We are family!

I'm glad someone in our family knows how to
take a proper selfie. Photo credit: Joe Lee

My brother Joe, his wife Joyce and their three kids made a side-trip to see us in Phuket while on a visit to Thailand. We haven't seen them in forever and this is the first time we got to meet all the kids (the last time I saw the oldest, he was a baby). The visit was short but sweet and we all had fun catching up.

Unfortunately, the day they arrived, Matt had to go into the hospital to have a kidney stone removed. Even hearing about this makes people wince and silently vow to start drinking more water. Originally we had planned to move Perry around to Patong Beach, but didn't have time because of the procedure. So I drove down to Patong Beach with Conrad and Mark (I do not recommend that your first driving experience in Phuket be in Patong Beach--picture driving on the wrong side of the road with motorbikes swarming around you in the crowds like those in Ft. Lauderdale during Spring Break).

We had a nice dinner with Joe, Joyce, Abraham, Noah and Jochabette. Meanwhile, Matt had the procedure and shivered for several hours in the air-conditioned recovery room waiting for feeling and movement to come back into his legs after the spinal block (whilst not having eaten for the entire day and wearing a too-small gown that opened in the back). When he finally managed, with Herculean effort, to slightly move one toe, they decided they hadn't in fact severed his spinal cord and moved him back to his room. This was around midnight. The procedure was scheduled for 5 p.m. but was delayed in part because the doctor had some trouble locating the stone in the previous patient.

I picked Matt up from the hospital the next day and we got to spend the day with Joe, Joyce and their kids. They visited the boat and we spent some time at their hotel, which has several nice pools. It was a nice change for Mark and Conrad, who have been loving the waves at Nai Harn Beach but having a hard time with the jellyfish stings they have been enduring. My brother and his family left the following day for their next stop. We were left with good memories and scrumptious treats from Jordan (including olive oil (newly pressed), figs, dates, baklava, and even Doritos and spicy Cheetos).

Watching crepes being made at 'Crepes Village'

We will leave for Langkawi soon because even though the winds are not favorable, our visas say it's time to leave. Before we go, we will need to clean the hard barnacles (as opposed to the gooseneck barnacles we have been seeing in the Pacific and Indonesia) off the boat bottom and propellers. We have never had so many barnacles grow so quickly. They come off the Coppercoat fairly easily but the entire surface is covered with the creatures. They have even been working their way up the intake and outflow hoses for the heads (aka toilets) and causing clogging (no, it's not just all those Middle-eastern figs and dates we've been devouring).

Invaders of all types

Mark with an 'Elephant Parade' elephant at the Boat Show

The other day, we came back to the boat after walking several miles in our new hiking boots (we're planning to do the Everest Base Camp hike in a few months and need to break them in; yes, we look ridiculous walking around the Tropics in thick socks and boots).

The stated goal on these hikes is to find a 7-Eleven that has Slurpees. This is the carrot we use to get the kids off the boat and walking thru the blazing mid-day sun.  There are a crazy number of 7-Elevens around Phuket but very few have the frozen concoctions of sweet icy goodness, poor nutrition, and low price. I just found out that apparently there is an app for this. Even if we don't find a Slurpee, we usually find a 7-11 Cafe that has frappes. This is what motivates us boat people that have been in third-world countries for awhile.

On this particular walk, we had our frappes and came back to the boat hot and tired. As we approached the boat, we noticed that an entire family had made themselves comfortable on our back transoms (including putting down our swim ladder) and that one of the kids was actually climbing past the closed gates, up on the decks, and jumping off. They smiled happily and seemed oblivious to our concerned faces. When we said, 'This is our home,' they apologized in their Eastern European accented English but made no move to leave until we asked them to. It's hard for me to understand how an adult would think it was okay to clamber aboard a boat without an invitation, even if it weren't our home. I do understand that not everyone thinks the same way, but sometimes I will still hold it against them. That's what happens when you get old.

Prior to our walk, we 'bug-bombed' the boat to eradicate the occasional roach that had somehow made their way on board (even if you only see a few, you need to act quickly). Except that we didn't have any of those nifty bottles that start fogging after you push the button so you can escape the fumes. We haven't been able to find any in Indonesia or Thailand and The Internet suggests that it isn't a thing here. All the spray insecticides we have found require you to continuously push the button down while (supposedly) aiming at the critter you want to kill.  Since we intended to use several cans of the stuff, the toxic fumes would surround you pretty thoroughly by the time you got done. So the always-resourceful Matt donned his SCUBA mask (for eye-protection) and the long regulator hose that he uses to clean the bottom of the boat (for lung protection) while emptying 3 cans of bug spray into our boat. We won't think too much about how much got absorbed into his skin, especially all the small cuts on his hands from the tiny but sharp-as-razors barnacles on the boat bottom that he was scraping away the day before. So hopefully this works.

Our whisker pole

Matt also got around to taking apart the whisker pole we broke on our sail from Darwin to Kupang. He was able to fix part of it (after breaking our rivet gun and borrowing one from our friends on Irie) and will need a couple replacement parts to finish the job. Even in a place like Phuket, where there are lots of supplies and services for yachties, things are hardly ever simple. We'll have to order the parts (and get a new rivet gun because the local hardware store was out) down the line.

We have been ticking off boat projects and hanging out while we wait for my brother Joe and his family to arrive. Southeast Asia has been a boon for family time, which has been fabulous for us.

Avoiding tropical depressions and petting puppies in Thailand

Been there, got the T-shirt...

We visited The Soi Dog Foundation the other day (our friends on Field Trip found the place). It's a rescue/vet/ adoption place that focuses on "street" dogs (and a few cats) here in Phuket ("Soi" mean street in Thai). The tour was entertaining and interesting. One of their prime missions is to spay or neuter as many of these dogs as they can.  Last year they did nearly 8,000 procedures. Over the last decade or so they have reduced the local street dog population from over 100,000 to about 10,000 through these procedures. The foundation also works to rescue dogs from the illegal dog meat trade as well as provide medical care to injured and abused animals.  Overall, they do great work there and the boys loved being able to play with the dogs and cats.

Awww!

The main drawback of visiting an animal rescue place is looking at all those doggy faces and walking away without one. Unfortunately, adopting a pet isn't in the cards for us right now. The biggest issue with a pet is that it compounds the red tape involved in checking into a country--and that tape is already pretty red in the places we have visited lately.

This guy was hit by a car

Last week, we (and every other boat in the area) tried to find a good 'hole' to hide in from the wind and waves that looked to be heading our way due to Tropical Cyclone 'Pabuk'. It has been 57 years since the last time a tropical storm landed in Thailand and they have never recorded one in January. The various weather models kept us all in suspense because they disagreed about where the storm would be heading, with some showing a track to our north, some a track to our south, and some just showed it aiming straight at us. 

The problem with this was that there are very few "total protection" places to go, so knowing whether the storm was going North or South was very important as the winds are completely opposite depending on the track.  In the end we hedged our bets and went over to Ao Chalong bay, which has reasonable protection and also had a couple of islands to hide behind if the storm took an unexpected turn.  The problem with Ao Chalong is that the holding (how well the anchor "holds" in the sea floor) is reported to be poor, and also the place is full of boats (which turn into battering rams if they break free from their moorings or anchor). Thankfully the storm went north, and it turned out to be very compact and localized, so we didn't experience anything other than a bit of wind (some gusts hit 30 knots, but not many) and a little rain. Again, we are getting pretty 'lucky' with these natural events lately.

Tropical Storm Pabuk

Is Mother Nature trying to tell us something?

Video of Anak Krakatau shot by Mark

Our friends on another boat recently wrote us to point out that we seemed to be the common factor in a number of natural disasters that have occurred over the last year. The most recent was the tsunami and eruptions from Anak Krakatau.

We were there about two months before the big landslide and resulting tsunami that crumbled away two-thirds of the young volcano that was forming for over a century over the ruins of the original Krakatoa. Before that, we missed the earthquake and resulting tsunami in Donggala and Palu by less than a week.

Then there was the passage we had leaving Krakatau. For 3 straight nights we had amazingly violent electrical storms that behaved like we were carrying a storm magnet with us. We would make radical turns to avoid the worst areas whereupon the squall, which had been carrying on in the same direction for over an hour, would then turn to cut us off. At one point we had roughly 15 lightning strikes within 500 meters of the boat within about 10 minutes. This went on all night, 3 nights in a row. We were certainly taking it personally by the end of the third night.

Ahhh...calm sunset at Nai Harn Beach anchorage

Living so close to nature gives us a healthy appreciation for both its power and beauty.

Cholamark dinghy covers--the best ever

Our brand new dinghy and cover

Like all cruisers, our dinghy is really important to us.  Having just replaced our dinghy under warranty, we wanted to get a cover at the same time to help protect it from the brutal tropical sun. And some added protection from our kids (who refuse to stop eating and continue to grow at an alarming rate) would be nice as well.

Several years back, shortly after arriving in French Polynesia, we ran into a boat that had the best looking dinghy cover we had ever seen.  It wasn't baggy, saggy or floppy. Some dinghy covers end up looking (in the words of our friend Mark) like 'A skinny man in a fat man's clothes'. Honestly, it's hard to make flat cloth fit onto something rounded like an inflatable boat. But this cover was as near to perfect as you could get. It fully covered and protected the tubes yet gave access to all the handles and bits and bobs that came off the tubes. It didn't detract from the look of the dinghy. In fact, you barely even knew it was a cover until getting up close.

After talking to the owner of the dink (who would become good friends), I was a bit disappointed to learn that the dinghy cover had been made in Phuket, Thailand, as that was a destination several years off into the future.

Could we have one made and sent to us? Nope, we learned. The cover maker needed the boat on site for measurements and construction.  Maybe someone else was building a cover just as nice, perhaps in New Zealand where we'd be in a few short months?  Perhaps, said our friend, but he was just nearing the end of his multi-year circumnavigation and he had yet to see anything close. Just wait until Phuket, he said, you won't be sorry. I snapped a quick photo of the manufacturer's info sewn onto the back of the cover for future reference and we continued west.

Fast forward 3-1/2 years and we're now in Phuket, having just taken delivery of our own brand new dinghy cover from Cholamark. It looks even better than the one I remember from French Polynesia.   We ordered it in a boring but (hopefully) dirt-hiding grey that is similar to the color of the tubes. From ten feet away, it looks just like an uncovered dinghy. To say that the cover "fits like a glove" is a gross understatement. A friend commented that a better analogy would be that it "fits like a stocking."

Why does this dinghy cover look so much better than any others? Why do almost all the local boats around Phuket seem to have covers made by Cholamark? Why am I asking all these rhetorical questions? It's all about the design and construction. And a bit about Hans.  

Hans is the owner of Cholamark Boats, whose main office is located just a few minutes walk from the Ao Chalong Pier in Phuket. Hans grew up in Germany but came to Thailand 30 years ago to start up a small boat-building business. His parents had run a business manufacturing rubber parts for inflatable boats, so the industry was in his blood.

Over the years Cholamark has grown and Hans expanded out of the showroom and built a large factory compound just outside of town. In addition to crafting an excellent cover, Cholamark also builds its own line of dinghies, is one of the top Highfield retailers in the world, and can repair almost anything relating to your small boat: new tubes, welding, fiberglass work, etc.

Stereotypes aside, Hans is the embodiment of planning, attention to detail and excellent engineering.  In talking to him over the course of several days, it was clear that he is a firm believer that if you are going to bother doing something, do it right. It's where something that seems ordinary--like a dinghy cover--becomes a work of art because no detail is too small.

Quality materials

 

Boring grey for us, but any color Suntek or Sunbrella is available.

All of the materials of the cover are selected for the harsh tropical marine environment they will be used in. Customers can choose from Sunbrella, Suntec or UV treated vinyl fabrics. We chose the Suntec as Hans has found that it stretches less and wears better than the Sunbrella in this application. The thread used to stitch the cover is also a proper heavy duty, UV resistant thread. The best cover in the world won't last long if the thread dissolves after just a year or two.

It's the good stuff....

 

Meticulous planning and preparation

 

Start of the template process.

Part of the reason that Hans requires the boat to be present for the cover construction is that he measures and creates templates for each boat from scratch.  I asked him why he doesn't just have a master template for our dinghy model (a Highfield CL 340, for which he has built numerous covers). I was surprised to learn that each set of dinghy tubes is slightly different, due in part to (1) very small differences in how the Orca Hypalon stretches from roll to roll of the material and (2) minor variations on where the handles and oarlocks are placed.

Marking the exact location of the rub rail.

None of these variations are noticeable when two of the exact same model dinghies are sitting side by side, but when you're building a cover with tolerances of a millimeter or two, it makes a difference.  The paper pattern is made by covering the tubes with large sheets, with smaller pieces of paper taped on to perfectly match the location of the handles, rub rails etc. Once the initial, taped-up pattern is made, it is transferred to a clean sheet of paper that will serve as the final pattern used in the construction of the cover.  The pattern is then catalogued and stored. A new cover can be built from the pattern, so if a few years down the line you want a new cover, Hans can make one and ship it to you anywhere in the world. Our friend had this done and shipped to French Polynesia--it was brilliant!

 

A clever design

 

Velcro along the full perimeter of the tubes, both inside and out

The reason many dinghy covers look a bit sloppy is the way they are attached to the boat. Some use clips, others a drawstring. Some use tie downs or straps mounted in various configurations. But invariably, these methods seem to pull too tight in some areas and not tight enough in others, resulting in a cover that moves around and just doesn't seem to fit right.

Hans showing the Velcro that holds his covers in place.

Close-up of the Velcro.  It's first
stitched to a Hypalon strip before being glued to the boat.

Hans pioneered his use of Velcro to hold the cover down years ago in a technique that has now been copied by many commercial cover makers. Since very few things can successfully be glued to Hypalon, it would be a waste of time to try and attach the Velcro directly to the dinghy. Instead, the Velcro is sewn onto a strip of Hypalon fabric, which is then glued onto the dinghy. This creates a Velcro strip that isn't going anywhere. When matched up to a full perimeter Velcro strip sewn into the underside of the cover, a taut and form-fitting cover results.  A similar technique (using different materials and glue) is used for PVC-constructed dinghies.

Totally form fitting

The fit around the handles is exact. Note the backing material that

adds more protection and keeps the handle hole from shifting.

The design also attempts to fully protect the dinghy from the harmful elements. Handle cut-outs have a nifty backing piece that is stitched and Velcroed into place. This added detail not only protects the underlying material, it also keeps the handle opening from deforming and ruining the fit of the cover.

Hans also was able to adapt the design to fit a particular need for us.  The way our dinghy sits on the davits results in an area where the tube near the bow sometimes rubs against the davit supports. Hans had no problem adding a extra "wear patch" to protect the cover and underlying tube.  If the top area ever wears through, we can simply unstitch it and put on another wear patch.

 

Proper construction 

 

Sew up room at work

The cover itself is crafted by a team of highly experienced seamstresses.  All of the edges are finished and the stress points double stitched.  The gluing of the Hypalon Velcro strip takes place in Cholamark's specially constructed, environmentally controlled, glue up room. Hypalon glue is very sensitive to high humidity and items glued up in high humidity conditions are prone to early failure.  That's why all of Cholamark's glue-up work (including new tube construction and tube repairs), happens in the large, sealed, air-conditioned workshop. 

Climate-controlled glue-up room

 

Competent team

 

Cholamark has grown to the point where Hans can't be everywhere at once. But his team of over 40 employees is highly skilled and many of them have worked for Hans for over 20 years.

 

Building a boat trailer from local hardwood and 

stainless bolts. Easier to repair and they last longer than the metal ones!

Building the hull on one of Cholamark's own line of dinghys.

Hans with his solar powered project boat: 3.5 knots under solar alone.

Using the onboard Lithium batteries gets you 13 knots.

Our new dinghy looks great with the Cholamark cover on it. In fact, our friends, who are whizzes with their Sailrite sewing machine had recently spent quite a bit of time carefully crafting  their own custom dinghy cover. It looked very nice and was probably better than most dinghy covers out there. But they took one look at ours and realized what was possible. The next day they ordered a new cover from Hans.

Full disclosure: We had already put in our order for a new cover when Hans and I got to talking about things and he must have seen our blog at some point.  He asked if we could take some photos and do a write up about how he builds his covers. He is a self-confessed 'terrible marketer' and admits he just doesn't have time to put together something about the dinghy cover construction process--a task he's been meaning to do for several years now.  I said 'sure' and Hans gave us a discount on the cover in exchange for coming out to his factory, photographing and documenting the process. So yes, we did receive something of value in return for this write-up, but it's all true and we wouldn't have it on our blog if we didn't believe in it.