Esper Refit 46 – Christmas Special

As Christmas approaches we are inundated with rain, rain and more rain. It’s just like being back in the UK! We still had fun, attending a Burmese wedding and rehousing some little animals.

Weekly Video Round-Up

There’s about one minute of boat refit footage and the rest is about the wedding and the animals.

Swimming Platform

Ton excelled himself once more with the creation of our teak swimming platform. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of it because it’s been raining non-stop all week. There’s a brief glimpse of it in the video clip, as well as Esper’s topsides without the clingfilm.

Burmese Wedding

Meet Tuo Lek and Wa, two of the Burmese workers who live next to the yard. Tuo Lek is part of the haul-out team and, despite his small stature, is fit and strong. He spends a lot of his time in the water by the dock, releasing and tightening the cradle for haul-out. Living directly opposite him is Wa, a seventeen year old whose father works with Tuo Lek. They got married on Friday and the yachties were invited for lunch.

After posing for photos we were taken to Wa’s house where the bride and groom met us and we presented them with gifts. No one got them a toaster.

We were then ushered to the corridor between Tuo Lek and Wa’s respective homes where the Burmese crew spoilt us with shrimp, duck, chicken and beer.

There was no real ceremony to speak of but Julie of PSS and friend and worker Gung took Wa into town to buy her a dress and some flowers, and spent time doing her make-up and her hair. I’m pretty sure Tuo Lek was wearing make-up too.

Kitten Relocation

We ended the week with some fun with the local kids. PSS had accumulated six kittens over the last couple of months and the crew from s/y Totem had spent their time here looking after them. The kittens were taken to the vets when needed, fed daily and were generally pampered, but it was time for them to venture into the big, wide world. A Burmese cleaner here called Ma volunteered to take all six kittens on. With two of them still too young to move we agreed to give her four, so we rounded the kids up and walked through Chebilang to Ma’s house, next to the ice factory.

It was quite a scene, a group of farangs, kids on bikes and four kittens marching through the streets of Chebilang.

The ice factory supplies ice to the fishing boats, which tie up to the dock, so there’s plenty of fresh fish for the cats. It’s a good spot and they even have their own house, next to Ma’s. There’s plenty more footage of this in this week’s video clip, but we’re happy to say the kittens took to their new home well.

What’s Next?

Christmas dinner in the yard. There’s no getting away from PSS!

Merry Christmas!

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