sv evi

Ma Chin arrived to Phuket on January 22nd, 2026. So far she has come to visit us once a year on sv evi. This time I drove a rental car in Phuket traffic to pick her up at the airport. It took 5 hours round trip — whew! We had planned to go out to the Similan and Surin islands for some world-class snorkeling, but then our alternator seized up leaving Nai Harn Bay. Smoke filled the engine room, and there was a horrible clacking sound. We sailed back into Nai Harn Bay, with some dinghy assistance for the last mile from SV Kagou and our dinghy Pentapus. Riki diagnosed the problem and set about sourcing a new alternator….it took longer than we expected with many bumps in the road, but Riki persevered in the end! Go chief engineer Riki!

Instead we hung out in Nai Harn, then in Bang Thao Beach a little further north. We home schooled in the mornings, and worked on planning our month-long land trip through Cambodia, Laos, northern Thailand, and Vietnam in the afternoons. As part of home school, Ma told us stories from her life. I typed and Jade illustrated as Ma spoke. Jade had lots of questions. 🙂 In the evenings we played lots of games: mah jong, bridge, and all of the new games Tomu received for his birthday.

We also did our “moves” 3x daily after meals. Our moves are some arm exercises plus squats that Susha and Libby turned Ma on to. Jade and Luz do the moves with Ma and I, and we count in a different language for each set of moves: Spanish, Japanese, and Toisan.

In Bang Thao beach I made a big mistake with the dinghy. I dropped the kids off at the northern end of the beach to play with some other boat kids, then returned to the evi for the anchor. I anchored the dinghy outside the breaking waves further south on the beach, and I assumed it was low tide. Not sure why…we were new to the area, so I didn’t really have a reference. Ma and I went to a little truck to have Thai iced tea and book some accommodations for our trip. About an hour later, Jade came running up. She said frantically, “Mama, the dinghy is in trouble! It was getting smashed in the waves, and the fuel tank flipped over and is floating in saltwater!” Oh no!! We got back to the dinghy, and motored back towards evi. The outboard died partway there, so we rowed the rest of the day. Riki spent the entire next day taking apart the carburetor, emptying the fuel can of the fuel mixed with saltwater, and cleaning the sand out of the dinghy. And the outboard still didn’t start! But the next day he cleaned it again, taking apart one screw that he hadn’t the first time, and it worked. Whew! I learned my lesson — always check what the tide is doing, especially when there are waves breaking on the beach!!

The kids loved Bang Thao beach. Every afternoon they would play on the island with Jeb and Hannah from SV Picasso. They found a natural swing (a thick vine) and tunnels through the rocks, jumped off a tree into the water, swam across the “river” between the island and the main beach, climbed on the rocks, played “cheat”…One day Po Po and I swam across and played with Luz. She was jumping up on all the rocks, posing, and saying, “take a picture of me!” We didn’t have our phones, so I snapped photos with my pretend camera. Then she said, text the photo to the 8 Great (our family text thread). So I pretend texted. Next, “what did they say back?” We were cracking up.

Oh also, we ran out of water in one tank in Nai Harn — couldn’t make water without the engine. So Riki did water runs on his scooter. And then we ran out of propane in Bang Thao Beach, just before making coffee one morning! It totally wasn’t on my radar to think about the propane. So Riki’s mission for the day was to go fill our propane tank.

Some days I felt frustrated by waiting for the alternator part…and so I woke everyone up at 6 am to start hiking before it got too hot. I know what a hike in nature will always set my attitude straight again. You can’t control many things on a boat, but you can control your attitude! Also, I realized when family comes to visit, it doesn’t really matter where we are, I’m just happy for the time together.

We had a mellow beach birthday celebration for Tomu, which is his preferred kind of celebration. No singing. Presents are good though!

I think Riki’s favorite birthday present was the small bits of line and wood that Jade salvaged from a shipwreck at Khao Khad. 🙂

Our canvas craftsman, Mal, delivered our 3 part custom-made awning, new bimini, new dodger, new sailbag, new wheel cover on in February. The awnings keep the boat so much cooler (after almost 2 years in the tropics!). Everything he made is high-quality, and evi is looking fly these days!

We celebrated Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year) by making wun hun (wontons). It’s not a traditional New Year’s dish, but it’s one of my favorites that Ma makes. This year the kids helped fold the wun hun. Xian nin kuai le! Gong hay fat choy! Happy year of the Fire Horse!

We brought Igna some wunhun, an orange, and some White Rabbit candies. He was especially appreciative as he had been sick for a week.

We are hauling out tomorrow at Ratanachai Shipyard. We all fly on 23 February to Siem Reap, Cambodia to check out Angkor Wat. Riki will return after a few days to Phuket to grind on evi for a month in the yard. Ma Chin, the kids, and I will carry on traveling around SE Asia until the 24th of March. Ma is 76 years young because of her can-do attitude, her sense of humor, her zest for life, and her willingness to try new things. So happy for our time together!