Phuket Thailand I March 11 2009

Hello out there.Bringing you up to date on Phuket.Well, It's been an event filled month, but I'll try to keep this short.Right now we're at see on the way to the Similan Islands off the northwestcoast of Thailand. We're on our way back from Koh Phayam at the Burmeseborder where we had to take Charlotte, Rose's daughter, to do a "visa run"across the border to get another couple of weeks. She's been with us on andoff for about 3 weeks and Rose is in heaven.We spent the month of February at the Royal Phuket Marina (RPM) to get somework done, chill out and use our full month at the spa (massage or some suchevery day) as well as get some work done. I have to say the boat is in thebest shape in years. We have a new sail cover (the most expensive workdone) as well as a new "used" ice maker, repaired radar that now shows wesupposedly can get 72 mile range, and every possible courtesy flag we canuse for the next 2 years, all at really bargain prices. Also got someniggling electrical problems taken care of which have bothered us for years.We got Rose's mail delivered by a friend from Langkawi, but, alas, mine hasbeen lost. Of course it was the only really important package in yearsincluding 2 renewed credit cards of which we have desperate need!!!.Citibank got it right this time, though and FedExed a replacement in just 3days!!!The only downside of the marina was they (and apparently everyone else) donot have potable drinking water out of the tap. It looked and smelled okaybut why risk it. As a result we put in a dock water inlet on the boat whichbypasses the tanks and uses shore pressure to run the system. Drinkingwater in a 30 liter jug was 35 baht or $1 so it was just a minorinconvenience. Wish I'd done the dock water hookup years ago!!!. The otherproblem was getting in and out. There is another marina up the samechannel, but between the government cheaping out and apparent rivalrybetween the two marinas, the only was to get in is via an ultra shallow 15Kchannel. Seems everyone is too cheap to dredge out a direct route which isonly about 3K. Oh well we still loved it and they didn't charge the normalcatamaran 50% premium so out rate was quite good although about double thatof Malaysia.There were quite a few familiar faces between the 2 marinas, includingFreebird, Scorpido, Windbird, and others. Quite a bit of comings and goingsand regular dinners out at the excellent restaurants around the marina.Prices were great and our last night there, we went across the street to alocal place, a total of 11 of us. We ate until stuffed--really goodfood--and consumed mass quantities of beer for about $5 each!! Awesome! Wehad quite a few "gatherings, and a big Valentine's day party at one of therestaurants. Just try and find greeting cards in Phuket!!! There was alsoa Blues festival going on and the marina establishments kicked in and weeven had a free concert one night. Marina Navratilova was at the table nextto ours. Ah, lifestyles of the rich and famous!!!Rose and I spent ours days driving around checking the place out--the carwas $300 for the month!! Long overdue purchases were new sets of towels andnew tableware; they have a really good stainless operation here. New sheetswhen we get back. Oops, I knew things were going too well. The enginebilge alarm just went off--same one that flooded. There's another smallleak down there in the exhaust system. It's not serious but I'll have towait until we get in and the engine cools down to really check it out. Wepretty well circumnavigated the island by car and checked out every shoppingmall in the place--really nice ones, including a local "night" market. Thelocal markets aren't nearly as good as Penang so out collection ofsunglasses and replica watches has remained static!! It's amazing toimagine the tsunami coming in here as most stuff is built right up to thewater. One of the islands we just stopped at actually had a meter stickshowing the height of the water. Only about 1 meter but it would have sweptway inland as everything is so low lying!!! We also made regular use of theroadside "chicken man" who sold really good whole BBQ'ed chickens for 120baht--about $3.The captain also took a long overdue complete physical, as if anyone cares!!The International hospital here has a deal for about $250 that rivals all ofour old company physicals, including stress tests, EKG, a million bloodtests, chest X-ray and even a full abdominal ultrasound. In and out inabout 4 hours with results and they even have a nice nurse escort youaround. We didn't do Rose as she has had every test known to man over thelast couple of years. She, by the way, really got into the exercise thingand is "shaping up" quite nicely!!! I'm sure you'll all be excited to knowthat, in spite of my dissolute lifestyle, everything was in the acceptablerange, including cholesterol. My blood sugar is just a touch over normaland they suggested I check back in a couple of months. Could have somethingto do with the amount of candy I eat!!??We left the marina about a week ago and hooked up with our friends on ScotFree II to head up the west coast. They, as we do, need to get back toPhuket to pick up friends. Charlotte's friend, Lucy, will be joining usthis weekend. There's been no wind, but the scenery has been spectacular.The windlass (what you use to raise and lower the rather heavy anchor andchain crapped out. For a while jiggling the wires worked but a couple ofdays ago--nada. Turned out the fuse on the up button was a bit corroded andthe fuse holder needed replacing, but after trial and error we disconnectedsome unknown wire on the down and that works now too. Will have theelectricians work on it when we return as well as the freezer guy as theengine driven system, he thinks, needs a new expansion valve. All onlyminor irritations which will get sorted out next week. We sort of had to dothis recent trip up the coast now as the monsoon winds will be changingsoon, making that an unpleasant trip. After we pick up Lucy, the plan is todo the "inner" islands, including the James Bond, Man with the Golden Gun,island and the millions of resort areas in Phang Nga bay between themainland and Phuket.Okay, this is a shorty as we can only tell you about so much shopping, somany massages and so many cheap and outstanding meals. More later on ourtour of the inner islands.CheersTim & Rose