Wizard of Oz fans (like me) remember the scene where the Scarecrow, looking well worn and scruffy when he finally arrives in Oz, is whisked off to a spa where he is un-stuffed, spruced up, and re-stuffed with fresh straw. Like the Scarecrow, Asylum is looking a bit worn and scruffy and in need of sprucing up. And so we spent the past week off-loading the old girl of 15 years of accumulated stuffing so that she can be painted and varnished, oiled and lubed, plugged and caulked, buffed and polished. Maybe even some fresh straw in the cushions.

Asylum is quite empty...


...and the storage area is astonishingly full.


We must be breaking be some physical law about volume and how much stuff can occupy it because it seems impossible that all of that could have come out of our wee home.

Most of last week delivered temperatures of about 100* here at Krabi Boat Lagoon in Thailand. And naturally the high tide all week came at scorching mid-day, which was when the ramp from the dock was level for moving our loads from sea to land. Given the 10 foot tides here, moving in cooler hours would have posed a different kind of challenge.



Even my orchids had to be pried from their perches on the aft deck (where mostly I think I cook them) and I was lucky enough to find willing orchid-sitters while Asylum is at the spa and we're out of the country, Russell and Garn, who run a lovely little restaurant at the marina.


Russell already staining the orchids' new home away from home

We fly to the States tomorrow.


A farewell bloom