Countdown to shipment

20 days and counting from 24/02. We now have a nominated vessel to carry our old girl to Turkey  - m.v. Annegret - a German heavy lift vessel with a combined lifting capability of well over 1,500 tons, so our miniscule 15 or so tons will be a walk in the park!! ETA Phuket is 12/03 so time is getting short. "Annegret" has now left Kobe, Japan (24/02) and is heading to Hong Kong. 17.7 knots on a course of 320 true!!  

It's 8-9 years since we had our major refits in NZ and so all sorts of things seem to be breaking down at the same time. Firstly the problem with the GPS screen which we had fixed but now it won't even switch on. It's a combined problem with the antenna and the unit itself. However, we also have a later model Raymarine chartplotter which can be directly connected so maybe we  will just use that in the meantime. With 20 days to go it's all getting a bit fraught! Then secondly just this afternoon (24/02) we discovered that the engine exhaust was leaking water into the port lazarette locker so that will need replacing. Not such a difficult job fortunately. Then, thirdly we had a charging problem related to a so-called external "smart charger" regulator, which is supposed to control battery charging to prevent overcharging, which in the extreme can cause fires. We've replaced the regulator now and hope that all will be well in the future - at least for a  time. 

It is all getting fairly stressful because of the timeline for shipment, but we will make it. Problem is that you aren't aware of these potential issues until something stops working or there is another related problem which squeezes the available time to fix!

Never mind all the foregoing - all will be well.

We have also started patching some deck seams which are suspect ahead of our shipment. They aren't leaking but it's better to fix now rather than later. We now only have to put the seam sealant into the seams which is the easy part as they are now all masked and sealed. Then no need for subsequent sanding which erodes teak decks faster than you can blink. We've done all this before and would never again trust anyone in this part of the world to do this work. They have no idea about decks like ours which are 1' teak over Stockholm Tar impregnated canvas over 1" NZ Kauri substrate. She'll now hold together for another 12 months, after which time we'll re-evaluate depending on whether a sale is imminent or not! None of it is a huge problem.

Today we met Dave and Tricia of "Pelican" at the Living Room for brunch. A very pleasant sojourn. They have come back up here for a boat show that they are involved with. They go back to Langkawi on Monday - currently berthed at Boat Lagoon, Phuket.

It was Jean's birthday on the 18th. - now just like the old salt in her 72nd year! Very low key celebration at the Living Room as with everything else happening right now there didn't seem room for much else!!

We plan to move off the boat and stay ashore in about a week. Jean has found a brand new building within walking distance from the marina where we can stay for THB800 per night. That's NZD35. Air conditioned, own bathroom etc. Then we can go to the boat every day and get the sails etc off and generally prepare her for shipment. Have to close all the vents against desert dust/sand and batten down the hatches. Then we need to sail to the rendezvous point with m.v. Annegret which is just SE of Koh Naka Noi - about 12 miles from here. So obviously we need to leave at least the day before, but our fridge and freezer will be turned off so don't know what we'll eat! It's all a bit of a logistical exercise.   

Sevenstar will take us off the yacht just prior to lifting her onto the ship - then we will return to our accommodation and finally book our airline tickets - probably Emirates - Phuket  to Istanbul via Dubai. Then we have to get down to Fetihye/Gocek. Can't book anything until then. 3 weeks from loading at Phuket they should be splashing the old girl in Fethiye, Turkey. Very exciting.

We attach some photos kindly taken by a neighbor(Ian) at the Royal langkawi of our departure from there about a month ago.

Hope you enjoy.

Lotsaluv...............

Jim and Jean

Yacht Haven Marina

Phuket

Thailand 

Photos as below:

107 - Jean with our good friend Jam - married to the photographer in fact!

121 - all clear of the slip and underway

113, 114, 118 - all hands to push us off

107 - Jean and Jam again

109 - 1st. mate of the good ship "Tiare Taporo III"

112 - all hands seeing us off

104 - the old salt himself with 1st. mate

105 - skipper with Jam, Jean and Tricia from NZ boat "Pelican"