Tuesday 16 February 2016

Dink wheels were well welded, but installation awaits new teak mounts for transom. Have to drive up to pick up when clearing out Friday at Chalong. Even from nearby marina it hasn't been easy. Royal Phuket Marina is cheek by jowl with Boat Lagoon, but you can't get there from here - walls, fences, wire and such. Guess the elite want protection from the hoi polloi who don't want to pay their elevated slip fees. Broke out bikes for trips to and from chandleries.

Located Jacksters, Dave & Jacqui, at Nai Harn Beach whence we repair as able. Channel into current position is barely dredged for 2 miles across a shoal allowing exit only at high tide. Can't get out until after 1400, or 1500 if not so lucky. Goodbye A/C.

- Later

Made it out with .1 meters to spare and then a brilliant sail around to anchorage passing by US Navy ship "Antietam" named perhaps for a really, really ugly US civil war battle site (and probably not for the piffling creek that runs nearby).

Wednesday

Here, fun with Jacksters, yada, yada.

Thursday

Cheated death on Phuket roads to pick up aforementioned teak bits and associated fasteners, visit a friend in town and clear out of Thailand (2 days early in case poo hits fan). For some peculiar reason our AIS (enabling Thai authorities to track us) has just decided to not transmit. That's OK though because we're NOT planning to spend a week or so moseying down the coast before clearing in to Malaysia even though we might want to do that very thing after having bypassed many great spots coming up in order to see the Inspiration Ladys before they headed off across the Indian Ocean (did you follow that?.. right!). We've heard of cruisers being naughty in this way, but we would never do such a thing even if probability of getting caught is near zero. J.C. Watts had something to say about this very subject (DO NOT look it up), but he was probably just pandering to people who were watching.

Jack