And we're back in the water!

I never thought this day would come but for the love of Pete (and some understanding immigration officials in Malaysia) we are finally back in Telaga.  After an uneventful launch from G&T we discovered our anchor windlass (with the new $800 motor) needed replacing.  We discovered this when it decided to quit working at 10:30 at night with the moon not yet risen.  Anywhoo…nothing a well placed mooring ball and a reliable credit card won’t fix (can you get a credit line increase without a job????).  Our trip was uneventful except for the strange emotions passing throughout the boat.  Knowing this was our last “cruise” together was bittersweet.  Thailand, not being our favorite place in the world, was a weird way to end it.  But I think we did our best and thanks to some McKaskle style provisioning and a goofy kid on board, we pushed through just fine.

So today we checked in to Malaysia (some day I’ll tell the story why that was a big deal) and tried to rent a car to do all the work horse type things we need to do, but no cars were available so we decided to be tourists instead.  We took a taxi (too much walking in Phuket made us quick to jump in the car) to the Oriental Village not too far from the anchorage and we did all the silly things we put off last time.  We rode the skycar up the hill to a beautiful view of the anchorage and marina and well, all of Langkawi.  We experienced a silly 6D film that had us riding a roller coaster through the desert.  Jake got to fulfill his dreams of running with the hamsters by zipping himself up in a plastic ball and running around a pond.  Don’t ask me the draw, but I’m glad he did it because I haven’t laughed that hard in awhile.  And finally, we rode the paciderms (aka Elephants!).

A great view of our anchorage
and the marina.  Andy tried to show where Savannah is.

I had high hopes as did the rest of the crew, but in the end, I felt sorry for the poor old elephant.  He looked run down and rode hard.  We took an extremely expensive 10 minute stroll through the “trail” and enjoyed the view from above and the whole novelty of it.  But in the end, it didn’t hold a candle to our 5 minute ($7) trot with the camels in Australia.  To be fair, we’ve been blessed with a lot of time with elephants…we used to live near and were very good friends with the elephant trainer in Norfolk, VA.  So we’re not new to the gentle giants.  But I kind of felt like I should apologize to the old guy for making him walk in circles for our enjoyment.  But we did “ride an elephant in Malaysia”  so CHECK on that box.

Speaking of boxes, tomorrow we pick up our first round (and hopefully ‘only’ round) of boxes to begin sending our stuff back to the US.  I don’t know if we’re sad or excited or anxious or just want to get the damn thing over with.  At any rate, it’s going to start tomorrow and be done in a few days.  In the meantime, Jake has met a few new friends and been enjoying the beach close by.  It’s cool being a cruising kid… a few kids come by in a dinghy, they say hi, you jump in, you tell your parents “we’ll be on channel 8” and off you go.  Andy and I actually circled the anchorage tonight wondering which boat he actually went to.  I think they’re now calling this “free range parenting” at home.   You don’t know how long I’ve been trying to fit that into a blog. 

I hope you all enjoy the pics.  We did.  More to come soon…packing out, shipping out, flying out and heading to the marina for the final listing.  Stay tuned.

Some pics of Jake for the grandparents and some updated pics of Savannah with her new lipstick on.

New Trampoline, wood, and fresh deck paint.

More new paint.

and more paint...

Shiny new transmission, the reason for all the woe.

New upholstery.

Hauled out in Thailand

Here we are about to come out of the water (pulled
by a tractor attached to a large cable).

We’ve been hauled out now for almost a month and with the exception of waiting on a new transmission, things seem to be going pretty well.  Before we came to Thailand, we did a lot of research on boat yards both here and in Malaysia.  We heard nothing but horror stories about Thailand – things taking twice as long as quoted, twice (or three times) the amount quoted, and even so much as holding your boat hostage until you pay more money – so we put a fair amount of effort into trying to find a yard in Malaysia.  Unfortunately, no one would respond to our emails and phone calls.  We decided that wasn’t a good sign and could be an indication as to how they ran their yard.  We had an appointment with a yard in Satun, Thailand (at the recommendation of a fellow cruiser) but then we met up with a couple that tipped us off to G&T.  Owned by Gerry and Toi (hence the ‘G&T’), it’s located in Phuket, just south of Apo Marina and specializes in catamarans, mainly because there is a huge mud flat that you have to cross at high tide.  We only had a meter under us when we hauled.  We emailed Toi and immediately got a response so we decided to go for it.

Halfway through powerwashing...dirty, dirty, dirty

So far, I’m impressed.  Immediately after we were out of the water, the guys went to work on the pressure washer and we met with Toi with our list of things we needed.  She’s a project manager type and got to work right away on lining up people for our needs.  We had an upholsterer and woodworker show up the same day and an appointment with a mechanic within the hour.  She directed us towards someone who would make us a new trampoline and immediately ordered our bottom paint.  

The primer is on...looks better already.

More primer for the front deck.  Jake likes the red.  He thinks
we should paint the whole boat that color.

Engine, sans transmission.  Still waiting.

A few weeks later and everything is pretty much finished with the exception of our transmission.  It took a week for the guy to show up and another week for him to tell us we needed new parts.  It took us nearly another week to find anyone who would call us back, only to find out it’s cheaper to get a whole new transmission than 6 tiny little parts.  So here we sit, waiting on a part to get from Holland to the US (MA to be exact…aren’t they snowed in?) and then from the US to Langkawi and then finally here to Thailand.  I have nothing good to say so I’ll just move on.

The only other bad experience we had was with the woodworker.  We had two fairly small projects – replacing the middle strip on our front deck (10 planks of hardwood) and a new table top (we’re quite attached to ours and want to take it home as a keepsake).  They quoted us 16,000 baht (over $500 USD) for the 10 planks and 16,000 baht for the table top (we didn’t even ask for legs!).  We said no and Gerry took Andy to a local wood shop.  We ended up getting the 10 planks for 3,000 baht ($100 USD).  Later, we found out they had tried to snow over some other folks as well.  They ordered (and charged them for) teak cabinets and they showed up painted.  When they made them take the paint off, they found out it wasn’t teak at all.  Oops….  So I say, if you’re in Phuket and looking for a woodworker, avoid Nai – I believe their shop is near Yachthaven Marina (for full disclosure, our friends seemed happy with their work...I think they were just here too long and expectations fell).  As for the table…we found a really cool piece of wood for 450 baht ($15 USD) and we’re sanding and refinishing it now.  I think it’s going to look really nice.

As for any other review…I’ll post them on my notes over in the Cruising Notes section so as not to bore the general population.

Other good things about G&T…they have “bungalows” for you if you don’t want to stay on your boat.  Bungalows is in quotes because it’s actually a small trailer, but they’re pretty nice…clean, air conditioning, satellite tv, bed, and hot showers.  There’s also a small fridge, hotplate (that burns everything) and sink for washing dishes.  We’re actually feeling quite spoiled.  Jake said he could live here for a year.  I think we’ve raised a son with low expectations for his living space…we should be ok when we get home!  Andy sleeps on the boat at night because the mattress here is killing his back, but he’s certainly enjoying the tv and air conditioning.

It’s not all perfect.  Thai time is in effect which means that every appointment or conversation happens at least an hour past what time you expect it to happen, or even a day or two. Internet sucks, so I have to either stand on the other side of the boat yard in one particular spot (in the hot sun) with my iPad in my hand, or walk up the street to the internet café.  We’re not really close to anything so we have to borrow someone’s truck or rent a car or walk (that actually hasn’t been much of an issue for things we need, but it’s kept our touring down quite a bit).  While the materials here are cheap, if you’re dealing with someone who specializes in yachts, you can bet they’re going to stick it to you.  I’m pretty sure we’re getting screwed on at least two items, but there’s really nothing you can do about it when it’s the only option you have.  But whenever we get frustrated, we just look at our neighbor and see all the issues he’s having and count our blessings.

In general, living in a boatyard sucks, but it doesn’t suck so bad here.  With that said, we’re all ready to get back on board and back in the water.  Counting down the days…  "After" pics to follow!

Splash....she's back in the water.

Savannah is safe and sound back in the water.  What a relief.  We repaired a few spots, put 5 coats of paint on her, and flipped our chain.  She’s mighty pretty!  

For those coming this way that are a little curious as to the details...here they are.  We were charged $500 to go in and out of the water (the prices on their wall say differently, so not sure if we got a deal or if that was old info), $150 for two days hydro-blasting, their guy did the work.  We were there from Tuesday p.m. - Saturday a.m. and were able to do our own work.  They may have been able to do it for us, but we didn't ask.  There are bathroom facilities (i.e. toilet, sink, shower), but only Andy slept on the boat.  Jake and I got a hotel room out in town.  Andy would have come with us, but we thought it best security wise for him to stay as there is no fence or gate.  They do have a security guard but either he was really sneaky or he didn't stick around too much.  We wanted to be dropped in the water on a Saturday and they came in free of charge, even though they don't normally work on Saturday.  They say they have hauled out four monohulls although we didn't see any stands.  I'm not sure how they did it, but according to them, it's possible.  We were the first catamaran and all in all, it was a pretty good experience....better than ok.  Not great because well, it's an old rail and our hearts were beating pretty fast.

We found a one legged grasshopper.

It hasn’t been all work and no play.  Before we hauled her out, we spent some time hiking and celebrating.  There are a few trails around here and we’ve enjoyed trying to make our way through them.  We got lost a few times and survived a few mean dogs (and Andy has some sort of rash, resembling poison ivy) but all in all we had some nice adventures.  There were some traditional stone paths as well as some really nice views.

LOTS of steep stone staircases.

 

We celebrated my birthday with the other boats here as well as our friends on shore.  One of the danish guys on Mie was having a birthday too so we doubled up and had a few parties.  Vincent was able to get the local men’s house here for us to have a barbeque and everyone came to celebrate. 

Andy had some help with the grill.

Casper and Rasmis from Denmark, onboard Mie.

Three different countries represented on that bench!  Yap, Phillipines,
and Denmark.

Trevor and Jake had some deep conversations...

It’s been a nice stay here in Yap, but we’re ready to move on now.  We’ll fuel up with diesel on Monday and try to check out soon.  

Happy Birthday to me! ...and Savannah

I had an exciting birthday this year.  We hauled Savannah out, here in Yap.  I can’t tell you how nervous I was.  First off, it’s a railroad type device that goes down into the water and then pulls the boat out.  I’ve never seen that done, so having no experience, I’m automatically nervous.  Secondly, it’s not wide enough for us, so we were going up sideways.  And third, we’re in a place where they’ve only hauled out four sailboats…ever.  There are fourths, fifths and sixths (no insurance – us or Yap in general for example), but you get the idea.

We had lots of volunteers to help us and Andy had done some very careful planning on exactly how we were going to get this thing done.  With the winds blowing while trying to get into some tight spaces combined with people from four different countries (and languages) helping, communication was key.   We had a few missteps along the way, but they weren’t major.  In the end, it all went pretty smoothly.  So we’re up out of the water now.  She’s been hydro-blasted and Andy and Jake are in the process of sanding now.  Hopefully we’ll start painting tomorrow and we’ll be back in the water by the weekend.

Happy Birthday to me!

Hydro-blasting

Andy's measurements were spot on for not running into the wall!

1/5/2011 - Savannah on the hard...again.

Things are turning good for us here…no more whining.  We’ve been talking with the boat yard here in La Cruz and after a little haggling, we finally got to a reasonable price to haul us out and paint our bottom.  Apparently, they really want to show that they’re willing to work with cruisers and we’re the test case.

Waiting for Savannah...

We pulled in at 9:00 this morning and they were all ready for us (very unexpected by us, but very appreciated).  We pulled into the lift, threw some lines around and up we went.  We were able to get off the boat before they pulled us totally up, but the whole process didn’t take more than 20 minutes.  They immediately started hydro-blasting the bottom and so the day began.

We’re expected to be back in the water by Friday. 

In the meantime, we’re in no rush.  I’ll explain.  We looked and looked yesterday for a place to stay for a few days.  Finding a room here isn’t like finding a hotel online.  I can’t get on the internet and Google it.  No, we have to do it the old fashioned way…walk around and ask. 

Our first option was a room behind a bar here, Philo’s.  Literally, behind the bar.  It was $400 pesos/night (roughly $38) but we would have to put up with the noise until who knows what time at night.

Our second option was a bungalow on the beach.  It had a kitchen, pool, patio, courtyard, the works…but it was $130/night + tax  +$15 for the kid.  As tempting as that sounded, we vowed to keep looking.

I walked a little out of town where all of the nice condos are.  I looked and looked, walked and walked.  I was about to give up when I saw a gringo lady standing on her balcony. 

“You don’t rent rooms, do you?”

“No, sorry.”

A man was standing beside her and hollered down…”How long?”

After a quick exchange, he gave me directions and sent me up the street to find Bub and Ladonna at Casa Cardinal.  “Tell them Sandy sent you!”

“Thank you!”

I rang the bell and a nice looking older gentleman came out.  I told him my “friend” Sandy said he might have a room to rent.  15 minutes and a big hug later I was walking back to the boat with two sets of keys. 

Casa Cardinal is very nice.  It’s owned by a nice couple from Kansas.  They live on the bottom and they have two one bedroom apartments for rent on the second floor.  They’re fully furnished and have air conditioning and a small kitchen.  In the back there is a heated pool we can use anytime we like!  They even have a washer and dryer we can use.  All for how much?  Hold your seats….$30/night.  I KNOW!!!  That’s what I said.  So, we’re all tucked into Casa Cardinal and have already used the pool.  I’m sure we’ll end up paying them more than that as I just feel like I should.  If Philo can get almost $40/night for one room, these folks can surely get at least that.  Not to knock Philo’s…it’s a nice room, but, really…

When we’re back in the water, we’ll have one big check mark on our list of things to do before heading south.  What a relief...