Thursday, December 30, 2010

Happy New Year – Happy Birthday Amy! - 28 Nov – 29 Dec

The good news is we managed to get back on the water by Christmas! We had a few little dramas along the way such as our 22 month old sail which Peter had stored under our boat was eaten by rats – looked like one of those paper doll cutouts and we were pretty devastated. But a lovely chap named Ket managed to patch it up beautifully for a small sum of money and that made us pretty happy. Brett arrived on the 3rd and stayed a couple of nights and then took himself off to a couple of islands on the eastern side of Thailand – Ko Tao where he gained his advanced open water scuba diving licence and then to Ko Phangan for the full moon party which he described as epic!!!!

The Tuesday before Christmas we were pretty despondent as work on our boat was going so slowly so had a word with Mr Samran and he pulled a lot of people on to our boat and things started forging ahead although with only one week to go till the 21st no-one thought we would make it and we weren’t sure! We stayed two extra nights in our unit and the boys worked overtime and a few corners were cut – the mast went back on the 20th and Peter worked till midnight the next two nights putting the boat back together and I packed up the unit and hired a ute to move all the gear back. Peter was pulling the chain out from under the boat that we had Bob (our new tender) attached by and nearly pulled one of the things holding the boat out! Chom laughed his head off. The 23rd – Amy’s birthday – at 10am saw the travel lift come to collect us and we were in the water (with paint still wet!!! )with the pilot and off by 12 noon. We were very happy to have the pilot as the way was narrow and snaked around via pylons but not clearly marked. We headed down to Nai Harn and anchored beside Cilantro in the afternoon followed in by Whistle Down the Wind – quite a reunion. We headed in to shore in the evening to have dinner and collect Brett who was making his way down to meet us when we saw a very big wave come up behind us and Bob was totally flipped. One minute I was sitting in the tender and the next I was on my back totally under water!! We managed to get Bob upright and the crew of Sailmaker came to give a hand. Brett found us very wet in the restaurant and we all had dinner before having to make our way back out again. The motor wouldn’t start so James (Cilantro) helped swim us past the breakers and we were able to row out without incident. Peter stripped the engine the next morning and it was good – hadn’t been under for very long. The next night we went to another beach with Single Malt, Whistle Down the Wind and Cilantro to go up the Cape for sunset and dinner. As we came in Cilantro went almost over and James came out of their tender, however somehow Sandra came back down and was still seated so got in ok but when I saw them go I bailed and then got knocked down by the wave and the boys rode it up nicely in Bob and didn’t get wet. Once again a very wet night though the boys did buy me some new clothes!!! Apart from that it was a lovely night.

Christmas morning was a lovely day and we had our Christmas tree and then had a sausage on bread for lunch then met Cilantro at 4.30 – went ashore at the beach via the rocks which was much safer and started a restaurant crawl which went till 11.30pm being joined by Whistle half way through so it was a really nice evening but nothing traditional about it and friends and family missed!

Another tender got rolled this day and others tied their tenders to the swimming buoys and a few of them got rolled so all in all it was difficult landing at Nai Harn this year!!! We headed up the coast and had a couple of nights at Kamala Beach – went out the first night and then went up to Nai Yang where Cilantro joined us and we had a lovely night out. We are currently at Patong Beach on the northern side where it is quieter and will stay here for New Year and then head around into Phang Nha bay.
Hoping you all had a lovely Christmas and the New Year is kind to you.

Much Love
May the wind be always at your back
Dell and Peter

1 comment:

  1. happy new year to all.we miss u also.glad you are ok after your unexspected dip in the bay.Its great to hear you are able to sail again.guess the yachtlooks great after all the tlc you have given it.love j,s and s xxx

    ReplyDelete