With a little bit of fear and a lot of excitement, I hopped on the boat with a few guys sailing from Phuket to Australia. Initially I was just observing everything around. Everybody had to keep a watch for 3 hours each in rotation. It was interesting; they used toothpicks to select the person who will be watching at the worst time which was 3-6 AM/PM. Also, there was a chart made for everybody to cook dinner.
So this is how began my sailing journey.
Oh and I forgot the most amazing and slightly scary part of it. I jumped into the sea with the rest without a life jacket, just tying a rope around my waist. It was literally a breathtaking experience. I was excited and scared at the same time. I felt like I could never reach the boat. I also realized that I am a horrible swimmer. But I felt good that even though I am slightly scared of water, I had the courage to jump into the sea without a life jacket.
We started the evening with some wine. Armin started a conversation about the do’s and don’ts of sailing. And they all came up with some silly and interesting ones. One of them were not to have a woman on the boat. In olden days apparently it was a big no no. Piotr gave a reason that because the boat is a she you cannot have another woman or the boat will be jealous. Later when we were stuck with no wind for a few days, Bart kept joking about the fact that it happened because they had a woman on the boat. We covered 108 miles on day 1 which was pretty good. In fact for the first three days we sailed at an average of 100 miles a day. We thought that, at that rate we could have made it to Bali in a week. But unfortunately it dropped sharply for the following three days. Piotr mentioned that in all his years of sailing he had never experienced no wind for such a long time. Every time there was no wind we greeted each other with the phrase, “where is the wind?”
In the afternoon the boys jumped into the water but the boat was sailing too fast, so I didn't have the courage to jump in that day. Bart had a hard time swimming back to the boat. Piotr did not let go of the ladder. Armin was left far behind and the speed at which the boat was sailing, he just couldn't catch up. Bart tried to pull the sail down, but the captain was smarter, he just turned the boat in the opposite direction. So Armin finally got on the boat.
Later at night I was feeling extremely restless. Everyone went to bed by 9 pm except for Nicholas. He was on his watch. I don't have a habit of sleeping so early. I went in and out of the cabin to the cockpit several times, until I finally decided to just crash in my cabin. It took me at least an hour to get used to the heat in my cabin and then finally fell asleep.
Day 3: Armin woke me up at 6 am for my watch. From then until almost 2 pm, there was absolutely no wind. The boat was mostly running on the engine. It was turning into a boring hot sunny day. The boys had a nice long swim in the sea. Bart jumped in a few times. I spent most of my day sleeping. By now I was used to the heat in my cabin. I liked to stay in my cabin when it was really hot outside.
With no wind, no sailing, there seemed liked nothing else to do but swim in the sea. So we all one after the other jumped in the sea. We spent a long time in the water. While swimming we saw a whole group of dolphins pass by beside us. It was beautiful.
I was loving the whole experience, but I was just a little worried and tensed that if I didn’t make it to Bali in another 8 days, people at work were not going to be happy and if my mom does not hear from me in 2 weeks, she would start panicking which actually did happen later. She turned the world upside down. But that is a different story. I guess this was a great learning experience, as all my worries and tensions were reducing and I eventually stopped worrying, as it wasn’t going to change anything. Reminded me of ‘the sunscreen song’. I just enjoyed and made the most of the wonderful experience. By the way, you will hear the word experience a lot as you read further.
So after almost 36 hours of no wind, there came the wind and after a while followed a crazy stormy wind. The sail was going crazy, but it calmed again in a few minutes and we started to sail again.
Later the wind changed direction so it was quite pleasant in my cabin and I had a really good sleep that night.
Day 6: This morning, we managed to get some good wind for a while, then when the wind disappeared, we went for a swim. In the evening we had another half way through party with some Cognac. After the Cognac, we were out of all the alcohol. We preserved the Cognac bottle just for the sniff.
Day 7: the day followed in the same pattern.
Day 8: It was another sunny day with no wind. It was my turn to make some dinner. After dinner I was washing the dishes and I don't know why I was so lost that I dropped 4 dishes in the sea. There was a burst of laughter and that had become the joke since then. There was no moon at night for a very long time, so the sky was filled with clusters of stars. It was a beautiful sight. I don’t remember when was the last time I saw such a starry sky. Also, on the same day in the morning, we saw 3 dolphins, they like to race with the boat, so they are always in the front side of the boat. But since we were sailing with not enough wind, they got bored as the boat was not fast enough for them, so they disappeared.
Day 11: it had been a similar day. Unlike the previous days, there was actually really strong wind. In fact I couldn’t even jump in for a swim because we were constantly on the move. I'm must admit that I felt slightly scared for a while when there was crazy strong wind and the boat used to be tilted on one side. But there was no reason to be scared of. Piotr is a good captain. I think I trusted him with his skills. Plus I was told that the boat moves faster when it is tilted on one side.
So that night I woke up since the boat was jumping up and down. I came out to the deck, the waves were crazy. They were about 5 feet high and we were going against them with the engine. It was scary and was making me sick. Well, after a while Piotr stopped the engine and it was much better. I went to bed and woke up directly for my watch on day 12. I was our last day of sailing. We were about 70 miles away from Bali harbour.
I went through a few hours of major sea lag after stepping on the land. I felt like I was still in motion, swinging sideways. I couldn't walk straight.
I was under the impression that Bali was all about gigolos and mushrooms and partying. But that is so not true. There is a lot more to Bali. But I shall write about it in my other blog.
(PS. All the images used in the sailing diary were captured from my hand phone camera, since I cant put up the other images until they are published.)