110. Crossroads

I’m in Langkawi. In north Malaysia, just south of the border with Thailand. I’m primarily here to get some boat work done. Nothing major, just some regular maintenance and TLC. The main reason for picking Langkawi is that it’s supposedly a duty free island and I’ve ordered a bunch of stuff that is on its way here. Stuff that I hope will pass Malaysian customs without drawing too much attention.

While I’m waiting for deliveries and Saoirse’s scheduled haul out, I thought I should share some of my sailing plans for the upcoming year. In doing so though, I want to emphasise that long term plans for a long distance sailor are far from concrete. They are more of a ‘concept of a plan’ as someone famously phrased it. There are numerous things that can happen that may force me to make alterations. Boat problems, weather or political instability to name a few. Or it can just be something as simple as coming up with a better plan along the way. One that brings me to some cool place that I haven’t even thought of. I guess my point is that I’m not sure I even want to plan this far ahead. But with only 130 nautical miles to Phuket in Thailand I’m coming to a crossroad. One that forces me to make a decision on where to head next. Do I pass Africa to the north or the south?

The Indian Ocean has a bad reputation. The weather is much more unpredictable and challenging than in the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean. It is also surrounded by countries that at best can be described as politically unstable. In writing there appears to be trouble in Madagascar and Mozambique (a country that has a machine gun in its national flag). And the areas further north, around the Red Sea, are not necessarily associated with political stability either. Taking the southern route, via South Africa, means that I will have to pass some of the most treacherous waters on the planet. The Aghulas current runs along the east coast of South Africa and can rip up some horrendous waves. Particularly when the wind turns against it. Waves that have been known to sink large cargo vessels. But this route will also give me the opportunity to visit places like Maldives, Chagos, Seychelles, Mayotte, and Madagascar. And of course spend Christmas and New Year in Cape Town. The northern route will be much shorter and bring me back to familiar waters in the Mediterranean next summer. But it will also mean 1,200 nautical miles of motoring against prevailing winds in the Red Sea and having to stop for fuel in countries that I otherwise don’t want to visit. I’ve decided to go south.

The main reason for this is that I’m not in any way ready to wrap up this adventure. I had the Mediterranean as the base for Saoirse for seven years before I took her across the Atlantic and I fear that coming back there would feel like coming home. And I’m not ready to come home yet. I have too many other places to experience. So in the new year I will head west towards Sri Lanka before I turn south. Unfortunately this means that I will have to say goodbye to some of my cruising buddies that plan to take the route through the Red Sea. Most notably to my friends on Picasso (fka Traveller). We’ve been hanging out since the Caribbean and share numerous memories together. That’s going to be a tough breakup but I’m sure we’ll meet up again once I get back to the ‘real world’.

But before that we plan to spend Christmas and New Year in Thailand. Together with our mutual friends Olof, Annie, Lisa and Felix. We all met back in the Caribbean when they were on their boat Happy Pancake. This is going to be one hell of a reunion. Before it’s time to say goodbye again. For now.

I decided to add a few pictures from Singapore, Malacca and Kuala Lumpur. Primarily because they are getting old and I didn’t know where to fit them in the blog.