by Judy Handley | Feb 5, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 106, Year 4: Trip to Yacht Haven
Date: Thursday, February 5, 2009
Weather: Hot in the Boat Lagoon; Breezy at Yacht Haven
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Work on Windbird is still going really well. Oh’s crew finished taking every last bit of hardware off the cabin top today. They were able to remove things that Mark and I had given up on, so that was good. They then cut thick plastic pieces to just fill every opening. They secured them in place with a black silicone caulk to keep dust and water out of the boat but this will allow them to sand and paint right up to the very edge of every opening. They moved so quickly and while I was down in the boat vacuuming debris that had fallen in during the hatch removal process, even the companionway got saran wrapped over and the sanding of the hull began. The only problem was that I was below with no way out. I started banging on the companionway cover, but no one could hear me with all the machines going. I could see one of the crew in the cockpit, but he couldn’t see me through the dark glass. So I just started sliding the companionway hatch, slowly moving the saran wrap cover. The young man saw this and took the tape off the saran wrap covering so I could get out. But it is obviously not going to be easy to get in and out of the boat from now on. In fact, the crew foreman really doesn’t like it when we are inside the tent. He gestures that the sanding dust is not good for us and shoos us out. So I am having a bit of Windbird withdrawal, but as we watch the progress, I’m sure we will settle into a pattern where we can visit Windbird in the early morning or late evening just to check on her. In the meantime, we will continue to work outside the tent on getting all the hardware off the mast.
Mid-afternoon, we stopped our work on the mast and drove north to Yacht Haven Marina. We were to meet Mr. Nop there. He is the gentleman who is trying to persuade us to go with him to get our stainless work done. He speaks English, instantly draws plans for what you want, and promises quality work. Everyone we talk to about him says he is more expensive but he produces really top quality work. He wanted us to come to Yacht Haven to see arches he has built on other boats in one and half-inch stainless. We were insisting on two-inch and that was causing the quote to be just too high. He showed us boat after boat with one and a half-inch and they did all look substantial. So he has won our favor and we will go with him to have an arch built to hold our solar panels and wind generator with dinghy davits for raising the dinghy out of the water from behind the boat. He will also replace our aft life lines with stainless rails. So more money that we don’t have is being spent!
While at Yacht Haven, we visited with Donna and Gerri on Scot Free II. We haven’t seen them since Singapore, so it was great to get together again. We had a great meal at their favorite waterside restaurant and then headed back to the Boat Lagoon. Phuket is a yachting center in Southeast Asia but it really has a hodge-podge of marinas. Yacht Haven is all the way on the north tip of the island and it has no haul-out services. Boat Lagoon where we are has the haul-out services and all of the other boat repair services. It is a marina, but it has no facilities for yachties-no bathrooms, no showers, etc. You can use the facilities at the hotel and at one of the restaurants, but they are far from the boat yard. Royal Phuket is next to Boat Lagoon and has haul-out services but little else. And it costs a fortune to stay there in the water. Then there is Ao Po where we have spent a fair bit of time. It is brand new and has no boat haul-out and no boat services, but the staff is friendly and
the area is beautiful. So no one marina in Phuket has it all.
Tomorrow morning we have arranged to do a Skype call with the Concord Yacht Club that gathers on the first Thursday evening of each month. We will call them at 8 am tomorrow morning which is 8 pm on Thursday Eastern Standard time. That should be a great start to our day. Then it will be back to boat work. The mast should be done tomorrow and then we start going through everything that has been removed to clean the stainless pieces and access which things need to be replaced. We are hoping to do this work over the next two weeks while we also spend time working on naming and posting photos from this season of cruising that have never made it to the website. Then there are the explorations of parts of Phuket that we have yet to see. So we have plenty to keep us busy while Windbird is getting her “facelift.”
by Judy Handley | Feb 4, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 105, Year 4: Another Day of Progress
Date: Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Weather: Partly Cloudy and Very Warm
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Our day started off with a great Skype conversation with my friend Linda back in Concord, New Hampshire. At 7:30 this morning when Mark turned on our computer here, back in Concord at 7:30 in the evening, Linda could see that we were online, so she called us. Linda, her husband Michael, and their teen-aged son Garrett visited us in the South Pacific our first year out. At that time Garrett was struggling with a debilitating disease called Dystonia. Since the surgery, he has recovered almost fully
and is actually going to do some competitive rock climbing this spring. It is just unbelievable how well he is doing since his surgery last March. So it was great to talk to Linda, Garrett, and Mike and to catch up on news from back home.
It was another day of great progress on Windbird. The scraping of the hull is virtually done. So Oh’s crew has made fantastic progress. Mark was successful in removing the binnacle and in removing all the hardware from the boom. I sanded the handrails on deck and am now in a quandary as to what to do with them. When we left Boston, I had fifteen coats of varnish on the handrails. That quickly deteriorated and not until today have I actually been successful in removing all those coats of varnish.
Now my quandary is whether to not to varnish the rails again or to just let them silver like the teak on the deck. I’ll have to make the decision tomorrow but right now I am actually leaning toward letting them silver. Trying to keep up with the varnish on those rails is almost impossible.
Our friend Mr. Nop revisited us this morning trying to convince us to go with him for the stainless work. He had some suggestions on how to cut the price by using smaller diameter stainless on some parts. This brought the estimate down to a very good price, but before we make the decision, we are going to go up north to Yacht Haven Marina with him tomorrow afternoon and see some the work he has done. Muzza from Canvas Creations also came to see us this morning to measure for a quote on redoing
the cockpit enclosure. We’ll get that quote on Friday and make a decision on that.
So lots of work is happening on Windbird. We are super pleased with the progress at this point and just hope that things continue like this. We took time in the late afternoon to visit with Robert and Tina of Shirena at the pool and we actually ended up being invited to Shirena for dinner. Robert and Tina will leave here on Monday so we will probably get together a couple times more before they leave.
Life is busy and good here and we are ever grateful for this little air-conditioned studio apartment. We like being close enough to Windbird to oversee the work but being able to retreat to a dust-free, cool apartment.
by Judy Handley | Feb 3, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 104, Year 4: Great Progress Made Today
Date: Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Weather: Partly Cloudy and Humid
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
We had a great day today. Oh’s crew made more progress than we expected and so did Mark and I. Two-thirds of the starboard side of Windbird has been stripped down to the top layer of polyester resin which is a dark blue. None of us is sure what this level is but it is at least beyond where there is any crazing in the gel coat. Tomorrow the crew will finish the starboard side and continue on to the port side. Before the stripping started, the crew worked on getting the tent over Windbird secured.
We are very pleased with the progress and the quality of the work. Oh comes around a couple of times a day to check on the progress, but there is young man whose name we do not know that seems to be the foreman. He speaks a little English and he is a really hard worker. He is always at the boat when we arrive around 8:30 am and he leaves around 5:30 PM. He had a motorcycle accident a couple of days ago and scraped off a great deal of the skin on his starboard side, but he seems to be healing nicely. Mark and I also made unbelievable progress today. The “sissy bars”, those stainless steel bars on each side of the mast, have been removed, the arch that supports the boom crutch is off, the hatches are all ready to be removed, and the bronze port trim rings are off. This reminds us that there are ports, and ports, and ports-port that you come in to, the left side of your boat, and the window openings in your boat. Someone needs to do a little research on that one and explain to me why all of these are “ports.”
Inside Windbird looks like a disaster area. I cannot imagine, even in my wildest imagination, living aboard Windbird while all of this work is going on. Every thing from the deck is now inside the boat and there is very little room to move about. So this little studio apartment we are in is looking better all the time. This evening we discovered that we have a television and actually watched some BBC news. It has been a long time since we have listened to or watched world news, so we will probably
take advantage of this and actually catch up on what is happening in the world I’m not sure that is a good thing, but probably necessary. We can float around out here and ignore what is happening in the world, but once in a while we need a dose of reality. Or is this reality?
Tomorrow we hope to remove the steering column in the cockpit. This is called a binnacle. Ours is made of aluminum and Mark painted it with great care in 2002. Unfortunately, where the stainless steels bolts go through the aluminum base and where the stainless steel base of the compass touches the aluminum, the paint has bubbled. Oh saw this and offered to paint it for us for free if we were willing to remove it. It is not an easy job as it is the steering column, but tomorrow we will remove
that. It will probably be an all day job. In the late afternoon we are going to meet Robert and Tina on Shirena in the pool at Spice Island. This is the restaurant/bar/pool on their side of the marina. This probably means we will also eat dinner out at Spice Island, but for the second night in a row we cooked on our little deck and that is working out great. I prepare and wash dishes and Mark cooks the dinner. While all of this is happening, I also do the laundry from the day. So at the end of the evening, we have clean clothes and full stomachs and are sitting in air-conditioned luxury. Not sure what more we can ask?
by Judy Handley | Feb 2, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 103, Year 4: A King-Sized Bed and Air Con
Date: Monday, February 2, 2009
Weather: Still Hot and Beautiful-No Change
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
As Mark was cooking dinner on the balcony on our little one-burner Butane stove, he commented on how living in this studio apartment is just like camping out . . . but with a king-sized bed that is wonderfully comfortable and air conditioning that keeps us cool all night long. What a luxury, even if the cooking part is like camping out. The important thing is that it is working for us. In fact, we love being so close to Windbird. It is about 8 pm here right now, and Mark took a walk down to the boat to just “think” about what he wants to accomplish tomorrow. If we had taken an apartment further away, he wouldn’t be able to do this. So waiting for a tiny studio apartment just 300 meters from Windbird was definitely a great choice.
Today Mark worked inside taking down the ceiling in the main cabin and removing nuts from the bolts holding things on deck. I worked on deck removing the bolts. It was a slow day but things are moving along. We had another estimate on the stainless work we would like to do and are now comparing our two estimates and deciding if we can really afford the work. Making the decision to get Windbird painted was really a necessity as the gel coat on the hull was degrading very quickly. But the stainless work we would like to have done is for convenience, so we might have to put that project on hold. Tomorrow we will on removing the big things from the cabin top-the hatches, the stainless bars on either side of the mast, the stainless arch over the aft cabin that holds the boom crutch. While we are doing this, Oh’s crew will continue stripping the boot stripe and the bottom paint down about four inches below the boot stripe. They will also put up the back half of the tent over Windbird tomorrow. We hope to talk to Oh tomorrow and get some idea of the order in which they will be doing things.
We had the most delightful little surprise this evening. Mark tore a page off the notepad we have been using and the next page had some of Sam’s “artwork” and a few stickers he left for us. We had already brought some of Sam’s artwork from the boat and have it stuck in the bottom right-hand corner of the mirror over the desk and now we have some new artwork to put in the left-hand corner. We have many cherished memories from when Heather, Jed, and Sam were here with us, but one of my favorites was when Sam insisted on adding his “notes” to the log when we arrived in a new port. I usually make the log entries on arrival, and Sam tuned right into that and helped. At the end of today’s log, I have posted one of the photos of Commander Sam making his log entries. Too cute.
by Judy Handley | Feb 1, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 102, Year 4: Contacts with Family and Friends
Date: Sunday, February 1, 2009
Weather: Still Hot and Beautiful
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
We continue to enjoy our time working on Windbird and coming back to our studio apartment to cool off. But this morning before we headed off to the boat, we had a surprise Skype contact with my nephew Tommy, his wife Marilou, and their family in Charlotte, North Carolina. My niece Jennifer and her husband Bill were also there, so we got a double contact. This was totally unplanned but a wonderful morning surprise.
We arrived at Windbird just a little later than planned and worked on getting things removed from the deck. Since everything is securely fastened, the removal process is not easy. But we did successfully remove the mast step (major project), the wind generator, and the life raft. While Mark worked on removing these things, I worked on removing layers of 5200 (a caulk that is intended to remain forever) from around all of the dorade vent openings. All of this takes MUCH longer than it sounds, but
the work is progressing.
We took an early afternoon break to go to the local equivalent of a Super Walmart to find a gas or electric burner for cooking in our apartment. Kathy and Pete of Wave Runner went with us and rode in the back of our little truck. We all had lunch in the super cheap Asian food court on the second floor and then continued our shopping expedition downstairs. We returned to the Boat Lagoon and continued working on Windbird. We made contact with Tina and Robert on Shirena and found that they had arrived
at Boat Lagoon while we were out shopping. We had dinner with them tonight at the little Italian restaurant here and had a great time catching up on their travels since we last saw them at Railay Beach.
When we returned to our apartment tonight, we made a Skype call to Heather, Jed, and Sam. We had a great time watching Sam put on his helmet and ride on his tricycle. We saw a bit of Jed as he was trying to measure for wooden foot pedal extensions for Sam’s tricycle and we got to talk to Heather who is feeling much better than she was a week ago when she arrived back in the US.
Tomorrow is the beginning of a new week here. I think we will spend our entire week working on removing all the fittings on Windbird’s deck. Once that is done, we might have a small window when we can take a short land trip. It is really hard to predict what our next couple of months will be like. So you will really have to stay tuned.
by Judy Handley | Jan 31, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 101, Year 4: Life on Land in the Boat Lagoon
Date: Saturday, January 31, 2009
Weather: Still Hot and Beautiful
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Now we have really done it. Yesterday we acquired our little studio apartment and today we rented a little Suzuki Jeep 4-wheel drive truckling-it is a tiny, tiny little truck. So I guess you could say we have become “land lubbers” for a while. For those of you who read this blog for the sailing adventure, you’ll probably want to check in late next fall/early winter when we get underway again. For those of you who just want to know what world cruisers do on a day to day basis, you can stay tuned.
We spent a lovely night in our little studio apartment with air con. Sleeping was definitely much better than the night before on Windbird in the heat. We spent our day on Windbird trying to keep up with the needs of the crew erecting a huge tent over the boat. It took them most of the day to erect the steel structure. They needed us to take down the wind generator and the canvas bimini and side curtains. And then Oh had told us that removing the wind vane steering mechanism from the stern of
the boat was a priority. In order to do this, we had to remove the wooden slats and white wall board in the aft cabin in order to get to the nuts on the bolts that hold the Monitor wind vane on. Taking off the wind vane steering required working, working at getting the bolts that held the wind vane steering on removed. We lowered the wind generator pole but still have to remove the blades from the pole tomorrow. There are a multitude of jobs to keep us busy and everything we do in this heat takes
twice as long as it should. Tomorrow is Sunday and holiday for the crew, but Mark and I will return in the early morning to continue taking all the paraphernalia off the mast. There are steps that go all the way to the top, a radar antenna and a radar reflector, a television antenna that we have never used, winches, cleats, ropeclutches, lights, and on and on. It is a lot of stuff. Then there are the stays and spreaders have to be removed. We’ll do as much as we can in the early hours tomorrow
and then take a break to go looking for a two-burner electric hot plate so that we can cook in our studio apartment. Tonight we had dinner with our friends Pete and Kathy of Wave Runner from New Zealand. They will go shopping with us, and when we return we think Robert and Tina of Shirena will be here in Boat Lagoon. That probably means a late afternoon get-together with them. So tomorrow will be a mix of work and play.
While I write this log, Mark is using the computer program called “Paint” to draw his vision of the stainless work we want to have done. We are hoping to replace the wire life lines from our gates to the stern with stainless tubing that curves to the match the curve of the boat. We also are hoping to add a stainless arch on the back of Windbird to hold the solar panels, the wind generator, and to add dinghy davits. Adding the dinghy davits on a canoe stern boat with wind vane steering on the back
is almost impossible. But we are contemplating getting rid of the Monitor wind vane. We have hardly used it and once we removed it today for purposes of painting, we really liked the look of Windbird without it. We have a complete replacement for our auto helm steering system, so maybe, just maybe we can do without the third back-up. We’re still thinking about what we really want to do. We got one estimate for this work yesterday, but we have another person coming on Monday morning to do a second
estimate. Mark is hoping his drawing of what we want will help to make sure we really get what we ask for.
Getting Windbird ready to be shut up tight for the sanding and painting process is a big job. For most of the day while Mark worked outside, I worked inside gathering the things we will need for the next two months. So far every thing is fitting into our little apartment. Even though it is small, the floor space is bigger than Windbird. But it doesn’t have the storage space. So it is good thing that I am not bringing everything from Windbird!
