by Judy Handley | Feb 23, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 124, Year 4: Just Another Day
Date: Monday, February 23, 2009
Weather: No Changes-Beautiful, Hot, and Sunny
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Life really is starting to be a little more normal around here. But since we have never really cared much for ‘normal’ we are both starting to get a little antsy. There’s plenty to do and we do keep busy, but it is at a snail’s pace compared to our normal speed of life. I worked on photos this morning-nothing new about that. And Mark made treks back and forth to the boat to check with Oh on things. We had arranged to meet Patty and Steve of Equus at noon at food stall alley here in the Boat Lagoon and after lunch, Patty and I took off in the jeep to go shopping. They were planning to launch tomorrow morning and Patti needed to buy the final provisions. She has been cruising in this area for two years now and knows all the best places to shop. So the shopping trip was a learning experience for me. We went to Super Cheap which is like a not-so-well-kept Walmart with twice as much stuff and better prices. This place had every Asian fresh vegetable that I know none of us can name, rows and rows of fresh fish, dried foods of every sort, homewares, flowers, material, more plastic than any of us needs, and then it has rows and rows of canned foods. I even found the large containers of McCormick’s spices that I use on the boat. It is time to throw out what we have and buy new next season, so I will be heading back to Super Cheap when it is time to reprovision for another season. We also went to Homeworks and Central Shopping Center. So it was a good afternoon of shopping. We got a call from Steve while we were out saying that boat repairs were not coming along on schedule and they will not be splashing tomorrow. Yesterday Patti found a crack in their engine water pump and the welding on that is taking longer than expected. So they will be around for one more day and then on their way south to Langkawi.
It was after five when I got back to the apartment and I was delighted to see my little bird friend sitting on the balcony rail. Last week when I posted a picture of this little bird, a good friend and birder emailed and said that the bird is probably a Sunbird, maybe an Olive-backed Sunbird. The friend is Patsy Decker and she said she didn’t have enough markers from the photo to positively identify the bird. I’m posting some more bird photos with this log in hopes that it will help Patsy to more precisely identify our little friend.
Boat work is rolling right along, but after inspecting the final primer coat, Oh found some spots that still needed to be filled. So that happened today and he now thinks the final painting on the hull will take place on Thursday. Tomorrow Mark and I will be making the rounds of Phuket suppliers looking for the small stuff-screws and bolts to replace ones that were bent or had to be drilled out when removing things, and a few other pieces of hardware. We need to replace some of the turning blocks and need more cleats. We are also still searching for a transformer, so tomorrow will probably be a shop ’til you drop kind of day.
by Judy Handley | Feb 22, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 123, Year 4: Free and Easy Day
Date: Sunday, February 22, 2009
Weather: No Changes-Beautiful, Hot, and Sunny
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Sail Indonesia gave the tag “Free and Easy” to days that were not planned with set activities. I picked that up and now use it on the rare occasion that we have a day with little to do. We started our day with our morning walk to Windbird and then Mark did work at Windbird for a couple of hours grinding the bronze shoe on the bottom of the skeg that attaches it to the rudder. He also did some epoxy work. A few days ago when he removed the stern tube from the back of the keel, he found a hole in the back edge of the keel that had never been covered because it was covered by the stern tube. So that was the major work of the day, but we also worked on cleaning more stainless hardware from the boat, named and uploaded more photos from Singapore, and went grocery shopping.
We ended the day with a walk over to the Royal Phuket Marina for a taste of the Blues Festival that took place on Phuket Island this weekend. We walked over with our neighbors, Patti and Steve, and Larry who works in the chandlery here. Larry is from Michigan but lived in New Hampshire just before leaving the US to head around the world. The company was wonderful and the four groups that performed were great. It was also fun to be there with the rich and famous. The developer of the Royal Phuket Marina was sitting at the table next to ours with his guest, tennis star Martina Navratilova. I had no idea who was sitting at the table until they were gone but at least three different people noted separately that they were sure it was her. I should have known that it was someone important with all of the camera crews taking pictures. We listened to the Rich Harper Band from the US, a young woman singer from Australia named Kniki who sounded like a lot like Janis Joplin, The Blues Machine from Bangkok with the Thai equivalent of Tina Turner, and Ll’l Willie from the UK who plays the piano like Jerry Lee Lewis. We listened, watched, and danced the night away, and when we got home we had a great Skype call with Heather, Jed, and Sam. Sam has been sick with a stomach virus for the past two weeks, but he is starting to recover and he put on quite a show for us tonight. He brings things to the computer screen for us to look at and took us on a trip up to his bedroom to see his fish tank. For his first birthday, he got three fish-Carmen (named after Carmen Miranda because she has such a fancy headdress), Morley, and Smuttynose. They have doubled in size over the past year and it was fun to see them. He also rode his rocking dragon for us and then took us into his parent’s bedroom where he directed everyone to take a nap. He even went back to his bedroom to get his teddy bears. Heather said that he loves pretending to take naps, he just doesn’t like to really go to sleep. That’s our Sam.
by Judy Handley | Feb 21, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 122, Year 4: The Real Primer Story
Date: Saturday, February 21, 2009
Weather: 84 degrees F (feels like 89); 65 % relative humidity
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Windbird’s primer coats are completed and no one was more surprised than us. We contracted for four primer coats and thought that meant painting and then sanding four different times. But what it really means is two primer coats on one day, a week of sanding, and then two more primer coats. Windbird is a bit of a needy case and actually got eight coats of primer. We learned today that last Saturday she got four coats top and bottom. Yesterday she got four more on top and today four more on the
bottom. This was necessary because the gelcoat was so degraded that she needed a little more primer than normal. Now, if everything looks good once she is dried, the sanding will begin on Monday and by mid- to late next week the hull could be painted with the final coats. After sanding and before painting, everything will be cleaned, all tape and plastic will come off, and all new will go on. Oh says you can’t afford to have a speck of dust lurking anywhere, so he will be spending more time here
next week making sure everything is done right. They will do all three coats of AwlGrip on the hull all on one day. Oh says you work fast, leaving only twenty-five minutes between coats, so no one gets a break, not even to eat, until the job is done. Someone is spraying paint continuously until the job is done. Today was a perfect day for painting, albeit a little hot, but when I look at the weather for the week, precipitation is predicted. We are under a tent, but I’m hoping it is a dry day when the painting happens.
We had time to talk to Oh late this afternoon and learn something about his business and his life. He is the same age as our daughter Heather and has had Oh Services for seven years. For five years prior to that he worked for other people, starting out as a boat boy on one of the motor boats that take tourists out to the islands. He worked on bigger boats and had to do things like wear an oxygen mask while going down in huge diesel fuel tanks to clean them. While doing this, he watched other
people painting boats and decided that he would rather be doing that. He learned by reading the Jotun (the major paint company in this part of the world) and AwlGrip pamphlets on painting, asking questions, watching others work, and experimenting on his own. He says he is still learning and hopes that will continue learning until the day he dies. He proudly showed us his newest piece of equipment, an attachment to the air compressor. The air compressor is huge and looks brand new, but Oh said
he was having trouble getting some water and sometimes oil in the air even with the very expensive filtering system. He called the company and they said the newest technology to avoid this is a new air dryer. So Oh bought one and anytime the air compressor is running, the air dryer is working as well. Oh lives up near Yacht Haven and right now he has four different jobs going. He’s a painter but offers all kinds of yacht services. He has one other paint job going right now but says he will be
spending most of next week with Windbird when the final painting begins. We have full confidence in his crew but Oh is the one with most paint experience and it will be nice to have him here on the final coat paint days. The hull will be painted, then the cabin top and cockpit, and finally the last-certainly not all next week. But things are moving along quickly.
We spent time this afternoon trying to book a flight back to the US. Mark got so frustrated trying to do this online that we decided to walk over to a booking agency here in the Boat Lagoon. We found a woman who was very helpful and helped us figure out why we had not been able to do this online. We were trying to book a flight home in April with a return the end of November. This is more than six months and the tickets from Asian Air and China Air are only issued for six months. We also discovered
that Asiana Air tickets are a set price for a period of time and then they are readjusted. We cannot find out the actual cost of a flight in mid-April until mid-March. So we booked one flight with China Airlines on their one year plan and another with Asiana. This costs us nothing but assures that we have some way to get home. In mid-March when we find out the cost of the Asiana flight, we can decide whether to take that or go with China Air. Thank goodness there are agents who can help us
figure this out.
Our small tasks today started by taking the seized turnbuckles from our rigging over to one of the shops to get them freed up. We then worked on cleaning the turnbuckles for the standing rigging. Tomorrow Mark will work on cleaning the metal parts of Windbird below the waterline. He borrowed Oh’s grinder so he can clean the bronze shoe on the bottom of the skeg. We will also shine up the prop. Tomorrow night we will walk over to the Royal Phuket Marina to experience a bit of the Phuket International Blues Festival. We decided not to go to the festival this weekend in order to conserve funds, but there is “mini” version right next door tomorrow night so we will definitely migrate in that direction. We walked across the hall tonight and met our neighbors who will be going with us tomorrow night. Steve and Patti of Equis are from Sandusky, Ohio, and have come here by way of the Mediterranean. We look forward to getting to know them.
by Judy Handley | Feb 20, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 121, Year 4: Searching for Boat Parts
Date: Friday, February 20, 2009
Weather: What a Scorcher!
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Windbird’s cabin top and cockpit got a second primer coat today and we watched the welder at Nop’s shop grinding and polishing away on our arch. So work continues to happen, but it is time to talk to Oh again to try and better understand the order in which things are being done on Windbird. Since they did a primer coat on both the hull and the cabin top at once the first time, we aren’t sure why they did only the top today. I trust that they know what they are doing, but we would just like to
have a better handle on the process. We’re not sure what will happen tomorrow, but we think we understood Luck to say that the hull will get a second primer coat on Monday. We shall see.
In the meantime, we are trying to track down pieces of equipment and hardware that need to be replaced. The main chandlery here at the Boat Lagoon, East Marine, was placing an order this afternoon and we needed to let them know exactly what we wanted to order. So that prompted our search this morning of trying to find a new winch for the mainsail halyard that will go on the mast. This is the winch that helps Mark raise the mainsail. Mark has been raising the main sail with an antique Lewmar #10 winch with no self-tailing. This makes getting the last couple of feet of sail up very difficult because he has to tail the line himself while turning the winch handle with the other hand. The current winch is only one-speed and that complicates the process further. We could live with what we have had, but when we removed the three winches on the mast, the base plate that the bolts go through to attach the winch to the mast was cracked on two of them. So we started the day by first checking to see what it would cost to repair these bronze plates. All we were told is that it would be expensive, if even possible. So we hopped in the jeep and went from chandlery to chandlery seeing what is available in a larger, two-speed, self-tailing winch. We found one outside the Boat Lagoon for about $100 US cheaper than they can order one for us here. So Mark went back this afternoon and bought the Lewmar 40 at PhuketSail. We will use the old mainsail winch to replace one of the winches with a cracked base, and then replace the third winch with rope clutches as we really never use the third winch for anything except a place to hang lines. So after half a day of searching, we pinned down one purchase.
Then we called Marine Electronics. This is the outfit from which we just bought coax cable. This time we told them we are looking for a step-down transformer, 240 volts to 110 volts. They recommended a 5-kilowatt transformer and say it should run our air-conditioner. We have not been able to use the AC since we left Boston, but as long as we are getting a transformer we figure we might as well get one that can run the AC. Marine Electronics cost is 15,000 Baht or about $420 US. This is a much better price than the quote we got from Octopus Electronics here at the Boat Lagoon. The transmitter from them would cost $1,100. But we have been through this before and nothing has worked for us. This time we will have the transformer installed for us and make sure it is working before we pay for it. We bought one in Singapore that we could not get to work for us, but many pieces of advice later, we think we might have isolated the problem. So we’ll try again.
While all of this searching, pricing, and decision making is happening, I continue to work on editing and naming photos in any spare moments. Today I got all of the remaining photos from Malaysia on the website, so tomorrow I get to start working on Singapore. Going back in time to name the photos is like traveling to all of these places again. The problem is that I have forgotten many of the names of places and have to spend a lot of time looking through my logs, our sailing resources, and the Lonely Planet to piece things together. Maybe I’ll remember them this time. I also continue to do our laundry by hand and today I cut Mark’s hair. These are the mundane aspects of the cruising life, but necessary nonetheless. Tonight Mark and I both had a craving for a good old American bacon cheeseburger with fries. Phad Thai just wasn’t going to do it tonight. So we went to La Taverna for dinner. They offer a great cheeseburger with fries. It hit the spot and then sunk like lead. Maybe we’ll return to Thai fare tomorrow night.
by Judy Handley | Feb 20, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 120, Year 4: Visa Extension Granted-Just Not Long Enough
Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009
Weather: Sunny and Hotter Than Normal-Absolutely No Breeze
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
The main story of today was the trip to the Immigration Office to get a 30-day Visa extension. We would have loved to have gotten a 60-day extension, but there is no such thing. Our current extension makes us legal until March 23 and then we must drive to Myanmar (Burma) or to Malaysia to get another extension. That extension could be for 30 days or for 15, depending on the mood of the border officer. Either will probably do for us as we really hope to be leaving Thailand by the end of the first week of April, but we do find the changing rules and regulations to be a bit frustrating.
On the way home, we stopped by Ratanachai Slipway. It is one of the three haul-out facilities on Phuket Island and one we had not visited it before. It is a huge, commercial facility where all the fishing boats and other commercial boats haul out. We only saw one sailboat there yesterday and the place looked a mess. We have heard horror stories from different people about getting work done there, but it is certainly a cheaper alternative. It was a coincidence that yesterday afternoon I got online to read the logs of a cruising boat that Jean on Renaissance had recommended. The boat’s name is Sunflower and they hauled out at Ratanachai this time last year and had a mostly positive experience. So looks can be deceiving. They did note that the amount of pollution fall-out from the fish factory next door kept them busy cleaning the deck each day, but otherwise things were fine. The reason I was looking at Sunflower’s log is because they have left their boat in Thailand for six months each of the past three years and had horrible experiences with mold and mildew on everything when they returned. They have learned some tricks to help avoid this so I will carefully note their suggestions and use them when we are readying Windbird for her stay here during the wet season. I think we will be looking for a dehumidifier that we can run while we are gone. That should help with the inside problem, but preventing mold and mildew on the newly painted cabin top and teak deck will be a littler
trickier.
In last night’s log we had asked for help from anyone who knows more than we do about coax cable. We had barely sent the log when we heard back from our son-in-law, Jed. He had great information for us that assured us that we had bought the right cable. This morning we got another email from a man who has been following our logs, and it was in even more detail, still assuring us that we had the right thing. It is at times like these that I am in total awe of the internet. Being able to get feedback from competent people so quickly is just amazing. So thanks to Larry and to Jed.
Today there was more sanding, more fairing, and more sanding on Windbird’s hull. The crew is making sure that every little bump and wrinkle is sanded smooth and this takes time. We’re just not sure when the next coat of primer is going on. We thought tomorrow, but Mark talked to Luck today and thinks he was saying Monday. So we shall see. All of the stainless from the aft end of the boat is now down at Nop’s shop. The shop is just a hole in the wall at the end of the marine services next to the hard stand area. There is a jumble of stainless stacked here and there, but we were able to identify Windbird’s stainless and get some photos. The welder and an assistant were grinding away when we were there, making sure all the welds are as smooth as possible. After the grinding will come polishing. We’re not sure when the completed product will be installed on Windbird, but I’m sure those details will be revealed to us as we roll along.
Tonight we went out to dinner with a number of cruisers from here and from Royal Phuket. It was the same group as last night, Susan and Richard of Sea Bunny and Nanette and Stuart of Truest Passion, with the addition of two boats from Royal Phuket. Heather and Dave of Milliways (who thought seriously about buying our Suzuki outboard at Rebak) and Dave and Di of Amoenitas joined us. All of these folks are from the UK, so we are the only non-Brits in the group. We met out on the highway just outside the Boat Lagoon and risked our lives to cross the highway to get to the good, but very cheap restaurant. We asked that they bring us enough food for ten people and left the choices up to the cook. The food was excellent and the cost was only $7 US for each couple. This included as much beer as we could drink. What a great deal. I’d do this every night if I didn’t have to cross the highway. That little trek makes me super nervous, but we were careful and all was fine.
We started our day by packaging up everything in our apartment in plastic bags. We had a written notice from the hotel office soon after we moved in explaining that they would be doing routine bug spraying and fogging on February 5 and February 19. I assumed this meant they would be spraying and fogging inside our apartment, so on both days, I packaged and covered everything. Silly me. We learned today that the spraying and fogging goes on outside the apartment building. I really, really don’t like chemical bug sprays, so I took the extra precaution. Oh well. Now I know the process and won’t have to take the time to package everything in plastic the next time we get a notice.
Our son Justin and his wife Jo are starting to think about the “paraphernalia” they will need when the baby arrives in April. We have been spending time emailing back and we have been searching the web to see the things they think they want. It is very difficult for parents these days to make choices that are environmentally friendly and still affordable. We are enjoying the back and forth on baby “essentials” and extras. So there are lots of things keeping us busy and happy.
by Judy Handley | Feb 18, 2009 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand Refit |
Day 119, Year 4: World’s Largest Custom Built Sail Loft
Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Weather: Sunny, Beautiful Day; Lightening and Sprinkles at Night
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Today we visited Rolly Tasker Sailmakers in Phuket Town. The sign inside claims this to be the world’s largest custom built sail loft with 9038 square meters of floor space. It is huge. It is certainly the largest sail loft we have ever seen and we were amazed at what they offer for sale. Every piece of hardware you might need for sails and rigging can probably be found there. It was truly overwhelming. We were actually out looking for RG 213 coax cable to connect our VHF radio to the antenna. The old cable needs to be replaced and we found out last night that they don’t have it here in the Boat Lagoon and the cost of ordering it was out of sight. We didn’t find coax cable at Rolly Tasker, but we did see Piet Hein of Double Dutch and Steve of Oz and spent an hour or so just looking around. The location of Rolly Tasker was south toward Ao Chalong, so we drove on down there to go to the best dinghy repair shop we have seen in all of our travels. We needed a new handle for the front of the dinghy as our current one pulled out sometime in January. We got that and on the way back to the Boat Lagoon we stopped at Phuket Marine Electronics and found what we (and they) believe to be the equivalent of RG 213 cable. This is labeled as RG 8A/U here but it is much larger than normal RG 8. It looks right, but it was so much cheaper than we expected that we are just not sure. If anyone out there knows more about this than us, please let us know!
Work on Windbird continues. The hull sanding is complete and today was spent sanding the cabin top, cockpit, and the mast and boom. The welder from Nop’s stainless shop showed up today and secured the spot welds so all the stainless could be removed and taken to the shop for final welding and polishing. We worked on hardware inventory and started the hardware cleaning process. There are loads of stainless screws, bolts, nuts, washers, pulleys, cleats, and on and on that need to be soaked in diesel fuel and then cleaned to get rid of the old caulk before they are put back on Windbird with new caulk. Mark started today with the big items like the winches off the mast and will continue on tomorrow.
We had dinner here in the Boat Lagoon tonight with Susan and Richard of Sea Bunny and Nannette and Stuart of Truest Passion. Nannette and Stuart are just here for a few days getting a few repairs and getting the boat cleaned and polished. Richard and Susan are our new neighbors across the way from Windbird. Sea Bunny is a 1985 Halberg-Rassey that needs a new teak deck. They came in on Monday and already the old teak is mostly off. The speed of the work done here is amazing. We did learn at dinner tonight that we need to go to have our Visa renewed tomorrow instead of Friday. Evidently if you go in on the last day before your Visa expires you can sometimes get fined for not coming in ahead of time. Not sure we understand this, but we won’t take any chances. So tomorrow morning we will head back to Phuket Town to get the Visa extensions and then back here for more boat work.
