Larking around on boats

As usual, the photos are out of order - dam!

The last time we updated you was via e mail and we sent a picture of El Coyote, well............ a lot has happened since then!

We sailed every day for a week in the Ko Samui Regatta. An unbelievable fleet of boats taking part and below are pictures of one or two of our competitors. It has got to be said that it was a class field with boats coming from Hongkong, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and Pattaya (more on this later). One of the boats had won the Sydney to Hobart - one of the most prestigious offshore yacht races in the world. We sailed on a 52 foot boat called El Coyote, owned and skippered by a very cool Australian, called Gary. The crew consisted of skipper and 7 crew, all of whom racked up looking for a ride. We were the only ones who knew each other so it was interesting getting to know the others (who will also be reading this blog).

A typical day was rising at 7.30 am, no lie ins for us. On the beach for 8.30 with sandwiches and whatever was needed for the day. Normally at this stage we had to "hurry up and wait" as there was not much wind which meant the organisers had to go and find some for us to race in. They did a great job. We would then race for the day sometimes one race, sometimes two and return to the mooring late afternoon. Time for a beer, a swim and the post mortem. We tried to create a no blame culture - not sure it worked, but we are all now familiar with the book of excuses! Don't worry, it was all done in very good humour. Then off the boat, by either swimming or water taxi for beer and food. Typically, this went on for much later than it should have done for some of us!

The evening's entertainment was first class with music, dancing, barbeques, great food and fireworks.
After the Regatta, the skipper very generously allowed us to sail back with him from Ko Samui to Pattaya, a 220 mile trip north through the Gulf of Thailand which took us 32 hours non stop, again it was great fun. We were constantly taking the mickey out of each other, with competition between each watch to make the greatest mileage in the right direction! Garry (bow man) was on watch with Scott and Alison with Gary (skipper). During a night watch, Garry and Scott managed to hit a palm tree!! Yes, that's correct, a palm tree in the middle of the Gulf of Thailand. Difficult to find and even more difficult to hit at night!





This is Dave, the bow man diving (perfectly) off the pulpit after a hard day's sailing. Cool, English guy now living in Thailand, a professional musician and good joke teller.
This is Garry bowman, taking a dive.
Alison, on night watch sailing back from Ko Samui to Pattaya.
Finally arriving back in Pattaya. Time to enjoy a well earned drink or two. Alison has wine in her right hand and beer in her left hand and is still steering the boat. As you can see, Gary the skipper is impressed with this.

This is Ben, our very helpful, friendly boat taxi driver. At the end of each day Ben would rack up in his launch, have a beer with us, help us unload and get us back to the shore. One of his many party tricks was parking his boat on the beach. This was something really worth seeing every day and people hung around the bar to watch. What he would do is take the boat out a couple of hundred yards, then give it full bore straight onto the beach. The boat would come up out of the water, over the sand and stop, occasionally launching Ben onto the beach in a forward roll. This was followed by big cheers from everybody in the bar. There are other stories about Ben, but these are not publishable, except maybe the one about the fireworks! Contact Dave for more details!
The happy bowmen at the end of a day's sailing.
Alison took this photograph from the top of the mast. We sent her up to do some essential maintenance, or maybe we were just larking about! Gary, Garry, Hutch, Dave and Scott. The tinkers were running from side to side to make the boat sway and there are plenty of bruises to prove it.

How about this for a Committee boat? For the non sailors, a committee boat is usually a small rib or something similar and it will park on the start and finish line. The start was initially counted down but after a 10, 9, 6, 8, 4, 1 start (somewhat confusing for competitors) there was a return to the normal 5 minute count down by hooter.
This is us towing one of our fellow competitors. The boat is called Magic Roundabout and we swapped finishing places with them on a number of occasions and overall drew with them in the regatta. Perhaps if they had put more diesel on board, we wouldn't have had to tow them, and maybe we would have beaten them!
The fleet with spinakers up after rounding the mark.
Scott on the spreaders doing essential maintenance or maybe just larking around. An American investment banker doing some travelling in this area. As you can see he is quite athletic, he would swim to and from the boat when others used the water taxi. He did a number of roles on the boat but was primarily our strong man doing the winching. Excellent guy to sail with. He came with us after the regatta on the trip to Pattaya.
This is the rear view of Alison going up the mast to do some essential maintenance, or maybe just larking around.

Skipper also doing essential maintenace, or maybe just larking around. He was definately the coolest skipper and great fun to sail with. He normally teaches sailing or charters this boat - any of the sailors reading this who are maybe interested in a charter contact us. We would highly recommend Gary, El Coyote and sailing in the Gulf.
Hutch, the provider of croissants, gin and tonic and fantastic sailing advice. Without Hutch on board we really would have struggled. He was great at giving instructions and keeping cool, despite our lack of experience and the mistakes we made, he never once raised his voice. A cheery, happy proper English gentleman now living in Phuket.
Full Metal Jacket, one of our competitors - can you see the reflection of the water on the side of the boat? This was a fantastic paint job on a very fast boat.
Two other competitors. Jelik, the biggest boat in the fleet is towing Pornstar, the smallest boat in the fleet. Pornstar won its class of sailing and the owners and crew were really nice friendly people who have invited us to sail with them. They wear tee shirts with the boat name on the front and different positions on their backs. For this reason, in previous regattas it is alleged that they were not allowed to wear the tee shirts. Who knows what their next spinaker will look like?!
Another competitor - Crazy Horse. For the sailors amonst you, have you ever seen a catamaran like this? Two masts and no rigging to support them. Again, a very fast boat.

Garry helping the spinaker round the forestay whilst jibing. For the non sailors, figure that out if you can.
Angie, our canadian entertainer. She broke her foot on day one but this didn't stop her from her cockpit duties. She provided the team with tee shirts and a word of the day! She worked very hard in the bar at night to knobble the competition by getting them drunk. She suffered for the cause!
A close up of Jelik, what a beautiful boat, professionally crewed - a few more than we had on our boat. We will have a go at beating them next time!
Tricia, Alison, Hutch and Gary making the most of the shade.

Skipper doing his job. Due to his skills and experience, we had a number of fabulous starts, being first over the line on a couple of occasions. Bearing in mind who his crew were, an amazing achievement. The start lines are crowded with boats jostling for the best starting positions. We won't say too much, but if you're not rubbing, you're not racing!

El Coyote with the number one spinaker up. We had a bit of a laugh one night winding up a fellow competitor. He asked what we were doing and we told him we were working out a sail plan for various wind conditions and points of sailing, and how best to use our extensive sail wardrobe. We were in fact filling out the Subway sandwich order form - far more complicated than working out a sail plan. Not sure if the plan to out psych the competition worked but it was a laugh.
El Coyote and crew mid race. On the far side of the mast, you can just about see Tricia. She was our very polite sail trimmer from Hongkong although the please from "trim please" was dropped fairly soon. She is a professional marketeer and sails out of the well known Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. She has a lesser known skill as a mine sweeper.
Garry larking around on the bow again!
El Coyote - mid race
Hutch and Dave in action jibing the spinaker.

In joke for those of us on the boat - "tomorrow night" "tomorrow night" "Garry and Alison" "Garry and Alison" "will decide where they are going next" " will decide where they are going next".

We like the look of Pattaya so may hang around here for a while.

We do want to take part in the Phuket Regatta so we will make our way over there at some point. Other things to think about whilst we are here are going over to Ankor Wat and Cambodia, and over to Kanchanbri and the Tiger temple and Bridge over the River Kwai.

We'll update the blog when we have figured out our next steps.