Jeff's Log ~ Friday, February 8th 2008

Friday, February 8, 2008 10:00PM

I had a fine day today. I slept in a bit after chasing mosquitoes half the night, and went and had breakfast at the marina bakery. They have great coffee, and fresh baked cinnamon rolls and lots of other treats. I had a grilled ham and cheese with a couple cups of coffee. The bread had just been baked, and with a light grilling, the sandwich was just delicious.

After breakfast, I went to the marina office and did my arrival paperwork. I ended up having to walk all the way around the marina a couple of times to get the necessary paperwork from the boat. Boat Lagoon is set up like a horse shoe, with the marina office being one end and Pipe Dream being the other. It is fairly close to a mile from one end to the other, unless one wants to swim. Then it’s a lot closer! I didn’t feel like swimming through the marina, so I walked the mile a couple of times.

After that was done, I sorted out a couple of issues with the bottom paint and conferred with Pro about the sealing problems that we have on the foredeck. He is working on drawings for a streamlined windlass cover, and a sealing flange for the retractable bowsprit. If we get that worked out, it should stop the forepeak flooding problem that this boat has when sailing close to the wind in moderate to large waves. Pro cannot speak English, but he seems to understand it, and his wife Jill speaks English well. I am enjoying working with them. They are very professional, and take great pride in their business. The onlookers are very surprised that Pro and I communicate so well. Boats seem to have a universal language for the people that know and love them, and Pro and I both speak that language.

After all of that, I went to the hospital to see my friend Jimmy. He is doing well and might go home in a week. He had some damage to his lungs and pancreas. He will have a large scar on his abdomen, but at least he’s alive to show it. The hospital here is nothing like in the US. The rooms are like dormitories, with sixteen to twenty people in each. There is no air conditioning. The windows and doors are open, and out on the balcony is where the sheets are dried after they are laundered. There were three or four complete families that looked like they were camping in the room. He is on the third floor, so at least there was a steady breeze up there.

After my visit with him, I was pretty hungry, so I took a walk to see what I could find to eat. About two blocks from the hospital, I found a restaurant that looked appealing and had a nice sign. I sat down and ordered A salad called yam, with seafood. It was the freshest, tastiest salad that I have had since being here. The lemon grass was very crunchy, the seafood was tender squid, crab, shrimp, and snapper, and had just the perfect amount of zing. The price was 120baht, about $4.00 US., so it turned out to be a bargain. After the salad, I was still feeling hungry, so I had fried noodle with seafood, and that was very good too.

After finding a taxi to take me back, it really poured rain on the way back to boat Lagoon. When I got back aboard Pipe Dream, I found that I had left the galley port lights open, so I had a bit of drying to do. That’ll teach me!

I am spending the nights on David Ruckers boat “Scaramouche” which is in the marina. It has been very hot here during the day, and he has air conditioning. On Pipe Dream, I have no toilets, and don’t want shower sump draining while they are working on the bottom. The toilets use salt water to flush, so they don’t work while out of the water.