shidoshi’s tour diary

shidoshi’s tasty biscuits

June mixbag - Jun 25, 2008

1. Jan Van Lier Deep Rush (John Acquaviva edit) [Definitive]
2. Jamie Lidell Little Bit of Feel Good [Warp]
3. Chriss Ortega Separated feat. Chandler Perei (Josh the Funky 1 & Jewelz remix) [Opaque Music]
4. Rhythm of Elements Guitar Suite [R2 UK]
5. Sleazy McQueen Yacht Rock Edits [House Arrest US]
6. Neighbour / Woodhead Peaches N Herb EP [Punchout US]
7. The New Mastersounds feat. Dionne Charles All We Can Do (7″) [One Note]
8. Belles Farms Estate Puddin (Kenny Dope mix) [Kay Dee US]
9. Paul SG Key Note (white label) [Key Note records]
10. Dirty House Collective Luvstruck (white label) [(1 sided 12" promo)]

lazy on the updates but here’s the latest chart for now. i’ll get to some more stories soon

April / May
Shidoshi’s Funk, Breaks, and house chart
May 24, 2008

artist - title (record label)

1. Dean Baker Mixed Emotions [Urbantorque]
2. Moxie Yes You May [Moxie Holland]
3. Carlos Bautista feat. Marcio Garcia I Am Mexican (D-Morales Tribe remix) [HMSP Music]
4. Jay J Moods EP [Shifted Music US]
5. Japanese Popstars Get Down [Strictly Rhythm]
6. DJ Fixx & Keith Mackenzie feat. Yolanda Feelin’ The Luv (kmfx original tampa mix) [Illeven Eleven]
7. Valique Let Go Trouble Girl [Freestyle]
8. Dabruck & Klein Cars [Superstar]
9. Roberto Rodriguez feat. Max C. Ride With Me [Compost]
10. Plump DJs Take The Weight [Finger Lickin]

forgot to publish my january and february charts:

shidoshi’s 2008 tasty biscuits!

Artist - Title (record label)

Feb. 2008 Tasty Biscuits - Feb 13, 2008

1. Luca Signorini Skunk Funk [Ocean Trax]
2. Jose James Spirits Above (Simbad remix) [In The House]
3. Funxplosion The New Carlo Couple Funk Experience EP [Funkorama]
4. Flash Callahan Do You Know The Truth EP [Jalapeno]
5. Nostalgia 77 Quiet Dawn (Bonobo Mix) [Tru Thoughts]
6. Blaze Wishing You Were Here (Joey Negro remix) [Defected]
7. Shur I Kan w/ Milton Jackson Swap Shop [Winding Road]
8. Simbad Supersonic Rebelation (Restless Soul remix) [Raw Fusion]
9. Beat Fanatic Wonderful Star [Soundscapes]
10. Hardsoul presents Roog & Greg feat. Anita Kelsey Wicked World (Belocca & Soneec vocal remix) [RnG Electronics]

January 2008 latest tasty biscuits - Jan 7, 2008
1. Scott Wozniak feat. Angelica Linares Amor Del Alma [Deepa Grooves]
2. Full Intention I Believe in You [Eye Industries]
3. Peyton & the Rhythmic Republic Never Give Up (Soul Avengerz dirty vocal mix) [Peppermint Jam]
4. Sir Piers Back When (Liquid People remix) [Curious]
5. Anto Vitale feat. Heidi Vogel Levo Taxi Nights (Deep Inc. vocal remix) [Camio]
6. Matthew Bandy feat. Jans Ingber Think’n Bout You [Lust4house]
7. Jihad Muhammad The Dawn (Guy Robin vocal mix) [Camio]
8. Kemai feat. Foxxee City Street Walkin [Purple Tracks]
9. Koyla feat. Jrod Indigo Promise Land [Bombay]
10. Franck Roger feat. Chris Wonder If I (2007 Real-Visited vox mix) [white]

Calendar New Year’s Eve was great this year again. Guava was packed and choc full of crazy travellers and local ex-pats. good tunes with myself, Chigga (Vancouver) and Alan Ritchie (London) rockin the 1’s and 2’s into the early morning. i went hard and fast so ended up crashing out at like 4 AM but one of our owners, Darren, ended up partying all night and when we came into work the next night at 6 PM he was rocking the music at full volume with bangin house tunes to our dinner crowd. yowza! had to call his wife to take him home to chill out for a while. a funny sight indeed.

in the week that followed we went out on a couple fishing trips around the islands off the coast of Nha Trang. Seeing as i never caught a fish in my life i was anxious to net my first one. day one i caught the big donut. 6 hours out on the sea and no hook for me!!! dammit! but the second fishing trip i finally netted 3 fish - 2 small grouper fish and another reef fish. all catch and release though as they were two small to bother cooking ;-). all good though as i broke the jinx and finally hooked a few. great times on the water as well with beers and a decent barbecue on the boat.

finally got over to the Vinpearl resort in January as well after two years of shunning it. basically, Vinpearl is a 5 star resort on Hon Tre island just off the nha trang coast. in true overbearing fashion, they boast a theme park full with rollercoaster and other rides, a waterslide park, a massive swimming pool, two private beaches and a cable car (gondola style) linking the island to the mainland. they even have a Hollywood style huge sign that lights up at night so the whole of nha trang can see. Anyway, finally got over there and hit the waterpark in fine style. Some of the slides are deadly!! my fave was the one that sends you at high spead into a drain pipe type set up where you feel like you’re being flushed down a toilet bowl. good times! now i know what dead goldfish experience. also hit up the brand new underwater aquarium that just opened there. was pretty decent, and hit the “4D” movie theatre - around the world in 15 minutes. Asian mini-disneyland.

so now we are in the midst of the Tet celebrations. The Lunar New Year is crazy as usual and the whole city is packed with both tourist and Vietnamese partying it up. all the hotels are full and everyone is smiling and laughing. a great time to be here for sure. My friend Tanis, whom i met in australia in 2005, is in town with her boyfriend Dan. i put them to work right away helping with Guava promotions. good to see her again indeed. anyone else up for a visit? i’ll put you to work too!!! yet more parties as the last two nights have been just as busy as calendar new year with about 3 more party nights to go. Tet lasts basically all week so the liver is shakin and bakin right now.

just chilling in nha trang for Tet and enjoying myself indeed. beach days are still plentiful and the sun in shining bright! planning on some small trips to Saigon for partying and DJing and then another jaunt to thailand perhaps mid-april. til next time…

Chuc Mung Nam Moi! Happy New Year!

the end of 2007 was somewhat all over the place over here. It all started goofy when i flew from Phuket to Bangkok in the middle of December to get ready for the trip over to Vietnam. Because I was registered as the Captain of a boat that came into the country (Malaysia to Thailand), I actually had to courier my passport back to Phuket so that the port authority could sign me out of the country. ugh! with sending my passport first to the Vietnamese Embassy to get my entry Visa, and then back to Phuket, I had to wait an extra week or more in Bangkok just for my proper stamps to get into my damn book. waiting waiting. wasn’t easy. hung out with some good friends in Bangkok though and had a great time chilling there. Thanks to Neung, and Edele especially for bumming around.

So i ended up landing in Saigon on Christmas Eve. What a crazy sight! i’ve been in busy traffic jams in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, etc. but i have never ever seen a traffic jam like in Saigon on Xmas Eve!!! My flight landed at 5 PM and i jumped in a cab right away to take me to my hotel. Normally the trip would take about 20 minutes to half and hour. As we got nearer to the city centre, the traffic got thicker and thicker. It was then at a stand still and we hadn’t got half way yet. Eventually the taxi driver and i agreed that i should just take a moto-taxi (xe om) soas to weave through the traffic and get to my hotel faster. i paid him and he waved over a moto for me. i jumped on the back and off we went. weaving…..ya….we were down the skinniest of alleyways, wrong way on one way streets, driving down park walkways, all to try and get through the traffic. cars, busses, motorbikes, bicycles, all at stand stills in many many areas. I finally got to my hotel near 8 PM. 3 hours!!!

i ended up heading out that night for some Christmas cheer to the Underground bar to meet a couple mates - Tom and Bruce. Had a nice meal there and a few beers and we were off to Lush - a great nightspot in Saigon. wobbly juice was in fine style there and we partook in fantastic quantity. Met up there with Mark the resident DJ and Thao the owner and had yet a few more cups of Christmas cheer. Walking to both bars and then back to the hotel wasn’t bad because they are all pretty close to eachother but the sight of sooo many people on the streets celebrating the holiday was fantastic! they had outdoor free concerts at many places in the district one area and all the bars and cafes going off. I earned my pass-out and slept the night away.

Christmas Day I flew to Nha Trang and was swept right back into the job at Guava Bar by helping cook the Christmas turkeys and prepare food for our big feast that day. and from then until now - a few days after the New Year, it has been just mayhem. Really really busy at the bar and catching up with some old friends takes its toll after a good week and a half of solid boozing.

gotta run to work, but New Year’s tales to come…

Race day four started on yet another boat. I keep getting opportunities to get on different race ships and experience yet more differing styles of yachts. Day four had me on a “Swan 46″ - a 46 foot monohull. great boat and a crew of 12. Most people on the boat had less experience than myself if you can believe that, so i was charged basically with the duties of somewhere like 3rd in command. I was responsible for the head sail and was barking out some orders to the front deck crew to help trim the sail. loads of yanking rope indeed. good fun and we raced fairly well to place 3rd on the day.

At the party that night there was some chat about combining the crews of the big crash on day 2. So I was asked to go for the last race on Twin Sharks - indeed the boat that struck us on our Firefly that day. By gones be by gones, I accepted and planned to have a decent run on the last day of racing. My friends Mel and Morgan from Sunsail showed up that night as well, so a good amount of beer was consumed and a rough morning would be in the cards.

So, race day five - boat whore Jason gets on yet his 5th boat in as many races. too funny. I did learn a lot and had great times with different boats and crews, but i do think it would have been better just to get on one crew and go through the whole of the regatta as a unified team member. Next year, next year.

The last day was tremendously windy though with winds gusting up passed 30 knotts. crazy. we had one sail up on the firefly and we absolutely cruising our way to the start line already hitting 15 knotts (ie. FAST). By the time we got out to the start line, the ocean swell was up to two meters, and the wind was consitently dangerous. The tiny ship was tossed indeed! Our little catamaran was bouncing all over the place, so our captain decided to call the race and we retired without starting. We were out there for fun and had no chance of winning the regatta trophy so we didn’t feel bad about turning around and having an easy day in. On the way back to the anchorage, we put up the front sail as well to steer course better and ended up hitting 18 knotts on a pleasure cruise! nutty. Anchored away, mid morning beer, and some more tales to be told. too bad we weren’t able to race, but a nice little boot around the bay was still nice with the combo-crew.

The closing party was an absolutely massive event with representatives from the monarchy presenting the awards. The spread was fantastic as there was all sorts of food and drinks scattered around the Kata Beach Resort poolside. For the other parties only beer and wine was available, but the closer had spirits as well, so it was time to hit the scotch and sodas for a change. Had a great time visiting with all the people i had met during the week and then it was off to the after-party. Just down the beach at another bar they had a “Winter-wonderland” party. aka. foam party. Which was more like fluffy fake snow blowing all over the place though, but still a great time as we rang out the week in fine style.

King’s Cup was definitely one of the highlights of my travels so far. Met great people, lived far beyond my means, and had an unforgettable experience. I’ve been invited to race with a couple teams for next year already as well which is nice to hear. i’ll do my best to get back for a round 2 indeed.

Slowly but surely heading back to Vietnam now. Have to eventually get up to Bangkok, sort my Visa out, and then fly back to Nha Trang before Christmas. ’til then, cheers from Kata Beach in Phuket, Thailand!!

Day 3 King’s Cup update - after the crash

here’s a few websites about the sailing action:

about our collision on race day. I was on the “Sea Properties” firefly that got hit by a boat called Twin Sharks.

http://www.phuketgazette.com/news/index.asp?id=6135

This is a quick update from yesterday

http://www.bangkokpost.com/Sports/06Dec2007_sport23.php

and this is a bit of background info on the race and the boats:

http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?SEID=2&Nid=39534&SRCID=0&ntid=0&tickeruid=0&tickerCID=0

My skipper was Ian Southworth whom I didn’t realize was a world favorite!!!

to quote…:”The experience and expertise of some of these sailors is quite daunting.
Ian is the six times UK J24 champion, twice European champ and has a third in the world commented. He has been a Team Oracle Admirals Cup helm, UK match racing champ, Patriot Cup Winner, the list is endless.”

nutty!!! and i’ve already been asked by him to free up next year as we want to come back and take care of, out of his mouth…., “Unfinished Business”. cool with me

i’m on a new boat tomorrow. A 46 foot “Swan”. guess i’ll find out more about it tomorrow.

took off from Langkawi, Malaysia in a 35 foot yacht with an older New Zealander by the name of Greg. from right up to the last hour, I was slated to sail the boat solo from Langkawi to Phuket as the company was having trouble locating crew. whoa!!! would have been hard sailing straight through to Thailand. to double that up, the autopilot was on the fritz and thus we had to manually steer the whole way. gets tiring after a few hours, let alone 24 hours straight! so we set off at about 6 PM will some cold KFC chicken, some beer and water, and some cheese buns to take us through a quick transfer.

the sea was fairly calm, but we did hit some strong winds and meter high waves at times. topped out at 8 knots for all you sailer dudes. not bad for a smaller cruiser speed wise. shot the shit with the NZ fella and then as night fell we took 3 hour shifts on the helm or sleeping. By the time the sun came up, we were getting a bit fed up with the damn autopilot, so i took the cover off the unit, played around with some wires and fuses, and bingo! it came working again. easy going from then on, and we cracked them beers to celebrate. We rolled into Phuket at about 5 PM and had to anchor off a smaller island as we arrived in low tide and couldn’t get into the marina at the time. back on land…a pub, some great Thai food, and we were set.

In the morning we were able to pilot into the marina. Day 1 on arriving in Phuket, I got to meet up with the Sunsail staff on the island and was quickly introduced to Ian and Oliver, and met up with Paul - whom i had met in Langkawi before. A quick shower and a tour around the marina and sunsail office, and i hopped on a taxi to the one and only Patong Beach. Phuket is really touristy, and Patong is the hub of it all. Streams of tourist and girly bars, foreign restaurants, the whole lot. Shared a hotel with another boat crew from the delivery and we went out to the local rock n roll hot spot for some power chords and screechy cover tunes .

The next day I transferred up to Kata Beach where the King’s Cup Sailing Regatta is based. Found a decent reasonable hotel in the area and it was off to the office to check out any crew wanted listings. It was going to be a tough start as I was the first to put up a notice on the main message board. Off to the famed Ska Bar at the far end of Kata Beach, I ended up running into the French Connection of Nicolas, Valentina, and Jeremy whom i had met in Koh Chang and then again in Langkawi. Got introduced around to some new friends and got my beer on. stellar.

The next day I got a call from a boat named Charro. They had a crew person down with a fever and had an opening for me. Result!!! or not?? Went out on a practice sail with them on their 37 foot or so catamaran and held my own in my post as the “starboard jib sheet” man. got soaked as water came blowing fast as we peaked out at 18 knots on some practice runs. Was a fantastic time and great boat and crew, but alas, the crewperson’s fever broke and she felt healthy enough to come back on the team. shambles.

That night in the Ska Bar once again, i received calls from two other boats needing crew! back on track now. One boat was a 1938 classic monohull with up to 6 sails flying. nutty! The other was a racing boat called a Firefly - an ultra competative boat whose crew was flown over from the UK just for this race. choices choices. I did go the next day for a practice sail with “Sirius” - the classic which was apparently the first Australian boat to circumnavigate the globe, but ended up choosing the racing team of S.E.A. corporation and the Firefly 850 racing catamaran (about 27 footer). Great crew and people on the classic, but I’m juiced up to learn to race and get a free T-shirt too ;-).

So signed on with the S.E.A. team, i got my party pass and was off to the opening shindig for the Kings Cup. Massive security as there were some dignitaries there, I mingled around the area of the Kata Beach Resort and nibbled on some food and got stuck in the free flowing Chang beer on offer. Met loads of new people and all the crew on the S.E.A. team. easy going. The team has two boats on the go and the other boat of theirs WON last year. pressures on as we meet up with the owner - the dude footing the bill - and got all gung-ho and loaded up and the same time. too funny.

Up at the crack of dawn, went down to the beach for breakfast and to meet up with the crew to get on the boat. Team uniform and all, we boarded up and got the boat ready. Starting lines are crazy and un-describible. boats all going this way and that, trying not to run into eachother, captains screaming at crew and other boats….all waiting for your coloured flag to drop from the start boat. Roaring off as our horn sounded, i was racing in the King’s Cup. nice.

We came 4th place on the first race. It was hard but a great time. almost 4 hours on the water, soaked from water splashing everywhere, a little sunburnt in the face, a little wobbly. good times. Owner wasn’t too happy with the result. ok ok. easy turkey. Tomorrow is race number 2. off to the pub we go. I was tired as hell though after the long day. crashed hard early, sore in a few places, day one was done.

Day Two today and totally optimistic on our chances to hit the podium…holy shit. what a half day…let me elaborate….

we were well on our way in the morning. really organized and different tactics planned for today. all well up for what was to come…or were we. straight off the start line we roared off. easily in first place and far in front of most of the pack. all good we were settling down and riding at 12-14 knotts and powering forward. the closest boat behind us was a good 70 meters (which was also the boat that finished first yesterday in our division). we tacked (turned) to follow the race course and about 30 or so seconds later….WHAMMMMM!!!! yes indeed. we were T-boned by the other boat. as the other boat collided with us it drove its twin hulls right into the side of us. there is also a big metal rod on the nose that holds stabilizing lines for the boat and that went THROUGH our outer hull and put a massive hole in our Port (left) side. WHAT THE……??????

After a crazy milieau of events, the basics are that our captain has a bruised right forearm, one injury on the other boat with cracked ribs, and two boats out of the race for good. It was the other boats fault…(technical talk upcoming) we were on a starboard tack and well ahead of them and they just plain lost sight of us and forgot to keep an eye open. dammit!! so we are officially out of the race with a boat with structural damage. Our crew was disappointed indeed but in reasonable spirits. what really can you do? beer o’ clock.

Sooooooo, after all that, i’ll see if i can get on crew of another boat perhaps and get some more racing experience under my belt. if not, party time as per usual.

battered and bruised, but still having a blast at the King’s Cup! more news to follow this week.

well well then…

what a flurry of news from this side of the world eh? updates aren’t quite as fun without the camera working, but here’s the latest from shidoshi-land

after our epic journey from Nha Trang to Koh Chang on the yacht I settled down in my hammock and chilled out for over a month. Back at the Treehouse lodge (www.treehouse-kohchang.org) once again and was loving the tranquil life of beach, hammocks, books, and beers. DJ’ed a few epic sets there again but was there for more of a holiday this time. Met up with some old mates and such….Katie from England popped her head in on her way back to England (sadly) after over 2 years on the road and 3 run ins with yours truly…also a friend from the past good old high school days, Elizabeth, popped in and I encultured her to the wise ways of lazy hammock styles. Previous people I met at Treehouse in years past also popped in - Daniel from Sweden, and Anita from Germany. Definitely good to have some old drinking partners around. So a well chilled out time at the old stomping ground of the Treehouse was great time well spent.

Koh Chang visit this time also involved loads of visits to the other side of the island to the small pier at Salak Phet where the Sunsail boats were stored and chartered from. First visit down there called for a big piss up and a late night viewing of the Rugby World Cup final. It was broadcast live at 3 AM. beer consumption was at an all time high that night as we counted the hours down to the final. whoooaaa. don’t remember the game much but did make it through the whole game without passing out quite yet. The interesting part of the night came on the wayward way back to Mel and Morgan’s (Sunsail Peeps) house. After a short drunken commute down dirt roads, we got to their house right on the river bend with a nice concrete walkway along side. little did i know in the dark, and drunken state i was in, the distance between their deck, and the “small” step down to the walkway. Figuring i’d take a quick look, I stepped out…didn’t see that gap between the deck and the walkway…no guage of distance either…….oouuuuuuuwwwww. went ass over teakettle onto the walkway and gave my noggin a good smack on the pavement. a little more woozy, dusted myself off and realized that this small step was actually a good three and a half foot drop with a good foot gap in between. was lucky i didn’t fall straight in the water!!! a good laugh later but could’ve been far worse. a few scrapes and a good story to laugh about now though. meh meh!

Had some great sailing again in the Koh Chang marine park all around the area. We “had” to take out and test drive a brand spankin’ new 40 foot catamaran. fantastic style and white leather seats. poshy indeed. I felt like I was on an FHM model shoot. great time cruising around on that indeed. went out to a great snorkel site that day and dove off the top deck to turquoise waters and some vivid pockets of sealife and coral. Did a bit of kayaking around the site as well and found a fertility shrine right on the rocky shore, complete with more phallyc symbols than i’ve ever seen in a small shack. Apparently a favorite place to come for Japanese and Korean tourists.

Also went out to other islands in the area on other days….all around Koh Kood, Koh Wai, Koh Rang, and Koh Mak, which are all clustered in the area south of Koh Chang. some nice restaurants and beaches scattered for us to stop and explore, and even a tiny tributary that we took the dinghy (small motor boat) up through the dense jungle rainforest and then up near an epic waterfall. a nice freshwater swim was not to be denied!

After some great times in Koh Chang and area, it was time to move on again. Next plan, Langkawi Malaysia. Spent a couple days in Bangkok getting my things together and caught a quick jumper flight to the south of Thailand to Had Yai. had a little trouble finding the local bus station there but finally managed to convince a tuk tuk driver to take me straight to the station rather than yet another more expensive tourist bus booking service. Hopped on a bus heading for the west coast and a small town called Satun. packed on a minibus with loads of locals and boxes squished in between us for delivery. no prob though as the ride was only just over one hour long. Made it to the Satun ferry pier and booked on the next high speed ferry to Langkawi. One last spicy Thai dish and I passed through customs among a big sign stating emphatically “drugs in Malaysia = death sentence”. damn….had to give my kilo of smack to the kids at the border ;-). on the flipside it was easy enough to get from the ferry to the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club where the Sunsail base is….it’s right next to the ferry point. a quick walk and a head-pop into the office and a beer was in my hand. sorted!

So here i sit now on the deck of the yacht club, chilling with wireless internet at the bar, talkin loud and sayin nothin. can i get a witness! I’m sleeping on one of the boats here to cut costs as Langkawi is pretty pricey. The plan now is to chill out for another day or two and then I’m charged with the glorious task of delivering one of the sunsail boats to Phuket, back in Thailand, just in time for the King’s Cup yacht racing regatta. This year the King of Thailand is turning 80 years of age so there should be some huge parties surrounding the celebration and probably a few people singing….you guessed it…”What would you do with a drunken sailor”. we shall try to contribute to the celebrations…wink wink.

we’ll see how much i remember after about a week in Phuket for the Regatta. until then….

looking back i guess i haven’t really kept up well eh? crazy times.

well since august i’m stuggling to remember all the blanks but here’s what i remember between beer infested nights:

August was great in Guava in nha trang. still busy with loads of cool people travelling through of course. I moved into a small house to house sit for an Aussie friend named Gordon. Nice to have a full kitchen again and a living room and all that. it was central too so about a block from work and the beach. 3 level house with two bathrooms and loads of space. sorted!

my friends Katie and Matt popped in during August and September - hadn’t seen them in a year and we caught up in fine style boozing it up on a nightly basis. (insert hazy part here where the recollection is a bit foggy) heh heh.

ok, juicey part now. at the end of September boarded a 43 foot yacht by the name of Tubtim with the sole purpose of transporting it to koh chang in thailand. Off on the sailboat we go….leaving Nha Trang bay by sea, sun, and sail was a fantastic feeling and view as we got underway with a few celebratory beers and a full fridge of culinary delights. start of an epic journey of ups and downs as we heading into the deeper south china sea. the first night as dusk set…who’s at the helm, yep…me….and what’s that dark cloud coming toward us? yep…storm. not noticing right away, we of course bust out the pistachio nuts and beers. as the waves slowly increased in size and intensity, pistachio-gate happened and Darren and I tried to rescue as many as possible…but the local fish ate well that afternoon as the bulk of the tasty green nuggets were lost at sea. not until deep into it we realized the storm was a offshoot of one of the small typhoons coming passed the Philippines and heading north. crap! i’ve never been so utterly wet in my life as even through the waterproof rain jacket, water just seemed to creep its way in. Captain Morgan took over on the helm and steered us literally in circles until a small let up in the storm. Visability was literally one meter. i couldn’t see beyond an arms length. somehow we were reasonably calm in this as we though this was common for a storm on a sailboat. Darren (Guava owner) and i were to find out later that we were in far from normal storm conditions and had actually gone through quite a doozie! came through alright but it didn’t really stop raining for the full 24 or so hours it took to sail from nha trang down to mui ne, further south down the vietnam coast. a full day later we were safely docked in a small bay just north of mui ne and the fishing town of phan thiet.

we decided to stay the day and one night there to recollect ourselves and check the boats (we were one of eight boats doing the trek). headed to the guava location there after coming off the boats and going through a pseudo-immigration makeshift stop where we had to hand in our passports and get a temporary entry card….wha? even though we had not come from outside Vietnam. wierd but international boating is still pretty new over here. had dinner and drinks with some of the other crews and found out that one boat had already ripped their mainsail, one boat was taking on water through a small breach in the hull that they couldn’t locate, and one boat got caught on a fishing line in the middle of the storm and the captain had to jump into the 3 meter waves, swim underneath, and physically cut a mass of netting off the propeller. mad styles indeed. drunk we got indeed.

a good night sleep on land and it was time to start making our way to our next port of the island of Con Dao - should take about a day and a half or so. a still bumpy south china sea awaited us for the second time, but the full on storm we were spared. shift work was easy to get into as we were on the helm for 2 hours, then keeping another person company on the top deck for two hours and then we could sleep for four hours. our “gourmet” meals turning into sandwiches and instant noodles as the barrage of 2-3 meter waves didn’t let up. It did indeed take us about 36 hours or so (if i remember correctly) and we were in the confines of a fishing boat filled bay of the prison island famous Con Dao.

As we awaited all the other boats to arrive we met up with our friend Sean on the island who flew in to join the crusade. his only duty was to bring some priceless KFC chicken as his admission to the ride. ugh…..after that big storm we were so looking forward to a bit of the old Dirty Bird, but alas, Sean the donkey….KFC-gate….bastard. Chickenless, Sean bribed us with the chance to have a hot shower in his hotel room in retort. a few more beers at the hotel restaurant and we called it even. As most of the boats arrived we settled in to wait out the storm for a bit longer and hopefully sail in the next couple days with a bit more smoother ride. All the boats showed up except for the bigwig 46 footer flagship boat being sailed by the owner of the Asia-Pacific branch of Sunsail. Go figure. the boss man is the only one to turn back and tuck tale. ended up that his boat was taking water on through a broken seal up front and the were bailing the water out with buckets for the whole time on the boat. bummer for him, but the brunt of jokes for at least the next year indeed. we ended up staying three days in Con Dao with nothing much to do but cook some nice meals, get our beer on, and prepare for when we did leave. weather was still rainy so not even a nice stop on the beach. them’s the breaks.

so day 6 into the trek, or was it day 7??? dunno. we finally anchored up from the isle of Con Dao and headed enmass toward the south island of Phu Quoc. 7 boats now instead of 8, and a few broken things here and there from the storm. coolio. still rough seas tossed us around a bit but the swell lowered and the rain was far less predominant. it took us another day and a half to get down to Phu Quoc island and finally hit a southeast facing bay to drop anchor in lake like conditions.

Phu Quoc….ah the highs and lows…first off, we headed into town and had some “land-beers” to welcome ourselves to the island. a bit of shopping later and we were set with a fair load of perhaps the best bagguettes this side of Versaille and a full fridge of beer. Darren, being a redbull fiend, found a lovely little bootlegged fake called “Double Elephant” energy drink. All good as we were back in the dinghy and heading back for the boats. chilled out on the deck, a small boat with two enthusiastic girls came up selling fresh supplies from ship to ship. we promptly ordered yet more beer and a kilo of fresh prawn for dinner that eve. great times on the calm bay waters off the coast of Phu Quoc. and then………..

we did have a great dinner that night, but the warning started coming in as another boat was boarded by the military and port authority and told they needed to leave. with all our passports on the shore with our contact, the language barrier, and the utter ignorance of any sort of local knowing what to do with yachts rather than fishermen….ugh! Captain Morgan slide between radio and mobile phone trying to tie it all together and get everyone stamped out of the country and on our ways in the morning. drama drama indeed! a good night though swiling some beers and trusting that all would be good in the morning. what happens…..3 out of the 7 remaining boats basically hit the seas and left that night fearing the port authority’s threat of “leave now”…errr, ok. so in the morning we pulled the remaining 4 boats up to the choppy bay where to local authorities office is. a shore party goes to get all sorted as i stayed on deck for a few winks and a chill out. not one hour later, the dinghies come roaring back and we anchor up and hit full throttle and hit the seas running! what’s going on???? well, basically, the immigration officials had a general beef with how this “exit” of the country was being handled and wanted to either see all seven boats at the same time and then impound them all for a minimum of four days, or not stamp our passports out. one word….shit! so we ran for the border!!! blood out!!!!

as we were pulling away from Phu Quoc island, realizing that we may in fact be interpol registered boat people now, we awaited the entourage of the Vietnamese navy to trap us down. a few fishing boats later, the odd weird look over the shoulder, bahhhh, we were in Cambodian waters and safe from errr…..dunno, whatever we were running from. too funny.

as we ventured into Cambodian waters the swell seemed to know that we needed a bit of smooth sailing to lighten the mood. waves went down to one meter or below and the sea calmed. we still had loads of fishing nets and squid boats to navigate around but it was easier going indeed. so easy going that a bored squid decided to jump right out of the water and smack Morgan in the side! it was squirting black ink everywhere through Morgan’s bellows of “WHAT the F*#K!!!!!!” We didn’t even know what it was until we grabbed the flashlight and shined it on the squirmy creature. But besides that, we were pretty smooth all the way to koh Kood and my re-entry into Thailand after more than half and year away, and 9 days at sea.

as we pulled into the familiar regions of koh chang and got on land again, it was a definite nice feeling pulling out the remainder of our brew supplies and kicking back with members and crew of the other boats. Our home at sea - Tubtim, safely docked in its new home for the next six months.  koh chang again.  more updates soon…