Happy New Year to you all. Thank you for the support of our YouTube Channel & all our Social Media Platforms.

We have been pretty quiet in terms of social media and video creation. Just taking a break from it all in order to focus on learning about this new lifestyle we have immersed ourselves into. It has been a dream of mine to live on a sailboat and it’s taken a lot for us to finally be here. Now that we are here, we’re spending our days just absorbing it all. It’s better than I dreamt it would be. Definitely very different from living in a landed house or a mobile van.

I do not enjoy living in a house because I find it really boring. I notice myself just sitting at the computer or surfing my phone instead of doing anything else. Where as here, on our boat, we have to wake up with the sunrise and get to it because any later with the morning chores means an overdose of morning sun. So we’re up bright and early. A typical day sees us waking up at dawn, feeding and walking the dogs before cooking our breakfast and sitting together for the first meal of the day. By 9am we’re either starting work on a list of boat projects, or heading out once a week for supplies or some separate “me” time either reading or just chilling. It’s not a bad life. The sunlight does our health a world of good. We don’t take vitamins anymore and we hardly fall sick. (now that I say this am sure one of us is gonna get sick?)

Sailing Vessel Ujud is finally ready for some sailing. I remember when we first opened her up DAY 1 of our sailboat journey and everything we came across had no meaning. We had to communicate with Petr in a group chat sending him numerous photos of items we had no idea the use for. He was really patient and transferred all his knowledge to us over the several months in BV Marine as well as after that. Now every item that is in this boat is of use. We didn’t know that then.

Recently, Capt Bill taught us how to measure our sails. We headed to the old shop lots nearby and there we opened up all our sail bags on the smooth floor. He showed us which we could use for now and which we keep for later. Capt Bill has been a great help and we offer our help too as often as we can. He is actually one of our biggest inspirations, he is in his mid 70s and everyday when we walk past his two boats, Inyoni, a 27ft Francis and Jenaine a custom steel sloop, he is either out on a delivery or busy with boat projects. We hope to shoot a boat tour video of his little Francis. He looks really fit and mentally he is so sharp. I don’t mean to talk about age this way, we all will be in our 70s someday – I just hope I am as capable as him when I do hit my 70s.

Sv Ujud is now how we want her to be. Holding back on several purchases for certain pricey items has worked out well. We didn’t want to buy everything we were told we required until we understood more about the boat. This method has saved us a ton of money.

Will give you an example – We require a navigation system and Ray Marine Chart Plotters or any other top brand can cost up to RM10,000 (USD2500) That’s just the chart plotter – you would then need to install maps – Navionics would cost another RM700 (USD200) We have been using our cell phone and a Navionics application. After having gone out in bad weather we realised our phones were in danger of damage. We then found a cheap China made handphone that is extremely hardy AND waterproof! The OUKITEL waterproof, shockproof and extremely long battery life is exactly what we need to navigate around Langkawi and Thailand. We bought ours on Shopee for RM479 (USD150). We will need AIS and to register for MSSI should we venture into Thailand. That will be more money spent but we’re looking at getting either the Matsutec AIS System (cheapest & we got feed back from sailors – it is reliable) the alternative to this AIS will be the Raspberry Pi 4 – this is a small computer that can download Open CPN and install AIS however, after research the Raspberry Pi 4 is completely our of stock from main distributors. Apparently everyone is waiting for Pi 5 which is not out for another year. Chances are, we will get the Matsutec AIS.

If we purchase everything we need all at once, it’s overwhelming on our pocket and our spirit. Step by step in stages is our moto for now and slow is pro. Back to the reason why we don’t splash out on expensive gear all at once – aside from the fact we don’t have the money to do so right now, it’s also down to the fact if we really need all the high tech equipment onboard? How do we know what we really like to use unless we head out often? The previous owners of our Sailboat didn’t – they sailed all around Asia with just a handheld Garmin GPS system , binoculars, a windex, a Cape Horn wind vane, a Raymarine auto pilot, a VHF system and Navtex for weather reports. Petr and Janna wrote about their adventures and if you love reading Sailor’s Blogs – head over to Petr and Janna’s website, they were really good story tellers.

We have been out sailing several times on friend’s boats. Various types of boats. We joined Capt Bill Robinson on a delivery once. We sailed with our neighbour on his Mason 44. We sailed on Quarsome twice already, which is a catamaran and on Cascadia also a couple of times, she is a cute 30ft Cape Dory. It’s true what they say about gaining sea miles. The more often we head out (regardless if it’s on our own boat or someone else’s) the more confidence we build towards venturing out on our own.