Mental note - never come to Phuket in the hot season, the "winter" is more than warm enough.
Apart from blogging and forays to various chandleries ( most of which are located around Boat Lagoon and its environs- 15km from here), finding where to shop for food and other necessities, meeting new friends and the general relaxing, not a great deal to report really.
I have pottered about and the days have actually flown by, as I awaited the arrival of my next crew.
They are here now and tomorrow we set off on the next phase of the adventure.
Over the last two days we have toured round the island a bit, taking the "scenic route" to a few of the beaches at the northern end of the island.
Steve arrived on Sunday and we started doing a couple of those " this will be easier with two people jobs" I have been prevaricating about; adjusted the belt on the salt water pump on the port engine. We also tightened the steering cables. We jiggled 100 litres of fuel into the tanks, discovering a bit of 'black death' lurking in the jerry cans. We serviced the electric winch. Checked out Premier Boat Yard with a view to haul out in January.
On Wednesday Jo and Chris arrived and we set off about lunch time for a small reccy of the island, the highlight of which, I'm sure would have been the chandleries at Boat Lagoon.
We started to ascend the mountain according to "google maps" - that took us to up an ascent that would have worn out a team of Sherpas. Had to pull the automatic into low, and then we were only crawling.Eventually the sealed road (single lane , petered out into dirt , that was far more suited to the quad bikes we came across, and which in turn had probably deteriorated because of the quad bikes. We persevered another 6-700m and decided that there was no way this the "tourist" road to BB. Back down again, in low transmission- it was steep! Tried again , having another attempt at googling a route- failed again, gave up on 'the road to enlightenment' and decided to have some satays as a late lunch.
Provisioned up on the way back to the K'Gari for the next month, on all the essentials. Tonic water, chips, biscuits, cereal, milk, some fresh veg,some steak and chicken for the freezer- an entire car boot full in the end.
Back on the boat and everything stowed away, it was time to introduce Jo and Chris to, nae dad diew,before we departed on the tide in the morning.
That was when my electricity cable came to grief, assisted absolutely in its demise by being run over by one of the many many sets of wheels that transit the jetty fingers on a daily basis.The marina is so large that many deliveries are made to the various boats by two wheeled large 1m x 0.5 m hand carts , or motor scooter, or motor scooter with side car, ( include here ,motor scooter , side car and up to six people jammed in /on same), or the piece de resistance and in this case the culprit, golf buggy.
Just after we went ashore, a golf buggy crossed the cable, which by necessity has had to lie across the jetty for the last, month, due to the design of the wharf. I asked the marina if the had any means of protecting it for the daily traffic , but nothing eventuated. I encased my cable in a length of hose pipe and taped the hose pipe all around it to prevent the cable from taking he full force of each set of wheels as they crossed. unfortunately the buggy tonight, moving at speed managed somehow to entangle my cable around its wheels and rip the plug out of the socket and snap about 6 foot of cable.
So have to sort that out before we leave in the morning. At least they provided an electrician ( immediately, after hours to reconnect us, as it had been a stinking hot day and the aircon was required, not to mention the issue of the recently restocked freezer!
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