Rory McDougal Tiki 21 Circumnavigation


from an article in Seapeople magazine 32


 Cookie crossed the Equator on the 9th December, back into her home waters of the north after 4 years in the southern seas. To celebrate, we cracked open a green coconut, as fine as any champagne, and poured an offering to the sea, Cookie and down our necks. It was Toto’s first Equator crossing by sea. I don’t know the traditional ceremony held in the court of Neptune, but we had fun anyway. By this time, we were getting more into the NW monsoon and welcomed the arrival of thunderstorms to give their cool rain and good winds. They graced us every night, keeping us on our toes with 30-40 knot winds at times, and I revelled in the feeling of Cookie coming alive and making fine progress for a while.
Arriving in Batam through the Straits of Singapore was a sight to behold especially after the backwaters of Indonesia. Here was a scene of rows of skyscrapers behind a multitude of ships and tankers plying east and west through the narrow straits. I admit to feeling rather proud of Cookie and our efforts to have sailed from Darwin to Batam in only two months when most other yotties have motored almost all the way at this time of year. I guess anything can be accomplished given time, patience and fortitude. Nothing much to say about Batam, It’s a commercial resort suburb of Singapore these days. I took a ferry to Singapore for 4 days mainly to fill up gas bottles and buy yacht equipment for Cookie. It is such a clean, efficient city that provides everything so I had success and struck everything off the shopping list.
Back in Batam, I beached Cookie for a couple of days, replacing beam lashings, dolphin striker lashings, shroud lashings, new hinges and foam seals on forehatches, fitted a compass light and a white masthead light. These two latter items I treated Cookie to, because I was concerned with the amount of dry cell batteries we were consuming shining the torch on the compass and turning on the strobe light amongst shipping.
So as much as I steer clear of electrical items, I feel it is a courtesy to other shipping to make Cookie visible by a fixed light, and a compass light - well, that’s just plain luxury! Especially in a black night time rain squall with no stars or wave patterns to reference your course with, but I doubt these modern attributes will detract from my desire to voyage in a simple, basic fashion or maybe I am getting soft?!
Another job was to replace the rope guards between skeg and rudders. My rudders are mounted on stainless and nylon pintles so there is an inch gap from the skegs giving dinghy painters and stern ropes easy access to get stuck. The best remedy I have found for me, is to epoxy a piece of loose string between the two. Loose string stuck onto rudder and skeg with thick epoxy glue (See sketch). Doesn’t hinder rudder movement and easily cut with a knife to remove the rudder.
Singapore was definitely a milestone in our Journey. Now we are in Penang after the trials and tribulations of the Malacca Strait but that’s another story that I’ll scribble from Sri Lanka in a month’s time.
Again, a pleasant year of voyaging to all privileged Wharram owners. Don’t forget to follow your dreams and reap the rewards.
Cheers for now, Rory and Cookie.


Sweet Dreams and butterflies. The off watch crew - Nikki - sleeps in the port hull. Note the storage pockets just by Nikki’s butterfly - adapted from pillow cases. VHF no longer aboard - sold to PCA contact Colin Flyn in Bali.

On the beach in Batan -
Singapore skyline in the background. Note the fore beam has a fairing I added in Tainsville - Australia. The fairing was made with the beam in-situ and goes from hull to hull with a 3 inch gap for lashing. It works so well when carving to windward. The old "I" beam would slam into the waves and stop Cookie. Now we slide through - in fact the under shape of the fairing gives lift when pushed through a wave. A worthy addition for Cookie, I feel.