March 7, 2008-Killing Time in Paradise
wingssail image-judy jensen
By the Pool
We have been killing a little time in Phuket this month while we see what happens on the job front.
One project has been a sail re-cut. Our old Mylar genoa has been falling apart for about a year and we’ve had to sew it back together after each use. Last time we used this sail it tore again and the hole is big enough to toss a small dog through. I decided to whack off the bad part and make a smaller sail out of it. The problem is mostly in the luff area which is single ply Mylar film without any Dacron taffeta. The Mylar has failed completely. So I cut off a major portion of the luff area along a line from the tack to the leech about 3 meters from the top of the sail. This got rid of the latest hole and most of the bad cloth. Then I put the head patch back on and reattached the luff tape. Viola! We now have a 115%, high clew, #2 genoa which will be great for cruising.
Click here for the shots and sail plan.
wingssail image-judy jensen
Re-cut job
Days spent in the marina with nothing major to do has allowed us to spend some time at the pool and in the exercise room. Judy has been pretty regular at this but even I have been going up there lately too (the pool and gym are up the hill from the marina). Besides working out and then reading by the pool I’ve been in the pool working on my underwater durations. By using meditation and with practice I have gotten my underwater time up from 60 seconds to 135 seconds and I am working on getting up to 180 seconds (three minutes). This is just a personal challenge I have set for myself but maybe it will come in useful when I am underwater cleaning the keel some time in the future.
Speaking of the keel we need to do a haul out and repair the damage from our grounding back in February. The damage is minor and the repair will be quick but the main problem we have in Phuket is that we can only get into any the boat yards on the highest tides. We scheduled a haul-out at Ratanachai shipyard for this weekend but now we have to go to Bangkok on Monday so we had to cancel that. Maybe we can reschedule for April.
This would have been a nice time to go on some short cruises too but one requirement has been to stay connected with the world so going cruising while we wait has not been a good idea. We’re working on that problem however by getting our new CDMA-EVDO cellular broadband connection up and running. We’ve got it now and it works pretty good, over 1 mps, but the range is limited. Next step is to install a booster amplifier which should get us coverage all over Phang Nga Bay.
And so life goes on in the marina in Phuket: it’s not bad.
Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Phuket
By the PoolWe have been killing a little time in Phuket this month while we see what happens on the job front.
One project has been a sail re-cut. Our old Mylar genoa has been falling apart for about a year and we’ve had to sew it back together after each use. Last time we used this sail it tore again and the hole is big enough to toss a small dog through. I decided to whack off the bad part and make a smaller sail out of it. The problem is mostly in the luff area which is single ply Mylar film without any Dacron taffeta. The Mylar has failed completely. So I cut off a major portion of the luff area along a line from the tack to the leech about 3 meters from the top of the sail. This got rid of the latest hole and most of the bad cloth. Then I put the head patch back on and reattached the luff tape. Viola! We now have a 115%, high clew, #2 genoa which will be great for cruising.
Click here for the shots and sail plan.
wingssail image-judy jensen
Re-cut jobDays spent in the marina with nothing major to do has allowed us to spend some time at the pool and in the exercise room. Judy has been pretty regular at this but even I have been going up there lately too (the pool and gym are up the hill from the marina). Besides working out and then reading by the pool I’ve been in the pool working on my underwater durations. By using meditation and with practice I have gotten my underwater time up from 60 seconds to 135 seconds and I am working on getting up to 180 seconds (three minutes). This is just a personal challenge I have set for myself but maybe it will come in useful when I am underwater cleaning the keel some time in the future.
Speaking of the keel we need to do a haul out and repair the damage from our grounding back in February. The damage is minor and the repair will be quick but the main problem we have in Phuket is that we can only get into any the boat yards on the highest tides. We scheduled a haul-out at Ratanachai shipyard for this weekend but now we have to go to Bangkok on Monday so we had to cancel that. Maybe we can reschedule for April.
This would have been a nice time to go on some short cruises too but one requirement has been to stay connected with the world so going cruising while we wait has not been a good idea. We’re working on that problem however by getting our new CDMA-EVDO cellular broadband connection up and running. We’ve got it now and it works pretty good, over 1 mps, but the range is limited. Next step is to install a booster amplifier which should get us coverage all over Phang Nga Bay.
And so life goes on in the marina in Phuket: it’s not bad.
Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Phuket
Labels: Thailand
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