From Malaysia to the Mediterranean - 2

Part 2 Maldives – Djibouti

Maldives are a beautiful place to spend some time unfortunately the officials make it impossible for me to stay longer than a week, more than 1000,- US$ I would have had to pay for a month and this is far beyond my financial resources. So after 7 days I am leaving paradise and head to the most dangerous part in the world of sailing, the Golf of Aden and Somalia north coast.

A lot of reading and preparation was going on before leaving from Langkawi, many of these things were for me curious and not comprehend able. Secret Facebook groups, secret meetings and similar things, sailors scare each other with story's which were years ago. Anyway I am on my trip, doing my thing, my strategy and this was a little different than others. I have during the planning always to keep in mind that I am sailing single handed, a big difference if any trouble hits you. At one of these meetings a ex French special forces agent explained that the safest route is sailing between the 2 lanes of the big ship corridor. That’s right in theory and for crewed boats but when I sail alone and have the slightest problem with sails or engine or fishinglines/net, autopilot or whatsoever, than I will drift into the shipping lanes, as the space between them is only 2nm, and this is nothing when you are trying to repair something while the boat drifts. So for me is either the north side of this corridor, meaning I would be near Yemen where they have a civil war and many poor people with nothing to eat and nothing to loose, or I am sailing south of the corridor, meaning sailing near the guys with the black flags with sculls and bones on it. I decide going for the Somalia side, around 8-10 miles south of the shipping lane which is still 80 miles away from the Somalia coast. Why 8-10nm south and not closer, very simple. I have set my AIS alarm on 10 miles, and if I sail closer to the big ships than I get every few minutes an alarm signal, meaning – there is nothing with sleeping, and that’s not good.

An other big question is – leaving the AIS on or off, leaving navigation lights on or off at night? For me a clear decision, I leave everything on because I can not go on watch all the time, so if I don’t see them at least the other boaters should know there is somebody sailing around instead of crashing into me.

The first days are relaxed sailing, perfect wind, and I don’t set maximum sails robe, only so much sails to be in a speed range between 7-8 knots, which makes it very comfortable, no stress on the boat and still making around 170nm a day. The evening of the second day I get a VHF call, Donio a Sri Lanka fisherman warns me about a huge amount of fishing boats, and then he even asks if I could call him on SSB after 20.00 hour on 12312.3 MHz because then they stop working and he has some time. Never I had something like this before, we talked for a while, he was mainly interested where from and where to, and he wanted that I visit him when I come to Sri Lanka.

 

And then about 70 miles east of Socrota the autopilot stops. I set up my second unit and the sail goes on but only for a 40 minutes before also unit nr.2 stops working. This is possibly the worst place for a situation like that. Single handing, no autopilot, next to pirates land, and still 700 miles to go to Djibouti, 700 miles means 5 days when everything is all right, but it means 8-10 days without autopilot. I have to change the sails so only a fraction of the area is up otherwise I could not stabilize the boat to keep at least for a 5-10 minutes the course before I have to correct it again. This will be a few terrible days, no sleep and long hours in the cockpit.

With my InReach I am able to contact Fa. Ober in Vorarlberg, the Raymarine service center for Austria, Czech and Hungary, and he guides me the next 2 days through different possibilities where the error hides. Finally I can get it working again, hallelujah, what a relief.

From there on I sail a little more conservative, change the autopilot setting to cruising, so the autopilot works slower and has less load.

The rest of the trip is easy, I see only 2 boats, and 2 days before arrival I am contacted by a Japanese military aircraft. I see that my arrival won’t be during daylight so I want to speed up. I set my old asymmetrical spinnaker although the wind is a bit strong. Flying over the waves, sometimes digging deep with the bow, fantastic sailing, and just when I decide that it is too much sail and I am too fast, I hear this terrible ssssccrrrrr and my spi suddenly has a few extra openings.

The last day and night the weather tries to confuse me with wind coming from the southeast, but still a good direction for me.

The entrance in Djibouti is easy, the anchorage wide with good holding mud, and after the anchor is set I only want a beer and a bed.

I have to say special thanks to Mr. Hubert Ober, the best Raymarine service man on the globe, for his help during the dangerous time.

Also a special thanks to my 3 weather-frogs who inform me daily with the upcoming weather situation, thanks Alois, Alex and C.

From Malaysia to the Mediterranean - 1

Part 1 Langkawi  to  Maldives

A picture book start from Langkawi made me smile and being proud about my work in the last months while reshaping/extending CHI. Winds of 16-19 knots from a perfect angle lets me rush across the smooth ocean for several hours with a speed of 10-14 knots before i decide to reef, just to get more comfort and relax time and take some stress out of the boat. 

Etmals with more than 180 nautical miles a day, now I know what for I was working so hard, I am happy. Then my navigation computer decides its enough and stops working, for me having no idea about computers it is impossible to get him back in working mode so laptop nr. 2 has to take over. Near the Nicobar islands I get very disturbing currents, the sea suddenly builds up to 2 meters with very short waves, I am bounced around, doing speed of only 4 knots and 1 minute later shooting along at 8 knots, hoping the spectacle finishes soon. As I don’t like sailing direct downwind I am jibing along my route where the unstable wind mostly tells me when to jibe. Every day several hours of good wind change with low wind patches but I never have to motor, can always keep at least 3,5 knots and that helps me get a lot of sleep.

As between the gap of Sri Lanka and India the wind always picks up very strong. The effect is that large waves build and make it uncomfortable, so I lay my route not directly and make a nice southerly bend first aiming Male before turning northwest towards Uligamo on the northern tip of the Maldives.

Day 8 and 9 the wind is reaching the 30 knots mark, seas are building up but with the 3^rd reef in the main and half of the head sail out I glide along very relaxed with 7 knots. The sight is getting bad, it looks like fog, visibility only about 2-3 miles, the wind is going down and when I set the screecher I, once again, do it wrong and the force on the holding line of the bowspread rips out the fitting close above the waterline. 

This sucks!!! in the middle of the night, having a 6 cm hole close above the waterline. I make water so I should react, but actually I have to smile as I was thinking of some sailor friends who for sure would just check if their insurance is paid, how the life raft opens and what is the procedure for a mayday call. First thing sails down to reduce the speed and decrease the amount of water coming into the boat, then cleaning out the front compartment of all the things living there since years, and check what would be a possible way to provisional fix the hole. Somewhere I find a piece of foam which is used for outdoor cushions and which takes on no water. I press it from the inside against the hole and use a few pieces of wood to press it on and fix it in position. Next step bringing the dingi in the water, prepare a piece of plastic about 20x20cm, drill a few holes around the edges, and mainly put a thick layer of a good silicon on it before screwing it on the outside onto the hull. This reads here a little easier than it was in real as there were these waves and I have only 2 hands and the front beam on a catamaran is very helpful with banging against my head.
And still 120nm to go to the first atoll of the Maldives. Because of this slightly delay I can’t make it in daylight so I very very carefully go into the Dhapparuhuraa atoll as the charts are not correct and anchor in 7 meters of water. Here I fix the disaster the next day with 2 layers of carbon/aramidfibre mats and 6 layers of bidirectional glasmats on the outside and another 5 layers on the inside of the hull. This should be good for the next 30 years.

One day of drying and then heading to Uligamo for the check in procedure, everything very relaxed and the first time in my sailing career a very helpful agent, having fun with his work. Maybe its also because there is nothing else to do on this small island for him. 

Anyway once more I get the proof that the world is just like a little village. 2 days after my arrival a second boat comes along, and believe it or not where are they from? - yes Austria, and not only this they are from the Salzburg area just like me, its Reini Gelder on his newly restored and totally upgraded to the top of what’s available Imoca 50 racer “Mango Roa” and his friend Leo.