Sailing courses in Thailand
- Thread starter Will Gilmore
- Start date
I've landed in Narita Japan, waiting at the terminal for my flight to Bangkok.
Here are a few of pics of the Arctic.
As you can see in the fly-over simulation, that was the Red River we were over. I could see part of the Northwest Passage. No boats.
Our plans diverged from the shown flight plan and never flew over Russia. Don't know if that was on purpose, or just the weather patterns.
-Will
Here are a few of pics of the Arctic.
As you can see in the fly-over simulation, that was the Red River we were over. I could see part of the Northwest Passage. No boats.
Our plans diverged from the shown flight plan and never flew over Russia. Don't know if that was on purpose, or just the weather patterns.
-Will
Wat Intharawihan or Wat Indravihan is a Buddhist temple known for the 32 meter tall Standing Buddha.
The temple itself predates the founding of Bangkok in 1782 and was originally named Wat Rai Phrik. During the reign of King Rama I the temple was restored and renamed Wat Intharam.
The Chao Phraya River.
The three barges being pulled by the tugboat, were also pulling another tugboat. The boats in the foreground are referred to as longtails, for their drives. The whole engine is mounted on a pin to swivel port and starboard and up and down, to maneuver their long propeller shafts that stick out around 10-12 feet from the stern. There's a lot of water hyacinth in the Chao Phraya.
Sorry, no sailboats this far up river.
My wife and son aboard a water taxi.
-Will
The temple itself predates the founding of Bangkok in 1782 and was originally named Wat Rai Phrik. During the reign of King Rama I the temple was restored and renamed Wat Intharam.
The Chao Phraya River.
The three barges being pulled by the tugboat, were also pulling another tugboat. The boats in the foreground are referred to as longtails, for their drives. The whole engine is mounted on a pin to swivel port and starboard and up and down, to maneuver their long propeller shafts that stick out around 10-12 feet from the stern. There's a lot of water hyacinth in the Chao Phraya.
Sorry, no sailboats this far up river.
My wife and son aboard a water taxi.
-Will
We flew up to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai for a few days. We fed elephants and took a bamboo raft ride down a river through a tiny village of elephant rescuers.
I'll try to post pictures later, but I didn't take my phone, so no pictures in my gallery yet.
After, we flew down to Krabi and took a ferry out to Ko Lanta Island.
Very nice beach resorts. I love looking out to the water and seeing a procession of sailboats anchoring off the beach. Each day there are new boats.
-Will
I'll try to post pictures later, but I didn't take my phone, so no pictures in my gallery yet.
After, we flew down to Krabi and took a ferry out to Ko Lanta Island.
Very nice beach resorts. I love looking out to the water and seeing a procession of sailboats anchoring off the beach. Each day there are new boats.
-Will
We've moved to a new koh (island), Koh Samui.
This time in the Gulf of Thailand. Even more touristy. It is nice, but the beaches suffer a lot from the tourism. It is very hard to find a public trashcan in Thailand. Vendors and so forth, generally seem to pickup after themselves, but it's not perfect. I have carried a couple of empty water bottles for a couple of hours of market shopping, just looking for a place to toss them when I could.
But, it is beautiful here.
Our second AirBnB on Koh Samui.
We are spotting a number of "life birds" like the yellow throated Bulbul and the Greater Coucal, plus some interesting non-avian species (golden orb web spider, water monitor lizard).
The news on the Sailing front is that both my son and I have completed the online course material and received our certificates of completion of the IYT Crew course and the VHF operators certification. I am working on the online material for the bareboat skipper course that we will be taking on the 18th.
I learned a few things I didn't know in the crew course and VHF program. You all may be interested to know that even within the curriculum for the crew course, the anchor section contained a couple of inconsistencies, especially around the subject of scope. 7:1 for non-chain rode, 5:1 for chain in the intro, but other places it was 5-10:1, non-specified, 8-10:1 for non-chain rode. I don't need to point out the conservative standard they put on chain vs the 3:1 what many, including my own previous learning has set. The biggest problem with these conflicts, of course, come with the final exam. Which one do they mean on the test?
Anyhow, Thailand is a street food wonderland. Most of the markets, especially the night markets,
are 90% food.
-Will
This time in the Gulf of Thailand. Even more touristy. It is nice, but the beaches suffer a lot from the tourism. It is very hard to find a public trashcan in Thailand. Vendors and so forth, generally seem to pickup after themselves, but it's not perfect. I have carried a couple of empty water bottles for a couple of hours of market shopping, just looking for a place to toss them when I could.
But, it is beautiful here.
Our second AirBnB on Koh Samui.
We are spotting a number of "life birds" like the yellow throated Bulbul and the Greater Coucal, plus some interesting non-avian species (golden orb web spider, water monitor lizard).
The news on the Sailing front is that both my son and I have completed the online course material and received our certificates of completion of the IYT Crew course and the VHF operators certification. I am working on the online material for the bareboat skipper course that we will be taking on the 18th.
I learned a few things I didn't know in the crew course and VHF program. You all may be interested to know that even within the curriculum for the crew course, the anchor section contained a couple of inconsistencies, especially around the subject of scope. 7:1 for non-chain rode, 5:1 for chain in the intro, but other places it was 5-10:1, non-specified, 8-10:1 for non-chain rode. I don't need to point out the conservative standard they put on chain vs the 3:1 what many, including my own previous learning has set. The biggest problem with these conflicts, of course, come with the final exam. Which one do they mean on the test?
Anyhow, Thailand is a street food wonderland. Most of the markets, especially the night markets,
are 90% food.
-Will
We stayed at a boutique resort called The Sea.
It included three separate buildings within our private villacompound, and a private pool with our own private access to the restaurant/bar and public pool. One of the nicest stays we've ever been to. We booked last minute, as is our norm, and the only room they had available was the presidential villa
. We were only going to stay the one night, but my wife liked it so much we stayed two more nights.
On Koh Samui, there is a Secret Buddha Garden
in the middle of the island, built by Khun Nim Thongsuk, a retired farmer. He built it over 14 years until his death at 91 in 1990. It is amazing.
And extensive.
I mean,
So, now, we just got off the ferry and are heading across the peninsula to Phuket to start our sailing course.
-Will
It included three separate buildings within our private villacompound, and a private pool with our own private access to the restaurant/bar and public pool. One of the nicest stays we've ever been to. We booked last minute, as is our norm, and the only room they had available was the presidential villa
. We were only going to stay the one night, but my wife liked it so much we stayed two more nights.On Koh Samui, there is a Secret Buddha Garden
in the middle of the island, built by Khun Nim Thongsuk, a retired farmer. He built it over 14 years until his death at 91 in 1990. It is amazing.
And extensive.
I mean,
So, now, we just got off the ferry and are heading across the peninsula to Phuket to start our sailing course.
-Will
I am now an IYT certified skipper.
Sorry about the lack of communications, but my phone burned out after day two. The motherboard was shot. I just took it, this morning, to a Samsung service center, it's dead. I had to buy a new phone.
Anyhow, I can't recommend this enough. I don't mean to make a commercial plug, but John was just excellent. He and Jess are highly professional and knowledgeable. It was the best time.
John had us doing DR, identifying buoys and lights, trying his best to make me understand the tide tables, we heaved-to, did marina maneuvering and docking strategies, anchoring, of course. Just very thorough. We even went over the engines and did the maintenence of topping-off oil. I am not an engine guy.
In the mean time, we snorkelled in beautiful coves, took the dinghy ashore to various beaches with great waterfront establishments.
The boat was a Seawind 1160.
Perfect for testing and improving my rusty skills on.
We did manage to take a few pictures with John's phone and send them to my wife, so I should be able to post them later when I meet back up with her.
We even got hit with a seasonally unusual line squal and had to roll in the genny and douse the main very quickly. Nothing broke, so we did well.
If I get to come back here, Thailand is a fantastic cruising ground.
-Will
Sorry about the lack of communications, but my phone burned out after day two. The motherboard was shot. I just took it, this morning, to a Samsung service center, it's dead. I had to buy a new phone.
Anyhow, I can't recommend this enough. I don't mean to make a commercial plug, but John was just excellent. He and Jess are highly professional and knowledgeable. It was the best time.
John had us doing DR, identifying buoys and lights, trying his best to make me understand the tide tables, we heaved-to, did marina maneuvering and docking strategies, anchoring, of course. Just very thorough. We even went over the engines and did the maintenence of topping-off oil. I am not an engine guy.
In the mean time, we snorkelled in beautiful coves, took the dinghy ashore to various beaches with great waterfront establishments.
The boat was a Seawind 1160.
Perfect for testing and improving my rusty skills on.
We did manage to take a few pictures with John's phone and send them to my wife, so I should be able to post them later when I meet back up with her.
We even got hit with a seasonally unusual line squal and had to roll in the genny and douse the main very quickly. Nothing broke, so we did well.
If I get to come back here, Thailand is a fantastic cruising ground.
-Will
So, as promised, here are a few pics from sailing with Java Yachting. That is me at the helm sailing in the Andaman Sea. We are near Koh Phi Phi Lee.
That's my son, taking his watch at the helm.
Here we both are. You can see I didn't get my life jacket on properly, and it fell down around my middle underneath my Hawaiian shirt. I'm surprised at how bulky it is in front. But I guess, if it has to turn you face up in the water, most of its floatation has to be in front.
-Will
That's my son, taking his watch at the helm.
Here we both are. You can see I didn't get my life jacket on properly, and it fell down around my middle underneath my Hawaiian shirt. I'm surprised at how bulky it is in front. But I guess, if it has to turn you face up in the water, most of its floatation has to be in front.
-Will
Our last excursion in Thailand took us on a boat ride Ratchaprapa reservoir in Khao Sok National Park.
Our boat wasn't a longtail.
We enjoyed the ride to a lunch spot with floating cabanas, some swimming and we spotted several crab-eating, or long-tailed, macaques.
We just happened to have a few bananas in our day pack.
After the first banana, this monkey would sign an encouraging gesture, pointing to itself for another one.
We took a little swim off the boat, too.
We had an awesome trip in Thailand.
Landed last night in Singapore. We have a couple of days here, then Bali.
-Will
Ok, we are skipping Bali. We spent the last few days in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia.
Never saw the water. It is pretty cheap to visit here, but it is disconcerting to talk prices of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of IDRs (That's Indonesian Rupees). There are a lot of Rupees in a US dollar. 100,000 rupees equals about $6.15. Very few things cost more than a million rupees.
This meal actually, cost about two hundred fifty thousand rupees. The lunch for our Grab driver, guide, and now good friend, Antar, is included in that cost.
We just arrived today on Karimunjawa Island, a national preserve off the North coast of Java. The rainy season is just getting started here.
(The ferry to Karimunjawa)
The resort is around $60 a night and we are the only ones here.
Never saw the water. It is pretty cheap to visit here, but it is disconcerting to talk prices of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of IDRs (That's Indonesian Rupees). There are a lot of Rupees in a US dollar. 100,000 rupees equals about $6.15. Very few things cost more than a million rupees.
This meal actually, cost about two hundred fifty thousand rupees. The lunch for our Grab driver, guide, and now good friend, Antar, is included in that cost.
We just arrived today on Karimunjawa Island, a national preserve off the North coast of Java. The rainy season is just getting started here.
(The ferry to Karimunjawa)
The resort is around $60 a night and we are the only ones here.
We just decided this morning that we have to finally limit our trip to Aukland, then home. We can't register for our market season from here. It's sad, but I won't get the chance to charter a sailboat on this trip.
-Will
