7 January 2016 Ao Po Marina, Phuket
With the haul-out scheduled for tomorrow, we spent the day preparing the boat. I checked all of the sea cocks to see if any need changing - they all look okay. I changed the oil in the engine and the generator. The boat is going to be on the hard for almost three months and it’s best to remove the old oil which is corrosive.
I pickled the water maker, so that the osmotic membranes won’t get fungal growth while it’s not being used. I went up the mast and removed the delicate wind instruments and also put some tape on the mast at the point where the USA rigger had placed the crane strop when we last had the mast lifted.
We lifted the 15hp outboard on deck and I started the small 2.5hp outboard, which started after only ten or so pulls - amazing because it hadn’t been used for eight months. Finally, I inspected the bearings on the rudder. There’s signs of slight leaking past the lip seals, but I think that it’s okay - I’ll remove the quadrant when we’ve been lifted out and make sure that there isn’t any play in the bearings and that the rudder moves freely.
Glenys spent most of the day washing and cleaning. One of the biggest problems in the tropics is mildew, which soon takes hold, especially when the boat is locked up and there’s no air flowing through the cabins. She wiped down all the surfaces in both of our heads with a bleach solution.
We had a quiet night in eating a curry while watching a movie.
8 January 2016 Ao Po Marina to Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket
The alarm went off at six o’clock and we were clear of the marina half an hour later. It was only six miles to the entrance to the dredged channel into Boat Lagoon and high tide was at 09:00, but I wanted to make sure that we didn’t miss the tide.
We motored inside of the two small islands of Ko Nakha Yai and Ko Nakha Noi, where the charts show quite a few rocks and shallows, so I was a bit nervous because I don’t trust the charts. However, there were no dramas and we arrived a mile off the entrance to the channel just before eight o’clock and then hove-to for half an hour.
The entrance into Boat Lagoon is notoriously shallow. It’s supposed to be dredged, but I don’t think that a dredger has been down it for years. The high tide height was 2.6 metres today, so I was hoping to have no problems.
We started our approach at 08:30 and followed the line of black poles, keeping them to port. The cruising guide says that it’s best to stay 10-15 metres from the poles, so I kept about 10 metres, so I could turn to starboard if I encountered shallow water - there’s nothing worse than the water getting shallow and not knowing which way to turn. I suspect that I was too close to the poles because the depth dropped to 2.2 metres at one point.
Half way along the 2½ mile channel, we were met by a couple of marina staff in a RIB, one of who jumped aboard. After giving me instructions for a couple of minutes, he asked if he could steer - sure why not? He was very competent, obviously knew the channel very well and how to handle a yacht. Near to the marina, we saw depths of 2.4m in the middle of the channel.
We were hauled out very quickly, pressure washed and moved to our stand by 10:30. There must have been a dozen blokes milling about in controlled chaos as they lowered our boat onto its cradle and set the stands.
I went to see Nai to let her know that we had arrived and she said that a crane would be here at 08:00 tomorrow. We spent the rest of the day getting the mast ready to be lifted out - we removed the sails and bagged them; removed the boom and lowered it to the ground; and then tidied up the various ropes connected to the mast.
By evening, we were all ready.
9 January 2016 Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket
Nai’s team and the crane arrived at ten minutes to eight. It was a total frenzy with six guys on deck knocking out cotter pins and unscrewing bottle screws. The guy in charge didn’t like where I had told him to sling the crane and put it a few feet higher up to that it was just under the intermediate shrouds. I guess that it was better there because there was no chance that the sling could slip higher up the mast - the rigger in the USA had used a rope from the sling to the foot of the mast to hold the sling in position.
By nine o’clock, the mast was safely on the ground and suspended on trestles. I must admit that they were very fast and professional. They took the utmost care to make sure that none of the rigging was scratched or damaged - a very good service for free.
As soon as the crane was out of the way, the gang started to erect scaffolding around the boat installing a tent to keep the boat in shade while the teak deck is replaced. Again, it didn’t take long and, by lunchtime, we had a very nice canopy shading the deck.
I spent the afternoon starting to remove the deck fittings. The first job was the windlass, which took an hour. I then slowly worked my way aft, removing dorade vents, u-bolts, windlass switches, etc.
Later, I tackled the starboard side genoa track which has 36 bolts through the deck. Most of these could be accessed fairly easily by removing a couple of head-linings in the saloon. However three of the little tinkers were hidden away inside a cupboard in the galley.
Getting at the nuts involved unscrewing and removing the shelves in the cupboard, which took half an hour and much head-scratching. I managed to get it off before sunset.
Glenys wandered off to the nearby supermarket and bought a six pack of cold beer – now that we’re on the hard, we’ve had to switch off our fridges because they are water-cooled. When she arrived back, all work stopped and we downed a couple of cold ones, sitting on the bare teak deck enjoying the cooling evening breeze.
10 January 2016 Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket
We’re off to Myanmar tomorrow, so there was no rest for the wicked. I carried on removing the remaining fittings, including the port genoa track, which was much easier than the starboard side. Glenys did more tidying up, cleaning out the fridges and getting ready to leave the boat for three weeks.
It all went very well and by four o’clock, we we’d checked into the Boat Lagoon hotel and we were luxuriating in a very nice room with air conditioning. The room that we've been given is a long way from the main hotel building and the swimming pool, which is a bit of a disappointment, but the room is very similar to the one that we will be renting for two months and will be a pleasant change, especially because the shower is very good.