With Charon (Yim and Richard) leading the way, we manoeuvred around fishing nets and between fishing pods to reach the very long and winding entrance to the Boat Lagoon marina. We had read and heard all about this entrance, but we couldn’t have picked a more difficult or tedious entry into a marina, if we’d tried. After snaking our way along the narrow dredged channel for roughly half an hour, not to mention, having to squeeze passed a dredger and a separate work boat along the way, we eventually made our way between the mangroves and into the marina, taking a further 15 minutes. Finding our berth was easy enough, though, but, it’s fair to say, this has to be, not only an extremely expensive marina, at four times the price of Straits Quay marina, but the most haphazard one we’ve ever been in. There’s a reason, however, as to why cruisers come here; you can get any service you need and buy absolutely anything you require for a yacht, resulting in Roy going on a shopping spree, to the tune of nearly a $1000USD, this morning, to purchase all new docklines, new mooring lines, chafe piping, various parts and spares, Racor filters, sealants and lubricants and the list goes on. He thought he’d died and gone to cruising heaven!
We’d barely berthed Paw Paw yesterday, though, when our day took a hectic turn; the team of mechanics were awaiting our arrival in order to undertake the engine work of replacing the engine mounts, replacing the upper saildrive seals and lapping the cone clutches on each engine. Elaine had no sooner got them situated when the agent arrived to return our passports and clearance documentation. While Roy was AWOL throughout all of this, Elaine had difficulty explaining “saildrive” to the lead mechanic, who spoke very little English, so when all else fails, draw; Elaine has to be the worst artist on earth, but the mechanic eventually recognised the part of Paw Paw she was referring to and, by the time Roy returned, the mechanics knew exactly what had to be done. Fortunately Roy retuned as Elaine was in the middle of scratching through every bunk to find the mounts and seals that the mechanics needed. It turns out Roy’s disappearance was to the boatyard, in an attempt to see if we can be hauled here, rather than having to find another facility. And, of course, all of this took place in the middle of us trying to get our shore power connected, re-setup the portable air-conditioner, get the water connected, dump our garbage of two weeks, etc, oh, and sweating profusely in the heat and humidity.
Once all that was out of the way, we then took the long walk, approximately 355 degrees around the circular marina to reach the Marina Office to register, located under the lighthouse, a distance that isn’t more than 100 metres from where Paw Paw is berthed, but on the opposite side of the channel. We could have popped the dinghy in the water and simply rode over, but we both wanted the nice long walk after being cooped up on Paw Paw for nearly 3 weeks, which also gave us the opportunity to explore the restaurants, bars and cafés en route.
On our return walk, we decided to stop in at “9 Degrees” for a coffee, but once we were seated at our table in the cool air-conditioned restaurant, with lovely linen tablecloths and napkins and perused the menu, we settled for lunch instead; a smoked salmon carpaccio with a crab and green apple salad for Elaine and a seared tuna salad for Roy. Acknowledging that it wasn’t a local Thai meal, it was, nonetheless, beautifully presented and absolutely delicious. Just what we needed!
Elaine, however, was falling asleep at the table by now and it wasn’t even noon yet, but all she wanted was her bed, which actually didn’t occur until after a lovely video call to Justine and Paul, who were in Devon in the “Mothership”, their camper-van.
While Elaine enjoyed a wonderful and much needed afternoon nap, Roy explored further afield, finding the local grocery store, the laundry service, an ATM, various chandleries and a few local restaurants.
When Elaine surfaced, it was time to meet Charon for a few celebratory drinks, but on this occasion, we decided to dinghy over to the dinghy dock at the Marina Office rather than walk all the way around again. We also met friends of theirs, making for a very sociable evening, our first in heaven alone knows how long. The live band that was staged just outside the bar was the perfect ending to a very busy day.
After we’d both passed out from exhaustion last night, we were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning. Roy’s first task of the day was to clean the saildrives and propellers, as well as the waterline that had all grown a substantial coral reef in the weeks since leaving Straits Quay marina. Then, after Elaine prepared the laundry and associated list for the laundry service, Roy dropped it off, following which he visited the chandlery of his dreams while Elaine organised all the paperwork from the agent and Marina Office, returned the GPS trackers and collated everything she needed for her appointment with the new specialist.
Lunch today was a local affair, at one of the highly recommended roadside food stalls and we weren’t disappointed; pineapple fried rice, sweet and sour chicken and fried squid with garlic plus a cold beverage each, all for the bargain basin special price of $10USD. Yummy!
We were definitely enjoying our newfound freedom in a new country.
