16 January We can see clearly now

We can see clearly now we have new windscreens! Fact; sun degrades acrylic by causing small fractures in the outer layer. These small cracks become magnified with sunshine and our windscreens had come to look like they had permanent frosting and they were scratched with age. Nineteen years of use and no more than cosmetic abrasion is a testament to the quality of Amel build. However, a shared tip from another Amel owner, some investigation and clever work by David and we have replaced crazed for crystal clear.
A week ago we were anchored in Nai Harn on the southern end of Phuket when David said 'Let's do it! Let's get new side windows and if we like them we'll have two new windscreens as well.'
The side windows were an easier option; smaller to carry and a smaller cost should it not be right. They are of a size that will fit into a back pack, a back pack which we could carry on a motorbike Phuket motorbikes are cheap and easy to rent, cars cost four times more and are not so easy to find in high season. I checked the route on Google Maps. We rented our bike from one of the shops near the beach and away. We hadn't travelled the road between Nai Harn and Chalong before; it was a pleasant surprise of good views and light traffic and from Chalong it was a straight road in to Phuket town and Mr Hock's shop.
Mr Hock business is plastics of all kinds; soft adhesives for making signs and sheets of hard acrylics in various thicknesses and colours. Our need was 10mm thick clear. He showed us the stuff - looked good and was an internationally known brand which happens to be manufactured here in Thailand. (I didn't know this before but Perspex is a brand name for an acrylic product.) This is David's area of expertise from his previous life and if he's happy with the quality it must be right. 

Mr Hock and assistants

We gave Mr Hock the two old windows and he and his assistants cut almost perfect copies from the new. The edges would need careful sanding and perhaps a minor shaving before we could declare them ready to fit, but now we had four pieces of plastic to go in the back pack and they were heavy and bigger. I carried the pack on my back resting it on the end of the seat behind me to take most of the weight.
With all of us safely back on the boat we held the new windows in place and lo we had crystal clear vision. Just like having nothing there! Next day David sanded the raw edges for a more polished finished and screwed in place. It was so good we have to complete the project.
A week later we were in Chalong where the ute from the yachties cruising club was available for hire. We'd brought the two big windscreens (each 1.5m long and 0.7m wide) in by dinghy (plus a bag of laundry and a bag of rubbish). Mr Hock cut the new pieces for us on his table with a circular saw - no safety guards - just very careful hands. The rest of the day we cruised around in our ute completing chores like a visit to the self service laundry, lunch, DIY store for silicon glue to fix the windows and a big shop at the supermarket.

brilliant end result :)

Over the next two days David toiled with more sanding, fine sanding to match the perfect edges of the old windows, careful fitting and hey presto....we can see clearly now the old windows have gone.

New windows have been on our 'to do' list for at least four years and today we ticked job done.