Day 117, Year 4: Incredible
Date: Monday, February 16, 2009
Weather: Sunny and Beautiful
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island

In the last twenty-four hours we have found so many things to be incredible. Last night we talked to my sister-in-law Sue in Florida and she remarked about how incredible it was that we were talking from Thailand to the US on a computer. Then we talked to Heather, Jed, and Sam and enjoyed the incredible video of Sam playing in the tent he was given by his Goldstone grandparents. He would look at us on the screen, play a while, and then come back and look at us again. With Skype, we can take still photos of Sam while we are talking to him. I’ve included one of those in the photos with this log. Sam has been very sick for the past few days, so he started to fade towards the end of our conversation. He was on his daddy’s shoulder when we said goodbye but he heard us and waved his little hand goodbye without even looking at us. Incredible.

And then there was today. We started by talking to Justin and Jo and hearing that things are going well in New Mexico. And then we had to run to the boat to meet Nop, the stainless guy. All of sudden things are moving very fast again. Nop and his crew moved in and set up their shop next to Windbird. They measured the stainless pieces and cut them right on the spot, carried the measured and cut pieces up to the deck of the boat to fit them, bend them, and then spot weld the entire structure.
An engineer stayed on site all day directing the work, and by the end of the day we have the skeleton of an arch and stainless rails from our gate to the back of the boat. By the end of the day tomorrow, the total structure will be spot welded and then removed to the real shop for finishing. We found this pretty incredible. And while this was happening, Oh’s crew was filling in the rough spots on Windbird’s hull, spraying the whole hull with colored spray paint, and then beginning the long board sanding process to smooth everything out to ready it for the next primer coat. The colored spray paint is put on just so they will know where they have sanded. We talked with Oh, chose the color of paint we will be using, and that has been purchased and is ready and waiting. Oh says we could be applying AwlGrip by the end of next week. Incredible! And then there was the appearance of Mazrizal, the manager of Rebak Marina back in Langkawi. Mark was at the boat when Mazrizal stopped by. I was
back in the apartment but had headed over to the boat to get Mark to take him to lunch. When I saw them talking, all I could say is, “You are in the wrong place.” Mazrizal is here for a couple of days just scoping out the various marinas on Phuket Island. He was amazed at the services available here and we talked with him about why we chose to have the boat painted here instead of at Rebak. We will be returning there as soon as we are finished here and we also talked to him about that. He joked
that we will need a slip with a balloon fender all around to protect our new paint job. He was joking, but I thought it sounded like a splendid idea!

So things are moving fast here. In between all of the visits to the boat to approve what is happening, I continue to work on editing and posting photos on the website. I really thought I would have lots of down time to do this, but it is not looking like that will be the case. This is good, as it means we really might make it to New Mexico in time for Wee Gerbil’s birth, and that is the most important thing to us right now. So we aren’t having the down time we thought we would have, but we are finally feeling good enough about work progress to go ahead and book our tickets home. If the work schedule continues as it has, we will headed back to Rebak in Malaysia by the end of the first week in April and be New Mexico bound in mid-April.

090216 Day 117 Boat Lagoon, Phuket, Thailand– Living on Land