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.

090223 Day 124 Boat Lagoon, Phuket, Thailand–Little Birds Out Our Window

090223 Day 124 Boat Lagoon, Phuket, Thailand–Rolly Tasker 2nd Visit