by Judy Handley | Feb 25, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 126, Year 4: Big Day Tomorrow
Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Weather: No Changes-Beautiful, Hot, and Sunny
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
We feel a bit like expectant parents on the eve of birth. Why is having a boat painted so very different from having a house painted? I don’t know the answer to the question, but I’ve painted lots of houses and never felt like I feel tonight. The top coats go on Windbird’s hull tomorrow and we are really jittery. We’ll probably sit outside the tent tomorrow as Oh and his crew paint, just like being in the waiting room of a hospital delivery room. Of course, the result will be nothing so wonderful and fantastic as a newborn baby, but it will be our old baby with a new fa�ade. Right now Windbird stands ready. We’re having second thoughts about the location of the waterline and we’re a little apprehensive about the weather as we have had lightening tonight. The last time this happened, we had cloudy weather here and rain a few miles to the south. You really don’t want to apply top coat if there is even a threat of rain, so we could be delayed by a day. And we’ll just have to be at the boat very early in the morning to talk to Oh if we want to move that waterline. So we’ll just have to see what the morning brings.
Equus was launched early this morning with a bang. Thankfully the ‘bang’ was just the lighting of Chinese firecrackers to ward off any evil spirits. The launch went smoothly and Patti and Steve sailed south to Ao Chalong to check out of Thailand. Just after they launched, we walked over to Royal Phuket to say farewell to Robyn and Eric on Scorpido. Their boat looks great and they were just so excited to be off for South Africa. We also stopped by Freebird to say farewell as they will be leaving tomorrow morning. They are sailing in the area for the season, so we will probably see them again before we come home to the US for a few months, but it was great to touch base with them today. We really don’t know any of these people very well, but they feel like family. Out here, friends sail in and out of our lives but there is a very strong bond that ties us together. Even before we meet, we have so many things in common that no one else in the world would even understand. So world cruisers are a special lot and we value each and every friendship we make.
Last night we walked across the highway to the super good, super cheap little ‘restaurant’ that we have gone to a couple of other evenings. The owner/cook is a woman who exudes such powerful, positive vibes and her food is just delicious. We tell her to bring us ‘whatever’ and it is always wonderful and the cost is unbelievably cheap. So we had a great farewell dinner with Steve and Patti and their good friend Larry. Larry is a single-hander who now works here in the East Marine Chandlery at Boat Lagoon. He met Patti and Steve in the Mediterranean and sailed south through the Red Sea with them. So they have all come from the US from west to east and known each other for a long time. On our way to dinner, we saw David and Doreen Samuelson of Swan sitting by the launch area watching their African Gray parrot enjoy the evening sitting in the tree beside them. David is the rigger here at Boat Lagoon and he and Doreen have been cruisers since they were in their early twenties. They know no other life. David is from England and Doreen is from France. They bought a Westsail in the early 1970’s and then bought their current boat, a Swan named Swan, in 1979. They started their trek around the world and have made it this far in thirty years. What amazing people! And they are good friends with a woman who is a good friend of the people from whom we bought Windbird. It is just such a small world.
Today we had lunch with Ley and Neil of Crystal Blues from Melbourne, Australia. They are having their boat painted by a different contractor just a few tents away from Windbird. They left Australia in October of 2005 at the same time that we left the US, but unlike us, they have been in this area of the world since then and they are just a wealth of information. They are living in a rental home not far from here, so they returned tonight and we had dinner at our same favorite place across the highway. We’ll travel up to their neighborhood for dinner on Friday. We really look forward to getting to know them better.
So stay tuned for the progress report on Windbird. And hope with us that all goes well tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Feb 24, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 125, Year 4: Nuts and Bolts . . . and Screws
Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Weather: No Changes-Beautiful, Hot, and Sunny
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
It was truly a shop ’til you drop kind of day. It is amazing how long it can take to find a few nuts and bolts and screws. And after an entire day of shopping, we found only a few that we need. So the search will continue. We did return to Rolly Tasker to buy new sheets for our headsail and a new halyard for our mainsail. For those of you who are not sailors, lines that take sails up and down are halyards and sheets are those lines that attach to the bottom of sails and pull them from one side of the boat to the other. Even though it was our second visit to Rolly Tasker, we were even more amazed by its size. We also drove back out toward Ratanachai to find a welding shop called Luck Steel. We wanted to get a second quote on having new frames made for our currently bronze ports. We can’t afford new ports, but if we can afford new frames they would look a lot better from the outside. Nop, our stainless guy here at the Boat Lagoon is super expensive (although he does excellent work) so we are just checking to see if we can get good work a bit cheaper.
While out shopping we saw Robyn of Scorpido doing the very last of her shopping before they leave Royal Phuket tomorrow morning. They are returning to Langkawi to stock up on duty-free alcohol and then heading across the Indian Ocean to the Chagos, Seychelles, Madagascar, and then South Africa. Their daughter is getting married in October back in the US so they will leave their boat in Richard’s Bay on the west coast of South Africa and head home for the wedding. Their daughter, Erica, was here recently and bought her wedding dress at one of the kicky little shops in the Royal Phuket complex. So Robyn and Eric will have a little Thailand with them for the wedding in Seattle. Equus will splash tomorrow morning and they are also headed to Langkawi. But from there they will be heading south to through Indonesia to the Kumai, the Komodos, Bali, and then across the Indian Ocean to Chagos and South Africa. So tomorrow morning we say farewell to Scorpido and Equus and hope to see them in the US once we return with Windbird. Fair sailing to both of these wonderful couples. We will miss you.
We started our day with a Skype call to our son Justin and his wife Jo and then to my sister Patsy. Skype is really getting a workout from us here and it is just so wonderful that it is free. Jo is looking a little pregnant and is feeling great. And all is well with my family back in the US, so that is a good thing. We also got an email today from our good friend and birder, Patsy Decker. After the posting of photos with yesterday’s log, she was able to positively identify our little bird friend as a young, male Brown-throated Sunbird. The other birds that I thought were finches are Eurasian Tree Sparrows. So Sawatdii Kha, Patsy.
by Judy Handley | Feb 23, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 124, Year 4: Just Another Day
Date: Monday, February 23, 2009
Weather: No Changes-Beautiful, Hot, and Sunny
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Life really is starting to be a little more normal around here. But since we have never really cared much for ‘normal’ we are both starting to get a little antsy. There’s plenty to do and we do keep busy, but it is at a snail’s pace compared to our normal speed of life. I worked on photos this morning-nothing new about that. And Mark made treks back and forth to the boat to check with Oh on things. We had arranged to meet Patty and Steve of Equus at noon at food stall alley here in the Boat Lagoon and after lunch, Patty and I took off in the jeep to go shopping. They were planning to launch tomorrow morning and Patti needed to buy the final provisions. She has been cruising in this area for two years now and knows all the best places to shop. So the shopping trip was a learning experience for me. We went to Super Cheap which is like a not-so-well-kept Walmart with twice as much stuff and better prices. This place had every Asian fresh vegetable that I know none of us can name, rows and rows of fresh fish, dried foods of every sort, homewares, flowers, material, more plastic than any of us needs, and then it has rows and rows of canned foods. I even found the large containers of McCormick’s spices that I use on the boat. It is time to throw out what we have and buy new next season, so I will be heading back to Super Cheap when it is time to reprovision for another season. We also went to Homeworks and Central Shopping Center. So it was a good afternoon of shopping. We got a call from Steve while we were out saying that boat repairs were not coming along on schedule and they will not be splashing tomorrow. Yesterday Patti found a crack in their engine water pump and the welding on that is taking longer than expected. So they will be around for one more day and then on their way south to Langkawi.
It was after five when I got back to the apartment and I was delighted to see my little bird friend sitting on the balcony rail. Last week when I posted a picture of this little bird, a good friend and birder emailed and said that the bird is probably a Sunbird, maybe an Olive-backed Sunbird. The friend is Patsy Decker and she said she didn’t have enough markers from the photo to positively identify the bird. I’m posting some more bird photos with this log in hopes that it will help Patsy to more precisely identify our little friend.
Boat work is rolling right along, but after inspecting the final primer coat, Oh found some spots that still needed to be filled. So that happened today and he now thinks the final painting on the hull will take place on Thursday. Tomorrow Mark and I will be making the rounds of Phuket suppliers looking for the small stuff-screws and bolts to replace ones that were bent or had to be drilled out when removing things, and a few other pieces of hardware. We need to replace some of the turning blocks and need more cleats. We are also still searching for a transformer, so tomorrow will probably be a shop ’til you drop kind of day.
by Judy Handley | Feb 22, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 123, Year 4: Free and Easy Day
Date: Sunday, February 22, 2009
Weather: No Changes-Beautiful, Hot, and Sunny
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Sail Indonesia gave the tag “Free and Easy” to days that were not planned with set activities. I picked that up and now use it on the rare occasion that we have a day with little to do. We started our day with our morning walk to Windbird and then Mark did work at Windbird for a couple of hours grinding the bronze shoe on the bottom of the skeg that attaches it to the rudder. He also did some epoxy work. A few days ago when he removed the stern tube from the back of the keel, he found a hole in the back edge of the keel that had never been covered because it was covered by the stern tube. So that was the major work of the day, but we also worked on cleaning more stainless hardware from the boat, named and uploaded more photos from Singapore, and went grocery shopping.
We ended the day with a walk over to the Royal Phuket Marina for a taste of the Blues Festival that took place on Phuket Island this weekend. We walked over with our neighbors, Patti and Steve, and Larry who works in the chandlery here. Larry is from Michigan but lived in New Hampshire just before leaving the US to head around the world. The company was wonderful and the four groups that performed were great. It was also fun to be there with the rich and famous. The developer of the Royal Phuket Marina was sitting at the table next to ours with his guest, tennis star Martina Navratilova. I had no idea who was sitting at the table until they were gone but at least three different people noted separately that they were sure it was her. I should have known that it was someone important with all of the camera crews taking pictures. We listened to the Rich Harper Band from the US, a young woman singer from Australia named Kniki who sounded like a lot like Janis Joplin, The Blues Machine from Bangkok with the Thai equivalent of Tina Turner, and Ll’l Willie from the UK who plays the piano like Jerry Lee Lewis. We listened, watched, and danced the night away, and when we got home we had a great Skype call with Heather, Jed, and Sam. Sam has been sick with a stomach virus for the past two weeks, but he is starting to recover and he put on quite a show for us tonight. He brings things to the computer screen for us to look at and took us on a trip up to his bedroom to see his fish tank. For his first birthday, he got three fish-Carmen (named after Carmen Miranda because she has such a fancy headdress), Morley, and Smuttynose. They have doubled in size over the past year and it was fun to see them. He also rode his rocking dragon for us and then took us into his parent’s bedroom where he directed everyone to take a nap. He even went back to his bedroom to get his teddy bears. Heather said that he loves pretending to take naps, he just doesn’t like to really go to sleep. That’s our Sam.
by Judy Handley | Feb 21, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 122, Year 4: The Real Primer Story
Date: Saturday, February 21, 2009
Weather: 84 degrees F (feels like 89); 65 % relative humidity
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Windbird’s primer coats are completed and no one was more surprised than us. We contracted for four primer coats and thought that meant painting and then sanding four different times. But what it really means is two primer coats on one day, a week of sanding, and then two more primer coats. Windbird is a bit of a needy case and actually got eight coats of primer. We learned today that last Saturday she got four coats top and bottom. Yesterday she got four more on top and today four more on the
bottom. This was necessary because the gelcoat was so degraded that she needed a little more primer than normal. Now, if everything looks good once she is dried, the sanding will begin on Monday and by mid- to late next week the hull could be painted with the final coats. After sanding and before painting, everything will be cleaned, all tape and plastic will come off, and all new will go on. Oh says you can’t afford to have a speck of dust lurking anywhere, so he will be spending more time here
next week making sure everything is done right. They will do all three coats of AwlGrip on the hull all on one day. Oh says you work fast, leaving only twenty-five minutes between coats, so no one gets a break, not even to eat, until the job is done. Someone is spraying paint continuously until the job is done. Today was a perfect day for painting, albeit a little hot, but when I look at the weather for the week, precipitation is predicted. We are under a tent, but I’m hoping it is a dry day when the painting happens.
We had time to talk to Oh late this afternoon and learn something about his business and his life. He is the same age as our daughter Heather and has had Oh Services for seven years. For five years prior to that he worked for other people, starting out as a boat boy on one of the motor boats that take tourists out to the islands. He worked on bigger boats and had to do things like wear an oxygen mask while going down in huge diesel fuel tanks to clean them. While doing this, he watched other
people painting boats and decided that he would rather be doing that. He learned by reading the Jotun (the major paint company in this part of the world) and AwlGrip pamphlets on painting, asking questions, watching others work, and experimenting on his own. He says he is still learning and hopes that will continue learning until the day he dies. He proudly showed us his newest piece of equipment, an attachment to the air compressor. The air compressor is huge and looks brand new, but Oh said
he was having trouble getting some water and sometimes oil in the air even with the very expensive filtering system. He called the company and they said the newest technology to avoid this is a new air dryer. So Oh bought one and anytime the air compressor is running, the air dryer is working as well. Oh lives up near Yacht Haven and right now he has four different jobs going. He’s a painter but offers all kinds of yacht services. He has one other paint job going right now but says he will be
spending most of next week with Windbird when the final painting begins. We have full confidence in his crew but Oh is the one with most paint experience and it will be nice to have him here on the final coat paint days. The hull will be painted, then the cabin top and cockpit, and finally the last-certainly not all next week. But things are moving along quickly.
We spent time this afternoon trying to book a flight back to the US. Mark got so frustrated trying to do this online that we decided to walk over to a booking agency here in the Boat Lagoon. We found a woman who was very helpful and helped us figure out why we had not been able to do this online. We were trying to book a flight home in April with a return the end of November. This is more than six months and the tickets from Asian Air and China Air are only issued for six months. We also discovered
that Asiana Air tickets are a set price for a period of time and then they are readjusted. We cannot find out the actual cost of a flight in mid-April until mid-March. So we booked one flight with China Airlines on their one year plan and another with Asiana. This costs us nothing but assures that we have some way to get home. In mid-March when we find out the cost of the Asiana flight, we can decide whether to take that or go with China Air. Thank goodness there are agents who can help us
figure this out.
Our small tasks today started by taking the seized turnbuckles from our rigging over to one of the shops to get them freed up. We then worked on cleaning the turnbuckles for the standing rigging. Tomorrow Mark will work on cleaning the metal parts of Windbird below the waterline. He borrowed Oh’s grinder so he can clean the bronze shoe on the bottom of the skeg. We will also shine up the prop. Tomorrow night we will walk over to the Royal Phuket Marina to experience a bit of the Phuket International Blues Festival. We decided not to go to the festival this weekend in order to conserve funds, but there is “mini” version right next door tomorrow night so we will definitely migrate in that direction. We walked across the hall tonight and met our neighbors who will be going with us tomorrow night. Steve and Patti of Equis are from Sandusky, Ohio, and have come here by way of the Mediterranean. We look forward to getting to know them.
by Judy Handley | Feb 20, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 121, Year 4: Searching for Boat Parts
Date: Friday, February 20, 2009
Weather: What a Scorcher!
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Windbird’s cabin top and cockpit got a second primer coat today and we watched the welder at Nop’s shop grinding and polishing away on our arch. So work continues to happen, but it is time to talk to Oh again to try and better understand the order in which things are being done on Windbird. Since they did a primer coat on both the hull and the cabin top at once the first time, we aren’t sure why they did only the top today. I trust that they know what they are doing, but we would just like to
have a better handle on the process. We’re not sure what will happen tomorrow, but we think we understood Luck to say that the hull will get a second primer coat on Monday. We shall see.
In the meantime, we are trying to track down pieces of equipment and hardware that need to be replaced. The main chandlery here at the Boat Lagoon, East Marine, was placing an order this afternoon and we needed to let them know exactly what we wanted to order. So that prompted our search this morning of trying to find a new winch for the mainsail halyard that will go on the mast. This is the winch that helps Mark raise the mainsail. Mark has been raising the main sail with an antique Lewmar #10 winch with no self-tailing. This makes getting the last couple of feet of sail up very difficult because he has to tail the line himself while turning the winch handle with the other hand. The current winch is only one-speed and that complicates the process further. We could live with what we have had, but when we removed the three winches on the mast, the base plate that the bolts go through to attach the winch to the mast was cracked on two of them. So we started the day by first checking to see what it would cost to repair these bronze plates. All we were told is that it would be expensive, if even possible. So we hopped in the jeep and went from chandlery to chandlery seeing what is available in a larger, two-speed, self-tailing winch. We found one outside the Boat Lagoon for about $100 US cheaper than they can order one for us here. So Mark went back this afternoon and bought the Lewmar 40 at PhuketSail. We will use the old mainsail winch to replace one of the winches with a cracked base, and then replace the third winch with rope clutches as we really never use the third winch for anything except a place to hang lines. So after half a day of searching, we pinned down one purchase.
Then we called Marine Electronics. This is the outfit from which we just bought coax cable. This time we told them we are looking for a step-down transformer, 240 volts to 110 volts. They recommended a 5-kilowatt transformer and say it should run our air-conditioner. We have not been able to use the AC since we left Boston, but as long as we are getting a transformer we figure we might as well get one that can run the AC. Marine Electronics cost is 15,000 Baht or about $420 US. This is a much better price than the quote we got from Octopus Electronics here at the Boat Lagoon. The transmitter from them would cost $1,100. But we have been through this before and nothing has worked for us. This time we will have the transformer installed for us and make sure it is working before we pay for it. We bought one in Singapore that we could not get to work for us, but many pieces of advice later, we think we might have isolated the problem. So we’ll try again.
While all of this searching, pricing, and decision making is happening, I continue to work on editing and naming photos in any spare moments. Today I got all of the remaining photos from Malaysia on the website, so tomorrow I get to start working on Singapore. Going back in time to name the photos is like traveling to all of these places again. The problem is that I have forgotten many of the names of places and have to spend a lot of time looking through my logs, our sailing resources, and the Lonely Planet to piece things together. Maybe I’ll remember them this time. I also continue to do our laundry by hand and today I cut Mark’s hair. These are the mundane aspects of the cruising life, but necessary nonetheless. Tonight Mark and I both had a craving for a good old American bacon cheeseburger with fries. Phad Thai just wasn’t going to do it tonight. So we went to La Taverna for dinner. They offer a great cheeseburger with fries. It hit the spot and then sunk like lead. Maybe we’ll return to Thai fare tomorrow night.
