On Monday morning, although we had a few more rain showers to contend with, it was all action onboard with Roy running the generator, which we’re pleased to report hasn’t spluttered again, running the watermaker, running all the air-conditioners to ensure they’re all still in working order, repairing the top edge of the rubber trim on the starboard transom and modifying the breather pipe to the starboard fuel tank to ensure this wasn’t the source of the little bit of water we found in the tank. We’d modified the port side a while back, given that the port engine compartment kept getting water inside it with all the torrential rain and concluded the design of the breather pipe lent itself to a leak. We had no idea it could possibly leak into the fuel tank, though. We think this may have occurred primarily due to the direction from which the weather constantly approaches. Nonetheless, we weren’t taking any chances and made the modifications regardless. Just a very bad design!
Elaine kept herself busy with her daily chores, although the skies here are a constant source of interest to her; the cloud formations and colours are so unique, but sadly any photographs just don’t do it justice.
Yesterday we woke to the very disturbing news of two new “Variants of Interest”; one in South Africa and one in the UK, the latter originating in Cornwall and traced to an immunocompromised individual after 50,000 people attended a concert with no social distancing or mask mandate. Based on the multiple mutations of one of these variants, specifically the one detected in South Africa, it could render all the current vaccines completely ineffective. It was only a matter of time before this occurred, something the WHO (World Health Organisation) has warned about repeatedly and simply ignored by all those countries stockpiling the vaccines instead of being used to vaccinate the world as quickly as possible; now these vaccines could be completely useless!
Trying to set that news aside, given the potential impacts it could have on our plans to set sail in January, Roy went ashore to drop off the garbage, collect a few more parcels that had been delivered to the marina office and, while there, enjoyed a morning coffee with Derek, the marina manager. On his return he cleaned Paw Paw’s bottom and hence the second occurrence of bad news for the day. Given the state of the saildrives and propellers, we have no choice but to haul Paw Paw out of the water again. Clearly what we paid for was not applied or not applied correctly, even with Roy popping over to the boatyard regularly to check on things. This was the first time we didn’t do the bottom ourselves, now we have to redo it ourselves anyway! So infuriating, not to mention, costly!
Setting that problem aside for another day, this afternoon Roy updated the firmware of our inverter, given that he’d received the necessary electronics to do so; another task required for our lithium battery solution.
Elaine spent her day trying to get the passage planning completed, but correlating all the information from the various sources is definitely time-consuming, although necessary. By late afternoon her right arm and shoulder were killing her, so she called it a day.
Today we had another early morning flurry of activity as Roy decided to bake baguettes, then Elaine decided we’d better put our overripe bananas to good use and baked a banana loaf, followed by getting the laundry done. We thought we’d picked the best day possibly for the latter, but, although slightly breezy, rain showers and thunderstorms kept interrupting play.
By early evening, after passing a rainy afternoon by enjoying an afternoon matinee, we received more bad news, this time out of Ireland; Elaine’s mom had been in and out of the Critical Care Unit over the past few days after being bitten by something on her ear, which then moved to her neck and has caused blood poisoning. Our thoughts are with her and wish her a speedy recovery. We sincerely hope this is the last of the bad news for awhile!
Saturday morning was “operation gas bottles”, which involved the safe disposal of our oversized Malaysia bottle, emptying out our gas locker of all our other bottles, giving the area a thorough cleaning, since this locker had been open for more than a year due to the size of the Malaysian bottle, then returning everything back to normal, including being able to return the cockpit cushion to its rightful spot - it’s all the little things that are helping us feel like our lives are returning to normal, albeit slowly.
Roy then started the repiping of the fuel polishing system on the starboard fuel tank to mirror the port side, completing the installation today. It was a good job he decided to reposition the uptake pipes; the sediment that was removed from the starboard tank today was alarming. Strangely enough, though, the port tank was absolutely fine.
A barbecue under a beautiful clear, starry night, our first in weeks, wrapped up a very busy day.
Although we woke to glorious sunshine this morning, before Elaine could get out of bed, Roy was running around closing hatches with Elaine wondering what on earth he was doing. Seconds later the heavens opened; a storm had crept up from the west. Fortunately it passed and we had another hot, sunny, windless day; the perfect opportunity to enjoy our gift of exotic fruits with breakfast.
Afterwards, having completed the repiping of the fuel polishing system on the starboard fuel tank, Roy then removed the old battery combiner on the port engine and installed the new one, in preparation for our lithium battery solution.
Besides being the gofer, as needed, Elaine busied herself with a few “special projects” for family and continued work on her passage planning, a task that is definitely taking longer than she expected, since she keeps finding new, relevant information.
By mid afternoon, though, we’d both had enough of the heat and headed ashore to the Ao Po Grand marina swimming pool and a cold beverage, both doing the trick on cooling us down.
Once back onboard, Elaine enjoyed a chat to her sister in Ireland, before a Pad Thai dinner, complements of Roy and a movie sealed the day.
Yesterday we enjoyed a cooked breakfast for a change, complements of Roy, before he dinghied ashore for a walk and to reserve a hired car for us.
While he was away, Elaine continued her efforts on finalising the passage planning activity before we both got stuck into a task that we’ve been procrastinating for some time; removing all the bits of “glue” stuck to Paw Paw after our time in Malaysia when we used duct tap to secure the tarps that covered the saloon louver windows and to hold the piping of the standalone air-conditioner in place, as well as the strips of masking tape Roy had placed on the topsides to mark where the belts of the travel lift had to go in order to haul Paw Paw out of the water. It was a very sticky mess to clean up in the sweltering heat and humidity, fortunately made easier by the spray “glue remover” we found in Malaysia. We eventually got finished by late afternoon just before the rain set in again.
It was the COVID-19 numbers, however, that were the real concern of the day, with the weekly total just under 900; 10 times the original threshold for reevaluating the Phuket Sandbox, although the criteria for evaluation have been modified constantly by the authorities over the weeks as each threshold has been reached, rendering them pointless.
Yesterday’s total set yet another daily record of 189 cases reported, excluding the 3 new Phuket Sandbox infections found in international travellers who had recently arrived on the island.
More disturbingly, though, is that the official totals announced each day do not provide an accurate account of the case numbers, since several demographics are excluded; totals to date too that are on the increase, namely:
- 73 Phuket Sandbox travellers who have tested positive for COVID-19 sometime after arriving on the island
- 39 Phuket natives infected in other provinces, but brought back to the island for treatment under the “Bring Phuket People Home” programme
- 23 infected Thai nationals returning home from other countries 10 cases infected in other provinces, although we have no clue what this group actually represents
- An additional 19 people testing positive yesterday with a rapid antigen test, but are unconfirmed until the results of their RT-PCR tests are returned, with a total of 430 people in the COVID-19 Care Centres also currently awaiting their RT-PCR test results after receiving a positive result on an antigen test.
Not knowing these numbers before we reserved the hired car, we continued with our plans for today regardless; to purchase fresh produce since we’d run out, run a few errands and enjoy a beach day, killing two birds with one stone as we also considered a supermarket recommended by Derek, the Ao Po Grand marina manager, in lieu of shopping at the very busy Makro store.
That meant we were up early to collect the car before driving to Boat Lagoon marina, where we enjoyed a morning coffee and baked delight at Dean and Deluca, stopping en route at Electrical Marine to top up our generator spares. Then, while Elaine whiled away the time in the luxury of the air-conditioned restaurant, Roy completed his errands doing the rounds at the various chandleries, primarily to purchase the bits and bobs he needs to redo the piping on the starboard fuel tank’s polishing system, as well as some initial parts needed for the installation of the lithium batteries.
From there we headed to the beach closest to the supermarket we’d been referred to in Boat Avenues, Bang Tao Beach, and in doing so stumbled upon the rather upmarket expatriate’s enclave of Laguna. We were quite surprised to see the remarkable contrast of this area compared to the local areas of the island we’ve frequented up until now. We were delighted, though, to find a fabulous long sandy beach, where we didn’t feel threatened in any way while we walked along it, especially since it was deserted for the most part. We also found the Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket 5-star hotel which had a handful of sun worshippers and some swimmers, following which we found a shady spot under the trees and enjoyed the scenery. Another of our finds, as we enjoyed our stroll along the beach, was the Xana Beach Club, although open, was completely deserted as well. We could only imagine what a fun spot this would have been pre-pandemic, not to mention the bikini clad girls who most likely would have been playing volleyball, the lack thereof, a huge disappointment for Roy.
For lunch we decided to continue our Thai gastronomic adventures at the Tawai Thai Cuisine restaurant, where Elaine enjoyed a Pad Khing Nuah (Stir-fried Ginger Beef) and Roy opted for the Gaeng Keow Wan Neua (Thai Beef Green Curry) before getting most of our fresh produce at a roadside stall, the owners of which were delighted with our purchases. This, however, was another occasion during our circumnavigation where we received gifts from people who have so little, but still generous and willing to share; bunches of the exotic fruits, Rambutan and Longan. Delicious!
What struck us, though, as we stopped at the ATM, en route to the supermarket, the latter also completely deserted, except for a few statues, were trucks spraying some or other antiseptic or disinfectant liquid along all the streets and over the pavements; something we had not seen before, except on videos out of China and Singapore. The authorities were clearly pulling out all the stops to try and curtail the further spread of COVID-19 on the island.
Our final errand for the day was to purchase a local gas bottle, an undertaking which took some convincing using simple English words and hand gestures to validate that we intended to return the bottle to be refilled at a later date. From the safety of the car, Elaine watched what looked like a game of Charades which Roy was playing, the smiles of the owners indicating that he was getting his message across, thankfully!
We were both exhausted by the time we returned to Paw Paw, but having our usual stairs and ramp to the dinghy dock closed off and having to enter the dock area via a single checkpoint where temperatures were taken, hands were sanitised and a notebook was updated, was another indication that the unabated spread of COVID-19 on the island had upped the ante everywhere, especially since a further 169 cases had been reported, excluding the demographics noted above, bringing the total number of people under medical care or supervision to 1,309 and an additional 103 new cases of people suspected of being infected after testing positive by an antigen test, the latter awaiting confirmation through a RT-PCR test, not to mention the other 443 people currently held at “COVID-19 Care Centers”, also awaiting confirmation of their RT-PCR tests.
By this stage, though, we were just grateful that we’d enjoyed a lovely day out, although busy, that it wasn’t raining when we got back to the marina and it wasn’t low tide, so we could get our dock cart down the ramp and to the dinghy without further ado!
Having removed most of the fuel from the port fuel tank, replaced the generator fuel lift pump, yet again, repiped the generator fuel pickup, replaced the fuel filter on the generator, rodded all the other fuel pipes, cleaned the bottom of the tank, repiped the fuel polishing system to pick up fuel from the bottom of the tank, relabelled everything and then re-polished all the fuel, a jerry can at a time, we sincerely hope we’ve resolved the problem. Given that the generator ran twice yesterday without spluttering, time will tell if, indeed, the problem has been resolved. Of course, Roy now needs to undertake some of the same work on the starboard side to ensure we have consistency across both tanks, but getting a dry day could be the challenge. It didn’t help matters that, although the forecast indicated sunny days, all this work was carried out between numerous rain showers, but was completed, thankfully, before the deluge of rain which set in for all of yesterday afternoon and well into last night, revealing another soggy mess in the cockpit this morning. Tired of the latter, we eventually surrendered to putting down the side-skirts, which reduces the cool breeze, but will keep the cockpit drier.
Although Elaine was having her usual off day on Monday, she still managed to be the gofer and continued with her passage planning, but, by lunchtime, she could no longer fight off the fatigue, so into her cabin she went for a nap, surfacing three hours later when her sister called from Ireland.
Yesterday, feeling human again, Elaine continued her gofer duties and passage planning, which, although is nearing completion for the two alternate routes to South Africa, she too was in and out of the cockpit and the saloon trying to stay cool between the rain showers. It was certainly a great workout for her thighs! Regardless, once completed, she’ll be able to create an Action List to be executed at the appropriate time, then she’ll return to the Red Sea passage planning and the final review of the potential yacht insurance policy just to have this as a backup in case the socio-economic instability in South Africa deteriorates further over the next year, given that Zuma’s trial hasn’t started yet.
On Monday another yacht transporter arrived in the area and, although it didn’t appear that yachts were loaded yesterday, today we counted eight onboard and three more in the vicinity to be loaded. We’d heard from the Moorings manager based at Ao Po Grand marina that Australians are purchasing yachts unseen, but represented by an interdependent surveyor, then having them shipped back to Australia. Guess they’re seeing an opportunity for a few bargains with the numerous yachts sitting on the hard all around SE Asia and their owners unable to return to them due to the border closures.
For us, though, the highlight of our day came in the form of a photograph of William who had completed his latest school project. Noting his favourite colour as red, his favourite animal as a parrot, his superhero as his daddy and, most importantly, his favourite song as Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams, a tradition and an all time favourite passed down through the generations from his Grandma and Justine, was priceless!
Today, besides pottering around and Roy baking, we also had a short “dinghy visit” from Craig, off Il Sogno, before the rain was back. We’d been told the southwest monsoon season in Thailand was very unpleasant; definitely an accurate assessment, summed up by a playful message we received from Richard, off Charon, saying he’d seen “some crazy person out in a dinghy” earlier yesterday afternoon. That was Roy heading to the marina office to collect a few parcels. It wasn’t raining when he left, but it was lashing down on his return!
So, with the rainy weather, while Roy pottered around, Elaine completed the cataloguing and uploading of all our Thailand photographs. These can be found by clicking on the “Last” tab of our Circumnavigation Album on the Gallery. Enjoy!
Looking back over the photographs we actually had quite a few adventures before the COVID-19 cases started to spike and Phuket Province was closed off from the rest of Thailand. Hopefully those days will return fairly soon so we can get back to our sailing as well as enjoying the many festivals normally celebrated.
Another one missed due to the lockdown is the annual “Por Tor Festival”, also known as the “Hungry Ghosts Festival”, celebrated this year without the street processions. It’s held in the 7th or 9th Lunar month of the Chinese calendar, which is believed to be when the gates of Hell open and spirits are allowed to wander the Earth and revisit homes.
During the festival, people bring food and decorated fruits to offer to the God of the Demons, “Por Tor Kong”, for him to pass along to the spirits, similarly to what we saw at the birthday celebrations of the Jade Emperor on Penang Island, Malaysia. An essential offering for this festival, however , is red turtle-shaped cakes called “Ang Ku”, symbolising longevity.
Not sure this particular festival would be one we would be keen on celebrating, though, as there’s enough badness in the world without opening the gates of Hell to welcome more, but that’s usually the essence and joy of a sailing adventure; to experience all these other cultures and customs of the world, so we’ve included some photographs, complements of others who have attended this festival in past years.
Our day ended with what has become our own custom during this pandemic, our monthly family get-together on Zoom. We certainly had plenty to chat about, eventually saying goodbye some two hours later, making for a rather late night for us having accommodated all the time zones.
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.
Regardless, in between the two trips to the hospital, we enjoyed another Sunday morning breakfast at Dean and Deluca in Boat Lagoon marina. We’d barely made it into the restaurant, though, when the heavens opened, at which point we spotted Colin, off Endorphin, utterly soaked to the bone and clearly very intent on getting to wherever he was walking without seeing us.
We also decided to combine our outing with getting our monthly provisioning done, it too completed in between lashing downpours. Unfortunately we weren’t as lucky at avoiding the rain when we got back to the marina and thus unfolded a typical cruising event; transferring groceries from a car to a yacht at anchor in torrential rain: Find a dock cart, in the rain. Unpack the groceries into the dock cart, in the rain. Push the stacked dock cart to the nearest overhang to shelter one person, in this case Elaine, from the weather and to keep an eye on the groceries, while the other, poor Roy, returned the car and walked back to the marina, in the rain, at this point resembling a drowned rat. Push the stacked dock cart to the dinghy dock, in the rain, except it’s the bottom of a rising tide and we can’t get the cart down the ramp without all our groceries ending up in the water. So, transfer a grocery bag at a time, down the ramp, without slipping, to the dinghy dock, in the rain. While one person returns the cart, Roy, the other, Elaine, starts to bail out all the rain water from the dinghy, hopefully faster than it is filling back up, in the rain. Transfer grocery bags to the dinghy, in the rain. Speed back to the yacht with the rain lashing in your face, to the point you can hardly see where you are going. Transfer the grocery bags, one at a time, onto the yacht. Put the dinghy on the davits, in the rain and, finally, soaked to the bone, we strip off, dry off, get into some dry cloths and enjoy a nice hot cuppa before getting stuck into sanitising the soggy mess that resembled the groceries we’d purchased.
It was close to 2000 by the time we ran out of steam and inclination, leaving the rest of the stowing and tidying up until Monday morning.
Not surprising then, it was an off day for Elaine on Monday, so while she rested onboard, Roy met Richard and Yim, off Charon, onshore for a late morning coffee. By the afternoon, although Elaine was watching a movie, she could hardly keep her eyes open and opted for a nap instead. Sundowners, a lovely sunset, a barbecue and a movie night (restarted it) wrapped up our day.
By yesterday we were back to our passage planning in earnest, having completed all our research on the various options and having made a few decisions. Although we could get yacht insurance, including coverage for piracy, for a Red Sea passage, we concluded that, being the “sh-1-t magnets” that we are and, with our luck, we’d end up as hostages in some God forsaken “sh-1t hole” somewhere, our lives were worth more than a jaunt around the Mediterranean. That lead us back to the shipping option, but the astronomical increase in cost was something we weren’t prepared to entertain, especially since we now had two other options open back up to us in being able to obtain Elaine’s medication in either La ReUnion or Mayotte.
The one option we have not entertained, is selling Paw Paw, primarily because we don’t want to give up on our circumnavigation, which would make all this hanging around for years, for naught. It would be akin to throwing in the towel on the final lap.
So, fortunately and by a stroke of luck, it was back to our original circumnavigation route around South Africa. However, watch this space long enough and you could find us driving back to Europe!
A lovely, very long chat to Elaine’s folks in Ireland wrapped up a busy, but productive day.
Today we got stuck into our chores, given that we had another sunny, albeit windy day. It was, however, a perfect laundry day; free rain water, free electricity and free wind! Roy ran the watermaker, though, to be sure, to be sure!
With our busy morning, another afternoon nap seemed in ordered, although neither of us could actually sleep, so we settled for a cold refreshment ashore instead. Back onboard we entered the next batch of waypoints, this time for the Maldives and then settled down to another barbecue, accompanied by another pretty sunset, followed by a movie.
