Day 165, Year 4 Slooooowly Making Progress
Date: Sunday, April 5, 2009
Weather: Another Sunny Day; Late Evening Downpour
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
Oh soooo very slowly we are making progress. The inside of the boat is beginning to look livable and maybe one more day will do the trick. During the early part of the day, Larry came over to see if we needed help. Larry is from Michigan but lived in the lakes region of New Hampshire before starting his trip around the world. He crossed the Atlantic and spent time in the Mediterranean before crossing the Indian Ocean from west to east and has been here for almost a year working in the East Marine Chandlery here at the Boat Lagoon. He has been a source of constant information for us and has become a friend. So he tailed the line for Mark to climb the mast this morning which freed me up to work on the inside of the boat to try and put things away. In the small confines of a sailboat, each and every thing has its place and it seemed like everything we own was just piled in the main cabin. At the end of the day, there is still much to do, but we’ll go at it again the morning.
It was almost noon when Mark and Larry were finished with the mast work and we joined Ley of Crystal Blues for lunch. Then Ley took me food shopping for meat and fresh fruit and veggies. We just need enough for the next eight days, so the shopping trip was quick and it was back to work on the boat. At about 6 pm Larry called to have us come over to E Dock. He was moving his boat with the late evening high tide to a new location. We no sooner got the dock lines attached when a huge rain storm descended upon us. We hopped into Larry’s boat to wait out the storm with Larry and Joe, a young friend of his visiting from the US. We had a couple of beers and still the rain was pouring down, so we finally had to brave the storm and walk to dinner in the rain. Larry and Joe came back to Windbird after dinner and we talked until midnight. Larry is a pilot for Delta but due to tight financial times, they are giving their pilots leaves of absence if they choose. Joe is taking advantage of that and is spending a lot of time traveling the world. This is his second trip to Southeast Asia in the past six months and his next planned trip is an African Safari from Johannesburg to the Serengeti. Last year he traveled in New Zealand and we spent a lot of time talking about that.
Tomorrow Muzza comes with the final installments of canvas for the cockpit enclosure and David Samuelson, the rigger, is hopefully coming to help Mark adjust the rigging. I know the day will go quickly and then on Tuesday morning we will leave the Boat Lagoon with the morning high tide. I’m sure we will be working all the way to Langkawi getting bits and pieces stored away and then we get to start packing and getting the boat ready to leave. I think I’ll enjoy the long plane ride home with nothing to do but sleep and read. In fact, I know I’ll enjoy that.
