Esper Refit 50-52 - One year in the boat yard! Plus fishing on a Thai fishing boat

[demonboy]

Yeah, I know. One whole year in the yard. From an original agreement of three months that quickly turned into six after reviewing all the work, I said nine months was the cut-off, yet still we are here. There's a number of reasons for the extended stay, which we'll write up about (and cover off in the video updates) but aside from budgetary issues it's all been good. An expensive boat maintenance course where we've learned loads and ingratiated ourselves into the local community as much as it is possible to do so without speaking much Thai.

Anyway, we celebrated twice. Once in the yard and a second time on the water aboard a Thai fishing boat, which was an education in itself. We often see the squid boats lighting up the horizon at night whilst we're at anchor and last weekend we got learn what the green and red lights do first hand. Caught loads of fish, which we cooked up next night for both the yachties and the yard workers.

And for those looking for a bit of boat porn, here are our custom-made fairleads:

There's some great footage of the squid fishing in the video, as well as some maintenance updates including some improvements we've made to our Portabote. Oh, and a little bit at the end about the new hair craze that's spreading through the boatyard (probably a sign that we're all going stir-crazy) : http://followtheboat.com/2015/02/08/esper-refit-50-52/

 

[temptress]

Jamie what happened to launch on the 20th? At this rate Full Flight will be back in before you.....

 

[demonboy]

Jamie what happened to launch on the 20th? At this rate Full Flight will be back in before you.....

We're still on for it, Kevin. FF will probably launch around the same time, as will two other boats. It's an extended spring high water, spans about five days here, but coincides with Chinese New Year, as you know. Yard is closed for one day only though, so all good. Charging system back online, dripless seal turning up this afternoon, navigation pretty much sorted bar the autopilot and getting the AIS to talk to the plotter. I'm working on that over the next couple of days so should be more relaxed around the weekend

 

[temptress]

We're still on for it, Kevin. FF will probably launch around the same time, as will two other boats. It's an extended spring high water, spans about five days here, but coincides with Chinese New Year, as you know. Yard is closed for one day only though, so all good. Charging system back online, dripless seal turning up this afternoon, navigation pretty much sorted bar the autopilot and getting the AIS to talk to the plotter. I'm working on that over the next couple of days so should be more relaxed around the weekend

Great news. Hopefully all will go well. Maybe we will see you up there soon when we crash in on Friday..... Want to hear how the shaft seal works as I need a new one on Temptress before we go off again.