Yep, we were on holiday... from 20th to 28th Sept inclusive, and it was, to put it mildly, quite interesting. I had planned a sailing holiday in Phuket for Husband, myself, and another couple (B & C) who are very good friends of ours. B is someone who has sailed for more than 50 years, and owns AND sails his own boat (a 37' Bavaria sailing boat) back in the Netherlands, while his wife, C, has picked up the finer points of (as she puts it) "ropes and fenders". The PERFECT people to have with you on a sailing holiday - the Captain and the Chief Crew (aka the "Chief Petting Officer" to the Captain!). Since Husband and I (especially me!) dont know much about sailing, he became Chief Cook, while I became Chief Bottle Washer (aka the Dishwasher!).
To tell you a bit about it, we flew to Phuket early 20th morning, were picked up at the airport, taken to the Tesco supermarket, and there we stocked up on provisions for the boat - edible as well as potable. We were at the Yachthaven Marina before 1pm, where we were greeted by the GM of the yachting company we were hiring the boat from (JH). We loaded up the boat (called the TONICOLA), stowed everything away, and JH walked B through the entire boat to familiarise him with it. This was actually pretty straightforward as the boat we hired was a 39' Bavaria sailing boat, not too different from the one B himself has at home. JH also showed us, on the map, various points where there are good anchorages, places to stop for restaurants, etc.
Anyway, to make sure I dont miss out on the interesting bits, let me do this point by point:
- Day 1, Sat, decided to spend the night at the Marina and leave early on Day 2. We had dinner at the Marina - YUM.
- Day 2, Sun, early, left the Marina under engine power, guided by the Marina people. Switched to sail as soon as we could, and eventually ended up at the Muslim Village at Phang Nga Bay, where we anchored in the bay, found we couldnt get the motor on the dinghy started (let's call this breakdown #1), hitched a ride with one of the little tourist sampan style boats to get to the jetty, wandered a bit, had dinner, called JH about the dinghy engine, and then got a ride back to the Tonicola, and spent the night on the boat in the bay. Talk about being rocked to sleep!
- Day 3, Mon, early, left the bay, heading back to the Marina to get the dinghy engine changed, were met by the Yacht company guys half-way, and they changed the engine out in the middle of the water - we were impressed by the service!! Continued sailing, till we reached a bay at the top of an island called Koh Yao Noi, which had a resort called Paradise! Anchored in the bay, dinghy to shore, dinner and drinks at Paradise, and back to the boat for nightcap. Breakdown #2 took place - the pump in the aft shower (which pumps out the water from the shower floor after one has had a shower) stopped working - overheated!!
- Day 4, Tues, back to Paradise for breakfast, where we acquired the MOST EXPENSIVE two loaves of bread any of us have ever eaten - made at the hotel, costing THB 300 EACH!!! In case you are wondering - that is equivalent to MYR30/SGD14. Then back to the boat, where B stripped the shower pump and fixed it - using my little container of Tiger Balm as a lubricant. At least the pump wouldn't have any headaches :-D. Then we sailed down the coast of the island to the very tip of the next island (Koh Yao Yai), to another bay - peaceful, quiet, beautiful - but couldnt swim, as there were jelly fish! Breakdown #3 at this point - the FRIDGE stopped working!! Called JH. He asked us to sail round to Chalong Bay on Phuket the next morning, and he would send someone to fix it.
- Day 5, Wed, PART 1: early breakfast (using up as much of the perishables as we could) then engine on to chug to Chalong Bay (couldnt use sails as we were heading DIRECTLY INTO the wind, and didnt want to waste time tacking). 2 hours into the journey, the battery warning alarm started up (Breakdown #4a). B stopped the engine straight away, checked everything, couldnt find anything wrong, Husband figured out how to switch off the AUDIBLE part of the alarm, and we continued chugging to Chalong. A little while later, the engine revs started dropping and fluctuating up and down. Husband figured - either water in the fuel OR NO FUEL - but fuel indicator still read as full! Called JH, he said he would have the Volvo engine guy at the jetty with the fridge guy. 10 minutes short of Panwa Cape, the engine started misfiring badly - B sailed directly INTO the wind, and when the engine died, he turned the boat around with back to wind and SAILED into Panwa - which is just BEFORE Chalong. We called JH, told him where to find us, took the dinghy to the jetty, met the fridge and engine guys, C and I went wandering for about 30 mins on shore while B took the guys to the boat to fix things. Then, just as C and I were deciding to go for a foot massage, B asked us to come back to the jetty as he was bringing the guys back to shore - fridge fixed and as to the engine.... well, let's just say that the fuel indicator was not working and there WAS NO FUEL IN THE TANKS!! So the engine guy had to go get a jerry can of fuel for us to be able to continue to Chalong Bay where we could re-fuel properly, so B, C and I waited at the jetty for him to get the jerry can of fuel, then he and us headed back to the boat, where he poured enough of the fuel into the engine to enable us to get moving again.
- Day 5, Wed, PART 2: Sailed aound to Chalong bay, which was almost as crowded with boats and mooring buoys as Orchard Road Singapore on a Saturday afternoon is crowded with people and cars(!) and ended up running over a mooring buoy which promptly wrapped its rope around our prop shaft. Luckily B cut the engine immediately, so nothing was damaged, but we were LITERALLY stuck to the spot. B tried cutting us free, but couldnt reach far enough under the boat - so Husband suggested getting hold of the guys from the dive boats that were anchored all over the place - and, Yes, they were able to dive in and cut us free! Thank goodness!! Anyway, we got to the re-fueling jetty and tied up, and filled up the fuel and water tanks both - 246 litres of fuel the pump showed us... which was surprising given the fuel capacity of the boat is only 220 litres(!) so maybe the fuel pump was slightly 'bent'!! Anyway, while we were re-fueling, the Volvo engine guy was fiddling with the lever that controls the forward/reverse/stop of the boat for a while. After the refueling, B put the lever into reverse to move back AND THE BOAT WENT FORWARD - Breakdown #5!! He immediately cut the engine, just avoiding ramming into a big dive boat that was waiting its turn to re-fuel and we managed to tie up back to the jetty again. Turned out that the engineer had, in his fiddling, broken some tiny piece in the lever that controlled the movements, and it was stuck! In the end, Husband went forward to man the anchor, engineer went down into engine room to control forward, reverse and stop, B took control of steering, and relayed commands to the engineer by having me stand on the steps and tell the engineer whether to go Forward, Reverse or Stop based on B's instructions! We managed to get back into Chalong Bay to anchor, and then called JH again. He promised to have the relevant spare part to us the next morning, with the same engineer, to get it fixed. So we spent the night anchored in Chalong Bay, going onshore in the dinghy to have dinner at one of the little restaurants on the beach. Oh, one more thing happened that day: the little plug at the back of the dinghy, below water line, that allows draining of water from the dinghy when it is pulled up, got lost! Guess what we used as a replacement plug? I had a small bottle of Estee Lauder toner which was conical in shape, but went from a smaller size at the base to a larger size at the top - and it was the absolute PERFECT size to be used as the plug! MacGyver has nothing on us - what with cosmetic bottles for dinghy plugs, and tiger balm as a lubricant!
- Day 6, Thu: We woke up to find that the battery alarm that had been constantly flashing was not a false alarm. The main battery (which normally gets charged when the engine is running) was NOT CHARGING, and because of that, we had not enough power to run lights and pumps on the boat! That was breakdown #4b. Well we agreed that we were all fed up with the boat and all its breakdowns, and worried about the potential for more breakdowns, so we called JH, and told him we want to cancel our boat usage. He offered to give us a replacement boat, but we refused because by the time he got the boat down to us we would have wasted Thursday as well. We then packed, unloaded ourselves and the bags - put the engineer back on the boat - and waited for JH at a hotel on the beach. He was prompt, and came prepared to return 4.5 days of our money, the money we spent on the fuel, and even some money for taxi fare! He also apologised for the whole experience, and thanked B for looking after (and even improving) the boat. SO, I called up Phuket Pavilions, and Yes, they had TWO Chalets available, so we headed there, and spent Thu-Sun at the Pavilions and had a WONDERFUL time - great food, private pool, great spa experience, etc, etc, etc.
So, to sum it up... despite the negative experience with the boat itself, our experience with the yacht company was very very positive, we had a great holiday, we really enjoyed our time spent with B&C (and hopefully they enjoyed our company too) and we WILL hire a boat from that company again in the future. The manner in which JH treated us was EXACTLY what you expect when you talk about excellent customer service, and that is why we WILL definitely go back to him when we next want to go sailing in Phuket (hmmm, maybe next Sept?).
As to Phuket, we were amazed with how FANTASTIC the food - whether Thai or Western style - and drink was, wherever we stopped, and how incredibly CLEAN the toilets are even when the whole building looks run down and dilapidated! And, of course, the people are so very very friendly and helpful.
Got back to SG on Sunday night, and then early Monday morning I flew to KL, as my Mum had gone into hospital to have an angiogram. The outcome of that was that they found that she had TWO blocked blood vessels - one of which had 3 blockages, and another which had 2 blockages. Based on that, they decided not to put in stents, as the risk of having 5 stents in 2 blood vessels is far higher than doing a bypass - so a bypass has been scheduled, on 3rd November, by our favourite cardiac surgeon at the National Heart Institute in KL. Till then, Mum is on blood thinners and strict instructions not to exert herself... Keep her in your thoughts and your prayers!
Enough for now! Till next time, have a good life.
