Although the armageddon scenario of a cyclonic storm developing in the Andaman Sea from the typhoon in the South China Sea before heading straight for Phuket Island, didn’t materialise, two depressions developed, nonetheless; one in the Malacca Straits in the vicinity of Pangkor, Malaysia and the second towards the northwestern tip of Sumatra, Indonesia. Add the residual ramifications of the typhoon and…
Fortunately Saturday was a much better day for Elaine, who was feeling herself again after all the side effects of her booster shot, so another nice long walk was enjoyed on the beach before stopping in at the Santiya Koh Yao Yai Resort & Spa for a coffee and chocolate cake. The latter, however, was not as good as what we’ve had at My Beach Resort and it didn’t help that the minute we sat down, hundreds of day trippers arrived at the resort, forcing us both to dive for our masks, eat up, pay and leave as quickly as possible!
We did, however, have a good chuckle after the duty manager had stopped by to welcome us and indicated that, if we were not happy with anything, to let him know. It wasn’t until he’d moved away from our table, that Roy indicated he was about to say: “Well, yes, actually, I’m not happy with my room; I keep rolling out of my bed!”, but decided it would be in poor taste and cause mass confusion.
Back onboard, Elaine dealt with the finishing touches to the yacht insurance, which hopefully will finalise that piece of the jigsaw, while Roy cleaned the shower fittings of the forward starboard head and the aft port head, as well as replaced the shower pump in the forward port head that had become lazy.
Then in between tidying up the cockpit area, Elaine enjoyed surprise calls from Justine in England and her folks in Ireland, followed by dinner and a few storms which moved north and south of us.
With the best seats in the house, our day ended watching a Fire Dance performance on the beach.
Yesterday, after another check of the weather forecast, it appeared everything was still on track for our haulout and, since we were both awake early, we decided an early morning walk on the beach was the perfect way to start our day, then enjoyed breakfast in the cockpit under sunny skies.
The rest of our day was spent preparing for the haulout. While Roy checked all the electrical tools needed and repacked the aft starboard bunk to return the space to a guest cabin as apposed to a workshop, Elaine performed a similar task with the forward starboard cabin, following which she updated the emergency contact information for the satellite phone with a few more details obtained, updated some medical notes and rescheduled her appointment at the hospital until after New Year.
By then it was time for our pre-arranged SSB/HF radio check with Talulah Ruby III (Andy and Paul) and Golden Spirit (Caroline and Michael), who are in Pangkor, Malaysia. Fortunately everything appeared to be working, albeit difficult to hear clearly on some frequencies, given the marina environment in Pangkor and the fact that we were protected by a mountain.
Today, however, was a feat against all odds.
Never mind the fact that Roy was really ill with an upset stomach just before bedtime and we both had a terrible night’s sleep when we woke to howling winds and Paw Paw bouncing around all over the show in the early hours of the morning, our sail over to Ao Po Grand marina was extremely uncomfortable with wind and waves on the beam and both of us getting more and more disillusioned about the possibility of a haulout.
By the time we reach Ao Po at around 0900 we had resigned ourselves to the fact that there would be no haulout today! A phone call to Derrek, the Marina Manager, however, indicated that it was calm and protected behind the breakwater.
Not completely convinced, we bounced around in the deeper water while Roy put out the fendors and docklines, before gingerly making our way to the fuel dock to tie up and await our timeslot. It was indeed a miracle; complete calm!
By 1045 we were on the trailer, a new way for us to haul, but not before a sworm of bees attacked the dockhands onshore and ourselves onboard along with the two dockhands onboard. It was poor Roy who got stung, however, as Elaine and the two dockhands ran for cover behind the mosquito nets covering the saloon door! We truly could not make this up if we tried!
With this delay and the time-consuming process of getting onto the hard, our concern now was whether or not we could get everything completed in the 24 hours we had before being splashed again, not to mention Roy complaining of a very painful leg, following the removal of a very large sting.
So, while the light jetwash was completed we took the opportunity to load up on caffeine at the Port of Call restaurant, then it was all hands on deck until 1900 tonight with help from two boatyard workers. However, before they arrived after lunch, Elaine scrubbed, rinsed and dried the rear areas of both hulls around the saildrives and rudders and then completed the outer port hull, while Roy sanded the saildrives and propellers, all of which were in a very sorrowful state, to the extent that all the saildrives needed was a light hand sanding to remove what was put on in June! It was definitely a good job we had decided to haulout again.
Once help arrived, they took over from Elaine to finish off the scrubbing, rinsing and drying of the hulls, while she got to work on applying the primer and copious layers of antifouling on the saildrives, taking a short break to mask the hulls ready for painting, as well as to purchase our takeaway dinner. In the interim, Roy applied the PropOne to the propellers. Fortunately by then, one coat of antifouling had been applied to both hulls, but, although it was getting dark, everyone pressed on under spotlights and torches to complete the second coat.
By 1900, everyone completely exhausted, we’d finished! Our takeaway dinner, a shower and watching the rest of our favourite Christmas movie, The Holiday, sealed off an extraordinary day!
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