Post RideForCambodia...SEA ride continues

[Digiamo]

We lost a day somewhere. Tomorrow we set sail, not Tuesday.
I am in search of Scopolomine as per our vertual MD, Dr. Jose Luis Vasquez
out of Puerto Vallarta, MX. ( AKA: Motomano)
Not happy about the possible side effects but nobody complains that it doesn't prevent sea sickness.

Droid S3 & TT2

 

[Scooter]

Youse guys need to get that cat (not Catt ) up on one hull...

 

[Digiamo]

Youse guys need to get that cat (not Catt ) up on one hull...

It may happen unintentionally, that'll be fine.
Here we get the crash course on cat sailing and the particulars of Max's boat.

We are going over last minute items with Max now and should be underway within an hour.
It was a successful first night for all of us as I took an ambien and stayed on deck watching the horizon until I couldn't stay awake any longer.
More later...as WiFi becomes available.
BON VOYAGE!
Droid S3 & TT2

 

[Digiamo]

We have limited internet so real quick note...
Out of the gate the sailing learning curve got about as steep as a cliff. Just outside the safe harbor and as soon as we got a sheet in the wind, the swells became high enough to bury the hulls and come surging out again. I was sure I'd get sick but as I was holding her steady into the swells I had a sense of control that helped to prevent more than simple nausea. That whole first day, I felt like I was going to throw up but by the time we got anchored at a deserted beach island I felt better. In fact, While I was feeling horrible, I realized that I was more afraid of puking than actually sick. From that point on I was much better. It was the first time I ever didn't get sea sick while rocking as much as that. Having the helm helped enormously.

All this without any medication because after checking about a half dozen drug stores for the Scopolomine that Jose suggested, I came up empty.

I wish I could say we all faired as well as I did.

We are having lunch at Ao Nang now. A great little sea side town that we need to explore a bit after we eat.

Yesterday we were at such a pretty place called Ko Hong that had me so excited that I ran into the ocean to snorkel with my Samsung phone clipped to my swim suit. About a minute later I realized it and got it opened up. It's about 24 hours since we put it into a Tupperware of rice to try to dry it out but it only made a crackley noise while trying to charge.
Was thinking it might need to be dropped into distilled water to rinse the guts.

Anybody have any suggestions? I do have a replacement plan on that phone but it's my only source of pictures.

Additionally, I can not find the SD memory card as it is not in the slot it belongs in. It may have gotten dislodged from the open phone somewhere between the beach and the boat as I did not close it up. I don't know....it's just not anywhere to be found and it has hundreds of great pics on it. I'm surprised how little it upset me though as we are having an absolute blast on this little boat named "Vene Vedi Veci".

We all now have sea legs and don't want this chapter to end.

Stiil trying to get the phone up and running to at least keep the pics flowing. I'll try to get George and Joe to fill in on the pic sharing.

Is anyone following Georges or Joes SPOT? You may be able to see the close ups of the island from Google Earth.

Thanks for the comments as always. Glad to be able to bring y' all along.

George and Joe say hey and wish y'all were here physically.

 

[motomano]

Nice you didn't get sea sickness at all. after a week you will be a skilled sailor I'm sure.
sorry for your loss, no way you can recover anything from the Samsung, trust me I know from first hand, ( 10 years ago ) sea water is conductive and corrosive, only way it has a chance if it were turned off before the diving, that way you would wash it with fresh water and do the rice thing, mine even the SIM card was useless.
Amazing: if you all tried to pick any boat with a more proper name for you than this one, you wouldn't success, this is really the perfect name for you 3 Adventurers.
shall be a message from the Universe: "Vene Vedi Venci " Great!

 

[Digiamo]

Thanks Jose, It is indeed a perfect name for our stout little ship. We only grounded it about a half dozen times too.

I am at the phone shop in Ao Nang now and the tech fellow just showed me my dismantled Droid...It looks like it has mold inside it. With the language barrier, I am not sure if he is cleaning it or reassembling it to give back.

We got an extension of one day on this cruise so we are happy about that.

This area of the world is simply the most beautiful place I've ever seen. To be sailing here is particularly special. We've spoken to other sailors and they say it's where many RTW sailor have settled down since it has so much of what they look for.

I just wish I could get the pictures I have up here so you can see it.

Short of that, George and Joe have a lot of pictures and I have a lot of GoPro videos to deal with, including underwater shots. I'm half relieved to not have to sort through and caption all those pics, but I still wish I had them.

 

[motomano]

Danny, great the tech guy was able to fix your phone, as for the extension on the cruise, and the beauty of the surroundings, I am sure we all had a glance from some movies, or documentarie films.
so you all keep sailing and enjoying as much as you are able to.

 

[rulbe]

Danny.

Glad you and the gang are having a great time! Thanks for sharing! Hope to be on an adventure with you someday !

Randy

 

[Digiamo]

Thanks Jose and Randy for the vote of confidence and yes, I also hope to adventure with you too.

Stepped off the Vene Vedi Veci for the last time but still I am feeling the table rocking under me. I am sure it will stop soon.

What a great new experience for me and George. I was going to surface dive at Maya beach, where the movie "The Beach"was filmed, to try to recover Joe's sunken sunglasses when we spied a neighboring sailboat tied to a near by mooring ball. It was fully equipped for SCUBA dives. Kraus Kruger, German/Austrian captain and crew on the Calistra Austria not only offered to look for the glasses but asked me if I'd like to come along, since I have an open water certificate which hasn't been used for about 20 years. All I could think to say was "I'd love to".

Klaus invited me onboard and suggested I feel free to walk anywhere on his boat. He is a dive instructor who has four passengers who apparently don't dive at all, which would explain Klaus's enthusiasm to take me down.

Once fitted and equipped, we descended under the high speed screws of the massive speed boats bringing to throngs of crowds to the famous beach for the day. It was very difficult to to stay on mission to find sunglasses since there was so much to see and experience under 15 to 20 meters on water with Joe on the surface trying to mark where he dropped his prescription sunglasses. We were side tracked by beautiful Angel fish and a few Morey Eels, including a Zebra Morey. We brought the GoPro but of course missed some of the sights since we tried to conserve the battery and memory. Some other distractions will be apparent in the video. It's uploading to YouTube now. Here I am showing off my new hat, found in about 15 meters of water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqfS1byqdgc&feature=youtu.be

Today I had to surface dive to about 15 meters to dislodge our anchor from under a large rock. That was fun, even though we knew it would be the last time we hoist anchor on the Vene Vedi Veci.

 

[George]

Joe and I are here too, all is good in Thailand. Danny is my hero for pulling the anchor from under the rock. This trip started out as an adventure and turned into a SCUBA dive.

Danny got the best and worst, what with losing his Samsung 'Droid but also getting a free SCUBA session while looking for Joe's glasses. Joe may have gotten the worst from dropping his prescription sun glasses over board (which weren't recovered and I may well have gotten the best by misplacing my camera at Ao Nang but recovering it next day. I luv my Canon.

Here's a couple preview shots 'til I get my Picasa album updated. These are from yesterday.

 

[Indian Express]

Wow! You guys are having a terrific time! Thanks for sharing your adventure and I look forward to seeing more pics. In the near future. Safe travels to wherever your agenda leads you next.

 

[970mike]

Danny and George,

It is good to hear from you guys and that you made it back to dry land! Looks like you guys have made this one heck of a ride! Good on you guys for making this happen. Looking forward to more adventures!

 

[TipSTer]

Sorry for glasses Ole-Joe, if Danny didn't bring that BIG hat down during scuba dive he may find your glasses Looks fun! :bow1: Korp Kuun Krup for pix!

 

[Digiamo]

Thanks so much for following along with us. Hopefully, the next trip will have at least a few of you along with us since we talked about getting a bigger cat sometime in the future.
We had a debriefing" dinner with Max and Sarah, his boarder, who is quite a sweetheart. She's been in Thailand for 9 months teaching English to 5 year olds.
Today we hit the ATM's and look for a new navigation device since my Droid was our only practical GPS until it came snorkeling with me.

Here is a quick pan of Maya Bay and is pretty much where Joe dropped his prescription sunglasses in the drink. Thanks again, Smash, for insisting on sending me your GoPro to take along on this trip.

 

[Digiamo]

Sorry for glasses Ole-Joe, if Danny didn't bring that BIG hat down during scuba dive he may find your glasses Looks fun! :bow1: Korp Kuun Krup for pix!

As mentioned, I found that hat at a depth of about 15 meters, along with a Phi Phi Hotel towel and a fishing lure. The anchor we found was too much to bring up.

So there were a lot of distractions to our sunglasses finding mission, but all is well as I gave Joe my magnifier/reading sunglasses that seem to work perty good for Joes far sighted eyes.

I have a second pair of those in my gear bag somewhere.

The floor is starting to stabilize more now that we are on land for almost 24 hours

 

[Digiamo]

Oh BTW, I figured out that I can get TAPA TALK/WiFi going on my spare DROID Pro along with camera, and STAND ALONE GPS.
I am back in business all except the lost hundreds of beautiful pics if the sail cruise.


sent from across the river on Tapatalk

 

[George]

I have probably enuff pics of the sailing trip to share with Danny. We didn't always get exactly the same shot but all three of us shooting pretty much continually. (Sure glad I got my camera back after the overnight disappearance/scare, much thanks to the long-boat captain and shop owner who saved it for me. Total serendipity to run into the guy at long-boat ticket booth the following morning. The shop didn't open 'til 9AM so I had to wait around a while, but well worth it.

BTW, my 7" Samsung tablet has proved a pretty good GPS as well, both on the bikes and the boat. With a 12V connection it will run as long as needed and it keeps a GPX file so I have pretty much the complete trip. Soon's I learn how to use the data, I can upload to streets 'n trips or whatever. Might be redundant as I also have the SpotWalla track.

Minor incident yesterday evening could have been much worse. Where the thatched roof sections come together in the restaurant at The Secret Cove guest house, sections of metal corrugated roofing are hung to act as rain gutters. I walked around the wrong end and walked directly into the end of a piece of this 18 ga. sheet metal. Ouch! Luckily for me, I was wearing my ST-Owners cap. the metal hit at exactly the place where the brim is sewn into the cap and the material there is 4 or 5 layers thick. Still gave me a small cut but without the hat it would have been much worse. I hit it hard enuff to bend the end of the sheet. All is good only a scratch.

 

[TipSTer]

Ouch! glad you ok George, little scratched. Gotta report to OSHA

 

[Digiamo]

I met this sweet Austrian/German fellow Kraus Huber about 40 minutes prior to his taking the GoPro camera like a bull by the horns to get three beautiful videos of this SCUBA dive.
To bad we were not able to find Joe"s prescription sunglasses in that pretty water at 15 to 20 meters depth.
It was a trade off, Joe's glasses for my one hour SCUBA dive. A fair trade considering I offered him my reading sunglasses as compensation, but he refused.
Now I know what to say to a dive boat captain in order to get a free SCUBA dive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oezq69_WOV0

 

[Mellow]

I have probably enuff pics of the sailing trip to share with Danny. We didn't always get exactly the same shot but all three of us shooting pretty much continually. (Sure glad I got my camera back after the overnight disappearance/scare, much thanks to the long-boat captain and shop owner who saved it for me. Total serendipity to run into the guy at long-boat ticket booth the following morning. The shop didn't open 'til 9AM so I had to wait around a while, but well worth it.

BTW, my 7" Samsung tablet has proved a pretty good GPS as well, both on the bikes and the boat. With a 12V connection it will run as long as needed and it keeps a GPX file so I have pretty much the complete trip. Soon's I learn how to use the data, I can upload to streets 'n trips or whatever. Might be redundant as I also have the SpotWalla track.

Minor incident yesterday evening could have been much worse. Where the thatched roof sections come together in the restaurant at The Secret Cove guest house, sections of metal corrugated roofing are hung to act as rain gutters. I walked around the wrong end and walked directly into the end of a piece of this 18 ga. sheet metal. Ouch! Luckily for me, I was wearing my ST-Owners cap. the metal hit at exactly the place where the brim is sewn into the cap and the material there is 4 or 5 layers thick. Still gave me a small cut but without the hat it would have been much worse. I hit it hard enuff to bend the end of the sheet. All is good only a scratch.

Thanks George, that's going to do wonders for cap sales.. LOL ATCATT... hey, ironic..

Glad you didn't get too hurt there bud, make sure you keep an eye on it so it doesn't get infected.