The Start of the Dream

Once the planned departure date is conceived, a few last-minute purchases and inspections must be done.

It started with the shakedown cruise. The plan was to attempt a circumnavigation of Sumatra. It's quite a long distance to travel, but at least I would be within earshot of land.

That journey did not work out well, and we had to make some required changes to the route. Instead of sailing around Sumatra, I changed it to sail towards Miri, Sarawak.

This change happened due to a cyclone / low-pressure system near Vietnam that had sucked all the air towards the “éye” of the storm. There were stretches of up to 600 nm I had to go off the coast of Sumatra to get winds, which would mean a lot of motoring! The crew and I decided to turn towards Sarawak instead.

The trip started out well, but around two weeks out of Port Klang (three days off Batam), the brand-new roller furling became difficult to furl/ unfurl. Destiny was between Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia( Sarawak). The winds were not favourable enough to sail towards the destination, and we had no means to connect with the family. I knew at that point that we would be leaving many people worried, and I still would need time to fix the parts.

At this juncture, we turned back. The whole point of the shake-down was met: to find shortcomings in my plans and test the boat.

Destiny returned safely, and now the process of rectifying the shortcomings has been implemented. Departure was within the first two weeks of February 2023.

The following items were done. A water maker (Reverse Osmosis plant for drinking water) and rig check-up were done. ( Langkawi and Phuket)