Under way at least.

Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Sun 3 Apr 2011 16:19
Sunday 3rd March 2225 Local 1625 BST
 
07:43.93N 097:12.46E
 
Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers out there! I am not of course a mother but I have nevertheless had a happy day. As a special treat to you all on this day we have a sort of technical piece. Not too technical though as I don't want to spoil you.
 
After arriving at Phuket on Wednesday and settling aboard again we got stuck into re fitting the mainsail on Thursday. Yes fitting. It is an in-mast furled mainsail. A big one with carbon vertical battens. It had been checked over and titivated, seams reinforced and a new head fitted to it as I did not trust the head of the sail to hold out for much longer given that we have now had the head tear out of our spinaker and our Jib. Poor work in my view. So.... we got the head reconnected to the swivel and the tack re-shackled to the drive at the base of the foil and hoised her up. I say we but of course I was strictly in a supervisory role for now. Having got her hoisted all the way up over 90 foot of mast she couldn't be furled away - the mainsail furler drive would not operate, was clearly mechanically jammed and would consequently trip out the main breaker. After a long laborious process of manually furling her away we investigated the problem and to cut a long story short the main had to be dropped again and the gubbins driving it (I realise I am getting too technical here and it is Mothers Day so hence the use of the non technical word gubbins). So out with the gearbox, and motor after disconnecting from the articulated drive to the foil. (Gubbins). 
 
This job went on through Friday and was a nice welcome for Donald and Murdo who arrived late Thursday night. They took over from the local guys I was using to help and the motor was duly dispatched to a motor rewinders an hour away in old Phuket Town. We finally managed to get that back after me going there on Saturday and re-fitted it with the mainsail snugly back in its big black home at 5pm. This was a coincidence. All the other last minute bits and peices had been taken care of, bills paid etc and we arranged to be on the fuel dock at 1000 this morning. We spent the evening in the luxurious Mama Papa restaurant. The food is to die for. The expensive dishes were just over one pound but most were under a pound. All of this food is turned out from a basic two burner stove. The dishes are wahed in a sort of paddling pool where the kids and assorted family members sit in with the dishes. The toilet is excellent. It has a pan - over a hole in the stilts which drops into the sea below. That would be just about twenty yards inshore from where "Papa" is wading chest deep haling in his gill net ..... I suppose with tonights supper. That kind of "Luxurious". I wanted to treat everyone to this knowing that if I stood my hand here it would be far cheaper than the Maldives, but Murdo the crafty devil spotted the trick and was in there before me with his tenner.  
 
I warned the crew that there would be a series of issues on our first day out after having the boat in a marina for the best part of two months. And so it was.
 
On Saturday night one sump pump would not switch off but was pumping an empty sump the other would not switch off and was not pumping a full sump. Sunday morning the soundings and contours disappeared off my electronic charts and could not be recussitated. The speed log was not working most certainly due to fouling so the resourcehul Donald embarked with Murdo on a mission to extract it while under way (leaving a hole in the bottom of the boat remember) and got it freed up but it never came good in terms of accurate reading. This means apparent wind information is incorrect too. Then Trish went to make lunch, remember we are under way by now, and could not get any water. We had just filled both tanks with 1400 litres of water..... I checked the pump which was running full out with no load. Starting forward I went to check the heads and the first door I opened was like entering a sauna. The hot water pipe to the shower had burst (fifth burst pipe I have had, due to crappy plumbing) and dumped 700 litres of hot water into the bilges in no time. So we are now restricted to one shower a day each. Shocking in this heat! Lunch though was excellent and we had no more hassles for the rest of the day.
 
We had no wind either. So here we are steaming along, JIb and main up and sheeted hard in, heading for the Nikobar Islands en route to the Maldives though we may still stop at Sri Lanka. We do have eight to nine knots of wind right now from almost dead ahead but I will not be slow waltzing with that baby as I just want to get clear of the Bay of Bengal in this, the change over time to the South West monsoon. You may have read of my concerns last week about the establishment of a Westerly 20 knot wind and tropical depressions running aound our intended track. This weather led to serious flooding around Thailand near to Phuket. Near Krabi 50 people were injured and 10 killed in mud slides. The marina we were in suffered damage. The next marina south had one boat sink and another break free to be wrecked on an island shore. This has all given way to very light winds now which are forecast to move to the South west of the secretive Indian owned Nikobar Islands in a couple of days which should help us. We will however keep a very close eye on things.
 
Arrangements aboard are; every man and woman for themselves (for breakfast) Trish is on Lunch and Dinner duty and Donald, Murdo and I will do four hour on eight hours off watches with Murdo kicking off at 1800 and Donald doing 0200 with me sandwiched in the middle starting at 2200. I have never had it so good. Only thing is I have no idea what to do for eight hours off twice a day. The guys are also doing most off the jobs due to being both in their sixties and therefor senior to me. What will I do with all this time?
 
I suppose I will hammer away at the keyboard interfere in other watches, annoy the team back at Gael Force and hopefully blast through some blogs which have been thin on the ground lately. 
 
Good Night from the Andaman Sea.