"Blue"

First thing you'll notice is that the color of the boat changed . I couldn't stand the Brownish color (which by the way should have been Green , but that's another chinese story ...) so since i had quite a few jobs to do on the hull i decided to add a bit more $$$ and change the color . I like it much more like this :)
Then i added a Huge Bimini/Rack to provide shade to the whole back area and to store all the windsurf/surf gear . Other deck and rig improvements include new furling systems on both sails , new shrouds , new spreaders bracket and new Non-Skid paint on the deck .
see you soon for more pictures of Kalakuta .
Cheers
Ben

"Escape from Subic"

I'm almost finished down here , so today i escaped the marina which has been my home , or jail , for the past 4 months . I took the boat 2 hours north to a deserted bay and i'm finally enjoying the Philippines like i should have : No noise , no crowd , great beach and an amazing sunset !!! Spent the day diving to clean the hull and went for a long swim , my first since i got here !
And sorry for not updating the blog more often but the past months have been totally uninteresting : waiting for parts , fixing stuff , painting ... boring stuff to write about ! But it's all finished now (well , almost) and Kalakuta is in one piece again . I'll be waiting for the cyclone season to start the trip down south , this will probably happen around Mid-December . And i promise i'lll post a few pictures of the ship when i get back to Subic , it's changed quite a bit since my last crossing :)
Cheers
Ben

The List is like an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie : It'll be back !!! and once again i've started a new list :) It's already growing out of control , and trying to burn it won't be enough , i'll probably have to use nuclear power this time to get rid of it "permanently" this time . So apart from fixing the things that got damaged in the storm , i'm planning on doing a few important modifications to the boat . I've split "The List" in two categories : "cosmetic" and Design issues ... Don't get me wrong , it's already a good boat . Hell , it survived a typhoon so it can't be that bad but there's a few things that i'm going to fix now before i get in trouble again !!! Guess i'll be staying here in Subic Bay until all is finally done right !!!
So i'm slowly getting used to my new home . Subic used to be the biggest american navy base outside of the U.S.A . They've left and it's now a Tax-Free port with restaurants , shops , supermarkets and light industries . The Marina is "On Base" too , and if you want to get out to the city , you need to go through guarded gates . It's a big change once you're out . Tons of crowd , traffic , small shops and hundreds of "Bars" where you can find a "girlfriend" for a night or a wife for life . The Philippino people are really poor , most leave in shacks without running water or any other comfort us westerners are used to . So for the girls , finding a husband to get out of this is quite understandable and i don't blame them for trying their best . But i still have a problem getting used to the view of those old , ugly , fat and sweaty retired guys drunkenly walking down the street dragging a tiny cute girl behind them ... Quite disturbing !
Anyway , the marina is a really nice place and there's a few restaurants on the beach quite close to it so i think i won't be leaving the base that often :) Too much to do on the boat !
C U SOON
Ben Ben

Rain , Rain and a bit more Rain !!! Summer is coming in Hong Kong and this means hot temperatures and high humidity ... It' s in this kind of weather that i've been running around the city for the past two weeks , looking for all kinds of parts . I' ve become an expert at scouting for all kinds of things in Hong Kong : Boat stuff in Ap Lei Chau , electric things in Sham Shui Po , tools and screws in Mong Kok . And if you want to be successful , you got to get deep into The List .
The List started it's life as an innocent looking piece of paper but has now grown into a healthy looking A-4 sized notebook . The List is like the Blob , the more you feed it , the hungrier it gets . The List likes when i meet other sailors , as it's almost sure i'll have another thing to add to it . The List ranges from fuel filters to cookware , food , diving gear , lifejackets , rope , more filters , bed-sheets , oil , flares , fishing rods and transmission fluid ! My credit card hates The List . The List has become my best friend and my worst enemy : it will keep me safe and ready but could also keep me shopping forever . I now understand now why many people get a boat and never leave : The List has taken control of their lives .
But I plan on beating The List . I'll be burning The List at the end of this week . It's the only way i'll be able to get my freedom back ... Oh , just though about one more thing to add to The List ... And one more ... I will also need a can opener ! And a Wire Cutter , 10mm minimum !!! It feels great , more lines on the notebook ... It starting to look a lot more serious now !
Hmm , The List is so addictive , it's going to be hard to get clean .

Hong Kong !!!
At last I'm out of the yard and at this moment enjoying my first relaxed morning at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club in Causeway Bay . Sorry for not posting anything yesterday but i had no more energy after the departure from mainland China ... Why ??? , well it went like this :
Woke up early on Friday morning , It was going to e a hectic day as the final cosmetic repairs were done to the Boat (at the last minute of course) . So i packed my bags and checked out to be at the yard around 8 a.m , the plan was to leave around 1 p.m . Got to there only to discover that the guys had punched a hole through the roof while taking the mast down ( to get under the bridges on our way out to Sea ) !!! Instant nervous breakdown , we were not going to leave that day : I suddenly felt the urge of strangling a couple of my little chinese friends . So instead of spending my life in a communist jail cell , i went for a last bike trip through town . When i got back after a hour , they were already fixing the damage . They're so used to breaking and repairing that i got confident again : i'll be leaving this place soon . By the end of the afternoon everything was ready at last and it was time for celebrating : I invited all the guys (close to 60 people) to eat dinner at a local restaurant and ended up doing shots of some very strong rice alcohol at every table for the all evening . I barely ate that night and stumbled back to the boat for my first night onboard .
4.30 a.m next morning , Mr.Gong , Fido (the co-owner of the yard) and I slowly motored down the river towards the Doumen customs , met the workers there to raise the mast and they only managed to break my radio antenna this time : Good job guys !!! Immigration officials were super fast to clear us out and at at last i was on my way !!! We got past Zhuhai , Macao and out to sea for an 8 hours trip to Hong Kong . We had a bit of a rough sea and very little food to eat but it felt great :) I was cruising on my ship for the first time and all the stress accumulated for the past 2 1/2 years disappeared in a second . It was a feeling of pure Joy , even if i was seriously regretting the previous night's drinking !!!
After a very bumpy trip in 25 knots of wind , it was already night time when we got to tie down at the dock in Hong Kong . We were surrounded by brightly lit skyscrapers , it looked like i was in a scene from Blade Runner ;) We quickly went for dinner , checked in at the immigration building and went back to sleep to the Boat .
Sunday went by very quickly as i was in a bad shape : the drinking and the stress had taken it's toll and i slept on the boat all day , only getting up to go get some food . In the evening i went out to eat sushis , watched a movie in bed and passed out very early .
So here i am on this lovely Hong Kong Morning . It's holiday here today (Buddha's Birthday) , so i'm taking it easy , sitting in the pilot house writing this post , listening to music and watching the ladies in their little wooden water taxis (San-Pan) going back and forth between the dock and the yachts . I'll soon be using one of them to get to town and send you this little message !!!
The trip has begun .
See you soon for more Hong Kong report live from Kalakuta , Ben Ben's new home .

"Brian onboard his boat , "TRAVELLER" "

Got to get away from the yard for a few hours today . I went on a little boat trip on the river with Brian , a canadian citizen who owns the same boat as mine . Brian's been sailing all his life , has more than 250 000 miles logged as a skipper including a cool "around the world" trip . We took the habit of enjoying the sunset together with a cold "Haizu" (the local beer) or a shot of some great Philippino Rhum he brought back from his last trip . We like to call this time of the day "Happy Hour" :)
Brian's been giving me tons of advice and actually agreed to come help me take my boat down from the Philippines to Bali at the end of June . I'm going to learn a lot with him on this trip and after this leg of the journey i hope i'll be able to handle the boat on my own . I guess that's what the cruising life' s about : unplanned encounters leading to unexpected friendships .
Cheers
Ben

p.s : while we were leaving , i had the chance to snap this picture of my boat from the water . It's all dirty but i still love it !

"Kalakuta at the Yard in Zhuhai"

"The Great Mr. Gong"

Today was a great day . We had an appointment with the Chinese Classification Society , the guys who' re going to check the work done one your boat decide if it is ready to go out in the ocean ... They came around ten this morning , did all kinds of measurements and finally took the boat for a test on the river . Everything went well and it's mostly due to one person : Mr. Gong .
Mr. Gong comes from rural china , he is happily married and has two children . He has an amazing voice and he's always singing beautiful chinese love songs while working . He was installing karaoke systems before coming to work as an electrician for the boatyard , and a few years later he is now , to my opinion , the best worker around . He's not using a computer , draws everything by hand and remembers all that stuff without even taking notes . I owe him everything because if he hadn't been here to help me , i'd still be waiting for who knows what !!!
So now that we have passed this test , the yard has one month to release the boat and get it out of chinese waters . This means i'll be out of here in a month MAX !!! Believe me , after 2 and a half year it feels quite good :) On top of that , Mr. Gong managed to finish installing the stereo system onboard this afternoon so i was able to listen to some music with him in my new floating home , and that's another thing that made this a great day . I'll really miss this guy when i'll be gone .
All hail the great Mr. Gong !


"Ben Ben & Mr. Gong cruising onboard Kalakuta"

Hi all,
first post on Blogatrip . Yesterday was a great day , the first "sea trial" of my boat "Kalakuta" . It took almost three years to get to this point ( in comparison , the Queen Mary was finished in 18 month ) but it was worth it !!!
Everything went well , we didn't sink , the engine didn't catch fire and the only thing that wasn't working , the GPS , is a piece of equipment made in England ... Not the Chinese's fault :)
There's plenty left to do but I'm confident now that i should be on my way soon . Having a boat built in china was probably the best decision i ever took , i could never afford to do that in Europe : in fact , none of the shipyards i visited i France took me seriously !!! IDIOTS !
Well that's it for now , today is a chinese Holiday , The Ching Ming Festival , the day of the dead . Everyone is going to the cemetery to sweep their ancestor's graves so nobody's working at the yard . I'm off to do a bit of shopping , need to find a flat screen t.v for the master bedroom . Hard Life :)
cheers
ben

p.s : had another great experience yesterday after the testing : i cut my finger on a super rusty piece of metal so the co-owner of the yard , Stella (her "american" name) drove me to the local hospital here in Zhuhai to get a shot for Tetanus (in french ...) . Well , i had the pleasure to meet a young doctor by the name of Liang Mei , quite cute and super nice . Everybody was laughing in the emergency room while she gave me her phone number , she wants to come visit the yard and the boat ... The adventure's already started .

Here's the boat . For those who want to know more , it's a 41ft Trawler yacht built in zhuhai , China by Seahorse Marine . It runs on a small diesel engine , goes quite slow but has lots of range and is fully equiped for offshore cruising . It's like having a Volkswagen Bus on the water !
I LOVE MY BOAT ...