Boatwork / Yacht Haven

Very early one morning while we were anchored at Yacht Haven, Richard was having his coffee in the cockpit when something caught his eye across the bay at the marina. Suddenly realizing it was a fire on a boat he grabbed one of our fire extinguishers and hurriedly rowed over to the dock. The boat was locked up, the owner away on a trip. Richard put out the fire, apparently caused by a short in an extension cord being used by boatworkers. The fire damaged the outside of the cabin and the instruments installed there in the cockpit. Not wanting to break into the boat to check the interior Richard finally found someone to call the marina managers at home and they came to take care of it.

After we moved Moonshadow into the marina and had returned from our Bangkok and Cambodia trip we got back to work on boat projects. Mr. Marley and his crew of excellent woodworkers repaired our bowsprit and built a beautiful new teak bowsprit platform for us. Richard designed new bow roller brackets which we had made out of stainless steel by Mr. Nop. Muzza, a transplanted New Zealander, made a new sunbrella bimini and other canvas items for us. The tropical sun and salt water are very hard on a boat and some of our canvas had rotted.

One morning, instead of renting a car to drive to town, we walked through the village of Koh En to the highway where we caught a sawngthaew (truck with bench seats in the back) into Phuket town. On our return trip we were seated amidst teenaged girls in their school uniforms of navy pleated skirt and white short sleeved blouse. Along the way a few Muslim girls climbed aboard in ankle length skirts, long sleeved white blouses and white headscarves. Two of them stood on the rear bumper as we drove along the highway, hanging on, laughing and flirting with young men in passing vehicles.