Hello to all who have received a log on to WAYN request from sail621 and also to those who did not. Please be advised this site is new to me as well. While updating emails I answered one email requesting I join, noting other computer savvy people I knew were already members I decided to register and explore WAYN for myself. However in the sign up process WAYN allows one to add other WAYN members and non-WAYN members from our yahoo address book and it does this automatically. Not realizing it would automatically send to our yahoo addresses book when I logged off for the evening, so my apologies for any inconveniences this may have caused. I found this a bit irritating so I do not think I will be blogging much on WAYN, we have good friends that are google – gmail – blogger advocates and this is the blogger site I will be using for future updates.
On the positive side of my email blunder this has inspired me to get a message out to those I have not connected with for some time and those I email on a more regular basis. I also want to thank all of you who have responded to WAYN it was good to hear from you. So I have enclosed in this blog some photos and a “what’s new in our cruising world (we wish) SV Equus” update and we sure hope to hear from you as well, please drop us an email our new email is sailequus@gmail.com or we still have our old account at sail621@yahoo.com. Please be advised it may be awhile till I get our blog going full speed due to our schedule with getting Equus cruising again. Warmest regards, love Patricia and Steve.
Spending some time reviewing this past year’s happenings via letters/emails sent, emails received, pictures etc… I was a bit exhausted so it is no wonder I write this update with a sigh of gratitude for all I/we have experienced this past year, some good and some not so good – such is life ahe. Life is in how we choose to look at things, that choice significantly dictates our attitude. So many lessons learned along the way as well.
Over all, last year was filled with many turns, some easy and some rough. The first part of the year was spent in Langkawi, Malaysia working on getting Equus’ equipment ready for the cruising season. This was complicated by the fact that most of our technology was going on 7+ years old, which may seem young too many. However given the harsh salt-water environment and the speed with which technology changes, its like dog years to electronics/boat environment. Something like - add 10 years to every one.
So we finally pushed away from the dock in February and headed toward Thailand. We had a crew of two mates from th
e UK, Bo and Pete, and all was going well until about 8pm one evening we decided to retire below decks because we found the 95+ degrees outside a bit oppressive. So we were making dinner discussing life over a fine vintage when the boat filled with smoke
Well I panicked and I must say Bo, Pete and Steve handled the situation quite well. After all we were only several hundred meters from an uninhabited beautiful tropical island, however that was the furthest thing from my mind. I had visions of our boat going up in flames. Having had 1st hand experience the year before, while rescuing fellow cruisers from their burning boat in the middle of the night while beating our way through the Red Sea. Which by the way took a total of only 10 min. to be completely engulfed in flames. That is one memory that is hard to erase from my mind.
Back on board Equus; we searched for the source of the smoke I scurried to gather passports and precious items as well as secure Equus. The source of the smoke was our generator wiring, the rotor, which had a melt down, literally (an 8 year old generator!). After the drama settled it took a few days to rid the boat of burnt wire smell. So needless to say our leisurely meandering up the cost of Thailand was cut a bit short (no generator) and we are a generator dependant boat. We pulled in and got our generator rewired in Boat Lagoon, Phuket. It only took them two tries, and most of the remaining cruising season.
So after bidding our Mates goodbye, they continued on their exciting around the world tour. We put on our work hats and had our first experience with the Thai work culture as we tried to get Equus back into ship shape to enjoy what was left of our cruising season. Like many times in life, things didn’t go as planned, you would think I would learn to go with the flow by now, ahe?
However we were somewhat successful and did get a few weeks in cruising before we decided to do a major refit on Equus and head back to North America. The refit started with a new paint job, topsides and deck. Then we noticed Equus’ soles (floors) 34+ years old, and looking their age. We decided to have them redone, while in the land of teak or close by (most teak really comes from Burma these days). The rest is history, so they say. “While we pull that out lets add insulation, and while all the cabinets have been stripped from inside lets make those changes to the galley, heads, aft yadda yadda yadda.” And here we are some 10 months later, working feverishly to get Equus put back together and hopefully enjoy a few weeks of this year’s cruising season, which ends in May, when the NE monsoon sets in, sound familiar?
Our visit to the states was good and flew by, there never seems to be enough time to see everyone we would like to see and spend the time with those we love. Hence life is just that way land based or sea. So a lesson learned for me is truly love and be present with the one you are with fully because you never know when you will see that person again.
Back to Thailand we donned our work clothes and realized – the warning from fellow cruisers before we left Equus, rang true. Do not leave your boat in Thai hands with expectations the work will meet western standards especially while you are not there to watch their (almost) every move. Not only was the work schedule 4 months behind, hardly anything had been done to the interior. So another lesson learned; why worry over the past it is what is and worrying/fretting is not going to change it so move forward and get over it. It seems as if we remind our selves of this daily.
So while the topside painting was being completed and our second Thai carpenter (the first carpenter just left) worked with Steve on rebuilding the aft bedroom, I took a month off and went to Chaing Mai for a Yoga TTC (teacher training class). I really enjoyed the North of Thailand and Steve came up for a visa run and we visited the Golden Triangle area of Burma-Thailand-Laos, spent about 20 min in Burma long enough to get our visa’s renewed walked back across the border and turned right around and headed south back to Chaing Mai. Then back to school work and yoga for me while Steve headed back to Phuket to oversee some finishing work on Equus’s exterior and work with the carpenter.
For the holidays we were both feeling a bit low realizing the amount of work ahead of us on Equus and missing our loved ones so we headed to the Mekong via Laos for a bit of R&R. What a great idea the weather was a bit like North Thailand warm breezy days and cool comfortable nights. We had a blast touring, eating fine French cuisine, wine and just some well-received rest.
We arrived in Vientian the most laid back capital in the world. We had success of completing our 2 month Thai visa and then headed North via a dusty, bumpy, wet ride to Vein Vang which consisted of a tuk tuk , open public commuter buss and kayak.
The kayak was the most fun, surfing down a mere stage two rapids, and we still were unable to keep our kayak from flipping as we dropped into the mini falls of rushing water. So we swam ashore and had a wonderful lunch prepared by our tour guys on shore. That night we slept like played out children in our romantic king size bed (complete with mozzy net to protect us) at a local Mulberry (silk worm) organic farm. After a day of rest we jumped into minivan and headed north toward Luang Prabang. Even though there were only a couple hundred kilometers of travel through Laos majestic mountain range it took us over 6 hours, with sore bums we still arrived happy, feeling the long trip was well worth it. The views and the local villages/people we experienced along the was a wonderful memory.
However it was a bit bizarre to see primitive villages and shared open bathroom in the center and then a satellite dish on the side of the huts, I guess all cultures have their priorities. However within an hour of arriving at the Ancient Luang Prabang Hotel we booked a flight back to Viantian for our return trip to Bangkok and then back to Phuket to finish our tasks at hand.
Same as last year, we plan on leaving the boat in June (Malaysia or Singapore) and fly back to North America to visit friends and family over the summer and fall. We keep in contact with them via email, call-back (a cell phone call back service) however it is not quite the same as being home in the USA. We miss our loved ones and our homeland, however we also love this life of great explorations and cruising, hopefully the later part will happen again real soon. Not being able to have it all we will settle for this life we have created and those who we love will hopefully understand and cherish our times together as much as we do. Our love to you all and may you all have smooth sailing were ever your port of call may be at present. Cheers and Shante (Peace) Love, Patricia and Steve
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