February 2022 Sponsored by Kraken Yachts - Ocean Sailor Magazine

February 2022
Sponsored by Kraken Yachts

Ocean Sailor
 2 From The Pulpit

 Technical & Equipment
 3 Going Spare

 Ocean Sailor
 6 Mariner’s Library

 In-build At Kraken
 8 Birth of the Kraken 58

 Ocean Sailor
 14 Ahoy!

 Ocean Sailor
 17 On watch

 February 2022 18
 Sailors’ Stories

 Voyage of the damned

 Knot/Splice Of The Month
 23 Figure 8 on a Bight

 Feature
 24 What Lies Beneath

 Travel & Discovery
 28 Turkey to Thailand

 In The Galley
 34 Cantonese Steamed Fish

 Travel & Discovery
 38 Dropping Anchor

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Page 1 Ocean Sailor Magazine | February 2022

Bodrum

 From The Pulpit
 By Dick Beaumont - Chairman and Founder of Ocean Sailor Magazine and Kraken Yachts

 These are incredibly exciting times for To accommodate the fast-growing demand The Kraken team, which will primarily be
 Kraken Yachts. for Krakens we are now opening a new based in the new facility in Bodrum, has
 yacht building facility in Bodrum, Turkey. been growing too, and I’m very pleased to
 We have now sold out of production slots In this new facility will be able to build introduce them all to you now…
 for the Kraken 50 for the next two years! 5 yachts simultaneously, so once we get
 We have also sold the first and second new this up and running we expect to be
 Kraken 58’s and the third and the fourth able to offer several more build slots for
 look like going over the line shortly too. completions in late 2023 and early 2024.

 Dick Beaumont Fil Sochaj İbrahim Cengiz Özge Van Tugҫe Kara
 Chairman Head Of Design Senior Design Engineer Interior Design Junior Design Engineer

 René Tiemessen Trystan Grace Ceren Sipahi
 Managing Director Creative Director Office Manager

 David Leggett Ada Cülük
 Sales Director Sales Admin

Page 2 Ocean Sailor Magazine | From the pulpit

Goin g
 Spa re
 Part 1 Disposable

Page 3 Technical & Equipment | Going Spare

I was once told, when I didn’t have in Bali, customs held a replacement jib I You will be amazed how long it can take
 whatever spare part I needed; “ I don’t needed for 8 weeks in an effort to extort you to find the bit of kit you’ve stored in
 understand why you don’t just go ‘duty’ from me, despite the fact that duty the ‘I’m sure I’ll remember where I’ve put
 through the whole boat from bow to and VAT are not payable for a yacht or this’ locker’
 stern and then get a spare for everything ship in transit.
 that could break.” The extent of the spares you should carry
 Make sure you wrap and seal any can depend on where you are going to
 That would have required us to tow a mechanical or electrical items in a shrink cruise and for how long, at least to some
 complete Tayana 58 behind us! wrap or zip-lock type bag and give it a extent. If you are living aboard as you
 good spray over with WD40 or similar cruise, you might as well have all of the
 However many spares you carry, you can before you seal it. Then put a tag or label kit now, rather than later. So I’ve cut the
 be sure the one spare you haven’t got on it saying what’s inside and put the date spares inventory into two; disposables and
 is the one you need! A good inventory on it. That isn’t so you know when it’s out replacement parts.
 of spares can often make the difference date, it’s so when you’re looking for other
 between a successful cruise and a difficult items you know when you put stuff in the The first base with a spares kit is the
 one. locker! Then put a label on the locker door disposables you carry.
 listing what is inside, if it’s cabinetry put
 You don’t need to be able to fit all of the the sticker on the inside of the door. On White Dragon, I have a small plastic
 spares I recommend you carry, but having tool/carry box for each of the following:
 a replacement part on board will be the The next step is to add it to an inventory
 first part of the battle. list, preferably one that categorizes spares
 by section, then put the date it was added.
 Often a part may need to be flown to you, Make sure you note where you have
 which then involves customs. When I was hidden stored it.

 Tapes Adhesives & sealants Grease

 2x rolls of Gaffer/Duct tape 50mm 2x Two-part epoxy glue (fast and 1x tub of Hi Heat Grease (lithium)
 slow setting)
 2x Gorilla patch and seal tape 100mm 2x tubes of marine grease with
 2x Gorilla glue applicator nozzles
 2x rolls of amalgamating tape (check
 that the brand you chose does 2x Super Glue thin 1x tube of Silicon grease
 actually amalgamate, some don’t in
 my experience) 2x Super Glue thick

 2x Plumbers tape, this is 40-50mm 2x Contact glue
 wide wet greased tape (useful to
 put around any leaky pipe as a 1x PVA glue
 temporary repair)
 2x packs Superfast two part epoxy
 6x rolls of electrical tape putty, underwater

 1x roll of double-sided tape (it’s useful 2x Tubes of Sikaflex 291i or similar
 to hold something in place while you marine sealant
 secure it)
 2x Tubes of Silicon sealant
 2x rolls of PTFE tape

 2x rolls ‘blue’ masking tape (25mm)

Page 4 Technical & Equipment | Going Spare

General Items

 Cable Ties Jubilee Clamps
 The inventor of cable ties should have a Box S/S only minimum 12 x of each size of
 special place in every cruiser heart. all sizes from 10-30mm 6 x 35- 100mm.
 Check the size of the biggest flexible pipe
 Keep all sizes and lengths on board and onboard and make sure you’ve got some
 plenty of them. big enough to fit.

 Note: It’s a good idea to have different colour Screws
 cable ties for colour coding pipes or cables, Box Assorted S/S self-tapping
 especially when disassembling something! Box of S/S nuts and bolts from 12 each x
 5-8mm, 6 each x 10mm-12mm, I x 30mm
 Bare Copper Wire S/S threaded rod 8mm and 10mm + 6 nuts
 One small coil of bare copper wire 1mm or for each
 a bit thinner. This will be very useful to
 wrap around a tube or pipes if you can’t Washers
 fit a jubilee clamp. Cinch up by twisting. Box of S/S assorted flat S/S and spring
 You’ll find a hundred and one uses for washers, various sizes to fit the bolts
 this. Bonsai wire is ideal! above.

 Sprays & Oils Electrical

 WD40 or equivalent. Connectors 1 x box of assorted size male
 and female connections, check the type
 Silicon spray. used on your boat.

 Enamel Red spray paint; for marking the Shrink sleeves 2 lengths (30cm) of shrink
 anchor chain. sleeves of say three diameters large
 medium and small.
 Enamel White spray paint enamel.
 Cable 3 or 4 5m coils of electrical cable,
 Diesel 2lts + of in a can. This is to top different diameters, single and double
 up the racor type filler chamber when core
 changing fuel filters.

 Sails & Rigging
 This is by no means an
 exhaustive list of disposables.
 Sailcloth Webbing It will vary depending on the
 Self-adhesive patches of different weight 2m UV proof 25mm wide webbing; to peculiarities of your boat.
 sailcloth. Long strips 2m x 20cm as well replace a clew or reefing cringle.
 as a large piece 1m2 Super Glue (used to bind the thread if your We would be delighted to hear
 sewing skills are less than perfect) your suggestions of spares and
 Sailmakers Palm kit, please contact us at:
 Used for pushing needles or bodkins Drill Bits
 through your work when doing very heavy Small 0.5 x 6 drill bits. Modern sailcloth is info@oceansailormagazine.com
 weight stitching jobs on the sail. tough stuff to effect a cringle repair it will
 be unlikely you can push a needle through
 Thread it, so I use a portable electric drill to make
 Sailmakers thread, UV proof the holes. You’ll probably break a few.
 Part 2 in next months issue:
 Needles Rigging Replacement Spare Parts
 Large sailmakers needle x6 Split pins box of S/S different lengths and
 sizes and a box of split rings of S/S split
 rings of different sizes

Page 5 Technical & Equipment | Going Spare

Mariner’s Library
 This months recommended reading & viewing from the Editor

 In this month’s Mariner’s Library special, we chose some essential viewing and reading to follow on
 from our Sailor’s Story about Donald Crowhurst and the 1968 Golden Globe around the world race.

 The Mercy
 Directed by James Marsh
 Produced by BBC Films 2018

 Based on the tragic story of Donald Crowhurst, the yachtsman who competed
 in the Sunday Times’ newspaper stunt race of sailing solo, non-stop around
 the world in 1968 but who never returned.

 Released half a century after the event, Colin Firth plays Crowhurst in a well-
 studied performance of a lone man confronted by failure, fraud, and financial
 ruin. Firth is convincing as the solo sailor and convincingly portrays the
 madness into which the real-life father of five descended.

 Rachel Weisz has the much more demanding role of presenting Crowhurst’s
 wife, Clare, who kept a very low profile during the run-up to and shocking
 aftermath of the race. To this day she has given very few interviews, so the
 actress had very little she could turn to for inspiration.

 It is a film worth seeing, although, I found it a little truncated and therefore
 disappointing. This is one of the greatest, most disturbing sea stories of all
 time and should have been given greater length and depth.

 Deep Water
 Directed by Louise Osmond and Jerry Roth
 Produced by Pathe News 2006

 Of the nine sailors who started the Golden Globe Non-Stop Round the World
 Race, four pulled out within weeks, two retired, one sank, one didn’t bother
 to finish but instead sailed into the arms of a waiting lover and Donald
 Crowhurst perished. Only Robin Knox-Johnston completed the challenge.

 Those who could be tracked down were interviewed for this chilling and
 moving documentary which also includes footage of Crowhurst before the
 fatal voyage and during it.

 I have interviewed many of those involved with this race, including Sir Chay
 Blyth, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, John Ridgway, and Bill King, but it is Simon
 Crowhurst, Donald’s eldest son, who I will never forget. He is still haunted by
 his father’s death and runs over it in his mind time and again.

 If you only see one of these films, make it this one.

Page 6 Mariner’s Library | February 2022

The Strange Last Voyage of
 Donald Crowhurst
 By Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall
 Published by Hodder And Stoughton (1971)

 This 300-page account of Donald Crowhurst’s life and death at sea is one of the
 greatest sea stories ever told by two ace reporters at the top of their game.

 They outline the build, design and flaws of Teignmouth Electron, the Victress-design
 trimaran, the plywood hulls of which started delaminating as she sailed into the
 South Atlantic. They visit the tiny hamlet in Argentina where Crowhurst landed
 to source plywood to repair his boat. They profile all the protagonists, including
 Crowhurst’s family, and piece together with exacting detail the false logs Crowhurst
 kept in a bid to mask his fraudulent voyage. They conclude he jumped overboard once
 his mind failed, brought on by the stress of the web of lies he’d spun in order to try
 and extricate himself from an impossible situation.

 I read the book years ago and have pestered everyone since to read it. Whether you be
 a sailor or a landlubber, this is a book you will not easily forget.

 A Voyage for Madmen
 By Peter Nichols
 Published by Profile Books (2001)

 This is also a cracking read about the ill-fated race of 1968, but with a difference. The
 author very cleverly dovetails all the sailors in the race and follows them as they drop
 out, are wrecked or die.

 As the author himself graphically puts it: ‘It was not the sea or the weather that
 determined the nature of their voyages but the men they were, and they were as
 different from one another as Scott from Amundsen. Only one of the nine crossed
 the finishing line after 10 months at sea. The rest encountered despair, sublimity,
 madness and death.’

 The book was a finalist in the William Hill Sports Book of the Year in 2001.

 A Race Too Far
 By Chris Eakin
 Published by Ebury Press (2009)

 If proof were needed that some stories never die, this third tome about the doomed
 Golden Globe Non-Stop Round the World Race is it.

 All good reporters find a new angle and Eakin, a former newspaper and BBC TV
 journalist, is no exception. Eakin, a serious yachtsman himself, provides in-depth
 interviews with Clare Crowhurst and Eve, the widow of Lieutenant-Commander, Nigel
 Tetley, R.N., who had not spoken previously.

 When we were on the road as journalists, I was always slightly envious that Eakin
 had managed to talk to Clare. It was only later he told me that he was quick to nab
 the big names after I’d interviewed Commander Bill King for Yachting Monthly!

Page 7 Mariner’s Library | February 2022

The Birth Of
 The Kraken 58
 Stage 4: The Mould
 By Filip Sochaj, Kraken Yachts Head of Design

Page 8 | The Birth of the Kraken 58

Before there is a boat, there must a mould.
 As a digression from the standard Birth over balloons when you were a kid or on a few differences and reasons why you
 of a Blue Water article, I want to take this the inside of a salad bowl. The principle would choose one or the other; male
 opportunity to talk about one of the key is exactly the same, it’s just the materials moulds are faster to build but female
 parts of GRP yacht production; mould and expertise need to be different. What moulds give a very good outside surface
 making. the balloon and salad bowl examples finish and allow you to work inside the
 also show are the two different types of boat while the yacht is still sitting inside
 All fibreglass boats need a mould. Due to moulds, a male and female. The balloon the mould. Here at Kraken, we prefer the
 the characteristics of the material, it is is the male mould as the product is on the female moulds for a better-suited result
 like a wet cloth before the resin cures and ‘outside’ while the salad bowl is a female to semi-custom production. Female
 it will take almost any shape you ask of mould with the product being ‘inside’. In moulds also require a plug, let’s talk
 it. Think of making paper mache masks terms of boat-building, there are quite about that next.

 Step One:

 Make a Plug
 A plug is essentially another boat. Moulds top of it. This method, while completely When we started work on the K58
 are made in the same way as a hull or valid, requires a lot of skill and precision we have decided to go for 5 axis CNC
 deck, in FRP. So they also need something from the craftsmen to ensure the resulting production of the plugs. CNC production
 to give them their shape. hull is within tight tolerances and within offers a much higher level of precision
 the lines plan. It takes more time and compared to hand production and the
 There are two main ways to build a labour costs and is really only suitable finished result will be to Kraken’s very
 plug, the more manual approach and the for one off production. The production high quality and finish standards. In the
 higher-tech 5-axis CNC approach. The process is similar to how yachts were age of computer design, every single
 manual approach takes wooden frames produced in wood or ply back in the day. detail on the boat is first modelled in 3D
 and stringers, covers them in wood One of the yachts I am racing on is a and 2D. If the drawing of the hull and the
 planking, essentially creating a hull (See wooden plug converted into an actual race actual hull mould don’t match precisely,
 Fig.1 below). This hull is then faired, gel boat and it is keeping up with the fleet it’s a big problem for production.
 coated and is ready to make a mould on very well.

 Fig.1

Page 9 | The Birth of the Kraken 58

Fig.2

 The CNC Process
 1. Design Review 2. Metal Frame
 For this project, we are working with Metyx. They have an Most of the plug is foam and filler. To give it the necessary
 amazing level of expertise in plug and mould making so we can strength the first step is constructing a metal frame throughout
 work hand in hand with them to create the perfect moulds. Once the hull that will be the foundations of the plug. Approximately
 the design is locked in by our design team, the hull and deck 650m of steel box section will be used. Plywood boards are then
 models are sent to Metyx who analyse them and determine how screwed onto the metal frame to act as supports for the foam in
 and where to split the plug during the cutting stage to optimise the next step.
 the production time and efficiency.

 3. Foam 4. Foam Cutting
 Big foam blocks are glued onto the frame. Mostly 30kgm3 foam is Now the actual work begins, the huge 5 axis machine which has its
 used. The foam is added so that the finished shape is bigger in all own hall, starts to cut the foam. The first cut is quite course and
 directions than the intended final hull. (See Fig.2) goes 10mm deeper than the final finish surface of the hull mould
 is required to be.

 Fig.3

Page 10 | The Birth of the Kraken 58

Fig.4

 5. Initial Lamination 6. Applying Putty
 To lock in the shape of the foam and prevent distortion, the An epoxy-based plug putty is applied to the whole plug. Again,
 resulting shape is covered in two layers of fibreglass. the thickness is such that there is always excess material for the
 machine to take off. (See Fig.3)

 7. Final Cutting 8. Sanding & Painting
 The 5-axis CNC machines the plug over a few passes, each time With machine work over, it’s down to the skilled finishing
 with a finer router bit, until it is left with almost a perfect surface. specialists to put the final touches on the plug and apply all the
 This is the big benefit of this approach in that it will create a primer and gelcoat required for mould making. The finished
 perfect reflection of the intended design. (See Fig.4) product will look like an upside-down hull of a boat. (See Fig.5)

 Fig.5

Page 11 | The Birth of the Kraken 58

Fig.6 Fig.7

 Step Two:

 Create a mould from the plug
 Much like making the actual FRP boat, 2. The plug will be waxed in preparation 5. To give the mould more stiffness,
 the mould has to be laminated with many for lamination. foam stringers are added and
 layers of composite: laminated over onto the mould.
 3. Mould gelcoat is sprayed. (See Fig.6) (See Fig.8)
 1. First, the plug is prepared for mould The first CSM (chopped strand matt) is
 making. The flanges need to be applied, these are called the skin coat 6. Finally, the metal frame that supports
 established. These are required as and often will be of lower gramature to the mould is constructed. The initial
 ‘mating’ surfaces for the moulds to lock prevent print-through into the gel coat metal bars are laminated onto the
 onto each other later in the process. (fibreglass texture seen through the mould surface and the rest of the
 The mould maker will also prepare gelcoat). (See Fig.7) frame is welded to that. (See Fig.9)
 special recess and hump areas that are
 interlocking and make mould matching 4. Then the rest of the material is
 easier in the future. laminated to provide a skin thickness of
 at least 20mm which roughly translates
 to 30 layers of matt.

 Fig.8 Fig.9

Page 12 | The Birth of the Kraken 58

Fig.10

 Now the finished mould is ready to be By building moulds in this way we not of the very skilled people we are working
 flipped the right way up and shipped off only ensure speed and precision but also with have moulds that are well over that
 to the lamination warehouse where it will longevity. A well made mould like this, and with no sign of deterioration.
 be the beginning the many boats to come. that is also stored in good conditions, can
 (See Fig.10) make as many as 100 products and some

 What comes In the next instalment,
 we will focus on the
 structures of the craft.
 Yet another interesting

 next?
 topic, specifically given our
 unique design approach to
 keels, skegs and more.

Page 13 | The Birth of the Kraken 58

Comments and questions from our readers, listeners and watchers.

 Hi Dick, dock for a year without movement and I saw this article (about container losses
 You have totally sold me on your then finding it closed perfectly, without, at sea) and had to share. More reason to
 philosophy and I loved the podcast and as I had suspected, any scoring to the ball. make sure you have an integrated keel
 videos you did with Sailing Millennial They were then installed on White Dragon when going out into the wet stuff.”
 Falcon, which showed us a lot more but at that time the biggest size available
 detail of these robust, go anywhere blue was 2’’. The situation on White Dragon - Mark H
 water cruisers. now is that all the Tru Design seacocks
 (click here to view on the Tru Design Hi Mark
 One aspect I could not find much detail website) open and close easily whereas Yes thanks for that, Dick Durham did an
 on is seacocks, which is also a major all the bronze seacocks are a right investigative article on container losses in
 safety concern. b*****d to open and close if they are left Ocean Sailor February edition and there
 unworked for even a month. are a lot more floating about than people
 Yachting Monthly’s recent article on realise, and the shipping industry will
 seacocks recommended that DZR
 seacocks should be replaced every 5
 Lastly, the composite, (it’s not fair to call
 them, as I did, plastic,) are all fireproof, so they can’t exist eh? 
 admit. Still, if Andy Schell hasn’t seen one

 years. It even included the revelation in our opinion they are the perfect product
 that bronze seacocks from the most for use on the world’s safest true blue
 reputable of manufacturers now have water cruisers, Kraken of course! - Dick Beaumont, Kraken Yachts
 DZR ball valves. Chairman & Founder
 We don’t make as much of the safety
 I am slowly coming round to the factor upgrade as we should. Thanks to
 thinking that a good composite seacock your query we will update our website and
 is the way forward for a saltwater information details now.
 environment, but would love to hear
 your thoughts. At Kraken we are in constant R&D mode,
 always looking for how we can eliminate
 Keep up the good work!” equipment flaws and safety risks.

 - Matt G Also all equipment is extensively tested on
 my own yacht White Dragon, the first K66.
 Hi Matt, If we can fault that item of equipment, it
 Thanks for your kind words and support doesn’t go on a Kraken.
 for Kraken and the safety values we
 abide by. I hope this answers your questions?

 The seacock issue is indeed of great Please come back to me with any other
 concern at Kraken, but I can very smugly questions you have or if I can help in any
 tell you all Kraken seacocks are Tru Design way with your deliberations?
 composite seacocks! I was suspicious of
 the virtues of ‘plastic’ seacocks but after - Dick Beaumont, Kraken Yachts
 leaving one to become encrusted in the Chairman & Founder

Page 14 Ocean Sailor Magazine | Ahoy!

Thank you for the great content, podcast on to a keel stub then glassed over, or it • Because we use lead not steel, a Kraken
 and magazine! I was wondering if can be bolted on in two halves either side has a better righting moment than bolt
 you could please clarify the difference of a keel fin then glassed over. on steel keeled yachts, that’s how a
 between an integral and encapsulated Kraken can carry a rig that is 20-25%
 keel? With words and pictures. I’m really I do hope the illustrations below clarify greater (comparing genoa and mainsail
 trying to follow but this distinction is the issue, and we will upload this areas) than a yacht with a bolt on keel
 just not clear to me. I did a search on explanation onto our website too. of a comparable size.
 the site and if it is there I can’t seem to • Hydrodynamically, due to the bulb
 find it. Thank you for your time and I believe an encapsulated keel is better shape, Krakens slip less to leeward than
 consideration.” than a standard bolt on keel, but having a yacht with a standard integral keel
 an integral keel is the only way to be sure because the bulb stops water passing
 - Sam Kimpton the keel never comes off. under the keel creating leelway.

 Hi Sam, Steel/iron shot ballast inside an integral Also please bear in mind that a Zero
 Thanks for your email. There is a lot of keel can cause problems if the keel skin is Keel™ is a lot longer than the keels of the
 misuse of the various terms applied, and breached after a grounding and salt water yachts that are in production today, this
 I’ve often heard people say when I’ve gets in amongst the steel/iron shot. To means:
 corrected them, of yes but they are one overcome that possibility, at Kraken, we
 and the same aren’t they? No, they are use aramid fibres (Kevlar as it’s commonly • They can hove to
 very fundamentally different. An integral termed) in the composite lay up under and • They track better, meaning the yacht
 keel is one that is formed with a one piece around the Zero Keel™ bulb and we use is not constantly rounding up then
 hull and keel. It’s also referred to as a lead, not iron, for the ballast in the bulb. falling away, twitching around a short
 monocoque hull and keel, meaning it is cord length keel. A Kraken 50’s keel is
 one skin. As you can see all Zero Keels™ are almost 14 feet (4.25 m) long!
 integral. The reason we developed • Because the keel, and therefore the
 An encapsulated keel has a secondarily the Zero Keel™ was to overcome the ballast, is not centred in one small
 bonded GRP layer applied over the keel safety flaws of a bolt on keel and the area, (think fulcrum here), the yacht
 once it is bolted in place. The point here shortcomings of a standard integral keel. doesn’t ‘See Saw’ or pitch so much, and
 is that secondarily bonded GRP has only therefore has a steadier motion.
 25% of the adhesion strength of primary • Unlike a bolt on keel, whether
 bonded GRP. encapsulated or not, it can never
 come off - Dick Beaumont, Kraken Yachts
 There are different ways of attaching the • Unlike a standard integral keel it’s Chairman & Founder
 keel prior to the GRP layer being applied. ballast is all in the bulb, so a Kraken
 Most commonly the keel/ ballast is bolted has a much better righting moment

 All one piece All one piece
 two pieces

 Encapsulated keel Integral keel

Page 15 Ocean Sailor Magazine | Ahoy!

Dick --
 Hi Harry, • You could perhaps argue that you
 I’m just catching up on the podcast and should never sail in poorly charted
 I certainly hope that Andy takes you up Sadly, Andy Schell is maintaining radio waters, but that eliminates half the
 on your offer to be on the podcast (and silence at this time. I’ve heard nothing world and some of most interesting
 if there is a reciprocal agreement, would at all from him directly, although I have places in the world I’ve visited.
 love to hear you on his!). heard from many sailors who vehemently
 disagree with the comments he made. • I ran aground on a pinnacle rock in
 I’d like to hear your thoughts on To use the piratical analogy your name Komodo National Park in Indonesia
 seamanship. I know Andy’s point is what invokes, he should have been keel hauled while looking for a dive site. Turned
 is behind the wheel is a more important for some of the comments he made, from out there were two pinnacles, not one
 piece of safety equipment that what is a yacht with a long integral keel of course, as the chart showed. We were stuck
 in front or under it (though that is NOT like a Kraken maybe? fast, but a local dive boat pulled us off.
 what he said, and yes, I was a little The gel coat at the front of the keel
 breathless when he basically said there’s Regarding the issue of ‘is the boat or the was smashed off, and gouged but the
 no difference between a production crew more important from a safety at sea aramid (Kevlar) composite lay up under
 Beneteau keel and an encapsulated keel. perspective’, I don’t see why you have to the gel coat protected the integrity of
 Note from Dick: Although I know Andy choose one or the other? And whether you the keel. We repaired it 4,000nm later
 Schell did say Kraken’s have encapsulated are safer in a Hunter 31 with a competent in Cairns, Australia, which was the
 keels, infact they have integral keels and skipper, or a Kraken 66 with a novice nearest place with a travel lift. If we
 there is a big difference as shown on the skipper, depends on what has befallen you. had a ‘bolt on’ this kind of collision
 previous page. If the blade hung rudder of the Hunter would have required us to get lifted out
 rips off in a collision with a container or a and the keel bolt checked at the very
 His central point is one that is well taken: whale leaving a bloody big hole where the least and there was no possibility of
 I would feel much safer crewing for you rudder tube was, you’re in deep trouble that until Cairns.
 on an ocean passage on a Hunter 31 whoever the skipper is, and whether
 than I would with a novice captain on lightning strikes twice or not depends on • You could certainly say that was the
 a K66. Those of you who cross oceans how much you go out in storms. In my skippers fault, but no ones infallible and
 (and I hope to be one of you soon, and lifetime of sailing I’ve had four major by having a bomb proof boat it allows
 will be unless this damn sore throat is incidents (listed below), and although the skipper and crew to learn from his
 the plague -- first two tests have been I’ve sailed over 250,000nm I think that or her mistake, without paying a higher
 negative!) know that what you do is indicates the risk of serious incidents is not price than embarrassment.
 almost always routine -- but when unlikely, but actually probable. If you keep
 it isn’t, you face extraordinarily low on going out there sooner or later your • As is quite well known now, I hit a
 probability events with extraordinarily name is at the top of the list. submerged object on passage from
 high impacts. Rarely does any mariner Cape Town to St Helena. It was
 face disaster the same way twice in the • We T boned a 40ft x 6ft log while probably a whale, but although it was
 same lifetime. Good seamanship means motoring at 8kts at night in flat seas in daylight whatever it was it was not
 that you have the mental flexibility to on the maiden voyage of my previous seen. In this case we were in 2000m of
 assess the situation, not just go through yacht, Moonshadow, when we were water and we discovered later the skeg
 an algorithm, and determine a course of on passage from Hong Kong to Subic had taken the full hit. There is no doubt
 action to keep the wet stuff out, dry stuff in the Philippines. I expected to sink, in my mind that an unprotected rudder
 in, the long bit with cloth pointing to the fatally holed at the waterline at the would have been at very least bent or
 sky, and fin looking bit pointed to the bow. In fact, Moonshadow was solid seriously damaged, at worst ripped out
 ocean floor. from under the anchor locker to 15 of the boat.
 inches below the waterline. My brand
 Derisking means that in the hypothetical new boat’s gel coat may have been The point of listing these incidents is that
 K66 with a novice captain, the chances totally smashed off, but we lived to at least 3 of the 4 incidents were caused by
 of a catastrophic high impact event fight another day. All Krakens are factors not related to seamanship at all.
 are infinitesimal as opposed to merely similarly solid here. Incidentally, it
 unlikely in our hypothetical Hunter 31. couldn’t have made any difference who The bit I just don’t get is if you don’t need
 But I trust your ability with a couple the skipper was. to take risks, why are you? The mindset
 of hundred thousand miles under your of ‘it will never happen to me’ cannot be
 keel to keep the high impact event from • In Moonshadow, again we grounded sustained when people’s lives are at stake.
 getting out of hand even though it’s less heavily on an uncharted coral reef Relying on being lucky does cut the ice,
 likely. at night in Northern Indonesia. We I’m sure.
 were 25nm from the nearest land and
 Does that make sense? the charts showed 60m shallowest I understand not everyone can afford
 depth for 10nm around us. We got a Kraken, but that’s not actually the
 Thanks for the podcast and the shake off after a desperate 2 hours struggle only choice. There are many yachts in
 up of the industry. Money moves people, by launching the rib and towing her the second hand market that fulfil the
 and I’m sure the boys in Ellös are bow round at 90 degrees. The keel minimum criterion of integral keel, full
 watching. That you can sell more boats, was scuffed and gouged here and skeg rudder and heavily laid up hull, albeit
 and at top dollar, than you can build will there. The skeg took several big hits as you will have to go back 20 years or more
 be noticed. we dragged her off. I’ve no doubt an to find one. Please see the article ‘Turning
 unprotected rudder would have been Back The Clock’ in Ocean Sailor May.
 I hope your year is off to a good start. severely damaged, bent or ripped off
 If you ever sail into the Chesapeake, I’d from the initial grounding too. - Dick Beaumont, Kraken Yachts
 love to meet you, shake your hand, and Chairman & Founder
 buy you a cup of coffee.
 ”

 - Harry J

Page 16 Ocean Sailor Magazine | Ahoy!

What’s out and what’s coming soon from the world of Ocean your support. Don’t forget you can listen to all our old episodes
 Sailor & Kraken Yachts. This January the Ocean Sailor Podcast at oceansailor.podbean.com. We are also on Apple Podcasts,
 hit 30,000 downloads! A great milestone for the two Dicks and Google Podcasts, Amazon Alexa and Spotify. Head to the Ocean
 the whole Ocean Sailor team. We wish to thank you all for Sailor website here to find out how to listen to our podcast.

 AN SAILO Out now & Coming Very Soon the Ocean Sailor Podcast
 OCE R

 Episode Featuring Episode Featuring

 Podcast What makes a true blue In the captains chair
 water yacht Part 1 & 2 with Brian Trautman of SV Delos
 Stay tuned for some great guests and
 topics in episode 15 and beyond. To get in
 touch with some feedback or to suggest a
 guest, please contact us at We follow up the discussion on what Brian sits down with the two Dicks to
 hello@oceansailormagazine.com makes a true blue water cruiser with Adam talk about the riggers and joys of being a
 and Khiara of Sailing Millennial Falcon. captain. Dealing with difficult situations
 out at sea or managing new crews, it’s
 never a dull moment in the captain’s chair.

 Listen Now Coming VERY Soon

 Head over to Amanda’s Sailing Adventures channel to check out a
 series of videos from her visit aboard the Kraken 50.
 Click here to visit Amanda’s Sailing Adventures channel.

Page 17 Ocean Sailor Magazine | On Watch

Sailors’ Stories

 VOYAGE OF
 THE DAMNED
 90 years after Donald Crowhurst was born, Dick Durham,
 who interviewed his eldest son Simon, looks back over
 his tragic last voyage.

Page 18 Sailors’ Stories | VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED

The Teignmouth Electron before it
 fell into complete decay.

 There’s not much left of Teignmouth of Cayman Brac in the Caribbean Sea. So Round the World Race started to set off
 Electron’s hull, just a few sun-bleached much for the boat, but the body of her from various UK ports to try and make
 and delaminating sections of plywood, skipper, Donald Crowhurst, has never the fastest circumnavigation and win the
 a rudder blade frozen to its stock with been recovered. £5,000 prize for doing so.
 rust, and some ragged shreds of fibreglass
 blowing in the breeze. Her bones lay It all began in 1968 as competitors for
 under some pine trees up from the beach the Sunday Times Golden Globe Solo

 ARCTIC OCEAN

 Golden Glove race route

 NORTH ATLANTIC
 OCEAN
 NORTH PACIFIC NORTH PACIFIC
 OCEAN OCEAN

 INDIAN OCEAN

 SOUTH PACIFIC
 SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN
 OCEAN SOUTH ATLANTIC
 OCEAN

Page 19 Sailors’ Stories | VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED

The Teignmouth Electron replica
 built for the film, ‘The Mercy’

 Donald Crowhurst was one of them, a could always shuttle around in the Crowhurst was reduced to hand baling
 35-year-old father of four, who ran a South Atlantic for a few months. There all three hulls, all of which were leaking.
 cottage electronics business and was a are places out of the shipping lanes He considered filling them with empty
 weekend yachtsman. He mortgaged his where no one would ever spot a boat Tupperware boxes! His Hasler servo
 company to a caravan salesman to fund like this,” he replied. blade snapped in a gale. While Crowhurst
 his challenge and set off in a ketch- • Crowhurst lost his footing and fell was trying to repair his Marconi radio
 rigged, 41ft Victress-design trimaran overboard three times while moored in transmitter by converting his short-range
 made of half-inch-thick plywood Cowes. Shannon radio-telephone transmitter to
 sheathed in fibreglass. • The left hull was dripping water while do the job, he sat on a hot soldering iron,
 in Teignmouth preparing for the race. burning his buttocks.
 The omens were not good even before he • The foresail track lifted from the
 started the race in October that year, with deck; a rubber seal around the cockpit However, most serious of all, Crowhurst
 just nine hours before the deadline for the hatch came away from its seating, and had found a split in the starboard float
 start... threads were stripped on the wing nuts and the materials required to repair
 of one deck hatch. had been left on the dockside back in
 • Crowhurst’s wife Clare failed to break • Crowhurst’s bag of spares, including Devon, in the panic to get away before
 the bottle of champagne against rigging screws, nuts, replacement the deadline ran out. She would never
 Teignmouth Electron’s hull during her plywood and a bilge inlet pump, was survive the rigours of the Southern Ocean,
 launch on the Norfolk Broads. left ashore. therefore Crowhurst changed course. He
 • The trimaran’s starboard hull was holed sailed westwards and on March 8, 1969,
 on river bank pilings before she even After just under two months at sea, landed at a tiny village in the River Salado
 got to the sea. Crowhurst was besieged by failing near Buenos Aires in Argentina. There he
 • Crowhurst was seasick during the systems: the Hasler steering gear had lost obtained the materials he needed, made
 trimaran’s maiden voyage across the fixing screws; the log fouled the rudder; his repairs, and set sail again, heading
 Thames Estuary. the Marconi Kestrel radio failed to work; down towards the Falkland Islands.
 • Crowhurst burned his left hand badly the port hull filled with seawater; the
 on the red-hot outboard exhaust. mizzen halyard was lost up the mast By now Crowhurst was keeping two logs:
 • In the Dover Strait, Crowhurst battled after the connecting shackle dropped the real voyage of Teignmouth Electron,
 for three days against headwinds and off; the Onan electricity generator was and a faked one, which would detail a
 was disappointed she would point no flooded from the leaking cockpit hatch; bogus passage across the Southern Ocean,
 higher than 60 degrees. the aft collision bulkhead was leaking; the around Cape Horn and back to where he
 • One of his crew, Peter Beard, asked main hull bilge pump was missing; the was, in reality, waiting so that he could
 Crowhurst what he would do if he failed chronometer started to malfunction. continue in the race back northward
 to get a fair wind in the Atlantic. “One again.

Page 20 Sailors’ Stories | VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED

ARCTIC OCEAN

 Crowhurst’s route

 NORTH ATLANTIC
 OCEAN
 NORTH PACIFIC NORTH PACIFIC
 OCEAN OCEAN

 INDIAN OCEAN

 SOUTH PACIFIC
 SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN
 OCEAN SOUTH ATLANTIC
 OCEAN

 His plan now was simply to survive, to spray-painted the words “Dream Boat” eventually, the wreck seemed to say. We
 get home. As tail-end Charlie, he was in on the transom in place of a name – sat for a while, listening to the surf on
 a position in which few would take any oddly fitting, given her history, but the sand, the wind through the trees,
 interest and therefore not scrutinise his cruel nonetheless. Donald Crowhurst’s the intermittent flap of a piece of the
 log. dream turned to ashes back in 1969, and hull when the breeze caught it, then left,
 now this, his dreamboat, was rotting silently.”
 The problem with that was there were away. This is how all our dreams end,
 only three competitors left in the race, one
 of which was another Victress trimaran
 sailed by Lieutenant-Commander Nigel
 Tetley, RN, whose boat was also leaking
 badly, but who now pressed on worried
 that Crowhurst might beat him to the
 winning line. He tried too hard, and with
 only 1,200 miles to go in the 30,000-mile
 voyage, his boat broke up, and Tetley took
 to his life-raft.

 Now Crowhurst was faced with ‘the
 inescapable triumph,’ as Tomalin and Hall
 acidly described it. As Crowhurst could
 not suddenly drop back for two months
 and let the slow monohull of Robin
 Knox-Johnston’s Suhaili ‘over-take’
 him, he was going to be the winner. He
 knew he would be exposed, so he jumped
 overboard, embracing his chronometer.

 Eric Loss, who sailed with the Pangaea
 Exploration charter yacht, visited
 Teignmouth Electron recently. He reported:
 “She was shattered, the central hull
 crushed amidships into a pile of plywood
 and fibreglass, the floats in slightly
 better shape, but still peeled open to the
 elements. Even her name was missing
 – some souvenir hunter had sliced the
 “Teignmouth” out of the port side of the
 bow, and the “Electron” off starboard.
 It was a shock to see. Someone had

Page 21 Sailors’ Stories | VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED

The anniversary of this race is marked voyage in itself – said the tragedy was All in all, the poor devil sailed a heck of
 regularly with articles in the yachting that the late 1960s was still at the time a lot further than many of his detractors
 press, and I was involved in writing of the ‘stiff upper lip,’ in the UK. “If it ever did or would, in a boat that was
 some of them, too. For the last one, had been today,” he told me not long a very poor tool. He left his log of lies
 I interviewed Crowhurst’s eldest son, ago, “Crowhurst could have returned and behind to reveal his deception and then
 Simon, a research technician at Cambridge sold his story to a Sunday newspaper and took the ‘honourable’ way out.
 University. cleared his debts.”
 For that, he has my everlasting sympathy,
 He well recalls the scramble to leave on I’ve never been comfortable with the easy and I salute him.
 time to start the race and the fact that condemnation of the saloon bar sailors
 so many spares, tools and vital parts of who slate Crowhurst as ‘a cheat, a fraud.’ Check out this months’ Mariners Library
 Teignmouth Electron were left on the The man found himself in an unenviable which includes some essential reading
 quayside. Simon has considered flying situation in a boat that may well have and viewing on Crowhurst and the 68
 out to take a look at the bones of the drowned him had he continued. Yet if he Golden Globe Race.
 trimaran, but so far has resisted, making turned back, he faced financial ruin.
 do instead with staring at her remains on
 Google Earth. He told me that the ‘real Even though Crowhurst made his strange
 hero’ of that ill-fated contest is Sir Robin comment to Peter Beard during the
 Knox-Johnston, not then a wealthy man, Teignmouth Electron’s maiden voyage,
 who presented the prize money, now it is my opinion that he had considered
 worth more than £60,000, to the grieving this plan should the yacht not prove up
 widow, Clare Crowhurst. to the task of sailing the southern ocean.
 Certainly at this point, the writing was
 Another of the original competitors, on the wall as her launch was far from
 Sir Chay Blyth, who dropped out by the perfect. I do not however think he went
 time his totally unsuitable bilge-keeler into the race with a deliberate plan to
 had reached South Africa – a remarkable camp out in the southern Atlantic.

Page 22 Sailors’ Stories | VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED

Knot/Splice
 of the month

 Make a loop with
 1 a bight of rope

 Pass the end through
 2
 the loop

 Pull both ends
 3 to tighten

 The completed knot
 4 forms a loop

 Figure 8 on a Bight
 A figure-eight on a bight is a large knot with relatively gradual bends (as compared to an overhand), and is
 easily recognised by the tell tale “8” shape. It is used to secure a bight in the end of the rope. This knot is
 commonly used to “tie-in” to the rope.

Page 23 Knot/splice of the month | Figure 8 on a bight

What Lies
 Beneath
 The Royal Navy has been called in to deal with a
 bomb-laden wreck passed by thousands of sailors
 each year, writes Dick Durham.

Page 24 Sailing Skills | What Lies Beneath

Each year thousands of yachts sail past
 the most dangerous wreck in the world
 and have done so for decades. Visiting
 sailors from France, Holland, Belgium and
 Germany as well as from further afield sail
 up to London on the River Thames every
 season and pass a World War II wreck, the
 SS Richard Montgomery, which is packed
 with 1,400 tons of unexploded bombs.

 Until now no one has given the buoyed
 wreck a second glance, but this summer
 the Royal Navy will be master-minding
 the removal of the ships masts and
 derricks in an attempt to make it safer
 and less of an explosive risk.

 The SS Richard Montgomery was one of
 hundreds of ‘liberty ships’ built during
 World War II in the US to bring urgently
 needed war material to the UK. The ships
 were constructed in six weeks by teams of
 female welders. The Montgomery’s keel
 was laid down in 1943 in Jacksonville,
 Florida.

 The wreck lies just a mile off Sheerness in because the British Admiralty refused to The most persistent story is that the ship
 about 50 feet of water. She has been there pay stevedores danger money, according went aground on a sandbank after the
 since grounding in August 1944 while to an investigation by New Scientist captain was ordered, by an inexperienced
 awaiting orders to join a convoy bound for magazine. Naval Control Service officer, to anchor off
 Cherbourg to supply the Allies following the Great Nore. The water was too shallow
 the Battle of Normandy. There are many theories about why she and as the ebb came away she swung and
 ended up stranded on a well-charted grounded as the tide fell.
 She was originally loaded with 7,000 tons sandbank in the Thames Estuary just a
 of ammunition. The remaining 1,400 tons couple of miles off the major Kentish port
 in the flooded forehold was never removed of Sheerness.

Page 25 Sailing Skills | What Lies Beneath

The Royal Navy and Scottish-based “Expert wreck assessors are now
 salvage company, Briggs Marine have the undertaking detailed surveys which will
 tricky salvage job – worth £5 million – of inform future work to reduce the height of
 removing the rusting spars before they the masts.”
 corrode too far, collapse and potentially
 set off a chain reaction. According to a A recent Department for Transport
 newspaper report, the Ministry of Defence survey found the ship’s three masts were
 says the resulting explosion, ‘would throw deteriorating and in a poor state.
 a 300 metre-wide column of water and
 debris nearly 3,000 metres into the air and Peel Ports, which operates Sheerness
 generate a wave 5 metres high.’ docks, is responsible for marking and
 guarding the wreck. The seabed was
 The corroding ordnance on the American surveyed in October to check for spilled
 freighter also poses a threat to thousands explosives before the dismantling of the
 of homes, several marinas, moored yachts masts begins.
 and residential estuary islands which lie
 below sea level. A spokesperson for the Maritime and
 Coastguard Agency said the risk of a major
 The MoD document reportedly stated that explosion was “remote.”
 in the worst-case scenario if the masts
 collapsed in an uncontrolled fashion it Since her sinking the SS Richard
 could cause “an explosion impacting the Montgomery has undergone regular
 local area including the nearby oil and surveys including sonar surveillance,
 gas facilities in Sheerness leading to mass and divers carried out an ultrasonic hull
 damage and potential loss of life.” thickness analysis in 2003.

 A Department for Transport spokesperson Assessments of the seabed contours which
 told Ocean Sailor magazine: support the wreck have been made and
 whether a large crack in one of the main
 “We continue to monitor the wreck of the holds poses a threat to her stability. In
 SS Richard Montgomery closely and it is 2013, a second hull thickness survey was
 understood that it is in a relatively stable taken.
 condition.

Page 26 Sailing Skills | What Lies Beneath

The wreck has a circle of buoys around
 it, marking a 500-metre exclusion zone.
 The wreck is also under 24-hour radar
 surveillance by Medway Ports. Warning
 signs on all three masts read: ‘Danger
 unexploded ammunition. Do not approach
 or board this wreck.’

 These weren’t in place when, as a
 teenager in the 1960s I sailed by in my
 dayboat. In those days the bridge was
 also above water, as was the funnel. Two
 dinghy sailors from a local yacht club
 were said to have landed on the bridge
 and chucked an anchor down the funnel.

 In a statement, the Maritime and
 Coastguard Agency said: “Ongoing
 monitoring and assessment of the SS
 Richard Montgomery has identified that
 the masts may be placing undue strain on
 the rest of the vessel structure.

 “In light of this, the decision has been
 made to seek to reduce the height of the
 masts in order to maintain the integrity
 of the hull and minimise the likelihood of
 structural collapse of the vessel.”

 Editor’s note: As we went live with this issue,
 Ocean Sailor Magazine was told that Briggs
 Marine plan to erect an oil-rig like structure
 over the masts so they can be cut and carefully
 lifted off the hull.

Page 27 Sailing Skills | What Lies Beneath

Turkey to
 Thailand
 Part 4: Alondra in Yemen and Oman;
 an unknown part of Arabia

 By RenÉ Tiemessen

Page 28 Travel & Discovery | Turkey to Thailand

The impressive coastline

 During the penultimate stretch for All of a sudden, the wind is gone. We
 Quiet Evening Watch in
 Alondra, Edith and René sail along the leave immediately in the middle of the
 south of the Red Sea, via the strait of night and navigate between the islands the Gulf of Aden
 Bab-el-Mandeb towards Yemen and and reefs of the Red Sea. Radar and plotter
 Oman. In the fourth part of their journey are working overtime, and the light of
 from Turkey to Thailand; a story about the moon helps. Where 30 knots seems
 Pirates, Khat-chewing Yemen, and how a to be the norm so far, it is now windless.
 Sultan got his country back on top. We enjoy it and pretend it’s normal. We
 sail on the motor and cross straight in
 We are anchored near the southern port the direction of Yemen to follow the coast
 city of Assab in Eritrea. The weather is from there. Watch out now. When the
 not good, 30 to 35 knots of wind over wind dies, piracy rises. Nobody knows
 the water, and the anchor chain is tight. where they come from exactly, but it is
 The island behind offers protection but it clear that we have to be careful.
 doesn’t feel right. And most importantly,
 there seems to be no end to it. We A little after noon, we pass through
 download the GRIB files daily and hope for the Bab-el-Mandeb and leave the Red
 the weather to improve. Five days pass, Sea behind us. With a light breeze,
 we explore the small island from one we continue on our way and drink to
 end to the other and then again. A single our arrival in the Indian Ocean, more
 fisherman brings delicious fish, and the precisely, the Gulf of Aden. An impressive
 last fresh vegetables go into the pan. coast of mountains explodes out of the
 water. They put their heads in the air
 It was quite a struggle to get here. There majestically, and they tell their story to
 were no nice sailing days, it was hard the sea in a foreboding way. Wow!
 work that brought us here. Now we have
 to go through the “hole”; the Bab-el-
 Mandeb passage into the Indian Ocean
 about forty-five miles from here.

Page 29 Travel & Discovery | Turkey to Thailand

Curious girl from the window

 We arrive in Aden at about two in
 the morning. It is a relief to find that
 everything works here. The buoys are in
 place, port control answers our VHF call,
 and we sail to an anchorage under the
 escort of the Coast Guard. After a drink,
 we go to bed tired. The next morning
 we saw a real city for the first time in a
 long time. We go ashore and soon find
 ourselves a super supermarket.

 A supermarket! “Look! Oranges! And look
 here, milk and even Coke!” Like small
 children, we marvel at everyday things
 we missed in Sudan and Eritrea in the
 past months. We leave laughing with full
 bags and refresh ourselves in an otherwise
 shabby but fun and busy city. Striking
 are the women, who are all and without
 exception covered by their Burkas. They
 greet us with heavily made-up eyes
 and hands painted with intricate Henna
 patterns.

 Yemen also has a problem, and that
 problem is called Khat. Khat is a plant
 whose leaves are chewed for their
 hallucinatory effect. As a result, every
 Yemeni is hardly approachable after two
 in the afternoon. Like a kind of a zombie,
 they are scattered here and there in the
 city, behind their desks or in their shops
 completely wasted. The head of security
 at the Port Authority acts like nothing is
 wrong, but talking to him is like talking
 to someone completely drunk. Once again,
 we are in a country where everything
 doesn’t quite work out.

 Schoolgirls with Burkas

 Yemenite with leaves of khat

Page 30 Travel & Discovery | Turkey to Thailand

Rene on the lookout..

 We leave for the North-Eastern city of go down below immediately while I stay year, the northwest monsoon reigns, and
 Al Mukalla, and this stretch, actually as outside and accelerate Alondra. One of it is generally calm. Just under the coast,
 far as Salalah in Oman, we take possible the other yachts comes closer, and the there is often a nice sailable breeze, but
 piracy even more seriously. From now on, motorboats approach us fast. At five there is often no wind further out to sea.
 we sail in a convoy of five yachts and keep meters from us, they continue sailing and
 eye contact. VHF traffic commences on make a move with their hand towards Mukalla is a must-see if you are in the
 1-watt low power, and positions are given their mouth. They want water. I toss them area. Deliciously Arabesque with narrow
 in code, referring to fixed points we call a bottle and friendly wave them away. streets, overcrowded markets with
 “Alpha” or “McDonald’s”. Everyone is It works, they are leaving. Later we see hundreds of sellers and pleasant (Khat-
 on edge. more, but they turn out to be fishermen chewing) people. The anchorage is good,
 covering their faces from the sun!** and we come across a number of yachts
 On the second afternoon, fast motorboats that are on their way from the Maldives
 approach us. I am shocked to see that The wind in this part of the Indian to the Mediterranean. Here you can stock
 the men on board are wearing black Ocean is dominated by the monsoon or up again, as diesel and water, albeit with
 balaclavas! Edith and Nadia, our crew, prevailing trade winds. This time of the jerry cans, are cheap.

 Anchorage at Al Mukalla Colourful streets of Al Mukalla

Page 31 Travel & Discovery | Turkey to Thailand

Nadia prepares a tuna

 After Al Mukalla, we sailed towards Oman. Oman is a reasonably modern country.
 Along the way, we caught tuna, which Things go fast after Sultan Qaboos
 makes delicious sushi. On the morning of (pronounced: Kaboos) took over power
 the third day, having sailed more than 260 from his father in a palace revolution
 miles from Al Mukalla, we arrived. Again in 1974. Educated in England, he
 a surprise. It is busy in the super equipped reformed the country and brought it up
 and pretty new port. to speed with Western wealth and a tight
 organisation. As a sole ruler, he came
 Although the facilities for yachts are up with some weird but nice laws. For
 lacking, the anchorage is good, and example, every Omani must keep his car
 container ships come and go. Here we clean or face a fine of over 5000 euros.
 have to arrange our visas for India. We Under the guise of “if you can have a car,
 will end up staying there for 19 days, you can wash it too”, the general scene is
 enough time to look around. Oh yes, and therefore tidy and clean.
 they have a bar! A real English pub called
 Oasis with real English draft beer(!) which
 makes for a great night out.
 Our agent Mohamed in Salalah
 helps us with arrangements

Page 32 Travel & Discovery | Turkey to Thailand

The beautiful beaches of Salalah

 He also waived some mortgages (always set out for 1200 miles across the Indian group on this part of the journey, had
 good) and demanded Omanis to be hired Ocean. The wind forecast is zero to a little been hijacked with their yacht Lynn Rival
 for every position, so there is a lot of and that in the back. Wonderful after that and held hostage for over 13 months.
 involvement from everyone. The country’s stormy Red Sea. Holiday! The Arabian Spring was in full swing,
 nature is varied with mountains, deserts, and most countries fell into turmoil.
 beautiful oases, breathtaking beaches ** Edith and René sailed in the Red Sea Nowadays, the cousin of Sultan Qaboos,
 and modern cities. Tourism in Oman is and Indian ocean in 2007 and 2011. At the Haitham bin Tariq Al Said is the new ruler
 growing, and that is not surprising. time of writing this article, the situation of Oman, and Yemen is currently suffering
 was still quite stable. On their way back from a large civil war.
 The journey is almost over for us. After in 2011 of course it was a completely
 19 long days of waiting, the big crossing different story. Piracy exploded, many Next month part five, India!, arriving in
 is just about to begin. We stock up again, boats came under attack, and Paul and Mumbai and sailing along the coast.
 fill Alondra with water and diesel and Rachel Chandler, sailing in the same

 Camels on the road, Salalah

Page 33 Travel & Discovery | Turkey to Thailand