It was the early explorers from Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, and Britain who first ventured across the world’s great oceans to discover what was beyond the visible horizon. Before that time, the European belief was that the world was flat, with the oceans ending at a cliff-like precipice. As we begin our last major ocean crossing here on the east side of the Indian Ocean, with our modern navigational systems, accurate charts, satellite data connections, and daily weather forecasts, it’s difficult to imagine today the courage it must have taken to put the “spherical Earth theory” to the test in those early days of nautical exploration. Instead of iPad apps and satellites, they used the moon, the stars, the sun, and a simple watch to fumble their way around the planet, yet somehow they made it all work.

We don’t pretend that our endeavor today bears much resemblance to those of the early pioneers of these great oceans…. most of the danger, thrill, and romanticism has been lost over the decades. But still, as we find ourselves sitting amidst a seemingly endless sea of calm, what we see around us, above us, and below us, hasn’t changed the slightest bit since those early voyages. And so it’s a nice feature of these big ocean passages that we have time and opportunity to ponder these things from such an unusual vantage point. We wonder about the clues we see around us, the planets and stars, ocean currents and swells, clouds and weather patterns… with the benefit of modern science the workings of the Earth and the universe are so easy to understand, but how did they appear in earlier times? In a calm sea today, with a clear sky, dolphins jumping on our bow wave, and nothing to do other than think, we discover some interesting mental voyages that seem so elusive in a modern city life. And we appreciate them while we still can.

The Indian Ocean is the last of the great oceans we need to cross before our circumnavigation is complete. Just a few days before departing from Thailand, we bumped into yet another Spanish adventurer, Asier, who’s been “hitch-hiking” his way around the globe by sea for the past two years, nearly crossing paths with us several times, but always just missing us by a few days. Our paths crossed in Phuket, and we’re happy that Asier will join Rupe (who crossed the Atlantic with us) and Tarzan (who joined us for the Pacific) to be the third “Spanish” adventurer (in quotes because Rupe may technically be British) to cross one of the big oceans aboard Tamarisk. Learning about the adventures of Rupe and Tarzan, and watching their own voyaging dreams come true, has been a joy, and we’ll hopefully see the same with Asier by the time we arrive on the shores of the Med.

Speaking of dreams come true, an update on Tarzan is long overdue. One afternoon when we were in French Polynesia on the island of Moorea last year, we were late returning from a volcano hike, and found ourselves hitchhiking back to the boat. The first car to pass us pulled over and picked us up; the driver a beautiful French speaking woman from Reunion Island, living on Moorea with her two young kids. Fortunately for Tarzan, he’d been studying French the whole way across the Pacific, and by the time we arrived back at the boat five minutes later, Tarzan had her contact info in hand and a “love at first sight” type of twinkle in his eye. We had no time to spare, and we jumped on the boat and immediately headed west towards the Society Islands. But since that moment, Tarzan never stopped thinking about his encounter on Moorea, the unlikely circumstances of their paths crossing, and he mentioned several times how he regretted in some ways that he hadn’t had just a bit more time to see where where life might have gone under slightly different circumstances. Fast forwarding two months, we arrived in Australia, and as we sat there on the Queensland shore in our first days, we got an email from Dan, the shipwrecked catamaran captain we met back in the Cook Islands shortly after leaving the Societies. Dan wanted to offer Tarzan a job rebuilding the broken cat, which happened to be laying in Tahiti, which also happens to be just 20 miles from Moorea, and thus Tarzan’s favorite hitch-hiker-picker-upper. Tarzan, being a big believer in things like fate, and that everything happens for a reason, saw this as a sign from the universe, perhaps more so than a job opportunity, and without much hesitation Tarzan was quickly Tahiti-bound. We’ve of course been tracking Tarzan with some lingering hopes he might return to join us for these final legs of our voyage, but as the months elapsed we sensed perhaps Tarzan’s sailing adventures might be taking a pause for a while. And that’s exactly what happened. Today Tarzan lives in Tahiti, happily married to Sandrine (with 2 kids), and living almost the exact dream he described to us when he first boarded Tamarisk back in the Panama City harbor. So congratulations to them both, and thank you for writing a real-life fairy tale into the story of our voyage – we’ve already told it a thousand times and will no doubt tell it thousands more!

OK, where were we… back aboard Tamarisk here in the Bay of Bengal, the task at hand is to reach the Maldives. The challenge is the wind, or to be more accurate, its complete absence anywhere since we left Thailand four days ago, and anywhere in our five-day weather forecast. With a 1600 mile passage, and just 1300 miles of motoring range, diesel fuel is the critical issue we’re wrestling with. So after four days at sea, our destination remains unknown – with a bit of luck we’ll catch a puff of wind to push us to the Maldives, otherwise we’ll be diverting into Sri Lanka for a diesel top-up.

It’s already been a couple weeks since we pulled into the marina on the north side of Phuket island, where we intend to leave Tamarisk until we depart Asia in a couple months. We’re accustomed to seasonal weather delays like this one by now, and although they can be frustrating on the one hand, they give us necessary time to do repair work and make plans and arrangements for our final (and most logistically complicated) passages back to the Mediterranean Sea. More importantly, they give us time to explore inland in a way we probably otherwise wouldn’t if we were free to keep sailing uninhibited by mother nature.

So we’ve buttoned up the boat and embarked on a new land-based voyage that will take us through Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. As we’ve done a couple times already on our voyage, the next few weeks will be dedicated partially to our usual sight-seeing and routine, and partially to researching charity related causes in this poverty stricken part of the world. We’re joined again by Elliott from Focusing Philanthropy (“FP”) and will be visiting some NGOs already supported by FP, some which are candidates for future support, and generally trying to form a better understanding for what needs exist in this part of the world and how they can most effectively be tackled with donations from FP’s supporters. All this gives us a rather unique opportunity to see the world from a distinctly non-touristic perspective, and we often discover things suddenly become much more interesting once we get off the usual tourist track.

For the time being though, we’re sitting here on Khao San Road, arguably the most absurdly touristic street in the most absurdly touristic city in the entire world. And we’re reminded of this each time we step outside the hotel door when the ridiculous offers begin flying at us from every direction: sight seeing tours, taxi rides, cheap suits, rubber band helicopters, balloons filled with laughing gas, grilled scorpions, things that make frog croaking noises, knockoff Viagra, and of course prostitutes…. all of it at bargain basement prices we’re crazy to pass up. And as interesting as that probably sounds, we suggest tempering your enthusiasm because the novelty wears off rather quickly. Unless there’s a reason we need to return to Bangkok in the future, this might be our last experience on its shady streets.

So we’ve now lined up our Vietnam and Myanmar visas and are ready to head to Hanoi, Vietnam tomorrow morning. We have a string of charity meetings lined up for the next few weeks, so we’ll be moving quickly and trying to squeak in some sightseeing whenever we can. Off we go!

Thailand’s west coast is world famous for its stunning vertical cliffed islands, idyllic white sand beaches and turquoise coves. A few have have made their way into popular movies like Leonardo Dicaprio’s The Beach and the James Bond film The Man With a Golden Gun. All the fame has caused the area to become a bit of a tourist trap with no shortage of excursion boats and and cheap trinket shops, but we’d generally agree with most of the praise this place gets. And we’re the first to admit the unique beauty has left us slack-jawed more than once.

It’s the rainy southwest monsoon season, which means we’re dealing with unpredictable weather many days. More importantly though it means our movement any further west from here is effectively blocked by the opposing wind. So we’ll be basing out of this area around Phuket until at least late November when the northwest monsoon develops, which will power us through the next (and final) major leg of our journey. We’re perfectly happy with this forced “delay” – it gives us plenty of time to explore the Thai islands, discover what notoriously crazy Phuket is all about, and also privides an opportunity to do another major road trip, this time through Thailand’s neighboring countries in south east Asia.

For the past couple weeks though, we’ve been focused on the smaller islands east of Phuket, and have been bouncing around like a pinball, rarely stopping for more than a night in each place. That changed a few days ago when we arrived in Phi Phi Don, as a big weather system is now ripping through and pinning us down here. Our pathetic attempt to leave yesterday for Phuket lasted just 10 minutes before 35 knots of headwind and 5 meter swells quickly forced us to make a U-turn, and we’re now settled back in the shelter of Phi Phi Don’s famous Tonsai Bay. We’re joined again now by Antra who we last saw in Indonesia a couple months ago, and like a true adventurer, she’s been nonstop smiles while bouncing around with us in the monsoon, and we couldn’t be happier about this addition to our team.

The Mallaca Straits aren’t known for being a spectacular destination for cruising sailors. Its fame instead comes from its history of rampant piracy, which fortunately for us, no longer is a concern. Sailing here these days is mainly about getting through the Straits without hitting anything, and stopping at the four or five semi-interesting places along the way, with the main goal of getting to the more interesting waters of coastal Thailand now just a few miles to our north. The additional concern at this time of year is the southwest monsoon now in full force, meaning foul weather can be expected on most days and the risk of vicious squalls is looming issue.

And so our journey up the Straits has been a fairly typical one… boring at times from a touristic and sailing perspective, but fascinating in some unexpected ways. Around the cities we’ve seen construction and infrastructure development happening at a pace we’ve only ever heard about… cranes swinging from half built skyscrapers, brand new billion dollar bridges, and what appear to be new fully developed city suburbs without a single resident (we believe the funding coming mainly from China). We’ve read about places like this, but to get a glimpse of it first hand has brought new meaning to the phrase “developing world”.

On board Tamarisk the consuming issue has been the weather, with only a few hints of sunshine during the past week, and thunderstorm dodging being a daily routine. As we approach the Thailand border here in Langkawi we’re now entering a more scenic sailing area with rugged lush islands appearing from all directions. Although we haven’t done much exploring on them yet, we’ve found shelter from the weather and enjoyed the view from their leeward shores.

We’ve completed our outbound clearance from Malaysia and fully stocked the boat with “duty free provisions”…. a boom industry here in Langkawi. In practical terms, that means we have a huge amount of alcohol on board that we purchased at about a third of normal store prices, and if we can smuggle it past the Thailand customs agents without getting levied there, we’ll have saved a handsome sum. Phuket is the first port of entry in Thailand, and legally we’re obliged to go straight there for quarantine, immigration, and customs clearance. Like most sailors who make it up to these parts of the developing world though, we interpret these rules loosely and will be spending a few days exploring the more southerly Thai islands before making our formal arrival in Phuket. So with that we’re hitting the “publish” button and casting away from our last Malaysian port, and putting our 42nd country astern.