Author: paulcollister

This morning we woke in Ko Ku Do Yai and explored an old hong that had collapsed in several places and was easy to access from the sea. There were some lovely beaches within, and a little path that led to another nice beach.

This island is home to a lot of bats, but I only saw butterflies. Back to the boat and off into a darkening sky with a rising wind, The wind was from the East, and we were heading mostly South East, so I was hoping to get the new sails up and see how they worked. It would have been a three hour trip by motoring at 5.5 knots and we had 6 hours, so I figured we should take advantage of the flattish seas and a 10 knot rising wind to see how she handles.

As we headed out into the bay, we noticed lots of yachts heading down from the north, later we could see that they were all anchoring at the Paradise resort on Ko Yao, it turns out this was the 20th Bay Regatta, and looks like a great event. Perhaps we could enter this next year.

I was able to get all the new sails flying fairly quickly, the staysail wouldn’t fully unfurl, and a trip to the bow showed me the furling line had bunched up on the drum and looking closer I could see the frame around the drum was egg shaped, must have been bashed at some point. Not a big deal to sort anyway.
So straight away I could feel the difference, we picked up speed quickly and where making  great speed, quite close to the wind. Adjusting the sail trim, I found we could get very close to the wind, much better than before. The wind continued to pick up, and by the time we reached Krabi, we had 20 knots on the nose, and quite big waves, the wind had backed a bit so I had to tack for the last leg, this was great, I went further than I needed to on the first leg as I wasn’t sure what angle the boat would tack through, before it was about 120 degrees, but now it was more like 80 degrees, I need to do more work, but you can see how we easily manage 90 degrees on the track above.
I have found that my wireless wind meter on the masthead is a bit rubbish, I can’t rely on it at all, it was reading 10 knots the other night, when it was howling and the boat was tipping over at anchor, my handheld meter was registering 20-25 knots. Today I had full sail up, too much really for the conditions by the end of the day.
Arriving at Krabi was weird, seeing a road with cars on it was slightly unnerving, we haven’t seen any roads, power cables, vehicles or buildings for ten days now.  We have only seen a sprinkling of people as well, but now it seems like we are in Disney land, we can hear dance/house music blasting from a long shoreline, backlit with hotels and restaurants, fire-eaters are illuminating the beach with their dance routines and we are surrounded by long-tails whizzing around ferrying tourists to the various islands off the coast here.
We have had to anchor some distance from the shore as it is too shallow up close, and as it’s now raining, windy and the sea is a bit choppy, we haven’t ventured ashore. Tomorrow maybe. I would like to see if we can get a berth in the marina here so we can travel into the town and check out the area.

Paul Collister

 

We stayed an extra day tucked behind Ko Yang as the wind was quite strong and gusty from the north, It was a nice enough spot and the anchor was holding well against 20-30 knot gusts.
I have a system I’m using with the anchor now, it seems to work very well, but it still needs refinement. We have a problem that here the currents tend to run quite strong 2-3 knots most of the time, and I think that the long keel shape of our hull dictates that we always face into the current, no matter how windy it gets. So we often find ourselves pointing one way, say east, because thats where the tidal flow comes from, yet the wind from the west pushes us to the length of our anchor chain. This puts the anchor chain under the hull of the boat, this is worst case, more often it’s somewhere between, and the anchor chain is shooting of to the side of the boat, when it’s going to the port side , it rubs on the bobstay and makes a most unsettling noise.
The solution I’m testing, is a line of rope from the fitting at the bottom of the bobstay which goes to a hook on the anchor chain. I might have mentioned this on a previous post, This rope is nylon, about ten metres long and does several things, 1) It acts like a snubber, putting some elasticity into the system, so we don’t see any shock loads. 2) It keeps the chain away from the bobstay so we don’t get any chafing or scraping there. 3) It lowers the angle of the anchor rode to the sea bed effectively increasing the ‘scope’ of the anchor. The scope is all about the angle between the anchor rope and the sea bed, the lower the better. In 5 metres of water, we would want 25 metres of chain for a 5:1 scope, when you add another 2 metres from the water surface to the bowsprit platform, you are effectively reducing the scope to less than 4:1. Anchors work best when the pull is horizontal along the seabed, and worst when the pull is upwards. So far this works well, my only concern is that when the rope is rubbing against the hull it must be chafing on the sharp barnacles there. It doesn’t matter if it snaps, as the slack chain is still there to take up the strain.

On Sunday there was a break in the wind so we left, the forecast was for the wind to stay strong, so our visit to a muslim fishing village was called off, looking at the chart, there didn’t seem much shelter there. We headed over to Ko Yang where we had better shelter, we dinghied around a bit and I finished off the software and installed it on a server back in the UK. I love the idea of working on my two servers, one in Utah and the other in the UK from a cosy anchorage here. The time zones work out well to, I can do my work early before anyone is up back home, do some sailing through the day, then come tea time, take calls and answer emails.
We were joined in this little sheltered cove by several other ‘sunsail’ and ‘Moorings’ charter yachts, 4 boats in total, this is the most crowded spot we have been in so far!

Tuesday was still not great weather, but we decided to race across to the far side of the bay, this is in the region called Krabi, with a town of the same name. We went to the top of the area and found a lovely secluded bay on the SW corner of Ko Chong Lat Tai, where we went ashore. Most of these bays are on uninhabited islands with only access by sea, so very unspoilt, other than debris washed up. Kathy spotted a monkey strolling along the beach. I spotted that we had a deflating tube on the dinghy, that didn’t take long! I have searched for a leak and can’t find one, now I have pumped it up again, it has stayed ok. I’m trying to convince myself that the act of searching for the leak, somehow gained me brownie Karma points with the dinghy and it has self healed, I know it’s a long shot, but what else can I do.

This is a lovely island, we dinghied around the various mini islands that are littered everywhere, we motored into what was probably once a hong, but one side had collapsed exposing it to the sea, we just managed to get the dinghy in over a very shallow rocky entrance, and had a lovely paddle around. Kathy has some good pics.

The next morning (Today, Wednesday) we were approached by local fishermen offering their wares, I bought some big prawns, dinner for tonight. They aren’t that cheap, £5 for 1/2 kg, but they will make a lovely meal, and I don’t begrudge the locals some business at all. It’s not everyday you get to eat prawns that freshly caught.

So we weighed anchor and headed south, we are aiming to be in Krabi town area in a few days time, we may go into the marina there for a day, just to restock on water and fuel. We have two stops on the way, tonight we are at Ko Ku Du YaiOne other yacht just arrived but it’s very quiet here, we are wedged into a very small channel between the two islands. There is easy access to some hongs here, which we will explore tomorrow before heading of to the other famous hong that’s called Ko Hong, not to be confused the hong at Ko Hong (west). I’m getting the hang of the hongs now (groan).

Paul Collister

 

 

 

 

 

Not really, but we dried out last night and sunk into the mud a foot or so. No big deal, should have read the notes I later found that said the tidal range here is a metre higher than the tide tables say. Also the charts are not very accurate in this area.

So Friday morning, up early and a dinghy ride over to our first hong. We beached the dinghy, pulled it up the beech, and failing to find anything to tie it too, I dug an anchor into the shell like sand, better than nothing. The tide was rising and the beech itself would be gone in a couple of hours, so I felt I ought to make an effort.

The entrance to this hong is through a long tunnel, the water was up to our knees, but would be closer to our heads at high water. It wasn’t a long tunnel, but very dark and my torch wasn’t really up to the job. It was a lot better though once I took off my sunglasses Duh. we got half way in, it was very disorientating, as it twisted and turned, all the time the water got deeper. Kathy decided to go back, she’s not mad about walking in water in the dark towards an uncertain future. I waited until I could see her leave the tunnel and proceeded, it was only another 50 meters and I emerged into a lovely grotto like world. An inside out island, basically a cylinder cutout from the island with a small lagoon in the middle, prehistoric and quite enchanting.

Then we had a motor around the island in the dinghy, getting close to the overhanging stalactites. Back to The boat and off to Ko Hang, or Ko Hong as it’s sometimes called.

Here is a hong everyone visits, Kayaks constantly pour into and out of the caves, you can get in by dinghy, but it’s not recommended unless near low water, but what the hell, I gave it a go. It was close getting back, as we only just fitted into the tunnel, with the rising tide. You can see the gap below, thats just about the width of the dinghy and the only way out until the tide goes out in 6 hours time.

Above we returned to a lovely lagoon where we could see Sister Midnight happy at anchor in the distance.

From Phanak, we went up towards James Bond Island, as it has become known since it starred in “The man with the golden gun”, I can only vaguely remember the film, and have no great desire to go to the island, unlike half of the tourists who visit Phuket and Krabi, the day trip boats are constantly arriving here to drop people off.

By now, Saturday, the weather had got worse, the wind was gusting 20-25 knots from the north, and we had a few rainy squalls blow through. We took shelter that night behind an island that should have protected us from the north round to the east. The wind is meant to be in the east, but the wind backed to NNW so the wind blew hard on us, We dragged our anchor, which was fine, as these things will happen, and I thought it good practice to reset it in the dark at midnight with the wind blowing hard. There was a big rock in the water behind us, but I reckoned the wind would take us past it if the worst came to the worst then we had a good mile before the shallows. We re-anchored fine, except I went a little too close to the shore, and was woken at 5am by the distinct feeling I was going to roll off the bed, we had about a 20 deg list to starboard. I checked we hadn’t moved too much, and went to back to bed wondering how 5m minus 2m can equal 1.3m, still all was fine, when I woke up we were floating again. I cooked Sunday breakfast of poached eggs, and we then headed off to the North East for our next destination, near a fishing village built on sticks, but the wind was very strong, the sea a bit rough and there was no guarantee of any great shelter there, so we swung around and came back to anchor just behind a little island called Ko Yang, which is a lovely spot. However the wind is still strong, and little blasts keep hitting us and tipping the boat around. Not enough to spill any of Kathy’s wine fortunately.
By the way, it might seem like paradise out here, but you try finding a plumber in paradise who can come out to the boat and unblock the system! The problem is the usual calcification of the pipes and fittings, blockage removed, and all is good again, but there’s a bigger job there for sometime in the future.
We are going to stay here until this bad patch of weather passes, we will dinghy ashore in a moment to explore this lovely little island and take some pics.

Paul Collister

 

It’s Thursday evening now, internet is poor and writing this blog is affecting our reception of BBC 6 music live, via the net. Life can be so tough at times. We are at anchor on the NE end of Ko Phanak. We left the Marina on Tuesday morning about 11 am. No problem leaving the pontoon, until I tried to motor out and the vibration was a bit much and the speed very slow. I concluded the prop was fouled worse than I thought. We motored slowly around to the fuel dock but the tide was quite low, the fuel dock is right in the shallow area. I would have to approach it from the wrong angle and do the boaty equivalent of a handbrake turn in order to go alongside without going aground, as we approached and the depth dropped to 3 metres with another 50 metres to go, I bottled out. I wasn’t sure how the boat would handle with such a fouled prop, anyway, we have half a tank of fuel, should be good enough for a while.
So off to Ko Phanak, an island with lots of Hongs (big caves with no roof and beaches sort of thing, hong means ‘room’ in Thai), Kathy is going to write more about these, and as we haven’t seen one yet, I wont say anything, but they’re supposed to be amazing.
We stopped for lunch just a little way out from the marina and I dived on the prop, I have a garden hoe like tool which I scrape the prop with, it takes a bit of time as the prop is just a little too far down for me and my snorkel, I’m practicing holding my breath. Once that was done, and we had a little lunch we pushed on. Not much wind so we continued to motor.

You can see our planned route, the black line, and our corner cutting course in yellow. Only a short journey, but it took us into a whole new landscape, we anchored for two nights at the bottom of the island and today we moved to the top on the other side. We haven’t launched the dinghy yet, mostly relaxing and enjoying not being tied to a dock and that routine. This is my favourite part I think, no need to do anything, and nobody is going to bother you, so you really can just swing on the anchor, day in , day out, watching the sun rise and set, followed by a big, nearly full moon right now. A fisherman motored past today in his longtail and waved a fish at me, I shouted no thanks back, as he caught me off guard, and my instinctive british ways have me saying no before I thought it through. Kathy added insult to injury by saying I should have bought it as it was the only way I would get one! So when a few hours later another fisherman waved a fish at me, I called him over and a deal was struck. £6 for a large fish like thing that will make 2 meals, no idea what it was, it looked rather angry, but tasted great.

That’s the moon, special effect caused by Kathy keeping a spare stock of greasy cream on her iPhone lens!

After saying all of that, I have been getting up early and working till late writing software. I took on some data processing and analysis work a few days ago, I’m talking (well my software is) to 3 big wind turbines in Eastern Europe and trying to predict how much electricity they will generate from an amalgam of various weather forecasts available. So basically I’m pulling in 4 different weather forecasts every 2 hours, and predicting the generation by the turbines and providing that data to the Electric grid so they can forward plan. I’m then pulling back the actual power generated and comparing that with the various forecasts to see the errors and trying to work out how to get the forecasts more accurate.
I did ask myself why on earth am I doing work, the answer is mostly that it pays quite well, I did a little bit of work over the Christmas period and so far I have earned enough to pay for the new sails, and all my marina fees for the last 3 months, Also I’m keen to see how practical it is to sit at anchor on a boat in Phang Nga bay, writing software and working with remote data servers and turbines. Quite practical it would appear, assuming you don’t mind paying high 4g data fees, (well £1/day, mustn’t grumble). So it might mean I have to spend a few months extra in this paradise before we move on, as I said, it’s a tough life. 😉

Entertainment has revolved around twitter of late, I’m captivated by POTUS and his tweets, each one, seemingly crazier than the last, being followed by a dissection from the NY Times and others, #FASCINATING, 🙂

Tomorrow we are up early and will launch the dinghy, and explore some hongs before the tour boats arrive and disgorge their scores of day trippers with their kayaks. Later I want to learn how to do some OPC data transfers, any of you techies out there good at this?

Paul Collister

Up early today, it was a very hot night and difficult to sleep, so I took advantage of the cooler morning breeze at 07:30 to get the mainsail on and up, it took over three hours. The bag / lazy jack system had to be installed as I had removed it for repairs, this is a system that provides a big bag arrangement on the boom, so that if I drop the sail quickly, as I might need to if a squall appears from nowhere, then the sail falls into the bag, guided in by thin ropes on each side of the sail. Without this system, the sail might end up all over the deck, and could get blown over the side, worst case.

Also, despite trying hard to get the battens pockets the same size, the new sail had smaller pockets, so the battens had to be trimmed. There are five battens, made of long fiberglass strips, about 1″ * 1/4″ in cross section and run the full width of the sail at various points. The idea is to keep the sail flat and the correct shape, even if there isn’t that much wind, and when there is a lot of wind, they reduce the flogging in the sail and hence increase its longevity.

I have luff lines, leech lines, cunninghams and maybe other bits of rope hanging out the corners of the sail. I’m supposed to be able to pull , or loosen these little ropes, that act like the string on your swimming trunks, to make small adjustments to the sail shape. Im not a performance sailer, so will have to work these out as we go along.

 

M5 ( ex Mirabella) is still here, who is rich enough to have a big yacht just sitting there week in week out not earning its keep!
I took this picture today where you can see the plane they keep on board, many big superyachts have a helicopter platform, for the chopper, which makes sense, as how else is the customer going to get from the airport to the boat! but an airplane, really. I’m assuming it’s one that takes off on water, otherwise, it’s a bit of a daft idea without a runway. I suppose it could use harrier vertical takeoff technology.
I read that no decent superyacht is seen out without its own submarine these days, I don’t need one of those, as I keep proving 😉

Paul Collister.

Kathy thought I should post something to let you all now everything is going ok. Firstly thanks to those who have sent their good wishes to me, I am making an effort to be more careful, but my Ego is already kicking in and it’s becoming obvious that the pontoon was the one at fault 😉

Actually, having gone over the incident a lot, it’s clear to me, that all that happened was I was walking backwards pulling the trolley, when the pontoon got narrower, I was at the edge and so fell in, I couldn’t see that far behind me, and didn’t expect the pontoon to narrow, in fact it’s the only bit of pontoon, in the many hundreds of yards of pontoon here, where there is a narrowing. Regardless I think I have learnt that making assumptions like that are ill advised, especially when walking backwards pulling a trolley.

Yesterday was relaxing, although a few bruises started to surface, however today I’m back to normal, assuming I don’t knock the top of my head, I had an unpleasant encounter with a sweet potato earlier that was protruding from the hanging basket of veg in the cabin.

Today we hired a car as I needed to get my blood pressure checked, it’s back to normal now. I found out that you can go into most chemists and they do it for free. We are going to buy one of the basic electronic testers for the boat, they are only £20 and could be useful when trying to get medical help over the SSB (long range radio), I also bought a load of bandages and bits and bobs, so all in all we are better prepared for any future trolley attacks or pontoon uprisings.

I had two great battery backup devices for the iThings, sadly they are toast now, Sorry Tim and Isaac. Note to self, “there’s really no need to take both out on a shopping trip”.

After the shopping we took a drive down to the coast at Ao Po and saw zillions of tourists disembarking the various day trip boats that had taken them to the islands, on the way there I saw this monkey crossing the road, He didn’t like me stopping at all and stared me out the whole time I was there. This was the first monkey we had seen here, but I gather there are a few around the island.

Just thought I would add this picture of some long-tail boats we saw today, the engine is quite big, probably the same size of most family car engines, and is counter-balanced by the prop and prop shaft and pivots somehow on the block you can see.  I think they must have evolved as a cheap way to add an engine to wooden sail/row boats, plus it has the advantage of being easy to manage in shallow waters, which abound round here.

Apologies for the pasty pictures, I have had to fall back to my iPhone 5s, which has a camera problem, I think I replaced it myself a few years back, and the quality of the replacement is rubbish. So much for ‘Genuine Apple Part’.

Heading back to the marina we stopped off at a local market setup in a roadside field, Kathy has a new book of Thai vegetarian recipes which needed some unknown ingredients. e.g. Galangal, which looks like ginger, but has enough of a difference to require us to seek it out. We did well, and now have a stack of unusual veg ready for the pot. I’m  looking forward to trying these out.

Tomorrow (Friday) I’m going to fit the new mainsail and make sure the battens fit and it goes up ok. will also start to get the boat tidied up, ready for our slightly delayed ‘off’ on Tuesday.

Paul Collister

The title should be spoken in a broad Liverpudlian accent.

I expect that got your attention, hot runners up for the title were:
a) Marinas – 2, Paul’s body – 0
b) Time to look for a quiet office Job
c) Just how difficult can you make ‘getting the shopping home’

We went shopping on Monday, a big shop, as we were leaving Tuesday morning, and would be away, mostly at anchor for 4 weeks. I also picked up the new mainsail and the repaired old sails, ropes, chandlery, tools etc. Quite a load and by the time we got back to the marina it was dark and we had three trolley loads of stuff to get onboard. ( I expect you have guessed the rest by now..)
The tide was out and as it’s spring tides now, the ramp down to the pontoons was very steep, in fact too steep for me to get a trolley down in the normal way, so I went down backwards, so I was pushing the trolley back up the ramp as it was trying to race down. This way I had more control.

The first trolley came down, and at the bottom we took it off to the boat where Kathy and I unloaded, Kathy started stowing the food and kit while I took the trolley back to the car for the second load, it was hard work pushing the empty trolley up the ramp, they are big substantial steel things.That went fine and it was as I reached the bottom on the way back with the full trolley that I tried to do a 3 point turn, and was going a bit fast, I hadn’t remembered or noticed that the pontoon narrows at that point, just behind me so I stepped back into nothingness, yet again!! This time I wasn’t so lucky.
As I hit the water, I realised straight away what I had done, I have form in this area 😉 , what surprised me though was the trolley decided to join me and tipped upside down, smashed me on the head and then pushed me underwater. I tried to swim up for air, but my head hit something hard, and I couldn’t go up, I quickly realised what had happened, the trolley was on my head, and I was inside the trolley cage/frame, so I pushed away and down, swam back a bit and resurfaced, only to find myself still under the trolley. Not so good I thought.
Actually, the next bit was my favourite part, because this scenario is one of the nightmares I used to have about being trapped underwater, and here I was, yet I didn’t feel the slightest bit of panic, I thought, the trolley’s not that big, it’s going to be simple to find the end and get out, which is what I did, another push down and sideways and I surfaced. I must say, that gulp of air I took was lovely. A quick pat on my pocket showed me that I need a new iPhone, and looking around me bags of shopping were floating away. The upturned trolley was floating, it had a buoyancy box underneath it, and lots of bags of shopping were trapped inside. It was dark, so I couldn’t see everything, but I spotted the repaired rolled up Genoa just below the surface next to me, but sinking fast. I grabbed it with one hand and held onto the pontoon with the other. At this point I wasn’t too bothered as it was just material stuff at risk, but I wasn’t going to let it get away easy, being the stingy person I am. I called out for help a few times, hoping the security guard at the pontoon gate would hear me, but no response.
There was a RIB close by, so I swam over to that dragging the genoa through the water, there was enough slack on his painter (tying up rope) for me to pull the end into the water and tie it to the genoa, this is where the ability to do a decent knot with one hand comes in useful, although in retrospect, staying on the pontoon would probably be a better skill I should work on.
I swam back to the trolley, and rested a few seconds, then I got my iPhone out of my pocket and threw it onto the pontoon, not sure why, but it seemed the most respectful thing to do, perhaps, just maybe there was a chance… Really I knew it was over, still it had had a good run. Next my money belt, which had a very soggy passport and a few Baht in it, these dry well, based on past experience 🙂 I then started getting bags ashore that were trying to escape. Finally I thought I need help with the rest so I climbed out and ran back to the boat shouting at Kathy to come quickly. I didn’t tell her why, as I ran right back to the scene, I was worried some passers by would stumble across the submerged trolley and shopping and think perhaps the owner was in the water. As it turns out, just as I turned the corner back towards the ramp, I spotted a family staring into the water. By fluke, it was Jack, Jackie and their son, on their way to dinner. We had made friends with Jack during our time here and he had been very helpful with information about the area. I explained it was my mess and asked for help getting the trolley and sail out, but Jack insisted on inspecting my head, I told him I was OK, but unlike him, I hadn’t noticed all the blood I was covered in. Jack found a hose and washed my head for me, pronouncing that I had a big gash and stitches would be needed. Bugger I thought, it didn’t feel that bad at all. Kathy then arrived, and I think was very shocked at the turn of events. I unpacked some kitchen roll from one of the recovered shopping bags, packaging is so good these days, and made a compress on my head, then I jumped back into the water and pushed the trolley up as Jack & co pulled from the pontoon, next I passed up a few remaining floating bags and we all worked to get the Genoa ashore.
Kathy took care of the trolley while Jack ferried me out to an anchored boat in his dinghy, just a few minutes away, where his friend, who is a nurse lives. Sadly she wasn’t there. Once back ashore, I sent Jack & co on their way and went back to the boat to get cleaned up.
Kathy helped me tie a bandage over the wound, I put some dry clothes on, then we drove down to the local hospital to get the wound looked at.
The Bangkok Hospital, Thalong branch is just great, they had me fixed up without any delay, 7 stitches were needed, along with a tetanus jab and a course of antibiotics. they made me stay for an hour while they monitored my blood pressure, which was a bit high for their liking, but came down over the hour. They charged about £50 for all of that, including a weeks supply of medicine.
We drove back to the boat, finished unloading the car, the ramp was a more gentle slope by now, and decided to have an early night and put the shopping away in the morning.

Two days later
My head is a bit sore now, as you might expect, but I don’t seem to have any other injuries, (self esteem took the biggest hit), most of the shopping survived, I lost about £100 worth of chandlery, and £50 of groceries, we will replace these when I go back to have the stitches removed next week.
I’m going to have to re-assess my risk taking stance, Marinas are dangerous places, I was very fortunate that this happened at slack water when there was no tide, 2 hours earlier or later I would have been swept under the pontoon, or out into the bay. I’m worried that it might be an age thing, Kathy and I think it more likely that I have too much of a ‘Gung Ho’ attitude to risk, it’s a tough one, I am much more careful/risk averse  at sea. Falling off a pontoon, is not something that really rated as such a dangerous thing in my mind before, as kids we loved jumping off them, so perhaps I didn’t take enough care, however this incident has shown me how wrong I was.

I’m taking it easy this week, and hoping we can pick up where we left off next Tuesday, just a week delayed.

On a more positive front, I have started buying fruit & veg I don’t recognise, for example this thing here revealed no clues in its name as to what it might be, until I cut it open and found it to be a sweet grapefruit.
I bought a load of Passion fruits as well, as they taste great in drinks but I have never tried eating one before.

And finally, recent events in America have persuaded me that I won’t be taking the boat there this year. The final decider was that one of Mr Trump’s executive orders removes all my privacy rights as a foreigner, and allows any US official to have the same powers as border guards to investigate/interrogate/detain? me. I hope things change and we are able to visit one day, as nearly all the Americans I know are wonderful good people, and I’d love to meet up with them at some point.

Paul Collister

The weekend is here and we are going to test the new dinghy out today with a little motor around the bay.
I was up early for another coat of varnish, but as it was still dark I setup the webcam to catch the sunrise, I’m not sure this is the best I can do, but it was an interesting experiment. The GoPro is set to take a pic every 5 seconds.

On Thursday I put the two new headsails back on the furlers, I noticed the yankee was sticking as it turned, not a lot, but it indicated a problem, and experience has shown me that a small niggling ‘indication of a problem’ generally turns into a major headache at just the wrong time. Anyway, investigate I did, I climbed the mast and found the top part of the furling gear to be chafing on the halyard, so much so, that maybe a quarter of the halyard was damaged. Dropping the sail, trimming the halyard and then fitting a ‘pendant’ I think it’s called, a short line at the Tack/bottom of the sail, meant I could hoist the sail 6 inches higher, this made the halyard leave the top furling bearing at a better angle, wouldn’t chafe or snag and I was able to grease the bearing while it was down.  With the sail back up, the furler was working much better. I have to say that I don’t think I would like to have to manhandle anything bigger than these sails, I’m getting too old.
The staysail inner stay was too loose, I couldn’t get to the turnbuckle as it’s inside the furling case and this wouldn’t come apart, I spent an age drilling out the screw that had corroded, but to no avail, it was seized on solid. I guessed the rigger must have had ‘a cunning plan’ when he changed the stay, as I couldn’t see that he had had it off either. Anyway after a lot of flapping, I was back up the mast to remove a halyard guide, that allowed me to slide the whole kit up the stay in order to reach the turnbuckle below. (Twice up the mast in fact, the second time with Allen keys instead of screwdrivers! Duh). This worked, and now I feel much happier that I have the correct tension in the mast stays and halyards. The mast also has a slight but pleasant curve to it.
More tidying up and little chores like replacing the blown panel light bulbs on the electric supply panel with new led lights, not really needed but a very nice feeling that they all work like new now. Also I have managed to get a bread starter going, the trick seemed to be water related, or just luck, but I suspected the water here tap or bottled is heavily treated, so I used some rain water I collected, and Voila, instant starter. So today is also bread baking day so we can have nice toast with our ‘Jamie Oliver style’ poached eggs tomorrow. Wish me luck on that one!.

Above is our favourite local restaurant, Papa Mama, just around the corner, you can see the marina in the background across the water.

 

Hi-res pic of the marina lit by the setting sun

Paul Collister.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m cooling on the idea of going up to Japan this year, there are several reasons, the main reason is that I like it so much here, and if we are to make it in time, we would have to skip all of the gulf of Thailand, Borneo and quite a few other enticing areas. however the prospect of tensions between the USA and China are becoming more real, especially over the disputed islands in the South China Sea. The BBC have some information on the disputes here if you are unaware. Trump has stated he will act against China over their claims to territory which is in International waters, which a recent international court decision has found. At the least I expect there to be increased military presence from both sides in the region. We would have to pass through this area on our way north, and the chances of being intercepted, questioned, and possibly detained are too high for my liking. So perhaps it might become clearer over time. I expect Mr Trump will be very busy with all his other schemes, so this may come to nothing anyway. But with our route to the west hampered by the Red Sea pirates, we might have to stay here in the tropics for some time, of course there is always Austrailia and new Zealand to the SW to escape to, if we have to. Life can be tough at times eh 😉

Bowsprit Update
Nada, it’s all done, one last picture and I won’t mention it again, promise.

I will continue to apply varnish every morning I can get up early enough, 5 coats so far, but it’s all back together now. Need to put the sails on, I have a problem with the staysail stay being too slack, I can’t adjust the turnbuckle to tighten it, as the case that covers it is seized on and the grub screw that holds it in place is knackered. Not sure how the rigger managed it. But I need to drill out the grub screw. I filled a few tiny holes in the foredeck, where the PO had changed the windlass foot-switch and left the screw holes from the previous bigger switch open. I also did a great job sealing the windlass to the sprit and now we are 100% watertight on the bow. I took the opportunity to add the 60m of nylon rope to the main anchor rode, and gave the chain locker a good scrubbing and repaired the dividing wall in there.
Our sail repairs wont be ready until Saturday, and I think the harbour master is closed at weekends, so it looks like we will checkout of Phuket on Monday.
Tomorrow our new dinghy arrives,  after a lot of umming and ahhing, we settled on a 2.6m Aluminium base hypalon dinghy. We tried lifting a few of the 2.9m fiberglass bottomed dinghies, and it was a strain, that was without the 30kg a 5hp outboard would add. This dinghy is very light in comparison, so light that our existing 2.5hp motor should push it along, not very fast admittedly, but enough for a couple of old codgers like us. I can always pick up the bigger outboard in Langkawi if needed.
The deciding factor was that I put my back out trying to lift these dinghies, not badly, but I had to accept that most of the time we plan to be hauling the dinghy up exotic beaches in remote places 😉 so weight is a big factor, also as we don’t have dinghy davits ( a crane system for lifting the boat out of the sea onto the mothership) I will be manhandling the boat onto the foredeck most of the time. We shall see how it works out, the biggest problem by far was opening my wallet for this one. The dinghy cost more than my first yacht did to buy. I had no idea, it’s not just here, they are expensive in the UK and America, I was used to paying £500 back home, for something similar in PVC with a soft bottom, but you can multiply that by 5 for Aluminium and Hypalon.  I’m also paying a lot to have custom covers that go on top of the tubes to provide extra UV protection.

This is the kind of dinghy (above) without the covers.

So the list of jobs is dwindling fast. yesterday we stripped all the cushion covers off (12) and sent them away for cleaning, that means I can’t do any more messy jobs without being extra careful (ha, fat chance of that). The new mainsail is waiting collection, the engine has been spun up and is working well, I’m going to give it a major service when I get to Malaysia in April.

Paul Collister.

I gather there is a deep low in the Andaman Sea between us and India causing very unseasonal rainfall. More flooding is happening across southern Thailand, and the local forecast is for rain every day (80%+ chance most days) for another week. Then we are into February and an improvement is forecast, I will believe it when it happens. Saying that, it’s very pleasant regardless, the temperatures are lower, and today we have had a very refreshing breeze making work on the boat more pleasant. However the bowsprit varnish has slipped a day as it rained for most of yesterday.
Still all is going to plan. I’m going to order the dinghy tomorrow, more rope, and some tools I need, then aim to leave next weekend.

The bowsprit replacement is going well, I have the forestay and the staysail stay fitted now, the windlass is on and bolted down, but not wired up, I will do this at the same time as I wire up the pulpit lights.

You can tell it’s high season now, lots of people are arriving daily and heading off on their charter boats, the bar area is full of new groups of smartly dressed, excited and happy looking people arriving every few hours from the airport. They don’t have to worry about rotting bowsprits, or leaking heads.
Talking of which, I decided to fix the drip on the head that has got worse over the last few weeks. I only needed to show it my array of screwdrivers and pliers and that seemed to be enough to cure it, I can’t get it to drip at all now. If only the rest of the boat was so easy. In a similar manner, the SSB radio, which we will use a lot when offshore in the Pacific has been playing up; basically it doesn’t turn on when you press the ‘on’ button, even though it makes a reassuring click. I took it all apart to investigate, and without the case on, it started working. Once re-assembled it was good for a day then the problem came back. I took it apart again and it started working again, I kept it in bits for a week and it worked every time. It’s now re-assembled and continues to work just fine. I don’t think I have seen the end of this problem, but at least I can now get into learning how to use it. It’s channelised for marine frequencies, and the PO has all the channels programmed I might need, like Herb’s net, so I need to find out what the others all do. I haven’t spoke to anyone on it yet, so that’s something to try out soon.

We have a deck wash system on this boat, it’s basically like a garden hose, I can select the source of the water to be either fresh water from the tanks, or sea water from an inlet in the hull. The main use is for cleaning the anchor chain as we pull it up out of a muddy bottom, when it’s muddy it can be very messy, and all the mud will end up in the chain locker, then onto the bilge then the pump & filters that drain the bilge, so best not to take it onboard. Anyway, the pump burnt out, I threw it overboard, just before I realised the parts could be replaced quite cheaply, dam. I wondered about the ‘green-ness’ of throwing it overboard, but we were off an island, and I figured it would be like the ships they sink to create a coral feature to attract growths and subsequent feeding fish, also it was only iron, so it will decay in time. Anyway, to get to the point, I replaced the pump with a more powerful one yesterday, wow, that works really well, it came with a smart springy coiled hose and I can assure you, no more mud is coming onto this boat!

Some bowsprit pictures below. Tomorrow I will put the 4th coat of varnish on, then the platform and pulpit, and maybe put the spade anchor back in place.

Above  you can see the bracket that the staysail attaches to, without going into detail, this was leaking on the old sprit, and may do again, the design is crap, the sail is constantly trying to pull upwards and break the seal around the bolts. Also the bolts are right in the front of the anchor chain locker, which is too small for me to get in. Kathy managed to squirm in most of the way, but strained some muscles resulting in her ending up in some pain later. I fabricated a long spanner from two small spanner for the re-assembly as shown below, it worked remarkably well. I need a decent socket set, will get one in Malaysia when we get there.

So nothing exciting to report, Kathy has more interesting stuff on the way, including a couple of otters that tried to eat her legs.

 

Paul Collister