At anchor in Telaga

Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Sat 6 Apr 2019 20:29

06:21.778N 99:40.916E

 

Saturday 6th April 2019

 

Distance run: 16.3 nmiles

 

On Thursday, true to their word, Azmi and Bunny brought the bits of outboard engine back from the workshop and reassembled it.  Steve took Azmi for a ride in the dinghy, and they both came back happy that it was now working well.

 

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Azmi and Bunny reassembling the outboard on the aft deck.                         Taking a break on the pontoon.

 

I took down the bimini canvas, laid it on the pontoon and gave it a good scrubbing.  It was absolutely filthy from its time on the hard, but worse still, it was no longer waterproof.  During a heavy cloudburst on Wednesday evening, the rain had poured through it, so a re-proofing was urgently needed.  I had ordered the 303 Fabric Guard to do it with, at great expense, from Lazada, but first the canvas needed to be clean.  So after a really good wash, scrub and rinse, I got Steve to help me put it back on the frame to dry before re-proofing. 

 

Sadly, much of the stitching on the outside of the canvas was sun-damaged and my enthusiastic scrubbing had finished it off in a variety of places, making it impossible to fix it back on the frame.  So after leaving it for an hour in the sun to dry, I unpacked the sewing machine and spent the rest of the afternoon re-stitching zips in place and reinforcing lines of broken stitching.  The re-proofing became a job for the morning.

 

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Re-stitching the bimini canvas.

 

Yesterday was also a busy day.  First job was to start re-proofing the bimini, which was almost finished when Vicky and Guy from Yaniska arrived to look at the fitting of our new autopilot.  They had also had a lightning strike that had knocked out their autopilot, and Guy was in the middle of fitting a new one.  There seemed to be so many do’s and don’t’s that he found it helpful to see one already fitted.  They stayed for coffee and a chat, which was cut short by the arrival of Robbie and Andrew, mechanics, to replace the leaking water pump.  Luckily this went without a hitch, and an hour later it was all done. 

 

We finished re-proofing all the canvas I had washed, then had a bite of lunch before heading off to the ferry port to do the check-out paperwork.  Finally the boat was ready to leave and we were wasting no time.  It took about an hour to track down the appropriate officials, complete all the paperwork and get the necessary clearance papers from Customs and the Harbour Master, and to get exit stamps in our passports.  That done, we set off to the supermarket to stock up on supplies for the few days it would take for us to get to Phuket.  Back at the boat we stowed our purchases and tidied up ready for an early start in the morning.

 

We slipped the lines around 0730 and started to make our way back along the coast towards the cruise ship terminal.  The plan was to meet up with Mawari in the bay outside Telaga to collect a couple of parcels they had picked up for us in Rebak.  Typically the parcels had arrived a couple of hours after we left.  From there we would either head out to Koh Lipe, a Thai island some 25 nmiles away, or we would anchor in Telaga harbour for the night and leave in the morning.

 

We were only halfway to the cruise ship terminal when the engine started overheating.  We switched it off and drifted while Steve went to investigate.  Bugger! The engine bilge was full of water again!  It seemed we had only solved part of the problem by replacing the raw water pump.  For the second time the fresh water had somehow removed itself from the engine.  There were no signs of any leaks, so we had to assume it was coming out of the venting tube.  Anyway, after mopping out the bilge and putting more water in the heat exchanger, we started up the engine and continued on our way.

 

Happily the engine did not overheat again, and by 1030 we had located Mawari and were drifting close by while Bob jumped in his dinghy and came over with our parcels.  One of them contains a new immersion heater which Steve wants to get fitted in Phuket.  After a chat with Bob and looking out for some porpoises which Sue had spotted and was photographing, we had a decision to make.  Push on to Koh Lipe, or anchor in Telaga and try to find the cause of the engine problem. 

 

We decided on the latter, and once the anchor was down and the engine had cooled down we had another look for a leak.  If there was one, it was in a very out of the way place, because neither of us, on our knees, heads in the engine compartment, could find it.  There was nothing for it now but to chill out for the rest of the day, and prepare ourselves for our first real passage in 16 months – all of 25 nmiles to a neighbouring island!

 

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First barbecue this year – lamb sausages.                                                              Bangers and mash for dinner.

 

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The tower at Telaga is not a working lighthouse, but it does light up at night.                        Sunset in the anchorage at Telaga.

 

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The tower shining in the darkness.                                            The lights on top of the mountains are the cable car and skywalk.