Day 157, Year 4 Awesome Day of Progress
Date: Saturday, March 28, 2009
Weather: Huge Storm During the Night; Beautiful Day
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
What an awesome day of progress we made today.
–the mainsail and storm trysail track were reinstalled on the mast
–one winch base and the gooseneck were attached
–all of the stainless outlets for lines that run through the mast were attached
–the binnacle was seated
–the mast step was installed
–a new VHF antenna wire was run though the mast
–the new stainless bow protector was installed
–the bronze ports were painted with AwlGrip Clear
–all ceiling panels were installed
Whew! There are probably more things that happened, but it was truly hard to keep up with the progress. The bottom line is that we got a lot accomplished today. Our Visa is up on April 3, so I went to the office to book a splash date. April 3 will not work for us according to the tide chart they gave me in the office, so I booked for this Thursday, April 2. We will get ‘picked up’ by the lift at 2pm and splash by 3 pm. This is VERY optimistic, but we do feel like things are coming together quickly. We have talked with David Samuelson, the rigger, about penciling us in this week, but he only laughed saying it was not possible. He doesn’t work on Saturday, so on Monday we will tell him it really might be possible and ask him to check the rigging on Tuesday and step the mast on Wednesday. I told the office that our splash date was very optimistic and they said to come back on Tuesday and let them know if we think everything is still on track. Not sure if we will leave on Thursday or hang out illegally until Tuesday, April 7, for the next favorable tide. So we will be working furiously tomorrow and Monday to get everything done.
Luck, the young man that heads our work crew, is absolutely fabulous. He works quickly but carefully, as do the other two young men who work under him, and they all do everything with even more care and efficiency than we can do. It is because of Luck and his direction of the crew that we really might get out of here by the end of this week. Unbelievable, but maybe possible.
We heard from Robyn and Eric of Scorpido today. They made it to the Chagos in the middle of the Indian Ocean and are finding the islands to be a true paradise. We heard form Idunne and Runae of Blue Marlin a couple of days ago and they are anchored in the middle of the Red Sea waiting out a 35 knot north wind. But while waiting, they had been snorkeling and said the clarity of the water the fish life were truly unbelievable. Every day we debate whether we will leave this part of the world and go around South Africa or go through the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. At some point I’m sure something will tip the scale and help us make our decision, but for now, we still don’t have a direction. The only direction we have at this point is to just get Windbird ready to leave the Boat Lagoon, hopefully before the end of this week.
