's what I did. It was decision time, and I went with Mr. M. I approached Mr. A with my envelope of money, and offered it to him anyhow. To his credit, he refused to accept the money.

Before I could push the ball farther down the field with Mr. M's team, word came that we could go to the freighter. Show time!!! I practically ran to the freighter. I wanted to see Sans Souci!

Being an optimist I had come to meet my boat with all my baggage.

The MV Frauke, with Sans Souci on deck

The unloading process went slowly, but not that slowly. It was fun watching the workers disassemble all of the ties and supports holding her on deck. I hadn't thought I would be allowed onto the deck of the freighter, but there I was. After about four hours, Sans Souci was in a sling, and being dropped overboard.

Sans Souci was only one of many boats loaded onto the freighter. The Seven Stars representative mentioned that their business had been booming, and that he had over 100 port calls scheduled in May. Two things are driving demand: 1. Higher fuel prices. He mentioned a 130 footer which chose to be transported, even though it was only a four-day run. With fuel prices so high, transporting boats becomes the wise decision. And, of course, 2. With pirates in the Indian Ocean, transporting the boat on a freighter is safer.

Sans Souci, strapped to the deck of the freighter

Workers, removing the straps that hold Sans Souci, and applying the sling that will lift her off the deck

Sans Souci being lifted into the air, with the town of Marmaris in the background

Sans Souci in the sling

Jeff and I had to climb into Sans Souci while it was hanging in the air. Just before we were lowered into the water I asked Jeff if he had remembered to put the cork into the bottom of the boat. It was intended as a joke, but Jeff didn't get it.

I had come to the freighter ready to jump onto Sans Souci and head for Gocek. Jeff and I had our bags and were ready to go. That said, I hadn't checked out of the hotel, because I knew there was a chance that the loading or clearing might take too long, and it would be too late in the day for departure. At one point, our hotel called to say, "You appear to have checked out, you owe us for all the diet cokes from the mini bar." I responded, "No. We will be back tonight." I had no idea if I would be returning to the hotel, or headed for Gocek, but wanted to have options.

The drop-dead time for departure from Marmaris to Gocek was 2pm. If our departure went beyond this time we would risk arrival in Gocek after dark. Gocek was 50 nautical miles, or a six hour run, east of Marmaris. Although Sans Souci was in the water at 2pm, our paperwork was not ready. Worse, I really had no idea what was happening. Jeff and I were sitting in Sans Souci, in the water, lashed to the side of the freighter. We couldn't seem to get anyone on the phone, and we couldn't get off the boat. We were physically trapped.

I assumed this meant we were returning to the hotel, but Jeff said he thought we could arrive in Gocek after dark. I tend to be conservative, and have as a core belief that it is wrong to arrive in strange marinas after dark. There is too much that can go wrong, and we would be med mooring. Jeff's a confident guy, and his optimism started to rub off. Somehow I went from "No way in heck" to "Well...I will give it thought."

Meanwhile, we had problems to solve. We needed to use the time waiting for customs clearance to get the boat ready to go to sea. Boats are happiest when running. Sans Souci had been sitting on a deck for a month, without power. We had to get everything running. The first thing I noticed was that the house battery bank was low. The generator batteries were fine, so I had a way to get power, but why was the 24v house battery bank low? Sans Souci has multiple battery banks that serve multiple purposes. They are isolated from each other so that a problem with one set of batteries doesn't create complications elsewhere. In this case, I could use the generator to recharge the batteries, so it wasn't a big deal, other than being a mystery that I would want to solve sooner or later. [Note: Jeff and I did resolve this]

The bigger issue was that the inverters wouldn't work. The inverters take 24v electricity from the batteries and turn it into 110v. I fiddled with the LCD panel for the inverter for half an hour before deciding that perhaps it was time to look at the manual. Two minutes later the problem was solved. I have four inverters and a central brain that ties them together. The brain had somehow come disconnected from the inverters. I just needed to tell the brain to go look for the inverters, and bingo -- it worked! In any event, with the generators working, we weren't stuck. I had plenty of electricity.

The real issue was that we had no electronic charts for Turkey. I had bought paper charts, and had worked on my ipad to work out a route, but we really needed electronic charts for the boat's two electronic charting systems, Nobeltec and Navnet 3. Jeff had brought with him the charts for both, so I started loading them in. Something went wrong with Navnet 3, and I gave up. Nobeltec also threw us a curve ball. The charts installed correctly, and Nobeltec said it had the charts, but no charts would appear. I'm fairly computer-literate, so this was most distressing, and somewhat embarrassing. I wasn't too worried though in that I did have the paper charts, and was able to plot a course in Nobeltec, based on manual entry of points. We had enough to get by.

The Netsel Marina in Marmaris, Turkey

Finally, I was able to speak with my agent, Mr. M. He said that I would need to check into the local marina, and give them some money before I would be allowed into the country. He was proceeding with my paperwork, but things were going slowly, and being further slowed by some confusion over the dueling sets of paperwork for my boat. The only way to enter the marina would be to literally move the boat into the marina and med moor it. The marina said they would send us a tender to follow into the marina (Netsel Marina), and that they would help us with the lines. The marina staff did an excellent job, and within 15 minutes Jeff and I were on land with Sans Souci properly tied up.

At the marina office, Mr. M's local representative showed up with all of our paperwork. The marina did some paperwork, and suddenly we were told, "Welcome to Turkey!" We had done it. Sans Souci was in Turkey!

I phoned Riza in Gocek to ask about arriving at night at the marina there. He said that the marina staff would be waiting for us, and that we would have no problem. Jeff and I had already inspected the marina, and were in the mood to get moving, so ... let's go!

The six-hour run to Gocek was anti-climatic. I hardly remember the actual run, and can't explain why I didn't take a single picture. Jeff and I kept busy driving the boat, doing engine room checks, and solving the chart-plotter issues. I finally figured out that I needed to completely remove all charts and start fresh.

We had calm seas all of the way to Gocek. We had a four- to six-foot seas hitting us on the beam, which Sans Souci's stabilizers laughed at. We were quite comfortable. We were the only powerboat that we saw.

The final approach to Gocek was tricky. The Gocek Exclusive marina is new, and not yet on charts. I don't remember if there was a moon but it was around 11pm, and very dark. I phoned Riza, who was waiting on the dock, and he called the marina, to send a tender to guide us in. Meanwhile, a large sailboat, friends of Riza, in the marina lit up their giant sail for us, in bright blue, to help us find the marina. We were asked to come between the red and green entrance markers. I could see two different sets, and neither made sense. Normally, the rule of thumb is "red right returning", meaning that if you are returning to port, the red light should be on your right (starboard) side, and if going out to sea, it should be on the left (port) side. These were reversed, and seemed wrong. As I was studying the lights, a tender shot through them on its way to us. A moment later a second tender came rocketing at us from another direction.

Riza explained that one of the tenders were friends of his, and the other was the marina staff. They would guide us to the dock.

I slowed to a crawl as we approached the dock, and as I was talking to Riza on the VHF radio, he said "I am on your boat." What?? How had he gotten onto the boat? Apparently, his friends with the tender had gotten in close and he had jumped onto Sans Souci, as had others. We had at least four people, plus Riza, running around the boat. The boat was a mess from sitting on the freighter for a month. I really didn't want to make a bad first impression, but ... oh well.

Riza was speaking with the marina tender via his handheld VHF radio. They asked me to wait while they picked up the mooring line from the dock. It was clear we had become a bit of an attraction. I had lit up Sans Souci with our powerful deck lights, so I could see what was happening. Meanwhile, the marina had come to life as everyone wanted to see the "new (funny-looking American) boat" on the dock tie up for the first time.

I wanted to watch every detail of our arrival, but really couldn't. My vision of Jeff and I practicing med mooring was not to be. Jeff was at the bow with a whole collection of Italians, who had appeared from nowhere. I was at the helm, speaking with Riza on the VHF. Riza was somewhere, but I wasn't quite sure where. He was translating between me and the marina, who wanted me to line up for the med mooring process. First they wanted me to approach their tender with my bow, so they could pass to the Italians a line that was anchored to the bottom of the marina, and that would hold my bow. Suddenly the call came that we needed to start the process over, and that I should get out my 30 meter (90 feet) dock lines. I had none this long, which created more complication. Several lines were tied together, which solved this problem, my bow was attached, and I shifted to the stern to drive the boat. I backed all the way to the dock, and lines were tied to the dock. We spent some time tightening the lines, but that was it. Sans Souci had arrived!

When Roberta and I had had our prior Sans Souci (a Nordhavn 62) in France, I don't recall a marina tender ever assisting us with our lines, and I can't imagine a marina that would have their staff hang around until 11pm on a Saturday night to help work our lines. I was quite impressed!

Just as quickly as all of the people from surrounding boats had flooded onto Sans Souci to help us, they started flooding off. I rushed to thank everyone.

Riza then said, "Let's go get dinner." Dinner? It was nearly midnight. I liked the idea, but how? Riza said the restaurants were open late. Don't worry. So, into town we went. He took us to a restaurant in the center of town that was extraordinary. It was outside seating, on the quai, with a young, hip, fun crowd of all nationalities. I recognized one table as the young Italian crew that had helped us bring in Sans Souci. They were well into their dinner, so after stopping by to say, "Thank you" again I asked the waiter to put their table's check on mine. This led to the entire table coming to join us at our table.

When I think about the most memorable moments from my time in Turkey, that dinner is amongst the highest ranked. We became a large group. Riza mentioned he had a girlfriend, so I asked him to invite her to dinner. He answered that his girlfriend was planning dinner with her friend, so I suggested he bring her along too. Riza's girlfriend spoke only Russian and Turkish. Her friend spoke only Russian. The Italians, spoke Italian, Riza Turkish and English, and Jeff and I spoke only English. In total there were ten of us, and it was a raucous group. Everyone was in a good mood, with funny stories flying in from every direction, and in every language. It was a very fun evening...

I later asked Riza whether or not it was controversial that he, who I assumed to be Muslim had a Russian girlfriend. He looked at me like I was from the stone ages. "Why would it be?" he asked. I wasn't sure if it was politically correct to have even asked the question, so I dropped the subject. Jeff decided to dig the hole deeper by asking whether marriages are arranged by the parents in Turkey. I figured the answer would be no, given the prior response, but Riza said "Of course!" Jeff asked, "What if you don't like the girl your parents pick?" The response, "You learn to like her."

Anyway.. I digress... So, back to boating....

Cleaning Sans Souci, while moored at Gocek Exclusive

Sans Souci's Passarelle

Dual 380v 3-phase power. A dream come true! 50kw on tap

From Sans Souci's upper aft deck we have a great view of downtown Gocek

The marina is protected by hills on all sides, making for nice calm water

Jeff and I spent two days with Riza, training him on the boat. Roberta and I will not be to the boat for three months. During that time, Riza will need to see that the boat is washed, the interior kept clean, the engines run periodically, the generators started from time to time, the bottom wiped down as needed, and a diver under the boat to keep the thru-hulls all open. I also had a list of maintenance projects for Riza. Jeff went through the boat prior to it departing Hong Kong, so there isn't much to do, but with a boat, there's always something. Boredom will not be a problem for Mr. Riza.

And, so, Jeff and I left Gocek to head home. The flights had worked out that we needed to spend the night in Istanbul. I really wanted to save tourist activities until Roberta is with me in Turkey, but it was impossible to resist going into town touring around. In addition to the standard tourist attractions I wanted to see the Bosphorus. It's a narrow river which connects the Med to the Black Sea. It is also the dividing line between two continents: Asia and Europe. Istanbul itself spans both continents.

In Instanbul, we stayed at the Hyatt hotel. As we were in the taxi entering the hotel, a hotel employee came to the car and started passing something under the car. He then had the taxi open the trunk, and had a look around. Jeff asked me what was happening, and I didn't want to answer. The person had a mirror on a long stick, and was looking for bombs under our car. Entering the hotel, we had to pass through an x-ray machine. It was the first reminder since I had been in Turkey that there is violence in surrounding countries. As to Turkey itself, I felt safe everywhere, and everyone was incredibly nice to us.

The other two GSSR boats, Seabird and Grey Pearl, are cruising now in Asia, but our group will reunite in 2012. I have heard that the Black Sea represents miserable cruising. It's windy, there aren't many ports, and there isn't much to see. That said, it would be amazing to take our boats into the Black Sea, and as I stood on the banks of the Bosphorus, looking at waters flowing too/from the Black Sea, I could easily envisioning our GSSR group as wanting to take the challenge.

The Bosphorus looked more navigable than expected. It was wide (over a mile across). The currents looked high. From shore it looked easily 4 to 5 knots, but all boats were going the same direction. Anyway.. it's best in boating not to think too far ahead.

And.. that's it! This is the last blog for a while. Don't forget to check Grey Pearl's blog (http://greypearl.talkspot.com) and Seabird's blog (http://www.seabirdlrc.com) for word of their adventures.

Thank you!

Ken Williams
Sans Souci
www.kensblog.com

[KensBlog] Sans Souci is in the Med!!!!

Sat, 16 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Greetings all!

Roberta and I are very pleased to report that the freighter transporting Sans Souci has just entered the Med.

As I type this, we are at our home in Mexico. I will depart tomorrow for Turkey to offload our boat from the freighter, clear customs, and move the boat to moorage in Gocek, Turkey.

Here you see the location of the MV Frauke, with my boat sitting on deck, from just minutes ago.

Over the past few months I've had to locate a marina, and also locate someone to watch over my boat when Roberta and I are not onboard. Above you see Riza Cagdas Cakir, from Emek Marin in Gocek, Turkey. Riza will be checking my boat daily when I'm not around, to verify all is well.

This picture is from the dock where my boat will be parked. I asked a friend who was visiting Turkey to check out the marina for me. Note how all the boats are parked by backing up to the dock. It's called Med Mooring, and is something I haven't done in a while. One of my goals for this week is to get some practice with Med Mooring.

This is my actual boat slip! (Actually, with Med Mooring, you don't get a slip, you just get a wall to back up to.)

One of the reasons I chose this particular marina was that the docks are new, and the electricity is rumored to be reliable. Note the clear blue water! That's both the good and the bad news. Turkey takes water purity very seriously, and has strict regulations about dumping grey or black water into their bays. I've heard of cruisers who received fines just for letting their grey water (from the washing machine) flow into the bay while at anchor. I assumed there would be pump out at the dock, but there isn't! Instead, I am expected to move the boat every few days to a floating pumpout station. This is true throughout Turkey, and is why everything is so pristine. Pumpout is going to be a MAJOR headache. Argh.

Another picture of the marina. I can't wait!

Roberta and the puppies are not going on this trip. The younger pup, Liliana, is still a little young to travel. She just turned five months old, and weighs only TWO pounds! For now, my only goal is to get the boat offloaded, cleared into Turkey, train the local team to watch over the boat, get the shore power working, and then fly home. Roberta, the puppies, and I, will fly back to Europe at the end of July.

More from Turkey, soon!....

-Ken Williams
N6805, San Souci
www.kensblog.com

PS Several of you have written to ask about the other two GSSR boats. They (Seabird and Grey Pearl) have continued to cruise in southeast Asia while Roberta and I leapt ahead to Turkey. Our group will reconvene in Turkey during 2012, and the GSSR will live on. In the meantime, for security reasons, Seabird and Grey Pearl are being somewhat guarded about precise location and route. The best source for information on them is their websites; http://www.seabirdlrc.com and http://greypearl.talkspot.com If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend going to their sites and registering for their blogs. Also, Starr, the 75' Northern Marine that cruised with our GSSR group last year is now underway from Japan to Hawaii. This is a 3,800 nm passage that is being complicated by bad weather, adverse currents, the need to maintain a safe distance from Japan's radiation, and fuel planning. Starr's blog is: http://starr.talkspotblogs.com .. also highly recommended.

[KensBlog] Departing Hong Kong

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Greetings all!

I am very proud to announce that Sans Souci is now aboard a freighter. It has departed Hong Kong, and on is now on its way to Turkey.

Before I speak of about my boat though, I need to acknowledge events in Japan. As most of you know, we have cruised Japan the last couple of years, including the region closest to the epicenter. It has been very difficult seeing the news reports. I feel terrible for the people of Japan, and cannot begin to fathom what they must be going through. We have a deep respect, and admiration, for the Japanese people and we are confident that they will quickly recover from this terrible incident. Best wishes to them through this painful time.

And, as long as I am on the subject of ‘world events’…

Last month Scott and Jean Adams, and their guests from Seattle, Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, were captured by pirates, then killed during the rescue attempt. A week later, a Danish family, including three kids, were captured, and are still being held hostage.

As most of you know, it is the potential for pirate attack that caused Roberta and I to load our boat aboard a freighter and ship it from Hong Kong to Turkey, completely bypassing the areas where piracy occurs. I notice that others are starting to make this same decision.

Excerpt from an article in the Wall Street Journal (Full Story):

"...

Sevenstar Yacht Transport, an Amsterdam-based shipping company, is diverting resources to pick up last-minute requests from terrified yacht-owners. In the past few years, the company has shipped about 20 yachts a year. But in the first two months of this year, the company has already shipped 10 yachts, and plans to ship 15 more in the next few weeks.

On Wednesday, a day after news of the American deaths, the organizer of a convoy of 30 yachts in Thailand contacted Sevenstar to arrange transport across the Indian Ocean.

“People are so afraid,” said Richard Klabber, managing director of Sevenstar.

Leisure sailors point out that not everyone can afford that option. Many yacht owners, called “cruisers” or “yachties,” are retirees who have sold their belongings to fund their travel and live on a budget.

Klabber said his company is reducing its rates to accommodate the desperate. But the solution, he says, is simple: “They shouldn’t be there. They should just not be in that zone.”

..."

I was approached by a Dubai newspaper to comment on the pirate situation. Here's an excerpt from my response:

“Anyone who cruises internationally is accustomed to accepting a certain amount of risk. There is much that can go wrong on a small boat; high seas, storms, lightning, mechanical failures, hitting whales, health issues at sea, etc.

The question becomes, “How much risk is too much risk?” Every captain has a different answer to this question. A lot of boats have crossed the Indian Ocean this year. I don’t know how many private yachts, but I’d guess the number is in the hundreds, and yet only a handful have been captured.

I can easily imagine captains who would say, “I have a 97% chance of getting through safely. Let’s go.” For my wife and I, and our boat, this was unacceptable risk, and we are shipping our boat aboard a freighter.

Many small sailboats are sailing on tight budgets. They do not have the luxury of loading their boat onto a freighter. To get across the Indian Ocean they have only three choices; 1) Recognize that the odds are in their favor and go for it, 2) Cross the Indian Ocean as part of a rally. The Adams were part of a rally, and split from the pack. Had they stuck with the rally, they would probably still be here. And, 3) Stay home.

These recent attacks have changed the math. I would expect that fewer private boats are testing their luck. The pirates have extended their range, and are being more aggressive. The odds of safe passage are declining, and the odds of dying as part of an attack are increasing.

My advice to anyone considering crossing the Indian Ocean would be, “Don’t”. And, if someone wants to cross anyhow, they must find a way to do so as a part of a rally or convoy of boats, preferably with an armed escort. Mariners should not take comfort in past statistics, because it is a dynamic situation, and the odds are declining rapidly.

I do not know what the solution is, but one must be sought and imposed quickly. If the pirates continue to reap huge profits, the piracy will spread to other regions, and this cannot be allowed to occur. "

Anyway, enough of depressing thoughts…

The last few weeks have been busy ones for Sans Souci. Our boat was originally scheduled to ship on March 15th from Hong Kong to Turkey. Based on this, I arranged for three Seattle-based marine technicians to fly to Hong Kong, to do seasonal maintenance.

After all plans were put in place, I received an email from the shipping company alerting me that the freighter would be coming TWO WEEKS early. This was a bit of a logistical nightmare, in that all of the technicians would need rescheduling, as would the haul-out facility. Furthermore, the other two boats we’ve been traveling with had their own list of repairs and had arranged their trips to Hong Kong to match up with when the technicians would be there. This meant they also had to reschedule all of their plans. It took a bit of effort, but we did get everyone rescheduled.

Some of you are probably thinking, “Why is he sending three technicians all the way from Seattle to Hong Kong? Was the boat in bad shape?” Well, Sans Souci has traveled over 8,000 miles since its last major inspection, and I wanted the comfort of knowing that everything was in perfect condition before shipping the boat to Europe. The technicians themselves were a little puzzled about the trip, in that they asked me what was ‘broken’ and I said, “Nothing, but I’d like you to focus on everything anyway.” They asked if I wanted the thermostats and hoses inspected, and I said, “No. I want them replaced. I want it to be like a new boat.”

CLICK HERE to see the actual work list. Only a few of the items on the list are repairs.

One of the items on the project list was to 'Paint the bottom.' Boats tend to collect crud on everything beneath the water. Bottom paints contain chemicals (anti-fouling agents), which slows the growth of this crud.

To get at the bottom of the boat, it needs to be ‘hauled out,’ or removed from the water. During our trip last year, we had hunted for a place to haul out Sans Souci and located one some distance away, that was unusual, in that instead of plucking the boat from the water with a giant crane, the boat would be driven onto an inclined platform, and then slid, railroad car style, out of the water.

The team of technicians was led by Jeff Sanson, from Pacific Yacht Management. Jeff has maintained Sans Souci from the beginning, in addition to traveling with us on longer passages. With Jeff on the job, I felt no need to go to Hong Kong to manage the process.

As Jeff was making preparations to take the boat to the haul-out facility, he hit a surprise. He called me immediately, “Ken, the office is telling me that I cannot deliver the boat to the haul-out facility without a pilot on board.” Normally, pilots are specially-trained ship captains who are experts on the waters in a particular region. For instance, in Seattle, when freighters are coming into port, professional pilots will board the freighters just before arrival, to help guide them safely to port. It’s an extra measure of safety, so that a freighter captain unfamiliar with the waters doesn’t commit some error which leads to an accident and perhaps an oil spill. Pilots are highly trained, and expensive. I couldn’t imagine that Hong Kong was requiring a pilot for the short (under four hours) run to the haul-out facility. It wasn’t because Jeff is unqualified to run a boat. He has a 1600 ton Captain’s license, and does deliveries of giant mega-yachts. It just didn’t make sense. Would I have been legal to run my own boat in Hong Kong’s waters? I arrived at night, surrounded by freighter traffic, and no one objected. Why was it now an issue? I couldn’t get a straight answer, but conceded the point. It’s their waters, and their rules.

Later, Jeff called to say that it had turned out well, and he was happy to have had the pilot onboard. The waters around Hong Kong are overloaded with freighters and ferrys, all of which seem to be headed straight at you. Having someone onboard that knows the drill isn’t a bad thing, although I doubt I’ll be thrilled when the invoice arrives.

Approaching the haul-out facility

Sans Souci drives onto a 'sled' which is then hauled up a steep incline, pulled by cables

Although the boat is fully out of the water,
there is still water beneath the sled, making working
on the boat uncomfortable and wet

On my last run of the season, last year, the boat was overheating. We were being chased by a typhoon, and I needed speed, but the engines would overheat anytime I pushed up the throttles. As expected, the overheating problems were a result of all the crud covering my props, and clogging my intakes.

My hoses were filled with growth

The strainer covering my thru-hull was clogged

The props had to be cleaned by hand

After cleaning, the props were coated with
a product called Prop-Speed, to help fight
growth

The thru-hulls, where water is pulled into the boat for cooling the generators and main engines, plus to feed the watermakers, was caked with growth.

Jeff mentioned that when it came time to leave the haulout facility, they asked him to take the helm, and be prepared to drive. He expected the same gentle ride down into the water, as when he had been lifted out. Nope! He said it was like freefalling followed by a big splash. Very exciting!

The work on Sans Souci finished quickly and went much smoother than expected. A special thank you to Jeff Sanson (www.pacificyachtmanagement.com), Doug Janes, and Craig Hattan (www.hattanmarine.com) for all their efforts.

In addition to fixing the boat, I wanted Jeff to prepare the boat for shipment. For one month, while the boat is being transported, all power will be off. In other words, the refrigerators and freezers need emptied, and everything strapped down. Jeff was very popular on the docks as he emptied out our freezers.

Although Roberta and I have been wintering in Mexico, we haven’t escaped all of the work. I’ve had a boat project virtually every day. In addition to frequent calls with Jeff about the work in Hong Kong, Roberta and I have been focused on the boat’s arrival in Turkey. We have been working to sort out the custom’s issues, find an agent to handle us toTurkey, hire someone to look after the boat while we’re not in Turkey, find moorage, etc. Turkey has nearly a thousand miles of coastline, even without considering the Black Sea. A simple decision like deciding where to moor the boat, in a country you’ve never visited, is not that easy. I hired one agent, only to 'unhire' them a few weeks later. Roberta has had to weigh through a huge amount of confusing and conflicting information about bringing dogs into Turkey, and that’s only one of the countries we’ll be dealing with. She is simultaneously working through the dog-issues for France, Italy, and Greece. For instance, in addition to getting EU passports, the dogs already have a vet appointment in Rhodes, Greece!

Once the boat arrives in Turkey I will be going there personally to unload the boat from the freighter. One of Jeff’s projects in Hong Kong was to practice completely powering off the boat and then restarting everything. I don’t want to get to Turkey, have the boat dropped in the water, and discover that the batteries are dead, or that I don’t know the procedure to get it fired back up.

Yesterday, Jeff got the call to load the boat on the freighter in Hong Kong…

He phoned me at about 6am Hong Kong time to say that he was heading to the boat. It was about a two-hour run to where Sans Souci would be loading aboard the freighter.

Steven and Braun (Seabird and Grey Pearl) personally threw off my lines. It was a bit of an emotional occasion, in that it symbolized the breakup of our GSSR group. Hopefully, it’s only until next year, when we’ll reconvene in Turkey, but who really knows?

Our new puppies, Toundra (11 months) and Lilly (4 months)

Speaking of which, I should make a very small comment on a very big topic. As I have mentioned previously, our group is splitting temporarily. My boat is going on a freighter to Turkey, whereas the other two boats in our group are going somewhat farther on their own bottoms, and will load their boats onto a freighter bound for Turkey at the end of this cruising season. Although I have spoken about piracy risk as why we’re not cruising with the group this year, there is a second reason. As last year’s cruising season was winding down we were seeing signs that our best friend, our dog Shelby, wasn’t doing well. We hoped we were wrong, but there were clear signs that it might be her last season on the boat. Unfortunately, we were right, and shortly after returning home she passed away. We have since acquired two new puppies, and need some time to get them out of puppy stage, get them their shots, and ready for travel. It wouldn’t have worked to take Shelby, or the new puppies, on the GSSR this year. As to our cruising friends on Grey Pearl (Braun and Tina Jones) and Seabird (Steven and Carol Argosy), I will not be reporting on their adventures. We will miss them enormously, and will be in constant contact, but they are entering a part of the world where it is best to ‘fly beneath the radar.’ We will be very sad to be cruising without our friends, and wish them well.

Even though I wasn’t in Hong Kong, I was able to feel a part of Sans Souci’s departure …

Sans Souci’s pilothouse has a webcam, which does a very good job. In addition to feeding live video, it also allowed me to hear all the conversation in the pilothouse. Throughout the passage, I was on the phone with Steven Argosy, from Seabird, as we watched, and listened, live, to events inside the pilothouse.

At one point, I heard Jeff and the guys speculating on whether or not I might be watching. Jeff reassured the others in the pilothouse that I could watch only, but not hear. Oops! This was wrong. I was not only watching and listening, but had called several friends to also monitor. They had quite an audience! I phoned Jeff immediately to say, “Be careful what you say!” I’m sure he would have only said good things, but it wouldn’t have been right to be ‘sneaky.’

The MV Frauke, ready to transport Sans Souci to Turkey

Divers, putting straps beneath the boat, so the 700 ton train can lift Sans Souci onto the deck

A "flying Nordhavn" - over 60' above the water!

Sans Souci is sitting on wooden blocks, strapped to the deck of the freighter

Sans Souci aboard the MV Frauke, where she'll reside for the next month

Lastly, here's a video worth viewing. (Click here if you don't see a video below). Note: The title on this video is not mine. In addition to the person who posted it not being able to spell, his guess at the price is VERY low. Still, it is a great video!

It’s a Nordhavn 75 attempting to enter a marina in Dana Point, California, eight hours AFTER the tsunami. All larger vessels had been asked to leave the marina while the tsunami hit, and there were still random surges that lasted until the next day. To get back into the marina, the boats were watching for times of slack tide and trying to sneak back to their slips quickly. This guy had bad luck and current within the marina went from slack to 12+ knots in minutes. The captain did a masterful job of narrowly avoiding disaster. On a similar theme, and a bit more technical, the captain of Wind Song, describes IN THIS MESSAGE BOARD POSTING having to leave the marina in Hawaii and the surges there.

As always, thank you, and in just a few short weeks, you can expect a blog update from TURKEY!

-Ken Williams
www.kensblog.com

PS Roberta and I were interviewed, as part of the first of a series of on boating, by Callum, the Nordhavn Dreamers group. The chat can be listened to by going to this website: www.nordhavndreamers.com, and looking about 2/3rds of the way down the page on the left side. The audio quality isn't great, but it was a fun interview.

[KensBlog]We have a freighter! --- Or, do we?

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Greetings all!

This is just a quick update on our efforts to move our boat from Hong Kong to Turkey, via a freighter.

[Note -- these are just photos I grabbed off the internet of boats being
loaded onto freighters. They aren't my boat (although, I wish they were!)

A couple of blog entries ago, I mentioned that transporting a boat, via freighter, is never dull.

Our plan has been to deliver the boat to our boat’s manufacturer, Nordhavn, in Taiwan. They have a similar sized boat completing construction in the next couple of months that is going to Croatia. Nordhavn agreed that if I’d deliver the boat to Taiwan (only 400 miles away), they would ship my boat alongside their boat, and manage the process.

For a month, I thought this was the plan, but meanwhile, the salesman for SevenStar Yacht transport started working on me, and on Nordhavn, that we should consider shipping with Sevenstar. At first, I ignored him, but he kept reminding me that Sevenstar could pick up my boat in Hong Kong, and ship directly to Turkey. Nordhavn, on the other hand, would require me to move the boat to Taiwan, and then my boat would be delivered somewhere in Europe (an unknown destination, probably Italy), after which I'd have to run it to Turkey. Making it even more interesting, Sevenstar has a freighter shipping in Mid March, just a few weeks away. To make a long story short, I made the decision to sign up with Sevenstar, and signed the contract, and sent them a huge deposit, just last week.

Then, of course, things start to get interesting…

On Monday I was forwarded a marketing letter from Sevenstar saying that the freighter is leaving at the beginning of March, not in mid-March, as I was told. This would normally be good news, except that my boat is scheduled to be hauled-out, and bottom-painted, the first week of March. I have an email out to Sevenstar now seeking clarification.

However, that’s not really the problem. The big problem is…

For those of you who don’t read the papers, the middle east is in a bit of turmoil right now. The green line in the picture above is roughly the route the freighter would take. Just to the north of Egypt is Turkey, where my boat is headed. Ouch.

The Suez Canal is the skinny channel next to Egypt, and the bad news is that it may or may not be open over the next few months. Here’s an article from today’s headlines.

And, to make things a little more interesting, here’s another article from today’s headlines about the Seychelles (which are also somewhat near the route):

In other words, freighters carrying yachts are being captured off the Seychelles, pirates are rampart around Somalia, Egypt is in the midst of a civil war, and the Suez Canal may close.

I’m sure this is all going to work out fine, and I’ll be cruising in Turkey this summer. Or, at least, I think I’m sure….

"Boating is a lot of things, but dull is rarely one of them."

Ken Williams
N6805, Sans Souci
www.kensblog.com

[KensBlog] It's Christmas and Thanksgiving is over, but I'm still focused on Turkey

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Greetings all!

It has been a while since I updated my blog, so I thought I’d give a quick update.

First off, I’ve had a flood of new people sign up for my blog over the past couple of months, and it feels like an appropriate time to give a quick background on who Roberta my wife, and I, are to all the ‘newbies’ receiving my blog.

Roberta and I are retired software developers. Back when personal computers were just being born, we quit our ‘real’ jobs to start a computer game company, Sierra On-Line. After nearly 20 years of making video games (Kings Quest, Leisure-Suit Larry, Half-Life and many others), we sold the company, bought a boat, and started exploring the world. Although we’ve owned a boat throughout all of our 38 years of marriage, until 2004 we never ventured out of sight of land. This changed in 2004 when the manufacturer of our 62 foot boat, Nordhavn, announced that they were assembling a group of boats who would cross the Atlantic together. Roberta has always loved adventure, and whereas I had serious doubts about the voyage, we signed up, and alongside 17 other boats, we took our boat across the Atlantic, from Florida to Europe. To keep my family and friends at home updated on our big voyage I started writing a blog. Although I’m not much of a writer, and knew almost nothing about boating, my blog somehow started collecting readers. My dad forwarded it to his friends, who forwarded it to their friends, and suddenly through the miracle of the INTERNET many thousands of people started reading my blog, including you!

Over the past few years we’ve ventured to a lot of different corners of the world, and even started a circumnavigation.

Although I say we are circumnavigating, we’re doing it our way. Most boaters who decide to circumnavigate pick a fairly straight route around the middle of the planet, and take a year or two to dash around the globe. Our strategy is a little different. We are taking our time, zigzagging our way along, going where our moods take us, and see this as a ten year or longer adventure.

One reason we’re taking so long is that we cruise only four to six months a year. Recently, a 16 year old young lady, Jessica Watson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Watson) , circumnavigated in just eight months, without ever touching shore. That’s the complete opposite of us. Whereas Jessica had to take whatever seas the weather gods wanted to toss her way, and had a well defined route, we want to go where we want, and choose the best time of year to do it.

And, this upcoming year, we’re cheating a bit. If you look at the map above, you’ll see that there is a green dotted line stretching all the way from Hong Kong, across Malaysia, Thailand, India, through the Middle East, and then becoming solid again once it reaches Turkey. Our plan is to load our boat, Sans Souci, onto a giant freighter, and let the freighter make that passage, with our boat, but not with us.

Why? Well… it’s a long distance, around 9,000 miles, from where the boat is now in Hong Kong, to the Mediterranean (the Med). In between, there aren’t that many places we want to see (Thailand being a major exception!). And, there are some places we definitely don’t want to see, like the pirate-infested waters around Somalia. So .. as I said, we decided to cheat, and let our boat hitch a ride on a freighter and then meet it in Turkey. Actually, the cheating doesn’t bother me. We’re losing our shot at a ‘circumnavigator merit badge’, but I haven’t wasted a minute thinking about that. Instead, what does have me sad is that we’ll be leaving behind the two boats we’ve cruised with the past couple of years, Seabird and Grey Pearl. We called our little group the “Great Siberian Sushi Run,” or GSSR, and have had some amazing times, including cruising Alaska, crossing the Bering Sea, hanging out in Siberia, seeing more of Japan than most Japanese, touring WWII’s history in the Pacific at such places as Attu and Okinawa, visiting our boat’s factory in Taiwan and then arriving in Hong Kong. We’ll miss those boat’s owners; the Argosys and the Jones, but with a little luck, we’ll be reuniting in the Med during 2012.

Why Turkey? The Med is a long 2,500 mile stretch of water, that forms the southern coast of Europe, with Turkey to the East and Gibraltar to the west. Our plan is to start in the east, and mosey, over a three to five year period from east to west. Over the next few years we’ll visit Greece, Croatia, Albania, Italy, Malta, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia France, and Spain. After that, who knows? A turn to the left? A turn to the right?

Over the past month I’ve been working on arranging moorage in Turkey. One would think this would be easy, but Turkey has a 1,000 mile long coastline, with dozens of marinas. I’ve been a little nervous about reserving a marina, because they all seem to be fairly expensive, and want money up front. Personally, I’ve never been to Turkey, and have no idea where we want to be, or where we'll be the happiest. Istanbul is a modern city, in the north, and would probably have plenty of things to do, and great restaurants. Or, the city that seems to be the hub of the maritime industry, and the most obvious choice is Marmaris along the southern coast. After weeks of reading, and still not feeling like we had a feel for Turkey, we chose a marina called Gocek Exclusive, in Gocek Turkey.

Gocek is a bit of a strange choice, andlocated in the boondocks on Turkey's southern coast. It may even be a bad choice. We don't know. It was rarely mentioned by other cruiser’s I spoke to, which probably made it sound more attractive to Roberta and I. It looked pretty, and we like being off the beaten track.

The boat has been on the move almost non-stop the last few years. It has never been said, but sub-consciously, I’m sure that part of why Roberta and I decided to separate from the GSSR group during 2011 is that we were in the mood to sit still and be mellow. The idea of picking a pretty marina, and spending the season hanging out mostly at the dock, while our other friends from the GSSR run thousands of miles to catch up with us in Turkey sounds darn good. Does this mean my blog will be dull in 2011? Almost certainly it does. But, that said, Roberta and I always seem to find ways to challenge ourselves, or the boat finds ways to challenge us, so as much as I’d like it, boredom is unlikely.

One challenge, once in Turkey, is that the marina isn’t well enough sheltered from the weather for winter moorage. I have the slip reserved thru November 2011, and then I’m not sure what we’ll do with the boat. The marina has a haul-out facility and a 200 ton lift. I have the option to haul the boat out of the water and park it on shore for the winter. That said, I'm hoping I can find a way to leave the boat in the water. I have never had the boat sitting on land for a protracted period, and don't know what the issues are.

And of course, whereas I used a couple of sentences to say that we’d be moving the boat from Hong Kong to Turkey, it really isn’t that easy. There’s some chance that the big check I just wrote for moorage will turn out to be wasted money, because I can’t find a freighter to pick up our boat in Hong Kong. Long-time readers of my blog will recall that a few years back I wrote about my plan to load our boat on a freighter in Costa Rica, for transport to Alaska. The shipping company I used dropped the ball on shipping my boat, resulting in a lost cruising season, and expensive litigation, which is still dragging through the courts.

So, the fact is that I don’t know what freighter will ship my boat, or when it will ship, I also don’t know where the freighter will drop my boat in Europe. And, to be honest, I’m not even 100% certain what country my boat will ship FROM. The leading idea is to take my boat from Hong Kong, back to Taiwan where it was manufactured, and hope that the manufacturer (Nordhavn) can help me get the boat moved. My best guess, at this time, is that my boat will ship sometime next April or May, from Taiwan, headed to somewhere in Eastern Europe, arriving in June or July. My expectation is that the boat will be off-loaded from the frieghter 500 to 1,000 miles from Turkey, in Italy or Greece, and I’ll have to run it to the slip in Turkey. Remember when I said that I was worried about the cruising season, and my blog, being boring? We shall see. Boating is rarely dull.

Since this blog entry is intended to help spin up to speed all the new people to my blog, I should mention a bit about my philosophy of boat maintenance. I am by no means a fully trained boat mechanic. I need to be able to fix the boat, enough to get us to shore, if it breaks, and I’ve had training in diesel engine maintenance, and even received certification as a marine electric technician. But, all of that said, my sincerest hope is that other than changing the oil, I never have to use any of my knowledge. Some people like to own a boat, as a hobby, and love nothing better than tinkering around in the engine room. I respect those people, but I'm not really one of them. We cruise for the fun, and because we like sampling life in foreign countries, not because I like hanging out in engine rooms. Instead, I work with Jeff Sanson, at the company www.pacificyachtmanagement.com, based in Seattle, who readies my boat at the start of each season, and ‘puts it away’ at the end of each season. At the beginning of March, Jeff will fly to Hong Kong, and do this year’s maintenance. The boat is in very good condition, and as far as I know, nothing major needs done. Every couple of years the bottom of the boat needs painted, and Jeff will oversee that process. Mostly what I want him to do is to go from one end of the boat to the other, looking for anything that might be worth lubricating, replacing, or repairing. I want to focus on nothing other than enjoying life when on the boat, and know that I have essentially a new boat at the start of each year’s cruising.

Anyway, I saved the biggest news for last. On Dec 22, Roberta and I took delivery of TWO NEW PUPPIES! Sadly, in early November our best friend, and constant companion over the past 14 years, Shelby (our dog), passed away. Her passing was not unexpected. She was suffering from a fatal decease from which there is no escape, called 'old age.' We had always said that should Shelby ever not be a factor we would immediately point our boat at Australia and New Zealand, which are virtually impossible to cruise with pets. However, when the day arrived, the idea of cruising with just Roberta and I, didn’t sound that fun. It wouldn’t be the same without Shelby. We are ‘dog people’ and our lives revolve around our dog. We know that there are those who might fault us for adopting new puppies so soon after losing Shelby, but if they had seen us moping around the house, in the weeks after Shelby left, they would understand.

During Shelby’s last years she had heart issues and couldn’t move too fast. Thus, we over-reacted a bit in choosing a new dog, and placed an order for a Jack Russell Terrier. Roberta likes long walks and we wanted a dog that could keep up. After putting a dog on order with a breeder, we bought a host of books on raising Jack Russell Terriers. When the books arrived I grabbed one and started reading. The book did an amazing job of convincing me that Jack Russells are the WRONG breed to have on a boat. I read many pages from the book to Roberta, talking about how the Jack Russells need big spaces to roam in, love to hunt and kill things, and need walked several miles a day. None of this is possible in the middle of the ocean on a 68 foot boat. I then did some surfing on the internet, and found this website: http://www.knottydog.com/ about a couple cruising with their Jack Russell, Ziggy. It convinced me we wanted a Jack Russell all over again! I showed Roberta the site, and we relaxed. But then, we were at a party with some neighbors, who own, and love Jack Russells, who lectured us on why the Jack Russell would be the wrong breed for on a boat. It rang true, and I had to be the one to phone the breeder to ‘unadopt’ our new friend.

Roberta did some more googling, and stumbled onto a little known breed, the Russian Toy. They are much smaller than it looks in this picture. A full-sized adult is only about 5 pounds. We considered Shelby a small dog, and she weighed only 16 pounds! We had talked about getting a small dog, because we took Shelby with us everywhere, and it would have been easier with a purse-sized pooch. In particular, flying internationally would be much simpler with a dog that could easily fit into a carry-on bag. After we arrived in Hong Kong we had a heck of a time getting Shelby home to Seattle. Most airlines won't fly dogs in cargo during the summers, because of heat. Our choice of dog has to match our life as boaters.

Our new friends are Toundra, eight months old, and Lilly, eight weeks old. Lilly weighs only one pound, and is a burst of non-stop energy, 24 hours a day. We’ve barely slept since the puppies arrive. As mothers will tell you, of humans, or dogs--- no one sleeps when there’s a baby in the house!

Merry Christmas everyone! We wish you a prosperous and happy new year.

Ken Williams
Nordhavn 68, Sans Souci
www.kensblog.com

A very sad day

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT

A note from Ken Williams

Roberta and I are VERY sorry to report that our best friend, and long-term cruising companion, Shelby, passed away yesterday. Shelby was 14 years old, and has had heart issues the past five years. We knew that sooner or later her heart would cut her life short, and apparently 14 years was the limit.

As anyone who knows Roberta and I is aware, Shelby traveled by our sides everywhere we went. She had her own European Union passport, and had traveled to Canada, Mexico, El Salvador, Siberia, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, France, Italy, Spain the Bahamas, and more. How many dogs can say that they’ve taken a boat across BOTH the Atlantic and the Pacific? Each of these MANY cross border trips required a health inspection and shots. Shelby was always a good sport about the continual trips to the vet, and really didn’t care where we were, as long as she was with us. Her life revolved around us, and ours around hers.

Shelby’s adventures were always a big part of my blog, and we always noticed that pictures of Shelby in the blog would cause a huge spike in readership. The blog won’t be the same without her. Her loss will be felt by many within the boating community and beyond. Over the past 24 hours, there have been a hundred little reminders of how integral to our life she was, from when I woke this morning and automatically turned on my flashlight, so I could make sure I wouldn’t step on her as I headed to the bathroom, to when I went to the coffee pot, and realized Shelby wasn’t there to beg for a cookie, to when I noticed the gate open, and closed it out of reflex…

Last night, I mentioned to Roberta that I didn’t think I could take getting another dog. Their life is just too short, and I can’t imagine going through this again someday. Roberta asked me to focus on the 14 amazing years that Shelby brought us, and all the good times we had together, rather than the way I am feeling now. I suppose she is right, but it sure doesn’t seem like that now.

Shelby was incredibly cute as a puppy

Shelby’s breed is a “Norwegian Lundehund” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Lundehund) . Every dog is special, but Shelby was more unusual than most, and in many ways not very dog-like. She had six toes, and could twist her body into unbelievable configurations. She was a “feral dog”, kind of a wild, only semi-domesticated dog. That said, Shelby never believed she was a dog, and always believed she was as much a part of the family as we were.

How many dogs can still smile when you take them deep into the jungle, complete with alligators?

Shelby – we all miss you.

I posted some pictures of Shelby on the internet. Click here ( http://www.tinyurl.com/ourFriendShelby ) to view them. There is also a comment button you can use, if you'd like to send her a goodbye message.

Ken Williams
www.kensblog.com
Nordhavn 68, Sans Souci

A Note From Roberta Williams

Our best little friend, Shelby, passed away on Thursday, the 11th of November, 2010, at the age of fourteen years and four months. Over the thirty-eight years of our marriage we have had various pets: dogs, cats, hamsters, rabbits, goats, fish; basically, the typical animals often seen in a busy family with two boisterous boys. Shelby didn’t come into our lives until our oldest son, DJ, was off to college and our youngest, Chris, was just starting high school after our move from Oakhurst, California to Seattle. A year after our move we were down to only one dog, Arcade, aged two, a Swedish Vallhund; our six-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback, Sheba, had just lost a battle with a mysterious disease, unfortunately never diagnosed, a short time after our arrival to Washington. For several months after Sheba’s death, I moped around, feeling sad about her loss – although, our sweet, little Arcade really tried her best to perk me up. Finally, Ken had had enough of the blues and suggested that we get a new puppy. I wasn’t much into the idea at that time as I was busy with what turned out to be my final Sierra On-Line project -- designing King’s Quest 8, my last computer game – and, besides, “I had Arcade to cheer me up.”

Undaunted, Ken started searching the classified section of the Seattle Times for interesting-sounding puppies and, one day, he announced that there were some ‘Norwegian Lundehund’ puppies listed. “Isn’t that the same type of dog as Arcade?” he asked me (her, being a Swedish Vallhund – I can see why he might have been confused between a Norwegian Lundehund and a Swedish Vallhund). “No,” I answered, but was immediately intrigued as to what a Norwegian Lundehund might be. So, of course, we had to call and find out! As it turned out, a Norwegian Lundehund is a very interesting type of dog: Used for hunting puffin birds on some of the outlying Norwegian Islands, they climb cliffs and rocks searching for these creatures, have up to seven or eight toes per foot – to help them climb – and crawl into the puffin tunnels in the cliffs to pull out the birds for their Norwegian owners. They also have an extra vertebra in their neck so that they can twist their heads backwards to an astounding degree, touching the top of their heads to their shoulders. This dexterity helps them to turn around in the tight puffin tunnels to get back out again. Agile like a cat, they have a look remarkably similar to small foxes.

You know the punch line: To satisfy our curiosity about these unusual-sounding dogs, we went to visit the breeder and take a look at the puppies. Two hours later, we were on our way home toting the cutest, little six-week-old puppy ever! While driving, I told Ken that her name would be Shelby. He looked at me and asked me where that name came from as it seemed to have come out of left-field; we hadn’t discussed any names, hadn’t known that we would be getting a puppy when we got up that morning, and I hadn’t mentioned that I had been thinking of any names. But we had just gone to see a theater play a couple of nights before and the main character’s name was Shelby – I had thought it an interesting name. When I looked into this little puppy’s eyes, I knew right off that her name was Shelby – and it fit her to a tee; people always commented that she looked like a ‘Shelby.’

Shelby traveled the world with us after Chris went off to college. She loved to travel! Cars, planes, trains, boats – especially boats! Like Ken and I, traveling and seeing new places was her passion. She was always excited when those suitcases came out because, more often than not, she would go with us and she loved it! In case you’re wondering, we also traveled with Arcade, but she never did cotton to it much, and, as such, we sometimes left her at home with friends or family. But Shelby would go because she adored it so much. She was the greatest traveling companion that a pair of world-trekkers could ask for! She also just loved being with us – she was definitely ‘into’ Ken and I – and, I think, would have put up with just about anything in order to be with us. (Arcade passed away five years ago at the age of eleven of ehrlichiosis – a tick borne bacterial infection, caused by an undiscovered tick bite in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. By the time we figured it out, it was too late. Even though Shelby was the greatest traveling companion and, in general, stealer of our hearts, Arcade had the sweetest personality I have ever seen in a dog. She loved everybody: people, children, babies – especially babies! – other dogs, cats. Her death was untimely, tragic, and very, very sad as well.)

Of all of the pets (dogs, mainly) that Ken and I have had over the years, for some reason, Shelby wormed her way into our hearts so thoroughly that she became almost a part of us; so intertwined and integrated into our very fiber that, now, upon her death, it feels like a huge chunk ripped from our hearts, leaving a gaping hole. At least, that is what it felt like last night and this morning. But, now, this afternoon, I know better: there is no hole, no chasm. In reality, she had crawled down into a very deep place in our hearts – burrowed there, if you will – and is now encapsulated in her own special niche. That is the pain that we’re feeling: the ache of this place where she is now – and will always be for the rest of our lives. She is still with us; she will always be carried with us. She made sure that we would never go anywhere without her!

Today, the day after Shelby’s passing, I look around our home and see her everywhere: her dog bed, her toys, her special goodies, her toothbrush and toothpaste, her leash and collar, water bowl and food bowl. I cleaned her food and water bowls and put them away, but I haven’t the will yet to do anything with the rest of her things. I actually found myself picking up some of the dog hair left on her bed and crying over them.

Shelby will be so missed. My heart is aching as I write this, but she did live life to the absolute fullest and had just about the best ‘dog life’ that any canine could wish for!

Rest in Peace, Shelby – we love you!

Kensblog Offseason - Return to Hong Kong

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Greetings all!

Roberta and I have some big news…

At the end of my last blog entry I mentioned that we had made the decision to take our boat, Sans Souci, to Singapore. However, after returning to Seattle, Roberta and I gave it more thought, and changed out mind. Instead, we are going to load Sans Souci on a freighter and ship her straight to Turkey.

There are a few reasons, but the biggest one is nervousness about piracy. I've been spending time staring at this website that tracks piracy reports:

http://tinyurl.com/a3dtxp

On the picture below, each of the markers represents one attack. The red markers are successful attacks, and the yellow markers are attacks that failed. The yellow line represents our intended GSSR route from Hong Kong towards Thailand.

As you can see, most of the route is safe. However, there are many flags towards the end of the trip, around Singapore, and in the Strait of Malacca. On the piracy website it is possible to click on each of these attacks and read the report. All of the attacks are against freighters, with most resulting in the freighter being boarded by armed attackers who robbed the ship, or held the crew ransom.

None of the attacks this year have been against private yachts. However, I’m not taking much comfort in this. Thousands of boats safely transit the area, including (I’m guessing) hundreds of private boats. But, our boats are not representative of the boats that normally transit the region. Private boats in the area fit into two categories; small sailboats, who are not big profit opportunities, and large mega-yachts, carrying heavily armed crews. Neither of these groups are as appealing to the pirates as the typically unarmed freighters. Whether or not our group of three boats would attract the pirates interest, I do not know, but my sense is that the lack of attacks shouldn’t lure us into feeling that an attack is unlikely.

Over the past month I’ve found myself researching topics like: carrying arms, hiring armed guards and buying kidnap insurance. Am I being paranoid? Perhaps. I’ve spoken with experts who assured me that we would be totally safe, and with other experts who have said that the risks are real. Interestingly, I noticed that on one of the kidnap-insurance websites I went to (http://tinyurl.com/25z8g85), that the first place listed was, “The Malacca Strait near Malaysia & Indonesia”. Insured or not, I do not want kidnapped.

Ultimately, Roberta and I decided we were probably safe to make the trip, but probably isn’t good enough. We wouldn’t relax if we had to spend the summer looking over our shoulder.

Instead, we’ll ship the boat to Turkey, and be the “advance team” for the GSSR. Our plan is to cruise locally in Hong Kong during the spring of 2011, then load the boat on a freighter for shipment to the Med.

I plan to be in Hong Kong to throw off their lines, as Grey Pearl and Seabird depart for Singapore without us...

It will be very sad seeing them leave while we're stuck standing on the dock. But hopefully, we’ll reunite in Turkey for cruising in 2012.

That said, It will be interesting to see what happens with shipping Sans Souci to the Med. I am a bit of a pessimist when it comes to shipping boats, and suspect it will take longer than I think, cost more, and perhaps involve a different destination than desired. As regular readers of my blog may recall, a few years back I had a horrible experience with Yachtpath, which left my boat sitting for months in Costa Rica, and led to expensive litigation. I now have a large six-figure judgment against Yachtpath, but I’ll never get back the lost season of cruising. I have spoken to shippers who say that I’ll have no trouble getting Sans Souci to the Med. Hopefully they are right!

And, on a different topic…

I have just returned from a week on the boat in Hong Kong. Jeff Sanson from Pacific Yacht Management, and Sam Stokes, from Sat-Com.net accompanied me. My goal was to check on the boat, and start getting ready for next season’s cruising. Roberta and I normally cruise four or five months a year, and I like to have the boat trouble-free while we are cruising. My strategy is to have Jeff maintain the boat in the off-season, so that Roberta and I can focus on having fun. The plan worked perfectly this year. We cruised from Osaka Japan to Hong Kong, over 2,600 miles, with no boat problems.

Jeff really doesn’t have much on his “to do list” this year. All of the projects are of the “ordinary annual maintenance” variety, things like changing the oil on the main engines, and generators.

As part of maintenance we wanted to drop the tenders, and run them around, but hit a major problem…

I was working the controls to drop the tender when the davit suddenly froze and started spraying hydraulic fluid. At the time, the tender was suspended above the railing, half over Sans Souci’s bow, and the other half over the dock. I had been planning to lift the tender, which was on the port side, and drop it in the water on the starboard side. Instead, I had it hanging dangerously in space, with a broken davit.

Luckily, the tender seemed to be stable, hanging in the air, and not in danger of dropping. But, how would I get the tender down? The good news was that the davit could still raise and lower the tender, but side to side motion was impossible. Studying under the davit I could see that the hydraulic fluid was spraying from a chafed spot on one of the small metal-braid covered hoses. An un-clipped-off wire-tie from a nearby rubber hose had managed to rub a hole through one of the metal hydraulic hoses!

My first priority was to get the tender safely onto either my bow, or into the water.

I had some magic ‘rescue tape’ on board which claimed it could handle pressures to 700 psi. I doubted it could be used to seal the leak, a) Because the hydraulic pressure was probably higher than 700 psi, and b) because the metallic hose wasn’t a very good surface to apply the tape to. I had nothing to lose and tried an experiment, which failed. There was too much pressure. Darn.

Finally, lowering the tender turned out to be simpler than I had thought. We pushed the boat away from the dock, and pushed the tender overboard as it was lowered to the water. In minutes it was in the water. And the repair also turned out fairly simple. The staff from Asia Yacht Services, who is looking after my boat during the offseason, cut a wood block for us, that we were able to use to hold the davit while the hydraulic hoses were removed. I decided to replace both hoses as long as we were doing surgery anyhow. New hoses were fabricated, installed and the davit operational again within a few hours.

Of course, this was in Hong Kong, where good marine services are available. Had the same hydraulic leak happened while we were at anchor in the middle of nowhere, it would have been a much messier situation, and I’m not sure what would have happened. I’ve towed tenders many hundreds of miles, but in protected waters. Towing a tender hundreds of miles in open ocean might not be possible.

While Jeff and I were working on mechanical issues, Sam was focusing on updating the ship’s electronics. Earlier this year I purchased new computers for the boat (64 bit, windows 7) only to find that they couldn’t be installed due to problems with finding 64 bit device drivers. Six months have passed and the upgrade is now possible. Everything went smoothly with the computer changeover.

Sam’s bigger project had to do with Internet on Sans Souci...

We have four different ways of getting Internet on the boat:

- Vsat
- Fleet Broadband
- Wifi Amplifier
- USB-based 3G Dongle

My work involves the Internet, so I need connected at all times. Four different internet methods might seem overkill, but each of these is needed, and gets used, aboard Sans Souci. Both Roberta and I are Internet-centric. Unfortunately, connecting four different potential internet sources to a boat’s network is more confusing than it sounds. The network has been unstable, and needed restarted several times a day. Whenever I switch from one internet source to another I need to shut down all of the computers and routers, and there are always problems.

Prior to this trip I did some research and found a router that I thought would be perfect for the boat. The router is made by www.peplink.com, and from the specs I thought it would do what I needed. I don’t want to bog down my blog with all the techy details, but let me just say that it has exceeded all expectations. I can now have all my internet connections on simultaneously, and establish rules as to how they are used. Amazingly, I can even use multiple internet connections simultaneously. This gives me more bandwidth, which in my household is a big deal. I also get stats, by user, showing how much data each person or computer is consuming.

And, as long as I was messing with the boat's network, I decided to add a webcam...

While I was wandering through a computer store in Hong Kong I saw a cheap ($180) webcam, and decided it might be fun to put one on the boat. I set it to be motion sensitive, and I now get emails whenever anyone is on the boat. I can then sign into the camera, and watch them (if I want). The black and white picture above was taken in near total darkness. Amazing! It's a useless thing to do, but helps me feel in touch with my boat, even though it is nearly 10,000 miles away.

Lastly, with respect to maintenance...

Jeff and I put together a maintenance list, for the local firm watching over Sans Souci, which details precisely what we want them doing over the next few months. The list can be found, HERE.

Jeff will be returning to Hong Kong, for a couple of weeks, next March, to run through everything on the boat one last time prior to Roberta and I starting our cruising. During that visit, Jeff will haul-out the boat and get the bottom painted. Thus, we wanted to travel around and inspect the haul-out facilities.

To my surprise, we have three different ‘flavors’ of haul-out facilities available…

The first type is the conventional haul-out via straps. I am very familiar with these kinds of lifts, and a little nervous about them. A Nordhavn 47 was destroyed when a strap broke on a lift a few years ago, and a Nordhavn 56 motor sailor was destroyed last year when it dropped from its straps. Sans Souci had its own struggle with a strap-based lift, when a failed attempt was made to lift the boat by an inadequate lift in Santa Monica, a couple of years ago.

These pictures are of a lift that uses railroad tracks to lift the boat. The boat is driven onto something like a giant wooden train car, blocks are set in place by a diver, and then the train car is winched along the track, slowing lifting the boat from the water.

This approach is amazingly inexpensive. My estimate for haul-out, including several days out of the water is under $1,000. Labor is also very inexpensive, by boat yard standards, at under $20 per hour.

We also checked out a lift that works by submerging a giant floating platform. In the picture above, a huge part of the platform sinks to the bottom, the boat is driven onto the platform, where blocks are arranged on a movable wheeled ‘car.’ Air is then pumped under the platform and the entire thing lifts back to the surface, bringing the boat with it. The boat can then be wheeled along train-track type grooves in the surface of the yard, to somewhere that it can be worked on. I liked the facility and the approach, but the cost would be closer to $3,000 plus a higher labor rate for the workers who would be helping with the bottom painting.

And lastly…

Roberta and I are probably crazy to be considering this, but we’re thinking about buying a second boat. I’m in a partnership now on a sportfisher (a Cabo 52), but we rarely use it. We don’t fish and owning a boat with a partner just isn’t the same as having your own boat.

(brochure)

I don’t know if we will actually buy another boat or not, but here’s a look at what we’re considering. It’s an all-aluminum boat, but painted and finished out to look much prettier. It’s a 30 knot boat and perfect for just the two of us. It wouldn’t have the comfort of Sans Souci, but would be fun for running around Cabo (where we live in the winter), and the Pacific Northwest (where we live on those rare occasions we are actually home).

That’s it for this blog entry, and, as always, thank you for reading!

-Ken Williams
Nordhavn 68, Sans Souci
www.kensblog.com

GSSR No. 16 - What Happens After You Reach The End of The Road?

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Greetings all!

The GSSR 2010 has officially ended. I am very pleased to report that all three boats are now moored at the Gold Coast Yacht and Country club in Hong Kong.

At the end of my last blog entry Grey Pearl and Seabird were still sitting in Taiwan. They needed a two-day weather window in order to move the boats from Taiwan to Hong Kong. As we are now deep into typhoon season, the storms seem to be back to back. For a week we monitored the weather reports several times a day, and just when it seemed the storms would never end, a weather window opened.

To our surprise, Grey Pearl and Seabird had a perfect passage from Taiwan to Hong Kong, sliding along on lake-smooth water. The adverse current that slowed me by as much as three knots, wasn’t out there. We have two theories as to why: 1) The bizarre currents, for my passage, may have been stirred up, and accelerated, by the approaching Typhoon. Or, 2) I only thought there was a current against me. In reality, perhaps I was being slowed down due to all the growth on the bottom of my boat. My speedup later in the trip may have been nothing more than some of the crud shaking itself off the bottom of my boat.

Both Grey Pearl and Seabird had divers clean their bottoms just prior to departure, so with no current against them, and with their freshly cleaned bottoms, they ran much faster than planned. From the beginning, they knew that their fast speed might mean arrival at night, however, with the knowledge that a storm was behind them, they decided that a night arrival was the lesser of the two evils. And, in fact, they did arrive at the outer entrance to Hong Kong at 3am, the same time I had. They had a few tense moments, but were lucky enough to have a full moon, and made their arrival look easy.

With everyone now in Hong Kong, there was no hiding from the most treacherous GSSR challenge of 2010…

The #1 question facing the GSSR is, “What next?”

We were now at the end of this year’s cruise, and facing a near-certain end to our group cruising together. Adding to the tenseness, at least for me, is that I’m the villain in this story. We’ve mostly been doing a kind of cruising which I’ll call “adventure cruising.” Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong are modern countries, but we’re in a part of the world where few cruisers ever venture. Every day is a surprise. There are no cruising guides, and we usually don’t know what to expect until we arrive. I remember a year ago that, as I looked forward to our 2010 cruising, thinking our voyage through southern Japan would be characterized by Hawaii-like warm water, beautiful anchorages, white sand beaches, diving, swimming and time spent hanging out. I was totally naive. Other than about 48 hours at one island near Okinawa, we never had the mellow anchoring experience I love so much.

Looking southwest from Hong Kong, I see seas populated by pirates, and countries like the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia, which also fit into the “adventure-travel” category. Roberta always wanted to be an archeologist, so being amongst the first to discover new cruising grounds is great fun for her. I, on the other hand, confess to much less adventuring sentiments. Give me a sand beach, clear warm water, a glass of wine, the odor of steaks on the barbecue, a good internet connection, and I’ll have attained boating nirvana.

Last month, I sent an email to Seabird and Grey Pearl saying Roberta and I would be splitting from the group. It was one of the tougher emails I’ve ever had to send. I cannot over-emphasize what a great group we have, and how much better it is to travel as part of a team. Our skillsets and personalities match each other perfectly. It’s like a marriage, if you find one that works, stick with it, because you are a very lucky person.

To make a long story short, Roberta and I have been making plans to put our boat on a freighter and ship her to the Med. Our hope was that the others, Grey Pearl and Seabird, would catch up with us somewhere in the Med, but the Med is a big place, and as we looked at the logistics, it didn’t look likely. There was a real possibility that we were saying goodbye forever.

During our last week in Hong Kong, we all avoided the topic. It was like a big ,ugly elephant standing in the corner that no one wanted to acknowledge. We went through two closing dinners, and yet whenever the subject of next year came up, the topic would switch immediately before anyone could say anything.

Finally, at 5pm, on Roberta’s and my last day, only a couple of hours before our airport departure, I received a call from Steven, inviting Roberta and I to a 5:30 p.m. going-away party on Seabird. Roberta was in the shower, with no idea we were going to a party, and there was still packing to be done, but I agreed immediately. I knew that it was time to confront the elephant in the corner. And Roberta, who is usually not the type to react well to suddenly needing to be somewhere in 30 minutes, while still in the shower, also recognized that this was an important meeting, and never grumbled one word.

Walking in the door of Seabird, I could see Braun already had a guidebook, 'The South East Asia Cruising Guide,' in his hand. For about 10 minutes we made small talk, and as I glanced at my watch, I knew someone had to make the first move. Roberta and I really did need to get to the airport, and it was time for ‘the discussion.’ Earlier in the week I had sent around a link to a story about cruising in Vietnam which I had hoped would somewhat explain why I wanted to mutiny (http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2008-05-23&dayid=378).

Braun cut quickly to the chase, “What if we split next year into two halves? July and August are hot, sticky and miserable. We could quickly move the boats to Singapore, prior to the typhoon season, in May and June, and then come back in September and October for fun cruising in Thailand, then return the boats to Singapore. We could then ship all three boats to the Med together from Singapore.” This immediately made sense, and addressed many issues that had been bothering me. It was an agreement not to go to the places I least wanted to go: Vietnam and Cambodia. It also indicated that the others (Seabird and Grey Pearl) were agreeing to ship their boats to the Med, rather than trying to brave the Somalia pirates on their own bottoms.

I then said that I had heard good things about the Philippines and that we should consider stopping there. This caught Braun by surprise, in that he thought I would refuse to go to the Philippines, and a couple of weeks earlier he would have been right. But over the past few weeks I’ve done a bit of research and decided that the Philippines might not be so bad. There are beautiful beaches and resorts to be found in the Philippines and Malaysia. We could stop along the way and have fun.

The orange markers in the chart above represent actual pirate attacks, and the yellow markers are attempted attacks.

My worry, though, is piracy. Above is the 2010 pirate attack map, taken from this link:

http://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php?option=com_fabrik&view=visualization&controller=visualization.googlemap&Itemid=219

These are real, reported pirate attacks during 2010, and this represents only the first half of the year. Everyone tells me we are safe between Hong Kong and Singapore, and many people have told me lately that the Mallaca Straits are 100% safe. However, the facts say otherwise. Each of the markers on the picture above is a real attack. All are against freighters, but my guess is that a lot more freighters move through the area than private yachts. It doesn’t mean that private yachts wouldn’t represent a good profit opportunity.

The bottom line: I agreed to Braun’s plan. I don’t like the pirate risk, but there are three of us, traveling together, and the pirates haven’t been focusing on yachts. Most importantly, it allows our group to stay together and the GSSR to survive.

My only caveat was that I need to understand the issues associated with shipping our boats from Singapore. I do not want to be in a position where the three boats get to Singapore, and there are no freighters that can carry Sans Souci. Three years ago, Sans Souci and Grey Pearl were sitting in Golfito. A freighter arrived that was able to scoop up Grey Pearl, but said ‘no’ when they looked at San Souci’s 120 gross ton weight. Instead, Sans Souci had to sit in Golfito Costa Rica for nearly six months, watching a succession of freighters pass by, none of which could transport Sans Souci. Ultimately, our boat had to be driven all the way back to Seattle on its own bottom. I’ve been there, done that, and am not doing it again.

Here’s a sneak peek at the first pass at a trip plan for the GSSR 2011 that I sent to the group. This is very preliminary and was just sent to start the discussion going. Braun responded with this comment: “Done. The GSSR is together again! Destinations don’t matter, people do. -braun”

So, with all that said, I’ll close out the year a few random pictures from our final days in Hong Kong...

Here's a picture from the strangest incident of the trip. While Seabird was at the dock in Taiwan, a driver commited suicide next to their boat, by tying his hands to the steering wheel and driving into the water, just in front of Seabird. Hours after pulling the car and driver from the water, the winds came up, blowing the car back into the water, driverless. It came within feet of striking Seabird and wound up on the bottom beneath Seabird, requiring Seabird to move so the car could be retrieved from the water, for the second time.

I wanted to see what a marina looked like which didn’t have boat slips, so Roberta and I took this Sampan around the bay at Aberdeen to explore the boats. Whereas we were just ‘being tourists’ these sampans have a real purpose. There is an entire floating city of boats at Aberdeen, with many people living on their boats, both fisherman, and others. The Sampans are their link with shore.

This floating chinese restaurant in the middle of the bay at Aberdeen is enormous! We didn’t eat there, but I hear it is actually fairly good, even if ‘touristy.’

As the Grey Pearl was preparing to depart Taiwan they discovered that their bow thruster had died. With a single engine boat, with no stern thruster, and the bow thruster not-functioning, maneuvering inside the marina, on arrival in Hong Kong would be impossible. Here you see us using rodeo tactics to lure Grey Pearl onto the dock.

Here you see Sans Souci sharing a slip with a 120’ boat. There are a LOT of big boats in Hong Kong.

Seabird is moored just behind Sans Souci.

[Top row: Braun Jones, Carol Argosy, Steven Argosy. Bottom Row: Tina Jones, Roberta Williams, Ken Williams] To celebrate the GSSR’s arrival in Hong Kong we went out for a ritzy French dinner. It was strange seeing everyone all fancied up. Most of the time we wear shorts, t-shirts and look kind of grungy (except the ladies who are always beautiful .)

Before leaving Hong Kong we wanted to see all of the anchorages in the Hong Kong area, so that we would know how much time to allocate to local cruising when we return. Here you see Steven and Carol enjoying the sensation of speed (25+ knots) on the boat we rented.

We used a local captain to shuttle us around to see all the anchorages. Behind him you see two boats pulling a net. This picture was taken after he accidentally ran over the net, and he is looking at the props to see if there is any damage (there wasn’t.) I was very happy I hadn’t been driving at the time.

A giant Buddha statue, sitting high on a mountain.

As we worked our way around Hong Kong we saw many white sand beaches, just waiting for us to come drop our anchors. Hong Kong’s only rule on where you can, or can’t, anchor is: don’t block traffic.

A fleet of fishing boats rafted together.

A small fishing village we passed. Hong Kong is a very unusual place, in that the vast majority of the land is protected from construction. Thus, you can see clusters of huge skyscrapers, then turn the corner and see a tiny fishing village, or nothing at all, and pretend you are a million miles from civilization.

Here we’re approaching an anchorage with a beach. There were already several boats at anchor. I have a couple of memories from this anchorage: 1) We watched as a local boat, probably 70 feet long, with about 20 passengers, pulled in to drop anchor. Before the boat could come to a complete stop, the raucus passengers started laughing and pushing each other off the boat into the water. I couldn’t believe it! They were swimming within a few feet of the boat, while it was still in the process of dropping anchor, with the props still turning. Luckily no one was hurt, but it seemed a very dangerous sitution to me. And, 2) I’ve noticed that all of the swimming beaches have shark nets, including this one. I asked if there had been shark attacks. The answer was, “Not for almost a decade, but there were three people killed here, at this anchorage, in separate attacks. I wouldn’t worry about it though. You can swim anywhere.”

Roberta, enjoying the ride.

Most of the marinas in Hong Kong have no docks. The boats just float all the time. Some have power, but most do not. We were very lucky to get into a good marina in Hong Kong, with normal docks and shorepower.

An overhead look at a floating marina.

Here you see Steven looking very relaxed, given that we are within about 50 feet of a tug pulling a barge, with a freighter bearing down on us from another direction. The channel that separates Kowloon from Hong Kong has a LOT of traffic. I remember that prior to this trip my rule was always that I never wanted to get within a mile of a freighter. In Asia I have had to recalibrate my whole outlook on how close two boats can come to each other.

Prior to our trip I added scuba tank storage in the cockpit of the boat. These brackets work slickly, and fold out of the way completely when not needed. Hopefully, next year, the tanks will get MUCH more use.

You can tell I am starting to think ahead to the Med. Here you see that I put out the passarelle, for us to walk on in boarding the boat. There was really no need to do so, in that we could just step off the side of the boat, but I had never tried our passarelle and wanted to see if it worked. It did!

If this picture looks out of context, that’s because it is! Here you see Roberta and Shelby in Zurich Switzerland. In order to get home from Hong Kong we had to fly to Europe, then New York, and finally back to Seattle. It’s the wrong way around, but Swiss Air is very dog friendly and lets Shelby ride with us in the cabin. All of Switzerland is dog friendly. We had dinner in restaurants so fancy I was surprised they let me in, but none of them opposed allowing Shelby to sit with us at our table. The best thing about this picture is how happy Shelby looks. The weather in Hong Kong was too hot for Shelby. She just couldn't take it. One day, Steven from Seabird, got curious how hot it was, and got out his infrared temperature gun. Here's the email he sent: "Ken: I just checked the temps outside with my heat gun. Teak under the shade: 99 degrees Concrete dock: 148 degrees Bow deck of Seabird: 166 degrees. Too hot for bare feet! Steven "

Check out these blog entries…

Steven and Carol, on Seabird, have been catching up on their blog. Check out their last blog entry: http://www.seabirdlrc.com/aspx/blob2/blobpage.aspx?msgid=485656&beid=100618. There’s a bit more about the problem that forced them to turn back on the way to Hong Kong.

Also, Don and Sharry Stabbert, on Starr, have continued cruising Japan. Their most recent blog entry presents a side of Japan that I am unfortunately blind to. For whatever reason, I never was able to bond with Japan as they did. Check out this blog entry (and, all their others), which explain why cruising in Japan is worth the distance to get there, and all the bureaucracy: http://starr.talkspotblogs.com/aspx/m/629684/beid/99755

And lastly, I would like to thank all the special people who made this year’s GSSR trip possible...

As several people said, “Japan has never seen anything like the GSSR.” Three American motor boats cruising Japan is simply unheard of, and Japan is not a country which reacts well to events without precedence. Kazuo Furuno, from Interocean Shipping (http://www.interocean.co.jp/), was our agent in Japan, and made the impossible possible. Anyone considering cruising Japan would be well advised to have Furuno assist them with logistics.

We also owe a thank you to John Rutherford, who helped us in Okinawa. John is a friend of a regular reader of my blog, and with no idea who we were, or what the GSSR was, interceded on our behalf to get us moorage in Okinawa, then took his sailboat out in the rain to guide us safely into the marina.

Another very special person, actually a whole company, that helped make our 2010 GSSR voyage a success was Tim Yuan, and his company Ta Shing. In addition to building our marvelous boats, that brought us so smoothly across the Bering Sea, they gave us a hero’s welcome in Taiwan, a fantastic tour of their factory, many meals, and more.

I also can’t forget the people at Asia Yacht Services who are watching over our boats during the offseason, especially Karen Ball, who served as crew, helping to guide Sans Souci safely though Hong Kong in the dark.

Another unsung hero this year, was Jeff Sanson, and his company Pacific Yacht Management (www.pacificyachtmanagement.com). Prior to Sans Souci’s departure this season, Jeff brought a team of experts to Japan, and spent three weeks ‘tweaking’ the boat. I was then able to step on board, and run the entire season with no mechanical issues, thanks to Jeff’s hard work.

Then, there is Phil Strable, our good friend and helper, who flew to Hong Kong the last 10 days we were there to 'babysit' Shelby onboard Sans Souci while Roberta and I luxuriated for a week at the ultra-ritzy Peninsula Hotel in downtown Kowloon -- then later helped us get the boat cleaned and ready to leave for the winter.

And of course, I can’t forget Roberta’s parents, in their 80s, who traveled across the Atlantic with us a few years back, through Alaska with us last year, and this year helped us make the run from Nagasaki, Japan, to Okinawa. We also had the pleasure of having on board our son, Chris, who speaks fluent Japanese, and was also on Sans Souci last year just after the GSSR's arrival to Japan, and also for the Fubar rally through Baja, Mexico, a few years back.

And of course, the biggest thank you of all goes to our co-conspirators on the GSSR; Braun and Tina Jones and Steven and Carol Argosy, without whose companionship, assistance, and friendship, the GSSR wouldn’t be the GSSR.

Which brings me to all of you, who read this blog. I thank you for taking the time to follow our journey, and for all of the 100s of emails, offering invaluable assistance and encouragement as we’ve made our journey.

And, with that, it’s back to civilian life for me until next year. I don’t plan to do an offseason blog. This year, I won’t be sending anything else beyond this last blog update, except perhaps short updates from time to time as we do trip planning.

So ….

See you next year!

Thank you,

Ken Williams
Sans Souci, Nordhavn 68
www.kensblog.com
And, if you are interested in my books, check out : http://www.lulu.com/kenw

GSSR No. 15 - The Road to Hong Kong

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Greetings all!

Note: The first part of this blog entry is a bit redundant to the quick updates I sent out over the past couple of weeks...

In Taiwan, our boats were tied up at An Ping Fishing Harbor. It’s a small harbor, far out of town, with nothing around it. Nordhavn’s factory, Ta Shing, selected this location because it was a good place to work on the boats. The original plan had been that we’d park the boats and then shuffle off to a hotel while Ta Shing worked on our boats. However, while the others went to a hotel, Roberta and I were stuck on the boat. Shelby (our dog) was not able to clear into Taiwan, so she had to stay on the boat, which also meant we had to stay on the boat.

Karen from Asia Yacht Services

For our two day trip to Hong Kong I had asked Asia Yacht Services (www.asiayachtservices.com), the company that would be looking after our boats in Hong Kong, if they had anyone I could hire as crew for the passage. Roberta and I are fine to do the passage alone, but overnight passages are much easier with extra crew on board. Also, I liked the idea of having someone on board who had been into the Hong Kong port before. They agreed to send two people, including their head of maintenance. First one of these people dropped out, and then the other canceled the night before departure, due to visa problems getting into Taiwan. Instead, they sent Karen, who had sailed extensively around Hong Kong. We were very happy to have her.

Carol from Seabird working on clearing out of Taiwan. Note the smile. She would soon see these same people again, and the smile would be gone

Braun and Tina (Grey Pearl) gifted Sans Souci and Seabird a rubber stamp. I hadn’t been certain what I’d do with it, but it has been very handy in dealing with customs officials. They all expect me to have one, and insist I stamp it on all the official documents.

Only Seabird and Sans Souci would be departing for Hong Kong. Braun and Tina, from Grey Pearl, had decided to fly to mainland China for a three week tour. They would be joining us later in Hong Kong.

Seabird following Sans Souci as we departed the harbor in Taiwan

As we were departing, Roberta asked if she could take over and drive the boat. She wanted practice leaving the dock. She pulled us away from the dock perfectly, and I worked the lines. Before turning over control of the boat to her, I thought I noticed that the thrusters felt weak. I should have said something and gave them a full test. Not having done so would later turn out to be a serious error.

Our first hour out of port was tricky. There were a lot of fisherman, and fishing gear in the water. We had a hard time zigzagging through it. Once we hit open water, we relaxed and settled in for a two day passage.

But, our good moods didn’t last too long…

Normally after departure our boats speak on the radio to discuss speed. It’s normally a short discussion, “How’s this speed feel?” And, the response, “Fine. Let’s give it a try.” However, this time, when I asked the question, Steven (Seabird) said, "My exhaust is hotter than I like. Let’s slow down a bit." Half an hour later I radioed again to ask if the temperature had settled down. Carol said, “Steven’s in the engine room. He’s cleaning the air filter on the main engine.” This seemed very strange. A bit later Steven called back on the radio to say that he had cleaned the air filter and was hoping that it would solve the problem. This wasn’t something I would have thought of. Another half hour went by when I called Steven again, “How’s the heat?” He said it wasn’t improved and the boat was running the hottest it ever had. His entire drive train was significantly hotter than he had seen it before. “Should we be turning around?,” I asked. There was no answer for a bit, and then Steven said, “Yes. It is time to turn around.”

His response stunned me. I should have seen it coming, but didn’t. I assumed that the worst case was that we’d need to run slow. We discussed what might be happening and both agreed that it sounded like he had either collected growth on his bottom or possibly wrapped something around his prop. He needed to get back to shallow water, drop the anchor, and dive under the boat to see what was going on. He suggested that I continue, and then with a little luck he would be able to clean up whatever the problem was and then catch up with me.

A very sad look at Seabird on my chart plotter, as Seabird headed back

By a strange coincidence, I had just been doing a safety briefing for Karen, our new crew member...

I had been explaining where all the safety equipment was, including fire extinguishers, life jackets, life rafts, and survival suits. We were trying to decide whether if there were an emergency, would getting into survival suits made sense? I mentioned that it was an irrelevant issue, in that the beauty of traveling with two other boats was that if anything went wrong we’d be rescued within minutes of hitting the water.

However, this was no longer true. For the first time in over 7,000 nautical miles of cruising, we would be totally alone.

I did think about whether or not I should also turn around...

Our GSSR group has always said that if one of us is stuck at sea, the others would not leave them behind. In this case, we were still close to port, and I’d be in radio contact with Seabird all the way to port. If I continued alone, I would be the one who was at risk, not Seabird. Steven felt there was a chance he’d be able to clean his bottom, and flip around to catch up with me. I wasn’t convinced this was possible, but thought there was a chance he could at least catch up enough to get into radio range. I had high hopes that this would be possible.

Slowing down to wait for Seabird could be dangerous. We had been alerted that a typhoon was coming. We were scheduled to arrive 24 hours ahead of the typhoon, but I didn't want to give up any of our margin for error.

The determining factor, in my decision to continue without Seabird, became our dog. Shelby had a tough time of it in Taiwan. She was stuck on the boat because we couldn’t clear her into Taiwan. Shelby is in good shape for a fourteen year old dog, but she’s starting to show her age. She seemed to be in serious depression and was just lying on the floor looking sad. We needed to get her off the boat. Also, we had spoken to animal quarantine in Hong Kong and they were considering Japan as our last port prior to Hong Kong. They knew we were stopping in Taiwan, but that Shelby wasn’t getting off the boat. If we turned around, and had to spend another week in Taiwan, at some point, Hong Kong would lose patience with us.

Thus, we continued alone...

Unfortunately, we weren’t moving very fast, and I wasn’t certain why. We were averaging only about 7 knots. Our speed was bouncing between as little as 5.5 knots and no more than 7.5 knots. Was the problem crud on our bottom, or was it an adverse current? I had no idea. One idea was to make a 180 degree turn and look to see if we accelerated. However, I had asked Steven whether or not his speed picked up when he turned around, and he said that he did not pick up speed when he turned back.

When Seabird reached shallow water, just before the port, they dropped anchor and Steven dived under the boat. I was very curious to speak with him to find out if indeed our theory was correct, and his problem was growth on his bottom, and if he would be able to quickly wipe it off and rejoin me. I was also curious to find whether or not there was growth on my bottom, or if what I was experiencing was current.

Steven did not call back until we were nearly twenty miles apart. “I have good news and bad news” he said. “The good news is that the problem is that the prop and keel cooler have a inch thick layer of a white chalky substance on them. The bad news is that there is way too much of it for me to clean off. I have already spoken with Ta Shing and they have scheduled a diver to come tomorrow.” All hope was gone that Seabird would be turning around to join us. We would be making the passage alone, and apparently, our problem wasn’t current. We would be doing the rest of the passage at this horribly slow speed. It was now apparent that we would be arriving in Hong Kong after dark.

I felt terrible leaving Seabird alone in Taiwan.

The distance from Taiwan to Hong Kong is 400 nautical miles. One very unusual aspect of the passage is that the majority of the trip is over shallow water, mostly only a couple of hundred feet deep. And, studying the chart, I could see a place that was under 50 feet deep. This seemed perfect as a place to drop anchor and inspect the bottom. I wanted to get out my scuba gear, and have everything teed up, so that we could drop anchor, I could dive, and be back in the boat within 30 minutes. However, when I shared my plan with Roberta, she talked me out of it. We were in 2-3 foot waves, and the bottom would be bouncing while I was underneath. If anything went wrong, with us 75 miles from shore, it would be a nasty situation. We were running fine, although slower than we’d like.

And, Roberta wasn’t convinced that our problem wasn’t current. The simplest way to find out if you are in a current or not is to simply turn around and see if you move faster. Doing this probably meant a 30 minute to one hour delay, and we were fighting the clock for daylight arrival. Plus, it really didn’t matter. Unless I was willing to go under the boat and clean the bottom, it was what it was. We either were in current, or we weren’t, but nothing was going to change it.

I should segue for a minute to talk about how we did our shifts driving the boat….

With three people on the boat, we decided to slice the driving into three hour shifts. Roberta would drive for three hours, then Karen for three hours, and then me for three hours, and then we’d repeat it. This meant that everyone would have six hours to rest between driving.

Prior to this trip I had never met Karen in my life. She seemed competent, but you have to really trust someone to go to sleep on a long passage while they drive. I grilled Karen on her background, and mostly, she had done watches on sailboats, not powerboats. Sans Souci is complex, and was not running 100%. The gunk on the bottom and the adverse current were causing Sans Souci to run slowly, and warmer than usual. I knew that I had to sleep, or I’d be dangerous to have on the helm. I decided that the best answer was to do double shifts with Karen until I knew her better and had a sense of her watch skills. To my delight, she was an outstanding watch-stander. She took the initiative to step outside the pilot house every 30 minutes, to have a really good look for other boats, and paid very close attention to both radars. We had a good team, and sleep would be possible

Once Sans Souci arrived at the shallow water, something completely unexpected occurred. I had expected that the seas might get rougher due to the shallow water, but they stayed the same. What did change was that we started to speed up. In minutes, my speed jumped from 6.5 knots to 7.5 knots, then to 8.1 knots, and onward to 9.8 knots. Wow!!! Not exactly warp speed, but I was very happy with it. Our arrival time whiplashed from arriving at 10pm, to arriving at 4am. I know, for different rpms, how fast the boat should go, and we were getting at least a 1 knot push. This was weird, and not predicted on the current charts. After a couple of hours we slowed down a bit, to 8.5 knots, but then ran at that speed for another 12 hours. We were very pleased on Sans Souci.

On our second day, we were running along the China coast. We never saw mainland china, but always knew it was about 12 miles out the window on the starboard side of the boat. For me, it was a very strange feeling. I NEVER would have thought I’d be driving a boat off the shore of China. What was I doing here?

The currents that were pushing us had accelerated our arrival to the point that we were on track to arrive early, perhaps even in the dark. We needed to slow down.

However, we had a new problem...

Over the past couple of hours, a swell had started. The typhoon was still a long ways away from us, but it was stirring up the water in the Philippines, and some of the swell was working its way our direction. Or, so I thought. All I really knew was that during a two hour period, our relatively calm seas had risen to where a gentle eight foot swell had evolved. We were climbing up one side of the swell, then falling off the backside. It wasn’t at all a problem. As we’d come down the backside of the swell, we twisted around a bit, and were perhaps losing some speed. However, it was what I didn’t know that was worrying me. How much taller was the swell going to get? Eight feet was fine, but twenty feet wouldn’t be. Perhaps the typhoon was accelerating? Perhaps it was no big deal and I was over-reacting? Perhaps I hadn’t slept as much as I should, and was getting paranoid about the approaching typhoon.

I looked Karen in the eye and said, “Are you 100% sure you can guide us into Hong Kong in the dark?” She answered, “No problem.” And, I kicked up the throttle. It was time to move. By speeding up we would be arriving at the entrance to Hong Kong at 3am, in the complete dark. This would not be good, but Karen seemed confident, and I don’t like typhoons, plus, I liked the idea of being in port and getting some sleep.

Under normal circumstances, I can ‘put the pedal to the metal’ on Sans Souci, and all is well. But, with the water around us warmer than most showers, crud caked on the bottom of the boat, thru-hulls partially clogged and caked-over props, my drive train was complaining a bit. I dedicated one of our three monitors in the pilothouse just to monitoring the temperatures of the engines, transmissions and shafts. The engines were the most worrisome. I’m not a diesel mechanic, so I really don’t know at what temperature I should start worrying. I’m accustoming to seeing the engines run 176 degrees, but now they were running 192 degrees. The shafts, which normally run 83 degrees were running 106 degrees. The transmissions, that normally run 125 degrees were closing in on 150 degrees! I phoned friends, all of whom asked the water temperature, and everyone felt I was fine, so, I continued to worry, but kept the speed up.

The swell never rose any further, and actually fell a bit. As usual, I was being overly cautious. Generally speaking though, I’ve gotten in less trouble worrying too much, than when I’ve worried too little.

The final phase of approaching Hong Kong is to run through about 30 miles of islands. I plotted a course that took us alongside a special shipping lane set up for freighters. My intent was to run the right edge of the lane, but stay out of the freighters way.

As we approached my right turn, I had probably ten freighters within a mile of Sans Souci, plus several freighters outbound that were showing on the radar, and some smaller boats heading my way that I was going to need to zigzag through. Roberta had gone down to sleep, so it was just Karen and I at the helm. The freighters tend to move at anywhere from 12 knots of speed to 20 knots. Sans Souci moves only about 9 knots, and whereas I had assumed the current would die, it remained against us, and intensified. I now had at least a couple knots of current against me, and was being overtaken quickly, on both sides, by the freighters. Meanwhile, the first of the two smaller boats headed straight for me. I had planned to pass behind him, but he started shining his searchlight at me. I was close enough now to see that it was towing the boat behind. I stopped dead in the water, causing Roberta to come rushing up the stairs to ask what was happening. And, this was all in about the first hundred yards. The next 30 miles were going to be ‘interesting.’

Soon after turning the corner, I realized that the right side of the shipping lane was lined with fishing boats pulling nets. I would need to run inside the traffic lane, meaning I’d constantly being dodging freighters coming from behind. I didn’t have to wait long to be put to the test. A freighter approached from behind, and I tried to squeeze to the right, but one of the fishing boats was there, and it was well into the traffic lane. It had big poles poking out the side and was pulling a net. I was caught between the freighter and the fishing boat. Once again, I hit the brakes, and slowed to let the freighter pass. I looked at Karen and asked, “How in the heck do you do this in a sailboat at night?”

Soon afterwards, a little tiny boat crossed by bow at lightning speed, passing within 50 feet of my bow. Why? He could easily have passed behind, and not put himself at risk?

During the day this doesn't look exciting, but at night it is a whole other experience.

Then I was passed by a couple of freighters so large that it was incomprehensible. There’s a special horn blast reserved for the danger sign; five short blasts. Trust me, it isn’t fun when you hear that sound from behind you, and look back to see a city-sized freighter on your tail.

There was one bright spot for the run, and I wish I had a picture to share. I put Navnet 3d into 3d mode, with radar overlay, and zoomed in to show about a 1 mile radius. It was beautiful! I could clearly see the traffic lane as well as all the boats around me. It also gave the ‘big picture’ of where all the islands were and what they looked like, and helped orient Karen and I.

Once I had Navnet 3d going, learned to stick to the center of the traffic lane, and started getting the hang of spotting the other ships, my mood brightened, and things didn't seem quite so tense.

At 5:30am the sun started rising, and I could see.

Daylight arrived just as we were pulling into port; the Gold Coast Marina in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

I assume most people know Hong Kong’s history with the British, and the hand-off to China, but if not, check out this Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong. Roberta and I were in Hong Kong for the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997. We have very fond memories of Hong Kong, and were curious to see it again.

Hong Kong is very unique in the world. The population density is higher than in Manhattan, and there is a lot of money running around. Great restaurants abound, and the British history means that English is not a problem.

Entering our marina was a very cool feeling. It was the first time I had seen a ‘real’ marina, with real-live floating docks, and recreational cruising boats, in many months.
\
There are ten or more restaurants at the top of the dock, an ATM machine, a wonderful grocery store, a 7-11 and even a McDonalds. We had shore power connected within minutes.

I felt a little guilty about Seabird, stuck behind in Taiwan, so I sent this email (CLICK HERE) telling him what the marina was like. I wanted him to enjoy Taiwan and not be thinking about Hong Kong.

Soon after though, I decided to be a little more honest and sent this link to some snapshots I took around the marina. The beach is immediately adjacent to the marina.

http://www.kensblog.com/aspx/m/Gold_Coast_Marina

Here’s one funny thing about the marina that we’re in. There are a lot of big boxy boats! Most are steel and look like floating shoeboxes. They are clearly boats, not houseboats, but if you look around the marina you’ll notice that a significant percentage of the boats have no radar, or domes of any sort, on top. I spoke with one owner who said that he was using his pseudo-boat as a condo, and it had 2,500 sq ft, but that he would soon be moving to a larger boat-condo of over 4,500 sq. ft., and that a similar waterfront condo would cost $6 to $8 million! Apparently there are rules about what constitutes a boat, and what constitutes a condo, and a boat must have an engine. So .. there are some boxy 'boats' around me in the marina, but I’ll bet they don’t have a lot of miles on their engines!

And, here’s something else strange about marinas in Hong Kong (not the one we are in!) I spoke with a local boat owner (a 60’ trawler) who mentioned that his marina had no docks whatsoever. His boat is just floating at a mooring buoy! I asked if he had to pay someone $5 to tender him to shore whenever he wanted on or off the boat, and he said, “Nope – it’s around 50 cents”. I thought for a minute, “What about shore power?” His response, “This is Hong Kong. Anything is possible. They ran a power cable out to me, under the water, that pokes up from a pipe.

And lastly, in my previous blog I mentioned that Roberta and I are making plans to move Sans Souci to the Med. I also mentioned that we might travel alone for a year without the other two GSSR boats.

This triggered a couple of questions on the NordhavnDreamers discussion group that I follow regularly (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nordhavndreamers)

I am including here two answers I gave to questions about our plans. They should be self-explanatory.

John asked whether we chose the Med, because it is the 'best place in the world."

--- In NordhavnDreamers@yahoogroups.com, Can Osten <canosten@...> wrote:
>
> Ken has mentioned that they are thinking to move their boat to Med (even
though they spend 3 seasons there earlier). This decision makes me think: Is Med
better than any other place on earth?
>
> Thanks,
> John O.
>

John:

The Med has much to recommend it, and much to recommend against it.

In general, I think the negatives seem to outweigh the positives for many
American cruisers. It seems to me that most of the NAR boats left the Med fairly
quickly and I don't think any of the second Atlantic Rally boats are still in
the Med.

The biggest positive for the Med is that there are a great number of different
cultures and countries, all within a fairly small area, to explore. You can
cruise Greece, Turkey, Italy, Croatia, Spain, France, Bosnia, Sicily, Corsica,
Sardinia and more, all with their unique cultures and languages. The truly
adventurous (not me) only need to pop across the Med to add places like Morocco,
Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Israel and Syria to their world tour. Or, you
can head through the Straits of Gibralta and head for Portugal, the UK, Ireland
and more. There's a lot of history and exploration to be had.

Generally speaking, there are no currents or tides in the Med. Good cruising
guides can be found. And in much of the Med, fishing boats and fishing gear in
the water are not a problem. Piracy is not a problem in the Med.

That said, there are enormous problems with language, electricity and wind.

Theoretically, english is the linga franca, and almost everyone speaks some
english. That said, communications can be difficult. If you have a bit of a
sense of humor, and plenty of patience, you will meet some great people, and can
make anything happen. If you get frustrated easily you'll have a terrible time.
Roberta speaks fluent spanish, and I speak mediocre french, so this helps.

The electricity varies from country to country and even marina to marina. There
is never enough, and it is usually not the right adapter, and the person who has
the adapter is usually not in this week.

And, the wind! I have sat in port for two weeks or more, on several occasions,
as the wind blew 30 knots and higher, relentlessly. I just spent yesterday
studying the 'wind roses' for Greece, and shaking my head.

Lastly, at least for me, the season is short. The Europeans (in the parts of the
Med I have frequented) think in terms of summer being July and August. The
'happening scene' is July August, and then the Med turns off the lights. I'm
exaggerating, but not completely. You can walk the beach in St Tropez on August
31st, tripping over bodies everywhere, or visit again on September 1st, fire a
cannon, and not hit anyone. Of course for some cruisers, this is good news, and
the shoulder months with decent weather, and the anchorages to themselves, are
their favorite.

Were I to pick one place on earth as the best cruising grounds, I'd probably
have to pick the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, which is saying an incredible
amount, given that I don't eat or catch fish, and don't like cold water. It is
impossible to look at my own pictures from our time there and not get emotional.
It's cruising as good as it gets.

As to why I want to head back to the Med... For me, the good days outweigh the
bad days, and the Pacific NW will still be there when I'm ready to sit still.
This is our time for 'seeing the world' and there is a lot of the Med we haven't
explored. We've spent 99% of our time in Europe in France or Spain. We've barely
touched the surface, and want to 'pick up' the other countries, plus we have all
of our favorite places in France and Spain we want to go back to.

But, I wouldn't say that Med cruising is perfect for everyone on this list...

-Ken W

Them, Ron Rogers asked whether or not this means the end of the GSSR...

Ron asked me, "...Does this mean that your part in the GSSR is over?..."

Ron: I really have no idea. The GSSR will reunite in Hong Kong on Monday, and
sometime after all the hugging is done, we'll sit down for some serious
discussion about where we cruise next year. Last year at this time we had no
idea where we were heading, and in fact, we really didn't decide until a couple
weeks after we had all flown home.

We all know that we are headed towards the Med, but there are three different
couples with three different ideas on how to get there. None of us wants to go
past Somalia and deal with pirates. There is some discussion of 'going for it'
using a heavily armed convoy. Those who know me know that this will never happen
(for me anyhow). I'm not a cowboy. There is also discussion of going somewhat
closer to where the pirates are, than where we are, such as Thailand, and ship
the boats to the Med from there. And, there is discussion of shipping the boats
to the Med from where we are now, in Hong Kong.

Polynesia and Australia have not been ruled out, and we may head that direction.
That said, Australia is distinctly dog-unfriendly, so I'm not sure how that
plays out. We might go there and leave Shelby (our dog) at home. I don't know.

I sent an email to the others a couple weeks ago saying, "I'm ok with anywhere,
as long as there aren't pirates." And, they both wrote back saying essentially
the same thing.

I have one extra issue. I don't want to go somewhere where I can't ship my boat.
Longtime readers of my blog may remember that a few years back my boat got
caught for six months in Golfito, and I couldn't get it shipped. We're over 100
tons, and only a minority of freighters seem to be able to carry us. The whole
mess resulted in litigation with Yachtpath that is still dragging its way
through the courts (I won the case, but the appeals process is long and
expensive.) I need to make sure that wherever we go I can either ship the boat,
or I am willing to drive it, to wherever we go next. If I continue on to
Thailand, I need to know that I can ship the boat from there, or somewhere
close.

Overall, we're not burning a lot of brain cells worrying about it. There are
enormous benefits to cruising far-off places as part of a group. I don't know
that any of us would venture as far off the grid, as we have, alone. In addition
to the practical reasons for cruising together, there is the fact that our group
has bonded. The other two boats don't arrive in Hong Kong until Monday, and it
feels funny being here without them. It is more fun to share cool experiences
with friends.

So...

It's a little like a movie, where there are lots of ups and downs, and lots of
things are happening, but you don't worry too much because you know at the end
the guy is going to get the girl, and the nice older couple is going to get to
keep their farm. I know that our GSSR group is going to figure where to go next
year, and that we're going to see a lot of the world together, but damned if I
know how we get there from here. But, we will.

-Ken W

That’s it for today! I’ll post again when Seabird and Grey Pearl arrive in Hong Kong. For now, they are on the move. This link should allow you to track their movement, live, over the next two days:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0QFfdZsomAjanceJLt1fsqyBLUHqnKLD1

I'll be checking it often!

Thank you,

Ken Williams
Sans Souci, Nordhavn 68
www.kensblog.com
And, if you are interested in my books, check out : http://www.lulu.com/kenw

GSSR 2010 - Quick Update - Sans Souci is in Hong Kong

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I am pleased to report that Sans Souci is now happily sitting at the dock in Hong Kong.

The final hours of our arrival were tense. I’ll write more about it when I write my real blog sometime in the next week. As I’ve mentioned in the past, it is always a priority for us to arrive, after a passage, in the daylight. On the passage to Hong Kong this was tricky because of the currents. Our estimated arrival time varied wildly as the currents had their way with us. We usually can pinpoint our arrival time within a few minutes, and adjust speed to hit our forecast, but on this passage my estimated arrival times swung by as much as 12 hours. Ultimately, we became worried about the approaching typhoon and decided to pull out all stops and run as fast as we could to Hong Kong, even though it would mean arriving at night. The last 30 miles of our arrival was spent in total darkness, dodging between a multitude of city-sized freighters, fishing boats pulling nets, and tugs pulling barges. The radar was totally useless and running the boat required two of us, with 100% focus on looking out the windows.

Here’s one moment from early in our night…

I was surprised by a little tiny boat, perhaps 15-20 feet long, which never appeared on radar, suddenly crossing my bow. The boat shot in front of me, with amazing speed, while I was in the main traffic lane, within 50 feet of my running it over. I was in shock that I could have missed it, and that the captain on the little boat would have been so stupid. I absolutely had the right of way. The boat was lit, but was dimly lit, and to be honest, in the freighter lanes I wasn’t expecting tender sized traffic. I mentioned the incident to a local and they said that the Chinese boats will sometimes deliberately cut in tight to your bow in an effort to have another boat boat clip off any bad luck spirits that might be trailing along behind their boat. Whether superstition played a role or not, I do not know. But I do know that it was a bad way for me to start the evenings cruise through heavy traffic, at night, on entry to Hong Kong. Or, perhaps it was a good occurrence, because you can bet I was highly focused on every light around me after that incident!

More when I get some time,

Ken Williams
www.kensblog.com
Nordhavn 68, Sans Souci

PS The typhoon became a non-event, missing Hong Kong entirely. I think one of the reasons there are so many stories floating around about boats that are caught in typhoons is that there are lots of false alarms. After a while you start thinking of Chicken Little, and that the typhoon will always miss you … until it doesn’t.

GSSR 2010 - Quick Update - One down, One To Go

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Sans Souci has completed the first day of two day passage to Hong Kong. We’re currently running along the south coast of China, in heavy freighter traffic, and smooth seas, about 15 miles offshore.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s update, we are in the unusual circumstance of racing towards a typhoon. This is a time when I'd like all the speed I can get, but the boat has been running at only 5.5 to 6.5 knots.

Seabird turned back to port, and discovered their props were caked with crud. At first, I couldn’t decide if our boat had the same problem, or if we were in a current.

I was fairly certain it was our boat, not current. When Seabird turned around I asked if they sped up, and they hadn’t. Also, our engines were running hotter, and burning 15-20% more fuel, than usual.

It was impossible to relax without knowing, and I started looking for a shallow place where I could dive under the boat. The run from Taiwan to Hong Kong is over mostly shallow water. Some is 400 feet deep, but the middle third is under 75 feet deep. If I held out I could drop anchor and clean the prop. However, the seas were too rough for diving, and Steven mentioned that he got slammed diving under Seabird. Roberta was convinced our problem was current, and didn’t want me beneath the boat in rough seas, 100 miles from shore. As the person who needed to do the swimming, I liked her thinking.

Before I had to make a decision, I received an email from another Nordhavn owner (Milt Baker) with the chart above. I had googled to try to find current information for the South China Sea and struck out, but Milt read my blog and hunted it down. In the chart above, the index along the right hand side is the current speed. We were in the worst possible position for current. The good news was that we were working our way southwest and the adverse current would be reducing to 1 or 2 knots soon.

Actually, it turned out even better than this. When we hit the long, nearly 75 mile long stretch of shallow water, the current turned for a bit and was pushing us. We accelerated from 5.5 to 10 knots in minutes! The high speed only lasted a few hours, and then dropped to no current for another eight hours (allowing us to make 9 knots). I noticed that during the time we had no current, or a pushing current, the water temperature dropped significantly, from 88 degrees all the way to 73 degrees. This was very welcome and the entire boat ran much happier on the cool water.

We are now following the South China coast, and have a 1 to 2 knot current against us, which we expect to continue for the rest of our run. We’re making 7.1 knots and estimate arrival about 18 hours from now into Hong Kong.

It is amazing to think that just out our starboard window is China, and we started in Seattle. I’d have never thought it possible! The only disappointing thing is that our friends on Seabird and Grey Pearl aren’t with us. The radio seems dead without them to talk to and share the experience. They’ll be along in a few days, but it would have been nice to finish the season as a team. We miss them!

We should start feeling the effect of the typhoon sometime later tonight, but I’m confident that we are far enough ahead of the storm that any impact will be minimal. And, hopefully, I’m right!

Sans Souci’s present position can always be found by going to http://www.kensblog.com and click on the menu entry for “Current Location.”

Thank you,
Ken Williams
www.kensblog.com
Nordhavn 68, Sans Souci

PS Many of you have sent emails and posted comments on my blog. I apologize for not responding. There are only three of us on the boat and it is tough to find time to get on the computer. I'll answer everyone when we're safely in port.

GSSR 2010 - Quick Update - Sans Souci Alone at Sea

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The GSSR is underway, although, not really.

Sans Souci is now underway, six hours into a two day passage, and running ALONE.

Grey Pearl was planned to stay behind in Taiwan, because Braun and Tina decided to do a three week tour of China, and then come to Hong Kong.

Sans Souci and Seabird left port at 07:30 this morning (it is not 2:30pm), and noticed within an hour of leaving port that Seabird’s engines and transmission were running much hotter than usual.

Seabird had to turn back. The suspicion was that growth had formed on Seabird’s keel cooler (which provides cooling to the engine) during the week we sat at port, in 90 degree water in Taiwan.

Sans Souci thought about turning back, but continued on. Our thinking was:

Seabird would be within radio range for most of the run back to Taiwan, and we could speak to them if needed
There’s a typhoon coming. By continuing forward to Hong Kong we’ll arrive at least 24 hours ahead of the typhoon. If we go back we’ll be stuck in Taiwan for several days, or more likely a week, waiting for another weather window.
We are running fine, and have our dog on board. In Hong Kong, Shelby (our dog) can walk around on land. She has been sick for a week and desperately needs off the boat. There is no way to clear her into Taiwan, whereas she is already approved for Hong Kong.

I just spoke to Steven (Seabird) and he took Seabird back into shallow water and dived under the boat. He could see immediately that his prop had an inch of a white chalky substance caked on his prop. The water was too rough for him to clean the prop or see his keel cooler. He made the decision to return to port in Taiwan, find a diver, and wait until after the typhoon.

Meanwhile, Sans Souci is struggling a bit. There is a current against us, and we have slowed to 5.5 knots. At this speed, our ‘time to get to port’ has risen by another 12 hours. Argh! Hopefully this is a temporary phenomena and we’ll get back to speed sometime in the next 24 hours, but I’m not hopeful. We have one crew person on board, from Hong Kong, who mentioned a sailboat that tried for Singapore last week, and had to turn back due to the strong current.

More when I know more.

Thank you,
Ken Williams
N6805, Sans Souci
www.kensblog.com

GSSR 2010 - Quick Update

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Roberta and I have enjoyed our week in Taiwan, and are now preparing to depart tomorrow morning, early, for Hong Kong.

We have hardly left the boat this week. Both Roberta and I wanted some quiet time on our computers, plus Shelby, our dog, has been sick. We didn’t clear her into Taiwan, so she has been stuck on the boat all week, and seems depressed. She will be clearing into Hong Kong, and we’re confident that as soon as she reaches land she’ll perk right up.

The run to Hong Kong is a long one; a 375 nautical mile passage, which will take us two full days.

Once we are running, our location may be checked at any time via this link:

http://www.kensblog.com/aspx/m/Current_Location

There is one worrisome detail...

A tropical storm is headed our direction, called Conson.

You can track it on this site: http://www.typhoon2000.ph/

We are set to arrive into Hong Kong a good 24 hours before it is scheduled to hit. I don't have enough history with these things to know if there is any chance it will arrive faster than planned, or the odds that it will be upgraded to a typhoon. We use a professional weather router (http://www.oceanmarinenav.com) who we will consult before making the final call on whether or not we depart. If there is any risk, we won't depart.

More from Hong Kong!

Thank you,
Ken Williams
www.kensblog.com
N6805, Sans Souci