Day 159, Year 4 Where is the . . .
Date: Monday, March 30, 2009
Weather: Sunny Day; Late Afternoon Deluge
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
We are now working furiously carrying things from the apartment to Windbird, carrying them up the ladder to the deck for safe storage, and then carrying the things we need immediately for installation on the mast back down the ladder. There are tools in the boat, in the cockpit, on the deck, and down below. There is a labeled ZipLoc bag with the bolts or screws for each piece to be installed, but once these little bags travel up and down the ladder, they somehow get temporarily ‘lost’-so we spent much of the day looking for the right bag for the job. But at the end of the day, we had made great progress. Mark worked by himself all day putting things on the mast while Oh’s crew primed and painted the bottom of the boat. I worked on the cabin top removing caulk from the ports that were installed yesterday, screwing down the Dorade boxes, straightening the inside of the boat to get ready to move back onboard, and walking, walking, walking. I walked about a mile down the highway to go to a local business that might be able to work on our air conditioning unit that is not working after four years of no use. I then walked back, crossed the highway, and went to the Post Office to mail a form to the IRS to ask for a delay in filing our taxes, walked back to Boat Lagoon to the store to buy water, beer, and coke, went to the hotel to extend our stay, and finally went to the Boat Lagoon Marina office to buy a new internet card and discuss our ‘real’ splash date. We are still booked for going in the water on Thursday, but I wanted to explore alternatives. We have to go in on Thursday or Friday afternoon, or wait until Tuesday morning. Saturday is totally booked, no one works on Sunday, and Monday is a public holiday. We stay tuned . . . by the end of the day tomorrow we should have a better idea of what is really possible. It is just so hard to make commitments without knowing just how long things are going to take.
We had the rigger, David Samuelson, come to Windbird today to take a quick look at where we are and to get his feedback on a few things. The tent over our boat will be removed tomorrow and we will then be REALLY hot, but this needs to happen so that the mast can be put back on deck on Wednesday or Thursday. The intricacies of planning are challenging-this must be done before that, and this must be done before that–but we are making progress. It is exciting to think that we might be back in the water in just a few days, so send us your most positive thoughts that this might really happen.
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| 090330 Day 159 Boat Lagoon, Phuket, Thailand–Painting the Bottom |
