April 16, 2013

Dear Tehja and Taylor,

 

We sent you a radio-mail on this Sweet 16 Day because we didn’t have internet access. Do you remember what it said?

 

“We are still at the same spot near Snake Island, and have been here over a week now. We snorkelled to celebrate the 16th, and Grandpa says that I should report this: We saw 16 colors of coral, 16 kinds of fish, a group of 16 fish, 16 kinds of shells, and Grandma got 16 jellyfish stings. But since none of it is true, it won't be in the blog. But it was a fabulous snorkel, with the water so clear that we could see about 50 feet deep. Amazing. We are having a great time and hope that you guys are living life large. And of course we are counting the days to when we will see you!”

 

We finished the day by watching a movie on the foredeck of CanKata, eating popcorn. Just after the movie ended, the rain started and chased us inside. After we were sound asleep, the winds starting howling and blowing strongly, and woke us up. We were happy to note that our anchor stayed firmly grounded and, with our “anchor drag alarm” set, we went back to sleep.

 

Here are some photos:

 

Some shells from the area.

 



This little island used to have palm trees, but they have all washed into the sea.

This was a popular wave for the surfers.

 



If you look closely, you can see surfers waiting for a good wave.

 



When there were rain clouds like this, we would cancel movie night on the foredeck.



 

 

Hello from Grandma!

 

Hello from Grandpa!

 

All our love,

Grandma and Grandpa Sailor xxxx

 

 

 

March 16, 2013 - CanKata is sixteen!

Dear Tehja and Taylor,

 

Grandma and Grandpa crossing the equator

 

 

Hello from Indonesia and from the southern hemisphere!  We are now on the west side of Sumatra and working our way south. We’ll be here until the end of April, and then we’ll head across the Indian Ocean to an island called Rodrigues, where we’ll stop for a short while before heading on to Mauritius, where we’ll leave CanKata when we fly to Canada.

 

This place is full of lovely children!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was an eventful Sweet 16 Day.

 

First of all, CanKata turned sixteen. She was launched sometime in March of 1997, so we picked the 16^th as her birthday. You can probably guess why.

 

 

 

Secondly, we played a game of chess (16 players on each side) and we tied. We both just kept chasing each other around the board until we got bored and said “stalemate” which is the chess term for “I’m bored and I quit”.

 

Thirdly, Grandpa spent HOURS fixing the fridge. And the good news is, he fixed it! It seems to be working fine right now, which is a good thing because we have lots of frozen food that would have been in a lot of trouble if the freezer wasn’t working.

 

The fridge motor is in this tiny engine room!

 

Grandpa resting after all his hard work.

 

Also on this day, we sailed from the beautiful bay of Babi to a pretty island called Banyak. In both places, the water was crystal clear, the trees were rich green, the sand was almost white, and in both places we were ALL ALONE. Grandpa said, “All I can hear is nature” (e.g., birds, surf, crickets, the wind in the trees).

 

 

 

 

We know it is nearly spring in Canada. Do you have your bikes out yet? Have you played a game of baseball? Is all the snow gone?

 

And we are counting the days until summer … when we will see you!

 

Loads of love,

Grandma and Grandpa Sailor

 

 

February 16, 2013

Dear Tehja and Taylor,

 

Well, this Sweet 16 day was pretty significant. CanKata is no longer flying her Thailand flag, and we have left that country for about five years. We hope to sail back to Thailand in 2018.

 

Grandma walking down
 the street of Nai Yang
for the last time in a long while

 

Grandpa taking a long last look …
probably everything will be changed in
Nai Yang when we get back.

We have been friends with
this fellow for years, and we left
our trusty old bikes behind for his grandchildren.

 

Good-bye Nai Yang anchorage. Thanks for giving us safe,
secure anchorage for so many years. (That cat’s not CanKata).

 

 

Grandpa taking down the Thai flag

 

The weather isn't always perfect
in the tropics (storm at Tarutao).

 

But even on stormy days,
we can get a beautiful sunset.

 

Sweet 16 day –
raising anchor at Tarutao, to head to Kuah.

 

Off on the hazy horizon … is that a ship on the left? No! It’s an island!

 

On February 16, we set anchor in the harbour of the town of Kuah in the province of Langkawi in the country of Malaysia. (We have pictures of Kuah in our November 2012 blog entry). From here, in a few days, we will take a 3-hour ferry to another Malaysian island – Penang - to get our visas for Indonesia, where we will cruise for the months of March and April before heading across to Mauritius. 

 

Mauritius is the place that we’ll leave CanKata when we fly back to Alberta for the summer. We’re counting the days!

 

But back to February 16:  We were “underway” for eight hours, and while we were underway I did laundry in my new machine, Grandpa was at the helm, we ate sunflower seeds and spit the shells overboard, and we had our last taste of pork for a while. We will now be in countries where eating pork is not allowed for religious reasons, so we enjoyed that last taste.

 

After we anchored in Kuah, we had visitors aboard CanKata – Ralph and Jenn of El Misti. You might remember us mentioning them before – they are the ones who rode their bicycles for thousands of miles over three-and-a-half months. They are now living back in Australia but were in Kuah to check on their boat. It is always nice to see old friends.

 

And it is always nice to see family … which we will be doing lots of this summer! Looking forward to it.

 

All our love, Grandma and Grandpa Sailor xx

(now sailing in Indonesia, and not eating pork)