Welding Day

Grinding sparks

Yesterday we closed the hole in the aft bilge.  We prepared the area very well, wrapping all cables and hoses, sealing all holes with masking and gaffa tape and covering all our new paint work with core flute sheets, and damp towels.  The team arrived from Luck Engineering and the fun started.

We should add here that Ley finds this work quite stressful, whilst I enjoy it !  I love improving the boat and I guess I'm not so concerned about the process itself - it is just welding and grinding.

Monsoon Madness

The daily flash flood on the hardstand.

It is monsoon time here in Phuket and it is pouring!  With the high tides flowing back up through the drains, the hardstand here at Boat Lagoon has often been flooded.

Often we climb down the ladder from the deck and have to wade through ankle deep water.

So much water flows across the land that we've seen quite large fish swimming across the dock yard - life is never boring here.

Just What Are They Doing?

Crystal Blues Gymnastics

Okay I guess many are wondering just what we are doing..... delving into the bowels of Crystal Blues requires a lot of effort.

Working upside down with power tools, then sandblasting, cleaning up and painting.....not so easy.

We hope never to have to revisit these areas again - except to inspect and admire their glorious clean whiteness.

With A Little Luck....

Welding in the starboard plate

Luck Engineering are a very fine marine engineering company based in Phuket, and they're our favourite contractor right now.

The first new plate was welded in a few weeks back. We are almost ready to have the second plate welded in place and Crystal Blues will be whole again.

The forward bilge is also begging our attention, so we are still a little while away from launching. Messing around in boats, getting bruised, dirty and covered in paint, what fun!