January 15, 2007 - On Our Way!
by George & Merima

Hi Everyone:

It's hard for us to believe, but the first leg of our journey across the Indian Ocean has finally begun. Hard to believe, I say, because only a few days ago, our new main sail was in the loft being re-cut - and just three days ago we were installing a new depth gauge. I guess you could say that these were two things that we couldn't leave home without, so a week ago I didn't think there was a chance in hell that we'd be getting away on schedule. While I was sorting the boat out, Merima was busy putting in provisions to carry us to the next real grocery store, which is about four months and 6,000 nautical miles away.

Joining Merima and I for the first half of the trip are Thane Roberts and Graham Jones. I met Thane in Mexico more than ten years ago when we were both starting out on our circumnavigations. Thane finished his circumnavigation on his yacht Shakti and recently experienced the second happiest day in a boat owner's life, the day he sold her. To reinforce his decision, he came to Thailand a week early to give me a hand with the final preparation of Moonshadow. Watching my stress and frustration over the past week I think he's quite happy to be an "ex" boat-owner. It's always great to have on board someone with with a world of experience, who also has some "local knowledge" of the waters we'll be navigating. Graham, of course, is a regular "Moo-Crew" and we appreciate having another experienced bluewater sailor on board who is familiar with the boat and our way of doing things.

The Andaman Sea Rally was canceled this year due to lack of interest. With a $600 entry fee, it's no surprise. The good news is that those of us who were somewhat interested have banded together to organize a rally amongst ourselves, headed up by the crew of the yacht Intrigue. The pre-rally meeting was held last evening on board the beautiful 80-footer, anchored in the lovely Nai Harn Bay near the southern tip of Phuket island. Samples of wine and spirituous beverages to be carried by participants were submitted to the rally committee for scrutiny. A turning mark at the Similan Islands, sixty some miles northwest, was suggested as an overnight stop. After the meeting Gary and the crew of "Intrigue" put on a great barbecue steak dinner. We told jokes and lies for a couple hours, all crews returned to their respective yachts to rest up for the start today at 1000 hours Thailand time.

We were on the starting line at 0900 hours, but the winds were less than ten knots so we had to motorsail. Winds remained light throughout the day. We stopped the engine for few minutes to sail, but in dropped away quickly. Most of the day the winds were 1.5 knots gusting to 2.5 knots. We reached the Similan Islands in time to enjoy a dive before sunset. The Similans are a line of small islands and rocks which are a national park. The water is clear, the fish life prolific and there are plenty of moorings for visiting boats to protect the reef. After our dive, we enjoyed a barbecue dinner retired early. Based on the wind forecasts, the trip to the Andamans would be a motorboat ride, so we plan to head off at noon on Monday to time our landfall for early morning in Port Blair.

Cheers, George, Merima, Graham and Thane