Today is November 27th and we shall soon leave Thailand. We are anchored close to Ao Chalong and I am behind a closed door writing this while Kari changes oil on the generator. The reason I am behind a firmly closed door is that Lady Ann has now acquired a small and fluffy deckhand which by nature is very curious and small enough to wind up in the bilge.

One day upon returning from an whole days adventure on land we found the dinghy half full with rainwater on the beach and while the water was slowly draining from the dinghy we sat down for a drink with the locals which we learned were from various countries, but now all happily living on Phuket. As we were chatting I mentioned that even though I knew the problems and logistics of having a pet aboard sailboat, I would be willing to adopt a kitten in need of a home. I had hardly finished the sentence before I found my self in a car speeding around the corner to a house where three little kittens awaited to either find a good home or soon fend for them self's in the woods of Phuket. The reason for those three kittens in the house apparently was that one day Anna was followed home by a beautiful white feline that appeared homeless. Anna decided to give the creature a home, although she already had a cat. But what Anna did not know at the time was that the new cat was pregnant and soon gave birth to four more cats. This is as far as we know the family story of our new pet which we choose in all fairness to call Siam-Cat, her being born in Thailand and all.

Kári ´bless him´ was astonished when I returned and presented him with our new crew member, but he recovered quickly enough to have already named the pet before we had even reached Lady Ann. Apparently she was born completely white, but soon there were brownish marks on that white fur, the darkest was the tail which gave Kári the idea of naming her Skotta. In Icelandic Skotta (among other things) refers to to a tail as well as a lively creature, so I agreed upon the name not knowing at the time how very well suited the name was for an exceptionally lively ´bit of fluff´who has kept me very busy (and happy) now for a week.

As I have previously mentioned the temperature has been unusually comfortable here this month, due to it being the ´rainy month´ according to the locals. When we told two seasoned boaters who were here on their first visit that this was the rainy month, they could hardly believe it. Rarely have there been thunderstorms and one tends to expect much more rain here during ´The Rainy Month´. The wind has mainly been North and North Easterly thus keeping us from exploring places we have not yet visited. But we have happily adventured to previously unknown-to-us places on land and got better acquainted with local Thai people which we are liking better every day.

Next Monday we shall take our papers ashore and sign out, visit the markets where we shall find fresh food for our journey and hope to leave next Tuesday.
It would be so good if we got fair wind and calm sea that enabled us to travel quietly from island to island.

It will be interesting and hopefully not exhausting to experience Skotta´s first voyage.