Haul out at Krabi

Well, it's 15 days since our last blog and so much has happened.
We hauled out on the 6th. and all went well until we realised that they were taking the boat way down to the far end of the haulout area as far as we could get from Popeye Marine and their workshop!! This was in direct contravention of our earlier arrangement with the marina where we understood we would be placed quite close to Popeye. There was a small power boat just stored there and they had been going to move that to make way for us. So, grudgingly they eventually agreed to move it as promised and then move us. This was done after 3-4 days (nothing happens quickly in Thailand!).
Aside from that annoyance everything else has been going swimmingly. Popeye (Des Kearns and his wife, Ked) have been wonderful and the work started in earnest from day one. They have a great and competent team who have been with them for some time and who are well used to the work necessary in successfully refitting a yacht. Their engineer is Wit who speaks almost no English but he has removed the propellor shaft and both Cutlass bearings (which support the shaft) so that they can be renewed. The shaft will also need some machining which he will organise in Pukhet. Apparently in the last big job they did at Satun he moved 2 large Caterpillar engines over a metre and then connected everything up again so he's a knowledgeable and competent engineer. Our stuff is extremely small beer for him! Wit will also be involved in repairing the stainless steel which was damaged when "Kealba" collided with us in Indonesia. Then we also have Seart who is their carpenter removing all the old wooden teak plugs over the nails that fasten the deck onto the Kauri substrate and the deck beams and replacing them with new ones. They don't have a suitable plug cutter but they've modified a hole saw to cut them out and wrapped sandpaper around a drill bit to clean up the holes they are going into. Great modification and adaptability expertise which is typical of most of Asia.
There is a husband and wife team of Yoon and Ning who are expert painters - quite up to superyacht standard. But no mention of painting would be complete without mentioning A (pronounced Ay). A is a Thai woman who is wonderful - always cheerful and extremely competent. Jim said something about sanding the round surface of the mast and she gently told him that she needed no instruction in how to sand or paint! We were going to pull the mast out but once they realised all the issues surrounding that (although they have pulled many masts before and it is reasonably straightforward) they decided that they could sand and paint it in situ. A had never been up a mast before but it seemed as though she'd been doing it all her life. She seems to quite like being in the bosun's chair up there. Jim hoisted her to the top on the UPS halyard using the windlass. Then the drill was to gradually lower her down as the work progressed. We are now at the stage of having 1 top coat on the mast and 2 on the hull. One more on each and then that part of the job is complete. The mast is of course timber and is keel stepped.
We have stripped and sanded the varnished toe rail and there is more varnish sanding to do as well as the coachroof but that will have to wait until the team have finished their painting to avoid the dust. But everything is happening and at a reasonably fast clip. Still got the refrigeration to check out and a few minor matters re the engine but we can see the end in sight.
We are enjoying the lifestyle here. We are living in our apartment (which is one room and a bathroom with no cooking facilities) and feeling like locals. The apartment, which is a studio is one of several above a convenience store in a modern building called "Be Rich"!! We commute to the boatyard every day in our rental car - just like going to work, except that no-one is paying us! We are 12 kms from the boatyard and generally the roads are well behaved but sometimes there are myriads of motorcycles and some with sidecars. It's common to see whole families on one poor little 125cc bike - older child just behind the handlebars, father driving with Mum on the pillion seat holding a very young baby, often by one hand. You also see utes crammed with people in the back. You just hope they never hit anything and stop suddenly because then the carnage would be horrific. There is a small village we drive through on our way to the boatyard and, although some houses are a bit rickety, often there's a late model ute parked out front. Everything is clean and neat.
The first time we went into Krabi Town was to make our number with Customs, Immigration and the Harbourmaster. It was the usual bureaucratic exercise with having to answer questions like what sort of cargo are we carrying, deadweight, etc. and of course to all of those we just put "n/a" but it's a fair old rigmarole. Krabi Town is very touristy but attractive on the banks of a river and we have been there 2 or 3 times now. It's roughly a 30 minute drive from here mostly on a dual carriage motorway which takes you past Krabi International Airport. There are 2 supermarkets also on the way in - Big C and Tesco. Both part of malls with many smaller specialty shops as well. But it is very difficult to identify a type of shop that you might want. We needed some plastic tubing and so were looking for a hardware shop. But all the shop signs are written in Thai which might as well be Hebrew as far as we are concerned. And there isn't any such thing as Bunnings or Mitre 10; apart from supermarkets the shopping is mainly small individual shops and difficult to identify. And there is the language problem. It is rare to find anyone who speaks English other than a smattering and when it comes to anything even slightly technical - forget it. We gave up in the end and will try and clean the tubing we have. It's a breather from one of the water tanks.
Apart from that the heat is quite debilitating. After about 10 am. it's too hot for us to work so when we need to do anything we need to start about 6. Jim sanded 2 quite small areas the other morning and his shirt was soaking; you could have wrung it out!
We have found a great Thai restaurant about halfway to the boatyard and are now regular patrons. Sometimes eat there and sometimes takeaway. It's lucky that it's there as we have no cooking facilities in our studio. We had a light lunch there today (Saturday) and it cost 215 Baht (NZD7.68). We had a full main course each and coffee and fruit juice. There's also a seafood restaurant which is in a small village on the riverbank even closer to the boatyard and it's a rickety structure built out over the water. But it must have been there a long time and it seems like being way back in time just being there.
Tonight we are having dinner with Stephan who is the owner of a large Jeaneau - "Julianna II". She is also hauled out here and Stephan and Wendy have been back in Australia for a while. Wendy has gone on to Europe to see grandchildren and Stephan is here for some work on the boat - the usual story! We have introduced him to Popeye who may also be able to assist with jobs to be done.
Jean has been engrossed with Facebook pictures of Peapod (alias Carter) who looks so cute. We have the time at the moment to use Facebook so we must do what is necessary to see Charlotte and Rozanne's children there as well. Lucia, Elsie, Harry and Callum. We are such dinosaurs when it comes to this sort of thing!
Well, on that note we will depart - for now. We're sure that you have read enough - until next time!!
Lotsaluv from us.......
Jim and Jean
s.v. Tiare Taporo III
Krabi Boat lagoon Hardstand
Krabi
Thailand

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