The morning we were scheduled to come out we moved the boat up to within sight of the slipway and watched them hauling out a large fish boat. Suddenly the fish boat rapidly slid back and splashed into the water. That did not look good! When our time came up and we heard nothing, we went in to the boatyard and found out the winch had broken and the slipway car had disappeared into the river. They spent that day and most of night fixing winch and early next morning I watched two guys free diving for the slipway car and had a crane trying to lift it back on the tracks. I figured they would never get us out today and we were getting a bit worried as time was getting short. The high tides would only last a week and then we would have to wait a couple of weeks for next big tides.
But they soon had everything fixed and got every one moved. One yacht put back in water and one fish boat out and us and another yacht out before tide got too low. It was a simple operation, we motored over the slipway and threw four lines we had ready, one at each corner, to the shore crew and they then manhandled yacht into place and put padded holding brackets in place. A diver in his long pants and t-shirt and a face mask with a air hose going into it dived and put blocks under keel. Then we were winched out of the water to our yard location.
There is always a lot of dust flying around, we have to wash the boat off every night. It is a busy working yard, where they mostly work on huge old wooden fish boats and other local craft. Excellent welder and machine shop here and carpenters. The yachts here say double any time quote they give you for a job as the skilled guys are all busy. We are not relying on any one else so hope to be finished on time.
The area around here is interesting as we are finally away from the tourists, and we just see the locals living and working. We rented a car one day from a yard manager for 400B to go into a huge tesco about 20km away
Labour is very cheap here, I got a guy to help sand down the hull before anti-fouling. The first time I have ever had help. It is a good yard to get things done if you have time. The yard seems to try hard to make us happy.
INFO
-Ko Tika Yai Island near river entrance for Phithak shipyard Satun (PSS) Is reasonably protected here. We anchored in 14ft near low tide at 06 32.714N 99 57.119E Had good night here.
-To go up river to Chebilang and Phithak shipyard probably want at least a 2.5meter tide to go up river, unless you are a catamaran. This is what we had and with our 6ft draft we had only a foot under keel for about a 1/4 mile. Bigger boats might want to wait for a 3meter tide. The entrance waypoints were taken off the Satun website just before we went up as they were inaccurate. We used a set of waypoints given to us by another yacht that had just gone in. Here they are:
1. 06 35.26N 99 54.54E
2. 06 36.56 99 55.63
3. 06 36.86 99 56.10
4. 06 37.27 99 57.60
5. 06 37.95 99 57.28
6. 06 38.24 99 57.69
7. 06 38.40 99 57.75
8. 06 38.72 99 57.69
9. 06 39.50 99 57.32
10. 06 39.60 99 57.33
11. 06 39.65 99 57.74
Shipyard slipway waypoint is 06 39.414 99 58.294
After waypoint 11 you just follow river. No problem, though it did get down to 10 feet for a bit and then deeper and okay all around shipyard area at high tide.
Around waypoint 2, depth got down to around 10 ft and then got deeper again, and then near bend in river by wp 6 and 7 it got shallow to about 7 or 8 feet for a way and then deeper again to 15 to 20 ft.
We anchored for the night, 1.25 miles from ship yard at 06 39.376 99 57.348 in 20ft It is less boat traffic here and deeper than near shipyard and can dinghy in to see shipyard and visit shops. We left dinghy on slipway as they were not hauling anyone.
Can anchor near shipyard and we did one night but nearly on bottom. Anchored at 06 39.528 99 58.120, bit deeper here. Can also anchor other side of slipway but may touch bottom if don't want to be out in river traffic and smelly here of fish. Website for shipyard is pss-satun.com
Customs checkin here is much more awkward than at Phuket. After you are hauled out, the yard will call immigration and he comes out and checks you in a takes 400B, 200 more than he is suppose to, you get a receipt for 200. He then usually gives you a ride in to the customs office for more of the checkin and then it is a 5 minute walk over to port captain office. by road it is over a mile, but if you walk across some lots parrallel to ocean and then along a small trail to a gap in a fence covered in green, and another lot then you will see a blue building which is port captain and immigration beside it.
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