Day 33, Year 4: No Bottom Painting This Year
Date: Monday, November 24, 2008
Weather: Rainy, Rainy, Rainy
Location: Rebak Marina on Pulau Rebak Besar, Langkawi, Malaysia
In Thailand, November can be a rainy month, but December is one of the driest month of the year. Since we are right on the border between Thailand and Malaysia, I suppose the weather should be the same here. But we are certainly getting rain and no sunshine. Hopefully that will turn around in a few days.
We found out early this morning that there is no financial penalty for not hauling out, so our decision was made. We will not haul out now and paint the bottom. That will happen in February, so at least we don’t have to worry about painting in the rain. February is definitely the dry season here. That is also when we will paint Windbird’s exterior if we can afford it. We will get quotes here and in Thailand and make a decision once the facts are in. For now, many of the jobs we have to do are
inside the boat, so today we stayed in and ignored the rain. We did walk over to the marina complex to send and receive emails this morning and search out some things on the internet. When we returned to Windbird, I worked on naming photos and Mark started ripping the floor out of our shower. That is a messy, messy job as it requires grinding old fiberglass and sanding. He’s only halfway there with the removal, so that job will continue for the rest of the week. We are doing this job because
cracks developed in the fiberglass and the shower stall would no longer hold water. I loved using the shower stall as my laundry tub, but I have not been able to do that all this season. So once the repairs are complete, I’ll be back in business.
We are having trouble with Winlink, so if you have sent us an email to our Winlink address in the past day or so, we have not received it. Winlink is the way we send our emails via HAM radio. And when we have high speed internet, we can also send and receive that way. But neither have worked since we arrived here. Hopefully Winlink will only be down for a short time. Without it, we have no way of communicating from sea. You don’t know how much you appreciate something until it is not there.
