Dopo la pausa in Cina siamo finalmente salpati da Singapore il 19 dicembre con destinazione Langkawi.

Langkawi e' l'ultima isola della costa ovest della Malesia.

Il viaggio e' di circa 430 miglia (3 giorni e 3 notti) e passa attraverso il famigerato Stretto di Malacca che a dire il vero e' alquanto grigio e noioso.

Per nostra fortuna il nostro amico Mus ha potuto unirsi a noi in questa tappa. Mus, che e' indonesiano, e' lo skipper di un grosso catamarano ormeggiato vicino a noi. Con lui a bordo i turni di notte so stati molto piu' facili.

We left Singapore on Monday 19^th December, headed for Langkawi (the last island on west coast Malaysia before Thailand.

The journey was 430 nautical miles and we had our good friend Mus (the captain of the boat next door) on board, which was a real treat.  Mus came with us to help with the night passages as the journey ahead was 70 hours.

The girls were great, we all had to get used to living so close together again and with no overnight stops, it was not always easy!
Le bambine (e noi) hanno dovuto ri-abituarsi alla vita in barca e sono state bravissime nonostante i tre giorni di navigazione senza scalo.

Non so quanti altri marinai abbiano ingannato il tempo nello stretto

imparando a fare pom-pom di lana (vedi foto...).

I don’t know if making pom poms has got anyone else through the Strait of Malacca but it worked a treat for us!  The girls also loved their afternoon ‘excursions’ to the bow to ride the waves.

L'altro grande divertimento e' stato andare a prua e saltare ogni volta che Olivia affondava la prua nelle onde. 

We stopped briefly in Pangkor Laut to pour some diesel from the jerry cans into the tanks as we had motored a fair part of the way waiting for favorable winds. The girls and I took the opportunity to go for a quick swim and we only capsized once as all 4 of us used the kayak to get to shore!
A dire il vero ci siamo fermati per un'ora nell'isoletta di Pangkor Laut per rimboccare i serbatoi col gasolio delle taniche e per un bagno. Su questa isola c'e' un villaggio turistico di lusso dove usava soggiornare Pavarotti (c'e persino la suite Pavarotti).

Cara e le bambine hanno lanciato il solito sbarco da profughi sulla spiaggia per un bagno. Nonostante fossero in quattro sul kayak si sono rovesciate solo una volta....

It was a wonderful feeling as we approached Langkawi 3 days later with over 20 knots of wind from the east.
La mattina di giovedi' 22, con un bel sole e 20 nodi di vento siamo arrivatia Langkawi a vele spiegate.

Santa found the boat! 

 Happy Christmas!

We plan to spend the next month or so around Langkawi before heading up to Thailand.

Buon Anno a tutti! 

No, non ci siamo arenati, abbiamo solo fatto un viaggio (via terra) in Cina, 1 dicembre 2011

Il cambio del monsone porta sempre tempo incerto e piovoso quindi abbiamo deciso di parcheggiare Olivia a Singapore e farci un viaggio via terra in Cina.

Abbiamo cominciato da Pechino, dove faceva freddo e abbiamo dovuto comprare dei giacconi imbottiti alle bambine (il primo della loro vita!); la Grande Muraglia e’ veramente impressionante; la giornata era tersa e sotto-zero. Io e Nadia ci siamo divertiti a scivolare sull ghiacccio sulla cima del muro.

Thursday 1st December
We have had a whirlwind trip around China covering 5 cities in 2 weeks.

We started in Beijing where the girls from the tropics decided it was like living in a freezer! 

The Great Wall lived up to our expectations, it was breath-taking. 

While Anna, Julia and Cara clung to the wall on the icy parts having learnt the hard way, Nadia and Enrico had a great time 'skating down'! 

The Forbidden City was interesting and even more so when we were able to decipher what our guide was saying! 

La Citta Proibita e’ stata molto interessante anche se le bambine erano letteralmente assediate dai turisti locali che volevano fotografarle (data la pelle bianca).

We trekked out to the Olympic Village to see the Bird's Nest and Water Cube and then took a rickshaw around the Hutongs.  

The girls were great, taking the bus, walking miles, figuring out the subway and exploring the city.

Nadia's favorite past time was trying to get the Chinese guards to break their stance and wave or smile at her!

Nadia ha provato ad attaccare discorso con tutti i soldati che montavano la guardia sull’attenti; alla fine uno di loro e’ scoppiato a ridere.  Era cosi’ soddisfatta che ci ha implorato di comprarle un cappello militare che ha poi portato per il resto della vacanza (vedi foto). Infine abbiamo fatto una visita al complesso Olimpico e al Temple of Heaven.

Next stop was the Terra-Cotta Warriors in the ancient capital Xi'an.  Emperor Qin Shihuang who unified the six warring factions in the country into a unified China around 200 BC (not always though popular means)  wanted to become immortal and believed he could rule even after death.  He ordered 7,000 - 8,000 warriors to be made and buried near his tomb.  No two warriors have the same facial expression and once they were complete, the emperor had the artists killed so that the skill and knowledge to produce more would be lost.  Qin Shihuang was also responsible for initiating the building of the Great Wall.


Xi'an (Chang’an) was formerly the destination of thousands of foreign Silk Road traders.  We visited a silk factory which was very interesting as we learnt that a silk worm (actually a caterpillar) spins silk from it's mouth.  Once the cocoon is complete, the pupa is surrounded by 1.2km of raw silk thread. The cocoons are boiled for 20 minutes and then the thread from 10 cocoons is spun into one thread.   Double cocoons (ie: 2 pupae inside) are boiled and then stretched to form quilts.  The silk moth obviously never comes to life in the process.  We all learnt a great deal and decided that it counted for at least a few hours of humanities in home school!

Dopo Pechino siamo andati a Xian che era la capitale nel 280 AC sotto l’imperatore Qin Shihuang che doveva essere un tipo fuori dal commune (e un pazzo scatenato): e’ stato il primo a unificare le sei fazioni che si combattevano in Cina; ha iniziato la costruzione dlla Grande Muraglia ma soprattutto si e’ fatto construire una tomba che si estende su 50 ettari. Parte delgli ornamenti pubblici sono i famosi guerrieri di terracotta; Qin Shihuang  se ne e’ fatto produrre 7-8.000, uno dierso dall’altro. Poi non prendere rischi, ha fatto seppellire vivi nella tomba gli artisti che avevano creato le statue.

We flew on to Kunming to explore the Stone Forest in Shilin.  

Partiti da Xian siamo andato a visitare la Foresta di Pietra a Kunming; e’ un labirinto naturale di roccia dove le bambine si sono divertite moltissimo.

It was absolutely amazing and we found ourselves in several labyrinths of stone, lost but longing to explore what was around the next corner or through the next passage, not wanting to retrace our steps to get out.  After close to 4 hours walking, the girls' feet packed in and we headed back to the hotel.

Next stop was Lijiang in the South West, home to the traditional Naxi people.  We stayed in the picturesque Old Town and wonderful Enrico (who did all the planning and booked all the flights and hotels) booked us into the most amazing hotel I have ever stayed in.  It was a traditional Naxi house set on a hillside with amazing views and different courtyards and rooms to explore.  We were all in heaven.  The Old Town is stunning and well worth a visit.

Dopo Kunming siamo andati a Lijiang, nella bellissima provincial dello Yunan. Questa e’ la zona montagnosa dove c’e’ anche il sito originale chiamato Shangri La (il paradiso in terra).

La citta vecchia di Lijiang e’ come una piccolo Zermatt cinese; tutte le costruzioni sono in legno e nello stesso stile. E’ estremamente turistica ma al tempo stesso e’ tenuta con sorprendente buon gusto.

We flew on to Chengdu to see the Pandas which was amazing.  We saw babies, sub-adults and adults and just seeing the wonderful animals brought smiles to our faces.

L’ultima tappa e’ stata Chengdu, capoluogo della provincial dello Sichuan. Chengdu e’ famosa oltre che per il cibo piccante, per il panda. Ci sono alcuni parchi molto ben tenuti dove I Panda si riproducono in cattivita’.

Siamo tornati a Singapore il 1 dicembre all’una di notte, esausti ma soddisfatti.  

We got back to Singapore at 1am on Thursday 1^st Dec, exhausted!  Singapore still feels like ‘home’ to us particularly with Bill and Vanessa’s hospitality.

Whilst the trip to China has not been without its tough moments (I had to accept that we were travelling with children and were not 20 year old backpackers), we have had some magical moments.  Enrico and I are happy that the girls have been able to get a glimpse of China before closing our chapter on living in Asia.

We are now working on getting Olivia ready for our next 4 months at sea.

5 novembre
Siamo rimasti a Tioman alcuni gironi per rifornirci e rifocillarci. Visto che la pioggia non dava tregua, abbiamo approfittato  di una "finestra" meteo piu' favorevole per rimetterci in rotta per Singapore.

Il giorno che siamo partiti, Tioman ha indossato il  suo vestito piu' bello: il sole caldo, il mare calmo, une bella brezza leggera e la giungla color smeraldo sulle montagne: ci torneremo senz'altro l'anno prossimo.

Abbiamo veleggiato (col solo genova) fino al tramonto e cenato sotto le stelle. 

Il resto della notte e' stato senza vento e l'unica cosa da segnalare e' stata verso le 3 del mattino.  Cara era di guardia mentre io dormivo in pozzetto; Cara mi ha svegliato dicendo che stava arrivando un temporale. Io mi sono levato in piedi e, giuro, NON C'ERA un filo di vento; il tempo di mettermi gli occhiali e prepararmi (3 minuti al massimo) e c'erano 40 nodi! Mai vista cosa simile. La cosa positiva e' che il vento veniva da terra (da ovest) e quindi non ha alzato grandi onde.

Unico fastidio: la pioggia di nuovo giu' per il collo.

Alle 11 del mattino seguente, con Anna al timone, siamo arrivati a

Singapore. 

Anna al timone  con tanto di cappello della GuardiaCostiera (guarda anche l'altra foto)

Questo segna la fine della prima fase della nostra

navigazione; la prossima parte ci portera' sulla costa ovest della

Malesia e Tailandia.

Saturday 5th November

It rained and rained in Tioman, even Olivia seemed to say she had had enough of the rain!  The girls were brilliant being confined to the boat but they did rush out to run on the pontoon whenever there was a break in the rain.

having fun in the marina and spotting eagle rays

Fish in Tioman Marina - Pesci nel porto di Tioman

The wind was about to turn and we decided to leave to Singapore.  We set sail at 3pm in wonderful conditions with a burst of sunshine, calm waters and light breeze from the East.  We sailed beautifully (with only jib obviously) into the sunset and had dinner under the stars.

I was lucky to have had the first shift as I had calm seas and some light from the moon. There was a fair amount of lightning in the distance and there was a spectacular light show, however it finally caught up with us and at 3am Enrico who was sleeping in the cockpit woke up with the first drop of rain.  When he got up, there was still NO wind; in the time it took to get ready (about 3

minutes) the wind was blowing at 40 Kn! The good news is that it was blowing from the West so it didn't raise big waves.

On the following morning, soaked once more we arrived in Singapore with Anna at the helm.

Anna at the helm with a Coast Guard cap

This concludes the first phase of our journey.  We will stay on land and travel to China while the monsoon changes.  In December we will sail towards West coast Malaysia and Thailand.

Tuesday 1^st November

We set sail in calmer waters, the swell had diminished and we had a glimpse of sunshine on the horizon.  I had made a ‘packed’ breakfast the night before so I would not have to spend any time rolling around in the galley which had triggered my seasickness the day before.

We had a glorious window of good weather in the afternoon.  The waves were still quite big but they were not breaking and the rain stopped. With a nice 15 Kn wind from North-West we hoisted Olivia's gennaker for the first time: Olivia was happily stretching her legs making 8-9 Knots (ok, ok, with 1 kn of current in favour but still).

This fun lasted a few hours but at dusk we saw a thunderstorm

approaching from the East. We took down the gennaker on time and took two reefs in the mainsail; at that point Cara noticed that the mainsail had a large tear at the top seam. Reluctantly we took down the mainsail and started the engine.

The night was tough as the waves did not let up and there was a continuous series of rainstorms.

Nadia slept in the saloon as the forepeak was too rough.  She woke up when her head banged into the table.  When I got up at 3am to do my shift, Nadia was sleeping holding on to the table! It was raining hard and visibility was poor.  Enrico was soaked and within minutes all my warm clothes were wet

The worst stom hit us around 3.30am, at about 30 miles North of Tioman: the wind was not too strong (25 Kn) but the rain was so intense that we could not see a thing in the pitch black night.

Cara and I reduced speed and stood in the cockpit trying to spot "anything ahead" but it was like riding a scooter in a car wash at night with no helmet for 2 hours.

We were sure (from the GPS and AIS) that the there was no land nor large ships in front of us but what about a log or a small fishing boat?  Fortunately there were no obstacles in our way.

When the wind died down Enrico managed to squeeze into a dry spot under the dodger and sleep for a few hours while I took over.  The person on duty had to stand as the only visibility through the driving rain was over the top of the dodger.  The relief was enormous when the sun rose and the night was behind us. At about 9am, completely soaked and exhausted we entered Tioman Marina where, once more Kym and Mike were waiting to help us mooring.

1 novembre

Con meno onda e un bel vento  da nord-ovest abbiamo issato per laprima volta il gennaker di Olivia (evviva!) .

Con 15 nodi di vento Olivia correva felice a 8-9 nodi (vabbe' e' vero, c'era un po di corrente a favore ma non fa niente). E' persino uscito il sole e ci siamo riconciliato col mondo.

Il bello e' finito quando al tramonto abbiamo avvistato un temporale

da est; ammainato subito il gennaker abbiamo anche preso due mani di terzaroli per precauzione; e' stato a questo punto che Cara si e' accorta che il ferzo della randa in testa d'albero si era quasi

completamente scucito. A malincuore abbiamo ammainato la randa e acceso il motore. La notte e' stata poi un susseguirsi di temporali;

il peggiore e' stato alle 3.30 del mattino a circa 30 miglia a nord di

Tioman. Il vento non era terribile (25 nodi) ma la pioggia era cosi'

intensa che non si vedeva nulla nella notte nera.

Io e Cara abbiamo ridotto la velocita'  e siamo rimasti in piedi a

cercare di avvistare qualunque ostacolo. Era come guidare una vespa in an autolavaggio di notte, senza casco per due ore.

Sapevamo (grazie al GPS e AIS) che davanti a noi non c'erano ne' isole ne' grosse navi, ma i pescherecci erano la nostra inquetudine.

Finalmente alle 9 del mattino, completamente fradici e un po' esausti siamo entrati nel marina dell'isola di Tioman dove ad attenderci in banchina c'erano Kym e Mike (sempre loro, magici!).

Monday 31^st October

The rain chased us away from Redang; we were soaked, nothing was drying and we smelt like fish!  We left Redang early in the morning with a plan to sail the 340 miles to Tioman in one go.  In the last few days, the wind had blown steadily from the North-East and had created a strong swell perpendicular to our course; Olivia was rocking with horrible accelerations, the sea was rough, the sky grey and the rain relentless. This was one of those (rare) situations when, while the rain trickles down your last dry t-shirt, you ask: "Why am I doing this?". Julia and Cara were seasick and after 30 miles it was clear to Enrico that Cara would be in no condition to do a night shift.  We decided to take shelter behind Pulau Kapas which is 30 miles from Redang.  We had a good meal, managed to dry some clothes and had a good night’s sleep.

LE ULTIME PAROLE FAMOSE   31 ottobre

Di solito la stagione del monsone sud-ovest finisce a fine ottobre

quando arriva il monsone di nord-est. A questo punto e' meglio

spostarsi sulla costa ovest della Malesia.  I soliti esperti della

banchina ci avevano pero' assicurato che negli ultimi anni il monsone di nord-est "e' sempre in ritardo e fino a dicembre andate tranquilli".

Dopo una settimana sotto la pioggia e vento da nord-est a Redang ci siamo arresi all'evidenza che al monsone non gliene frega niente degli esperti di banchina....

Abbiamo quindi deciso di rientrare a Singapore (via Tioman)  che a

questo punto e' a 340 miglia piu' a sud.

Siamo partiti la mattina del 31 ottobre sotto un cielo grigio; il vento di levante aveva creato un onda notevole al traverso che faceva rollare Olivia terribilmente.

Dopo alcune ore sotto la pioggia battente eravamo tutti fradici e due membri dell'equipaggio hann cominciato a vomitare. Questa e' una di quelle (rare) situazioni in cui ti chiedi, mentre la pioggia ti cola dentro l'ultima cerata asciutta, "Ma chi cavolo ce lo fa fare?"

Rendendoci conto di non potere continuare cosi per le restanti 24 ore che ci separavano da Tioman abbiamo preso rifugio a Pulau Kapas, una piccola isola di fronte al grande porto di Terengganu. Ci siamo concessi un pasto caldo, abbianmo asciugato qualche indumento e ci siamo fatti una bella dormita e al mattino siamo ripartiti.