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.
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| 090220 Day 121 Boat Lagoon, Phuket, Thailand–Cabin Top Gets Final Primer Coats |
