Jeff's Log ~ Sunday 11/18/07

Sunday, 11/18/07

Sunday’s are definitely a day of rest around here. Most of the businesses ashore are closed, or if they are open, it’s just because the help lives in the back or upstairs. I was going to try to get online, but the internet café was closed. The German bakery was open, however, so I decided that I might as well have breakfast. They have a few small tables to sit at, so I ordered coffee and breakfast. In about thirty seconds the coffee was there, and in about four minutes, my breakfast was in front of me. There was not too much going on in the streets, so I went back to the boat and did some chores so that tomorrow, I’ll be all caught up and will b e working on getting the sails off of the boat for measuring. While that happens, it will be the perfect time for working on the roller furling and the mainsail “stack-pack”.

Yesterday was spent getting completely frustrated trying to speak to people who insisted they could speak English on the telephone. I basically just wasted a few hours of time and got absolutely no where. I decided the only way to find parts is to take a taxi to Phuket town and see what I can find once I am there.

I am beginning to get the lay of the land down and should be able to start getting shopping and errands down pat. Communication is mostly through sign language and pictures. Patience and humor are absolutely necessary to have in abundance. As long as you smile and be polite, the people here will try to help with anything.

Last night after dinner, I was returning to the boat to find a fellow at the dingy dock who had his hands full of five or six dingy lines. The tide had changed, and all of the dinks got tangled up together. I was pretty lucky. Our tender was one of the larger ones in the mess. So we took all of the lines loose and I went down and pulled them all over to the boarding area. It looked like a mother dink with a bunch of dinklings following behind. All of the other lines were tangled around the lower unit of the outboard. As soon as I tipped it up, it just took a couple of minutes to straighten out, and we were both on our way, after tying the other boats back to the dock.

Today, I parked on the other side so that I could keep some separation. I had lunch and dinner on the boat. Just a little soup and cheese and crackers for lunch and a fresh veggie stir fry for dinner with veggies from a small stand up the street. One strange one was like miniature eggplant, but very tasty all of them. I think that I’ll be an expert rice cooker soon, because that’s a lot more plentiful than potatoes so far. I can hardly wait to hit the grocery on Tuesday.

Tonight, I think I’m going to have an ice cream or something like that for desert ashore. I’ll have to see what the selection is like. Mmmm maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll find cheese cake……or maybe some nice rich chocolate cake…..or…..