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Week
Ending 3 Aug 2002 (Bob)
Back at Work - After a fun 3 weeks, we found ourselves
feeling we were back in a job - up at dawn (well, maybe 0730) on the job by
0900, and attending to the many things we had neglected during our
vacation. Drilling holes, smearing caulk, and installing bits and
pieces. Some of the things we encountered were:
- Over-spray problem - When Pro Yachting put on the
1st primer coat, there were a few small holes in the plastic that covered
our portholes, so white mist covered much of the varnished cabin sole and
joinery. We told them, and they said they would fix it, but didn't. So
now, the chickens have come home to roost - the mist will not come off with
thinner, and the varnish they are using seems to bubble on our cabin
sole. So rather than a 2-hour clean-up job, it looks like they are
facing a 5-7 man-day task of re-varnishing 25% of our cabin
sole!
- Cockpit Seat - Nai and Toe had Kak working on a new
and improved cockpit seat to cover the propane locker while we were gone,
and it looks beautiful! Now we have to install the propane
locker without damaging it too much.
Reassembling Long Passages - Now that the painting and
woodwork are done, we have to put the lady back together. So far we have
been able to:
- Dryfit 50% of the ports - this has gone fairly well.
- Install stanchion bases - This
 has been a pain, each
base requires drilling holes, smoothing the non-skid deck, building up a
support under the deck, making backing plates, dryfiting all of the pieces,
and bolting the stanchion base with caulk. Two hours each multiplied
by 12 stanchions made 3 days go by in a hurry!
- Next week: Install all ports, cockpit coaming, and
propane locker.
Eating out - We discovered a couple of new places, The
Green Man, a British pub with great atmosphere, good burgers and a kidney
pie to die for. We became members and plan to return. We also
visited The Black Cat, a French-Thai restaurant in Thalang with a
wonderful selection and great food for $4-6/person.
Week
Ending 10 Aug 2002 (Bob)
Reassembling Long Passages - The major chore of
the week was to find which bolt or screw held on each of the thousands (seemed
like thousands anyway) of bits and pieces we have found since LP was varnished
and painted. Wood panels, brackets, cup-holders, pad-eyes, lamps, power
sockets, fire extinguishers, battery chargers - the list goes on and
on! By week's end we were seeing some order below, but the 'project'
bucket still filled four 1-gallon containers.
All stanchions installed - This was a big
milestone as we have upgraded  the installation to make them stronger and try to
make them water-proof. The gates have reinforcing bars, and each base is
firmly thru-bolted. Each of the 12 bases took about 2 1/2 hours to install
including locating the base, drilling, making a backing plate, masking,
caulking, and installing them. A tedious job, but hopefully it will make
for a dry boat for a while!
Week
Ending 24 Aug 2002 (Bob)
We lose our shade - We knew the time would come,  but
it was still traumatic. A 25 knot breeze blew across the boat-yard as the
young team from Pro-Yachting struggled to remove a cover the size of
spinnaker! They shinnied  up
poles, walked across our bimini, and wielded knives on a long pole as they
worked to bring the canvas down without damage to the gleaming new paint.
After 2 hours all evidence of awning and frame were gone, and Long Passages
stood, bare-headed and proud for all to see.
Boat-yard shuffle - Boat Lagoon is really busy with
lots of yachts coming in for work, and the yard-master told us he would have to
move us to accommodate two newly-arrived customers. So on Tuesday 3
travel-lifts sprung into operation as 3 yachts were relocated and 2 new yachts
took their place in the work-queue. We are now beside 'Ferric Star',
and it should be convenient to launch us next week. While hoisted we took
care of one niggling item - we removed the rudder that had been bent
slightly when we backed out of our slip. This was surprisingly easy, and
the work-shop had it back within 3 hours with the shaft polished and
straight.
"Get outta Dodge - Now! - Plan A was to launch on
Saturday the 24th, but unfortunately our visas expire on the 23rd, and a last
minute plea to Immigration was to no avail. So Plan B was
conjured out of thin air:
- Move launch date to next Tuesday
- Rent a car
- Drive to Satun, a sea-port 6 hours south of Phuket.
- Hop a ferry to Langkawi, Malaysia.
- Stock up on duty free wine and load up on varnish. Get
passports stamped!
- Spend a night at the Bayview Hotel and return to Satun so
that Thail officials could welcome us once again!
All in all, quite an inconvenience for the privilege of
staying 28 more days, but a small price to stay on the right side of the
law.
Getting lost - On our return trip from Satun, we
managed to get lost several times, and finally pulled into the resort town of Krabi
late at night, but still in  time for a delicious Italian meal along the
waterfront. Krabi is a beautiful resort town on the west coast of Phang
Nga bay with very abrupt karsts that reminded us of Guilin,
China. The next morning we roamed the countryside and coastline and can
see why this has become a busy tourist destination in its own right.
Week
Ending 17 Aug 2002 (Bob)
Continuing the reassembly of Long Passages - This
is a little repetitious, but we feel we are making progress:
- All ports in -
 We
had removed all of the ports in the main salon so that the leaking (and
decayed) cabin liner could be replaced with a bright Formica-like
surface. With that and the painting finished, we reinstalled and
re-bedded the polished bronze and we think they look great.
- Beginning the clean-up - We finally closed all of
the holes in the deck by re-installing chain-plates, a radio antenna, and
some miscellaneous hardware. And so we were finally able to wash
the decks! Seems like a small victory, but 3 months accumulation
of sawdust, paint chips, bits of masking tape, and miscellaneous debris made
it impossible to keep anything clean. After a hose down and lots of
soap and water, LP was beginning to look new again.
- Lifelines on - In our zeal to strengthen the
stanchion gates (where we climb aboard) we moved them about 12 inches, and
the lifelines no longer fit. We took the fittings, some measurements,
and money to Rolly
Tasker, the local sail-maker/rigger and after a few days we got them
back, and they fit like a glove.
Week
Ending 31 Aug 2002 (Bob)
Countdown to splash - This week we go back in the
water, and after 4 months of sitting on the dusty, dirty hardstand we were
really anxious to 'splash'.
- Rudder 'issue' -As an 'Oh by the way'
exercise, we decided to clean the steering quadrant before we re-installed
it and what did we find? The keyways in the quadrant and in the
rudder post did not match! The quadrant was 1/8"
larger than the key and the slot in the rudder - and we splash
tomorrow! (It had apparently been that way for 25+ years. ) Fortunately the machine shop was up to the task and by 0800
on Tuesday they had machined a proper key to fit both slots - another crisis
averted.
- Masts up! - At 1000 Monday Bob
 stopped
by Scott's shop to remind him that we were splashing in the morning, and
would need to install the masts then. Scott said "how about
this afternoon at 1500", so the rest of the day rushed by as we got
ready for the crane. In a scene from 'Monty Python' about 8 guys
lifted our masts (from an inaccessible spot in the marina) and
man-handled it between boats, trees, cars, and over other obstacles to place
them beside LP. At the appointed time, a crane operator, with marginal
fine-motor control hoisted them high over our yacht and lowered them into
place. With a little muscle, a few yells and some good luck Bob got the
main mast in place and Scott did the same with the mizzen. A few
twists of the turnbuckles later, we were rigged and looked more like a
sailboat!
- Splash down! - The morning was
 gloomy, with rain and
squalls at frequent intervals. At 0815 Tuesday, Mr. Sin, the
travel-lift czar came by to lift us so that the rudder could be
fitted. This went smoothly, and Bob crawled into the bowels of LP to
connect the steering while Judi organized the painters to touch up the last
few spots on the bottom that needed anti-fouling paint. By 1100 we
were back in the air and on our way to be lowered into the water. Judi
tossed the (almost) obligatory string of 500 firecrackers  to Ligia
and they exploded on schedule as we touched the water, keeping the evil
spirits at bay and leaving only red paper to show for their fury! A short jaunt under our own power, and we were snug in
slip B22 with no scratches to the new paint job.
Giving the hardstand credit where it is due - Although
we found that the hardstand was quite dirty because of sanding, grinding,
and spraying there were attempts to control it. Every day, a very
nice Thai lady worked her way through the entire hardstand area sweeping
and picking up debris, so that despite those of us contributing to the mess,
she continued to fight the incoming tide and kept the place looking
reasonably tidy!
Multicultural Lifestyle - Our launching, small potatoes
on the world scene, reminded us of one of the aspects of our lifestyle that we
life. The people controlling the travel-lift and launching us were from Thailand. We were helped by George,
an American, Ligia from Costa Rica, and
Michael from 
Denmark. After we were snug in our slip we popped a cold
bottle of Lindauer champagne (from New Zealand, our adopted home) and later
shared stories with Peter from the United Kingdom. Sailing on the
Chesapeake Bay is some of the best sailing in the world, but it is difficult to
beat the multicultural side of cruising around the world.
Getting ready to move aboard - The rest of the week was
consumed by cleaning the boat, finishing small tasks, and moving stuff from our
apartment to our storage locker and the boat. By the weekend the boat
looked habitable (almost) and the apartment bare (again, almost).
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