King's Cup Regatta, Phuket, Thailand

Redwings Round the World

King's Cup Regatta, Phuket, Thailand

7-13 December 1997

Redwings approaching the windward mark with crew readying the spinnaker in the 1997 King's Cup Regatta, Phuket, Thailand.

7 December, Boat Lagoon, Phuket, Thailand to Phi Phi Islands

Colleen - "That darn cat...." always causing us trauma. Basil must have known we would be leaving, he never came home in the morning. We were scheduled to leave on the 3 p.m. tide yesterday to Phi Phi Island, but have decided to give the bugger "one more tide" (i.e. 3 a.m. this morning) to make it.

And poor Laura was desperately ill with acute 24 hour food poisoning. She could barely move - it was violently coming out both ends all day so to speak. She clocked a temperature of 102 Fahrenheit in the afternoon. We had to go on with work for the day as we were scheduled to be hauled out at noon for a propeller change (over to the two blade racing prop) and a bottom clean. We installed Laura on a lounge chair outside the ladies room at the clubhouse. She didn't do a lot for the tours coming through of potential time share buyers... And we tried to put Basil out of our minds.

We had been losing battery power at an alarming rate ever since removing the wind generator and solar panels. At mid-day, Aaron figured out why: he had taped the two wires that connect the batteries to the solar panels directly to the metal arch on the back of the boat which in turn connects to the life lines. This resulted in effectively backwards draining electricity from the batteries through the lifelines! Kerry had earlier comment on how hot some of the fittings were.

Kerry, Aaron and I (Colleen) were all feeling very frazzled in the early evening, still rushing to prepare. We noticed the boat alongside us, Pantasia with wonderment. Three people reclined leisurely in the cockpit, enjoying the sunset, sipping gin and tonics, and reading pleasure books. Is this what cruising is meant to be like?

Actually we were soon to get a nice morale pickup. The Australian woman who owned the boat noticed that Aaron was about to go up the mast and we were short handed. She jumped down and insisted on helping. She noticed Laura passed out below, and volunteered that her sister was a nurse, happy to have a look at her. I must brag that Laura said all the advice given to her by the nurse was exactly what I had given (practice with Priyani in Tibet!). Next thing you know this trio was handing Kerry an address in Australia and insisting she and Laura come to stay if they plan to visit the country.

By 11:00 p.m. we went out on another Basil search - to find him on that same boat he kept coming back to on the other dock. He did look a little possessed after his night out, and was not at all eager to come home. He's developing a bit of a split personality - docile and loving at home, wild and crazed out on the prowl. We had to lock him in until the 3:00 a.m. departure. he moaned and kept jumping to the cabin ceiling to try and get out. Not much sleep for us. Three am, Aaron at the wheel, Kerry and I at the bow, crawling through the several kilometer channel in the dark. We tried our best to spot the markers, very challenging to determine which way to curve through the mangrove trees in the dark. Often only one or two boat lengths of leeway to get it right either way. We made two minor groundings along the way, but swiftly reversed. Under stress, Kerry and Aaron had a very "colorful" exchange regarding differences in opinion about how well Kerry's voice carried from the bow when she gave directions to markers.

Soon after exiting Aaron navigated by himself to Phi Phi while Kerry and I tried to catch a bit of sleep. We arrived at 8 a.m. to the long since smelt aroma of salt on longtail boats. The limestone cliffs crashing down the to the ivory white sand and azure sea still impress. In for breakfast at a little cafe. Laura has recovered, but is fully wiped out. We locate Penny, who is measuring sails for the regatta. A great perk, she gets free hotel accommodations. Laura retires to Penny's air-conditioned room for the day, trying to regain herself. Kerry and I are exhausted after only a few hours sleep, but feel we have to do something. We rent a long tail boat to take us to the bays of a nearby island for snorkeling. Ends up being a great release to float along in the water and be so far away from the boat and its troubles for a while. Nice to just be alone in the water even for a little bit with no sounds or distractions...

No rest for the wicked though, after a couple hours we rushed in to help prepare for the race, marking the pole uphaul and downhaul for the spin gibes, hauling sails (our own) in for Penny to measure etc.. By early evening Teh; our mystery crew member materalized out of the jungle and lent a hand. Tom Whitcraft, and Aaron Frankel, also joining the crew from Bangkok, rolled off the press booze boat in the early evening, they had tagged along on it from Phuket for the free ride. All three of the guys revealed that they had no accommodation and wanted to stay on the boat; that brought it to seven! Teh got the worst of it. As he never told us he had to stay on the boat, and we don't even know him, he was last for a bunk and spent half the time sleeping on deck. The opening party of the regatta on the beach boasted free drinks and food. We couldn't hold up more than an hour though... Can you believe by 8pm all seven of us were on the boat and in our bunks passed out?

8 December, Phi Phi Islands

Aaron - Out at 0800 for 0920 start as we had lots to organize / new crew / shaft lock. Trained Kerry on foredeck as "Eddie" from Sualawesi, who was supposed to join us, dumped us for a new Sydney 46 with a sad story on how his employer was forcing him to do it and how tough it would be to be on one of the hottest racing boats in the fleet and not on Redwings. Manually locking shaft works like charm - must remember to take off before engaging engine. Seemed like good start - room below and moving at committee boat end. However, lots of dirty air and tough to get going. When we did, made good progress and hit shifts reasonably well and ended at top mark in good shape up with Ocean Cruising boats and likes of Master Blaster. Chute up round the mark no problem and doing well pacing / gaining on boats. Penny made good decision to keep reaching mark wide and again gaining on boats / abreast of Emerald Blue at third mark. Then started to fall apart. Off on wrong tack. Some boats get away. Wind starts to die. Slowly fleet behind catches up. Other lighter boats ahead and with us keep moving (though we are moving better than in Raja Muda in such light conditions thanks to clean bottom, new prop, less weight). Drift to fourth mark and make it around and finally get a bit of breeze. Move reasonably well last two legs. Penny steering most of the race and to the finish. Ended up 11th out of 26 - not bad considering an Olympic course race in light air and with new crew. Beat other Peterson 46 Jazz by about half an hour - saw her in Singapore and aspired to get Redwings to that level - the boat is much nicer now than Jazz. Big seafood diner. Pray for wind tomorrow...

Kerry - After the banquet dinner, we all went different directions. Colleen and I ended up on the aforementioned "press booze boat," the Jolly Roger. Hosting quite a large party, the boat was filled with many animated guests and gifts from the Heineken and Ballantine's sponsors. Fritz and Tom joined us for a while, and then Colleen and I were quickly distracted by a sight in the distance. Out on the stern of the boat, several men were enjoying some crazy dancing, accompanied by, yes Liz Padula - this is true, a tambourine. Drawn to the instrument by memories past of a dance created senior year by Ms. Padula, we made our way through the crowd to join the party with the ultimate goal of gaining tambourine control. Eventually it was ours, and the dancing commenced. We made such an impression that one of the directors of Ballantine's who was present asked us to dance on the stage - meaning bar - but we politely declined, much preferring the intimate gathering assembled whom we later learned were mostly Jolly Roger bartenders. Taking leave early in the evening compared to most of the crowd, the night was an enjoyable and memorable one.

9 December, Boat Lagoon, Phuket, Thailand to Phi Phi Islands

Aaron - This is the race I have been waiting for. The Andaman Sea Race from Phi Phi Islands back to Nai Harn Bay in Phuket. 99% of the time its a downwind drag race in 12-15 knots of breeze - just what Redwings likes. If we have a chance of doing well in any race this is it. I've cut a deal with the devil and bargained that if we had good and fair wind for the whole of this race, I don't care what happens the rest of the week.

A great start to the morning. Colleen, Tom, Aaron (Fritz), and Tae got up early and went to the village and came back toting chocolate croissants and baguettes for breakfast as well as fried rice and curries for lunch. Colleen's stomach has been deprived for too long, and she was not mean with her choice of provisioning. I slept in till 0800 and enjoyed a strong cup of coffee with my pain chocolat.

Out to the line and we approach in good form. Chute goes up with a bit of a twist just at the gun, but it shakes out and we are drawing well within thirty seconds. The plan is to stay well low on the course to avoid getting blanketed by the islands and then come up later as the wind shifts behind us. I was originally planning to stay a bit low, but Penny was adamant about our keeping well down and kept after me to stay low. This paid off big in the end.

As most of the fleet stayed high, although initially they had good speed, they were soon in the lee of the island and we started to move out and enjoyed a freshening breeze. Out boatspeed was excellent and has really improved since the Raja Muda. We paced Master Blaster for the first couple of miles and as the breeze rose to 12-15, we started gaining on her and eventually passed her! She is rated about 1.5% faster than us and is well sailed. All of the boats we could see around us and in front of us were either in Ocean Cruising Class or the fastest rated boats in our class. As the race progressed, we could see an endless stream of spinnakers stretching off behind us against the limestone cliffs of Phi Phi - what a beautiful sight!!!

I got my wish and the wind held right to the finish. I was worried that we would have a repeat performance of last year (when I chartered Emerald Blue with Tom and others) where after leading all day, the wind died and the whole fleet caught up to us. I am confident we are top five and probably top three. The only boat I am not sure about is Camelot IV which finished about 5 minutes ahead of us, but I know she owes us time - I'm just not sure how much.

The results are out! The bad news is we did not win. The good news is we are second out of the 26 boats in our class and we also beat all 17 of the bigger and faster boats in the Ocean Cruising Class (which had the same start and sailed the same course)! Camelot IV beat us by 1 minute and 50 seconds on corrected time. Emerald Blue won the Ocean Cruising Class and we beat her on corrected time by two minuets. So overall, we came second out of 43 boats. Definitely my biggest success ever as skipper in a big boat race. The whole crew is really pleased and we all did an excellent job.

10 December 1997, Nai Harn Bay, Phuket, Thailand

Aaron - A bad start and unfortunate timing on our port tack rounding at the first windward mark (we had to dip about five boats), put us in pretty poor position thirty minuets after the start. However, luckily, most of today's race to Patong Beach and back will be a reach - Redwing's best point of sail - so hopefully we can catch up.

And catch up we did. Most of the fleet hugged the shore and fell into a hole a mile or so ahead of us 1/3 of the way through the race. We were able to keep the wind and as we entered the hole, for once, we just sat quiet, rolled the genoa in a bit to maintain positive flow, and were able to use the boat's weight and positive momentum as an advantage and rolled right towards the front of the fleet.

We were again up with the Ocean Cruising boats and faster-rated cruisers. However, our luck / skill tailed off then. That which had been given so easily was taketh away. The wind came around on the nose and we were soon close hauled, but footing, and angling a bit out away from the fleet a) to keep the breeze and b) as the boat loses a lot of speed when we try to take her as high as the other boats. This did not pay off. The boats inside got a lift up the shore and more wind while we had to beat into the Patong Beach (which we managed to do perfectly out of phase with the shifts thus simply sailing back and forth across the bay). We finally drifted around the mark in a dying breeze while boats we ahead of just an hour ago sailed off into the distance with good pressure in their spinnakers. We finished 15th and ended up working hard just to finish ahead of Jazz, the other Peterson 46. The boat that got third, La Samudra, was behind us after the hole and she is rated significantly faster....

But the joys of this day were far from over. When it was time to start the engine, we were greeted with the familiar "Aggg" sound which indicated the engine was again full of water. At least this time I know broadly what to do.

Sailing into the mooring (our dingy on our anchor) I almost hit it perfectly, but was just a foot or so shy before the boat started to drift backwards. Aaron Frakel fortunately was willing and able to do a bonzai jump off the pulpit. He then scrambled up into the dingy and tossed a line to Tom when I made my second pass.

Banished to the engine room - my home away from home these days. Ultimately, getting water in the engine actually made my day. Without any help, I was able to quickly take the engine half apart, remove an injector, get the water blasted out by cranking the starter, put it back together, change the oil, bleed the system, and presto - it started on the first turn. It is probably hard for most people to understand, but this was almost a bigger thrill for me than getting second in the Andaman Sea Race. I am finally starting to consider the engine to be a caged beast rather than a beast in a cage.

But one last let down to come. Tonight was the prize giving for the Andaman Sea Race as well as today's race. We were all really excited to be called to the stage to get our prize and to cheer when Redwings was called. But when they came to our class, other boats that the top three placers were called to collect the silverware! They called out the winners of the first day's race again (who seemed happy to accept more prizes even though they must have known they did not win)! I went up and spoke with one of the guys on the side of the stage helping with prizes and they acknowledged it looked like there was a screw up, but that we would have to sort it out later. The announcer came up to us later and tried to pass it off as a "back office Thai screw up" and promised to get us our prize, but refused to announce the mistake and give us the award publicly citing a potential "loss of face" for the Thai support team. More like a loss of face for him as he had also screwed up the previous prize giving by neglecting to even call any boats from the cruising class till prompted after the awards were supposedly "finished".

He finally located our prize and we made the best of it taking lots of pictures... but on closer inspection, hey this is not our prize! This is second for the Patong Beach Race (which we totally screwed up today) not second for the Andaman Sea Race!!!! Not only do we not yet have our plaque, somebody else does not have theirs for today!! More shuffling and scuffling by the announcer and it turns out our award has gone off in a truck somewhere and they will try to get it to by the end of the regatta...

Colleen - I'm afraid the shock of not getting our prize was a bit much under the influence of alcohol. The crew went a little wild, finally relaxing after so much hard work. We all danced up a storm, and pretty much closed the party at two am. Somehow Penny was kidnapped by old Hong Kong sailing buddies and she found herself at Patong beach - the girly bar district of Phuket. Teh was last seen with 52 year old bikini clad "Teatea". Teatea was a Malaysian woman who kept going on stage to sing with the band (the band by the way looked exactly like VanHalen but Thai- tight stretch pants, long hair with bandanas...Teatea did wonderful versions of the Thai national anthem and When the Saints Come Marching In). Teatea only wore a bikini top and a sarong bottom, but she had granny-style eye glasses tied around her neck that she put on when on stage to see the crowd. She tried to pick up Kerry, but when rejected she seemed to go for Teh. We only ever saw Teh again the following night.

Actually now good time to introduce crew member Teh - the "International Man of Mystery". He approached us during Raja Muda asking if he could join us for Kings Cup. Last night of Raja Muda, feeling very shorthanded as we had a some dropouts, Aaron agreed yes. Teh refuses to reveal anything about himself. We believe he's between the ages of 45 and 60 (based on looks) and he admits to being from an "Asian" country, although when directly questioned on the subject of his origins, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, and Malaysia have all been mentioned. We don't even know his last name. When heavily interrogated by Penny as to his profession he said "retired". When pressed further as to his previous career, he offered "trading". When asked trading in what, he replied "this and that". The more evasive he became, the more our curiosity grew. We never found out. To add to the drama, Teh sails with huge sunglasses, and a face mask that covers his entire face and neck - only a hole for his sunglasses to peer through is allowed in the mask. So as you'll notice with his crew shot, he's completely unidentifiable in photos! To be fair, we did enjoy having Teh along, whoever the heck he is. He was by far our most polite and reserved crew member. Calmly, quietly, and competently doing his job of trimming the mainsheet. It was a great benefit to have the eighth crew member, and he did try always to help out around the boat.

Back to the party....Kerry and Laura were causing a riot at the end with all the the drunken sailors left near the dance floor. The mostly women Redwing's crew is still drawing a lot of attention. They kept trying to break into the dancing, claiming two girls shouldn't be dancing together with all us eligible men around...Fritz and Tom having retired from the dance floor. We packed up around two am, stumbled to the dingy, and somehow, found ourselves tripping back onto the boat.

11 December 1997, Nai Harn Bay, Phuket, Thailand

Aaron - I'm writing this one week later and really can't remember much happening. Tom and I spent some warm and cozy moments (hours) in the engine room taking the non-return valve out, apart, and putting it back in. This valve helps keep water coming from the exhaust into the engine and hopefully, the banging we gave it and WD-40 sprayed inside, will keep it from sticking resulting in an end to our water ingression problems.

12 December 1997, Nai Harn Bay, Phuket, Thailand

Aaron - Once again, for some reason of another, we seem destined for significant press coverage during our annual King's Cup attempts (year one we were featured in Sailing World, year three a kooky article in Thailand's Manager Magazine). A journalist named Penny (who we'll refer to as Penny II) from Phuket Magazine has joined us to get a feel for a representative boat in the "Cruising Fleet". Fly on the wall sort of thing, you know......

After Wednesday's disastrous start, we agreed that Penny (Carter that is) would stay on the bow and call tactics while I concentrated on steering. It worked well. We had a great start in clear air right where we wanted to be and were so close to the line some were worried we might be over early.

We were not, but we were right there and pacing Big A, the Swan 51 we had chased for the past two years when we had charted Emerald Blue. But all of a sudden, here comes trouble. 65 foot Stormvogel (also a Doug Peterson design) is charging up behind us and looking to squeeze into the gap between us and Big A - a gap which is closing fast as we cannot point as high as she can. Stormvogel has an overlap. They call us up and we come up, but then I see that their jib is starting to luff (and ours is as well), and tell them to back off and not sail above their proper course. They keep calling "up, up" till and we literally tell them to F off (several times and very loudly) and protest them as they come completly head to wind with the genoa fully backed through the inner forestay. They still seem to think they have rights and protest us and ask Big A to witness the incident! They fall off below and we continue on our way. I am steaming at what I believe was an attempt by them to bully a smaller boat. Stress levels are on the rise.

However, this first leg was one of the best we sailed in the whole regatta. In addition to our good start and confidence in our position vis a vis the racing rules with Stormvogel, we hit the shifts right and sail higher relative to other boats to windward than we have in any other race. We shifted down to the 130% genoa which is a much flatter sail and probably we should always use it when there is over 10 knots and we know we will be doing a lot of windward work.

But things started to break down at the first mark and went steadily downhill from there. A slow release on the mainsheet during a puff resulted in a loss of steerage to leeward and we almost rear ended Emerald Blue (who had rights). Fortunately, she was headed lower and scooted out of the way. A poor spinnaker hoist followed and once we got it drawing, we realized we were heading towards the wrong mark and had to come down considerably. For whatever reason, communication seemed to break down and as we came into the second mark in traffic, it seemed doubtful we would be able to get the spinnaker down without disaster. I just barked to one person to blow the sheet and guy, somebody else the halyard, and for the others to haul in the chute like mad and hoped for the best. It worked and we got it in - even though everybody was doing other people's jobs and the halyard was just let go. Still, not a good show for our journalist, whom by now I'm sure you have all forgotten was with us. We had also forgotten and were not mincing words among ourselves as we as bumbled around and struggled to make sense of our situation.

Penny and I have become increasingly surly in the way we address the crew in times of stress. Aimless talkers, lax grinders, slow line releasers (or worse yet, tiers of lines that need to be released quickly), are increasingly barked at - often even before an "offense" is committed (Aaron Frankel opening his mouth to breath for example). OK so sometimes we act like dogs and we are sorry. It's been a long week and as we now know we can do well and the boat can do well, we expect a lot more and get frustrated when things don't go smoothly. During the Raja Muda, I thought any race that we finished was a huge success and assumed that something as dramatic as a spinnaker takedown would be botched.

Come on Colleen, get that #$&@% genoa in!

Back to the race. After the second leg came a beat from hell. With a reef in the main and the 130% rolled up a bit, we slogged into choppy seas and 20-25 knots of true breeze, frustratingly still sailing much lower than the rest of the fleet which was well inside of us for the most part. Basil did not like it at all and started bawling. Colleen had to hold him while she sat up on the rail to comfort him. I would guess that this is one of the pictures that make it into Phuket Magazine. Penny and Tom (apart from me the other "serious" racers), had to humor us in this regard as normally, given her huge biceps (as per the picture above), Colleen is a key winch grinder. If somebody else had wanted to do something not focused on racing like this (such as go to the bathroom), I would have told them tough luck (but not as nicely as that). But the owners cats get special treatment. Colleen eventually stuffed Basil in between some cushions down below and that seemed to pacify / immobilize him. We did not find any (smelly and gooey) evidence of seasickness below so it seems they still have their sea paws.

So now it gets really fun. I had turned the engine on (in neutral of course) as we were going on to a starboard tack, were moving fast, and had a lot of sea and I did not want to risk water coming back in the exhaust again (this can only happen when the engine is off). Well, of course fifteen minuets later it died.

And then. SNAP! Great. The genoa track on the port side has just pulled out of the rail. I am frustrated and stressed and we are not going to do well anyway - "we retiring" I utter. We can't sail without a genoa track. I'm not too keen to beating off this lee shore with out an engine either. But Penny and Tom point out that we can jury rig something and continue. They are right of course and we decide to use the two spinnaker sheet tweekers as sheet lead points - two leads should be enough and we've only got another hour or so of beating ahead of us.

Somehow we eventually made it around and were able to get the chute up again and had a reasonably uneventful (but tensions were still high and the boat was not moving that great) sail to the finish. Ever since the morning, we had continued to discuss "The Protest" incident with Stormvogel ad nasuem to the irritation of some. We decided in the end that if they did not bring the protest against us, we would not protest them as we are in different classes. However, Penny (who again is an International Juror which means that normally she works at regattas like this passing down judgments on rule infractions) was very confident that we were in the right and was well prepared to defend our case if need be.

Almost as soon as we had secured ourselves to our mooring, a dingy from Stormvogel whizzed up to us with Marcel Doubbleman (a friend who Tom and I had sailed with last year) and the boat's skipper Graham who I knew vaguely from Hong Kong. With virtually no transition, they yelled out asking whether we were going ahead with our protest. They hit me at a bad monument. We had again hobbled into port with no engine (I had bled and started it several times en route only to get it started for a few minuets before it quit again - fuel or air problem somewhere) not to mention a jury rigged genoa. The boat was a mess. We were all hungry and frustrated. I was generally crabby, and still POed at them. With them obviously now on the defensive and realizing they were in the wrong (although they would not admit it) I vented my rage and barked out "your bloody well right we are protesting, we are not going to sit by and let bigger boats with no rights steamroll us"! They argued that as we were in different classes, it made no sense to pursue the protest as it could only negatively impact one of our placings.

I told them to come back after we had got the boat organized and we had had something to eat / drink and that we would discuss what we would do as a crew. In the end, we decided that although we were in the right, the incident did not materially impact our race (apart from the significant distraction of talking about it all) and as we were in different classes, to forget it. The story goes on a bit, but this is getting to long.....

So, I wonder if Penny II (our journalist friend) believes she sailed with a "representative" cruising boat today. I hope she did not for everybody else's sake!

13 December 1997, Nai Harn Bay, Phuket, Thailand

Laura - The day began as usual at 7 a.m. with the rustle of Tom, Fritz and Teh heading off to shore in the dingy for breakfast, daily provisions of water, pineapple and fried rice. They also had to use the facilities on land as I had apparently frightened them out of using the head on the boat. (Comment from Aaron: Tom is known internationally for his pungent fruits). All I requested was that they be considerate since most of the air from the bathroom vents into the forward cabin where I sleep, but I guess I gave a few too many lessons on how to flush the toilet. Sorry guys.

Anyway, by the time they returned, a fresh breeze was blowing and promised to be strong. We set about putting up the smaller headsail for the day. We also planned to put a reef in the main. As we motored off the mooring and out of the bay toward the starting line the engine quit as it seems to on a daily basis these days. Aaron has spent an inordinate amount of time in the hot greasy oven of an engine room taking things apart and calling for tools and WD40. As we were not headed into the wind when the engine quit, we struggled to get the mainsail up as it filled and gained strength. I was feeling pretty tired out from the week and could only think "the nightmare continues." But my moment of pessimism passed as we all threw ourselves into the work of making the boat move and it worked out okay.

As usual, the starting line was a frenzy of boats zig-zagging about all vying to be at the best point on the line when the starting horn goes. Somehow Redwings wound up going against the flow of boats right at the start and we had to weave through a bunch. It turned out we crossed the starting line early, but we knew it and ducked back again to re-cross after the starting horn was sounded.

It was a quick race around a buoyed Olympic course as the wind was blowing well and the more experienced people on the boat said we were sailing like we were really racing. One big success was the efficiency in which we took down the spinnaker both times we flew it. We had talked over the difficulty we were having the night before over a seafood dinner. I was getting scared during the takedown because the spinnaker is so big and carries an enormous power. For some reason, I was being left with the brunt of it and had come close to getting lifted in the air a few times and had lost some skin off my hands trying to reign the thing in. My strength doesn't nearly match a spinnaker and getting pulled overboard was in the realm of possibility. We figured out the timing of the takedown was slightly off and were able to much improve it after talking over what each of us was doing during the quick but important moments of takedown.

The race finished early and by about 1 p.m., we were sweaty, but relaxed and snarfing down pizza and salad on land. We learned then that the race committee hadn't seen us re-cross the starting line and we were disqualified. But Penny talked it over with them and explained that we had in fact re-crossed, but that their view had been blocked by other sails. Our request for redress was granted after calling some witnesses from other boats, and we later learned we placed 10th for the day.

I spent the afternoon by the pool of the Phuket Yacht Club hotel from which the regatta is being run. It overlooks lovely Nai Harn bay in which all the sailboats were anchored. It gave me some time to think about the week. It had been quite a different experience from the Raja Muda Regatta. The racing was more intense and more demanding and at times more frustrating. It didn't have the overnight legs that the Raja Muda did, but other things wore me out. We all basically got along, but there were seven people staying on the boat which meant a good deal of give and take.

Also, in the Raja Muda the crew had far less experience. This time around with Tom on board and with Penny really getting into her element after having gotten a feel for the boat during Raja Muda, plus Aaron's experience, we had a more serious environment. That meant we had a crew with a wide range of experience and varying levels of interest in racing. That led to some occasional tensions between people who were quite serious on the water and those who tended to be chatty and fill moments in which people were trying to concentrate with talk. There were times when the sharp words flew; sometimes it seemed appropriate and sometimes not.

Some conflicts also had to be worked out on the side. Mine came when on the second to last day of racing. Throughout the regatta, another member of the crew had frequently tried to help me out with tasks, little and big, that I was perfectly capable of handling on my own. He was trying to be helpful I believe, but I was getting really irritated because he was always into my business, scrambling my fingers to help untie a knot or whatever. My response was to get more and more stubborn about doing things on my own in an attempt to draw a clear line. But that didn't work because there are moments during sailing when help is needed, and sometimes it's there before I ask and I'm glad of it. We finally had a brief and civil, but to the point chat about the fact that if I seem to be doing something I can manage he should butt out. It soon became a joke between us that I desperately needed his help with everything.

When not racing, we were a harmonious enough group and enjoyed several parties, particularly one night when we practically closed the place down after our friend John, who captains the boat UCLA, took over the stage to sing a little Eric Clapton for us. That night, after dancing up a storm, Teh disappeared after the party and we didn't see him for 24 hours. Nobody asked where he'd been since he seems to like his privacy. He later told me he'd wound up having coffee someplace in some town at about 7 a.m. (he skipped the details of the hours of 2 a.m. when we'd last seen him to 7 a.m.). He noticed a sign for a snake farm and decided to check it out so he wandered down there and met a guy who loaned him a motorcycle and he tooted around the island for the day. The only stipulation was that he had to wear a snake around his neck while driving the bike. (Okay, okay, I made that part up. No snake.)

Anyway, back to the day at hand...At about 6 p.m. after showers in Penny's hotel room, we hopped on a bus to another hotel where the final awards dinner was held. It was full of ceremony as a representative of the King was present. It was rather interesting to me as I had never before been in the same room with a King's representative and had not realized he commanded almost the same deference as the King himself.

The food was good, but I was too full of pizza to eat much. Heineken continued the generosity it had showed as a sponsor and provided lots of free beer. I think they sent in 30,000 cans, the event MC said. The MC, by the way....oh, I guess I won't go into it. He just was pretty sexist and called women things like "eye candy" while doing his announcing. I had too good a time at the regatta to harp on one person's behavior, but I wouldn't be true to my beliefs if I let it go entirely without note.

So, Kerry, Colleen, Penny, Aaron and I were wiped out and left the party at about 9:30. We took a "tuk tuk" (a small covered truck with bench seats that serves as a taxi) to a nearby town for traditional Thai massages. For an hour-and-a-half we lay on mattresses in a dim room and were massaged and stretched from toe to head. The cost was about $7. It was much needed and I plan to do it again soon. Then it was off to the boat and farewell to Penny, who planned to fly to Hong Kong in the morning. Penny may re-emerge for a later segment of the trip.

14 December 1997 Ao Chalong, Phuket Thailand

Laura - Up at 6 a.m. and Tom took Teh into shore to send him off to wherever he goes. Teh's exact home is still a bit of a mystery to us. But he is a nice man and perhaps we will encounter him again someday. The boat seemed a bit empty with just Kerry, Colleen, Tom and Aaron and me.

After shoving off from Nai Harn, we headed for the Boat Lagoon. One hour into the trip (Aaron interjecting here with some incredibly interesting engine-related discussion), the oil pressure dropped to "0" (the oil pressure gauge I should say) and we smelled something burning. We dropped the throttle and I looked into the engine room to be greeted with a modest amount of black smoke - "turn off the engine - quick!". Although the wind was blowing on the nose at about 20 knots, we were luckily in the middle of a fairly wide channel with two knots of tide under us. No need to panic - yet. It appeared that the black smoke was simply coming from the alternator belt that was slipping - I had been hearing it whine more and more in recent days. As for the disappearing oil pressure, I can only hope its a result of a loose connection / faulty gauge as once again I could not find any evidence of leakage and we seemed to have plenty of oil. The engine did not seem too hot but as our "new" in HK temperature gauge is not working its tough to get real comfortable with the temp when their is smoke pouring out of the compartment. Anyway, by the time I got done frigging around it was almost 0800 - time to call the Boat Lagoon to see if they had any space for us. There was not so we just turned the motor back on and coasted in to Ao Chalong (Chalong Beach) which is the biggest anchorage in Phuket and where most of the resident and transient cruising fleet lies. (For those who care I got the remainder of my obligatory two hours of teach yourself diesel mechanics school in later on. Tightening the alternator belt stopped the smoke and whining and in addition resulted in a significant improvement to the charge level on the batteries - something I had been concerned about. "Giggling" the wires for the temperature and oil pressure gauge seemed to "fix" them.)

Aaron took Tom to shore so he could get a Tuk Tuk to the airport to make his flight back to Bangkok. Then Aaron returned in the dingy and collected Kerry, Colleen and me for breakfast. We poked around the Yacht Club, which isn't too fancy and didn't seem to have too much going on. We then found a place for breakfast that was okay, but nothing like we'd gotten used to during the regatta.

Later when we wandered back to the yacht club, the restaurant down below called Jimmy's Lighthouse was open and was a great place to hang out and see if we might get hungry again and play some pool in the meantime. We are sort of biding our time for getting into the Boat Lagoon as we must pick up all the stuff we left there and we need to do a basic clean-up of the sand and salt that collected on the boat during the week and the grease that has built up below from the daily engine repairs. We also need to have some work done on the boat between now and early January when we head for Sri Lanka. So Aaron made some phone calls and we chatted to some people in the club and got some very helpful information about getting work done.

At about 3 p.m. we left the yacht club and climbed back in the dingy. The tide had gone out and the water near the shore was murky. It turned out to be shallow and a goopy mud bottom for a long way out. Aaron was kind and dragged the dingy as far as he could. Then we just put the weight forward off the motor and blasted out. The wind was still whipping and the waves were big for the tiny dingy. We got totally and completely soaked making our way out to the boat. But we were all laughing too much and didn't really care even though we have no fresh water to hose off and have few clean clothes left and we probably stink. That's life.

The dingy trip proved it would be impractical to try to do work on the boat here. We'll have to hope there is space in the lagoon tomorrow.

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