by Judy Handley | Jan 30, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 100, Year 4: Happy, Happy
Date: Friday, January 30, 2009s
Weather: Hot, Hot, Hot in the Boat Lagoon
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Yea! We finally found a place to live, in our original price range, in the Boat Lagoon about 300 meters from Windbird. It is a studio apartment, so it is very small, but we will be able to do some cooking once we go out and buy a hot plate. More importantly, we will be able to stay cool. Last night on Windbird was honestly unbearable. Mark moved from the aft cabin to the main cabin and said it was a little better, but I stayed in the aft cabin and even with two fans blowing directly on me, I
was just too hot to sleep. Plus there were mosquitoes. We had left the boat open until just after dark and that was a bad decision. The mosquitos came in at dusk and lurked in the darkness until I went to bed. Then they decided to make me their target.
But tonight we are in air-conditioned heaven. After working inside a 95 degrees F Windbird all day, we are loving the retreat to this cool little apartment. Things are going well on Windbird, but each task takes so much energy in this heat. The mast is down and all of the lines have been removed and are here on our little balcony waiting to be cleaned. Oh is proving to be even better than we had hoped and his work crew of four young men all seen highly competent. We had not loosened the top-stays
when the crane arrived today which was a big mistake. It took Mark and Oh’s crew sometime to get these loosened while the crane waited. But the crew persisted and got the task accomplished. Tomorrow Mark and I will remove the wind vane steering from the stern and I know that will be a very hot job. We have to dismantle the bed in the aft cabin and remove all lathing strips and wallboard in order to get to the nuts and bolts to loosen the wind vane steering. Then we have to remove the ceiling in the main cabin to get at the nuts and bolts to take off the hardware on the cabin top. And then we have to start taking all the hardware off the mast. We have plenty to keep us busy while Oh and his crew erect the tent and get ready to sand. So life is good here and things are going well.
We are also very happy that Justin and Jo have found us a place to rent when we arrive in New Mexico. That is the cause of the second “happy” in the log’s name. We are happy to have a place to live here while we work on Windbird, and we are very happy to have a place to stay in Santa Fe when we arrive back in the US. Life is good.
by Judy Handley | Jan 29, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 99, Year 4: Windbird in the Boat Lagoon
Date: Thursday, January 29, 2009
Weather: Another Beautiful, Sunny Day in Thailand
Latitude: 07 degrees 57.805 minutes N
Longitude: 098 degrees 23.183 minutes E
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Just before noon today, Windbird negotiated the shallow waters entering the Boat Lagoon. The marina sent a man named Doucette out to meet us and he actually tied his dinghy up to Windbird, hopped onboard, and took over the wheel to make sure we didn’t go aground. The path in to here is unbelievably curvy and very, very shallow going right through the mangroves. Boat Lagoon really is a lagoon and even once inside, it is still very shallow. Doucette knows every shallow spot, so it was nice to have him at the wheel. We made in safely and then had to wait until the magic hour of 1 o’clock to be hauled out of the water. Our paint contractor, Oh, was here and we were very impressed with his knowledge. We still had not paid the down payment to him and we had no idea he would be here to help us. He had the diver in the water marking the actual waterline for us, had made all the arrangements for having the mast removed tomorrow, the scaffolding delivered when needed, etc. He also stayed around and acted as interpreter for us with the young man giving us an estimate on some stainless work. So we are happy with Oh and will enjoy working with him. Our schedule as outlined by Oh is mast down tomorrow, tent erected over the boat in the next two-three days, and then the sanding will begin. In the meantime, Mark and I have to remove everything possible from the deck and cockpit. That means taking out the ceiling in the main cabin so we can get to the nuts and bolts. By the end of the day today, once the boat was on the hard, the temperature inside was 94 degrees F. We just sit here in the sun and bake all day, so we will do as much work as possible in the morning hours.
We still have not found a place to stay in a price range that suits us. We got a call as we were coming in here this morning from Siri telling us that the townhouse we thought we had rented was going to another couple who wanted it for a year. There are still no openings here at the Boat Lagoon and another townhouse that Siri showed us this evening is a little further away and so brand new that it has absolutely nothing in it. She can fix that within a day, but she wants more money for this one-the equivalent of $500 per month US. We told her $400 was our absolute highest price and she offered to get a bed in the townhouse tomorrow and let us stay for ten days free while she puts in curtains, a kitchen, living furniture, etc., knowing that once we are there we will probably stay and pay her price. She is a good business woman. She even had us return to the townhouse that we visited yesterday to see the progress she has made in one day. It was unbelievable. Yesterday that place had a kitchen, a dining room take and chairs, and a sofa that was still wrapped in plastic. Today it had ceiling fans installed in every room with elaborate drapes, two furnished bedrooms, and a third bedroom had a desk and chair so it can become an office. So we know she can get the other townhouse furnished quickly if we are willing to pay the price and be further away. Tentatively, we are going to do this if nothing else comes along tomorrow. We also met a young woman in one of the sales/rental offices here at Boat Lagoon who is trying to help us find something. Her name is Mod and her boyfriend is C. They took us a few miles north to the neighborhood where they live. Houses there go for the right price, but it is just too far away. So the search continues.
We went to a little Italian restaurant here in the Boat Lagoon with Jean and Ken of Renaissance 2000 tonight. It is more expensive than Thai food, but the salad was huge and wonderful and the pizza was really good. It will take us a few days of searching to find the best places to eat for the “right” price, but there seem to be loads of options. I feel more like I am in Florida than Thailand here, but all of the services you could possible need for a boat are here and the workmen are fastidious and very good at what they do. We are surrounded by beautiful businesses topped with townhouses that are dripping with Bougainvillea all centered around the marina and the hotel has a fantastic pool. When your boat is here, you have full use of the pool and hotel facilities. There is wireless internet, although it is not free here. But all in all, it is a beautiful and comfortable spot to spend two months.
by Judy Handley | Jan 28, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand |
Day 98, Year 4: Getting Ready to Leave Ao Po
Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Weather: Another Beautiful, Sunny Day in Thailand
Location: Ao Po Grand Marina, Phuket Island
This morning we took a taxi to Boat Lagoon with Tom of Glass Slipper. We went to the bank first thing to get the money for the down payment on our “home renovations” and then started inquiring about places to we might rent. We got one lead and then another, and started walking the streets outside the Boat Lagoon. We were told to walk and just look for rental signs in windows, so that is what we did. We saw a “For Sale or Rent” sign in a pharmacy. We went in and inquired and this led to a tour
of a 4,000 Baht per month rental ($114 US) with no kitchen facilities. The price was right, but it would be like camping for two months. The other rental is two-story townhouse right across the highway from the Boat Lagoon, where our boat will be. The townhouse has three bedrooms upstairs and a living room and huge kitchen and dining room downstairs. It is brand new, air-conditioned, furnished, and lovely-much larger than we need-but we can rent it for 12,000 Baht per month ($344 US) and we think
that is what we are going to do. The cost of having internet installed is more than the monthly cost of rental, so we will use the internet at Boat Lagoon and a little shop on the main road just around the corner from the townhouses. It is a bummer not to have internet at home, but you can’t have everything.
I am already having withdrawal issues about not staying on Windbird during the next two months of work, but everyone we talk to tells us that it is just too hot to try and stay onboard on land, plus the issues with sanding dust and paint fumes. We will go over every day and oversee the work. We can use the hotel pool and facilities during the day so that should work out just fine for us. There is also a pool at the townhouse. There are many restaurant options at Boat Lagoon from the most expensive
in Phuket to the cheapest. So we will have the option of cooking at home or eating out. It really sounds like a perfect situation for us, so once I get used to the idea that I will not be living on Windbird for a couple of months, I think I can get excited about the alternative. By renting a place across the highway from the Boat Lagoon we will at least be able to get away from the hype and resort to our townhouse in a local neighborhood.
Tomorrow morning we leave Ao Po. We have loved our time here and will probably return here next season before leaving Thailand. But then . . . I have been looking at teaching possibilities at the International School here in Phuket and in Bangkok. We love it here and could possibly spend a year or two here before continuing on. So who knows? We will return to the US for the births of our two grandchildren and then decide what we will do. Today we saw Kathy and Pete of Wave Runner from New Zealand.
They were supposed to leave Boat Lagoon yesterday and be on their way to Oman. But they have made a last minute decision to take the boat back to Rebak Marina in Langkawi, fly home for a few months, and then return and continue on next year. Just a couple of days ago, they were definitely headed to the Red Sea. So things happen and world cruisers sometimes seem a bit fickle. We think we are doing “this”, but we end up doing “that.” So stay tuned for Windbird’s next decisions.
by Judy Handley | Jan 27, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand |
Day 97, Year 4: Images and Contacts
Date: Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Weather: Another Beautiful, Sunny Day
Location: Ao Po Grand Marina, Phuket Island
Another interesting day in the life. The fifty-some boats that arrived here yesterday were all out of the marina and out of sight by 8:30 am this morning. The race start was a bit north of here and it was absolutely amazing how all of the boats left here so quietly. So the first image is to imagine all the racing boats slithering out of Ao Po without making a sound. At 9:15 we were aboard Renaissance 2000 leaving for the Boat Lagoon. We could see the white sails of the racing boats to our north
as we left, but not much else. Renaissance is an Amel 52′ and Jean graciously gave us a tour of the boat. It is a boat with a lot of very nice features–the nicest being that you can easily raise the floor of the cockpit and be in the engine room. What a luxury! We arrived at the outer channel to the Boat Lagoon around 11 am and a man named Doucette came out to greet us and pilot us in. He tied his dinghy to our side, jumped aboard, and then took over the wheel of Renaissance to guide us in through
the very shallow water. So picture that as the next image you need to store.
The path into the Lagoon is long and winding one. It took us almost an hour. We spent some time celebrating our arrival, and then Mark and I went to the marina office while Ken and Jean waited for their 1:00 pm lift out of the water and onto the hard. Mark and I met with Oh, our painter. We had expected to sign our contract with him and pay him the required 40 per cent deposit. We thought he took a credit card, but that was not true. That meant that we will have to get the 40 per cent down payment from the bank. BUT we need our passports to do this and we didn’t have them with us today. So we drank the very cold orange juice Oh had brought as a kind of champagne toast. This is the next image you need to store-the celebration of a coming event. We will have to return tomorrow to the bank at Boat Lagoon to get the money, but the deal has been set with an orange juice toast. The next thing we did was try and make some important contacts. We looked into apartment rentals and car rentals. There are no apartments or cars available until February 1, so we are going to have to arrive on Thursday and live aboard Windbird on the hard until Sunday when we can find out what is available. So the next image you need to store is Mark and I in dismay when we find out that there is no way to book an apartment ahead of time. If everything is full, it is full. Return later when it is not full to see if you can get a room.
After having lunch and going to visit with Eric on Scorpido who is on the hard, we left in search of the car rental. We walked past the hotel as directed and look for anything that could be a car rental place. Nothing. So I walked back to a little shop that I had read about that sells second hand books and charts. My logic being that if you sell books then you probably have information. When I approached the shop, a young man came out to greet me. I asked him where I could find the car rental office and he replied, “Right here.” There are no signs to indicate that this was our place, but once inside, Morn, the shop manager, had the price sheets that we were seeking. As with apartments, there are no cars available right now, but there will be on February 1. But Morn does have a taxi service and he arranged for our trip back to Ao Po.
So we made lots of contacts but we won’t know for sure what the availability will be for a few days. But if all else fails, we will find a way to live aboard Windbird on the hard while the work is being done. At least there is a swimming pool to which we can escape when things get too hot.
Another interesting contact that was made today was with Victor, the young man from Spain that served as crew for us as we transited the Panama Canal. We haven’t heard from him since the transit, but two days ago he emailed that he is in Singapore and is looking for another sailboat adventure. Tom on Glass Slipper, that is here at Ao Po, is looking for crew to go with him from here to Turkey, so we returned Victor’s email to see if he is interested. We received an email from him this morning saying
that he is, so we have connected him with Tom and hope that works out for both of them.
Final image-sorting shells and eating snow. Our grandson Sam is back home on Cape Cod where there is lots of snow right now. This is a very different landscape from Thailand, so he is combining the two by sitting in the kitchen eating snow and sorting the shell collection his daddy gathered while here.
by Judy Handley | Jan 26, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand |
Day 96, Year 4: Happy Chinese New Year from Windbird
Date: Monday, January 26, 2009
Weather: Another Beautiful, Sunny Day
Location: Ao Po Grand Marina, Phuket Island
“According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of 2009 is the Year of the Ox. The Ox, or the Buffalo sign symbolizes prosperity through fortitude and hard work. Those born under the influence of the Ox or Buffalo are fortunate to be stable and persevering. The typical Ox is a tolerant person with strong character. Not many people could equal the resolution and fearlessness that the Ox exhibits when deciding to accomplish a task. Ox people work hard without complaints at work or at home. They know
that they will succeed through hard work and sustained efforts, and do not believe in get-rich-quick schemes.”
So it appears that our grandchildren born this year will be of strong character. We already have one grandchild of definite strong character, so I guess they will just keep on coming. For those of you looking for photos, we have uploaded the photos for all the days that Heather, Jed, and Sam were with us. So to see those photos, all you have to do is go back to the daily blog and double click on the photo at then end of the blog.
Boats streamed in here all day, but it was late in the afternoon when Wings arrived. We went over right away to meet Fred and Judy. They graciously invited us aboard to have a beer and tour their boat. Since we are going to be here in Thailand for the next two months, we prearranged a time to meet when Fred and Judy are not focused on racing. We look forward to that.
We attended the race dinner this evening and had a great time talking with Jean and Ken of Renaissance 2000. We are going to go with them in the morning when they leave here headed for the Boat Lagoon. We will help them get in and then check out the rental possibilities for apartments and cars. Hopefully we will find our way home to here and then ready ourselves for the sail south to Boat Lagoon.
We talked to Heather, Jed, and Sam last night and they are settling in. Heather has been a little sick since returning home and Sam hasn’t been sleeping well. But we can still hope that all soon be well.
by Judy Handley | Jan 25, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand |
Day 95, Year 4: Calm Before the Storm
Date: Sunday, January 25, 2009
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day
Location: Ao Po Grand Marina, Phuket Island, Thailand
It was a quiet day here at the Ao Po Grand Marina, but tomorrow the 50-60 racing boats that are in the Phang Nga Regatta should arrive and things will liven up a bit. The tents have been set up on the marina grounds and a few boats have arrived, but things are still quiet here. But by this time tomorrow night, things should be in full swing here. In the meantime, today we had the guys from Precision Shipwright come out to give us an estimate on building an arch on the back of Windbird to hold
the solar panels and wind generator plus install stainless handrails from the gates to the back of the boat. They will let us know on Tuesday what that might cost. Otherwise, Mark and I spent a quiet day working on our computers. Mark is searching for the ultimate low-cost tickets to get us home in April and I am working on getting photos edited and organized so they can be posted on the website. We have started the uploading process, but it is very slow. We’re hoping to have all the photos
from Heather, Jed, and Sam’s visit on the website by the end of the day tomorrow, but that could be a little optimistic. We shall see.
We took a break in the late afternoon and went up to the Chandara Resort to have sundowners with Jean and Ken of Renaissance 2000. They are headed to South Africa this year but will return to Langkawi in Malaysia to do the final provisioning before taking off in late February or early March. They have done their food provisioning here, but the trip to Langkawi is for the duty-free alcohol. A case of beer here in Thailand costs $20 US but is half that in Langkawi. The same is true for wine. The
cheapest bottle of wine here costs $20-$35 US whereas in Langkawi you can get some good wines for $10 a bottle. So it is worth the trip, especially since there is no chance for reprovisioning in the Indian Ocean except for the Maldives and the Seychelles. Renaissance 2000 will spend two months in the Chagos and there are absolutely no supplies of any kind there. So stocking up here is a must. On Windbird, however, we are thinking in the opposite direction. We will try to use up all our stores
in the next two months while living on land so that when we leave Windbird in April she will be empty.
We’re going to try a Skype call to Heather, Jed, and Sam tonight. It will be their Sunday morning and we’re anxious to hear how they are doing. And then we will try to call Justin and Jo tomorrow morning, which will be their Sunday evening. Otherwise, things here on Windbird seem very quiet-a little too quiet. We got used to having a two year-old onboard and without Sam life seems just a little too settled.
