However, we had a striking epiphany during the ordeal; had Paw Paw sprung a major leak and, had a catastrophe unfolded, to the extent that we were forced to abandon ship, there was precious little we packed to take with us, which basically included reading glasses, wallets, passports, yacht paperwork, medications, electronic devices and the backup drive containing all the memories of our sailing adventures. That was it! It wasn’t the content of our Grab Bag, since we weren’t in a survival situation; we could actually step ashore to the safety of the 5-Star resort, but we realised we actually didn’t need even the limited material possessions we have onboard.
Fortunately the inspection of Paw Paw’s bottom, once everything was back in order above deck, revealed only minor scuffs and scratches on the very bottom of the port rudder and on the outside of the port keel, with no damage to the rudderpost or the saildrive and propeller. We were very lucky that only the outer half of the port hull was over the reef with the keel resting on the outer edge, which then protected everything else. It could have been far worse, so we’re definitely counting our blessings! As things transpired over the following days, though, we had additional reasons to count our blessings.
The rest of the day was uneventful thankfully, with Roy enjoying a chat to Richard, off Charon, followed by a nap, while Elaine enjoyed a lovely long chat to her mom to hear all about there long weekend getaway in Ireland. Afterwards, though, Elaine couldn’t keep her eyes open and made a dash for her bed, only waking up for her dinner, long after the sun had set.
On Saturday morning, we received another phone call from Richard, suggesting that Roy should check our vaccination registration status, as he’d received an update. To our surprise, Roy had been rescheduled to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine in early August, but Elaine’s allocation remained Sinovax.
With that, another plan was hatched; accept Elaine’s Sinovax appointment, scheduled for today, reschedule Elaine’s specialist appointment to yesterday, arrange for an agent to accompany us to the vaccine appointment and cancel our sail to the outer islands, for a few days at least, to see what unfolded, all in the hope that a change of vaccine could be orchestrated, depending on what the specialist advised regarding Elaine’s health conditions.
A nice long chat to Keenan in the morning, followed by a nice long chat to Elaine’s sister in Ireland in the afternoon, wrapped up a day of planning.
So, yesterday we were up early to collect the hired car, get to the hospital, get Elaine’s blood work completed, then enjoy a lazy Sunday morning breakfast at Dean and Deluca at the Boat Lagoon marina before returning to the hospital to see the specialist. Besides bad news on the health front and a substantial change in Elaine’s treatment plan, as expected, having the Sinovax vaccine was not an option. Armed with all her new medications and a letter from the specialist to hand in at the vaccination centre, we returned to Ao Po Grand marina to enjoy a early dinner at the Port of Call restaurant, before dinghying back to Paw Paw to prepare all the paperwork we needed for the visit to the vaccination centre today.
Having made final arrangements to meet the agent at the vaccination centre, we were up early again today to collect the hired car and make our way diagonally across the island to the southwest corner to the Phuket Orchid Resort and Spa in Karon Beach. However, when we arrived, the entire entrance to the resort was closed off and boarded up. Perplexed that we’d possibly arrived at the wrong entrance, a chat to a passerby, indicated that the vaccination centre was around the back of the resort, down a side street. Within 5 minutes of our agent arriving, though, we were informed that the centre was only administering Sinovax vaccines and that we needed to go to the Patong Hospital in Patong Beach, another few kilometres up the west coast.
Once there and eventually finding parking, we were informed that they too were not administering any AstraZeneca vaccines and, with that, a variety of phone calls were made by our agent; first to the owner of the agency, who directed the agent to the Head Physician and Administrator of the hospital, who came down to meet us, perused the letter from the specialist, made a few phone calls and sent us off to an alternate location. In the interim, a phone call was also made to the person responsible for the operations of the “Phuket Must Win” initiative at the M-DES (Ministry of Digital Economy and Society), overseeing the web portal used to register foreigners for a state-provided vaccination in Phuket Province.
When we arrived at the small vaccination centre, hidden down side streets and behind buildings, a rather important looking lady met us, a few words were exchanged in Thai with our agent and Elaine was ushered through the process, obtaining her vaccination within 10 minutes of our arrival. While she was being observed, the lady that had first greeted us, asked Elaine why Roy was not in line for his vaccination too. When Elaine explained that Roy had an appointment for early August and that today was primarily to sort out her vaccination, the lady turned to our agent with instructions to go and get Roy, who was waiting outside. 10 minutes later, he too was sitting next to me in the observation area; we had both received our first AstraZeneca SARS-CoV-2 vaccination as well as our appointments for the second dose.
In disbelief, but over the moon, it was clear that this was a classic case of “not what you know, but who you know!” Regardless, we were both still beaming and couldn’t believe our luck when we stopped off for lunch at the Daily Dose café in Boat Avenue, Bang Tao Beach, further up the coast and on our route back to Ao Po Grand marina.
Our heartfelt thanks go out to the staff of Asia Pacific Superyachts. Your service has been invaluable and we couldn’t have wished for a better outcome!
The irony in all of this, though, was that Roy’s appointment for his vaccination in Malaysia was scheduled for today, had we still been there. However, we are grateful to the Thai government for their generosity, at a time when vaccines are like hen’s teeth in this part of the world and cases continue to rise. Counting our blessings tonight indeed!
