Jeff's Log ~ Friday, May 9, 2008.…Port of Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Greetings from Taiwan! We arrived yesterday, and are now tied to a floating dock right across a canal from the ferry docks. I washed the boat and did some polishing, etc. while everyone else went exploring. I have to do the cleaning maintenance when I have the chance, and the water pressure here is good. Pipe Dream enjoyed the bath, and now is back to her gorgeous self. The crew of the neighboring power boat came over and said hello. The captain’s name sounded close to Jamie, so that is what I call him. English is not spoken very much here, so communicating gets to be fairly taxing. After my chores were completed, they invited me over for some beer and snacks. One of the snacks was some duck. I could tell because the whole duck head was in the bag with the chopped up meat. It was pretty tasty, but I did not eat the head.
We were sitting on the fly bridge with the captain, and an electrician that was working on one of the starter motors. Jamie kept going below and coming back with more and more food. I was a little relieved when the crew of Pipe Dream returned as that let me leave gracefully. I was pretty tired from trying to communicate.
Today fuel is my top priority, and trying to get Scott’s Sky mate updated is the next. He has had continuing problems with it, and that makes us all crazy.

The mate on the boat next door was around this morning, so I tried to find out where and how to get fuel. I pointed to their diesel fill and acted out putting fuel in. It was like playing charades. Eventually, I got the point across, and he drew me a picture of a fuel can. Then he called a friend that speaks some English. His fiend told me that he would come at noon to help. When he got there, He introduced himself as Peter; he has turned into my Taiwan connection. He has taught himself English from watching movies. He told us about the fuel dock on the other side of the harbor, and said he would go with us so that language would not be a hindrance. He then asked what else we needed, and took Mark and I to Costco, yes, Costco, for our provisioning. The Costco here in Taiwan was the biggest I have seen. It has a five story parking garage, and three floors of shopping. He was a pretty good tour guide too and showed us around a bit as he drove.
After getting the groceries back to the boat, I took Scott’s computer to Peter’s office/home and plugged in to the internet to download the improved Sky mate software. While that was downloading, we went to lunch at a small, family run restaurant down the street. I tried to pay, but Peter literally elbowed me out of the way so he could pay. I’ll never go hungry in Asian countries. I really like the food. I am doing better with chopsticks too.

The download had taken too long, and the computer had timed out, so I cancelled the power management program and started downloading again. Peter had a date, so I left with the download still running. I went to dinner with everyone at the tallest building in the city. The restaurant was on the thirty eighth floor of eighty six. The view of the city from the restaurant windows was spectacular, and it seemed like the world was in slow motion. There was a Ferris wheel with incredible lighting that kept changing colors and patterns about a mile from the restaurant. It was like Beny Hana, with the chef cooking right in front of us. I had duck, and he prepared it perfectly. We went to a different room for desert and coffee and there was a player piano making nice music as we finished our dinner.

We went back to the boat, and shortly were joined by Peter and his girlfriend Sophie, and the owner of another sailboat named Michael, and his wife Wendy. Peter brought us a case of beer for the boat, and we had a nice little party aboard Pipe Dream. Scott loves to show off his boat as much as I do, and we all were talking and doing a lot of laughing. After having a great evening, we all said good night and made a date for fueling in the morning with our new friends.

Today is Saturday May 10. At 9:00, I went down to pick up Scott’s computer. Peter and Sophie greeted me warmly and offered me breakfast. I had eaten already, so I did decline. The computer was ready to go, and I sat down to send off a quick E-mail to Clara to let her know I was OK. Peter went and picked up some navigation charts which Scott had ordered the day before while I did that. Then we walked back to the boat and were met by three young boys just having a ball on Pipe Dream. Michael and Wendy and their sons went to get fuel too. We sure had a boatful! It was fun to have all of these people with us just to get fuel. After fueling was complete, we had to check out at the port security dock. All of our friends waited with us until immigration came and cleared us out. There were lots of pictures taken by our guests and by the coast guard men who were around, both on and off duty. Pipe Dream was a big hit in Taiwan.

After saying goodbye with handshakes and hugs, we pulled away from the sea wall, raised the mainsail, and we hot-dogged it out of the harbor sailing fast on a brisk wind. It was quite cool to leave like that I think, because everyone could see how spirited the boat is.

The wind came and went for a lot of the afternoon, and then at about 4:30 it really came. I came on watch at 4, and the air was light and fluky. By4:30, it was honking at about 25 knots. At 5, it was 35 knots, and I got a new course to steer for an anchorage. That is where we are now, and we have seen gusts up to 50 knots. The water maker has a leak on the high pressure pump, so we ran it long enough to fill both tanks in case something crumbles tomorrow when I am going try and repair it. We all had a good dinner and cocktails and a hot shower, so all is right with the world for tonight.