Jeffs Log ~ Sunday, March 23, 2008

Phi Phi Island, Thailand

First of all, I would like to wish everyone a happy Easter. For me, this is a very sad day. My Father passed away yesterday, and I am feeling quite a loss. Dad was a good man who raised a big family and we all turned out to be pretty fine adults. I am glad that Clara and I got to see him before I left to go sailing around the world. I am not going to return at this time. I told Dad when I saw him last, that I would not return for a funeral. I discussed this with Clara last night, and was on the verge of returning anyway, but realized that I can do nothing to change any thing, so I will continue my journey until there is a happy reason to come home. At times like this, the longing to come home really gets strong. I have been gone eight months, and am really missing the personal contact with all of you.

Things aboard Pipe Dream are well. She is still being a boat though. While anchoring, the stripper on the windlass started jamming up. After setting the anchor, I took the windlass (that’s the electric winch that is used to raise and lower the anchor) apart to find that corrosion had eaten the metal of the base, allowing the stripper (that’s the part that forces the chain out of the pulley) to drop down too far. That caused a jamming situation. I cleaned everything up and sculpted a new platform out of Marine-tex,and filed it smooth after it hardened. Then I drilled the mounting hole and tapped new threads in the marine -tex. This morning when we raised the anchor, it worked fine. Now I will have to figure out part numbers and get our next guests to bring some windlass parts. I don’t think that the repair will last too long.

We are now motoring towards Ko Rok, an isolated island that is about 25 NM from Phi Phi Island. The wind is light and just off the nose, so the awning remains up, and we are yachting comfortably in the shade, with the boat creating a nice cool breeze. While at Phi Phi, I did manage to snorkel a very large reef which was right off of the boat’s transom. There was an abundance of reef life with many large sea urchins, and lots of colorful reef fish. I saw a moray eel which looked to be about 4 feet long, and for the first time in my life, a giant clam. That was really cool. The meat of the clam was a bright purple, and the water intake was about 10 inches long. The water exhaust port was a tube about three inches in diameter. The shell was about 30 inches in diameter, and it was sitting vertically right on top of a good sized coral head.

I also actually did some shopping too, and got the first t-shirts of my trip. Scott took us ashore and bought dinner. Food was slightly below average, but still beat cooking on the boat. I have taken over Tip’s cleaning duties, and today worked hard on the floors, as it had been a couple of days since they were done. They cleaned up well, and the next project is my cabin/workshop. Things in there are a bit jumbled up because I am always tearing something apart, so the closet contents are usually on my bunk. All of the spare parts and lots of tools and equipment are stored in there.

Today I dedicated to Dad, and it was an absolutely wonderful day. We left Phi Phi Don quite early and proceeded to our next destination which is Ko Rok. At about 11, Scott had us come to starboard about 15 degrees, and we stopped for lunch and snorkeling at a small group of Islands. In the center of them was a beautiful coral head that was teeming with life. There were starfish in abundance, but not the kind we have in America. These were bright blue and green in color, and I counted 15 arms on one of the bigger ones. There were black and white sea urchins, grouper, yellow tail snappers, and many other colorful reef fish. A couple of times when I dove down, I was completely surrounded by large schools of fish. It turned into a wonderful day with a nice motor sail to our final destination of the day, a walk on a great beach, and a beautiful sunset. It was a truly fine way to remember Dad, and a day that I will never forget.