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!

Having A Blast Of A Time

Marine Archeology

Crystal Blues was built in New Zealand over 20 years ago.  Along the way she's had four caretakers, who have all stamped their personalities on her with complex and often challenging refits.

Right now, we're cleaning up some of the mistakes of the past caretakers (and the original builder).  We're making sure that bilges do actually drain properly, and that limber holes exist to carry water away - where ever it comes from !

Most of our work is in the aft bilge area.  Access to this area was non-existant previously, so we cut the base out of cupboards and wardrobes to get to the hull.  What we saw we didn't like.  So Luck Engineering came down and cut two holes in our hull - it almost broke Ley's heart to do this!

For the past two weeks we've been grinding, cleaning, sandblasting and finessing with our trusty Dremel.   Sand blasting really is a dirty word - you can see the proof in Neil's face after a session with the sand blasting gun, a few bags of grit and a powerful compressor. With it all cleaned up we've started re-coating with Jotun paints, and the team from Luck have re-instated the starboard side already.

Affirmative Action

Seeing that our aft bilge created this problem, we decided to remove it and change the way the the lazarette would drain.  We had to drill new drain holes in the steel tank wall and re-plumb that area. This lead to us removing our aft Turtle Pac fresh water bladders and a whole lot more.

We are still on the hard stand, still with one hole in the hull but we are making progress.  Plan is to do it  properly and never revisit this space again.  Stay tuned!

Sailing 101

Sailing is all about Teamwork.    Last week Neil was an invited guest speaker at Space Matrix management conference in Singapore.  His topic was the power of teamwork, using Sailing as the example.  Sailing 101 is the title - what a buzz. The event was held at One Degree 15 Marina Club, our old home in Singapore.

While introducing sailing skills he challenged the audience with knot tying skills - and the results were hilarious.  How many architects does it take to tie a bowline ?  Actually quite a few got it right !

Of course our cruising anecdotes became vivid examples of teamwork in action, and the one hour presentation concluded with a marina tour.  The audience were able to inspect the classic cruising boat SV Sunrise (thanks to Robert Goh) and the hot shot racer Yoo Zoo (thanks Ludde Ingvalls) before admiring motor yacht MV Blue Steel (thanks Rod Steel).  25 people from Singapore, India, Thailand and Dubai had a hell of a time, and the party after the conference wasn't bad either.  Need a team oriented motivational talk ?  Call us !

Wi-Fi Onboard

Staying connected to the internet is important these days, and most cruising sailors have exactly the same needs as their land locked brothers.  We all want web access and email, and then there are Facebook & Twitter, online shopping, video downloads, chart updates etc etc.

Some years back we wrote about a simple hi-power Wi-Fi transceiver that worked well onboard Crystal Blues, but things have now changed.

Rogue Wave Wi-Fi Transceiver

There is a new kid on the block - the Rogue Wave from Wave WiFi - and it is a significant improvement over previous technologies for those who live on boats (or RV's, camper vans, etc).  We learned about the unit on the great Panbo website, but have only recently purchased and installed, once we had committed to leaving Singapore.

Using this thing is a revolution - imagine turning on the wi-fi connection and finding more than 50 hotspots to chose from (thats not going to happen everywhere, but you get my drift ...).  Or imagine connecting reliably to your favourite hotspot from more than 3 kilometres away ....while the boat is swinging at anchor, with no fancy directional antennas or complexity. Finally, think about one transceiver providing internet to all your on-board devices - from notebook PC's to iPads, smart phones and internet TV's. That's the promise, and (mostly) the reality delivered by the Rogue Wave.

Boat Marooned Again

To me, it only seems like yesterday that we were on the hardstand at Boat Maroon, oops Boat Lagoon, in Phuket Thailand.  We had great "welcome home" from the marina staff and all the locals, from supermarket checkout chicks to Mumma, our favourite lunch time chef.   Even the yard sweeper welcomed us back in her halting Thainglish!

In reality there were 28 months between our launch and our haul out a few weeks back. A lot of water has passed under our keel during this time and along the way we started an underwater farm on the propeller.

So now we're "hauled out on the hard", lavishing Crystal Blues with loads of TLC and hard yakka, lubricated with rivers of sweat. We have had a start-stop-start-stop time on the hard.  Start - the hull is wet sanded down.  Stop - our contractor is too busy, so we start on painting the starboard side of the saloon ourselves.  Stop -  back home to Williamstown for a quick family visit. Start - finish painting the saloon.  Stop - our contractor is still too busy to work on the hull.  We will get there .....

Chasing Our Tails?

Ley is teaching H how to play the drums on the iPad.          The boys enjoying french fries from McDonalds

Our Melbourne visit was hectic, charged with emotion and filled with family joy.  Ley's father's sudden heart attack and subsequent hospitalization caused us all a bit of worry, but a week later Dad emerged from the hospital feeling better than he had for the last 12 months.

Our gorgeous grandson, Harrison kept us all on our toes.  With his help we shifted yards of soil, built storage shelves and a work bench, baked bread, cooked for family dinners and enjoyed special early morning cuddles and Shaun the Sheep videos on YouTube.  Neil then flew to Dallas, via Singapore, Tokyo and Chicago for a specialist conference with AMX.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Our contractor finally turned up yesterday. Armed with our trusty Dremel we attended to five tiny little painted areas that required a little warranty work. He managed to get two coats of epoxy paint on the work areas and then the sky opened up. At sunset it was all fine again, so another coat of Jotamastic 87 was applied.  Hope someone turns up tomorrow?

 It appears that the monsoon is changing now, a little early.  The wind is prevailing westerly, and gusting to 20 knots at times.  If it moderates we'll anti-foul the boat next week.

The Lushlife

Last December, long time friends Ray and Jan Pitt flew from Australia for a ten day break in Phuket.  It was their first visit to the island and they must have liked the place, because they came back again in January.  This time they stayed for a month, exploring Phuket by themselves and then joining us onboard Crystal Blues for a slow sail down to Langkawi.

What Happened to our Guest Cabin?

Over the past 2 years our back cabin has become "the shed", loaded with boat projects.  Four solar panels,  20 metres of fabric for new shade covers, various other parts, Neil's Indonesian drum, his guitar and lots more.  So we moved the goodies off the boat to our Thai girlfriend's house (thank you Kaew and Brian), so that Ray and Jan had a cabin to themselves.  They had a few days to get their "sea-legs" in the comfort of the marina, then we provisioned, Neil arrived, and we cleared out.  Let the fun begin!

!ncredible !ndia - The Golden Triangle

Our January visit to India finished with a whistle-stop tour of the Golden Triangle in Rajashtan. We travelled by rail, air and road between the three points of the triangle - Delhi, Jaipur & Agra - and we did come away with a different view of India.  Frankly, we love it even more.  Our travels culminated with a visit to the majestic Taj Mahal, in Agra, and we have to start our story there....

The Taj Mahal

Waking just before dawn, we walked through the foggy back streets of Agra to the Western Entrance Gate of the Taj Mahal, among the first visitors to arrive, silently queuing for our tickets.  Men and women queued separately, quiet and subdued, waiting for the daybreak gate opening.  Security is tight, and all visitors were searched extensively before entry.  Still dark, we entered through a forecourt providing glimpses of the Taj through the arched entrance.  The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal Emporer, Shan Jahan,  and is a beautiful white marble mausoleum to the memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

We've all heard of this wonder, and sometimes you expect a lifetime of hype to over-shadow reality.  Here, this is not the case.  The Taj is sensational.

All Things Change

Regular readers will notice the change in appearance of these pages.  We loved the look and feel of the old style, but have been forced to update so we can use some of the new Blogger features.

First up you will notice that there are tabs near the top of the page, that provide direct acces to some of the information most frequently searched on this blog.   Secondly we can now use the "Read more..." function to mask additional text and images on lengthy stories.

Please let us know if anything can't be read or is not functional, we'll be working on more updates and improvements soon.

!ncredible !ndia - Goa

Calangute Beach at sunset, where we dined each evening - very nice.

Neil's Consulting work for Space Matrix takes him to India for two weeks every month. Occasionally Ley travels with him and on the free weekends we get to explore. Our last visit together saw us traveling along the south west coast.

Going to Goa 

Goa is a magical, mystical place, its variety and appeal to all travelers is extremely powerful.  With its beautiful beaches, sunsets, feral back packers, aging hippies and Portuguese old world charm. It is really hard not to relax and chill out here.

After breakfast on the beach, we walked into the main street and hired a motor bike to do a little local exploring.  Armed with Google maps in the iPhone, dressed for the beach, we headed off.  The only request was that we wear a helmet if we ride on the "big" road.  We discovered beautiful sapphire blue bays, gorgeous rain forest gullies, local villages with old men sitting around drinking cups of chai, a sunburst of beautiful sari clad women and dusky children playing naked along the roads.  We also saw a lot of very chilled out old hippies, either riding "Harley" type bikes or wandering around the small villages and of course back packers of all ages.  But overwhelmingly was the number of Indian tourists here.

 It was a wonderful day, riding around with the wind in our hair, something we would never do in any other country in the world...Goa really gets into your soul!

How Time Flies

Christmas, New Year and now it is March.  What happened in between?

Holiday Time

Nai Harn Bay in Phuket is one of our favourite anchorages - many cruisers gather here to celebrate Christmas.  We partied at the beach-side cafe at Ao Sane Beach on Christmas Eve and sat down to a long and sumptuous lunch on the aft deck of MV Mandella 11 on Christmas day.  With us were the crews from SV Sandy, Catchastar and Sea Bunny and we enjoyed a fine traditional Christmas.  With strong trade winds and sunny skies we really felt like we were "cruising" again.

SV Sea Bunny and Crystal Blues motored away from the building trade winds to the quiet anchorage of Panwa Bali to see in the New Year.  Phuket really knows how to light up the sky on New Years Eve and we were blessed with a 240 degree panorama of fireworks.  We love watching the beautiful Thai lanterns that grace the sky and float on the wind over the colourful flashes and booms of the beach side fireworks.

Work Time

Neil at work

Neil's break was all too short as his clients, projects and the AV design team in India continued to work between Christmas and New Year.  Each day Neil would set up office in the cockpit, using Thailand's cheap, reliable internet access and tethering his laptop and iPad to the iPhone hotspot.  Conference calls, emails, budgets and design work carried on as usual, just in a very different setting.

Our Tohatsu outboard also chose this time to play up.  The engine was revving out and only put-putting around slowly.  Once we hoisted the engine up on our high tech work bench the problem was discovered.  The bush in the propeller was sheared and a replacement propeller was found in our spare parts stores and fitted.  No more put-putting, we were back to zooming!

Turtle Time

Photo from Phuket Gazette

In early December a sick turtle was seen at Yacht Haven Marina.  Concerned cruisers called the Phuket Marine Biological Centre and an ambulance arrived to catch and deliver the ill Green Sea Turtle to the Centre, see the full story here.

A few weeks later it was announced over the local radio that the turtle had made a full recovery.  It's illness resulted from digesting a plastic bag, mistaking it for a jelly fish.  Jelly fish are abundant in these warm tropical waters and are a major food source for  the turtles.


Really, only here in Thailand would they send a regular human ambulance, to rescue a stranded turtle !  Its great being back here.

Settling In

Orchid shopping (Photo SV Catchastar)

 The Job List

For cruisers, one of the big attractions of Phuket is the quality marine services and trades readily available.  Fortunately our list for this year is very short.

The first things on Ley's list was to buy another orchid.  So with Cathy (SV Catchastar) and Lyn (MV Mandella II), we visited our favourite orchid lady.  Three flowering orchids, planted in a coconut shell with hanging wires, cost 170baht - around $6.00.  With a little TLC and orchid food we hope to have blooms for months to come.

Our aging Caribe dinghy was repaired by Cholamark Boat Company.  It needed new handles, new valves and strengthening at the transom/tube connection.  The dinghy was returned to us yesterday and now has a new lease of life.  It's 11 years old now and our "car on water" has carried us through many adventures, with hundreds and hundreds of sea and river miles under the keel.
It says a lot for Caribe boats !

Crystal Blues dwarfed by super yachts (Photo SV Catchastar)

Yacht Haven Marina

This is our first visit to Yacht Haven Marina and we are enjoying it.  There is a good breeze most days and the clean, fast flowing water is alive with fish. Friendly staff and security guards, good wi-fi and proximity to local restaurants all make it a great place to call home for awhile. We are surrounded by Super Yachts, one even has its own helicopter on the aft deck.  The most common language spoken at our end of "A Dock" is French, certainly a change from the Singlisgh at One 15 Marina.

Fire On Board MV Grey Pearl

A few weeks back we were invited to the Haven Restaurant here, and with the crews from Catchastar and Mandella II, we sat on the balcony and watched a beautiful sunset over Phangna Bay.

A short while later the Captain from super yacht Michaela Rose asked us if we had boats in the marina - his crew had called to warn him that a boat was on fire on D Dock.  They reported the fire under control and we could see fire hoses spraying water over the fire.  Unfortunately the fire soon raced out of control and the flames leaped brighter and higher.

Damage to other boats was minimised as the blazing boat was towed out by Yacht Haven Marina Manager Nick Wyatt and staff.  That was a gutsy move, given the likelihood of propane or fuel explosions.   It was somehow manoeuvred onto a deserted beach nearby, where the fire eventually burned itself out. Due to the courageous effort by Nick and his team it appears that only one other boat was slightly damaged in this incident.  MV Grey Pearl was a well proven and well loved 62ft Nordhavn motor yacht.

MV Grey Pearl - Skeletal Remains

Sleigh Ride to Phuket

Rebak Retirement Island!
In early November Neil was busy working in India, so Ley filled her days with a typical Rebak Retirement Island lifestyle.  A walk, swim and water aerobics in the early mornings, cooking classes, fruit and vegie ferry runs and then provisioning.

Hard to take......

With Crystal Blues fully loaded with fuel, water & wine, we departed Telaga Harbour around 14.00 hours.  The wind always gusts strongly around the top end of Langkawi as there are many mountains and high cliffs, so we motor-sailed through the gusts and then turned off the engine.  16 hours and 120 nm later we arrived at our destination, Phuket.  Both crew and Crystal Blues had a fabulous overnight sail.  Winds were just forward of the starboard beam, blowing 10 to 23 knots.  For hours on end we were flying at 8.5 knots or more.  As the wind crept up to 23 knots I prepared to furl in the head sail, but the sea state calmed down and we kept flying with full genoa and mainsail.  I had decided to let Neil sleep longer, but he woke up early, as he didn't want to miss the best sailing we have had in years.  Wind at last !

Squid boat - lit up like a Christmas tree.

Very Scary!  Around midnight  I saw a shadow of an unlit yacht sailing off our starboard bow.  I raced down below and switched on all our lights as this ghost ship silently tacked and glided by 100 feet off starboard.  The only navigation light was a stern mounted red fishing light, flashing dimly.  The sailor had a small flashing strobe in his hand.  I tried to make contact with him over VHF radio, but no reply, so I told anyone else who was listening on radio what I thought of his irresponsible sailing.......a very frightening experience!

Up until then all I had to dodge were lines of anchored squid boats, as in this photo, which are lit up like Christmas trees.

Checking in to Phuket.    There are new check-in procedures for Phuket / Ao Chalong One Stop Shop.  If you have Internet access before you arrive in Thailand, it expedites clearance if you register and check in on line.  All your information online is printed out and is chopped with your boat stamp and signature.  Port Captain and Customs also require a lot of paper work still.  The new system is in trial mode and hopefully once the system is fully tested, maybe the paper work mountain will diminish.

A New Home  We had a delightful sail up Phang-Nga Bay toYacht Haven Marina and are now comfortably settled into our berth on A dock, mixing it with many of the Super Yachts that are based here.  Neil has been busy with work - systems design, emails and conference calls each day.  On the weekend we took time out to show friends, Ray and Jan Pitt, Phuket through our eyes.  I think the highlight of their trip was the fun and games we had at the LadyBoy (Kathoey) bar on Saturday night in Patong.  We have also managed to share a few meals with them at our favourite restaurants and cafes here.

Fun and games with Ray and Jan

A Night to Remember!

Lucky us!

Silence

I was off watch and woke to hear the engine being shut off.  I listened for the sheets  to be released and the mainsail raised, but only heard silence, not good at 4.40am.  We were drifting with a fouled propeller, with Neil sitting in the cockpit locating the fishing boats on radar.  The pitch black predawn and an oily black sea  surrounded us, and we decided to wait the few hours till dawn before diving under the boat.

The PowerDive Hooker was set up on the aft deck.  Neil donned a pair of leather gloves and armed with a very sharp knife he dove overboard.  Five minutes later he hoisted up a floating fishing net that he cut from around the propeller.  We were on our way again....

Exactly two hours later the engine came to a screeching stop again,  but this time we could see the culprit.  We were trailing 6 metre loops of thick rope, which also wrapped around the propeller.  Fortunately we had the hooker set up, so Neil went for his second swim in the Malacca Straits, off Pangkor Island, Malaysia.

Strikes and Boom

Just like this!

The net and rope fouling on the prop was really just a minor annoyance after a bad night of electrical storms.  Around 20.00  hours Neil was preparing to go to bed  when we noticed a large storm on the radar.  Lightning and thunder was  focused on the mainland  and we continued to move ahead of it.  Or so it seemed at the time.  As the storm slid behind us it moved out to sea and then began spawning storm cells all around us.  Soon we were at the storm's epicentre , the lightning  was spitting and hissing all around the boat, lighting up our world, the thunder booming overhead.  Luckily we had just managed to weave through a fleet of anchored squid boats and could see them eerily highlighted with each flash.

We searched the radar looking for an escape route but the storm was traveling with us and growing in momentum, so we decided to turn tail and run away.  The rain pounded down  and with each lightning strike  it illuminated the white-out conditions that surrounded us.  We were not having much fun, but were relieved that we had an escape plan.  After 3 hours the storm moved out to sea and we turned back to our original heading.  Neil went to bed, and for the next few hours I watched the storm angrily boom and flash out towards Sumatra.

 

The Great Escape

At the Shade Tree Cafe, Penang

Apart from rope, nets and storms we had a dream run  up the Malacca Straits! We are heading, via Penang and Langkawi, to Phuket, where we plan to base ourselves for awhile.  With positive current and tide for most of the passage and no wind at all, we were really looking forward to a change of scenery.  We stayed at the new Straits Quay Marina in Penang, for 4 days and caught up with Kathy and Mark on SV Catchastar.

Crystal Blues is now berthed in Rebak Marina, Langkawi.  Neil has flown to India for work for the next two weeks.  Ley has been challenged to stock the boat with all things duty free in his absence.

Changing Cultures

Wanting To Ship To Turkey?

SV Skedaddle Again being loaded in the Maldives 2011

We have posted this on behalf of Pete and Kathy on SV Wave Runner :

"We have negotiated a discounted rate of $800/foot with Sevenstar, sailing early March from Phuket, Thailand, to Marmaris, Turkey. This is the same company that shipped so many yachts from the Maldives early this year, and from Phuket later in the year.  We have had good reports from people who shipped.  To take advantage of the discount, please contact Pete Jamieson, SV Wave Runner waverunnerp@gmail.com who will put you in touch with the agent and note you are part of the group." See here to read of SV Skedaddle Again's shipping experience from the Maldives to Turkey.



A Cultural Exchange

Based in Phuket for our last refit, the boat work left us little time to cook at home.  There was fabulous Thai food available almost everywhere - from the back of motor bikes, street stalls, local cafes to silver service dining.  A few of our favourites are Mama's Cafe in Boat Lagoon, Chili's, Raya's and the Thai House.

We've been away from Phuket for 18 months now, but still crave the freshness and flavour of Thai food.  Luckily for us Ley has two Thai friends who also live in One15 Marina.  They had a cultural food exchange......Ley taught them to bake bread and they are teaching Ley to how to cook Thai.  Larb Goong, Chu Chee Pla, Takrai Pla, Phad Thai and Yum Woon Sen and hopefully lots more to come!

Dee and Somkuan with their bread                                              Ley's Larb Goong (Cold prawn salad)

The refrigerator is now loaded with Thai basil, lemongrass, bunches of mint, Thai chives and coriander, ginger, galangal, kafir lime leaves and green peppercorns. All these and more are readily available at Thai Supermarket in the Golden Mile shopping complex in Singapore.