Leave home on Thu morning at 7:30 am, as per usual. Exit classroom at 8pm and jump in a car to the airport. Arrive HK after midnight and taxi straight to the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club with a friend who has just bought a 47’ yacht there.
The previous owner should have the fridge stocked, engine running, and be ready to cast off as soon as we arrive. The rest of the crew get there earlier in the day so with luck we’ll clear customs and be on the open sea by daybreak.
Then it’s a run east and north up the Taiwan strait, with the objective of hitting Tamshui on Sunday evening. A few of us have to be at work on Monday morning. Fingers crossed.
Yesterday I was jumping up and down, looking at the full moon, and fantasizing about night sailing. Tonight I’m looking at the pissing rain. Yummy. Still, we’ve got 2 TW, 2 Brits, and 2 French on board - one of the latter is the chef de cuisine so if nothing else I’ll be one fat contented bastard by the time we make landfall.
Not sure - I think we’re headed to a boatyard up river. If we miss the 2pm high tide on Sunday we might have to wait 12 hrs.
Should be in phone range a good few hours beforehand tho’, so I’ll let you know. The last time someone met me after a long trip they had a bottle of rum in their hand…
[quote=“monkey”]What happens if the coastguard intercepts you in Taiwan’s waters? Aren’t you supposed to enter at Keelung (Jilong) port and go through immigration again?[/quote]Yeah… They will have a record of you leaving Taiwan, but no record of you entering… That doesn’t sound good… so how does that work ? Must have go through immigration somewhere…
The original plan was kaohsiung first and then come up the east coast - much calmer water - but time constraints make that option no good.
Apparently arrangements have been made to clear customs on arrival. The paperwork for this has taken months. You have to get a license before you can even contemplate bringing a boat into Taiwan due to all the 50yr old security laws.
Forced to? You have to beg for permission. But yes, the boat I usually sail on is tied to an old trawler. You have to clamber over several falling-apart old pieces of shit to get on board - not easy with a sail or esky full of ice in your hand.
There are no laws allowing for pleasure boat ownership, and fishing ports are for fishing boats. In order to use a specific port you have to have a license from that port, which only issues them to fishing boats. Picture some local official being asked to give permission for something new, different, and more or less illegal.
Recreational marinas are few and far between. There’s one at the top of the north coast, which is empty because there are no boats to use it, because there are no laws permitting private yachts. There is also a small marina at LongTong on the road to Fulong from Jilong, and there’s some kind of regatta there this weekend.
Expect to see virtually every boat in North Taiwan there, mostly hobies and optimists but also a few keelers. Last year they aimed to get 100 sails on the water - an average Wednesday night in San Diego - but I think they’re being a bit more modest this year.
I can’t be there this time 'cos I have other commitments…
I had a friend back home whose father, after divorcing, retired to a sail boat at a young age and tried for years to get his son to join him on an adventure. Then the dad planned out a 3-year, round-the-world trip, came to our house and showed us the charts, and asked him to come along. The son wasn’t sure because (a) he was into blowdrying his hair, wearing cologne and looking pretty and (b) his father was an anti-social loner. But the kid told everyone about the decision he was trying to make, and of course everyone said go for it, you’d be crazy not to. So he finally gave in and decided to go. They sailed out of Sacramento and made it to San Diego, where they had to stop to fix various problems. By that time, though, the son told me he was already sick of having to ration water so extremely (very few and small showers) and his dad was driving him nuts on their very small boat. So the kid gave up and jumped ship. Apparently he was so humiliated at having abandoned the round-the-world adventure so quickly that he moved to another town rather than return to face those who had seen him off.
I hope your journey to Tamshui goes better. We don’t want to lose you.
I went sailing there a year and a half ago. The clubhouse was an armory and has that cave-like feel in parts. Pretty cool. Funny the English name has “Royal” but the Chinese name is just “Hong Kong Yacht Club.”
Is it a sailboat that you’re going to be making the trip on?
I would like to sail from the U.S. to Taiwan one of these days. Does anyone know of anybody who’s done it?
Also, does anybody know whether a sailor of limited experience can crew in the Yonaguni-Hualien Friendship race they have every other year?
[quote]
I hope your journey to Tamshui (Danshui) goes better. We don’t want to lose you.[/quote]
Thanks, I don’t want to lose me either. But there is no journey. Storm gathering in the north means too much likelihood of us spending a week battling wind/waves instead of 3 day pleasant sailing. To say I’m annoyed would be putting it mildly, but I spent today at LongTong, so it’s not all bad.
BAH: Sailing into TW is tricky, because of the lack of facilites. You have to go to one of the official international ports, and they’re not geared up for deailing with anything small - they might try and charge you for taking up the space reserved for a 20,000 ton freighter.
Hence the interest in the friendship race - this is pretty much the only way that Japanese sailors can bring their boats here. The TW boats are unlikely to pick up hitchhikers, and if you’re not in country to ‘do the time’ your chances would be minimal. Being taiwanese doesn’t hurt either. There are more than a few westerners wanting to get involved, but it’s about representing Taiwan…
And as for ’ a sailor of limited experience’ - I’ve been out with some of the crew for next year’s race today and untangled, or pulled out of the water, the same spinnacker 4 or 5 times. Experience is relative.
Plan B:
Leave Friday evening (22/8) for HK, and spend Sat/Sun cruising HK waters. Leave the boat where it is for another 6-8 weeks, and try again in October when all the crew will next be available.
Visa crap on Mon/Tue, plus a visit to the sailmakers to pick up some excess baggage for the boats here. Anybody flying home Tues arvo got any spare baggage allowance?
Not this time. A bit of rough weather is no problem really if you’re not in a hurry. We had to call off the delivery run because there was no way we could be back here in time for work last week, but farting around HK in a blow would be quite fun.
Saturday was way cool, the best time I’ve had in HK. A bit of a bumpy night anchored at Po Toi island but no biggy after we reset the anchor. (Woulda been on the rocks if we hadn’t noticed it dragging. Ooops!)
The biggest puff I noticed on Sunday was 43kts, but I was a bit too busy with the wheel to really watch the guage. Quite a fun few days out really, but the rain set in big time Sunday afternoon.
Got back and no one cares - the cat sniffed at me, the gf has yet to return my calls and the only person emailing me is Mr Sobig. Honestly, I could have died out there and no one would have noticed.
Did you have some seafood while you were at Poi Toi island?
Was most of the sail down south of HK island or did you head east into the Clear Water Bay/Saikung area or west towards Cheng Chau and Lantau?
So is the ship and crew set for the sail to Taiwan in October?
By the way, when you go out on a local sail from the fishing port here do you need to notify the port authorities, police or immigration? Is that still the same procedure if you want to sail to Yonaguni or Okinawa?
Would an around Taiwan sailing race ever be feasible (assuming there were enough boats)? Which direction would be best: down the west coast and up the east coast or the other way round?
Doesn’t the Matador look like great fun?
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P.S. How about changing the name of this thread to something sailing related?
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Jeez Larsen, how many questions do you need to ask in one post? OK, here goes…
Seafood? Yup. Excellent it was too! Had to take a nap afterwards.
We had hoped to go to Clearwater Bay on Sunday but would have been straight into a stiff wind. 'Nother time maybe.
Yes, October it is. Probably.
I think if you have a trailer boat you can just chuck it in the water anywhere. Anything that stays in the water has to report to the guys in the orange overalls when entering or leaving port. You have to write the names of everyone in a special book, and show them your ID.
Going to Japan is international, so I assume you have to go through one of the approved ports - Jilong in my case.
Racins is feasible almost anywhere if there are enough people daft enough to try it. Look at the loonies who go frostbiting on the East Coast USA.
Apparently sailing in the straits is a pain, due to the tidal flows - but you could call in at Penghu on the way!! I guess this time of year you would want to be going north on the east coast of taiwan because you would be with the current. So anti-clockwise it is.
Matador? Whitsundays? Ready to go dude, but why is she wearing Kevlar racing sails? Seems a bit crazy to spend all that money for mere tourists.
Whilst doing a visa run in 2001, I met an interesting American chap at CKS airport (sorry, can’t remember his name) who was a ship surveyer based in Tamsui. He was in his late fifties, had served in the navy in Vietnam, and been in shipbuilding most of his life. He told me he was planning to build himself a little steamship and that he would get around the rules by registering it as a fishing boat. Does anyone know the guy I’m talking about?
