Sunday 11 March 2018

The biggest adventure for our old girl in her 40 years of life.

Hi to all,
Hope this finds everyone in the pink.
We have been up and down healthwise and Jean lately seems to have caught one of these viral infections that come and go and leave you feeling washed out and not capable of doing anything - especially in this enervating heat. Jim's knees have their good and not so good days!
When we left Langkawi, the weather was unseasonably cool and so much more pleasant, but since then the day time temperatures are between 30 and 35C which makes things rather unpleasant. In fact in the afternoon the temperatures are often above 35C. The sooner we and the old girl can get out of this and into more moderate temperatures the better. In Turkey right now typically the temperatures are between 10 and 22C - much more friendly.
We've been preparing her for the passage with taking as much as possible off the deck. This includes the Genoa, the staysail and trysail. The main we have decided to leave on the boom and we have wrapped it in plastic shade cloth. All appropriately lashed. We will be Gladwrapping around the front of the boom and gooseneck area. The solar panels still need wrapping and a few other possible vulnerable areas to sand storms in the Red Sea.
The carrying vessel has been delayed a few days and now the ETA Phuket is 17/03. At the time of writing (10/03) she is berthed in the Gulf of Thailand and may also be calling at Singapore before arriving up here. And of course due to the uncertainty of dates, we cannot book any airline tickets until after the old girl is loaded, so everything will be last minute. The passage time is only three weeks from here to Fethiye and so, as we need to maximise our time in Turkey before the old girl arrives, once she is loaded it will be all go. Singapore Airlines via Singapore and on to Istanbul at the moment looks to be one of the most economic options. 
We have been given a great deal of assistance from Capt. Yunus (Sevenstar's agent in Fethiye) and through him have secured a marina berth for when we arrive at the Yes Marina there. Two thirds of the berthing cost here in Phuket! He is also helping us with a suitable yard to haul out and accommodation until we are again able to live back on board. On that note we have been living ashore here on Phuket in a bedsit (THB800 per day - NZD35). This is because the interior of the yacht is filling up with sails and all the paraphernalia that normally lives on deck making it uninhabitable. For eating we either cook on the boat or visit local restaurants - see below.
The bedsit is only 5 minutes walk from the marina and is surrounded by local restaurants - only one of which is safe for Jean due to the local propensity to add MSG to just about everything. Phen, who owns Coconuts is wonderful and works her butt off. She and Jean get on like a house on fire. When you arrive at Coconuts which is right on the water, you are greeted by Phen and then it's a matter of deep discussion between her and Jean while yours truly gets a Singha beer from the fridge in the kitchen. All very friendly and laid back. This is definitely one aspect of Thailand that we will miss.
We've had a few (and expensive) things occurring unexpectedly with the yacht. First, we had a charging problem which in the end has necessitated getting a new battery regulator. In addition the alternator (new in NZ 8 years ago) needed new bearings.
Then we discovered water in the port cockpit lazarette - cupboard to you landlubbers! This was coming from a split in the exhaust hose which carries cooling water back to the sea. This was also new in NZ 8 years ago. So that had to be replaced with Vetus hose which was 2,800 Baht per metre - NZD122 by about 4.5 metres!
Then our primary GPS which we've had since 2007 packed up and we are still waiting for a part from Bangkok. But it's old - especially in terms of electronics these days. If it doesn't turn up in time, we'll just sail without it and use the internal GPS on our main chartplotter. Hopefully we'll be able to eventually obtain a part in Turkey. But it's always good to have the backup.
We must make mention of three contractors here who repair issues with boats.
First, there is Graham of Stem to Stern who is an Australian mechanic (not much younger than us) and who is unfailingly cheerful - even in the face of adversity, which most boat repair situations embody! He supplied our exhaust hose and also had a part roll of the aforementioned plastic shade cloth. He is a gem and Yacht Haven Marina would be very much the poorer without him. During our last visit here 3 years ago he managed to fix our Fleming self steering after it was struck by an incompetent Frenchman on a charter catamaran right here in the marina. The charter company and, by extension, the French charterer paid for the repair. 
Second, there is Somsak of Andaman Electrical who has been looking after our electrical/electronic woes. He and his crew are unfailingly competent, polite and attentive to our needs. We can without reservation recommend both of these businesses to any boat owner or cruiser.
And thirdly there is Pra who runs a canvas business - covers and awnings etc. She isn't cheap, but her work is excellent and worth the cost. We've had a new foredeck hatch cover made (the original was on the yacht when Jim bought her back in 2002) as well as small covers for our new outboard and winches.
But, as a general comment on Phuket in general, we have to say that it is no longer such a pleasant place to be. The traffic is much worse than 3 years ago (we have hired a car three times now at 1,000 Baht per day - NZD44) and driving here is like being in the dodgems! And we are yet to find (apart from Phen's and perhaps the Living Room next door) any good restaurants. Prices for everything are sky high by Asian standards and even in many cases match NZ or Australia. Certainly anything to do with marine and marina charges are right up there. Some of that is due to the very high import duty here - averaging 40% plus VAT on top of that. And almost zero opportunity to obtain duty rebates for a yacht in transit. So, the bottom line is - try not to buy anything to do with marine in Thailand if you can possibly avoid it. A few years ago the owners of a yacht we knew here wanted to re-engine the yacht, so they imported a new engine into Langkawi (Malaysia) duty free and then went to Langkawi to bring it on the yacht to Thailand to have it installed.
It will be interesting to see just how the new TPP agreement just signed in Chile will affect things here. Malaysia is a signatory, but Thailand is not.
We also have to say in respect of Yacht Haven Marina that they do offer great service - in spite of the high berthage charges!! Various parts of the marina are actually on 3 levels. You have the marina itself at sea level, then the main marina buildings and ablution facilities about 5-6 metres above that and then at the top of a cliff above the marina is the carpark, gym and swimming pool. They provide electric golf carts to get you to the top and when we needed fuel, instead of getting the yacht alongside the fuel berth, which can be tricky in the strong tidal currents, they provide a motorcycle and sidecar which comes to the yacht, picks up the fuel cans plus yours truly and takes the aforementioned to the fuel dock. In our case we have taken 3 lots of 60 litres of diesel over a few weeks which is far easier than taking the yacht around there and then re-berthing etc in the current. If we want to go for a swim we just get to where the golf carts are and say  -"swimming pool" - and off we go. But of course at Krabi and the RLYC, there's no need for all this as everything is on the same level - so everywhere there are pros and cons.   
Apart from all the above, we are carrying out such mundane tasks as cleaning the bilges and working out what we need for living ashore - always bearing in mind that we cannot carry much on the aircraft so we have to return a number of items to the boat just before shipment, so it all becomes quite a logistical exercise. We still have some food in the boat freezer because all we have ashore is an underbench fridge, but no cooking facilities! We cooked our last lamb roast on the boat the other day - lamb shanks from NZ! Complete with roast potatoes and frozen Watties peas. So, trying to keep enough food until loading day and not have anything left over. Not easy, especially as we still don't know the loading date exactly and when we proceed to the loading area we'll need to have already switched the freezer off. And you all think that all we do is float about on the ocean supping G & T's and Champagne!
Finally (with apologies to one of Jean's relatives who is a retired schoolteacher with a great dry sense of humour), and with reference to President Trump's and the NRA's idea about arming teachers - he wishes he had had a gun when he was teaching; there would have been a few miscreants from his classes who would not be among us today!!
On that happy note, we shall say Au revoir - next blog will have news of the loading aboard the m.v. Annegret.
With lotsaluv from us on Phuket (for now).............
Jim and Jean
s.v. Tiare Taporo III
Virus-free. www.avg.com

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