Another video call from Keenan was enjoyed yesterday before Roy dinghied ashore to get dinghy fuel and drop off the garbage, while Elaine got stuck into the passage planning of alternative routes, required due to the medical logistics which recently surfaced. Unfortunately the option of using a reputable international online pharmacy proved fruitless, since, not only was the medication actually more expensive than what we are paying in Thailand, they wouldn’t guarantee delivery, although they deliver to Thailand and anywhere in the world. Fat lot of good that is!
Solving one problem always seems to create another one, though, but at least we now have a high level plan of options with rough timelines and pros and cons for each. Then, today Elaine spent most of the day delving deeper into one of the options, as this is a completely new route for us, an exercise that is still going to take some time to complete. Fortunately all the ground work for the other options were completed in New Zealand back in 2017, when Elaine was bed bound for months on end after tearing all the ligaments in her ankle.
Yesterday was also “Asanha Bucha” Day, also known as “Asalha Puja” or “Dhamma Day”, a special Buddhist holiday in Thailand, marking the event of the Lord Buddha delivering his first sermon at Benares in India over 2,500 years ago. The exact date of the holiday is determined by the waxing moon and the lunar months, but normally occurs in July or August of each year.
Further research revealed that “the Buddha preached his first sermon at a deer park and from this sermon the “Dharma”(Doctrine) of the Buddha was symbolised as a wheel.” This “Dharmachakra” is also known as the “Wheel of Life”, the “Wheel of Law” or the “Wheel of Doctrine” and the symbol can be seen on flags all across Thailand. Similarly, pictures or models of deer can often be seen at temples or in depictions of the Buddha.
“Asanha Bucha” is usually a day when Thai buddhists will “make merit” and visit the local “wat”. Traditionally, candles are among the items donated to the “wat, dating back to times before electricity, where extra light was needed at the temples during the darker days of the rainy season. Also, ceremonies would normally be held in the temples, monks would chant mantras and preach the first sermon of the Buddha, worshippers would “wian tian”, which involves walking clockwise around the main shrine in the “wat” with a lit candle, lotus flowers and incense and many would return to their ancestral homes to donate offerings to their temple and listen to sermons.
This holiday is followed by “Wan Khao Phansa”, which was today, referred to as the “Buddhist Lent”, and marks the start of the three-month “Phansa” period, where monks are required to remain in one particular temple, a tradition originating from when Buddha stayed in one place during the rainy season to avoid killing insects or harming the growing seeds. It is a period for study, meditation and teaching of new monks, but two important activities occur in which the monks are presented the candles, as well as the garments they wear, particularly the bathing robe. The important tradition associated with “Wan Khao Phansa” is the “Khao Phansa Candles Making Ceremony”, where people bring white and yellow candles to make the large “Khao Phansa” candles. In addition, the “Candle Festival” is usually a major event on this day, the most famous occurring in Ubon Ratchathanee province, at the Thung Sri Mueng temple, where local artists express their artistic talents and techniques through crafting Thai patterns on the candles, following which they are presented to the local temple. These magnificent candles also demonstrate the link to local custom and religious beliefs.
However, sadly, with the current lockdown and restrictions, these activities were all curtailed, something we would have loved to have seen, but, in many ways just researching and learning about these customs can be half the fun, at least!
With not being able to enjoy these special traditions of Thailand, we spent another day onboard as Phuket recorded its highest daily number of COVID-19 cases since we’ve been here and more restrictions were imposed with immediate effect yesterday, including the closure of the Central shopping mall. Roy did, however, dinghy ashore to meet the Marina Manager, Derek, for a morning coffee and to also update all our Navionics charts for Europe, as well as download a few additional pilots that we may need. This afternoon Elaine took a break from having her nose buried in books when her Mom called for a chat.
We also had some of the forecast bad weather move through earlier, but the rest is expected tonight and to continue for the next few days.
En route back to Paw Paw we stopped in at a few pharmacies, in the hope of sourcing Elaine’s new medication at a more reasonable price, but learnt that it was only the hospitals that dispensed this particular medication. A subsequent followup, with help from our agent, however, revealed that it’s only the private hospitals on the island that dispense the medication. Feedback from the private hospital in Penang, Malaysia, had it at roughly $400USD cheaper, which could provide an option for a bulk purchase before setting sail across the Indian Ocean, but we’re hoping that our further research into reputable international online pharmacies may prove more fruitful.
Setting logistics aside, Roy produced a delicious Pad Thai for dinner, following which we enjoyed a movie.
It was, however, the daily statistics on the COVID-19 situation in Thailand that was rather alarming to say the least and just as perturbing for Phuket Island.
18 new cases of local infections were recorded on Thursday for Phuket Island, excluding two Sandbox arrivals who had tested positive. It was the trend of the past week, though, that raised the alarm bells for us, this after 1 or 2 cases per day since our arrival on the island, with many days were no cases were reported; 16 July - 7 new cases, 17 July - 11 new cases, 18 July - 1 new case, 19 July - 3 new cases, 20 July - 6 new cases, 21 July - 10 new cases and 22 July - 18 new cases, all of which excludes the 20 positive Sandbox cases from 1 - 21 July, comprising 18 who had tested positive after being on the island for more than a week and 2 who tested positive on arrival at the airport, which, for some bizarre reason, is being excluded from the daily figures.
Additionally, several venues were closed for sanitation, including the Phuket Airport Office Building, the Phuket City Municipality Office and the Splash Jungle Water Park.
The statistics and trends for Thailand as a whole were even worse, with 14,575 new COVID-19 cases, 143,744 in hospital care, 114 deaths and 3,984 in ICU with 900 on ventilators recorded for yesterday, another daily record. Over the past week the numbers have also continued to sore, even under stricter lockdown measures; 17 July - 10,082 & 141 deaths, 18 July - 11,397 & 101 deaths , 19 July - 11,784 & 81 deaths , 20 July - 11,305 & 80 deaths , 21 July - 13,002 & 108 deaths , 22 July - 13,655 & 87 deaths and yesterday - 14,575 & 114 deaths. Unfortunately the vaccination rates are dismal too; on average, over the past week, only 211,844 people had been vaccinated, equating to roughly 22 doses per 100 people. At this rate, Thailand will only be able to vaccinate 70% of the population by August 2022, assuming, of course, that the country overcomes the gross shortage of suitable vaccines it is currently experiencing.
For us, this all means we have no choice, but to continue shielding as we have been doing since March last year and that means enjoying our anchorage off Ao Po Grand marina until the weather improves, allowing us to enjoy some sailing and explore the less touristy islands within Phuket Province.
With the wind still blowing today, though, albeit a reasonably sunny day, we remained onboard and, although Roy was up early, Elaine enjoyed a nice sleep-in. Then while she spent her day updating medical notes and medical insurance claims again, as well as looking at alternative routes for our Indian Ocean passage, Roy continued his efforts on the enhancements to the Anchor Plus application, which are coming along nicely, thanks to the help from his able translators, Ronnie, off Campechano and Bas, off TiSento. Testing the Siri commands, though, was turning into a bit of a laugh, so we gave up!
Our day ended with a video call from Justine, who decided to take a break from her vacuuming chore while we took a break from the terrible movie we were watching; it was the perfect interlude with a few good chuckles!
The overcast and gloomy day, with a rain shower in the morning, lent itself to a lazy day onboard, although a few other yachts had arrived in the anchorage in anticipation of the stronger winds that were forecast. One of those yachts was Il Sogno, so a “covid-safe” visit from Craig was enjoyed on Paw Paw. By the afternoon though, we were both heading to our beds again.
Feeling slightly revitalised after a nap and with plenty of ripe bananas, two delicious bananas loaves were whipped up, followed by a barbecue for dinner.
However, yesterday, Elaine woke up feeling somewhat under the weather. So, while Roy headed ashore to use the wifi at the Port of Call restaurant, Elaine returned to bed. It was the arrival of the stronger winds that got her out of bed, fortunately feeling a lot better, enough to spend the afternoon updating her medical notes, sorting out all her medications to accommodate her new treatment plan, as the existing medications are no longer effective in keeping her conditions under control, and submitting her medical insurance claims, in the hope that the one extremely expensive medication will be covered. Unlikely, but time will tell! With a 28 day supply costing us the equivalent of $1600USD, the sailing kitty will be bankrupt much sooner than we want! In addition, the new medication is causing a logistical issue with availability once we leave Thailand, as we cannot acquire the medication en route, not even in South Africa; a problem for another time!
Today was another lazy day onboard or so we thought; lazy until just before lunch when Elaine started to develop symptoms that ultimately ended up with us rushing back to the Bangkok Hospital Phuket. Being unclear as to whether these were related to her first vaccine jab or the start of her new medication or something else, medical intervention was required nonetheless. Fortunately the hired car was available and within a half an hour we were at the hospital. Further tests revealed an infection unrelated to neither the vaccine nor her medications, but resulted in another course of antibiotics. It just seems never ending at the moment, but hopefully improvements are on the horizon!
Before this round of drama on Paw Paw, and we sincerely hope this is the last, we did, however, both have a relaxing morning and enjoyed a chat to the family in Arizona. Fortunately we called just as the grandsons had climbed into bed after a very busy and exciting first day at school; first grade for William, kindergarten for the twins. Elaine then had a nice chat to Capri who’d had her first day at middle school and her first day back in a classroom since the pandemic hit the US early last year. Receiving the accompanying photographs were definitely a highlight of our day.
However, we had a striking epiphany during the ordeal; had Paw Paw sprung a major leak and, had a catastrophe unfolded, to the extent that we were forced to abandon ship, there was precious little we packed to take with us, which basically included reading glasses, wallets, passports, yacht paperwork, medications, electronic devices and the backup drive containing all the memories of our sailing adventures. That was it! It wasn’t the content of our Grab Bag, since we weren’t in a survival situation; we could actually step ashore to the safety of the 5-Star resort, but we realised we actually didn’t need even the limited material possessions we have onboard.
Fortunately the inspection of Paw Paw’s bottom, once everything was back in order above deck, revealed only minor scuffs and scratches on the very bottom of the port rudder and on the outside of the port keel, with no damage to the rudderpost or the saildrive and propeller. We were very lucky that only the outer half of the port hull was over the reef with the keel resting on the outer edge, which then protected everything else. It could have been far worse, so we’re definitely counting our blessings! As things transpired over the following days, though, we had additional reasons to count our blessings.
The rest of the day was uneventful thankfully, with Roy enjoying a chat to Richard, off Charon, followed by a nap, while Elaine enjoyed a lovely long chat to her mom to hear all about there long weekend getaway in Ireland. Afterwards, though, Elaine couldn’t keep her eyes open and made a dash for her bed, only waking up for her dinner, long after the sun had set.
On Saturday morning, we received another phone call from Richard, suggesting that Roy should check our vaccination registration status, as he’d received an update. To our surprise, Roy had been rescheduled to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine in early August, but Elaine’s allocation remained Sinovax.
With that, another plan was hatched; accept Elaine’s Sinovax appointment, scheduled for today, reschedule Elaine’s specialist appointment to yesterday, arrange for an agent to accompany us to the vaccine appointment and cancel our sail to the outer islands, for a few days at least, to see what unfolded, all in the hope that a change of vaccine could be orchestrated, depending on what the specialist advised regarding Elaine’s health conditions.
A nice long chat to Keenan in the morning, followed by a nice long chat to Elaine’s sister in Ireland in the afternoon, wrapped up a day of planning.
So, yesterday we were up early to collect the hired car, get to the hospital, get Elaine’s blood work completed, then enjoy a lazy Sunday morning breakfast at Dean and Deluca at the Boat Lagoon marina before returning to the hospital to see the specialist. Besides bad news on the health front and a substantial change in Elaine’s treatment plan, as expected, having the Sinovax vaccine was not an option. Armed with all her new medications and a letter from the specialist to hand in at the vaccination centre, we returned to Ao Po Grand marina to enjoy a early dinner at the Port of Call restaurant, before dinghying back to Paw Paw to prepare all the paperwork we needed for the visit to the vaccination centre today.
Having made final arrangements to meet the agent at the vaccination centre, we were up early again today to collect the hired car and make our way diagonally across the island to the southwest corner to the Phuket Orchid Resort and Spa in Karon Beach. However, when we arrived, the entire entrance to the resort was closed off and boarded up. Perplexed that we’d possibly arrived at the wrong entrance, a chat to a passerby, indicated that the vaccination centre was around the back of the resort, down a side street. Within 5 minutes of our agent arriving, though, we were informed that the centre was only administering Sinovax vaccines and that we needed to go to the Patong Hospital in Patong Beach, another few kilometres up the west coast.
Once there and eventually finding parking, we were informed that they too were not administering any AstraZeneca vaccines and, with that, a variety of phone calls were made by our agent; first to the owner of the agency, who directed the agent to the Head Physician and Administrator of the hospital, who came down to meet us, perused the letter from the specialist, made a few phone calls and sent us off to an alternate location. In the interim, a phone call was also made to the person responsible for the operations of the “Phuket Must Win” initiative at the M-DES (Ministry of Digital Economy and Society), overseeing the web portal used to register foreigners for a state-provided vaccination in Phuket Province.
When we arrived at the small vaccination centre, hidden down side streets and behind buildings, a rather important looking lady met us, a few words were exchanged in Thai with our agent and Elaine was ushered through the process, obtaining her vaccination within 10 minutes of our arrival. While she was being observed, the lady that had first greeted us, asked Elaine why Roy was not in line for his vaccination too. When Elaine explained that Roy had an appointment for early August and that today was primarily to sort out her vaccination, the lady turned to our agent with instructions to go and get Roy, who was waiting outside. 10 minutes later, he too was sitting next to me in the observation area; we had both received our first AstraZeneca SARS-CoV-2 vaccination as well as our appointments for the second dose.
In disbelief, but over the moon, it was clear that this was a classic case of “not what you know, but who you know!” Regardless, we were both still beaming and couldn’t believe our luck when we stopped off for lunch at the Daily Dose café in Boat Avenue, Bang Tao Beach, further up the coast and on our route back to Ao Po Grand marina.
Our heartfelt thanks go out to the staff of Asia Pacific Superyachts. Your service has been invaluable and we couldn’t have wished for a better outcome!
The irony in all of this, though, was that Roy’s appointment for his vaccination in Malaysia was scheduled for today, had we still been there. However, we are grateful to the Thai government for their generosity, at a time when vaccines are like hen’s teeth in this part of the world and cases continue to rise. Counting our blessings tonight indeed!
Back on Paw Paw, however, we had our own challenges to deal with, including the fact that, while we had eventually received our appointments to get our Sars-CoV-2 vaccinations, it was for a vaccine, Sinovax, which neither of us can actually have due to Roy’s age and Elaine’s medical conditions, not to mention it’s low efficacy against the Delta variant. Efforts to get this changed have proven fruitless, but this was the least of our problems, though!
Today, with rain overnight and thunderstorms visible in the distance to the south, we were pleased we’d decided to return. However, although it was an overcast, gloomy day, fair weather was forecast, so we decided on a slight change of scenery and motored over to an anchorage just off the Koh Naka Resort and Spa on Koh Nahka Yai, but not before Elaine got our latest video uploaded, “Tantalising Thailand - The Southern Islands of Phuket Province”, containing drone footage for the first time. Enjoy!The additional bonus of moving was that this resort was not only yacht-friendly, but a phone call revealed we were permitted to frequent the establishment and use all their amenities as part of the “Phuket Sandbox” initiative, including the pool and spa, for a daily visitor’s fee.
Delighted we anchored off, then noticed the number of tourists at the resort; meltdown time for Elaine. It hit her like a ton of bricks; not only does she remain vulnerable during the winter months, but now, with COVID-19, many of the pleasures we’ve enjoyed in our sailing life are just too dangerous, especially since we are both still unvaccinated; socialising with unknown entities, visiting beautiful resorts, enjoying tourists attractions, eating out in restaurants, meeting friends at a bar, all of which had her in a fit of tears and questioning what on earth we were doing floating out here. Anchored off this beautiful 5-Star resort which we were unable to enjoy, was the reality check!
Be that as it may, things were about to get a whole lot worse before the day was over! It was the loud crunching noise that signalled the magnitude of the situation.
In a slow motion video over a few minutes: with darkness descending and storm clouds building on the horizon, a fishing boat arrives and starts to drag an anchor across our bow, this way and that, which we note as concerning, eventually hooking a thick rope and retrieves a huge fishing pot before departing, at the same time a power boat arrives, anchors with his bow facing ours, which we note as rather odd, someone disappears ashore in the dinghy for a few minutes, returns and weighs anchor just as the lashing rain and howling wind arrives, seconds later we are grounded on the reef! The full length of Paw Paw’s port hull is stuck; no amount of engine power and kedging with the anchor budges her.
A quick perusal of the tide indicated we were approaching the bottom of the low; there was nothing more to do, except check for leaks, implement our strategy to hopefully get us off the reef on the rising tide and wait.
Like two drowned rats we set a stern anchor off to starboard to prevent us from floating further onto the reef. Fortunately the bow anchor had reset out to our forward starboard side which, when wound in tighter, acted as a kedge anchor for the bow.
With Paw Paw’s starboard side still floating in the deeper water, she slowly started to level from her tilt and by 2230, we were off the reef and back in the safety of the anchorage off Ao Po Grand marina, stressed to the hilt and grateful we hadn’t sprung a leak. Of course, assessing the damage, is yet to be done.
On a post-mortem, though, we both wanted to kick ourselves for not taking the advice of a well seasoned sailor, Capt’n Fatty, which essentially boils down to the fact that, when clowns arrive around you in an anchorage, weigh anchor and move!
Friday was just as gloomy and soggy, although our day was brightened up when we received photographs of the grandsons enjoying their summer beach holiday in Mexico. Fortunately we also managed to get ashore to meet our agent in between the torrential rain storms to handover our passports for our visa renewals; we’d nearly been in Thailand three months already.
While there, we enjoyed a nice chat to Derek, the marina manager, over a coffee, before Richard and Yim, off Charon, arrived too to meet the agent. It was lovely to enjoy a little bit of social interaction, albeit that we had to dash back to Paw Paw before the next band of torrential rain arrived.
By late morning on Sunday the torrential rain was replaced with a lighter, steadier rain which continued all day, but afforded us the opportunity to dinghy ashore again for a coffee. Unfortunately we woke to the news that the first cases of the Delta variant and the Beta variant had been detected on Phuket Island and it didn’t help matters that, by bedtime, there were reports that all the schools on the island had been closed with immediate effect due to detected infections, Phuket province had the highest number of cases for the first time in weeks, cases across Thailand had exceeded 9000 cases per day, with a record number of deaths on a single day as well, Bangkok and a number of other surrounding provinces were being placed under lockdown, inter-provincial travel had been curtailed and more tourists, who had arrived on the island as part of the “Phuket Sandbox” initiative, had tested positive on their second PCR test after already spending 6-7 days on the island, some infecting friends living on the island, whom they’d come to see, not to mention the potential of infecting all the strangers they had interacted with during that time.
Things were definitely not heading in the right direction, both for Phuket Island and Thailand as a whole, making us feel, that although we dodged a bullet in Malaysia, we may well have jumped from the frying pan into the fire, primarily because Phuket’s borders remain open to foreign tourists, although borders have been reinforced on the domestic front, and we were still struggling to get vaccinated.
Leaving our passports and vaccine woes in the hands of our very proficient agent, yesterday was laundry day using all the rain water we’d collected, following which we dinghied ashore to enjoy another delicious lunch at the Port of Call restaurant. An afternoon nap for Elaine preceded sundowners aboard Charon, who had left the marina earlier in the day and anchored off too. It was a lovely evening in the company of newfound friends, creating a slither of normalcy in our lives, although all safeguards were adhered to, including the supply of “COVID friendly” snacks, but, unfortunately, the day ended with disturbing news out of South Africa, reiterated by a phone call from Roy’s brother and social media messages from Elaine’s family.
Today we were up early to collect our hired car and complete our monthly rounds of the supermarkets for our provisions. Taking advice from Richard, our first stop was the large Villa Market on the northwestern side of the island, where we found a rather upscale expatriate community, sporting nice bars, restaurants and cafés, including Daily Dose, where we stopped for a morning coffee and freshly baked delight before continuing on to Makro to complete our shopping. This included the purchase of cloth masks to double up with our surgical masks, which was not only the latest recommendation, but prudent under the circumstances, especially for Roy, as Elaine wears her N95 mask and her visor when she’s out and about now.
Once back at the marina, Roy hauled all our purchases back to Paw Paw while Elaine waited with Richard and Yim on the patio of the Port of Call restaurant for our agent, who was returning our passports with our renewed visas. Over a light refreshment, our agent also succeeded in working with immigration to eventually get our vaccination applications approved, indicating that we should receive our appointments within 24 hours. Richard was also registered at the time, leaving us all hopeful that we should receive our first AstraZeneca shot in the not too distant future.
Back onboard, our day ended with the monumental task of sanitising all our provisions before stowing everything, following which we enjoyed a barbecue, exhausted from a very busy and upbeat day.
So, with both laptops and all the necessary data at the ready, on the stroke of 0900, we clicked the link and NOTHING! In fact, for the next two hours the website continuously crashed and threw errors. Then a message appeared indicating that registration was now closed as they had no more stock. Completely baffled and not alone in our disbelief, as the social media forum for the hospital was lit up like a Christmas Tree with messages and complaints of everyone experiencing the same problems, we come to find out that the Thai language version of the application had worked and that many Thai individuals, who’d already been fully vaccinated with the Chinese vaccine, Sinovax, wanted a booster shot of Moderna to increase efficacy against the Delta variant and had purchased the lion’s share of the stock. By the afternoon, this fiasco was all over the news, but it didn’t change a single thing for us; with no access to the government issued vaccines and now unable to purchase a vaccine privately, it was the last straw for Elaine on a long road of feeling totally vulnerable all the time and no end in sight. This outcome, together with seeing how the grandsons have grown in the two and a half years since she was last able to see them and with her aging parents, whom we haven’t seen for the same length of time, had her in tears, having secretly harboured the possibility of, at least, getting back to the US this summer, had we both been able to get fully vaccinated. Not being able to travel during the winter months under ordinary circumstances, never mind with this pandemic, all she now saw was the opportunity slipping away and had us both trying to figure out a contingency plan in the event that we are unable to get vaccinated at all in Thailand before setting sail in January 2022. It’s fair to say that, if Elaine was not immunocompromised and Roy wasn’t in the higher risk category because of his age, we would’ve flown back to the US by now and got vaccinated there.
It didn’t help matters either that the news media were reporting on the arrival of the donated Pfizer vaccines from the US and that these would be used as booster shots too for all the frontline workers who had already been fully vaccinated with the Sinovax vaccine. Our taxpayers dollars and we can’t even buy a US manufactured vaccine here! Grrrr!!! What’s more infuriating, although we definitely don’t begrudge our family and friends being fully vaccinated already against this terrible virus, unlikely countries like the Maldives, the Seychelles, St Maarten and even South Africa, have inoculated stranded tourists and expatriates in their countries and, every other country we can think of, has prioritised the elderly and those with underlying health conditions to receive the vaccines, regardless of their citizenship or status in the country, making the entire fiasco yesterday morning difficult to cope with.
To quell the disappointment and upset, Elaine had a late morning nap, following which we went on a dinghy exploration. It took us a while to find the dinghy dock, but then enjoyed a walk to stretch our legs, finding hidden treasures along the way. Unfortunately the café where we’d hoped to get a coffee was no longer in business, another sad sign of the times here on Phuket Island, but a young entrepreneur saved the day. We can only assume he must have been a barista before loosing his employment, given that he had all the specialty coffees on offer at his roadside coffee and tea stall, where we enjoyed an expertly made tasty coffee and a baked delight, seated at his makeshift table and chairs. This simply encounter, together with a nice long chat to Elaine’s sister in Ireland once we were back onboard, cheered us up tremendously and helped put everything back in perspective! It made us realise that we’re not alone in our longing to be with loved ones, that there are people, including family members, far worse off than ourselves as a result of this pandemic, having lost their livelihoods and there are people who have suffered greatly, including friends, in either recovering from COVID-19 or having lost loved ones to the disease, but as Elaine’s sister rightly pointed out: “we all have a story relating to this pandemic and this is ours!”
Today, after a good night’s sleep, we were up early to continue our sail northwards back to our “base”, the anchorage off Ao Po Grand marina, where arrangements have been made with our agent to handover our passports again for our visa renewal and to run a few errands. It ended up being a relatively quiet day onboard, though, with the forecast rain bucketing down at times, but it was the perfect opportunity to collect more water for laundry day, as well as to get some baking done again.
