Amsterdam, The Netherlands, March, 2007
"Ya'all check out those nauti gals"
Yeehaa, Texas here I come! By the looks of it i'm gonna be the only cloggy in the plot there. This Saturday i'll fly to Dallas where i'll show up next week at the Forth Worth Boat Club, for the startline of the Sundance Cup (28-31st March). Straight after I'll fly to Miami and travel onwards to the St. Peterburg Yacht Club for the legendary Rolex Women's Match (April 5-8th), I'll be sailing with Skipper Arabella Denvir. Hughly looking forward to my first all American experience. 
ps. meanwhile in the East, Team Mat Salleh is contemplating new looks for the next RajaMuda!

Amsterdam, February 2007
There's no such thing as bad weather, there's only bad clothing
And so I prepared myself for sailing in Holland during wintertime, brrrr, many layers, a woolen hat and Captain Marty's southern ocean gloves. Something slightly different. Luckily in the end it wasn't such a cold day...even the sun came out to greet us! And surprisingly there were another 30+ yachts on the water. Unusual for the Netherlands we had very light breeze, light weight sheets were not heard of, let alone ever used before aboard this IMX40. All in all a good day to meet the team and get out there.

Singapore, December 2006
"The definition of a rhumb line: there where the wind is from!"
Funny words from Commander Bond aka Bondi, a familiar face in the Hong Kong yachting scene. After having raced the King's Cup, on X-412 "Beaux Exprits",  Bondi and I brought a Mount Gay 30 down to Langkawi. We spend a few lovely days on the island till the new crew arrived and I stepped aboard Windtrotter, a 31ft Hallberg Rassey, with Elaine Chua. Both yachts went in convoy, which was well worth it as we both had engine problems at different stages of our journey to Singapore. Lot's of towing back and forth through the Straits of Melakka. Apart from big squalls and the scary close lightning we sailed through what was called ashore 'the worse rain in South East Asia in 75 years'. 30 hours of non-stop tropical shower pouring down on us! Still I would not have wanted to miss it.

Langkawi, Malaysia, November, 2006
"Sweet victory"
Finally...overall winner of the RajaMuda Selangor International Regatta. After 7 attempts this year's excellent teamwork aboard farr 1104 "Mat Salleh" did the job. The regatta had it all, from storms to cooking in the hot sun, from gusty strong wind & steady ones to no wind slots. All in all enough room for tactically challenging racing. With a record number of participating boats and sponsors providing top hospitality ashore, this years RajaMuda was a blast.  A very happy team "Mat Salleh" received the 1 st prize from Sultan Idris in the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club.

Singapore, November 11th, 2006
"Delivering racing-yachts: the most expensive way to travel 3rd class!"
Nicely put by Bill Rawson, owner of a 66ft Adams racing yacht! The season is starting...exciting times, plenty of known and new boats arriving, lot's of activity in the marina's. I've been busy this month with website www.teamulumulu.com. Last week I went to Malaysia to sail with a few local girls and upgrade their sailing skills prior to the upcoming races. It was heaps of fun and educational for myself as well! Now, in Singapore packed and ready...I'll be off in a few hours to deliver a yacht to Langkawi. Will then fly to Kuala Lumpur and head for Port Klang to get ready for the Raja Muda Regatta www.rmsir.com. This year I'm participating  on a Farr 36 with an international crew (Australian, Britisch and Malaysian). So lot's of sailing ahead!

Singapore, October 19, 2006
"The pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change, the realist adjust the sails" 
By William Arthur Ward (1921-1994), gosh what a wisdom sailing brings to this world! Well, if you haven't heard from me in a while I have been traveling all over Malaysia and broke my laptop in the midst of it...so communication has not been a strong point this month. In the mean time the Miri Magic, formerly known as the Buzz 8, has been launched in Port Dickson by Captain Marty. With the fleets of Platu's in Port Klang, the Foundation 36's in Terenganu, the upcoming Miri Magic's and the rapidly expanding fleet of SB3's in Singapore may we conclude that fleetracing and matchracing has become a hot topic in S.E Asia? The Miri Malaysia Solo Challenge has been announced this month as well, sending the second Malaysian man solo around the globe but this time non-stop. Check it out at www.AsianYachting.com. On a different note I'm off to do an extreme landlubber's gig this week: an of the road jeep safari through the Taman Negara in Malaysia, allegedly the world's oldest rainforest. Happy Deepavali and Selamat Hari Raya to you all.

Singapore, September 27, 2006
"Sas, give it some gas"
A tactician's call on my trimming ...or was it more us drifting!!! Racing in the Singaporean sailing scene again, this time on X342 "Next Page", out of Raffles Marina. Where I'm living and working at the moment. The 40m Jongert is undergoing a major refit. All engines have been taken out now, and generators, and waterpumps, and, and...shortly..the huge engine room is empty. The rest of the yacht has been turned up side down as well and we are varnishing all the woodwork outside. Sanding on this size of yacht is a challenge to your fingers and upper arms I can tell you! Taking the mainsail of, probably 500kg was another one of those muscle building exercises! Bonus though is that a lot of my friends are around at the moment and...Toxic Twin reunion coming up!
In between it all I had an opportunity to teach Scuba Diving in Tioman island, allegedly rated within the 10 most beautiful islands on earth. See on this page a picture of Payar Beach. Unfortunately I didn't see much underwater as I was busy with my student, but that was well compensated for on land. Here a picture of my student, Dorothea, carrying the dive-equipment "Payar-beach-style".

Singapore, September 15, 2006
"Those who dwell in the beauties and mysteries of the world will never be alone or weary of life" by environmentalist Rachel Carson in Silent Spring
With the shortest of notices ever (luckily I'm a skilled packer by now!) I flew back to Asia, leaving the Netherlands on a Tuesdaymorning, passing through Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to arrive in Sabah's capital Kota Kinabalu (KK) on Wednesdaynight. Was taken to a pampering champagne dinner by the captain and engineer in KK's rotating restaurant overlooking the bay. Next morning at 6am we left the dock, back on the South China Sea, back to watchkeeping. No time to catch up, straight into a watchsystem...how does that work on a jetlag...quite allright actually. My watchbuddy was a young fit Kiwi bloke with some Maori origins. So I got to enjoy some wonderful stories about growing up in wild nature, family outings on endless beaches, surfing, barbecuing and making music. But, having the time to reflect on my time in Europe, I was very homesick. The saying above kept me going though...having dolphins accompanying me at work helps too! The trip to Singapore was a relatively smooth one, 850nmiles open sea, few seismographic vessels and fisherman on the way, no gear failure.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 30, 2006 
"North Sea & Fjord-sailing"
Just returned from a lovely trip, a delivery of a Waarschip 36ft from the South of the Netherlands to Norway. Can't say I find the Dutch coast particularly interesting but Norway on the other hand has a rather spectacular coast line. I was prepared for cold and rough conditions but we had great weather. The yacht didn't have an autopilot so it was helmstok steering, sailing close to wind, in 15 to 20knots of breeze: beautiful. The boat sailed so nice... even after 5 days at sea we sailed into the marina...we just couldn't get enough of it! We arrived early and spend another two days sailing around in between islands and through fjords. I stepped of the yacht in a town called Haugesund, see picture, and made my way back to Amsterdam. It was time to pack! On my way to Borneo now to step back aboard 40m Jongert "St Jean".