My new sailing phone

Already before my unfortunate capsizing, I was looking for a waterproof phone, suitable to take out sailing without the risk of destroying it by contact with seawater. Electronic gadgets are very sensitive to seawater, and even the smallest amount can kill them, as I experienced last year in Thailand.

I found an overview of current and older waterproof phones at gsmarena.com, and eventually decided upon the very inexpensive (190 RMB) Samsung B2100, a simple phone, already introduced in 2009, but very sturdy according to specs and user reviews. Like the other phones in the above overview, it is resistant to immersion in water (1 m up to 30 minutes), but also said to be compliant with MIL-STD-810F, which means it is "salt, dust, humidity, rain, vibration, solar radiation, transport and thermal shock resistant".

It's not a smartphone of course, but even the best waterproof smartphone can be unusable at sea, because capacitive touchscreens don't work when wet. Some waterproof smartphones have dedicated buttons for answering calls, but looking up a phone number, or using any other function would be problematic.
Of course my simple sailing phone does not have any of the advanced (and very useful) features of a smartphone, like navigation, but as a phone for emergencies at sea it is hard to beat.

I will probably buy a new smartphone later, and it might or might not be waterproof. What I really would like to see however, is a smartphone with a e-ink screen, which is the best readable screen in hard sunlight. Even the brightest LCD screen can be a pain to read on board an open sailboat or at the beach.

Sailing to Gulangyu and back (almost)

Sailing to Gulangyu Island has been on my to-do list since I started sailing in Xiamen, and yesterday looked like the perfect day to finally do it. The weather conditions where good: enough wind to get back in time, and high tide at noon, so I could go with the rising tide, and come back with the receding tide, without having to fight the tidal currents (which you usually lose here, with the water level rising or falling 5 m every 6 hours).
This was going to be a solo trip, most of my friends don't like to be on the water for more than an hour or so, and it was going to take four hours at least. I was dressed warmly, wearing a life vest, waterproof fisherman's pants and a good sailing jacket. Plenty of drinking water on board, but no food. I set off directly after lunch, so this was not a problem
The wind direction was East South East, as usual. Wind speed was 3 Beaufort, which makes good sailing with our 5 m catamaran, The waves were a bit higher than usual at this wind speed, 1 to 1.5 m, but nothing to worry about. It was partly cloudy, but not cold for the time of year, about 17 °C.
Our normal rule is to always leave against the wind, so it's easy to come back. But since the wind direction is almost always from the East or South (and never from the West) going to Gulangyu is downwind, and coming back is usually directly against the wind. I heard a story of a friend of Paul who had borrowed our boat to sail to Gulangyu in the summer, but he could not make it back, due to a combination of tidal currents and not enough wind. He had to stay overnight on Gulangyu, sleeping on the boat which he had pulled up on one of its beaches, to sail back the next day under better circumstances. With that story in my head I took off.
With a good wind in the back I soared along the coast with its many beaches, past the national sailing school who were not out in their small boats, to my surprise (maybe they had not finished lunch yet), and a few minutes later past Zeng Cuo An, then Zhen Zhu Wan, Huli Shan, and just about an hour after I took off, I reached the channel between Xiamen island and Gulangyu. This channel has heavy traffic, a  mix of sightseeing boats, the ferry to Gulangyu, speedboats with tourists, and the occasional fishing boat or cargo vessel, so I had to navigate carefully. Luckily the wind was from a favourable angle, although much weaker, since I was now sheltered by the tall office towers and hotels facing Gulangyu.

I called Ling Ling to tell her I was about to pass the office (a room on the 8th floor of the tallest tower, rented from Regus), but she was still finishing her lunch with Paul and Linda in a small restaurant nearby. Paul walked out, and I saw him a minute later on the steps in front of our office tower, waving frantically. Ling Ling was standing next to him. With my phone in my hand, I had to manoeuvre out of the way of the approaching Gulangyu ferry, who had already used his horn to warn me. I crossed the channel and kept closer to Gulangyu, to get a bit more wind, and within 20 minutes I had rounded the North end of the islet.
On the other side the water is wider, acting as a passage for large container ships heading for (or leaving) the port of Xiamen. One was just passing, generating sizeable bow waves. After I rounded the South-West corner of Gulangyu, I came head on with the wind, and from here started my return trip, which I expected to last for two to three hours. The waves were high again, but I had hoped the now receding tide would help me. However, I did not feel any current taking me back, on the contrary, the strong headwind and the high waves made it quite difficult to make progress. I had to sail in a zig-zag pattern, beating against the wind, as expected, but I was forced to take sharper turns on every tack than I wished. It would take a long time to get back. I kept in touch with Paul to inform me on my progress, calling him from time to time, and my spirit was excellent. Sailing really is my new passion, and I enjoy sailing alone as well as in the company of friends.
Hours passed as I was slowly working my way back along the coast, and it was almost five o'clock when I could see the beach where I had started from. It would still take me two times going out and back towards the coast again to get past the last rocky cape. It already started getting dark, and on the shore the lights came on. I was on the boat already for five and a half hours and in the middle of turning the boat for the last leg going out, when it happened. The centerboard was caught by a submerged line, probably tied to a fishing net, which are set out all over the place in this area. Normally you can just sail right over it, with the line passing under the centerboard and rudders without any trouble. This time I was in the middle of a turn, and the stretched line made the boat bounce back. I had already moved to the other side, so when the boat turned back and the wind caught the main sail, the balance was gone, and the boat capsized.
I fell overboard, but could climb back on immediately, on the now inverted boat. This was the worst moment for a situation like this, just getting dark, and me already a bit tired after sailing for five hours, but of course it always happens like that. I knew what to do, we practice this, but I had to rest for a moment before attempting to resurrect the boat. After a few minutes I managed to get the boat horizontal, by hanging on to one of the lines tied to the bottom of the mast, which I had looped around the hull facing the wind. The problem was, I could not get it further up. It was stuck somehow. Possibly that fishing net line was on top of the mast now, and preventing it from rising above the surface. I did not want to swim out to investigate, so I just waited a moment.
I was not far from shore, 200 m at most. But of course nobody could see me in the darkness. After a while I noticed I had drifted a little, so I was loose from the lines now, and I tried again. This time it worked, and the mast came up, but the momentum of the swing and the strong wind made it topple over 360 degrees to the other side. This was bad. I was getting really cold now, completely soaked, in the dark, and without a phone or any other way the get help. My phone died the moment I fell in the water. Ironically I was just researching waterproof phones this week, because I figured it would be much safer to have one that keeps working after a dip in the sea. I should have thought about that earlier, I guess.
Anyway, I still had a full bottle of drinking water, and even if I would have to spend the whole night on the boat, I would still survive. I thought for a moment to swim to shore, but I didn't want to leave the boat, and was worried that in my condition I might not even make it, even with a life vest. So, after a while I tried for the third time to resurrect the boat, and again it fell through making a whole 360 degrees. I was stumped.
By now I had drifted more than a kilometers along the shore, and was heading for a group of small fishing boats anchored in front of Zeng Cuo An. I noticed two men working on these boats, and I yelled at them, and used my paddle to get closer, on my still inverted boat. One of the fishermen pointed a flashlight at me, and the other started his engine. They were only 30 m or so away, so they could quickly catch the line I threw at them, and invited me on board their vessel.
I had tied the line to the base of the centerboard, and so it happened that when the fishing boat started towing it, it came back up almost immediately. I knew they could not bring me all the way to the beach, so after many thanks I jumped back on my boat and sailed to the beach of Zeng Cuo An, just 100 m away.
I was exhasuted, but with the help of three young tourists I could drag the boat to higher grounds, away from the now rising tide, and walked home in my drenched clothes.
I never memorized any Chinese phone number, so I had to find Ling Ling's box of name cards, and asked my neighbour to call her. I still had time to take a hot shower before meeting them all at the beach where I had parked the boat. We decided to leave the boat there and sail it back the next day. The main sail was stuck at the top of the mast, because a lot of  mud had entered the mast top while it was inverted, so we could not lower it. We just layed the boat on its side, with the sail flat on the beach, next to the boardwalk, and tied it to a post. Nobody would touch it.

Marathon sailing

The title of this post is a bit misleading, since there was no long distance sailing involved, but it was the day of the Xiamen International Marathon, and I went sailing with Ling Ling to watch the spectacle from the sea. We were not alone, since this day was chosen by the Iron Rock Sailing Club to hold a sailing event in the waters around Xiamen island. Not a proper race, but more like a fleet show of 25 to 30 yachts sailing from Wuyuan Bay to Gulangyu island and back.
My idea was to just hangout with our small catamaran in the same waters, to get up and close with these larger boats while at the same time more than 70.000 people were running on the coastal ring road.

Luckily for everybody involved, the weather had changed spectacularly from the cold days earlier this week to a sunny and balmy day, reaching 19 °C in the afternoon. Even the wind was right, it could hardly be a better day for sailing.
At the time we set off from the beach, the yachts were already on the way back from Gulangyu, and we could just intercept the head of the fleet. They had to work hard, beating against the wind and the tidal current. After most of the fleet had passed, we decided to follow them for a while, to see how fast we can be. Not to my surprise, our 5 meter inflatable catamaran is no match for these 8 to 10 meter yachts, so we had to let them go. Nonetheless, we zig-zagged our way up the coast towards the new beach, where our future sailing club will be, and landed there for a short break.

The marathon was officially over by now, and one of the runners was walking on the beach by himself, still in his running clothes. I invited him to board with us, and sail back to Zeng Cuo An, which he gingerly accepted. It was a nice surprise for him and a pleasant way to cool down after his 3 hour and 50 minute full marathon run, which was not bad at all for a first timer. I remember my one and only marathon which I ran in 1986 in Los Angeles, which at the time took me almost 5 hours. This year's winner here in Xiamen covered the 42 plus something kilometers in just 2 hours and a few minutes.

Home improvement

The new year has silently begun, and brought rather cold weather (11-15 °C max.), so our sailing activities are suspended for the time being. More time at home gives room for some incremental improvements in our comfort of living.
I had played with the idea for some time to hang some flat cushions on the wall behind our low bamboo dining table, to make it more comfortable to lean back against the wall. The idea was to mount a bamboo stick on the wall and hang the cushions from it. We had found some nice cushion sleeves in my friend A Wen's little shop "The Olive Tree" here in Zeng Zuo An, and I stuffed them with squares of foam, cut to the right size. To attach the cushions to the bamboo rods, I used a rather rough type of rope which I found in nearby Shangli. I made an improvised needle from a piece of iron wire, and used it to pull pieces of rope through the fabric, which I later tied around the bamboo.

A second bamboo stick is suspended from the cushions at the bottom, to help straighten them out by its weight. I had sawed off the topmost bamboo stick leaving a few centimeters of hollow material at both ends, allowing for a couple of hidden screws fixing it to the wall. The bottom rod was cut off just outside the section dividers, effectively closing it on both sides. I had selected the bamboo to match the sections to what I needed. The top rod having a slightly bigger diameter, and shorter sections (11 sections plus a few centimeters on both ends), while the bottom rod has just nine sections, at an equal total length of 2m. The bottom stick has grown faster, I guess.
The whole assembly looks quite rural in style, and fits perfectly in our "I love bamboo!" interior, including the bamboo hat lamp I had constructed earlier, the little bamboo stools and circular floor mats made of another natural fiber with buckwheat stuffing. Not to mention the hammock hooks I mounted for comfy indoor swinging. On top of that, we also bought some plants to brighten up the place with some living things.