Back at Anchor (posted Mar 14, 2010)

We are finally back at anchor!  For the un-initiated the significance of this is not immediately apparent.  If one remembers we limped into the marina after our second lightning strike.  We were waiting there until the insurance came through with an answer so we could begin doing the repairs.  Actually there was more to it than that as we felt this was the safest place for the boat in her injured state as we flew off to the US and Singapore.  On our last day in the US we were informed that the insurance would indeed cover us for the strike so once we arrived in Singapore we purchased the wind instruments, the replacement sonar and a new VHF.  We had purchased a GPS and battery charger before we left Thailand en route to Singapore.  We were also waiting for our autopilot to be returned to us.  Of course, just buying these items doesn’t mean much as we had to install them and thus we felt we needed to stay at the marina for another week.  Besides, while at the marina we had the luxury of aircon, power, water on demand and ease of getting off the boat for those all so important quick runs to town because we need this piece or that.  Also while at the marina, we could get a couple of non lightning related issues sorted, like two leaks in our inflatable dinghy, the weatherproofing restitched on our Genoa, and the making of screens (yes we have found that we often have to share paradise with a six legged winged species that usually wants to get more intimate with us than we would like). 

The significance of being at anchor is these projects are finished.  Well not quite all of the screens and we haven’t hooked up the hydraulics for the autopilot yet as we are short on fluid.  We hope to get some of this in Thailand but the electronics, which give us that ever so useful rudder angle indication, all work.  The screens are a work in progress but we can live with the ones we have.  The AIS is limping but working so we do not need that.  The radar is still fried but we won’t do anything to this until we hit Singapore in May.  Basically we are good to go and probably will after the weekend here.  Why wait?  Well, two boats with friends aboard are away and scheduled to be back in Langkawi any day.  As it doesn’t look like our paths will cross with either of these guys for a long while, we decided we would hang out here for a bit and have one more beer with dear friends before we depart.

Our trip north to Thailand should have a slightly different view to it as the winds have shifted around to westerly in the afternoon which would make the anchorages we stayed at on the way up last time a bit rolly so though we are generally following the same track hopefully each night will be at a different anchorage than we have ever been before.  For updates on them watch this space in the future.