Satun Boat Yard 2

Now into week 7 on the hard. This includes the 2 weeks we had in Australia, so actually 5 weeks of work to date.

What has been accomplished?

Hull stripped back to the gel coat.
This took 12 days of heavy sanding due to, roughly, 14 coats of  antifoul and what appeared to be a layer of copper coat. Tough work and the yard worker - Wen - just kept on going day after day.
Once sanded, 3 layers of Jotamastic epoxy have been applied as a barrier coat. This would normally have a bonding coat to ensure antifoul sticks to it, but because Kittani will only be in the water for about a week before going back on the hard in Pangkor for a year, I am opting not to put anything on until we return from the UK.

Masts stripped back to bare metal.
Both main and mizzen sanded and then wet n dry sanded. A two pack etch primer applied followed by a coat of Penguard Hi build. Then two coats of International Interthane 990. After 6 years of looking at very sad masts, these will be lovely.

 

 

Top sides
Old gel coat was sanded and then long boarded, removing most of the wear and tear of probably 35 years. Even at this stage it was an improvement. To show up any imperfections, the hull was lightly sprayed with a can of black paint. Looked more like graffiti to me. More sanding. Fill was applied to any dents, scratches etc and then another graffiti attack and then sanded. A coat of hi build applied and then more graffiti . At this stage I was prowling the boat looking for this supposed artist, but never saw him doing it. Turn away and there it was.
Once sanded again, a coat of Awlgrip 545 primer applied. Looked great! You guessed it, the graffiti attack again. Finally, they got the 600 grit sanding completed ready for the final coats. Even now, it is almost good enough to leave. Top coats still to go. (The black paint is to identify areas still to be sanded. Very easy to miss if all is white)

Inside
All of the verticals bulkhead veneer has been stripped off and replaced with 4mm ply with a reconstituted teak machine pressed onto it. This is a much lighter colour than what was there before so will lighten the interior considerably.
New teak floor in the forward cabin
In addition, the carpet that was on the hull (very late 1970 style) has also been replaced with the same veneer together with new Vetus portholes. The latter have taken a bit of thought as to how to get them to fit. The exterior is a great fit being attached to an extrusion running down he hull. The interior was a bit more difficult and required some fibreglass grinding  and filling to make a good internal fit. Still work in progress.
All of the new surfaces will be covered with a two pack polyeurathane to keep it as light as possible and give it a hard surface.
Don't mention the dust..gets everywhere.

Fridge n freezer
Both have been causing issues with constant compressor cycling. A few cuts into the fibreglass lining uncovered water in the foam on the base of both. The floor from both was cut out, all the old foam removed and then replaced with a two pack foaming product. Good fun using this stuff. It mixes at a ratio of 50:50, a quick stir to mix and then pour quickly. Boy does it expand quickly and if too much mixed, goes everywhere. I compressed each pouring to ensure it stayed reasonably compact, but still oozes out any hole. I was contemplating taking out and replacing both boxes, but with all the internal work going on, thought I'd try his option first. We'll see how it goes.

Toe rail replacement
The aft toerail (port and starboard) had some rot. These were removed and replacements bedded down.

General
Pilot house timbers sanded and oiled. Using up the last of my Sikkens
Original solid teak inside cabins sanded and then coated with polyeurathane
Stainless steel fittings polished ( started this before agreeing to posting to UK). We'll see how it stands up to 12 months in a boatyard

Costs
Using 28.5 baht to AUD

SUMMARY	THB	AUD
HAULOUT	฿      12,245	$        429.65
HARDSTAND	฿      48,060	$     1,686.32
LABOUR	฿   402,428	$  14,120.28
PARTS	฿   201,736	$    7,078.44
CONTAINER	฿      10,000	$        350.88
LIVE ABOARD	฿        1,550	$          54.39
TENT	฿      15,600	$        547.37
CRANE HIRE	฿        5,288	$        185.54
ACCOMMODATION	฿      10,100	$        354.39
	฿   707,007	$  24,807.25

LABOUR	THB	AUD
LABOUR SUMMARY  THB  AUD HULL  ฿        21,600  $          757.89 INTERNAL  ฿     113,000  $       3,964.91 PAINTING  ฿     144,500  $       5,070.18 COMMISSION  ฿        28,548  $       1,001.68 PROJECT MGT  ฿        19,950  $          700.00 MAST  ฿          8,600  $          301.75 POLISHING  ฿          6,500  $          228.07 BONUS  ฿        21,980  $          771.23 TOERAIL  ฿          8,500  $          298.25 GENERAL  ฿        29,250  $       1,044.64    ฿     402,428  $    14,372.43

Satun Boat Yard

Well, who would've thought that a few weeks could go past so quickly. After all, we've only just posted the previous blog dated from middle of Feb..but here we are in Satun Boatyard.

We were delayed getting into the yard by 2 days as the only cradle available for us was occupied by a boat catching up on the last minute jobs. Not too much of an issue except that we had planned of emptying Kittani of most of the accumulated treasures of the last few years before heading off to Aus to visit family on the 4th March. This gave us 2 days to get everything ready. Thankfully we had hired a container so Cath and I spent most of the time doing numerous trips up and down ladders storing 'stuff'. This was essentially all of the contents of the boat stored above bilge level, so a remarkable amount of things made their way to the surface accompanied by " I wondered where that was!". Amazing how you can lose things in 47 feet!

The yard is large and the only constant seems to be the yachties who seem to stay from between a few weeks to 2 1/2 years, where as the fishing boats get hauled one night and dropped back in the water in a couple of days after having major surgery..with a chainsaw!

Birds nest BBQ

 Saloon

 

 Work commenced in the forward cabin

 Setting up the pillars for the tent (concrete in an old tyre)

 

 One down, one to go. A bit stressful when nobody speaks English

 A quick whistle and 14 yard boys turn up to move the mast and then disappear

 

 

 Kittani's home for the next few weeks

 No OH&S here

The picture doesn't show its true size..it's big!

 

 Forward Cabin under reconstruction

 Starboard cap rail demolished

 The 'old' Kittani starting to fade away

 Final sanding before sealing

 

Hull stripped back to the gel coat (above and below the water line)

2 coats of Jotunmastic (epoxy) to be applied. Rolled below and sprayed above waterline

 

This stage is 4 weeks out of the water, but 2 weeks of work. Getting there...but not sure when.

 

South to satun

After a couple of days in Ao Chalong with the wind seeming to increase by the day, we headed across to the more sheltered bay of Panwah Beach. There are a couple of restaurants ashore but not much else, much quieter than Chalong Bay and the tourists. The weather seems to be getting warmer by the week as we approach the change in seasons, and when the breeze drops to nothing, the heat seems to intensify. One afternoon we headed into the large weekend Phuket markets with Lawrie and Karen (Tropicali) and meandered up and down the aisles of clothing and food stalls for hours. They are on the same scale as the Chatachuk markets in Bangkok and you could spend hours and hours wandering around and never find the same spot twice. 
The time is getting nearer to our date for lifting out of the water so we must bid farewell to Phuket and start making our way south towards Langkawi and our destination of Satun on the Thailand/Malaysia border. This is where we will leave the boat on the hard stand and head back to Oz to see family. It has been nearly a year and that's too long for me, I am counting down the number of sleeps until we go.
Our first nights stop is Ko Racha Yai, a sheltered bay on the NW corner of the island. On arrival we can see the lovely white sandy beach onshore, unfortunately covered with the obligatory beach umbrellas and sun lounges, and the fast tourists boats lined up wall to wall. We will just wait until 5.00pm when they will have all left before we venture ashore. 

 

 

 

Ashore for dinner and a walk along the softest sand that we have felt in a long time. The 'Racha Resort' which looked quite impressive from the boat is actually spectacular up close - a 5 star property. What a beautiful place for a holiday, though I think if I were paying those prices, I would not appreciate 500 day trippers arriving early morning and staying until dusk invading my privacy. 

Next nights stop is Ko Rok Nok and this is picture postcard material. We dropped the anchor in the channel between the two islands, and the view was over turquoise waters and white beaches and only a couple of other boats in sight. Paradise !! The sunset was amazing as always and we sat upstairs having dinner and marvelling at our surroundings. It is managed by National Parks and therefore a fee to pay to stay. Not cheap, (400 TB per person and 100 TB for the boat = AUS$30 but will cover for up to 5 days stay) Rich if you were only planning an overnight anchorage so maybe we will stay an extra day to get our monies worth - and the snorkelling is meant to be quite good. 

 

 

A broken nights sleep with the anchor alarm going off every couple of hours as we pulled up on the chain to the extent our scope with the tide and wind, that coupled with a local Thai fishing boat that had anchored close to us and drifted within 5 meters at one point, only to all be awoken by us blasting them with an air horn to say "too close, too close". They moved on but you don't really sleep soundly after incidents like that. The hope is to sleep in in the morning.
Our morning peace was broken by the arrival of a fast speed boat full of tourists, both by the noise of the engines and the wake that they create as they zoom past our bow. I am sure they think it is great fun to see if they can roll the yachties out of bed by the wash they create ....ha ha !! And then they came, 10 in total over the next half hour and once again were lined up along the beach. I guess everyone wants a piece of this paradise. Late morning one of the public moorings had become available so we up anchored and moved to the spot. Upon diving it looked to be secure and sturdy and would give us more peace of mind and a better nights sleep than the previous night. 
We spent the day snorkelling and again the fish life was impressive. The water is probably the clearest we have come across yet, so this place has to rank above the Surins islands for us. By late afternoon the speed boats had all departed and the place was peaceful once again. Ashore for dinner to the only restaurant catering for the campers, chicken in ginger and chicken in garlic and vegetables with steamed rice and two beers for 400 TB (AUS$13) - hard to beat. 

So it's away from here in the morning and south to Ko Lipe.
We thought Ko Phayam was our pick of the spots so far, that was until we found Ko Lipe. Meeting up with Totem coming from another direction, we both dropped anchor on the north side of Ko Lipe, the smallest of the main islands in the Butang group. Wow, what a place. As beautiful as Ko Phayam but a bit more happening. Tourism is further advanced here but thankfully the new accommodation has been built in the timber bungalow style and quite in keeping with the setting of the island. The sandy beaches were once again the finest and whitest of grains, the waters aqua turquoise blue and the vegetation lush and green. In the distance we could make out the island of Tarantoa, our mid way point from here to Satun on the mainland. A couple of small restaurants on the beach and our meeting point for sundowners - the Boom Boom Bar. Before that, we followed the dirt road across to the other side of the island, the arrival point for all tourists. This was definitely the busy side with 'long tails' filling the beach and wall to wall cafés, souvenir, dive shops, restaurants and massage salons on shore. Lots of backpackers coming and going - reminded us of Gili Air but maybe a bit funkier. This would be worth revisiting tomorrow. Back across to our side, we settled in to the bar to watch the sun go down behind our boats, the background music was a reggae beat to Pink Floyd's words and music - rather cool !!

 

Interesting neighbours ....do you move from one to the next?

 

 

 

The next day Behan and I headed back into town for a pedicure, what should only have been a 15 minute stroll. One dirt track looks much like the next one and after wandered around for 3/4 hour and still finding ourselves in the midst of local dwellings, we got a 'taxi' for 100TB ($3) who dropped us right in the main part of town. Now we know where all the old golf buggies from Japanese golf courses end up- they are pensioned off to Ko Lipe as taxis. We then settled in for some pampering and enjoyed an hours pedicure and came out with the best looking toes around. Met the guys for lunch then back to the boat for an afternoon siesta before gathering for sundowners again.

 

 

 

To the Surin Islands

With reluctance we departed Ko Phayam and made our way south –west skirting through the bottom of Burmese waters, keeping an open eye for any official looking craft that may admonish us for trespassing without permission. Some say they are tolerant of yachties crossing through their waters as it is a direct line from Ko Phayam to the Surins. Either way, we were pleased  when we exited the area without incident.

The Surins are reported to have some of the clearest waters to be found, and the snorkelling worthwhile, so we are looking forward to getting back to some water sports. Coming around the north of the islands, we dropped the anchor in a sheltered bay on the NW corner. All we could see looking to the beach was myriads of tents – row upon row nestled amongst the trees. On tendering ashore, this was confirmed as the only accommodation on the island with a large centrally located canteen style restaurant catering to the campers and visitors alike. The beach came out quite a distance from the shore meaning any visits would need to be timed with the tides. Snorkelling was foremost on the activity list so on with the gear and into the water.  

As throughout Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, there seems to be ‘sea-lice/jelly-fish’ wherever you go and they can make it unpleasant to stay in the water any length of time. I feel the bites but don’t really react to them. However Pete not only feels them, they come up in obvious bites and burn and itch for days.  In desperation he opted to wear some heavy black tights of mine (ex Sydney Winter fashion) and this did manage to reduce the number of bites but increased the number of ribald comments from the others. Stinger suits are now definitely on my shopping list for Oz.

 

One of the local fishing boats lit up like a Xmas tree at night - check out the bulbs !

 

Ashore in the Surins for lunch - a lovely backdrop for a photo

 

Pete picking up a friendly hermit crab - actually he wasn't that friendly.

 The coral was reasonable, only patches of good colour here and there but surprisingly the fish life was abundant. We chased Octopi (plural of octopus??), saw Lion fish, little crayfish, moray eels as well as many families of Nemo. Angel fish, grouper, puffer fish and many more that we could not identify. Some looked like they would fit nicely into a pan sautéed in butter and herbs, however this island group is National Marine Park so no go there. All the photos are taken by Behan as she could free dive to far greater depths than I could. The order of the days had become breakfast, snorkelling, lunch, snorkelling, sundowners, dinner and bed.
 

 

One of the octopus pair that we followed

 

Shells lying on the sea floor

 

Lots of anenomes with clownfish of many colours 

 

A very reluctant cray to leave his home

 

We named this the 'tweety bird' fish

 

Always impressive Lion fish

3 nights spent in that bay then we up anchored and went around to the other side of the island. This was another beautiful bay with the snorkelling reached by swimming off the back of the boats. Each evening sundowners was on a different boat, some nights would also include ‘pot luck’ dinners, some evenings drinks went so late that dinner was forgotten altogether. We did manage to fit in some card nights with Totem, always a fun time with the ongoing ‘battles’ against Kittani. These nights  had originated in Sydney and after nearly 18months absence, the rivalry is still alive and kicking.

One afternoon a tender load of us girls headed across to a local Moken village with bags of balloons, exercise books and pencils, clothing and various craft items as donations. The Moken or Chao Ley (people of the sea) are often know as 'Sea Gypsies' and they live off the flora and fauna found in the oceans. The village houses are built high on poles and this village has been rebuilt by the Government since the Tsunami. We arrived just as school was getting out and managed to track down the teacher who had  a little English. She gave us a tour of the village and was very grateful for the gifts for the children.

 

The Moken village - houses built high

 

An old Moken style fishing boat at rest

 

A elder carving a new dugout for the village

 



After another 2 nights here it is time to head off again, back towards the mainland and then south to Phuket. Our first stop back on the mainland was where we had found the LST craft from the war, and decided in the morning we would do a tour of the boat. After climbing up the gangplank, we spent a couple of hours roaming all through the companionways, engine rooms and storage areas, imaging how she must have looked back in her prime. You could just picture the sailors in their uniforms, standing tall as she came into port, whistles blowing. 

 

View taken from the control room of the 'Dodge County'

 

Jeremy and the girls (Nalukai) getting back to the tender with groceries and water

                                          Our anchorage around the corner from the LST

 

Kittani under sail