Phuket Archives - Phil & Iva

Fear and Failure

By: Phil

March 25, 2016

Back in the water…The boat is finally moving again, gently cradling us with the soothing motion of the tranquil waters of Phang Nga Bay.

A month earlier, life on a boatyard.

It feels so good to be back on Dali and getting the boat ready for the coming year of sailing…but it feels so strange to live “on the hard”.

Dali is out of the water, sitting on land. We need to climb a ladder three meters above ground to get to the boat. I miss the motion of the boat. After months spent on Dali, we’re used to the gentle movement of the swell. But on the hard, the boat feels so unnaturally still.

We chose this small new boatyard because it is cheap, calm and relatively cool. Whatever the monsoon, NE or SW, we usually get a fresh cooling wind that limits the liters of sweat that drench us while working in the tropics.

It is difficult to explain how hard it has been to tackle the technical difficulties I have been facing since I decided to leave my comfortable and predictable job to live on a boat. When I acquired Dali, I knew how to sail and navigate, but when it came to mechanics, electrical systems, composite materials, paints, woodwork, plumbing, painting, sanding, gluing, isolating, screwing, drilling, polishing and so many more areas of expertise, I had no idea. It was scary to know that I would have to develop these skills quickly to be able to fix my boat on my own, in order to attain self sufficiency in deserted places and to try to limit the repair budget to a minimum.

I had a little insight from my years of sailing to the problems encountered on boats, and some theories about how to fix them. I had helped a lot of friends to do repairs on their boat, watched them use certain materials and tools. But clearly, the only way to improve my skills was to face the repair alone, with a lot of advice to pick from, but with my own hands and tools to operate.

Securing the Rudder

Accomplishing a task for the first time on your own, with little or no guidance always involves a lot of stress.

I’ll try to illustrate this. Let’s say, you lightly kissed a rock with the bottom of the keel a few months back. Now on the hard, it’s fixing time. You must sand the area until you accomplish a smooth surface of fiberglass. That means you must know how to use a sanding machine, or just go for it. Then you need to prepare a mix of epoxy resin (two part – a resin and a hardener) and microballoon (micro sized glass bubbles used as a thickener) to fill all imperfection and, once sanded, prepare a smooth area to apply the fiberglass. This is no easy task for a beginner. Measurements must be taken, estimations are also a key. Doing this for the first time is obviously an unnatural feeling. It’s not easy to just go for it with no experience and technical learnings.

Bottom of the keel sanded and ready for filler and fiberglass

Preparing the epoxy/microballoon mix

Time to just “go for it”

Then the epoxy resin is applied, the fiberglass cut to dimension pressed against it and absorbed in the resin. After it has dried for a while but is still sticky, epoxy/microballoon filler must be applied again, then sanded. Finally, another layer of resin and the primer paint are applied on top when the resin is still sticky. The theory seems simple, especially after you’ve seen someone do it in front of you, but until you put your hands at use, smeared with the products that you manipulate for the first time, the whole thing just seems extremely complicated to achieve.

Chopped Strand Fiberglass Mat

The same feeling came upon me when I had to repair my diesel engine for the first time, only using phones and books. Or the outboard engine, that I keep fixing and discovering parts I haven’t dismantled and cleaned yet, or the engine shaft that I have to take apart on my own for the first time the other day. It often brings me back to the first business trip I did in South Korea in 2001. I was an intern in small French multimedia start-up in Hong Kong and replaced my trusting boss on a trip to Seoul. I had to meet with executives of the top Korean web businesses of the time to try to establish partnerships. It was organized in conjunction with the French Embassy and one of their translators was guiding me around the high-rise buildings of Seoul for five days. I was twenty-one years old, and terrified. I was wondering what I was doing there, what the justification for my presence on this trip was, since I had no prior experience. Everything seemed complicated and unnatural. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself, afraid of failure. But I forced myself to try.

As a young inexperienced businessman in Asia

Over the years I realized that there is absolutely no reason to be afraid of failure. It is such a natural feeling that keeps us from trying new things. The boat has been a good friend and let me experiment with the feeling. Today, I still stress out when something breaks for the first time. The other day a water pump was leaking and I had to fix it. It took three tries to dismantle it, clean it and put it back together to make it work. The frustration, the first time is annoying. The second time it is almost unbearable. But I have accepted that I might have to try it a third time, and if it doesn’t work, bring it to somebody and pay him to repair it. I’ve noticed with great surprise, that usually, the third time, it works.

Luckily I have a very good consultant/worker

Another important component of the fear of failure is the importance we put in what other people may think. What will they think of us if we can’t even succeed in a small task that is so easy for them to achieve? What will my friend, who’s worked on boats for 20 years, think of me if I live on a boat and can’t even fix a little water pump? What will my boss think of me if I fail in a task that he seems to accomplish with his eyes closed? We are often paralyzed by other people staring at us. I realized over the years that first of all: who cares? We are all the same human beings with the same fears, so why be ashamed? Second of all, I am a lot more impressed by people who try something and fail, then by people who stick to what they know best, and do it over and over again.

Rope Art

Since I left my comfortable job in Kuala Lumpur, I have tried my best to apply this philosophy to my everyday life. I have been trying a lot of new things without any knowledge: the refit of the boat; the filming and editing of my first documentary; I even participated to a reality TV Show based on interior design! In all these experiences, I had to teach myself how to use the tools and techniques at hand. Every time it felt like I was in front of a brick wall. I didn’t know how to start. I was afraid to start because I was worried I wouldn’t succeed. But I powered through my fears, and forced myself to do it.

Rope Art II

Every task I tackle takes me a lot more time than it would have taken any experienced professional. The first result isn’t anywhere as good, and very far from my expectations. But I am building the necessary confidence to try again, and finally achieve a result that almost satisfies me. There is still so much more to learn. Every time I will have to achieve something new, the same feeling of fear will come back. But I will embrace it and power through. Force myself. Better try and fail than stand still…

Phil

There is no better feeling than being back in the water

Back Under the Palm Trees

By: Phil

March 24, 2016

We are finally back in Phuket. It feels so good to be sleeping in my favorite bed again, inside Dali’s hull. I feel like I have abandoned my boat for too long. Over the years, I’ve developed a very close relationship with my boat, almost as if it were a human being. Sometimes it is happy, in good shape, singing in the waves. Sometimes it is sad, in much need of repairs. As I found Dali sitting on the hard, out of the water, in the boatyard we had left him back in may, I couldn’t withhold a strong feeling of guilt. Boats are not meant to be out of the water. They are not meant to be abandoned for almost five months.

Reunited

It was all for good reasons though. We spent a long time in KL, were we edited our first documentary and participated to season 3 of The Apartment. We transformed our blog into a proper website, with a lot of new exciting features. We visited my family and friends in Europe and spent some quality time with Iva’s family in KL. We were finally able to make a long due visit to Singapore where shared our upcoming projects with our friends.

But is now time to take care of Dali again. Iva and I found the boat in its moldiest state ever. It seems it’s been raining a lot in Phuket while we were gone, and the first few days will mainly be spent cleaning the entire boat : its walls, its ceilings, empty all the drawers, open all the cabinets, clean their content, lift the floorboards, scrape underneath, empty the bilge…

Scrubbing under the Floorboards

Once the boat is back in livable conditions, the proper work will start : some fiber glassing work needs to be done on the keel before we give the hull a new anti-fouling job. The front sail has suffered a rip and needs some sewing. I would like to change the mounts of the engine, possibly the injectors. There is quite a bit of plumbing work as a lot of hoses lying in inaccessible places need to be changed. The rudder needs to be adjusted. The list is endless, as usual…

While we take care of the boat we have to continue working hard at finally generating some income with our website and documentary. We must focus on finding a sponsor, and try to get the financing for our next documentary, which we would like to shoot on the west coast of Sumatra from January to March. How we will achieve all these goals at the same time I don’t know. But Iva and I work so well as a team that I can’t help but be confident…

Phil

An Hour in Phuket

By: Iva

March 3, 2014

Come join us for lunch in Phuket !

This is what our lunches looked like everyday during our two months on the boatyard in Phuket… Not a bad break from work.

**We recommend you watch this video on YouTube HD

Shit Happens

By: Phil

September 2, 2013

…continued from here.

Last hours of Dali in the water

Iva and I had decided to leave the boat in Phuket for a few months while we would spend sometime on land. We had to go to KL to make a few appearances related to Season 3 of The Apartment, the reality TV show we had won in 2012. We also wanted to edit a documentary about our trip to the Andamans and switch our blog to a self-hosted website with improvements to come. It seemed easier to do it on land, with unlimited access to power and a fast Internet connection. This was also an opportunity to spend some time promoting our website, in various publications, radio and TV shows. Then, in July we were going to head for Europe to celebrate my grandfather’s ninetieth birthday and visit my family and our friends for over a month. Dali had been afloat for a year and a half. These were all good reasons to lift the boat out of the water and give it a proper refit on our way back.

Sunset drinks at our favourite Reggae Bar on Bang Tao beach

Sunset drinks with our friend Guy, visiting from Doha, and the owner of our favourite Reggae Bar on Bang Tao beach

We were lucky enough to discover a new boatyard that just opened in the north of Phuket. There, we would be able to leave the boat out of the water for four to five months at a reasonable price.

Rainbow before the clouds set in…

This boatyard lies in the muddy passage at the northeast of Phuket. To enter, there is only a very small channel in between the mangrove trees. With Dali’s 1.85m draft, it is only possible to go through at very high tide, during three or four days, twice a month. We have no choice but to enter on the first of these days, since we have an obligation to be in KL the next day, with our flights already booked. The management of the boatyard tells me to enter at 10 am, when the tide is highest. Iva, Guy and I standby in front of the tiny channel, waiting for instructions to come in. But there is another boat before us. I call at 9:30, they tell me to wait. I call at 10:00, they tell me to keep on waiting. The tide’s going down, I tell them. It’s going to be fine, they answer. Finally at 10:40 the bow of the boat passes through two sad little sticks signaling the entrance. Pretty quickly we get stuck in the mud. I call for help, they take ages to come. The tide is still going down at an accelerating rate. A tiny dinghy with an 8hp engine comes and helps us push and pull, while I rev my engine to the max, nothing happens. A passing dinghy, this one with a 25hp engine starts pushing on the other side.

Finally we free ourselves from the mud. But as we exit and turn around we get stuck again. This time it’s even worse. My good friend Kosta, owner of Sheidegg and working on a powerboat nearby, comes with a large dinghy and a powerful engine. We try everything: tying a rope from the top of the mast to Kosta’s dinghy 100m away, to tilt Dali on it’s side and lift the keel over the mud, with Guy climbing to the tip of the boom to give the boat an even bigger angle. We push and we pull but there’s nothing to do. Dali is stuck in the mud for good. We’re not going to make it into the boatyard on that day.

Tide still receding..

Dali on dry sand.. and Guy trying to dig a way out!

Dali on dry sand.. and Guy keeping busy with a bucket…

Dali will have to spend the afternoon lying on it’s side, an usual sight that brings tears to Iva’s eyes, while Guy is trying to dig an exit way through the mud for the keel once the water will come back up. I’m not at my best, but have confidence in the strength of my 25mm. fiberglass hull. We’re just going to have to spend a very tilted afternoon. It feels strange to walk through the boat lying at a steady 45 degree angle. While gathering supplies from the inside, I fall many times, unsure of where to put my weight or hold on to. This is not how I wanted to spend my last afternoon on Dali.

The tide comes back with the dusk and slowly Dali starts floating again. What a sweet feeling to feel the boat moving with the tiny swell. We have dinner and wait for the tide to be highest, start the engine and anchor further away.

The next morning, again, is full of surprises. This time we are the first boat to come in, at high tide. This boatyard is a low budget one and there is no crane. It is a cradle that is placed under the boat and pulled out by a tractor. There is a little puddle of water where I have to wait while the staff places the cradle under the boat. As I enter, not a single staff member is there to catch my ropes!

I scream for help and even anchor in the small space trying to prevent the current from pushing Dali onto the rocks. Luckily Guy is on board with his two precious extra hands. We are able to guide the staff into catching our lines just in time before a crash, and to tie us up in a proper way. After a lot of screaming and sweating Dali is finally secure. It is now time to pull the cradle out of the water with the tractor.

Iva has never witnessed such an operation and loves the boat so much that she worries about it as if it were a child. But soon enough the worst is behind us, and Dali is finally resting safely on its stilts.

The next few hours are a blur. Guy, Iva and I go into frenzy mode so that we are able to prepare the boat for four months of loneliness in time to catch our flight. Somehow we manage.

Guy, you are obviously welcomed back on Dali anytime!

Phil

Abridgment

By: Phil

August 27, 2013

Photo by Julien Estiot

Let’s go back in time a few months. May 2013. Phuket. After an overwhelming trip to the Andaman Islands, Iva and I are back in Thailand. We enjoy our first real shower. After cooking three times a day for two months we take a rest, sit down and order our favorite Thai dishes. We don’t forget the juicy burgers and ice-cold beers either. Tourists are everywhere, the beaches aren’t empty anymore, but tourism has its perks. My brother visits again, so do Iva’s parents. It feels nice to be surrounded by family and familiar grounds.

Beers on the Beach

Julien getting a Thai haircut

Photo by Julien Estiot

Afternoon Boat Activities

First bottle of wine in two months!
Photo by Julien Estiot

We enjoy the company of our friends. Jose and Ana, owners of Zarco, who I met in Fiji nine years ago. Dutch Chris, iconic figure of Ao Yon Bay and owner of the Andaman Sea Club, a catamaran charter company. The amazing Maillard family on Tsarapenhoat : Arnaud and Katia left their steady life in Reunion Island to buy a 38 foot catamaran in Phuket. On board they home-school their four children. We sometimes struggle to cook for two. They do it every day for six.

More friends fly in from Kuala Lumpur. Andy and Steph, who are responsible for introducing me to Iva, finally make it onto Dali. Jess and Rich join the party and make it another memorable outing to Patong. What a contrast to the past two months spent in a bubble with Iva on Dali!

Enjoying a swim in fresh water at our friends’ hotel!
Photo by Jessica Lewis

The Andaman trip has been tiring. We raised anchor almost everyday. I need my lazy days back. So we sail up to Phang Nga Bay, and realize that we haven’t explored it thoroughly. We have gone so far to blow our minds with unexpected images, but Thailand is just as beautiful.

The limestone rocks of Phang Nga Bay. The caves. The secret enclosed bodies of water that we discover everyday. The Thai call them “hongs”, which means “rooms”. OK, we’re not exactly at the end of the world anymore. In most places, hordes of kayaking tourists invade the grounds from ten in the morning to four in the afternoon. That’s my lazy time. The rest is our oars caressing the calm waters of the bay with no one in sight.

Before and After the tourists

Can you spot Iva ?

Seashell Beach

Seashell Shower

Sunset on Limestone Cliffs

My good friend Guy visits from Doha. He was one of the first guests on the boat back in 2009, shortly after I purchased it. At the time I didn’t have the confidence I have now as the captain of Dali. I thought this time everything would go smoothly, especially thanks to Guy’s sailing experience. I had to think again…

…to be continued

Phil

Return to Dali

By: admin

February 9, 2013

Después de varios meses lejos del mar, fue linda sensación volver a poner los pies en el agua. Cuando el taxi nos dejó en la playa, ya los dos soltamos un suspiro… Aliviados al ver el velero flotando todavía en su lugar. En los días que siguieron, los primeros de este año ya bien empezado, trabajamos con cuidado buscando complicaciones y problemas que por (mucha, mucha) suerte nunca encontramos.

Una vez que estábamos convencidos que todo seguía en orden pudimos recibir a nuestra primera visita del 2013; mi hermana Ileana y su novio Alejo.

Hacía mucho tiempo que esperaba poder compartir con mi hermana lo que he vivido este ultimo año sobre el barco. Desde que éramos muy chicas, de las dos ella fue siempre la aventurera… Y ya que por el momento esta ha sido mi aventura más grande, quería compartirla con ella.

De nuestros invitados, Ile y Alejo se destacaron por su facilidad de sentirse como en casa arriba de Dali. Fueron los que más tiempo pasaron en el agua y los únicos en atreverse a prepararnos una cena. Con Phil nos admirábamos del entusiasmo infalible de los dos a pesar del calor infernal de la cocinita abordo.

Disfrutamos de poder mostrarles un poco de nuestra vida marina. Visitamos cinco islas en siete días, aprovechando para introducir Alejo a las particularidades de las playas Tailandesas. El también nos sorprendió, victorioso en su primera y muy pública pelea Muay Thai!

Así pasamos una semana soleada, clima perfecto para empezar el año. Sin embargo las vacaciones se suspenden un tiempo, mientras que Ile y Alejo vuelven a sus vidas porteñas y nosotros nos preparamos para la próxima aventura.

Iva

After these joyful reencounter with the boat and the Thai island hopping life, it was finally time to get ready for our first faraway trip on Dali.

The Andaman Islands. 400 nautical miles (760km) to the North West oh Phuket. Three to Five days at sea with usually fair winds from the North East this time of year. It will be Iva’s first open water crossing, and also my first time to sail the open seas with my own boat. It’s exciting. The Andamans are a part of India, hundreds of gorgeous lush tropical islands with an almost untouched marine life, since commercial fishing is prohibited in the area. Most of its islands are uninhabited and we look forward to the amazing snorkeling, fishing and deserted beaches.

But as usual there was a lot of work before departure. We needed to get the boat ready, a task that always has its fair share of surprises. Change the batteries, Check the rigging, grease the winches, install the wind wane, repair al sorts of small details. Fill up with water and diesel, buy a month’s worth of groceries, replenish the pharmacy, wash the boat inside out, check the engine…it’s a long list.

Laundry Day on Dali

We also had to get ready for the Indian authorities that will board the boat at arrival in Port Blair. Visas, a large pile of paperwork with introduction letters, inventory, itinerary, requests to spend a lovely month cruising the Andaman Islands.

The Beautiful Visa Photo Studio

We also needed to get our communications working. SSB radio, Satellite Phone, VHF to be able to send and receive emails, most importantly receiving weather charts during the crossing. The authorities also require that every boat radio’s in its position everyday while cruising the islands.

It was hard getting everything ready with only three weeks to spare as we wanted to leave early to catch the end of the NE monsoon. We made our way North along the east coast of Phuket to spend our last week of preparation at Yacht Haven Marina, definitely our favorite marina on the island. On the way, since the paperwork finally came through during our visit to France in October, we were finally able to undertake a little ceremony to change the name of the boat. There are many customs to achieve a peaceful transition to a new name. We tacked (crossed the axis of the wind) three times, with a drink of rum for Neptune, the boat and the captain (the first mate was also invited !) after every tack. Dali can now show off its beautiful name on the high seas.

We are finally ready. We should leave in couple of days, after meeting up with our good friends Bernard and Pui on Salulami, anchored off Mai Thon Island ! Next post in more than a month with undoubtedly exciting stories !

Phil

Dolphins

By: Phil

November 7, 2012

The past month had rushed by so quickly. It’s hard to believe that a month ago we were driving my brother Julien and his girlfriend Sabine to the airport after almost three weeks of festivities on Dali and on shore!

It was great to have Julien visiting a second time, and this time with Sabine! We did remember that when he left us in Phuket after five rainy days on board in May he told us, “see you in September” but it went by so quickly that when we picked him up at the airport in September it felt he had just left us a few weeks back…

They took a risk in coming to Phuket end of September, usually the most rainy time of the year. Iva and were worried that we could only offer them indoor activities, the four of us cramped in our tiny living space… But the weather turned out to be surprisingly nice ! Even the dolphins greeted us on Julien & Sabine’s second day on the boat!

Dolphin Pod

More dolphins…!

We got to enjoy the sun striking the clear water of Koh Hae and Koh Mai Ton and had a fast sail to Koh PhiPhi that rewarded us with its usual night of partying and jumping through rings of fire.

We got back just in time, seven hours motoring against the wind in a sea that was starting to get rough, in anticipation of the storm that finally soaked Phuket from the West one more time in this year’s heavy monsoon season. Our friends Jose and Anna welcomed us in the beautiful house they are taking care of in the south of Phuket, and for a few days we hid away from the rain, enjoyed delicious food, funny games and soft mattresses…

A first visit to Phuket needs to be celebrated in the colorful nightlife of Patong, and Sabine was not disappointed as we danced away in the clubs and gazed in disbelief at the unusual sights the place has to offer…

The Infamous Tiger Nightclub, Patong

The rain quickly gave way to the sun again and we were able, back on the boat, to enjoy some lovely anchorages we had not seen before.

On their last night we enjoyed one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve seen in Thailand from a gorgeous platform bar on the top of cape Panwa. Sometimes everything just comes together perfectly…

Baba’s Nest, Sri Panwa

Only one month has passed. Thailand seems so far away… After stopping in Kuala Lumpur to attend the premiere of the TV Show we’re participating in (The Apartment – Style Edition) we started a very long trip around the world, that will take us to three continents to visit our families and friends. Here it goes :

KL – Doha – Paris – Berlin – Nice – Cannes – Paris – London – Paris – Doha – Buenos Aires – Mendoza – Buenos Aires – Doha – KL.

Hope to see you all on the way !

Phil

Your friendly hosts…

More from Phuket

By: admin

November 4, 2012

Article in the Travel section of The Phuket News.

Brief summary of our new appreciation for Phuket and its surroundings.

Thank you Simon for the feature!

Eleven On Board

By: Phil

September 10, 2012

There’s nothing like the feeling of leaving a marina after being tied to a pontoon, mixing sweat and grease, for a time that always turns out to be much longer than expected…

So on a sunny day, in fifteen knots of wind blowing through Phang Nga Bay, we finally untied the lines and left Yacht Haven Marina. With on board, Isabelle and Mathieu, two friends visiting from France ! They would be the first of numerous guests coming and going, sleeping on the available bunks and bringing life and laughter to our small living space in the two weeks that followed…

Isabelle and Mathieu

On our way down to the south of Phuket to meet the rest of the crew, we enjoy some really nice sailing in the strong wind on the flat waters of the massive bay. Isa and Mat quickly take their marks on board and love the boat heeling in the gusts…the intense limestone islands, as if suspended above water, surround us as we anchor for our first night far from the rest of the world…

Fresh prawns, straight from the fisherman’s net to our table!

After a couple of days sailing down the west coast of Phuket, we meet up with more friends! Pierre-Henri (PH) and his girlfriend Clothilde. also from France, and Elise with her boyfriend Vikram, a.k.a. Sunny, flying in from India. It’s a couples’ holiday ! I’m delighted to have three of my best friends on board with their better halves, most of which I meet for the first time. And it’s the first time Iva meets my French friends. It turns out they all randomly came to visit at the same time ! She won’t be disappointed, we’re now eight people on the boat !

The following week, we all sail together from Phuket to Koh Hae, couples taking turns to sleep on the boat (it only sleeps five) while the others book cheap accommodation on land. Cruising around the islands, snorkeling in the good spots, lunch on the beach, sundowners on the boat, dinner on land, what a perfect few days catching up on their lives back home, sharing our own new living conditions… It feels so good to have my old time friends on the boat, actually finally understanding what our lifestyle implies…

Elise and Sunny

A typically French apéritif : rosé wine and saucisson !

Couples’ Holiday !

After a very relaxed beginning of our group holiday, we decide to change the mood and head to Koh Phi Phi, where Jess, Sinead and Diane, three Australian friends of Iva will join us…the more the merrier !

Sailing to Koh Phi Phi

Clo and PH

Dali…the love-boat !

Phi Phi Islands

Iva catching a mooring line, on our arrival in Phi Phi.
That one broke a few minutes after… I prefer my anchor and chain !

Our anchorage in Phi Phi

As mentioned before on this blog, Koh Phi Phi is a group of two islands lying 20 miles east of Phuket. Koh Phi Phi Le, the small one, famous for being the setting of the movie The Beach. Kho Phi Phi Don, the large one is a pretty busy tourist destination, mainly attracting young backpackers looking for gorgeous settings and beach parties… It’s a change for our guests from the more isolated places we’ve taken them so far : streets, people everywhere, long walks with their backpacks to find a place to stay…

Iva, Jess, Sinead and Diane

But at night, the party on the beach starts, with numerous bars blasting heavy bass into the night, firedancers and a lot of drunken tourists… What a perfect spot to celebrate our random reunion, eleven of us drinking and dancing our hearts out till it’s really time to go to bed…

It’s not Phi Phi without fluorescent paint…

After a couple of days recovering from that first night, by diverse means such as sweating it out on a long trek over the mountain or simply sitting on the beach enjoying lots of Thai food (which is NEVER bad), we have to head back to Phuket.

Post Party Trek

The Phi Phi Viewpoint inspires many interesting poses…

Loh Bagao Bay, east coast of Phi Phi

PH and Clo continue their trip to Koh Lanta, Isa and Mat head back to Phuket on an early ferry to extend their visa and we sail back with the rest of the crew.

Early morning stopover in Maya Bay, set of the movie ‘The Beach’, before the daily tourist invasion

Sailing back to Phuket

Cozy girly time on a sleepy afternoon sail…

Unfortunatly we have to say goodbye to Elise and Sunny who head back to Bangkok to catch their flight for Dehli. But Jess, Sinead and Diane stay to enjoy their first night on the boat ! A nice dinner of bangers and mash and a good movie put us all to bed quite early…

The following is not my most glorious moment. The girls booked a hotel room in the infamous Patong for a last night of party in Phuket’s vibrant streets. Isa and Mat were joining us as well. Everything was set up for a crazy farewell night. But the party was cut short rather quickly. As the girls were getting ready to go out, I caught my small toe on a bed corner in a hasty movement. All I could do is look at the sad result : a toe dangling from the side of the foot. End of the party before it starts. Head for the hospital for an X-Ray that shows the extent of the damage. Well, a broken toe.

Welcoming eleven people on board within two weeks is not an easy task. As the captain of the boat, you are responsible for every person that steps on it. Everyone has different expectations, different plans. Trying to please everybody at the same time, while taking their schedule into consideration, on top of the handling the boat, dealing with the weather, the tides, the dozens of dinghy trips to the beach…not a holiday for Iva and I.

We estimate about a hundred dinghy trips made during the holiday!

But the smile on the faces of your friends, chilling on the boat, enjoying a sunset or awing at the color of the crystal water you brought them to…more than worth it.

We thought after these two weeks we could have our own “holiday”. Finally only responsible for ourselves. Free as little fish in the sea. Well we had to think again. First I have to rest my toe. Let the bone consolidate. Then we need to head back to Langkawi…to meet more friends !

Phil

We would like to thank Isabelle, Mathieu, Elise, Sunny, Pierre-Henri and Clothilde for letting us use some of their photographs for this post.

Repairs

By: Phil

August 20, 2012

Yacht Haven Marina

Three months have passed since our last entry… We’ve been busy.

No major repairs had been undertaken on Dali since November 2011. After 6 months of sailing up and down the coasts of Malaysia and Thailand, the boat needed some love and care to fix its injuries. We headed to Yacht Haven Marina in the North of Phuket for a month of work.

The biggest job would be fixing the leaks at the hull/deck junction at the back of the boat as well as on the bow. While the hull is solid fiberglass and most of the deck is a fiber/balsa wood sandwich, the sections around the cockpit and on the bow are just plywood covered with fiberglass. Due to bad isolation, some of the plywood was rotten and needed to be changed. Both storage areas at the back of the boat were leaking water !

Beginning of Deck Repairs

Deck repairs being finished

The diesel tank was completely clogged up from not having been cleaned for years. The only way was to take it out, cut a hatch into it, clean it and put it back.

Diesel Tank Repairs

Tank Repaired, Aft Cabin Painted & Organized

Our cushions covers were old and tired, and we were excited to replace them with the fabric we had purchased in KL’s Little India a few months back.

Curtains to match the cushions

As you start working on the boat it is hard to stop. You keep on taking things apart, finding new areas that can be improved or repaired. The toilet needed a major servicing, the anchor chain and anchor could do with a galvanizing, the anchor winch needed maintenance, one of the chain plates had cracked and a replacement had to be ordered from Bangkok, the water tanks were leaking and needed repairs, a new main sail was in order…the list is long.

Replacing the Chain Plate

Quick Nap Between Jobs

Beautiful New Main Sail !

And the weather didn’t help. As soon as we docked, it basically started raining for a month, a very unusual thing for May-June in Phuket. This made everything more complicated as we tried to protect the working areas from the rain so that the resins used in the repairs could dry properly. And during this time we were still living on the boat, moving it’s contents from one area to the other as the jobs moved on, sleeping in the middle, with very little living space.

Luckily, we ran into Chris, an Australian sailor aboard Lady Bubbles, whom we had met in Koh Tachai a few months back and happened to be doing repairs on the opposite dock ! He was leaving his boat for a month in Phuket while going back to Australia, had rented a room nearby, and offered us to stay in it for two weeks while he was gone ! Thanks mate ! This enabled us to start on a brand new paint job inside the boat, while the rain kept pouring and a lot of other jobs where on hold.

Bathroom Before & After

Storage Space Revamped

After enjoying the freedom we had in the past months sailing the gorgeous waters of the Andaman Sea, it is not easy being stuck in a marina for weeks. No more virgin beaches, crystal clear waters and outrageous sunsets. Just work all day. Trying to figure out the best ways to fix complicated systems. Driving around Phuket town trying to find the spare part that’s missing, or the greasy machine shop that will do the welding job you need… before heading back to the dull Marina life where every boat just floats there, sadly tied to its pontoon. And then, slowly but surely, you start to move on. You’re not taking things apart anymore, but putting them back together. The boat starts looking less like a workshop and more like a living space. The exit is near…

Shop in Phuket Town

Second-hand Bookstore, Phuket Town

Interesting Architecture of Phuket Town

Freaky life-like monks

Yacht Haven Marina Parking Lot
Trees grow as we work

Then there are administrative issues. Our Thai visa was only valid for a month. We needed to get out of the country. The fastest and cheapest solution when you are in Phuket is to do a visa run to Myanmar, 300km to the north. It turned out to be a lovely trip under the rain. We decided to rent a car and drive up the West coast to Ranong. From Ranong you can take a long tail boat for an hour, crossing the estuary that separates Thailand from Burma. On the other side of the boat trip you really are in a different world ! A much poorer world; with hundreds of boats living of border trading activities. Dozens of cute children jumping from boat to boat. Very chilled custom officers in a little hut that only accept brand new or ironed US dollar bills. Buddhist temples everywhere. An intriguing country where I would have loved to spend more than half an hour.

Ranong Pier

Approaching Kawthaung, Myanmar

Back in Thailand, we stopped at the impressive Ngao waterfall. It felt great to be on the move again. The green hills of South West Thailand in the rain really soothed us after a long month of work…

Ngao Waterfall

Ngao National Park

A month and a half had passed and we were almost ready to move back onto the boat and finish all the jobs. The leaking was fixed, the serviced diesel tank was installed, the cushions were ready everything had been freshly painted and we were putting the last finishing touches when the phone rang…

That’s another story.

Philippe

Phuket

Fear and Failure

Back Under the Palm Trees

An Hour in Phuket

Shit Happens

Abridgment

Return to Dali

Dolphins

More from Phuket

Eleven On Board

Repairs

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