It's 2 months to the day when Dreamcatcher was lifted in Boat Lagoon, Phuket, and placed on the hard for the many "projects" being imposed upon her. And we're still here. I guess it was naïve to expect the work would be completed in 2 months, so we are resigned to staying for another month, till the end of April. But it hasn't been an internment per se: we've enjoyed our time here despite the heat. We picked the hottest February/March in 137 years, exacerbated by the heat rising from the hard concrete standing so the afternoon temperatures are around 40 degrees, and there's no breeze. GT was able to escape to (cool by comparison) Singapore for several weeks while Henry toughed it out with the boat contractors in the yard. Returning to the apartment or the hotel pool for a couple of hours each afternoon has provided some respite but there is no disputing: it's HOT.

We've seen a lot of progress on the boat since she was hauled out..... much of which won't be noticed by friends or newcomers: but we see it. The new insides to the fridge/freezer, the new engine room door, the renewed engine room and lazarette lids along with the interior coach roof hatches and the piece de resistance - the clean shiny insides of the big lazarette, which we think we could rent out to a local Thai family! We've had the anchor chain re-galvanised and marked and the muffler re-made. All these things will be invisible to future visitors but we know they've been done - our bank account tells us so. The things we CAN see are lovely - the "admiral's suite"...aka.... the aft cabin now has horizontal teak planking on its insides and the nasty mirrors are gone. These were originally placed to reflect light and make the cabin look bigger, but the new light-coloured finish looks so much more stylish. We've also had the forward cabin finished off. We admit this was the ultimate in procrastination: we've had the finishing fabric for about 13 years and finally, this morning it was put in place, not by us but by our woodworking guy, along with some horizontal wood sections to match the existing Tasmanian Oak planking (that we did in Queensland some 12 years ago). We're getting the foundation wood of the forward head replaced and the new galley top will be installed next week, along with a new shelf on port side to house the myriad of electrical cables and chargers. We're having little bits re-varnished (it took them 2 minutes to remove my 12 coats of varnish from the washboards!). Our new coach-roof hatches are beautiful in teak and were getting coats of gloss this morning. The one thing that we're totally delighted with is our new cockpit table extension. We've talked about this for 10 years now, and finally, it is in the making. We'll now be able to have at least 6 friends seated around the table in the cockpit for meals. Photo is of the first trial fitting - the new aft section has the shiny hinges and the whole thing will be finished off with varnish. We can't wait to christen it with a lovely dinner party!

The BIG job, of course, is the overall painting, 2/3rds of which is finished. Dreamcatcher is looking like a large present - all wrapped up in brown paper and shrink-wrap to protect her new glossy paint job. She has new non-skid deck paint and snow white topsides with her classic black sheer stripe: we've kept the original B&W colours of the Cal 3-46. So, we're very keen to see her when all the protective wrapping is off. Her bottom is embarrassingly spotty - the blisters have been drying out for the past 6 weeks and her 40 years of congealed, built-up anti-foul from a dozen past bottom-jobs has been scraped & sanded off and taken back to the gel coat in preparation for 2 primer and 4 new anti-foul coats just before she splashes again. Part of this exterior job has been a total replacement of 105 feet of teak toe-rail. We had initially thought we could re-use at least some of the original but after inspection it became obvious that 100 % had to be replaced. This was a job for an incredibly skilled tradesman - getting the right curves in the right place to fit the hull, replacing and plugging all the screws and re-fitting the toe-rail hardware. It looks beautiful and will be painted with Cetol tomorrow.

On the "to do" list remains the fitting/testing of the muffler, repairing the steering cabling, replacement of the bimini & dodger canvas (75% finished), some small woodwork detailing jobs and stainless steel work: re-styling the railing at the back to allow stern access, installing an additional bow roller to house the backup 45 lb CQR, re-fitting of the davits, plus replacement of "stuff" from the storage locker that was removed to make below and on-deck access easier. . then, replacement of all the deck components including the life raft, life sling, solar panels and running rigging. There is so much dust below decks it will take at least a week to clean up, once she is back in the water. Sigh.

Our home life is simple and predictable: we still have our lovely 1 bedroom apartment and dine in alternate nights. The other nights we eat at the food court/hawker stall (where we pet the 3 lovely kittens) and on Sundays somewhere a bit flasher in the marina, like the Italian Taverna or Diablo. The Boat Lagoon/marina environment is incredibly well run - a little self-contained city with everything you need - dozens of restaurants, bars and fast food, supermarket, 7-11, a selection of massage options, hair-dresser, mani-padi spa's, the hotel with its fabulous pool and of course everything one could want in the way of boat-stuff. We treat ourselves to a gelato every now and then and religiously observe cocktail hour on the balcony at 1730 hours each evening. We look through lovely palm trees into part of the boat harbour for the tourist day-boats, which affords us an entertaining view of the sun-burnt day-trippers. We have literally hundreds of movies and TV series' on discs and drives and typically fall asleep watching them. Step and repeat the next day and in the boatyard by 0730.

We will take a week or so out during the week-long Songkran Thai holiday and fly to Singapore & Perth for a change of scenery and a visa run. We'll let you know when Dreamcatcher's back together again.