Day 169, Year 4 A Star is Born
Date: Thursday, April 9, 2009
Weather: Sunny Day That Went Pear-shaped; Winds S/SE 25 and Stormy
Latitude: 06 degrees 29.091 minutes N
Longitude: 099 degrees 18.117 minutes E
Location: Ko Lipe, Butang Group, Thailand

This is the second log I have sent today. The first was to introduce our new grandson., Ziggy Milo Handley. At that time the skies were blue and things were great. And then everything went pear-shaped. That means everything went to hell in a hand basket. But more about that in a minute. First I must tell you about our little celebration on the beach at Ko Lipe in Ziggy’s honor. Our friends, Donna and Gerry of Scot Free II presented me with jar of marinated artichoke hearts and Mark with a cigar. Now this was a first for Mark, but he actually took one puff in Ziggy’s honor. After dinner, we found a little store that sells the beautiful Chinese lanterns that you light and they soar high in the sky. Donna and Gerry launched the first one in Ziggy’s honor and then Mark and I launched ours. It went up and up and up as if it were trying to reach the full moon. A number of children that had gathered uttered the Thai equivalent of ‘wow’ and we were all in wonder of the light that just rose higher and higher in the sky. All I could think is that a new star is born-our Ziggy.

Now back to the really terrible day of sailing. The winds increased to 25 knots right on the nose, the seas became VERY choppy, and Windbird hobby-horsed into the waves with the bow digging deep bring tons of green water over the deck. We haven’t had conditions like this since our crossing from Norfolk to St. Martin. If anything was going to leak, it would do it today. The good thing is that only the forward cabin hatch leaked (which it always does) and the forward Dorade over the v-berth leaked (which it always does). But then we remembered that we had not caulked the holes in the deck where the toe rail ripped away back in the Java Sea. We had plugged the holes but then cleaned them out to install the new piece of toe rail. That never happened, so we got water in the cabinets on the starboard side of the boat. We had all the sails stored in the v-berth and I thought maybe that was why the bow was digging deep into the water. But I went below and pulled them to the middle of the boat and the result was not much better. All I really did was make a mess of the inside of the boat. Once the weather conditions eased a bit, I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning. At this point it seems that there is so much to do to get the boat ready to leave that we will never make it. But I know we will, hard as it might be.

We didn’t get to check the internet here to see the pictures of our newest grandson, but we will make it to Malaysia tomorrow and be able to get a phone card so we can talk to Justin, Jo, and Ziggy on their Friday evening. We are so anxious to get to high speed internet tomorrow so we can see the photos of Ziggy. We will pass those along when we reach Telega Harbor.

090409 Day 169a Butang Group (Ko Lipe), Thailand–A Star is Born

From 090409 Day 169b Butang Group (Ko Lipe), Thailand–A Star is Born Video