Year 2- 27 November- 2 December 2025 –Phuket-London UK

I left on the evening of the 26th and flew home to London Heathrow via Abu Dhabi. This was uneventful and I did not sleep at all on the flights. It was a grey damp morning when I landed at Heathrow at about 6.30am on the 27th. I got my bag and headed away on the tube to East Putney and Londoners were going about their business. It felt like it used to be when I got on the tube.

It was great to see Jules and Rassy and we had a quiet day at home. We were up reasonably early the next day (28th) and Jules and I went up to central London via the Uber Clipper for my mother’s memorial. This was a lovely service and a fine tribute to a marvellous and unique lady. I managed to get through my Eulogy without breaking down which was good. There was then a reception at the RAF Club where I saw many of my family including the wider family, my children and many friends of my parents and some of their former staff.

It was good to spend the next few days catching up with my children and getting ready to come back to Thailand with Jules where we are spending the month of December and my children come out for Christmas.

We flew back from Heathrow to Phuket via Abu Dhabi on the evening of the 2nd December and arrived in the evening of the 3rd about 6.00pm Phuket time. We went to the Supalai Hotel which is only a few miles from AOPO Marina and I can see Stormbird’s mast from the restaurant.

 Stormbird remained behind of course and during these days communications continued with various tradesmen and works were to be undertaken.

 I conducted a review of Year 2 which had gone well and without too many incidents. I travelled from New Zealand- Auckland to be precise leaving on 7th January 2025 for the longest single journey of the year to Sydney Australia where we had a storm on our first evening on 15th January 2025. There was a torrential downpour and this was the heaviest rain of the year and the strongest wind gust of 52 + kts for the year. However, we had a great time in Sydney including walking up and down the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Then I spent 5.5 months going up the Australian East Coast which was interesting but not like some of the special places I visited in Year 1. The barrier reef and the Whitsundays were I think the best part of Australia but the weather was not always kind and do remember Cyclone Alfred we had in Brisbane which meant we were stick there for about 2 weeks.

I moved on from Australia to Indonesia which was very different and it is quite a primitive country but large and spread out across about 18,000 islands. There was a lot of variety in terms of scenery from seascapes, islands to volcanoes,  paddy fields and jungle etc. What I remember most is the warmth and friendliness of the people who have little but are willing to share all.  We also travelled through the notorious Malacca Straits and past Singapore to Malaysia and on to Thailand. During this latter period the weather was quite wet and variable. As you will have read in the news Cyclone Ditwah has hit Malaysia and Western Indonesia. In fact we were in Admiral’s Marina in Port Dickson in early November which has now totally been destroyed and that is the picture of the day.

When I reflect on the last few weeks we were lucky to be ahead of this weather as if we were weeks later we may have been caught by it. Phuket and the islands have been very beautiful but there has not been a lot of sailing due to wind strength and direction.  

It has been another good year but less spectacular than Year 1. I have travelled about 8,313 nm (Year 1- 14,000nm) and motored for some 671.6 hours and used the generator for 208.6 hours. Year 3 will require a lot more miles to be covered as I travel back to the UK. This will mean visiting Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, Chagos, Mauritius, Reunion, South Africa, St Helena, Azores and back to Hamble – UK.  

The picture of the day is Admirals Marina destroyed.

 Need/Opportunity Year Three

In year three I will be going from Thailand to Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and then on to Chagos, Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK.  I am looking for crew from Mauritius/ Reunion Island to Cape Town and from Cape Town to the UK. If of any interest do email me.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com