Afloat Again!

We’re back in Thailand on board Aroha, our sailing yacht.  It looks like Santa is bringing some stormy weather just in time for Christmas, but we’re in a nice protected anchorage and enjoying a chill life.

Before starting this new cruising season in earnest, we did a short five day “shake down” cruise to some islands close to the marina to make sure everything on the boat was working OK, and to remind ourselves what we needed to do and how to do it!  We worked through our check lists to make sure everything’s ship shape (sorry…) before returning to the marina for one final provisioning run ahead of venturing further afield.

At first it was a little strange being back on board.  Most things come back quite quickly and some things take a bit of re-learning.  We’ve made a few mistakes along the way, from silly little things like forgetting to switch on the anchor light when we go ashore in the evening, to silly BIG things like forgetting to close the stopcock before cleaning the air con sea water strainer (the silliest way to flood your own boat).  But our competence and confidence are back where they should be and we’re ready to venture further afield now!

I returned to Aroha a couple of weeks before Helen so I could crack on with getting her ready for the season.  I mean Aroha, not Helen.  There’s quite a bit a work to get her ready (I’m still talking about Aroha…) – it took three weeks from my arrival back to leave the marina for our shake down cruise!

Our first real ocean passage from Dubai to the Maldives back in 2009 was a fourteen-day sailing passage.  I remember thinking at the time that that was the length of our ‘big’ annual family vacation – and here I was, spending longer than that on a floating piece of plastic only eleven meters long.  Similarly, the three weeks just to get Aroha ready is difficult to comprehend in our old, land-based way of thinking.  I must admit, sometimes I’m jealous of charter tourists who fly in, pick up a charter yacht and leave the marina the same day!  The time and money investment in keeping your own yacht in paradise only really makes sense if we’re spending months on board at a time.

Admittedly, a large part of that three weeks was spent building a new fridge.  The old one was getting on a bit and was struggling to keep up with the tropical conditions, and I ripped it out at the end of last season.  Literally the day we left India almost two years ago, we had a couple of refrigeration technicians do a makeshift fix that they predicted should last ‘a few months’, so we did well for it to last as long as it did.  The fridge compressor is tucked away in probably the least accessible corner of the boat, accessed through the side of one of the kitchen cupboards, and required some serious ‘boat yoga’ to access it.  We’re still not entirely sure how one of the technicians seemed to have the whole of his upper body inside the small cabinet at one point.  He wasn’t particularly slightly built but was clearly very agile.

I like pushing my DIY skills and this seemed like a good opportunity to practice fibre glassing.  As I discovered that takes time, often having to wait overnight for fibre glass or epoxy to cure until I could then do the next step.  A further complication was not being able to buy many of the items I needed in Thailand, so I ended up carrying the compressor, evaporator plate and even the closed cell PIR insulation in my ‘luggage’ from the UK!

I also did my own antifouling for the first time.  This is basically a paint that goes on the underwater surfaces to keep barnacle-like creatures away.  In the past I’ve always paid a yard to do this, and I was surprised that it was relatively easy and quick to do and quite satisfying too.  I’ve added this to “to do myself next season” list.

I managed to walk into the propeller “just once” and I’m only sharing this picture with the assurance that it wasn’t a serious injury and looked far worse than it was.

I’d found good Volvo engineers in India and Thailand and so haven’t serviced the main engine myself for some years, having been happy to have outsourced a hot, sweaty and oily (not in the good way) job.  Thinking I’d better keep my hand in, I quickly realised why I’ve not done it for a while.  Sitting cross legged in our little bathroom, sucking hot oil out of the engine through the little engine access hatch, and then hanging upside down whilst accessing various filters and fluids that need changing, is far from pleasant.  Unlike antifouling, this is a job that I shan’t be doing next year!

There were various other jobs too – putting the sails back on (after Helen did a sewing repair to a small tear we had spotted) followed by a rigging check, recommissioning the air conditioning and water maker, etc – jobs we’re happily getting more familiar with the more we do them, and being a little better prepared each time.

We’re excited about our plans this season.  In the first half of the season, we’ll returning to some of our favourite places from last season.  It’s quite nice being back in familiar waters – knowing how islands and anchorages compare to each other.  On this list is returning to surf school for me, the restaurant where I’ve had “the best massaman curry ever”, and revisiting my favourite snorkelling islands.  And Helen, in keeping with her “don’t be afraid to try something new” mantra is planning on trying out Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing)!  Watch this space!

We have to do a visa run in January, then the second half of the season will see us island hop south, ending up crossing the border into Malaysia.

In the meantime, we wish you a warm, tropical Christmas!

Follow and like us to be notified of future blogs!

www.facebook.com/ripeningnicely