Visit to Rachaprada Dam

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Visitor's Monument

Rachaprada Dam

Visitors and trees

Lake Scene

Sittings on Benches

Family Picnic

Reservoir

Locale

On the map was a dam; Ratchaprada Dam. We had no idea what we would find there but we had the time so we drove up the road. The visitor's center at the 95m high rock and shale dam, which supplies hydro power to south Thailand, was filled with local Thai families out for a nice day.

We had a pleasant hour walking around and took these photos. Just as we left the rain came in and we imagined all the visitor's were running for the shelters.

Hike in Khao Sak National Park

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Judy on Trail

Bridge

Steps

Jungle

Eating Bagle in the Shelter

We parked our rented car at park headquarters and headed off into the jungle to find a viewpoint where we could get some photos. But we didn't count on all the stairs; after hiking up mostly stairs for 2 kilometers then we found another set going down. The thought of going down then having to come back up was too much. Besides, it seemed like we had actually arrived at the view point only there was no view, just a lot of overgrowth. Anyhow it was rainy (we sheltered for an hour) and so we headed back down to the car.

The Nikon in by backpack had a low battery so I took these photos with the Samsung phone. It does better in good light but on this hike we had low overcase and rain, not much light.

Khao Sok National Park Road Trip

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Thai Muang Town

Thablan Pier Town

Beach Hotel

On The Road Again

Tree by the Road

House By River

Mountain & Palms


Road in the Jungle

Tree House

Frangi Pangi

We headed North from Phuket and drove through several beach towns. The first night we stayed at a hotel at Khao Lak Beach, a area of several hotels and tourist attactions.

On the road again we headed inland towards the Khao Sak National Park. Before going for a hike in the park we took a room at Our Jungle House resort, wehre the rooms are built as tree houses. It is a very natual setting and we slept well to the sounds of the jungle.

Main Cabin Finished

Sanding and painting finished, varnishing finished.

The main cabin looks pretty good now, still, many projects remain:
Workshop painting
Head touch up and varnish
New Tap in Head
Upholstery in Main Cabin
New Stove equipment
New spice racks
New Art

And this is just the inside

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Galley

Galley

Looking Forward

Nav Station

Main Cabin

Table

Varnish Worker Sanding

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Definitely not habitable

We came below to find that work was still going on and the boat was definitely not a place to live this weekend nor could we get into the mechanical projects we had on our list. So we turned around and left.

We were happy, however, to see that he seemed to be doing an excellent job.

Sanding and Painting

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Power Sanding

We decided to stop postponing it and get into the painting project. The walls inside Wings'cabin have turned kind of yellow instead of the bright white they once were, and we've never been happy with the sloppy job done on Sidney in 2001 anyhow. No time like the present to fix it.

Starting with some power sanding to smooth out the epoxy filler, then a lot of wet sanding with a hand block to get the wall smooth.

Wet sanding

Using wet and dry sandpaper on a rubber block, we first dip the block into a bucket of water then, with water dripping everywhere, start rubbing on the wall. Amazingly, it works well and other than being really wet it is less of a mess than power sanding, it doesn't leave dust every where and there less clean up. We had towels along the base of the wall to soak up the water which ran down.

Painting Wood Primer
Finally Judy puts some primer on the piece of new wood that goes under the cockpit window.

This finishes the prep for one wall but we have several more. next week Judy will hire Hasan and his nephews, from the Muslim village of Ban Koh En nearby, to sand the rest of the walls.

Working in the Galley

We're back. The walls have been sanded by Hasan and his nephews, now we have to prep for painting.

Sweaty Work

Masking.

Fred Painting

Finally we start to paint. The painting goes pretty fast and in three days we have it done. So the whole job took 11 days and quite a few hours of labor, and in the end probably nobody but us will notice that we even did it, but we will, and it looks good to us, this is what matters.

Cover gets sewed

One last job to do: we have to sew up the aft cover which got shredded in one big afternoon squall a few days before.

Every Afternoon a Squall Blows Through

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Moving

Nice Sail


Squall Arrives

Jim, from Laughing Bhudda, sailed with us.

Black Sky



Sailing In the Rain
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We got wet but Jim loved it. He has a good attitude.

Judy Secures The Jib

I noticed some problems with image compression effects on these images with the dark sky. I noticed it on my samsung LCD monitor but it does not appear on the Dell notebook with higher resolution. I have tried out some techniques such as different format (PNG) and various dpi settings to resolve it but the images all have the effect on the samsung monitor. To see what I am talking about look at the sky on the last photo and if you see various colors in it blocked into sections you are seeing the effect. In the original photo this sky is a continous dark color. Try to double click on the image and when it opens full size if you see the effect clearly then you have the same problem that I do with these images. If anybody has an idea how to upload an image like this so that it works on all monitors let me know, I'd like the learn a way to do that.

Back Home
By late afternoon it was completely calm again.

Friends

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Jim & Nancy, Laughing Buddha

We met Jim & Nancy in Mexico in 1997 and we've kept in touch with them ever since. They were in New Zealand for a long time, now they have worked their way north and finally arrived in Yacht Haven this month. We had a really good time visiting with them and drank too much wine every night. They are headed back to Langkawi and there they will leave Laughing Buddha, their Hans Christian 43, while they go back to the US possibly resume Air Force careers for a while.

Laura

Randy and Laura (See them with us at the Phuket Blues Festival)are really great freinds whom we love dearly and have been together in various ports since we met them in New Zealand in 2000.

Here they are sailing Pollen Path, the Hereshof Keth they built.

Judy

Judy is happiest when we have good friends aboard.

John Torgl-Dionysus

John and Sharon (She was here at the Indigo Pearl) came to Phuket by way of Europe and the Indian Ocean and we've had some good times with them.

Bruce

Our great neighbor at Yacht Haven is Bruce; we have had some great times talking to him about Asian life and politics and just about everything under the sun.

Judy, Jennie, Sam

When Jennie and Sam visited us in Bangkok we had a good time showing Sam the neat book about boats and ships.


We met Andy, Lindsey and Megan Pickles in Hong Kong and they crewed with us on Wings. We were surprised when they showed up in Yacht Haven. Their visit was a good excuse for a party on Wings, never mind that we were in the middle of a painting project. Click here to see the Pickles family in Hong Kong

Andy & Jim

Megan Pickles

Lindsey

After The Party

Nikons

And these friends of mine are always near.