El Coyote's Identity Crisis

We had a few days of work to do before setting off to Ko Samui for the regatta. This time instead of sailing straight to Samui, we took four days to cruise down whilst one of our crew (Thane) completed his Bareboat Charter training course. The cruise down was a fun packed trip, with good winds, good food and a good laugh.

This is El Coyote moored in Ocean Marina undergoing final preparation. Adrian, (Gary's son) and his team, very kindly helped get the jobs finished on time. Once again Alison was up the mast (this time abandoned for an hour or so whilst Garry went shopping), she loves it up there but did come down with a touch of sunburn.

On Alison's 24th birthday, Tony had a barbeque. Normally when it rains, the barbie gets moved inside. Tony was unpeturbed and just moved the barbie into the bathroom. Gary and Pum bought a fabulous chocolate cake which was a real treat. A good time was had by all.

After the barbeque, the final work was completed. This is Adrian's team cleaning the boat.

On the way to Ko Samui, we had good strong winds. Spot the deliberate mistake above.

Actually it's not a mistake, we had to cook at an angle of 45 degrees. Good job the boat has a gimbled cooker! Not a drop of tomato sauce was spilt. It's good laugh chopping onions whilst they rolled around the galley.

The delivery crew from right are Thane, Freddie, Gary, Alison and Garry (behind the camera).
The boat is also gimbled!

We ran into a little squall which as you can tell was a bit of a challenge. The helmsman (Gary) is stood up straight, it's the boat that's leaning over. The toe rail was in the water and just for a laugh, Gary was ordering Garry round the boat to do very important jobs, such as, recover the bbq lid which was hanging the wrong side of the rail and tighten the clutch on the fishing rod. Just as well he fixed the rod as look what happened next.

Gary with his first ever fish. This easily fed all five of us when we barbequed it in foil pockets the next night on the boat. It is a striped makerel.

This is Freddie the cocktail queen. She magicked up some great drinks and salads.

However, Alison's attempt at cooking was not quite as successful. Check out the well done bacon!

We moored up here one night, but didn't realise how gorgeous it was until the morning. We're not sure it will be there much longer as the pillar in the middle is eroding quickly. The Gulf of Thailand is such a perfect cruising ground with empty sandy beaches, warm seas and good weather (normally!).

Fish number two, even bigger. This one is currently in the freezer ready for the trip back. We may need to invite some friends to eat it all.

Who says palm trees do not grow in the Gulf of Thailand? Garry's eyes were on other things. It is also very rare to see a bowman on the helm (maybe as they cannot see trees).

Fish number three. It looks green on the picture but is nearer to yellow. It is a yellow finned dorada which allegedly tastes lovely, but that too is in the freezer waiting its destiny. As always, the one that got away is the biggest, but you may be able to see more than half of our lure is missing. A huge fish took it along with one of the hooks. Just as we are writing this, the skipper is off to buy a new one for the return journey.

This is the fish celebration party, with Freddie and Garry dancing in the cockpit. Maybe a few too many cocktails were consumed as Garry struggled to get to bed in what he thought were 3 metre swells when it was actually flat calm.

This is where we anchored on the final night after a journey with 30 knots of wind and 9.4 knots of boat speed. Yeeha, wild ride! How pretty is the fishing village above?

These are the fishing boats we motored past early morning, before all hell broke loose again. Just after this picture was taken, we found ourselves again in 30 knots of wind. We had to get the sunshade down whilst we were still in our pyjamas.

The title of the blog relates to the different guises that El Coyote takes on. In the last blog, she was a racing boat (remember we won), on the trip down she was a cruise boat, but she has a hidden talent as a fishing boat.

We are writing this during the "rest" day - a holiday, from our holiday, at Ko Samui Regatta. So far we have three days of great racing but more of that on the next blog.

Alison and Garry