by Judy Handley | Mar 21, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 150, Year 4: Waiting for the Weather
Date: Saturday, March 21, 2009
Weather: Rain Overnight and Off and On All Day
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
The good news for today is that the additional bracing on the arch is welded in place. It looks great and the arch is much stronger as a result. The bad news is that the rain just didn’t let up today. There were no periods of sunshine, so the mast and boom didn’t get painted. This means we won’t be able to start reassembling the mast on Monday, so our timeline is being pushed forward. We are not yet in panic mode, but we are getting close. Only Luck and Pong were working today and there wasn’t
a lot to do. It rained overnight and the skies never cleared. There was thunder in the morning and rain off and on all day, but not one bit of sunshine. So Mark and I focused on projects on deck while Luck did things like polishing the prop and cleaning the dinghy and moving it to the back of the boat so we could raise it on our new dinghy davits. We couldn’t do this until the very end of the work day when Nop’s crew finished the arch, but it was exciting to be able to raise the dinghy and see
how that is going to work for us. The other jobs that we tackled today included putting up ceiling panels in the boat, sanding away at the bronze ports to get rid of the layers and layers of green, and once the welding on the arch was done Mark was able to get the wiring run from the wind generator and solar panels down to the deck. For the first time, the work is starting to wear a bit as it just keeps going on and on. But there is light at the end of the tunnel.
We just talked to Jean and Ken on Renaissance 2000 via Skype. They are in the southern most part of the Maldives off the southern coast of India. We could not believe it when we saw them pop up on Skype. We had no idea there was any wireless internet in the Indian Ocean, but now we know there is in at least one location. How fantastic! The inter-connectedness of the world is making it smaller and smaller all the time.
by Judy Handley | Mar 20, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 159, Year 4: A Little Help from Some Thai Friends
Date: Friday, March 20, 2009
Weather: Storms Overnight; Overcast Morning; Sunny Late Afternoon
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Our newest Thai friend and hero of the day is Beei (bee-ah), Oh’s significant other and business manager. She had written a letter for us to take to Immigration. Oh delivered the letter by 10 am and we took off in a taxi to Phuket Town. When we arrived at the Immigration office the captain said we could have our two-week extension but would need to get the letter rewritten. Beei had addressed it to Customs instead of Immigration. So we got back in the taxi and headed for Boat Lagoon. We called
Oh on the way and he said he would have Beei fix the letter and bring it to us at the Boat Lagoon in an hour’s time. She and Oh live near Yacht Haven on the north side of Phuket, so it is at least a 45 minute drive down to the Boat Lagoon. But she did arrive with the new letter and she insisted on taking us to Immigration, another 40 minutes south of here. If there was something wrong with the new letter, she wanted to understand first hand so she could take care of the problem. Thank goodness
she went with us as we ran into difficulties and it was tremendously helpful to have someone with us who could speak and understand Thai. The captain said everything was in order and we could have the two week extension. She then sent us to another desk to be processed. This is when the problems started. We ended up at the desk of the same gentleman who had told us we could only have seven days when we were there on Wednesday. Well, he said the same thing again. Beei talked to him and got nowhere,
but then the captain, who happens to be a woman, came over and tried to set things straight. There was quite a heated discussion, but in the end the captain won out and said we would get the two week extension. But we still had to have things processed through this man who had now ‘lost face’ as Beei said, and he was not a happy camper. He found little things wrong with how other Thai officials had stapled our departure card in our passports, so he unstapled and relocated them and then sent Beei
to get new photo copies of these pages. This nonsense went on for about an hour with Beei being sent to get more and more copies of things. At one point Mark reached over to take back the copies of our passport departure card that we had brought with us and the sergeant actually slapped his hand down on the paper letting Mark know that he want not to touch anything. In the end, we did end up getting a two week extension, but it was from today’s date, not Monday’s date when our original Visa expires.
This means we need to be out of here by April 3. Actually if we don’t leave by April 1 at the very latest, we cannot get out until April 7 because of the tides. But basically we think we have a workable solution but I’m not sure we would have if we hadn’t had Beei running interference for us. So a huge thanks to our newest Thai friend.
When we got back to Windbird, it was almost 4 pm. It was now totally sunny and beautiful, but at the time the crew had to make a decision about doing the final coats of paint on the mast and boom, it was still cloudy. So a decision had been made not to do the final mast and boom painting today, and Luck and Lok were on the cabin top cleaning up the overflow of caulk from installing the hatches. Mark had spent two hours in the early morning just trying to clean one hatch and when Oh came to the
deliver the letter at 10 am we could tell he was not quite pleased with that clean-up. He really is a perfectionist, so we assume he told the crew to finish off the job for us so things would meet his approval. Mark was absolutely delighted as he had found the clean-up process just too tedious. So the assistance from Oh’s crew was our second Thai friend help of the day experience.
We worked on the boat once Beei brought us back from Immigration, but it was late in the day and we didn’t get much done. I’m working on cleaning up the four bronze ports and Mark is working on preparation for the mast to be stepped. All of this will continue tomorrow, but at least we have our weekend and don’t have to travel to Burma. Right now, that extra time seems like a real gift.
And now I must mention my contact with our apartment floor last night. I was dutifully doing my daily exercises with my faithful ab slider. This is a little roller mechanism that I have been using for five years now to help strengthen my abdominal muscles that in turn strengthen my lower back. Last night while I was doing my daily 40 slides something happened which I can’t explain and suddenly I was face to face with our hard tile floor. My nose was smashed as well as my front teeth. There was
unbelievable bleeding but finally things were under control. I’m hoping that my front teeth were just jarred but not actually damaged. My nose does not appear to be broken but it is very tender to the touch. And I have this huge scar on my nose where my glasses slid with the fall. What a stupid accident. But obviously these things happen and I just hope there are no further complications.
by Judy Handley | Mar 19, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 148, Year 4: Work, Work, Work
Date: Thursday, March 19, 2009
Weather: Gorgeous Day; Late Afternoon Sea Breeze; Early Evening Rain
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
I was wrong. The mast and boom were not ready to have their final coat of paint today. They were ready for a second primer coat and they got that since the weather decided to cooperate today. The second primer coat will now have to be hand-sanded again and then the final coats of AwlGrip will be applied. I’m not even going to take a guess at when this will be done, but hopefully soon so we can start putting that complicated mast back together.
Mark was determined to get all of the hatches installed today and even though it meant working until 6 pm, he did it. Driving the stick shift jeep yesterday caused his lower back problems to return today, but there was no stopping him from getting those hatches installed. Before he could install the forward hatch over our v-berth, I had to do a bit of hand-sanding. We have obviously let water sit in the frame at some point and the varnish was a mess. Sanding it before the hatch frame was installed
was so much easier than it would be if I had waited. But that was an unexpected job added to today’s list and now there’s another varnish job waiting to be done. But that can happen now or next year. My next job was to work on our bronze openable ports in the aft cabin. In our main cabin we have six port lights (or windows) that are not openable and have outer rims made of brushed stainless steel. In our aft cabin we have four bronze ports that do open and those bronze ports and I have a continual
battle. Should I let them be green as bronze does or do I continually clean them? They won out the past couple of years, but today I removed everything except the port frames. I will sand off the top layer of green and then use lemon juice and baking soda to clean them. But this time I will lacquer them in hopes that this will preserve them. I am doing this because today we had delivered new port light rims made of brushed stainless steel to replace the old bronze ones. We did this so that
when you look at Windbird, all the port light rims will match. I want to get the inner bronze cleaned and lacquered before Mark applies the outer rims, so I have to move quickly.
In the morning, Oh will deliver the letter we need to take to Immigration. We will take a taxi this time. It costs as much to take a taxi as it does to rent a jeep for the entire day, but I am just not brave enough to drive here and Mark just doesn’t need to drive right now. When we return, we will work on odds and ends jobs that will get us closer to finishing off the reinstallation of everything on Windbird. We will then wait to start the huge job of getting the hardware back on the mast and
boom. While we are waiting, Muzza is working on getting our new cockpit enclosure done and we hope Nop will be back to make the adjustments to the arch.
We heard from Shirena today and Tina and Robert are back in Thailand. They will arrive in Ao Chalong tomorrow and we hope to get together with them soon. We also heard from Double Dutch today. Tory and Piet Hien are on their way to the Maldives. Winds have not been very cooperative so they estimate that the passage from Thailand to the Maldives will take them twenty-one days. That’s the same number of days it took them (and us) to cross from the Galapagos to the Marquesas. But that passage
was twice as many miles. So the trek from here across the Indian Ocean is proving to be challenging one for friends this year.
by Judy Handley | Mar 18, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 147, Year 4: Running About
Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Weather: Threatening Clouds and Haze Mixed with Sunshine
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
The day started with a visit to the Immigration Office in Phuket Town to try and get an additional Visa extension. The Captain said no go, but we were sent to the Marine Office. A few minutes later we were called back to the main office to see the Captain, and this time she said we could have a one-week extension, giving us until March 30 to leave. The cost for this is 1900 Baht each, but since we can do a Visa run to Burma for less than that, including all fees, and get at least fifteen days,
we didn’t accept the offer because Mark is just not sure we can be ready to leave here by March 30. So we are going to go back on Friday with a letter from Oh and hope that gets us fifteen days, but if not, we will be taking a weekend trip north to Burma. That could be a great trip, but with so much to be done here in so little time, it is hard to think about taking a whole day off. It was not until this morning that Mark realized just how few days we do have left before we need to leave here
and get back to Langkawi. If we are not out of here by Tuesday, March 31, we won’t have another chance until April 7 because of the state of the tides. We are flying out of Penang in Langkawi on April 16 which means we need to sail the boat south, get it ready to leave, and get ourselves from Langkawi to Penang by April 15. So the race is on.
The rainy season has set in with daily threats of rain, so even though the mast and boom are now ready to be painted, Luck is not sure when it can happen. Today the mist and dark clouds hung around in the morning and then returned in the afternoon. It looked like it could rain at any moment. So painting could happen as early as tomorrow morning, depending on the weather. I’m hoping for a blue skies and sunshine day so that the painting can be done before the high winds that are reportedly coming
in for the weekend arrive. We did find out this afternoon that the hatches are ready to be installed. We weren’t sure the final clear coat over the aluminum paint was done, but Oh told us this afternoon that both coats happened on the same day. Evidently one coat must follow the other within a prescribed time frame. So our tomorrow will be spent installing hatches, and hopefully the painting of the mast and boom will be done.
Another huge chunk of our day was spent searching for speakers to fit in the openings in what I call the cockpit dashboard. It took a bit of searching, but we finally successful in finding Marine JBL’s that fit perfectly. Well, the fit perfectly after Mark cut out some of the fiberglass enclosure that encased the old speakers. The old speakers were okay but the speaker covers had cracked and pieces were missing. Not a good look to go with Windbird’s new facade.
Tonight we drove further south on the island than we have been before to have dinner with friends of Larry. Larry is from Wolfeboro, New Hampshire by way of Michigan. He sailed here by going through the Mediterranean, heading south through the Red Sea, and then east across the Indian Ocean. He now works in the East Marine Chandlery here at the Boat Lagoon and he has a huge collection of friends. He had arranged for us to have dinner for Jim and Pat, good sailing friends from Canada that now live
here. They both worked for the Canada Film Board before retiring in the 1980’s and starting their cruising life around the world. They bought their home here in 2005. They can never own the land since they are not Thai nationals, but their home is absolutely beautiful. We had a wonderful dinner on their deck by the pool and truly enjoyed the conversations. We didn’t get home until almost midnight, so it is certainly time to say goodnight.
by Judy Handley | Mar 17, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 146, Year 4: Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Weather: Beautiful Day; Late Afternoon Wind with Light Rain
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
We didn’t dress in green today and we didn’t drink green beer, but Mark will sit in our green deck chair and cook dinner tonight. I guess that is our St. Patrick’s Day celebration for this year. Heather wrote that she and Sam will be having green eggs and ham (bacon) for dinner to celebrate. Jed is attending a conference in Washington, DC, this week, so Sam and Heather will be having their celebration alone. Whatever you do to celebrate, enjoy and think of us in a land where St. Patrick’s Day is just not on the celebration list. Boston is a much better place to be for this holiday.
We had a surprise visit late this morning from Donna and Gerry of Scot Free II. They had a good friend from Canada with them. Their friend, Dave, flew in yesterday, and will be with them for a couple of weeks. It was great to see them. If things keep moving along, we might be in the water by the end of the March and see them out in the islands.
This week’s work is slow and arduous. The primer on the mast was hand-sanded today. The crew is using a wet sanding process which is slow but the sanded areas look fantastic. Yesterday they did a fill around the rough areas where the spreaders are connected to the mast and those areas were painstakingly hand sanded today as well. Most of the mast is done, so I would imagine that the mast and boom will both be ready for the next step by the end of the day tomorrow. The hatches look great. Evidently yesterday’s rain didn’t hurt the paint job. I think they still need a coat of clear AwlGrip and then they will be ready to install. My original estimate of all painting being done by this Saturday might have been a little optimistic, but we still have four workdays and we’ll just have to see how much can happen. After all painting is done, the crew will then sand the bottom of the boat. We will do the bottom just before we go in the water. We are really hoping to be in the water by the end of the month, but again that might be too optimistic. Putting the hardware back on the mast could take a much longer time than we are estimating.
So what did Mark and I do today? Mark says we did a lot; I feel like we did very little. But we did make progress. Mark spent the early morning buying wire at Octopus for the lights and solar panels on the arch. While doing that he checked to see if they had speakers that would fit where the old ones were in our cockpit. He then walked over to the marina office to get a letter from them that we will take to Immigration tomorrow. Our Visa is up on Monday and we are so hoping to avoid a trip to Myanmar (Burma) or Malaysia to renew. Our plan is to take our letter from the marina saying we have boat work in progress, along with pictures of the current work, and to ask for a fifteen day extension. When you apply for a Visa at a consulate outside of Thailand, you are given a two month Visa. Then you can apply for a thirty day extension to that from within the country. We are now at the end of that. We know that some other cruisers have been granted a short extension for boat work in progress without having to leave the country and enter again. So we are hoping this can happen for us. If not, we’ll try to do a day trip to the Burma border. It is only five hours from here, whereas Malaysia is about a ten hour drive. So wish us luck at Immigration tomorrow.
While Mark was doing all this I went to the boat and worked on cleaning caulk from the wooden frame that surrounds the compression post on the ceiling of the main cabin. I made a huge mess doing this and then spent a bit of time vacuuming the main and aft cabins. I sanded the companionway that was varnished on Sunday and did another coat of varnish at the end of the day. After searching for speakers, Mark spent the rest of his day installing new wiring for the solar panels, wind generator, and the two lights on the new arch. He got everything connected on the top end but will not run the wire through the stainless tubing of the arch until the modifications are made. That will require welding and we don’t want new wire inside stainless tubes that will be heated by the welding process. I sanded the teak boards that are attached to our sissy bars around the mast and gave those a couple of coats of teak oil as well as varnishing the companionway way one more time.
Most of tomorrow will be spent going to Immigration to try for an extension and doing a bit of shopping while we have the rental car. If time permits, Mark will work on devising a way to get the new wiring from the arch into the boat. This is going to require drilling a hole in the bottom of the lazarette that holds our propane tanks, putting in a tube for the wires, and then completely sealing that tube that the wires run through so that there is no way that a possible propane leak could enter the inside of Windbird. Whew. That seems complicated, but that is what must be done.
by Judy Handley | Mar 16, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 145, Year 4: Whoa-The Weather is Changing
Date: Monday, March 16, 2009
Weather: Beautiful Day; Late Afternoon Deluge with Wind
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
The wind didn’t rock the boat late this afternoon, but it certainly did make our tent structure sway. Near the end of the work day, the skies darkened and an incredible wind swept through the hard stand area. Just as the wind hit, Luck had our crew tightening the lines that hold the tent in place. But it all happened so fast that it was impossible to raise all of the tent sides before the wind literally shook the whole structure. Luck kept the crew working to get painted items in under the boat for protection while they raised the tent sides to keep us from flying away. Mark went down and helped move the newly painted hatch covers to a more protected area. Just as the last pieces were brought in, the heavens opened up and sent a deluge of water our way. Just before all of this happened, Muzza, the man who will be making our new cockpit enclosure, was onboard installing the track for the dodger. It was so unbearably hot and he was hoping for a sea breeze. Even before he left, we started to feel the wind, so I guess you really have to be careful for what you wish. Some reports indicate that the winds will get even stronger toward the end of the week, so we will have to keep a close watch on things until the tent is taken down. With the sides raised, however, it seems very stable. But the bottom line is that the rainy season has arrived early this year. We were hoping to be out of here before the April rains come, but this year I think they are the March rains. Weather is just not something you want to take for granted in this part of the world. You have to be constantly vigilant, so that we will be from now until our arrival back in Malaysia.
The hatches did get their primer and final coat of paint early today. Hopefully the rain did no damage, but we will have to check on that tomorrow. The varnish work I did yesterday was still tacky this afternoon, so I decided to wait until tomorrow to sand and put on the second coat. I did apply teak oil to the handrails on the cabin top this afternoon. Everything looks so sparkly that I just couldn’t bear to have graying teak on the cabin top. Mark rigged up the dinghy hoist on the new arch and the dinghy motor lift. We cleaned and polished the grill and got it back on the aft deck rail. And I cleaned and polished the radar dome and the TV antenna that will go back on the mast. It was an easy day, but we did get a lot of things done.
Mark went to the hospital this morning to get the results of his PSA test and got very good news. The elevated prostate levels were caused by the infection he had and now everything is fine. His back is also doing better today, so I think he is on the road to recovery.
In addition to painting the hatches today, Oh’s crew prepared more of the small cast aluminum pieces that go back on the mast with etching primer. They also applied filler on the mast and prepared it to be sanded tomorrow. We always know when they are ready to sand as they spray the primed area with red or black spray paint. When the red or black is gone, they know they have sanded the whole area. We are hoping that this rainy weather is not going to impede the work left to be done. The forecast is for daily rain during the next few days, but it will probably come in the afternoon or evening. That means any painting will need to be done in the early morning. So on we go . . .
