Friday 5th November to Tuesday 21st December 2021

For our first week back in Thailand I had booked us a room in the rather upmarket Renaissance Hotel and Spa on Mai Khao beach on the northeast of Phuket. There are only a smattering of more expensive hotel complexes along the 11-km stretch of golden sand here. This is where sea turtles, including giant Leatherbacks (which are critically endangered), come ashore to lay their eggs and where there is a turtle sanctuary which releases baby turtles hatched from eggs that have been collected from other, busier beaches.  The beach was almost completely deserted with large breakers crashing onto the sand whilst we were there, and a dangerous undertow, so sadly swimming in the sea was out. 

For the second week, whilst Vega was still in the boatyard, we moved further down the coast to Nai Yang bay, a low key resort with small hotels and restaurants along the seafront, and we found a much cheaper but comfortable room in the Nai Yang Turtle hotel. During the day we went to the boatyard to visit Vega and at night ate in restaurants on the beach. The women working in the massage parlours call out as you pass and one night we plucked up courage and tried a foot massage. It was so good, that the next night we each had a full body massage. Frank, who’d been on the Sail to Indonesia rally two years ago and had stayed on in Phuket, invited us to join a group of mostly Australian sailors for a lively afternoon BBQ.

Once the boat engine was fixed Vega ‘splashed’ and we motored down to the Boat Lagoon Marina, stopping off by a small island, Ko Nakha Noi, where we spent a single night, ecstatic to be at anchor in peaceful surroundings with a gentle breeze to keep us cool.

Rather than try to live on Vega amongst the chaos and with a multitude of workers beavering away around us, we moved into an apartment at the marina for the first three weeks, allowing us to sort and clean out the boat before moving on board. Although the dehumidifier we had left inside had prevented everything going too mouldy, almost two years of neglect meant there was a lot to do to make the boat seaworthy and comfortable again.

The marina was very quiet with most of the restaurants along the boardwalk empty at night. As well as all the boat services, chandleries, etc etc, there is a large resort hotel (mostly unoccupied) with a 50 metre swimming pool which we used most days. There is also a supermarket, laundry, pharmacist, hairdresser and, amazingly, an ice rink where we watched the local ice hockey team practicing. This is the place to come if you want to buy a pre-owned Princess luxury motor cruiser for £8.5million. On the handstand and the pontoons are numerous slightly more modest vessels, mostly owned by wealthy Thais, as well as some yachts belonging to round the world yachties. Colin and Izzi on Endorphin Beta, who we had said goodbye to in March 2020, had stayed on in Phuket throughout and it was great to see them again and to meet up with some of the other cruisers here.

The lcupboards and lockers on Vega were full of tins, cartons and packets of food that we’d stocked up with for a planned trip to some of the outer islands in March 2020, before deciding it would be better to get a flight home, expecting to be away for only six months. Since we’ve got back we’ve been eating our way through rice, pasta and muesli well past it’s best-by date (a bit stale), although the long-life milk and orange juice had to go down the drain. Most of the canned food seems fine as do the tins of beer but the Australian wine doesn’t appreciate being kept for almost three years at over 30 degrees.  

We had shipped out with DHL our extra-large genoa (foresail), which had been stored in the attic at home in Bristol for the last 6 years, in anticipation of lots of downwind sailing on the way home. I added various other items to the parcel, including 18 sachets of Easiyo, yoghurt mix . The shipment should have been waiting for us at the marina office but instead was stuck in customs in Bangkok. Customs was not happy with the Easiyo although I never really found out why. Was it the white powder they found suspicious? Hugh told them to ditch the yoghurt and ten days later our parcel arrived, including the Easiyo! Hugh blames the £200 import duty on my yoghurt, which works out at £12.39 a batch. Worth every penny I say to have fresh yoghurt on a long sea passage.

Phuket is not the ‘real Thailand’ but unfortunately we won’t have time to explore any of the rest of the country. It’s the largest island in Thailand and is connected to the mainland by a bridge in the north. It was on one of the major trading roots between India and China and visited by Portuguese, French, Dutch and English traders although it was never colonised by any European power. It formerly derived much of its wealth from tin and rubber (the Boat Lagoon marina where we are is situated in an old tin mine), but now it’s main earner is tourism, and we feel very welcomed here after the earlier dark days of Covid. Locals tell us that they have had a hard time with only minimal government support. 

The population is mainly Buddhist but there are also a large number of Muslims, many of Malay descent, and people of Chinese ancestry, some the descendants of tin miners who migrated here during the 19^th century. Although the island is only 30 by 13 miles, the population of Phuket is almost 600,000 and as well as Thais there are migrants from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia plus the international expats. Then there are the tourists, up to a million a year pre-Covid, mainly from Western Europe, China, Russia and the USA. 

The island is mostly mountainous, the hills covered by dense jungle, and with rubber and palm oil plantations. With rain so much of the year it feels as if it’s a battle between nature and man, with the lush growth encroaching on human development, creepers suffocating billboards and derelict buildings. The island is criss-crossed by dual carriageways lined by an assortment of decrepit tenement buildings, car showrooms, home improvement and DIY shops, petrol stations, and even an IKEA, with an ugly tangle of electric power lines, which are all above ground, along the roadsides. The occasional Buddhist or Chinese temple or mosque adds some colour. They drive on the left side of the road here, although the locals commonly drive their scooters and motorbikes the wrong way along the outside lane. We’ve hired a car on several occasions and have so far avoided a collision on the hectic roads full of reckless drivers, with scooters and motorbikes weaving between the cars, and are finally getting the hang of their system of underpasses and U-turns. There are modern malls, and in the newest, Central, there is a wide range of western shops including H&M, Zara, Body Shop etc. We managed to get a Waitrose Christmas pudding at the Food Mall before going for a coffee at Starbucks then getting some new flip flops for Hugh at Rip Curl.

Of course, the tourists mostly come for the beautiful, sandy beaches on the west side of Phuket and the spectacular islands to the east. We’ve taken time off to be good tourists, visiting the Big Buddha on top of a hill in the south of the island, as well as receiving a blessing from a Buddhist monk in the golden shrine here.

Phuket Old Town has a number of streets of historic buildings and shophouses to wander along……….

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……….. and on my birthday we had a rather special meal in the Blue Elephant restaurant, situated in a Sino-Portuguese Mansion (Vladimir Putin and Rod Stewart are amongst the celebrities who have also eaten here). 

I had started to get some dental pain which became excruciating and ended up having root canal work and a crown with Dr Dong at Sea Smile, based in Patong. Patong Beach is a large, noisy, busy resort, the place to come if you want to party all night, with streets and clubs crowded until the early hours pre-Covid. After visiting Dr Dong we had a quick look at the pretty beach with its parasailors, banana boats and jet skis, and strolled down Bangla Walking Street where all the action happens at night, much quieter now because of Covid.

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They take Covid very seriously here in Phuket and the government has been pushing hard to get high rates of vaccination. It is the law to wear a mask in public, even when riding your motorbike or scooter, which in this climate is pretty suffocating. The police can issue on the spot fines of 20,000 baht (about £450) for not wearing a mask and reportedly take particular pleasure in issuing them to foreigners. At shops, supermarkets and restaurants you must check your temperature before entering and use hand gel. Our electrician announced proudly that he’d had three vaccinations. Despite trying to keep Covid numbers down in Phuket, with bars and clubs still closed, there has recently been a cluster of cases in Patong as bars were selling alcohol illegally. Up until then the police had been turning a blind eye, but they have since cracked down and have been issuing fines. We follow the news about Omicron and the Downing Street Christmas party from afar.

We had initially expected to be in the marina for a week or two but work on Vega has proceeded slowly and we had underestimated just how much there was to do. Hugh had decided that the standing rigging (the metal wires that hold the mast up) needed replacing before we cross the Indian Ocean, as it was 10 years old. We’d arranged this with the riggers at Precision Engineering well in advance and paid a 50% deposit before we even left the U.K. A week after we arrived in the marina, Vega’s mast and rigging were lifted off by crane and taken away to their workshop. We found out then that our new rigging which must come from Sweden hadn’t yet been ordered.

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Here is a list of work carried out, some by us and some by professionals, so skip to the next paragraph if boat-stuff is not your thing. If, however, you’d like much more detail then the link to Hugh’s blog is:

http://blog.mailasail.com/hughandannie/posts/2021/12/14/567-phuket-maintenance-progress

Service Yanmar marine engine. Remove mast and replace standing rigging. Replace bimini (awning over cockpit) and repair sprayhood. Electrician to check over wiring. Service life-raft . Service outboard engine. Clean and check dinghy. Change gypsy on windlass to accommodate new anchor chain. Get watermaker overhauled or buy a new one. Clean ‘running rigging’ (ie. sheets & hallyards) and replace where necessary. Service Duogen (windvane and propellor that generate power). Get solar panels mounted on railings. Service fire extinguishers. Replace out of date flares. Fix leak in heads (ie. marine toilet). Replace jammed stopcock to hand basin. Check and clean water tanks. Empty lazarettes (large lockers in cockpit), clean and check contents. Repair rat damage to upholstery.  Clean upholstery and carpets. Clean all cupboards and lockers of rat droppings etc. Review contents of emergency grab bag. Service dive gear. Get rid of as much unwanted ‘stuff’ as possible.

After three weeks in our very comfortable air conditioned apartment on the marina we moved back on board Vega amidst the clutter and ongoing work. A few days later the mast and boom were lowered back by crane and the new standing rigging attached to the fittings on deck. The electrician came the next day to reconnect all the wires from the mast to inside the boat. 

Over the four weeks the marina had gradually become busier as people started to return to their boats for the main sailing and holiday season on the west coast of Thailand, which usually runs from November to April. This year the rainy southwest monsoon season has lasted much longer than usual but over the last two or three weeks the frequent, heavy downpours have eased and the weather has become much more dry and sunny and, thankfully, a bit less humid. Temperatures are in the low 30s most days.

Despite this being a mainly Buddhist and Muslim country, Christmas carols have been playing incessantly in the marina supermarket and in the malls for the last month or more, and Father Christmas even dropped by last Saturday.

On Vega it felt as if the end was in sight, but then Hugh noticed that one of the reefing lines which run inside the boom had broken…. it turned out a rat had chewed through the line to make a nest inside the boom. The boom was taken away to replace the lines. Hugh thought that the new fittings holding the shrouds to the mast were wrong, or fitted incorrectly, and putting an undue strain on the mast and rigging. Not good should something break in a storm mid-Indian Ocean and the mast come down.

It’s only the rigging now that is preventing us from being able to get out of the marina and go cruising. Would we have to spend Christmas Day in the Boat Lagoon Marina rather than with sailing friends in a beach restaurant?       

As I write the riggers are scrambling over the deck and hopefully sorting it out… tensioning this and loosening that. If it all looks ok we’ll be away tomorrow morning.

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas xxx