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27th January 2006
HAPPY NEW YEAR
FROM US IN THAILAND!
here’s a very brief up-date
on where we are and where we’ve been. Kanaloa
sailed from the islands of Vanuatu
to Brisbane, Australia at the beginning of
October. An excellent trip and two week stay in Manly marina, very close to Brisbane gave us the opportunity to visit various
friends who live in the area, and sail up the Brisbane river with a Craig and his new
wife Tammy
Kanaloa moored in Central Brisbane
The Wilsons
at Craig’s home, Brisbane
We first met Craig and his dad,
Bob in Madeira in September 97! Our
insurance company insisted we sail below the latitude of 37 South to keep out
of the cyclones for the Australian Summer! Due to the Southerly buster winds
that tend to claim a few sailors every year we sheltered, from one that was
forecast, in Coffs Harbour, the most northerly harbour in New South Wales. It
deserves its name of ‘buster’. There was only room for us up
against the fisherman’s wharf where we fended Kanaloa
off for 48 hours, wishing we’d not offloaded in New Zealand the three huge round fenders we
had purchased in ‘La Corunna’, northern Spain for the same type of
incident. Friends came and gave us a tour of the area before it arrived,
thankfully, giving us a quick overview of this very beautiful part of Australia.
Fortunately, Kanaloa only got a scratch on the topsides which
will be remedied when we get back to Australia. It was a bit of a
rush to get down to Newcastle Marina, just a 2 hour drive North of Sydney,
and get Kanaloa laid up for a few
months rest while we headed by train down to Sydney to catch a place for
Melbourne.
David with Kathryn outside her
lakeside home.
We had really wanted to see our
dear friend Kathryn Page, who had made firm friends with us whilst we were
both anchored in Tahiti in 2000. She had
sadly lost her husband, Mayer who died from cancer in June. It was thanks to
them that David got a handle on having his PSA checked in Tahiti
in 2000, and thence discovered that things were amiss in 2003 having his
prostate removed in Feb 2004. We had dinner friends of hers, two other
couples who are also sailors, living in Melbourne.
It’s extraordinary that one of them has since died from a heart attack
at the end of last year – so you just never know when your number is
up! Our friends John and Alison Wicks who also live in Melbourne collected
us from her house and took us to try out his motor boat at Lakes Entrance, a
three hour drive South East from Melbourne on the coast. John and Alison
also crossed the Atlantic with us in 1997, and are now living permanently in Melbourne. They used to
be members of West Mersea Yacht Club we belong to in England. John calls his
motorboat ‘compromise’, the yearning for another sailing boat is
still there!
‘Compromise
at Lakes Entrance
Arial
view of Lakes Entrance
Lakes Entrance is a little like
the Norfolk Broads, with lots water winding its way round islands, a paradise
for small boats. A very narrow and shallow channel prevents deep draft boats
from entering however. The beach goes on for miles and miles, so typical of
the Australian coastline.
A typical outing with John and
Alison was enjoyed at the local winery, more like a pub with loads of artwork
covering the walls created by his wife. Slurps of wine galore ,
John’s such a good customer, no wonder they were dancing on the beach
afterwards!
Wyanga park Winery’s cartoon
depicts the atmosphere
Australian
White Pelicans preening themselves
With such profusion of wildlife
along the way, it makes for a delightfully pleasant day out with only the
stress of going aground on sandbanks to contend with, in highly protected
waters, so there’s never a real problem.
A rapid 2 night stop in Singapore to buy electronic gadgets we’d
been dreaming of, having been out of contact with civilization for so long
whilst in Vanuatu
was a bit of a shock to the system. 
Christmas
decorations down Orchard Road were in full swing, as was Raffles Hotel
 
1st
December 2005
Currently, David and I are in Phuket, Thailand,
living ashore in a house, enjoying a three month sabbatical from sailing and
travelling. I never imagined I would ever enjoy living on ‘terra
firma’ again, so happy am I to bob up and down on Kanaloa in a safe anchorage or mooring.
Our 2 houses with Tropical
gardens, satellite TV and rapid internet, why not?
We are absolutely loving the
challenge of getting to grips with the culture of Thailand and setting up a small
and welcoming home here for ourselves and for our friends and family to use
next door. The weather from December to April is absolutely ideal, not too
hot and hardly any rain, so quite a nice place to come and relax during the
chilly Northern Hemisphere winter and the very hot Southern Hemisphere summer.
Thai people could not be more pleasant and respectful and the food is
delicious. We have very good friends next door in this quiet cul de sac, who
organized the purchasing and building of the two houses for us way back in
March last year. We had been in touch by phone asking how they fared after
the Tsunamis, and promptly latched onto their idea of buying two houses in
Phuket at the same time as they did! We crossed the Atlantic with them in
1997 and have seen quite a lot of them during our visits to Fiji and New Zealand.
 Sally is Thai, married for 30
years to Alf, an ex-Norwegian airline pilot. They are bringing up their 16
month old granddaughter, a bundle of fun and full of laughter, David’s
new girlfriend!
David
with Ing who is 14 months old
Buying a house here seems to be
catching on amongst a lot of UK
cruisers, who are fed up with the high prices in the UK and realize how delightful Thailand
is as a base and very good value for property and everything that needs to be
used to furnish the house.
We have so much enjoyed the
friends we have made in New Zealand
and Australia that we are
half way between those two countries and the UK, giving us more of an
opportunity to go and visit without having to endure a 36 hour flight! A
couple of months in Thailand a year will also allow us time to visit other
countries in Asia, using Phuket as a base for any artifacts we might want,
instead of Kanaloa! So much for
plans, in reality, we are enjoying each day as if it were the last, and just
grateful for the good fortune we are having being well and in each
other’s company.
Hence the delay in writing this
newsletter, as we have been madly rushing around buying furniture and
fittings, organizing the kitchens for each house and getting our teeth done! Dentists
are a third of the prices encountered so far in the UK, New Zealand and Oz! Is my mouth
rattling have already had 18 teeth capped? No – but both of us are on
soup every other day due to such sore gums!
Recently
planted front Garden looks as if we’ve been for ages doesn’t it?
This is Joy, trying to teach us to
speak Thai?
On that note, I shall sign off
till further news
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