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Weert, The Netherlands, July 5th, 2006
"3 ways to sail a boat: the right way, the wrong way and the skipper’s way!"
Were the wise words of the Captain of 40m Steel Ketch "St Jean" upon my arrival aboard. And so it was to be during the delivery of this luxury yacht build by Jongert in The Netherlands. This was my first experience sailing on a yacht of 40 meters. My friends warned me jokingly not to get lost on it. The winches only could fit me in twice! With that came seriously big mooring lines and sheets to handle the sails...all in all enough reasons for muscle pain. After two seatrials in Singaporean waters we took of for our destination: Koh Samui in Thailand.
The 650 nmiles trip started of smoothly with silk seas, clear skies and light wind. We passed Malaysia's Tioman Island on the first day, with an average boatspeed of 11 knots we were flying. The delightful crew aboard was made up of a Costa Rican Captain, an Italian First Mate, a Philippina Stewardess and a Thai Chef. My role was to assist the captain and the 1st mate. Did I get wet and dirty! The night sailing was fantastic but soon to become very wet. Several gusty tropical showers combined with some engineering work made our trip quite exhausting at the end. Lacking sleep in the first place followed by solely standing watch for 6 hours, have a break to eat and do 2 hours more was a good test for me. Both the captain and the 1st mate had sailed many years including several times round the world. They teached me a lot and I'm looking forward to sail with them again.

Singapore, June 18, 2006
"When it rains it pours!"
Swan 42 La Samudra continued her winning ways. With our victory at the Top of the Gulf regatta fresh in our minds we were pretty switched on and keen to win in the Samui Regatta, also known as the tropical island regatta. And it was in many ways indeed. The first day we were surprised by a very tropical storm: it came quick, didn't last very long but it was blowing and pouring big time. We had up to 40knots of wind. Lot's of work on the foredeck and as La Samudra's bowman I had a chance to use my skills in changing headsails several times as well as peeling spinnakers. Lot's of action on the pointy bit...loved it, a very memorable day! As the week progressed the wind dropped which gave the smaller and lighter competitors and advantage over us. The overall win was not decided till the last race but once again our lead build up in the beginning of the week brought us the overall 1st place. It has been a very successful season for La Samudra in the Gulf of Thailand. As my friend and sailing buddy Lisa Denvir had come over from the USA, the shore part of the regatta week was guaranteed to be tropical as well. Here we are with Bridget Hedderman of team Lunchcutter.

Singapore, May 19, 2006
You can do it!
Reads the slogan of Dame Ellen Mac Arthur. She was in Singapore this week, where she and her team finished their Asian tour on the B&Q boat. Now that's a serious piece of gear! In this picture here I'm standing in the cockpit.It's with this trimaran that Ellen broke the world record sailing solo around the world in November 2004. My friend Elaine Chua joined the team in Shanghai and sailed with them down to Singapore. Elaine read 26 knots per hour of speed during this trip. Thanks to Elaine, I had an opportunity to come 
aboard this week and to meet Dame Ellen MacArthur in person. She is a truly inspiring personality. Unfortunately she didn't invite me to come sailing with her....yet (its good to have dreams)

Bangkok, May 9th, 2006
"Never a dull moment"
It took me a little while to find a reasonable reliable cybercafe in the last months so here we go.
End of March I arrived with a 45 foot catemaran in Mumbai. It was a very smooth and enjoyable trip. The rythm of the shifts that I was on watch stayed in my system for another month! That worked really well for me though, while I was travelling through India. During the delivery we stopped in Cochin, Kerala, South-West India to fuel up etc. A Beautiful place, peaceful, colourfull, relatively clean and no hassle. Good holiday spot! Entering the Cochin harbour, the first thing one sees are these amazing fishing nets.

Mumbai was great too. We had a very warm welcome at the Royal Bombai Yacht Club and I was fortunate to have a friend from Singapore in town at the same time. We had a good look around; fascinating and intense. Pure for sure, as they say in India. Mumbai has as many citizens as the Netherlands, 16 million, of which 2 million have no access to sanitairy facilities. Let me spare you the details of some of the scenery. Then I travelled up North through Rajastan. From Rishikesh I was fortunate to join a Britisch couple on a 7 day trek through the Himalaya's. No words to describe the scenery.

Last week I flew to Bangkok and a day later I found myself back on the water, enjoying the sounds and movements that I had misssed so much. On the bow Swan 42 La Samudra, I participated in the Top of The Gulf Regatta. It felt so good to be out there and the hard work paid of. We firstly scored 4 bullets (1sts), unfortunately we got disqualified in the 5th race. On the last day we scored a 4th on a tough course but we had a nice finish broaching under A-sail (Assymetrical spinnaker) and a 2nd in the last race. We came first overall. That last race was rather exciting with heavy rain, gusts of 25knots and visibility dropping to a few boatlenghts. A highlight at this regatta was the launch of a third Firefly, designed by Mark Prescot. Like the 1st, 'Voodoo Child' and the 2nd 'Moto Inzi', his 3rd 'X Ta Sea' looks very flash too in bright yellow and green. Next, a couple of deliveries to Samui followed by the Samui regatta, the last event in the Asian Yachting Season 2005-2006.

Singapore, March 9th, 2006 
"India begins beyond despair"
according to the Indian author Raja Rao! Well looks like I'm gonna find it out for myself. Which is really about time. Having spend so many years in Asia, India has not been touched by me yet. Or probably that should read India has not touched me yet! This Saturday I will depart from Phuket in Thailand to deliver a 45ft sailing yacht to the city of dreams, also known as Bombai. I'll be going with two friends and one additional crew. Estimated time of arrival is late March. Will catch up with you guys then!

Singapore, March 1st, 2006
Taking it forward
What a month! Had an absolute blast. It all started with delivering a Grand Banks Motor yacht from Langkawi to Phuket prior to Chinese New Year. With 25kts of boat speed I was passing my friends in their sailing boats making way to Yacht Haven in Phuket. And that’s where we all gathered for the Phang Gna Bay Regatta. A cruisy regatta in a stunning environment. Probably the best scenery in South East Asia! I was invited to join a Swan 42, named La Samudra. A beautiful cruiser/racer with a winning track record. To my surprise & joy a friend and sailing buddy from Malaysia was invited in the team as well. With 45 yachts competing, the event was already a success prior to the start. The four days of racing East and South of Phuket and the excellent parties ashore at night where fantastic. In the racing class we won the second prize overall. The light winds gave the Phuket 8 sports boats a major advantage. My position aboard was the bow and I was assisted by a ‘spot-on’ mast-man with whom I became friends in no time. Unfortunate for some he gave me his mouth harmonica which I used with enthusiasm in the Thai long tail boats on the way back to the yacht at night; sorry! 

Two girls from my hometown then joined me for a cruise down to Langkawi aboard Henning’s “My Toy”. We stopped at several tropical islands, we sailed, snorkeled and visited friends on the way. So by the time we reached Langkawi, a week later, we were totally chilled.

On board of La Samudra I competed in the Langkawi regatta, this time as the mast-man. My team mate on the bow was a Danish Female Sailmaker, she was brilliant. Competing in the premier cruising class we won all the races. Having said that, we were only two boats in our class, dah. To be honest, we really missed competition in this regatta, it wasn’t much fun not be challenged on the race course. The big attraction of this regatta was the prize, a trip to Valencia for the whole team winning in the racing class. This prize was won by team Ulumulu/ Quantum racing, inclusive of my friend Fin. The Malaysian Prime Minister came to Langkawi to conclude the prize giving ceremony.

And then more luck came my way. I was invited to join the Sony Ericsson team on their Volvo 60!!! A very, very, very sexy boat (see pics). This yacht was formerly called Assa Abloy and won the round the world race 4 years ago. The yacht is in the area to promote Ericsson and to create awareness of the Ericsson Volvo 70 presently competing in the Volvo Ocean Race. Check it out at www.ericssonracingteam.com. So there I was helming a full on racing yacht, flying a code 0 in 10 knots of breeze and still getting more then 9 knots of boatspeed. The 5 crew aboard were all professionals and I found myself on a steep learning curve.

Yeehaaa…