Cruising Into The New Year!
We’ve been back in Thailand for about a month now. The first week or so was spent waking Aroha, our sailing yacht, from her four-month slumber and then we set off for some easy cruising. We seemed to have eased into this new lifestyle easily, moving between anchorages every few days, exploring pretty new bays, enjoying Thai hospitality ashore, and snorkelling often enough that our gear rarely dries out!
It’s been much easier waking up Aroha this time. She was in a much better state compared to returning to her where she’d spent two covid-years in India, but considering the huge amount of maintenance we’d done both pre-departure from India and post-arrival in Phuket earlier in the year, that was not totally a surprise, and of course a relief.
We had a pretty straight forward week of re-commissioning systems (the air con, water maker, solar generation…), general servicing (the engine, potable water filtration…) and a few other jobs like replacing hatch seals and toilet seat hinges! Oh the glamour! There was plenty of deep cleaning that needed to be done too, not helped by the discovery of a couple of rain water leaks that had caused some damage to some cushions and soft furnishings. It’s funny, we’re always worried about keeping the sea water on the outside, but it’s rainwater that managed to find it’s way in!
And of course, it wouldn’t be the start of the sailing season without putting a few more patches on our inflatable dinghy, “Patches”. We’d ended the last season having managed to stop the air escaping from his tubes, but water was finding its way in through gaps between the tubes and his rigid bottom. The last round of patching looks to have fixed that.
There were also a couple of jobs we needed some expert help with, but Thailand and Krabi Boat Lagoon Marina, which has become the new base for Aroha, is well equipped to find specialist support. It was good to see the Marina and boat yard looking and feeling much busier than when I left four months ago. It’s the start of the sailing season, where the prevailing winds of the dry monsoon season make this side of Thailand a protected, idyllic cruising area. So, there are many people making their way back to their boats here – some after absences of many years – and relaunching yachts and sailing away.
Boat jobs seem to develop a life of their own. To start with, the inside of the boat rapidly becomes chaotic; accessing tools, various storage areas and of course the thing that you’re working on. On one afternoon I found myself dismantling our bed four separate times, to access the various things stored under there. The other characteristic I’ve noticed is that single jobs seem to balloon into multiple jobs as others become apparent. This afternoon I completed three jobs that weren’t even on my list… and none of the ones that were!
There is never an end to boat jobs but at least with our new local cruising intentions we are never too far from shore or help if we need it. We’ve already put this to the test getting a new starter battery sent to us from Krabi while anchored at Koh Phi Phi. Our cruising area for this season extends only about a hundred miles north and south from Krabi. It’s the sort of cruising I’ve long dreamt of, where you can look at the wind and weather in the morning, flip through one of the many cruising guides and decide where you want to head next. Or, indeed, stay longer in your current location. We’re pleased we don’t have any more daunting l..o..n..g passages that both of us find so mentally and physically draining, but there’s so many poorly marked fishing nets around that I wouldn’t want to sail at night around here anyway.
It’s great sailing with mobile phone coverage all along the coast and it’s also nice becoming a bit more connected with nature too. Having lived most of my adult life in big cities, I often wasn’t aware what the sun or moon was doing. But here it’s vital knowing what’s happening with the tide and weather, least of all so that Patches will still be on the beach when we return from shore explorations! I was at the dentist a couple of days ago and had to make a follow up appointment – it’s the first time I’ve had to quickly consult the tide tables to check I can get to a dentist appointment at a suggested time!
This new cruising lifestyle was delayed by over two years, but we’re finally back on the water and the long open water passages are behind us. The boat jobs may never end, but the compensation comes in the form of a stunning location to sail in and anchorages that are like no others we have been able to experience until now.
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