By the time Wednesday rolled around, we couldn’t believe it was the 1st of December already, although we “welcomed in” the new month rockin’ and rollin’, again, as a Low Pressure system, which developed over Phang Nga Bay, moved northwest towards the Andaman Islands, bringing with it a rather large southerly swell, southeasterly winds and thunderstorms, all of which created very uncomfortable conditions in the anchorage. As more yachts arrived throughout the day, though, it was clearly evident that we were, in fact, in the better spot, but that didn’t preclude both of us from feeling very green, to the point we had to lie down, a first for us at anchor.

Other yachts at anchor, certainly had a worse time of it, though, as they pitched and rolled simultaneously. However, It definitely didn’t help matters that Elaine had decided to pick up where she had left off a few months ago with our Red Sea passage planning efforts, as a diversion route, should the need arise, which had her staring into a computer screen as we bounced around. No wonder she felt green! Roy was the wiser one, opting to be dropped off ashore to enjoy a nice long walk.

On his return, Elaine joined him ashore for a coffee and chocolate cake; her second mistake of the day! Once back onboard, keeping everything down for the rest of the day was certainly a challenge! By sunset, though, everything had settled down, in more ways than one, and we enjoyed a peaceful night.

We did, however, wake to a blustery, overcast day yesterday, but, since it wasn’t raining, Elaine settled herself in the cockpit and continued her efforts on the Red Sea passage planning, while Roy finished off the last of the small jobs he had, or so we thought, related to the lithium batteries.

After installing the Charge Disable relay for the solar charge source, the DC power was switched back on, swiftly followed by panic. It was every cruiser’s nightmare; the putrid smell of something electrical burning. As Roy dashed to switch everything off again and checked the battery compartment, Elaine followed the smell, checking everywhere as she progressed.

Upon opening the door to the port forepeak cabin, the plume of smoke hit her in the face, as she screamed to Roy. Not being able to see anything obvious, we both started hauling out the content. Still nothing! Then Roy spotted it; the florescent light had essentially melted.

A few weeks ago, when we were moving stuff around to rebalance Paw Paw, Elaine had reported that the forepeak cabin light was no longer working. Adding it to the list of: “We’ll eventually get to it”, Elaine must have left the switch in the on position and with all our bouncing around, loose wires must have shorted as Roy turned the power back on. What are the chances, but better now than at sea! The exercise, however, also highlighted a feature of our Victron multiplus, which required some re-wiring to facilitate our AC power when the generator was running.

All in all, it was a busy day, with a dash of short-lived stress, leaving us both too tired to be bothered with dealing with dinner onboard, so we dinghied ashore instead. It had been years since we last enjoyed a meal at a restaurant and returned to Paw Paw in the dinghy, in the dark.

Unfortunately, though, while the meal was delicious, it also meant dining with lots of people and, although At the Beach is well ventilated being on the beach, with good social distancing between tables, it was still necessary for Elaine to keep her mask on in between mouthfuls.

While ashore, we also enjoyed a brief chat to the cruisers off Storm Girl and Windwalker, who had spent the first 4-month long full lockdown in Malaysia with us at Rebak Island Resort and Marina.

Today was another day of running errands and completing the last of our Christmas shopping, although the Christmas List didn’t quite pan out as expected, but not before we’d enjoyed breakfast at Dean and Deluca again in Boat Lagoon marina while we waited for the Central Phuket / Floresta mall to open.

Initially wanting a new phone for Christmas, the Apple supplier in Phuket, Studio 7, reneged on their original quotation for the trade-in, dropping it by USD$100 in just a few days. This was, of course, the wrong tactic to try with Roy, so they lost the sale. Instead, Roy stumbled upon a much nicer gift to add to his Christmas List, one he was definitely pleased with.

Then, after Elaine eventually found a store that had all the bits and bobs of stationery she needed, we stopped in at the Village Market mall to pick up a few provisions and returned to Paw Paw, where the extremely tedious task of sanitising everything, ensued.

Both exhausted from our outing, primarily due to the noise, the crowds and the driving, a light dinner, a shower and bed followed in quick succession.