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Another Year in Southeast Asia
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Now that 2024 has come and gone, let's summarize what happened last year, and talk a bit about the future of this page and the onfilandtime Youtube channel. 

As discussed in last year's post, in January 2024 Saoirse set out again to spend the majority of the year in Indonesia. Upon arriving in Batam, south of Singapore, we had the pleasure of welcoming our friends Kai and Monica from Norway. We met Kai and Monica in the Dominican Republic after sailing in from Puerto Rico on the same day in 2023, and then we buddy-boated with them in the Bahamas for a while. Kai and Monica eventually sold their boat, and were available for a sailing adventure in Indonesia. 

From Batam, we made a brief stop in Belitung, then pressed on to explore the jungle in the Indonesian state of Kalimantan on the island of Borneo, where we hopped aboard a river boat for an overnight tour to see orangutans. From there, we sailed down to Bali, where I took a side-trip to Australia to be examined for my Royal Yachting Association Yachtmaster Offshore certificate. I was happy to formalize my experience with this certificate, and now have a Commercially-endorsed certificate of proficiency that has good recognition in the yachting scene worldwide. Meanwhile Jeannine, Kai, and Monica had a bit of a chance to explore Bali, while also keeping the boat afloat. 

I returned from Australia with Steve, and upon our return we set out for Komodo National Park, near the island of Flores, where Kai and Monica departed, and where we were joined for Spring Break by Heather and the girls. Komodo National Park has some really interesting things to see above and below the water. We had a few opportunities to swim with manta rays, and got to see a few lazy Komodo Dragons.  

Jeannine then formalized her diving training by completing her PADI Advanced Open Water Diver and Enriched Air Nitrox diver certifications. We then set out by plane on a side quest to Raja Ampat to celebrate our birthdays and see an area most people haven't even heard of, but is chock full of corals and a diverse underwater ecosystem. During that trip, we met the French couple Charles and Cecile who were staying at the same tiny island homestay we visited. 

We invited Charles and Cecile to join us for our sail from Flores, back west to Lombok, where we would stage for the boat-owner's summer vacation. The sail west was great. Cecile and Charles brought along some wild jungle lemons they picked in Raja Ampat. These lemons were frequently placed in Charles' "Tee Ponche" rum drinks, and reminded me of the citronella flavour we know from candles and insect sprays. When heading east we had skipped a lot of what there was to see on this route, so we made a few more stops while heading back west. You'll have to watch some of the most recent Youtube content to see what I mean. This coast is not densely populated, so there are lots of beaches and stops to make during the southeast monsoon season. It would be possible to spend months travelling this stretch, if one wanted to really see everything, and do some diving along the way. 

Upon arrival in Lombok we set to work on some longer-term boat projects. We had to send our Doyle Stratis jib sail out to New Zealand for warranty service, because this beautiful black sail delaminated and developed a broad tear below the top panel. Little did we know, this would become an issue later in the summer for the mainsail, and now even the code zero, which are all Stratis laminated-style sails. Doyle has been helping us with this, and said they suspect that perhaps something went wrong in their manufacturing process. Doyle has agreed to do a warranty replacement on the Main and the Jib, but I think on the replacement sails we'll be looking to go with a lighter colour, perhaps the "titanium" colour, to make them less warm in the sun of hot climates. Going to miss the black-colour sails though! 

When Steve arrived with Keith in the summer for "surf week" we spent some time doing a surf-tour lap around Lombok, hitting some of the waves on the southwest coast of Sumbawa and the south coast of Lombok. Then Heather and the girls arrived again for a chill time around Gili Asahan. We exercised the mini-catamaran (I even flipped it one day. It can be tough to right it). We did a bit of local diving, some snorkeling, hiking and beach time, and then finished the trip with a visit to a resort above the surfing beach Selong Selo. Sadly, my board skills are not good, so I can't yet call myself a surfer.  

We then jetted up to Singapore, where we spent a week maintaining and getting the liferaft serviced. Following that, we took a couple of days touring Kuala Lumpur and continued heading north toward Langkawi, where the marina facilities offered great value and protection for our trip home to Canada at the end of September.  

On the subject of boat jobs. Just like last year, this year we tackled a lot of boat jobs, some of them long-term issues that we identified as warranty issues, and some I would call regular maintenance realities of having a boat. I am thankful that our list of warranty issues and things that needs to be improved has reduced a lot, and now I feel like we will soon be getting into a bit more of a regular service interval rhythm. We still, from time to time get a little surprise related to manufacturing issues, but my understanding is that we've actually had it comparatively easy compared to some other people with brand new boats being built by other reputable manufacturers. Boats are complicated, so quality control and systems testing can be difficult. We have a decent line of communication to McConaghy Boats, and have kept them aware of any issues that we are having. I hope that they will be considering our issues and integrating our fixes into their future builds.  

After a good month and a half back in Canada, we returned to haul out Saoirse for the first time into a shipyard. Shipyards can be frustrating, but we managed to get her back into the water after having done some bottom work and in time to get us to Thailand for the owner's Christmas break here among the stunning islands of Pha Nga Bay near Phuket.  

This year, when we were publishing Youtube videos regularly, we managed to exceed 1,000 subscribers on Youtube. This had taken quite a long time for us, so it was a big milestone for us, and is one of the key hurdles to getting money from ads in Youtube. But then we didn't actually have enough watch hours for monetization. But we pushed through that requirement not long after. For us it's more about the memories than the money, but still it would feel good to get a little drip of income to offset some of our expenses in this endeavour. Cameras, drones, laptops, programming software, microphones, and websites cost money, so we look forward to reducing the bleed.  

We have a few small adventures lined up for the next few months. As I write this we are in Phuket, to be joined by some guests (family of the owners) this week. Then, Jeannine and I plan to do a few days of scuba diving in the Similan Islands, and afterwards we have a friend arriving to hang out for a week. And here's the BIG NEWS: we no longer plan to sail Saoirse around the bottom of Africa to get to the Western hemisphere. Instead, we'll be loading her on a cargo ship, which will whisk her away to Italy, where we'll reboard her in April.  

We're looking forward to some adventures in Europe over the next few seasons. Though I will miss the steady and predictable heat of Southeast Asia, the uncrowded spaces, the delicious (and affordable) restaurant food, and the safe atmosphere. Crime can be punished severely here, and it is rare to have the same issues with theft, drugs, or violence as one witnesses in the West.  

I think that should lead to another post about things I've learned after a couple more years in Southeast Asia. Let me mull on that one.  

Thanks for sticking with us this far and following our journey, 

Kevin 

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