In between all the chatting, Elaine completed her review of the Red Sea Pilot, then packed away all our Christmas decorations. We were now getting ready in earnest for our departure, but she couldn’t help wondering where on earth we’d be when she unpacks them again.
Roy passed his day defrosting the freezer, but discovered that ice had formed behind the one compartment wall and plate, which required a small repair after the huge block of ice was removed. The next repair involved the saloon sliding door, where a screw had sheered off, but obviously it had to be the screw in the most inconvenient place to reach. Cleaning the jerry cans which we’d used to collect rainwater over the months wrapped up his chores for the day.
On Sunday we were up before the alarm after a really good night’s sleep, albeit a little short! En route to the Phuket Yacht Club, we stopped by Charon for a quick chat and to wish Yim and Richard a Happy New Year. Once securely tied up to the dinghy dock, we enjoyed a very pleasant walk through coconut groves, fringed with lovely homes and very interesting shrines. Then, after collecting the hired car, something as scarce as hens teeth these days with the number of tourists on the island, our first stop was the hospital for Elaine’s blood work, before heading to Lotus, previously Tesco’s, to start our bulk provisioning. The return trip to the hospital for Elaine’s last appointment with the doctor revealed good news, indicating her revised treatment plan, as prescribed by the specialist in Singapore, was working, after a disastrous five months. Thank goodness!
From there we made our last trip to Ao Po Grand marina to collect the last of our deliveries, our spare starter motor, then returned to Dean and Deluca at Boat Lagoon marina for lunch, before heading to the Villa Market to purchase our usual weekly provisions. We were delighted to have made such good timing in getting everything done for the day, but a surprise awaited us back at the yacht club; we hadn’t realised the dinghy dock was tide dependent! Our dinghy was sitting in mud and it was just coming up to the bottom of the low!
Resigned to the fact that we’d be stranded for at least three hours, we settled down to a few cold beverages and live music to while away our Sunday afternoon. It had been years since we’d enjoyed this pleasure associated with our sailing lifestyle and the singer had a great voice! It was, however, close to 1800, with storms brewing on the horizon, before we could load the dinghy and paddle out to the deeper water, returning to Paw Paw just as the heavens opened.
Too tired to do anything more, the bags of provisions were left in the cockpit, the sanitation of which was left for another day!
That day was Monday, which was also our designated day for loading up on diesel. So, after we moved Paw Paw across to Chalong Bay, while Roy undertook five diesel runs in total to fill all our jerry cans and to top up both tanks, Elaine started the huge task of sanitising all the provisions purchased on Monday, as well as sanitising all the filled jerry cans returned to Paw Paw. It was 1430 by the time we had all the diesel, but not before having to wait two hours before the last two runs could be completed; the fuel dock had run out of diesel, given the number of yachts and motorboats that were filling up. By the time we had added biocide to each jerry can and stowed them, we were both exhausted and in desperate need of a nap!
After a short nap, which was better then nothing, we’d barely finished sanitising the remaining provisions, when it was time to get ready for dinner; a rather unusual outing of collecting Annie and Hugh, off Vega, whom we hadn’t seen since 2019 in Indonesia and enjoying a tasty meal with them at our chosen restaurant, KanEang@Pier, somewhere we’d wanted to try for some time and we were definitely pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, during dinner a storm came up with a huge swell running, not forecast as usual, making for a very wet, lumpy dinghy ride in the dark back to the yachts. Regardless, it was a lovely evening and wonderful to catch up with cruising friends again.
Tuesday saw another early start as we dinghied back to the Phuket Yacht Club to start running the gauntlet to get the rest of our provisioning completed in the six hours we had between mid tides.
Our first stop was a different Lotus store close to the anchorage, which was very well stocked and where we got most of what we still needed. However, our return to the yacht club revealed another surprise or rather a near disaster; our dingy was gone! We have no idea what happened, except that it must have been deliberately untied. Fortunately with the incoming tide, Roy spotted it some distance down the coastline towards the Chalong Pier and was able to rescue it by running along the breakwater wall, onto the adjoining beach, stripping down to his boxers and wading chest deep to get to it. Soaked, but relieved, he returned to the dinghy dock, but due to the rough sea, Elaine had to carry everything from the car to the dock and lower the bags to Roy in the dinghy, who actually couldn’t get out of it if he tried, it was so rough. The next challenge was for Elaine to get into the dinghy safely in the conditions!
Anyway, after dropping everything off on Paw Paw, we decided that leaving the dinghy at the yacht club again was too risky. So, instead, Elaine dinghied Roy back to the club to fetch the car, after which she dinghied to the dinghy dock at Chalong Pier, got the “Songthaew” to the end of the pier, where Roy collected her in the car to continue our provisioning, but not before we decided to continue our gastronomic adventures as a treat for a job well done; lunch at the Coconut Café, where we thoroughly enjoyed a dish Elaine had wanted to try since arriving in Thailand, Khao Soi, the famous dish of Chiang Mai Province. Elaine had the chicken version, while Roy opted for Salmon, both absolutely delicious and beautifully presented.
Our last stop of the day was the “Food for Farangs” store, where we were delighted, not only to find some of our favourite treats, but where we found a variety of imported items, including decent tinned vegetables and a very good selection of frozen meats, which will save us the trip to “Master Butcher” immediately prior to our departure.
Yesterday was another early start. This time to visit Makro and Villa Market to purchase the remaining items on our list that we were unable to get at the other stores, primarily due to supply issues; batteries, almond milk, soya milk, tinned vegetables, olives, decent size packets of rice that weren’t infected with creepy crawlies, granulated brown sugar and self-raising flour were among the challenges we’ve had.
It didn’t help matters either that we woke to the news that the Cadman Jr household was going through a rather rough time in Keenan’s absence, who is in Atlanta completing his Captaincy training. Brooke had contracted COVID-19 and was really ill. Then Collin, a good friend, who boards with them and who was looking after Brooke and all of the children, contracted the virus too. Fortunately the kids are all fine and Capri has been an absolute star in looking after her mom, Collin, her siblings and the pets. Her note to Keenan is included in the photographs. We are so very proud of her in getting the family through this crisis and pray that all our grandchildren remain healthy and covid-free.
After Makro, our next stops were Grace Pharmacy to collect the rest of Elaine’s nine month supply of medications and supplements and Electrical Marine to get input on what could possibly be causing our generator to give out 0volts all of a sudden; the generator has simply not been the same since we had it serviced in Penang, Malaysia. By this stage, though, we were also starting to wonder what we would have to deal with next, although hoping we were paying the piper in advance for a safe, pleasant and uneventful passage across the Indian Ocean.
With a few ideas in hand of what to check on the generator, we stopped at Dean and Deluca in the Boat Lagoon marina for a mid-morning coffee and a freshly baked almond croissant, straight out of the oven! Yum! A pleasant surprise was bumping into Sally and David, off Alcedo of Ryme, who had recently returned to Thailand. A pit stop at the chandlery to purchase a new fuel line for the dinghy and a seal for one of the air-conditioner strainers completed our shopping efforts, with the exception of our frozen and fresh produce.
Of course, getting all our puchases back to the dinghy with the “Songthaews” packed with tourist, was not an easy feat, involving Elaine being dropped off at the Chalong Pier, where she walked to the dinghy, then dinghied over to the Phuket Yacht Club. Roy, after driving the car over there, awaited her arrival to load the dinghy, albeit that Elaine was a tad delayed because she first had to rescue a drifting cruiser in his dinghy, who had a motor failure and no oars onboard.
Once the dinghy was loaded, Roy returned the car and walked to Chalong Pier, a closer walk from the car hire premises, where Elaine met him after dinghying back to the pier. As we said previously, nothing is ever easy on a yacht!
Back onboard we moved Paw Paw back to the more comfortable Panwa Bali anchorage and took a rest, before popping over to Charon to say our goodbyes to Yim and Richard, who were departing for Yacht Haven marina ahead of our departure from Thailand. As Richard said: “It was the end of an era!” and in more ways than one!
Today was another gruelling day, although we enjoyed a nice long chat to Keenan before starting our tasks in earnest. While Elaine sanitised the remainder of our purchases, then stowed everything, as well as reviewed our yacht insurance policy to ensure everything was in order, Roy started the watermaker, then worked on resolving the latest issue with the generator, as well as undertaking his regular maintenance activities on it. His final tasks of the day, before he completely ran out of steam, was checking our emergency steering equipment and making a slight improvement to the system we had re-designed in Fiji after our passage from hell, as well as ensuring our spare satellite phone was operational.
Needing to rejuvenate herself three-quarters the way through her stowing exercise, Elaine jumped off the back of Paw Paw, fully clothed, for a refreshing swim, before finishing her tasks for the day, while Roy dinghied ashore for a cold beverage and ordered our takeaway dinner from At the Beach.
Exhausted, but delighted that we’d completed almost everything for our departure, albeit that Paw Paw was fully loaded with supplies placed in every nook and cranny, spare diesel and water loaded on the transom and in the cockpit area, her bottom all clean with new antifouling and all her systems and equipment working as expected, we were both fast asleep by 2100, but not before singing Happy Birthday to Elaine’s sister in Ireland and receiving the news that Elaine’s nephew in Zimbabwe had fractured his collarbone and was heading to surgery. It had been a very, very, long fortnight indeed, each of us loosing a few more kilograms in weight, not to mention the gallons in perspiration!
