1 December 2015 Telaga Harbour, Langkawi
We picked up the scooters as soon as the marina office opened and our first stop was at the petrol station where we only put one litre of petrol in each bike, but the tanks were half full.
It was Craig’s first time riding a motor scooter, so he was a little cautious at first, but soon got the hang of it and was grinning like a Cheshire Cat all day.
We wandered our way across the island and up the 12 kilometre long road, which climbs to the top of Mount Raya - the highest peak on Langkawi. There’s a viewing tower at the top which charges a nominal fee and has a nice view of the island.
The road is very steep in places, so we were at full throttle all the way up, which used up most of our petrol. Petrol is only £0.30 per litre, so God knows why we didn't just fill up. Anyway, rather than risk running out of petrol in the middle of nowhere, we free-wheeled down, which was fun.
After filling up with petrol, we stopped off at a small Warung and had lunch for £0.80 each. We then visited the Langkawi Craft Complex, which was surprisingly good. It was air-conditioned and had lots of shops selling crafts including carvings, clothes and Batik paintings. We were so impressed by one artist that we bought a small painting of Clownfish, which looks beautiful when it’s back-lit. In addition to all the stalls, there were a couple of exhibitions and a museum on Malaysian weddings, which was interesting.
In the evening, we went to a restaurant in the marina, which was over-priced and not very good.
2 December 2015 Telaga Harbour to Rebak Marina, Langkawi
After breakfast, we landed the dinghy on the beach and walked to the Langkawi cable car. This is one of the major attractions on the island goes up to the second highest peak on the island. We’d heard that there are long queues to get tickets and then to get onto the cable car, so we were there before nine o’clock and managed to avoid any queuing at all. They let us through before the official start time of 09:30 and we went up with the workers.
There’s a good view at the top and an impressive “Sky Bridge”, which is a marvel of engineering, being a curved bridge, suspended on a single vertical beam. Back at sea level, we wandered around the “Oriental Village” watching tourists and eating a few snacks, but soon got bored of that.
Craig and Kristen go back to the UK tomorrow, so after lunch on Alba, we motored over to Rebak Marina and chilled out by the pool for the rest of the afternoon.
3 December 2015 Rebak Marina, Langkawi
Craig and Kristen went to pool, then we had an early lunch and put them on the 12:45 ferry. It's been great to have them aboard, but the stay was far too short and the boat seems empty without them.
In the afternoon, we caught up on a few jobs. I transferred the deposit for our Myanmar holiday out to the tour agent. I had to transfer the money to a Thailand bank because the USA and Europe still have economic sanctions on Myanmar. We are travelling back to the UK in May, mostly to attend our son Brett’s wedding, so I booked the flights from Kuala Lumpur to UK.
In the evening, we went to the bar for dinner again - my waist line is noticeably expanding with all these burgers and pizzas.
4 December 2015 Rebak Marina to Telaga Harbour, Langkawi
Goran and Pia from “Catrine” came around for a short visit. We last saw them in Cuba in 2012. Goran is carpenter and works for a company that lays teak decks in Finland, so he came to have a look at our deck.
He thinks that it’s not too bad at the moment, but it’s getting thin and if I try to sand it to get it looking good, then the caulking will start to come loose and I’ll expose more screws. He says that there are some planks that will need replacing and thinks that a small area of the teak deck has become unstuck on the starboard side near the gas locker. After some discussion, the consensus was that I would be better off replacing the teak on the main deck and the coach-roof, but the cockpit and aft coach-roof are in good condition.
Later in the morning, we checked out of the marina and motored back to Telaga. Paul and Susie from “Firefly” anchored close to us and came over for a chat. They’ve been on the Sail Malaysia Rally and the fleet is now arriving in Langkawi, so we’ll see more friends over the next few days, which is probably not good news for my liver.
5 December 2015 Telaga Harbour, Langkawi
We had fairly lazy day and pottered about. Glenys did odd domestic jobs on her sewing machine and I did some more forward planning to work out what we will do for the next year.
I chatted to Phil on “Southern Wing” and they had a good time in Sumatra last spring, so we’re thinking of doing the same. It’s only 250 miles away and the islands on the west coast are supposed to be good with clear water for diving and snorkelling.
So the plan is as follows:
| Jan-Feb | Thailand with land trip to Myanmar |
| Mar-Apr | West coast of Sumatra (Indonesia) |
| May-Jun | South-west Malaysia with 4 week trip to UK |
| Jul-Sep | East Malaysia Peninsula |
| Oct-Nov | Thailand - Haul out and deck replacement |
| Dec | Thailand/Langkawi |
| 2017 | Sri Lanka to South Africa |
This all seems to fit in with the seasons here. We’ll be in Sumatra during the North-east monsoon, then down to south Malaysia during the transition period and on the east coast of Malaysia for the south-west monsoon.
Red Herring arrived in the late afternoon, so Graham, Karen and their daughter Joanna came over for a few beers. It was good to catch up on the last three months.
6 December 2015 Telaga Harbour, Langkawi
It was another hot day. Glenys repaired the awning and I looked at the engine. After 30 minutes of investigation, I can’t see where the leak is coming from, but I think that the heat exchanger pressure cap is faulty and is dumping water into the engine bilge. I’m not completely sure because a few days ago, there was coolant dripping off the oil filter and that’s a long way from the pressure cap outlet pipe. Anyway, I’ve cleaned up the pressure cap seal and the lip on the heat exchanger, so we’ll see what happens.
David and Katrina on "Laragh" arrived, so we went over in the evening along with “Red Herring”. We had a mega music session, playing until nearly midnight. I suspect that their neighbours weren’t well pleased because we got very rowdy and loud.
7 December 2015 Telaga Harbour, Langkawi
We hired a car for the day and went shopping. We drove into Kuah first and I tried to find a new pressure cap for the engine, but no joy. However, we did manage to find some courtesy flags; top up our 3G data and get some Thai money. We stopped off at the Langkawi Parade shopping mall, which is okay, if a bit old fashioned. There’s a small food court where we had a pleasant, substantial Malaysian meal for just over £1 for the two of us.
We called in at the Song Haut supermarkets and loaded up three trolleys with food, soft drinks and duty free booze. It’s quite ridiculous how cheap liquor is. They sell a 3 litre box of gin for just under £6 - just like a wine box with a tap. We’d didn't buy one because having gin “on tap” can’t be good for one’s liver. On the way back, we called in at Sailors’ again and the nice lady gave us two freshly baked mince pies.
It took Glenys a couple of hours to stow everything away, but we've now got enough food to last a month and enough liquor to last a year! We’re planning to leave for Thailand at the weekend - we don’t want to get there too early because we only get a 30 day visa and we’re not flying to Myanmar until the 11th January.
“Southern Wing” came over for few beers - they are heading off to Thailand in a couple of days’ time, but we’ll probably catch up with them soon and we’re probably going to be in the same anchorage as them for Christmas.
After dinner, we had our mince pies and listened to Christmas carols - it’s time to get in the Christmas mood. We’re planning to spend Christmas Day with “Laragh”, so I need to do some preparation and be ready to play a few Christmas songs.
8 December 2015 Telaga Harbour, Langkawi
It was a miserable rainy day, so I attempted to upgrade Glenys’ laptop from Windows 8.1 (which I hate) to Windows 10. The upgrade relies on being on-line with the ability to download update files bigger than 3GB from the internet. That’s all well and good if you have an unlimited, fibre-optic, broadband connection, but if you are operating on a 3G mobile connection it just doesn't work. I tried various ways of doing it off-line, but to cut a long story short, it looks like I’ll have to do it when I next get a good internet connection. I wish I hadn't bothered - I wasted 5 hours of my life.
Feeling depressed, I had another look at the engine. I attached a temporary pipe to the pressure cap outlet and fed it into a plastic bottle, then ran the engine for ½ hour. This was resoundingly successful because there was no water in the engine bilge and about 50ml of coolant in the bottle proving that the radiator cap is at fault. We’re not losing a lot of coolant, so we’ll be all right getting up to Thailand, which is only 120 miles away and I’ll get a proper Volvo pressure cap there.
We had a quiet night in. I spent most of the evening, downloading the lyrics and chords for various Christmas songs & carols and putting them into a word document. One of the problems with finding guitar music on the internet that much of it is someone’s interpretation of the song and they’re not always correct, so I try to make sure that they’re correct by listening to the actual recording. I've downloaded chords and lyrics for 48 songs, so I’ll be busy until Christmas.
9 December 2015 Telaga Harbour, Langkawi
The weather was much better today, so we got on with some chores. There’s a fuel dock at the Telaga Marina, but unfortunately, their pump has broken and they have no idea when it will be fixed, so we spent a couple of hours, pouring diesel into our tank from our jerry cans, then going to the petrol station in the marina to get some more diesel.
It’s not quite as simple as it should be, because fuel is subsidised in Malaysia and there’s a 20 litre a day per person restriction on sales to foreigners. At the petrol station in Telaga, they have a small concession and I was able to get 50 litres today. I poured that into the tank and will have to get another 50 litres tomorrow.
We lounged about in the afternoon, gasping in the airless, blistering heat. After dinner, we got out our musical instruments and started to work through the 48 Christmas songs, checking the chords and rejecting difficult ones - with only 16 days to Christmas, we haven’t much time to practise.
10 December 2015 Telaga Harbour, Langkawi
We went for a hike up to Seven Wells Waterfall. It’s about a mile from the beach to the start of the trail where there is a car park and few stalls selling souvenirs and refreshments. The trail is actually about 500 concrete steps, but it’s well shaded by trees and not too bad. There’s an impressive high waterfall half way up and at the top are a series of shallow pools with water running through smooth channels that make great water slides.
Although we were very hot and sweaty, we ignored the lure of the pools and continued up a narrow trail hidden at the top of the waterfalls. This trail is well maintained and it’s a very pleasant gradient with concrete steps whenever the going gets tough. We've been told that the path goes all the way to the top of Mount Mat Cincang, where the cable car goes, but we weren't really kitted out to go for three hours up and two hours back. Instead, we walked up for an hour or so, before turning back when it started to get really steep.
The only unpleasant part of the hike was encountering leeches - I had one on my leg and Glenys had three. The first one that Glenys found must have been sucking blood out of her heel for quite a while because she suddenly became aware that her heel was sticky. She must have squished the bloated leech because there was blood all over her foot. The other leeches latched onto us on the way down and were quickly flicked off. I was a little bit upset when (for some reason) Glenys wouldn't stay still for long enough to let me take a photograph of a leech attached to her foot.
Back at the waterfall pools we had a lovely refreshing swim and play in the water slides then reluctantly walked back to the beach. We had a great lunch at a restaurant overlooking the anchorage - very good Mei Goring and Tom Yum Noodle Soup.
It was so hot in the afternoon, that we couldn't do anything, but read and sleep.
11 December 2015 Telaga Harbour, Langkawi
First thing in the morning, we hired a car and drove into Kuah. Our first stop was at the ferry port where we cleared out of Malaysia. The Port Captain and Customs were simple, but we had a lot of confusion in Immigration when we showed them our new passports. They couldn't understand that we’d cleared in with one passport number and now wanted to clear out with a different passport number.
"How had we obtained new passports without flying to the UK? Where were the exit stamps back to the UK?" To make matters worse, we hadn't been given the correct clearance document from Port Dickson to Langkawi. Eventually, we made them understand what we had done, but they were close to arresting us and snapping on the rubber gloves…
Having successfully cleared out, we stopped off at a supermarket to do some more provisioning and headed back to Telaga. After lunch on Alba, we lounged about in the baking heat all afternoon. Thankfully, a thunderstorm in the early evening brought a bit of wind and reduced the oppressive humidity.
12 December 2015 Telaga Harbour, Langkawi
We've decided to leave Malaysia tomorrow. The plan is to clear into Thailand in Phuket, which is 120 miles away, but we’ll stop at a few small islands on the way. There’s a small immigration office at our first stop in Ko Lipe and we don’t want to get there before tomorrow, just in case they force us to clear in. We only get a 30 day visa and don’t want to be short one day before we fly to Myanmar on the 11th January.
I spent the morning printing out some of Christmas Carols while Glenys did more research on places to go in Thailand. In the afternoon, when the temperature rose, I donned a scuba tank and spent an hour cleaning the barnacles from the hull and propeller. There was ½” of growth on the propeller and over an inch of growth of barnacles on top of the rudder and the bottom of the keel where the anti-foul is too thin. The rest of the hull has the odd barnacle and a thin coating of slime, so the Jotun anti-fouling that we put on nearly a year ago is doing a good job.
13 December 2015 Telaga to Ko Lipe, Thailand
We finally managed to leave Telaga. Unfortunately, there was no wind, so we were forced to motor the 30 miles to Ko Lipe. I was very, very nervous about the engine coolant. In first 30 minutes, I had 100ml of coolant escape from the pressure cap overflow, which was very worrying. After that, the pressure cap seemed to seal itself and we didn't lose any coolant for the next four hours - amazing…
By mid-afternoon, approached the west coast of an island called Ko Andang and found that “Southern Wing” and “Back Chat” had picked up moorings there, so we picked up the third one at 06°32.52N 099°16.75E. It’s a little bit too close to the reef for our liking, but I snorkelled around and our rudder is missing a big coral head by about six feet, so I think that we’ll be okay.
We had a quick snorkel and found that the water is fairly clear, but the reef isn’t very interesting. I should imagine that the more timid fish are being scared off by the hundreds of tourists that are being dropped off on the beach next to us. Noisy Thai boats called “Long-tails” were buzzing past us all afternoon, loaded with punters from the main island of Ko Lipe.
We had dinner on “Southern Wing” and played some guitar with Irvin.
The long-tails are an interesting design - I found this description on Wikipedia:
The long-tail boat, known as Ruea Hang Yao in the Thai language, is a type of watercraft native to Southeast Asia, which uses a common automotive engine as a readily available and maintainable powerplant. A craft designed to carry passengers on a river may include a lightweight long canoe hull, up to 30 metres, and a canopy. There is much variation among these boats, some have evolved from traditional craft types, while others have a more improvised look—the sole defining characteristic is a second-hand car or truck engine.
This engine is invariably mounted on an inboard turret-like pole which can rotate through 180 degrees, allowing steering by thrust vectoring. The propeller is mounted directly on the driveshaft with no additional gearing or transmission. Usually the engine also swivels up and down to provide a "neutral gear" where the propeller does not contact the water. The driveshaft must be extended by several metres of metal rod to properly position the propeller, giving the boat its name and distinct appearance.
Advantages to the inboard engine with a long driveshaft include keeping the engine relatively dry. Following the basic design pattern allows a variety of engines to be attached to a variety of different kinds of hulls. This flexibility simplifies construction and maintenance while sacrificing the efficiency and comfort that might be expected of a typical mass-produced product.
Cooling to the engine is provided by a shaped metal pipe strewn underneath the rear running board which is used as a rudimentary heat-exchanger. This is then coupled to the engine using rubber or plastic hoses. Clean water is then used as the coolant.
Control is achieved by moving the engine with a lever stick attached to the inboard side. Ignition and throttle controls provide simple means to control this simple craft. Larger boats may include more than one "tail," with several operators piloting in tandem.
14 December 2015 Ko Lipe, Thailand
Our mooring is in a channel between two islands with a strong tidal current, so we had a restless night, bobbing about with noisy waves slapping under the transom, when the tide changed direction and the wind was against the tide.
At last, we’re in water clear enough to run the water maker, so we topped up our tanks then went for a snorkel close to the boat. Again, there wasn’t a huge amount to see, so I concentrated on taking photos of Christmas Tree Worms, which have an amazing variety of colours.
In afternoon, we jumped in the dinghy and zipped a mile or so across to a small island to the west of us, where we found a dive mooring. The snorkelling was much more interesting, with a steep drop off and lots of rocky gullies to explore. I got very excited when a found scores of Dancing Shrimp hiding in a small cave.
15 December 2015 Ko Lipe to Ko Rok Nok, Thailand
We dropped the mooring at first light and sailed 40 miles to Ko Rok Nok. Yes, sailed! Well, we did for the first two hours and then the wind died on us, so we were back to motoring.
It was a very boring trip, but we had no problem with engine. When I did my engine check this morning, I didn’t remove the pressure cap to check the level on the basis that I know how much we’ve lost. By not disturbing the pressure cap, it seems to have retained its seal.
It was late afternoon, when we arrived in at the twin islands of Ko Rok Nok and picked up a Marine Park mooring at 07°13.04N 099°04.59E. We jumped into the water and went for a snorkel. The reef isn’t terribly interesting, but the water is the clearest that we’ve seen since Indonesia.
I spent fifteen minutes trying to photograph a Silverspot Shrimpgoby. These small fish hover outside a burrow in the sand and are dreadfully difficult to photograph, diving away into their holes at the slightest provocation. The fish shares its burrow with one or two shrimp in a symbiotic relationship - the shrimp spend most of their time digging the tunnel while the Goby stands watch. Interestingly, the shrimp are often completely blind, relying on touching the fish with their feelers, to know when to dart away.
16 December 2015 Ko Rok Nok, Thailand
Most of our morning was taken up with a scuba dive. We dropped our dinghy anchor about ½ mile to the east of our mooring and descended to 20 metres along a sloping reef. It wasn’t the most interesting dive that I’ve done, but it was good to suck some compressed air again after a two month layoff.
After lunch, we took the dinghy over to another snorkelling spot to the west of us and had a look around. Again, it wasn’t that interesting - mostly rock and hard corals. I entertained myself taking pictures of Christmas Tree worms again.
In the evening, I finally finished my Christmas Song book. I’ve cut down the number of songs from 50 to just over 30 carols and pop songs. The rest are either boring or too difficult and would need more practise than we’re prepared to do. All we need to do now is learn to play them.
17 December 2015 Ko Rok Nok to Ao Chalong, Phuket
We were up at the crack of dawn with over 50 miles to go. We motored out between the two islands of Rok Nok, which was a little nerve wracking because there are no depth soundings shown on our Navionics charts.
Fortunately, we had Google Earth satellite images using “OvitalMap” which is a superb iPad application, allowing you to store Google Earth Images and view them when off-line. It also has a simple tracking function allowing us to see our position and our most recent track. Using the satellite images, we were able to see the deeper water and the reefs and saw nothing less than 10 metres through the channel.
We had a cracking sail all day. The wind was fairly consistent at 15-20 knots albeit forward of the beam, but the seas were fairly flat and it was idyllic sailing. We motored the last three miles into the huge bay of Ao Chalong and anchored at 07°49.09N 098°21.48E outside the huge fleet of yachts at anchor and on moorings.
The wind was still fairly strong and there was a fetch of over a mile to the nearest land so we were bobbing about in the 2 foot waves - not the best anchorage that we’ve been in, but the holding seems to be very good.
18 December 2015 Ao Chalong to Nai Harn Bay, Phuket
It was a restless night with the boat pitching most of the time. Then at dawn, the local long-tail boats started to chug noisily around, so I was up early. After breakfast, we jumped in the dinghy and went for a quick visit to “Back Chat” to get some local knowledge. I’m glad that we went there before clearing in because they reminded me to turn on our AIS, which is now obligatory in Thailand.
We made our way to the huge Ao Chalong Jetty, which sticks out ½ mile from shore. There are lots of floating docks alongside the main pier, but the waves from the long fetch make it a fairly hazardous place to leave an inflatable dinghy, so everyone pulls their dinghies up onto the dock, which is a little bizarre.
Having dragged our heavy dinghy onto the dock and made it secure; we walked up to the very impressive Yacht Service Centre on the jetty. This is a circular building housing the Port Captain, Immigration, Customs and Quarantine and makes life very simple. Signs told us to go into a reception where we were shown to a computer and had to enter the boat’s details and the crew members.
After that it was a very simple process of walking from one office to the next to fill in in a few more forms and sign everything. The Port Captain’s office has a computer showing the AIS positions of all boats in the area, so I’m glad that I had it switched on - I’ve heard that other yachties have had to go back to their boats to switch their AIS on. All our paperwork was in order, so we were finished in 30 minutes, which is a miracle.
We were highly amused by the very severe looking lady in the Port Captain office, who pointed at me every time she spoke to me saying “you”. In Malaysia and Indonesia, it is considered to be extremely rude to point and we’ve grown used to being very careful with our hand signals in case we offend people, so this lady’s forceful pointing was quite a shock at first.
With our formalities done, we walked along the long pier and stepped into Thailand. The first thing that we noticed is that the written language is totally incomprehensible and the spoken language is extremely hard because every word can be spoken with four different tones each having a different meaning. I spent all day trying to learn how to say “Thank you” in Thai and everyone seemed to say it slightly differently, so we don’t hold up much hope of being able to speak the language.
However, we’re in Phuket, which is very touristy, so many people speak a smattering of English and most of the restaurants have pictures for each of their dishes, so we won’t starve. We managed to pick up a SIM card and 4.5GB data at a small shop on the main road, which wasn’t too much hassle.
We then trudged around for an hour getting a feel for the place and ended up in a posh restaurant for our first Thai meal. It cost us £15 for both of us - a lot more than we’d have paid in Malaysia, but they had a menu in English, so we felt a bit safer than trying to buy street food. The meals were fabulous - Glenys had a seafood salad smothered with Cilantro and I had a Coconut Curry with Pork - having been in Muslim countries for so long, we've been craving pork.
After a wander around a big supermarket, we lugged our shopping a mile back to the pier and back to the boat. As we were unloading the dinghy, Nigel on a nearby yacht called me over and told me that a yacht (“Venture”) had broken free of its mooring and hit Alba on the port side. He’d got on board and had managed to drop the anchor, so “Venture” was just downwind of us. Nigel had no idea who the boat belonged to, but its Thai registered.
I had a look at our damage which is not too bad, there’s a dent and a split in our teak toe rail, a bent stanchion and a few broken strands in one of our lifelines. “Venture” must have hit us bow on, so most of the impact has been taken by the toe rail and the lifelines. I dinghied over to “Venture” and found that their washboard wasn't locked properly and left a business card on their galley with a request asking the owner to contact me by email.
I thought through the situation and decided that the owner really ought to come out and check that his boat is anchored properly, so I went into the Port Captain’s office to see if they knew the owner’s name and contact details. After 30 minutes of messing about, all they could do is to give me the name of the company that owns the boat and that was all in Thai script, so no damn use at all.
The anchorage continued to be rough all day, so we upped anchor and motored around to Nai Harn Bay and anchored in 13 metres of water at 07°46.31N 098°18.11E. It’s only seven miles from Ao Chalong, but is a beautiful, big bay which is well protected from the north-east. There’s a small island to the south of the bay, white sand beaches on the main shore and the water is fairly clear - at last a decent anchorage in Thailand.
Once we were settled, I had a brainwave and sent an email to the two yacht clubs in Ao Chalong asking about the owner of “Venture”. Brent from the Phuket Cruising Club soon replied giving me the owner's name (Peter) and a telephone number. As we hadn't bought a SIM card for our phone, I tried to talk to Peter by Skype, but the connection was very poor and frustrating. He knew about the boat dragging and was sending someone out to sort it out. Peter said that he’d pay for any damage to Alba and I’ll try to get hold of him tomorrow.
There was a pleasant breeze in the anchorage, so we had a quiet night in and watched a movie.
19 December 2015 Nai Harn Bay, Phuket
It’s such a pleasant anchorage that we relaxed for the morning, catching up on a few chores and admin. I managed to have a short conversation with Peter from "Venture" and I've now got his email address - I'll give him a ring when we get a SIM card for our phone.
In the afternoon, we went for a snorkel on the west point of the small island in the bay, but it was all rock, scoured by the south-west storms in the south-west monsoon. We went around to the north side, where it was more interesting, but the water is very murky.
It was another cool, breezy evening, so Glenys turned on the oven for the first time in months and we had Chicken Enchiladas while watching a movie - luxury.
20 December 2015 Nai Harn Bay to Kata Noi Beach, Phuket
Nai Harn Bay is a pleasant anchorage, but there’s nothing ashore apart from a busy beach, so we decided to go a few miles further around the coast to Kata Noi Beach, where there’s a little holiday town. The wind was against us most of the way, but it only took us an hour and we were soon anchoring off the beach at 07°49.24N 098°17.58E, next to “Back Chat”.
We took the dinghy ashore and beached it next to a small ramp amongst the hundreds of holiday makers sunning themselves on the magnificent white beach. The small town is totally geared up to tourists with souvenir shops, bars, restaurants and massage parlours. We strolled around for an hour and finally found a 7-11 store which only sells snacks, sun tan lotion and drinks. We bought a few cans of beer and gave up.
Back at the beach, we stopped off at one of the many little food stalls set up with plastic tables and chairs where we had a reasonable meal costing 220 Bhat (£7) - not quite Malaysian prices, but cheap enough and tasty.
We had a quiet afternoon on board - well, apart from the para-sail boat zooming by and the endless stream of jet skis using us as a turning point.
The para-sail operation looked decidedly dodgy. Instead of launching the parachute from a platform on the back of the boat, they launched it from the beach, with one of the staff hanging on the lines behind the tourist. This guy then sat on the spreaders for the ten minute ride going several hundred feet up in the air without any harness or safety lines. He then hung from the spreaders by his arms as the parachute landed on the beach. The Elf and Safety wouldn't like this in the UK or New Zealand.
Irvin and Jenny from “Back Chat” came over for a beer or two at sunset. Later after dinner, Glenys and I sat in the cockpit and practised a few Christmas songs, which proved to be a little challenging because we had to fight against the Ibiza rave music blasting out of the Club Med resort ashore.
21 December 2015 Kata Noi Beach to Nai Harn Bay, Phuket
With only four shopping days to go to Christmas, we went ashore to buy each other Christmas presents. As usual, we set a maximum spend limit, on the basis that if we want something then we buy it immediately and there’s no point in cluttering up the boat with unwanted presents. This year, we agreed 500 Bhat (£16) - it’s not normally this high, but we were going to have to pay tourist prices in the shops in this little holiday town. It didn’t take long to buy few things in the souvenir shops and, after an hour, I’d bought four presents for Glenys and come in just under budget.
There was some swell coming into the anchorage from the north-west, so after lunch, we motored back around to Nai Harn Bay. It was a little bit better than Kata Noi - I don’t know where this swell is coming from. I spent most of the afternoon composing and sending out over a hundred emails containing our latest Christmas card - it’s a laborious job, but a good way to keep in touch with people that we don’t see very often.
In the evening, we ran through our thirty Christmas songs again and the tunes in my little song book are starting to sound correct. I’ll be glad when Christmas is over and I can get back to playing some normal music on the guitar.
22 December 2015 Nai Harn Bay to Ao Chalong, Phuket
In the morning, we motored around to Ao Chalong Bay to run some errands. The anchorage was much, much calmer without the strong north-east winds that we had a few days ago.
After lunch, we slogged down the long Ao Chalong Jetty and wandered around in the beating sun, getting a SIM card for our mobile phone and checking out the cost of hiring a scooter next week - 250 Bhat (£8) per day including insurance. We tried to get some US dollars to take to Myanmar, but that doesn't seem to be possible other than at the airport.
We trudged one kilometre down the main road to the Macro supermarket to buy a few last minute bits and pieces and found that the licensing laws don’t allow the sale of alcohol between 14:00 and 17:00, which was a bit of a blow. On the way back, we stopped off at a local drinks wholesaler and discovered that they don’t care about the licensing laws and sold us a box of wine and a case of beer - we can have a Merry Christmas again.
We were exhausted by the time we staggered back to the boat and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to cool down in the blistering, airless heat.
23 December 2015 Ao Chalong to Nai Harn Bay, Phuket
With nothing else to do in Ao Chalong, we motored back to Nai Harn Bay and spent the rest of the day pottering about on-board.
Glenys was in the galley for most of the afternoon cooking some presents for “Laragh” and “Peggy West”. She’s made ginger syrup and a jar of freshly prepared Indian spices to make a Beef Vindaloo curry. The smells wafting about the boat were tantalising.
I chatted to Mike and Rosi on “Shakti” who are having their teak deck replaced. They've had quotes from the two companies that I have already been in contact with and they've already booked into have the work done in January and February. My original plan was to get the work done later next year in October/November, but Mike says that the weather will be too wet then and I’d be better off getting the work done before April, while it’s dry.
This would disrupt our plans to go sailing for the next four months, so I’m unsure what to do now. Unfortunately, the Christmas holiday is going to prevent us from getting quotes next week, so I’m frustrated that I’ll have to wait until the 4th January before I can get quotes and plan properly.
We had a quiet night in and watched “Love Actually”, which has to be the best Christmas movie ever.
24 December 2015 Nai Harn Bay, Phuket
Our morning was spent on a few chores, tidying up, preparing for Christmas.
In the afternoon, we went for a snorkel. This time we tried the north shore of the bay, but again it was very rocky with nothing much to see apart from one small Sky Blue Phyllidia. We gave up after twenty minutes and went back to the east side of the small island in the bay, which was a little better.
25 December 2015 Nai Harn Bay, Phuket
We had a late start to the day, scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast and then the ritual of opening Christmas presents. For my 500 Bhat, I’d managed to buy Glenys a pair of earrings, a bamboo fan, a small handbag and a Toblerone.
Glenys bought me a packet of dried Durian, which the Malaysians rave about, but we've never tasted. She also bought me a CD and a small bottle of liquid. Both labels were written in the incomprehensible Thai Script, so she had no idea what they were, but she was hoping that it was Thai music and some kind of Thai alcohol.
At midday, we went over to “Laragh”, where we joined up with Roy, Irene and Amanda from “Peggy West”. Dave and Katrina kept us supplied with alcohol while we chatted, played Christmas songs and ate a starter of prawns.
After four hours, we all went over to “Alba” where we tucked into Calypso Pork and various vegetables dishes. We opened a few more presents and played my Thai CD, which was commercial pop rubbish. The mystery bottle of Thai liquid turned out to be some kind of Araq, so that quickly disappeared.
A few bottles of wine later, we poured ourselves in to our dinghies and went to “Peggy West” for cake, biscuits and more drinking. At ten o’clock, Glenys and I left them to it and sloped off to bed. It was a great Christmas day.
26 December 2015 Nai Harn Bay, Phuket
After drinking and eating for ten hours yesterday, we both felt surprisingly chipper. It was a lovely day, with the sun shining and a cooling 15-20 knot wind from the north east, so we didn't get off the boat all day and just relaxed - reading, sleeping and playing a bit of music.
27 December 2015 Nai Harn Bay, Phuket
We had another day doing our own thing on the boat. Glenys pottered about reading and playing her ukulele while I spent five hours grinding through our finances and submitting our tax returns - it seems to be my annual Christmas chore. The good news is that the Inland Revenue owes us £80, so I'm a bit happier now because I've just earned £16/hour...
28 December 2015 Nai Harn Bay to Ao Chalong East, Phuket
We left early to try to get to Ao Chalong before the wind picked up too much. We were partially successful, but it was blowing over 20 knots in the anchorage when we arrived, creating two foot waves. It’s a horrible anchorage.
Having pulled the dinghy up onto the floating dock, we walked up to Nina’s Cars and hired a scooter for the day - 300 Baht (£6) including insurance. Using our iPad, we managed to work our way into the edge of Phuket town and find the main Immigration office.
In January, we’re flying out of Thailand to visit Myanmar. Thailand has a strange law stating that all members of crew who leave the country must place a bond of 20,000 Baht (£400) with Immigration to make sure that the crew actually leave the country before the end of the 30 day visa. This bond is allegedly given back to us when we prove that we've left the country and returned, but just in case, when we cleared in, I listed Glenys as a passenger and me as crew, so that we only have to post one bond.
The process was very simple with a special office to handle boat immigration, so we were on our way after only 30 minutes. We drove to Boat Lagoon, hoping to see some suppliers to get quotes for the teak deck, but everyone is on holiday until the 4th January. Thailand is 90% Buddhist, so I was hoping that people would be working - no chance. We chatted to the marina office and were given a price list for hauling out, which is more expensive than New Zealand - 40,000 Baht (£800) to haul and pressure wash; plus 26,200 Baht (£520) per month while on the hard.
It will take about 8 weeks to get the teak deck replaced and we don’t want to live on the boat on the hard for that length of time, so we’re going to have to rent a small apartment for a couple of months. Conveniently, there’s a hotel in the Boat Lagoon Complex which rents small apartments with a bathroom and kitchen for about £700 per month. So, just to haul out and be on the hard for two months will cost us a staggering £3,200.
We had lunch at a local eating place just outside the Boat Lagoon complex and bumped into Roger and Lucie from “Catamini” who we haven’t seen for three months or so.
On the way back to Ao Chalong, we stopped off at the Bangkok Hospital to see what services they provide. We ought to have a general check-up and want to see a dermatologist about a couple patches of sun-damaged skin that have appeared over the last couple of years. This very modern hospital provides everything from cancer treatment to cosmetic surgery, so we went through a tedious registration process and will now be able to book appointments on-line.
We called in at Rolley Tasker sailmakers and chatted to their rigger about the cost of lifting the mast and a few other jobs. The sail loft is the largest open space that I’ve seen for a long time - like a hanger for a 747 jet. The rigger was French and very helpful, but again they charge first-world country prices - £40 per hour.
We dropped off the scooter and picked up some provisions, then lugged it all back to the boat. The anchorage was very rough and I was thankful that we have a sea-worthy dinghy with a 15hp engine as we bashed our way into the wind and waves. As soon as we’d loaded the shopping onto Alba, we upped anchor and headed off to a more protected anchorage on the east side of the huge bay.
The water is very shallow in Ao Chalong Bay with a maximum of 10 metres and some very shallow banks marked on the charts. We avoided the reef to the north of the main anchorage and steered a course in water that was over 5 metres deep. All was going well, I glanced at the depth gauge which was showing 9 metres, put the autopilot on and turned to say something to Glenys, when we gracefully ground to a halt.
The depth gauge showed 1.8 metres and we draw 2.0 metres. Bugger! I jumped behind the wheel and put the engine in reverse and we slowly slid off the sand bank, stirring up clouds of bright sand in the murky water.
Our expensive Navionics charts show that we should have been in water over 5 metres deep - bloody rubbish. The free CM93 charts that we use on our laptop, show a shallow spot just where we found it (07°49.01N 098°21.95E), but I never looked at it until after the event. We were lucky that it was just a sand bank because we were doing 5 knots at the time of impact and a coral reef would have been bad news.
Ten minutes later, we anchored in the east anchorage at 07°49.06N 098 22.77E in 6 metres of water. The anchorage is pleasant and sheltered from the prevailing east winds, but the swell still hooks around the corner and sets the boat rocking a little. However, it’s much, much better than the main anchorage.
29 December 2015 Ao Chalong East to Ko Phanak, Phuket
The wind was light in the anchorage, so we left just before nine o’clock to head north. Almost as soon as we left the anchorage, the wind picked up to 20 knots from WNW - dead against us, but fortunately, I’d already put a heavy reef in the main. The tide was with us at 1-2 knots, so there were steep waves around the headland. Glenys was not a happy bunny as we bashed and crashed about, taking big waves across the foredeck.
After 30 minutes, it didn’t seem to be getting any better, but I persuaded Glenys to carry on and we kept plugging away, heading east for another 15 minutes until we were clear of the headland enough to tack onto a NNE course. This was marginally better, but we had to motor-sailed hard on the wind for another 90 minutes, with the occasional 30 knot gust, so it was very unpleasant.
Eventually, we gained enough easting to get some protection from a long island called Ko Yao Yai and could ease the sheets to head more north. We sailed for an hour, by which time the wind had dropped to 10 knots and half an hour later, it dropped so much that we had to motor again.
By mid-afternoon, we were anchored underneath the impressive cliffs of a small island called Ko Phanak at 08°10.46N 098°29.20E. “Spruce” were the only other boat in the anchorage.
Andy and Sue came over and we decided to have a little excursion to the nearby “Hong”, which means “room” in Thai. The islands in this area consist of very steep sided limestone pinnacles, which are hundreds of feet high. Over time, the limestone is eroded by the sea and rain, forming caves deep inside the islands. Occasionally, the cave gets so large that the roof collapses and a hidden lagoon is formed in the middle of the island.
We took our dinghies to the entrance to the cave, which is about 1 mile to the north of our anchorage. We had no trouble finding it because it’s a popular tourist destination and there were several big tourist boats anchored outside the cave with scores of inflatable kayaks ferrying tourists into the cave.
We left our dinghy at anchor outside the cave and all four of us paddled in “Spruce’s” dinghy, fighting a surprisingly strong outflowing current. The entrance cave is very striking being over 50 metres long and is home to thousands of bats, which can be seen clinging to the ceiling. Powerful torches are a necessity. We’d timed our entrance to be on a falling tide, two hours before low water, at a height of 1.8 metres, which was just about perfect. By the time that we arrived at the end of the tunnel, the water had fallen just enough for us to pull ourselves along the roof of the cave to get the dinghy through a two foot high gap into the inner lagoon.
The Hong itself is very spectacular. It’s actually two hidden lagoons, each about 100 metres in diameter with very steep sided cliffs and the only way in is through the cave. Even with scores of tourist canoes paddling about, it was a peaceful place.
After 30 minutes of exploring, the water in the lagoon was getting very shallow (1 foot deep in places) and we still had a slight outgoing current when we left. If we’d have left it any later, we might have struggled to get past a sharp rock just at the outer entrance to the cave. It was a fun little outing.
30 December 2015 Ko Phanak, Phuket
We had a quiet day, while I did some administration. I’ve booked us into Ao Po Marina for a couple of days next week, so that I can get quotations for the teak deck. I contacted three suppliers and have booked appointments for them to come and give me a quote.
We spent the afternoon, reading and generally lounging about watching the tourist boats go by.
31 December 2015 Ko Phanak to Ko Hong, Phuket
After breakfast, we motored around to Ko Hong, it’s only 3 miles, but the water is very murky with shallow sand banks dotted around the area. After our little problem with the sand bank in Ao Chalong Bay, we were slightly nervous about the accuracy of the charts, so we went slowly, but we didn’t see anything less than 5 metres depth. We anchored off the south side of Ko Hong at 08°13.12N 098°30.12E, in 6 metres of water - it seemed to be good holding in mud.
Ko Hong is an impressive island, with steep sided cliffs, which are streaked with red, presumably caused by iron in the rock. We chilled out for most of the day, watching the day-trip operators. There were dozens of boats arriving, loaded up with scores of punters - I would think that a thousand tourists visited during the day.
It’s a slick operation. As soon as each boat anchors, dozens of tour guides in inflatable kayaks, flock around the back of the boat. The tourists are loaded on to the kayaks and taken for a 30 minute paddle around the Hong. Once the day-trippers are loaded back aboard, the boat is off to another place - I would guess a one hour turn-around.
By four o’clock, the tourists started to thin out, so we picked up Andy and Sue from “Spruce” and dinghied over to a boat that is permanently moored here. We were able to rent two inflatable double kayaks for 400 Baht (£8) and went off to have a look around. The island is actually split into four smaller islands with channels running between the high cliffs and a big lagoon in the middle - it’s beautiful.
We spotted some guides coming out of a cave to the north of the lagoon and went in. The cave is fairly short with no need for head torches and, at the end, we squeezed through a gap into another collapsed cave. We timed it well and there were no other kayaks in there, so it was peaceful. We even spotted a couple of Great Hornbills.
We exited the big lagoon through a tunnel to the west and decided to make a circumnavigation of the whole island, which turned out to be a mile of paddling. The inflatable kayaks were not the most sea-worthy vessels and we encountered a head wind for most of the trip. The worst bit was coming down the east side of the island where we had wind against us and the tide with us, so we had nasty waves. It was nearly an epic…
Andy and Sue came over for dinner. We had a great time playing music after dinner and saw the New Year in, downing copious amounts of wine.