VICE- Speedos

Now here's a fact about Italy- it is SPEEDO CERTRAL. My brother and a few others (Norbert) will appriciate that comment.

There are so many Speedos here that you stop making fun of them, so Dad, Mum, Sean n Norbert I sugest you come here to overcome your phobia of "The Speedo!".

You have my room mate to thank for these photos. I share a cabin with two girls, Hannah from Scotland and Ania from South Africa. Ania has a fetish for taking photos of inadequetly attired people for a magazine called "Vice"- hence these shots. This a pic of her sneaking a shot at the guy in pink pants.

Siracusa, Sicily.

Siracusa! A little island off the eastern coast of Sicily is where I am right now.

Most evenings, after my mandatory 45 minute run, I spend chilling with a coffee in the sea front ice cream parlours- this island as got to have the best ice cream I have tasted! Most of these quiet evenings would somehow end up with me in the bars, enjoying the nightlife.

Right now I’m enjoying a day off, sunbathing on Siracusa’s rocky coastline. The water is so clear you don’t need a mask to enjoy the underwater view.

Yesterday we hired as minibus and 8 of our crew ventured out to Sicily’s greatest natural attraction, which is also its highest mountain, “Mount Etna”. Mount Etna is an active volcano, its summit reaches 3350meters and it has so many craters that when it explodes nobody knows where the lava will come gushing from. Upon arrival we toured around one of the lower craters at 1986meters (my DoB) and enjoyed a random game of throw n catch directly in its centre with the tennis ball I conveniently brought along. Finally we decided to hike “Etna”. This is a picture of us outside the ticket office after finding out that not only is it 50euros each to take the 4wheel drive bus just 400meters higher than we actually were but then u would have to pay to spend the night in the tour company’s hotel and join the group tour of Etna at 9am- SCANDALOUS!!!!!! Our crew is actually freakishly organised-to the point of “OCD”- so the fact that no one researched the volcano and its entrance fee is actually quite surprising.

The Malta Experience

Well it has been a little while since I last wrote my blog. Last you guys heard I was in Egypt and about to make my way across the Southern Mediterranean Sea to Malta.
I am glad to say that I made it safely and have been enjoying it here in Malta for the last 2 weeks.
In the 2 weeks here I have had a total of 3 days off work. I have been to Malta’s capital “Valletta” and it as got to be one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. Valletta is a fort on a peninsula, the whole city is this peninsula, its coastline is high walls with built in cannon holes and little secret passage ways all through it- the cannons actually have the English Crown Emblem on them. Its clear to see that Malta was under British rule from the world war until around 1975, it has got the same post boxes, phone boxes and the lamps outside the police station as in England, plus they drive on the left hand side of the road. Other than this I’ve not really seen that much of Malta, been working too hard and long hours trying to get the boat “blinging”. The one bit of advice I do have for anybody planning on going to Malta is, avoid the taxis, they are way too expensive and the public transport is great and cheap.

Pyramids & Camels

Just got back from our crew day out in Cairo to see the Pyramids. I had an excellent time and can really see why this is one of the wonders of the world. The shear size of the pyramids is breath taking and all of them were built by hand. Each piece of stone was carried along the Nile by boat and with no cranes or machinery, pushed and pulled, to and then up the pyramid. Each pyramid would take 30 years to build and all of the workers died in the process, if not by shear exhaustion then they were executed at the end. They all considered it an honor to die by the hands of the king, whom they saw as a God, and were buried in a massive grave, containing 100 thousand bodies, next to the pyramids.
I rode a camel to the pyramids and then a horse back. I think once you master riding a camel its just as fun as a horse and they are just as fast I believe.
We didn't leave Cairo without a visit to its famous museum which contains all of the artifacts recovered from inside the pyramids. We had to rush our tour through the museum which was closing- i was gutted about this because once inside I could have stayed there all day. Taking into account how long ago this era was, all the things were in pristine condition and beautiful. Some of these pieces not so long ago were just lying at the side of the road with the Egyptian people just stepping over them. I'll definatly be back to that museum one day- I'd love to see and know more about this period in time.

Maldives to Egypt

Its official, we are out of Asia. I love Asia, the people are relaxed and the cultures are immense. Just walking down the street is a great experience that once you’ve been there for a while you just take for granted. Your first time in Asia the sides of your face and your forehead start to ache because your eyes are constantly staring and taking in this new world, its hard to explain the difference between Asia and Europe. Like I said, I love Asia but damn am I glad to be almost in the med right now. I guess you just need a break from paradise once in a while.

The second leg of our journey was from the Maldives to Egypt. The 3176Miles took us close to 2 weeks and was for about 4days whilst cruising the Somali coast line quite scary.

Pirate attacks have increased in recent weeks off the coast of Somalia after dying out during six months of strict Islamist rule in southern and central Somalia at the end of last year. There were scores of pirate attacks in the unpatrolled waters off the 3700km Somali coastline between March 2005 and June last year and in recent months pirate attacks have become more frequent. The pirates of Somalia are advanced, using current technology and probably them selves’ military trained. Only last week were 3 Finish fishing vessels seized and the crew held captive.
This is the information that we get once we arrived in the Somali waters and we quickly tried to get as far away as possible but were on high alert for 3 days.

This is a copy of a chat I had with my parents on skype when we were in pirated waters:
Dawn Greenhalgh 07:56 hey cant have a chat now coz im on watch 07:58 We are just off the coat of Somalia Mum n dad 07:58 700 hrs Dawn Greenhalgh 07:59 Most dangerous place in the world 07:59 Its 4am here Mum n dad 07:59 Yes I know Dawn Greenhalgh 07:59 Look it up online, 3 boats seized by pirates last week 08:05 Me n the other guy on watch were just about ready to get our snack pack n water n hibernate in our hiding place- perk of being the deck hand. I know all the hiding places 08:06 We had a boat heading to us at 25kts, but turned out to be a cargo ship 08:06 I was nervous man, so as normal I spent the last hour laughing Mum n dad 08:07 Just looking at the web and the pirates are using cargo ships that they have seized Dawn Greenhalgh 08:09 Thanx for that dad, me n Joel really appreciate that. he says there is a faint smell of poo coming from his side of the bridge Mum n dad 08:11 Be carefully and take care. The International Maritime Board has warned of an alarming increase in piracy in Somali waters and has urged ships to avoid the area. Dawn Greenhalgh 08:13 Ill be careful n ill let u know when we're out of Somali waters. so guna get back to watchin out 08:13 xxxxx Mum n dad 08:13 I think that’s wise. Love you and take care
That was all an adventure, which we got out of totally unscathed. I still think that pirates are more feared than they should be and think that it is not as dangerous in these places as the western world make it out to be.

After this we made it up through the red sea. We had a few days of rough weather, as you can see on the picture. But this just all makes it that little bit more entertaining I guess- we had fun seeing which would be the biggest wave to hit the boat and the one on the picture was defiantly not it. We actually had a wave brake on the top deck of the boat, lots of fun!!! At the north end of the Red Sea we entered the Suez Canal (this is a picture of me in the Suez Canal).

The Suez Canal is a large artificial canal in Europe, west of the Sinai Peninsula. It is 163km (101 miles) long and 300m (984ft) wide at its narrowest point, and runs between Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea and Suez on the Red Sea. The canal allows two-way water transportation, most importantly between Europe and Asia without circumnavigation of Africa. Before it’s opening in 1869, goods were often offloaded from ships and carried over land between the Mediterranean and the red sea.

The history in to all of the different leaders and ways that they thought of to construct a water way from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean is quite interesting. Apparently Pharaoh Senusret (1878BC – 1839BC) did actually build a canal linking the River Nile to the Red Sea, this was an east to west canal through Wadi Tumilat, and thus allowing trade indirectly between the Red Sea and Mediterranean. Also Napoleon made plans for the Suez many years before it was actually constructed but in his calculations he somehow came up with the fact that the Red Sea was 10meters higher than the Med, which off course is a fault, and because of the extra expense in construction of a lock system he did not go through with it. Like I said I find this all really interesting but I won't bore all of you with history- well at least no more on this blog anyway.

We are now at the Med end of the Suez and are getting ready to go and see the Pyramids and take a camel ride.

Singapore to Maldives

So now we are ready to leave Singapore, all of our provisions have been bought and the crew do some final party cramming before the month passage to the med. All 13 crew onboard are ready to spend the next 29 days out in the ocean with only the company of each other, good job they’re all good guys or that could drive you crazy. Once we leave Singapore we head north through the Malacca Strait, then across the Indian Ocean to the Maldives. Here is a little bit of info for you on the strait.

The Malacca Strait The Strait of Malacca is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world, an equivalent of the Suez Canal, or the Panama Canal. The Strait forms the main ship passageway between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, linking three of the world's most populous nations: India, Indonesia and China. Piracy in the Strait has risen in recent years. There were about 25 attacks on vessels in 1994, 220 in 2000, and just over 150 in 2003 (one-third of the global total) Some security specialists say a terrorist group might hijack a large ship, sink it in a shallow point (it is just 25 m deep at its shallowest), and block traffic, slowing shipments and causing economic losses around the world. Another risk is the yearly haze caused by raging bush fires in Sumatra. It can reduce visibility to 200 m, forcing ships to slow down in the busy strait. Some fear it might also give cover to terrorists or pirates.
We braved all of this and started our crossing to the Maldives unscaved. During our Indian Ocean crossing we were blessed with great weather, sea was calm and the sun was shinning- most of the time anyway. We did see some pretty amazing storms heading our way and a few water spouts (these are tornados that sucks up water). Apart from the storms all we saw in the 7 days at sea and the 1915miles we covered was about 10 boats and 2 dolphins, pretty uneventful really. All the crew, as you can imagine, couldn't wait to get off the boat once we reached the Maldives. Now I know that every ones picture of the Maldives is lots of idyllic islands with perfect beaches and pristine sea and your not far wrong, the whole of the Maldives is like this apart from one island, Male. The Maldives consist of 1200 islands and from north to south spans 900km. All of these islands are mainly resorts and they all receive their provisions from the one island of Male, where we were anchored. The crew headed into Male for a walk around once we arrived, the sea around Male is so clear and the whole coast line is a dock with boats loading and unloading cargo, it’s a busy little place. These guys are in the middle of nowhere and they import everything they use from toilet paper to potatoes. We walked around the whole of the island stopping for a juice along the way, no alcohol there due to the strict Muslim regime. We spent the night at anchor then the next day got our snorkeling gear on and headed out to some of the pristine waters and beaches you hear about. The whole crew is now sitting around our table doing final correspondence before we set of for the next leg of our journey.

Singapore to Jakarta and back again.

I arrived back on board Motor Yacht in Singapore to a boat without air conditioning and in the tropics that is a nightmare. I spent my first night on board sleeping outside on deck and received multiple mosquito bites. I shouldn't really complain about this too much as it got fixed the next day and all the other crew had to put up with this for a week.
After only one night in Singapore we headed off to Jakarta to pick up our tender (pictured). This tender had been there for 7 months, we left it behind to have some engine repairs and never received it back- welcome to the Asian way. The sea on the crossing back was just perfect; think these pictures say it all.