United Arab amirates to Thailand - Any Advice?

[lasergirl89]

Hi all,
I'm new to cruisers forum, but hoping there may be some people out there who can give me some advice. I am looking at moving a yacht (45ft monohull) from UAE to Thailand possibly in February 2014. Its my understanding that this will be in the NE monsoon season, and there shouldn't be a significant cyclone risk. From what I have read this passage may have a few challenges, but should be possible (although the pirate risks certainly scare me!). Has anyone done a route like this at this time of year? and in particular crossing the bay of bengal into the prevailing winds? the plan is to go to the Maldives for a rest, but most of the rest of the way as quickly as possible. I've been getting as much as I can from online cruising guides, but would love to hear some first hand experiences or other places to source information about any aspect of this passage.

Thanks in advance

[triciarob]

We did this journey from UAE, but stopped off in India and then Sri Lanka. We left Sri Lanka at the end of January 2010 and it was the hardest journey we have ever had. We beat into 25 to 30 knots of wind with a current of between 2 and 4 knots against us. Although we made about 100nm per day, only 40 were in the right direction. We went down to about 2 degrees N to get away from the current, but still had strong currents against us, our pilot book had said this would not be unduly arduous but it was. We also had constant squalls. Took us 30 days to cover 1100 miles. We have a 25ft boat and can only carry very limited amounts of diesel, not that motoring would have helped much. I wouldn't go any earlier than Feb tho. Having said all that, it was worth every minute once we arrived in SE Asia.

Tricia

[Oceanride007]

Lots of Big ship traffic between Socotra and 8 Deg channel. You'll get to know all about Intertropical Convergence Zone (ICZ). Closer to coast its lots of Fishing nets and Fisherman, better to gets some packs ready to trade with Fisherman, they may trade you good fish (Skipjack is not good). I heard of a trip maybe 12 Months ago where a vessel was trucked from Jordan Aqaba to UAE (About US$13000, I think). She was scared of Pirates so didn't do it, he with ugly crew stuck to the coast and pulled into India. I've done it on ships and one yacht but back in 2008. Don't think there has been much of pirate activity lately. At some point critical mass will determine it is safe, before that, how brave are you.

I'm boatless, I'd consider doing it as crew, so would others, I don't believe the Somalis are the likely danger in that part of world now.

[lasergirl89]

Thanks for the advice. At this stage it's looking like the boat maybe ready to leave the last week of February. I want to do the passage as quickly as possible so will only stop along the way for repairs or provisioning if needed. I am still looking at the best route to work with the currents and wind as much as possible. Any further thoughts on routing would be great

[SaucySailoress]

Still thinking of this? We did the Oman to India run in September, tail end of monsoon, and are planning on the rest next week. You still going? We'll be a little ahead of you... But happy to share our experience so far

[ruby1984]

Hi Laser girl, Are you looking for any extra crew as I am a English female 29 year old cycling around the world and looking to try and get further east by either boat or bike without flying. I am currently in Oman, so close to UAE. I have my day skippers licence and have crossed both atlantic and pacific ocean as part of a 4 and 5 man crew.
My email is rubinasoorty@hotmail.com
my whatsapp is +447737179411.
my mobile is +96892687961.
website Ruby Ride On | One Cycle of the World

I hope to hear from you

Kindest regards

Ruby

[SaucySailoress]

Shame.... Five months earlier you could have hopped a ride direct from Oman to India with us! If you don't get an answer, send the op a pm, sometimes we miss notifications....

[triciarob]

Sri Lanka was a good place to stock up. We were there in 2010, don't know what it's like now, but we loved it.

Looking thru my diary, canned meats were expensive but fresh meat was very cheap. I bought that and bottled it myself.

Also made friends with one of the tuk tuk drivers, Batu, and he got me good prices on vegetables and fruits, a new s/s kettle and loads of other stuff. In fact my stock up would have taken much longer and cost loads more without him, even factoring in the cost of the tuk tuk and a tip for him.

The veg market was good.

BTW this was in Galle.