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 . . .
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.
