Bumpy Bay of Bengal!

Current Position @ 11:30 GMT: North 07*28'297 East 091*48'591 Course: 261*T ~ Averaging 4 knots

We're now crossing the Bay of Bengal and it's pretty uncomfortable with confused seas and not quite enough wind to keep us on track. We have the head sail poled out with the main goose winged on the other side as the winds coming from our stern but finding it difficult to get speeds over 4 knots so we're sliding all over the place. Our wind vane is steering pretty well so at least we're not using up all our power on the auto helm! Weather is pretty grim with lots of squalls around us and just trying to keep out of their way and so far we've been pretty lucky. Otherwise we're doing fine and are finally getting into a good watch pattern, we've had a lot of encounters with dolphins and pilot whales swimming off our bow which has been really great to see again after the baron waters of East Asia...we're back in passage mode!

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Sombrero Channel ~ Nicobar Islands.

Current Position: North 07*41'819 South 093*24.861 Course: 262*T Speed: 4.3 Knots under Motor.

We've just passed through the Sombrero Channel in the Nicobar Islands, a chain of islands running from north to south and owned by India. It's not possible for us to stop for a break here as the islands are only open to Indian nationals although the sight of land is a comfort. We've had a slow day as there's been very little wind and we've been motoring since yesterday afternoon, the weathers been unpredictable and we were drenched in squall that passed by this morning!

Jimmy topped up the Diesel tank this afternoon with 17 gallons from the deck cans, we hold 90 gallons in total the main tank holding 50 and the rest in Jerry cans. It looks like another slow night with no moon so pretty dark with overcast skies...fingers crossed for a little more wind so we can have a break from the engine and no more rain.

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Thailand to the Maldives ~ Day 2

Current Position: North 08*14'00 East 095*15'752 Course: 257*T with 1325 nautical miles to the Maldives @ 10am GMT

We had a great sail last night with 15 knots of wind out of the North which meant just before sunset we we're able to shut down the engine and average 5 knots of speed. This morning the wind died down but we we're still able to maintain a good enough pace to sail until about an hour ago when the wind dropped off completely! So now it's 6pm for us and we're motoring with slightly rolly seas and keeping our eyes on a big rain storm behind us...could be a wet night. We listen in to a radio net every morning with many of the other yachts underway and it sounds like we have a lot of calm weather ahead, fingers crossed the wind will fill back in just enough to save our fuel as we still have a very long way to go!

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Heading West ~ Underway to the Maldives

Current Position: North 08*31'447 East 097*08'020 heading: 261*T @ 4.8knots under full sail.

We've spent the last few days in the Similan islands just 30 miles off the coast of Thailand waiting for enough wind to pick up to sail by. Finally today the breeze kicked in at around 10 knots from the North so dropped our mooring ball around midday and are currently underway to the Maldives. It's been over a year since we've done any long distance sailing and with 1400 miles to go we're feeling a bit rusty. As night closes in we've enjoyed a beautiful sunset with dolphins swimming at our bow and tucked in to a big pot of Chillie...so far so good!

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Family visits.

We're back anchored off the town of Patong on Phuket island in Thailand and have just waved my mum off at the Airport. She and my brother 'Tom' flew out three weeks ago for a holiday aboard Blue Moon cruising the Islands of Phang Nga bay. Tom is with us for another two weeks so we're trying to keep busy and enjoying moving around more than we probably would on our own!

Yesterday we stopped in Kata Bay where the Kings Cup Regatta is being held and enjoyed a fun night out with our friends Terry and Karen off 'Sora'. However, on our way home we spent about an hour trying to rescue all the dinghy's that had been left by the race boats too low on the beach and we're getting washed out by the high tide...obviously the difference between cruisers and racers is that they have more money than sense - ever heard of an anchor guys?!!

We have Fresh Water!

After a week of frustratingly pulling hoses and fixing leaky connections we can very happily say that we have had our first glass of Blue Moon desalinated water! Yes we now have a fully functional water maker that will make life on board a lot more comfortable and Jimmy is walking around with a permanent grin on his face. It's a big weight off our mind as we carry a limited water supply and I no longer have to worry about Jimmy breaking his back collecting Jerry cans of fresh water at every port we get to...A good thing all round!!

We're still here in Langkawi doing our final stock up before checking out in the next couple of days to head north to Thailand. Caroline's mum and brother are flying into Phuket for a visit on the 9th of November so we have move pretty quickly to get ourselves into a good anchorage in time. The North East Monsoon seems to have finally set in bringing some great weather which hopefully means an end to the Rainy season!

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Getting organised ~ Telaga Harbour

Blue Moon is back at Anchor in Telaga Harbour in Langkawi after being tied to the dock in Rebak Marina while we took our inland trip to Cambodia. We're now preparing the boat for the next big leg through the Red Sea on leaving Thailand in January. Jimmy's taking on the role of plumber while installing a brand new Water heater sent in from America and a second hand Water Maker brought from another cruiser here in Langkawi (The water maker is an HRO Mini Pack that should produce us around 7 Gallons of fresh water an hour with a pull of 20 Amps).

We still have to reprovision the boat with all the things we can't get in Thailand or things that are cheaper here, it costs 50 Ringgit ($15 US) to rent a car for 24 hours which you really need as everything is so spread out here. Instead of going to one supermarket to buy everything we have to go to different shops that specialise in different things like Cheese, Meat, vegetables, cleaning goods and so on. A shopping trip that might take an hour or two at home can take all day here, plus you have to remember where all the shops are, what they sell and at what prices!! Of course the same thing applies when trying to find boat parts which can take another whole day of running around.

The important thing to pick up here is the very cheap duty free alcohol which we'll have to stock up on enough to see us through to the Caribbean as we probably won't see prices like this again on the trip. It looks like we'll be filling every spare space with rum, Jameson and wine again...a lot like being back in Panama I think!

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