Oct-Nov 2016
September saw us return home for six weeks with a long list of to dos. Warrens mum had suffered a fall earlier in the month and was still in hospital, but this time could not muster the strength to recover having also had a bad fall earlier in the year. Very sadly the 91 year old matriarch of the Batt family passed away a few weeks after we arrived. Nannas funeral was held on Morgans birthday (7 Oct) one he won’t forget, but he was surrounded by all his brothers, sisters, cousins and his friend Daniel so he still managed to get reasonably spoiled.
The rest of our time was spent catching up with friends and family and I sent Morg off to our local primary school for 3 weeks so he could get a taste of real school. A bit of reluctance to get up and get going in the morning, not being used to the routine of school life but by the time I picked him up in the afternoons he was usually pretty happy with his day. He said he didn’t learn much, but weeks later he would keep coming out with interesting facts and when I asked where he’d learnt that from it was always ‘oh from school.’
So, not sure where 6 weeks went but soon enough we were back in Thailand not having achieved half of what we wanted at home. Got back to Yachthaven on Oct 2. Phuket had a very long and very wet ‘wet season’ and so we were met with a boat black with mould. The loo seat was completely black and even our clothing was covered in mushrooms. We arrived in the morning and spent the day wiping everything down as best we could as Kanaloa was being hauled out the next day. We also had to find some accommodation for a few weeks while she was on the hard. Mustang Sally had fared much better and was nice and dry and relatively fungi free.
Kanaloas rig was coming out and the chain plates were to be inspected as we’d seen signs of water damage inside possibly form leaking chain plates. The idea was to get the rig and plates inspected and seen to, the bottom re painted and anti fouled and then go back in the water mid Dec ready for Christmas. Righty oh.
The list got longer and longer as we found more signs of water entry and damage. The chain plates were in a bad state of repair and new ones had to be engineered, soggy woodwork from water damage, a ‘dry’ lazerette that had turned into a paddy field and some suspicious rust stains visible down the rear of the skegg…………………………………………………………………you get the picture.
Lesson No 1, Don’t buy a boat in the dry season!!!!
Anyway we found a room to rent across from the marina and set in motion the tasks and repairs. Everyone has their own horror stories of buying new boats.
Our neighbours in the next room have been on the hard for over a year doing a refit on their catamaran and when we ask Geoff when he thinks they will be back in the water he says ‘ yah, hopfully before Chrismas, but I’m not shure vich Chrismas’. He he he
November passed by with Warren busy on the boat and Morg and I concentrating on school work in the mornings and then going to Muay Thai –(Thai kick boxing) and swimming lessons in the afternoons. Theres a great world class athletic facility not far from here where top tri athletes and tennis players etc come to train, complete with accommodation, medical facilities, wellness centres and all that malarcky. Next door is an international school where mainly the very wealthy and ex -pats send their children. So the centre offers a whole range of sport opportunities for kids. Morg loved Muay Thai and was lucky enough to have an instructor to himself for an hour a week as no one else was booked in. The other class he had to share with some k ids from the school, who may as well not have attended as they basically ignored the instructor and acted like the spoilt little shites they probably were. Not sure if they were typical products of an expensive international schooling system, but from what we saw that seemed to be the norm. An hours physical exertion in that heat took it out of him. But he loved kickboxing and the swimming lessons.