Friday 28 August 2015

Satun to Krabi - eventually

Hi to all - again!,
Well, to continue.......Jia and Julie very kindly asked us out to dinner one night along with some business associates from Bangkok and we had an excellent and varied menu - all chosen by J & J who of course had local knowledge of the dishes. That night we had also decided to treat ourselves to a night off the boat as living on board on the hard is not the most ideal situation. We've had enough of that over the last few years. That was fine until we were told that the local council were repairing water mains and therefore there would be no water in our room! So, we had to move to another part of the building. Nothing it seems ever goes smoothly, but the local people and general ambience make up for it and the night out with Jia and Julie and their other guests was very pleasant. There was also a very good and cheap seafood restaurant within walking distance and we often patronised that for lunch.
The work at PSS was very efficient and done in a timely manner - we felt very happy with what was done. Our only real issue was cleanliness in the yard, although we had to accept that it is mainly a commercial yard. Jean had a bucket of water with Dettol in it at the base of the ladder and yours truly had to be sure and thoroughly wash his feet whenever coming up the ladder. If you took simple precautions like that there was little problem. Apart from the main issue of the propellor shaft, we had new flexible slats in fibreglass made for the dinghy as the original ones made of plywood had rotted even though the boat was only 2 years old! And some scupper covers for the cockpit scuppers to prevent the odd firehose effect of waves breaking against the side of the boat and soaking anyone sitting down in the cockpit! Then we eventually launched from PSS Satun, but not before a last minute hitch. They move the boats sideways on a railway system until you are lined up on the main slipway for launching at right angles to the sideways shift. There is a network of wires which are attached to a winch and which are led around pulleys to exert a pull in the required direction. All a bit disconcerting until you get used to it. Anyway, there's an amount of jerking and uneven movement and when the two aft hull supports were being removed prior to launching and after the sideways shift, the port side support became prematurely dislodged as it hadn't been placed tightly enough. The boat was then held on the cradle, but only by the forrard cradle arms. As it fell it struck the keel fairly low down and made a gash in the timber. We are paranoid about bare timber underwater as Teredo worm is endemic and we always keep her well painted. So, it was necessary to fix the damage. This involved sanding, applying a good coat of Primocon underwater primer and 3 coats of antifouling. This could not be done in 5 minutes and so the launch was delayed 24 hours. All very irritating, particularly as we were in a good weather window for sailing north.
Anyway, the following morning they slid us down the slipway and we were afloat once more. But not before Jean had an altercation with the yard crew who had no idea of basic cleanliness on yachts. They had their shoes off but never had any on in the first place! Might be all right for fishing boats but they had filthy dirty hands and feet and made a mess of our cockpit and mooring lines. The language problem meant that we didn't know what they wanted to do, otherwise we would have done it instead. We anchored in the river overnight and then in order to give the hull time in the water to move back into water trim and settle down, they came out to us the next morning to align the engine. That involved lifting first the front and then the back of the engine with a chain block and sliding shims under the engine mounts. The engine was lifted substantially - more at the front so the alignment had been well out. That had been the cause of all our problems since Krabi last year when engine misalignment caused premature and excessive wear on the cutlass bearings.
The next day (18/8) we left Satun with mixed feelings - pleased to be underway again but sorry to be leaving Jia and the general friendliness at PSS. We negotiated our way down river with much more ease than coming up a few days before - amazing what a bit of prior experience does! This time we only came within 3 feet of the bottom! We had to head south until we were clear of the shoals and then turned NW towards the northern tip of Koh Tarutao. This is a big island north of Langkawi and west of Satun - just north of the Thai/Malaysia border. It is a Thai national park and was a penal colony in the old days. The anchorage was great. We crept into the anchorage as it looked shallow on the chart but there was plenty of water. Lovely and peaceful after the hustle and bustle of Satun. We would like to have stayed but were on a mission (as usual) to get north to Krabi before the weather changed so it was off the next morning for Koh Muk. As it was the SW monsoon season, we had to anchor on the east side of Muk which was OK but open and shallow. But the boat was going well and the new shaft and its alignment was in marked contrast from what we'd had before with noise and vibration. The forecasts by now were not looking good and as we left Muk we had a rough ride for a while as the wind had shifted NW - right on the nose and blowing hard. However, not too far to the east side of Koh Lanta where we dropped anchor in shallow but sheltered water. Then we had to wait while a series of systems which were being influenced by typhoon activity on the south China coast, passed through. It was difficult to get ashore and nowhere to leave the dinghy safely so Jim dropped Jean off on a pontoon at the end of a gnarly old concrete wharf and then waited in the dinghy until she came back with some food! The lack of a fridge was also making things difficult as we couldn't keep greens any length of time. But the freezer was good and there was plenty of ice for the Scotch! However, there was a small town there where one could buy basic food. By the time we left on the 26th. we'd read every book on the boat and were going stir crazy. The morning was very overcast and earlier there had been some thunderstorms but we were GOING! No wind to speak of so Murphy seemed determined to deny us any sailing - either 25 knots on the nose or nothing.
We were going to be early for the tide at the entrance to the Krabi River so we diverted to Koh Phi Phi Don where we had been before. It is a tourist island through and through and was frenetic with 30' speedboats hooning past at 20-30 knots, not to mention longtails and ferries. We thought that as it was now the off season for tourism, it might be a bit quieter but no such luck. The water was more disturbed by wakes than even a windy anchorage so we could not launch the dinghy and only stayed 2 hours and thankfully left. Easy trip for the 12 miles to the start of the shallow water off Krabi and then a matter of following the waypoints, but as we had been up and down here a number of times before, we had no worries. Not until Jim took a bend a little wide and put us aground! However, the tide was flooding strongly and we never really stopped - just slowed right down until some correcting helm took us back into the channel again. The crew was not impressed. Just as well hanging's been abolished! Then into the familiar marina of Krabi Boat lagoon. Time to relax and catch up with all our old friends and acquaintances.
It is now 2 days later and we are settling into the Krabi life. Jean was taken into town yesterday by Garn and they went to the local Makro supermarket - which is a huge cash and carry. Absolutely everything is there from fruit and veg., fish, meat, alcohol and all items you would find in a normal supermarket. Some discussions to come with Popeye re our engineering issues from last year and hopefully we can get a few things sorted here. The fridge being the main one. Otherwise we'll be off to Phuket - watch this space!
Cheers and love from us,
Jim and Jean

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