In 2002 we ventured from New Zealand to the South Pacific in Pewter,and travelled approximately 4890 miles.
In 2004 we again ventured to the South pacific and travelled 6990 miles
Then we sold Pewter and bought Charioteer and since then we have travelled approx 14606 miles.......and we are still sailing.....The next destination has yet to be decided...China or back to Japan...decisions, decisions.........
In all the miles we have travelled we have been very fortunate......we have only 'nudged' a couple of reefs...(and both times Brian was on the wheel!!!!)
we have laid on our side in Australia waiting for the tide to come back in,we nearly lost the skeg from Charioteer, we broke a shackle and our code zero sail took a short swimming lesson, the main sail drive motor broke,as did the alternator, the GPS, the laptops...and of course we 'broke' a marina in Korea...
But otherwise we think we have done pretty well
We are still here in Mokp and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.....on Friday we are taking part in a parade on water for the Mokpo Marine Festival....should be fun.
Onbce the computer is up and running again we should be able to show photos......
Monday, July 26, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Korea.....catching up 2
Heading out to sea the next day suddenly became full of drama as the fog came. Somehow by following our chart plotter track we got into open sea but fog everywhere restricted visibility to about 20 meters.
WE actually heard two ships collide...the lead up took place on the VHF radio something like this......
Ship A....ship on my starboard bow why have you steered to starboard...go to port NOW!!!!!!!!!
Ship B....I changed course to avoid a fishing boat.....
Ship A ...@@@###*******@@@###### the fishing boat...GO TO PORT NOW
The next exchange was metal to metal.
And this explained the barely contained hysteria we heard on the VHF over the next few fog filled days.
Along this coast is a mass of island. Mostly rugged but some we could off load our bikes for a good look around. Others we just anchor off for the night.
Eventually we made MOKPO which is where we still are.
A good marina, we are getting help with the fixing of both our broken laptops, and the chance to stock up on food which is probably cheaper than in New Zealand, certainly cheaper than Japan.
Tides are still 3 to 4 meters but nothing like up north with its 7 meter range.
So now we are looking again at where next. WE managed to extend our visa by 30 days....where our next report comes fromwe do not know other than it will not be Afghanistan or North Korea....do they have inter net at Farallon De Pajaros Island?????
WE actually heard two ships collide...the lead up took place on the VHF radio something like this......
Ship A....ship on my starboard bow why have you steered to starboard...go to port NOW!!!!!!!!!
Ship B....I changed course to avoid a fishing boat.....
Ship A ...@@@###*******@@@###### the fishing boat...GO TO PORT NOW
The next exchange was metal to metal.
And this explained the barely contained hysteria we heard on the VHF over the next few fog filled days.
Along this coast is a mass of island. Mostly rugged but some we could off load our bikes for a good look around. Others we just anchor off for the night.
Eventually we made MOKPO which is where we still are.
A good marina, we are getting help with the fixing of both our broken laptops, and the chance to stock up on food which is probably cheaper than in New Zealand, certainly cheaper than Japan.
Tides are still 3 to 4 meters but nothing like up north with its 7 meter range.
So now we are looking again at where next. WE managed to extend our visa by 30 days....where our next report comes fromwe do not know other than it will not be Afghanistan or North Korea....do they have inter net at Farallon De Pajaros Island?????
Korea.......catching up
First thing to our continuing tale of travel is .....yes we are still alive..
Its been a while since Pohang in April. Our mission was to go from Pohang on the east Coast to Tando Port near Incheon on the west coast. Not far really as the crow flies but we thought taking Charioteer around the coast would be easier. (She seems to prefer travelling in the water !!!!)
On the way we visited our friends at Power Marine again, then ventured on mostly island to island. There are thousands of islands around the south west coast.
South Korea has so many many police and craft...from ocean going armed ships , hovercraft and samall day boats, we were seldom without an escort."For your saftey" they say.......
On one day of misty rain, they 'lost' us, but a day or two later in comes a helicopter and it does a couple of circles and then flys off. A few hours later in comes an approaching police boat....with a man in front vigorously waving a flag...'where are you going etc etc'
Told of our intention to anchor and where, their reply is "one moment please" then they come back with..."follow us, we know a better place"
Off they went at ten knots, off we went at five knots. We rounded an island and there they were waiting. Fenders out and roped along side we spent an hour on their ship...coffee, cake...english practice then time for them to go.
They quickly attached our ship to the mooring and off they went.
Normally we prefer to anchor but we remained on the mooring. Somehow an extra rope on this mooring found itself well wrapped around the prop. Next morning at 6am Brian is in the dinghy off to a nearby fishing boat. Sign language to explain our problem and they eventually understood and called coastguard on their cell phone for us.
A ship was dispatched and on arrival quickly proceeded to take us in tow whilst we were still attached to the mooring. After much shouting and waving that brought to a stop so we could cut the mooring line.
Okay we are now off, towed at nine to ten knots, with our dingy being towed behind us.Seven miles later we are in a bay being attached to another buoy, with a small KCG craft standing by with a diver onboard.
Soon pieces of rope were drifting away. Once the diver had done this we needed him to carefully check the prop to make sure it was okay as it is a folding type.All was okay...hooray.
Caryying on we had little wind so relied on the current to make progress. The reason we were going to Tando Port was to view a national boatshow.
Fish farms in Korea are like nowhere else we have encountered in our travels. Spying a blue police boat we headed in its direction and they obliged us by leading us through the maze into port.
The boat show was huge, but different to what we are used to. Hundreds of food stalls and thousands of people.
Racing was also taking place here for the World Match Race circuit...so there were plenty of Kiwi sailors here.
We have spoken of the generosity of the Japanese people and this can be said of Koreans as well.
A korean we had met in the Philippines, drove for an hour from his city to collect us. He showed us around Suwon and its tourist sights including the castle with its 5.6km fortified wall. That evening we had dinner with several of his friends before being delivered to a very upmarket hotel.
Oh my god, do we have enough money???????.....but oh no our friend has paid for this himself.
Next day he took us to a world heritage site we where learnt about ancient living conditions and customs. One building that was run by two elderly twins in which they forged traditional eating spoons, a process of heating and shaping eight times to the finished product.,On seeing the price of these we shied away, only to see our host purchase a set as gifts for us. We dare not look at any thing else after that.
Near the exit was a photo studio with a variety of tradional and very colourful dress wear. We were outfited as nobles and had our photo taken. Again not cheap and also once again our host paid before we had the chance.
Another meal with our friends and this time we bedded down at our expense...budget love hotel.
The next day we were driven back to Charioteer.
Its been a while since Pohang in April. Our mission was to go from Pohang on the east Coast to Tando Port near Incheon on the west coast. Not far really as the crow flies but we thought taking Charioteer around the coast would be easier. (She seems to prefer travelling in the water !!!!)
On the way we visited our friends at Power Marine again, then ventured on mostly island to island. There are thousands of islands around the south west coast.
South Korea has so many many police and craft...from ocean going armed ships , hovercraft and samall day boats, we were seldom without an escort."For your saftey" they say.......
On one day of misty rain, they 'lost' us, but a day or two later in comes a helicopter and it does a couple of circles and then flys off. A few hours later in comes an approaching police boat....with a man in front vigorously waving a flag...'where are you going etc etc'
Told of our intention to anchor and where, their reply is "one moment please" then they come back with..."follow us, we know a better place"
Off they went at ten knots, off we went at five knots. We rounded an island and there they were waiting. Fenders out and roped along side we spent an hour on their ship...coffee, cake...english practice then time for them to go.
They quickly attached our ship to the mooring and off they went.
Normally we prefer to anchor but we remained on the mooring. Somehow an extra rope on this mooring found itself well wrapped around the prop. Next morning at 6am Brian is in the dinghy off to a nearby fishing boat. Sign language to explain our problem and they eventually understood and called coastguard on their cell phone for us.
A ship was dispatched and on arrival quickly proceeded to take us in tow whilst we were still attached to the mooring. After much shouting and waving that brought to a stop so we could cut the mooring line.
Okay we are now off, towed at nine to ten knots, with our dingy being towed behind us.Seven miles later we are in a bay being attached to another buoy, with a small KCG craft standing by with a diver onboard.
Soon pieces of rope were drifting away. Once the diver had done this we needed him to carefully check the prop to make sure it was okay as it is a folding type.All was okay...hooray.
Caryying on we had little wind so relied on the current to make progress. The reason we were going to Tando Port was to view a national boatshow.
Fish farms in Korea are like nowhere else we have encountered in our travels. Spying a blue police boat we headed in its direction and they obliged us by leading us through the maze into port.
The boat show was huge, but different to what we are used to. Hundreds of food stalls and thousands of people.
Racing was also taking place here for the World Match Race circuit...so there were plenty of Kiwi sailors here.
We have spoken of the generosity of the Japanese people and this can be said of Koreans as well.
A korean we had met in the Philippines, drove for an hour from his city to collect us. He showed us around Suwon and its tourist sights including the castle with its 5.6km fortified wall. That evening we had dinner with several of his friends before being delivered to a very upmarket hotel.
Oh my god, do we have enough money???????.....but oh no our friend has paid for this himself.
Next day he took us to a world heritage site we where learnt about ancient living conditions and customs. One building that was run by two elderly twins in which they forged traditional eating spoons, a process of heating and shaping eight times to the finished product.,On seeing the price of these we shied away, only to see our host purchase a set as gifts for us. We dare not look at any thing else after that.
Near the exit was a photo studio with a variety of tradional and very colourful dress wear. We were outfited as nobles and had our photo taken. Again not cheap and also once again our host paid before we had the chance.
Another meal with our friends and this time we bedded down at our expense...budget love hotel.
The next day we were driven back to Charioteer.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
STILL IN KOREA
HI THERE ONE AND ALL,
We are now in the south west corner at a city called Mokpo......the heat is incredible...and its very muggy.....the navigation programme on the main computer decided to stop working and the back up computer decided that this was a good time to start turning its self off for no apparent reason.
We have been incredibly lucky and with the help of Korean Coastguard / Marine Police we have had a technician working on computer number one....nav programme working again, and computer number two is in the workshop getting a good telling off.
To keep busy while we are tied up to this lovely marina Brian is rebuilding the box that holds the navigation instruments...(wind speed, depth etc) and me...well I'm just enjoying myself.
We have had a lovely time here in Korea..the Marine National Parks are just beautiful. The only drawback would be the unmarked fishing nets, but we have been very careful and so far have only needed one diver and one tow....whats that you say???? Ha well that is another story and will tell you all about this next time.
We are well and hope all you people are well and happy.
We are now in the south west corner at a city called Mokpo......the heat is incredible...and its very muggy.....the navigation programme on the main computer decided to stop working and the back up computer decided that this was a good time to start turning its self off for no apparent reason.
We have been incredibly lucky and with the help of Korean Coastguard / Marine Police we have had a technician working on computer number one....nav programme working again, and computer number two is in the workshop getting a good telling off.
To keep busy while we are tied up to this lovely marina Brian is rebuilding the box that holds the navigation instruments...(wind speed, depth etc) and me...well I'm just enjoying myself.
We have had a lovely time here in Korea..the Marine National Parks are just beautiful. The only drawback would be the unmarked fishing nets, but we have been very careful and so far have only needed one diver and one tow....whats that you say???? Ha well that is another story and will tell you all about this next time.
We are well and hope all you people are well and happy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
