First we had to sail from Langkawi Malaysia to Phuket Thailand (see earlier Post) to await the arrival of the Transport ship. The waiting became tad frustrating as the ship was delayed and delayed. However, we took the opportunity to enjoy Phuket and the company of some of our yachting friends especially Bill and Amy from Estrellita and David from Pembula Laut. In addition, we had fun with Burger and Nancy who were shipping Halakai along with Hamamas.
Our "shipping buddies" were instrumental in negotiating with a Phuket Customs Clearance Agent to charge less than $USD 1000 fee the first agent wanted! It is necessary to have an Customs Agent for clearance as our yachts were actually "cargo" on the heavy lift ship. Usually we do all our own Customs and Immigration clearances when we sail into a new country so this was a new experience for us and we were horrified to think we had to pay them to fill in the paper work! In the end we paid about AUD $300.
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| Ao Chalong Anchorage Phuket |
Meanwhile we waited and waited. We were anchored in the beautiful Ao Chalong while Halakai was in Ao Po Marina further north. The word was that we would load from the dock at the deep water Port in Markam Bay about 5 nm from where we were anchored. However, the Port was extremely busy and our ship the Rickmers Yokohama was told there was a delay for them to come along side. Not to be deterred the "powers that be" decided that they would load us (all 10 of us) while at anchor near the Port. Unfortunatley as the days went by, before the ship even arrived in Thailand, the wind blew harder thus stirring up the water and building up the rollies to the extent that we knew they would be unable to load from anchor near the Port.
Once the ship arrived the Captain and Load Master searched for a suitable place to load us and decided that it was calm enough to load from anchor just 2 nm off Ao Po Marina. So we had to motor up to Ao Po which was about 20 nm away. By this time, 2 June, we had taken off our headsails and wraped our winches in plastic to protect them during the transporting. As luck goes this was the only time in a long while that we could have had a good sail! We enjoyed the next few days waiting in the luxury of the Ao Po Marina.
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| Excitment when we saw Rickmers Yokohama on our AIS! |
Now I would like you to imagine just how you would have coped with emptying the freezer and running the fridges down until you had just the right amount of food on the day you were to load! We didn't quite acheive this as we gave away the last of our cheese butter bread and milk to some yachting neighbours in Ao Po. Our difficulty was that we were not told exactly which day or what time we would load. We just had to wait "on standby" until we got "the call" from the Loadmaster. This was a bit nervewrecking to say the least.
Then of course it was all systems go on when we finally got "the call" on 6 June, as we had to take our travelling luggage off the boat, give away the last of our food, then leave the Marina and motor the 2 nm out to the ship. All the while we were feeling a little anxious about tying up alongside such a rolling huge ship and being lifted up ever so high as we were loaded.
Tom expertly positioned Hamamas alongside and we managed to tie up ok once Fran threw up Hamamas' lines and the boys threw down the ships lines. Next they let down a rope ladder and suddenly the loading crew were swarming all over the boat like ants let loose from a nest! Down came men wearing big boots and the divers with scuba tanks. Both Tom and I thought "oh our poor decks!" Meanwhile, the crane crew let down the huge lift straps and the divers went over board to ensure they were placed in the correct position. While all this was happeni
ng we had to release the Back Stay Adjuster, the Lazy Jacks and the Running Backstays so the cranes spreaders would not touch them. We actually had to tie them down well as the ship was rolling around a bit. Finally all was set and they slowly started to lift us. Up,up,up.
When we were at Rickmers Yokohama's deck height they paused while we all stepped off onto the big ship the crew carrying all the ropes and scuba gear. Then the crane continued the lift while the boys held the ropes and manoured Hamamas around and into her position on the ship. After many anxious moments she was carefully lowered onto chocks, supports were placed in postion around her hull and she was then securely tied to tie down points. Pheww!
Tom climbed up a long ladder to board Hamamas and ensure all was well and everything was turned off. Power, fans, toilets, and lights and so on.
Once all this was done and after we had chat to the Russian Captain we wished Hamamas a safe journey to Marmaris Turkey!
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| Manouvering Hamamas into Positon |
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| Tom and Alexander the Russian Captain |
However, our journey was not over yet as we then had to climb down a long rope ladder over the side of the big ship, step into a small, very bouncy motor dinghy that was to transport us back to Ao Po Marina. This was certainly not for the "feint hearted." Once back on dry land we could not believe that we had taken "the call to come to the ship" at 1pm and it had taken 5 hours to be loaded!
Still our day was not over. We were now homeless and had to take a taxi back to Ao Chalong were we had booked a lovely room at The Lighthouse Hotel on the waterfront. Now I hate the smell of Durian and was not impressed when "our taxi" - probably someone's brother's car- reeked of that nasty Durian smell for the 25 km to town! Never did a beer and glass of wine taste so good when we finally sat down to dinner on the day we loaded Hamamas onto the transport ship!
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| The Lovely Lighthouse Hotel at Ao Chalong Phuket |
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