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.