Of our group a few stalwarts stayed with their boats, either sailing onwards, just staying on board or in marina accommodation; others shipped or are shipping their boats home while some of us left our boats on the hard and hoped the high temperature and humidity wouldn’t take its toll. All stayed in touch through email or group video chats and it still amazes me that you can link up with Sweden, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and the UK all at the same time!

We left Vega at the Phuket Premier Boat Yard under the care of manager Ditapong who had good reviews from the yachting community. He sorted all the customs formalities and subsequent renewal for us. He also arranged for sun netting to cover the boat. Furthermore he procured an air conditioner for us that seems to have been running more or less continuously, despite fevered last seconds attempts to set it on a timer mode. Just before we left our group of three Australian catamarans and ourselves was approached by Bia of Beer Boat Services (based on site to do repainting, repairs etc) who could keep an eye on our boats and wash them down while we are away. It turns out to have been well worth the £25 a month and following a clean and polish in addition Vega is actually looking as good as at any time on our voyage!

The Boat Yard is at an isolated location at the north of Phuket Island. On a flying visit it is easy to assume that there are few services available and that we would need to head down to a marina for any servicing and refitting. Long distance communication and COVID enhanced this impression and we relied upon Ditapong and Bia to keep Vega protected while we were away. As it turns out, after we couldn’t start the engine on our return, there is a marine engineer called Jittakorn with a workshop on site who could have winterised the engine and run it up once a month to keep things in order. He is extremely competent, reasonably priced (cheap by UK standards) and had I known I would have definitely retained his services while we were away. He sorted out the engine after I had replaced the old diesel. It took two and a half days to go through practically everything conceivable to achieve this - fuel pump, injector pump, injectors (black and filthy), compression testing (38, 37 and 38 which apparently is good) and  rocker arms etc etc before it fired up and is now running as smoothly as ever. I like to think it was my final suggestion to run off a couple of litres of fuel to ensure only the new was coming through that did the trick but it was good to have everything checked over. The belt wheels had gone very rusty but all have been cleaned up and the engine is looking it’s normal pristine self again. 

One of the main bank of three batteries was dead and the other two were acquired back in the Caribbean after our Atlantic crossing so I replaced all three. I think the two original batteries were 120Ah but the Caribbean ones were only 105Ah and the one that failed was an addition before we left Blighty that was 115Ah. We now have three 120Ah that may give more time between charges but also require more charging  when low. I will try to reset the Mastervolt battery monitoring system. I needed the help of an electrical engineer to figure this out last time.

Interestingly (at least to me) the battery monitor had warned of low mains input voltage when connected to shore power in Australia and again from time to time subsequently when connected to shore power. I suspected that the mains battery charger was playing up and fully expected all the batteries to be dead after 20 months on shore power (the solar panels were under the sun netting). But no, the monitor was showing 100% charge for the batteries and the mains battery charger was working perfectly and providing a small floating charge. The new regulator I installed in Australia for the solar panels was however showing low battery charge but I assumed this was because the solar panels were not producing much current. It may however have been a more accurate reflection of the state of the batteries.

The starter motor battery is separate from the main bank although can be joined on a parallel circuit with the main bank to start the engine if the starter battery fails. This is what happened in Tonga and I replaced the dead battery with a cheap car battery until we got to New Zealand. Monitoring of the starter battery by Jittakorn showed that it was both being charged and had 80% capacity although it did run down with all the attempts to start the engine.

Almost a week later than expected Vega was moved down to the lifting ramp for her final night in the yard before re-floating (the splash as our Aussie friends call it) the following morning. Third of three boats, the “splash” went smoothly, the engine started first time and by 1030 we were motoring past Endorphin Beta at anchor outside the Yachthaven Marina which is just to the south of the Boat Yard. Colin and Izzy were not on board but we look forward to catching up with them again and then sailing west with them next year. At this point I noticed that someone had removed the plug on the end of our shore power cable! Seems odd as it would have been easier just to unplug the whole adaptor cable.

After we spent a week in the Renaissance Resort and Spa indulgently acclimatising to the heat and humidity (and foolishly taking the battery charge level at face value) and then moving down to Naiang Beach that had been intended to be after Vega was back on the water and down at the Phuket Boat Lagoon Marina it was good to be on board again. Entry to both the Boat Yard and Boat Lagoon is tide dependent and so after the splash an overnight anchorage was needed to await high tide the following morning. We anchored off the beach at xxxxx island and felt more comfortable than at any time since returning. In the late afternoon a thunderstorm was developing and as the wind was coming from the west and not the north east as forecast we were close in on a lee shore and I thought it would be prudent to move further out. Annie was in the middle of a photo shoot with Rosie Rabbit and not best pleased. On pressing the starter button the engine reluctantly turned slowly but just enough to fire up. Our starter motor battery was clearly not as well as it seemed back in the yard.

We are now in the Boat Lagoon Marina which is where you come for major work such as a new teak deck or, as in our case, new standing rigging and a deck sand. The exposed teak decking has raised grain where the softer grain has eroded and this process accelerates as water doesn’t drain so freely from between the raised grain. It should be a simple task to sand (Ms Nai has a world class reputation for woodworking and teak decking) but the sealant between the strips of teak is raised above the level of the teak. If there is not enough remaining between the teak she “will need to talk with me again”.

It is quite unsettling being in an unfamiliar country with work on the boat to sort out and learning how things are done over here and who the best contacts are. However, those who leave their boats without trusting local support may find a lot of cleaning and maintenance to do when they get back. One of the Australian catamarans is looking extremely neglected inside and out and the other day we were called upon to help after someone in the yard noticed smoke coming from an exhaust. It turned out that the bilges had filled with so much water that some of the wiring had shorted and started the engine! It ran until the water pump belt broke, overheated (hence the white smoke) and then the engine stopped - whether by a heat override sensor or by seizing up we don’t know. We switched off all the electrics, disconnected the mains and ran the bilge pumps to pump out what seemed like a vast amount of water! There are people on site that could have prevented all this. We had a “mouse” infestation not long before returning but fortunately Bia was able to trap all seven and get them off the boat and then clean up inside. There is annoying but relatively minor damage and it could have been a lot worse - there are droppings throughout the boat. Golden Spirit on the hard in Malaysia has had a similar issue but the owners have found more extensive damage than us.

We have had the benefit of advice from Colin and Izzy who stayed in Thailand throughout and also from Frank who was on the the Indonesia rally and is now living here. Through Frank we have also met up with some of the ex pat community at a wonderful day long Australian barbecue where fortunately there was enough salmon and prawns for us to disguise our reduced meat eating habits. It seems we have used or are in touch with all the right people for work on the boat!

And finally, for anyone thinking of freighting yacht parts out to Thailand beware, Customs will inspect everything and place a hefty charge on it. Some have found it much cheaper to source locally if at all possible. We had the forethought to include a copy of our customs declaration and exemption for the yacht when sending the original genoa, new charts and other bits of equipment from the uk and this seems to have covered us. To make life on board more comfortable for Annie we also included 18 sachets of yoghurt culture which is difficult to find out here. This caused a problem because the recipient for our parcels was named as the administrator at the marina and it looked like she was importing foodstuffs. She overcame this by confirming me as the recipient and sending Customs a copy of my passport. Two weeks later my electronic customs clearance came through and I had £200 to pay. The explanation for this was difficult to follow in Thai and included numerous charges but the only goods mentioned for the payment of charges were the sachets of yoghurt! Annie will now be floating around the Indian Ocean eating the most expensive yoghurt in the world! To add insult to injury one of the sachets is missing.