7th January 2014 Boat Lagoon, Phuket

Our cunning plan to start ball rolling on the repairs we need hit a hitch when we discovered most suppliers were taking an extended end of year break and wouldn't be open for business until Monday 6^th January. We were further thwarted when we tried to rent a car for a day to be told all vehicles are booked for this month and the next.

Plan B – phone calls yesterday to make appointments for today and find a motorbike for hire. Fortunately all but one of the suppliers we need to see today are located at Boat Lagoon marina twenty miles north from Chalong. We arrived at the bike rental company with lists, maps, the Raymarine chart plotter in a backpack and with some trepidation (more me than David since he has plenty of experience on bikes). We set off along the road with all the other cars, buses, trucks and motorbikes towards Phuket town and one hour, one wrong turn and two stops to ask directions we arrived unscathed at the marina.

First visit was to the Raymarine supplier and repair facility. First answers were what we wanted to hear. Yes, we can get the part, if we're lucky there may be one on a shelf, and yes our repairman is able to replace circuit boards. After Raymarine Australian told us to throw it away and buy all new (new chart plotter, new digital radar to sync, new software, new overdraft) and UK offered to repair if we shipped it to them, this is good news.

We carried on along the line of shops all selling boat stuff. There are three chandlers here. It's David's idea of a good day out. We haven't had this range of goodies in a concentrated area since we were in New Zealand. Even in Australia we travelled distances for one shop to another, or had parts shipped. Indonesia had almost nothing for yachts. Malaysia promised much and fell short of expectations. Thailand has a large sailing community and customers to sustain a support industry.

Rolly Tasker sail loft

We headed back to Chalong without our chart plotter but with the perfect anodes for our propellor, a solenoid for the watermaker and oil seals ordered for our out board motor. On the way we visited the (reported) largest sailmaker in SE Asia, Rolly Tasker. The loft is huge – as big as a football pitch with an equally huge range of stock. Our mainsail is ready to be replaced after 5 years service and 26,000nm with us and an unknown amount with the previous owner. A new sail is one of the large purchases in terms of cost and function. It has to be durable, strong, work in the greatest range of wind strengths, not a performance racing sail. A bit like us – we need to reach our destination safely and not necessarily at a gallop, a steady canter is acceptable.

We had a chat with the manager and sail designer, a man from Grimsby, to get a feel whether Rolly Tasker is a good fit for us. Michael is a knowledgeable man who gave us plenty to consider.  We still have an independent local sail maker to talk to before we make our final decision. I'll let you know which we choose in a later post.