The Boat That Never Was
-by Miss Defy
We found a boat!
One of our main goals during sabbaradical is to go sailing on someone else’s boat. Why? Because we want to try out the sailing lifestyle. It’s an appealing way to live a minimalist, self-sustainable existence while traveling the world. Mr. Defy has talked about it since I’ve known him and thought about it since he was a teenager; this could be his taste of sailing to see if he wants to make the dream a reality. Although he is the driving force behind this goal, I love the idea of traveling at the pace of nature and with our flexible schedule this seems like the best time for us to try it out.
We had spent many weeks sending out messages on crew-finding websites (think dating app but for boats/crew). After looking up the best locations to sail in December, we flew from Cambodia to Phuket, Thailand in hopes that we could find a boat on the coast while exploring the island. In order to cast our net of options as wide as possible, we also created a flyer and posted them on message boards around town. We spent a couple nights going to marinas, speaking to as many people as possible, and seeing if any connection could land us a spot on a boat. Despite my luck with this old-school approach in the past for jobs, it was no help in the search for a boat.
Then…it happened! We had a legitimate lead on a boat via Crewbay (one of the websites as above) and were asked to help on a delivery. We were honest in our sailing abilities, which are elementary at best, but the captain gave us the go ahead. The boat would leave Koh Chang (an island off southern Thailand) and be delivered to Singapore. It left in 7 days. Naturally, we were thrilled! We watched the SNL skit with Andy Samberg “I’m on a Boat”, had a dance party, and started to game plan how to get to Koh Chang.
We took a flight from Phuket to Bangkok (1.5hrs), then a bus from Bangkok to Trat (7hrs), a ferry from Trat to Koh Chang (1hr), and finally found a local taxi(1hr) to the west side of the island in Kai Be beach. Here we settled in for 3 days before our meet-up with the boat. We could barely contain our excitement as we practiced tying bowline knots and reviewing some sailing how-to videos on youtube. While living the beach life- we rented kayaks, ate authentic Italian pizza (with real cheese!- a rarity in SE Asia), and I had one of the best massages of my life for about $5. We were living our best life.
When the time came, we packed up our stuff and headed to the east side of the island (1.5hrs away) where the boat was parked. I wish we could tell you that we got to boat, sailed off into the sunset, and arrived in Singapore as semi-competent sailors. But that would be a lie. In fact, we barely left the marina. We helped move/motor the boat from slip to slip (slip: fancy boat speak for a boat parking spot). We found that the new owner didn’t even test out the boat before purchase, so our only real sail lasted for about 1 hour at 1-2knots of wind (snail’s pace) to make sure the boat didn’t sink. Although it was a bit rusty, the captain was confident we could get the boat to its new owner in Singapore without incident. However, when we tried to leave Thailand 3 days later, we were halted at the marina due to an expired registration.
I will save you the minute details, as the technicalities of paperwork for a Thai boat leaving to be sold in Singapore are endless. Let’s just say, we spent 13 days waiting for approval that never came. 13 days including 9 ferry rides, 5 walks past a pack of aggressive stray dogs, 3 trips to the marine department, 8 dinners at the same sub-par restaurant, 3 grocery store runs, 1 very long day of supply hunting with limited communication abilities, and multiple bus and taxi rides. All of this for one lackluster result; we could not go sailing.
We were defeated. Although we were able to escape to Chiang Mai for New Year’s celebrations (more days of traveling back and forth), we had spent almost 2 weeks being bored out of our minds waiting for a boat to leave. Our only consolation was that the boat owner from Singapore paid for some of our hotel and travel costs while waiting, but we would both agree this cost savings was not worth the rollercoaster. We would be told by the marine department that we could leave one day, then 3 hours later would be told we have to wait another 2 days, and so it went for 13 days in a sporadic pattern that tugged on our emotions.
As the sting of not getting our chance on a boat started to sink in, we had to change gears and quickly mobilize given our Thai visas expired in just two days. We hopped on a local taxi to the Trat bus station and bought a bus ticket to Bangkok that evening. After a 6hr bus ride, we didn’t feel like looking at flights at 1am, so we went to sleep at what turned out to be a shady ant-infested hotel. When we woke up, I scraped the ants off my prized dried mango slices and booked the cheapest flight out of the country. Next stop: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Our plan has now swiftly shifted to search for orangutans in Malaysian Borneo and return to going at our pace. We still have the desire to sail, but I’m guessing it may take a week or so to recover from the disappointment and get back on the sailing website saddle. Til then, we will welcome our next adventure!
-Miss Defy
