Day 144, Year 4: Started Late, Ended Late
Date: Sunday, March 15, 2009
Weather: Another Beautiful Day; Not Quite As Hot
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
The difference between 94 degrees F and 91 degrees F here is huge. Today the inside of the boat never got hotter than 91 degrees and it felt so MUCH cooler than the past few days when the inside of the boat hit 94 degrees in the afternoon. During the past week the heat has been so intense that we have had to come home mid-day, shower, change clothes, and do a mid-day laundry as well as one again in the evening. On the days when I get lazy and just do all the clothes at once in the evening, we have nothing dry to wear the next day! So add to the boat work, twice a day hand laundry.
We got a late start this morning. We got up but Mark’s back was not cooperating, so he lay back down with an ice pack. It was after 10:00 when we got to the boat and we launched into the project of Attaching the remaining turning blocks around the mast base. In the afternoon, we installed the new cabin top rope organizers and then decided to do a bit of clean-up. Mark took the tape off all the hardware we have installed. The tape protects the deck from the oozing caulk that must be applied under everything that goes back on the deck and cabin top. I worked sanding the wood surrounding the companionway, swept and then vacuumed the deck, and with Mark’s help wiped down the cabin top. AwlGrip recommends that you carry a small water softener onboard your boat so that the water you use to wipe down the painted surface doesn’t get water spots. I laughed hysterically when I read this, but today I learned why they suggest this. You really can’t just wipe down the paint with a wet cloth because there will be water spotting. I quickly learned to wipe down with one wet cloth and dry immediately with another. We bought baby cloth diapers the other day to use for wiping down Windbird’s newly painted surfaces and I’m really glad we did. You can also use t-shirt material, but we don’t have extra t-shirts onboard, so I guess I’ll invest in more baby diapers for Windbird. After wiping down all the surfaces, it was time for me to varnish the newly sanded companionway. The sun was setting as I did this and Mark got a fantastic photo of the sunset reflecting on the port side of Windbird’s hull. This is a first as Windbird has never been shiny enough to reflect anything since we bought her in 2001.
Mark has spent part of his evening designing the new stainless pieces that need to be added to our arch. We are hoping to meet with Nop in the morning to show him what we need to have added to the arch to achieve stability. Also, in the morning Mark has to return to the hospital to get the results of his tests. After that we will start rigging the arch to raise our dinghy motor and our dinghy. There is nothing pressing that must be done but we will certainly find things to keep us busy, as there are always more things to do. It is when the mast and boom are painted and ready to accept hardware that the rush will be on again.
We had a great Skype call with Heather, Jed, and Sam again last night so I’ve included a few pictures from that with this log, along with photos of Windbird’s latest additions.
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| 090315 Day 144 Boat Lagoon, Phuket, Thailand–Weekend Work on Windbird |
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| 090314 Sam on Skype |
