Sailing At Last!

Sea Trials and Final Prep

Di demonstrates the correct way to tidy up the mainsheet.

Once the boat was finished at the boatyard, it was moved to a different area of the river in Ho Chi Minh City and put through a series of exercises called Sea Trials. This is done to ensure that the sails, rigging, instruments, engines, and many other components are installed and set up properly and the boat is ready to sail.

Over these two busy days, the staff at Max Cruise Marine checked almost every function on the boat, as well as providing us with delicious banh mi and beverages for lunch. This was our first opportunity to actually sail, and start getting familiar with our new baby!

We would like to thank Bill, who is Di and Cal's pal from 'Oz', for capturing these great Sea Trial photos.

Day 1 consisted of learning about the hybrid engines, navigation instruments, rigging, and we hoisted the mainsail and unfurled the headsail (jib), among other things. Terry, Di, and Cal were very helpful in helping us refresh our sailing skills, and teach us many new ones. Di and Cal also shared some tips and tricks that help them sail successfully as a couple. Communication is key!

On Day 2, we remained at the dock, but with light winds we were able to test the rigging for the code zero (blue) and spinnaker (red) sails. The blue sail is on a furler way out front, and the spinnaker is raised and lowered using a 'sock'.

Cal demonstrated his line-splicing skills, and Randy and I tried out the dinghy and started moving some of our belongings onto the boat.

Here's our fearless leader, Terry, along with many of his crew. They are knowledgeable and very helpful folks, and we can't thank them enough!

Next we needed to provision for a 7-day trip from Vietnam to Thailand for a crew of five. This consisted of some meal-planning, list-making, a couple of trips to the grocery store, and a walk to our favorite 'western' store, where we found some familiar items. Terry also delivered a load of frozen items that he and Nanci were storing for us in their freezer.

The night before we left, we slept on the boat at the Ho Chi Minh customs port in Nha Be. We were moored to a huge barge, and right across from a gigantic natural gas ship where they were busy welding. Watching the sparks fly made us a bit nervous!

Sailing Out of Vietnam

We cast off shortly after 5:00 am on Friday December 9th, by the light of a beautiful full 'silvery' moon.

As the sun came up, we motor-sailed our way down the Soai Rap river, and around 9 am sailed into the South China Sea near Vung Tau, Vietnam.

As we sailed south along the coast of Vietnam, we noticed lots of fishing boats and buoys with poles and flags, which we assumed were attached to fishing nets.

We also sailed by these large poles, with nets strung between them, and small huts on top. They looked like fences out in the water. Some of them appeared to stretch for several kilometers, with only small breaks between them.

We continued south, and through the night we manned the helm in pairs, in 2-hour rotating shifts. We had 3 hours to sleep until our next watch. Every hour someone new came on shift, and Randy and I were always paired up with Terry, Di, or Cal.

Fishing boats on the horizon

There were all shapes and sizes of fishing boats - from huge squid boats with what looked like football stadium lights, to small fishing boats with just a single small bobbing light. You can see the bright lights for several miles, and we used AIS to help track their movements. Not all of the boats registered on our nav screen, so kind of like walking around HCMC, you need to keep your wits about you! All in all, our first experience sailing at night was amazing.

On Saturday Dec 10th we were making our way toward the southern tip of Vietnam, and dealt with some rough seas and a bit of sea-sickness. Randy was completely down and out for about 18 hours, but after that, he recovered and was fine for the rest of the trip.

Saturday evening around 7:30 pm, we were sailing in the dark with the headsail (the moon had not risen yet), and had a collision with a large fishing pole as pictured above. The nets attached to the pole became entangled with the boat, and we had to cut them to free ourselves. We decided to stop near the island of Hon Khoai to rest and regroup.

We were very lucky that the damage was confined mostly to the stainless steel railing, lifelines and dolphin seat on the port side, with a few cosmetic fiberglass issues. We had no major damage, and no major injuries. The stainless steel pole on the port aft side in this picture started out vertical, and saved the boat from sustaining further damage.

Randy and I decided right then and there that it would be a while before we were ready to try night-sailing on our own!

Into Cambodia and on to Thailand

On Sunday Dec 11th we sailed around the tip of Vietnam and headed north toward Cambodia. Here are some pictures of the water - this was in Vietnam, and it was like a line had been drawn between the yucky brown muddy water and the nice pretty green water. It felt great sailing from the brown into the green!

We sailed through Sunday night, again using paired shifts, and thankfully had no problems. Monday Dec 12th we were off the coast of Cambodia. We ran into a bit of rain, and the colorful Cambodian fishing boats were beautiful.

We anchored that afternoon on the east side of the Cambodian island of Kaoh Rung.

Very nice pic Di!!

Here is a picture of our navigation screen as we made our way to the anchorage.

You can see, for example, that we were in 25.5 meters of water, the total wind speed was 6.6 knots, and we were traveling at 4.9 knots SOG (speed over ground) at a heading of 008 degrees.

Di and Cal were great at creating our waypoints (shown as circles on the map) throughout the trip, so that we could navigate along the best route, ending up in the safest places to anchor.

We pulled up the anchor early on Tuesday Dec 13th, and the Cambodian sunrise was gorgeous. What a glorious way to begin the day!

We soon crossed the border into Thailand, sailing with some great winds - up to 20+ knots. We made our way to our anchorage off of the island of Koh Kut, near Ban Bang Bao. Here are a couple of screenshots from Di's phone, the app is called Zulu Waterways. This helpful app can be used to find anchorages that other boaters have used before, along with helpful comments.

We dropped the anchor, and had plenty of time to enjoy a sundowner!

Of course, the sunset was beautiful.

The next morning, Wednesday Dec 14th, we pulled up the anchor around 4:30 am, and headed northwest toward Pattaya. We had some 20 + knots of wind speed during the day, and cruised right along, topping 10 knots SOG a couple of times.

We sailed past beautiful islands and colorful fishing boats, and anchored on the south western side of the island of Ko Samet, Thailand.

That evening, our anchor alarm went off, indicating that the anchor was not holding and the boat could be drifting a bit . We decided to get an early start on our last day of sailing, Friday Dec 15th.

Once again, the weather was fantastic, the boats were colorful, and we had a great sail.

Here is our first view of Ocean Marina, just south of Pattaya, Thailand. This will be our home base for the next several months.

And here we are enjoying a well-deserved sundowner after our 7-day journey from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to Ocean Marina, Pattaya, Thailand. Thanks to our wonderful crew for getting us and our new boat here safely!

CHEERS!