Yacht Haven Marina - 8 10.2N, 98 20.5 E
arkouda
barry latchford
Tue 20 Nov 2007 14:23
28th September - way, way ahead of schedule - we pulled into Phuket and
slipped gently into our berth at Yacht Haven, courtesy of the lovely Zara
and Nick. The crossing from Maldives, Male to Phuket, was a literal
breeze, 1800 miles in 9 days, wind on the quarter nearly all the way, big
but manageable seas, no real mishaps and good food – especially tuna, we
caught a monster on the way, from sea to sashimi in less than 10 minutes!
(well, we did have two French cooking fanatics on board)
Of course, it was the rainy month in Phuket so it bucketed down every day,
but talk about lucky – we pulled in and berthed up 24 hours before the
tail end of the first typhoon hit the area, which of course sent the sea
and the weather into overdrive; a few boats came in after us and were,
well, in a sorry state.
And talking more about 'Lucky' - met loads of great people in YHM,
including the 11-strong crew of a big, newly built schooner which, alas,
after nearly a year of fitting out, had a pretty rough time: on the first
try out she ran into power cables less than a mile from the marina, on the
second she ran aground just outside the marina, then she went down to Phi
Phi and capsized at anchor. Well, you’re asking for trouble if you name
your boat “LUCKY” – ouch!
This is written back in UK after a month of fleshpots of Phuket, or more
accurately a month of fixing the innumerable end-of-voyage, mainly
cosmetic, problems on arkouda, and oh so many good meals, with good
friends, good food, and way too much beer and wine as always.
Oh, and several trips down Phang Nga Bay, to Kho Rok Nok and the like,
surely one of the most photogenic seascapes in the world. Highlight must
have been us all walking across a long box full of broken glass as the
climactic rite of the Chinese Veggie Festival in a small town on Ko Lanta
– and we weren’t even drunk, just being polite and taking part in the
purification rites….
Back to Thailand again in December, we’ll take her up to the Similan and
Surin and maybe down to Malaysia as well. Perhaps with Christmas on the
beach in between, such hardship!