Sailing in South East Asia with Ian and Michelle of SV Raku
Episode 8 of The Sailing Podcast is with our guests Ian and Michelle about the Sail Indonesia Rally. They have a Chamberlain designed 38’ catamaran named Raku which they sailed from Australia to Indonesia about 4 years ago and they haven’t looked back since.
They have set themselves up perfectly by building their own boat, testing it up and down the Queensland coast and then headed off to their favourite destination -Indonesia.
I found out what they were up to from my next door neighbour, Max. Carina and I met Ian and Michelle at our house. The whole podcast concept was pretty foreign to them and I really appreciate them letting us record the conversation about the Sail Indonesia Rally and put it up on the website, as they are fairly private people – and I think we will all enjoy the update of what is going on in the South East Asia cruising scene.
Next episode with Pieter Kommerij of SV Onda Boa
Sail Indonesia Rally
The Sail Indonesia rally is a very popular one with Australians and the cruisers heading out of Australia. You can find information about the rally – it’s at
I think that the visa issue they spoke about was just a temporary glitch and the rally is now really well organised and a great stepping stone into the South East Asian sailing scene.
I found the information about sailing on through the Red Sea really interesting – such a shame that so many people have to change their round the world plans due to the piracy problems. It definitely does not seem worth the risk sailing through there so I guess you really only have the option of going south and heading down and under Africa or as they mentioned, you might have to look at other options such as selling you boat or I guess there are some ways to ship your vessel on a container ship to get to the med.
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Transcript of the interview with Ian and Michelle
This is the sailing podcast with David and Carina Anderson episode number 8 we would love you to come and join us on our journey. Introduction hi everybody and welcome to the eighth episode of the sailing podcast thank you for joining Karina and I on our journey. We have a great episode today with a couple who were literally heading out the door and out of the country to get back to their sailing lifestyle. The guests are Ian and Michelle and they have a Chamberlain designed 38 foot catamaran named Raku which they sailed from Australia to Indonesia about four years ago and they haven’t looked back since. They set themselves up perfectly by building their own boat testing it up and down the Queensland coast and then heading off to their favorite destination Indonesia. I found out what they were up to from my next door neighbor Max so Carina invited Ian and Michelle to our house where we did the recording. The whole podcast concept was pretty foreign to them and I really appreciate them letting us record the conversation and put it up on the internet as they’re fairly private people and I think we’ll all enjoy the update of what’s going on in the Southeast Asia cruising scene. You will hear the phone ringing in the middle of the interview so don’t run off looking for the phone as I did when I was listening back to the recording and you’ll also hear some lovely bird sound effects in the background. We’re lucky to live in such a beautiful place as Noosa. Let’s get straight into the interview today.
David and Carina: So like I was saying it’d be really nice to just hear about how you guys got into sailing. Have you been sailing all your lives?
Ian and Michelle: Well I started fairly young on skips in Victoria. Oh okay.
David and Carina: Fresh water. Like competitively sailing?
Ian and Michelle: No just playing just weekend stuff.
David and Carina: Whereabouts in Victoria were you?
Ian and Michelle: Hume Weir. On the border of New South Wales and Victoria.
David and Carina: Yeah yeah is that the one near Aubrey Wodonga?
Ian and Michelle: Yes.
David and Carina: okay I think we went there with a school camp when we were little didn’t we? Yeah I think we water skied there. So we used to ski on the lake there and have a lot of fun and then years later we had a caper cat. Okay yeah. was your
David and Carina: And your family were sailing? Was your dad?
Ian and Michelle: No not my family at all. Just me I just sort of got into it. My mum shouted me a week’s course at Coochiemudlo Island when I was probably about 14. I think we just moved to Queensland. So I went down there five days or something and learned how to learn the basic fundamentals of sailing small boats. And then we started going to Indonesia just doing flying over and and surfing, doing surf trips and things. Yeah. And eventually we wanted to get from one island to another and a boat turned up just while we’re talking about it. It’s just one of those coincidental things. And we were sitting there in these little Ozmun at Neas actually and this beautiful little boat was out there – a little Swanson double ender and we’re just talking to each other going wouldn’t it be nice to be able to jump on that and head down to the tallows where we wanted to go. And the occupants of the boat we saw them jump in the dinghy and they zoomed right in right in front of our Ozmun. Got out of the boat walked up to us and said hey you guys like to come for a charter? So we jumped on their boat and went down to the tallows actually ended up chartering for a few weeks.
David and Carina: Were they were they Australians?
Ian and Michelle: He’s a Pommie, she was Canadian. Okay so they were just out sailing around. They’d just come across from India I think Sri Lanka. And copped a flogging on the way. And yeah I think they just that’s what they did pick up charters here and there go cruising around. Yeah we loved it. We were leaving, we were heading back to Australia and we had to do we jumped on a copra boat which is a boat that goes around the islands and picks up all the coconut and takes it to the mainland. We got to lift back to the mainland on that boat and from there we had to get on a bus to go down further down the island to catch an aeroplane and we nearly died. It was the most horrendous boat or bus trip we’ve ever had in our lives and we just said we’re going to build a boat. We are never doing overland travel again. And so that’s we got back to Australia and from then on we just planned. Just started planning to get a boat. That was only 10 years before we actually ended up with a boat.
David and Carina: So what sort of boat did you build?
Ian and Michelle: It’s a Chamberlain 38 foot Chamberlain.
David and Carina: Oh so that’s the boat you’ve got now that you built. So what’s it made out of? I don’t know the Chamberlain boat.
Ian and Michelle: It’s western red cedar strip planked and then fiberglass and ply and foam for bulkheads, foam for roof sort of thing.
David and Carina: How wide were the strips that you’ve done?
Ian and Michelle: They’re about 50mm.
David and Carina: Oh okay. I’ve sort of read up on, I was looking into strip planking like making a canoe because it just looked like such an interesting way of building but you’ve done a whole boat that way.
Ian and Michelle: It’s a really cool way of building a boat because you can get shape and you can get a lot of shape and curve into it. Because you’re just working with fine pieces of timber which you can torque and twist and curve. And so if everything is set up properly.
David and Carina: Are you a carpenter by trade or something?
Ian and Michelle: I’m a builder.
David and Carina: You’re a builder, right. And where did you find all the timber?
Ian and Michelle: I bought it from Brisbane somewhere I think. Just bought it all stripped, it’s already stripped up.
David and Carina: So how long was that whole project from starting to build to say getting it in the water?
Ian and Michelle: It took four years.
David and Carina: While you were working as well, like you did it in your spare time?
Ian and Michelle: About 50-50.
David and Carina: that must be really satisfying.
Ian and Michelle: Yeah, very satisfying. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever built for sure. It is the best thing I’ve ever built.
David and Carina: So over the stripped cedar you put glass?
Ian and Michelle: Five glass. And then bogged and fared and painted.
David and Carina: So how long has the boat been built for now?
Ian and Michelle: It’s been in the water nearly seven years I think. It’s all held up well. It’s just the aesthetic part. Paintwork is sort of starting to look a bit down in a few spots and a bit chipped and scuffed here and there.
David and Carina: Did you spray paint it with two-pack? It’s lasted seven years.
Ian and Michelle: Seven years. And then the tropics, it’s very harsh on a boat up there. It’s just so hot and it’s wet.
David and Carina: So your trip started, whereabouts did you put the boat in the water?
Ian and Michelle: Noosa River, just right next to the ferry there. You know where the ferry goes, the North Shore? We spent a few months finishing it there. We had to rig it, had to get a rig on it and sails and fix things up before we first took it out, which was probably six weeks or so before we first took it out of the river. Then we just took it out once and went round a bit and came back in, first little jaunt. We Took the sailmaker and the designer with us and it was the worst bar crossing we’ve ever had. Nobody would get to take a boat out on those conditions. It was crazy conditions. I was quite keen to try it. The sailmaker was a bit of a sailor too. We were just punching into these three or four foot sets, snapping onto the sandbar out there. Green water over the top of the boat. I mean we didn’t know if we should be scared or not. But it went beautifully of course, just cut through and we got out.
David and Carina: Does your boat have any keels, drop keels?
Ian and Michelle: No, it’s got dagger boards.
David and Carina: Can you retract them?
Ian and Michelle: Yeah, it actually only draws, the hulls only draw about 450mm, so it’s quite a shallow draft. With rudders, rudders probably draw about 800mm.
David and Carina: So can you take it onto the beach ever?
Ian and Michelle: All the time.
David and Carina: Oh really? And the bottom actually holds up, like the two pack? The two pack, the paint doesn’t just get scratched off when you sit on the sand?
Ian and Michelle: No, it’s all anti-fouling. It’s made to be scratched. Yeah, it’s all works. Well we’ve got sort of a double anti-foul thing happening now. We’ve got quite a tough one and then a softer one on top of it. After we launched it we did a little trip and then went for a longer trip. Went for about four months up through the… Yeah, first we did a couple of small trips, didn’t we? Just a DI or Morton? Morton Island. Or did we head straight up to the Whitsundays or up north?
David and Carina: But there’s so much to see anyway, isn’t there? I mean you could chew up four months easily just between here and the Whitsundays. Here and Fraser Island really.
Ian and Michelle: Well after being over in South East Asia for four years, we’re really looking forward to coming back to the Queensland coast. It’s beautiful. Yeah, especially with a boat. It’s just fantastic. And you know, clear water, there’s fish in the ocean, and it is un-crowded. We were really looking forward to it.
David and Carina: So you were in South East Asia for four years. You stayed there all the time.
Ian and Michelle: Yeah, well after those first few trials, we spent about three winters, two or three winters, heading north and we’d go Whitsundays and then next time we went up as far as Cardwell, Hinchinbrook Island, up around there. So we’d do these sort of six-month trips and come back and work and fix things up that we wanted to fix up, fix things up that broke, do alterations and improvements that we wanted and work and just keep fixing the boat up.
And then one day we thought we’ll go to Roti, which is at the bottom end of Kupang, Timor.
For a surf trip, joined the Sail Indonesia Rally and head across with that.
David and Carina: okay
Ian and Michelle: And so we did that. We got over there and thought, oh, this is really good. Let’s keep going.
David and Carina: You make that sound like a short thing, but so you sailed right up the east coast and across the north?
Ian and Michelle: Yeah, we went right up the Cape, which had never really been past HinchenBrook before Cardwell. So we went right up that very remote north coast, which is just fantastic.
It was beautiful up there. Except for the crocodiles. Oh, they were all part of it. They were all part of it, yeah. If you get big mud crabs and barramundi with the crocodiles, it’s worth it. Compromise. And because we were heading for Darwin to join the rally, we were actually on the move. So we spent so much more time in that area. It’s fascinating. Yeah, we had another friend who did the same thing. His goal was to get from here to Darwin and he’s just sort of whizzed up the coast there. Yeah, because that trip normally leaves early in the season. Leaving in May. then. July out of Darwin and so across. So it was quite good. We met quite a few boats on the way out that were all sort of heading that way to get to Darwin because I think there was 130 boats in that rally or something.
David and Carina: So you get to meet quite a few on your way there.
Ian and Michelle: Yeah. So by the time you’re in Darwin and everyone’s ready to go, you’ve met quite a few of the punters.
David and Carina: Yeah, well, I think myself and I’ve talked to Carina, it sounds like a great way to start as well because you’ve got company and a bit of support and there’s a bit of structure there. So it’s actually a really good way to get to an independent stage, it sounds like.
Ian and Michelle: Well, we got out of there as soon as we got to Coupang.
David and Carina: I was going to ask you how you found the 130 other boats.
Ian and Michelle: We never should have joined the rally. The only reason, because in Australia, they push that rally so much that you think it’s the only way that you can get into Indonesia. Whereas it was such a hindrance. The boat was impounded for five days and the whole rally was impounded. 130 boats were impounded in Coupang. But all these boats were coming through singly and off they went, not an issue. And all this money changed his hands. It’s just the whole lingo thing. So we actually left the rally after those five days. There were three other boats that did the same. Right. And then we never looked back. We split off and went the outer surf route and they all went the inside.
David and Carina: So surfing’s a passion then?
For both of you? Do you both surf?
Ian and Michelle: Not anymore. Especially when we come back to Australia, I will. But surfing on reefs is too hard for me. Yeah, it’s pretty serious stuff. It’s great. So you’ve got to be able to surf properly if you want to surf in Indonesia and some of those spots on a boat because you’re just so removed. If you get injured, you’re… I don’t know, you’re stuck, I reckon.
David and Carina: oK. I: So has that basically been… I mean, so once you’re off by yourselves,
David and Carina: how did you know where to go?
Ian and Michelle: You just find out, really. Or you look and you work it out. You just look at a chart and go, oh, that looks good, sail past and have a look and talking to people.
David and Carina: So when you’re looking for a surf break, how big a surf are you surfing in?
Ian and Michelle: All breaks are different and swell size is different depending, you know.
David and Carina: So you’re just looking for good breaks, I suppose. A nice, clean break. : Yeah, they’re all known about pretty well.
David and Carina: What’s the biggest size you’ve surfed in in Indonesia?
Ian and Michelle: Oh, very big. Like, very big. Like, too big.
David and Carina: OK, then, dangerous.
Ian and Michelle: Scary big, I’ll say that. It’s hard to put an actual height on it. It looks as big as your house, put it that way.
David and Carina: Oh, that’s too big.
Ian and Michelle: Up near the top there.
David and Carina: OK, that’s massive. So how long can you hold your breath for underwater?
Ian and Michelle: Well, I got put to the test this year or last year, actually.
It was at ASU, I got held down on a very big day. I was just Just washing my scene through and taking right through the line-up, which was OK, usually OK, but I had water forced down the lung which I was trying to expel in between the waves hitting me so I couldn’t get the water out to get the breath in so I ended up sort of coming pretty close.
David and Carina: Wow, yeah, because I think I was talking to my son Jake and we were looking at one of those big wave surfers and how they could hold their breath. They trained themselves with for an incredible amount of time. Minutes and minutes. Yeah, I think it was more than five minutes they were holding underwater. They ran around holding rocks. They ran around in the bottom of the ocean carrying rocks.
Ian and Michelle: To train for it?
David and Carina: Yeah, that’s crazy. OK, OK.
Ian and Michelle: I don’t do that.
David and Carina: So has it mainly been just the two of you on the boat or do you have other people?
Ian and Michelle: It’s pretty well always the two of us but every now and again we have friends or family coming.
David and Carina: So the boat must have set it up really well then?
Ian and Michelle: Well, it is sort of set up for the two of us now because it’s hard having other people on the boat because it’s not a big boat and we’ve got it pretty well set up where we have all our living up the top so our beds up the top, the galleys up the top and all our stuff’s down in the hulls.
David and Carina: So all the toys and the gear and the food and stores are all down the hulls.
Ian and Michelle: Yeah, yeah. It’s sort of funny then isn’t it because if someone comes on the boat they don’t realise that it’s just like coming into your bedroom isn’t it? It’s not like they’re just coming into your house. It’s even a little bit more complex than just a bedroom. All these systems and things and ways you do stuff and places things go and it’s a really personal thing. I don’t think people that haven’t got boats I don’t think they can appreciate how private that little space is. It’s quite hard, quite difficult for them to. Of course it maintains your life. You’re sometimes in some pretty wild situations and you’re in this thing that has all these systems that you can try and work with to your advantage to remain alive. That sort of thing. It becomes quite a personal place. You speak to most people and they say three days is the perfect time to have visitors on a boat. But we’ve got one couple that comes and stays with us that the four of us get on very, very well and at work, it works. But still we drop them ashore and put them in a bungalow thing for a few days just so everyone is right. It’s very close, really close. You’re in each other’s face all day long if you’re on the boat. They say that three days is a good time to have guests in a house. It’s a smelly fish seeing dry little things and it’s something like that. Three days and they go off.
David and Carina: So you’ve been in Indonesia for the four years. Have you been coming back to Australia in that time as well? You’ve pretty much been there in both seasons.
Ian and Michelle: No, we actually do about six months from April to October over in Indonesia and then we come back to Thailand and Malaysia. So I’ll be between Thailand and Malaysia for six months. So basically do a six-month season over there.
David and Carina: And that’s far enough to sort of swap over?
Ian and Michelle: It’s long enough. We’ve had enough of Indonesia after six months. It’s time to get out and do something different and eat some good food. Thailand and Malaysia are quite interesting too. Well, it’s all interesting. But it’s not surfing over there. I do a little bit of kite boarding and snorkeling and fishing and that sort of thing.
David and Carina: So you’ve pretty much been just staying on the boat back-to-back sort of seasons.
Ian and Michelle: We came back two years ago and I worked for a few months and did things and then this is another step to come back to do a bit of work.
David and Carina: I wanted to ask you about the cost of living on the boat over that time. It always interests me when I’m trying to sit at home and figure out how much money do I need to get away. Maybe I don’t need any. I just need to get away.
Ian and Michelle: We sort of work on about $1,000 a month basically.
David and Carina: Wow, that’s less than I would have even thought. That’s in Asia, you couldn’t do it here. although I think you probably could do it here if you were catching a fish and living quite frugally. Sailing everywhere, not having to use any fuel. You see the fuel thing counts, the fuel’s less than half price over there. We don’t really use any fuel over there either. Fuel costs are just minimal. There’s hardly anything because we’re sailing just about everywhere. In Indonesia where we go it’s very remote so you hardly spend a cent. It’s really, once we get back to Thailand and Malaysia we eat out a lot because the food’s so good and there’s restaurants. You start spending more but also because the whole Indo thing you set your boat up for it, you stock the boat up, you service your motors, you get everything working ship shape and you go and spend six months in Indonesia with a stocked up boat. That’s why we don’t spend much time over there. We catch fish over there, we eat rice and vegetables and fruit. It’s all quite simple. It’s probably very healthy as well. It’s healthy. Surf all day is fantastic. What a lifestyle. Then we get back to Thailand and Malaysia and that’s where we start servicing motors and paying, revamping things. That’s why it’s more costly back over there than it is in Indonesia. We set up for about six months and then come back and work on the boat for four or five.
David and Carina: When you’re saying that you’re going to remote areas just talking about Indonesia again what’s the traffic like? Are there many boats that you’re crossing paths with or just a sort of normal view that you see? Do you feel like you’re out in the wide open spaces or to yourself?
Ian and Michelle: Quite often you are. Quite often there’s just nobody around. Like in general, each year it gets a few more boats over there as it gets more known. There’s also a big reason behind that too. There’s a bit of a bottleneck happening in South East Asia at the moment because of the piracy. Yeah, so people aren’t going through as much as they used to. All circumnavigators are getting caught there and going, what do we do now? Yeah, because that’s in my mind as much as anyone else’s. You go, OK, well, if you continue on you’re making that choice to go right down and under South Africa. More over the top, through the pirate.
David and Carina: Do you think, are many people still going through to the Red Sea that you’ve talked to?
Ian and Michelle: Virtually no. It’s just too dodgy.
David and Carina: I was listening on the radio the other day about the amount of piracies dropped but that’s because they were saying and a lot of the tankers have now got armed they’re hiring armed guards on deck.
Ian and Michelle: Like, oh, that’s great for them that probably doesn’t help the yachties all that much.
David and Carina: No, they were starting to turn towards the yachties
Ian and Michelle: but they’re in the marina offices and things in Asia they now have notices up and they’ll get groups to go through and now that’s even stopped and now they’re trying to get people to work together to get their boats put on container ships and get a cheaper price.
David and Carina: So that’s what they’re trying to do now.
Ian and Michelle: Or they’re selling their boats or they’re turning around going back the other way which is really, really hard because you’re sailing against the wind. Or heading over to Indonesia or back rowing on the side of Malaysia. And it’s changing their whole plans instead of the round the world trip to maybe we’re just going to base ourselves in South East Asia for a while and just enjoy that. So I think last year there was possibly maybe 27 boats we counted in Malaysia. So that’s up where we’re going up that top end of Sumatra. The first year there was maybe 26.
David and Carina: OK, that’s busier.
Ian and Michelle: And it used to be just boats with surfers on them and now it’s cruising people.
David and Carina: And again just like you say a backlog of through traffic of the roads blocked like a ski resort or something that’s just been snowed in and you can’t get through.
Ian and Michelle: So it forms these little leaks and you get a few more boats at the top of Sumatra there.
David and Carina: And how do you find the people I mean the locals are you going to lots of remote places?
Ian and Michelle: They’re really good and beautiful people. Very simple existence.
David and Carina: Do you find yourself like when you arrive at an anchorage how do you sort of break the ice between you and them? Are they coming out to say hello?
Ian and Michelle: They’re all different. Every place is different. But often someone will paddle out and say hello and start up a conversation. Then you get coconuts brought out and things get exchanged and it goes on from there. It depends on how long you stay around in an area. If you stay in an area and want to get to know the people you will quite easily. It helps to talk a bit of their language because they can’t speak English at all. You guys have got a bit of a working enough to strike up a friendship. We’ve got a few good friends.
David and Carina: Do you grab a few particular things to take with you to be able to barter and exchange?
Ian and Michelle: We’ve got a few things to swap with the kids. It’s changed over time what they’re wanting. Originally it was school books for the kids and pens. Shirts, caps, sunglasses, torches, hooks. Diving equipment, goggles and snorkels. Things that we actually need ourselves. That’s what they’re looking for now. So when we leave we usually hand things over because we need them ourselves when we’re there. But we keep a hold of really cheap sunglasses now. Often I find them diving and snorkeling so I just pick things up and go. That’s a good trade.
David and Carina: What about the sailing? Have you had some pretty hairy experiences sailing? Or has it been quite smooth sailing?
Ian and Michelle: We’ve had some scary times. Generally the sailing is quite alright. It’s just things like storms. We don’t really dig the night crossings that much, especially up there because there’s so much floats and there’s big logs in the water and stuff floating around. It’s quite grubby especially through the Malacca Straits when you’re getting across to Sumatra. There’s always big electrical storms out there. That’s about the scariest thing for us really. We handle the wind so far but it’s the sparks dropping out of the sky that scare us. There’s a lot over there. The storms come and go very quickly. I think the longest is probably about three hours. You’ll have a storm that maybe after 50 knot winds. You just deal with it and you know it’s going to be over soon.
David and Carina: Isn’t the worst that can happen if the lightning hits the mast?
Ian and Michelle: It would just put out your electrics.
There’s all sorts of things that can happen. I’ve never heard of anyone actually on a boat being paralysed. I’ve heard of somebody being paralysed by being electrocuted. Lots of boats do get hit especially up there. That’s a real hot spot. I’ve heard of chain plates being blown off and pinholes through the hull instant burning to the water electrics gone or nothing just all sorts of different things.
It doesn’t really happen over here a lot though. It’s not something you really think about much over here. Over there pretty well every night you can look out and you’ll see lightning. When you’re sailing around out there sometime or other a storm’s going to come across you and be pretty close. Even at anchor we’ll disconnect all our electronics and things like that. You don’t know if it’s going to help but you do everything you can to try to save your equipment. We haven’t lost anything yet which is great. We’ve had some very close strikes.
David and Carina: So you’re saying you’ll disconnect things like your radio and just fit the wires so that if you get into the system it’s not going to run through and burn out?
Ian and Michelle: Well it might still be because you get this peripheral charge through the atmosphere and anything with fine electronics inside it can fry just from the charge in the air. But there’s all sorts of tricks. People put them in microwaves and under terracotta pipes and all sorts of things. All different methods tried and true. We were working on some wetsuits. But saying that again the electrical storms are quite beautiful too to watch. Right when they’re off in the distance when they’re coming down on top of you. Everything changes.
David and Carina: And finding your way around what do you use? Do you have an electric sort of chart or just your paper charts? Or do you collect information from other people about all the above?
Ian and Michelle: We just have everything we can. We have paper charts for everywhere we go.
David and Carina: Is there anybody written like a specific guide just talking about Indonesia? Like is there a specific cruiser’s guide?
Ian and Michelle: There is a very basic one. There’s a couple of them. It’s usually word of mouth. People will pass on information of good languages and ways to go. Or you just find out yourself.
David and Carina: I guess you guys have got the confidence now. You must have a pretty good routine for coming into an anchorage. Who gets somebody to go up and take a good look out?
Ian and Michelle: We’ve got all that sorted out for new anchorages and things. And you just try and make sure. If you are making landfall that you haven’t been to or you don’t know it’s best conditions possible. It’s not nice coming into a new anchorage in the dark. We’ve done that a few times and it’s bad. Especially if it’s reef. As soon as you know a place I’ve usually not got a problem as long as you know that you’ve been there before. It also depends on how dark the night is too. Sometimes it’s blacker than you think it is.
David and Carina: How far ahead do you actually plan what you’re doing? Digging into this wonderful lifestyle it sounds like to me. How much have you planned anyway to go from point to point? Or on a weekly basis go over there?
Ian and Michelle: Here’s a good example. We’re about to fly back there on Wednesday and we’re going to start bringing our boat to Australia. We haven’t even looked into our charts yet. It’s just a general trend. You make a decision and then you work towards it. We’ll get back there and in the next couple of weeks we’ll get charts together and talk to people if there’s anybody around still. Most people have gone off and they’re doing what they do because it’s the monsoon season and we’ll start planning. A couple of weeks. Seagulls must be pretty flexible. You have to be flexible because you might change your plans tomorrow. We’ve changed our plans three times in the last four months. Just for what we’re up to. We’re not even sure which route we’re going to take to get back yet. We’re discussing that and talking to people and weighing our options. Really you could say day to day.
David and Carina: Your boat’s in Langkawi did you say? I read a lot about people going to Langkawi. Is there something special about leaving your boat there? Why has that become the main good choice? Not the main choice but it seems to be a pretty common place. It’s duty free. Is that something specific to that little island or something?
Ian and Michelle: Basically. It’s a duty free island. It’s going through the airport. You can get there easily. Very easily. It’s right on the border of Thailand. You can just step into Thailand.
David and Carina: Do you go south up into Thailand as well? That’s where we spend a fair bit of our time. We don’t really spend much in Malaysia. It’s for restocking and fixing things. Then we head up into Thailand. The people in Langkawi are very, very nice too. It’s very easy to get your boats fixed there and get work done on your boat. Just do things.
David and Carina: Have you guys been over to the Andaman Islands?
Ian and Michelle: No. We were planning to but people who keep coming back came back last year. A lot of the coral’s bleached over there now. I just heard a little bit I was talking to a friend and he was telling me about how he wanted to sail over there. But he said it’s sort of it’s not all open anyway. No, you’re very restricted on where you can go. You’ve got to radio in to the authorities.
David and Carina: Do you know the story of the area there at all?
Ian and Michelle: I can’t remember what he told me but the people there even have a fairly closed He might mean the Nicobarts. There’s the Andaman Islands and then just south. No, it’s the same thing in the Nicobarts not in the Andamans. There’s local people that they try and keep. And that’s why you’re only allowed particular places when you go there. That’s another reason we haven’t been there. It seems quite restricted. You’ve only got a month of your visa and then you’re restricted where you can go and you’ve got to call in each day and it seems like they’ve got you under the thumb a bit so you can’t just cruise off.
David and Carina: Are the Andaman Islands managed by Thailand?
Ian and Michelle: By India. That’s something funny.
David and Carina: How do you go with visas getting in and out of Indonesia? How long are you allowed to stay in Indonesia?
Ian and Michelle: It depends on how much money you pay. You get a bit of flexibility in there. You get six months. Six months, they have all sorts of different visas. Social visa is six months. And then when you cross and you head into Malaysia you can get the same thing there They give you three months. Three months for you and indefinite for the boat. The boat stays forever. I’m not sure whether it was just in Langkawi it was unrestricted for boats or is it pretty much all along the coast in Malaysia. That’s good for them because it’s going to encourage people to go sailing there as well. Whereas in Indonesia to have a cruising permit which lasts for three months that costs you about 150 bucks every three months now to have your boat. That’s six months. You’ve got to have a sponsor and you’ve got to have a personal visa. It’s very expensive to cruise in Indonesia as in the fees. The whole package for two of us and the boat. For six months you’re up for a couple of thousand dollars. No, about a thousand dollars. That’s about there. Malaysia is free, you don’t pay a cent in Malaysia and Thailand is quite cheap. They’re charging for a visa now which is 80 US. That’s for two months you can still go in there for a month without a visa. A month on arrival.
David and Carina: They’ve never been tempted to sail on and around the world?
Ian and Michelle: Not really.
David and Carina: What will you do? You think you’ll sail your boat back to Australia? Any plans then?
Ian and Michelle: We’ll just come back and start playing the Pacific a bit but regroup a bit and have a bit of land time and get back into Australia again. Do the Queensland coast for a while. It’s a lot to see isn’t it? Do that area right north a little bit too. You sort of forget how beautiful it is right up there because when we did that trip we spent so much time on waters that we’d already been in. There’s a lot of good places to look at up there. It’s pretty wild.
David and Carina: It sounds like you’ve got some great plans ahead. Can you tell us the name of your boat?
Ian and Michelle: Raku.
David and Carina: Is it got a good story to it?
Ian and Michelle: We’ve got many meanings actually so we keep hearing different ones. It is what it is. That’s what you’ve got. Basically. Raku. It is what it is.
I’d like to thank Ian and Michelle for letting us know about their sailing experiences and just to prove how private their travels are I can’t even find a trace of them on the internet which just goes to show they’re really just out there doing it for the pure joy of sailing and being free to travel around to their favorite surfing locations. The show notes will be at the website thesailingpodcast.com forward slash sailing indonesia and I’ll just have to find a photo of mine to put there for now because I don’t even have a photo of their yachters yet. The sail indonesia rally it’s a very popular one it’s a very popular one. I’ve found the information about sailing through the Red Sea really interesting such a shame that so many people have to change their round the world plans and cruises heading out of Australia so I’ve put a link on the website to where you can find additional information about the rally. Their website is at www.sailindonesia.net I think the visa issue they spoke about was just a temporary glitch and now I think the rally so many people have to change their round the world plans due to the piracy problems it definitely doesn’t seem to be worth the risk sailing through there. I guess you really only have the options of heading south and going down under Africa or as I mentioned you might have to look at other options such as selling a boat or I guess there’s some ways to ship your vessel on a container ship to get to the med. Don’t forget to visit us on Facebook www.facebook.com forward slash the sailing podcast and you can find us on iTunes by going to our website www.thesailingpodcast.com forward slash iTunes that will redirect you to our listing on iTunes. Of course you can always contact me via email david at the sailing podcast dot com you can link up with me on Google plus using that address as well thanks for listening I hope you have a great day and thank you for joining us on our journey you’ve been listening to David and Carina Anderson of the sailing podcast