[Paddlewise] Sailing and paddling new waters

Hi Y'all,

I just got back from a yacht trip down to Malaysia.  The yacht we were on
was real nice.  It's a proper 40 foot Australian racing yacht. The trip was
a lot of work.  We sailed straight down.  It took over 20 hours of sailing
without a break.  We had a storm around midnight.  It was a bit scary.  The
wind was real strong and lightning was striking all around us!  It
eventually died down... as did the pucker factor :-)

At 6:00 am the following morning, there was a water spout behind the boat.
I took a photo that I hope turns out.  If it does, I'll scan it and put it
on our website.  It looked really awesome.  I've seen several water spouts
in my 7 years here.  For some reason, they seem to all occur at daybreak.

We had a good time paddling around Langkawi.  It's a beautiful island.  We
saw monkeys, hornbills, lots of White-bellied Sea Eagles and Brahminy Kites,
Lesser Ratchet-tailed Drongos (a black bird with two extremely long tail
feathers) and some other cool birds.  The mangrove forests were in very good
shape.  We actually saw a lot of primary growth trees... something uncommon
in most of Thailand. We also found a cave we could paddle through.

The trip back was a pain in the butt.  The wind had shifted and it was a
direct headwind the whole way back. It took 26 hours to get back.  Plus, it
rain almost the entire time.  I got a little sea sick for one stretch. I
came out of it. I'm sure glad I don't have to go yachting every day!

Cheers,
Dave



Dave Williams
dave_at_paddleasia.com
http://paddleasia.com
Phuket, Thailand

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