Phang Nga Bay

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Beautiful

The first stop on our Phuket cruise was Phang Nga Bay and, as reported, we found it to be beautiful.

Hand Signals

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Judy on the fordeck

Judy give us the hand signal which means that the anchor is holding and we can kill the engine.

Anchored

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Wings

It seemed like we were anchored out in the middle of nowhere but this is the recommended anchorage.

Ashore

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The deserted beaches looked inviting so we piled into the dingy and went exploring.

Quiet Time on the Beach

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Fred photographs Judy

Time for a swim

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Judy and the Avon

Swimming

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Judy and Candace frolic in the afternoon in Phang Nga Bay

First Light

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Phang Nga Bay

On Deck

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Phang Nga Bay

I woke up early and came on deck at the sound of the long tail boat going past.

Before Sunrise

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Phang Nga Bay

The long tail boats head out with first light.

Buying Shrimp

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Candace Bargains

Seeing Candace get out of bed at sun-up to bargain with the shimp sellers gave us a clue about how much our granddaughter loves shrimp.

Shrimp Seller

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Shrimp SellerThey seemed happy enough with the bargain Candace made; we sure were. There were about 25 big shrimp for $2.00

Phang Nga Bay at Sunrise

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Long tail boat heads out

Big Ones

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$2.00 of shrimp

We were pretty happy with the fresh shrimp we got for $2.00.

Raising Anchor

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Judy & Candace

Raising the anchor in Thailand's Phang Nga Bay, Candace takes some photos and Judy operates the anchor windlass

Peeling Shrimp for Lunch

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Candace

A glass of white wine and a plate of fresh shrimp, what can be finer?

Ton Sai Bay-Phi Phi Island

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Phi Phi Island

Phi Phi Island is said to be one of the most beautiful islands in the world and we would not disagree.

Speed Boats

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Phi Phi Speedboats

These high speed tourboats come in all sizes at Phi Phi Island, from these 22 footers up to 40 footers. They are all outboard powered and the biggest ones have three V-6 Yamaha motors. Boy do those boats sing as they fly past with all three motors at full throddle.

Phi Phi Don Island

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Phi Phi

Arrival in High Season

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Phi Phi Wharf

Another full boat comes to Phi Phi Don Island during high season. When the boat arrives all the passengers walk ashore and head for: hotels, bars, shopping; it all involves spending of money and the local love it.

Tsunami Memorial Day

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Phi Phi Wharf

This place was wiped out in the Tsunami in 2004. Now it is rebuilt and I loved this crude wharf, but of course the government doesn't agree: they are building a new concrete wharf which will have not personality like this one does.

Ashore on Phi Phi

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Phi Phi Don

These streets are fun to wander through and look for that special souvenir to take home to uncle Bob.

Shopper

Candace Pyper

We all had fun shopping on Phi Phi Island

Thai Silk

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Candace Pyper

She likes the Thai Dragon on the back.

Confidence

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Long Tail Driver

We wanted to go on a snorkleing trip to Phi Phi Lei and this fellow just happened to offer us such a trip on the streets of Phi Phi Island. It took us only a minute or two to agree on a price (1000THB, or $30, for two hours). 15 minutes later we were underway.

I have not quite figured out the purpose of all the controls this man had at his fingertip, but I think the rope hanging down was to help him keep the propeller at the right height. Like his sophisticated driver's chair?

But he operated the boat with skill and confidence.

Going for a Boat Ride

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Phi Phi Taxi

This boat can carry 8 or 10 persons; with three of us it had a lot of room left over.

Inside the Longtail Boat

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Thai Wood

The local commercial boats called long tails are traditional wood construction and mostly unpainted. They are solid feeling in a choppy seaway however. I felt secure and safe travelling in this vessel.

In the Shade of the Long Tail

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Candace Watches

Candace (as well as Judy and I) watched the scenery roll by from the shade of the long tail boat's sun awning.

View from Long Tail

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Phi Phi Lei

The scenery is fantastic at Phi Phi Lei Island

Raising Anchor

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Judy & Candace
In Phang Nga Bay we weighed and got ready to head south to Phi Phi Don

Salty Dog

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Fred

Sailor Lady

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Judy Jensen

Shade is Everything

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Judy and Candace

On the trip to Langkawi we didn't have a lot of sailing action. In this shot and the next few you can see how we passed the time (mostly trying to stay out of the hot sun).

Boring Spinnaker Ride

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Judy and Candace

With the autopilot driving and light wind there is nothning to do but sit there.

Asymmetrical Sailing

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Candace

On a lazy day sailing to Langkawi finding shade is nice. The asymmetrical spinnaker affords Candace some relief from the sun and the #4 sailbag provides a comfy bed.

Geopark

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Langkawi

Langkawi is a park and much if it is in a natural state. This is the geopark information center.

Monkeys

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Monkeys

When we saw these monkeys on the road in Langkawi we had to stop and take a photo, but later we learned they are so common that people don't even pay attention to them and we saw several, even in the parking lot at the yacht club. We never had a camera with us on those other occasions so this is all we can show you.

Tall Ship

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Four Masted Cruise Vessel

We saw this cruise ship anchored in the Butangs and it looked stunning. We don't know where the passengers went but one clue was some activity we could see on the beach where a river came out. Maybe they went up the river to a lake or waterfall.

Night Sail

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Where is Hin Daeng?

Candace and Judy slept below while I tried to find a safe path to miss Hin Deang somewhere out there in the dark.

Patong Bay Fireworks-Dec 31, 2007

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Patong Bay Fireworks

We heard that they set off 18 tons of fireworks and we can say that the show was fantastic.

Delay

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Working on the Yanmar

Before sailing on Thursday morning we checked the engine and found a leaking heat exchanger. Andy and I had seen it before and it was on my list to fix, but now it had developed into a serious leak. When I touched the bolt to remove the leaking part the head broke off in my hand; it had already been twisted too hard and partially broken. (Thanks Jeffery, I paid you to replace this bolt earlier, I should have checked on your work).

So I had no choice but to drill out the broken bolt and put in a new one, a job which took three hours. Finally at 12:45 we were ready to sail.

The Long Beat

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Fred & Candace

A nice breeze, some helping tidal current, a good shift or two, and Wings' upwind ability allowed us to cover 30 upwind miles in 5.5 hours. A satisfying sail.

In Port

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Candace and the Wings

After eleven days of living aboard and sailing our granddaughter looks pretty comfortable on the deck of Wings.

She did fine, and got a good start at being an excellent forward hand.

Now, back to college.

Fred & Judy, December 2007

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Fred & Judy

WINGS

WINGS, Serendipity 43, Custom IOR Race boat, our home since June 1986. A great boat to sail, cruise on, and live aboard.

Click any image to enlarge


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At Union Island,In Caribbean, 2012

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In Sumatra, 2010

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In Thailand, 2008

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In Papua New Guinea, 2003

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In Mexico, 1997

Click here for some interior shots.

Click here for many more photos of WINGS

image from King's Cup committee
Kings Cup Regatta, Thailand, 2007


Some times we take off the cruising equipment and bend on the racing sails and go racing. In the shot above we are sailing in the King's Cup in Phuket Thailand in December 2007. We won our class with four straight first place finishes, sailing in IRC.

Wings is a boat originally built for racing, but we have found it to be an excellent cruising boat; it is easy to handle for two people, sails well with small sails, and has good motion in the seas. For living aboard it also suits us well: we have plenty of storage and lots of room. For example, on passages we can keep our dingy and motor below, stowed, all of our sails (14 in all), also stowed, the airconditioner, 140 gals of water, 60 gals of fuel, all of our liveaboard stuff (basically everything we own) and provisions for a 30 day passage, all stowed below, and nothing is on the sole or in the way. The deck is kept absolutely clear, nothing is on deck when we go in the ocean except the dingy fuel (gasoline).

We have a great shower, computer system, galley, and comfortable bunks for sea and in port. We have often been working ashore in office jobs while living aboard and we have plenty of hanging locker space for suits, dresses, etc. So, we think this boat is the perfect boat for us.

Sailing it is also just right for us.

Even though we don't have roller furling sails (we have a double grooved racing headfoil) we usually only use a small 85% dacron jib while cruising and this is so easy to put up or down that we don't miss the furling capability. If the wind gets too strong we reef the main, down to the third reef, and then we just drop the jib. Wings sails well with only a scrap of a main, in any direction. It also heaves-to rather well, with a reefed main and the jib, or with just the main; we've done it several times.

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Flying

Our average day's passage in good winds is 175nm. We have exceeded 200nm twice, it wasn't fun, (this is an IOR boat, remember, high speeds are not it's forte).
In this shot we are sailing in the SE Trades from Bora Bora to Samoa, on the windvane, with a full main and a poled out #4 jib, roaring along. There was 23 knots of wind and we were hitting the low 9's on every wave.

The boat has a tiller for steering and we have an Autohelm tiller pilot (ST4000GP) but at sea we use the monitor windvane 99% of the time.

We usually sail double handed without additional crew.

If we have any complaints about the boat it is that we don't have a great cockpit for entertaining; it is a racing cockpit, and rather small at that, but in heavy weather we are sometimes happy for having a small cockpit.

Once I was talking to Doug Peterson about the boat and I told him I thought it made a great cruising boat and was surprised by this. He said, "Really".

Well Doug, it does!


Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Phuket Thailand

FACTS:
Model: Serendipity 43
Type: Masthead sloop
Builder: New Orleans Marine
Year built: 1979
Designer: Doug Peterson
Length 42.7 ft
Beam 12.7 ft
Draft 8ft
LWL: 36.4
Weight (empty) 16,000 ibs
Weight (in cruising mode) 20,000 lbs
Construction GRP (Cflex hull, balsa cored deck)
Mast: aluminum, three spreader
Standing rigging: rod, continous rigging (new 2000)
Engine: Yanmar 3JH 34hp(new 1993, 5600 hrs)
Keel: external lead fin
Rudder: spade

Equipment (rating):
Engine: Yanmar 3JH (1993,excellent, 5600 hrs)
Charging: Balmar 130 amp dual output alt, engine driven, with smart regulation (excellent)

Monitor Windvane (excellent, total rebuild 2009)
PUR 35 Watermaker (excellent but small capacity)
Solar: 2 x 135 watt panels on side railings (excellent)
AC charger/inverter: Magnum Energy MMS (excellent)
Batteries: 4 x 210 LTH 6v, 1 X 105 12v (excellent)
Propellor: Martec folding plus spare (very good,)
Tankage: Water, 4 tanks, Stainless steel, 140 gal total-Fuel, 2 tanks, 60 gal total-Holding 22 gal
Anchor windlass: Lewmar Concept 1 (excellent)
Anchors: Bruce 44lb, Bruce 66lb,(we rarely use the 66lb, the 44lb is the std anchor, and it is excellent),Fortress FX23, Fortress FX17 stern anchor
Chain: 300ft 5/15 high tensile (Good, 12 years old, regalvanized last in 2013)
Rode: 300ft nylon triple strand (rarely used)
Sailing Electronics: B&G Hercules 390 (excellent functionality, the best, old but works perfectly, many spares)
Navigation electronics: Lowrance GPS Plotter, OpenCPN & worldwide charts on PC (Very Good)
Autopilot, Raymarine X5 with GP drive unit (new) the old ST400GP was great, we'll see.
AIS System, West Marine, Excellent 2010
Computers: Dell notebooks (3),Wi-fi, GSM & CDMA EVDO Modems, Cannon ip100 printer(all excellent, Dell worldwide on-site service cannot be beat)
Communications: ICOM M700 with SCS PTCIIe Pactor and Sailmail(excellent)
Near shore communications: 3G-4G HPDA/WCDMA/HSUPA GSM cellular broadband(very good)or CDMA EVDO cellular broadband
WiFi system: Bear Extender uni-directional Outdoor WiFi booster antenna (Excellent product).
Heat: Highseas Diesel heater (fair)
Air-con: basic window unit sitting on deck in port, stowed underway (excellent)
Stove: Force 10 three burner (very good, rebuilt 2010)
Refrigeration: 12v ice box conversion, generic unit using Danfoss 35 compressor (excellent)
Hot water: Propane instant califont (excellent)
Dingy: Zodiac FR360 Active-V with inflatable floor (OK condition)
Outboard: Mercury 15 2-cycle (Good)

Sails (18)

Cruising Sails:
Cruising Main-Dacron (2014 FarEast Sails, Hong Kong)
Cruising Genoa-#J2d 120%-Dacron (2009 Local Sails, Phuket, good condition)
Jib-#J4 (see below under racing sails, this is used as a working jib while cruising)
Storm Jib (never used)


Racing sails:
Main-Carbon MXL China Sail Factory String Sail-maximum size, (2017-New)
Main-Aramid MXL China Sail Factory String Sail-Standard size, (2016-Excellent)
Genoa- #J1 Carbon MXL China Sail Factory String Sail, (2017-New)
Genoa-#J2-Kevlar/Mylar North, (Usable)
Jib-#J3d-Dacron large roach #3, New (2018)
Jib #J4 Jib-Dacron (2013 North Sails Antigua, excellent)

Kites:
1S 1/2 oz-symmetrical(1990 Lidgard fair),
2S .7 oz-symmetrical(2008, SeAir excellent)
3S 1.5 oz North Tri-radial Runner (as New)
2A .7 oz-assymetrical AP (2008 SeAir Good),
3A 1.5 oz-assymetrical Reaching spinnaker (2018, New)
plus 3/4 oz all-purpose cruising kite.


Other sails (2, Genoa and Jib) serviceable retired sails


More photos of sailing on Wings:

Click here for some interior shots.

Click here for many more photos of WINGS