Storm Off Phuket Sinks Trans-Pacific Kayakers' Dream

[webfact]

Storm off Phuket sinks trans-Pacific kayakers' dream

Ryan poses with the salvaged hull of the ill-fated 'Saylee Speck'.

PHUKET: -- While paddling nine kilometers off Phuket’s southeast coast just after midday on August 24, two men in a kayak braced as a wave shattered the support beam holding together their twin-hull sailing kayak.

As strong winds lashed the raised sail, the kayak listed and seawater gushed into the left hull. The boat began to sink, and along with it its occupants' dream of one day

paddling the small vessel all the way from Phuket to California.

Frantically bailing out seawater, American Ryan Doran, 26, and Phatum Thani-born Piya Sukun-thai, 28, knew they had minutes before their 300,000-baht kayak Saylee Speck was fully submerged.

With no other boats in sight, no radio, and their kayak “dead in the water”, the two exhausted men knew they had to swim for shore.

The nearest island was Koh Mai Thon, about five kilometers away.

“I’ll come back with help,” Ryan promised his friend.

The more experienced swimmer, Ryan grabbed his fins and “swam like hell” towards Koh Mai Thon while Piya stayed with the vessel, which had only one hull still buoyant.

Exhausted from paddling for the past four days, Ryan kicked his fins in the rough sea, wincing in pain as jellyfish stung his arms and legs.

After half an hour in the water, Ryan heard the spluttering of a longtail boat behind him. Turning to check if it was heading towards his friend and their idle kayak, he couldn’t see Piya or their boat anywhere. Ryan swam on.

After an hour, his feet touched the seabed and he waded onto the northeastern beach at Mai Thon. It was a beach he knew well. Just two days earlier, the duo had beached Saylee Speck there to fix a broken rudder.

Ryan ran from the beach through dense foliage and emerged minutes later at a construction site on the island’s west coast.

“My friend is in trouble. Our boat is sinking, please help,” Ryan said in Thai to a group of construction workers.

Ryan and three men rushed to the nearby pier, ready to jump in a boat to help Piya.

But as they emerged from the jungle, Ryan stopped dead in his tracks, slumped onto his knees and exhaled a few huge sighs of relief.

A longtail boat tugging a torn section of the duo’s kayak was docking at the pier. Piya was waving from the front of the boat.

The other half of their vessel was now at the bottom of the sea, but the two kayakers had made it safely to land.

“What am I going to tell our sponsors?” Ryan asked himself.

Just five days before their boat sank the duo were at a secluded spot on Rawai Beach. The kayakers, one of their sponsors and a few friends watched in silence as boatbuilder Suphan Changsak blessed the Saylee Speck and tied flowers to her mast.

Minutes later, Ryan and Piya pushed off into the water, embarking on their 10-day maiden expedition.

The voyage was meant as a “test-run” for their planned 14,000 mile paddle from Phuket to California, passing through waters off Indonesia and Siberia.

For our previous reports click here and here.

The trip was due to start in October.

Over the next four days, the duo paddled from Koh Lone to Koh Phi Phi Don, stopping at Koh Mai Thon to repair the broken rudder.

It took them 19 hours to reach Koh Phi Phi Don. They arrived just after 1am, slept on the beach and decided to cut short their voyage and head back to Phuket for more repairs.

They left Koh Phi Phi Don just after 6pm on day four of their maiden voyage.

About 18 hours later Saylee Speck was snapped in half and sinking to the bottom of the sea.

A few weeks later, the remains of Saylee Speck languish in a corner of a Nai Harn boathouse. Ryan and Piya say their trans-Pacific dream is on hold.

Ryan told the Gazette that when he watched the kayak go under, he saw two years of planning sink with it.

“We are just glad it happened close to Phuket and not in a remote location on our way across the Pacific,” Ryan said.

It was in January this year when the duo announced their ambitious plan to paddle through some of planet’s most treacherous expanses of ocean for 20 months.

They first planned to paddle in a 20-foot wooden kayak Saylee (liberty), leaving on March 10.

Many Phuket residents were quick to slam the pair’s plan as overambitious, dangerous and under-planned. Even their parents branded their trip “crazy”, but the kayakers were undeterred.

A funding problem halted their initially-scheduled March departure until a sponsor pledged US$25,000 to build a new, larger and stronger kayak.

Work on Saylee Speck began in May and finished mid-August.

Boat builder Suphan says “we can rebuild” and seems confident he can make a more durable sailing kayak.

After talking with their sponsors, the Phuket-California voyage has been postponed until next year at the earliest.

But Ryan says he will embark on a solo voyage later this year.

“I am going to do a three-month solo expedition in our first kayak, Saylee, along both the west and east coasts of Thailand,” he said.

He plans to leave by November this year.

“It was never going to be easy, but we will stick it out. The dream will become a reality,” he said.

-- Phuket Gazette 2010-09-18

[Pi Sek]

This dude is clearly nuts - but he's a good friend of mine, so best of luck to him.

Obviously he wasn't wearning the Jatukram amulet I gave to him that day

[LivinLOS]

Many Phuket residents were quick to slam the pair’s plan as overambitious, dangerous and under-planned.

Without wanting to point out the obvious...

[nevermindtwo]

Sailing with a "speck" across oceans is just silly and has nothing to do with seamanship. A search and rescue action is looming quickly and will hopefully be successful. Why do people always try to spend other people's money ?

nevermindtwo

[jamesie]

Many Phuket residents were quick to slam the pair's plan as overambitious, dangerous and under-planned.

Without wanting to point out the obvious...

''Rubba dub, dub, two men in a tub.....comes to mind...

[Pi Sek]

Sailing with a "speck" across oceans is just silly and has nothing to do with seamanship. A search and rescue action is looming quickly and will hopefully be successful. Why do people always try to spend other people's money ?

nevermindtwo

Well, the plan was to go around the Malaysian peninsula, up towards Vietnam, up past Hong Kong, Japan, Kamchatka, cross the 26 miles to Alaska and go down the west Canadian and US coastlines to California.

Why do people always try to shoot down other people pushing the limits of human accomplishment? That includes me, by the way.

[jamesie]

Sailing with a "speck" across oceans is just silly and has nothing to do with seamanship. A search and rescue action is looming quickly and will hopefully be successful. Why do people always try to spend other people's money ?

nevermindtwo

Well, the plan was to go around the Malaysian peninsula, up towards Vietnam, up past Hong Kong, Japan, Kamchatka, cross the 26 miles to Alaska and go down the west Canadian and US coastlines to California.

Why do people always try to shoot down other people pushing the limits of human accomplishment? That includes me, by the way.

I agree about people wanting to shoot down the plans of others who have at least got the nads to go and have a go and i feel that a 'coastal trip is indeed 'do-able...

No problem for me as long as they have contingencey plans and do not endanger other peoples lives if and when

If people over history had never set out on 'adventure' and exploration journeys, where would we be now?

Back in the day when 'learned folk'' believed the world was flat, and only insane fools would attempt to go forth,and endanger their lives [ and fall over the edge..lol] i''ll bet there was the same thoughts.

Problem now is that there are still those who want to knock adventurerers, keep everyone wrapped in cottonwool and safe and sound in their rooms on TV forums...

[islandguy]

Those of you who find this interesting rather than just enjoying shaking your head at human folly might want to look up the Polynesian Voyaging Society web site.

http://www.pvs-hawaii.com/

The journeys of the Polynesian people who settled the islands that are scattered around the vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean have now all been replicated by their descendants using various ships modeled after the originals. Some of the recent voyages have been done in ships with no modern materials used and all have used traditional navigation techniques. One technical note about the large double and triple hulled sailing vessels used is that all the connecting pieces (masts, outriggers, steering oars) were connected with lashings, not stepped or bolted. I think even for the Polynesians, who would go 100 km over open ocean to visit relatives in small outrigger canoes, this proposed voyage would be considered very difficult.

[Old Croc]

I think these fools were lucky they lost their boat now while still so close to rescue. Did they have a radio, or was it taken out by this first wave? No flares?

Their twin hulled wooden kayak (is it still a kayak with two hulls?) lost a rudder the first day out and snapped in half the first time they copped a decent wave side on. And yet they apparently planned to cross the Pacific in the bloody thing!

One would have to wonder what would have happened when they attempted a crossing of the Bearing Strait if they ever managed to get that far!

[Pi Sek]

I think these fools were lucky they lost their boat now while still so close to rescue. Did they have a radio, or was it taken out by this first wave? No flares?

Their twin hulled wooden kayak (is it still a kayak with two hulls?) lost a rudder the first day out and snapped in half the first time they copped a decent wave side on. And yet they apparently planned to cross the Pacific in the bloody thing!

One would have to wonder what would have happened when they attempted a crossing of the Bearing Strait if they ever managed to get that far!

As I said above, one of these 'fools' (bit harsh, no?) is my friend, so what kind of person would I be if I didn't stick up for him.

The crossing to Koh Phi Phi from Nai Harn is what, 45km? That's almost exactly the distance of crossing in the Bering Strait.

And no, this wasn't the first time their twin-canoe-catamaran has gone out in sea and no, this wasn't the first 'decent wave they copped'. Besides, at no point were they ever more than 25km from land, and this was the point of the Phi Phi test run. They are nuts, not stupid.

Having said that, they took mobile phones with them rather than a radio, but this wasn't the best idea as they're now at the bottom of the Andaman Sea. Ryan - if you're reading this, please call me (I won't mention my name but you'll know who I am from the Jatukram post above) as I've still got your old number!

What is it with the online community (as stated above, including myself)? It's in the nature of 95% of posters here to assume they know the facts and harshly criticise others' intentions without actually finding the facts out. Don't you think that this might warrant a good look in the mirror?

[LivinLOS]

The crossing to Koh Phi Phi from Nai Harn is what, 45km? That's almost exactly the distance of crossing in the Bering Strait.

Comparing the sheltered side of the andaman to the baring sea is a bit of a reach no ??

[Thules]

Siding with your 'nutty' adventerous friends is one thing. Fact is they nearly lost their lives. Would you be posting the same as your previous post, if they had lost their lives, or would you be thinking "if only they has that etc.."

Point, I'm trying to make is in favour of adventure, but not forgetting wrecklessness.

[Abrak]

Why do people always try to shoot down other people pushing the limits of human accomplishment? That includes me, by the way.

Yeah right...

If you have met 'Mr X' or whatever he likes to call himself for 5 minutes you would realize he is in absolutely no mental or physical state to be pushing the limits of human accomplishment. I would have thought his being in a kayak would need adult supervision. I mean he is a great guy but has a bit of a hang up about his brothers sporting achievements while he seems far happier spray painting walls and smoking herbal cigarettes.

Just glad he made it back safely.

If you are 'X's' friend you would have persuaded not to go in the first place.

Edited September 25, 2010 by Abrak

[Pi Sek]

I'm sure you'll all accept that I'm playing devil's advocate to an extent. He is a friend of mine and, from Abrak's post above, it sounds like he also knows Ryan - who has adopted the nickname "Chang" - too (although anyone who knows him will realise the futility of trying to dissuade him of following his heart). But if the guy wants to canoe across the Pacific and has dreamed about doing it for years, who am I (or anyone else for that matter) to shatter his dream?

From what he tells me, his life wasn't exactly in danger - although I think it might have been in the Bering Strait. But that's why they have test runs of increasing difficulty, no?

Doesn't he look better without that beard?

[stuandchris]

And whilst these idiots pursue their "dream' is it ok to endanger the lives of those who will have to rescue them?

Really, miles out at sea, no waterproof marine radio, no flares, no lifejackets?

[Pi Sek]

Yeah, I can see I'm losing this one. But still, noone rescued them, so who was endangered other than themselves?

[LivinLOS]

Yeah, I can see I'm losing this one. But still, noone rescued them, so who was endangered other than themselves?

A longtail boat tugging a torn section of the duo’s kayak was docking at the pier

So this was a ghost longtail ??

[stuandchris]

Pissing around in sheltered waters here is one thing even without any safety gear.

Get up past Korea towards Japan and even further North and it is a different kettle of fish and rescues up there are hazardous.

I am all for human adventure but this potentially endangers others and as such should be stopped.