Author name: Jamie Furlong

Been a liveaboard since 2005, spending first few years living in Turkey. Started sailing a few years before when I joined my father on his retirement present we got for him: a sailing course across the North Sea! Been writing about every single trip, both on sea and on land, since that day. Take photography seriously but miss my decks.

Almost Dying For Aircon

• Log

We finally have aircon, but I very nearly paid the price of my life for this luxury. Welcome to auto-rickshaw hell. These vehicles from hell are made of corrugated cardboard, have liquorice wheels and are driven by nutters. In fact it seems the prearequisite to hold a license for one of these things is to drive like a complete arse. Just like my aircon delivery driver. Read how this ride from hell took years off my life. Today’s blog post comes complete with photographic evidence…

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Chatham Heroes In Cyclone Rescue

• Log

It seems our heroes aboard HMS Chatham have been in the thick of the action again this week, this time rescuing a vessel in a cyclone, saving 23 men from 65 knot winds and 8m waves. We befriended the boys aboard HMS Chatham when we were in Salalah, Oman, when the British Navy frigate was taking a breather from anti-piracy actitivies in the Gulf of Aden. They left just a few days before we did, heading towards Somalia. It appears they found trouble…

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Medicine Man

• Podcasts

We leave Massawa and head to an anchorage called Ras Corali, 30 miles away. From hereon in, the direction of our progress becomes problematic. How do we head south east without motoring directly into wind?

And should we move at all when half the rally is going down with a mysterious illness? Still, we should be grateful we have the available medicines on board to cope with a fever, some people aren’t so lucky.

This podcast captures a few yotties discussing passage plans in between diving under the boat to scrape the prop and giving the locals some much needed medicine.

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The Haven That Is The Royal Bombay Yacht Club

• Log

Welcome to the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, a bastion of colonial elitism where entry is by invite only. Set in a prime location in Mumbai the RBYC offered the rally participants a haven from the dodgy anchorage and searing heat of our new host country. Photography of this wonderful building is strictly forbidden, so here is the unofficial, uncommissioned, illegal followtheboat slide show of the RBYC!

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Welcome to India: T-bone Anyone?

• Log

Imagine our pride at having sailed over 4,000 miles, unassisted, without incident and without a scratch to Esper. I haven’t mentioned that our autopilot packed up early on in the Gulf of Aden, so many of the last 2,000 miles were hand-steered. That’s bloody hard work in case you didn’t know. Imagine, then, our horror when approaching the Indian coast, after our incident-free 4,000 miles, we were t-boned by the stupid dumb-ass Indian Navy!

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Birds, Baboons And Buses

• Podcasts

We spent some time in Massawa and we took in a trip to the Eritrean capital, Asmara, which is based above the clouds in the cool mountains. We didn’t take the podcast recorder with us as we were concentrating on photographs, but in this podcast we recount both the trip up the mountains and the city itself, and laugh at Ian of Rhumb Do, who froze in his seat when a curious primate decided to stick his head through the bus window.

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Africa Africa Africa!

• Podcasts

In our last podcast we visited a place called Khor Nawarat, which was our last stop in Sudan. Having finally learned how to use our wind pilot we make the next 180 miles under sail alone and find ourselves in Massawa, the port town of Eritrea. Despite being the second poorest country in the world Eritrea is clean, friendly and relaxing, and Massawa a welcome return to some kind of civilisation, including bars that serve local cheap beer! We spent some time in Massawa and managed to wrangle not just a trip to the mountainous capital, Asmara, but get invited to the Fenkle party, which was a celebration of the country’s independence twenty years ago.

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Bigger Fish To Fry

• Podcasts

In our last podcast we had just entered Sudan, where we discovered an idyllic anchorage and met Duygu The Dugong. We reluctantly left this spot a couple of days later and continued sotuhwards on to our next Sudanese marsa, Inkeifel. Expect plenty of fish, the perfect barbie-on-a-beach, a mangrove swamp and a possible sighting of Ursula Andress, though I suspect that last bit is all in Jamie’s mind.

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Duygu The Dugong

• Podcasts

In this latest podcast we finally cross the boarder of Egypt and pass in to Sudan, one of the poorest and most war-torn countries on this planet. For us, however, its poor economy is made up for by the very rich beauty of nature. The anchorage of Marob is our first taste of ‘real’ Africa and within 24 hours we have run-ins with turtles, ospreys, camels and, get this, a dugong!

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Now It’s OUR Turn To Answer The Questions!

• observation

What with our Through The Porthole podcasts and previous efforts at amateur journalism we’re quite used to asking questions of other people. It was a pleasant surprise, therefore, to receive an invitation to answer some questions directed at ourselves.

Livia is a sailor who has recently embarked on a project entitled ‘Interview with a Cruiser’, where she asks 10 questions to cruisers from around the world. The interviews are published weekly. Livia’s idea is to build a database of different questions and answers to help future or would-be cruisers make informed decisions on switching to this lifestyle.It was quite a treat being able to respond to some questions that we would normally be putting to others to answer.

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Ships That Pass In The Night

• Podcasts

“Ships that pass in the night” is a great nautical term that has passed into everyday English parlance. In this podcast we go back to its original context and pass not just another ship in the night but a strange, alien-like object too. Under the cover of darkness identifying what these things are is a great game that whiles away the night watches.

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Travelling 4,000 Miles For This

• Log

You understand why we are doing this whole trip, don’t you? We’ve left the rat-race and are off to discover new places. Places that inspire and excite. Really we are looking for that perfect idyllic sea where no man can be seen for miles around. So imagine sailing 4,000 miles, only to discover this…

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Electronics And Fishing

• Podcasts

It’s been a while since we gave you a progress update; for the last few weeks you’ve been hearing from some of the Vasco Da Gama participants and getting to know the different people taking part in the rally that takes us 4,500 miles from Turkey to India. There’s been a reason for this staggered narrative though: we’re passing through some of the most dangerous waters in the world. Piracy has been a growing concern in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. British sailing couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler of the sailing boat ‘Lyn Rival’, previous Vasco Da Gama rally participants, are still being held hostage in Somalia at the time of publication.

There’s been a reason for this staggered narrative though: we’re passing through some of the most dangerous waters in the world. Piracy has been a growing concern in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. British sailing couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler of the sailing boat ‘Lyn Rival’, previous Vasco Da Gama rally participants, are still being held hostage in Somalia at the time of publication. The threat of piracy is very, very real so we are avoiding publishing our exact whereabouts, hence the automated, scheduled podcasts. But now we can continue with the adventure and we get back to our progress on the water…

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Arabian Pirates Been Around Forever

• observation

Finally we leave Salalah! Long haul ahead of us so time to grab a book and get reading.

My brother, Tim, bought me ‘Unknown Seas, How Vasco Da Gama Opened The East’, by Ronald Watkins. I couldn’t think of a more suitable book to be reading on this journey, since we were taking part in the Vasco Da Gama Rally. Right now we are in the middle of the Arabian Sea, very much aware of the recent pirate activity.

It seems, however, that we were not alone in keeping a keen eye open for the odd marauder in these waters. According to the book, which opens with the early spice trade scenario, Watkins notes thus:

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