Alison Stocker | Photo: A blind resident with a small watermelon at the Phuket Elephant Sanctuary
Happy New Year!
We hope that 2023 has started well for you.
We are still at Ao Po Grand Marina in Phuket, Thailand, but are just a few days away from leaving to sail to Sri Lanka and points west. As anticipated, we have been very busy preparing Tregoning and ourselves for our passages across the Indian Ocean, but we have also been able to socialize and sightsee a little.
Passage preparations for Tregoning:
I thoroughly cleaned and waxed the cove-stripe, most of the stainless steel, and all Bimini windows to try to provide them with some resistance to the sun and salt over the next few months.
We had to renew our Customs declaration form (due to expiration of our boat documentation on 31st December). A process that took three trips to the Customs office in central Phuket and obtaining a letter from the marina to say that Tregoning was here.
Randall has spent hours online, researching the places that we expect to visit on the way to the Mediterranean. This has included planning routes, downloading satellite images of expected anchorages and ports, applying for visas, and arranging for agents to clear us in and out (required in both Sri Lanka and the Maldives).
When we found ourselves running short of electricity (particularly tiresome as one of us wanted to listen to Christmas music every day), Randall determined that the solar controller, which regulates the power coming in from the two solar panels, was not working properly. We left this for inspection and repair at Octopus Electrical Services Co., Ltd. They could not repair it but because it was covered under a five-year warranty, they replaced it for us, and we now have plenty of solar power again. As with the engine cooling-water pump, we were glad that this failure occurred, and we were able to replace it, before we set-off across the Indian Ocean.
We replaced the end of the jib halyard. It had started to chafe at the top of the mast but, luckily, we had enough spare line to chop off the damaged part and retie the halyard to the furler car.
We had our rigging inspected by Jai from East Marine, Co., Ltd. This was required to occur by March (two years after our last inspection) for our insurance to cover any loss due to rigging failure. He noted a few cosmetic issues with the paint on the boom and mast but was satisfied with the state of the standing rigging. As well as being necessary for insurance coverage, this is reassuring as we prepare for more than a month's worth of ocean sailing.
Passage preparations for ourselves:
We both got dental check-ups (no issues) and our teeth cleaned.
Randall had a skin check with a dermatologist who just froze off a couple of spots...the least invasive visit to a skin doctor that he has had in years.
We spent a couple of days shopping for hard-to-find items such as: large quantities of sunscreen (we had to buy many tubes as the 1L pump bottles found in Australia were not available); large packets of cheddar cheese (found at Makro Cash and Carry stores); tubs of Gatorade powder (not found but we got boxes of packets of powdered electrolyte drinks from a pharmacy - like the sunscreen, a terrible waste of packaging); and various other specialty items not seen since Australia. Villa Markets and the posh supermarket under the fancy Central Phuket Mall seemed to cater to ex-pats, so we did find a few imported items, such as wholemeal flour, there.
We did surprisingly little Christmas shopping, instead giving each other the usual dose of chocolates and, in my case, a new pair of fancy flip flops. The final provisioning run for fresh fruit and vegetables, will be done while we still have a rental car on Friday.
For various reasons, I decided not to try to get my Dell laptop fixed in Thailand. I was running out of time and feared that a shutdown while I was trying to reload Windows (as the Dell technician had suggested), would leave me with a completely non-functional device. (It has shut down twice while I have been writing this blog.) The warranty is good for another nine months, so I will hope to have it fixed or replaced somewhere where we can spend more time. In the meantime, I am trying to learn to save my documents every few minutes and practice my patience...not always easy!
Entertainment:
Of course, we have allowed ourselves a bit of time to relax. On Christmas Day, we went for a long bird walk just outside the marina. We did not go very far but spent a few hours surveying the local birds, which included Javan and common mynas, black drongos, oriental magpie robins, and Indochinese rollers. The latter blue, grey, and black birds were new to us and quite striking in plumage, especially when they flew. Pictures to follow later.
Later that morning, we collected Eugenie and Paul from the boatyard where Deo Juvante was being worked on, and we all drove up north to Phuket Yacht Haven. There we joined Jackie and Wayne for a lovely Christmas lunch at the marina's restaurant, followed by after-lunch cordials on CathayOz. It was good to see our fellow rally participants again, and fun to see the marina in which we almost stayed. The facilities looked great, but the marina is quite remote at the north end of Phuket Island.
After one of our trips to the Customs Office, we continued across Phuket Island to visit the popular beaches on the west coast. It was staggering how built-up and crowded these bays were, especially after Jennie in London had been telling me about her visit to Phuket in the early 1980's when there was maybe one hotel at the beach she visited. We stopped at Kamala Beach to visit the memorial to the 2004, Boxing Day Tsunami which killed so many people in Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The black-marble-wall memorial and associated large, donut-shaped, wire sculpture were both tasteful but a bit underwhelming and ignored by most people. The beach, however, was impressively populated by long ranks of sunbeds with umbrellas, most of which were occupied. It made us both feel very thankful for all the remote beaches and bays that we have enjoyed over our years of cruising.
New Year's Eve weekend was greeted at our marina by a sudden influx of young men and women in various uniforms. A navy vessel, many well-crewed boats with official flags, an inflatable full of scuba-divers, an ambulance with mobile ICU, tower of floodlights, and various other unusual vehicles hinted that something extraordinary was occurring, so I asked at the office if someone important was expected. Indeed, one of Thailand's royal family, Princess Sirivannavari was going to visit her favorite beach on an island close to Ao Po. Although only in her mid-thirties, part of the reason for the mobile ICU and other precautions was that her 44-year-old sibling (or half-sibling, the Thai Royal family is quite complicated), Princess Bajrakitiyabha, had suffered a near-fatal heart attack on 14th December. Neither of us actually got to see the visiting princess, but the many extra personnel stayed around the marina for both Saturday and Sunday before suddenly disappearing. Despite all of this activity, we were never stopped or asked for our identity or reasons for being there as we walked around the marina and associated facilities.
Our visit to the dentist was on New Year's Eve, followed by large ice-cream treats while we were in the tourist area on Boat Avenue. Weary from such wild activity, Randall and I watched the Sydney Harbor Bridge NYE fireworks online at 8 pm and went to bed soon afterwards!
The following day, we met Eugenie and Paul for lunch at Phuket Boat Lagoon, where we also met Eugenie's daughters, Millie and Lola. Leaving Paul behind, five of us drove south to visit the Chalong Buddhist Temple complex, with its amazingly elaborately decorated buildings, shockingly loud firecrackers, numerous golden statues of Buddha, and eerily life-like statues of revered monks. We were also rather fascinated by stalls that sold roasted insects and larvae which were mixed with various spices and which people were buying to eat as snacks. Presumably, they all provide good amounts of protein which is much more sustainably produced than much of what we eat but it is hard for some of us to get past the "Yuk" factor. Somewhat predictably, the whole black scorpions did not seem to be particularly popular items.
After this unexpected culinary education, we drove up a steep hill to visit the Big Buddha that we had seen from our anchorage in Ao Chalong when we first arrived in Thailand. On the way uphill, we stopped briefly to see a place where tourists could take rides on elephants or feed them. The poor creatures were either chained by a foot while receiving and unpeeling bananas or were being controlled by a mahout to walk around with several people on their backs. Some tourists were taking advantage of these unusual opportunities, but the whole show looked rather sad to us.
At the top of the hill, we walked around the 45-m (150-foot) tall Buddha which is covered in white tiles. Started in 2007, it has been funded entirely by donations and you can still buy and write on the backs of tiles to be added to the incomplete sections at the bottom. With a grand staircase leading up to the base of the Buddha, there are rooms underneath where monks lead the faithful in prayers, chants, and meditation. The structures and adornments were interesting but, for me, the most impressive aspects were the views in all directions, over the wide bay of Ao Chalong, Phuket City, beaches to the west, and the hills and islands at the south end of Phuket Island. It was very busy with visitors on New Year's Day and there were plenty of tourist trappings, but it was a truly spectacular place.
In addition to enjoying time with the crews of Deo Juvante, CathayOz, and Bison, we were treated to a visit for drinks and dinner by Sharon and Chris. Their boat, Watusi 2, was on the hard in Pangkor, so they had flown into Phuket to see Sharon's brother on his 50th birthday. We were thrilled to see them and share our stories from since we left Pangkor in early December. They had met people who could help them get a mooring in Ao Chalong, so they were now revising their cruising plans to spend some time in Thailand before heading east again.
Perhaps the highlight of our too brief stay in Thailand was a morning spent at the Phuket Elephant Sanctuary
http://www.phuketelephantsanctuary.org/en/
This was also very busy, but the place was exceptionally well organized. As is the drill, there will be many more photos and details to follow...(I hope to catch-up with some blog writing while we are at sea...) but in summary we each handfed one (untethered) elephant five items of fruit and vegetables, we walked around meeting several of the eleven retired and disabled elephants currently in the sanctuary, we watched one elephant appearing to truly enjoy a bath in the pond, and we were able to stroke a blind elephant as she lazily munched on small watermelons. Each animal had formerly worked in tourism or the logging industries but was now able to wander where it wanted in the 30-ha (74-acre) sanctuary during the day and had a large pen to stay in at night. At all times when out of their pens, they were each escorted by a mahout who only guided them by talking, leading, and bribing with food. No harmful practices were tolerated at all, and a vet was available at all times. It was a joy to behold such relaxed and healthy-looking creatures after seeing the sad state of the ones that were working to provide rides to tourists on the way to the Big Buddha.
Tomorrow we will spend most of the day stocking up with, and stowing, provisions for our Indian Ocean passages. On Saturday, our marina neighbors and new friends Kath and Swanny have invited us to cruise around the local islands and limestone pinnacles on their motor-catamaran "Bison", with them and the crew of Deo Juvante. It will be a much more efficient way to see more of the area than we could manage in Tregoning. We would then leave the marina on Sunday, making our way south back to anchor in Ao Chalong. From there we will check-out of the country at the offices on the jetty, with the intention of sailing away from Thailand on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. The weather should be good for our 8 - 10-day passage to Galle in southwestern Sri Lanka, although a period of reduced wind may require a bit of motoring.
Or so we have planned...