Our day also started in the best possible way; a video call from Keenan to spend time with the grandchildren just before their bedtime. While the twins are struggling a little with the structured school environment, specifically in resisting the urge to chat to their classmates when they should be paying attention, Capri and William are both enjoying school and doing well. Capri is just so grown up now and it’s hard to think of her as a middle schooler, with makeup on, her nails done, her hair beautifully styled and her trendy clothes, but that’s part of the American culture. However, when the boys asked us what we were eating and Grandma replied: “Breakfast “, their interest peeked: “How come you’re eating breakfast?”.“Well, it’s day time here”. “How come it’s day time there Grandma?”. “Because we’re on the other side of the world”. “Where Grandma?”. “Thailand”. “Thailand? Is that further than Mexico?”. “Yes sweethearts”. “We miss you Grandma!”. “I know sweethearts, we miss you too”.
And, with that, we had the joy of listening to William read a bedtime story to his brothers and then had some one-on-one time with him as he told us a scary story. He’s actually a great little storyteller; the Irish in him resonating obviously. He then wanted Grandma to tell him a scary story and his reaction had us in stitches, especially the facial expressions and the suspicion in his tone when he asked: “Are you talking about us, Grandma?” It was, however, a ghost story told to Elaine and her siblings by his great-Granda years ago. Nonetheless, he enjoyed it and wanted another, so we hope we didn’t scare the poor child to death just before his bedtime.
Afterwards we continued with our passage planning, then Roy popped ashore to collect Elaine’s additional supply of her medication, which had been delivered to the marina office.
Yesterday we had a very busy day onboard; somewhat unusual these days. We had an early start to take advantage of the calm conditions before the sea breezes picked up. While Roy cleaned the bridle, ran the engines and cleaned the barbecue, Elaine cleaned Paw Paw’s interior and the cockpit area, finished a few odd jobs that have been on the To Dos List for some time and then settled down to complete some paperwork including her medical notes, submitting the latest medical insurance claims and obtaining the additional endorsements on our yacht insurance required for our upcoming passage. We had wanted to go ashore for lunch, but the weather dictated otherwise with rain showers passing over us. It was, however, the widespread thunder and lightning storms around us last night which prompted regular breaks from our movie to keep an eye on the situation. Fortunately it all dissipated before bedtime, allowing us to enjoy another good night’s sleep at anchor.
The disturbing news for the day, though, was that Thailand had surpassed the 1 million mark in COVID-19 cases, 97% of which have been recorded in the past five months, a grim statistic accompanied by the news of 8,826 associated deaths.
As we mentioned previously, Thailand had enjoyed only partial social restrictions for much of the pandemic until it was hit in April this year by the virulent Alpha variant, exacerbated by the “Songkran” celebrations, which were then followed by the introduction of the Delta variant, at a time when vaccination rates are low.
Today, after the storms last night, we enjoyed another sunny morning and breakfast in the cockpit, following which Roy completed some of his maintenance chores, including topping up the water on our house batteries, a chore he’s looking forward to stopping once our lithium battery solution is installed, while Elaine enjoyed a nice chat to Richard, off Charon.
Unfortunately we had the floating village idiot arrive back in the anchorage and, of course, anchored on top of us and Charon when the rest of the bay was wide open with only one other yacht in the anchorage. So, once again, rather than get into a conflab, we weighed anchor and moved. As luck would have it, though, we’d barely re-positioned ourselves, when Richard asked the cruiser to move anyway. Reluctantly or otherwise the yacht was moved; all this disruption totally unnecessary had a safe anchoring spot been chosen to begin with. What is it with some cruisers!
Having missed out on our trip ashore yesterday due to weather, we jumped at the opportunity today and enjoyed a cold beverage and lunch at the Port of Call restaurant. After our busy day yesterday, although we took a stroll through the gardens after lunch, we weren’t up to much activity this afternoon, preferring instead to lounge around the cockpit. A light snack for dinner and a movie wrapped up the day.
