Keith of Poco Andante lights a lantern on New Year's Eve

A New Year, A New Host, A New Boat?

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Our website, like our lives, is in a state of flux. Whilst we prepare to haul Esper in Thailand and undergo a major refit, so followtheboat.com is getting some special treatment too. We were offline for a couple of weeks whilst we saw out Christmas at Rebak Resort and New Year at anchor. We even had Esper’s lights lit whilst partying ashore, which made it very easy to find her at two in the morning, half-cut! We’ve included some recent photographs and a hint at what’s happening next in our lives. Expect some interesting updates during 2014…

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Chopping up stuff in Satun, Thailand

Satun, Thailand – Photos From Our Next Home?

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We plan to spend some time on the hard doing some major refitting to Esper. Unfortunately Malaysia doesn’t really figure as a viable option for the amount of work we’re planning so the obvious alternative is to get the work done in Thailand. No great shakes since we’re only 200 miles from Phuket where all the big boat yards are, but there’s another option: head 25 miles east from Langkawi to the mainland and check in to Satun’s boatyard, PSS. Here’s a brief intro to this sleepy town, packed full of images.

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Galvanising Our Anchor And Chain

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Galvanising your anchor and chain is a cost-effective way of lengthening the life of your gear. Here in Penang we used Steelway, who picked up our tackle and double-coated it in less than a week. Along the way I learnt a bit about the process and I’ve included some photos to show you the shiny result.

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Our First Magazine Cover!

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Sailing Today magazine is featuring our adventures from India to Malaysia in two editions. What’s even more exciting is that we are on the front cover! The first part, a seven-page spread, covers our time from India to the Maldives and the image features Esper at anchor at the beautiful Hideaway Resort.

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The food market in Kuah

A Brief Introduction To Langkawi

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It’s been too long since we last posted a blog update. We’d just sailed 1,500nm in some superb SW winds, but having lost our wind-pilot 200 miles into the trip we spent the rest of it exhausted and battered. Needless to say when we arrived in Langkawi, Malaysia, the last thing on our minds was reading, writing or even talking about sailing. Since then Liz returned to the UK for three months and I became a border-line alcoholic, discovering the delights and frustrations of Langkawi Island.

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A Deafening Silence

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One of the highlights for me was being dropped off in the middle of Wadi Rum and walking through a ‘ravine’. Khaled drove off and met us at the other side a few kilometres away. Walking through this ravine I came across a piece of perfectly preserved, albeit completely bleached, coral. At that point I could imagine Wadi Rum as a sea, with us walking on the bed.

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The Subwoofer Stories – Part 1

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August was a quiet month aboard Esper. With Mum back in the UK and Dad festering away in a bar somewhere, I thought I’d dig up an old cartoon I put together a few years ago for your entertainment. With much help from my uncle Tim it depicts the story of when Dad installed his sound system whilst Mum left him to clean barnacles off the hull. I hope you like it – Millie xx

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13 Stupid Things Landlubbers Say

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Let’s face it, when it comes to sailing our landlubber friends just don’t get it, gawd bless ’em! Fair enough, it’s a lifestyle, not a pursuit, so unless you’ve been there why should you know your port from your starboard? Even so, some of these clangers are inexcusable. With much thanks to the Liveaboard community over on the YBW forum who contributed some of these priceless gems.

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Not One But Two Top Ten Images

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I was pretty stoked to have two of my three submitted images selected in the MyWanderlust Top Ten Photography Competition (titled ‘Weather’). One was of the Kanchenchunga Massif, taken in Darjeeling, the other you’ve probably seen already of the two school girls walking through monsoon puddles.

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Fair Winds, Jumpa Lagi!

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Tomorrow we leave on an epic journey, and if the winds are in our favour we may get further than the horrific Equator trip of last week! We hope to be updating our progress via satphone, which will log our position on a map. Check out our progress over the next few weeks as we sail the 1,400 mile trip from the Maldives to Malaysia.

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Corruption Among Agents In The Maldives

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Our shipping agent, Muzhid Rasheed of Seline, is a young and ambitious man. A supporter of Nasheed, he is like many of the local people we met in the Maldives. A man of integrity, honesty and professionalism, he is in the vanguard of the new-school Maldivian outlook on life. Sadly he has to contend with the corruption and insider dealings of competitiors who pull strings in an attempt to put him out of business.

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