29/03/2020
As many of you know, a few years back Sam and I were brave/stupid enough to take the plunge and bought, restored and sailed our beautiful Ad Astra through Asian waters and had the time of our lives.
After almost three years onboard we moved to Palma de Mallorca and started a new life on the island. We recently sold our 13m ketch, our first home and are now planning to make a new life in the countryside as we are waiting to become a family of three.
To say goodbye to one adventure and hello to a new one, I’ve made a best of album to close that chapter. For you guys who are on lockdown and have promised yourself to take that leap, do that adventure or dare to follow your dreams once this madness is over – I hope this inspire you to go for it, life is beautiful and now is the time to follow our hearts.
For you who never heard the story:
Sam and I were living and working in Langkawi, Malaysia when we started talking about our next adventure. I wanted to buy bicycles and cycle back to Europe via Nepal while Sam wanted to sail back to Europe on his own boat. Shortly afterwards, we stumbled across this magical ketch that was for sale and we fell in love instantly. Within a few weeks we bought her and moved on board with the plan to sail her back home. Well…. There were a few minor issues ie engine broke on day one sailing, she needed much more repairs than expected, I needed to learn how to sail and life came in between in an unexpected way.
We ended up in B&V Shipyard in Langkawi where we undertook a massive project for a year and loved every minute of it. Langkawi had everything we could ask for, and it was cheap. We got our own space in a water pit full of frog spawns, our own shipyard dogs, "luxury" outdoor showers and drop toilets. We rented a cheap motorbike and could easily escape our dirty backyard for some cold beers on Pantai Cenang. We spent our first Christmas with friends onboard with "smorgasbord" of English, Swedish, German, Russian and Fijiian influences. We fired crackers, drank vodka and sent off Chinese lanterns on a full beach on New Years. Sam got electrocuted and turned 30, made his entire family work on the hull in the heat (on their holiday), almost drank a liter of bleach by mistake but did get very white teeth and had a smile of the happiest man on earth when we got that first layer of antifoul on. I mostly got into a daily routine of walking up full of energy, hope and let’s do it's, followed by a sweaty angry mess of "f**k it's" at lunch and went to bed patting my own shoulder thinking what a stupidly amazing woman I was. We managed to repair our osmosis infested hull, build new engine mounts and install a brand new Yanmar engine, tear down and rebuild our nav station, install new nav gear, mouse new lines, install new batteries, new cables all over, take out and apart all portholes and hatch glass and put in new, marking chain and new anchor, sanded and painted topsides, new interior cushions, remake old spare toilet to rope locker amongst other things. Most important is that we managed to keep our relationship alive... We had a crazy viking on our starboard side, a turkish perfectionist in front of us us, a giggling Pastis drinking frenchie on port side and not to mention all the wild, crazy, adventure seeking shipyard hippies from all around the world that joined us in the quest of setting sail once again and let the wind take us to new destinations.
After Langkawi, we took 10 blissful days to sail to Phuket for more maintenance, but first we need to enjoy the moment. We managed to drag anchor, test the sails, and explore the picturesque anchorages along Thailand’s wonderfully diverse west coast. We found caves and caught fish, turned up the music and spent our second Christmas at sea, outside Koh Phi Phi.
Phuket was the final period of work on AA. We took old bowsprit off., completely rotten and while Sam undertook the huge task to fit the new sprit on, I spent my time varnishing the whole boat - capping rails, fiferails, boxes etc. We got our last important toys onboard, shaft change and built an awesome look out net/ladder up the shrouds. We spend NYE with good friends in Nai Yang and had countless dinners at Mamas and Papas, The Living Room and The Deck.
During our time in Langkawi and Phuket we met and spend time with some of the most epic people on this planet, you know who you are. We love you to the moon and back and watching you braving the normality and going your own way made us dare to go on our own crazy adventure.
We were also so lucky to have some of our best friends visiting us from afar and share that trip with us. Matt and Andy joined us for 10 days around Phuket-Phang Nga Bay-Krabi - Phuket. Not just good fun, they cooked every day as well!! We squeezed in Songkran in Phuket, sailing, caving, honging, bat watching, fishing village touring, abseiling, climbing, 5 star eating and p***s cave exploring.
My beautiful Christa and her friend Sjoerd joined us for a 7 day sailing trip from Koh Lipi to Phuket via paradise. Nice sailing, great snorkelling and beautiful anchorages.
Sam’s friend Wolfgang joined us in Phuket to help us with final details and together with our new buddy Adam, the 4 of us finally set sails towards our new adventure – Sumatra. Sumatra is the 6th largest Island in the world with its 473,481km2. There are 52 different languages spoken, active volcanoes, exotic wildlife, indigenous tribes, crocodile infested mangroves, palm fringed islands, welcoming people and squalls .... many of them.
Looking back, I could never in my life have known what to expect out of this trip. Original plan to sail back to Europe but life came between and we decided to circumnavigate Sumatra, explore all the islands on the west coast and parts of mainland before passing through Sunda Straits and back up to Singapore and return to Malaysia. What a trip!
Sumatra was exotic, completely off the beaten track, wild and beautiful. Charts were off, we went aground, experiences the wildest weather and squalls we’ve ever seen (repeatedly), Standing waves, last minute anchorage before the storm, completely abandoned beaches and paradise islands, exploring mangroves on our SUP, snorkelling, got invited to a mangrove village as their first western guests, got boarded by police, woke up to see toothless local fishermen fishing from our stern, got invited to spectacular fishing boats and treated with bags of fish since we braved the storm, rented dodgy mopeds in search of internet masts and weather forecasts, anchored outside a hidden tiger sanctuary which is not reachable for public and got treated like rock stars for a few days and we even walked next to fresh tiger prints in the sand. We explored the waters of Sunda Strait, Java Sea and climbed the active volcano of Anak Krakatoa (which now is gone!) and we visited many exciting villagers and markets along the way. We cooked fish fish on our small bbq and drank beers while watching the sun set over 360 degrees of wilderness, spend mornings naked drinking coffee and swimming, played backgammon with local harbour masters in exchange of permits. We hardly encountered any other private boats during the whole trip and when we reach Singapore, it was a shock to the system. The pollution, plastic and stress was mad and we realised how isolated we had been for the last year. We also endured one of the hardest blows a couple can go through and we managed to come out on the other side, even stronger and more in love than ever.
We were so lucky to have a few friends who wanted to sail with us. Thank you Barney, Thomas and Anders for braving the storms and create some….unforgettable memories together. Nothing mentioned nor forgotten :)
We finally reached Penang, Malaysia where we left Ad Astra in the shed and spent 4 hectic days with total cleanout, both mast down, deck fittings off and packed our bags to return to Europe and reality. She is now in the best of hands with her new owner and I hope she will make it to Europe one day.
So, now on to a new chapter which includes countryside fix up (tree house and campervan which Sam is not sold on yet!) and a baby girl.
Pix in non specific order. X
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