It started with our haulout being up in the air due to a severe tropical depression forecast to pass straight over Phuket Island on the exact day Paw Paw is scheduled to be lifted out of the water again. Then, a simple task, like ordering jerry cans, turned into an almighty cluster when Lazada decided to block Roy’s payment for no apparent reason, resulting in him having to dinghy all the way across Chalong Bay to try and pay at an ATM, another option they offer, but, of course, all the instructions at the ATM were in Thai and nobody could speak English at the bank to help him. By a stroke of luck he stumbled upon a store selling jerry cans, but, although they didn’t have the sizes we need, the owner was able to order them for us, thankfully. That was followed by a FedEx mixup in delivering two of our parcels containing the additional cruising pilot and flags we need, resulting in Roy having to drive to the FedEx distribution centre on Wednesday to collect the parcels before they were erroneously put out for delivery again. On top of that, our yacht insurance is still not finalised, after spending most of Tuesday completing the necessary paperwork, never mind the fact that Elaine’s medication supplies, getting the rest of our provisions purchased, sanitised and stowed, as well as reinstating and testing our satellite service, were all still in the works too.
By Tuesday evening we were grateful for the impromptu “Dock A Rebak Refugee’s” reunion on Panwa Beach to spend some time with cruising friends over sundowners and to take a break from the mayhem.
On Wednesday we were up with the alarm to collect the hired car and make our way to the hospital for Elaine’s Moderna booster shot, arranged by the doctor here in Thailand. Although it was another fiasco, which took more time to work through four different queues to complete administrative tasks before getting the shot, while the nurses sat idle for ages between patients, Elaine eventually emerged two hours later after being only eighteenth in line, but grateful to the doctor, nonetheless, and thankful that we got there early! It was during this time that Roy went to FedEx, setting the norm for our “divide and conquer” approach for the rest of the day, in order to get through all our errands. However, during our travels around Phuket Island, there’s always so many sights we see and wished we had a camera to the ready and Wednesday was no exception, except, this time Elaine managed to get the camera out in time to capture a man swinging in a hammock in the back of a pickup truck while it was being driven! Only in Thailand!
From the hospital we made our way to Boat Lagoon marina, where Elaine completed the last of our Christmas shopping and Roy made a beeline for the chandlery. Fortunately we made it to Ao Po Grand marina just before the office closed for lunch, so we could drop off our gifts and enjoy lunch with Derrek, the marina manager, to discuss options for the haulout, given the impending weather.
At the time, a cyclonic storm was forecast to develop from the typhoon hitting areas of the South China Sea, coming over the southern provinces of Thailand and the northern states of Malaysia and reforming in the Andaman Sea before heading straight for Phuket Island. What are the chances!
Anyway, with a plan for the haulout, we then headed back down to Chalong to the Village Market, stopping at Grace Pharmacy en route. While Roy headed to the hardware store to purchase everything we need for the haulout, Elaine headed to Villa Market to purchase some provisions we needed to tide us over until the storm passed.
It’s fair to say, Elaine had completed wilted by this point with the side effects of her booster shot kicking in with vengeance. By the time we got back to Paw Paw, all she could muster was to sanitise everything before having a light dinner, a shower and heading to bed.
With the storm still forecast yesterday morning, we were up early to weigh anchor and head north, but alas, our ground tackle was snagged again; this time with a fishing net wrapped around our chain. We’ve come to the conclusion that we should just expect a fouled anchor now and be pleasantly surprised if it isn’t!
After motor-sailing north and taking the opportunity to clean the bridle again, our chosen anchorage for last night was off the west coast of Koh Yao Yai, with a beautiful long, white, sandy beach, dotted with three resorts, the Santiya Koh Yao Yai Resort & Spa, the Yao Yai Beach Resort and the Royal Koh Yao Yai Resort, all apparently cruiser-friendly. It was around noon by the time we dropped the hook and had barely sat down, though, when a fisherman arrived to sell us prawns and tiger prawns. Well, that was dinner sorted out; barbecued with a salad. Delicious! We also enjoyed a lovely walk on the beach to clear our heads, although Elaine’s fatigue associated with the booster forced her to bed for a few hours yesterday afternoon.
Another look at the weather forecasts this morning indicated that the armageddon scenario wasn’t going to materialise after all, so, instead of popping around to the channel between Koh Yao Yai and Koh Yao Noi, where we intended to hunker down, we decided to stay put and enjoy the surroundings. That involved another long walk on the beach, but this time towards the resorts for a snoop. We were delighted to find a selection of cafés, restaurants and a convenience store, so we’re not going to starve, not to mention, there’s a spa at the nicest of the three resorts!
Our morning, however, wasn’t as chilled out as we’d hoped after receiving an unexpected email from our medical insurance provider, initiating a flurry of activity, followed by an additional followup required on our yacht insurance, which then prompted Roy to re-setup our satellite service and a slew of testing started; checking messages, checking emails to ensure the website is updated with our blogs, checking that weather forecasts and routing information can be obtained and, finally, re-programming all the emergency contact numbers and emails for the satellite phone usage. In summary, we’re looking forward to being on passage at this rate; we might actually get a rest!
Our day ended unexpectedly; a video call from Keenan after a phone call had been made to Santa to ensure Christmas came early at the Cadman Jr household, given that, once again, Keenan will be working over the Christmas period. Needless to say, everyone was delighted with their gifts and William claimed: “Mom told Santa not to bring me a dirt bike (aka motorbike) because I might get that for my birthday, but I got exactly what I wanted; a red bike (aka bicycle)!”
