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Date: 04 Mar 2012 00:35:21
Title: Final Preparations - Au Chalong, Phuket, Thailand
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7:48.980N  98:22.821E

February 18, 2012 - March 1, 2012

It feels like we've been preparing for years even though it's only been three or four months.  Finally, though, we are down to the last of it.  Here's the rundown:
  • During the two weeks we spent in Rebak Marina, Don ticked off the really important stuff like replacing the membranes in the water maker and replacing the fresh water pump with a new one shipped from the US.  The water pump we had been using contained a modified brush (best we could do in Langkawi), and we were holding our breath it would hold together until the new one arrived.  It did.  Now the old one sits happily in the bilge, just waiting to be called upon for duty.  Because spares are rarely needed (most boaters agree: the only spares you need are the ones you don't have), our cobbled together spare water pump should enjoy a nice, long rest.

  • With the new pump in place, Don decided the fresh water system as a whole deserved a little more attention.  He fitted an extra valve between the water maker and the pressure side of the system to stop a leak that had been driving us batty for years.  Every now and then the water pump would run for no good reason, and Don would roll his eyes and hiss, "That *&^%$# water pump!", assuming of course the leak was in the pump.  It wasn't.  The leak is now fixed and fresh water will no longer be leaking into the water maker when it's not supposed to.  Don calculated this annoying leak was costing us close to 20 liters of fresh water a day.  We (I) tend to be water hogs, which is never a good thing on a boat, so it was a relief to know that we were actually using 20 liters less per day than we thought we were.

  • The rigging was checked on both masts by the fearless Don.  He claims to be afraid of heights, but if there's fear, I haven't seen it.  He seems to swing around quite happily 65 feet up. Everything was fine, including the captain.

  • All the hose clamps (or jubilee clips as the Brits would say, isn't that fun?) on the boat were inspected and if needed, replaced.  There's nothing more annoying than fixing a hose leak, particularly a diesel hose leak, in the engine room while bouncing and swaying in rough swell while underway.

  • The sewing machine came out again and Don whipped up a canvas cover for the dinghy gas container.  It's a snazzy step up from the raggedy towel used previously.  The sewing captain (who doesn't love a man that can sew?) also whipped up a new breeze booster - a nylon 'tent' on a frame set over a hatch to 'catch' the breeze and force it into the cabin.  We had a breeze booster before, but it died of sun exposure.  Now when we are pointed into the wind at anchor, standing under the hatch with the new breeze booster installed almost feels like standing in a wind tunnel.  Almost.

  • All the safety equipment was inspected and given a clean bill of health.  Hopefully none of it will be used.

  • We fired up the SSB (long range) radio and satellite phone to ensure both were working.  The SSB was fine, but the sat phone was having trouble holding a signal.  Don suspected the battery was kaput, so borrowed Storyteller's sat phone battery to see how it would do.  It did beautifully.  Two weeks later we had two sat phone batteries shipped in from Hong Kong to Rebak Marina and our sat phone has been happy ever since.  The SSB radio and sat phone will be our only means of communication for the week it will take us to sail from Sri Lanka to Chagos, the four weeks we will stay in Chagos and the week we sail from Chagos to Mauritius.  That's six long weeks with no cell phone and no internet.  Hence the two new sat phone batteries.  If one of the new batteries goes kaput, at least we'll have a spare (not that we'll need it since the only spares we'll need are those we don't have).  Email will be our main form of communication during that time so the sat phone is critical as it is the only method we have to download/upload email. 

  • Fuel.  It's a long way across the Indian Ocean.  Plus, we'll need fuel for the generator during the four weeks we'll be in Chagos.  We decided it was time to increase our fuel carrying capacity from 620 liters to 750 with the addition of a few more jerry cans.  No, we don't have the new jerry cans lashed to the deck.  They are hiding in the grab bag space in the cockpit locker, and the grab bag was relocated to its new home in the hanging locker near the companionway.  If we have to make a dash for the life raft, we figure we'll still be able to grab the grab bag from the hanging locker quickly enough.

  • Taxes.  No worries.  Ours are done and dusted.  Aren't TuboTax and electronic filing beautiful?

That pretty much covers all the stuff Don took care of during our two weeks at Rebak.  What did I do?  Blog updates.  Laundry.  Provisioning, cleaning and a bit of cooking.   Boring.


The seamstress working on the dinghy gas container cover.


We did make sure we took a walk around Rebak Island every day while staying at the marina.  It's really a beautiful place, and the island is small enough to circumnavigate in about an hour.  On a good day, we'd see a whole flock of hornbills like this one.  They travel in pairs and are gorgeous when they fly, with broad stripes of black and white stretching across their wings.  On the ground, they hop to get around.  So odd.  They do the same to travel from branch to branch in the trees, they hop.  Quite a forehead, don't you think?  No question where the name hornbill came from.


On one of our last walks around Rebak Island, we witnessed this hornbill spat.  Two hornbills were sitting happily in a tree when a third flew in and disrupted them.  They were not happy.  The bird in flight did his (her?) best to batter the heck out of the poor interloper sitting on the ground looking up.  We've never seen anything like it and were quite pleased the hornbills chose to put on this show on a day we happened to have the camera with us.  It was Valentine's Day.  Perhaps we witnessed a lover's triangle gone bad?

Back to Thailand (again!).
Didn't we just do this?  We left Rebak Marina February 17 and anchored nearby for one night to test all the systems (anchor windlass, SSB, sat phone, generator, water maker, engine, VHF, etc.).  It's very easy to ship boat parts into duty-free Langkawi, Malaysia, so if we did find a problem (we didn't), it would have been best to address it in Langkawi.  After confirming all was well, we moved into Telaga Harbor Marina on Langkawi Island for two nights, to do the last bit of hard core provisioning - wine, beer, canned goods, meat, cheese, other dairy products.  We have this provisioning thing down pretty well now, so it doesn't feel strange (or wrong) to buy 8 kilos of hamburger (or mince as it's called in this part of the world), 7 pounds of butter, and the biggest block of New Zealand cheddar cheese available in all of Langkawi.  Not that we don't love the local food wherever we go, we do, but sometimes, a burger and a big hunk of cheese are just….necessary.

At this point, Storyteller had joined us in Langkawi, venturing down from Thailand to make a visa run, a wine run, pick up two guests, and to see us off…except we didn't leave when we were supposed to.  Oops.  Tom and Suzy on Priscilla showed up in Telaga at the same time (they are semi-planning to take the southern route to South Africa this year, so are currently heading south), so we said good-bye to them before heading north to Thailand.  Again.

For the fifth (and last!) time, we covered the 135 miles between Langkawi, Malaysia and Phuket, Thailand.  This time we made the trip in three daysails squeaking out 6 hours of sailing in 24 total traveling hours.  Along the way, we anchored off new (to us) and different Thai islands: Koh Lipe and Koh Rok Nok.  Both had beautiful, clear water and pretty scenery.  Nice.


Fifteen knots apparent.  My favorite sailing wind condition.  Fifteen knots is just enough to get our boat going at a quick pace (7-8 knots), but not too much to stir up a rough sea.  Perfect!  Now if we could have this kind of wind all the time, we wouldn't be the chronic weather complainers we are today.  Alas, it'll never happen.

Arrival in Thailand.
We arrived at Ao Chalong on Phuket's southern coast on February 23.  We cleared in with no trouble and spent a week in the calm, flat, hot anchorage completing the last of what needs to be done before we leave.  Don cleaned up the hull and finished a few miscellaneous engine room projects while I wrote blogs and filled our freezer with baked goods and casserole dinners for the nine day trip to Sri Lanka.  We had plenty of company in the anchorage.  Storyteller stayed a few nights before moving on to Yacht Haven Marina with their guests, and Dave and Jan on Baraka were there, as well as about 25 other boats.  We said good-bye to Dave and Jan, but will most likely see them again in South Africa (they are taking the southern route).  We also met a few new boaters.  The boats Scorpio and Cat's Paw IV, both new to us, are currently on their way to Sri Lanka.  It's good to know several boats will be out there.  Scorpio and Cat's Paw IV both left last week, we leave tomorrow and two more boats, Sunflower and Tartufo will leave several days after us.  In the blue water cruising world, when making an ocean passage, boats within a couple of days sail are considered to be pretty darn close.  We'll talk to all or most of these boats every day on the SSB radio, so it will feel like they're right next door.

Final piece of Khun Sue wisdom.
Last Thursday, Don and I went to visit Khun Sue for one last haircut.  She was in rare form having just returned from a trip to Bangkok.
"You hear man on boat anchored killed self?  Yes, smell so bad other boater noticed, found him dead.  Stupid to kill self!  I sad when divorce husband, but I not kill self!  Better I kill him!  I have girlfriend, all cry because no good man.  She try kill self with paracetamol.  She take too many pills and throw up.  I tell her, 'Paracetamol no good!  Next time go to store, buy strychnine!'"
Gotta love Khun Sue.


Sunset over Ao Chalong Bay looking at Phuket's southern coast.  If you squint, you can see Big Buddha atop the highest hill, just to the right of the sailboat's mast.

Next up:  We're Off! - Nai Harn, Phuket, Thailand.
Anne





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