by Judy Handley | Mar 15, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 144, Year 4: Started Late, Ended Late
Date: Sunday, March 15, 2009
Weather: Another Beautiful Day; Not Quite As Hot
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
The difference between 94 degrees F and 91 degrees F here is huge. Today the inside of the boat never got hotter than 91 degrees and it felt so MUCH cooler than the past few days when the inside of the boat hit 94 degrees in the afternoon. During the past week the heat has been so intense that we have had to come home mid-day, shower, change clothes, and do a mid-day laundry as well as one again in the evening. On the days when I get lazy and just do all the clothes at once in the evening, we have nothing dry to wear the next day! So add to the boat work, twice a day hand laundry.
We got a late start this morning. We got up but Mark’s back was not cooperating, so he lay back down with an ice pack. It was after 10:00 when we got to the boat and we launched into the project of Attaching the remaining turning blocks around the mast base. In the afternoon, we installed the new cabin top rope organizers and then decided to do a bit of clean-up. Mark took the tape off all the hardware we have installed. The tape protects the deck from the oozing caulk that must be applied under everything that goes back on the deck and cabin top. I worked sanding the wood surrounding the companionway, swept and then vacuumed the deck, and with Mark’s help wiped down the cabin top. AwlGrip recommends that you carry a small water softener onboard your boat so that the water you use to wipe down the painted surface doesn’t get water spots. I laughed hysterically when I read this, but today I learned why they suggest this. You really can’t just wipe down the paint with a wet cloth because there will be water spotting. I quickly learned to wipe down with one wet cloth and dry immediately with another. We bought baby cloth diapers the other day to use for wiping down Windbird’s newly painted surfaces and I’m really glad we did. You can also use t-shirt material, but we don’t have extra t-shirts onboard, so I guess I’ll invest in more baby diapers for Windbird. After wiping down all the surfaces, it was time for me to varnish the newly sanded companionway. The sun was setting as I did this and Mark got a fantastic photo of the sunset reflecting on the port side of Windbird’s hull. This is a first as Windbird has never been shiny enough to reflect anything since we bought her in 2001.
Mark has spent part of his evening designing the new stainless pieces that need to be added to our arch. We are hoping to meet with Nop in the morning to show him what we need to have added to the arch to achieve stability. Also, in the morning Mark has to return to the hospital to get the results of his tests. After that we will start rigging the arch to raise our dinghy motor and our dinghy. There is nothing pressing that must be done but we will certainly find things to keep us busy, as there are always more things to do. It is when the mast and boom are painted and ready to accept hardware that the rush will be on again.
We had a great Skype call with Heather, Jed, and Sam again last night so I’ve included a few pictures from that with this log, along with photos of Windbird’s latest additions.
by Judy Handley | Mar 15, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 143, Year 4: We Just Keep On Truckin’
Date: Saturday, March 14, 2009
Weather: Another Beautiful Day; No Rain but Late Evening Thunder
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
We spent much of the morning watching Nop’s crew add the navigation light to the arch, cut the new piece of toe rail to fit, and polish every part of the new stainless and aft handrails. Nop came by at noon to be paid. We explained to him that an engineering friend was coming by later in the day and that following his suggestions we might want some additions made for stability. Because of this we were hesitant to pay him but he assured us that he will add whatever we ask for no additional cost.
As Mark says, all of these guys have gone to the same “business school” as they always say if Madame is not happy they will not be happy and the word will go out that Nop’s work is not good. And he won’t have that, so we paid him upon completion as promised and he said he will be by on Monday morning to see what else we want done.
Mark made a run to the hospital for a follow-up test to last month’s physical and then did some quick chandlery shopping. He went to Rolly Tasker and found the rope clutches we will need for the mast. And he found cabin top rope organizers from PhuketSail. We had ordered these things from East Marine but we just didn’t want to wait any longer to put things back together. When Mark returned, we took down the ceiling panels to install the deck organizers and the turning blocks around the mast.
Once those two things are done, everything but the hatches will have been reinstalled on the cabin top. It seems that putting back is easier than taking off, but unfortunately not easy enough to have prevented Mark from doing something that has really aggravated his back. So we will have to take it a little easier tomorrow and hope it doesn’t get any worse. He has to go to the hospital on Monday to get the results of his test and he might have to see if he can find a good chiropractor.
The new transformer was delivered late morning and installed and running by noon. This was our third try at getting something that works and so far so good. The air conditioner wouldn’t turn on, but that has nothing to do with the transformer. It hasn’t been turned on since leaving Boston, so it probably just needs a little tender loving care. It can only be run when we are in the water anyway, so it won’t help us out while we are on land. We are just glad to finally have a way to get shore
power in countries running 220, instead of the US 110. That has been every country since leaving the US, and will be every country between here and our return, so it was time to get the transformer issue settled.
Late in the afternoon, Stuart and Nannette of Truest Passion came by Windbird to give us advice on the arch. His suggestions went along with Mark’s idea of adding some corner bracing. This is what we see on many boats and Stuart thinks that is all we need to do for the stability issue. But he did point out a problem that we hadn’t anticipated. The stainless pole to hold our wind generator is welded right on to the arch. He says it will have too much vibration and has to be cut off and a new
one made that is L-shaped. It is then attached using rubber insulated U-bolts holding it to the arch. I think we will have to pay for this work, and we might wait until next fall to do this. We’ll make that decision when we talk to Nop on Monday.
Oh’s crew was down to just Pong and Lok; no Luck today. But they did a great job of getting the hatches and other cast aluminum mast fittings wire brushed and coated with the Epoxy etching primer. So they are getting very close to finishing up. I think they will be done by this coming Saturday. It will be an exciting week.
by Judy Handley | Mar 13, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 142, Year 4: Fantastic Friday the 13th
Date: Friday, March 13, 2009
Weather: Another Beautiful Day; No Rain
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Friday the 13th was absolutely crazy aboard Windbird. Down below, Luck and crew were preparing to do the epoxy and primer coats on the mast, boom, and various other pieces. On top, Nop’s welder and his assistant were busy doing the final welds and polishing on the arch while Nop’s engineer was busy designing the bow protector on the front of the boat. In the afternoon, the mast and boom were painted with epoxy and primer. Meanwhile, Mark and I were inside the boat putting in the new walls in the aft cabin and reinstalling the ceiling panels in the main cabin. Some of these panels will need to come out again for the installation of things that are not yet ready to put on deck, but we just really needed to get the pieces up and out of the way. So it was a very busy day, but a good one. We are getting closer and closer to a finished product and it is very exciting.
Tomorrow Ame Marine comes to install a step-down transformer and our new stainless port frames are delivered. We are not sure what is happening with the mast and boom tomorrow but we assume there will be sanding and preparation for the final top coat of paint early in the week. Mark and I will continue our inside and deck top projects. It is just amazing how quickly things are coming back together. We are still waiting for Canvas Creations to come and start making the new cockpit enclosure, but that should be happening soon. So there are many, many projects happening in, on, and under Windbird. Stay tuned for progress.
by Judy Handley | Mar 12, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 141, Year 4: Exhausted Yet Exhilarated
Date: Thursday, March 12, 2009
Weather: Beautiful Day; No Rain
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Unlike yesterday when we took a mid-day break to go shopping, we worked on the boat from 8:30 to 5:30 today and we are exhausted. We didn’t work that hard, it is just the heat. I am so grateful that we have the tent over us. Otherwise I think working on the boat all day would just do us in. But at the same time that we are exhausted we are also exhilarated. Windbird is looking just great. Our crew worked on the mast and boom all day again today and it looks like they are very close to painting.
They will do the epoxy primer first, then the normal primer in the same time frame. The next day they will apply the final AwlGrip coats. At least I think that is what they will do. Oh came by today and brought the AwlGrip Bright Aluminum paint that they will use to paint the hatches. He also brought an AwlGrip Clear and said that the hatches will need the clear coat to protect the surface. So tomorrow or Saturday could be an exciting day.
I have been working so hard that I haven’t taken as many photos as usual, but I will be posting update photos with tomorrow’s log. So many things are happening at once. In addition to Oh’s crew working on the mast and boom, we have Nop’s crew that come and go. They have started but not finished the arch and stainless handrails on the aft part of the boat. But progress is being made. Mark is a little worried that the structure is not as stable from side to side as he would like, but we are not
sure what to do about that. We had Richard from Sea Bunny come over and give us his opinion and he thinks we should just leave things as they are. If there is a problem we can come back next year and have something added to stabilize it if needed. We took wallboard from our aft cabin up to Pro’s Carpentering today. They cut new pieces for us as the old board had been damaged by a salt water leak at some point. We also took an aluminum track that runs across our foredeck up to Nop’s shop this
morning to have it polished. It looked just awful and nothing I could do made it look any better. But by day’s end it is installed on Windbird and looks fabulous. It probably won’t stay that way long, but it sure looks great now. I spent a great deal of my day sanding the handrails on the cabin top and sanding all the varnished wood around the companionway. I didn’t do any varnishing today, but will probably do that at the end of the work day tomorrow. There is just too much dust in the air
in the hardstand area to even think about doing varnish work in the middle of the day.
If you are reading this you are probably totally confused by all the work that is happening. And if you are not, you are better than we are. We can hardly keep up with it ourselves but we are having fun trying.
by Judy Handley | Mar 11, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 140, Year 4: Making Good Progress
Date: Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Weather: Beautiful Day; No Rain; Late Evening Lightening
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Slowly but surely we are making progress. Mark thinks we will have everything back on deck by Saturday which is much faster than we had anticipated. Still I feel like we are moving at a snail’s pace, but the heat simply prohibits moving any faster. Since Mark’s back is still a bit tender, I took on the job of replacing the ceiling panels by myself today. Usually I hold up the pieces and Mark puts in the screws, but reaching over his head is just not a good idea right now. My solo efforts went
slowly, but I have finished the aft cabin and have now moved to the main cabin. Progress is being made. But it is SO very hot down inside the boat that I actually feel cool when I go topsides for a breather. When you feel cool at 90+ degrees, I hate to even think what the temperature is down below. While we are doing this, the crew is down below grinding and sanding away at the mast and boom. They appear to be almost done with that job, so I am just not sure when the three-step painting job
will begin. Because the mast is aluminum, they will first put on an etching primer, then the regular primer, and finally the AwlGrip final coat. We met with Oh this morning to talk about painting the aluminum hatches (something we have added to the job) and about a few details of the boat paint job that we are not totally comfortable with. The overall paint job is fantastic, but there are some rough areas under the varnished cap rail that surrounds the cockpit and on the inside of the cockpit
at the line that joins the cap rail to the painted surface that I am not totally happy with. In their efforts to preserve my varnish job on the caprail, some of the border areas were not sanded down as smoothly as I would have liked. We are still discussing what to do about this. We feel like we are being really picky, but we do want Windbird to be perfect!
Mid-day we took a break and hopped in Ley and Neil’s rental car to do some boat and food shopping. It is a gift to have a free car, so we wanted to make the best use of it.
Mark is working on his computer while I write this log on my computer and he just let me know that last night’s log was post number 1,000 on the website. That’s a lot of logs, but I just can’t imagine not writing a daily record of our voyage. We are going to be back in the US for almost eight months when we fly home in April and I’m thinking about writing a weekly missive while home just to keep myself in the groove. But the real sailing logs will end on April 16 and not begin again until the
1st of December. Then we’ll begin the really long Year 4-5 journey across the Indian Ocean. We have been getting emails from Eric and Robyn on Scorpido who left Langkawi last week headed for the southern Maldives. Their emails are very funny and today’s was the best. They have had almost no wind so they are floating about on a fairy tale “lake” with a full moon guiding them. It is about 1800 miles from here to the Maldives and there are no fuel stops on the way unless you elect to go north to
Sri Lanka and then back south to the Maldives. Most boats can only motor about 1000 miles, so therefore if there is no wind you simply float and hope for wind.
by Judy Handley | Mar 10, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 139, Year 4: Still in Low Gear
Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Weather: Beautiful Day; No Rain
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
We’re still in low gear. Work on the boat is happening but certainly not at the speed we had anticipated. Nop’s guys did show up this morning to start installing the arch and stainless hand rails on the aft portion of the boat. That work took a lot of Mark’s attention as he had to watch and give direction. I stayed in the “shop”-my new name for our apartment. Mark would come back to the “shop” periodically with more things that needed to be cleaned, so I was kept busy all morning. Mark talked to Oh this morning on the phone and then Oh called Luck and Luck was put on the job of preparing our hatches for painting. We had hoped that Oh might have other crew to do this so Luck could keep working on the mast, but we’ll take what we can get.
We walked down to the bottom floor of our apartment building to have lunch at a little French restaurant called The Winch. Mark didn’t feel like he had the time to walk to food alley for lunch and I am sick of ham sandwiches made in the apartment, so the lunch break was fun and the food was great. We installed a couple of items on the cabin top in the afternoon and then went to Ley and Neil’s home for a visit before taking them to the airport for their trip to Singapore. We drove back from the airport in their rental car that we don’t have to return until Thursday, so we can do some shopping tomorrow. We picked up Linda and Pieter of Dutch Touch and drove over to the Royal Phuket Marina for dinner at Limoncello. We traveled across the Pacific at the same time as Linda and Pieter, but we have never really had a chance to get to know them. So we had a great time tonight learning how they met as engineers for Proctor and Gamble. Linda was a design engineer and Pieter had risen to the management level. Their story is fascinating and we are so glad that we got to spend time getting to know them a little better.
Since part of tomorrow will be spent shopping, I have a feeling we will not get up to speed until Thursday. But we will get there eventually. The reassembly process is even more tedious than we anticipated. It is really hard to start punching holes in that beautiful cabin top, but it must be done. Mark did install the little hatch over our galley this morning and he said he felt he had crossed a threshold. We’re not in fourth gear yet, but at least we are not in reverse!
